A Reformed
Semi-Monthly
Magazine





            Peace PRC (Lansing, IL) buiilds new church
                             See "The Dedication of God's House" - p. 171




Januay15J996


 CONTENTS:                                                                                                          January 15, 1996


 Meditation - Rev. Steven R. Houck                                                                                                                                          ISSN 0362-4692
        The Dedication of God's House . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..~............. 171                                          Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July. and August.
 Editorial - Prof. David J. Engelsma                                                                                                                                        Published bythe Reformed Free Pubtlshlng Assooiatton, Inc.,
        Does God Desire that the "Offer" be Received                                                                                                                        4646 Ivatirwt Ave., Qm.ndvllle.  MI 46416. Second Class
                                                                                                                                                                            Postsgo Paid at Grandville, Mkhlgan.
                by All Sinners? .,.,.............,..............................,,,,,,..,....,.......... 173
 Letters                   . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..*............................................................................                            176         pm Bend addmw changeb to the Stmdard Bearer,
                                                                                                                                                                            P.O. Box 663, Grandvtlle. MI 46466-D663.
All Around Us - Rev. Gise J. VanBaren . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..****.*..*.......* 176                                                       EDKORtAL COMYtlTEE
A Cloud of Witnesses - Prof. Herman Hanko                                                                                                                                   Editor Prof. David J. Engelsma
        William III of Orange: Warrior of the Faith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ...*......*.* 178                                                             Secretary: Prof. Robert D. Deokw
                                                                                                                                                                            Managing Editor: Mr. Don Dwzema
Taking Heed to the Doctrine  - Rev. Steven R. Key
        Providence ;.. ..-................ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181    DEPARTMENT EDtTORS
                                                                                                                                                                            Rev. Wilbur Brulnsma, Rw. Ronald Camnwng4 Prof. Robert
 In His Fear - Rev. Arie denHatfog                                                                                                                                          Decker, Rw. Ark denHartog, Rw. Carl Haak. Prof. Hemum
        Hating the Haters of God ..*..*.....................................,...................                                                                184         Hanko. Rw. Ronald Hanko, Rev. Jason Nodering. Rev. Dale
                                                                                                                                                                            Kulpr, Mr. James Laming, Mm. MaryBsth Lubbere, Rev.
 Day of Shadows - Homer C. Hoeksema                                                                                                                                         Thomas Mierama, Rev. Qise VanSaran, Rev. Ronald
        Paradise the First (continued) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..*..*m..*.................. . . . . . . . . . . . 186                                                                   Mr.BsnjamtnW$iger.Rw.BmnardWoudenberg.
                                                                                                                                                                            vT
 Search the Scriptures - Rev. Car/J. Haak                                                                                                                                   EDiTORtAt.  OFFfCE           CNURCH NEWS EDtTOR
                                                                                                                                                                            The Standard Bearer          Mr. Ben Wlgger
        Jesus' Sermon on the Bread of Life (2) . . . . . . . ..*.......................*.*... 189                                                                           4649 Ivanrest                6597  4OlhAve.
                                                                                                                                                                            GrandvEe; MI 46416           Hudaonvllle. MI 46426
Book Reviews .,,......................,.,................,,...,,,,,.,..............I..................                                                          190
News From Our Churches - Mr. Benjamin Wigger *.****..,........,............. 190                                                                                            BUSINESS DFFfCE             i4EW  ZBALAND  OFFtCE
                                                                                                                                                                            The Standard Bearer         Th? Standard Bearer
        Peace PRC Dedication Service - Mr. Donald Terpstra . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191                                                                              th~ Dc4uema               c/oz/o!$erk
                                                                                                                                                                            P-0. Box 803
                                                                                                                                                                            Qraridvllle~  MI            Walnulomata, New Zeatand
                                                                                                                                                                               4644366603
                                                                                                                                                                            PH: (616) 631-1466           UNtTED NtNGDDM OFFKX
                                                                                                                                                                                     Ml8 636-1776       do Mr. Jonathan McCauley
                                                                                                                                                                            FAX' `(616) 631-3633         164 Church Rd.. Glenwherry
                                                                                                                                                                                                        Balkmena.  00. Antrtm BT42 3EL
                                                                                                                                                                                                        iioihctm Ireland
                                                                                                                                                                            EDtTOR@f. PDLfCY
                                                                                                                                                                            Every editor I8 solely responsibte for the content8 of his own
                                                                                                                                                                            articles.  CpntributionsofOeneralintecesttmmwrresdsmand
                                                                                                                                                                            questtonr  !ti The Reader Asks department are wekome.
jl,.    . . . are several articles dealing with various aspects of the biblical doc-                                                                                        tknklbutlons  will bs limlted to approktmateN 366 word8 and
trine of creation. Rev. Steven Key begins a treatment of the Reformed                                                                                                       muatbenqattywrtttenortypewdRen,andmu8tbeslgnad.  Copy
                                                                                                                                                                            deadlines. are the first and fifteenth of the month. All
doctrine of providence. Providence, he reminds us, necessarily follows upon                                                                                                 oommurkattons  relative to the contents should be sent to the
creation. The question is one that "cries out for an answer," particularly at                                                                                               edkorlal offke.
the beginning of a new year: "What is God's involvement with His cre-                                                                                                       REPRINT POLICY
ation?"                                                                                                                                                                     Psrmlrs~LherebygrantedforMereprintlngofartlcleaInow
                                                                                                                                                                            magazhebyotherpublko,fxovk&d:a)thatawhreprtnted
        Homer Hoeksema's article in the rubric, "Day of Shadows," takes us                                                                                                  artkler a+ reproduced In full; b) that proper aoknowledgment
deeply into "Paradise the First." Specifically, the late professor of Old Tes-                                                                                              Ismade;c)tMaco~otRsp~~~~m~nt
                                                                                                                                                                            eppam~5enttoouredttorlalonke.
tament in the Protestant Reformed Seminary opens up the meaning of the                                                                                                      SUBSCRl~fON  POUCY'
Tree of Life in the original creation. There is no lengthy defense of the                                                                                                   Subaodpttbn pdoe: $17.00 per year In the U.S., UB336.o.00
historical reality of the tree (this is simply received by the faith that honors                                                                                            elsewhere. Unlesn a deftntte request for dlsconUnuanca  IO
                                                                                                                                                                            received,  lit Is asrmmed  that the rubscriber wishes the
Holy Scripture as the inspired Word of God), but rather an exposition of the                                                                                                wbgcrlpUdntocontlnw,andhewlllbeMlledforrenewal. tfyou
rich significance of the tree both for the first Adam and with a view to the                                                                                                haveach~otaddmrs,p~asenotifytheEusineMOmceas
                                                                                                                                                                            early  aa possible In order to avokl the lnconvenlence of
second Adam.                                                                                                                                                                intermptad daltvery. In&de your Zip or Postat Code.
        Rev. Gise VanBaren brings to our attention current evidence  oB the folly                                                                                           ADva~NQPoLicY
of evolution from the secular press. He concludes, What contorted efforts                                                                                                   The StandardBearerdoes  not aocept oommercial advertising
must be made in order to present evolution as a reliable theory of origins!"                                                                                                ot any kind. Announwmenb  of church and achaol went4
                                                                                                                                                                            annlvewlw, obltuarles, and sympathy reaolutlons will be
Read "`Minor' Corrections in the Theory of Evolution" in the rubric, "AlI                                                                                                   ptacadforat10.00fee.  TheseshouldbesenttotheBuaine8a
Around Us."                                                                                                                                                                 Officeandshouldbeaccompaniedbythe$10.66fee.  Deadline
                                                                                                                                                                            for 6nnouwementa  is at least one month prior to publication
        Not many religious periodicals would carry the articles referred to above.                                                                                          date.
I doubt whether any would run the piece by Rev. Arie denHartog, `"Hating                                                                                                    BOUND V@LUMES
then Haters of God." That "God's people today must have the same holy                                                                                                       TM Budnwo  Offke will  accept standing orders for bound
                                                                                                                                                                            wpte5ofthecurmntvolume. SuchordamarefilledassoMlss
hatred for those that hate God as David did (in Psalm 13219~22)"? ,r                                                                                                        poaalple  after comptetton of a volume year.
        Only in the Standard Bearer.                                                                                    %~                           -:                     16mm  mtaoftlm,  36mm mkroftlm  and 166mm mlcrotiche. and
                                                                                                                                           i               -+.jjj           artkle  oop'ms  ere  avattable through  Univemky  Mkroftlrne
                                                                                                                                                                            klterlX%lbnal.

17!Z3tandardBearerlJpwary  15,1986


                                   The Dedication
                                of God's House*
         In II Chronicles El-22 we are in-      to God. The trumpets sounded. The            they lived far away or nearby, all
formed of the fact that Solomon and             cymbals and other instruments of             Israelites had to go to that house to
the Israelites were also involved in            music were played.                           worship God. That is why the di-
a building project  - a building                     Solomon spoke to the people and         viding of the kingdom and the set-
project which was much more ex-                 told them about God's faithfulness           ting up of the golden calves by
tensive than that of Peace Church.              to David and Israel. He blessed the          Jeroboam was so wicked. By that
They built the temple of God. It                people and admonished them to                the northern kingdom left the house
required hundreds of thousands of               serve God. He kneeled down,                  of God. They left the house where
workmen. And the Israelites spent               spread his hands toward heaven,              God dwelt with His people.
seven years building it. Before that,           and prayed a beautiful prayer. He                As we think of this house which
King David had spent many years                 asked God to dwell in the house              we of Peace Church have built by
gathering material. The material in-            which they had built for Him. He             God's grace, and of our dedication
cluded 100,000 talents of gold `and             prayed that that house would be the          service, we must understand that
l,OOO,OOO  talents of silver. The tem-          house of God and that God would              things are different today. This
ple was a very elaborate and beauti-            put His name in that house, so that          house is not the house of God. This
ful building. Its inner walls were              from that house God would be with            building which we have built is not
carved with flowers, cherubim, and              Israel and bless her. From that house        the  tem'ple of God. God does not
palm trees. The whole thing was                 God would show His faithfulness to           dwell in this building in the same
overlaid with pure gold.                        Israel and be gracious, merciful, and        way that He dwelt in the temple of
         Solomon, and the Israelites had        kind to Israel.                              the old dispensation. There is noth-
a dedication service for their new                   In answer to the prayer of              ing sacred about this building as
place of worship too. That service              Solomon, God sent fire down from             such. The furniture in this building
was just as elaborate and beautiful             heaven. It consumed the sacrifices           is not holy either.
as the building itself. The dedica-             which Solomon had offered to God.                That is because, with the com-
tion lasted fourteen days. Solomon              And the cloud of God's glory filled          ing of Christ and the outpouring of
gathered all the elders of Israel, the          the house. It was so thick that the          the Holy Spirit, the way in which
heads of the tribes, the chiefs of the          priests could not enter into the tem-        God dwells with His people has
fathers, and all of Israel "from the            ple. By that cloud of glory God in-          changed. Rather than dwelling in a
entering in of Hamath  unto the riv-            dicated the fact that He came down           building among His people, God
er of Egypt." In a solemn proces-               unto them to dwell with them in that         dwells directly in His people. By
sion the Levites took the ark of the            house. The infinite God, who is so           the Spirit of Christ who was poured
covenant out of the tabernacle and              great that heaven and the'heaven of          out upon the church, God lives in
brought it to the new temple. They              heavens cannot contain Him, much             the heart of every true believer. We
offered thousands of sacrifices. They           less a physical house, made that             believers are the temple of God. We
sang songs of praise and adoration              house His temple. He set apart that          are the house in which God dwells.
                                                house from all other houses. It was          When we came into this church
                                                His holy dwelling place.                     building this evening, we did not
                                                     Thus the temple became the              come into the house of  God: We
Rev.  Houck  is pastor of Peace Protes-         place of worship for Israel. There           brought the house of God into this
tant Reformed Church in Lansing,  llli-         was no other building where they             building.
nois.                                           were to worship God with their sac-              That is a fundamental change.
         *Speech given on 11/17/95'at           rifices and offerings. That house was        We are not obligated to worship God
the dedication service of the new             `: the place of all of their religious cer-    in any particular building anymore.
church building of the Peace PRC.               emonies and celebrations. Whether            We may worship Him in the audi-
                                                                                                   January 15,l w8Btandd Beamil71


torium of a school, as we did for                  fact that we dedicate this house al-          who dwelt between the cherubim,
seven years. We may worship Him                    most exactly seven years after we             He would judge them.
in a home. We may even worship                     were organized as a congregation.                 God said in verses i9-21,  "But if
Him in a barn if that is what we                   Seven (3 t 4) is the number of God's          ye turn away;and forsake my stat-
want. That is because we, who are                  covenant and of His dwelling to-              utes and my commandments, which
God's people, are the temple of the                gether with His people. This house,           I have, set before you, and shall go
Holy Ghost. Wherever we assem-                     completed seven years after our or-           and serve other gods, and worship
ble, there is God's house.                         ganization, manifests the significance        them; Then will I pluck them up by
     That does not mean, however,                  of that number. God dwells with               the roots out of my land which .I
that we may not dedicate this build-               us, His holy temple.                          have given them; and this house,
ing to the Lords use. It does not                          The fact that this building is not    which I have sanctified for my name,
mean that we may not thank God                     the temple of God does not alter the          will I 6ast out of my sight, and will
for this building.                                 fact that we ought to dedicate this           make it to be a proverb and a by-
     Even as Solomon and Israel                    building to the use of God's king-            word among all nations. And this
thanked and praised God for the                    dom. Because we are the temple of             house,, which is high, shall be an as-
temple, we must thank and praise                            the Holy Ghost, our bodies, our      tonishment to every one that passeth
God for this building. For we                                   souls, and all that we have      by it; so that he shall say, Why hath
could not have built this                    When we             are to be dedicated to the      the Lops done thus unto this land,
house if God had not been                 came into this         cause of God. We do not         and unto this house?"
faithful to us. God is the                church building         belong to ourselves. We            That must be our great concern.
One who gives us all that                  this evening,          belong to our faithful         How are we going to use this house?
we have. He gave us the                     we  did not            Savior Jesus Christ. We       For God or for man, sin, and Satan?
financial means to build                    come into              are to give ourselves         There  j are" many very beautiful
this house. He gave the                     the house              over to His service.          church, buildings in the world. There
abilities and talents that                   of God.               How fitting and proper,       are big buildings, elaborate build-
were needed by those                       We brought              therefore, that we give       ings, buildings fiIled with gold and
who labored in the con-                     the house              this building over to the     silver. But most of them are not
struction of this house. No                   of  God             cause of God and His           used for God. They do not serve
one could have lifted a ham-                 into this           spiritual house. We must        the spiritual temple of God. They
mer without His power. He                    building.          do that rather than using        are empty shells. God is not there
sovereignly ruledYover govem-                                this house for our own pur-         because the people of those build-
ment officials so that we received                       poses or for the cause of sin and       ings have forsaken God and His
the proper permits to begin the work               Satan, This house must be used for            Truth., We must not do that. We
and the approval of the work done,                 God and good rather than for man              must be careful that we dedicate this
in spite of all the requirements                   and evil.                                     building to God and His cause.
which had to be met. Even though                          That was the case with the tem-            That means first of all and fore-
it took longer than we expected, and               ple of Solomon too. God came to               most that we must use this building
certain aspects of it were difficult,              Solomon and warned him that the               for the,preaching  of the gospel. The
here we are in a beautiful church                  temple must be used for good and              preaching is the chief and most im-
building. It is all because of the                 not evil.                                     portant calling that God has given
faithfulness of our God.                                  In II Chronicles 214 God said,         to His `church. It is the chief means
     In fact, this building is a monu-             "If my people, which are called by            of grace. God forbid that this build-
ment of the grace, mercy, and kind-               my name, shall humble themselves,              ing should be used to proclaim a
ness of God to us. For except God                  and pray, and seek my face, and turn          false gospel or a distorted gospel.
had worked in our hearts, regener-                from their wicked ways; then will I            We may not allow anyone, no mat-
ating us and giving .to us a love of               hear from heaven, and will forgive            ter who he is, to use this building to
the Truth, we would not even have                  their sin, and will heal their land."         preach, the lie of the devil instead of
desired to worship Him in such a                          Even though the people of Isra-        the truth of God. The preaching that
house. This building is a testimony                el were sinners, if they would hum-           goes forth from this pulpit must be
of the fact that God is our God who               ble themselves, repent of their sins,          the gospel of sovereign grace, the
has. saved us and who has given to                 and seek God in His holy temple,              gospel of the Reformed faith, the
us a love of the church. This build-              God would hear them and forgive                Truth of Holy Scripture. Elders!
ing bears record of the fact that God             them. He would bless them and al-              Congregation! Guard this pulpit and
does indeed dwell within us and                   ways be there for them in that house           set it apart for the Truth.
that the temple of God is meeting in              which they built for Him.                          In the second place, we must use
this building.                                            But if they would forsake this         this building for the proper admin-
    .That can be seen also from the               house and turn away from the God               istration of the sacraments. God has

172lStandard   Bearer/January  15,1595


given us two beautiful sacraments         tions which once worshiped in those       for the glory of the God of our sal-
which are signs and seals of the truth    buildings did not exercise C.hristian     vation.
of the gospel. Baptism is a picture       discipline. They allowed unrepen-             If we use this building in that
of the washing away of our sin by         tant sin to continue in their midst.      way, God will be in this place when
the precious blood of Jesus Christ.       The result was that they were in-         we meet here to worship Him. God
The Lord's Supper pictures Christ         fested with unbelievers.' If this         wiIl be with us and. bless us wher-
spiritually feeding our hungry and        house of God is to be dedic:ated  to      ever we are. He will be our God
thirsty souls. These two sacraments       God, Christian discipline must be         and we will be His people.
must be administered in this build-       faithfully practiced within these             But !if we do not use this build-
ing regularly and correctly. We           walls. Then, the people who use this      ing in that way, if we allow the
ought to rejoice in presenting our        building will show themselves to be       preaching of the lie, if we are un-
children for baptism because God          God's true people by their confes-        faithful ,in the administration of the
has established His covenant with         sion and walk                             sacraments and in the practice of
believers and their seed. We ought            Finally, if we are to use this        Christian discipline, if we do not
to rejoice in partaking of the bread      building for God and His cause, ev-       worship God from our hearts in true
and wine, for we spiritually partake      ery one of us must pray for grace         love, we will, like Israel, be cut out
of Christ Himself. We must contin-        that within these walls we will wor-      of that heavenly land of Canaan.
ue the practice of "close commun-         ship God properly as individuals.         Then this house, no matter how
ion" - only members of this con-          When we hear the pure preaching           beautiful physically,  wilI be a house
gregation and those who show the          and the reading of God's Word, we         of man,, a house of sin and Satan.
consistory that they are truly Re-        listen and take heed. We believe          The people of this house will not
formed may partake of the Lord's          and obey. When we sing praises to         know the presence of God and His
Supper here. The elders have to           Him, we do it from the heart in true      blessings. As people walk by and
guard the table of the Lord in this       thanksgiving for all of His blessings.    see the trouble and misery our un-
building so that as much as possible      When we pray, we are conscious of         faithfulness brings to us, they will
it is not profaned and God's judg-        what we are saying and mean what          be astonished and will say, "Why
ment come upon our congregation.          we say. When our children come to         hath the LORD done thus unto this
    In the third place, we must use       this place for catechism, they know       land, and unto this house?"
this building for the faithful exer-      their lessons'and listen respectfully         Let us, therefore, be faithful and
cise of Christian discipline. The         to their pastor because their parents     dedicate this house and ourselves to
main reason that so many beautiful        have faithfully instructed them.          the cause of God and His true spiri-
church buildings are. nothing but         Whatever we do in this house, it is       tual house. 0
empty shells is that the congrega-



                            Does God Desire
    that *the "Offer" be Received
                               by All Sinners?:
    In an article in the August - Sep-    . formed Fellowship deny that God          Dama&ng Reference to the PRC
tember 1995 issue of The Banner of          makes an indiscriminate offer of
Truth  magazine, "Calvin and the            Christ to sinners. Adherents of the         The, deliberate implication of this
Free Offer," the writer made the fol-       Westminster standards take the op-      referende  to the Protestant Reformed
lowing reference to the Protestant          posite view (p. 28).                    Seminary is that this Seminary and
Reformed Seminary:                                                                  thus the Protestant Reformed
                                              l@e Banner of Truth, published        Churches (PRC) are in conflict with
  Professors of the Protestant Re-        in Edinburgh, Scotland, is a maga-        the Westminster standards  regard-
  formed Seminary in the USA and          i&e of influence in .Calvinistic cir-     ing God's free offer of life and sal-
  their followers in the British Re-      cles, especially in the British Isles.    vation by Jesus Christ in the cove-

                                                                                         January 15,1555/Standard6eami173


nant of grace (see the Westminster          A Letter to The Banner of Truth              ment by A.A.. Hodge is basically
Confession of Faith, 7.3). In reality,                                                   our understanding
this is the charge that the PRC deny          In view of the misrepresentation             `(He (Christ) bids all men to lay
                                          of the position of the PRC in that
that the gospel is to be preached pro-                                                   hold of these blessings by the in-
miscuously and without distinction        magazine, I sent a letter to The Ban-          strumentality of faith, and He
                                                                                         promises that if they do so they
to all persons to whom God sends          ner of Truth. The Banner of Truth              shall certainly enjoy them," (A
the gospel and that the PRC do not        published this letter in the Decem-            Commentary on the Confession  of
command ail who hear the gospel           ber 1995 issue, as follows:                    Faith, Philadelphia, 1869, p. 175).
to repent and believe.                      We respectfully ask that you pub-              There ia nothing at all in Hodge's
     This charge, if believed by Cal-       lish the following in a forthcoming          explanation of a sincere desire on
vinists, particularly in the British        issue of The Banner of Truth as our         Chiist's  part that all be saved.
Isles, would spoil the testimony of         response to the reference to us in             Our denial of a "well-meant of-
the PRC there and hinder their work.        the August-September 1995 issue of           fer of the gospel," as adopted
                                           your magazine.                              syqodically  by the Christian Re-
                                                                                         formed Church in North America
    Misunderstanding of the BRF               In the heading of his article,
                                            "Calvin and the Free Offer" (The             in 1924 and as widely advocated in
                                                                                         Ca$nistic  circles today, is preclse-
     Inasmuch as the reference to the       Banner of Truth,  August-September           ly the denial that in the preaching
Protestant Reformed Seminary  Iinks         1995), John Brentnall makes the fol-
                                            lowing reference to us and our sup-          of the. gospel God desires, wishes,
the British Reformed Fellowship             posed view of the "offer of Christ":         purposes, or wills the salvation of all
(BRF) with the Seminary, the charge           "Professors of the Protestant Re-          hearers.  It is also precisely the de-
also reflects adversely on the genu-        formed Seminary in the USA and               nial that in the preaching of the gos-
ine Presbyterianism of the BRF.             their followers in the British Re-          pel  God is gracious to all hearers,
     I note in passing that the lead-      formed Fellowship deny that God              whether in the sense that He has
ers of the BRF are not "followers"         makes an indiscriminate offer of              an attitude of favor to all or in the
                                                                                         sense  that He actually works sav-
of the PRC or their professors. The         Christ to sinners. Adherents of the         ing power in all.
leaders of the BRF are men of theo-        Westminster standards take the op-              We judge that the teaching of uni-
logical and spiritual conviction and       posite view" (p. 28).
                                              Mr. Brentnall and the readers of          versal love and a universal will to
standing in their own right. They           The Banner of Truth should know             salvation, in the gospel, contradicts
agree with the doctrinal confession        that we believe that God in the              thelconfessional  Calvinistic  doctrine
of the PRC in certain important re-        preaching of the gospel presents             of election and reprobation. The
spects. They may well differ in oth-       Jesus Christ as the only Saviour             tea-g of universal grace, in the
er respects. One thing they ardent-        from sin to all who hear, We hold            gospel, contradicts the confession-
                                                                                        al Oalvinistic  doctrine of irresistible
ly desire: sound, creedal, Reformed        that by the' preacher God calls (in          gra?e,  or effectual calling.
churches in the British Isles. These       the sense of ~summons/  or "com-                As for Calvin's position on the
are churches that preach, the              mands") all to rePent and believe,           teaching  that God in the gospel
uncorrupted doctrines of grace with-       that is, to come to Christ. We main-
                                           tain that as Christ  is presented to         wishes to save and is gracious to
out compromise; maintain the one           all and as all are summoned to be-           all men, would Mr. Brentnall read
covenant of God with believers and         lieve, the gospel announces the              and comment on the chapter,
their chikdren; and practice Presby-       promise that everyone who does               "Calvin's Doctrine of the Call," in
terian church government. There is         believe (by sovereign grace) will be         David J. Engelsma's Hyper-Calvin-
not an abundance of such churches          saved.                                       ism and the Call of the Gospel
                                                                                        (Grand Rapids: EFPA, repr. 1994).
in the British Isles.                         In this (original) sense of the
     Those in the British Isles who        term, "offer," we believe that Christ       Response by The Banner of Truth
love the faith of Westminster and          is "offered" in the gospel to all who
Dordt ought not to be found under-         hear. Indeed, this is our heartfelt
                                           confession in one of our creeds, the            To my letter, the Editorial Direc-
mining the efforts of the BRF. Rath-       Canons of Dordt: "It is not the fault        tor, Iain H. Murray, appended his
er, they ought to be praying earnest-      of the gospel, nor of Christ, ojjkred        "editorial responsel:
ly that God wiII bless these efforts.      therein . . . that those who are called
     The PRC in America support the        . . . refuse to come" (lll,lV/8).            We agree          with Professor
work of the BRF mainly  by encour-            Contrary to the suggestion of Mr.         Engelsma's concern for accurate
-aging. their seminary professors to       Brent&l,  we do, therefore, agree            biblical thinking about the free of-
                                                                                        fer of the gospel. The critical issue
speak at BRF-sponsored conferenc-          with the statement of the                    here, of course, is not the mere use
es every two years and by the speak-       Westminster Confession of. Faith,            of the term "offer," but whether the
ing on behalf of the BRF that is done      that the Lord, in the covenant of
                                           grace, Ifreely offereth unto sinners         offer of the gospel is an expression
by the churches' missionary in             life and salvation by Jesus Christ" '        of God's desire that it should be
Northern Ireland.                          (7.3). The explanation of `the `state;-      received by sinners. We share with
                                                                        .:       -.     A.& Hodge (whom Professor

.t7+/$tar@ard  Bearer/January 15,1!395


  Engelsma cites) the conviction that         that the issue of the "well-meant of-           gracious to all hearers, whether in the
  onr beseeching and pleading with            fer" is an "important question." If             sense that He has an attitude of fa-
  men and women to receive the gos-           the Protestant Reformed denial of the           vor to all or in the sense that He
  pel offer is an expression of God's
  loving concern for the lost (cf. A.A.       "well-meant offer" is the hyper-cal-            actually works saving power in all."
  Hodge,  Evangelical Theology,  p.           vinism that Mr. Murray makes it out                  Murray should, therefore, have
  136). If, as Paul says, God makes           to be, the PRC are guilty of a false            responded that "the critical issue
  his appeals through his servants,           doctrine that conflicts with biblical           here . . . is . . . whether the offer of the
  then these appeals are not merely           teaching of the universal love of God           gospel is an expression of the desire
  expressions of Paul's compassion            in Christ for sinners and that. puts            of God to save every sinner to whom
  but of Gods. Indeed, if Paul's com-         an end to promiscuous preaching of              the gospel comes, because God loves
  passion, prayer, and loving desire          the gospel. Thus, the PRC badly                 all men without exception and is gra-
  for the lost to repent and believe in       cripple evangelism and missions, if             cious to all. II
  Christ are not expressions of God's         they do not make missions impossi-                   It is not helpful to the discus-
  own attitude, they cannot be of God
  at all. And if that is so, Paul's           ble.                                            sion of ,"this important question"
  words in Romans 9:1-3 and 2                         If, on the other hand, the rejec-       that Murray responds as he does in
  Corinthians 520 become an embar-            tion by the PRC of the "well-meant              the phrase, `I... whether the offer of
  rassment to us. To deny this on             offer" is right, the Calvinism of The           the gospel is an expression of God's
  the basis of God's eternal decree of        Banner. of Truth, as of many con-               desire that it should be received by
  reprobation (he has not chosen to           fessedly Calvinistic churches today,            sinners.`! For the phrase is ambigu-
  save some, therefore he can have            is fatally corrupted and compro-                ous. Does it mean that a sinner's
  no expressions of compassion and            mised by the damnable lie of                    embracing Christ by faith when the
  desire for them) does not, in our
  view, harmonize with                        Arminianism, that bringing again of             gospel is preached pleases God,
                           all of the bib-
  lical evidence.                             the Pelagian error "out of hell," as            whereasa  sinner's rejection of Christ
    Readers of the magazine will be           the Reformed faith officially (and              presented in the gospel displeases
  interested to know that discussion          correctly) judges the Arminian her-             God? This, the PRC wholehearted-
  of this important question will be          esy in the Canons of Dordt (II, Re-             ly maintain. If this is all that Murray
  found in IWO seminal works soon             jection of Errors/ 3).                          and Thi Banner of Truth mean by
  to be published by the Trust: Iain                                                          the offer of the gospel, they have no
  Murray's new book Spurgeon  v.                      Stating the Issue Accurately            quarrel with us.
  Hyper-Calvinism  and John                                                                        However, "desire" is far too
  Murray's work on lPhe Free Offer
  of the Gospel.                                      Murray states that the VJUX of          weak a word for what Murray then
                                              the issue is "whether the offer of the          intends. God does not merely "de-
    I appreciate the Rev. Murray's            gospel is an expression of God's de-            sire" faith as the only right and ac-
editorial courtesy in publishing my           sire that it should be received by sin-         ceptable.response to the gospel. He
letter in full.                               ners.R                                          demands  it. Every sinner to whom
                                                      This is not an accurate statement       the gospel comes is obZiged to believe.
     Continuing the Discussion                of the "critical issue." Neither does           Refusal will be punished with dou-
                   in the SB                  this forthrightly address the position          ble stripes of damnation (John 3:18).
                                              of the PRC on the preaching of the                   Or does the phrase that is sup-
    In a private letter, the Rev.             gospel as this position was precisely           posed to express "the critical issue"
Murray has informed me that The               expressed in my letter.                         mean that God has the desire of pur-
Banner of Truth is not inclined to                    I had written that the denial of        pose that every sinner who comes
continue the discussion on its pag-           the "well-meant offer of the gospel"            under the gospel be saved and that
es. It is evident, however, from the          by the PRC is "precisely the denial             God has this purpose because He
publishing plans of The Banner of             that in the preaching of the gospel             lobes every sinner?
Truth Trust mentioned at the end of           God &sires, wishes, purposes, or wills
the editorial response that there is          the salvation of all hearers. "                          What Murray Means
no inclination to discontinue the con-                Iain Murray, therefore, should
troversy against the PRC in the Brit-         have responded that "the critical is-                What follows in Iain Murray's
ish Isles and, indeed, worldwide.             sue here . . . is . . . whether the offer of    response makes clear that the latter
Therefore, I must comment in the              the gospel is an expression of God's            is meant., The offer for Murray 4s
Stanakrd Bearer  on Murray's "edito-          desire  to save  every sinner to whom           the expression to every sinner with-
rial response.,"                              the preaching of the gospel comes. M            out exception of God's sincere de-
                                                      I-had written that the denial of        sire to save him inasmuch as God
     An "Important. Question".                the ~"we&meant  .offer" by the PRC              loves him. The gospel for Murray
                                     ;.       is'@so.- precisely the denial that in           is grace for all. Iain Murray and
    The PRC agree with Iain Murray            the preaching of the gospel God is              The Banner of Truth defend univer-

                                                                                                     January 15,19!WStandard  Beareo'l75


sal gospel-grace. Whereas the grace          grace may come to  be of one mind,                  My question: When God con-
of God in Christ in the decree of            I pose a different question for Iain           fronted Pharaoh in Exodus 5:l with
predestination may be particular, in         Murray and The Banner of Truth.                the imperative, "Let my people go!,"
the gospel it is universal. Whereas          My question focuses on the implied             did God desire, in love for Pharaoh,
the Christ of the cross may be for           argument in Murray's line, "The ait-           that Pharaoh actually let the people
the elect only, the Christus  of the gos-    ical issue . . . is . . . whether the offer    go, so. that in the way of his obedi-
pel is  pro omnibus.                         of the gospel is an expression of              ence Pharaoh be saved?
        How Murray harmonizes this           God's desire that it should be re-                 The question can be put more
teaching with the Reformed creeds            ceived by sinners." The argument               succinctly. From an imperative, or
on the sovereignty of God, the one-          may be put thus:                               command, by God to sinners, may
ness of His counsel, the particulari-             1) God's confrontation of a sin-          we infer a sincere desire of the di-
ty of the cross, and the irresistibility     ner with an imperative (command,               vine  wiIl that the sinner  fulfiI the
of grace is a problem for him and            or exhortation), obedience to which            imperative inasmuch as God loves
an enigma to me. Nor does he at-             pleases God, implies God's purpose-            the sinner and wishes his salvation?
tempt to show this harmony in his            ful desire, in love for that sinner,               May a doctrine of the extent of
response. Perhaps he will do this in         that the sinner actually obey the im-          God's grace in Jesus Christ be based
his forthcoming Spurgeon  v. Hyper-          perative and be saved in so doing.             on the fact that God has the gospel
Calvinism. We will see.                          2) God does confront every sin-            preached to all?
                                             ner who hears the gospel with an                   Would Iain Murray answer this
           A Question Intended               imperative, "Believe in Christ pre-            questiQn:  Was the Word of God to
        to Promote the Discussion            sented in the gospel!," obedience to           Pharaoh in Exodus 5-11 an expres-
                                             which imperative pleases Him.                  sion of God's desire that His Word
        For the furtherance of a serious         3) Therefore, God desires the sal-         should be received by the sinner Pha-
discussion of the issue, in the hope         vation of every sinner who hears the           raoh? o
that all who love the sovereignty of         gospel.                                                                        - DJE



n A Doctoral Study of                        writings  - and also from the writ-            gram in doctoral studies and I would
Hoeksema's Theology                          ings of other people who, like your-           be happy to serve as a mentor for
        I was pleased to read your ex-       self, have carried on in his tradition.        this particular project should the stu-
cellent editorial on Herman  Hoek-           A solid and sympathetic c&cal ex-              dent in question be interested in such
sema as "The Reformer of 1924," in           position of these writings is long             an arrangement. My guess is that
the October 15 issue of  the Standard        overdue. I think that you care exact-          you have other plans in mind, but I
Bearer. I was especially intrigued by        ly right in proposing that someone             do want you to know of my willing-
your suggestion that the time had            from your church do the job, and               ness to encourage this endeavor in
come  for someone from your de-              that they do it as a doctoral disser-          any way that you should see fit as
nomination to write a doctoral dis-          tation. I w&h you well as you seek             you mqve ahead with your work on
sertation on Hoeksema's theology.            to inspire the fulfillment  of this ex-        this matter. Let me know if I can be
I want to encourage you to follow            cellent proposal.                              of any help. 0
through on that suggestion. I am                 Let me add that I would be very                              (Dr.) Richard 1. Mow
sure that you know that many of us           happy to see such a project take                                           President,
who do not agree with all of the de-         place here at Fuller Theological Sem-                  FulIer Theological Seminary
tails of Hoeksema's theology have,           inary. We have an excellent pro-                                       Pasadena, CA
nonetheless, learned much from his



 . .                                         n "Minor" Corrections in the                   elaborate defense of evolution, but
                                             Theory of Evolution                            rather because of its presentation of
                                                 Time  magazine in its December             alterations in the traditional theory.
                                             4, 1995 issue presents a cover fea-            Although evolution is considered a
Rev.  VanBaren is pastor of the  Protes-     ture article on the. subject of "Evolu-        matter, of "science" in distinction
tant Reformed Church of Loveland,            tion's Big Bang." The article is of            from creationism (presented as a
Colorado.                                    interest not so much because of its            mattermof "religion" rather than "sci-

176/Standarc/  Bearer/January  15,1966


ence"), the article makes abundant-          kingdom. This explosion of bio-              lion years."
ly clear how "flexible" the theory of        logical diversity is described by  sci-        The more scientists struggle to
evolution really is. In fact, the            entists as biologys Big Bang.                explain the Cambrian explosion, the
thought came to mind as I read the             Over the decades,  evolutionary            more singular it seems. And just
article that certain aspects of the          theorists beginning with Charles             as the peculiar behavior of light
                                             Darwin have tried to argue that the          forced physicists to conclude that
lnewll theory of evolution seem to           appearance of multicelled animals            Newton's laws were  incomplete, so
show possibly creationism rather             during the Cambrian merely                   the Cambrian explosion has caused
than evolution!                              seemed sudden, and in fact had               experts to wonder if the twin Dar-
    I quote only a limited portion of        been preceded by a lengthy period            winian imperatives of genetic vari-
that feature article  - and obviously        of evolution for which the geologi-          ation and natural selection provide
this requires taking things "out of          cal record was missing. But this             an adequate framework for under-
context." Nevertheless, you will re-         explanation, while it patched over           standing evolution. "What Darwin
ceive some indication of the radical         a hole in an otherwise masterly the-         described  in the Origin  of  Species,"
changes in thought about the theory          ory, now seems increasingly unsat-           observes Queen's University pale-
                                             isfactory. Since 1987, the discover-         ontologist Narbonne, "was the
of evolution  - which is almost ev-          ies of major fossil beds in                  steady background kind of evolu-
erywhere presented as scientific fact.       Greenland, in China, in Siberia, and         tion. But there also seems to be a
                                             now in Namibia have shown that               non-Darwinian kind of evolution
    Indeed, while most people cling          the period of biological innovation          that functions over extremely short
  to the notion that evolution works         occurred at virtually the same in-           time periods - and that's where
  its magic over millions of years#  set-    stant in geological time all around          all the action is.
  entists are realizing that biological      the world.                                     . ..Biological evolution, says
  change often occurs in sudden fits           . ..Even more speculative are sci-         Kauffman, is just one example of a
  and starts. And none of those fit-         entists' attempts to address the flip        self-organizing system  that teeter-
  ful starts was more dramatic, more         side of the Cambrian mystery: why            totters on the knife edge between
  productive or more mysterious              this evolutionary burst, so stunning,        order and chaos, "a grand compro-
  than the one that occurred shortly         in speed and scope, has never been           mise between structure and sur-
  after Erwin's  wormlike  creature          equaled. With just one possible ex-          prise." Too much order makes
  slithered through the primordial           ception - the  Byozoa, whose  first          change impossible; too much cha-
  seas. All around the world, in lay-        traces turn up shortly after the             os and there can be no continuity.
  ers of rock just slightly younger          Cambrian - there is no record of             But since balancing acts are neces-
  than that Erwin discovered, scien-         new phyla emerging later on, not             sarily, precarious, even the most
  tists have found the mineralized re-       even in the wake of the mass ex-             adroit tightrope walkers sometimes
  mains of organisms that represent          tinction that occurred 250 million           make one move too many. Mass
  the emergence of nearly every ma-          years ago, at the end of the Permi-          extinctions, chaos theory suggests,
  jor branch in the zoological tree.         an period.                                   do not require comets or volcanoes
  Among them: bristle worms and                Why no new phyla? Some sci-                to trigger them. They arise natu-
  roundworms, lamp shells and mol-           entists suggest that the evolution-          rally `from the intrinsic instability
  lusks, sea cucumbers and jellyfish,        ary barrel still contained plenty of         of the evolving system, and superi-
  not to mention an endless parade           organisms that could quickly diver-          or fitness provides no safety net....
  of arthropods, those spindly               sify and fill all available ecological
  legged, hard-shelled ancient cous-         niches. Others, however, believe               It is simply beyond understand-
  ins of crabs and lobsters, spiders         that in the surviving organisms, the       ing how reasonable people can make
  and flies. There are even occasion-        genetic software that controls early       such alterations in their theory of
  al glimpses - in rock laid down            development had become too in-
  not long after Erwin's Nambian             flexible to create new life-forms af-      evolution - yet still insist that this
  sandstone  - of small,  ribbony            ter the Permian extinction. The in-        is a matter of "science." It seems
  swimmers with a rodlike  spine that        tricate networks of developmental          inconceivable that what formerly
  are unprepossessing progenitors of         genes were not so rigid as to for-         took, presumably, hundreds of mil-
  the  chordate  line, which leads to        bid elaborate tinkering with details;      lions of years to "evolve" by chance,
  fish, to amphibians and eventually         otherwise, marvels like winged             did noiv (so they would claim) take
  to humans.                                 flight and the human brain could           "only" some ten million years. By
    . ..Then. 543 million years ago, in      never have arisen. But very early          their own admission that would ap-
  the early Cambrian, within  the span       on, some developmental biologists          pear to be far too short a time for
  of no more than 10 million years,          believe, the linkages between mul-
  creatures with teeth and tentacles         tiple genes make it difficult to           "chance" happenings which would
  and claws and jaws materialized            change important features without          account for present day life forms.
  with the suddenness of apparitions.        lethal effect. "There must be limits       Their further admission that no fur-
  In a burst of creativity like nothing      to change," says Indiana Universi-         ther life forms have been evolving
  before or since, nature appears to         ty developmental biologist Rudolf          from lower forms in the past "mil-
  have sketched out the blueprints for       Raff. "After all, we've had these          lions" of years is also telling.
  virtually the whole of the animal          same old body plans for half a bil-            Scripture gives a clear  explana-

                                                                                              January 15,1995/StandardBearmi177


tion of the "sudden" life forms in           the interval of major evolutionary           said church members should not
Genesis 1 (though that did not take          innovation did not span the entire           "build too many barriers around
ten million years). One wonders:             30 million years, but rather was             church life." He said he was grate-
why should "evolution" be "scien-            concentrated in the first third.             ful for his own baptism at a time
tific," but Scripture be "unscientif-        "Fast," Harvard's Gould observes,            when  his parents were not attend-
                                             "is 
ic"? We are also told in Scripture                   now a lot faster than we             ing and had only flickering faith.
                                             thought, and that's extraordinarily          He said Christians should represent
that "through faith we understand            interesting."                                their faith with "generosity."
that the worlds were framed by the                                                          Some evangelicals within the
Word of God, so that things which                 Simple, is it not? One assumes          Church of England are debating
are seen were not made of things           that also this present estimate also           whether these non-attenders are
which do appear" (Heb.  11:3).             is not exactly accurate  - perhaps,            also non-believers. Mark Birchall,
Though the unbeliever sees the             give or take a few weeks. What con-            chair of the Evangelical Group in
things of God in creation (Rom. l),        torted efforts must be made in or-             the Church of England's synod,
he holds this under in unrigh-                                                            said it was a farce to baptize chil-
                                           der to present evolution as a reli-            dren 
teousness. That will ever be the case.                                                             of non-believers. "Baptism in-
                                           able theory of origins!                        volves making promises, and to
     Of interest, too, is the fact that                                                   baptize where there is no belief is
the evolutionist can freely shave off      H Baptism of Children                          inviting the parents to commit per-
a few million years here or there -        of Non-attenders                               jury," he told a reporter. He add-
yet claim to have a viable "theory"               In the  R.E.C. News Exchange,  De-      ed that most evangelicals would
of origins. This particular article        cember 1995, there is an account of            still accept those who are believers
simply takes off some 45 million           common practice of baptism of chil-            but non-attenders.
years from a single era:                   dren of non-attenders in Great Brit-             Legally, Church of England cler-
                                                                                          gy cannot refuse a baptism. They
                                           ain. The parents simply present the
     Scientists used to think that the                                                    might delay it, but all citizens have
                                           child for baptism and the minister
  evolution of phyla took place over                                                      a legal right to be baptized in the
                                           is expected to perform the ceremo-
  a period of 75 million years, and                                                       church of the land.
  eventhat  seemed impossibly short.       ny*
  Then two years ago, a group of re-                                                        It is obvious that such a view of
  searchers led by Grotzinger,  Samuel            George  Carey, the Archbishop of      the sacrament of baptism does not
  Bowring  from M.I.T. and Harvard's         Canterbury, in an October speech           at all take into account the wonder
  Knoll took this long-standing prob-        publicly criticized clergy who (are)       of the covenant of God established
  lem and escalated it into a crisis.        unwilling to baptize children whose        in the line of our generations. It be-
  First they recalibrated the geologi-       parents are not regular attenders at       comes rather a form without sub-
  cal clock, chopping the Cambrian           church. Carey, the leader of the           stance. 0
  period to about half its former            worldwide Anglican Communion,
  length. Then they announced that




                       William Ill of Orange:
                          Warrior of thle Faith*

                                                                                            The times were extremely peril-
                                           Introduction                                 ous for countries which had become
                                                  There was a time in the history       Calvinistic. Through the efforts of
Prof. Ha&o  is professor of Church His-    of the church of our Lord Jesus              the Roman Catholic counter-refor-
tory and New Testament in the Protes-      Christ when the fortunes of the              mation, the Protestant Reformation
fad Reformed Seminary.                     church in the Netherlands were in-           had not only been stopped in its
*A recent and excellent biography of       extricably tied to fortunes of the           tracks, but the Roman Catholics had
William III is the trilogy written by      church in Great Britain. This was            once again taken the offensive in Eu-
Marjorie Bouwen published by In-           the time of William III of the House         rope. Spain had always been firmly
heritance Publishers.                      of Orange.                                   on the side of the Romish Church;

178lStandard   Bearer/January  15,1995


France, by slaughtering the Hugenots       When 16 years old he was made a          he could do to slow the French ad-
and forcing the faithful to escape tor-    ward of the States-General, the rul-     vance.
ture and death by seeking refuge in        ing body in the Netherlands. Un-              The people, alarmed at the
other countries, had become an ally        der Johan de Witte, grand pension-       threat of being overrun by foreign
of the papacy in the battle against        ary of Holland, he received a knowl-     powers, clamored for the States-Gen-
Protestantism;  the Roman Catholic         edge of the intricate affairs of gov-    eral to make William Stadholder in
party was still strong in the British      ernment and the niceties of diplo-       spite of the recently passed law.
Isles, - and God's people were well        macy and rule.                           And the States-General reluctantly
acquainted with suffering and death                                                 proceeded to do so. Thus, William
for Christ's sake. Rome's servants         William's early wars                     held the same posts which his fa-
were ready to launch powerful                  In 1671 the perfidious Charles II    ther and grandfather had held and
armies to subdue Protestant king-          of England and the equally untrust-      was now responsible for the defense
doms and force Europe once again           worthy Louis XIV of France joined        of the country and its administra-
to bow before the papal throne.            in a plot to invade the Netherlands.     tion.
Even in the Netherlands, that bul-         Their purpose was to destroy the              Charles and Louis, thinking they
wark of the Reformed faith, there          strongest bastion of Calvinism in all    had the Netherlands at their mercy,
were those who, weary of war,              Europe. This was  partilcularly          made offers of peace which many in
sought compromise with the enemy.          treacherous of Charles for he had        the Netherlands, weary of war,
    The one man whom God used              professed repeatedly to be a friend      wanted to accept.' In fact, so tu-
to thwart these papal purposes was         of the Hollanders. And it was not        multuous were some of those who
William III of the house of Orange,        strange that Louis XIV was a part of     belonged to the French Party that
Stadholder in Holland. Against             the plot, for the king of France was     disorders arose in the streets. The
them all stood William III. His sto-       constantly searching in all the cor-     result was the assassination of Johan
ry is an intriguing one, though no         ners of Europe for places in which       De Witt by a mob. Because the peace
less intriguing than the man himself.      to meddle and for countries to bring     offers included ruinous conditions
His impenetrable reserve made him          under his rule. Yet, of more impor-      for the Lowlands, William refused
something of a mystery even to his         tance, both Charles and Louis hated      them, although he had, almost by
closest associates.                        with a passion the deep and staunch      sheer will-power, to impose his de-
                                           Calvinism which was the religion of      termination upon the people. The
Birth and early years                      the Lowlands.                            Netherlands stood alone against two
    William was the third by that              When the plot to invade the          of Europe's greatest powers. By dint
name in the notable line of Dutch          Netherlands was discovered, alarm        of great courage did William man-
rulers which began with William the        spread through the country and Wil-      age to hold out. And such courage
Silent. He was born at the Hague,          liam was appointed Captain-gener-        was born out of a firm conviction
the Netherlands on November 14,            al of the nation's forces. However,      that the Netherlands had to remain
1650 from William II, prince of Or-        the appointment was not to include       Calvinistic and not return to the
ange, and Mary, daughter of Charles        Stadholder, even though his father       bondage of Romanism.
I of England. He was thus in the           and grandfather had held both po-             In 1673, with help from the em-
direct line of Dutch royalty and had       sitions. The Dutch, always fearful       peror, Leopold I, William was able
close ties to the royal line of the        of giving too much power to her rul-     to rebuild the army and defeat the
Stuarts in England. Charles I was          ers, and being staunch lovers of lib-    French in a couple of key battles
the king of England who was be-            erty, had passed a law preventing        which restored to him a few strate-
headed by Parliament with the ap-          the same man from holding both po-       gic cities. But war continued spo-
proval of Oliver Cromwell during           sitions.                                 radically, and William was by no
England's civil war. Charles II, an-           The French immediately invad-        means successful in every battle
other Stuart, was on England's             ed the southern provinces and cap-       which he fought.
throne when William was born, and          tured three of them in as many                In 1677, through a strange twist
was William's uncle.                       weeks. In defense of their country       of history and through intricate dip-
    William was born eight days af-        the Dutch opened the dikes and           lomatic maneuvers, William married
ter his father died and was left an        flooded the polders to stop further      Mary, daughter of James, duke of
orphan in his early youth. Although        French advance. William was or-
he was by a recently-passed law pre-       dered to hold the "water-line."
vented from assuming the rule of               The times were exceedingly dif-
the United Provinces of Holland, his       ficult. Although the Dutch navy was      1    It must be remembered that the
education through University was           able to hold England at bay and pre-     Netherlands had, only a few years
geared towards acquainting him             vent an immediate invasion from          earlier, emerged from the Eighty
with the responsibilities of rule.         across the channel, William had all      Years' War with Spain.

                                                                                             January 15,199Wtandard  Beared


York (later to be James II, king of        he did. Her loyalty to him was                   again the wind helped William. Al-
England), and niece of Charles I. Be-      above question, and when William                 though the wind first veered to the
cause Mary was in the line of suc-         came to see it and appreciate it, she            north and drove the Dutch fleet back
cession, this marriage not only es-        became the object of his admiration              to its ports, it became "a Protestant
tablished a pact between the Neth-         and attention. They were, after a                wind" once again. It not only
erlands and England, but made Wil-         rocky start, a devoted couple.              brought the ships of William to the
liam a potential heir to England's                                                          southern coast of England, but held
throne.                                    William's rule in England                        the British navy at bay to the north
     Much has been written about the            Shortly after William's marriage,           and enabled the Dutch to land their
relation between William and Mary,         his father-m-law came to the throne              troops unmolested in Tor Bay near
and what has been written is by no         in England, but he was true Roman           Devon.
means complimentary. It is not al-         Catholic and was determined to re-                   After landing successfully and
ways easy to sort fact from fiction        store Roman Catholicism to the Brit-        without opposition, indeed, after be-
and determine correctly the nature         ish Isles. This meant that his own          ing jubilantly welcomed by the Brit-
of their relationship. But the fol-        son-in-law and daughter had to be           ish, William marched on London and
lowing seems true.                         pushed out of the way and the               forced James to flee to France. The
     William determined to make            staunch Calvinism of the Nether-            throne was declared vacant by ab-
Mary his wife because he thought it        lands made ineffective.                          dication, and William was pro-
would result in an alliance between            James' rule of the British Isles        nounced king of all Britain. The date
the Netherlands and England, which         was so cruel, so heavy-handed, so           was February of 1689. In April the
would make the lot of his people           obviously an effort to restore the pa-      throne of Scotland was offered him
easier in their wars with France.          pacy to England, Scotland, Wales            and opposition to William was
When he married Mary, he took her          and Ireland that his own people rose        quelled.
away from a frivolous, opulent, gid-       against him. By delegations from                    But James, determined to main-
dy court and from the only life she        the nobility, William was invited to        tain the throne of the Stuarts, land-
knew and enjoyed. The thought of           invade England and become the               ed in Ireland with the promise of
leaving the palace in London and           king.                                       French help. Soon he launched at-
living in dark and damp Holland                The only way in which William           tacks against key cities in Ulster with
and the relatively ascetic life of Wil-    could become king of England was            the purpose of making Ireland a
liam's court filled her with dismay.       through invasion. This was also car-        launching pad to recover England
She did not want William nor life in       ried out. We shall allow another to         and Scotland.
Holland and in her husband's court.        tell the story.                                     As the danger grew and after
Her first years were misery in the                                                     Londonderry and Enniskillen were
extreme.                                       On the 19th of October, William         successfully defended, William took
     Equally, William hated life in          went on board, and the Dutch fleet,       his troops across the Irish Sea and
London. He did not fit well in the           consisting of fifty-two men-of-war,       landed at Carrickfergus, where to
English court because his plainness          twenty-five frigates, as many  fire-      this day is a stone marking the place
stood in sharp contrast with the op-         ships, with four hundred victual-         where he first set foot on Irish soil.
ulence of the palace; his plain speak-       lers, and other vessels for the trans-
                                             portation of 3,660 horse, and 10,692      James was soundly defeated at the
ing was considered vulgar in com-            foot, put to sea from the flats near      great battle of the Boyne on July 1,
parison with the smooth flattery and         the Brielle,  with a wind at south-       1690 and Ireland was subdued. This
hypocritical blandishments of Lon-           west by south. Admiral Herbert            day is still celebrated by Ulster's
don society; his Calvinism was an            led the van, and Vice-Admiral             Protestants with parades and
abomination to those who, though             Evertzen  brought up the rear. The        speeches-recalling God's deliverance
members of the Anglican Church,              prince placed himself in the centre,      of Ireland from Roman Catholicism.
possessed no religion at all; and his        carrying  an English flag, embla-                 William was now king of all Brit-
obvious sincerity could not be toler-        zoned with his arms, surrounded           am - and Mary, his wife, had re-
ated amidst the frivolity of life in        with the legend, "For the Protes-
                                             tant Religion and Liberties of En-        turned to her homeland.
the king's palace.                           gland." Underneath was the mot-                   William could not stay long in
    For these and other reasons the          to of the House of Nassau,  Je            Britain however, for Louis was still
marriage was in its early years a           Muintiendruy  (I will maintain)?           meddling in continental affairs and
marriage of convenience in which                                                       was determined to restore Europe
the two rarely saw each other. But             Since the days when a storm de-         to papal rule. Showing his diplo-
gradually Mary came to admire the          stroyed the Spanish armada, the             matic skill, William forged an alli-
steely determination of her husband        British have always maintained that
and even came to adopt the faith           God fought for Britain and for the
which was the driving force of all         Protestant cause in that land. So           2       Wylie, History of Protestant&~

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ante with Brandenburg, Hanover,             many - in spite of the fact that his       was loved by the common people,
Saxony, Bavaria, and Savoy (all Prot-       critics are numerous and severe.           both in the Netherlands and the Brit-
estant provinces), with England as                 One forceful criticism lodged       ish Isles.
the linchpin of the federation, to de-      against William is against his char-           And his courage bore its fruits.
feat the nefarious purposes of Lou-         acter. He is portrayed by biogra-          Even those who hate Calvinism
is. Because Spain, thoroughly Ro-           phers as stiff, withdrawn, stern, tac-     speak glowingly of his vast accom-
man Catholic, hated France with a           iturn, and reserved to the point of        plishments. The freedom, union, and
passion, William was sometimes able         coldness. There is some truth to this      prosperity of Holland were due to
to solicit the help of Spain; but this      charge, and all his life William was       him. He preserved the crown in En-
help was of dubious value.                  an alien among the ruling class in         gland by judicious rule and gave En-
        Through many efforts toward         England which scorned him and rid-         gland the stability and continuity it
peace and through many broken               iculed him behind his back. But it         enjoys to the present. He was a pa-
treaties, William, by sheer determi-        is often forgotten that William had        tron of the arts, kind to the tenants
nation of his own will, was able to         no patience with the intrigue, dou-        on his royal estates, a brave general
protect Protestant countries from the       ble-dealing, duplicity, and  double-       who commanded intense loyalty
schemes of popery.                          crossing which so characterized di-        from his troops, and a friend and
        He died a weary and broken          plomacy in those days  - and in            helper of thousands of refugees flee-
man on March 19,172O.                       these. He was honest, forthright,          ing Roman persecution. He spent
                                            and single-minded in purpose, and          himself in affairs of State and ru-
William's place in history                  he said what was on his mind, what-        ined his health in the defense of the
        God uses strange and sometimes      ever may have been the consequenc-         cause of the Reformed faith. His
sinful ways to accomplish His pur-          es.                                        irritability and sometimes ungra-
pose. It cannot be denied that much                Further, William was a man of       cious conduct was due to ill-health
of William's efforts were based on          iron will and deep principle who           and overwork. He could also be
the principle that the cause of God         would stand by his principles though       kind, courteous, and forbearing.
is advanced by the sword. Even giv-         all were against him. He fought on             His deepest drive was to create
en the fact that in William's days          against the powers of the papacy           a Europe in which was religious tol-
the relation between church and             when his own people counseled              eration, along with which would
state was so close that one could           compromise and dishonorable peace,         come a cessation of religious wars,
hardly avoid resorting to the sword         and when his cause seemed on the           a curbing of papal power, and a Eu-
in defense of the faith, the fact re-       brink of defeat. He believed pas-          ropean citizenry which could live in
mains that the cause of the gospel is       sionately that he was God's instru-        quietness and peace.
not advanced by human might and             ment to protect Calvinism from                 These ends he accomplished.
power. Nevertheless, God can and            Rome and he unwaveringly stood             And the cause of Calvinism, though
sometimes does draw a straight line         for what he was sure was God's             now again at low ebb, was success-
with a crooked stick.                       cause. Scorned by the nobility, he         fully defended by his fortitude. 0
        William's accomplishments were



                                            Providence
                                                   Having established from Scrip-          We live in a valley of tears: so
                                            ture the truth of creation, the ques-      many anxieties, so many cares, so
                                            tion necessarily follows: What is          much trouble. In the face of all our
                                            God's involvement with His cre-            sorrows comes the call from Psalm
                                            ation? The question cries out for an       62% "Trust in him at all times."
                                            answer. From the viewpoint of our              The only way you will trust in
                                            own faith and life, this question cries    Him is by seeing that the same God
                                            out for an answer. Looking into a          and Father who created is the One
Rev. Key is pastor of the Protestant Re-    new year with all its uncertainties        who also upholds and governs all
formed Church  of  Randolph,  Wiscon-       requires of us the conviction that our     things. He does so as your faithful
sin.                                        heavenly Father is in control.             God and Father, so that everything

                                                                                             January 15,19!3Wtandard  Beam/i  51


in your life and mine, without excep-       might, for that he is strong in pow-               We have a place to go with the
tion,  comes not by chance but by His       er; not one faileth." That is how the       things that we make. A woman
fatherly hand.                              Lord upholds and governs the sun,           stitches a wall hanging, and places
     We stand before the truth              moon,. and stars. To His church He          it on the wall. A man builds a cabi-
known as God's providence. A                promises, "I will uphold thee with          net and installs it in the chosen place.
more beautiful definition of this           the right hand of my righteousness."               But when God created the world
truth is not to be found than the def-          The truth of God's power in up-         - we speak figuratively - He had
inition given in our Heidelberg Cat-        holding all things is emphatically ex-      to hold it in His hand former. And
echism, Lord`s Day 10.                      pressed in Psalm 33.                        that is true not only of the planet
     What dost thou mean by the                 Verse 6 expresses the truth of          called earth. He upholds all things
providence of God?" Answer: "The            creation: "By the word of the LORD          by the Word of His power. That is
almighty and everywhere present             were the heavens made; and all the          true of every creature.
power of God; whereby, as it were           host of them by the breath of his                  It is the Almighty  God, Jehovah,
by His hand, He upholds and gov-            mouth." But in the very next verse          who feeds the sparrows. It is Jeho-
ems heaven, earth, and all creatures;       the inspired psalmist turns to                    vah who gorgeously clothes the
so that herbs and grass, rain and           God's continued work and                           lilies with even greater beauty
drought, fruitful and barren years,         says, "He gathereth the wa-         ,h,B,"Lod       than that of Solomon. And
meat and drink, health and sickness,        ters of the sea together as
riches and poverty, yea, and all            an heap: he layeth up the            created        those testimonies of Jesus are
things come, not by chance, but by                                            the world - applied to you more directly
                                            depth in storehouses." The
His fatherly hand."                         reference there is apparent-        we speak         when He says in Matthew
     What a profoundly blessed                                                ftyef;-F           lo:30 and Luke 21:18 that not
                                            ly to the wonder work of                             a hair shall fall from your
truth!                                      God's grace as He led His
     How critically important it is         people, Israel, out of the          to hold it      head except by the will of your
                                                                                                heavenly Father. He upholds
that you understand this truth and          bondage of Egypt through          in His hand
receive it with application to your                                             forever.        all things, guiding them to the
                                            the Red Sea. He upholds and                        end that He has appointed.
own life!                                   governs His creation by the                       He upholds our bodies. He up-
     The only way to face the suffer-       same Word of power with which               holds our souls. He upholds our
ing and trials that mark our life on        He created the universe.                    minds. He upholds all that we are
this earth, the only way to live with           "Let all the earth fear the LORD:       in the world, in relation to others
peace-filled souls, the only way to         let all the inhabitants of the world        and in relation to the whole world.
know the comfort of the gospel, is          stand in awe of him. For he spake,          We continue to exist according to
by seeing God as the absolutely sov-        and it was done; he commanded,              His will, by His upholding power.
ereign Lord who upholds and gov-            and it stood fast." Again, a refer-         What a magnificent God we serve!
ems all things according to His own         ence to that work of God in the past.             God, our faithful Father, is di-
wise purpose, and who does so for           Then the psalmist once again speaks         rectly involved in our lives and in
your sake. He shall save His people         of God's continuous work, when he           the function of every element of cre-
in Christ. Not one of them shall be         writes, "The LORD bringeth the coun-        ation. That is the precious truth of
lost. In fact, all things work togeth-      sel of the heathen to nought: he            Scripture that we lay hold of by faith.
er for their good.                          maketh the devices of the people of
                                            none effect. The counsel alf the Loan                Governing All Things
          Upholding All Things              standeth for ever, the thoughts of                Our God also governs all things.
     That God upholds His creation          his heart to all generations." Our          His directing of all things is insepa-
is a truth taught throughout Scrip-         God upholds all things in His vast          rably connected with His upholding
ture. God holding all things in His         creation. So teaches Psalm 33.              of all things, as is evident even in
hand - a figurative expression, but             Does it not stand to reason?            the Scripture passages referred to in
one that reveals a wonderful truth.             "Through faith we understand            the paragraphs above.
     It is the Lord, according to Acts      that the worlds were framed by the                God governs everything.
17~25 and following who gives unto          word of God, so that things which                 That this creation is a moving
all life, and breath, and all things. It    are seen were not made of things            creation is very evident in this sci-
is in Him that we all live and move         which do appear." That is the testi-        entific age. We know today much
and have our being. The whole of            mony of Hebrews 11:3. God creat-           better than in former years rhat this
Isaiah 40-46 sets forth this same truth     ed the world, by the Word of His            creation is from every point of view
in detail. He who has created the           power, calling all things into being        a Ziving  creation. That man and the
things in the heavens "bringeth out         out of no material thing. Where            animals are active, moving creatures
their host by number: he calleth them       would God put that world of His            is obvious. But in recent years we
all by names by the greatness of his        creation?                                  have learned that all creatures move.        '

1  WStandard  Bearer  /January  15,1995


The cells and atoms that make up               and toward a certain end which He                                 The outworking of God's provi-
each creature are living and moving            in wisdom has determined from                                 dence is'but His ordained way to
cells. The soil itself bustles with liv-       eternity.                                                     that end which He has determined
ing organisms, breaking down oth-                   This is another tremendously                             from eternity.
er organisms, building still others,           comforting aspect of God's provi-                                 But that applies more particu-
all serving in the production of the           dence.                                                        larly to your life and mine, who trust
plants and crops. God made noth-                                                                             in God. All things serve His wise
ing that is dead.                              Directing All Things with Purpose                             purpose ;for us. That thorn in the
    When we say that God governs                    It becomes evident, when we                              flesh, that God has not removed, is
the whole world and all things, we             speak of governing, that there is a                           there to serve our salvation and our
mean exactly that every movement               purpose in the mind of Him who                                everlasting fellowship with our
and life, conscious or unconscious,            governs. We must not separate the                             heavenly Father. That shameful but
of every creature, is determined by            end from the means. Ephesians 1:ll                            forgiven past will serve God's wise
the Almighty God, our Father.                  tells us that God "worketh all things                         purpose for us, and will serve us on
    Scientists speak of natural law.           after the counsel of his own will."                           the pathway to glory. Affliction also
But the psalmist in Psalm 104                       Our Belgic Confession maintains                          serves God's purpose for us. (We
shows us in what that natural                          the same truth in Article 13:                         simply touch on the relationship be-
law consists. He enumerates         Naturaz law                                                              tween God's providence and evil.
the outworking of what we                                   "We believe that the same                        We intend to come back to that sub-
call "natural law," and              is simply               God, after He had created                       ject in our next article.)
shows that it is all the                    our              all things, did not forsake                         The afflictions which God sends
work of God Himself. In           observation  of            them, nor give them up to                       our way, the deaths that touch us
conclusion the singer lifts          how God                 fortune or chance, but that                     and our families, the sorrow - all
his praise to God: "0                  makzs                 He rules and governs                            serve God's perfect purpose,  not
LORD, how manifold are              and upholds              them  a c c o r d i n g   t o   H i s   hoZy    only for our own life, but for our
thy works! in wisdom thou           and governs              wi22" (emphasis mine).                          life as we stand in relation to our
hast made them all: the                things                The Westminster  Confes-                        brothers and sisters in Christ. The
earth is full of thy riches."      in an orderly            sion of Faith also sets forth                    same is true of all the joyful experi-
    Natural law is simply our               way.         this truth very beautifully in                      ences in life.
observation of how God makes                          Chapter III, Article 1, when it                            So we claim this doctrine as our
and upholds and governs things in              says: "God from all eternity did, by                          own. We are believers in the sover-
an orderly way. God has a law for              the most wise and holy counsel of                             eign God, who is our Father for
the moon around the earth, and a               His own will, freely and                                      Jesus' sake.
law for the earth around the sun. If           unchangeably ordain whatsoever                                    Faith looks to the Scriptures and
the earth would revolve around the             comes to pass."                                               contemplates what God does, recon-
sun in a different way for each rev-                The purpose which He has in                              siders what God has done, and from
olution, everything would be upset.            view with all the works of His hands                          these things concludes what God
The psalmist says, "He appointed the           is also expressed in Ephesians 1. He                          shall do in the future. Faith sees the
moon for seasons: the sun knoweth              works "all things after the counsel                           God who is unchangeably faithful,
his going down." (Do not say that              of his own wilh That we should be                             bringing about our promised salva-
the psalmist was ignorant of astron-           to the praise of his glory . . . . M                          tion.  0
omy. He speaks of the sun not in
scientific terms, but as we observe
that sun going down over the hori-                            3irSSc!-!qEN~W
zon at the close of day.) That takes                "His strength is made perfect in                         Give me Thy joy -
place by the Word of God.                                weakness" (II Cor. 12:9).                           Fill with Thy peace;
    That is not to say that God is                                                                           Remind me again
bound by what we call the natural                   I am so weak -                                           Thy love will not cease.
laws of His creation. Sometimes He                  Thou art so strong:
works apart from those natural laws.                I need Thy presence                                      I am so weak -
Then He reveals Himself in a won-                   All the day long.                                        Thou art so strong;
der. But God is pleased to work by                                                                           Please hold my hand
such natural laws for our sakes. He                 Strengthen me, Lord,                                     And help me along.
upholds and governs all things for                  Please take my hand;
our advantage.                                      Each troubled thought                                                        Annetta lansen
    God governs all things with a                   Thou dost understand.                                                      Dorr, Michigan
certain purpose in His perfect mind,

                                                                                                                   January 15,199Wtandard  Bearerll53


      Hating the Hater of God (1)

    We live in an age when the the-            Those are the words of the "man       lasting fire of hell. He will do that
ory that God loves all men is an al-       after God's own heart." David             because He hates those that hate God
most universal idea in the church          fought many wars during his career        with a perfect hatred.
world. From this follows the teach-        as king against the enemies of God            hiIaybe there are those who
ing that we too are to love all men.       and His people. He led the armies         would agree that the hatred of Dav-
Even the most wicked men in the            of the Lord of hosts to battle in         id  w,as a holy hatred. However,
church and in the world are to be          which many thousands were killed.         they would immediately say that
tolerated. None is ever to be con-         That characterized much of David's        this has absolutely no application for
demned, opposed, and expelled              career as king. He continued to do        the church today. This was exclu-
from the church. Everyone, after all,      that until God gave him rest over         sively the character of a bygone age.
has the right to his own opinion           all his enemies. Was David simply         The more liberal of these would even
about the doctrine of God, and he          a bloodthirsty man in fighting these      say that God has changed since that
has the freedom to choose his own          wars? Was he perhaps a man filled         bygone age. In the Old Testament
philosophy of life. The church is to       only with nationalistic fervor for Is-    God ,was a God of vengeance and
be so loving that it accepts all and       rael, with imperialistic ambitions to     wrath. Therefore He caused fire to
tolerates all in her midst. Even in        conquer the world? Perhaps David          come down from heaven to consume
the world we are not to condemn            simply gave way to a momentary            His enemies. He destroyed Pharaoh
anyone harshly, no matter what his         sinful and unholy passion when he         and his hosts in the Red Sea. He
life-style. Even the sodomite, for ex-     uttered the words of Psalm 139.           sent His angel of death to slaughter
ample, is to be sympathized with               As shocking as this might seem        the 185,000 soldiers of the proud,
and not condemned. He is to be             to some in our day, David speaks in       blaspheming Sennacherib. But in the
treated merely as a man who has            Psalm 139 of a "perfect hatred." The      New Testament age God reveals
chosen an alternate life-style, or as a    hatred of which David speaks in the       Himself as a God of love, who loves
man who has a genetically deter-           above passage was a holy hatred. It       everyone and desires to save every-
mined attraction to the same sex.          was a hatred perfectly consistent         one. Therefore the sentiments of
We must do all we can to make such         with love for God. In fact it  was        David are wholly inappropriate for
a man feel accepted for what he is         love for God. Had David said the          Christians today.
among us.                                  opposite, "Do I not love even those           We maintain that God's people
    With such thinking so prevalent,       that hate Thee, 0 God," then David        today must have the same holy ha-
David's words in Psalm 139 jar the         would have been revealing that he         tred for those that hate God as Dav-
sensitivities of people. Let me quote      did not truly love God. Then David        id did. We maintain that the true
the entire passage: "Surely thou wilt      would have hung up his spear and          church today must do battle against
slay the wicked, 0 God: depart from        bow and ceased from ever leading          God's enemies with the same holy
me therefore ye bloody men. For            the armies of the Lord to battle          hatred in the hearts of her members.
they speak against thee wickedly,          against God's enemies and the ene-        She must follow her Captain, the
and thine enemies take thy name in         mies of Israel again.                     Lord Jesus Christ, in this great bat-
vain. Do I not hate them, 0 Lord,              When David fought the Lord's          tle of the ages with the same fervent
that hate thee? and am not I grieved       battles with hatred against God's en-     desire for the glory of God.
with those that rise up against thee?      emies in his heart he was being a             Holy hatred for the haters of
I hate them with perfect hatred: I         type of the Lord Jesus Christ, the        God must by all means be clearly
count them mine enemies"  (Ps.             Holy One, the King of kings and           distinguished from unholy hatred in
139:19-22).                                Lord of lords. Jesus will come final-     all its forms. The hated that resides
                                           ly to destroy all the enemies of God      in the heart of wicked men is evil.
                                           in the wrath of God. This is a fear-      It is terribly wicked. God wilI judge
Rev. denHartog is pastor of Hope Prot-     ful thing. In the end He will cast all    men for their hatred against God and
estant Reformed Church in  R&lands,        the enemies of God into the ever-         their fellow man. The Bible clearly
California.

184lStandard Bearer/January  15,1995


teaches that we must love even our                God has enemies also today. He             nally. He does that as God. He
enemies. Our Lord taught us this in       has many enemies. The wicked are                   hates the lreprobate  ungodly wicked
the Sermon on the Mount. In this          the enemies of God. God hates the                  with an unchangeable, perfecti  holy
Christians must be distinguished          reprobate ungodly wicked with a                    hatred already now. God reveals
from the unbelieving world. The           perfect and holy hatred. He is an-                 His wrath from heaven continually
world loves only those who love           gry with the wicked every day. He                  against all their wicked deeds. The
them. The Christian is called to love     reveals His wrath from heaven con-                 many judgments that God visits
even his personal enemies. Jesus          tinually against all ungodliness and               upon the earth even today are the
says: "Ye have heard that it hath         unrighteousness of men (see Rom.                   revelation of His holy wrath against
been said, Thou shalt love thy neigh-     1). The New Testament God is not                   the ungodly world in which we live.
bor, and hate thine enemy. But I          different from the God of the Old                         If-we truly love God we must
say unto you, Love your enemies,          Testament. Of course not. He is                    hate the enemies of God. It is not
bless them that curse you, and pray       the unchangeable God of wrath                      love for God to love God's enemies.
for them which despitefully use you,      against the wicked. God's w:rath  is               To hate God's enemies is, however,
and persecute you; That ye may be         an indispensable part of His holi-                 a very fearful calling. This is true
the children of your Father which is      ness. A God who is not a God                              especially for two reasons. In
in heaven: for he maketh his sun to       of wrath against sin and the                                    the first place we realize that
rise on the evil and on the good,                                                  It is not
                                          sinner is not holy. God does                                     we are all by nature children
and sendeth rain on the just and the                                            l o v e   f o r   God
                                          not love the wicked. He has                                       of wrath. We are by nature
unjust" (Matt.  543-45).  The inspired                                              to love
                                          not changed His attitude                                          the enemies of God. We all
apostle Paul gives Christians a simi-                                                God's
                                          against the wicked since the                                      deserve the pouring out of
lar admonition: "Dearly beloved,          days of the Old Testament.               enemies.               the wrath of God upon our-
avenge not yourselves, but rather         He is still a consuming fire                                   selves, even the best of us. We
give place unto wrath: for it is writ-    against the wicked. It is a fearful                deserve nothing but wrath from
ten, Vengeance is mine; I will repay,     thing to fall into the hands lof the               God. So great is our sin against His
saith the Lord. Therefore if thine        angry God. (See Heb. 10 and 12.                    Holy majesty that we deserve the
enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst,     This passage of the New Testament                  everlasting wrath of God in hell be-
give him drink: for in so doing thou      is a fearful warning against aposta-               cause of our sin. It is only by the
shalt heap coals of fire on his head.     sy-1                                               sovereign grace of God in the cross
Be not overcome of evil, but over-                It is wrongly maintained that              of Christ'Jesus that we have been
come evil with good" (Rom. 12:19-         God loves everyone and hates no                    delivered from the holy wrath of
21). We may not hate our personal         one. It is claimed that all the pas-               God. The more we realize this truth
enemies even when they do evil            sages of the Bible that speak of the               concerning ourselves the more we
against us and persecute us.              anger and wrath of God against the                 ought to, fear and tremble before
    The same David who by inspi-          wicked must be interpreted as mean-                God. We are not by nature better
ration of God wrote the words of          ing only that God hates the sins of                than the ungodly world, and yet we
Psalm 139 showed by classic exam-         the wicked. He does not hate their                 must condemn the world by the
ple that he kept the words of Jesus       person. We disagree. It is true that               Word of God.
and of the Lord's apostle. When           God hates the sins of His elect and                       The second reason why our call-
Shimei cursed David at the time of        loves their person. He  hateid our                 ing to hate God's enemies is so fear-
the great tragedy of Absalom's re-        sins with such an infinite and per-                ful is that :we are by nature prone to
bellion against David, Abishai said       fect hatred that He poured out His                 all kinds of unholy hatred. Even as
to David: "Why should this dead           wrath on His beloved Son on the                    children of God we have only a
dog curse my lord the king? let me        cross to make atonement for those                  small beginning of the new obedi-
go over, I pray thee, and take off his    sins. But it is not true that God hates            ence. Deep down in our sinful na-
head." But David answered: What           only the sins of the wicked. This is               ture resides all sorts of sinful pas-
have I to do with you, ye sons of         a common idea piously promoted by                  sions that we have to fight against
Zeruiah? so let him curse, because        many teachers in the church world                  daily. Even as Christians we find
the Lord hath said unto him, Curse        today. It is not a biblical truth. The             that much of our hatred against our
David. Who shall then say, Where-         Bible is very plain that God hates                 fellow man is deeply sinful and dis-
fore hast thou done so?" (see II          the person of the ungodly wicked                   pleasing to the Lord. For a man as
Samuel 16). David was not perfect,        man. He hates the ungodly with                     sinful as you and I are it is an ex-
of course. But David never in holy        such a perfect, holy hatred that He                tremely difficult thing to have only
fervor did evil against his own per-      will judge them eternally in hell.                 a holy and perfect hatred against the
sonal enemies. He did in holy fer-                Neither is it true that God loves          enemies of God. We need much
vor execute the judgment of God on        the wicked in time and later will turn             prayer to be able to hate with a ha-
God's enemies.                            to hate them. God sees all men eter-               tred that is holy.

                                                                                                         January 15,19!36/Stanciard  BearerI


      How does the Christian today           are the enemies of God? Can we             only ~for God to know who are real-
 manifest the attitude of David the          know them at all, or is this some-         ly the enemies of God? 0
 man after God's own heart? Who              thing that only God knows? Is it                               . ..to be continued




                                                       Chapter 5
               Paradise the First (cont.)
                                             is also plain from the fact that after     it was really a shame that Adam
 The Tree of Life                            man's fall into sin he was barred          ever fell: the deep way of the suf-
     Paradise the First was the earth-       from the tree of life (Gen. 322-24).       fering and death of our Lord Jesus
 ly tabernacle of God with man. It               The question is: What was the          Christ could have been avoided - I
 was a real garden, the particular           significance of this special tree, the     mean, not by man, but by the Lord
 dwelling place of man, God's cove-          tree of life?                              our God. But let us look at this ex-
 nant friend, in the state of righteous-         Various interpretations of the         planation of the tree of life from the
 ness. In the midst of the garden God        tree of life have been given.              point of view of that tree itself. This
' dwelt with man. Moreover, man                  According to some, the tree of         theory attributes spiritual power, the
 was at home in the garden. Twice            life would actually have the power         power to accomplish a spiritual
 we read that God "put" man in Par-          to give man eternal and glorious life.     change, to what was evidently a
 adise (Gen. 28, 15). This refers to         That is, it would not merely have          phys@l  tree with physical fruit and
 an act of God whereby He so estab-          the power to perpetuate Adam's             physical energy of some kind. Be-
 lished Adam in the garden that he           earthly existence in Paradise the          sides, it is evident from Scripture
 understood his position and calling         First; but it would be able to give        that even after Adam and Eve had
 and was able to perform it. He was          Adam eternal life in the qualitative       sinned, the tree, if they had eaten of
 not a stranger in his environment,          sense of that term, heavenly life,         it, would have produced its effect.
 bui the proper relation was estab-          eternal life as the Christian obtains      This is plain from Genesis 3:22-24:
 lished between him and his sur-             it through our Lord Jesus Christ.          "An4 the Lord God said, Behold,
 roundings.                                  However, there are some grave ob-          the man is become as one of us, to
     In the midst of the garden was          jections to this explanation. For one      know good and evil: and now, lest
 the tree of life. Thus we are in-           thing, this theory overlooks the fact      he ptit forth his hand, and take also
 formed very briefly in Genesis 2:9:         that Adam was of the earth, earthy,        of thhe tree of life, and eat, and live
 "And out of the ground made the             and that as such he was perfectly          for  e+er: Therefore the Lord God
 Lord God to grow every tree that is         content and happy as God's cove-           sent him forth from the garden of
 pleasant to the sight, and good for         nant friend in the state of rectitude      Eden; to till the ground from whence
 food; the tree of life also in the midst    in the midst of the earthly creation,      he was taken. So he drove out the
 of the garden, and the tree of knowl-       and that he would have had abso-           man and he placed at the east of the
 edge of good and evil." Of this tree        lutely no desire for anything other        gardqn of Eden Cherubims, and a
 of life man might freely eat. For the       than that only and perfect happiness       flaming sword which turned every
 Lord God commanded him, "Of ev-             which he knew.                             way, to keep the way of the tree of
 ery tree of the garden thou mayest              Secondly, this theory presuppos-       life."
 freely  eat.N The only exception to         es that there might have been an-                Others have explained the tree
 this was the other special tree, the        other way to, the glory of eternal life    of life as a mere sacrament. This,
 tree of the knowledge of good and           than through our Lord Jesus Christ.        according to them, is the whole sig-
 evil, of which man was specifically         In other words, in the divine econo-       nificance of the tree of life. With
 forbidden to eat (Gen. 2:16,17).  This      my of things the sending and death         respect to this view, we must re-
                                             and exaltation of God's Son -in the        member that while there was a cer-
                                             flesh were actually unnecessary, ex-       @in sacramental character to this
 The late Homer  Hoeksema  was profes-       cept as a secondary way tb eternal         special tree, it can hardly be main-
 sor of Dogmatics and Old Testament in       life. Etemal'life could..hayqbeeF  &       ta$ed flatly that the tree of life was
 the Protestant Reformed Semina y.           tained by,,Adam..  If this we&t+&          a,sadament.  For, in the first place,
                                                                                         .

 1 WStandard Bearer /January 15,1998


a sacrament, in order to be a sacra-           curse of God. But this does not            the verv name "tree of life." In the
ment, must always be instituted as             mean that the first man, Adam, was         second'place, it is suggested by the
such., Sacraments are directly ap-             immortal. Man was created fallible         antithesis: of the tree of life -in the
pointed by our Lord as holy, visible           and mortal. He was taken from the          tree of the knowledge of good and
signs and seals. Thus it is with the           dust of the ground, and as such he         evil, which also had special signifi-
sacraments of baptism and of the               was mortal. It was possible for him        cance, as we shall see. In the third
Lord's Supper: they have been di-              to become subject to death. He was,        place, it is, suggested by the fact that
rectly ordained by the Lord Jesus              indeed, not subject to death; but he       Adam might eat of this tree only in
Christ to, be observed by His church.          was, so to speak "die-able." For           the way of obedience, so that when
But thus it was not with the tree of           that mortal man, it was his connec-        he sinnedi the way to the tree of life
life. The tree of life was merely a            tion with the tree which, in the posi-     was closed. Finally, it is suggested
gift.                                          tive sense of the word, invigorated        by the fact that Scripture speaks in
         In the second place, it is impor-     his earthly life with that strength        connectioh  with the heavenly tree of
tant to remember that sacraments do            which made him victorious over all         life of "the right to eat of the tree of
not have power in themselves; apart            possibility of decay and death. Such       life" (Rev., 2214).
from the grace of God. The water               was the significance, first of all, of         We must remember that the tree
of baptism is not itself grace, but a          the tree of life.                          of life was more than a mere physi-
means of grace. The bread and wine                 2. As such, the tree of life was       cal means'for the extension of man's
of the Lord's supper do not in them-           a symbol to Adam of the gift of life:      physical existence. It was the tree
selves impart grace to those who eat           perpetual, earthly life. We must re-       of  life. Even though Adam's life was
and drink them. But it is evident              member the nature of the tree in           earthy, nevertheless life also for
that this was true of the tree of life,'       general. The tree transforms the           Adam iml%ed the favor and fellow-
and that, too, even after Adam. and            earth into living and life-yielding        ship of God, his Creator-Lord. Now,
Eve had sinned. There was a cer-               fruit for the living soul. Man is of       if in this connection we remember
tam power and efficacy in that tree            the earth, earthy. As such, he is de-      that the tree of life was in the midst
itself.                                        pendent upon the ground from               of the garden, in the very heart of
         Still others explain that the tree    whence he was taken for his life. But      Paradise, we might say that accord-
of life was such that it would give            he cannot live directly from that          ing to the analogy of the temple, the
perpetual strength to the physical             ground. The tree forms the connec-         tree of life was in the holy of holies.
nature of man. This is certainly cor-          tion between man and the ground,           There, in `the midst of the garden,
rect, in the light of Scripture. Yet           transforming, as it does, the sub-         where the tree of life was, dwelt
this does not explain the tree of life         stance of the ground into food for         God. There He met man in the wind
fully.                                         man. In the fruit trees, therefore,        of the day. To approach the tree of
         We would explain the signifi-         God opened His hand to give life to        life, therefore, before the Fall was to
cance of the tree of life as follows:          man and beast. Among all those             approach iGod. As long as Adam
         1. That tree and its fruit had        trees there was one tree that was set      could draw near to God, in order to
the power of giving perpetual, earth-          aside: it was the tree of life, which      enjoy His; fellowship and commun-
ly life to man in as far as he had             was distinct in this, that he who ate      ion, he could have life. That tree
been taken from the ground. This is            of it would never lose his earthly         preached  ithis to Adam: "To live
very-plain from Genesis 3:22-24, the           life. That tree of life, therefore, was    apart from God is death; `tis good
passage already quoted above. That             the symbolic representation of God         His face to seek"
tree had this power to supply man              opening His hand to give life un-              Such, : briefly, was the signifi-
with perpetual, earthly life even af-          ending that is, perpetual earthy life,     cance of the tree of life in Paradise
ter he had sinned, so that it was nec-         to Adam.                                   the First.
essary to bar the way to the tree of               3. It is in this connection that           But that tree of life is no more.
life. In this connection, it seems evi-        we may discern something of a sac-         We must remember that it never was
dent also that this eating of the tree         ramental character in the tree of life,    destined to remain, but only to serve
of life was not simply a once-for-all          even though it cannot be called a          for a moment at the dawn of histo-
matter, but that it would be neces-            sacrament in the full sense. It was        ry, and that, too, in connection with
sary to eat of this tree continually           an emblem, a sign, of God's cove-          the whole `of God's purpose in Christ
and repeatedly. You must remem-                nant. It was a kind of visible and         which was to be achieved through
ber that man had not been created              tangible sign of God's'favor  and of       the course of history.
so that he could not die and return            that higher aspect of Adam's life              First Adam, and we all in him,
to the dust. To be sure, there was             which consisted in the knowledge           became separated from that tree of
no death in the state of rectitude..           of and fellowship of God. This is          life. Adam was sent forth from the
Death is not a natural process, but it         suggested by several scriptural facts.     garden, and cherubim were sta-
is the visitation of the wrath and             Inthe-first place, it is suggested by      tioned at the east (the entrance) of

                                                                                                Jan&  15,199Wtandard  Be~erll97


  the garden, and a flaming sword            be his people, and God himself shall            earthly are so many parables, so. to
  turning every way, so that the way         be `with them, and be their God" speak, of heavenly things.
  to the tree of life was closed, barred,    ( R e v .             21:3).                        Thus Paradise the First was an
  absolutely.                                    For a time that first Paradise and          earthly picture of the heavenly Par-
       The question is: why? And the         its tree of life remained on the scene          adise, the new and eternal kingdom
  answer is that if Adam had re-             of history. But it remained only as             of God in Christ. Adam was a pic-
  mained in connection with the tree         a silent, yet highly vocal testimony.          ture of the second Adam, Christ, the
  of life, he would have perpetuated         It remained as gospel-preaching.               Head of the new, united creation.
  his earthly existence, but his earthly     God did not remove it immediately.             The midst of the garden is an image
  existence  in sin, without God.  Then      We must remember that at that ear-             of God's communion with man. The
  there would be no redemption pos-          ly stage in history God's people                    river is an image of the flow of
  sible for him. Adam must lose that         were without the full and                             life from God in Christ eter-
  life. He must lose that earthly life,      clear light of the gospel.               In the        nally to His people. The tree
  and he must lose that earthly life                                           things earthly)
                                             God spoke to His people in                              of life is a picture of the
  especially as it became subject to sin     sundry ways. One of those           are so many         heavenly tree of life. The vi-
  and as it was without God. As it           ways was through Paradise             parables,         sion of that heavenly tree of
  was with Adam, so it is with all           and its tree of life, the way       so to speak,        life is recorded for us in Rev-
  God's people. They must lose this                                              of  heavenly
                                             to which was closed. That                              elation 22. There you find
  present, earthly existence, this life                                               things.
                                             tree of life preached: "`You                          the picture of the river of wa-
  without God in the world. They             must die. And yet there is hope.                    ter of-life, clear as crystal, pro-
  must not cling to this life, an exist-     For in connection with the promise,            ceed$g out of the throne of God and
  ence apart from the favor and fel-         I, the earthly tree of life, to which          of the Lamb. The tree of life is pic-
  lowship of God. Indeed, "to live           you can never return and to which              tured as bordering that river on ei-
  apart from God is death; `tis good         you must not desire to return, point           ther side, bearing twelve manner of
  His face to seek."                         forward to a better tree of life which         . fruits, and yielding her fruit every
      But in that case would it not ex-      is to come."                                   month. The leaves of the tree are
 actly be a good thing for Adam to               For we must not forget: God                for the healing of the nations. What
  approach the tree of life? If he again     had better things in store for us. It          the reality of this vision shall be con-
  approached the tree of life after he       was His purpose to unite all things            cretely, we cannot say. We must
  sinned, would he not be approach-          in heaven and on earth in Christ, in           wait until that time arrives. But cer-
ing into God's communion? And                the glorious and heavenly new cre-             tainly, it is evident that the heaven-
  was not that what he needed? The           ation. With a view to that purpose             ly tree of life represents the means
  answer is, in the first place, that        all things were adapted from the be-           of eternal life from God in Christ.
  Adam through his sin, and we in            ginning with a view to the end.                In Christ God's Word is: "Behold, I
  him, had lost the right to eat of the      Thus the earthly creation is an im-            make all things new!" 0
  tree of life as the symbol of God's        age of the heavenly. In the things
  communion. In the second place,
  God was gone! After the Fall, the
  tabernacle of God was no longer
  with men in Paradise. That Para-
  dise would never again be God's tab-
  ernacle. As a house of God with                    The pristine snow is blanketing the ground;
  man, it was empty. Nor was it God's                The dirty gray/brown/black is covered by pure white -
  purpose to return to that earthly tab-             This soft, clean beauty came without a sound
  ernacle and to restore it. He pur-                 And overlaid the ugliness - made darkness bright.
  posed to build His tabernacle, His                 Oh, what a picture of my evil heart within
  covenant dwelling with man, in                     Christ's sacrifice upon the cross has overlaid
  Christ Jesus. In Christ Jesus, the Son             The filth, the pride, the ugliness of sin,
  of God incarnate, He would estab-                  And cleansed my heart; a creature new has made.
  lish His tabernacle in the fullness of             God's work within me far exceeds the earthly snow
  time, in order ,to realize it fully in             That covers and then melts and leaves the grime.
  the new' heavens and the new earth                 His gift to me expunges sin, and lo,
  in the day to which we now look                    He sees in me no sin or guilt at any time.
  forward, when finally His Word                     For God, as far as east from west, expelled
  shall be fulfilled: "Behold, the tab-              My guilt and stain; Christ's righteouness beheld!
  ernacle of God is with men, and he                                                                        Thelma  Wes  tra
                                                                              _.  _  _`:
  will dwell with them, and they shall

  WE/Standard  BearerlJanuiry 15,1996


                                                    John 6:4-l-59
                     Jesus' Sermon on the
                                 Bread of Life (2)

         In our first look at this sermon    Jesus preaches the only way of sal-       2. Why does the Lord, in verse 44,
preached in the synagogue of                 vation. They must believe in Him,         respond to their murmuring by
Capemaum, we saw that Jesus clear-           they must receive Him by receiving        teaching the truth of irresistible
ly identified Himself as the true spir-      His words, .which are spirit and life.    g r a c e ?
itual bread sent down from heaven.           They must become one with Jesus.          3. From verse 44 show:
All the nourishment of eternal life is       Salvation is not earthly and perish-          a. Total depravity
to be found only in Him who is the           ing, but it is the forgiveness of sin         b. Irresistible grace (What is the
bread of life. Only by faith in Him          and life everlasting, through the         teaching of irresistible grace?)
is there salvation. This salvation is        cross and resurrection of Jesus           4. Does man's inability to come to
certain and can never be lost, for the       Christ. Believing is the gift of God.     Christ absolve him of his account-
Father has given His Son to be the           The Father must give and the Fa-          ability for his sin?
meat and drink of eternal life for all       ther must draw. And the Father            5. Where5 is the quotation in verse
His elect.                                   does give and does draw. He gives         45 written in the prophets? What
         Beginning in verse 41, we read      to those whom He loves from eter-         does Jesus intend to prove by this
that the Jews murmured at Him.               nity in Jesus Christ.                     quotation?
They stumbled over the word, "I am               The sum of it all is that Christ      6. Explain how verse 46 teaches the
the bread of life come down from             preached the heart of the gospel: di-     deity and majesty of Christ.
heaven." They understood that Jesus          vine, gracious, unconditional election    7. Explain the difference between
was saying that He was not born as           and reprobation. He preached just         Christ as the bread of life and the
other human beings, but was sent             one message: salvation is of God          manna in the wilderness. What does
down from God. That they denied.             and not of man.                           Jesus mean when He says that the
The Lord responded by telling them                                                     bread He gives is His flesh?
that faith (coming to Him) is possi-         Outline:                                  8. What does Christ mean when
ble only by the Father's irresistible        1. The murmuring of the Jews (w.          He insists that we must eat His flesh
grace. He then goes on to repeat             41,42).                                   and blood?: How do we eat His flesh
His word in the strongest possible           2. The rebuke by Christ (w. 43-46).       and blood?
way. He is the meat and drink of 3 . Christ, the true meat of etlemal                  9.  What are some of the various
life eternal, and one must eat and           life (w. 47-51).                          explanations which have been given
drink Him, or he has no life at all.         4. The criticism of the Jews (v. 52).     for verses  53-59?  How do these
         We may sum the Lord's words         5. The Lord's reply and insistence        words apply  to the Lord's Supper?
in the following way. Jesus rebukes          that only by eating and drinking His      How is Ch$st  present in the Lord's
their carnal thinking of earthly bread.      flesh and blood is there life in us       Supper? What is  Transubstantia-
Jesus exposes them for what they             (w. 53-59).                               tion? Consubstantiation? Memori-
are  - totally depraved sinners who                                                    al Feast?
cannot receive Him of themselves.            Questions:                                10. Show that the flesh and blood
                                             1. Why did the Jews murmur at             of the Son .of man means Christ's
                                             His statement: "I am the bread' own body which He offered up on
                                             which came down from heaven"?             the cross for sinners.
                                             Show that the Jews correctly under-       11. How does Jesus make plain that
Rev. Haak is pastor  of  Bethel Protes-      stood that by that statement the Lord     the Lord's Supper is not physical but
tant  Reformed Church in  Itasca, Illi-      was saying that He was different          spiritual eating and drinking through
nois.                                        from ",:other human beings.               faith in the heart? 0

                                                                                            January 15,l99WStandard  Bearer/l 89


When the  Foundatiqn  Crumbles:            ed the teaching of universal love and           Fe directory begins with a list
Why did I Leave the Christian Re-          atonement in the 1924 decisions of          of Presbyterian  ,and Reformed de-
formed Church?,  by Edward                 the CRC on common grace. If Ed-             nominations in North America with
Heerema. Privately published, 1994.        ward Heerema and the others who             the address of the stated clerk. I
3Opp. $3.00 (paper). [Reviewed by          share his concerns will follow up on        note that the mailing address of the
the editor.]                               his question, "How did this state of        Protestant Reformed Churches in
                                           affairs come about?" - surely an            America is wrong.
     As the sub-title of this 30-page      important question - they will find             There is also an "international
booklet `indicates, the crumbling          that the Delcker controversy over           contact list." This gives names and
foundation is that of the Christian        universal redemptive love and uni-          addresses of Presbyterian and Re-
Reformed Church (CRC). Retired             versal atonement necessarily takes          formed persons, churches, and or-
CRC minister Edward Heerema,               them back to the common grace con-          ganhations  worldwide from Alba-
who has recently left the CRC, charg-      troversy of 1924.                           nia to Zimbabwe. The listing for
es that the CR decision opening the                 The booklet can be ordered from    Australia includes Mr. and Mrs. N.
offices in the church to women             the author at                               Kleyn, but not the Evangelical Pres-
shows that "the Bible has become                         619  S.E. 32nd St.            byterian Church of Australia. The
irrelevant" in the CRC. He points              Cape Coral, Florida 33094. W            Singapore listing includes Rev. J.
to the "crumbling" of the authority                                                    Kortering, but not the Evangelical
of Scripture in other, recent decisions    Directoy  of  Presbyterian and Re-          Reformed Churches of Singapore.
of the CRC as well.                        formed  Churches.  Manassas, VA:            These are not criticisms. This is a
     Especially        interesting is      Christian Observer, 1995.  235~~.           first ,effort and edition of an ambi-
Heerema's answer to the question,          $25 (paper). [Reviewed by the edi-          tious project. The publisher asks for
"How did this state of affairs come        tor.]                                       help, in correcting the directory.
about?" Heerema finds the begin-                                                           A section of "yellow pages" of-
ning of the decline of the CRC re-                  One may question whether a         fers services and materials, includ-
garding the authority of Scripture in      book of this kind will "put a stick in      ing bibles, films and videos, period-
the controversy in the 1960s over the      Satan's eye," as the advertising has        icals, and seminaries.
love of God and the death of Christ.       it, while appreciating - and recom-             The concept is a good one. The
A CR seminary professor taught uni-        mending -, its usefulness in less           directory will come in handy in
versal redeeming love and univer-          grandiose ways.                             many ways. Every Reformed or
sal atonement. The CRC not only                     Christian Observer  has com-       Presbyterian church library, pastor's
could not condemn the teaching but         piled a directory of Presbyterian and       study, and denominational commit-
virtually approved it. Heerema             Reformed churches in North Amer-            tee could use a copy.
speaks of synod's "feeble decision         ica. Congregations are listed with              For copies write or call Chris-
that really settled nothing."              their address by state or province in       tian pbserver,
    What Heerema does not notice           alphabetical order of state or prov-                 9400 Fairview  Ave.
is that the CR seminary professor          ince. Each congregation is identi-                  Manassas, VA 22110
and his defenders expressly ground-        fied by denominational affiliation.                  (703)-335-2&&L   0



      Congregational Activities                Beginning with Sunday the 26th          six-donth trial period.
    At their annual congregational         of November, and continuing at least            Bethel's Council also directed
meeting, held back in December, the        through the winter, the congregation        their ~ building committee to contin-
congregation of the Hudsonville, MI        of the First PRC in Edmonton, AB,           ue its work on conceptual drawings
PRC voted to approve a proposal            Canada is invited to have coffee and        for a: church building. These plans
from their Council to go ahead with        fellowship after their 3:00 P.M. ser-       and all related matters should be
plans to install air conditioning in       vice in the basement of thleir church.      submitted to their congregation
their ,church building before next             The Council of the Bethel PRC           sometime in the future.
summer.                                    in Itasca, IL approved plans to hold            The Council of the Peace PRC in
                                           singspirations on the second Sunday         Lansing, IL was authorized at their
Mr.  Wigger is a member of the Protes-     of each month about ten minutes be-         annual congregational meeting to in-
tant Reformed Church  of  Hudsonville,     fore the evening service would be-          vestigate building a parsonage on
Michigan.                                  gin. These plans were made for a            their new church property.

19OlSiandard  Bearer/January  15,19Q5


    The Council of the Hull, IA PRC       only vacant church in Classis East,       evangelism, was grateful for the pos-
informed their congregation recent-       it would seem the best for all con-       itive response from their congrega-
ly of their decision to purchase car-     cerned that they cancel the remain-       tion in providing help toward news-
pet for the balcony of their auditori-    ing schedule of classical appoint-        paper advertising in the Lynden  Tri-
um. This decision was made to             ments for the months of December          bune. Lynden has received nearly
make the balcony more useable, and        and January. In place of classical        half a year's worth of advertising
to improve the quality of the sound       appointments Grace had requested          space for; the Tribune so far. The
in the auditorium.                        the Seminary to supply the 1:00 P.M.      Extension Committee has also de-
    The time around the holidays          sei-vice on a regular schedule for the    cided to advertise in a local Canadi-
sees many of our congregations busy       benefit of the professors and students    an newspaper on a monthly basis as
with programs that celebrate the true     as well as giving relief to the local     well.
spiritual meaning of the holidays. In     ministers during the busy holiday
west Michigan, members of our area        season.                                   School Activities
churches were able to spend some                A welcome program for the new           This past December the students
time at the close of Lord's Days in       pastor and his family, Rev. A.            of our Heritage Christian School in
December doing just that. First, on       Brummel, his wife, Crysta, and their      Hudsonville, MI were encouraged to
December 10, they were able to en-        two sons, recently installed at the       bring their own money, instead of
joy the annual Thanksgiving/ Christ-      First PRC in Edger-ton, MN, was held      gifts, for the Book Fund for Needy
mas  concert of the Hudsonville, MI       on December 1.                            Servants, as written about in our De-
PRC's Choral Society. One week lat-             On that same night the congre-      cember 15th issue of this magazine
er the Faith PRC in Jenison, MI pre-      gation of the Hope PRC in Walker,         by Rev. Kortering, our minister-on-
sented their annual Christmas con-        MI got together for a formal wel-         loan in Singapore.
cert.                                     come. for their newly installed pas-
    Going back to November, the           tor, Rev. Dykstra, his wife, Carol,       Minister Activities
choirs of the  Doon and Hull, IA          and their family.                             Our  Doon,  IA  PRC's new trio
PRCs presented a combined concert               The following Lord's Day, De-       from which they were to call a pas-
on November 19 at the Doon church.        cember 3, Rev. Dykstra preached his       tor consisted of the Revs. Bruinsma,
    The congregation of the First         first sermon at Hope based on II          Spriensma, and Terpstra.
PRC in Edmonton, AB, Canada was           Corinthians 45-7 and entitled. "All
invited to enjoy the Christmas Chil-      Glory to God - the Character and          ~ood~oly caoght
dren's Program and church Choir           Work of a Reformed Minister."                 "The Holy Scriptures require a
Program presented on Wednesday                                                      humble reader who shows reverence
evening December 20, in their au-         Evangelism Activities                     and fear toward the Word of God
ditorium.                                       The Extension Committee of the      and constantly says, "Teach me,
    The Consistory of the Grace PRC       Lynden, WA PRC, believing that the        teach me, teach me!"
in Standale, MI made a special re-        spiritual health of the congregation                              - Martin Luther,
quest to Classis. The Consistory de-      and the life of their members are in-                          Table Talk, #5017  0
cided that, since they are now the        separably connected in the work of



                      Peace PRC Dedication Service
                                                                                                 Mr. Donald Terpstra

    On Friday, November  17th,            marks and prayer by Rev. Charles          Steven Houck. Rev. Houck read II
Peace Protestant Reformed Church          Terpstra, pastor of our mother            Chroniclei 7~1-22, which tells of the
held a dedication service for our         church, South Holland Protestant          dedication: of the old dispensational
brand new church building. This           Reformed Church. Later in the ser-        temple of Solomon. He explained
new building; the Lord willing, will      vice we were also presented with a        that that temple was actually I the
eventually be our fellowship hall.        monetary gift from South Holland          dwelling place of Almighty God. In
The building can seat 325 people. On      PRC to be used to start a church          the new dispensation our church
dedication. night there were about        l i b r a r y .   *-                      buildings  ,are not God's dwelling
300 people present. The service be-       -I.,  The., speech was given by our       place, but the place where God's
gan with encouraging opening' re-         own minister of six years, Rev.           people (the new dispensational  tem-

                                                                                             January 15,1999/Standard  Bearedl91


                                                                                                              SECOND CLASS
                                                                                                              Postage Paid at
                                                                                                              Grandville, Michigan
    P.O. Box603
   Grandvile, MI 49468-0603


 ples of God) meet together for wor-        congregational singing, and Peace's       eration, which really helped things
 ship. Rev. Houck also explained            26-member  choir sang four appro-         run `smoothly. After the closing
 how important it should be for us          priate and beautiful numbers. The         prayer by Rev. Houck, everyone was
 to dedicate ourselves to using this        congregation joined the choir in sing-    invited to stay for coffee and do-
 church building for God and His            ing "The Church's One Foundation."        nuts. All were also invited to tour
 cause, and thus to manifest the            All this was accompanied by our re-       the new facility, which consists of
 marks of the true church, namely,          cently purchased piano and an or-         an auditorium, a kitchen, a council
 the true preaching of His Word, the        gan which was donated to us. The          room, a nursery/catechism room,
 proper administration of the sacra-        organ had previously belonged to          two washrooms, and a couple of
 ments, and the faithful exercise of        one of our charter members, Grace         storage areas.
 Christian  ,discipline. During his         Medema, who passed away just a                We thank God for seven years
 speech Rev. Houck reminded us that         few months before completion of           of existence as a Protestant Re-
 Peace PRC was organized almost ex-         this building.                            formed Church, for a pastor to
 actly seven years ago that night, on             The program ended with the          preach the Word diligently from
November llth, 1988. In the Bible           chairman of the building committee        week to week, and now for a brand-
the number seven represents God's           thanking all those who helped with        new church building.
 covenant and the relationship of God       the building project. Many hours of           Our new address is:
 dwelling with His people (3+4=7).          work were donated, not only by our             18425 Stony Island Ave.
    During our dedication celebra-          own people but also by others. He                    Lansing, IL 60438.
tion there was also much praising           also thanked everyone for working         Come visit us and see our new
 of God by way of music. We had             on the project with a spirit of coop-     church building. 0



                                                                                          WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
                                                          NOTICE!!                        On January 5, 1996, our par-
  RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                                              ents and grandparents,
    The Doon PRC Men's Society                    Classis West of the Protestant
                                            Reformed Churches will meet in               MR. and MRS. CHESTER E.
would like to express its heartfelt                                                                 HUNTER, Sr.,
sympathy to its fellow member and           Pella, IA on Wednesday, March 6,
                                                                                      celebrated their 50th wedding anni-
secretary, David Wiersma, in the            1996, at 8:30 A.M., the Lord willing.
                                           All material for the Agenda is to be       versa,ry. We thank them for many
death of his father,                                                                  years of covenant instruction in
       BERNARD WIERSMA.                     in the hands of the Stated Clerk 30
                                            days before Classis convenes. All         God's Word in the home. We pray
May they be comforted in His Word                                                     that our heavenly Father will bless
and be sustained by God's grace.            delegates in need of lodging or
                                                                                      them iin the remaining days of their
"The Lord will give strength unto his      transportation from the airport
                                            should notify the Clerk of  Pella's       pilgrimage .together  on this earth.
people; the Lord will bless his peo-                                                  "The :Lord hath done great things
ple with peace" (Psalm 29:ll).              Consistory, using the forms provid-
                                                                                      for us; whereof we are glad" (Psalm
   Chester E. Hunter, Jr., President        ed for that purpose.
                                                                                      126:3).
     Henry Miersma, Vice-President                             Rev. Steven Key,
                                                                      Stated Clerk    $ lgnacio Quenga
                                                                                            Dwight
                                      NOTICE!!                                        * Vivian Haney
    Covenant Christian High School is accepting applications for the Band                  .Stefan, Amanda, Alexia
and Ch.oir positions for the 1996-1997 school year. Those interested should           9 Chester, Jr. (Skip) and
call the school at (616) 4535048 or write to:                                                                    Barbara Hunter
                                 Agatha Lubbers                                             Beth
                        Covenant Christian High School                                # Lynne and Kris Hunter
                               1401 Ferndale SW.                                            Brittany, Colon, Ethan, Brenna
                           Grand Rapids, Ml 49544.                                                   Grand Replds.  Mlchlgen/Kety, Texps

l%?/StmdardRearerlJanuaty  15,1555


