A Reformed
   Y     .,         BEARER
Semi-Monfhly
Magazine
                    I





                         1  -.                 effective and fruitful pastoral
                                         .`
                                          .

                         /               work of the officebearers can take
                         I               place amon!g the people of GocC
                         Ii  _           only `in that congregation where
                         I/t             the minister is faithfully preach-
                         /               ing the Word. Preaching is not
                         1i;             only itself pastoral, it creates the
                         I               spiritual environment in which
                         /F  .`.         fruitful pastoral work can be done
                         j :
                         j-              by the officebbearers.
                         "--.---.--II

                                               See "Shephlerding the Flock of God" - p. 105



                                                           ,
                                         ,"`
                                               j     ."    ;-
Vol. 72, No. 5
December I, 1995


     CONTENTS:                                                                                          December   1,  1995
L                                                                                                                                                         1



Meditation - Rev. Charles J. Terpstra
       "Faithful Promise Keepers" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99    ISSN 0362-4692
Editorial - Prof. David J. Engelsma
       New "Radio Voice" of the PRC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..~.......~............. 101                                        Seml.mmthly,  except monthty  during Juw, July. and Auguti.
Letters *...................................................................                            . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..*.***........... 103      PutAbt6-J by the Re.tonned  Free Pubtlshlng  AwxMicn, Inc.,
                                                                                                                                                                4!446  lvmrwt  Av8.,  Qrandvllls, MI 42416.  Bemnd  CbM
Ministering to the Saints  - Prof. Robert D. Decker                                                                                                             poetage P&t at Grandvilb,  Michigan.
       Shepherding the Flock of God ..,.................................................. 105                                                                   Poatmutor  Bend arkimw  chmgw to the Standard Sear%
When Thou Sittest  in Thine House - Mrs. MaryBeth  Lubbers                                                                                                      P.O. Bon t&3, Qrandvilb,  MI 4g4SWXN.
       The Reformed Family: Voices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107              EDlTORW  COMMllTEE
                                                                                                                                                                Editor: Pmt. David J. Eng&ma
A Cloud of Witnesses - Prof. Herman C. Hanko                                                                                                                    Becfetaiy: Prof. Robert D. De&r
       Oliver Cromwell: Lord Protector (2) . . . . . ..*...*...a........*................... 108                                                                Managkig Editor: Mr. Don Doezema
Day of Shadows - Homer C. Hoeksema                                                                                                                              DEPARTMENT EDITORS
       Paradise the First (1) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..~..................... 110            Rsv. Wilbur Bruhm~ Rev. RonM  Cammmga, Prof. Robcwt
                                                                                                                                                                Decker,~Rw.  Ark denHartog, Rev. Carl Hank, Prof. Hsrman
All Around Us - Rev. Gise J. VanSaren . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113                   Hanko, +I. Ronald Hanko, Rev. Jason Korbrtng, Rev. Date
Go Ye Into All the World - Rev. Jason L. Kortering                                                                                                              Kulper,  Mr. Jamw  Lanthg,  Mm.  MaryBeth Lubber& Rev.
                                                                                                                                                                Thomas Mlsrsm& Rev. Qise VanSarm. Rev. Ronald
       Mission Labors of the E.l?.C.S. (1) .,..*.,,,.,,,,,..........,........*............                                                          115
Book Reviews ,,.,.,........,..,,.....,..,.....,*...............,,,,,,..........*...,.,................                                              117         EOlTORtAL OFFICE            CHURCH NEWS EDITOR
News From Our Churches - Mr. Benjamin Wigger . . . . . . . ..*..***........*....... 119                                                                         The Standard Bearer         Mr. Bm Wager
                                                                                                                                                                4946 lvmrwt                 8597  40thAv.s
                                                                                                                                                                GrandvHl8,   Ml 46416       Hudmnvllb,  MI 40426

                                                                                                                                                                BUSINESS OFFICE             NEW ZSAIAND OFFICE
     hei  7=T&B  k@  I'nn                                                                                                                                                                   The Standard Bearer
                                                                                                                                                                2s-YA-r                     c/o B. VanHerk
                                                                                                                                                                P.O. Box 603                66 Fraser St
                                                                                                                                                                Qrandvllb.  MI              Walmhmata,  NW Zealand

       A lively, wide-ranging issue of the  Standard Bearer  in which the magazine                                                                              P#:  181&  531-1490         UNtlED KtNQDOY  OFFICE
shows itself, like the men of Issachar, to have understanding of the time, methinks.                                                                                     `(616) 538.1778    c/o Mr. Jonathan McAuby
                                                                                                                                                                FAX:  (6W)  531-3033        164 Church Rd.. olsnwherqr
       So many articles might be mentioned that, under the rigid constraints of this                                                                                                        Battymew,  Co. Antrim Bl4g BEL
space, I must be arbitrarily selective.                                                                                                                                                     Norltmm lmbnd
                                                                                                                                                                EDrroRlMPDLtoY
       H.C. Hoeksema's defense of the historicity of Genesis 2 and 3 is timely, treat-                                                                          Evcryeditorb~y~bletwMecontarbofhbOwn
ing one of the most critically important issues in the sphere of Reformed Christiani-                                                                           artide8,C.ontributkwdgm8ralint8rwlfmmwrmad8nand
                                                                                                                                                                qw8tkn8forTh8RwdarA8bdqmbnmtarew8kome.
ty in our day (see "Day of Shadows"). In one respect, Hoeksema's article is dated.                                                                              Contributkw  witA b8 Ilmlt8d  to amfoxlmataty  300 wwds  and
In the 1960s and 197Os,  he could teach that "even in the so-called Reformed tradi-
tion it is not uncommon today that men maintain that the entire first eleven chap                                                                               dwd&  aii  th8  ltmt-and   Rttaenth  ol the  &nth.
                                                                                                                                                                commu+aUonsmbltvetothacontHltrahoutdbaaanttothn
ters of the Book of Genesis must not be literally understood at all." In 1995, we                                                                               6dnortal  onka.
must flatly assert that denial of the historicity of Genesis l-`I1 in Reformed churches
is common, if it is not, indeed, the prevailing position.                                                                                                       REPRINT POW3
                                                                                                                                                                Pennlsrlonbherebygrantedforthe~~gofartlck#,inour
       Rev. Gise  VanBaren  informs us that the worldly wave of feminism has now                                                                                magaz!&byott~puWatknr,pro&Md:a)thatauchreprinted
submerged the Christian Reformed Church and that already the edge of the next                                                                                   artk+aaamnpmduwdinfull:b)thatpropef~owkdgment
                                                                                                                                                                *mada;c)thatampyofthepeMdidhwhkhauchreprint
wave, homosexuality, is flooding that church (see "All Around Us").                                                                                             appear8 b wnt to our editorbl  offiw.
       Prof. Herman Hank0  reviews a book that holds special interest for the Protes-
tant Reformed Churches (PRC) inasmuch as this denomination practices exclusive                                                                                  SUBSCRIPTION POUCY
                                                                                                                                                                Bub8crlpuorl  price: $17.00 par yur kl the U.S., uss2o.00
psalmody, but that is of interest as well for all who esteem the singing of the                                                                                 ebew+wb. Unbu a defintb  rqwst for dbcontiwanca  b
Psalms. Intriguing is the author's claim that the "strongest argument for exclusive                                                                             rrwiv+, it b auumed that the subscriber wishes the
                                                                                                                                                                wJb8criptkrltocontiwe,Mdh8wNb8bN8dforrm8wat.  tfyw
psalmody is the one that inevitably wells up from within when a sincere Christian                                                                               hIlV8WAMpd-,pkuillOtifyth8BWlWWDffkOM
begins to sing the psalms with grace in his heart" (see the review of I;he Songs of                                                                             oadyu,posrlbbInordartoavo!dtheincmvmbnwof
Zion).                                                                                                                                                          intmupbd  d8lhwy. tndud8  ywr Zip or Postal code.
       Rev. Jason Kortering gives a compelling account of the mission labors of the                                                                             ADVEfltlBlNQ POLICY
Evangelical Reformed Churches of Singapore  (ARCS),  labors in which he has an                                                                                  Th8t3tqdadBsuudownataoc8pt mrnm8rcbl adv8rlbln?J
                                                                                                                                                                of my kind. All-OfOhUrchMd8ChOOlW~b.
active part. Through their minister-on-loan, the PRC are privileged to be involved.                                                                             arm-. obitwlw, and sympathy msolulionr  wAI be
That God is opening doors to the ERCS, sister churches to the PRC, and thus to the                                                                              pbwdfora$10.oofw.  Thme8houldbe8mttotheBWklea8
Reformed faith, is exciting and challenging. Kortering closes with, "The fields                                                                                 oflb3Md8hcliklb8acaMpWWbyttW$10.00foe. DwMne
                                                                                                                                                                fwnnounwmentsbatbaatmsmonthpriwtopubltattm
continue white unto harvest. Pray the Lord of the harvest that He may send forth                                                                                date.
reapers" (see "Mission Labors of the E;R.C.S.").                                                                                                                BOUND VOWYES
       Seldom is an announcement pointed out in this space. This will be the excep-                                                                             Th8Bwinw8omwwNacwpt8tMdi~crd8mforbound
tion. We at the SB congratulate Prof. Robert Decker on 30 years of ministry in the                                                                              copiwofttwwnmtvduma.  !Sud1ofdw8ueRHed~monas
service of the Lord Jesus in the PRC. During this time, he has also been a reliable,                                                                            poul~:aft8rompbtkn  davoJum8ywr.
productive writer for the SB. God give him many more years!                                                                                                     l~m~adilm,3SmmmicmMmmd105mmmlcmtl~,and
                                                                                                                                                -DJE            utkb  mpb8 am  avaltabb   lhrough  Lhlv8mity   MkrMlm8
                                                                                                                                                                I-.

913/Sfandard  Bearer  /December 1,1!295


         "Faithful Promise Keepers"
                                                                                                                                I

     "When thou shalt vow a vow unto          ple to keep the promises they made        we make to God in the course of
th LORD thy God, thou shalt not slack         and to perform the vows they ut-          our lifetime. While we all have cov-
to pay it: for the LORD thy God will          tered. And though the PK move-            enant duties which are specifically
surely require it of thee; and it would be    ment has no doubt served to call at-      commanded by God and mandato-
sin in thee. But if thou shalt forbear to     tention to a serious sin in our soci-     ry, we also have special voluntary
vow, it shall be no sin in thee. That         ety and churches, yet it is not hasti-    promises we make in our lives: the
which is gone out of thy lips thou shalt      ly-made vows or repeated emotion-         baptism vow we take as parents; the
keep and perform; even a freewill of&-        ally-charged meetings which will cre-     promise we make when we make
ing, according as thou hast vowed unto        ate and preserve faithful promise         confession of faith; the vow of mar-
the  LORD  thy God, which thou hast           keepers in the church and kingdom         riage; the promise ministers and of-
promised with thy mouth."                     of God. Only the grace of God             fice bearers make when they take of-
                   Deuteronomy 23:21-23       working through the Word and Spir-        fice. We may make special promis-
                                              it of Christ, grounding us thorough-      es to fast or pray, or to give money
     Promise breakers. Vows unkept.           ly in the knowledge of the truth of       to a certain cause ("pledges"). All
Words spoken but left undone. Un-             God's covenant ways, equipping us         of these involve required duties when
faithful husbands and wives. Dis-             with the spiritual image of the faith-    God by His providence and grace
honest fathers and mothers. Treach-           ful God, and calling us to live out of    calls us to be married, to be parents,
erous officebearers. Disloyal church          the covenant salvation God has giv-       to join the church, to serve in the
members. How much of this we wit-             en us in His Son, is able to do this.     special offices of the church. But they
ness in our present time!                     Of this our passage speaks.               are also voluntary  promises. They
     Shattered marriages, homes, and                                                    are not forced on us or from us; free-
lives. Ruined churches, tainted of-           The calling                               ly we speak out of our hearts and
fices, wounded souls. How much of                 Called to keep the freewill prom-     with our mouths.
this we witness as a consequence of           ises we have made in the covenant             Covenantal vows  are these also,
such promise breaking! No wonder              of grace! Such is the import of this      rooted in God's covenant grace to
the Word of God speaks so sharply             passage. The word for "vow" here          us in Christ! Not some  Arminian
to the necessity of keeping one's             signifies a voluntary promise made        response of salvation by our works,
vows!                                         to God to do something special or         rooted in the idea that we can make
     Faithful promise keepers! Peo-           to give something special beyond          agreements with God and do some-
ple who perform the vows they                 what was ordinarily required. Such        thing wonderful for Him. Of the
make to the Lord! Men and women               vows were not mandatory, but vol-         many examples of vows in Scripture,
of integrity and commitment, who              untary, as verses 22,23 indicate. In      most were made out of gratitude for
mean what they say, and who keep              addition to his and her regular du-       some special act of God's covenant
what they say! Such is what Jeho-             ties in the covenant, the children of     mercy and deliverance. Hannah's
vah would have us be and do, ac-              God could also pledge themselves          vow, for example, was an act of
cording to this passage!                      to do a special act or to give a spe-     gratitude to God for the gift of
    Long before the popular                   cial gift, something God had not spe-     Samuel in answer to her prayer (cf.
parachurch movement known as                  cifically demanded. Such vows             also Ps. 6613, 14; 116). And, in re-
"Promise Keepers" (PK) came on the            could take the form of a special of-      ality, such is also the nature of the
scene, God called His covenant peo-           fering (Lev. 27), becoming a Nazarite     special promises we make in life.
                                              (Num. 6; cf. Hannah, I Sam. l), giv-      Out of gratitude for the gift of a cov-
                                              ing possessions (cf. Jacob, Gen. 2&20-    enant child, we promise to rear him/
Rev. Terpstra is pastor of  the Protes-       22), fasting, and marriage (Num. 30).     her for the Lord. Out of gratitude
tant Reformed Church of South Hol-                For us New Testament believers        for a God-fearing mate in the cove-
land, Illinois.                               too there are special voluntary vows      nant of marriage, we promise to live
                                                                                              Bt3cember  1,199Slstandard  Bearen


faithfully with him/her. Out of                Faithfulness to our promises -        be no hesitation, no interruption, no
thankfulness for being called into the     that is what the Lord calls us to!        putting off the performance of our
covenant and church of Christ, we          Because He is the faithful Promise        promise; we must perform it today
vow to live properly in her. Our           Keeper! He has never broken any           and every day. Have you forgotten
vows are covenantal responses to           word He has spoken; He has never          this? Have you become spiritually
God's grace.                               violated any oath He has made.            lazy `with regard to any covenant
     As such, these vows speak of the      Whatever He has promised to do,           promise you have made? Do not be
essence of our calling in God's cov-       He has done and will yet do. There-       slack! Pay it today and always! The
enant - to be consecrated to the Lord      fore, as His children, be like Him,       Lord requires the prompt payment
of our salvation with all we are and       walk like Him in the covenant, and        of our vows.
all we have! According to this pas-        be faithful promise keepers. As hus-          Third, we are called to pay our
sage, when we make a vow, we do            bands and wives, as parents, as           vows willingly. Our vows are "free-
so to Jehovah as our personal God.         members of the church, as                 will" offerings (v. 23); they were
We are assuming our part conscious-        officebearers, keep and perform your      made without compulsion and they
ly in the covenant; we are saying          vows!                                     must be paid without compulsion!
that we understand and willingly ac-                                                 They were made freely and they
cept the calling to live our whole         The manner                                must be paid freely! Our vow to
life to the God who has sovereignly            Equally important according to        live faithfully in the church, uphold-
taken us into a relationship of friend-    this text is how we pay our vows.         ing the truth, loving the saints, sub-
ship and fellowship. A living sacri-       First, verse 22 contains an important     mitting to the elders must not be car-
fice of devotion to the God of the         implication: make your vows  care-        ried out grudgingly, as a burden, but
covenant - that is the meaning of          fully and not hastily. These vows         from a willing heart! Our promise
our vows!                                  are voluntary; they do not have to        to serve the church as a pastor, el-
     "Keep these promises! Pay these       be made. One can "forbear," i.e.,         der, or deacon must not be done out
vows! Perform what is gone out of          stop before he actually promises.         of a spirit of dread or drudgery, but
your lips!" says our Lord. Because         And the implication is, enter into        with willing joy and delight! Have
these vows are real promises to do         your vows knowing what you are            you neglected to pay your vows this
something or to give something to          doing. Do not make a vow quickly          way? Remember the free grace of
God, they must be carried out! Be-         and rashly. Do not be prompted by         God toward you.1 Remember the
cause we pledge by the words of            mere emotions, by peer pressure or        voluntary sacrifice of Christ for you!
our mouth and by the sincerity of          parental pressure, so that you speak          And fourth, our vows must be
our hearts that we will devote our-        insincerely, with "tongue in cheek"       paid &actZy as we have promised.
selves to God and His covenant, we         (cf. Eccl. 5:2-6). That's a warning       That is taught us in the words "pay"
must fulfill our vows! We make our         that must be heeded with regard to        and "keep and perform." The plain
vows to the  Lord, remember. Noth-         the seven promises of the PK move-        meaning is paid fully, kept and per-
ing light and trivial about these          ment too. Once you make a vow,            formed completely, just as we said
promises. Therefore, be promise            you are bound to keep it. You must        with our mouths. There must be no
keepers and do what you< have said         make sure it is a lawful vow, true to     changing of the vow afterward, no
you will do! That is our calling. Do       God's Word and without compro-            coming short of what we have prom-
not refuse to fulfill your vows or fail    mise to your life. in the covenant;       ised, no half-way fulfiBment  of our
in any way to do what you have             you must make sure you are com-           words.  All  that we have said we
promised! Do not be unfaithful to          mitted to keeping it. Make your           will do, we must do.
your words and be promise break-           vows with great spiritual care, with          How that needs to be stressed!
ers! That "would be sin in thee"!          spiritual understanding and readi-        It is so easy to fall short on our
     And how this sin pervades our         ness.                                     promises and be content with not
age! We are living in a time when              Second, this text also speaks of      doing everything we've vowed. For
promises don't mean much. The              paying our vows promptly. "Thou           example, we promise to remain
vows people take when they marry,          shalt not slack to pay it" means that     faithful to our spouse in marriage,
or have their children baptized, or        there must be no delay in fulfilling      and so we never commit adultery
make confession of faith, or hold of-      our promises to God. If we vow to         with another party. But if we are
fice in the church, are taken lightly      love and cherish our wife, or to love     simply co-existing in the home, ig-
and thus quickly forgotten and left        and submit to our husband, we must        noring each other or constantly fight-
undone, or blatantly broken. And           set ourselves to doing it immediate-      ing, and are not practicing biblical
what excuses people have! But God          ly, not tomorrow, or next month, or       love and reconciliation, we are not
says this is sin, plain and simple.        next year, but right now. If we vow       paying our full vow of faithfulness.
Breaking vows must not be done,            to train up our children in the Lord's        Or how about our baptism vow?
period.                                    truth and righteousness, there must       We promised to bring up our chil-

1 OOIStandard  Bearer /Decem bar 1,1995


dren in accordance with the truths                  and before the God who is our Wit-       serious because it is an affront to
we believe and the practices we                     ness, knowing our hearts, hearing        God Himself. It is cheating Him,
maintain to the best of our ability.                our every word, remembering all          robbing Him of what we said we
But when it comes to school educa-                  that we've promised! To and be-          would give Him. It is an attack on
tion - even Christian school educa-                 fore the God who is our Judge, hold-     His holy name, since we promise by
tion - we are content with some-                    ing us accountable for what we           His name and on His name. It is a
thing less than full faithfulness to the            vowed, rewarding and blessing us         slighting of His covenant and grace,
Scriptures and the Reformed faith.                  if we keep them, but punishing us if     since it shows that we count His
We allow our children to remain in                  we do not.                               faithfulness to His Word and His
an environment detrimental to their                     When you make a vow, "the            promises in Christ to be a little thing.
faith and life. We must mean what                   LORD thy God will surely require it."        The breaking of our vows, there-
we say, and we must perform our                     He will seek after it with care. Re-     fore, brings a heavy penalty. If we
vow fully! Let there be on our part                 lentlessly the Lord will remind us       do not repent of our unfaithfulness,
a concerted effort to give the Lord                 what we owe Him and call us to           but continue deliberately in not keep-
our all as we have promised Him.                    pay Him fully. And He does too,          ing our promises, God will deal with
Let. us not rest until we are sure we               by His Word and Spirit. And if we        us most severely. Ultimately He will
are paying our vow completely!                      do not keep our promises, He tells       make us hear His unchangeable
                                                    us we have sinned: "It is sin in         word of condemnation. Let that
The seriousness                                     thee," He says. He tells us we've        drive us to our knees to seek His
       Serious is this calling to be faith-         missed the mark of complete pay-         forgiveness and His grace. Let that
ful promise keepers! For we do not                  ment; we've failed to give Him all.      spur us on to faithfulness as prom-
make these vows simply to and be-                   He tells us we are guilty.               ise keepers - for Christ's sake and
fore one another; we make them to                       And that is serious. All sin is.     by His Spirit. 0
and before the Lord of heaven! To                   But promise-breaking is especially




 New "Radio Voice"' of the PRC
                                               -

       For the first' time since Rev.               view the present arrangement. If all     also ensure the consistency that
Herman Hoeksema retired in the                      are satisfied, Rev. Haak will contin-    builds up an audience.
early  196Os, the Reformed Witness                  ue as radio pastor, increasing his           Lacking this single voice and hit
Hour (RWH) - for 55 years the ra-                   messages to 45 per year.                 hard by recent synod&xl decisions
dio broadcast of the Protestant Re-                     The radio committee in charge        that have put an end to synod&l
formed Churches (PRC) -has a per-                   of the RWH is delighted (the presi-      support of several stations and have
manent preacher. The new radio                      dent used the word "thrilled"`) with     moved away from synod&l  use of
voice of the PRC is Rev. Carl J. Haak,              Rev. Haak's acceptance of the posi-      the RWH, the RWH has struggled
pastor of the Bethel PRC in Itasca,                 tion of radio preacher. The commit-      in recent years. The evidence is the
IL.                                                 tee has known for a long time that       number of stations over which the
       With the approval of his                     the makeshift arrangement of hav-        program is broadcast at the present
consistory, Rev. Haak has agreed to                 ing many, different preachers give       time. The RWH now is aired over
give 40 messages during the next                    messages is unsatisfactory. Consul-      only seven stations, one of which :
year over the RWH network The                       tations a few years ago with knowl-      the Dordt College station - is sup-
first message, "Faith Cometh by                     edgeable people in well-run, highly      ported entirely by the three church-
Hearing (Rom. 10:17)," aired on Oc-                 regarded radio ministries made clear     es in the NW Iowa area. On the
tober 8. It explained what the RWH                  that the first requirement for radio     occasion of the 2,OOOth.  broadcast of
is and why people should listen. Af-                broadcasting is that there be one        the RWH in 1981, there were 14 sta-
ter one year, Rev. Haak, Bethel, and                speaker  - a radio voice  - with         tions. Five stations had to be
the radio committee in Grand Rap-                   whom the broadcast is associated in      dropped in the last year and a half.
ids that supervises the RWH will re-                the mind of the listeners. This will     Continuing on some of the remain-

                                                                                                  December 1,1995/St&Manl  &a&l01


ing stations is in jeopardy because         truth of the Reformed faith confessed    hopes to meet soon with the evan-
of a lack of money.                         by the PRC deserves to be testified      gelism committees of the South Hol-
     In addition to the Dordt College       by radio and that the RWH is the         land; Peace, and Bethel churches in
station (Sioux Center, IA), stations        means of doing so. They are mak-         Illinois about putting the RWH on a
currently broadcasting the RWH are          ing aggressive, exciting plans to im-    Chicago station. A sizable part of
KRKS, Denver, CO; KLOH, Pipe-               prove, promote, and enlarge the wit-     the cost would be paid by these
stone, MN; KNTR, Ferndale, WA;              ness of the RWH.                         churches with synod being asked to
WMRH, Waupun, WI; WFUR,                         With the beginning of the new        fund, the rest.
Grand Rapids, MI; and KPRO, Riv-            year, Rev. Haak will preach a series              Other PR churches will also be
erside, CA. The denomination is             of messages entitled, "Basics of the     asked to sponsor the program on
presently paying the entire cost of         Christian Faith." The series will in-    area radio stations.
the Denver broadcast.                       clude such themes, drawn and ex-                  There are attractive possibilities
     The RWH began in 1941 as the           plained from Scripture, as "What is      of foreign broadcasting. In the past
project of the Young Men's Society          the Bible?" "What is Sin?" and           the RWH did send out its message
of First Church, Grand Rapids. The          "What is Salvation?"                     to other nations, e.g., over  Trans-
original name was "The Protestant                                                    World Radio.
Reformed Hour." Rev. Herman                                                                   To encourage interest and sup-
Hoeksema's first radio message on                                                    port,' plans are being made for a
October 12,194l  was entitled, "God                                                  RWH rally in the Grand Rapids area
is God." These were also the first                                                   in the spring of 1996. The rally will
words he uttered. This has consis-                                                   serve to inform the people about the
tently remained the theme of the                                                     work of the RWH. The rally could
broadcast to the present.                                                            at the same time be the occasion of
     In 1946, First Church acceded to                                                a live broadcast of the RWH with
the request of the Young Men's So-                                                   audience participation.
ciety and made the broadcast its own                                                          The problem is money. First
mission endeavor. Through the                                                        Church is no longer able to support
years the synod of the PRC used the                                                  its program as it has done in years
RWH as the means of its radio wit-                                                   gone'by. Recent synods of the PRC
ness, budgeting funds for much of                                                    have decided to produce and fund
the support of the radio work.                                                       a denominational broadcast that will
     Always, a committee answerable                                                  be serviceable for missions, rather
to the First Church council has car-                                                 than to use, and support, the RWH
ried out the actual work of putting                    Rev. Carl Haak                any longer. The broadcast over the
messages on the air. This continues                                                  current stations is mainly support-
today. Their mandate is to "main-               Asked about his approach, Haak       ed by donations from interested in-
tain, direct, and advance the cause         replied that, "without talking like a    dividuals and by collections in the
of the ministry of the Word of God          kindergartner," he intends neither to    PR congregations. The balance on
by means of the radio, as this means        aim the messages at Reformed peo-        hand.at this writing is a meager $300.
is utilized by the Reformed Witness         ple nor to presuppose the under-                  Surely, our PR witness to the Re-
Hour."                                      standing that at any rate once char-     formed faith by radio through the
     The work includes taping the           acterized Reformed people. Rather        new voice of the PRC is a worthy
messages; adding appropriate an-            he will address those who may have       cause. Individuals looking for a
nouncements and music; making               little or no knowledge of the faith.     worthwhile work of the churches to
copies of the tape for all the stations;    His messages will be careful expla-      give to at the end of the year may
mailing the tapes on time; prepar-          nations of the Bible. In this way, he    well consider the RWH. Congrega-
ing and mailing written copies of the       will set forth and defend the Re-        tions can show their support of the
messages for those who request              formed faith in its purity. The pro-     new radio voice in his work by con-
them; answering correspondence;             gram will remain a "distinctively Re-    tributing generously to collections
keeping up a mailing list; paying the       formed radio ministry."                  for the RWH. Gifts should be sent
bills; seeing to it that the equipment          There is openness to some            to the RWH, Box 1230, Grand Rap-
is in order; and more. The commit-          "sprucing up" of the format, if this     ids, MI 49501. Gifts are tax-deduct-
tee is made up of men and women             is thought to be advantageous to the     ible.
from several PR churches in the             broadcast.                                   Might synod reconsider any of
Grand Rapids area.                              A number one priority is get-        its recent decisions on radio in light
    Both Rev. Haak and the radio            ting on more stations, perhaps twice     of Rev. Haak's taking on the work
committee are convinced that the            as many as at present. Rev. Haak         of RWH broadcasting? Or would

1 (MIstandard  Bearer /December  1,19!25


First Church consider giving the               The Mission Committee, however,            to our local churches for their use
RWH over to the denomination in                at this time is interested in modify-      (see "Acts of Synod and Yearbook
light of the serious difficulty of fund-       ing its use of radio such that, in         1994," pp. 8492 and Art. 16).
ing the program under the present              addition to our continued support
set-up?                                        of the RWH on some stations, we              With Haak at the helm, this
                                               develop also programming geared
    One important reason why syn-                                                       seemingly will be the purpose and
                                               specifically to introducing the PRC
od decided to go in the direction of           to audiences not yet well versed in      nature of the RWH.
producing its own radio messages,              Reformed truths.                             In any case, the entire denomi-
thus creating and funding its own              The Mission Committee is making          nation has reason to be grateful for
radio program, was that synod de-              preparations to produce one year's       the new radio voice of the churches.
sired "programming geared specifi-             worth of radio broadcasts for the            There is every reason to believe
cally to introducing the PRC to au-            purpose of introducing our church-       that by the grace of the Lord Jesus
diences not yet well versed in Re-             es and the Reformed truth. These         this will be a powerful voice for the
`formed truths." The report of the             broadcasts would be used to assist       truth.
                                               the Mission Committee both in dis-
Domestic Mission Committee to the                                                           There is reason, therefore, to
                                               covery and preparation of a field,
synod of 1994 contained these pro-             and in those areas where we labor        support the voice, for the truth that
posals regarding a radio program               in a mission field. These broad-         it broadcasts, with our prayers and
alongside the RWH:                             casts would also be made available       our money. 0
                                                                                                                           - DJE




                                             q   Necessary Editorial                    to the flood as literal. Unfortunate-
                                                 The editorial "Retired, Not            ly, objectors would say that Jesus
n Love for the Old Faith                     Dead" (S23, Vol. 72, No. 3, p.  53),       and Peter only referred to the flood
    With great delight I received my         was needed. Our society has saai-          as an allegory to illustrate doctrinal
first copy of the  Standard Bearer.          ficed the worthiness of our                truths like the washing of baptism.
Your love for Christ and the truths          "greyheads" in pursuit of the god              I think it is important for the
of grace has deeply impressed my             of youth. Sadly, such behavior has         church to realize that the Bible, as
heart.                                       made inroads into the church.              the infallible Word of God, must be
    I have a number of theological               Proverbs  18:31 states, "The           used to interpret science, not the oth-
works in my bookcases, and with-             hoary head is a crown of glory, if it      er way around. It is wrong to lower
out question Herman Hoeksema is              be found in the way of righteous-          God to the level of His creation. The
the top of the top, in my humble             ness." Retired members, do not be          origin of our world cannot be ex-
opinion. I find that I agree with you        intimidated by the younger genera-         plained by scientific data because,
on all points of doctrine  other than        tions' amount of schooling. Wear           as Hebrews 11:3 puts it precisely,
baptizing  of babies and sprinkling.         the crown actively, remembering            "Through faith we understand that
Other than that I could and would            that you have a commanding knowl-          the worlds were framed by the word
gladly call myself a part of the Prot-       edge of the Scriptures.                    of God, so that things which are seen
estant Reformed Churches. I came                 Younger generations, do not try        were not made of things which do
out of a Southern Baptist Church,            to put those of a "hoary head" out         appear."
and now love the old faith you stand         to pasture. Show honor to the crown.                             - Steve Feenstra
for. With deep thanks, I am your             Scripture demands it of us.
brother in Christ.                                                      Jim Regnerus        If we believe what Davis Young
                          Don Clayton                                      Doon, IA     has to say about the Bible, our faith
                            Plato, MO                                                   will not be worth much anymore,
                                             t Response to "Pulling the Plug            since we- can not prove any of it.
Response:                                    on the Flood" from Covenant                We can not prove that a virgin had
    The Reformed faith has a way             Christian High School,                     a child and that He was God who
of drawing a disciple all the way.           Grand Rapids                               became a man. If this is "re-inter-
Continue to read and study, consid-            I commend the excellent edito-           preted," we could not believe that
ering the infant baptism of the chil-        rial regarding the denial of the flood     He saved us.
dren of believers as a privilege and         as being literal  (SB,  Sept. 15, 1995,        Next year, I will be going to col-
demand of the one covenant of grace          "Pulling the Plug on the Flood").          lege. I might go to the college where
(see Gen. 17:7; Luke l&15-17).                   Prof. Engelsma makes an impor-         these men are teaching their ideas
                                  - E d .    tant point that Jesus Himself referred     about what God really said in His

                                                                                             December l,lWSta~rd&wefilO3


Word. It is very important that I          that even the Reformed, Christian               things." Faith does not believe ab-
know what I believe God has re-            colleges have many erroneous teach-             surd things, but things which we be-
vealed to us in His infallible Word.       ings. It taught me that I can not go            lieve can only be done by the power
    The article, "Pulling the Plug on      to any college, even "Reformed" col-            and hand of God. Our faith is one
the Flood," was very good. It              leges, being ignorant, believing ev-            of the great things done by God as
showed me how the world today,             erything that the professor tells me            revealed in Ephesians  1:19, "And
even people who say they are Chris-        is true and scriptural. I think that            what is the exceeding greatness of
tians, are ripping apart the Bible. It     many of our youth today go to pub-              his power to usward  who believe,
showed how important it is to know         lic colleges expecting to have to de-           according to the working of his
what you believe, and to know that         fend their faith but I am not so sure           mighty power."
the flood was more than a puddle.          those going to private colleges have                We Christians must be ready
                     - Emily Zandstra      this same expectation. Thank you                and willing to defend and preserve
                                           for preparing me in this way.                   the faith.
    Recently, we were given an as-                            - Tiffany Heemstra                                 - Tonya Reitsma
signment in our "Cults" class to read
the editorial in the Standuvd  Beaver          I agree with the article, "Pulling              I like how the editorial shows
entitled, "Pulling the Plug on the         the Plug on the Flood." It repre-               that Young's book is a clear attack
Flood." I was not overjoyed at first       sents what an orthodox Christian                on the authority of Scripture. The
because as a high school student any-      should believe about the account of             Bible says that there was a flood
thing you are told to read for class       the Flood. The book by Davis                    which covered the entire earth.
you automatically think is not going       Young The  Biblical Flood: A Case               Young says that this did not occur.
to apply to you. But once I started        Study of the Church's Response to               We believe that the Bible is infalli-
reading the article, I was intrigued.      Extrabiblical Evidence,  contradicts            ble. According to Young, though,
I had never heard of the book, The         our faith, particularly our beliefs on          the Bible is wrong here. Whom do
Biblical Flood, or even that there         the Flood, as revealed to us in the             we believe here? Do we believe a
were those who called themselves           Bible. He uses scientific evidence to           man and science, or do we believe
Christians who actually denied the         `overpower the Word of God. We                  what the Bible says? Of course, by
flood. Therefore, I was eager to           must read the Bible in John  6:68,              faith, we believe that the whole of
write a response.                          where Simon Peter confesses that the            Scripture is infallible.
    I thought that the article was a       Lord has the words of eternal life.                 Ii appreciate the point that the
very good example of polemics, a           God has power over everything in                worldwide flood is used as a basis
subject that we recently studied. Po-      this world. In Jeremiah  32:17, it              for doctrine explained in the New
lemics is the aggressive attack on or      states, "Ah Lord God! Behold, thou              Testament. I also appreciate the  SB's
refutation of the opinions or princi-      hast made the heaven and the earth              standing for the truth.
ples of another, as' in denouncing         by thy great power and stretched                                      - Mark Feenstra
heresy. For the opinion of Davis A.        out arm, and there is nothing too
Young is certainly heresy and needs        hard for thee."                                     I stand with the editorial! I also
to be attacked aggressively. It is             The scientific evidence found by            will not keep silent. These days are
very dangerous for a professor at a        the scientists is not a proof there was         trying times. It is very sad when
respected Reformed college to teach        no Flood. God tells us of it in Gene-           professing Reformed people are so
such erroneous views and to place          sis 6-9. If we believe there was no             ready to promote the lie!
scientific research above the Holy         Flood, then we cannot believe any-                  It is truly depressing when so-
Scriptures. For he, like all teachers,     thing in the Bible. The beginning of            called Christian scientists try to
holds a very prominent position in         the Bible is the foundation for all of          make the Holy Word of God fit their
the church as an instructor of the         the Scriptures. If there was no Flood,          scientific findings, instead of mold-
youth. There will be severe conse-         there would be no establishing of the           ing their findings to what the Bible
quences if he leads the youth of the       covenant with Noah and the gener-               says! The Genesis account is so sim-
church away from the truth and the         ation of believers. God reveals Him-            ple that even a child could under-
sovereignty of the Scriptures.             self and the creation to             through    stand what is being said, and Dr.
                                                                        LIS 
    I found this article especially        His Word. The human analysis of                 Young tries to reinterpret the Scrip-
good for me to read, as a high school      rocks and other things are not God's            ture to say what it obviously does
senior, because I am now trying to         revelation to us. This book also at-            not state.
make the hard decision of which col-       tacks our faith. It is saying that one              `I$e denial of a full-fledged flood
lege to attend next year. All of my        of the great miracles of God never              undermines my faith. I was taught,
choices at the moment are private          happened.                                       and now believe, the infallibility of
Christian colleges, so this article re-        I disagree with the article when            the Word of God, and now I am sup-
ally opened my eyes. It showed me          it says, "Faith believes absurd                 posed to throw it all to the wind

1 WStandard Bearer /December 1 ,1995


because carefully analyzed scientific      It does not matter what the world                Response:
data show that man's finding is bet-       may scientifically try to prove, by                  A hearty thanks to these young
ter than God's Word? If this is true,      the grace and preserving power of                people for writing in, as well as to
then who needs the Bible?                  God they will never sway my faith                all the others who responded simi-
    What it really comes down to is        in God and His whole Word!                       larly to "Pulling the Plug" but whose
faith or unbelief. As the editor                                  -Brad  Bruinsma           letters are not published.
states, "faith believes absurd things."                                                                                    - E d   Q





 Shepherding the [Flock of God

                                           them in some way to help the min-                  ply the same as well in general as
    Christ Jesus Himself, we have          isters, elders, and deacons minister               in particular,  to the edification of
established from the Reformed con-         to the saints of God's church.                     the hearers; instructing, admonish-
fessions and Holy Scripture, is f/z            It is plain from the Scripture pas-            ing, comforting, and reproving, ac-
minister of the church. Christ min-        sages (e.g., Eph. 4:11ff.,  I Pet. 5:1-4)          cording to everyone's need . . . (em-
isters to the saints through those         and from the confessions cited in the              phasis mine, RDD).
whom He has lawfully called                previous articles, that the pastoral
through the church to serve in the         work of the officebearers belongs to                 The reader will note that the ap-
offices of minister of the Word, el-       the official  work of their ministry.            plying of the Word of the-lord "in
der, and deacon. Through these             Further evidence of this truth is                particular," i.e., pastorally to indi-
men Christ speaks His prophetic            found in the Form of OrdirJation                 viduals, belongs to the official work
                                                                                      of
Word, rules His precious flock, and        the Ministers                                    of the ministers. They must teach
                                                             of God's Word (cf. The
ministers His mercies to those in                                                           "publicly, and from house to house"
                                           Psalter,  1912 edition) which de-
need.                                      scribes the task of the minister in              (Acts 20:20).  Both Scripture and the
    In this series of articles we pro-     these terms:                                     Reformed confessions teach that the
pose to consider the pastoral aspects                                                       pastoral work of the officebearers
of the task of the officebearers in the      What this holy office enjoins, may             belongs to their office. Christ as-
church. We shall cover, D.V., the            be easily gathered from the very               signs this work to them and Christ
subjects of visiting the sick, comfort-      name itself; for as it is the duty of          performs this work through them.
ing the sorrowing, caring for the            a common shepherd, to feed, guide,                 So strongly did the late Prof.
emotionally disturbed, and caring            protect and rule the flock commit-             George M. Ophoff believe this that
for the widows and widowers. In              ted to his charge; so it is with re-           he wrote in his class notes on
                                             gard to these spiritual shepherds,
this connection we shall also deal                                                          "Poimenics,"
                                             who are set over the church, which
with some of the more prevalent sins         God calleth unto salvation, and                  The minister of the gospel then, has
often manifest in the congregation:          counts as sheep of His pasture. The              authority to preach because he is
e.g., habitual drunkenness and mar-          pasture, with which these sheep are              called; and it is the Word of Christ
riage problems. We hope to treat            fed, is nothing else but the Preach-             that he must preach. Only in so
the practice of family visitation and       ing of the gospel, accompanied                   far as the pastor identifies himself
the whole subject of church disci-          with prayer, and the administration              with the Word of Christ, does he
pline. In addition we plan to con-          of the holy sacraments; the same                 actually in the sight of Christ rule
                                            Word of God is likewise the staff
sider the pastoral task of the office                                                        the church, lead, supervise, and
                                            with which the flock is guided and
of deacon. We offer these with the                                                           teach and admonish and exhort-arid
                                            ruled, consequently it is evident,
humble prayer that God will use                                                              feed the flock - in a word, shep
                                            that the office of pastors and min-              herd the flock It is this, not the
                                            isters is,                                       pastor, but the Word of Christ that
                                               First, that they faithfully explain           rules  and feeds.  Individual soul-care
Prof. Decker is professor of Practical      to their flock, the Word of the Lord,            is nothing else than preaching the
Theology in the Protestant Reformed         revealed by the writings of the                  Word to the individual sheep of Christ.
                                            prophets and the apostles; and ap-
Seminary.                                                                                    He visits the sick to bring the Word


 of God. House visitation is done           officebearer's authority as an ambas-       ual members of the congregations.
 solely by the preaching of the Word        sador of Jesus Christ. He may nev-          Preaching is the public proclamation
 (emphasis mine, RDD).                      er demand compliance with his own           of the ,Word;  pastoral work is the
                                            word, but he must demand obedi-             private application of the Word.
    The implications of this truth are      ence to the Word of Jesus Christ.                   Bearing these distinctions in
critically important for both the           And, it is the Word of God which            mind, one can readily see the rela-
officebearers and the congregation          must encourage, comfort, instruct,          tionship between the two. A minis-
under their care.                           guide, and admonish God's people.           ter's pastoral work (and that of the
    1) For the congregation this                4) Finally, that the officebearer       elders and deacons as well) greatly
means that the officebearer comes           is the official representative of Christ    enhances the effectiveness of his
as an ambassador of Jesus Christ.           implies that he must depend upon            preaching and teaching. It is
He is Christ's representative. He is        Christ in all his pastoral work in the      through his pastoral contacts with
an under-shepherd of the Chief              congregation. From a purely practi-         the church that the minister gets to
Shepherd. When the pastor calls on          cal point of view this is highly nec-       know "the face of his sheep."3  This
members of the congregation he is           essary. This work can often be wea-         enables the pastor to adapt his
not coming as one brother to anoth-         risome and grievous and with little         preaching to the peculiar needs of
er; nor is he simply "so&E@' with           immediate fruit. It is work which           the congregation. On the other hand,
friends. Rather he comes as the             must be kept strictly confidential for      pastoral work is the specific appli-
"shepherd of the sheep," vested with        the most part. What we are saying           cation of the preaching of the Word.
the authority of the Lord Jesus             is that the pastor, elders, and dea-        In a very real sense, pastoral work
Christ. He is charged (together with        cons bear the burden of the congre-         brings the pulpit into the homes and
the elders and deacons) with the            gation: the trials and struggles, the       private lives of- God's people. The
oversight and care of the church.           fears and doubts, the trouble and           pastor who neglects this work does
Neither he nor the congregation may         sorrow of the people of God. They           the congregation and himself great
ignore this.                                carry this burden to bed with them          harm. :
    2) But the fact that the                and they awaken with it in the morn-                Let us be reminded of the other
officebearer comes with the authori-        ing. No officebearer can bear this          side of this relationship. Since
ty of Jesus Christ means that he is a       burden alone. He needs Christ.              preaching is the chief means of grace
servant of the Ring of the church,          And this means he must pray! The            by which God is pleased to save
"who came not to be ministered unto,        life of the officebearer must be a life     them that believe (I Cor.  1:21),
but to minister" (Matt. 20:28). This        of prayer. In the consciousness that        preaching remains the minister's
means that the officebearer is respon-      he needs the sustaining grace of God        chief task. Preaching must have pri-
sible to Jesus Christ in all his care of    in Christ the officebearer must "pray       ority among the various aspects of
the congregation. He need not an-           without ceasing." Apart from this           the mmister's-  task, also his pastoral
swer to any man. He stands before           the officebearer cannot effectively         work `Irt fact, effective and fruitful
the face of Christ, and to Christ he        minister to the saints.                     pastoral work of the officebearers
must give !an account of his labors.            Pastoral work, therefore, is an         can take.place  among the people of
But this also means that the                essential part of the task of the           God only in that congregation where
officebearer must take great care in        church's officebearers. Without it          the minister is faithfully preaching
the handling of the flock of God!           the church suffers. The question we         the Word. Preaching is not only it-
That the officebearer is a servant of       face is, how is this work related to        self pastoral, it creates the spiritual
Jesus Christ certainly means that  "...     and distinguished from the public           environment in which fruitful pas-
the pastor properly speaking exists         preaching of the Word? Pastoral             toral work can be done by the
for the flock, not the flock for the        work must be distinguished from             officebearers. 0
pastor."' The officebearer has the          the preaching of God's Word. In
oversight of the flock of God, but          preaching, the emphasis is on the
never as a "lord over God's heritage"       prophetic aspect of the ministry; while     1 J. J. Van Oosterzee, Practical The-
(I Pet. 5:1-4). Always he is the ser-       in pastoral work the emphasis is on         ology, p. 511.
vant of Jesus Christ, sent to minister      the priestly and kingly aspects of the      2 The late Dr. Samuel Volbeda, who
to the precious flock which Christ          church's task. This is not to deny          taught Practical Theology at Calvin
has redeemed with His precious              that preaching has a pastoral aspect;       Theological Seminary for many
blood.                                      it does, or it is not true preaching.2      years, wrote an entire book under
    3) This implies that the                But preaching in the very nature of         the title,  The Pastoral Genius  of
officebearer must come to the sheep         the case is more general, while pas-        Preaching, in which he argues cor-
only and always with the Word of            toral work is more specific. Preach-        rectly that preaching must be pasto-
God. Christ cares for His flock by          ing comes to congregations; pasto-          ral.
means of His Word. Therein is the           ral work has to do with the individ-        3 Van Oosterzee, p. 516.

1 ONStandard  Bearer /December 1,1!395


  The Reformed Family: Voices

    "My voice shalt thou hear in the          Think of your favorite soloist.               rebuke and admonition, and also
morning.... "                             Perhaps he is the bass who sings                  words of encouragement and
                            Psalm 5:3     Handel's Messiah: "And I will                     upbuilding, to all people. Our voic-
                                          shaaaaaaake all nations . . . . II Can any        es must be used to edify one anoth-
    The variety of the human voice,       man-made instrument, no matter                    er, and to instruct the children He
its modulation, tone, and expressive-     how refined, compare with the hu-                 has given us. We use our voice most
ness nearly rivals the human face for     man voice for clarity, range, and res-            profitably for prayer. At morning,
creativity.                               onance? Not even the valuable                     noon, and night we draw near to
    Even though one who makes a           stradivarius has the capacity of one              God, voicing our petitions. Ours is
telephone call should identify him-       human voice. Countless thousands                  the voice of the penitent: God be
self when making a call, it's really      have experienced, though in a very                merciful to me a sinner. With our
quite unnecessary. The voice gives        limited way, the majesty and judg-                voice we bless God and demonstrate
one away.. Could anyone, though           ment of God through a voice which                 kindness to our neighbor.
he were blindfolded, mistake Pro-         sings with such power and passion.                      Michael is five years old. For
fessor Hanko's voice? What a mar-             Creation has a voice, too. Psalm              the better part of two years he spent
velous God to create so much vari-        19 expresses that there is no place in             more time in Wyler Children's Hos-
ety by the fairly uncomplicated pro-      heaven, the sky, or on earth                             pital than out of it. Michael
cess of stretching small bands of tis-    where its voice is not heard.                             had a brain tumor. He had
sue (vocal cords) across the larynx.      The voice of God's creation is          Perhaps             numerous  MRI's to  deter-
    The voice expresses feeling. It       a testimony to Him which the           we are not           mine its shrinkage. During
registers all the human emotions:         unbeliever would do well to           able to sing          his prolonged stay in the
elation as well as sorrow, optimism       observe. The voice of cre-                    like a        hospital, his mother rarely
and despondency, reluctance and           ation is sufficient to leave all       Pavarofti            left his bedside.
also eagerness; impatience; annoy-        men without excuse in the                or clap              While Michael lay impris-
ance, and discouragement are diffi-       Day of Judgment. In the                our hands            oned in the X-ray machine,
cult to disguise. Then there are all      most poetic of images, the            as the trees          his mother sat just outside
the different tones: silken to harsh,     Belgic Confession calls cre-          of the field,         and talked to him. She
airy to throaty, melodious to pon-        ation's witness to God "a              but we too           soothed him during the ter-
derous. How a person says some-.          most elegant book."                 can, and must, ror of his confinement. She
thing is quite as revealing as what           Perhaps we are not able           praise God            reassured him over and
he says. That's why it's legitimate       to sing like a Pavarotti or clap     with a voice          over that she was there, that
to object, What you say is true; I        OUT hands as the trees of the          of  singing.        she would not leave his side
just don't like how you said it."         field, but we too can, and must,                          for a moment. She read to
    And what diversity each partic-       praise God with a voice of sing-                        him. She sang to him. She
ular voice has: the range from high       ing. Colossians says that with                    prayed. And Michael heard the
to low, soft to loud, the laughter,       psalms and hymns and spiritual                    catch in her voice and the anxiety
the crying, reciting, singing, and        songs we teach and admonish one                   that was hers.
humming.                                  another. Besides singing, we should                     After two delicate brain surger-
                                          use  OUT voices to comfort the saints.            ies and months of chemotherapy and
                                          Especially the aged saints should ex-             radiation, Michael was well enough
                                          perience our devotion. Do you visit               to come home. One day while qui-
Mrs. Lubbms is a wife and mother in       the elderly and infirm? Have you                  etly riding along in the car, Michael
the Protestant Reformed Church of         ever spent an hour reading to them?               piped up from the back seat, "Moth-
South Holland, Illinois.                  With our voices we speak words of                 er, say something." Amused, but

                                                                                                  December 1,1995/Standad  Beareri


cooperative, his mother said some-         said: "Lo, I come to do thy will, 0      the ground. Revelation  1:15 de-
thing simple like, "Hi, Michael!"          God" (Heb. 10:9).                        scribes !His voice this way: "... the
Then, she asked, "Why did you want             Often, foolishly, I have wanted      sound of many waters." And, yet,
me to say something?" To which             to hear Jesus' voice. Scripture tells    His voice is so gentle and so effica-
the little lad replied, "Because I love    us that as to His appearance there is    cious that wherever one of His sheep
your v0ice.l                               no beauty that we should desire          has strayed, he hears the Shepherd's
    We are not told what Jesus'            Him. His voice, however, must have       unmistakable call to return to the
voice sounded like. We know it was         been unforgettable.                      flock.
a voice of authority: "Make not my             Already in the Psalms we are             Mary Magdalene did not recog-
Fatheis house an house of merchan-         told that His voice makes the deserts    nize Jesus after His resurrection, but
dise" (John 2:16). And it was a voice      and mountains to tremble.       Wild     there was no mistaking His voice.
of infinite tenderness: "Come unto         beasts are frightened when He thun-      Just one word: "Mary." She knew
me, all ye that labor and are heavy        ders. His voice splits the cedars of     Him immediately. My Lord and my
laden" (Matt.  11:28). His voice ex-       Lebanon,      And again, "He uttered     G o d .
pressed anguish: "Father, if thou be       his voice, the earth melted." Or,            I have heard that "Mary," and
willing, remove this cup from me"          "Lazarus, come forth." In John 5,        you, Reformed believer, have, too.
(Luke 2242). It conveyed weariness:        Jesus says that  all that are in the     We have heard our name personal-
"The foxes have holes, and the -birds      graves shall hear His voice and shall    ized in the gospel, calling us from
of the air have nests; but the Son of      come forth to be judged. In the Gar-     unbelief to faith and trust in Him.
Man hath not where to lay his head"        den of Gethsemane, His simple re-            The Shepherd calls. We hear his
(Matt. 8:20). And what joy in His          joinder "I am He" sent Judas and         voice. We follow Him. 0
voice when from all eternity He hath       his evil band reeling backwards to





                            Oliver Cromwell:
                           Lord Protector (2)

    The civil war, between the army        which revealed his skill in training      insisted that the men who served
raised by Parliament, and the forces       men, his grasp of strategy in battle,      on the :parliamentarian  side should
loyal to the king of England, can be       and his determination to lead a           be carefully chosen and properly
divided into four separate phases.         group of well-trained and highly dis-     trained, and he made it a Point to
    The first phase involved skir-         ciplined soldiers, and which came         find loyal and well-behaved men
mishes chiefly around the area of          to the fore and drew the attention        regardless of  their religious beliefs
Cromwell's home. When Parliament           of others. These abilities also           or so&l status. Appointed a colo-
decided, partly at Cromwell's urg-                                                   nel in February (X43),  he began to
                                           brought Cromwell victories in the         recruit a first-class Cavalry regi-
ing, that the time had come to raise       few, relatively minor, battles in         ment. I While he demanded good
an army under its direction to op-         which he engaged. He learned ear-         treatment and regular payment for
pose Royalist forces, Cromwell im-         ly the value of highly trained and        his troopers, he exercised strict cl&
mediately proceeded to do so by            mobile cavalry regiments which            cipline. If they swore, they were
forming a troop of 60 men from his         were able to attack unexpectedly the      fined; if drunk, put in the stocks; if
own home area to fight the king's          enemies' flanks.                          they &led each other Roundheads
armies. It was this effort on his part        But his idea of an army, was           - thu& endorsing the contemptu-
                                           quite different from that of others.      ous epithet the Royalists applied to
                                           To quote from                             them because of their close-cropped
                                                                  Encyclopedia       hair 2 they were cashiered; and if
Proj Ha&o is professor of Church His-      Brithnica:                                they deserted, they were whipped.
toy and New Testament in the Protes-                                                 So successfully did he train his own
tant Reformed Semina y.                       From the very beginning he had         cavalrymen that he was able to

iWStandardBearerDecember 1,1995


 check and re-form them after they          lished Church,' politics and church       the House of Commons often resist-
  charged in battle.                        affairs were so inseparably mixed         ed his policies, he too, as Charles
                                            that the one could not be distin-         was wont to do, dismissed Parlia-
    In addition to this stringent dis-      guished from the other. To involve        ment and ruled by executive decree.
cipline, Cromwell's army had a dis-         oneself in the welfare of the church           His rule, usually apart from Par-
tinctly religious flavor. Preaching         was, necessarily, to involve oneself      liament, was for the most part suc-
services were regularly conducted;          in political matters.                     cessful.     He eased the poverty of
God-fearing men were recruited;                 In addition to this fact of En-       the oppressed, for he was always to
Psalms were sung before battle and          glish life, Puritan theology had a        be found on the side of the common
after the conflict was concluded.           view of the Old Testament which,          man. He established a new church
And Cromwell expected his men to            in effect, identified the new dispen-     government in England which was
conduct themselves as servants of           sational church with the nation of        essentially Independentistic and
Christ.                                     Israel, and made applicable to the        even invited exiled Jews to return
    But his reputation as a success-        life of the church the life of the na-    to England. He made just laws in
ful leader of men brought him fame          tion of Israel. Thus Cromwell's bat-      which all men were equal before the
and rapid advancement in a larger           tles were justified on the grounds        courts. He restored power to the
army that was ordered formed by             that the cause of Israel in the Old       people. He furthered the cause of
Parliament.                                 Testament was defended with               education and established good
    The first skirmishes did not de-        swords, spears, and chariots.2            schools. And in foreign affairs he
ter the king from pursuing his poli-            The cause of Christ, however, is      adopted policies which made En-
cies, and the second phase of the           never promoted through warfare.           gland once again the great power it
conflict brought about full civil war.      Jesus' `words sound down the corri-       had been under the rule of Good
After a number of battles in which          dors of history: "All they that take      Queen Bess (Elizabeth).
Cromwell was successful .against            the sword shall perish with the                The final phase of England's Civ-
Royalists troops, and after the king's      sword." No matter how much the            il War was carried on against the
armies had been decisively defeated         church is oppressed and persecut-         recalcitrant  Scats and Irish. The
on the plains of Worchester,  Charles       ed, and no matter how the enemy           Scats,  deeply devoted to Presbyteri-
fled to the Isle of Wright off the coast    may seem to gain the victory,             anism, hated Cromwell's principles
of Scotland. Charles' flight brought        Christ's church is limited to spiritu-    of freedom of religion and, also be-
the second phase to an end and              al warfare, for her cause is the cause    cause of their longing for indepen-
many among the Parliamentary lead-          of truth and righteousness which          dence from England, they revolted
ers favored a cessation of hostilities.     cannot be promoted through carnal         against Cromwell's rule.
    But Charles, from his place of          warfare. Even David, when Saul                 After marching with an army
safety, continued to pursue his             was helpless in his hands, refused        into Scotland and defeating the Scats
course of action, convinced that di-        to stretch forth his hand against the     at Dunbar,  Edinburgh, and Perth,
visions among Cromwell's troops             Lord's anointed, and was content to       Cromwell returned to London with
would still bring him victory. And          wait for God to give him the throne.      Scotland effectively under England's
so, after a period of peace, the war                                                  rule.
was renewed in the third phase of           Cromwell's rule                                But Ireland had still to be dealt
the struggle. But Charles was again             The fact was, however, that           with. The Roman Catholics in Ire-
decisively defeated and captured by         Cromwell's successful defeat of Roy-      land had risen in anger against the
the Scats. He was handed over to            alist forces and the subsequent mur-      Protestant minority, and Irish
Parliament in London. He was tried          der of the king paved the way for         Presbyterianism had suffered great-
by the High Court of Justice in             Cromwell to become the "Lord Pro-         ly at the hands of the Irish. The
which Cromwell played a leading             tector" of England. His fame grew,
role and was ordered executed for           and his power increased, until he as-
high treason. His execution took            sumed effective rule over the land.       *    An Established Church is a
place on January 30,1649.                       Cromwell was sorely tempted           State-controlled church in which the
    It is of some interest to us how        when a majority of Parliament of-         head of government (in England's
it was possible for good churchmen          fered him the throne in the belief        case, a king) was the church's head.
and devoted Calvinists to rise in re-       that a monarchy was more in leep-         2    The identical mistake is made by
bellion against God-ordained  au-           ing with England's institutions. But      those who today also identify a giv-
thority ,,and go. so far as to kill the     he steadfastly refused. In effect,        en nation, such as the Netherlands
king whom God had placed over the           however, Cromwell was a constitu-         or America, with Israel and make
nation.                                     tional monarch who ruled with a           Old Testament practices and laws
    To understand this, one must            House of Lords whose members he           applicable to the life of the church
understand that, under an  Estab-           was allowed to nominate. Because          today.
                                                                                               December 1,1995/W Beg&l09        '


Protestants still felt threatened and       far more attractive picture than was       its pure and biblical form, is virtual-
Cromwell marched against them to            justified by Cromwell's appearance.        ly unknown there.
subdue them and rescue the Irish            Sternly he instructed the artist to            Ever since Cromwell's campaign
Presbyterians from their hands,             paint "Cromwell with all his warts."       in Ireland his health was poor. In
bringing by these same wars, Ire-               History after his rule painted a       August, 1658, after his beloved
land into the British Commonwealth.         picture of Cromwell as a man who           daughter Elizabeth had died of can-
    Cromwell was a man with a               had nothing but warts; but, in the         cer, he became very ill with malaria.
wide knowledge of Scripture and a           process of time, his many good qual-       Though taken back to London, he
deep personal faith. He was con-            ities were recognized and he was           died at 3:00 on September 3 and his
vinced that God fought on his side          given in many circles the honor due        body was secretly buried in
and that all his victories were to be       him.                                       Westminster Abbey on November
ascribed to the benevolent favor of             He was a man who, before its           lo,13 days before a state funeral.
divine providence which directed            time, promoted freedom of religion.            It proved impossible for En-
him and his. forces. He always as-          That legacy alone has marked him           gland to survive without a monarch,
cribed his triumphs on the battle-          as memorable in England's history.         and shortly after Cromwell's death
field to God's intervention and took        But his wars against the king, though      Charles II, another Stuart, was
them as indicators of God's blessing        born out of religious and political        brought to the throne of Britain.
upon his cause. .-                          views current in his days, left a her-         In 1661 Cromwell's body was
    He was, though short in stature,        itage which, though defended by            dug up and hung at Tyburn, where
a man of iron resolve, and he               some till the present, are clearly con-    criminals were executed. His body
showed his skills both in battle and        trary to God's holy will. And it may       was then buried beneath the gallows,
in government. But he was not               very well be that, at least in part,       but his head was stuck on a pole on
without his faults. There is a story        the sad state of religion in England       top of Westminster Hall, where it
told that, while sitting for a portrait,    today is due to a very wrong begin-        remained till the end of Charles'
he noticed the artist was painting a        ning. Calvinistic Presbyter&&m,  in        reign.  0





    It is important, first of all, that     that the Lord God madie the earth          generations of the sons of Noah."
we understand the significance and          and the heavens." This verse begins        Each time this expression introduc-
the idea of what is told us in the          a new section. The first three verses      es a new section.
second chapter of Genesis concem-           of Genesis 2 really belong with                Here in Chapter 2 the subject is
ing Paradise and related matters. To        Chapter 1 and constitute the conclu-       the generations of the heavens and
this we must pay attention before           sion of the creation narrative as such.    of the earth. The word "generations"
we begin our discussion of the sub-         The opening words of Genesis 2~4,          here does not mean origin or begin-
ject of Paradise as such. This signif-      "These are the generations of the          ning, but must be understood in the
icance and idea are set forth in the        heavens and of the earth," must be         sense of "stages of development" or
first verse of this section of Genesis,     regarded as a superscription or in-        "history." What follows, therefore,
Genesis 24: "These are the genera-          troduction to what follows in this         in this section, especially in Chapter
tions of the heavens and of the earth       entire section. There are expressions      2, is not a second creation narrative,
when they were created, in the day          similar to that of 24 occurring sev-       an alternate narrative, as some
                                            eral times throughout the book of          would have it, but is an account of
                                            Genesis. Thus, for example, in Gen-        the further development of the
The late Homer Hoekxma was profes- esis  5:l we read, "This is the book                works of God, especially from the
sor  of Dogmatics and Old Testament in      of the generations of Adam." Again,        viewpoint of the covenant of God
the Protestant Reformed Semina y.           in Genesis lO:l, "Now these are the        and the history of man. There is

11 OIStandard Bearer/December 1,199s


reference in this chapter to the cre-      the I AM, is used, in order to re-               are not confronted by such histori-
ation of the plants and to their fur-      mind us from the start that our God              cal reality and such literal sacred his-
ther growth in the earth, as well as       is above the changing scenes of time            tory, and that we must. seek some
to the creation of man as a living         and history as the eternal and un-               other way of "interpreting" this pas-
soul, and also to the naming of the        changeable One, and that, too, as the            sage. Even in the so-called Reformed
animals and to the creation of Eve,        covenant God. As the Self-sufficient            tradition it is not uncommon today
and to the preparation of Paradise.        One, the faithful covenant Jehovah,              that men maintain that the entire
This is not indeed to furnish us with      He will surely keep and realize His             first eleven chapters of the Book of
a second, additional narrative of cre-     covenant.                                        Genesis must not be literally under-
ation, but all these items constitute          All of the preceding brings to               stood at all.
the setting and the background for         mind a third important matter. This                    Many theories have been de-
the history that is about to be un-        third item also is closely connected            vised which claim to be legitimate
folded. They belong, as it were, to        with the entire question concerning             interpretations and which have in
the essential elements of the stage        the idea and significance of this pas-          common that they deny that we are
upon which that history is enacted.        sage. In fact, the whole meaning of             confronted here by literal history.
Among these elements, details are          the scriptural record concerning Par-           According to some, we are present-
given us concerning the preparation        adise and the Fall is bound up in it.           ed here with a myth, an ancient rep-
of Paradise the First, with its two        The question is: are we confronted              resentation of how in former times
special trees, as the habitation for       here in Genesis 2 and 3 by historical           people conceived of the state of
man and as the particular place in         reality and by literal history, a liter-        primitive man. Others speak of a
the earthly creation where God gave        al account of real entities and real            pictorial, spiritual story - something
man his home.                              events, or are we not? Needless to              like the parables of the Lord Jesus.
    This also brings to the fore an-       say, this is a crucial question.                Others speak of a symbolic poem or
other important item. In the section           This question has received wide-            psalm, or a liturgical text of some
of Genesis 19 to 23 the name "God          ly divergent answers with respect to            kind. Others speak of saga.
(Elohim)" is used throughout. But          Genesis 1 and the creation account.                    There is a very dangerous theo-
in  24 and thereafter the name "Je-        The same is true, however, of Scrip-            ry which seems to be gaining ground
hovah God" is used repeatedly. The         ture's account concerning Paradise              among more orthodox theologians,
higher critics, who hold to the doc-       and concerning the temptation and               and which is the more dangerous
umentary hypothesis, have pointed          fall of our first parents. In our day           because of its deceptiveness and be-
to this in order to argue that the book    a simple, childlike faith in the                       cause of the fact that it seems to
of Genesis is not really one book,         Scriptures as the Word of God                            maintain that Genesis gives us
but is a composition of various doc-       has fallen upon evil times. Nu-      In our day a historical record of some
uments, and that it was not written        merous are the clever, intri-          a simple,          kind. They speak of "pro-
by Moses under the infallible inspi-       cately devised theories of in-         childlike           phetic history." They sug-
ration of the Holy Spirit. Similar         terpretation which share one        faith in the           gest that the biblical writer
criticism, of course, is applied to the    feature, namely, that in one           smiptures           received a special divine
entire Pentateuch. However, we             fashion or another they deny        as the Word            revelation comparable to
must point out that this is not cor-       the historical reality of the           of God             that received by prophets,
rect, and that it does not follow at       things, persons, and events            has fallen          and that this means revela-
all from this change in the use of.        that are described in this part        upon evil          tion given in terms of exist-
God's names. Rather should we look         of the Bible. The wisdom and               tit?U?S.       ing thought-patterns and the
for the reason for this change, that       learning of man have become                              existing world-view. You un-
is, the true, scriptural reason. That      too great and too high for the low-                    derstand, this leaves the entire
reason is rather obvious, and it is a      ly and simple Scriptures. In the                record of Genesis uncertain. It
very significant and also a beautiful      name of "interpretation," various               means that things did not exist and
reason. In the section from 1:l to         theories have been devised which                events did not take place as they are
23 the power and glory of God as           really aim at negating and denying              described by Genesis at all, but that
the Creator of the umverse  appear         the Scripttires.                                we have only a description of things
on the foreground, and therefore the           There are really only two main              and events from the point of view
name Elohim is used. But now the           views in this respect. There are                of Israel's language and thought-pat-
sacred record is not giving us an-         those who maintain strictly that here           terns and culture and world-view.
other creation narrative; rather it be-    in Genesis 2 we are confronted by               This theory is maintained with an
giiw to speak of the historical devel-     historical reality, literal sacred his-         appeal to the notion that Scripture
opment of creation, particularly of        tory concerning real things and real            after all is concerned with the
the covenant of God with man in            persons and real events. On the oth-            kerugma, with the proclamation of
time. Therefore, the name Jehovah,         er hand, there is the view that we              the great works of God in Christ,

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        the proclamation of God's redemp-            principally wrong, principally unbe-        es to make Zion's wilderness "like
        tive activity in history, and not with       lieving, to go outside of the Bible to      Eden, and her desert like the gar-
        an accurate, historical, literal account     find reasons why, supposedly, what          den of the Lord." It is true in Ezekiel
        of certain facts and events as such.         the Bible says cannot be literally true,    31:8, 9, where Assyria is compared
             Thus there are many today who           in order then to devise some other          to "the garden of God" and to "the
        no longer insist that one must teach         theory and to impose it upon God's          trees of Eden." Even in those New
        that the trees of Paradise were per-         Word. Scripture must always be rec-         Testament passages which speak of
        ceptible to the senses. In other             ognized as its own interpreter. If          Paradise, this is done with reference
        words, one can supposedly maintain           this is done, there can be found no         to the earthly Paradise as the prefig-
        what is told in Genesis 2 about Par-         reason whatsoever in the Bible itself       uration of the heavenly, and the as-
        adise and its trees without maintain-        not to understand Genesis 2 in the          sumption throughout is that the first,
        ing that these trees were perceptible        real, literal, historical sense of the      earthly Paradise was real. If the first
        to the senses. This is really non-           word. Never does the Word of God            were not real, the second, heavenly
        sense! A tree is perceptible. What is        give so much as a hint that it is to        Paradise would be compared to that
        not perceptible is no tree, whatever         be understood in any other way.             which was unreal, and could hardly
        else it may be. Then all that can be         The only difficulty is that men be-         be real itself.
        left of the Genesis record - no mat-         come wiser than God. Men begin                  Again, you and I may have great
        ter in what form it be dressed up -          to say, "This is foolish. This is im-       difficulty in pinpointing the exact
        is that we have here some kind of            possible. That was the way the rath-        geographical location of that first
        myth.                                        er primitive Israelites of olden times,     Paradise. There have been several
             All these presentations are an at-      with their culture and their world-         speculative attempts to do so. How-
        tack on the veracity and historicity         view, were taught to understand             ever, we must not forget in this con-.
        of Scripture, which presents these           things. And that was all right for          nection that the earth underwent im-
        matters as matters of history and            them, but we learned and enlight-           portant changes through the Flood,
        fact. If this is not literal history, the    ened men of the twentieth century           such important changes that the Bi-
        question is: what, is in the entire          know better."                               ble speaks of the world that then
        narrative? It should be crystal clear            2. We point out that both here          was as having perished, so that we
        to anyone that if we lose the facts          in Genesis 2 and throughout Scrip-          can well understand the difficulty
        here, we have nothing left, not even         ture the Bible never pictures Para-         of recognizing the original spot of
        the so-called spiritual significance,        dise the First in any other way than        Paradise, which, however, was cer-
        not even the so-called great redemp-         as a real garden, with a definite lo-       tainly known until the time of the
        tive acts of God in history. Only a          cation, in a rich, well-watered coun-       Flood. All of this does not change
        heap of nonsense is left, but it is          try, with real trees, and with real         the fact, however, that the Bible pre-
        wicked nonsense!                             human inhabitants (Adam and Eve),           sents Paradise as being very really
            We must remember, too, that all          who had a very real calling "to dress       located in Eden, speaks of the rivers
        these attempts and various forms of          and to keep it," and who were con-          of that land (Pison, Gihon, Hiddekel,
        so-called non-literal interpretations        fronted by a real command not to            Euphrates), describes the riches of
        have one thing in common, namely,            eat of a certain tree, lest they die.       that land (gold and precious stones),
        that they find their reason and their        You and I may not be able to com-           and describes its trees as pleasant to
        occasion outside of Scripture. Their         prehend how the Almighty Creator            the sight and good for food.
        problems of interpretation are not           planted a garden eastward in Eden,              What was the significance of that
        of a biblical nature and a biblical or-      Genesis 2:8, but that He planted a          first Paradise?
        igin. On the contrary, apparent rea-         garden, that this garden was real               Scripture pictures Paradise as the
        sons are found outside the sphere            and perceptible, and that it was lo-        perfection of beauty and pleasant-
        and the record of Scripture why this         cated in Eden - these are simple            ness. Moreover, its distinction be-
        biblical record cannot be literal his-       facts which are told us by God Him-         tween the general territory in which
        tory. Then, moved by these  non-             self, facts that we can apprehend and       the garden was located, Eden, the
        biblical reasons, men devise princi-         understand.                                 garden proper, with everything
        ples and alleged interpretations                 This is the language which the          pleasant and good for food, and
        which do away with the literal his-          Bible speaks first of all, right here in    what is called the "midst of the gar-
        torical character of the Genesis ac-         Genesis 2. And whenever the Bible           den," where the tree of life stood,
        count.                                       speaks of this garden elsewhere, it         reminds one of the temple, with its
            Over against all such views we           simply assumes its reality. This is         court, its holy place, and its holy of
        wish to point out:                           the case in Genesis 13:lQ where the         holies. If, in addition, we remem-
            1. That there is a very wrong            plain of Jordan is compared to "the         ber that the Book of Revelation
        method of interpretation involved -          garden of the Lord." It is true in          speaks anew of the tree of life and
        a wrong point of departure. It is            Isaiah 51:3, where the Lord promis-         of the Paradise of God (Rev. 27 and
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                                                                                                                                   ,     ,




Rev. 22), and remember also that the       Creator-God, consecrating himself         was there the tree of life, which bare
earthly Paradise was a picture of the      and all things to His service.            twelve manner of fruits, and yield-
heavenly perfection of the new cre-            But that Paradise is lost, never           ed her fruit every month: and the
ation and the glorified church, the        to be regained. God  ,had in view         leaves of the tree were for the heal-
essence -of whose bliss is perfect cov-    some  better thing for His people. By     ing of the nations. And there shall
enant fellowship with God, then we         faith in our Lord Jesus Christ God's      be no more curse: but the throne of
may conclude that the earthly Para-        people look forward to the reality             God and of the Lamb shall be in it;
dise was a place of special revela-        of that which is pictured in the vi-      and his servants shall serve him:
tion and fellowship with God, spe-         sion of Revelation 22: "And he            And they shall see his face; and his
cial in distinction from the rest of       showed me a pure river of water of        name shall be in their foreheads.
the earth. It was God's earthly tab-       life, clear as crystal, proceeding out    And there shall be no night there;
ernacle, in which He placed the man        of the throne of God and of the                and they need no candle, neither
created in His image, in order that        Lamb. In the midst of the street of       light of the sun; for the Lord God
there this covenant creature might         it, and on either side of the river,      giveth them light: and they shall
enjoy the fellowship of his covenant                                                 reign for ever and ever." 0
> . ,.;; . .                                                                 1               ,.         :
`.. AlI AkOQlfld I&                                                                  -              LRbiL  G&i73  vahB@lT@n

n Women in Office                              Classis Illiana not only declared             "Timing is everything here; I'm
       For those interested in the con-    the word "male" to be operative, but            very leery of opening this whole
tinuing developments in the Chris-         also reserved the right to discipline           thing again," said Dr. Clayton
tian Reformed Church on the wom-           churches with women in office with-             Libolt of River Terrace CRC in East
en in office issue, the ,following has     in their Classis.                               Lansing, Michigan. "We have re-
                                                                                           ceived an enormous @ft from the
been gleaned from the "United Re-              By a margin of only one vote,               synod, and let's not look that gift
formed News Service," Darrell Todd         Classis Pacific Northwest had the               horse where you're not supposed
Maurina, Press Officer..                   "honor" of becoming the first classis           to look @ft horses."
       As of October 18 it appears that    to declare the word "male" inopera-               Libolt expressed particular con-
six classes have declared the word         tive in Article 3a of the Church Or-            cern that too strong of an approach
"male" inoperative in the church or-       der.  Classis Grand Rapids East,                by advocates of women in office
der. That means, of course, that           however, had the "honor" of seat-               could backfire dramatically. "This
within these classes women can be          ing the first two women elders -                next synod is going to be a baclc-
ordained as elders or ministers.           immediately after declaring the                 lash synod and we could lose ev-
                                                                                           erythin8" warned Libolt.
These classes are:  Classis Pacific        word "male" to be inoperative for
Northwest (passed by one vote);            them.                                             The effect of the above and oth-
Classis Holland (passed 29-25);                At Classis Lake Erie there was        er decisions taken by the CRC Syn-
Classis Grand Rapids East (passed          concern expressed about the Synod's       od is seen in that there have been
without dissent);  Classis   Hacken-       action to prohibit review of the de-      now 55 congregations which have
sack; Classis Toronto; Classis Lake        cision until the year 2000 -. in the      seceded from the CRC - and the
Erie. At least five of the classes vot-    meanwhile to prohibit women from          CRC has lost over 7% of its mem-
ed to declare the word "male" to be        being appointed by synodical agen-        bership. The CRC Board of Trust-
operative or voted down motions to         cies. This means that women can-          ees has appointed a committee to
declare it inoperative. Several de-        not be ordained to any position of        review local church property issues.
clared overtures to be out of order.       denominational service, including         The property issue has come to the
Most of the classes took no action         positions in the denominational lead-     fore, though in 1970 the CRC Synod
- which means that the current rule        ership, church planting, and mission-     set aside its former position that the
of their Church Order is operative:        ary work for at least five years. That    property of each local church was
they are to have no women in the           upset some of the churches in the         held in trust for the denomination.
offices of elder or minister of the        classis. By a close vote that classis     Each congregation is to decide when
Word. Of course, individual church-        decided to create a committee to ad-      fifteen percent of the congregation's
es within these classes can still de-      vise the classis on what action to        confessing membership or 25 mem-
clare the word "male" to be inoper-        take.                                     bers, whichever is fewer, organize a
ative for them.                                Some of the strong supporters         church. If the church remains in ex-
                                           of women in office within Classis         istence for a period of at least one
Rev. VanBaren  is pastor of the Protes-    Lake Erie warned about being too          year, a proportional division of con-
tant Reformed Church  o f  Loveland,       hasty.                                    gregational property is to occur. A
Colorado.                                                                            seceding church in Hamilton,

                                                                                              December 1,19B5/StandedBeafefi113


Ontario, is now fighting a $600,000         date. Second, the members of the            sulting from a genetic predisposi-
lawsuit over the decision of the ma-        committee were appointed with the           tion. In other cases traumatic inci-
jority to secede from the denomina-         original mandate in mind and be-            dents such as sexual abuse during
                                                                                        the significant developmental years
tion.                                       cause we possess interests and abil-
                                            ities related to the original mandate,      between eleven and fourteen seem
                                            though without special expertise in         to have shaped the sexuality so that
1 And Now: Homosexuality                    either Old or New Testament                 the person's orientation is toward
    Another burning issue in the           hermeneutics and exegesis to ade-            those of the same gender. To lay
CRC is the question of homosexual-          quately begin to address this theo-         blame on such a person for her or
ity and how the church is to deal          logical question. Third, consider-           his condition is both cruel and un-
with individuals involved in this sin.      able scholarly work by individuals          just.
At its last synod, the CRC contin-          as well as several major, main-               However, all persons, whatever
ued to maintain a church relation-          stream denominational study com-            the shape or condition of their sex-
ship with the Reformed Church               mittees composed of individuals             ual nature, are responsible for their
                                           with hermeneutical expertise over            behaviors. And it is the church's
(GKN) in the Netherlands even               the past two decades (but what              responsibility to call all persons to
though its representative to the CRC        about the past two millennia? GVB)          a life of obedience to all of God's
Synod declared openly that the GKN          have attempted but failed to                commandments related to our sex-
accepted and welcomed practicing            achieve consensus on this issue.            ual behaviors. When we fall short
homosexuals into their membership.                                                      of such obedience, the church must
    This has generated one overture,          The minority report advised a             proclaim a gospel of grace and for-
from  Classis Wisconsin, to the next      different point 6:         c                  giveness. The church must also
CRC Synod asking it "to declare that                                                    pray, hope, and minister for the res-
confessing members who deny that              The brokenness of humanity re-            toration of all of creation, includ-
                                                                                        ing the human personality and
the Bible's teaching without excep-         sulting from the fall has distorted         more specifically our sexuality, to
tion condemns homosexual activity           all aspects of our personality, in-         its original form and intentions.
have become delinquent in doctrine,         cluding our sexuality, so that no           Whatever restoration possible
and are on that account subject to          one's sexuality functions as God            comes about through a variety of
the church`s admonition and  disc+          originally intended. The homosex-
                                            ual orientation is one form of such         means, certainly not limited to a
pline."                                     distortion, one that usually is not         single form of therapy. Sometimes
    Another  classis, Grand Rapids          of the person's own choice or deci-         this restoration is quite limited,
East (where else?), had a report pre-       sion. The church must both hope             sometimes impossible. In such in-
sented to it that considered the mat-       for and direct her ministry toward          stances the church must double her
                                                                                        efforts to show compassion, encour-
ter of homosexuality. The  comrnit-         whatever restoration of our sexual-         agement, and support to such per-
tee, though in agreement on various         ity to its original form is possible.       sons as they seek to live obediently
points, brought a majority and mi-          Where such restoration is either            to God.
nority recommendation on their              limited or not possible, she must
                                            minister with compassion, encour-
point six. The majority report de-          agement, and support. At all times             According to the report of
clared:                                     the church must call all of her mem-      Darrell Todd  Maurina we note the
                                           bers to a life of obedience to God's       following on the decision of the
    6. Ministries with persons who          provision of marriage as the prop-        classis:
  are homosexual should not be con-         er relationship for the expression
  tingent upon declaring homosexu-          of genital sexuality.                       Classis  Grand Rapids East accom-
  al activity as sin or as distinctive      Amplification:                              plished what one delegate called a
  evidence of the fall. To do so is to        As a result of the fall our sexual-       "miracle" on the question of how
  give an incomplete moral testimo-         ity is distorted in many ways.              to minister to an estimated 100 to
  ny to the issues of homosexuality         Sometimes it is not functional at all,      400 gays within its member church-
  with the potential harm in practice       for others it is hyperactive. For rea-      es and 530 to 2100 Christian Re-
  of closing ministry with many per-        sons often as yet unknown the sex-          formed gays in the six classes of
  sons who are homosexual. Instead,         ual drive is sometimes misdirected          greater Grand Rapids. By tabling
  these ministries should work with         to persons or objects other than            a minority report and deleting most
  everyone in Christian community           those whom God intended; some-              of the majority report, classis  avoid-
  to discern what it means to live          time articles of clothing non-sexu-         ed making an explicit statement on
  lives faithful to Jesus Christ.           al parts of the body, or to pictures        whether homosexual practice is sin-
  Rationale:                                and fantasies rather than persons.          ful and ended up with a simple
    This report does not address            The homosexual orientation is one           statement that ministries to homo-
  whether or how homosexual ori:            form of such misdirection. Some-            sexuals "should work with every-
  entation  or practice may be consid-      times this misdirection seems to,           one in Christian community to dis-
  ered a sin. It does not do so for         have occurred at an early age, pri-         cern what it means to live lives
  three reasons. First, such an ad-         or to age seven or ten years old,           faithful to Jesus Christ."
  dress is not included in our man-         even as some evidence suggests, re-

114lStandard  S88f8f /December  1,1995


   The decision appears not so                  classis, surely indicates the direction            clare homosexuality acceptable. The
much as a "miracle," but unwilling-             the churches are taking. It cannot                 people of Sodom and Gomorrah
ness to deal with sin as Scripture              be long before the CRC will follow                 would have felt very comfortable
presents this. This sad compromise,             in the footsteps of the GKN and de-                with the decision of the classis! 0
which seemed to please most at the                                                                                                  ,,  i
  Ed ~6 nfim kw a3 w0dd                                                        `1I                            Jq@iiA &g@~ J%g%&$$.

                 Mission Labors of the
                                          E.R.C.S. (1)
                                                                                           :.  ,,;.  .,.  ;  ;  .  .  ,...    ;     .:,      ..:    %,
                                           1
    Well do I recall walking the                `wrote about the mission labors of                 the students, the ERCS began to
streets of Grandville, discussing with          the churches in Singapore itself. In               commit itself to take sponsorship of
Pastor Mahtani the potential for out-           this article we want to concentrate                these students and become involved
reach by the Evangelical Reformed               on the work the ERCS is doing in                   in their studies in Singapore and to
Churches of Singapore. That was                 Myanmar. Our next article will fo-                  assist their home churches, if they
back in 1990, at the time of the Sis-           cus, the Lord willing, on India and                 expressed a desire to learn the Re-
ter Church Conference, a time when              our need for a book fund for needy                 formed faith. At that time there was
Singapore seemed so remote. Both                students and pastors.                               a parachurch organization doing
Pastor Mahtani and Pastor Lau pre-                  Some correspondents have                        work in the slums of Yangon. Un-
sented to the conference the real pos-          asked me why I always speak of                      der the advice of the ERCS, empha-
sibility of the ERCS becoming the               Myanmar and not Burma. The two                      sis was shifted to organize local
Antioch of Southeast Asia in the                are of course the same country.                     churches which in turn would be-
cause of the Reformed faith. God                Since the military junta has occupied               come responsible for outreach to the
used the presence of these brothers             the country, they have changed the                  slums. They came to understand
to move the PRC Synod to heed their             name of the country from Burma to                   this need and consequently two
request for a senior minister of the            Myanmar. They also changed the                      churches have been organized in
churches to be loaned to them. The              name of the capital. city from                      Yangon.  They have adopted the
mandate is to assist them in their              Rangoon to Yangon. Since the USA                    names Galilee United Reformed
own development, but with special               government is against the military                  Church of Myanmar and Grace Unit-
emphasis on theological training and            junta, the public press in the USA                  ed Reformed Church of Myanmar.
mission outreach.                               refuses to use Myanmar, but insists                          Out of this original contact,
    We have been in Singapore for               on Burma. Here in Southeast Asia,                   things developed in both theologi-
almost four years. Though much en-'             Singapore in particular, the govem-                 cal education and in mission work
ergy has gone into the preaching and            ment accepts the military and is                             Concerning theological training
pastoral ministry, helping on both              more interested in economic ad-                     it became evident that the church
the Session and Classical level, the            vance, reasoning that a country that                leaders, the pastors, the members of
Lord has given us plenty of oppor-              improves itself economically and be-                the church who devoted much time
tunity to work in meeting the need              comes involved in the family of na-                 to outreach in the local villages, and
for theological training and missions.          tions will become a more stable and                 the elders and deacons needed much
We have written in some detail                  responsible government.                             instruction so that they could know
about the fledgling school, the Evan-               The original contact `with                      what were the distinctives of the Re-
gelical Reformed Bible School. This             Myanmar came by way of a pastor                     formed faith. Since the people we
school has laid the foundation for              in the Bible Presbyterian Church                    are working with are mostly from
training local church leaders as well           who was-concerned about two stu-                    the Chin Division (State), their roots
as coordinated efforts for training             dents who lost their student visa in                into Christianity go back for centu-
foreign church workers. We also                 a local school and who, he believed,                ries. The main difficulty in the Chin
                                                had the potential for working in the                State is nominal Christianity. The
                                                cause of the Reformed faith in                      students who are in Singapore are
Rev. Kortering is a Protestant Reformed         Myanmar. Through careful inter-                     from that state. The workers in
minister-on-loan to Singapore.                  view with all concerned, especially                 Yangon are also from the Chin State.
                                                                                                                December 1,1995/standardBearerlil5


Hence, they have a general aware-         The congregations are located in           accountible  to the Evangelical As-
ness of Christianity, but the Re-         Falam Township, which has 189 vil-         sembly.
formed faith is something new.            lages. Falam City is the largest city          The ERCS have decided that our
    It was through the students in        of the township. This is somewhat          key role in assisting these churches
Singapore that the home church be-        mountainous country and poverty is         is to help them grow in understand-
came aware and interested in the Re-      extensive. Just to help you with your      ing the Reformed faith. It is the goal
formed faith. When the students be-       geography, Myanmar is about a two          of the churches to conduct semi-an-
came more aware of the truth, they        and a half hour flight north from          nual meetings with the church lead-
reco     ended to the home church         Singapore. The northwestern part           ers to teach them and answer their
that effort ought to be put forth to      of Myanmar borders India, the              questions which come up in their
ask the ERCS to send men to               northeastern part borders China, the       development.
Myanmar to instruct the church lead-      southeastern part borders Thailand,            The ERCS has decided to send
ers there.                                and the southwestern part is on the        my wife and me to Yangon mid-Jan-
    The first official contact was        Indian Ocean. The churches in              uary for a few weeks. One of the
made in October 29,1994,  when Pas-       Yangon are separated from the Chin         weeks will be a teaching seminar for
tor Lau and Dr. Daniel Kwek were          State by about 600 miles by air, about     the leaders. We will focus on such
scheduled to go; At the last minute,      1000 miles via land travel. For po-        areas as the importance of the Bible
Pastor Lau was refused a visa, so         litical reasons, foreigners cannot         (they just received the Bible in their
Dr. Kwek went alone, since the pas-       travel beyond Mandalay, which lies         own language in 1993),  the doctrine
tors from the Chin State were al-         in the center of Myanmar. Infra-           of the covenant, a brief introduction
ready in route for the meetings. Dr.      structure is sorely lacking. The lo-       to the Three Forms of Unity, and to
Kwek spent about five days with           cals have to travel in the most prim-      answer questions in the area of
them, speaking to them of the Five        itive ways, walking long distances         church government. We hope to be
Points of Calvinism and basic Re-         or riding on the back of trucks. Pub-      able to prepare these outlines prior
formed doctrine. Later, on Novem-         lic buses are crowded and more like        to going so that they can be trans-
ber 24, another group of saints from      crude trucks. There is a domestic          lated into Burmese here and we can
the ERCS, including Allen Brummel,        flight which flies from Mandalay to        take them along with us.
went to Myanmar to meet with the          the Chin State two times a week for            Interestingly, the old-timers
leaders and discuss with them the         locals. Even that is erratic. This is a    speak English, the younger genera-
possibility of doing more work This       hindrance for Singaporeans and             tion speak Burmese or Chin. In the
was followed by a more organized          Americans, but not Burmese.                old days they were open to foreign
visit by Pastor Lau on March 20,              The churches keep close contact        missionaries; in the last generation
1995. During this tip he spent about      with each other, though it be with         the emphasis fell upon seclusion and,
10 days in formal training classes for    difficulty. The eight congregations        with that, local language. Now the
the church leaders, about 40 of           form the denomination. They have           schools see the need for English once
whom had come to Yangon from the          a yearly meeting of the Evangelical        again, and they are teaching it to the
Chin State and the other 20 from the      Assembly, which is composed of two         children in school.
Yangon area. During these meet-           delegates from each congregation.              The ERCS recognize that many
ings Pastor Lau emphasized again          This meets in April and does the           of the congregations are poor and
the essentials of the Reformed faith,     business of the churches in common.        cannot afford a pastor. Hence, they
touching on the doctrine of Scrip-        To meet the need in the interim,           collect through church offerings and
ture, doctrines of grace, doctrine of     there is an Executive Committee,           the Classical budget money for the
the church, and the doctrine of the       made up of men from the different          Myanmar churches and send this
last things. Since the A-mil position     congregations. Presently Rev. Moses        money to the Executive Committee,
was new to them (they only knew           Nguhlei Thang Zahau from Yangon            which distributes the money as they
Pre-mil), much interest and many          is Moderator, Rev. Tawk Fum from           see fit. They handle it much as we
questions focused on this doctrine.       Falam is Assistant Moderator, Rev.         deal with our Needy Churches Fund
    Out of these contacts the United      James Kap Dai Lo is General Secre-         through synod.
Reformed Churches were formed.            tary, Rev. Lai Duh is Assistant Gen-           To help train the church leaders
Presently there are three congrega-       eral Secretary, and Pastor Bawi Hlei       more intensively, we are thankful
tions in the Chin State, three con-       Than& Treasurer. These men attend          that we have in place our Bible
gregations in the Sagang State, lo-       to the needs of the churches as they       School here. This is not a formally
cated more centrally and in the area      arise, arranging for financial assis-      organized school; rather it is geared
of rice farming, and two congrega-        tance, meeting needs of new church-        to many unique situations. To meet
tions in Yangon. These are scattered      es which express interest in joining,      our own needs, Pastor Lau is now
and much distance separates them.         and dealing with any emergency             teaching a formal class on Tuesday
The Chin State borders on India.          which may arise.           They are        evenings on the subject of the

116/Standard Bearer/December 1,199s


r




     church. Fung Dun is quite profi-           seems that short and intensive in-         these young churches are not only
     cient in English and is able to han-       struction may be the only way we           working for church reforma
     dle theological training on a basic        can provide this need.                     their own area, but also se
     level. Even then, he has difficulty            We also have a dear pastor             evangelists into the neighbo
     fitting into the school systems here       friend who is from Myanmar and is          states. What wonderful zeal the
     in Singapore, so we are giving him         studying in Singapore with a view          Play*
     private tutorship and finding this         to becoming an instructor in Re-               The work is overwhelmin
     quite effective. Pastor Lau is train-      formed Doctrine in a Bible College         demanding. Pray that God may con-
     ing Brother Fung Dun in Eschatology        in Yangon. He enjoys reading good          tinue to give us strength and wis-
     and the Canons of Dordt. I am              Reformed literature, so I loan him         dom as we are busily involved with
     teaching him Homiletics (sermon-           books and discuss them with him            the ERCS in this mission work Pray
     making), Eschatology, and Church           from time to time. He also enjoys          also for the saints in Myanmar who
     Government. Brother Paul Goh is            listening to taped sermons and is an       have come to know the truth of
     teaching him practical things of fi-       avid reader of the Sfandurd  Bearer.       God's Word, that they may stand
     nances and good leadership quali-          He has about a year and a half of          firm against all opposition. Things
     ties. Sister Rip Vel is now a bit un-      study before he obtains his degree.        have developed so rapidly that it
     sure of her ability to stay on in              These newly formed churches            will take some time for them to be-
     Singapore, since she is having more        have a burden for their Burmese            come settled and mature in the Re-
     difficulty with the English language.      neighbors. Only the Chin State is          formed faith. The fields continue
     Plans are that Fung Dun return to          predominantly Christian. Myanmar           white unto harvest. Pray the Lord
     Myanmar with us in January, and            is over 80% Buddhist. It is called         of the harvest that He may send
     that later' other church leaders can       the Land of the Pagodas. Already           forth reapers. 0
     come to Singapore for study. It
                                                                         ,.:  `1 . .
                                                                                 1                      `.  "'
        l&j@kf R@tilWS


                                                home. She is not a freewheeling fe-          rest of your life. On your wedding
                                                male, following her own pursuits,            day you make a vow and you are
     Submitting to One Another out of           having emancipated herself from her          held to that for "as long as you both
     Reverence  for  Christ: Eigh f Sermons     husband's authority and leadership"          shall live." To allow anyone else
     on Marriage and the Family, by P.                                                       to come in between your relation-
                                                (P. 31).
     G. Feenstra.  PrivateIy  published,                                                     ship is to commit adultery (P. 57).
                                                    There is some intriguing exege-
     1995.  7Opp. $10 (paper). [Reviewed        sis. Proverbs 2524 ("It is better to
     by the editor.]                                                                           Not even the "innocent p
                                                dwell in the comer of the housetop,        may remarry (p. 59).
                                                than with a brawling woman and in
         This booklet consists of eight ser-                                                   The churches, particularly the
                                                a wide house") is explained as teach-
     mons on marriage and family includ-                                                   Reformed and Presbyterian church-
                                                ing that a man with a miserable wife
     ing such topics as "An Appeal to                                                      es, need this kind of teaching. To
                                                has no option but to continue living
     Married Women to Know their God-                                                      lament the increase of divorces in
                                                with her (pp. 48,49).
     given Position"; "An Appeal to Mar-                                                   the churches while refusing to preach
                                                    Naturally, we are interested in
     ried Christian Men to Submit to their                                                 the strong biblical comdemnation  of
                                                the book's presentation of divorce
     Wives by Loving Them"; and                                                            divorce and the rigorous biblical
                                                and, especially, of remarriage. Al-
     "Christ Teaches Why Divorce Makes                                                     prohibition of remarriage is hypoc-
                                                most all books on marriage by Re-
     One Sin against the Seventh Com-                                                      risy. To respond to the increase of
                                                formed and Presbyterian writers to-
     mandment."                                                                            divorces, by expanding, publicly, the
                                                day, like the latest decisions by their
         The messages are biblical. The                                                    church's tolerance of this iniquity is
                                                churches, approve remarriage after
     viewpoint is Reformed. Convinced,                                                     to encourage the sin.
                                                divorce. Most of these approve re-
     rightly, that marriage and family                                                         I gladly recommend this book
                                                marriage after divorce for any and
     values are under attack and are be-                                                       The author is minister of the
                                                every reason. The chapter "Why Di-
     ing redefined in our day, the author                                                  Chatsworth Canadian Reformed
                                                vorce. Makes One Sin against the
     speaks in a pointed and down-to-                                                      Church in Canada.
                                                Seventh Commandment," an expla-
     earth way against evils that trouble                                                      The book can be ordered
                                                nation of Matthew 5:31, 32, forbids
     godly marriage. He warns, for ex-                                                                  Sharon Pearsons
                                                all remarriage after divorce:
     ample, that one may not "drag . . . in                                                                       Box 349
     (the woman of Proverbs 31) to ad-                                                              Tara, Ontario NOH 2N
                                                  When you get married you com-
     vocate mothers working outside the           mit yourself to your spouse for the                      Canada.  n

                                                                                                    December 1,1995lStandad~~e~ll?


The Beauty of God's Holiness, by           today's proponents of this evil to        of Psalm singing which is available
Thomas  E. Trevethan. Downer's             read what he has to say.                  in the book market. All our readers
Grove, IL: Intervarsity Press, 1995.           God's holiness  allso  leads          ought to sit down with it and read
278 pp. (paper). [Reviewed by Prof.        Trevethan to reject all universaliz-      it, for its argumentation is compel-
Herman Hanko.]                             ing tendencies, for the author insists    ling.
                                           that God's holiness requires God's            The book is carefully  and tight-
    Although this book is intended         just judgment  in wrath against all       ly argued and requires some con-
for devotional reading, it has as its      sin. It is in this connection that he     centration to follow the author's
central teaching a truth which,            includes a treatment of the so-called     thought. But this makes it all the
though much neglected in our day,          imprecatory Psalms.                       more persuasive and gives to the ar-
is of crucial importance. It success-          And it is in this same connec-        gument a cogency which cannot be
fully (and sometimes, beautifully)         tion that we find a treatment of the      gainsaid.
insists that all of life is and must be    atonement of Christ as a manifesta-           Although the author rests his
rooted in God's holiness as revealed       tion of God's holiness -- surely a        case on the regulative principle of
in His majesty, sovereignty, and           correct approach to the suffering of      worship (to which principle he gives
goodness. The author is deathly            the Savior.                               detailed attention), and although in
afraid of dragging the holy God                Included in the many attractive       his discussion of  the questions of
down to the level of man, which, he        features of the book is an excellent      what elements of worship are pre-
insists, leads to secularism, relativ-     treatment of the concepts "fear" and      scribed and what are not he applies
ism, subjectivism, and a return to         "terror" as used in the Scriptures        the regulative principle more broad-
the worship of pagan deities.              and the important difference be-          ly than I would, he argues chiefly
    This great truth of God's holi-        tween them. And we find a good            from the truth that the Psalms, and
ness touches upon every area of life.      explanation of how God's holiness         they alone, were given to the church
It is the only true foundation of an       determines all our worship, wheth-        for use in worship. This argument
ethics which insists upon obedience        er private or corporate.                  in the book is added to a statement
to God's law. Anything else, the              The book is not a moralistic or        in the Preface which reads:
author insists, leads to what he           legalistic book, but promotes a God-
whimsically calls a "boo-hurrah"           centered life of praise.                      The strongest argument for ex-
school of ethics. It goes like this.           While we recommend the book             clusive psalmody is the one that in-
                                           as a worthwhile and important con-          evitably wells up from within when
  According to this outlook, while         tribution to our devotional library,        a sincere Christian begins  to sing
  ethical statements appear to be          one word of caution is necessary.           the psalms with grace in his heart.
  about external states of affairs and                                                 Once these divine hymns have en-
                                           Although the author's rejection of a
  to invoke objective principles, close                                                tered into the heart of a man and
                                           literal interpretation of Genesis 1 is
  inspection shows that they actually                                                  he has been fed by the heavenly
                                           serious, it does not form as impor-
  refer only to personal taste. One                                                    manna which lies embedded there,
  says, "I [or we] do not like steal-      tant a part of the book as does his         he will never be satisfied with
  ing," for example, in much the           adherence to the error of free will         earthly counterfeits. And until a
  same way as one might say, "I do         (see pages 19,53,74-76  as examples).       man has experienced the psalms  in
  not like chili." "Honor your father      Because of his commitment to free           this way, all the sophisticated po-
  and your mother" means "I [or we]        will, the author loses the particular-      lemics in the world will not avail
  like it when children respect their      ity of God's works, especially those        to draw him away from his hymns.
  parents," again with much the same                                                   Acceptance or rejection of the posi-
                                           of the Holy Spirit in the hearts and
  meaning as "I like ice cream." In                                                    tion of exclusive psahnody is, I am
                                           lives of His people. It is to be re-
  short, "stealing, chili - boo!" and                                                  fully persuaded, as much a matter
                                           gretted that what is an excellent book
  "honoring parents, ice cream  -                                                      of the heart as a matter of the mind.
  hurrah!" Morality is reduced to a        is spoiled somewhat by this obvious
  matter of purely subjective person-      untruth.  n                                   The author includes an extensive
  al preference. Not snrprisingly,  the                                              treatment of all possible objections
  characteristic modem way of set-         The Songs of Zion,  by Michael            against exclusive psalmody and
  tling "moral" disputes is to take an     Bushnell. Pittsburgh: Crown and           shows why these objections do not
  opinion survey (p. 85).                  Covenant Publications, 1993.  240~~.      negate Scripture's injunctions to sing
                                           $11.00 (trade paper). [Reviewed by        only Psalms. It must be understood,
    In connection with the author's        Prof. Herman Hanko.]                      however, that in insisting on exclu-
critique of an ethical system not                                                    sive psalmody, the author limits ex-
rooted in the holiness of God, he of-          The Songs of Zion, originally         clusive psalmody only to the corpo-
fers a scathing denunciation of the        published in 1980, is now repub-          rate worship of the church (p. 53ff.)
modern psychologizing of ethics (see       lished in only a slightly modified        and family worship  (p. 54).
p. 86, e.g.). It would be well for         form. It is one of the best defenses

1WStandardBearerlDecember  1,199S


                                                                                 --




    Making the book yet more valu-          the entire Reformation. It became              Since the time of the Reforma-
able are several features which not         true that "To be a Calvinist was to        tion, the question of Psalm-singing
only add to his argument, but which         be a Psalm-singer" (p. 189). He de-        has periodically come up in the
make the book an excellent reference        scribes in detail the history of Psalm-    church. It  seems  destined to reap-
book His treatment of the impreca-          singing in this country and how            pear in our own circles soon. That
tory Psalms is excellent (pp. 34ff.).       hymns were often smuggled into the         makes this book alI the more worth-
His detailed description of the his-        church. If all this were not enough,       while and important. I can do no
tory of Psalm-singing in the church         the book is filled with quotations         better than advise anyone who has
shows a thorough knowledge of the           from many different sources which          the least notion to sing hymns in
subject. In connection with this his-       constantly sustain his argumentation       worship to read this book before he
tory he points out how Calvin in-           so that one is left with a library of      begins any agitation for changing
sisted on the Psalms and how Psalm-         resources in examining the whole           our current practice.  0
singing had a profound impact on            q u e s t i o n .
                                                                           1
  N@WS From al!? ch~rGh@~                                                   1                   MK  &qhmin  lM@gg@r

Young People's Activities                   Bruinsma, pastor at First, hopes "the      ary of our denomination, spoke on
    The young people of the South           presence of these young people  wiIl       the topic, "Calvinism as the Gospel,"
Holland, IL PRC have voted to have          show others that this small mission        at our Hope PRC in Redlands, CA
as their theme for next year's con-         field is not just a small sect but ac-     on October 27 and again on Novem-
vention, "Godly Friendship," with           tually belongs to a denomination of        ber 3 at the Loveland, CO PRC.
speeches on the three topics of per-        churches."                                     Rev. M. Joostens, of the Lynden,
sonal `friendship, friendship in the                                                   WA PRC spoke at their lecture on
church,`and friendship in marriage.         Congregational Activities                  the topic, "The Office of All Believ-
They also chose Revs. W. Bruinsma,              The congregation of the Bethel         ers."
B. Gritters, and R. VanOverloop  as         PRC in Elk Grove Village, IL met               Bethel PRC's Evangelism Com-
their speakers. Young people, make          recently to make some important de-        mittee sponsored  Prof.H. Hanko
your plans to attend!                       cisions concerning the location of         speaking on the subject, "The Refor-
    Sometimes we get the impres-            their church home in the future.           mation's Greatest Temptation," on
sion that all young people's fund-          Presently Bethel is meeting at the         November 2. The following  night
raisers are directly tied to each year's    Holiday Inn in Itasca, IL, and they        Prof. Hanko repeated this lecture in
convention. This may be true for a          have purchased some property for           the auditorium of the South Holland,
majority of the time, but for the next      a future church home. However,             IL PRC.
several months the young people of          with decisions made in mid-Octo-               The Immanuel PRC of Lacombe,
the First PRC in Holland, MI will be        ber, they have appointed a commit-         AB, Canada sponsored a lecture with
raising money for a different cause.        tee to negotiate the sale of their cur-    Rev. M.  DeVries speaking on the
The Lord willing, next June this:           rent land so that they in turn may         subject, "Seeking the True Church."
group will be spending about ten            purchase property in East Elgin, IL.           A Reformation Day Conference
days, between `the 13th and the 22nd,           We send along our belated con-         was held November 3 and 4 at our
with Rev. T. Miersma on the mis-            gratulations to the congregation of        Southwest PRC in Grandville, MI.
sion field of Alamosa, CO. It is            the First PRC in Edmonton, AB, Can-        Rev. R. Cammenga spoke Friday
hoped that this trip will give these        ada, who celebrated their 20th anni-       night on ."What was the Reforma-
young people a deeper understand-           versary as an organized congrega-          tion?" Prof. D. Engelsma spoke
ing and appreciation for the work           tion on October 13. This event was         twice on Saturday morning on the
done on a mission field.                    marked with a program that night.          subjects, "Luther: Man of Convic-
    Understandably, Rev. T. Mier-                                                      tion," and "Luther: Theologian of
sma, our churches' home mission-            Evangelism Activities                      the Glory of God."
ary, is also very excited about this            Many of our church bulletins               And finally, Rev. A. denHartog
up-coming trip. He is busy orga-            these past few weeks have held an-         gave a lectui%e entitled "Can Protes-
nizing a number of seminars open            nouncements concerning Reforma-            tants Be Reconciled with the Roman
to the community of Alamosa to cor-         tion Day` activities. I think this         Catholic Church?" for our Trinity
respond to First's visit.         Rev.      speaks well of our churches, with so       PRC in Houston, TX.
                                            many of them marking the histori-
Mr. Wigger is a member of the Protes-       cal event of the reformation of the        Minister  Activities
tant Reformed Church of Hudsonville,        church with a lecture or conference.           Candidate Doug Kuiper accept-
Michigan.                                       Rev. T. Miersma, home mission-         ed the call extended to him from our

                                                                                            December 1,1995Btandatd Beared 19


       =jRl!E
 gTjgJJl&f@J~                                                                                                   SECOND CLASS
      ~s&qFJ                                                                                                    Postage Paid at
                                                                                                                Grandville, Michigan
     P.O. Box 603
     Grandville, MI 49466-0603
I                           ,_.
Byrofi Center, MI PRC. Byron Cen-           PRC has made a trio of Revs. W.                         JFoodfor Ilioyht
ter is presently working to caII a spe-     Bruinsma, S. Key, and C. Terpstra.                "To preach Christ is to offend
cial  classis sometime in November                  The Grace PRC in Standale, MI         the flesh, but to preach the flesh is
for his final examination before his        made a new trio consisting of the             to offend Christ."
admittance into the ministry of the         Revs. A. denHartog,  D. Kuiper, and                                 - Martin Luther
Word and sacraments.                        C. Terpstra.. On November 7 they                                Table Talk, #504  0
      Our recently vacated Doon, IA         extended a call to Rev. denHartog.



         TEACHER NEEDED!!!                    RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
      The Protestant Reformed Chris-                The Consistory and congrega-                 TAPES AVAILABLE
tian School of South Holland will           tion of Edgerton PRC express their
need a teacher for the seventh              heartfelt sympathy to Mr. Henry                     Audio and video tapes
grade during the second semester            Huisken in the death of his daugh-                            of the
of the 19951996  school year. Per-          ter,                                              Reformation Conference
sons interested in this opening                       MISS BETH HUISKEN.
should apply in writing or call the                 May God's rich grace sustain                          held on
administrator, Lamm Lubbers, at             him and his family in their sorrow                   November  3,4,1995   '
(706)  333-9197.                            and may they be comforted with the
                                            words of Psalm 23:  "The Lord is                      at Southwest PRC.
     RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                 my shepherd; I shall not want. He                  The speakers and topics in-
      The Adult Bible Society of Grace      maketh me to lie down in green pas-            cluded are:           Rev. Ronald
PRC expresses its heartfelt sympa-          tures: he leadeth me beside the                Cammenga, "What Was the
thy to Mr. John Kalsbeek in the             still waters. He restoreth my soul:            Reformation?" and Prof. David
death of his brother,                       he leadeth me in the paths of righ-            Engelsma, "Luther: Man of Con-
         CHARLES DE JONG.                   teousness for his  namle's sake.               viction"; 'Luther: Theologian of
      May he and his family find com-       Yea, though I walk through the val-            the Glory of God."
fort in the words of Psalm 29:11,           ley of the shadow of death, I will
"The Lord will give strength to his         fear no evil: for thou art with me;                 Price of the tapes is:
people; the Lord will bless his peo-        thy rod and thy staff they comfort             $9.00 audio (set of 3)
ple with peace."                            me."                                           $18.00 video (set of 3).
                 Larry Meulenberg, Pres.               Consistory of Edgerton PRC
                 Beth DeVries, Secretary
                                              RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                            If you are interested, please
                                                                                           contact the
            THIRTY YEARS                            The Council of the First PRC of             Evangelism Committee
           IN THE MINISTRY                  Grand Rapids expresses its heart-                          Southwest
      With thankfulness to God,             felt sympathy on the death of our                Protestant Reformed Church
      REV. ROBERT D. DECKER                 fellow officebearer,                                4875 lvanrest  Avenue
recently commemorated thirty years                  ELDER WILLIAM COWSON,                        Grandville, Ml 49418
in the ministry of the Protestant Re-       to his widow, Mrs. Florence Cor.&n,
formed Churches. Rev. Decker                and his sons, Ron, Randy, and Rick
served the congregations of Doon,           Corson and their families.
IA and South Holland, IL. For the                   "... whether we live therefore, br
last twenty-two years Rev. Decker           die, we are the Lord's" (Romans
has been professor of Practical The-        14:8).
ology in the Protestant Reformed               Rev. James Slopsema, President
Seminary. To God be the glory!                             Ronald VanPutten,  Clerk


12O/Standard  Bearer/December  $1995


