  A Reformed
  Semi-Monthly
~ Maaazine


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                                                                          See "Abundarit Thanks"- p. 75


  Vol. LA,  N O .   4
  N o v e m b e r   l&l995


                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             - .-
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             /Ht
 CONTENTS:                                                                                                                               November 15, : 1995                                                                               STANDARD
 Meditation - Rev. Cornelius Hanko
           Abundant Thanks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  ..~...... 75
 Editorial - Prof. David J. Engelsma
           The Protestant Reformed SemInary:                                                                                                                                                                    ISSN 0362-4692
           The Lion Still Roars (2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..*.................. 77                                                      Seml~monthty,  except monthly during June, Juty, end August
 Guest Article - Rev. Mitchell C. Dick                                                                                                                                                                          Publtshed by the Reformed Free Publbhing  Aeeociation, Inc.,
                                                                                                                                                                                                                4949  lverwot Ave.,  GmdvUk.  MI  46416.  Sewnd  claw
            God and His Farmers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79                                Poetege Pakt at GmndvUle,  Mkhlgen.
 Ministering to the Saints - Prof. Robert D. Decker                                                                                                                                                             Poetmeet*  Send addreen+angee to the Standard Bearer,
            Christ Jesus, our Minister . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  ..~...... 81                                                P.O. Box 603, Qrandvllle. MI 49468-0803.
Taking Heed to the Doctrine - Rev, Steven R. Key                                                                                                                                                                EDITORW  COYYlllEE
            God the Creator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82                  Editor: Prof. David J. Engelema
                                                                                                                                                                                                                Seuetmy: Prof. Robert D. Decker
 Special Article - Rev, Ronald  L. Cammenga                                                                                                                                                                     Managing Editoc Mr. Don Doezeme
           The Standard Bearer- In Defense of the Faith (2) ..,............,;  . . . . . 84                                                                                                                     OEPARTYENT  EDlTORS
A Word Fitly Spoken - Rev, Dale H, Kuiper                                                                                                                                                                       Rev. Wilbur Brulnoma.  Rev. Ronald Cemmenga, Prot. Robert
            Integrity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  ..~....................................~..... 88                                         Decker, Rev. Arie denHartcg. Rev. Carl Heak,  Prof. Herman
                                                                                                                                                                                                                Henko, Rev. Ronald Henko, Rev. Jaecn Kc&ring,  Rev. Dale
A Cloud of Witnesses - Prof. Herman C. Hanko                                                                                                                                                    I               Kuiper, Mr. James Lanting, Mm. MeryBeth Lubber& Rev.
            Oliver Cromwell: Lord Protector (1) *...............*...........,.**..m......,,,,,                                                                                                           87     Thomas  Miersma,  Rev.  Qise  VanBaren, Rev. Ronald
                                                                                                                                                                                                                VanClv~, Mr. BanJamk~ger, Rev. Bemerd  Woudenberg.
 Contending for the Faith - Rev. Bernard Woudenberg                                                                                                                                             ,
                                                                                                                                                                                                                EDITORIAL OFFtCE            CHURCH NEWS EDKOR
           The Protestant Reformed Covenant View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . s . . . . . . . . . . . 89                                                                                 The Stendard Bearer         Mr. Ben WIgper
All Around Us - Rev. Gise J. VanBaren                                                                                                                                                           I
                                                                                                                    . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..~........... 92     4240 lveJlreot              8597 4OthAve.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                Gmndvllle, MI 42418         Hudeonville, Ml 42428
`B'ook Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .    93     BUSINESS OFFICE             NEWZEALANDOFFlCE
 News From Our Churches - Mr. Benjamin Wigger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I . . . . . 94                                                                                              The Standard Bearer         The Standerd Bearer
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74lStandard  Bearer/November 15,1995


                           Abundant Thanks

    For all things are for your sakes,     riences, many hours of enjoyment
that the abundant  grace  might through    with our family and friends.
the thanksgiving of many  redound  to          There were also, not to be for-
the glo y of God.                          gotten, an abundance of spiritual               An abundance of grace.
                     II Corinthians 435    blessings. God speaks to us, reveal-            All these things come to us from
                                           ing Himself unto us through His             the hand of Almighty God, who ex-
    `iBless  the Lord, 0 my soul; and      Word and by His Spirit in our               ercises all power in heaven and on
all that is within me, bless his holy      hearts. He has given us faith, a liv-       earth. We can not, we may not, we
name! Bless the Lord, 0 my soul,           ing, powerful gift of faith. He as-         must not make distinction between
and forget not all his benefits!"          sures us: "I am thy God and the             pleasant and unpleasant things, as
    That expression of thanks finds        God of thy seed after thee." That           if the appealing things come to us
its echo in the text above. The key-       includes all His blessed, glorious          from a merciful God, but those that
note here is abundance.                    promises for time and eternity.             do not appeal come from some oth-
    God has prepared an abundance              As family we could gather about         er source. No, all things are for our
of things, in fact, all things, for our    the dinner table to begin with the          sakes in God's abundant grace in
sakes. He also bestows an abun-            Lord and end with devotions. We             Christ Jesus!
dance of grace upon us, that the           can still freely read the Word of God,          Let us never forget nor ignore
thanksgiving of many may overflow          hear the sound preaching of the             the fact that our God is the God of
in an abundance of praise to God.          Word, and worship in the commun-            infinite perfections, the only true and
    That is true thanksgiving!             ion of saints.                              living God, who lives His own
                                               We have so much. But there is           blessed covenant life of intimate fel-
                                           more. The text speaks of "all things."      lowship as Father, Son, and Holy
                                           That must also include suffering,           Spirit. He has no need of men's
    An abundance of things.                pain, trials, afflictions. That includes    hands, to be worshiped by them. He
    On Thanksgiving Day we count           the attacks of Satan, the oppression        is the God of all grace, the exalted,
our blessings.                             and persecution of an evil world, the       adorable Jehovah.
    They are so many, but let me           struggle against sin in our own lives.          His favor is upon His people.
try to mention a few.                      Yes, that includes the loss of our dear     Even as His consuming wrath burns
    The Lord sustained us in health        ones, the awareness of the approach         upon all the workers of iniquity now
and strength and cared for all our         of our own departure from this              and forever, so His love abounds
needs. during the past season. He          world.                                      upon those whom He has chosen
gave to all of us our daily bread,             That even includes all the events       from eternity and redeemed through
our home, our place in our family,         in the course of history, all man's         the cross of our Savior Jesus Christ.
our place in the church. He gave us        ingenuity and resourcefulness, but          The Father gave His Son, and the
work for our hands and prospered           also all the corruption, lawlessness,       Son gave His life, that His glorious
our labors.                                wars, and tumult of the nations. In         grace  may abound in us, His chosen
 Besides all that, the Lord gave           one word, the sun rises and sets, the       possession.
us numerous possessions and luxu-          stars move in their courses, the day            On such wretched sinners as we
ries, many pleasant times and expe-        follows the night for the sake of           are, who deserve only everlasting
                                           God's church, His chosen people,            condemnation, God bestows His
                                           and therefore for you and for me.           grace, even an abundance of grace
                                               The list grows. It seems end-           that delivers from death unto life
                                           less. For all things are for your sakes,    and transforms us from children of
Rev. Hank-o is a minister emeritus in      and ye are Christ's, and Christ is          Satan into sons of the living God;
the Protestant Reformed Churches.          God's!                                      We are justified, freed from all sin

                                                                                            November 15,1995/Standard  Beami


and guilt and made worthy of eter-         als, in this thanksgiving. It is a         lowly dandelion tell of His greatness.
nal life. We are sanctified as saints      blessed privilege that we as families          All history declares that He is
in Christ Jesus. He bestows grace          may join our hearts in song, in            God, and He alone. His counsel
for grace, one gift of grace upon an-      prayer, in worship, and thanksgiv-         stands, and He does all His good
other. God is for us, nothing can be       ing in the presence of our God.            pleasure. Nations may rage and peo-
against us,                                    We also have our church, the           ples may imagine vain things, but
  '  `He withholds no  ..good thing        communion of saints, in which to           God has set His Son as Lord of glo-
from those who fear Him. There-            join hearts and voices in thanks and       ry over all, to carry out His purpose
fore through an abundance of grace         praise to God. We worship Him with         even until He comes again with the
we receive an abundance of gifts           psalms and hymns and  @ritual              clouds of the heavens.
which serve to bring us to glory.          songs. In our churches the psalms              Who is worthy? Who is fit to
     The greatest of these is that we      of the sweet singer of Israel are still    join his voice in praise to God? 0
may know and confess that all these        sung. Think of that! For m ' y, many       the depths of the riches of the mer-
things come to us from His Father          generations, in many lan ages and          cies of God, that we should be priv-
hand!                                      in all sorts of circumsta ces, the         ileged and qualified by the Spirit of
     Grace abounding!                      church of God has           f
                                                                  given expression    Christ to tell His praises! More
                                           to all their experiences with the          amazing still is the fact that we may
                                           Psalms of Scripture.             j         join our voices with all the saints,
                                               God not only has preserved His         the church of all ages, to glorify our
     An abundance of thanks.               church, but He has prepared many           God!
     Thanksgiving is not a mere ex-        hearts to give Him thanks for lall His         Praise Him all ye myriads of an-
pression of thanks, a mere "thank          benefits.                                  gels!
you." It is not a formal prayer of an          The abundant grace through the             Praise Him all ye vast and wide
individual, or of a family, or of a        thanksgiving of many redounds to           creation!
congregation in a special worship          the glory of His Name.                         Praise Him all ye works of His
service. Nor is it an attempt on our           0 give thanks unto  the: Lord.         mighty hands!
part to recompense God for all His         For .He is good; for His mercy en-             0 church of our God sing His
b e n e f i t s .                          dures forever.                             praises!
    Thanksgiving arises spontane-                                                         And thou, my soul, above all,
ously from a thankful heart. Thank-                                                   praise thou Him.
fulness is also a matter of living; our
life must be a life of thankfulness.           An abundance of praise.
    Since we know how great our                A small stream of water from
sins and miseries are, and also the        melted snow trickles down from                 A foretaste of an eternal abun-
wonderful manner in which we are           some mountain peak. It grows,              dance of joy!
delivered from our sins and miser-         broadens, and deepens until it be-             Now, yes. Praise Him in a spe-
ies, it must certainly follow that we      comes a rushing, roaring river that        cial way on Thanksgiving Day. But
should know how to live in thank-          flows into the sea.                        let us praise Him every day until
fulness before the face of our God.            In that same way the grace of          we are ready to join that multitude
    Thankfulness is a deep aware-          our God abounds through the                that no man can number before the
ness of our unworthiness, but also         thanksgiving of many to the ,praise        throne.
of our dependence upon God. He             of His Name.                                   With eager anticipation we can
is our God from whom all blessings             All the angelic host hide their        look forward to the day when we,
flow. As dependent creatures we            faces in worship before Him as they        without sin and with all tears wiped
wait upon Him, lifting up needy            declare their "Holy, holy, holy, Lord      away, shall join that multitude. to de-
hands to Him in prayer. We experi-         God Almighty, heaven and earth are         clare: "Thou art worthy, 0 Lord; to
ence intimate communion of life in         filled with Thy glory."               j    receive glory and honor, and pow-
fellowship with Him. The result                The heavens declare the/ glory         er, for thou hast created all things,
must be that we rejoice in God, our        of God, and the firmament shbweth          and for thy pleasure they are and
Maker and Sustainer, who is also the       His handiwork. Day unto day ut-            were created!"
God of our salvation. We sing His          ters speech, and night unto/ night             "And I heard the voice of a great
praises. We worship Him in hum-            shows wisdom. All the works of             multitude, and as the voice of many
ble adoration. Even though this .is        His hands shout the praises of their       waters, and as the voice of mighty
still done in all the weakness of sin-     Maker. His might sets fast the             thunderings, saying, for the Lord
ful flesh, thanksgiving is comely for      mountains. His hand controls the           omnipotent reigneth!" Amen.  Q
Go&s children.                             raging billows of the sea. The
    Nor are we alone, as individu-         mighty oak, the delicate lily, and the

76lStandard Bearer /November 15,1995


 The Protestant Refortied Seminary:
                     The Lion Still Roars*

      To hear the lion's roar of Amos     people, and he spoke what God had        prophet into action. Fear moved him
3:8("the lion hath roared, who will       spoken to him. The prophet to            to prophesy, whether he liked proph-
not fear?") in a seminary that teach-     whom God spoke necessarily proph-        esying or not. Later, Amos will say,
es the truth, more precisely, a semi-     esied. There was no "bedankje," no       "I was no prophet, neither was I a
nary that teaches men to teach the        decline. The prophet spoke to the        prophet's son" -(7:14). The lion had
truth to others, is not fanciful. For     people only and exactly what God         roared, and Amos left the herd and
the figure of the lion's roar express-    had said to him, nothing more, noth-     the sycamores for the work of a
es the reality of revelation.             ing less, nothing other.                 prophet. When his prophesying cre-
                                              As the roar of the lion in nature    ated opposition (for Amos was no
        The Roar of Revelation            guaranteed the seizure of the sheep      smooth prophet, forever with a
                                          or deer, so the Lord GOD's revela-       shiny smile on his face and always
      The lion's roar was revelation:     tory roar irresistibly brought about     declaiming peace and love), his fear
God's making Himself known!               the prophet's speaking the Word of       of the lion's roar put the steel in his
God's making known what Amos 3:7          God. The practical purpose, in fact,     backbone to carry on. It was that
calls His "secret"; God's making          of Amos in chapter 3 was to insist       fear that moved him faithfully to
known His will.                           to Israel that what they were hear-      speak only the Word of God with-
      The Lord  GOD  made Himself         ing from him was not his own words       out any addition of his own and
known to the.prophet.  By means of        but the Word of God. The roar of         without any subtraction.
the prophet, He made Himself              divine revelation brought about a          It is noteworthy how often in
known to His people. This, after          wonder, a mighty wonder - the            Scripture the prophets' fear of God
all, was God's purpose. He was not        wonder of inspiration: the human         is stressed, particularly at their call
mainly interested in the prophet's        prophet spoke a divine Word.             and commission. Think of Moses at
knowledge of God and God's will.              God was sovereign in revelation.     the burning bush. Hear Isaiah's ex-
But the prophet must prophesy, that       He  spoke!  He  made Himself known!      clamation,  OWoe is me! for I am
is, he,must  relate what God had said     He acted with all the majesty and        undone" (Is. 6:5). Recall Jeremiah:
to him to the people. The prophet         might of the lion. Men did not co-       "Thou art stronger than I, and hast
must tell the people who God is;          operate, not even the prophets. That     prevailed" (Jer.  20:7). The apostle
who they are'in relation to this God;     would have spoiled the work. The         John, though he had been the be-
what God's judgment on`them is be-        prophet was as subject to the reveal-    loved disciple, fell at Christ's feet Bs
cause of their sins; and the counsel      ing God as the sheep, frozen by the      dead (Rev. 1:17).
of God concerning their redemption.       roar of the lion, was subject to the       Where is this today? Where is
      Such was God's act of revela-       lion.                                    this in the church's ministers? Min-
,tion that the prophet spoke to the                                                isterial motivations are many, some
                                              Where, the Prophetic Fear?           less noble, some more noble: use of
                                                                                   gifts; desire to please; serving oth-
 The address given at the assembly            Involved, however, was the           ers; love for the people, of God. Is
l 
of  .convocation  for the  1995/1996      prophet's own personal, "experien-       fear of the roaring lion among them?
school-year and of dedication of the      tial" fear. The lion of revelation       Is it the main motivation?
new addition to the seminary build-       roared, and the prophet who now              Where is this at the worship ser-
ing. This is the second installment.      must speak the Word of God feared.       vices of  ,the congregation? The great
The first installment appeared in the     That was not terror inducing paral-      cry even in Reformed churchesis
November  1,1995  Standard Bearer.        ysis, but awe that galvanized the        that the worship services must be

                                                                                        November 15,1995I3an&rd  Bearml77


all happiness, gaiety, laughter. Sure-      prophets through whom tlhe lion has        the apostles to write this revelation
ly the worshiping congregation is           roared.                                    down as Neti Testament Scripture,
joyful in the Lord Jesus. But not               Scripture governs all that we          which, with the Old Testament, is
without awe. The heart of worship           teach men to teach the church to be-       the full declaration to us of the se-
is the church's proclamation of the         lieve and all that we teach men to         cret counsel and will of God con-
Word, her prophesying. To this she          teach the church to do.                    cerning our redemption. God haS
has been moved by the lion's roar.              Scripture is our sole and com-         nothing more to say, because there
She worships, therefore, with fear.         pelling interest. It is not so that we     is nothing of His secret counsel.left
                                            read and study nothing else but the        hidden. In Christ, in sacred Scrip-
        Israel Heard the Lion               Bible, but that all that we read and       ture, God has told us all.
                                            study serves our knowledge of the               In this sense, the lion roared in
    From the fact that God revealed         Bible. The Bible is the lion's roar,       the past and roars no longer.
Himself to the prophet follows that         the only roar of the lion. All else is          This is a life-and-death issue for
in the preaching and teaching of the        man's word. Besides, the roar of           the church today. The charismatic
prophet, the people of God heard,           Scripture has laid hold on us, has         movement is a rejection of the Scrip:
not the prophet but the lion. The           captured and captivated us, has            tures by its doctrine of ongoing rev-
people heard the lion's roar through        fixed our attention on itself. ye can      elation and continued prophecy. The
the mouth of the prophet. They              as little devote ourselves to, other       Protestant Reformed Seminary, like
heard God speaking. And they                books or enterprises as the isheep         the churches whose it is, repudiates
knew it. They all knew it.                  could think about other noises when        the charismatic movement as vche-
    Some challenged this. They de-          the lion roared.                           mently as it rejects theological mod-
nied that what the prophet said was             This explains our requirement of       ernism. The issue is the lion's roar
the Word of God. These were the             the knowledge of the original lan-         in Scripture versus the peeping. mut-
reprobate, carnal members of the            guages: the lion has roared F He-          tering, bellowing, and braying of
Old Testament church. But this was          brew and in Greek.                         those whom Satan has bewitched.
a perverse, daring, stupid denial, as                                                      Rejection of direct revelation,
much as if a deer, hearing the un-              Does the Lion Roar Today?              however, does not imply that the
mistakable roar of the lion, were to                                                   lion no longer roars! How could
say, ir the last seconds of its life,           Does not this begin to  :make          this be? Does God no longer speak?
"That is no lion's roar, but merely a       plain the relation of the Protestant       Do we no longer hear the Word of
kitten meowing."                            Reformed Seminary to the lion's            God, the very, living Word of God?
    The elect remnant melted at the         roar?                                          In the exercise of the office of
roar in repentance, conversion, and             "What has the lion's roar: to do       the ministry of the Word by faithful
renewal of covenant-love.                   with the church today ancl with the        men who preach the Scriptures, the
                                            Protestant Reformed Seminary in            lion still roars.
      The Roar Inscripturated               particular?," some must be as$ing.             God Himself in Jesus Christ
                                                This is a sober, solid question.       speaks today in the preaching of the
    The lion's roar is now the holy         We must take it seriously. "How            holy gospel. The preacher does not
Scriptures of the Old and New Tes-          can God's revelation of Himself to         merely talk about the Word of God,
taments. For the prophets not only          the prophets and, througln them, to        but the preaching of the Word is- the
spoke what the Lord  GOD  made              Israel, in old time, bear on the exist-    Word of God  - the living, awe-
known to them, but also  wrote  it          ence and work of a Reformed;semi-          some, saving and hardening Word
down. The prophets (and apostles)           nary in North America at the end of        of God. Lively preaching is the `full
wrote the Word of God down per-             the 20th century?"                         force and reality of the roar that be-
fectly accurately and reliably. They            "Does the lion  still  roar?" "Does    gan with the speech to the prophets
did this as carried along, irresistibly,    the Lord GOD stil2 speak?"                 and apostles and $hat  continued in
by the wonder-working power of the              In the sense of direct speech to       the inspiration of Scriptures.
roar of revelation itself.                  men, giving new revelation, as once            The roar began deep in the li-
    This, friends of th" Protestant         God spoke immediately to an Amos,          on's throat in Amos' time, found full
Reformed Seminary, is the heartfelt,        the answer is an emphatic, unquali-        voice in the inspiration of the Bible,
sincere conviction of faith about the       fied "no." God's work of revealing         and resounds today in the preach-
Scriptures that governs all the work        Himself by direct speech to men has        ing of the Word.
of this seminary.                           been finished. In these last days,             This is our view of preaching.
    Scripture is divine, not human.         God has fully and decisively spoken            This is also the view of preach-
It is the Word of God, not the words        to us by His Son. He roared His            ing in the Reformed tradition. The
df men. It is the written roar of the       full revelation in and to Jesus Christ.    Second Helvetic  Confession of 1566
lion, not the religious talk of the         The Spirit of Jesus Christ inspired        declared, "The preaching of the

78Bandard  Bearer/November 15,1995


Word of God is the Word of God."                  The Roar and the Seminary             nary.  Almost a fourth of the cost of
    This is Scripture's own view of                                                     the new addition was donated by
preaching. The Ephesian saints, to                The seminary is both produced         several men outside the churches.
whom the gospel came years after              by this roar and an aspect of it. The     There is one in far-off Australia who
Jesus Christ had ascended into heav-          God who speaks by preachers im-           has never set foot in a Protestant Re-
en, heard Christ and were taught by           periously calls the churches to es-       formed church but who, having read
Christ (Eph. 4~21).                           tablish and maintain the seminary.        the literature and listened to the
    Believers and their children hear             Since God uses the seminary to        tapes, is convinced that the Protes-
the lion's roar. It is not a terrifying       prepare men to voice His roar, and        tant Reformed Churches are one of
sound. It is the Word of pardon               that, by the teaching of the truth,       the last hopes of Calvinism in the
and gracious salvation grounded in            the seminary instruction is itself the    world. There is another in Califor-
the cross and originating in eternal          roaring of the lion. It is the Word of    nia who remembered with gratitude
love.                                         God.                                      how 40 years ago he and his family
    To the unbeliever in the sphere               This, we claim on behalf of the       were blessed by the teaching of a
of the covenant, it is indeed a dread-        Protestant Reformed Seminary, noth-       Protestant Reformed church. There
ful sound, the sound of wrath that            ing less. Listen to the instruction;      is a local man who highly regards
devours the adversaries.                      consider the doctrine it confesses        the Protestant Reformed witness -to
     Admittedly, it can take on a fear-       and defends; hear the ministers           and defense of biblical marriage.
ful sound even for us, when it ex-            whom it trains.                               They heard and responded to
poses our sins, rebukes us for them,              Our people have no doubt. This        the roar of the lion.
and warns of chastisements. But               explains the readiness to build the           "The Protestant Reformed Sem-
even then, it is to us the gracious           addition and the fact that the addi-      inary: The Lion Still Roars."
revelation of the God of our salva-           tion was almost paid for, by free             What a work then is ours, es-
tion.                                         gifts, before it was finished.            teemed colleagues and students!
                                                  Others too hear the roar of the           Who will not fear?
                                              lion in the churches and their semi-                                       - DJE




                       God and His Farmers

    This article was originally the de-       both are spiritual farmers. Paul, in      Apollos are nothing and that God
  votional presented at the September,        the midst of his "farming," in the        giveth the increase he is saying that
  1995  meeting  of  Classis West. The        midst of his preaching and                God is everything with regard to the
  author has expanded the devotional          shepherding God's flock, has come         life and health of the harvest of
  somewhat to correspond to this season       to this conclusion: he and other hu-      souls.
  of the yeur in which we celebrate, in a     man spiritual farmers are nothing;            This is true in the "natural"
  special way, Thanksgiving.                  God is everything. He plants,             realm, when farmers plant seed in
    In I Corinthians 3:7 we read the          Apollos waters, and another farmer        the soil. God alone gives life to that
conclusion of a farmer: "So then nei-         may fertilize and weed . . . but the      seed. God alone causes it to germi-
ther is he that planteth any thing,           farmers are all nothing. God alone        nate, to sprout, to develop, and to
neither he that watereth; but God             gives the increase - all of it.           be healthy.
that giveth the increase."                        Such a conclusion must be ours.           So in the spiritual fields, where
    The farmer is Paul. He likens             Farmers of the soil. Farmers of the       preachers, elders, teachers, and  pari
his work to' planting. His co-labor-          soul. All must say: God alone gives       ents all labor as "farmers" to nur-
er, Apollos, does the watering. They          the increase! In this way only does       ture the Christian life in souls. God
                                              God receive all the thanks and praise     alone gives spiritual life. Naturally,
                                              and glory.                                we all are dead in sins. This is the
Rev. Dick is pastor  of  the First Protes-                                              judgment of God. And no amount
tant Reformed Church  of  Lacombe, AB,        A fundamental distinction                 of human labor can make the dead
Canada.                                           When Paul declares that he and        live. God must send His Son to

                                                                                            November 15,1995lStandard  Beard7!2


       make atonement, annul the condem-               The appropriate response                    God's farmers must work - while
       nation of death, and earn the right                  If truth is really before believing    it is yet day, before the frost comes,
to life for His elect. The Spirit of                   minds there will be a believing re-         before the killing Antichrist comes.
       Christ must quicken the hearts of               sponse. Truth works good things in          Work we must - at home, and in
       God's own to make them live. And                God's elect. There will be sanctifi-        the field of the world, wherever the
       then only God is the One who can                cation. There will be a holy, living        Lord sends us. And work we must
       give the increase, the health, the vig-         response by a people who know that          -together. As co-laborers, helping
       or of that life. He works faith. He             the Lord, He is God, and not we             and not hindering the work of one
       quickens the spiritual seed of life             ourselves. What is that response?           another. One will plant. Another
  planted in our hearts in regenera-                        First of all, there will be pon-       will water. Let us not trip over one
       tion. He makes the seed and the life            dering. In the special season of            another in the process!
       of faith stronger. He gives fruit and           thanksgiving upon us,  and, at all               Work, plow, with the Word!
  .health and vigor. He alone is the                   times, we ponder daily and anew             This is our plow, our water, the nu-
  reason why individuals grow, fami-                   what the Almighty can do . . . and          trients, the sunshine . . . all that the
  lies grow, churches grow in their                    what we can not do! What are farm-          people of God need! The Word,
       spiritual life.                                 ers and plants? What are our ser-           God's Spirit and grace working
           But all this means that man is              mons, what is our counsel, what are         through it, saves, builds up, encour-
       nothing. Every man is nothing. No               all our efforts without the God who         ages, defends, rebukes, comforts.
  man gives life or increases life. The                gives the increase? How great is            That Word is the gospel of our sal-
  best of men cannot. The best tiller                  God, how great is His power, how            vation, God in Jesus Christ revealed,
       of the soil, the best counselor of the          marvelous the mystery especially of         our Savior who dies on the cross,
  soul, the oldest, wisest, most expe-                 the life He gives from the; dead!           who is risen and ascended, who jus-
  rienced elder, the smartest, most el-                And how great is the mystery of this:       tifies, sanctifies, and glorifies His
  oquent and learned preacher, the                     that for there to be such life, such        elect.
  most patient, loving parent - all are                spiritual life, God's own Son, His              Plow - zealously, understand-
  nothing..                                            eternal Son in the flesh, had to die.       ing that God's usual way is to give
           Man is nothing when he farms                     All this is deep. Too deep for         the increase of the harvest through
  the land. He cannot give life, nor                   finite minds to go. We ponder in            the faithful labors of His farmers.
  the increase of life. He plans, he                   humble adoration and delight.                   Then praise. Praise Him for the
  plants, he works, he worries - but                        Then we pray. Knowing God is           revelation that the harvest is all in
  nothing is of any avail without                          everything and we are nothing,          His hands. Praise Him for the privi-
  almighty help. Parents are                                  we pray. We do this exactly          lege of being used of Him in such
  nothing in raising their cov-                                 because we know we need,
                                                  .                                                an honored occupation. Praise Him,
  enant seed. They love,               Througn prayer            desperately, the blessing of      and Him only! For though we are
  they lead, they instruct,             God showers               God, if there is to ,be in-      God's farmers, still we are nothing.
  they encourage - but                     and shines             crease upon our efforts.         God is everything. Wholehearted
  God must save the seed.               the life-giuing            In prayer we express our        thanksgiving to Him let us bring!
  So, too, when pastors                Spirit and grace            dependence on God.
  and elders "farm" in the              upon the field             Through prayer, God             Our believing anticipation
  church, or on the mis-                   of our labor,           showers and shines the              Anticipate, then, a blessed in-
  sion field. We are noth-                  energizing            life-giving Spirit and           crease! Earthly farmers -do. When
  ing. We preach, we                         the crop             grace upon the field of our      they have good weather, good `soil,
  pray, we teach, we toil -                of His good           labor, energizing the crop        good machinery, and expertise, what
  but nothing is of any avail               pleasure.          of His good pleasure.  I            else can they expect? So must we,
  without almighty life-giving                               Ponder. Pray.- Then . . . we put      and for this reason: we have a good
  help.                                                our hand to the plow. Ora et Labora!        God. And He has promised: the
           That then is the fundamental dis-           We pray, then work! God is sover-           harvest  is plentiful.
  tinction made in our text: God is                    eign indeed! Man is nothing indeed!             To be sure, the harvest God
  everything, and man is nothing.                      And yet God uses even men who               reaps through us is not plentiful as
  Farmers of every sort must remem-                    are nothing! Sinful men, nothing            men count this. There is no scrip-
  ber this. Those farmers who blur                     men. A sinful church, a nothing             tural ground for our anticipating the
  the distinction, who imagine that                    church . . . God uses us, as tools in       conversion of the majority of the
  God is less than He is and. man is
  )                                                    His hand, to bring the Word of life,        world. We may not expect that sow-
  more than he is . . . are themselves a               to nurture and preserve the life.           ing the true gospel is going to earn
  blight in the land; they are destruc-                     Solemn responsibility we do            us mega-church  status. Plentiful, in-
  tive farmers.                                        have! Farmers of the soil must do           deed, is the promised increase. But
                                                       their work, or they may not eat.            let us be duly warned about the

  8OlStandard  Bearer /November 15,1995


numbers game. Let us leave the            increase God gives prompt us to             be no more, and all the hail - not
numbers to the God of election.           ponder anew, to pray more fervent-          even a memory of it! Then all our
    However many God is pleased           ly, to work all the harder, and to          doubts and fears about the fields in
to add to the field in which we la-       praise and thank our God more               which we labor shall be laid to rest.
bor, let us farmers, and all the rest     wholeheartedly.                             That will be the day of the final har-
of us, look at it this way: that just         Has the increase seemed rather          vest, when God will come again to
one sinner is saved in our midst is a     "sparse" lately? Have there been            bring in the sheaves.
wonder. That one chid is nurtured         disappointments, trials, heartaches,            What a great day! Then the
and built up in the faith is a blessed    and very little response to and fruit       church shall be taken to glory and
increase indeed. Life from the dead,      upon your labors? Then remember             we who are nothing in ourselves but
even one such life, is great enough       this: there will be a time when all         loved of God in Christ shall have
reason for thanksgiving!                  the work here below will be done,           the delight of praising perfectly and
    Received such increase lately?        all the rocks cleared out of the field,     forever the God who is all in all.
Fellow farmers under God, may the         the weeds killed, the diseases shall        Our Lord of the harvest! 0





         Christ J                                                      ur Minister

    In our first installment we pre-      gether,  the word "power" means             church, which is his body, the full-
sented the truth that Christ Jesus is     both the right and the ability to do        ness of him that filleth all in all."
the minister of His church. He is         something. Jesus is saying, there-          God exalted His Christ to His own
the Head and Ring of the church.          fore, that all authority and ability is     right hand in heavenly places.
Moreover, Christ functions through        given to Him in heaven and in earth.            Scripture tells us that Christ
those whom He has lawfully called         Christ has the right to minister the        Himself gave pastors and teachers
to office: the ministers of the Word,     Word, administer the sacraments,            to the church (Eph. 4:11), that Christ
the elders, and the deacons. Fur-         exercise discipline, and minister His       is the Shepherd and Bishop of the
thermore, Christ also ministers to the    mercies to the poor. And Jesus has          souls of the saints (I Pet. 2:25), and
saints through the saints themselves.     the ability to perform these functions      that Jesus is the Chief Shepherd of
All this is clearly taught in our Re-     in the church.                              the flock of God (I Pet. 51-4).
formed confessions.                           Scripture, quoting Psalm  8:7,              Jesus used the same metaphor
    These confessional principles are     says in I Corinthians 1527,  "For he        of the shepherd and the sheep in
clearly taught in Holy Scripture.         hath put all things under his feet... fl    John 10. "I am," said the Lord, "the
That Christ is  the  minister of the      God has arranged all things, put all        good shepherd" (v. 11). The Savior
church is evident from His own            things in subjection to Christ. Sure-       teaches that He is the Good Shep-
Word. Just prior to His ascension         ly, the "all things" includes His           herd who knows "my own sheep"
into heaven Jesus said, "All power        church. That the church is not only         (w. 14-16); that His sheep hear His
is given unto me in heaven and in         included, but is at the center of           voice; and that He knows them and
earth" (Matt.  28:18).  The word          Christ's rule is evident from               they follow Him. Still more, those
translated "power" means, 1) the          Ephesians  1:20-23: "Which he               sheep were given to Jesus by His
power of choice, liberty of doing as      wrought in Christ, when he raised           Father and, says Jesus, "I and my
one pleases; 2) physical and mental       him from the dead, and set him at           Father are one"; and, for that rea-
power, ability; 3) power of authori-      his own right hand in heavenly plac-        son, no one can pluck those sheep
ty or of right; 4) the power of rule      es, far above all principality, and         out of Christ's hand (w. X-30).
or government. Putting these to-          power, and might, and dominion,                 There can be no doubt about the
                                          and every name that is named, not           fact that Holy Scripture teaches that
                                          only in this world, but also in that        Christ Jesus is  the minister, the
Prof. Decker is professor of Practical    which is to come: And hath put all          officebearer  of the church. Christ
Theology in the Protestant Reformed       things under his feet, and gave him         saved the church through Hisdeath
Semina y.                                 to be the head of all things to the         on the cross and His resurrection
                                                                                           November 15,lg95/Standard Bearer/81


 from the dead. Christ rules and gov-       the ministry, for the edifying of the     136). Those who have the rule over
 ems the church. Christ' gathers and        body of Christ" (Eph. 4:11-12).  I        us are literally the ones who go be-
 preserves the church. Let not the              The inspired apostle Peter            fore us as our leaders. These lead-
 force of this escape us. Christ has        writes, "The elders which are among       ers rule by speaking the Word of
 all authority and power over all           you I exhort, who am also an elder,       God to us. They are also our exam-
 things for the sake of the church.         and a witness of the sufferings of        ples, for we are called to follow their
 No matter how furiously the devil          Christ, and also a partaker of the        faith, considering the end of their
 and the world may rage against the         glory. that shall be revealed: Feed       way of life (conversation). A little
 church, they cannot destroy or hurt        the flock of God which is among           later in this same chapter Scripture
 the church in the least. Even their        you, taking the oversight thereof, not    exhorts the saints to "obey them that
 persecution of the church serves the       by constraint, but willingly; not for     have the rule over you, and submit
 good of the church. Christ is on the       filthy lucre, but of a ready mind;        yourselves: for they watch for your
 throne. What marvelous comfort             Neither as being lords over God's         souls, as they that must give ac-
 belongs to the church as she engag-        heritage, but being examples to the       count, that they may do it with joy,
 es in the battle of faith! Not only is     flock" (I Pet. 5:1-3). As is obvious      and not with grief: for that is un-
 it so that nothing can possibly sepa-      from the fact that Peter the apostle      profitable for you" (v. 17). The el-
 rate her from the love of Christ or        counts himself also an elder, the ref-    ders of the church ("them that have
 be against her, but it is true as well     erence'here is both to the ministers      the rule over you") watch for the
 that because Christ is her minister        (teaching elders) and the ruling el-      souls of the saints with joy when the
 the church will be instructed by His       ders of the church. These must            saints are obedient to the rule of
 Word, be corrected by His rule, re-        shepherd the flock of God and must        Christ. When the saints are hisober
 ceive His mercy in her need, and be        do so in a proper way. The apostle        dient to that rule, the elders watch
 preserved unto life eternal by His         assures these through whom it pleas-      for their souls with grief. In both
 Word and Spirit. The church be-            es Christ to minister to the flock of     instances the elders are those who
 longs to Christ, she is His bride.         God that in the way of obedience to       must give an account to the Ring of
        Christ exercises His authority      this exhortation they may expect to       the church, our,Lord  Jesus Christ.
 through men who are lawfully called        receive "a crown of glory that fadeth     Hence, it is certainly unprofitable for
 by Him to serve the church. When           not away" when the chief Shepherd         the disobedient saints when the eli
 Jesus told His disciples that all pow-     appears (v..4). Christ, therefore, the    ders are watching for their souls
 er was given unto him in heaven and        chief Shepherd, is pleased to care for    w i t h   g r i e f .
 in earth, He told them, and thus His       God's flock through the elders of the          Christ, therefore, is the minister,
 church, to teach all nations and make      church.                                   the Head, or Ring of the church.
 disciples of them, promising to be             For this reason too the saints are    Christ ministers `I& Word, rules the
 with them even unto the end of the         exhorted to "remember them that           church, and dispenses His mercies
 world (Matt.  2818-19).  Christ "gave      have the rule over you, who have          through those whom He lawfully
 some apostles, and some prophets;          spoken unto you the word of God:          calls through the church.
 and some evangelists; and some,            whose faith follow, considering the            We do `well `to remember this.
 pastors and teachers; For the per-         end of their conversation" (Heb.          Indeed!  Q
 fecting of the saints, for the work of





                               God the Crtiator. .
                                                Under this rubric, ,"Taking  eeed     doctrine of  man; This division of
                                            to Doctrine," we have .been,led by        Reformed doctrine generally  in-
                                            other writers through a broad over-       eludes such subjects as creation and
                                            view of theology or the doctrine of       providence, as well as what the Bi-
Rev. Key is pastor of the Protestant Re-    God. This new writer begins with          ble teaches concerning man - his
for-med Church of Randolph, Wiscon-         the next section of Reformed dot-         creation, his fall into sin, and the ef-
sin.                                        trine, that of anthropology, or the       fects of that fall.

82lStandard  Bearer/November Xi,1995


 To  `many  of our readers, the                that we are almost astounded by it.             sinful natures, it isn't difficult to un-
treatment of these concepts will con-          "The LORD hath made all things for              derstand why the vast majority of
tain nothing new. After all, we sim-           himself: yea, even the wicked for the           the human race scorns the idea of
ply follow "the old paths." At the             day of evil."                                   this world as the creation of the sov-
same time, however, we might say                   Every single thing in the creation          ereign and almighty God. As we
that the old paths are always and              was made by God for His own pur-                are told in Romans 1, they know the
again  riew. Any man of God will               pose and to reveal His own glory.               truth, but suppress it in unrigh-
agree, we are always learning. Even            God is the source of all things, the            teousness.
though we may spend a lifetime in              center of all things, the purpose of                   But, as we must understand, the
the study of the Scriptures, we nev-           all things. And therefore in our                truth of creation as the work of the
er plumb the depths of God's reve-             study of doctrine, in our unfolding             sovereign God, the Creator-Redeem-
lation. Repeatedly we stand amazed             of biblical truth, we must be con-              er, is not a theory to be taught along-
at the wonderful truth God has re-             cerned about the glory of God, first            side various other theories concem-
vealed to us. Indeed, it is gospel to          of all, `and about the creation and             ing the origin of all things. It is not
us!                                            man only as they serve to magnify               something  that can be proved to the
       So it is when we turn again to          God's glory.' That will be our ap-              minds of men by the use of human
the truth of creation. We stand be-            proach in considering the doctrines             reason or science.
fore God! Oh yes, we enter now into            of creation and man. That is the                       The work of creation is God's
a new division of Reformed'doctrine.           Reformed way.                                   wonder work, something which no
We' speak of the doctrine of man,                  The necessity of a God-centered             man could see. It is God's wonder
But make no mistake. We are still              approach is seen in the very first              work, which testifies of the great-
dealing with the doctrine of God.              verse of the Bible. "In the begin-              ness of our God and the magnifi-
       It is important that we under-          ning God created the heaven and the             cence of His wisdom and His ways.
stand that principle too. All biblical         earth."     Here is immediately set             Creation is God's wonder work, re-
truth must serve to-point us to God,           forth the truth that God is God. It is          vealed in the Scriptures, before
and more spec,ifically  to .God in the         so simple. Even .a small child can              which you and I must bow and be-
face of ]esus Christ. It stands to rea-        understand it.                                  lieve, rendering all praise and glory
son. Scripture is the revelation of                And yet it is so objectionable to           to the Creator who is our Redeem-
Jesus Christ, the God of our salva-            the human mind. `Looking at the                 er.
tion. That is the great, all-pervad-           world in which we live, and consid-                    Our belief in creation as God's
ing principle of Scrip.ture. When we           ering the origin of the creation, there         sovereign handiwork is exactly a
study the doctrine of creation, there-         is a strong inclination embedded                       matter of faith. Without shame
fore, `when we search out what the             deep in the heart of every sin-                          we lay hold of that which is
Bible has to. say about man, we do             ner to prefer any other ex-           Without'             revealed to us in Holy Scrip-
so as those. who are concerned first           planation than this one:           embarrassment ture. Without  embarrass-
of all with God. ' If that is not our          "God created; the worlds              we reject             ment we reject any theories
approach,.we  shall fail to discern the        were framed .by the word             any theories            of science which contradict
truth.                                         of God" (Gen.  1:l; Heb.              of science             God's revelation in the
       We take, therefore, an approach         11:3). For what this means             which                 Scriptures.
that is fundamentally different from           is that you and I and all            contradict              We stand appalled at the
that taken by many theologians and             creatures are  dependent                God's                brazen opposition to bibli-
preachers and Bible students today.            creatures, subject to the will       revelation             cal truth that is seen even
The world of our day is humanistic.            of our Creator.                         in the              in so-called Reformed cir-
Man is the object on the foreground.               You and I, who prefer            Scriptures.           cles today. We are deeply
Man's authority, man's knowledge,              to look at this universe as a              *              grieved  bp the unbelief that
man's abilities, man's possessions,            giant stadium in which we can                          is widespread in churches and
man's salvation are all placed upon            play+our  games and have our fun,               colleges that have the name "Chris-
the foreground. But our viewpoint,             are told by the Word of God that                tian," but where science, the "knowl-
even with respect to the doctrine. of          this world is God's world, cvld that            edge" of men, is placed above the
man, will be  theological.                     you and I and all creatures are sub-            authoritative teaching of the Word
       It is certainly true, all things are    ject to Him. We are not here to serve           of God Himself.
ours. That is I Corinthians 3:21.              ourselves; *And the creation is not                    We, without compromise, pro-
  ., But read on. . "...all -things aie        here simply for our own pleasure.               claim the truth that the Scriptures
yours; and ye are Christ's; and                All things are for Christ's sake!               are the inspired, authoritative.writ-
Christ is God's," For His  .own                    When we stand before that truth,            ten record of God's revelation in
name's sake God made all things.               clearly revealed in the Bible, and              Christ Jesus. The doctrine' of9"&-
In fact Proverbs 16:4 puts it so clearly       when we examine ourselves and our               ation is a concrete matter where the

                                                                                                       November 15,1595lStandard  Beare&


authority of these Scriptures applies.     claims clearly that creation and re-        appropriate elevation in our con-
Who was here to see God create?            demption  a& inseparably connect-           sciousness, we know that all things
Who saw Him make heaven and                ed. You cannot deny the one and             work together for good to us who
earth? But make them He did -              hold to the other. The church looks         love Him, because we are the called
because He alone is God. And we            unto God the Creator for redemption         according to His purpose. And the
know this because He Himself has           and deliverance. (See Ps.  89:8,11;         creation of the world and God's gov-
told us in His Word. Shall we re-          95:1-7; 121:1,2; 1248; Col. 1:14-17.)       ernment of every single thing is for
ceive what the Creator Himself has             Scripture makes clear the insep-        our sakes.
revealed to us concerning His own          arable relationship between creation            To recognize the magnificence of
work?                                      and redemption, between God'as              God as Creator-Redeemer is to find
    The alternative, you understand,       Creator and God as Savior. That             in your own life the profound com-
is not merely to adopt another theo-       God is our Savior is possible ,only         fort and joy of His wonder work of
ry. The Bible is the authoritative         because He is the almighty Creator.         grace.
Word of God. And because it is                 That makes the truth concem-                So the doctrine of creation is
that, we are dealing with a question       ing God the Creator a matter of very        concerned with far more than only
of faith and unbelief. There is no         practical importance.                       the origin of things. You and I stand
neutral ground here. The.Bible  con-           You know how our souls can be           here before the one only true God.
fronts us with the call to believe. The    in such turmoil when the power of           We do not go to heaven for believ-
alternative is to go to hell for your      God is not before our consciousness.        ing that He created the heaven and
unbelief and refusal to humble your-       You recognize in your own life, if          the earth. But we go to heaven in
self before the authority of God and       you reflect for a moment of self-ex-        the way of laying hold of Christ by
His Word.                                  amination, that when we are fiIled          faith. And that faith, which is the
    The seriousness of rejecting what      with worry and distress, we are un-         gift of God's grace, is faith by which
the Bible teaches concerning creation      able to maintain a proper spiritual         also "we understand that the worlds
has a reason. Creation does not            focus. Our mind is filled with some-        were framed by the word of God,
stand alone.' To believe in the bibli-     thing other than God and His glory.         so that things which are seen were
cal truth of creation is fundamental           But, on the other hand, when we         not made of things which do ap-
to saving faith. For Scripture pro-        have raised the power of God to the         pear" (Heb.  11:3).  0
                                                                              1



               The Stan                                                                  rer -=
              In Defen'

Why this defense of the faith?                 Defense of the faith is at bottom       is why God raised up a Luther and
    Polemical  the Standard Bearer         defense, not just of the faith, but of      a Calvin in the days of the Reforma-
was and polemical she is. Why?             the honor and glory of God. God is          tion. And why God raised up a
Why from the beginning was it felt         glorified in the truth. He is the truth!    Hoeksema, a Darthof,  and an Ophoff
that the Standard Bearer ought to          God is robbed of His glory by the           in the early history of the Protestant
be polemical? Why this  &few of            lie. Zeal for the Name of God com-          Reformed Churches. God is jealous
the faith?                                 pels us to defend the truth.                for His own glory! ,
    The Standard Bearer is and the             This is why God Himself calls               This is the thing that we must
Standard Bearer must continue to be        us to defend the truth. This is why         be conscious of, that ,must be upper-
polemical for God's sake.                  God called His prophets to such a           most in our minds as we write in
                                           defense of the truth in the Old Tes-        and publish the Standard Bearer.
                                           tament. This is why our Lord Jesus          We must be thinking about this. We
Rev. Cammenga is pastor of Southwest       Christ so vigorously defended the           must make the defense that we make
Protestant. Reformed Church in             truth `and exposed the lie and the          out of a conscious concern for the
Grandville, Michigan.                      false teachers in His ministry. This        glory of our great God.

WKi'tandardBear8rlNovember  15,1995


    The Standard Bearer is and the              The "how" of our defense                    strov men's lives, but to save them"
Standard Bearer must continue to be             of the faith                                (L&e 955, 56). _ Jesus would have
polemical also for the sake of the                  If these three reasons for our de-      nothing of the vindictiveness of
church.                                         fense of the faith are before our           James and John.
    Love for the church must                    minds, then it is also going to be the          In II Corinthians 6:3,, Paul says
prompt our defense of the faith. The            case that we are concerned to carry         about himself that he gave "no of-
church is built upon the doctrine of            on our ,defense of the faith in the         fence in any thing, that the ministry
the Word of God. This is the only               right manner. God's glory, the wel-         be not blamed." In II Timothy 2:24-
foundation upon which the church                fare of the church, and convincing          26, the apostle instructs Timothy and
can stand. False teaching erodes that           of error not only establish the need        all officebearers, "And the servant
foundation! Error destroys the                  for polemics, but also control the way      of the Lord must not strive; but be
church! Heresy and the heretic are              in which we engage in polemics.             gentZe unto all men, apt to teach, pa-
not to be coddled! They threaten                    They are wrong, dead wrong,             tient, in meekness instructing those
the very life of the church.                    who object to polemics - whether            that oppose themselves (to the
    Oh, it was love for the church              in the preaching or in writing.             truth); if God peradventure will give
on the part of Hoeksema, and                        But they are also wrong who ex-         them repentance to the acknowledg-
Danhof, and Ophoff, and the found-              press unconcern for the way in              ing of the truth; and that they may
ing fathers of the RFPA that                           which the faith is defended.         recover themselves out of the snare
moved them to take up the                u,.            They are wrong who hold             of the devil, who are taken captive
challenge of producing a new            ldesy            that the only thing necessary      by him at his will."
church paper. Love for the           and the heretic is that a defense be made.                 What the apostle Peter requires
instituted church. Love for           are not to be       And so long as that defense       of the individual believer in I Peter
the church to which they                coddled!          is made, it really does not       3~15 applies here as well, that we
still belonged and in which          They threaten        matter hozv it is made. They      must "be ready always to give an
they were working for ref-            the very life      are wrong who view those           answer to every man that asketh (us)
ormation - the Christian Re- of the church. who express this concern as                     a reason of the hope that is in (us)
formed Church.                                         weak, and regard them with           with meekness and fear. "
    That, too, must be before our               suspicion, the suspicion that they do           In the text of an address given
minds in our defense of the faith to-           not really hold to the line and are         to this same gathering by Prof.
day. We must write what we write                inclined. to compromise.                    Herman Hank0  entitled "The Stan-
and publish what we publish out of                  Not only do the Scriptures call         dard Bearer  and Polemics," and
love for the church. Certainly love             us to a defense of the faith, but they      printed in the December I,1981 is-
for our own Protestant Reformed                 also demand that we defend the              sue of the Standard Bearer, Prof.
Churches. And love, too, for the                faith irthe right manner.                   Hanko, reflecting on this very mat-
church of Jesus Christ catholic.                    In Matthew lo:16 Jesus says to          ter, wrote:
    The Standard Bearer is and the              His twelve disciples, "Behold, I send
Standard Bearer must continue to be             you forth as sheep in the midst of            The Standard Bearer'has not al-
polemical also out of a sincere de-             wolves: .be ye therefore wise as ser-         Ways done this. These are- sins
sire that those who depart from the             pents, and harmless as doves."                which we confess to God at the foot
faith will be convinced of their                    Luke 9, the latter part of the            of the cross. Weakness is with us
wrong, and those who are in doubt               chapter, records a striking event in          and against it we must be on our
will be established in the truth.               the ministry of the Lord Jesus. On            guard. (SB,`vol. 58, p. 108).
    It belongs to the purpose of po-            His way to Jerusalem, Jesus passed          We acknowledge this weakness and
lemics that there may be repentance             through Samaria. He sent messen-            sin. We acknowledge it before God
and retraction.                                 gers ahead announcing His entrance          and before men.
    For that reason error must not              into a certain village of the Samari-           But this does not deter us from
simply be attacked, but must be re-             tans. We read in verse 53, "And             carrying on in the battle. This does
futed:. God's Word and the Re-                  they would not receive him . . . . U The    not detract from what before God
formed confessions must be ap-                  narrative goes on: "And when his            we know to be our calling. And no
pealed to. It must be,shown why a               disciples James and John saw this,          matter what others may think of us,
certain teaching is erroneous, and              they said, Lord, wilt thou that we          say about us, or write concerning
why a certain practice is condemned.            command fire to come down from              us, we are determined to be valiant
    This, too, must be on our minds             heaven, and consume them,, even as          for the cause. Because the cause is
`as we send out the Standard Bearer.            Elias did? But he turned and re-            not ours; the cause is God's, And
We must desire this. It must be evi-            buked them, and said, Ye know not           one day it will be shown to have
dent that we desire it. This must be            what manner of spirit ye are of. For        been so.  0
our prayer as we write and publish.             the Son of man is not come to de-

                                                                                                November 15,1995/Standard  Beareri


                                              Integrity
       Are you a person of integrity? Perhaps we think            as a cake that is baked to a golden brown on one side,
  of integrity only in certain limited spheres: a business       but on the other side and within she is raw dough. In
  man must stand behind his product, a researcher must            God's judgment she was unpalatable, and the,reason
  have intellectual honesty, a reporter must present the          for this was that Ephraim mixed himself among the
  facts of a case or an event. But the Bible makes clear          people (heathen). Isaiah records God's complaint over
  that every child of God is to demonstrate integrity in         Judah's outward, religious exactitude (Is. 1). Their
  every sphere of life. This word is found sixteen times          sacrifices; feasts, and prayers were unacceptable to
  in the Old Testament; although the New Testament                God because their hearts were not right with Him.
  does not contain the word, it expands on the idea in            Such a lack of integrity, consistency, and uprightness
  several places.                                                 that the prophet must call Israel Sodom and Gomorrah,
       The Hebrew word has the basic meaning of com-              and liken Jerusalem to a harlot.
  pleteness, wholeness, and simplicity. Then the word                 Jesus had the same thing in mind when He called
  takes on the moral values of perfection, innocence,             the scribes and Pharisees hypomifes!.  Outwardly they
  and uprightness, but always from the point of view of           appeared1 righteous, but inwardly they were .full of
  consistency. The person of integrity displays a moral           hypocrisy and iniquity. Pretty hard to distinguish a
  consistency that begins within the heart and proceeds           hypocrite' from an unturned cake. The inner life of
  outward without any change. Integrity implies homo-             heart, mind, and soul was not integrated with their
  geneity of such a high order that wherever you look             words and deeds. Foolishly and sinfully they tried to
  at a person, or however a person reveals himself, you           separate the law from the gospel,`>Moses from Christ,
  see the same thing. The plural of the Hebrew word is           the heart from the hand. Woe to those who lack integ-
  Thummim. On the breastplate of the high priest were             rity! James says to all outward professors of Chris-
  placed the Urim (light) and Thmnrnim (perfection),              tianity, "Show me thy faith without thy works (if you
  objects which were used to discover the will of God             can), and I will show thee my faith by my works"
  for Israel in a certain matter (Ex. 28:30). Although we         (James 2:!8). For faith without works is dead, unprof-
  do not know the method of using these things, the              itable, and inconsistent. The beloved disciple instructs
  idea of wholeness, completeness, and perfection is              us that "If a man say, I love God, and hateth his broth-
  strongly present.                                               er, he is a liar': (I John 4~20); an&`My  little children,
       God informed Solomon that David his father                let us not love in word, neither in tongue,. but in deed
  walked in integrity of heart and in uprightness, to do and in truth" (I John 3:18). The ninth commandment
  all God's commandments (I Kings 94). Though Job                 of God's holy law requires spiritual consistency or
  lost all, he still held fast his integrity, being a perfect    integrity, according to Lord's Day 44: "That even the
  and upright man who feared God and eschewed evil                smallest inclination or thought, contrary to any of,
  (Job 2:3). David dared to ask God to judge him ac-              God's commandments, never arise in our hearts; but
  cording to his righteousness and the integrity that was        that at all times we hate all sin with our whole heart,
  in him (I%. 7~8). Even though the enemy is deceitful,           and delight in all righteousness."
  David will walk in his integrity (Ps. 26~11). He con-               The whole law was fulfilled for us by Jesus Christ,
  fesses that he is able to do this because God upholds          the Man of perfect integrity. The zeal of His Father's,
  him in his integrity (I%. 41:12). God chose David to           house consumed Him. He had meat to eat that the
  feed Israel, and David did this with integrity of heart         disciples did not know, and that was to do the will of
  and skillfulness of hands (Ps. 78.72). Integrity is a safe     Him that sent Him, and to finish His work (John 4:32-
  guide (Prov. 11:3). The poor man who has integrity is          -.34). With complete self forgetful?ess, with.undivided
  better than a rich fool (Prov. 19:l). When the just man        heart and, unswerving will, He was always about His
  walks with integrity, his children are blessed after him       Father's business (Luke  2:49).
  (Prov. 20:7).                                                       Perhaps the best test for integrity is to ask oneself
      The prophets warned Israel when she lived a se&'           these questions: Do I behave myself the same way
  regated rather than an integrated life. In Hosea 7:8,:9        when I'am.alone as when I am with others? When' I
  we read that Ephraim (the kingdom of the ten, north-           am among the worldly as when I am with the saints?
  em tribes) is a cake not turned. The life of this nation       When I am on vacation as when I am at home? If we
  revealed that she was spiritually inconsistent; she was        can say yes, we have integrity! 0
  Rev. Kuiper is pastor of Southeast Protestant Reformed Church in Grand Rapi&, Michigan.

86lSlandard  Bsarer/?Jovember 15,1999


                                 CNiver Cromwell:
                                 Lord Protector (1)
                                            \
Introduction                                trine, but so much like Roman Ca-          tled. Spain could not be forgotten,
    I recall that a number of years         tholicism in its hierarchical church       for only recently had she launched
ago, when we were on a tour of              government and liturgy. Within the         her mighty armada against England
Westminster Abbey in London, the            church from the time of Queen Eliz-        in an effort to restore England to pa-
Anglican, prelate who was our guide        _ abeth, who ruled in the latter half of    pal rule, and the wreckage of Span-
took every opportunity to express           the. 16th Century, was a large group       ish ships still strewed the coastline
his hatred of Oliver `Cromwell and          of men who, influenced by the              of Scotland and Ireland as a con-
the disaster which he had brought Calvin Reformation in Geneva,                        stant reminder of the perfidy of the
upon England in the 17th Century.           wanted complete reformation in the         Romish Church.
Oliver Cromwell was that kind of a          church, including Presbyterianism in            If all this were not enough, Scot-
man: one either loved him or hated          church government and liturgical           land wanted nothing so much as po-
him. His enemies were many and             reformation in worship. They be-            litical independence from England,
were from the side of those' who sup-       came known as Puritans and were            and Roman Catholic mobs in Ireland
ported the Anglican Church as well          particularly strong in Scotland.           had butchered thousands of Protes-
as Calvinist Presbyterianism who                 On the throne of England ruled        t&ts throughout that troubled land.
despised his form of church govem-         the cruel Stuarts, in Cromwell's ear-
ment. But that he was an important         ly life, James I (the one responsible       Cromwell's early life
figure in the history of England as        .for our Ring James Version of the               Into all this seething unrest
well as in the hisfor); of the Refor-      Bible) and later, Charles I, beheaded       Cromwell was born on April 25,
mation in the British: Isles cannot be      at Cromwell's instigation. These           1599, at the end of a century of ref-
denied.                    `.              Stuarts were convinced that their           ormation and just before that most
    He has `gained his niche in the        own royal prerogatives were insep-          crucial 100 years of church history
history of the church by being the         arably bound. up in the Anglican            -the 17th century.
most startling example`of one who;         Church, of which they were the                   He was born of middle class par-
in the cause of, Christ, rises against     head. As James I expressed iit: "No         ents by the name of Robert
his .ruler and brings about his over-      bishop, no king." However, they             Cromwell and Elizabeth Steward.
throw. English Protestantism today         were always suspected, with some            Both of them were Protestants and
is `influenced by Cromwell's rebel-        justification, of really working secret-    devoted Calvinists. Robert Crom-
lion against the king.                     ly for the return to England of Ro-         well had served in Queen Elizabeth's
                                           man Catholicism. The Stuarts were           Parliament and was active in local
Background                                 embroiled in a bitter struggle wifh         affairs. They were small land own-
    To have some understanding of          Parliament for political control. The       ers and suffered along with most
the role Cromwell* played in English       Stuarts needed Parliament because           people under the heavy burden of
history, we must know something            only Parliament could pass tax laws,        taxation, for the Stuarts needed un-
of events in the land,,at"the  time he     but Parliament was ,mtent on curb-          told revenue to support the royal
lived.                                     ing Stuart power.                           navy. and to finance the luxurious
    The Reformation in England had               In Europe a continent-shaking         extravagances of the Stuart court.
produced the. Anglican Church, so          conflict was going on-between Prot-
much like Protestantism  in its doc-       estant  -forces `and Roman Catholic
     /            *                        armies: The Thirfy Vf33r.s  War was         1    The'best and most objective bi-
                                           destroying Germany, and the Eighty          ography of Cromwell which I have
Prof. Hanko  is @ofessor of Church His-    Years War had brought about un-             been able to find is Robert S. Paul's
toy and New Testament in the Protes-       told suffering to Dutch Protestants         book, Lord Protector, published by
tant Reformed Semina y.                    and was not, in Cromwell's time, set-       Eerdmans in 1964.

                                                                                            November 15,1995/StandardBeaw'57


Oliver was the second child of the        bane, witty in speech and dressed           in England, with every person per-
family, which was composed of two         in the latest fashions. Cromwell            mitted to worship God according to
additional sons and seven sisters.        came with homespun clothing,                his own conscience. He wanted,
But the death of Oliver's two broth-      crude, relatively uneducated, not           more than anything else, each con-
ers in their infancy and the death of     gifted in flowery language, and a fig-      gregation left free to choose its own
his father when Oliver was 18 years       ure to be despised by his peers. Yet        pastor and to determine its own faith
old, put the responsibilities of sup-     he was also a fiery speaker capable         and worship. In essence, Cromwell
port and the management of their          of moving men with his oratory. In          wanted a form of Independentism
small holdings on Oliver's shoulders.     his maiden speech he appeared be-           in church government without any
    After a mediocre education in         fore the assembly with a spot of            government interference of any kind.
grammar school, Oliver was sent to        blood on his collar and little to rec-      He had developed these views early
Cambridge to study; but his studies       ommend him.               When Lord         in life and never wavered from
were brought to an end by the death       Hambden was asked who that was,             them. This put him strongly at odds
of his father, and his further educa-     he uttered the prophetic words:             with many fellow Puritans and es-
tion consisted . exclusively in wide      "That slovenly fellow which you see         pecially with the  Scats Presbyterians
r e a d i n g .                           before us, who hath no ornament in          who hated him.
    Although not much is known of         his speech; I say that sloven, if we            But the essential disagreements
Oliveis early years, it seems as if       should come to a breach with the            were between Parliament and the
he lived a rather boisterous and pro-     Ring (which may God forbid) in              king. And when Parliament saw
fane life. He speaks of his conver-       such case will be one of the greatest       that the king was marshaling his
sion at about 20 years old shortly        men of England."                            forces to defend his royal preroga-
after his marriage to a staunch Cal-                                                  tives, Parliament also saw the need
vinist girl by the name of Elizabeth      Cromwell's war against Charles              to raise an army to defend its own
Bourchier, with whom he had five                   Oliver Cromwell used his plat-     position. Things were moving swift-
sons and four daughters. Oliver           form in the House of Commons for            ly towards civil war, and civil war
himself speaks of the fact that from      attacks on Anglican episcopacy,             soon broke out.
the date of his conversion, his read-     which attacks were, almost by ne-                           . . . to be continued Cl
ing was almost exclusively limited        cessity, made also against the king,
to the Bible; and he was known till       who agreed wholeheartedly with
his death as a man who had a rare         James: "No bishop, no king!" Royal
knowledge of Scripture far exceed-        politics in England, with the king the
ing that of most of England's minis-      head of the Anglican Church, were
ters.                                     so closely interwoven with Anglican
    Following the example of his fa-      episcopacy that the two could not                     It Cannot Last
ther, he immersed himself in local        possibly be separated in England's
affairs and was, in 1628, sent to Par-    life.                                       Weary now it is, and must be,,
liament. His stay there was not long,              Gradually, as the number of Pu-        All my sky is overcast;
for the Parliament was angrily dis-       ritans increased in Parliament, the         But no cloud can be eternal,
solved by Charles in 1629. Under          balance swung from support of the               This one cannot always last!
the burden of Stuart taxing policies,     king and Anglicanism to strong op-
he suffered great want, but his fi-       position. And the king, fearful of          Drearily the storm is beating,
nancial burdens were somewhat             his throne, began to prepare his                Chilling rain is falling fast;
eased when in 1638 he fell heir to        army as his sole weapon to destroy          I am wet, and cold, and cheerless;
his uncle's estate. He was now a          Puritan forces which threatened him             But it cannot,always  last.
member of-England's gentry.               and his church.
    In Z&l he was sent again to Par-               Another factor, however, came      Walls of granite, stem forbidding,
liament when it was called by the         into play in the complicated politics           Separate me from the past,
king. This Parliament became              of the times: the Puritans themselves       That was erst so glad, so joyous; -
known as the Long Parliament,' for        were by no means united. The Pres-              But they cannot always last!
it met till 1653. It was the Parlia-      byterian Puritans not only favored a
ment responsible for the overthrow        strong Presbyterian Church in En-           And what sorrows lie before me
of the monarchy and for the calling       gland but pressed hard for such a               In the future drear and vast;
of the Westminster Assembly.              Presbyterian Church to be the State         Ah! I know not! But it cheers me
    But in the Parliament he was          Church in the place of the Anglican             That they cannot always last.
something of a misfit. Parliament         Church. But with this position
was composed at least in part of          Cromwell strongly disagreed. He                                    reprinted from
wealthy gentry, cultivated and  ur-       wanted complete freedom of religion                        Standard Bearer, 1928

`88/StendafdBearefRdovember  Xi,1995


             The Protestant Refof
                                      Covenan
     For they are not all Israel, which        At the beginning of his article        Schilder came again in 1947, Hoek-
are of Israel:                             Tuininga writes, "It was particular-       sema wrote, "Dr. Schilder . . . knows
     Neither, because they are the seed    ly disagreement about the nature of        that we do not agree with their cov-
of Abraham, are they all children: but,    the covenant that ended the relation-      enant conception, and that we take
In Isaac shall thy seed be called.         ship between Schilder and Hoekse-          the same stand as they, church po-
                           Romans 9:6,7    ma. After all, Schilder had just gone      litically. He is assured too that, in
                                           through a bitter struggle about this       spite of our differences, our church-
     In the September issue of Chris-      very thing in the Netherlands.             es will give him a hearing. He trusts
tian Renewal, there appeared an ar-        Schilder and his followers had been        that we still love him, and that we
tic&by Rev. Jelle Tuininga reflect-        deposed because they refused to ac-        will give him a warm reception. In
ing on some of my recent writings          cept the Kuyperian view of the cov-        this, I think he will not be disap-
concerning the Liberated view of the       enant which stated that infants are        pointed."    Meanwhile, Hoeksema
covenant. With this I am rather            baptized on the basis of `presumed         in the Stanakrd  Bearer was writing
pleased, if for no other reason than       regeneration.' That is to say, we do       about the covenant and inviting,
that, when one writes, he seeks to         not baptize childrensolely on the ba-      even pleading for, a meaningful dis-
put thoughts into words which can          sis of the promise of' God, but on         cussion of the differences between
be accurately understood; and the          the presumption that these children        us. But that was where the problem
real test of whether one has succeed-      are regenerated. Imagine Schilder's        came in. Schilder, even when per-
ed is in hearing from those who dif-       consternation when he was confront-        sonally present - although always
fer with him. It is not very difficult     ed by a somewhat similar version of        gracious as'he could be - was little
to get through to those who agree;         this teaching on the part of Hoekse-       inclined to give definitive answers
they have their own way of filling         ma." Now this is an interesting and        on these matters. He simply prom-
in where one's presentation is weak.       rather natural speculation on              ised to write about them in the
It is from-those who object that one       Tuininga's part - except that it is        Refortnatie  some day, which to any
discovers whether he expressed him-        not true.                                  substantial degree he never did, and
self as he ought; and, considering             In actuality, already when Dr.         Hoeksema's pleading for discussion
the response of Rev.  ,Tuininga,  it       Klaas Schilder returned to the Neth-       went essentially unanswered. The
would appear that there remains            erlands from his first trip before the     interest of the Dutch seemed to be
much that has not yet been made            Second World War, he knew full             more in setting up ecclesiastical re-
clear. If there is to be theological       well that the Rev. Herman Hoekse-          lations and finding a place for their
development in our conservative Re-        ma held a covenant view different          immigrating families than in deal-
formed community, we are going to          from his own. In turn, once the war        ing with the theological differences
have to learn to communicate to-           was over and it became evident that        which were there.
gether about our doctrinal differenc-      there had been trouble in the Neth-            So, although we had no hesitan-
es with mutual kindness and con-           erlands over the doctrine of the cov-      cy about receiving their members,
cern and respect. And this in its          enant, one of the first things sent        we were careful to inform them that,
own way relates to the problem we          there was a supply of Hoeksema's           while they were free to believe con-
in the Protestant Reformed Church-         De Geloovigen,  and Hun Zaad (Be-          cerning the covenant as they would,
es had with the Liberated from the         lievers and Their Seed), a book writ-      they could expect to hear quite a dif-
start.                                     ten already in 1927 analyzing and          ferent view preached from, our pul-
                                           emphatically rejecting the covenant        pits. But then it was discovered that
                                           view of Prof. Heyns, which was in          Prof. Holwerda was privately advis-
Rev:~oudenberg  is pastor of the Prot-     reality not greatly different from that    ing those same' immigrants to join
estant Reformed Church of Kalamazoo,       of Schilder and the newly formed           the Protestant Reformed, but to ig-
Michigan.                                  Liberated Churches. In fact, before        nore Hoeksema's covenant view and
                                                                                          November 15,1955/Standard  Bearen'


work their own into our churches             believed firmly in predestination; but      tism of the Holy Spirit without
- and, even more, that certain of            also that the application of it to in-      which one can neither see nor enter
our own ministers had privately ex-          dividual persons must be left among         the kingdom of God (John  33-8).
pressed their approval of this. That,        the  "secret things (which) belong unto     And, we might note, this is not
and not Schilder's ignorance of our          the LORD our God" (Deut. 29:29),  into      something which is presumed to
differences, was what brought about          which we should not probe. ,                have taken place, but is to be brought
the breakdown of relationships be-               And the same is certainli true          about at God's own will.
tween us and the Liberated, as well          of Tuininga's further observation,                 Then there is the matter of logic
as causing a major disruption in our         "That is why the Prot. Ref. liad to         -which warrants a smile of its own.
own denomination. Herman Hoek-               change the traditional Form of Bap-         All through his article Tuininga seeks
sema, and those of us who followed           tism," arousing one to wonder (again        to build one logical syllogism after
him, had no real interest in increas-        what change this is  suppos?d to            another to prove.how  wrong we are,
ing the membership in our churches           have been. In actuality we haye al-         and then pummels us for daring to
at the price of doctrinal unity, while       ways used the translation of the Bap-       expect logical consistency of them.
others were willing to accept this.          tism Form found in the old 1912 edi-        The fact of the matter is that God
Even they, however, never succeed-           tion of the PsaIEer with no reesions        does not lie (Num. 23:19),  which is
ed.in finding unity with the Liberat-        at all. (In fact, there are still copies    to say that what He says at one point
ed, but ended up back in the Chris-          of that edition floating around             He will not contradict at another.
tian Reformed Church which once              among us - some books lnad excel-           This principle of non-contradiction,
"out of conviction" they had left.           lent bindings in those days -which          as one who has studied logic would
     Apparently, since that time, we         one is free to use at any time.) As         know, is that from which all the rest
h&e not been forgotten, but a selec-         it was, Hoeksema himself was very           of logic derives - as is implied in
tion of apocryphal anecdotes have            fond of that form, often analyzing          the Greek word  logos  (translated
arisen about us, designed, it would          and expounding upon it, with a re-          "Word" in John 1) from which the
seem, to illustrate how extreme we           spect nearly equal to that which he         word "logic" is taken. There is a
can be. And Tuininga favors us with          held for the confessions. And, in its       harmonious system of truth which
a few of them.                               own way, it illustrates our covenant        flows throughout the  logos  by which
     He writes, for example, "Fact is,       position quite well. It is true, of         God has created this world, based
Hoeksema once said that if he knew           course, that it points out, as the Lib-     on His faithfulness or consistency.
which children would go astray he            erated properly observe, that `!Holy        And this, in turn, provides us with
would not baptize them. And con-             Baptism witnesseth and sealeth unto         that old exegetical rule which has
sistency would compel him to say             us the washing away of our sins             always laid the groundwork for all
that. In actual fact, this position          through Jesus Christ . ..." and that        sound Bible interpretation, namely,
would be more consistent with be-            "although our young children do not         "the proper interpretation -of any
liever's baptism than with infant            understand these things, we may not         passage of Scripture must  bl!  in
baptism." For anyone who knew                therefore exclude them from' bap-           agreement with all the rest;" much
Hoeksema personally, or who is es-           tism." But this baptism comes to            as Jesus implied when He said, John
sentially acquainted with his theolo-        fulfillment only by a special wqrk of       10:35, "the scripture cannot be bro-
gy, this can cause little more than a        God, as the Form goes on to imply           ken." One must not interpret one
smile; for few things would have             in the two prayers that follow re-          part of Scripture in contradiction to
been more out of character with him.         spectively, "We beseech thee, that          another. And the fact is that with-
The fact was that Hoeksema had               Thou wilt be pleased of thine infi-         out such logical co&istency  mean-
very little interest in determining,         nite mercy, graciously to look ;upon        ingful communication cannot in re-
even in regard to the record of Scrip-       these children, and incorporate them        ality take place. If what one says at
ture and much less in personal life,         by thy Holy Spirit, into thy Son Jesus      one point may conflict with what he
who are the elect and who not. Nor           Christ . ..." and again, "We beseech        says at another, what do we have?
did he consider this in any way to           thee, through the same Son of thy           All that would remain would be the
be related to the question of who            love, that Thou wilt be pleased al-         throwing back and forth of invec-
should be baptized. Apart from               ways to govern these baptized chil-         tives and opinions (only too com-
those very few instances in which            dren by thy Holy Spirit, thati they         mon in our modem political age), to
the Bible tells us specifically that cer-    may .,. grow up in the Lord Jesus           see who can outshout the other. But
tain individuals were  elect or repro-       Christ, and that they then may ac-          that is not what Christianity is about.
bate, this, he would insist, is none         knowledge thy fatherly goodness                    And yet in a way that is what it
of our business. And, should any-            and mercy, which Thou hast sliown           all comes down to; tie setting forth
one be inclined to such judgments            to them and us...."      It recognizes      of presumptions on the one hand,
nonetheless, they would be apt to            that we may baptize with water, but         which contradict realities on the oth-
receive his rather sharp rebuke. He          it remains for God to apply the bap-        er.

!WStandard  Bearer INovem  ber 15,1995


    ,Abraham Kuyper held that elect         so they have searched for a way in          through the ages many have con-
children of believers are regenerat-        which every child may be allowed            fessed to being unable to remember
ed at birth, and because of this are        to presume himself to be an object          a day when they did not know them-
to be baptized as a means by which          of divine favor, as though, if he does,     selves to be sinners saved by grace.
they may receive a covenantal grace,        this will outflank the realities of pre-    It may be a very simple and child-
making them sensitive to the Word           destination. It is rather like that old     like faith, but we are certainly
of God in a special way. He knew,           saying which was bantered about by          warned not to despise such as that
of course, that some of these chil-         scholastics in the Middle Ages              (Ps.  82; Mk.  10:14;  Matt.  l&J-3).
dren are not elect, and therefore may       (wrongfully ascribing it to August-         But, throughout, one thing should
not in fact be regenerated; but he          ine) that, "If you are not predesti-        be understood. This is not some-
insisted they are to be presumed so         nate, then make yourself predesti-          thing that anyone can do of himself.
nonetheless, and dealt with accord-         nate." And so with us, if our chil-         Faith is a gift of grace (Eph 2:8), and
ingly. In fact, this is to be so even if    dren will presume themselves chil-          its author is the Holy Spirit (Lord's
as they grow older they show little         dren of God, they will come to' be          Day 27), not man. Life in the cove-
sign of spiritual sensitivity, since it     that way - as long that is, as logi-        nant is not a matter of what we are
is quite possible for the seed of re-       cal inconsistency may be allowed.           willing or able to do, but of rejoic-
generation to lie dormant for many              It is just this kind of ambiguity       ing in what God has done for us.
years. We must simply continue to           which we in the Protestant  Rer                 But it is not always that way.
urge those who have been baptized           formed Churches have sought to              While some covenant children re-
to search for indications of this grace     avoid. We make no presumptions.             ceive this grace at an early age, there
within themselves, thereby to gain          The covenant of grace is essentially        are those as well to whom it comes
assurance that they are in fact elect.      a relationship of friendship and love       only after they have delved deeply
This the Liberated rejected; and            which God establishes with His peo-         into sin (Lk. 15:17).  And then there
rightfully so - only to base their          ple in Christ, and baptism is - as          are those who, though they may
own view on a presumption equally           was circumcision before it - a sign         have mastered Christian instruction
real.                                       pointing to the fact that one must be       and may even have shown a certain
    The Liberated view is that ev-          cleansed from the filth of the flesh        affection for parents and church, to
ery baptized child without exception        in order to enter in. But such can          say nothing of having shed tears for
receives a concrete promise from            come to one only through faith (Gal.        sin (Heb. 12:16,17),  yet find no place
God that he is a covenant child and         3:16) which makes one participant           in their hearts for true repentance
is incorporated into Christ - except        in the only true seed, Jesus Christ         and fall away (Rbm.  9:6). Within
that there are demands and warn-            (Gal. 3:7).                                 the sphere of the covenant, as with-
ings affixed to this as conditions              In effect what happens is this.         out, the means of grace have their
which must be met if these promis-          When a child is baptized, he is re-         dividing effect, as Paul once said
es are to be finally realized. That is      ceived into the church of God as it         with a tinge of sorrow and pain, II
to say, if a child grows to maturity        is visibly manifested in the local con-     Corinthians 2~16, "To the one we are
without heeding these demands and           gregation. There, in accord with the        the savor of death unto death; and
warnings, he will lose his place in         promise of the parents, he is brought       to the other the savor of life unto
the covenant, and his promises will         up in the truth of God as it comes to       life. And who is sufficient for these
become a curse. The promise, there-         expression in the life and instruc-         things?"
fore, may not materialize (in spite         tion of the family and the church.              Nevertheless, Deuteronomy  7:9,
of Hebrews 617, 18), and salvation          At the same time, however, he is            "the LORD thy God, he is God, the
can .be lost (in spite of Philippians       assured that true participation in this     faithful God, which keepeth cove-
1:6)., Salvation hangs in contingen-        covenant is not something that can          nant and mercy with them that love
cy on responsibilities man must             be taken for granted (Lk. 3:8). Just        him and keep his commandments to
keep. While presumed to be for all          because one has been born of be-            a thousand generations."        In this
at the start, the covenant promise          lieving parents and baptized, he is         God will keep His church to the end.
may become a curse when all is done.        not to presume himself regenerated,             *++4+++*
    In both instances we seem to            nor to be an automatic recipient of             In the copy of this article sent to
have a kind of rhetorical positivism.       the promises. He must believe, turn         the Christian Renewal, we  offered
As Reformed believers the Liberat-          from sin, and follow in the way of          copies.of  our preceding articles on
ed know and acknowledge that ac-            Christ (Rom. 10:9). Nor is age a bar-       this subject. If there are any of our
cording to the confessions salvation        rier to this. David had faith from          readers who are sufficiently inter-
is all of God, and only for those of        his birth (Ps. 22:9,10); and John the       ested in this matter to desire them
his choice. In our world, orientated        Baptist responded to the presence           as we& ,we will send them upon re-
to Arminianism, this is not an ac-          of Jesus while they were both still in      q u e s t   [1355   Bretton  D r i v e ,
ceptable thing to tell children; and        the womb (Matt.  1:44);  while all          Kalamazoo, MI 490061.  0

                                                                                             November 15,1995lStandard  Beam91


                                           ious issues has been quoting                If these three unwritten promis-
n Lutherans on                             Lutherans who find great faults in        es were not committed to and kept,
Promise Keepers                            the movement. Not the least of these      why would Catholics, Mormons,
     Increasingly one hears of the         faults is its blatant Arminianism and     and Reorganized Mormons encour-
great meetings of the Promise Keep-        obvious ties to Pentecostalism. Some      age their men to participate?
ers. Huge gatherings of men, in 13         of the articles faulting this move-       Would they send their men to ral-
                                                                                     lies or meetings where their doc-
large stadiums, met in 1995. An es-        ment contain points that appear very      trines would be violated or their
timated 720,000 men attended. Five         serious indeed. In the issue of Oc-       men would be proselytized and sto-
years ago Bill McCartney, then head        tober 2, 1995, an article called,         len from their parishes, churches,
football coach for Colorado Univer-        "Promise Keepers Do Not Proclaim          and wards? Absolutely not! And,
sity at Boulder, with a friend,            the Gospel," states:              I       that is what we were told in speak-
dreamed of filling a sports stadium                                          /       ing to numerous Catholics, Mor-
with men gathered for Christian en-            The "gospel" message of Prom-         mons, and Reorganized Mormons,
couragement and fellowship. In               ise Keepers is not the Gospel mes-        The "gospel" message of the
1993 some 50,000 men filled Colo-            sage," says the-September-October       Promise Keepers is not the Gospel
                                                                                     message. The true Gospel 
rado's Folsom Stadium. Last year             PsychoHeresy Awareness Letter....                                    message
                                               Promise Keepers has been' en-         will, at times, off end and condemn.
over 275,000 men gathered at seven           dorsed and promoted by such lizad-      Furthermore, true biblical preach-
different locations. Next year the          ing evangelids as James Dobaon,          ing and teaching will speak of her-
dream is to expand much further              Charles Colson,  and  editors of        esies and aberrant teachings and
and even to become international.            Christianity Today.         Lutheran    will even name names, as the apos-
   : Many things could be written            Church - Missouri Synod District        tle Paul did. Imagine, if you will,
about the origin and goals of this          President Gerald Kieschnick is one       the apostle Paul having a "rally"
organization. The seven promises             of many church officials backing        and inviting the Scribes, Pharisees,
made by those attending these gath-         Promise Keepers.                         Essenes, Judaizers, and others.
eriiigs can likewise be carefully ex-          "Promise Keepers' 3 Unwritten         Then imagine Paul committing
                                            Promises," a story in the Septem-        himself to not violating their doc-
amined - and these appear at first          ber-October PsychoHeresy  Aware-         trines, not proselytizing them, and
glance to be worthy indeed. Who             ness Letter, says:                       then sending the men back to their
would be opposed to "apple pie"               During the past months'we have         "churches."
and "motherhood"? Who could op-             made numerous phone calls to               As we have said before, under-
pose the commitment of men, many            Catholic archdiocese offices, parish-    neath the hoop, holler and hype of
of whom had been negligent in the           es, pastors and priests. In addi-        the Promise Keepers movement is
past, to build better relationships         tion, we have  called several Mor-       an ecumenicalism that smacks of
with their wives and families? Who          mon (LDS) Temples, Wards and             the last days spoken of in .Scrip-
                                                                                     true, rather than what some have
could oppose the promise of men to          Stakes. And, we have contacted
                                            RLDS (Reorganized) Mormons.,             called the "greatest move of  Go"d
go back to their home church and              In the numerous phone calls; we        since the day of Pentecost." This
hug their pastors, pray for them, and       asked a variety of questions and         "move of God" is arguably the larg-
encourage them?                             were given prompt, clear, courte-        est (in terms of numbers) and
    Still, grave reservations are ex-       ous answers; It became evident to        broadest (in terms of denomina-
pressed by many who see in the              us that, in addition to the well-        tions) ecumenicalisxg  that the world
movement something sinister and             known Seven Promises of Promise          has ever seen. Promise Keepers
deceptive. Though men of all de-            Keepers, there are three unwritten       was and is a fatally flawed move-
nominations and many sects and              promises also being made and kept.       ment. It is psychologically flawed
                                                                                     through its continuing support of
cults have been attending including           The three unwritten promises, are
                                            just that - unwritten....                The Masculine Journey and its phal-
many from the Lutheran churches,              The three unwritten promises of        lic focmsed god. And, it is ecumen-
the Christian News, a paper pub-            Promise Keepers are very simply:         ically flawed through its three un-
lished by a Lutheran minister, in var-        1. Promise Keepers will not vio-       written promises.
                                            late your doctrines.                       The popularity of Promise Keep-
                                              2. Promise Keepers will not pros-      ers is leaping beyond the borders
                                            elytize your men.                        of America. It is going worldwide
Rev. VunBuren  is pastor of the Protes-       3. Promise Keepers will send           through Internet and through men
t&t Reformed Church of Lotielund,           men back to their parishes, church-      abroad who are hungry for the feel-
Colorado.                                   es, and  wards.                          good ecumenical, psychological

92lStandard Bearer/November 15,1995


  mishmash offered by Promise               men from so many different de-               with your wife. and children, if
  Keepers.                                  nominations getting together in `a           you're married. Or spend time
    How did this flawed Promise             united front?                                with your friends if you're not.
  Keepers movement expand from                A: The Promise Keeper move-                  But here's the important thing:
  zero to over 700,000 men this year        ment falsely claims it is genuinely          to become more holy, partake more
  in its regional meetings in such a        non-denominational. In point of              regularly of the holy things of God
  short period of time? How did it          fact, its top leaders are connected          - and come regularly to hear His
  leap from its hyper-charismatic,          with Vineyard Churches, a nation-            life-giving Word and to receive
  Vineyard beginnings to its current        al network of charismatic church-            Christ's life-giving Body and Blood..
  hodgepodge, which includes Cath-          es. PK's stance is distinctly anti-          Spend time and energy in orga-
  olics, Mormons,  hyper-charis-            doctrinal, anti-sacramental, and in-         nized study of the Word of God
  matics, and cults?                        volves many Pentecostal-type ex-             here in our church where you can
    One reason Promise Keepers is           cesses, such as repeated calls to the        be fed and nourished on solid food
  so popular is because there have          Spirit: "Holy spirit, fall on me!"           for genuine, lasting spiritual matu-
  been, over the years, so many pred-         By ignoring doctrinal differences          rity.
  ators appearing as angels of light        and central Scriptural truths, PK
  and preaching all-embracing mes-          seeks to unite Christian men under             If the above evaluation made by
  sages governed by the same three          the banner of lowest common de-            Lutherans of the PK movement is
  unwritten promises of Promise             nominator experiential religion:           correct, and there appears no rea-
  Keepers. The sheep have heard             love of Jesus and being born in the        son to contradict it, then this move-
  these .aberrant  and heretical mes-       Spirit. Spiritual cheers ("I love
  sages for so long that the broad way      Jesus, yes I do; I love Jesus, how         ment does  ind.eed represent one
  looks like the narrow gate to them.       about you?") from thousands of             more attempt to seduce children of
                                            emotionally charged men in the             God from the sound and solid doc-
    The  Christian News,  September         stand are identified as, spiritual ex-     trines of the Word of God to adopt
25, 1995, has an article written by         periences and genuine worship,             rather the pseudo-doctrines of the
Pastor Harold Senkbeil of the Elm           prompting one eye witness to label         Pentecostal movement. The "Vine-
Grove Lutheran Church in Elm                PK gatherings "techno-tent reviv-          yard" movement and the PK move-
Grove, Wisconsin. In the article he         als."                                      ment are clearly intertwined. The
                                              Q:' I've had a friend invite me to
answers various important ques-             an .upcoming  PK conference; what          goal of seeking to unite all manner
tions. .I quote a few of these.             should I do?                               of denominations, and even Mor-
                                              A: Tell him "thanks, but no              mons, represents what appears to be
    Q: Isn't it great to see Christian      thanks." Put your time and mon-            the beginning of the anti-christian
                                            ey to better use. Plan an outing           church of the end-time. 0





Sumnioning  Up Remembrance, by            tant Reformed, including the ball-           was always very much in the mind
Henry Stob. Grand Rapids, MI:             playing Veldmans in Chicago. With            of the CRC, little as it was disposed
Eerdmans, 1995. 354 pp. $15 (pa-          reference to Mr. and Mrs. Harm               to discuss the issue with Herman
per). [Reviewed by the editor.]           Pastoor, with whom Stob lived dur-           Hoeksema and the Protestant Re-
                                          ing his freshman year at Calvin Col-         formed Churches (PRC).
   `There are several reasons why         lege; Stob writes, "The Pastoors were            In a debate on common grace
readers of this magazine will want        followers of Herman Hoeksema and             with Dr. William Masselink before a
to read Henry Stob's autobiography.       members of the Protestant Reformed           full house on the campus of Calvin
It traces the development of an in-       Church, and I did not join them at           Seminary, Dr. Cornelius Van Til de-
fluential college and seminary pro-       worship on Sundays" (p. 85).            '    clared that if the Christian Reformed
fessor in the Christian Reformed              As this quotation manifests,             doctrine of common grace prevailed
Church (CRC). It offers a fascinat-       Stob's graceful+, lucid writing style        at Calvin, "one might as well blow
ing, insider's view of persons,           is characterized also by understate-         up the (Calvin College) science
events, and struggles in the CRC          ment.                                        building with an atom bomb." Stob
from some time after 1908, when               Although a life, not a theology,         remarks, in what must be the su-
Stob was born, to 1952, when the          the book necessarily, and deliberate-        preme instance of understatement in
book ends. It is an interesting ac-       ly, opens up to the reader intriguing        the book, that "this injudicious and
count of Dutch Reformed life in so-       and important doctrinal develop-             provocative remark did not sit well
ciety and church. There are refer-        ments in the CRC during this peri-           with many of us" (p. 318). This was
ences to people and things  Protes-       od. The doctrine of common grace             the science building from which has

                                                                                            November 15,l99Wtandard  Beam1193


come Howard Van Till's The Fourth        dismissal of four professors.' Two             Formula of Subscription while refus-
Day; the report of the "Committee        of the four insisted that the real is-         ing to be bound to the doctrines set
on Creation and Science" adopted         sues were doctrinal, including fidel-          forth in the creeds ("... considered
by the Christian Reformed synod of       ity to Scripture ,and the Reformed             that we were not bound by expres-
1991; and Davis A. Young's The Bib-      confessions and the doctrine of                sions formulated in the heat of six-
lical Flood.                             God's immutability.                 :          teenth-century battles," p. 297). He
    Rev. H. J. Kuiper, foe of the PRC             Hardly less significant than the      rejects the creedal  doctrine of God's
that he was, acknowledged in a pe-       developments in his church is the              immutability for "an accommodat-
tition to the Christian Reformed syn-    insight Stob gives us into his own             ing mobility that is a feature of all
od in 1952 that some professors at       theological thinking. For the think-           God's engagements with a world in
Calvin College ystress  common           ing of Henry Stob fairly represents            process" (p. 330).
grace far more than the antithesis"      the thinking of the intelhgentsia  in              Anyone with any interest in the
and that "there is no pronounced         the CRC that now commands that                 Dutch Reformed, Calvin College, the
spiritual atmosphere in our college"     church. Already in his college days,           CRC, and Henry Stob will find it
(p. 319).                                he had learned to be open to evolu-            hard to put this book down.
    Stob gives the fullest account of    tionary theory and closed to the in-               It is hoped that the author will
the struggle at Calvin Seminary in       fallibility of Scripture (p. 117). In          finish the story of his life by a "de-
1952 that I have ever seen (pp. 320-     seminary, he came to doubt the doc-            tailed account" of the 30-year  stay
338). This struggle resulted in the      trines of reprobation and limited              at Calvin Seminary that followed. 0
                                         atonement (p. 130). He signed the




                                         mit until the entire project has been          chasing property where they hope,
Congregational Activities                completed.                                     the Lord willing, to build a church
    We begin this issue of the                    As of this "News report" no date      building - a goal that they have
"News" with an update of the             had been set for dedication, ,but it           longed for for some time now. And
progress of the building project of      was suggested that a possible date             a family is moving to Northern Ire-
the Peace PRC in Lynwood, IL.            could be November 11. On that date             land from the Republic of Ireland
    In mid-October it appeared very      Peace celebrates its seventh anniver-          (the south) to be part of the CRF.
likely that the first worship service    sary as a congregation in the, PRC,                Rev. Moore, pastor of the Hull,
in Peace's newly completed build-        and it would seem that that would              IA PRC, showed his pictures on Gha-
ing would take place the 29th of Oc-     be a fitting conclusion to this page           na on behalf of the Foreign Mission
tober.                                   in the history of Peace.            :          Committee of our churches the night
    In the weeks leading up to that               Perhaps in the not-too-distant fu-    before the last meeting of  Classis
first service, the congregation of       ture Peace will also be look@ at a             West, September 20, at our South
Peace was also actively involved in      relocation of their parsonage.' Their          Holland, IL PRC.
their church building project by re-     church building is in Lansing and
peatedly volunteering to help tie up     their parsonage is about sixmiles              School Activities
the many loose ends that accompa-        away in Lynwood. It is very likely                 The first PTA of this school year
ny any building project of that size.    that Peace will sell its present par-          was recently held at the Hope PR
Through their efforts the parking lot    sonage and build a new one on their            Christian School in Walker, MI. Rev.
was excavated, the entire property       church property. This could hap-               R. Cammenga spoke on the topic
was landscaped, and some interior        pen in the coming year. Time will              "The Moral Environment of the
work was done.                           tell.                                          Christian School."
    All this had to be done before                                                          If you are looking for a unique
Peace could hold their first church      Mission Activities                             family gift, one that the whole fami-
service because the village of Lan-               Many of our readers receive           ly can benefit from, let us suggest
sing, where the building is located,     through their congregation, regular            the book, The Farbers, by Gertrude
would not issue an occupancy per-        news updates from our denomina-                Hoeksema. This book is a collection
                                         tion's missionary to Northern Ire-             of 101 stories about a fictional Chris-
                                         land, Rev. R. Hanko, so we apolo-              tian family's everyday experiences.
Mr. Wigger is a member of the'protes-    gize if this is old news to you. It            Children and adults alike can enjoy
tant Reformed Church of Hudsonville,     now appears that the Covenant Re-              these sometimes amusing, some-
Michigan.                                formed Fellowship is close to pur-             times thought-provoking, and al-

94/Standard  Bearer/November 15,1995


ways entertaining and instructional             Minister Activities                      Classis West planned a special classis
stories.                                            In late September, Rev. B.           for this month to examine him for
      This book is published by the             Woudenberg, pastor of the                admittance into the ministry of the
Fundraisers of our Heritage Chris-              Kalamazoo, MI PRC, went to Ann           Word and sacraments.
tian School in Hudsonville, MI. It              Arbor, MI for an operation to re-             Rev. R. Dykstra, pastor of the
can be.ordered  for $12.95 plus post-           move scar tissue from the inside of      Doon, IA PRC, has accepted the call
age. Questions? Call (616) 669-2835             his left eye. He returned home the       he had been considering from the
or write them at 4702 40th Ave.,                following day and is doing well,, al-    Hope PRC in Walker,. MI.
Hudsonville, MI 49426. Or, if you               though the results will not be known          Rev. W. Bruinsma, of the First
live in the Hudsonville area, you can           for several months.                      PRC in Holland, MI, declined the
pick up a copy at the Reformed Book                 We are also happy to report that     call he had been extended from the
Outlet, 3505 Kelly St., Hudsonville,            Rev. George Lubbers, emeritus min-       Grace PRC in Standale, MI.
MI                                              ister in our churches, continues to           Pastor-elect Douglas Kuiper ac-
                                                make a good recovery following a         cepted the call extended to him from
Seminary Activities                             heart attack Medication has had          Byron Center PRC.
      Prof. H; Hanko began teaching             good results, although he still feels
a Bible Study in early September at             the infirmities of his 86 years. Con-
the Hope PRC in Walker, MI.                     tinued recovery also enabled Rev.
      October 11 marked the begin-              Lubbers to witness the baptism of a           "It is the hardest thing in the
ning of a class for the study of the            great-grandson in late October.          world to take Christ alone for our
Belgic. Confession, led by Prof. D.                 Candidate Allen Brummel has          righteousness. Join any thing to Him
Engelsma, at the Faith PRC in                   accepted the call extended to him        of your own, and you unchrist Him."
Jenison, MI.                                    from the Edgerton, MN PRC.                                         -wiIcox   0




         IN LOVING MEMORY                         RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
      On October 7, 1995, it pleased                The Adult Bible Study of South-        RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
our heavenly Father to call unto                west PRC expresses Christian sym-            The Council of Southwest Prot-
Himself our beloved husband, father,            pathy to our leader, Rev. R.             estant Reformed Church expresses
and grandfather,                                Cammenga, and his wife Rhonda,           sincere sympathy to fellow members
      WILLIAM E. CORSON,                        in the loss of her father,               and to their families:
at the age of 70 years.                             MR. CHARLES DE JONG.                     Rev. and Mrs. Cammenga and
      To know that we belong to our                 May we rejoice together in the       their family in the loss of a father
faithful Savior Jesus Christ, in life           words of I John 3:2: "Beloved, now       and grandfather,
and in death, was his testimony of              are we the sons of God, and it doth           MR. CHARLES DE JONG.
trust even in difficult times. This             not yet appear what we shall be:
confession is our comfort and will              but we know that, when he &all               Elder Darrel Huisken and his
be our strength for the days which              appear, we shall be like him: for        family in the loss of a sister,
lie ahead.                                      we shall see him as he is."                    MISS BETH HUISKEN.
      "Let not your heart be troubled:                 Steve Kuiper, Vice-President
ye believe in God, believe also in                         Lisa Langerak, Secretary          Elder Kenneth  Schipper and
me. in my Father's house are many                                                        Deacon Steven Kuiper and their
mansions:' If it were not so I would                                                     families in the loss of a father and
have told you. I go to prepare a                                                         grandfather,
place for you" (John 14:1, 2).                         T E A C H E R   NEEDEDI                   MR. ALFRED POLL.
      Mrs. Florence Corson                         The Protestant Reformed Chris-
      Ron and Linda Corson                      tian School of South Holland will            May they find comfort in these
      Melissa, Chad, Rhonda,                    need a teacher for the seventh           words: "Wait on the Lord: be of
                        and AnnaMarie           grade during the second semester         good courage, and he shall strength-
      Randy and Cheryl Corson                   of the 1995-l 996 school year. Per-      en thine heart: Wait I say on the
       Jason and Steven                         sons interested in this  opening         Lord" (Psalm 27:14).
      Rick and Sharon Corson                    should apply in writing or call the        William DeKraker, Vice-President
       Kyle and Kody                            administrator, Lamm Lubbers, at                              Clare Kuiper, Clerk
                      Grand Rapids, Michigan    (708) 333-9197.

                                                                                             November 15,1995/Standard  Bear61195


                                                                                                                SECONDCLASS
                                                                                                                Postage Paid at
                                                                                                                Grandville, Michigan
 P.O. Box 603
   Grandville, MI 49466.0603


-RESOi4TION OF SYMPATHY                             RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHV                     RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
 `The Senior Mr. and Mrs. Soci-                    The Mary-Martha Society of Hope PR            The Senior Mr. and Mrs. Soci-
ety of Southwest PR  Church ex-               Church of Redlands, CA expresses its           ety of Southwest PR Church ex-
presses Christian sympathy to its             heartfelt sympathy to Estella VanUffelen,      presses its heartfelt sympathy to
fellow members, Mr. and Mrs. Darrell          Beth VanUffelen, Chris McClaury  and fam-      Rev. Ron and Rhonda Cammenga
Huisken, in the death of his sister,          ilies in the death of their mother, `grand-    and children in the death of their
            .BETH HUISKEN:                    mother, and great-grandmother,                 father and grandfather,
   ."For I reckon that the sufferings                      EFFIE  K R I K K E .                   MR. CHARLES DE JONG.
of this present time tire not worthy               `Precious in the sight of the Lord is         "Let not your heart be troubled:
to be compared with the glory which           the death of his saints" (Psalm I 16:15).      ye believe in God, believe also in
shall be revealed in us" (Romans                        Pastor Arie denHartog, President     me. In my Father's house are many
8:i 8).                                                 Audrey Vanifoorthuysen,  Vice-all    mansions: if it were not so, I would
           Rod Kreuzer, Vice-President                                                       have told you. I god to prepare a
             Marie DeYoung, Secretary                                                        place for you; And if I go and pre-
                                                                                             pare a place for you, I will come
  RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                           RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                    again, and receive you unto myself;
     The Jr. Adult Bible Study Group              The Adult Bible Society of Peace Prot-     that where I am, there ye may be
of First PRC expresses sincere sym-           estant Reformed Church in Lansing,. IL ex-     also" (John 14:1-3).
pathy to fellow members Randy and             presses their sincere sympthy to' Ernie                  Darrell Huisken, President
Cheryl Corson and Rick and Sharon             Medema and family in the sudden loss of                  Marie DeYoung, Secretary
Corson in ihe loss of their father,           their wife, mother, and grandmother,,
      MR. WILLIAM CORSON.                                 G R A C E   M E D E M A .
     May they find comfort in the                 May they find comfort in the words of                     NOTICE!!
words of Revelation 21:4: "And God           Jesus in John 14:2-3: "In my Father's               Classis  East will meet in regu-
shall wipe away all tears from their         house are many mansions; if it w&e not          lar session on Wednesday, January
eyes; and there shall be no more             so, I would have told you. I go to prepare      10, 1996, at the Southeast Protes-
death, neither sorrow, nor crying,           a place for you. And if I go and prepare a      tant Reformed Church, Grand Rap-
neither shall there be any more pain:        place for you, I will come again, and re-       ids, Ml. Material for this session
for the former things are passed             ceive you unto myself; that where `I am,        must be in the hands of the Stated
away."                                       there ye may be also."                          Clerk bv December 13.1995.
           Rev. J. Slopsema, President                              Rev. S. Houck,, Pres.                            Jon J. H&ken
            Pam VanPutten,  Secretary                            Barbara Poortinga, Sec.                                Stated Clerk

                                        Conference on Reformed Church Government
                                                         Tapes available

                                              The Biblical Basis of Reformed
   In September the Seminary                      Church Government,
  sponsored a Conference on Re-                             by Prof. Robert Decker;              The prices (which include
  formed Church Government. The               The Autonomy of the                            postage) are $3.00 for each of the
  four speeches, given by the fac-                Local Church,                              audio cassettes and $6.00 for
  ulty of the Seminary and Dr.                             by Prof. Herman Hanko;            each of the video cassettes.
  Morton Smith (professor of  Bibli-         The Hodge-Thornwell Debate                          They may be ordered by con-
  cal and Systematic Theology in                  Over Church Polity                         tatting the
  Greenville ,Presbyterian Theologi-              in the 18OOs,                               Protestant Reformed Seminary
  cal Seminary in Greenville, South                             by Dr. Morton Smith;                4949 lvanrest Ave.
  Carolina), are available on audio          The Authority of the                                  Grandville, Ml 49418
  cassette and VHS video cassette.                Major Assemblies,                            (Telephone: 616-531-l 490).
  The four lectures were:                                 by Prof. David Engelsma.

96lStandard  Bearer/November 15,199s


