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     Semi-Month/y
     Magazine.                                                       I_





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                                                   See "Entering the New Year" - p. 147



     ]anuary 1,1996


CONTENTS:                                                                               Januaty I, 1996


Meditation  - Rev. Cornelius Hanko
      Entering the New Year ................................................................... 147                        ISSN 0362-4692
Editorials - Prof. David J. Engelsma
      On Behalf of Our Schools ............................................................. 149                           Semi-monthly, except monthly during June. July, and August.
                                                                                                                           Published bythe Reformed Free Publishing hsoclatfon,  Inc.,
      On Behalf of Reformed Theology ................................................. 150                                 4949 I'hnrwt Ave., Grand~llle, MI 42418. Second Class
Letters .....................................................................................................     152      Postage Paid at Grandville, Michigan.
Search the Scriptures - Rev. Carl J. Haak                                                                                  Postrnastsr:  Send address changes to the Standard Bearer,
      Jesus' Sermon on the Bread of Life (1) ....................................... 153                                   P.O. Box 803, Qrandville. MI 42468~0603.
Apples of Gold ..............................................................            .......................... 154    EDtlORtAL COMMtllEE
                                                                                                                           Editor: ;PrOt. David J. Engslama
Ministering to the Saints - Mr. Gordon Schipper                                                                            Bareby: Prof. Robert D. Decker
      The Office of Deacon: Qualifications and Responsibilities ...... 155                                                 Mnnaglyg Editor: Mr. Don Dcezema
Taking Heed to the Doctrine  - Rev.  Steven R. Key                                                                         DEPARiMENT EDKORS
      Creation's Time Frame .................................................................. 157                         Rev. Wilbur Brulnama, Rev. Ronald Cammenga, Prof. Robert
                                                                                                                           Decker,: Rev. Arle denHartcg. Rev. Carl Haak, Prof. Herman
Contending for the Faith - Rev. Bernard woudenberg                                                                         Hanko, Rev. Ronald Hanko, Rev. Jason Korterlng, Rev. Date
      The Covenant - Just Leave It There ........................................... 159                                   Kulper, : Mr. Jamss  Laming, Mm. MarySeth Lubbers, Rev.
                                                                                                                           Thomas  Miersma,  Rev.  Glae  VanBaren, Rev. Ronald
Ail Around Us - Rev. Gise J. VanBaren ...............................................                             161      Van~~,Mr.Ben]amkrW~r.Rev.BemardWwdenberg.
Church and State - Mr. James Lanting                                                                                       EDtlORlAL OFFtCE            CHURCH NEWS EDtTOR
      Federal Court Declares State Good Friday School Holiday                                                              The Standard Bearer         Mr. Ben Wgger
                                                                                                                           4949 lviurrest              6587 40th Ave.
         Unconstitutional ......................................................................... 164                    Qrandvtlle, MI 49418        Hudaonville, MI 42426
Report of Classis  West - Rev, Steven R. Key ...................................... 166                                    BUSINESS OFFtCE             NEW ZEALAND OFflCE
                                                                                                                                                      The Standard Bearer
News From Our Churches - Mr. Benjamin Wigger ............................... 167                                           The Standard Bearer.
                                                                                                                           Do4 Ddezema                 c/o 8. VanHerk
                                                                                                                           P.O.  Box 803               62 Fraser St.
                                                                                                                           QrandvEe. MI               Waliruiomata, New Zeafand

                                                                                                                           PH~S$r%4rX                  UNtTED  KtNQDOM OFFtCE
                                                                                                                                   (816) 538-1778      c/o Mr. Jonathan McAuley
                                                                                                                           FAX  (Sle) 531-3322         164 Church Rd., Qtenwheny
                                                                                                                                                       Bnlhrmena Co. Antrlm 8742 2EL
                                                                                                                                                       Nor&em  Ireland
                                                                                                                           EDtlORfALPOLfCY
      Start with the meditation, appropriate to the beginning of a new year.                                               Every edkor Is eclely responslbte for the contents of his own
"If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that." The "condition of                                                 artfdes. CMltrl~ofgenerallnteresttmmourreademand
                                                                                                                           quest&s for The Readar Asks department are welcome.
James." This holds for the work and witness of the Standard Bearer too.                                                    Contrlbutkms will be limited to approzimntely 300 words and
And does not Rev. Cornelius Hank0 remind us all of the reason why we are                                                   mustk,nea~wr~en~(ypewrittsn,andmustbesigned.  Copy
                                                                                                                           deadlInes are the first and  ftfteenth  of the month.  All
alive in  1996?  "... that we may serve in our own small way toward the                                                    commuiricatlcns  relatfva to the contents should be sent to the
comingof His kingdom and the glory of His Name."                                                                           ediiorlal office.
      Mr. Gordon Schipper, who himself has served in the office of deacon,                                                 REPRIUT POLtCY
                                                                                                                           Permlsslonleherebygrantedfcrtherepdntingofartideslnour
gives good instruction to the church as to the nature of the office of deacon                                              magmdnebyotherfxMcatkms,pmvUed:a)thateuchrepdnted
and as to the qualifications of those men who may serve in the office (see                                                 artidss pm mpmdwed In fulk b) that propar acfmowfedgment
                                                                                                                           b msde; c) that a copy of the periodkxrl In which such repdnt
"The  Office of Deacon: Qualifications and Responsibilities").                                                             appwm  Is sent to our edllcrial olfkx.
      In his explanation of the Reformed doctrine of creation, Rev. Steven Key                                             SUSSCRIPTtDN POLtCY
addresses the issue of the days of Genesis 1. This is an aspect of the creation                                            subscdptkJn price: $17.00 per year kl the U.S., uS22o.w
account that would-be defenders of biblical creation usually studiously avoid.                                             drewhere. Unless a definite request for dlsccntinuance Is
                                                                                                                           receh+,   tt Is assumed that the rubscrtber  wishes  the
They suggest that the length of the days can safely be left an open question                                               rukuiptiontocontlnue,MdhewillbeMledf~wrenewal.  tfyou
without compromising the doctrine of creation.. Read "Creation's Time                                                      hawachengeofnddrew,plwwnotlfytheBudnea3Officew
                                                                                                                           eady  w possible In order to  awid the lnccnv&3nce  of
Frame."                                                                                                                    kwnJpted  &llwry. kldude your zip or Postal Cede.
      Attorney James Laming keeps us abreast of court decisions that bear on                                               ADvERnslNQPoLlcY
Christianity and the church. The decision in view "lends credence," writes                                                 The BfwdardBwmrdoe6  not eccept commercial advertising
                                                                                                                           of any kind. Announcements of church and schod events,
Laming, U to the contention held by many evangelical constitutional scholars                                               anniverpsrks,  obituarfes, and sympathy resofutions will be
who argue that,,.our federal courts are badly misinterpreting the Establish-                                               plawdfora$10.oofea l-hwerhculdbewnttottw@udnsss
                                                                                                                           Offkxandahculdbeaccompanfadbythe$10.00fee. Deadllne
ment Clause by requiring government hostility toward religious practice."                                                  for nnwuncements Is nt least one monih prtcr to publlcatfon
This, in our rubric, "Church and State."                                                                                   data
      Do not overlook the"`Letters" column.                                                                                BOUNDVOUJMES
      If the Lord will, in this and following issues, the SB will faithfully set                                           The Busfneas  Offtce will accept standlng orders for bound
                                                                                                                           copteeofthacurrentv0lume.  SuchordersareCl!edaseocnae
forth, explain, and defend the creedal Reformed faith - the faith of Scrip-                                                possible nfter completion cd a volume year.
ture - in A.D. 1996.                                                                                                       16mm  mfcrofilm.  t?Smm  microfilm  and 1tXmm mlcrotiche. and
                                                                                                                 -DJE      artWe  copier are  av&rble  through  Unfversky Micmfilms
                                                                                                                           IntematiorM.

IWStandard Bearer/January 1,1996


                        Entering the Nlew Year

     "Go to now, ye that say, Today or            He could be any of us, includ-         gotten, hardly receiving an expres-
tomorrow we will go into such a city,         ing you and me.                            sion of thanks.
and continue there a year, and buy and            How long was I and were you                In many ways we live and talk
sell, and get gain. Whereas ye know           awake this morning before we felt          as if we have control of our lives, as
not what shall be on the morrow. For          we should bring all the needs, cares,      if even the future is in our hands.
what is your life ? It is even a vapor,       and problems of the day before the             Go to now, ye that say.... Is it
that appeareth for a little time, and then    throne of grace to seek God's guid-        not time for you to do a bit of quiet
vanisheth away. For that ye ought to          ance? Often we make our plans for          reflection?
say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and     the day without asking the Lord's
do this, or that. I'                          approval and blessing. We seem
                          James 413-15        confident that we can manage very
                                              well on our own.                               James reminds us on these holy
     Go to now, ye that say....                   We make plans for a trip or for        pages of God's Word that when we
     James sometimes, as here, uses           a vacation, or even for weightier          live and talk that way we are boast-
rather strong language. He seems              matters, without consulting the Lord       ing in sinful pride. Such boasting is
disappointed with us. It is as if he          about it. Only after all our plans         vain, `Whereas ye know not what
wants to say, "What ails you? Do              are made do we ask the Lord to bless       shall be on the day of tomorrow."
you not realize how spiritually               them.                                          Let us face it, we sin when we
wrong, even sinful, you are when                  Some of the big decisions that         take matters into our own hands and
you talk like that?"                          affect our whole future and the fu-        make plans for the future as if that
     We stand at the beginning of a           ture of our families are made while        future were under our control. That
new year, the year of our Lord one            seeking very little, if any, guidance      is not mere thoughtlessness. It is
thousand nine hundred and ninety-             from the Almighty.                         sin before the face of the Most High
six, just four years from the turn of             Young people make some of the          God. In fact, it is the sin of para-
the century. At this point of our             biggest decisions of a lifetime, deci-     dise, the evil desire to be as God.
earthly pilgrimage we do well to take         sions which will determine their en-       This we must confess!
note of the warning Scripture gives           tire future, and yet this is often done        We must learn that we are de-
us here.                                      with little thought of prayer for          pendent creatures, who exist in the
     Our text is virtually a parable          guidance and blessing. Such deci-          palm of God's hand. Each moment
about a certain man who has been              sions as whether to attend college         of our existence we receive our life,
doing a lot of thinking and planning.         and where, what future vocation to         our breath, and our being from the
He has made up his mind that he is            seek, who will make a proper life          hand of the Almighty. Only accord-
ready to pack up his belongings and           mate, and what is my responsibility        ing to His, will do we live from mo-
move to another city. There at this           in the church, are all matters that        ment to moment.
new location he will set up a busi-           determine a, person's entire future,           We make plans for the day, for
ness. He is absolutely confident that         both for time and for eternity. Yet        the week, or even for longer periods
this is the thing to do, for he is sure       prayer for light and wisdom is often       of time, little considering that these
of financial success.                         sorely lacking.                            plans can never be realized unless
                                                  We treat our God as we regard          God directs our way accordingly.
                                              a doctor. It is nice to know that He           Often God touches our lives with
                                              is always on beck and call, but only       the very tip of His finger, and we
                                              in emergencies do we call upon Him         are brought to a halt. In fact, God
Rev. Hanko is a minister emeritus in          to come to our aid. When we are            may stop us in our tracks and change
the Protestant Reformed Churches.             back to normalcy God is again for-         our entire, future in a split second.

                                                                                               January 1,199WSfandard  Beareril47


Think of what happens in an auto-                   vapor, which appeareth for a little           of His kingdom and the glory of His
mobile accident. Man plans, but                     time, and then vanisheth away."               Name. What makes our life worth
God determines his way!                                   The man described in our text is        while is that we seek the things
     For we are children of time, who               purely materialistic. He ~thinks only         above.
live from moment to moment,                               of carrying out his business and            Living by faith we can confident-     '
not knowing the day of  to-                                    becoming rich and prosper-         ly say: "Thou hast holden me by
morrow.                                        We sin             ous. He seeks only earth-       Thy ,right hand. Thou shalt guide
     God has wisely hung               when we take               ly, carnal success.             me with Thy counsel, and afterward
a veil before our future.                      matters                  Notice, he plans to       receive me in glory!"
We can take but one step                into our own
                                          B                        move to another city. Did
at a time. We can live                         hands               he investigate whether
but one day at a time.                 and make plans              there is a church there
And sufficient unto the                for  thefuture              that bears the marks of            "For that ye ought to say, If the
day is the evil thereof.               as if that&tare             the true church? Did he        Lord will, I shall live, and do this,
    The obvious implica-                 were under               inquire about a good            or that."
tion is that our great God              our control.            Christian school for his chil-        Evidently our times have
has the future m-His hands.                                    dren? Does he know wheth-          changed. Not so many years ago it
He forcefully reminds that by                              er this is a proper environment        was :a common practice among be-
His almighty power He upholds and                   for his family? It seems all this is          lievers to include this limitation to
governs all things according to His                 forgotten.                                    any future plans: "if the Lord wills"
eternal counsel and purpose. He                           Is our sole ambition centered in        or "the Lord willing." The an-
brings the cold, the snow, and the                  this passing world? Often we live             nouncements on church bulletins
storms of winter. He sends warm                     as if this life is all that counts. We        also often included the letters, D.V.,
spring breezes, gives seed to the                   live only for the present. We want            that is, Dee Volente,  another way of
sower, supplies us with His rains                   all this, yes, but when we die we             saying, "The Lord willing."
and His sunshine. He provides the                  like to go to heaven.                              Were our forefathers more God-
warmth of summer and causes the                           Scripture stresses here, even as        conscious than we are today? Did
crops to produce food for man and                   in the entire Word of God, that our           they: realize their dependency upon
beast. He alone gives us each day                   life on earth is but a vapor, lasting a       God'more  than we do? Is that what
our daily bread.                                    moment. Like the flower of the field          mothers had in mind when they
    Our heavenly Father determined                  we wither and die. We care here to-           taught their children their evening
our parents, our time and place of                  day, but soon our place knows us              prayer: "Now I lay me down to
birth, the span of our lives, and all               no more.                                      sleep, I pray Thee, Lord, my soul to
that happens from day to day. He                          We walk in the midst of death.          keep. If I should die before I wake,
gives us our place in our families, in              The curse of sin rests upon us, and           I pray Thee, Lord, my soul to take"?
the church, and in the midst of this                its bitter consequences are evident               Deeply dependent upon our
present world. We are His work-                     in our lives. From the moment we              God `we must learn to say: "If the
manship, created in Christ Jesus                    are born until we breathe our last            Lord will, I shall live!" The Lord
unto those good works which God                     we experience sufferings, pains, anx-         gives us our allotted days, in order
has before determined for us to do                  iety, cares, and numerous problems.           that ,we as members of His family
that we should walk in them. He                     The child of God realizes this life is        may serve in our small way toward
uses us to serve His purpose unto                   not his final goal. This world is not         the coming of His kingdom and the
the coming of His kingdom.                          his home. All this is but a prepara-          glory of His Name.
    Tomorrow is not in your hands                   tion for his real life still to come.             Our will must be completely
and mine, but in the hands of the                         It is most important, especially        subservient to the wise and good will
wise and almighty God, who is our                   at the dawn of a new year, that we            of our heavenly Father. At all times
heavenly Father in Christ Jesus,                    are reminded that we are pilgrims             `we must be ready to say:  "Have
whose counsel stands and who does                   and strangers on the earth. We are            Thine own way, Lord. Thou art the
all His good pleasure.                              only passing through, for our citi-           Potter, I am the clay." We must be
    We walk at His hand, one step                  zenship and our real home are in               as fully devoted to Him as are the
at a time. And as we walk He leads                  heaven.                                       angels that minister before the
us to our eternal home with Him in                        Our heavenly Father has re-             throne.
glory!                                              deemed us with the blood of His                   That requires prayer, much
                                                    dear Son, and given us as new crea-           prayer, constant prayer, a praying
          +4++++*                                  tures our place in His church and              without ceasing.
                                                   kingdom, that we may serve in our                  God's kingdom must come, and
    What is your life? It is but a                 own small way toward the coming                you and I are instruments in God's

148lStandard BearerlJanuaty 1, 1996


hand toward the coming of His wide         blessed, adorable Name of our God                   May that be our deepest ambi-
and vast dominion in the new cre-          may receive all the praise, world            tion also in the coming year! We do
ation.                                     without end!                                 not enter this year alone, but we en-
    Come what may, upon that                   For God's is the kingdom, His            ter it with our God! 0
kingdom we fix our blessed hope,           is the power, His is the glory forev-
in order that the ever glorious,           er and ever!





                     n Behalf of Our Schools

    The Federation of Protestant Re-         pectations of Christian teachers.          education, the course will consider
formed Christian Schools has under-          The course will conclude with ap-          such truths as the Christian schools
taken a project that promises to be          plications of the principles of Re-        and the covenant; the Christian
of great worth for our schools. In           formed Christian education to the          schools and the Bible; and the Chris-
the nature of, the case, the project is      workplace - to the school as insti-        tian schools and the confessions.
                                             tution, to the classroom, to the stu-
of immediate interest to those in the        dent, to the parents, to the office of            The Federation of Protestant Re-
Western Michigan area. The bene-             the principal/administrator. The           formed Christian Schools has con-
fits will eventually extend to our oth-      course will be conducted in semi-          tracted, with Hope College in Hol-
er schools.                                  nar format.                                land, Michigan to provide the
    In Western Michigan, school                                                         course. This means that the course
boards, parents, and all with a heart          Although the course will present         can be taken for credit. Especially
for the covenant, as well as teachers      the principles of Reformed Christian         the college students who take the
and would-be teachers, should take         education, specifically Protestant Re-       course will appreciate this. One has
lively interest in this activity.          formed Christian education, a main           already arranged with a state uni-
    The project is an academic             purpose will be the implementation           versity that credits from this course
course that has been specially creat-      of these principles. The description         will be applied to the student's mas-
ed for Protestant Reformed teachers        of the course concludes:                     ter's level,program at that universi-
and for college students who intend                                                     ty-
to teach in the Protestant Reformed          A  critical assignment for this course            The instructor will be Mr. Jon
schools.                                     will be a presentation . . . which will    H&ken, Dean of Academic Servic-
    The course is called "Seminar on         demons&ate an understanding of             es and Registrar at Hope College
the Principles and Practices of Re-          the mission, goals, and objectives         and elder m the Grandville PRC. Mr.
formed Education." The course de-            of the Reformed Christian school           Huisken is himself an experienced
                                             and how this makes a difference in
scription states:                            our teaching.                              teacher.
                                                                                               The Federation is underwriting
  A course designed to introduce stu-          Main topics to be treated include        the cost of the course, so that there
  dents to the history of and theolog-     the history of Reformed Christian            will be no'tuition for those who take
  ical foundations for Reformed                                                         the course.
  Christian education and the princi-      education; the Reformers and edu-                   For the convenience of the teach-
  ples that have driven this move-         cation; principles of Reformed Chris-        ers and students who will be taking
  ment. Particular emphasis will be        tian education; education as rearing;
  given to the idea of parent-con-         mission/goals/objectives of Re-              the course, classes will be held at
  trolled schools as they have devel-      formed Christian education; exami-           the Protestant Reformed Seminary
  oped in the United States. Other         nation of the mission statements of          in Granddlle, Michigan.
  topics stressed will be the relation-    different schools, Christian and sec-               Classes will be held on alternate
  ship between faith and learn@, the       ular; who is the teacher?; and the           Wednesday evenings through May,
 idea of a Reformed world and life         Christian concept of self. In co.nnec-       beginninglon  January 17,1996. Each
 view and the characteristics and ex-      tion with the principles of Reformed         class will meet from 6:30 - 9:30 PM.

                                                                                                 January 1,199WtandmiSeartv/149


The course will conclude with a             sovereignty of God in the Lord Jesus        arise, it is a threat that knowledge
week of concentrated work in July           Christ, of the truth of creation and        of and even concern for the princi-
or August.                                  providence, and of the antithesis.          ples `wane. The schools continue to
     Especially the younger teachers        More and more, our teachers are             exist and may even flourish physi-
in the Protestant Reformed Christian        trained in secular colleges.                cally. But at the heart of the move-
schools in Western Michigan ought               This must be a concern, not only        ment, zeal for the Reformed princi-
to make every effort to take the            to the covenant community that look         ples cools.
course. Our school boards should            to these men and women for the                   This is an evil which, if not cor-
strongly urge these teachers to avail       teaching of the children of the cove-       rected, would bring the whole work
themselves of the course. All young         nant but also to these men and wom-         to ru,in.
men and women attending colleges            en themselves. There is a serious                The course can serve also as a
in the area who intend to teach in          lack in their academic training.            safeguard against this evil, as re-
the Protestant Reformed Christian               They must - and do! - them-             gards the teachers.
schools should enroll. Parents              selves bring the principles of the faith         We should have a similar class
should encourage this.                      to bear on their teaching as they have      for us parents.
     Under the blessing of the God          learned it athome and in the church.             There is still time to  .enroll.
of the covenant, the course will ben-       But the course being offered wiJl cer-      Write Hope College, c/o Mr. Jon
efit the teachers, the children they        tainly help them.                           Huisken, P.O. Box 9000, Holland,
teach, and the precious  covenant-              There is the danger in Refomed          Michigan 49422-9000. Or call (616)-
cause of Protestant Reformed Chris-         education that the great covenant           395-7760.
tian education.                             work of the schools begins to run                The course is aimed at teachers
     Our teachers are not presently         on the capital of commitment to             in the Protestant Reformed Christian
able to receive their training in a col-    principles of former generations.           schools. I am sure that others who
lege that is committed to the princi-       The Protestant Reformed schools             desire to please Christ by teaching
ples that make our separate schools         had their beginning in the fiery love       according to Reformed  truth will be
a necessity. In the existing Reformed       of parents, teachers, and others for        welcome.
colleges, there is a serious falling        the great, grand, distinctive truths             Is there any reason why the
away from the fundamentals of the           of the covenantal Reformed faith.           classroom should not be full?
Reformed faith that undergird Chris-        As time passes and new generations                                           - DJE
tian education. Think only of the



                                         On Behalf of
                         Reformed Theology

    Dutch Reformed theology.                 the Dutch Reformed tradition and             ology. Bavinck (X354-1921) was a
    In English.                              are committed to making the best             contemporary and close associate
                                             of it available in English.
    A good cause that readers of the                                                      of Abraham Kuyper and excelled
                                                                                          Kuyper as a theologian. Bavinck's
Standard Bearer should be aware of           The founders are members of five             work is regarded as superior in
and can help.                                different Reformed denominations.            many ways to the work of Louis
    From the Board of the Dutch Re-           Among them are professors on                Berkhof and G.C. Berkouwer, both
formed Translation Society, the SB           three different seminary faculties.          of whom relied substantially on
has received the following: "mess re-        The board members are united in              Bavinck. This translation, an
                             "
                                    L
lease."                                      their appreciation of a common               $80,000 project, wili be the first
                                             Dutch Reformed theological lega-             complete translation of Bavinck's
  Twelve men in Western Michigan             cy-                                          systematic theology.
  have established the Dutch  Re-
' formed Translation Society. Lay-           The first project, already well un-          The first publication will be a se-
  men, pastors, and academicians, all        derway, is the translation of Dr.            lection from Bavinck's work that
  are familiar with the literature of        Herman Bavinck's four-volume                 deals with the doctrine of the last
                                             work on systematic or doctrinal  the-

15OlStandard  Bearer/January 1,1!396


  things, or eschatology. It is due to     things will be published as an at-         dress.
  appear in the spring of 1996. Bak-       tractive paperback by Baker Book                    The purpose reads, in part:
  er Book House of Grand Rapids,           House of Grand Rapids. In time,
  MI is the publisher.                     the entire  Gereformeerde Dogmatiek                 The purpose of the Dutch Re-
                                                                                            formed Translation Society is to
  After completing the Bavinck             is to appear, in English, in several             sponsor: the translation and facili-
  project, the society will move on to     matching, hardcover volumes.                     tate the: publication in English of
  other worthwhile devotional and                 Baker will publish all the works          important Reformed theological
  doctrinal literature. Dutch Re-          translated by the Society.                       and rehgious literature published
  formed theology, the board be-                  How can readers of the SiB sup-           in the Dutch language.
  lieves, offers the most mature and       port and promote this worthwhile                   The members of the Society be-
  comprehensive development of the         venture?
  Calvinian or Reformed faith avail-                                                        lieve that the Dutch Reformed tra-
                                                  First, many could join the Soci-          dition has produced many works
  able, but has been kept from wider       ety by contributing a one-time mem-              that deserve much wider distribu-
  Christian readership by the relative                                                      tion than  the limited accessibility
  obscurity of the Dutch language.         bership fee of $100. In this way they
                                           become part of the venture. To a                 of the Dutch language makes pos-
                                                                                            sible. The writings selected are rec-
  Membership in the society is open        large extent, the Society's work will            ognized classics 
  to all who pay a one-time member-        depend on these memberships.                                           that would be
                                                                                            widely iappreciated by English-
  ship fee of $100. This assures mem-      Members will be kept informed of                 speaking Reformed believers
  bers of newsletters on forthcoming       developments. They will also re-                 around the world. They would also
  projects as well as substantial dis-     ceive substantial discounts on all               reveal the spiritual and theological
  counts on pre-publication prices for     books translated by the Society.                 genius of this tradition to Christians
  all society projects. The address is            Second, some might also think             of  other backgrounds.
  Dutch Reformed Translation Soci-                                                            The ultimate goal is to spread
  ety, R.0. Box 7083, Grand Rapids,        this project worthy of substantial
                                                                                            and to strengthen the Reformed
  MI 49510.                                gifts - hundreds or thousands of
                                           dollars. The Society asks that the               faith....
                                           wealthy, businesses, and founda-                   On behalf of Dutch Reformed
    The editor of the SB is a found-       tions consider its work in their giv-      theology, Inever before in English.
ing member of the Society and a            J%*                                                A good cause. 0
member of the Board of Directors.                 Third, all can buy the books of                                           -DJE 
    The work of this Society is de-        Reformed theology translated by the
serving of the financial support of        Society, beginning with the volume
the readers of the SB. All are inter-      of Reformed eschatology forthcom-
ested in books that explain and de-        ing next spring.
fend the Reformed faith. All are de-              All gifts, including membership
sirous to see such books circulate ev-     donations, are tax-deductible. The         I-
erywhere in the world.                     Society is officially incorporated with
    The Dutch Reformed Translation         the Michigan Department of Com-
Society (DRTS) intends to make             merce. It has been granted tax-ex-                            Lord, Tea&i Me
available in English for the first time    empt status by the IRS and can re-
some of the wealth of Reformed             ceive charitable contributions.                  Lord, teach me how to pray
truth that now lies buried in the                 The translation of Dutch books            To praise and honor Thee,
Dutch language, inaccessible to all        is costly. Translating Bavinck's en-             Extolling all Thy virtues,
who cannot read Dutch.                     tire dogmatics will be an $80,000                Thy grace, boundless, and free.
    Although the Society has begun         project. Some $70,000 still needs to
with Herman Bavinck's monumen-             be raised. Most of the expense is                Thy glory fills the heav'ns;
tal dogmatics,  Gereformeerde              the wages of the professional trans-             Thy wonders crown the earth;
Dogmatiek (&formed Dogmatics),             lator.                                           Thy ways, past understanding;
and intends to translate other theo-           Memberships and contributions                Thy name, unmatched in worth.
logical works, plans are to translate      should be sent to:
also certain works of a more practi-                    Dutch Reformed                      Thou hast made in Thy image
cal and devotional nature.                             Translation Society                  Mankind, a faint reflection
   The firstfruits of what the Soci-                     P.O. Box 7083                      Of Thine own attributes.
ety hopes will be a rich harvest will                Grand Rapids, MI 49510                 Immeasurable perfection!
appear in the spring of 1996, God              Informational brochures on the
willing. The section in Bavinck -on        Society, including its purpose and                                     Thelma We&a
the Reformed doctrine of the last          the present Board, are available
                                           without charge from the same ad-

                                                                                                 January 1, I996/StandatdBeare~lSl


n Singing Psalms                           that such power of the Psalms lies          Psalter of doctrinal errors and if pos-
                                           in the fact that they are  God-             sible' to make recommendation for
     I would like to express my ap-        b r e a t h e d ?                           some revision" (Art. 53) Out of this
preciation for your editorials of May           Psalms, as products of the Spir-       committee came a request to the syn-
1 and June 1, 1995 entitled "Music         it, are profitabie for doctrine, for re-    od of 1949 "to work on versifica-
in the Church." These articles de-         proof, for correction, that the man         tions, as literal as possiblej  of Scrip-
serve careful reading, so that the         of God may be furnished unto all            ture ,passages dealing with Christ's
principle that underlies them, name-       good works. Is not this the reason          birth, crucifixion, resurrection, Pen-
ly that the Psalms constitute the          that we are commanded to sing from          tecost, etc., and incorporate it (sic)
church's  songbook till the end of         the only  songbook given to the             in  thjz new P&alter" (Acts of Synod,
time, is clearly understood. We sing       church? And do we not also run              1949, Art. 27). This, of course, was
them, not first of all because it is       the risk of losing the "little Bible"       a request to revise the Psalter into a
required of us by the C,hurch Order,       when, in our schools and homes, we          Psalter Hymnal and the PRC out of
but because it is required of us by        find ourselves using more and more          exclusive psalmody. This history
God Himself.                               hymns?                                      should caution one who desires that
     I do however have a question.             This is not to say that our 1912        the churches remain a psahn-sing-
In my study of the Psalm/Hymn              version of the Presbyterian PskZter         mg denomination: "pas op.! M
question I have read that the origi-       is above criticism. There is in fact            Referring to our Psalter as the
nal word-order in Ephesians  5:19          room for improvement in some                "1912 version of the Presbyterian
and Colossians 3:16 is "psalms and         songs both in music and poetic struc-       Psa#ev,`- as is done more often of
hymns and songs spiritual" - the           ture, to  make  them more singable          late, strikes me as odd. We do not
idea being that the adjective "spiri-      and closer to the Ring James Ver-           refer, to our Bibles as "our 1611 ver-
tual" (that is, Spirit-breathed, or in-    sion of the Bible. In the late 40s a        sion ,of the Church of England Bi-
spired) qualifies psalms and hymns         committee was appointed by synod            ble" [or to our creed as "our 1563
and songs. Is this correct? And, if        to work on Psalter improvement.             German Reformed Catechism."
so, does that not provide additional       That attempt was later aborted when         Why is not the Psalter that the PRC
evidence that God's command is             the committee. attempted to intro-          have, used with profit for some 70
that we sing the Psalms, since they        duce good hymns. Is there some-             years, and that they are using at
alone are inspired?                        thing to be said for resurrecting that      present with enthusiasm, simply our
    God's command that inspired            attempt at the synodical level - in         Psalikr?
songs be sung in the worship ser-          an attempt to make of the songbook                                           - Ed.
vices was taken very seriously by          of our churches a closer versifica-
the apostolic and patristic church.        tion of the original, inspired Word?        4 Called to Indoctrinate
And that was at a time when, as can                                Johm VanBaren
now be proven through the Dead                                    Grandville, MI           The "Reformation Issue" of the
Sea Scrolls, many uninspired hymns                                                     Standard Bearer  (October 15, 1995)
were already in existence. Those           Response:                                   was one of the best ever. A preg-
hymns did later find their way into                                                    nancy of Reformed orthodoxy per-
the worship services. Hardly a co-             Grammatically, the adjective.           vaded every article, and every arti-
incidence that that was soon fol-          "spiritual" both in Ephesians 5:19          cle in turn dealt with the core of the
lowed by acceptance of false doc-          and in Colossians  3:16 modifies            Reformed faith. I confess to having
trine and  unbiblical worship. A           "songs," not "psalms" or "hymns."           been immensely encouraged by
cause and effect relationship is diffi-    The adjective has the feminine end-         those doctrinal fibres, which, when
cult to prove, but I found it interest-    ing corresponding to the feminine           woven together, create the distinc-
ing to note that students of the Ref-      noun "songs." The other two nouns           tive and attractive position of the
ormation have observed that in             are masculine. As far as the text is        PRC.
many places where the PsaIter  pre-        concerned, therefore, "spiritual                Rev. Cornelius Hanko's Where
ceded the actual Reformation, and          songs" is distinguished from                We Stand Today" dealt excellently
where people began singing Psalms          "psalms" and "hymns."                       with the most important matter of
in the homes and fields, there the             The 1944 synod of the Protes-           all, the future of the distinctive doc-
Reformation proved more likely to          tant Reformed Churches (PRC) ap-            trinal. stand of the PRC. He  asks:
prosper. Can there be any doubt            pointed a committee "to purge the           "Has the pendulum swung too far

152JStandard  Bearer/January  1,1996


the other way [from indoctrination          similar to yours, mainly through the     sider reprinting more doctrinal and
toward contemporary, social mat-            polemical writings of Herman Hoek-       polemical articles by Herman Hoek-
ters]? Are our people being as thor-        sema and others, for which we are        sema. Hoeksema's crisp and incom-
oughly indoctrinated as they should         thankful. Our regret is that we were     parably Reformed writings that led
be?" Of course, not being a mem-            not part of that great heritage from     me to seek a truly Cab&&tic theol-
ber of the  PRC, I cannot answer            birth common grace and the well-         ogy will doubtless invigorate others,
these questions. But, certainly, while      meant offer were part of our up-         giving both "indoctrination" and his-
members of the PRC must ask (and            bringing. The unenthusiastic can-        torical perspective. We desperately
answer) such queries, in the final          not be enthused by gimmicks or in-       need those voluminous writings,
analysis ministers must honestly in-        novations: Hoeksema was correct          locked away in Dutch, to be trans-
terrogate themselves on this matter.        in saying that the people needed         lated, for the advancement not only
Is God's grace particular? Yes! Is          "Doctrine" in the first place, in the    of the PRC, but of the entire body
common grace a myth? Most defy-             second place, and in the third place.    Reformed - for example, A Power
niteZy! Is the "well-meant offer" er-       Therefore, the antithesis (obliterat-    of God Unto Salvation, or Grace Not
roneous? Yes  - it is full-blown            ed by common grace) must be main-        an Offer, already begun by the late
Arminianism. If so, the  onus is on         tained - namely: II... saying Yes to     Prof. H.C. Hoeksema. Who will be-
ministers to "indoctrinate" continu-        God and all that He requires, and        gin this great task? Will you? Please
ally their congregations and reading        saying No to what God forbids, and       beginnow!  0
public.                                     to all that opposes God" (Rev.                                  Raymond Kemp
         Many of us in the British Isles    Dykstra, p. 36).                                                     Co. Cavan
have recently come to hold doctrines            The Standard Bearer  might con-                         Republic of Ireland





                                                  John 6:22-40
                     Jesus' Sermon on the
                                Bread of Life (1)

         This memorable and beautiful       point:  What kind of Bread is He?        who will satisfy their physical needs.
sermon on Christ as the Bread of            When the Lord teaches that He is         When they are made to understand
Life is directly connected to the mir-      the indispensable spiritual bread,       that the real Jesus is come to save
acle of the feeding of the five thou-       and that He is that bread by a won-      His people from guilt, corruption,
sand. For the Jews this was the             der of sovereign election and gra-       and the misery of sin, they turn their
greatest miracle they had ever seen,        cious atonement for the sins of His      backs upon Him.
and in their carnal zeal they see Him       own, the Jews are offended, and              2. What lay at the bottom of
as the perfect king, able to supply         many walked no more with Him.            this rejection was the Lord's teaching
them with earthly bread. The Lord               A few points ought to be kept        on the sovereignty of God's grace in
wasted no time in announcing to             clearly before us in this study.         Christ. When the Galileans hear that
them that He can be and will be the             1. This  is a great turning point    they cannot come to Him unless the
Bread of Life to His own, only through      in the Lord's ministry. This chapter     Father draws them, that unless He
His death on the cross for their sins.      shows Jesus' fall from the height of     die for their sins they have no life in
The whole passage centers in one            popularity to public scorn, The tran-    them, that He is the bread sent down
                                            sition is made in one day in             from God for those elected of the
                                            Capernaum. It was not that Jesus         Father - in short, when they hear
Rev. Haak is pastor of Bethel Protes-       changed (Heb. 13:8), but the concep-     that salvation is entirely of grace -
tant Reformed Church in Itasca, Illi-       tion of the multitude was altered.       they are offended in Him. This is
nois.                                       Men want Him to be the Messiah           always the sharp edge of the gospel.

                                                                                           January 1, lsBelStand&  Bearer1153


The Lord's words humble us. Our                                2) To believe in Him is              derness? Who did they think gave
salvation can only be of His will and                     .    possible only by divine elec-        it to them?
work, not our own. It can be only                              tion and irresistible calling.            8. From the Lord's words in
by grace that we embrace these                                 3) Those believing in Him            verses 32,33, explain the significance
truths as the sure wonder of our sal-                          will be kept and raised up           of the manna in the wilderness and
vation.                                                        at the last day.                     how it was a type of Christ.
        3. This sermon, therefore, con-                                                                  9. Why is bread such a fitting
tains the ve y heart of the gospel, which                           Questions                       figure of Christ? What does it mean
is nothing fess than T.U.L.I.P.  Our                     1. Read through the entire dis-            that those who come to Him shall
study of it ought to be eager, hum-                 course and show how Jesus ,teaches              never hunger or thirst?
bling, and extremely joyful. It for-                the doctrines of sovereign grace, the                10. What bread are the Jews ask-
ever blasts the false hope of an earth-             five points of Calvinism (T.U.L.I.P.).          ing for in verse  34? How is this
ly kingdom and at the same time                          2. Explain why the people                  done today? How do we often ask
draws out of Christ's true disciples                were curious about how Jesus had                for the same?
the confession: "Thou hast the                      arrived in Capernaum.             What is            11. Show from the verses 36-40:
words of eternal life."                             their motive at this point in "seeking                     a. The divinity of Christ
                                                    for Jesus" (v. 24 and v. 26)?                              b. Eternal and gracious
                    Outline                              3.  Verse 27: What does Jesus                   election
1. The Jews search for Jesus (w.                    forbid? command? promise?  What                            c. Irresistible grace
22-25).                                             does it mean that He is sealed by the                      d. The preservation of the
2.  The Lord rebukes their motive                   Father?                                              saints
for seeking Him and instructs as to                      4. What prompted the ques-                            e. Faith as the only way of
what the motive must be (w. 26,                     tion the Jews have in verse 28? What                 salvation
27).                                                do they mean by it?                                  12. Discuss the comfort that is
3.  Jesus is the true Bread sent                         5. Does verse 29 teach that                given in the Lord's words: "him
down from heaven (w. 28-40).                        faith is a work?  In what sense is              that cometh  to me, I will in no wise
        a. The work of God is to be-                faith the work that pleases God?                cast out.S
        lieve on Him whom He sent (w.                    6.  Why do they ask for a                       13. What does it mean to be
        28,29).                                     "sign" in verse 30? What had Jesus              raised up at the last day? How does
        b. The manna was a sign of the              said that in their judgment now re-             Jesus show that this is the great end
        true Bread which the Father                 quired the verification of a sign?              or goal God has in mind in our sal-
        giveth (w. 30-34).                          What kind of a sign do they seek?               vation?
        c. Jesus is the Bread of Life (w.                7. What are the Jews saying in                  14.  l-low are these truths of
        35-40).                                     verse 31? How did they conceive of              God's sovereign and gracious salva-
             1) Those believing in Him              the manna that was given in the wil-            tion your personal and unmovable
             shall never hunger.                                                                    comfort?  0


                                  Anotfier year                             Another year - a year begun in prayer,
                                                                            A year in which I know my Savior`s there.
        Another year has just begun -                                       How can H pray? What words shaII I now say?
        Another year my earthy race to run.                                 My feeble efforts - Are they heard night and day?
        How shall I run? What is my goal?
        Where shall I find rest for my soul?                                "Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we  know
                                                                            not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself
        "I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of       maketh intercession for us with groanings  which cannot be
        God in Christ ]esus. w                        Philippians 3:14      utttd."                                          Romans 826
        Another year - again a year of war -                                Another year - a year to praise our Lord,
        A year to fight the evil at my door.                                A year to 8lorlfy His name in sweet accord.
        How do I fight? What is my strategy?                                How can I praise? Can these lips utter laud?
        What my protection? What refuge is for me?                          Can sinful man praise the thrice-holy God?
        "Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to             "0 Lord, open thou my lips; and my mouth shall shew forth
        stand against the wiles of the devil."         Ephesians 6:ll       thy praise. "                                     Psalm 51:15
                                                                                                                         Thelma Westra

154lStandardBearerlJanuary  1,1996


                  The Office of Deacon:
                                  Qualifications
                     and ResponsibMes

      Wherefore, brethren, look ye out         John a Lasco was pastor of a ref-       not doing justice to a particular as-
among you seven men  of  honest report,    ugee congregation in London dur-            pect of the office of Christ in the
full  of  the Holy Ghost and wisdom,       ing the time of persecution that fol-       church. Christ's care of His poor
whom we may appoint over this busi-        lowed the Reformation. Under his            required men who made this work
ness. I1                                   leadership the church developed a           their peculiar business. The apos-
                              Acts 6~3     rich understanding of the office of         tles therefore set forth the qualifica-
                                           deacon. It is instructive to note the       tions they felt  were necessary for
     Once each year the men current-       procedure for electing deacons in his       those who would represent Christ
ly holding  `office in our churches        congregation. P.Y. DeJong in his The        as He cared for the poor in their fel-
meet together as council and con-          Ministry of Mercy for Today states          lowship. This was emphatically a
sider who among the men in the con-        on page 65,                                 spiritual calling with spiritual quali-
gregation'best meet the qualifications                                                 fications, namely,  being of honest re-
for deacons as mentioned in Acts 6           The consistory would prescribe a          port and being full of the Holy
and in I Timothy 3. The office bear-         special day of fasting and prayer         Ghost and of wisdom.
ers consider these qualifications in         on which the minister was to                  The apostle Paul gives an exten-
light of the unique duties Christ calls      preach twice, explaining tbe nature       sive treatment of the requirements
deacons to perform. The church has           and function of this holy office.         for officebearers in I Timothy 3. Af-
gleaned from the Scriptures its un-          Thereupon the congregation joined         ter listing the qualifications for rul-
derstanding of this office and has           in prayers for the wisdom and
                                             guidance of God. Witbin the next          ing elder, Paul states the character-
expressed the responsibilities of dea-       week, the ballots of the members          istics of good deacons. They must
cons in our Church Order and in              were collected at the homes by the        "be grave, not doubletongued, not
our Form of Ordination of Elders             elders. From those designated by          given to much wine, not greedy of
and Deacons, The congregation                the members, the consistory elect-        filthy lucre; holding the mystery of
must  prayerfully consider the men           ed the necessary number.                  faith in a pure conscience." The
nominated and vote for those whom                                                      apostle continues by stating that the
they think to be best suited for the       Though our churches do not follow           deacons must "be the husbands of
office. In this way Christ calls the       the formal aspects of this procedure,       one wife, ruling their children and
men whom He wants to represent             we can learn something from the             their own houses well." The Church
Him as the merciful High Priest in a       great importance which the Re-              Order and Form of Ordination sum-
local congregation. Electing good          formed churches historically have           marize the calling of deacons. Artl-
deacons is necessary for the spiritu-      placed on the office of deacon.             cles 25 and 26 of the Church Order
al health of a congregation. We must           When instituting the office of          maintain that "the office peculiar to
take the calling seriously. We must        deacon, the apostles called the con-        the Deacons is diligently to collect
review the qualifications and respon-      gregation to consider the qualifica-        alms and other contributions of char-
sibilities of the office of deacon on a    tions for the office in the same breath     ity . . . and faithfully and diligently
regular basis.                             they used to indicate the reason for        to distribute the same to the poor as
                                           the office (Acts 6:3). This points out      their needs may require it." These
                                           that the apostles were not looking          articles also call the deacons to visit
                                           merely for assistance with some ad-
Mr. Schipper  is a member of and former                                                and comfort the distressed and to
deacon in Southwest Protestant Re-         ministrative and logistical details.        assist the poor, making use of insti-
                                           The 
formed Church.                                     apostles realized that they were    tutions of mercy. The Form of Or-

                                                                                              January 1,1996/Standard  BeamI  55


dination gives similar instruction, as                 fort of the Word! They come with           "mercy and truth" ten times. This
it notes the calling of deacons to be                  much more than mere .consolation           phrase appears in the  Psalms five
the diligent collection and preserva-                  or platitudes, such as "every cloud        times. In the Psalms, where this
tion of the alms along with cheerful,                  has a silver lining." The Form of          phrase appears, the psalmist is ei-
discrete, and prudent distribution to                  Ordination specifies that, along with      ther offering a prayer of supplica-
objects of charity.                                    the material gifts, deacons must           tion to God, or he is extolling God
     From the biblical qualifications                  bring "comfortable words from              for His virtues. Note the following
and the church's understanding of                      Scripture." Deacons must therefore         opening lines: "Unto thee, 0 Lord,
their duties, we may say a few things                  have a broad familiarity with Scrip-       do I lift up my soul" (Ps. 25). "Hear
about the men who make good                                 ture. They must lay hold of the       my cry, 0 God" (Ps. 61). "Bow
deacons.                                                       principle that Christ Himself      down thine ear, 0 Lord, hear me"
     First of all, it is clear            Prospective           effectually speaks His            (Ps. 86). "I will sing of the mercies
that the church must                     officebearers           Word in the hearts of His        of the Lord for ever" (Ps. 89). God.
know the men whom they                      must be              people as the deacons, as        is mercy and truth! These are vir-
elect as officebearers. It                 aCtive in             His official representatives,    tues of God. This is the God of our
is not enough simply to be               congreg&ional           open the Scriptures. Men         salvation. Christ Himself chmg to
satisfied that there is noth-                 life.             in the congregation must          these virtues of God, as is evident
ing evident that disqualifies                                 continually strive to acquire       from Psalm 40, where the Spirit of
a man from serving. If the only                            a thorough knowledge of the Bi-        Christ inspired David to write in
thing that one knows about a man                       ble so that they are prepared for this     verse 11, "Let thy lovingkindness
is his name and that he attends                        work should it please our Lord to          and thy truth continually preserve
church regularly, one has no basis                     call them to this office.                  me." Deacons, as representatives of
yet for considering him to be quali-                       Closely related to the require-        Christ, must reflect this in their doc-
fied to hold one of the special offic-                 ment that a man be full of the Holy        trine and life. This is also very prac-
es. The church must know positive-                     Ghost is the characteristic of a dea-      tical because it is the Reformed faith
ly that a man satisfies the qualifica-                 con that he "holds the mystery of          that is comforting to God's people.
tions. This implies that prospective                   faith in a pure conscience." Dea-          As Rev.' Vandenberg noted in vol-
officebearers must be active in con-                   cons must be doctrinally sound.            ume 32, page 358 of the Standard
gregational life. Only in this way                     Here, also, it is not enough that doc-     Bearer, true mercy leads God's peo-
can a congregation know that a man                     trinal error be absent. It must be         ple "in the way of truth, in which
is "full of the Holy Ghost." This                      positively evident that a man is thor-     way is the attainment of the only
activity includes participation in con-                oughly Reformed. We must be as-            blessedness." Deacons must be able
gregational meetings, fellowship af-                   sured that prospective deacons un-         to bring our beloved Reformed doc-
ter the worship services, and partic-                  derstand and maintain our Protes-          trines to bear on the situation of the
ipation in the Bible-study societies.                  tant Reformed distinctives. We             poor and oppressed. In this way
     The implication, really, is that                  should note that deacons sign the          they show the mercies of Christ.
everyone must be active in congre-                     "Formula of Subscription," where-              Acts 6 and I Timothy 3 stress
gational life. How else do we get to                   by they promise that they will "teach      that deacons must have an impecca-
know each other? Indeed, how else                      and faithfully defend the aforesaid        ble reputation in the church and in
can we fulfill the injunction of the                   doctrine (the Three Forms of Unity),       the community. They must be men
Heidelberg Catechism in Question                       without either directly or indirectly      of "honest report" and "not greedy
and Answer 55 in its treatment of                      contradicting the same, by our pub-        of filthy lucre." The Form of Ordi-
"the communion of saints," i.e., "ev-                  lic preaching or writing." We might        nation stipulates that deacons "col-
ery one must know it to be his duty,                   be inclined to connect this require-       lect and preserve with the greatest
readily and cheerfully to employ his                   ment more to the office of elder than      fidelity and diligence, the alms and
gifts, for the advantage and salva-                    to that of deacon, but the apostle         goods which are given to the poor."
tion of other members"?                                Paul mentions it specifically as a re-     Deaco? will be dealing with large
     That a man is full of the Holy                    quirement for deacons. Perhaps it          sums of money. There must be no
Ghost will be evident in his knowl-                    goes without saying that this applies      suspicion that a deacon has "sticky
edge of and attitude towards Scrip-                    to elders, and Scripture takes spe-        fingers"! To that end the deacons
ture. It will also be evident in his                   cial care that we understand that this     consistently handle the moneys, not
prayers. We should note that a vi-                     is a requirement for deacons as well.      individually, but as a diaconate.
tal aspect of the deacon's work is to                      Doctrinal soundness is a require-      They exercise mutual supervision
bring the Word and offer prayer.                       ment for deacons because "mercy            over each other in order that the in-
When the Church Order calls dea-                       and truth are met together" (Ps.           tegrity of the office never be ques-
cons to comfort the distressed, it                     85:lO). Mercy is inseparable from          tioned.
means that deacons bring the com-                      the truth. Scripture uses the phrase           Deacons must be wise. Acts 6

156fStandard BearerlJanuary  1, I!396


states this explicitly. The Church          the qualifications of deacons, but          riches' that are ours in Christ,
Order clearly implies this when it          rather than making an extensive             through His atoning work? Would
requires "care that the alms are not        checklistj we could better sum up           you want this man to lead you in
misused." The Form of Ordination            the requirements with the one word,         prayer?
states that "discretion and pru-            "merciful." It is the office of mercy.          As we consider these qualifica-
dence" are required to "bestow the          Are care and concern for the house-         tions, we must be impressed with
alms only on objects of charity."           hold of faith clearly displayed in his      the fact that good deacons are a gra-
Paul tells us that deacons must be          walk? Is this same care seen in his         cious gift of Christ to His church.
"grave." Deacons must think care-           wife and family? Can you envision           What a marvelous institution! Man-
fully about situations. They must           the man bringing the Word to you            ifold are the blessings which Christ
seek biblical solutions to problems.        when you are aged, a widow or wid-          merited on the cross. Not the least
Their wisdom must not be the wis-           ower, alone or distressed? Can you          of these are faithful officebearers. As
dom of this world, but the wisdom           picture the man opening the Scrip-          deacons and prospective deacons
of Scripture. One of the marks of           tures in a poverty-stricken household       consider the qualifications, we are
wisdom is the characteristic that a         in such a way that the family will          all humbled and confess that none
man humbly acknowledge that he              testify that Christ is indeed merci-        of us is equal to this task of himself.
does not have the best understand-          ful? Do you see the man tactfully           We labor in the confidence that
ing of every situation by himself, but      dealing with a family who has de-           Christ will bless His Word, and we
that he must seek the collective wis-       veloped financial distress due to           rejoice in the words of the apostle
dom of the diaconate. Specifically,         poor stewardship? Are you confi-            Paul, "For they that have used the
the decision of whether or not to           dent that the man will be able to           office of a deacon well purchase to
grant financial assistance requires         convey the biblical truth that "hav-        themselves a good degree, and great
sound judgment on the part of dea-          ing food. and raiment" we must be           boldness in the faith which is in
cons.                                       content? Do you believe that this           Christ Jesus" (I Tim. 3:13). 0
        Much more could be said about       man will point you to the spiritual





                  .Creation's Time Fra!me

        Having considered the magnifi-      The perspective of                          to grow. When God called the ani-
cence of the Creator, and how He            unbelieving science                         mals forth, He did not bring them
created, we have yet to consider the            We don't seek to prove our po-          into existence by development from
time element in His creative handi-         sition on the basis of science. Our         eggs, much less through a long pro-
work How long did God take to               position is simply biblical. We stand       cess of evolution. He called all
form His creative handiwork?                on the authority of God's Word.             things into existence by the word of
        We immediately state our an-            But let's examine the perspec-          His power.
swer on the basis of what we read           tive of science for a moment. Un-               Creation was full-grown at the
in Genesis 1, and what is confirmed         derstand, one can only come to the          very time of its formation. When
by many other Scripture references.         position of an old earth - i.e., mil-       God made Adam, He did not make
        God performed His wonder            lions or billions  of years old -- if he    a baby. He created a man, and then
work of creation in only six days.          rejects not only the Bible's account        the woman out of the man, both of
And those days are to be understood         of a six-day creation, but also the         whom were full-grown on the day
literally. They were, without ques-         biblical account of the Flood.              of their creation.
tion, twenty-four hour days just as             First of all, we must remember              In the very nature of the case,
we know the measure of a day.               that God created a full-grown cre-          therefore, each element of the cre-
                                            ation, and therefore a creation with        ation had the appearance of age -
Rev. Key is pastor of the Protestant Re-    the appearance of age. When God             from man's perspective - on the
formed  Church  of  Randolph, Wiscon-       formed the plant world, He did not          very day it was created. The unbe-
sin.                                        seed the ground and wait for things         lieving scientist, in refusing to re-

                                                                                               January 1,199WStandard  BearerllS7


ceive the biblical account of God's                in that volcano in 1980 is said to have      creation account. We believe in cre-
creation, fails to take this into ac-              had the explosive power of one               ation and in the six-day creation ac-
count.                                             Hiroshima-type bomb going off ev-            count because it is given us in the
     Secondly, the one who denies                  ery second for nine hours straight.          Bible. God, who cannot lie, testifies
the literal account of creation and                The lava flow of that volcano result-        of it.
the falI fails to recognize that the uni-          ed in the formation of coal in rapid-
verse has been radically affected by               ly deposited peat beds and sedimen-          Six days
the curse. Through the fall and the                tary layers. Would one know how                   The Almighty Creator did His
curse, the whole creation came un-                 old such formations are, if he were          work in six days. He did not need
der the bondage of corruption, as                  to use the dating methods standard           twenty-four hour days. He did not
we read in Romans 8:19. Both the                   in modern science? They would ap-            need six days, in order to create the
plant and the animal worlds were                  pear to be millions of years old, al-         various realms of the creation. Af-
dramatically affected, as was appar-               though, in fact, they are only 15 years      ter all, He is God, who speaks and it
ently the soil itself.                             old!                                         is done! But the Bible tells us clear-
    Thirdly, we must remember that                         Again, we can easily do without      ly and simply that God created in
the Flood brought cataclysmic con-                 scientific evidence when it comes to         six days, and rested on the seventh
sequences to the earth, so much so                 dating the creation. We do not be-           day from all the work that He had
that Peter, in II Peter 3, speaks of              lieve in a young earth because of sci-        done.
the world that once was and the                   entific evidence.                                  How did God do so much in so
world that is now. To deny the                             In fact, we ought to remember,       little time? I call your attention only
Flood as revealed in Genesis, chap-                science cannot even study the cre-           to Psalm 33:9. "He spake and it was
ters 6-8, is to involve oneself neces-             ation as it was originally formed or         done; he commanded, and it stood fast. "
sarily in misinterpretations during                existed prior to the Flood. The              Powerfully, instantaneously  God ac-
geological studies. (For more exten-              Mount St. Helens example men-                 complished His purpose.
sive consideration of the Flood, I re-            tioned above simple destroys the                   His tool of creation was His own
fer the reader to the editorial of the             dating practices of modern science.          powerful, efficacious, creative Word.
September 15,1995 issue of the Stun-              It does not help us date the world.           He spoke, and it was done!
dard Bearer.)                                              But to stand on the foundation            "Let there be light.... Let there
    The scientist who doesn't believe             of the Bible is not to reject the sci-        be a firmament.... Let the dry land
God's own account of creation and                 ences either.                                 appear.... Let the earth bring forth
of the Flood cannot possibly come                          We have a deep appreciation for      grass, the herb yielding seed, and
to the correct conclusion concerning              the various fields of science, also           the fruit tree yielding fruit after his
the time frame of the creation and                teaching them in the light  of Scripture      kind.... Let there be lights in the
the approximate age of what is,                            to our children both in the          firmament of the heaven.... Let the
relatively speaking, a very                                   homes and in our Christian        waters bring forth abundantly the
young earth.                            We believe             day schools. We ought to         moving creature that hath life, and
    But for those who                   in creation             study and observe God's         fowl that may fly above the earth....
stand on the authority of                and in the             creative handiwork. Our         Let the earth bring forth the living
God's Word, there is suf-                  six-day               children should learn          creature after his kind."
ficient scientific evidence           creation account           about the plant world, the          "Let there be . . . . and it was so. U
to confirm their position.                because                animal world, and the              Yes, Scripture's creation account
    The scientific evidenc-                                      many other branches of
                                       it is given us                                           is unmistakably clear. We must bow
es for a young earth are                in the Bible.            scientific studies. For as     before God's authority. "For in six
overwhelming, the  argu-                 God, who                we observe God's creation,     days the  LORD made heaven and
mentation of the evolution-             cannot lie,             and as we study the scienc-     earth, the sea, and all that in them
ists notwithstanding. The              testifies  of  it.      es with the spectacles of the    is, and rested the seventh day." We
relatively recent eruption of                                 Scripture,  as Calvin put it,     read it in God's law. And so we
the volcanic Mount St. Helens                                then we will see all the more      also are called to labor for six days,
in the state of Washington is one                   clearly the glory of our Creator and        and to rest on the sabbath day, as
example. That incident has provid-                Redeemer.                                     God,did in the beginning.
ed explosive evidence which serves                      But never may we subject the                Do you struggle with doubts
to confirm (I do not say "prove")                 Word of God to the theories of men,           concerning the  how  of creation?
the biblical creation account of six              and never may we elevate the sci-             Have the teachings of the scientists
twenty-four hour days and a young                 ences above the Scriptures. We do             caused you to question your own
earth, and it demolishes the dating               not believe in creation because of sci-       beliefs in a six-day creation?
practices of modern science.                      entific proof, although the evidence              Then there is one solution.
    The eruption that God wrought                 abounds in support of Scripture's             Prayerfully and quietly and with a

1WStandard  Bearer /January 1,1996


willingness to listen, take your Bible     children to understand. All we need         He commanded and it stood fast.
in your hands and open it to Gene-         is the childlike faith of the Chris-            These things are hid from the
sis 1.                                     tian.                                       wise and prudent, and revealed unto
     We have no need to force a                     "By faith we unakrstand. "         babes. For so it is God's eternal
strained interpretation upon God's             We understand. Faith, you see,          good pleasure.
record of His own omnipotence, as          is particular. Not all men will un-             But in understanding, we find
do those who are enslaved to the           derstand. The personal pronoun              the joyful song of the psalmist flood-
appearance of scientific respectabili-     "we" refers to believers, elect in          ing our souls: "Great is the LORD,
ty. We don't have to twist the Scrip-      Christ Jesus, called unto salvation by      and greatly to be praised; and his
tures in order to make them fit un-        the same powerful voice whereby             greatness is unsearchable" (Ps.
proven scientific theories. The Bible      He spoke and it was done, whereby           145:3).  0
is clear enough for our very small



                               The Covenant -
                    Just Leaving It There L

     The following letter was re-          dren. Our minister gave a concise           branches, those who believed in
ceived in response to our recent ar-       answer. He said: "The God who               Christ Jesus, were grafted in. They
ticles:                                    cannot lie says they ,are my children.      belong; but that depends on their re-
                                           Just leave it there." That is how he        maining in the faith (Rom. 11:22).
Dear Editor:                               understood the words to Abraham:            That, by the way, is a condition of
     I have some questions concem-         "... to be a God to you and your            the covenant we find mentioned
ing Rev. Woudenberg's views on the         seed after you throughout their gen-        many times in Scripture. If only the
covenant expressed in the Standard         erations," (Gen. 17:9). So the fathers      elect are in the covenant, such a con-
Bearers of Sept. l/95, p. 493 and Oct.     of Dort understood it (Chap. 1. Art.        dition would not exist.
l/95, p. 13. It is not at all clear to     17). And as I see it every child born           The attempt to understand or
me how he understands the baptism          to believing parents is a covenant          solve Scripture's mysteries through
of children born into a covenant           child and must receive the sign and         logic gets one into endless problems.
home. Are they baptized as chil-           seal as a covenant child, that is, a                      w. s. Rev. C. W. Tuininga
dren in the covenant as heirs of the       child of God.
promise? Or does baptism only sig-             If only the elect belong to the         Answer to Rev. C. W. Tuininga
nify that they are members of God's        covenant, how can anyone break the              I value Rev. Tuininga's response
church? Can we make such a dis-            covenant? Impossible for the elect          to my recent articles concerning the
tinction? Abraham circumcised not          to fall away. But the Bible speaks of       place of children in the covenant, not
only his sons but all that belonged        covenant breakers, of those who             only because it is better that he
to his household. Were they circum-        were in the covenant but because            should explain his views on this mat-
cised because they were God's elect        they did not live up to the demands         ter - similar, it seems, to the views
children, i.e., belonging to the Seed,     of the covenant were cut off. Cir-          of Dr. Schilder and the Liberated
that is, Christ, or because they be-       cumcision was a sign of the cove-           churches - rather than for me to
longed to God's covenant children?         nant. For those born into a cove-           do so, but even more because of the
As I read Woudenberg he leaves this        nant home and were not circum-              importance of this matter. It has
hanging.                                   cised, it is said that, "... he has bro-    drastically divided the Reformed
    As a young man I wondered              ken my covenant," Genesis 17~14,            churches for at least the last 50 years
what baptism meant for our  chil-          (see also Lev. 26:15; Deut. 31:16; Jer.     (particularly since the synod&l  de-
                                           11:lO). The same covenant break-            cision of 1944), and it is well that
                                           ing we find in Romans 11. The nat-          we should try to understand each
Rev. Woudenberg  is pastor of the Prot-    ural branches, those belonging to           other regarding it, if doctrinal con-
estant Reformed Church of Kalamazoo,       God's covenant people, were cut off.        victions are to retain the importance
Michigan.                                  They broke the covenant. The wild           they ought to have.

                                                                                             January 1,199Wtandard bared1 59


     One can understand Rev.              ed from that. Neither is faith a con-         special status or favor in the sight of
Tuininga's feelings for the pastor of     dition to the covenant, but the first         God, points to our need to be
his youth when the latter remarked,       expression of God's covenant faith-           cleansed from the filth of the flesh (I
"The God who cannot lie says they         fulness to us.                                Pet.  3:21), which righteousness
are my children. Just leave it there."        In actuality, what we are deal-           comes only through faith in the
What he said is certainly true: God       ing with here is the gospel, and with         promised Seed. Such then are God's
does not lie or contradict Himself.       that very point concerning it to              covenant children, not those who re-
On this fact rests the logic that runs    which Paul comes at the heart of his          ceive the sign according to law, but
all through the Bible, providing the      great epistle to the Remans,  particu-        those who follow in the faith of
possibility of a true biblical exege-     larly in chapter four. There, after           Abraham and seek their righteous-
sis. God's Word is a unified whole;       carefully making his way through a            ness in the same promised seed as
and we can test our understanding         line of well reasoned logic - a "just         Abraham did, that is to say, in Christ
of any one part of it by comparing it     leave it there" logic, if you will -          (John  8:56). These that follow in
with the rest. The problem is, I fear,    he arrives at the conclusion, 411,            faith, not the children of the flesh,
that it is precisely with this princi-    "And he [that is, Abraham] received           are the children of Abraham, and
ple that the position of Rev. Tuininga    the sign of circumcision, a seal of           heirs of the covenant of grace (Rom.
fails to comply.                          the righteousness of the faith which          412).
     In spite of the fact that Rev.       he had yet being uncircumcised: that               For us, what it comes down to
Tuininga would maintain that "ev-         he might be the father of all them            is this. When a child is baptized,
ery child born to believing parents       that believe, though they be not cir-         that baptism implicitly involves the
is a covenant child and must receive      cumcised; that righteousness                       commitment "to see these chil-
the sign and seal as a covenant child,    might be imputed unto them
                                                      -.                                         dren . . . brought up in the
that is, a child of God," I am sure       also." Paul's point is this.         The sign           aforesaid doctrine." This
that he knows both from his own           There were those in his day            of  the            means that our children are
experience and from Scripture that        who were committed to the           covenant,             to be taught the gospel,
there are many such who grow up           position - not dissimilar,         rather than             namely, the fact that righ-
without ever knowing, not just in-        it would seem, to that of            ascribing             teousness and the experi-
tellectually but experientially, what     Rev. Tuininga and the Lib-        special s tutus          ence of covenant fellow-
it is to know God and belong to him       erated churches - that in-        or favor in the          ship with God come to
(John 123). We may baptize them           asmuch as they had kept           sight  of  God,          one, not because he has
as infants, as we should. We may          the law and received the          points to our            been baptized as God re-
teach them the truths of God, as the      sign of the covenant (cir-          need to be             quires (according to the
questions at baptism require us to        cumcision in the Old Testa-       cleansed from           law), but only through faith
do. We may assure them in person-         ment, and baptism in the          the fil th of the       in the promised seed, Jesus
al contact and through the preach-        New), they could rest on the             flesh.         Christ (Gal. 3:16). There is
ing of the Word of the wonders of         presumption that they were            '                no other way through which
God's promises, and of the conse-         heirs of the promises given to                     one can come to be adopted as
quences of rejecting them. We may         Abraham, and recipients of a spe-             a child and receive an eternal inher-
love these children, and pray for         cial position of righteousness and fa-       itance in the covenant of God (Rom.
them, beginning in the prayers at the     vor in the sight of God  - rather             8:15-V).
baptism itself. But in the end there      like, it would seem, those in the                  (Perhaps we should note that
are those of them who do not be-          Dutch tradition who through a sad            Paul did not come to this truth by
lieve what is said, and without be-       misapplication of the Belgic Confes-         means of a logical deduction from
lieving they never really come to         sion presume to call themselves the          an abstract beginning in the doctrine
know what covenant fellowship with        "true" Christians and "true" church          of election. He comes to election -
God is. That does not mean that           while classifying those who differ            after passing through several of the
the Word of God has failed, or has        with them as "false."                        most profound chapters in the Bible
proved to be false (Rom. 9:6). What           But Paul, on the basis of his care-      - but only as a means of demon-
it comes down to is faith; and that       fully crafted logic, strongly rejects        strating and supporting what he had
is a gift of God (Eph. 2:8). The Au-      this. His argument is this: receiving        already established from his careful
thor of that faith is the Holy Spirit     the sign of the covenant according           exegesis of the Word of God. And
(Lord's Day 27), not man. Nor does        to the law does not make one an              the same can very really be said of
He give it to everyone (Acts 13:48).      heir to the promises of Abraham,             the theology of Herman Hoeksema.
What Rev. Tuininga has to under-          since Abraham himself was righ-              Somehow the idea seems to have
stand is that in Scripture to believe     teous before that sign was ever re-          gotten about that his views can be
and to be elect are the same thing;       ceived. And so it is that the sign of        dismissed lightly by simply identi-
and covenant life cannot be separat-      the covenant, rather than ascribing          fying them as rationalistic logic, and

16OJStandard  Bearer/January  I,1996


leaving them at that. Anyone, how-         heir.)                                      brought up under the truth that righ-
ever, who knew Rev. Hoeksema per-              And so is it regarding the "cov-        teousness comes only through faith
sonally or has studied his works se-       enant breakers" passages which              in Christ. And when he does not
riously, must know that he was not         Tuininga cites. They, and others like       know that, and accordingly does not
in the least inclined to philosophical     them, are fascinating to study, each        baptize his children and teach them
speculation, or to beginning with an       within its own context; but I doubt         that truth, the line of covenant gen-
abstract presupposition, whether           whether any of them comes close to          erations are no longer carried on in
election or anything else, and de-         teaching what Tuininga would have           that fatly; it is broken off from the
ducting his positions syllogistically      them say. I suppose, considering            vine. What had beeh a line of gen-
from that. Hoeksema was first and          the expr&sion itself, it is rather nat-     erations in the covenant of God is
foremost an exegete of the Word of         ural to conclude that these passages        stopped, and, unless God intervenes,
God. He believed sincerely in the          refer to "those who were in the cov-        will no longer carry on the truth of
unity of the Word of God, and came         enant but because they did not live         the gospel to its future generations.
to his teachings by comparing Scrip-       up to the demands of the covenant           The coirenant  is broken when it is
ture with Scripture until he.came to       were cut off." But take, for exam-          not carried on from one generation
that which was in harmony with the         ple, the first and foremost of them,        to the next.
whole. This he taught, being quite         Genesis 17:14: "And the uncircum-               What it comes down to is final-
content to "just leave it there." Elec-    cised man child'whose flesh of his          ly the truth of Galatians  3:26-29:
tion had a place + that, an impor-         foreskin is not circumcised, that soul      "For ye are ail the children of God
tant one, but hardly an abstract start-    shall be cut off from his people; 59        by faith in Christ Jesus. For a? many
ing point from which to deduct the         hath broken my covenant." The cov-          of you, as have been baptized into
rest. It was to him, as with Paul,         en&t breaker here is not one who            Christ have put on Chri&. There is
but another indication that covenant       has received the sign of the cove-          neither. Jew nor Greek, there is nei-
fellowship with God comes to one,          nant, only thereafter to lose what he       ther bdnd nor free, there is neither
not by receiving an external sign ac-      had for failing to meet its conditions.     male nor female: for ye are all one
cording to law, but only as by grace       Rather, he is the one who has not           in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ's,
through faith one is engrafted into        receive;d that sign at all, or .- in the    then  are ye Abraham's seed, and
God's Son, in Him to become an             terms of Romans 4 - has not been            heirs according to the promise." 0




                                             stands diametrically opposed to               The teaching by Promise Keep-
H More on "Promise Keepers"                  Promise Keepers. This ecumenical            ers leaders relies upon humanistic
    The Christian News, a paper pro-         movement is both unscriptural and           psychology and even promotes un-
duced by a Lutheran minister, con-           dangerous because it ignores God's          speakable things regarding the rea-
tinues to present articles which treat       Word, which clearly forbids fellow-         sons for physical circumcision as
of the "Promise Keepers." In its is-         ship with those who disobey the             ordered by God.
                                             Bible.                                        The greatest tragedy, however, is
sue of Nov. 6,1995, it quotes from a           Promise Keepers is directly               to see some leaders of once Funda-
statement made by the American               linked to two other unbiblical              mentalist churches and groups now
Council of Christian Churches                movements (the Charismatic and              cooperating with Promise Keepers
(ACCC), an association of conserva-          the Vineyard, with their emphasis           and rising as defense of their com-
tive churches. Their concern is ex-          on "signs and wonders"). All these          pro&e that "the end justifies the
pressed thus:                                movements - and others of like              mean&." Such compromisers are
                                             mind - fail to admit that it is Scrip       thereby giving support to a move-
  Resolution 955 -                           ture, not signs and wonders, that           ment ,&at leads men away from the
  Promise Keepers                            God uses to bring individuals to            truth iand ushers them into serious
    While we acknowledge it to be            salvation and then to maturity in           doctrinal errors and unbiblical fel-
  God's will that Christian men pro-         Christ.                                     lowship.
  vide biblical leadership in the home         The rallies sponsored by Prom-              The American Council of Chris-
  and in the local church, the Ameri-        ise Keepers include speakers that           tian Churches, meeting at its 54th
  can Council of Christian Churches          belong to churches in the apostate          Annual Cbnvention in St. Louis,
                                             National Council of Churches and            Missouri, October 24-26, 1995, is-
                                             the compromising National Asso-             sues a declaration that Promise
Rev. VanBaren  is pastor of the Protes-      ciation of  Evangelicals. promise           Keepers is an organization that ig-
tant Reformed Church  of  Loveland,          Keepers has broadened to include            nores: a key directive of Scripture.
                                                                                         "Be ye not unequally yoked togeth-
Colorado.                                    participation from rtot only Roman
                                             Catholics but also Mormons.                 er with unbelievers.... Wherefore
                                                                                              January I, 1696lStandard  Beami  61


  come out from among them, and             about a third of the Netherlands         tion of the Grand Rapids Press (Nov.
  be ye separate, saith the Lord, and       Reformed Church.                         4, 1995) as well as. other religious
 touch not the unclean thing: and I           Most of its members are devout         periodicals (as REC News Exchange)
  will receive you, and will be a Fa-       churchgoers and tend to take the         present the following:
  ther unto you, and ye shall be my         Bible literally. Its leader, Jan van
  sons and daughters, saith the Lord        der Graaf, has appeared on televi-
  Almighty" (II Corinthians 6:14,17-        sion warning against the new uni-            Four months after  narrowly de-
  18).                                      fied church, saying: "I won't be           ciding to maintain ties with its
     The ACCC also underlines our           forced to listen to unbiblical ser-       mother church in the Netherlands,
  determination to obey God's Word,                                                    the Christian Reformed Church
                                            mons  every Sunday, filled with crit-
  which brings both godliness and           icism of society."                         suddenly finds itself cut off from
  true unity. We would seek to en-            . . ."The credibility of the church     another Dutch church with which
  courage men (and women too) to            has been damaged and if this goes         it shares historic roots.
  grow in Christliness and to serve         on, it will no longer be my church,"         The Dutch Christian Reformed
  our Savior with humility, integrity,      a pastor, Ton de Nooij, from              Church synod has voted to sever
  and responsibility.                       Vlissingen, told ENI, after the week-     its ecclesiastical fellowship with the
                                            end's discussions.                        CRC.
                                              "The synodical  boards pay far too         Commonly known as the CGKN,
                                                                                      the Dutch church broke ties over,
R  Samen op Weg                             much attention to the orthodox            among other reasons, the CRC's al-
(Together on the Way)                       members of the church. These peo-         lowance of women as ministers,
    There has been in recent years          ple have but to sneeze and the            and its continuing ties with the Re-
the attempt to unite three major            board gets a cold. Board members
                                            seem to have a very sensitive right       formed Churches in the Nether-
Protestant churches in the Nether-          ear, whereas their left ear is stone      lands' (GKN). The much larger
lands. These churches which seek            deaf," he said.                           GKN's acceptance of practicing ho-
to unite are the Netherlands Re-              . ..An academic, Anne Van der           mosexuals, including ministers, in
formed Church (de  Nederlandse              Meijden, who is a Protestant min-         monogamous relationships trig-
Hervormde  Kerk), with about 2.4 mil-       ister and writer on public relations,     gered' an emotional debate at last
                                                                                      summer's CRC synod.
lion members, the Reformed                  told ENI that "the conflict between         The, CGKN voted 42-10 to cut 15-
Churches in the Netherlands (de             supporters and critics of unification     year-old official ties with the CRC,
Gereformeerde Kerken in Nederland),         is in fact a conflict between towns       according to a Dutch newspaper re-
with almost 800,000 members, and            and the countryside. People in ru-
                                            ral areas like things to stay as they     port Oct. 19. A translation was pro-
the Lutheran Church (a? Evangelih-          are. People in towns want change.         vided by United Reformed News
Lutherse  Kerk),  with about 22,000         And that's the bottom line."              Service
members. The process of going "to-                                                      "All of us are feeling some pain
gether on the way" has, however,                                                      now," said CGKN Synod President
                                              It will prove of great interest to
encountered a snag. The Christian                                                     the Rev. M.C. Tanis, according to
                                          see what the final outcome of this          the translated report. "But broth-
News, Nov. 6,1995, reports:               merger attempt will be. The com-            ers . . . we could not decide other-
                                          ment of the woman minister (above)          wise."
    A joint meeting of the synods...of    is oversimplification of the problem          Them CRC had little notice of the
  the three. churches meeting from        - which is, rather, the desire of           action, said General Secretary Dav-
  October 12 to 14 in Alphen aan de       some to maintain the historic Chris-        id Engelhard. Dutch delegates to
  Rijn discussed proposals to disman-                                                 the CRC synod sent a report late
  tle a recently set-up steering com-     tian faith over against those who           last summer indicating they would
  mittee that was preparing the or-       want to unite all churches without          probably recommend severing re-
  ganizational union of church em-        consideration of the truth of God's         lations, Engelhard said, but added,
  ployees, thus putting a brake on an     Word. It appears, however, that the         "I don't think any of us realized it
  organizational merger between the       effort to accomplish final merger           would happen immediately."
  churches. After an unusually heat-      could occur in the near future de-            .  ..Engelhard  doubted there
  ed debate the meeting decided to        spite the opposition to it.                 would be much practical impact
  postpone the final decision on                                                      from the decision. It will have
  whether to dismantle the steering       n Dutch Church Breaks Ties                  greater impact in Canada, where
  committee until January 1996.                                                       there is a higher percentage of re-
    . ..The decision to dismantle the     with CRC                                    cent Dutch immigrants, he said.
  steering committee is seen as a con-        In what must have been a mi-              However, the decision may have
  cession to the most fervent oppo-       nor embarrassment to the Christian          symbc$c  importance for CRC mem-
  nents of the Samen op Weg process,      Reformed hierarchy, the Christian           bers troubled by last sununeis syn-
  who come from the ranks of the          Reformed Church in the  INether-            od vote allowing church classes to
  "Reformed Union"  (Gereformeerde        lands (CGKN) has severed its ties           ordain women ministers, he add-
  Bond),  an influential conservative     with the Christian Reformed Church          ed. A conference of CRC churches
  organization, which comprises           in North America. The Religion sec-         concerned about the decision and

162Mtandard  Bearer/January 1,1996


  the continuing GKN relationship                pose, eloquent design, and astro-           The. survey shows that television
  will be held next week near Chica-             nomical complexity just happened          has a more profound impact on the
  go-                                            by chance by solely naturalistic pro-     lives, values, ethics and morals of
        "For that reason it saddens me           cesses over countless eons of time.       the young than perhaps even tele-
  as well, that it might be used with-           An alert Christian should rise up         vision's greatest critics thought.
  in our cwn setting to either fuel             in righteous indignation against           And the kids in the survey handed
  further secession (from the CRC)               this affront to their creator. The        down ,a two-count indictment. The
  or frustrate or anger people more,#            authoritative and divinely inspired       first was against the television in-
  Engelhard said.                                Word in Exodus 20:11, BFor in six         dustry. The second was against
                                                 days the Lord made the heavens            their @rents.
                                                 and the earth, the sea, and all that        Sixty-five percent said programs
1 Creation or Evolution                          is in them," is the only reliable and     like "The Simpsons" and "Married
        The Christian News, November             trustworthy fact for explaining the       . . . With Children" (both Fox Tele-
6, 1995, presents an introduction to             origin of all things. Faithful Chris-    vision Network shows) encourage
                                                 tians are compelled to contend for
the  subjed:  "Creation or Evolution."                                                    children to disrespect their parents.
                                                 the honor of their Father's Name.        Sixty-two percent said sex por-
Dr. David  Kaufmann,  introducing                                                         trayed on TV shows and in movies
speakers who would address the                     One might add also the  Word           influences kids to have sex when
above subject, gave this interesting           of God from Hebrews 11:3, "Through         they're too young (77 percent said
illustration:                                  faith we understand that the worlds        there is too much sex before mar-
                                               were framed by the word  iof God,          riage on TV). That television has
        . ..Imagine  that you are the child                                               replaced parents as the primary
  of        the     famous                     so that things which are seen were
                                 painter,                                                 shaper of young lives was revealed
  Michelangelo. You grew up watch-             not made of things which do ap-            by this statistic: 82 percent said TV
  ing him paint the ceiling of the             pear." The unbeliever reveals the          should help teach children right
  Sistine Chapel. Each stroke of the           consequence of lack of  ,faitlh when       from wrong.
  brush revealed his love, creative de-        he insists on the erroneous view of           The survey indicated a clear
  sign, and masterful perfection.              evolution.                                 breakdown of parental authority
  Years later as you're walking be-                                                       and informed leadership. Fifty-five
  neath your father's great work, a            4 Television:                              percent of those surveyed said they
  guide enters leading a group of              The Children Speak                         usually watch television alone or
  tourists. As they stand in awe un-                                                      with friends, but not with their fam-
  der the grandeur of the artistic work            The  Outlook,  November 1995,          ily. Forty-four percent said they
  on the Sistine Chapel's ceiling, you         quotes syndicated columnist Cal            watch something different when
  overhear the tour guide state quite          Thomas concerning television view-         theyre  alone than with their par-
 boldly that "as amazing as it may             ing by children:                           ents (25 percent chose the moral
  sound, the works on the ceiling oc-                                                     sewer ,known as MTV). Sixty-six
  curred quite simply by the natural-              . ..In a remarkable survey of chil-    percent said they live in a home
 istic  process over countless years             dren between the ages of 10 and          with three or more television sets,
 of water leaking through the roof               16, the Los Angeles polling firm of      and 54 percent have a TV in their
 and staining the plaster beneath                Fairbank, Ma&n, Maulin  and As-          own rooms.
 with what now appears as inten-                 sociates learned that one-third of         A further message for parents is
 tional works of beautifully designed           the kids "often" want to try what         that more than half reported watch-
 art . . . strictly a chance occurrence."       they see other people doing on tele-      ing television more than two hours
 Now would you not, as                          vision, while two-thirds said their       a day, but three-fourths said that if
 Michelangelo's child, rise up in               peers are influenced by what they         they could choose between televi-
 righteous anger to hear such a fla-            see on the tube.                          sion and spending more time with
 grant lie being told as the explana-             This directly challenges what           their families, they'd choose family
 tion for the work of your father?!             many network executives and pro-          time.
 Would you not confront the tour                grammers have said. They have               But where are mom and dad? If
 guide with the truth and contend               claimed there is no connection be-        they'mnot divorced, theyre work-
 for the honor of your fatheis name?            tween what children see on televi-        ing too much (see the March 6
 Should it be at all surprising then            sion and antisocial or personally         Newsweek cover story titled "Ex-
 that Christians would contend for              risky behavior. At the same time,         hausted"). When they are home,
 the honor of their heavenly Father?            the networks have assured adver-          TV is frequently used as a baby sit-
 The modem "tour guides" - evo-                 tisers that if they will fork over $1     ter or distraction so parents don't
 lutionists  - are assertively and              million for a 30-second commercial        have to communicate with their
 unapologetically giving as explana-            during the Super Bowl, theyll sell        children. The art of dinner conver-
 tion for the existence of all things           plenty of beer, tires, cars and other     sation appears nearly lost. And the
 (from sea horses to orchids, giraffes          products to viewers. Which is it?         networks are happy to fill the void
 to hummingbirds, emeralds to                   Why does persuasion work with             with programming that appeals
 bowhead whales, and pandas to                  commercials but not with program-         mostly to the glands and not the
 people) their "fact" that all this pur-        ming?                                     head or the heart....

                                                                                               January 1,1996/Stan&rd  Beam/if33


     so - where are your children                 one of every 33 young black men                That requires not "safe sex," but
tonight? What are they watching?                  estimated to be infected in 1993, ac-          proper honoring of the law of God.
Do you fit into the description of                cording to the report in this week's           There is to be IZO adultery nor abuse
the parents mentioned above? What                 journal  Science. The 1993 data is             of one's body by drugs. Man, how-
effect is it having on your children?             the latest available.                          ever, is not willing to sacrifice his
Scripture reminds of the wicked of                  If the trend continues, "the threat
                                                  of AIDS may become a rite of pas-              "rights" to God's law. Many will
this world who "knowing the judg-                 sage" for young people, said study             take their "chances" with the dis-
ment of God, that they which com-                 author Philip Rosenberg of the Na-             ease - evidently believing they are
mit such things are worthy of death,              tional Cancer Institute. "That is a            invulnerable.
not only do the same, but have plea-              very disturbing future."                           One recalls the testimony of the
sure in them that do them" (Rom.                    The government already has                   book of Revelation, chapter 9, where
1:32).                                            warned that AIDS is threatening                is recorded the sounding of the sev-
                                                  more and more young ad&s. In                   en trumpets at the end of the ages.
n SIGNS OF THE TIMES:                             January, the Centers for Disease               When the sixth angel sounded the
Disturbing Report about AIDS                      Control and Prevention announced
                                                  that AIDS in 1993 became the No.               sixth trumpet, a third part of men
    The Denver Post, November 24,                 1 killer of people ages 25 to 44.              were slain. In verses 20-21 we read,
1995, presents a shocking report on                 . ..The CDC has counted 501,310              "And the rest of the men which were
the spread of the AIDS disease. Its               AIDS cases since 1981 and 311,381              not killed by these plagues yet re-
headline states: "One of every 92                 deaths. As of 1993, between                    pented not of the works of their
may be infected."                                 630,000 and 897,000 Americans                  hands, that they should not worship
    The article continues:                        were alive  with HIV, Rosenberg                devils, ;and idols of gold, and silver,
                                                  said.                                          and brass, and stone, and of wood:
    One of every 92 young Ameri-                                                                 which neither can see, nor hear nor
  can men - those ages 27 to 39 -                   The most shocking thing should               walk neither repented they of their
  may be battling the AIDS virus, ac-          be that the above disease is not easi-            murders, nor of their sorceries, nor
  cord.ing to the most precise esti-           ly transmitted and can be readily                 of their fornication, nor of their
  mates yet of the epidemic's toll.            controlled and even eliminated.
    The sobering numbers show mi-                                                                thefts." 0
  norities are especially hard hit, with





                          Federal Court Declares
          tate Good Friday School ~Holiday
                                       Unco~nstitutional

               "Illinois closes its schools on twelve holidays. Nine are purely secular. Two are religious in origin but
          secularized: Christmas and Thanksgiving. Only one of the holidays is a purely re&ious holiday, Good
          Friday, the holiday celebrated only by believing Christians. School districts are free to close their schools on
          the major holidays of other religions, but all public schools throughout the state are forced to close on Good
          Friday regardless of the prefkrence  of local school districts and no matter how small the izumber of students or
          teachers in a particular district who want to use the day for religious observances. The state has accorded
          special recognition to Christianity beyond anything that has been shown to be necessary to accommodate the
          religious needs  of  the Christian majority.... But the first Amendment does not allow a State to make it easier
          for adherents of one faith to practice their religion than for adherents of another faith to practice their
          religion, unless there is a secular justification for the difference in treatment."
                                                                    Metal v. L.&zinger, 7th Cir. Court of Appeals (1995)
                                                                                                         (Majority opinion).

164lStandarct Bearer I&&y 1, W96


    In 1941 the State of Illinois made    day with a two thousand-year tra-         schools because the state superinten-
Good Friday a state holiday. State        dition actually constituted "estab-       dent had presented no statistics or
facilities, including public schools,     lishment" of a religion, or whether       hard evidence as to actually how
were to be closed on that day. In         this was merely a permissible "ac-        many students or teachers would
1989 the Illinois legislature repealed    commodation" of religion. The court       absent themselves from Good Fri-
Good Friday as a state holiday, but       admitted this was a far cry from cre-     day classes if the challenged law did
retained it as a school holiday. All      ating or operating an established         not require the schools to be closed
public schools remained closed and        church (one supported by taxes) as        that day:
the teachers were paid just as for        occurred in several European coun-
other holidays.                           tries in the 18th century.                  We do not need evidence to deter-
    In 1995 a Jewish public school            Nonetheless, the court remarked         mine that Christianity is the pre-
teacher in Chicago challenged the Il-     that the U.S. Supreme Court has in-         dominant religion of the people of
linois Good Friday school holiday         terpreted the Establishment Clause          Illinois; but we do need evidence
law, arguing among other things,          to mean that government may not             to determine how many Christians,
that as a taxpayer she objected to        promote one religion at the expense         in each school district, observe
                                                                                      Good IFriday. Not all, certainly.
the use of public taxpayer funds to       of others, or even promote religion         Perhaps not most. For we know
pay teachers for the religious holi-      in general at the expense of non-be-        that many Christians do not belong
day.                                      lief. The only exceptions to this gen-      to a church, and it is a matter of
   The State of Illinois defended the     eral principle are where the chal-          common knowledge that many
statute closing schools on the Fri-       lenged law serves a secular purpose         who do belong to a church (espe-
day before Easter contending that it      or "where the effect in promoting           cially a Protestant church) do not
was not feasible for the schools to       religion is too attenuated to worry         go to Good Friday services.... And
remain open when a majority of the        about."                                     since imany religious Christians
students would be absent because              The court also noted that a chal-       send their children to parochial
                                                                                      schools or educate them at home,
of observance of the day by the           lenged law may be defensible as an          secuti Christians may predominate
Christian student population, which       accommodation of the rights of reli-        in the: public schools, though this
is much larger than that of other re-     gious persons to the free exercise of       is another question on which there
ligious groups.                           their religion. This exception, the         is no evidence.
    The federal appellate court re-       court noted, could not be raised in
jected the state's argument and held      this case since any public school stu-        In conclusion, the court ruled
that the Illinois law closing public      dent so requesting would be excused       that the1 Good Friday school holiday
school on Good Friday was a viola-        from school on Good Friday with-          law must be struck down since the
tion of the Establishment Clause of       out penalty, as would Jewish stu-         state co,uld not carry its burden of
the First Amendment. The Estab-           dents on their sectarian holidays.        proof to demonstrate a "secular jus-
lishment Clause, the court ruled, for-    Accordingly, since there was no sec-      tification" for the school shutdown
bids state and federal governments        ular justification for closing schools    on that Christian holiday. And since
to promote one religion at the ex-        on Christian holidays rather than         students of other religions, although
pense of others. Although the school      Jewish holidays, the 54-year old state    excused, had to miss a regular day
code allowed students of other faiths     law could  not  pass constitutional       of school to observe their religious
an excused absence on their respec-       muster.                                   holidays, the state's policy uncon-
tive religious days while school was                                                stitutionally worked to the advan-
in session, the closing of all schools    Secular Justification                     tage of Christian students.
on a Christian holiday worked a dis-          The state attempted to present a
advantage upon non-Christian stu-         secular justification for closing the     A Dismal Decision
dents who missed classes during           schools on Good Friday, arguing that          The Metzl decision and majority
their religious holidays while schools    the purpose of the law was merely         opinion: is disconcerting for several
remained in session.                      to save the school system the ex-         reasons: First, how can the federal
                                          pense of keeping sch.ools open on a       court strike down Good Friday but
The Establishment Clause                  day when very few teachers and stu-       in the same breath endorse and ap-
    But the crucial issue the court       dents would be expected to attend.        prove Christmas, Easter, and  ~
faced was whether Illinois' statuto-      There is no purpose in keeping            Thanksgiving as state holidays? The
ry recognition of a Christian holi-       schools open, the state school super-     reason  tie can distinguish Good Fri-
                                          intendent contended, when virtual-        day from these other holidays, stat-
                                          ly no students would be prlesent in       ed  the, court, is that Christmas,
Mr. Ianting, a member of South Hol-       the classrooms.                           Thanksgiving, and Easter have now
land Protestant Reformed Church, is a         The court rejected this purport-      lost all religious meaning and have
practicingattorney.                       ed secular justification for &sing the    become,essentially  secularized:

                                                                                          January 1,1!396/Sfandanl  Bead1  65


     Some holidays that are religious,      with the celebration of the birth of      by many evangelical constitutional
  even sectarian in origin, such as         Jesus Christ. A religious holiday can     scholars who argue that our federal
  Christmas and Thanksgiving have           now supposedly be recognized by           courts are badly misinterpreting the
  so far lost their religious connota-      government only when it is no long-       Establishment Clause by requiring
  tion in the eyes of the general pub-      er religious and no longer a true hol-    government hostility toward reli-
  lic that government measures to
  promote them, as by making them           iday. This, of course; is nonsense,       gious practice. There is a signifi-
  holidays or even by having the gov-       and should alarm every Reformed           cant distinction, they suggest, be-
  ernment itself celebrate them, have       Christian in this country.                tween `a government impermissibly
  only a trivial effect in promoting            But this decision should also         "endorsing" or "promoting" religion
  religion. Even Easter is becoming         perhaps serve as a warning or a           in contrast to legitimate govemmen-
  gradually secularized; in the week        wake-up call regarding our Re-            tal "accommodation" of its citizens'
  before this past Easter Sunday, a         formed observance of these special        religious practices. Accordingly, the
  radio station in Chicago was ad-          days. Are we too influenced by the        lllinois  legislature's statute closing
  vertising an opportunity to have          virulent secularization and commer-       schools and public buildings on
  your pet photographed with an
  Easter Bunny on Easter Sunday for         cialization of American culture?          Christmas, Good Friday, and
  $5.00.                                    Have Thanksgiving, Christmas, Eas-        Thanksgiving is not intended to pro-
                                            ter, and Good Friday become also          mote or champion Christianity, but
  The irony here is unavoidable;            for us empty symbols and trivial to-      merely serves to accommodate the
apparently  our courts now forbid the       kens of a dead orthodoxy? If so, it       religious beliefs of a majority of its
government from declaring a state           would be far better if we listened to     citizenry. To require a "secular jus-
or national religious holiday unless        our Presbyterian brothers in Scotland     tification" for religious beliefs and
the holiday has become so secular-          and Northern Ireland who view all         practices is absurd, and one won-
ized and so stripped of its meaning         religious holiday (holy day) obser-       ders when the federal courts will
that any religious significance is triv-    vances as biblically suspect and Ro-      end their ostensible antipathy and
ial. Government may shut down on            man Catholic in origin.                   hostility toward historical Christian-
Christmas, for example, provided the            Secondly, the  Metzl  decision        ity which should have a legitimate
day no longer has anything to do            lends credence to the contention held     place in the public square. 0



                                                                                                         November 9,1995
                                                                                                   in Edgerton, Minnesota

     On November 9, Classis West                Classis West, with the synodical      their vacancy, and also granted clas-
met in Edger-ton, Minnesota for the         deputies expressing hearty agree-         sical afipointments to Doon.
purpose  of  examining  Candidate           ment, voted unanimously to approve                     Respectfully submitted,
Allen Brummel, who had received             Pastor-elect Brummel's examination,             Rev. Steven Key, Stated Clerk
and accepted the call to serve as pas-      and advised the  Edgerton  PRC to
tor of the Protestant Reformed              proceed with his ordination. The
Church in Edgerton. A special wor-          Protestant Reformed Churches have
ship service was called by                  much reason for thankfulness to
Edgerton's consistory for the evening       God in His continued provision of
of November 8, at which time Pas-           men to labor as Ministers of the
tor-elect Brummel expounded Scrip-          Word and sacraments. Additional
ture from Genesis  17:7. In atten-          thanksgiving is God's due for the
dance were not only the members             unanimity in biblical truth that is
of the congregation, but the 28 dele-       seen in the churches and among the
gates of Classis West, as well as three     ministers.
ministers from  Classis East who                Classis West also extended.fare-
were in attendance as synod&l  dep-         well to Pastor Russ Dykstra, who
uties. The following day was spent          leaves to take up new labors in Hope
in examining Pastor-elect Brummel           Protestant Reformed Church of
in the several areas of doctrinal stud-     Walker, Michigan. Classis appoint-
ies, as well as his knowledge of            ed Rev. Richard Moore (Htrll, Iowa)
Scripture and the Confessions.              as moderator for Doon PRC during

1 gelStandard  Bearer IJanuary  1,19%3


Young Adults' Activities                      Members of the congregation of         Evangelism Activities
    The young adults in the Grand         the Georgetown PRC in Hudsonville,             Starting on November 26th, our
Rapids, MI area met in late Novem-        MI have begun meeting together for         congregation at Trinity PRC in Hous-
ber for their monthly meeting at the      an hour of Bible study on Friday           ton, TX has been able to air two ra-
Faith PRC in Jenison, MI. Pastor-         mornings at  6:30 at a local               dio broadcasts each Sunday. First,
elect Doug Kuiper spoke on the top-       Hudsonville restaurant. Although           at 1:00 P.M. Pastor Mahtani gives a
ic, "Remembering the Sabbath Day."        it is billed. as a Men's Bible Study,      one-minute message entitled,
    Our First PRC in Holland, MI          anyone may attend.                         "Reaching the Nations with the Gos-
hosted a Young Adult Retreat at the           In other news from Georgetown,         pel of Grace," an outreach aimed
Days Inn in Be.nton Harbor, MI on         we learn that their Council has de-        particularly at the Indian population
November 17 and 18. The topic for         cided to add two more elders to their      of Houston. And second, we are
that retreat, was "What Do You Do         consistory, bringing the total to five.    happy to report that the Reformed
With Your Talents?"                       A quick look at the yearbook of our        Witness Hour has gone down south
    There is a Young Adult Class          churches shows that since its orga-        `to Houston, and has begun broad-
which meets on a regular basis at         nization in 1994 Georgetown has            casts each Sunday at 4~00 P.M. over
the South Holland, IL PRC. For dis-       grown from 35 families to 62, a fact       the same station, KTEK, 1110 AM.
cussion this year they are consider-      which no doubt led to that decision.
ing other Reformed denominations              The Helping Hands Committee,
and how we as churches differ from        along with the Deacons of the              Minister Activities
them. In early October they were          Hudsonville, MI PRC, sponsored a               We extend our congratulations
considering the Free Reformed             food-drive for needy families in their     to Rev. and Mrs. Allen Brummel on
Churches.                                 congregation. Throughout the               the occasion of the birth of their sec-
                                          month of November, -Hudsonville's          ond child, Allyn Jay, born in
                                          membership was encouraged to               Edgerton, MN on October 15th. We
School Activities                         bring either gifts of canned or dry        can also relate that Rev. Brummel
    Our Covenant Christian School         food, or money and gift certificates       preached his first sermon as pastor
in Lynden, WA gave their fall pro-        from area grocery stores, to church,       of the Edgerton, MN PRC, a prepa-
gram entitled, "`II Seek a City," on      where the donations were divided           ratory sermon, based on Ephesians
November 17 in the Lynden, WA             up and distributed by the IDeacons         6~18-20 and entitled, "And Pray for
PRC.                                      in early December.                         Me." Rev. Brummel has also already
    The Hope PR Christian School                                                     conducted his first baptism - the
in Walker, MI presented their annu-                                                  baptism of his son Allyn.
al all-school program, "Living the        Denominational Activities                      On,November 28th, Pastor-elect
Lord's Prayer," also on November              Back in October, bulletins in the      Doug Kuiper successfully sustained
17 in First Jenison Christian Re-         west Michigan PR churches saw an-          his examination by Classis East for
formed Church in Jenison, Ml'.            nouncements promoting a new choir          entrance into the ministry. Classis
                                          which hoped to organize with the           unanimously approved his examina-
                                          express purpose of singing and re-         tion and gave the Byron Center, MI
Congregational Activities                 cording Psalms. From that begin-           PRC permission to proceed with his
    The entire congregation of the        ning back in October this choir con-       ordination. At a joyful service the
Trinity PRC in Houston, TX got to-        tinues to practice under the direc-        follow+g evening, with Rev.
gether after their Thanksgiving Day       tion of Mr. Dan DeMeester, and it          Dykstra preaching the sermon and
service for an international turkey       has grown to between 50 and 70             Rev. Cammenga reading the form,
dinner, hosted by Pastor Mahtani          members. Upcoming plans include,           Pastor-elect Kuiper was ordained as
and his wife, Esther.                     in addition to recording, some pos-        a minster of the Word and Sacra-
                                          sible concerts around the holidays         ments in the Byron Center Church.
                                          in area rest homes. If you are inter-      Indeed ,we have much for which to
                                          ested in joining them, they meet ev-       thank the Lord.
                                          ery Sunday at 215 in the Southwest             We, can add here that Rev. Doug
Mr. Wigger  is a member of the Protes-    PRC in Grandville, MI. Or give Dan         Kuiper ,preached  his inaugural ser-
tant Reformed Church of Hudsonville,      a call at 791-4842.                        mon at, Byron Center on December
Michigan.                                                                            3, with Psalm 122:6-9 as his text and

                                                                                           January 1,1996lStandard  Bearerll67


                                                                                                              SECONDCLASS
                                                                                                              Postage Paid at
                                                                                                              Grandviile, Michigan
    P.O.Box603
   Grandville, MI 
                    49468-0603


"Desiring Jerusalem's Peace" as his clined the call extended by the Doon,               direct and immediate cause of what-
theme.                                     I A   P R C .                                soever comes to pass  - together
     Rev, denHartog declined the call                                                   with the absolute vanity of all sub-
he received from the Grace PRC in          ~ooffforl7io@it                              ordinate agents - fills the mind with
Standale, MI, and Rev. S. Key de-               "The sovereignty of God, as the         awe.l'
                                                                                                             - Robert Candlish
                                                                                                               on Genesis 27 c1





  RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                       WEDDING ANNlVERSAFiY                                      NOTICE
     The consistory and congregation           On January 9, 1996, Uhe Lord                           Still available:
of the Randolph PRC expresses its          willing,                                                    Extra copies
Christian sympathy to Mr. and Mrs.                MR..and MRS. HENRY                                  of the special
Berwyn (Gerry) Huizenga and Mr.                        HOEKSTRA                               Reformation issue
and Mrs. Brent (Shannon) l-iuizenga,       will celebrate their 40th wedding an-
in the death of their father and           niversary.                                                   of the SB
g r a n d f a t h e r ,                        We, their children and grandchil-                     (Oct. 15, 1995)
           MR. JOHN VELDHUIS.              .dren, are gratefulto God,.our heav-
     May Gerry and the family con-         enly Fattier, for giving us godly par-                        Theme:
tinue to find comfort in knowing that      ents and grandparents. We rejoice                 The Reformation of 1924
Jehovah "lifteth us up from the gates      in God's faithful covenant promises
of death" (Psalm 9:13).                    and fellowship with His children. We                            Use:
           Pastor Steven Key, President    pray that the Lord will continue to             by evangelism committees
     Mr. Jack Regnerus, Asst. Clerk        bless and care for them in their life           or by individuals for witness;
                                           together. "For this God is our God              by societies or classrooms
                                           for ever and ever: he will be our               for study; etc.
                                           guide even unto death" (Psalm
  RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                   46:14).                                                        cost:
   The Adult Bible Society of the          $+ James and Gladys KooUe                        508 per copy plus postage
Doon PRC expresses its Christian           Z% Brian and Pauline Krouse
sympathy to Mr. and Mrs. David             9 Henry and Linda Kamps                                       Source:
Wiersma in the passing of David's          C Harlan and Lenora Hoekstra                             Standard Bearer
father,                                    +I? Vernon and Kari Hoekstra                           c/o Business Office
    MR. BERNARD WIERSMA.                   33: Mark and LaBeth Hoekstra                            4949 lvanrest Ave.
It is our prayer that their family may     Ite Jeffrey and Mary Kalsbeek                          Grandville, Ml 49416
know that God is our refuge and            9 Jeff and Rosalynn Andringa                            tel. (616) 531-l 490
strength;a very present help in trou-      # Barry and Patricia Pollema
ble (Ps. 46:i).                                  34 grandchildren
   James Regnerus, Vice-President                                         Hull, Iowa
             Mary VanDenTop,  Vice-All




16MtandardBearerlJanuary  1,1996


