                            THE

~ A Reformed





                      .-





                      -





                      a--





                                   See "God's Providence arid Sin" - p. 259


                                           `<     .:    *I     ._

 -
      March 2,1996


CONTENTS:                                                                                                                                              March  I,  1996
I                                                                                                                                                                             `
                                                                                                                                                                                            /
Meditation  - Rev. James D. Slopsema
          The Stillirig of the Tempest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
Editorial - Prof. David J. Engelsma
          An Open Letter to Gary North (1) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245                                                      ISSN 0362-4692
All Around Us - Rev. Gise J. VanBaren . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247                                                                     Semi-mdnthly, except monthly during June,  July,  and August.
Church and State - Mr. James Lanfing                                                                                                                                                                          Publish&d  by the Reformed Free Publishing Association,  Inc.,
                                                                                                                                                                                                              4949  lvanrest  Ave.,  Grandville,  Ml  49418.  Second  Class
          Protestant Reformed Worker Successfully Challenges                                                                                                                                                  Postage  Paid at Grandville,  Michigan.
                    Sunday Work Assignment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ...' . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249 Postmaster: Send address changes to the Standard Bearer,
Contribution  - Rev. Dale H. Kuiper                                                                                                                                                                           P.O.  Box  603.  Grandville,   MI  49468-0603.
          The Reformed View of Angels (2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252                                                         EDIl'ORIAL  COMMITTEE
Ministering to the Saints - Prof. Roberf  D. Decker                                                                                                                                                           Editor:  brof.  David  J.  Engelsma
                                                                                                                                                                                                              Secretah:   Prof.  Robert  D.  Decker
          The Gifts Necessary for the Office of Elder (1) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I............. 254                                                                                                  Managirig   Editor:  Mr.  Don  Doezema
Search the Scriptures  - Rev. Car/J. Haak                                                                                                                                                                     DEPARTMENT EDITORS
          "I Am From Him, and He Hath Sent Me" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255                                                                          Rev. Wilbur  Bruinsma,  Rev. Ronald Cammenga, Prof. Robert
                                                                                                                                                                                                              Decker,  ,Rev.  Arie  denHartog,  Rev.  Carl  Haak,  Prof.  Herman
A Cloud of Witnesses - Prof Herman C. Hanko                                                                                                                                                                   Hanko,  Rev.  Ronald  Hanko,  Rev.  Jason  Kortering,  Rev. Dale
         Johannes Maccovius: Supralapsarian . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257                                                                         Kuiper,   Mr.  James  Lanting,   Mrs.  MaryBeth   Lubbers,  Rev.
                                                                                                                                                                                                              Thomas  Miersma,  Rev.   Gise  VanBaren.  Rev.   Ronald
Taking Heed to the Doctrine  - Rev. Steven R. Key                                                                                                                                                             VenOverloop, Mr. Benjamin  Wigger, Rev. Bernard Woudenberg.
          God's Providence and Sin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ...* . . . . . . . . . . . . 259                                           EDITORIAL OFFICE              CHURCH NEWS EDITOR
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2421Standard  Bearer/March 1 ,J 996


           The Stilling of the Tempest
                                                                                        __-                                               I
    And when he was entered into a           He came to accomplish for the               For not only were the disciples part
ship, his disciples followed him.            church. In this miracle we are taught       of the church; but their teachings as
    And, behold, there arose a great tem-    how Jesus keeps and preserves His           apostles form the foundation of the
pest in the sea, insomuch that the ship      church as she passes through many           church. The NT is built upon the
was covered with the waves: but he           storms on the sea of life.                  foundation of the apostles and
was asleep.                                                                              prophets (Eph. 2~20).
    And his disciples came to him, and                      **********                           If the disciples are representa-
awoke him, saying, Lord, save us: we                 As the disciples made their way     tive of the church of the NT era, then
perish.                                      across the Sea of Galilee by night, a       the violent storm that the disciples
    And he saith unto them, Why are          great storm arose.                          encountered looks ahead to the spir-
ye fearful, 0 ye of little faith? Then he            Such storms were very conunon       itual storms the church will have to
arose, and  rebqked  the winds and  the      on the Sea of Galilee. The Sea of                  face.
sea; and there was a great calm.             Galilee is a rather large .lake,                            The church of Jesus Christ
    But the men marveled, saying,            measuring thirteen by seven                           has encountered and will con-
What manner of man is this, that even        miles. The surface of the lake       Humanly           tinue to encounter many
the winds and the sea obey him?              is 60 feet below sea level, mak-     speaking,         storms. This is due to the
                      Matthew 8123-27        ing for very hot and humid           the church             constant attacks of the pow-
                                             temperatures, almost a trop-        has no more             ers of darkness. The powers
    Jesus had spent the greater part         ical climate. However, the           chance to              of darkness are the devil and
of the day teaching the people in par-       sea is entirely surrounded by       weather the             his host of fallen angels.
ables near Capernaum. As evening             mountainous terrain. When            spivitrral             They are also the world of
approached, Jesus instructed His             the cool         air    of the                              the ungodly, who are under
disciples to go with Him by boat to          mountaintops comes rushing            s tonns
                                                                                  that come              the spiritual control of .Sa-
the other side of the Sea of Galilee.        down and hits the humid air          upon her               tan. These evil powers are
As they crossed the sea there arose          of the lake surface, violent          than did              the enemies of Christ and
suddenly a great storm which not             storms suddenly erupt.                                      therefore also of His church.
                                                                                 the disciples
only frightened the disciples but                    The disciples found         the natural             And they constantly attack
threatened their very lives!                 themselves in such a storm.                                 the church, seeking her de-
    And Jesus was asleep in the boat.        From the various gospel ac-            storm
                                                                                   in their              struction. These attacks
    Responding to the cries of the           counts of this incident we           little ship            come in various forms: false
disciples for help, Jesus arose and          learn that there was a violent       on the Sea             doctrines, persecution,  al-
rebuked the wind and the storm.              attack of wind, floods of rain,     of  Galilee.       lurements to sin and worldli-
Suddenly there was calm.                     gigantic waves. And the little                        ness. As a result, the church
    What a great miracle! The dis-           s$p carrying the disciples and                        is buffeted by one storm after
ciples marveled. What manner of              Jesus was quickly filling with                       another.
man is this, that even the winds and         water. They were about to per-                      These repeated storms threaten
the sea obey him!                            ish.                                        to sink the little ship of the church.
    All of Jesus' miracles served as                 The desperate situation of the      For the powers of darkness are over-
signs of the great work of salvation         disciples is representative of the des-     whelming in numbers, in resources,
                                             perate situation of the church in the       in experience. And the church has
                                             world.                                      no spiritual strength of her own.
                                                     We must bear in mind that the       Humanly speaking, the church has
Rev. Slopsema is pastor of First Protes-     small band of disciples on the Sea of       no more chance to weather the spir-
tant Reformed Church in Grand Rap-           Galilee is representative of the            itual storms that come upon her than
i&$' Michigan.                               church of the New Testament era.            did the disciples the natural storm
                                                                                                    " March 1,1996KSnd~rd  Bearer1243


in their little ship on the Sea of Gali-      manner of man is this?" The an-             But even then the Lord will preserve
lee.                                          swer is that He is the Son of man.          His church. And then He will re-
                                              This is the term Jesus used most of-        turn to the earth to bring an end to
               **********                     ten in referring to Himself. It is a        this stprm and all storms for the
        In desperation the disciples          term with a very definite meaning.          church. For at that time He will de-
called out to Jesus for help.                 It identifies Jesus as being human,         stroy the wicked forever and bring
        Jesus was sleeping. How could         the son of  man(kind). But it also          the church into the glory of the new
He be sleeping through all this? Per-         points to the humiliation and shame         creation to enjoy the rest and peace
haps He was exhausted from the                Jesus would endure on earth, cul-           of salvation eternally.
many hours He had spent minister-             minating in the cross. Finally, it
ing to God's people. Certainly His            speaks of the exaltation and glory                         **********
sleep showed a complete trust in His          that awaited Jesus as a result of His           Jesus rebuked the disciples for
heavenly Father to care for Him and           humiliation.                                their little faith. "Why were ye so
the disciples. May our sleep be re-                   Through this miracle Jesus dem-     fearful, 0 ye of little faith?"
flective of this.                             onstrated the power that would be               No, the disciples were not un-
        When it became apparent that          His as the exalted Son of man. He           believers. They definitely had faith.
the ship would founder, the disci-            would be given power over all               Their faith was seen in that they
ples awoke Jesus, crying, "Lord, save         things, even over the winds and the         cried out to Jesus for help when they
us; we perish."                               seas.                                       saw their peril. Their faith was evi-
        Jesus arose, and rebuked the                  From this miracle, however, we      dent also when they marveled at
winds and the sea; and there was a            also learn how Jesus will use His           Jesus' miracle.
great calm.                                         great power as the Son of man.            But their faith was little. It was
        What a great miracle! Cer-                     He will keep and preserve His      small and weak. The smallness of
tainly this was no natural oc-           At the         church as she encounters the      their faith was evident in that they
currence. It is true that the          end of time       many storms of life. Again       were afraid in the storm. Jesus was
storms that rage on the Sea            there will be and again storms have bro-           right there with them all the time.
of Galilee subside as quickly            a storm         ken out upon the little ship     But they were afraid.
as they come. But Jesus'                the likes        of the church. The very first        And so Jesus rebuked them.
word brought instant calm.              of which         was a storm of persecution.          Why are ye fearful, 0 ye of little
One moment the seas were                the church       It raged off and on for over     faith?
crashing in upon the disciple's         has never        a century. But the Lord used         We must not be of little faith, as
boat. At Jesus' word there was           faced.         His great power as the Son of     the disciples were. We must have a
instant calm.                                          man to preserve the church.        strong~ faith as  w.e face the many
        In response the disciples mar-        And then He brought the storm to            storms that must yet break out upon
veled. What manner of man is this,            an end. By this time another storm          the church.
that even the winds and the sea obey          was brewing, a storm of controver-              Jesus performed this miracle ex-
Him! This is a rhetorical question            sy. The truth of the triune character       actly to strengthen the faith of His
in which they express that Jesus is           of God was being denied, as well as         disciples  - not just the 12, but His
no ordinary man. Look, even the               the truth of the divinity of Christ.        disciples throughout the ages.
winds and the sea obey Him!                   By the power of Jesus Christ the                Through this miracle we are
        This miracle serves as a sign of      church weathered also this storm.           taught'very powerfully that Jesus is
how Jesus saves the church as she             And there have been  many  other            with us as we encounter the raging
encounters the storms of life during          storms, one after another. Through          storms of life. He has power over
the New Testament era.                        them  all, Jesus kept the church, even      all things, even over the wind and
        From this miracle we learn, first,    causing the church to prosper.              the sea. And He uses His power to
that Jesus has power over all things.                 At the end of time there will be    preserve us to the end.
He certainly has power over the               a storm the likes of which the church           Let us look to this miracle and
wind and the sea. He demonstrat-              has never faced. The powers of              believe.
ed that through this miracle. And             darkness will succeed in establish-             In the strength of faith let us
what is more powerful than the wind           ing the kingdom of the antichrist.          look to Jesus, who has power over
and the sea? Nothing stands before            This will be a worldwide kingdom,           even the wind and the sea.
the onslaught of these two powers.            embracing all the nations of the                Let us call out for His help and
If Jesus has power over the wind              world, in which unheralded peace            protection.
and sea, He has power over all                and prosperity shall be enjoyed by              But let us do so in the confidence
things.                                       all. Except that there wilI be no place     that all is well. Q                      ::-,
        This power Jesus has as the Son       in this kingdom for the church.. She                                           : " !
of man. The disciples asked, "What            will be? persecuted as never before.                                           ._

2441Standard.BearerlMarch  1; 1.996


                                                                                                   I
   EdRoi
                                                                                                         ~-

   An Open Letter to Gary North
                                                          (Part One)

                                           1,                                                                                             I

Dear Dr. North,                                  eschatology, that is, for refusing to    not only clearly indicate the radical
                                                 repudiate their amillennialism for       differences of postmillennialism
    In your "I.C.E. Position Paper"              postmillennialism.                       from amillennialism but also accu-
of July 1995 (Institute for Christian                You must keep in mind, howev-        rately, though roughly, describe
Economics, P.O. Box 8000, Tyler, TX              er, that these sixteenth-century con-    amillennial eschatology. Postmil-
75711), you respond to my editorial,             fessions, with the early seventeenth-    lennialism, you state, holds that An-
"Jewish Dreams," in the January 15,              century Canons of Dordt which nei-       tichrist and "mass persecution" are
1995 issue of the Standard Bearer.               ther abrogated nor modified the          past: "The beast of Revelation is be-
     As an ardent proponent of                   amillennialism of the Heidelberg         hind us:, Nero." The earthly future
postmillennialism, you are sharply               Catechism and the Belgic Confes-         of the church is physical victory:
critical of my defense of classic,               sion, are the binding creeds of the      "worldwide conversion and . . . trans-
creedal,  Reformed amillennialism.               Protestant Reformed Churches             formation of society as a result of
You say, "Such a view paralyzes                  (PRC). They are also the creeds of       such a conversion."
Christians, making them short-run                many other Reformed churches ev-             You are correct when, in con-
planners who are on the defensive."              erywhere in the world. As long as        trast, you analyze amillennialism as
    There are elements in your "po-              these creeds are not revised in favor    teaching, that "the Church will re-
sition paper" - important elements               of postmillennialism, all these          main a besieged outpost in the midst
- that I appreciate.                             churches and every officebearer in       of an apostate civilization," although
                                                 them must teach and defend               "outpost" does not do justice to the
   Taking Eschatology Seriously                  amillennialism. They must also con-      fact that the church is at the center
                                                 demn and reject postmilIennial.ism       of apostate civilization.
    You take eschatology seriously.              and premillennialism. This is a mat-         There are also elements - im-
You have no time for the foolish no-             ter of simple honesty. This is a mat-    portant elements - in your paper
tion that it does not matter to the         ter of keeping the solemn vow by              that are erroneous. As a scholar and
faith, to the church, and to the Chris-     which the churches and officebearers          a Reformed Christian, you ought to
tian `life whether one is amillennial,      have bound themselves to the doc-             reconsider these matters.
premillennial, or postmillennial. Be-       trines taught in the creeds, includ-
lieving postmillennialism to be bib-             ing the doctrine of the last things.       Amillennialism and Augustine
lical, you are intolerant of both                    It has long troubled me that the
premillennialism and amillennialism.        Reformed churches and their theo-                 First, it is unworthy of a Re-
Rightly so! In fact, in an editorial        logians have fallen silent on                 formed scholar to attempt to "poi-
subsequent to the one against which         eschatology. Even those who speak             son the, wells" regarding  amil-
you inveigh, I quote you at length          out half-heartedly against the                lennialism by alleging that the ori-
to this effect (see the Standard Bear-      theonomic aspect of your Christian            gin of this doctrine is the Roman
er, April 1,1995, "A Defense of [Re-        Reconstruction movement say noth-             Catholic' Church: "The Reformed
formed] Amillennialism").                   ing about eschatology. I cannot re-           churches on the European Continent
    I also appreciate that with a           call having read a vigorous defense           adopted the Roman Catholic
scholar's knowledge and honesty             of amillennialism in the last twenty          Church's teachings on the millenni-
you acknowledge the truth of one            years, even though you, R.  J,                um." This is the tactic by which the
of -the main assertions in the editori-     Rushdoony, and others of your co-             enemies `of infant baptism and the
al, namely, that "sixteenth-century         horts have been merciless,. at times          covenant think to destroy the prac-
confessions  : had been amillennial."       savage, in your criticism of amil-            tice of infant baptism: "The Re-
You are critical of the "Continental        lennialism.                   I               formed churches adopted the Roman
Protestant churches" for refusing to                It is also-commendable in your        Catholic `Church's teachings on m-
revise these creeds in the area of          critique of  N Jewish Dreams" that you        fant baptism." .If you cannot find

                                                                                                  March 1 ,`I 996lStandard  Bearer1245


the origin of amillennialism in Jesus         the kingdom of Christ, and the            weakly, you suggest that Calvin was
and the apostles, ascribe it to Au-           kingdom of heaven. Accordingly,           postmillennial. John Calvin was not
gustine, who was influential in Prot-        even now His saints reign with             a postmillennialist in eschatology.
estant eschatology as in so many oth-        Him, though otherwise than as they         John Calvin did not think that histo-
                                              shall reign hereafter (that is, as Au-
er doctrines. This has quite a differ-                                                  ry will end with a splendid earthly
                                              gustine had made plain earlier, in
ent ring to it: "The Reformed                 the new creation where there will         triumph of the church. Calvin did
churches on the European Continent           be no tares among the wheat -              not think that the great persecution
adopted Augustine's teaching on the           DJE).... For they reign with Him           of the church was past. He did not
millennium."                                  who do what the apostle says, "If         think that the kingdom of Christ in
    Augustine set forth his under-           ye be risen with Christ, mind the          the world is a carnal kingdom. He
standing of the thousand years of             things which are above, where              did not interpret the prophecies in
Revelation in his The City of God.            Christ sitteth at the right hand of       the Old Testament of the future glo-
With other "spiritual" people he re-          God. Seek those things which are           ries of the Messianic kingdom as be-
                                              above, not the things which are on
jected the "millenarians" explana-                                                       ing fulfilIed  in a literal, physical man-
                                              the earth" (The City of God, 20.7-
tion of the thousand years as a fu-           9;  see also J. N. D. Kelly, Early         ner.
ture, literal period in history during        Christian Doctrines, 4th  ccl.,  Lon-              With all the Reformers, Calvin
which the saints will enjoy "a holy           don: Adam & Charles Black, 1968,           explicitly repudiated the millennial
leisure." Augustine added this dev-           pp. 479,480).                              dream: of an earthly kingdom in
astating indictment of the view of                                                       which !the saints exercise political
the millennium of Revelation 20 that             The Victory of the Gospel               power.. In his thorough study of
sees it as a carnal kingdom of earth-                                                    Calvin's eschatology, Heinrich
ly peace and plenty:                            Second, you misrepresent                 Quistorp states that Calvin "decid-
                                            amillennialism when you charge it            edly rejects the chiliasm  (millen-
  This opinion would not be  objet-         with holding that "there is no earth-        nialism - DJE) of the fanatics which
  tionable, if it were believed that the    ly possibility of the wide-                           would make of the kingdom of
  joys of the saints in that Sabbath        spread success of the gos-                             Christ a purely temporal
  shall be spiritual, and consequent        pel of Jesus Christ."                       ,I  1           and transient one."
  on the presence of God.... But, as        Amillennialism believes         Calvin saw tne aream        Calvin judged the no-
  they assert that those who then rise                                         of a millennium I         tion of a literal, earthly
  again shall enjoy the leisure of im-      that the gospel is now,       as "an impoverishme,Ft,
  moderate carnal banquets, fur-            will be, and always has                                      kingdom of a thousand
                                                                                  not to say
  nished with an amount of meat and         been "successful" (we                                        years "a childish fanta-
                                                                                a destruction,
  drink such as not only to shock the       prefer to say, "victori-                                    sy which hardly de-
  feeling of the temperate, but even        0~s~) on earth. Its  tri- of  the Christian hope." serves the credit of refut-
  to surpass the measure of credulity       umph on earth is its ac-                                  ing."    Calvin saw the
  itself, such assertions can be be-        complishment of the purpos-                           dream of a millennium as "an
  lieved only by the carnal.                es of the risen Christ with the gos-         impoverishment, not to say a de-
                                            pel. These purposes are the gather-          struction, of the Christian hope."
    Augustine's explanation was             ing of the elect out of all nations and      For those who preach a millennium
that the apostle John "used the thou-       thus the saving of the nations in            to the  .people of God "make the
sand years as an equivalent for the         them; the preservation of the elect          Christian hope into a hope that is
whole duration of this world, em-           in faith and holiness; the empower-          merely relative to this world and
ploying the number of perfection to         ing of the elect believers and their         thereby dissolve the true hope which
mark the fullness of time." The reign       children to live obedient lives to the       is directed to the eternal future of
of the saints with Christ during the        Lord Christ in all spheres of earthly        the Lord and His coming kingdom."
thousand years must likewise be un-         life; the building of the church; and                For Calvin, "the kingdom of a
derstood "of the time of His                the hardening of the reprobate. This         thousand years (of Rev. 20 - DJE)
(Christ's) first coming." The church        victory is worldwide.                        is then the spiritual rule of Christ
is Christ's kingdom exactly because             What you should have said is             over individual souls in their earth-
"His saints (are) even now reigning         that  amillennialism denies the pos-         ly life until the completion of their
with Him." Augustine then de-               sibility of widespread earthly suc-          course in death and the general res-
scribed the nature of the saints' reign     cess of the gospel in a carnal king-         urrection." That Calvin taught that
with Christ in a way that conflicts         dom very much like that which the            the rule of Christ in present history
with the earthly dominion proposed          Jews of John 6 desired.                      is solely .spiritual  through the gos-
by you and the other postmillennial                                                      pel, Quistorp proves by a citation
Christian Reconstructionists:                   Amillennialism and Calvin                from Calvin's commentary  on Ro;
                                                                                         mans 14:ll:                             :  .f
  Therefore the Church even now is              Third, you err when, however                                                 .  ,,.

246lStandard   BearerlMarchd,1996


  Now the Lord reigns in the world               fulfilled. It will be completely  ful-      His judgment  (Calvin's Doctrine  of
  only through the gospel and we                 filled only on the day of the gener-        ihe  Last       Things,      London:
  give honour to His majesty only                al resurrection when aI.I the enemies       Lutterworth Press, 1955, pp. 158-
  where faith recognizes it in the               of Christ will be under the sole of         1 6 2 ) .
  word . . . thus we see that at present         His feet. That this might come to                            (to be concluded)  0
  prophecy is only beginning to be               pass, the Lord must first execute                                                - DJE

j AN A~m?alincdl  LB

n Further Developments                         ative in the classis. This means that,      "promise" to obey that and all of
in the CRC                                     for the present, those churches in the      God's commandments in thankful-
    From Darrell Todd  Maurina,                Classis who have women as elders            ness.
Press Officer of United Reformed               cannot send them to Classis as delel
News Service, we received some of              gates  - and the churches of the            W That lGut Feeling"
the following information:                     Classis  cannot ordain women as min-            Scripture often speaks of "bow-
    The Reformed Churches of New               isters.                                     els," as, "his bowels did yearn upon
Zealand (RCNZ) voted to suspend                     The strange part of the decision       his brother" (Gen.  43:30); "...how
ties with the CRC. The decision was            is that this same Classis overtured         greatly I :long after you all in the
taken at its triennial synod which             the Synod of 1995 to allow women            bowels of Jesus Christ" (Phil. 1:8);
met last October.                              in office. Why the "change"? It was         "...if any bowels and mercies" (Phil.
    The Rev. Bruce Hoyt, stated                evidently not so much a matter of           2:l); "Put ,on . . . bowels of mercies..."
clerk of the denomination, stated:             change of heart as it was to accom-         (Col.  3:12). One finds many other
"When the 1995 CRC synod oc-                   modate those who oppose women               similar expressions. For some rea-
curred and took such a dramatic ac-            in office. Minutes after taking this        son, I had always thought that was
tion and reversed effectively the pre-         vote, the Classis voted (again by a         merely figurative language: emo-
vious decision [against ordination of          two-to-one margin) to reject an over-       tions often seem to affect our "bow-
women] we had really very little               ture from East Martin CRC to ask            els." I found very interesting, there-
hope, not only because of the strong           synod to prohibit women in office           fore, a report in the Denver Post, Jan-
action but also because the nature             throughout the denomination.                uary 23,1996,  which claims that the
of the action indicated that the                    Maurina also reports that one          "bowel" or "gut" involves more than
church order, Scripture, and confes-           more CR church seceded and four             simply a part of the body which is
sions were not as strong as they had           new churches were formed from ex-           affected by external things. The ar-
been in the CRC. We felt we had                isting CR churches with a total of          ticle states:
very little option. They really felt           some 800 members. The Oak Glen                  Ever wonder why people get
there wasn't too much chance of a              CRC seceded with more than three-             "butterflies" in the stomach before
conservative move having any                   quarters majority of its members.             going on stage? Or why an im-
chance in the CRC." Hoyt added:                Other independent churches were               pending job interview can cause an
"Suspension means we won't inter-              formed out of existing CR churches            attack of,intestinal  cramps?....
act like sister churches, yet we're giv-       at De Motte IN, Highland IN,                    The reason for these common ex-
ing a strong warning that our rela-            Westmoreland NH, and Grande                   periences, scientists say, is because
                                                                                             each of us literally  has two brains
tionship will have to be terminated            Prairie, Alberta, Canada.                     - the familiar one encased in our
if there is no change. The reception                Meanwhile, one CRC has hit               skulls and a lesser-known but vi-.
of ministers wouldn't apply anymore            upon an "evangelistic" scheme de-             tally important one found in the hu-
and the reception of members auto-             signed to attract the sports' lover:          man gut. Like Siamese twins, the
matically would now have to be re-             Super Bowl Sunday (January 28).               two brains are interconnected;
ceived on a case by case basis; there          Rogers Heights CRC in Grand Rap-              when one gets upset, the other
wouldn't be an automatic transfer."            ids has scheduled their "`worship and         does, too,.
    On another front, it was report-           praise" service on January 28 from              The gut's brain, known as the en-
                                                                                             teric nervous system, is located in
ed by Maurina that the CRC Classis             6 to 7 P.M. in their auditorium. From         sheaths of tissue lining  the esopha-
Kalamazoo, by a two-to-one vote,               7 to 10 P.M. all are invited to the Fel-      gus, stomach, small intestine and
declined to declare the word "male"            lowship Hall (right next to the audi-         colon. Considered a single entity,
in their Church Order to be inoper-            torium) to see the Big Game on 60"            it is packed with neurons;  neu-
                                               TV. There will also be a "half-time           rotransmitters and proteins that zap
                                               talk" titled: What's a Promise Keep-          messages between neurons; support
Rev., Wan Baren ,is pas tar of the Pro tes-    er?" One- wonders whether that                cells like'those  found in the brain
tant Reformed  Ch~h of Loveland,               "talk" will include a discussion of           proper; and a complex circuitry that
Colorado.                                      the fourth commandment and our               enables it to act independently,

                                                                                                    Ma'rch 1,1996/Stanciard  Bearer1247,


  learn, remember and, as the saying          would appear from the above that               statistics, both new and re-emerg-
  goes, produce gut feelings.                 even in these wildly "exuberant"               ing infectious diseases are raging....
    The brain in the gut plays a ma-          groups, there can be "too much" of               He said despite the advances of
  jor role in human happiness and             a "good thing." The Holy Spirit pre-           the past century, "we have never
  misery. But few people know it              sumably leads in the performance               been more vulnerable" as a species
  exists....                                                                                 to infectious diseases, because "we
                                              of miracles, speaking with tongues,            have unprecedented mixing of peo-
                                              even in "holy laughter," but likely
    so-               '
                Scripture's terminology is                                                   ple.?
accurate after all - far more accu-           not in the animal sounds which have
rate than                                     rocked some of the gatherings. In-
                 most  thought. One is                                                         And many thought that the
amazed both at the complexity of              teresting, too, is the statement that        prophecies of Revelation were too
the human body which God created              this is "extremely dangerous" and            pessimistic and probably impossible
and at the Word of God which so               could "be a road to the occult."             of realization. But we see literally
accurately described the working of           Stronger language ought to be used:          fulfilled Revelation  6:8, "And I
the body. So, when your "bowels               all of this can lead to full-blown de-       looked, and behold a pale horse: and
yearn" after another and when you             mon possession (if it is not that al-        his name that sat on him was Death,
reveal "bowels of mercies," it is very        ready) - all in the name of the Holy         and Hell followed with him. And
literal after all!                            Spirit. It is' another of the signs of       power was given unto them over the
                                              the end of time when many will               fourth part of the earth, to kill with
n Vineyard Ousts                              claim that they have done "this" or          sword, and with hunger, and with
"Toronto Blessing" Church                     "that" in Christ's Name - but Christ         death: and with the beasts of the
    The Los AngeIes Times, Decem-             dplares,  "I never knew you.. .."            earth." That is the way it is - and
ber 10,1995, reports on the ousting                                                        the increase of these things, also fore-
of the Airport Vineyard Fellowship            n SIGNS OF THE TIMIES:                       told in Revelation, is now recog-
in Toronto (as quoted in Cnlvnry              Infectious Diseases Up Sharply               nized.
Contender, Jan. 15,1996).                     in U.S.
    "In a split certain to send trem-             There was a time when most               1 Rejection of Hell
  ors throughout Pentecostal Chris-           thought that infectious diseases                 And the Denver Post, January
  tianity, a controversial Canadian           would soon, and quickly, be wiped            l&1996,  also reports:
  congregation known for its ecstatic         out. With imnmnizations  and bet-                A; Church of England commis-
  worship style that became known             ter drugs, it appeared only a matter           sion has rejected the idea of hell as
  worldwide as the `Toronto Bless-            of time and the world would be rid             a place of fire, pitchforks and
  ing' has been ousted by its parent          of  some of the dreaded diseases of            screams of unending agony, de-
  denomination." Pastor John Amott            the past. It has not happened. Since           scribing it instead as annihilation
  of the Airport Vineyard Fellowship                                                         for all who reject the love of God.
  in Toronto said he was told last            1980, according to a recent report,              "Whether there be any who do
  month by the Association of Vine-           infectious diseases have increased by          so choose, only God knows," said
  yard Fellowships that his  l,OOO-           58 percent!! The  Denver Post,  Janu-          a rehort by the church's Doctrine
  member congregation had gone                ary 17,1996,  reports:                         Commission, titled "The Mystery of
  over the edge by encouraging wor-               More than half of that (58%) in-           Salvation."
  shipers to be so filled with the Holy         crease can be attributed to AIDS.              Rejecting the medieval vision of
  Spirit that they would bark like              The aging of the population also             the  .underworld,  the report said:
  dogs, swoon to the floor and laugh            explained some of the increase, with         "Christians have professed appall-
  uncontrollably during services.               more people dying of deathbed in-            ing  :theologies  which made God
  This is a major break by "signs and           fections such as pneumonia.                  into;a sadistic monster and left sear-
  wonders" John Wimber's Vineyard                 But even after accounting for              ing psychological scars on many."
  Fellowships with a main "laughing             those factors, rather than falling, the
  revival" church. And where does               rate of infectious disease rose from           Let Scripture speak: "For I testi-
  that leave the NAE whose 1995                 1980 to 1992, confounding "histori-        fy unto every man that heareth the
  speaker David Bryant said the Holy            cal predictions that infectious dis-       words of the prophecy of this book,
  Spirit is in charge of the Toronto            eases would wane in the United             If any man shall add unto these
  movement? Hank Hanegraaff                     States," said Dr. Robert Pinner,
  warned that ministries like Arnott's          whose report appears in the Jour-          things, God shall add unto him the
  represent something "extremely                nal of the American Medical Asso-          plagues that are written in this book:
  dangerous that could be a road to,            ciation this week.                         and if any man shall take away from
  the occult."                                    Omitting AIDS, the rate of death         the words of the book of this proph-
                                                from infectious diseases jumped by         ecy, God shall take a-way his part
    The "Vineyard Fellowships" are              22 percent from 1980 to 1992, the          out of the book of life, and out, of
charismatic and closely tied to the             report said....                            the holy city, and from the thmgs
"Promise-keepers" movement. It                    Elsewhere in the  worIdd, accord-
                                                ing to World Health Organization           which are written in 3 book" (Rev.
                                                                                           22:X3-19).   Cl                     :I?,
246lStandard  Bearer/March I, 1996


      IProtestant Reformed Worker Sudcessfully
                                                               `I
            Challenges Sunday Work Assignment
                                                                        I
     Perhaps few readers of the Stan-     you know, our firm has been re-           denomination in the Dutch Calvin-
davd Beaver are aware that an ob-         tained by Phil Dykstra, a 30-year         ist tradition. Dutch Reformed Cal-
scure provision of the Civil Rights       employee of Parke-Davis, a subsid-        vinists fled religious persecution in
Act of 1964 protects workers who          iary of Warner  Lambert. Mr.              the Netherlands in the 1800s and set-
refuse Sunday work assignments for        Dykstra has recently been informed        tled many towns in the Midwest,
religious reasons. But rather than        by his supervisor that he must ei-        particularly western Michigan (Hol-
writing a dry article on this very im-    ther work Sundays or face a trans-        land, Zeeland, Grand Rapids, etc.).
portant religious freedom that Re-        fer accompanied by a $3/hr. reduc-        Some of these churches, including
formed Christian employees should         tion in pay. We have informed Mr.         the Protestant Reformed, stalwartly
be aware of, this writer decided to       Dykstra that this employer practice       insist that their parishioners refuse
publish (with permission) actual cor-     violates the religious freedom pro-       Sunday work (except for work of ne-
respondence in a real Sunday work         visions of the Civil Rights Act of        cessity or works of mercy).
case involving Phil Dykstra, a mem-       1964.                                         I requested Phil and his pastor
ber of Hudsonville Protestant Re-             Employmenf  History.  Phil            to prepare letter memoranda setting
formed Church. What follows               Dykstra has been employed by              forth his personal and the church's
should inform the reader of typical       Parke-Davis for thirty years as a         position on Sunday work. (See Ex-
religious discrimination suffered by      chemical operator. In 1981, after         hibit A and B). I have attached their
Christians objecting to Sunday as-        working the preferred day shift for       letters for your perusal. There is no
signments, the federal law protect-       some 15 years, Parke-Davis an-            question but that Phil's refusal to
ing this important but often ignored      nounced to Phil that it was begin-        work Sundays is a sincerely-held re-
religious freedom, and the success-       ning a continuous 12-hour shift, and      ligious belief and practice that is pro-
ful outcome in this recent case.          that he would be required to work         tected under the First Amendment
                                          Sundays. Phil refused, and Parke-         and the `Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Letter Memorandum                         Davis placed him on the despised              Civil Rights Act of 1964. Sec-
December 27,1995                          "graveyard shift" (midnights) Mon-        tions 70!(j) and 703(a)(l) of the Civil
Warner Lambert  Co.                       day through Friday. Phil reluctant-       Rights Act of 1964, Title VII, 42
201 Tabor Road                            ly complied with this compulsory          U.S.C.5 2OOOe-2(a)(l),  make it unlaw-
Morris Plains, NJ 07950                   change and has faithfully worked the      ful employment practice for an em-
                                          midnight shift for the last 14 years.     ployer to discriminate against an
Attention: Attorney Bill Greenbaum        Work evaluations by Phil's peers and      employee on the basis of his or her
                                          supervisors have been outstanding.        religion. As the U.S. Court of Ap-
Re: Employer: Parke-Davis, Hol-               Now, 14 years later, Phil has         peals stated in the case of E.E.O.C.
       land, Michigan                     been told that his midnight shift         v.  Ifhada   Indusfries,  Inc., 849  F2d
    Employee: Philip Dyksfra              (Monday through Friday) has been          116 (6th Cir. 1988):
    Subject: Religious Freedom -          eliminated and he must either work
      Sunday Work                         Sundays on the new continuous shift         In 1972, an amendment to Title VII,
                                          or face an undesirable transfer to the      7Ol(j),  was enacted with the stat-
Dear Mr. Greenbaum:                       "Drying Room" and suffer a $3/hr.           ed  purpose  to protect Sabbath ob-
    I understand you are Parke-           decrease in pay.                            servers whose employers fail to ad-
Davis' employment attorney. As                Religious Beliefs and Practice.        just  work schedules to fit their
                                          During his entire adult life, Rhil has      needs.! The Act thus requires that
                                                                                      an employer, short of undue hard-
Mr. Lading, a member of South Hol-        been a practicing member of the             ship,  +ake reasonable accommoda-
land Protestant Reformed Church, is a     Protestant Reformed Churches of             tions to the religious needs of its
practicing attorney.                      America, a nationwide (albeit small)
                                                                                            March 1,1996/Standard  Bearer1249


                                                                                           -        /





  employees. It is also clear that the         tor, to the "Drying Room," an unen-        half of: Philip Dykstra, member of
  burden is.on the employer to offer           viable and humiliating relocation          our church, and employee at Parke-
  this accommodation. * * * Section            where his skills and experience will       Davis in Holland, MI.
  701(j) clearly anticipates that some         be squandered. To add insult to in-               According to our religious con-
  employees will absolutely refuse to
  work on their Sabbath and this               jury, this forced reassignment entails     victions, Philip Dykstra may not and
  firmly held religious belief requires        a substantial reduction in Mr.             will not work on Sunday. The
  some offer of accommodation by               Dykstra's wages.                           longstanding and still held position
  employers.                                       With all due respect, this bla-        of our churches is that work on the
                                Id. at 118     tantly discriminatory conduct is not       Lord's IDay is not permissible, un-
                                               "reasonable accommodation" as re-          less it is a work of necessitij (for ex-
    The employee bears the burden              quired by the law. Accordingly, this       ample,, fire-fighter, policeman) or
of establishing a prima facie case by          alternative is unacceptable.               work of mercy (for example, nurses,
showing that he holds a sincere reli-              Dyksfra's  Suggesfion.   Since         doctors, nursing home employees).
gious belief that conflicts with an            Parke-Davis has yet failed to offer        Accord$ng  to anyone in our church-
employment requirement.  Cooper                "reasonable accommodation" short           es, the occupation of Philip Dykstra
v. Oak Rubber Co., 15 F3d 1375 (6th            of "undue hardship," Mr. Dykstra           does not fall into either of these cat-
Cir. 1994). When the employee es-              suggests that Parke-Davis maintain         egories.
tablishes a prima facie case of reli-          the status quo  - (midnight shift,                This is the official position of our
gious discrimination, the burden               Monday through Friday)  - unless           churches, based on Holy Scripture,
shifts to the employer to show that            or until other accommodation can           the Word of God. Every local
it could not reasonably accommo-               be arranged and agreed upon by the         church : of our denomination across
date the employee without hardship,            parties.                                   the country will discipline and even-
with reasonableness determined on                  Mr. Dykstra is convinced that it       tually exclude from membership any
a case-by-case basis. E.E.O.C. v. Ar-          would work Parke-Davis no hard-            member who works on Sunday in
lingfon  Transit Mix, Inc., 957 F2d            ship whatsoever to retain his cur-         labors that are not of necessity or
219 (6th Cir. 1991). It is the enzploy-        rent work schedule. The reasons for        mercy.: I know this because our
u's  duty or burden, not the employ-           this are set forth in Exhibit C, which     churches, although spread across the
ee's, to offer a reasonable accommo-           I requested him to prepare. His se-        country, number only about 30, and
dation honoring the employee's re-             niority, skills, and experience dictate    our practices are consistent and
ligious refusal to work Sundays.               that this is indeed a reasonable al-       unanimous throughout. This was al-
E.E.O.C. v. Ithaca Indusfries,  Inc.,          ternative;                                 ready our belief in 1941 when a let-
supra.                                             Conclusion.  Unless and until          ter was sent to the President of the
    Moreover, simply offering an               Parke-Davis can offer an acceptable        United States by our denomination's
employee the availability of "shift            "reasonable accommodation" of              Synod, objecting to unnecessary Sun-
swapping," where, as in Dykstra's              Dykstra's religious beliefs, we pro-       day labor. In response to the Presi-
case, it is virtually impossible to ar-        pose that Dykstra's shift status re-       dent's promotion of Sunday labor,
range a swap, is not "reasonable ac-           main unchanged, and we respectful-         our Synod wrote, among other
commodation." McGuire  v. G.M.C.,              ly request Parke-Davis to demon-           things: .
956  F2d 607 (6th Cir. 1992). Fur-             strate how maintenance of the sta-
thermore, offering an employee an              tus quo would result in "undue               . . . Concerning Sabbath labor we
alternative that involves loss of wag-         hardship."                                   would say that it is our conviction
es or benefits is de                                                                        and avowed purpose not to engage
                          facto not reason-        I await your reply.
able accommodation, but is discrim-                                 Sincerely yours,        in same. The Lord God has from
ination. Cooper v. Oak Rubber, id.                               w/s James Laming           earlie+  times promulgated His Di-
                                                                                            vine Law and this Law tells us in
at 1379.                                                                                    the 4th commandment that we shall
    Reasonable Accommodation.                              +++  +++  +++                    keep His Sabbaths holy. Mr. Presi-
Since it is clear that Phil Dykstra em-                       EXHIBIT                       dent, we, as members of the Prot-
braces a sincerely held religious be-                                                       estant;Reformed  Churches, have the
lief and practice that prevents him            SUBJECT: SUNDAY WORK FOR                     earnest desire to so conduct our-
from working on Sundays, federal                   PHILIP   DYKSTRA  AT  PARKE-             selves on the Sabbath, in medita-
law now shifts the burden on Parke-                DAVIS                                    tion, brayer, and Divine worship,
Davis to reasonably accommodate                Date: December 19,1995                       that we may have a foretaste of the
his religious beliefs.                                                                      heavenly  Sabbath. We feel and are
                                                                                            convinced that such is the injunc-
    It is my understanding that the            To whom it may concern:                      tion df. the Almighty Who is our
only offer of accommodation has                    I am the pastor of Hudsonville           Sovereign and therefore we refuse
been to involuntarily transfer Mr.             Protestant Reformed Church,                  unnecessary Sabbath labor (italics
Dykstra, who is a chemical opera-              Hudsonville, MI, and write on be-            mine, BLG. See Acts of Synod of the

25OlStandard Bearer/March I,1996


  Protestant Reformed Churches in             gotiations, this letter will confirm our    ties that neither Parke-Davis nor any
 America,  1941, pages 76, 77; also           phone conference yesterday during           of its agents or employees will en-
  pages 26, article 38).                      which we discussed Parke-Davis' lat-        gage in any retaliatory acts in re-
                                              est offer of accommodation of Mr.           sponse to Mr. Dykstra's asserting his
    The same position was taken               Dykstra's religious objection to Sun-       religious freedom rights under Sec-
and expressed by our Synod again              day employment. I have discussed            tion 7Oi(j) and Section 703(a)(l) of
in 1961, again in connection with un-         your proposal with Mr. Dykstra  and         the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
necessary labor by military in peace-         he has agreed to accept your Com-               5. iMr. Dykstra will have an op-
time (see Acts of Synod of the Prot-          pany's offer, which I understand to         portunity to "bid" and be consid-
estant Reformed  Churches in Amer-            be as follows:                              ered for a "Supervisor 2" position
ica, 1961, page 26, Art. 39; pages                1. Mr. Dykstra's recent reas-           of his choice, which will be offered
54ff.; and letters sent to the military       signment to the "drying room" and           in the near future.
and then Rep. Gerald R. Ford).                $3/hr. decrease in salary will be re-           6.  ;Mr. Dykstra agrees to con-
    This remains the conviction of            scinded and Mr. Dykstra will retain         tinue as a faithful and conscientious
the Protestant Reformed Churches              his previous status and salary ,rate        employee as has been his work his-
of America.                                   as a chemical operator.                     tory in the past.
    Mr. Philip Dykstra has been a                 2. Mr. Dykstra will be assigned             I genuinely appreciate, Bill, your
member of the Hudsonville PRC for             as a chemical operator "rover" on           courtesy and professionalism inre-
23 years. During  my pastorate here           the day shift (8:00 A.M. to 4:30 P.M.,      solving this matter which is of the
for 15 months, he has been in atten-          Monday through Friday). He will             utmost; importance to my client.
dance at worship services twice ev-           report for this new assignment at           Would you also pass along our sen-
ery Sunday with regularity. Accord-           8:00  A.M.  on Wednesday, January           timents  b the Personnel Department
ing to my knowledge from talking              10th at which time he will be as-           for its good faith efforts in finally
with long-time members, this has              signed to the "operating  quad':            offering what appears to be a "rea-
been his and his family's practice for        which includes Buildings 40,42, 46          sonable accommodation" of Mr.
their entire membership. Indeed, it           and 48, performing duties essential-        Dykstr$s  religious beliefs.
is the regular practice of all of the         ly similar to his duties as chemical            Should there be any further de-
members of our 600-member church.             operator in Building 7.                     velopments in this matter, I would
It is my desire that his religious con-           3. Mr. Dykstra will be paid for         appreciate you contacting me imme-
victions will certainly not be harm-          the 8-hour shift he-did not work on         diately. j Thanks again for your cor-
ful with regard to his employment             Tuesday, January  9th which will be         dial cooperation.
at Warner Lambert/Parke-Davis.                credited to his next regular pay-                                   Sincerely yours,
               w/s Rev. Barry Gritters        check.                                                       w/s James Laming 0
      Pastor, Hudsonville Protestant              4.    Tt is understood bv both par-
                     Reformed Church
                                                                                 He Is There
          +++  +++  +++                                    The night is dark, and quiet all around me
                            January 9,1996                      All nature resting sweetly among the trees;
                                                           But yet I know that there is One who's-watching
SENT BY FACSIMILE                                               And He is ever watching over me.
AND REGULAR MAIL
(201) 540-2424                                             The night is long, I cannot see the mgrning,
Warner Lambert  Co.                                             And all around the `world seems fast asleep;
201 Tabor Road                                             Yet there is One whose eye will never slumber
Morris Plains, NJ 07950                                         And over me a faithful watch will keep.
Attention: William Greenbaum, At-                          The night is still, and in the blessed quiet
torney                                                          I see my Savior holding out His hand;
                                                            "Come near, My child, for I so dearly love you,
Re: Employer: Parke-Davis, Hol-                                 Your troubled heart I clearly understand."
       land, Michigan
    Employee: Philip Dykstra                                "The night was dark there in the lonely Garden
    Subject: Religious Freedom -                                But when I prayed, dear child, it was for you;          *  k
       Sunday Work                                         So take my hand and we will walk together -
                                                                Trust me, and I will see you through."
Dear Mr. Greenbaum:                                                              Annetfu  Julzselz  - Dorr, Michigan
    After two weeks of difficult ne-

                                                                                                   blarch 1,19961Standard  Bearerl251


  i&mfiflbn                         1'
I                                                                        -                                                           1




  the Reformed View of Angels
                                                                (2)
            -                             --
In their relation to the church                 angel came to Him to strengthen           istering spirits whom we may call
    What is God's purpose with an-              Him. At the empty tomb an angel           guardian angels.
gels in regard to His church? We                spoke the resurrection gospel to the          3)  : There is a sense in which
read in Hebrews 1:14, "Are they (an-            women, "He is not here, he is risen       the angels observe what is happen-
gels) not`all ministering spirits, sent         even as he said." On the Mount of         ing on ;the earth, at least in the life
forth to minister for them who shall            Olives an angel asked the staring dis-    of the church and in the life of the
be heirs of salvation?" Angels are              ciples, "Why stand ye gazing up into      saints. : Jesus concluded two of His
the servanfs of the church as a whole           heaven?" and promised that Christ         parables with the astounding words,
and of the saints individually.                 would return in like manner. And          "Likewise, I say unto you, there is
    There are five items to be ob-              when Jesus comes at the end of time       joy in the presence of the angels of
served here.                                    He will  come  with His angels in         God over one sinner that repenteth."
    1)     Angels are messengers                great glory. So angels are messen-        When there. is the refusal to confess
from God in heaven to His church                gers, sent to reveal the will of God      our sins to God and to one another,
on earth, appearing at the most crit-           and to comfort both Christ and His        and to extend forgiveness to one an-
ical points in the history of salva-            church.                                   other, we may be sure that the an-
tion After the Fall God placed at                   2)     There are angels whose         gels  m'heaven weep. But when a
the east of Eden cherubim to keep               business it is to guard the people of     sinner comes to repentance, the an-
the way of the tree of life, for fel-           God and their children. In Psalm 91       gels rejoice before God because they
lowship with God was no longer                  we find the wonderful words, "For         understand that repentance worketh
through the tree but through Christ             he shall give his angels charge over      life, and repentance comes to pass
typified in bloody sacrifices. God              thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.       only by the irresistible grace of God!
delivered the Law to Moses at Sinai             They shall bear thee up in their          Angels delight in the grace of God
by the hands of angels. The birth of            hands, lest thou dash thy foot against    in Chri$!
Jesus Christ was announced to Mary              a stone." As parents, who cannot              The second proof we have for
and to Joseph by Gabriel, after he              always have our eyes on our chil-         the position that angels are aware of
had announced the birth of John the             dren, we take great comfort from the      what goes on in the church below is
Baptist. An angel appeared to the               words of Jesus in Matthew 19:10,          the rather difficult passage found in
frightened shepherds in the fields of           "Take heed that ye despise not one        Ephesians  3:10, "To the intent that
Bethlehem speaking of the birth of              of these little ones; for I say unto      now unto the principalities and pow-
the Savior; then, a multitude of the            you, that in heaven their angels do       ers in `heavenly places might be
heavenly host taught the shepherds              always behold the face of  my  Father     made l&rown  by the chm7z tie mani-
and us to sing, "Glory to God in the            which is in heaven." Little children      fold wisdom of God...." Paul says
Highest." After Jesus was baptized              of God have their own, personal an-       that he ipreaches  among the Gentiles
and had been tempted in the wil-                gels, who go from the face of God         the unsearchable riches of Christ,
derness, angels came to Him and                 in heaven to do His will, to watch        that he makes known the mystery
ministered unto Him. When Jesus                 over our children.                        which was hid from the beginning
groveled on the.ground as a worm                    Not only is this physical protec-     of the .world, with the intent that
and not a man in the Garden, an                 tion that the angels give, but they       the angels might know these things
                                                safeguard our children from the dev-      by me&s of the church!
                                                il and the world. We believe that             When the church preaches the
                                                God watches over us. We believe           gospel of Jesus Christ, and when the
                                                that He preserves us from the evil        members of the church confess and
Reu. Kuiper  is pastor of Southeast Prot-       one. But we are not often aware of        live that gospel, the wisdom of God
estant Reformed Qu.udz in Grand Rap-                                                      in saving His church through Christ
ids, Michigan.                                  the meuns that God uses, those min-
2521Standard Bearer/March I,1996


is made known to the angels. They         are going to judge with Him, and            ing the days of the prophets, Jesus,
are not saved by that gospel, but         according to I Corinthians 6:3, we          and the apostles. The reason for
they are-deeply interested in it, and     are going to judge the angels.              such things was that there was no
that interest is satisfied as the an-                                                 New Testament yet - no full, writ-
gels are attuned to the life of the       Questions that often arise                  ten Word of God. Further, these
church.                                       When the subject of angels is           miracles and revelations had the
    4) The angels of God are              discussed, there are particularly two       purpose of proving that what the
reapers in the great harvest at the       questions that people seek to have          prophets and apostles were saying
end of. the world. In the parable of      answered. The first one is, Do an-          was indeed true. But there is no
the tares and the wheat (Malt. 13),       gels appear just before a child of God      longer any need for that.
the field is the world, the good seed     dies? Or, just as a saint expires, is it        This all reminds one of the rich
stands for the children of the king-      possible that he sees ,angels?              man in hell of whom we read in
dom, and the tares are the children           The question is prompted by cer-        Luke 16. This rich man says to
of the wicked one. At the end of          tain remarks made by people as they         Abraham in heaven, "I pray thee,
the world, the Son of Man shall send      die. You have heard of such state-          father, ,send Lazarus to my father's
forth His angels, and they shall gath-    ments, I am sure. Although I have           house that he may testify to my five
er out of His kingdom all that do         been at the bedside of several saints       brothers, lest they also come into this
iniquity, and shall cast them into the    as they died, I have not heard these        place of torment." And Abraham
furnace of fire.                          words firsthand; but they have been         says to him, "They have Moses and
    And those same angels shall           repeated to me by other family mem-         the prophets; let them hear them."
bring the righteous into the kingdom      bers whose parents have gone the            In other words, they have the Bible.
of their Father. Accordingly, Jesus       way of all flesh. For example, "Oh,         Let them give careful heed to what
teaches in Matthew 24 that He "shall      it's very beautiful!" "I hear music!"       God says in the Bible. But the rich
send his angels with a great sound        "I see angels!" What are we to think        man objects (implying that he was
of a trumpet, and they shall gather       of this?                                    brought into torment unfairly),
together the elect from the four              Our response is that it is entire-      "Nay, father Abraham, but if one
winds, from one end of heaven to          ly possible. Who are we to say that         went unto them from the dead, they
the other."                               it is not true? If we keep in mind          will repent." And the final word of
    Angels reap, they gather, they        that the soul of the redeemed child         Jesus inthe parable is, "If they hear
bring together the elect unto Christ,     of God enters into glory at the mo-         not Moses and the prophets, neither
and bring the wicked unto the flame.      ment of physical death, and if we           will they be persuaded, though one
    5)     Finally, we must notice        keep in mind that Christ sends His          rose from-the dead." The Scriptures
that there is a change worked in the      angels to gather His people home,           are sufficient. God does not speak
relationship between the angels and       why is such an experience not pos-          through other means since the time
us due to the great victory that          sible? Although this may not be ex-         the apostle John finished Revelation,
Christ achieved as the Captain of our     perienced in every case, we see no          and pronounced woe upon those
salvation. According to our creation,     reason to doubt the authenticity of         who added to or subtracted from
and according to the manhood of           these remarks.                              the Word of God. Cl
Jesus Christ, we were both made a             Another question that needs an-
little lower than the angels. But be-     swering today goes something like
cause of His perfect obedience unto       this: "What do we say to those who
death, God has so highly exalted          claim to have seen angels in their
Christ that He is now higher than         lifetime, have had visions of angels,
the angels. Thus Hebrews 1:4, "Be-        and have even heard angels speak?"
ing made so much better than the              That is an entirely different ques-
angels, as he hath by inheritance ob-     tion. Not as someone is dying, but
tained a more excellent name than         while he is living! We do not be-
they."                                    lieve it. We do not believe it be-
    Because the child of God is rep-      cause there is no longer any reason
resented by Christ, and is engrafted      for God to send us angels, and to
into Christ, we share in His exalta-      give us messages by angels. Not
tion and honor, and are given a           since the canon of Holy Scripture has
place above the angels in the world       been completed. We put such vi-
to come. One of the implications of       sions of angels in the same category
the church's sharing in Christ's glo-     as speaking in tongues, miracles of
ry is that when Christ returns to         healing, and special revelations from
judge the quick and the dead, we          God. All these were common dur-

                                                                                              March 1,1996/Stendard  Bearer/253


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                  :            _      .=  .  .            ,.,/


           The Gifts' Necessary for the
                             Office of Elder (1)

    Before we examine the gifts                   of elder in the church?  While these            not a brawler ("not given to riot,"
which a man must possess if he is                 men need not be the older or aged               Titus  3;:6), not covetous, rules his
to be qualified to serve Christ and               men in the congregation, they must              house well, not a novice, has a good
His church in the offices of minister             be mature in the faith (I Tim. 3:6).            report of them that are without, not
or elder, we must pay attention to                    There is also the word translat-            soon angry, lover of good men, just,
the biblical terms used to refer to               ed "bishop." The literal meaning of             holy, and temperate.
these offices. These terms give a                 this word is "overseer" or "superin-                  Five comments in general about
great deal of insight into the kind of            tendent." That this word refers to              these qualifications need to be made.
man Christ calls to serve in church               the elders of the church is evident                   1) : These gifts do not apply to
office.                                           from I Timothy 3:2 and Titus 1:5-9              the elders of the church exclusively.
    In the Old Testament there is the             where both "elder" and "bishop" are             These must characterize all of God's
word translated "elder." While in                 used. The basic notion of this word,            people. But these must be especial-
some instances this word refers to                "bishop," is that of oversight or rule.         ly true `of the elders.
old age, i.e., to elderly people,l more               In addition there are two verbs                   2)  : While it is true that all of
often the word refers to the chief                used which give us insight into the             these qualifications must be evident
men, the rulers of the people.2                   office of elder. There is the word              inama.nifheistobeanelderinthe
    From these passages we may                    which, in Hebrews 13:7, 17, means               church; not all of the elders will pos-
conclude that, at least from the time             to lead, to go before, to have au-              sess all the gifts in equal or full mea-
of Moses, Israel had elders over the              thority over. The other verb means              sure. One elder, for example, may
nation, over cities and towns, over               to feed or  nourish.6 The elder,                be more apt to teach than another.
thousands, over hundreds, over fif-               whether he be a teaching (minister)             But all these gifts must in some mea-
ties, and over tens. These elders                 or ruling elder, must provide spiri-            sure characterize every elder.
judged and ruled in both civil and                tual nourishment for the people of                    3) ; Note the little word "must,"
ecclesiastical (moral, ethical) matters.          God.                                            in I Timothy 3:2. Literally the verse
At least in ecclesiastical matters we                 Holy Scripture has much to                         reads, "It is necessary therefore
may trace the origin of the office of             `say on the subject of the gifts
                                                                  -  _                                          that the bishop be blame-
elder to these elders in Israel.                  or qualifications an elder            Consistories            less...." This same word is
    In both the Old and New Testa-                must possess. Of the many                    and               used by Jesus in John 3:7,
ments there is also the word trans-               `passages which speak to              congregations             where He tells  Nico-
lated "shepherd" or  "pastor."3  The              this subject two demand                 must take        :      demus, "Ye must be born
shepherd tends or cares for the                   careful and detailed study.             great care ,            again." Regeneration is
sheep. He guides them, feeds them,                These are I Timothy 3:1-7           in nominating                essential to salvation.
protects them.                                    and Titus  1:5-g.  These              and electing               Without this work of the
    In the New -Testament there is                passages speak of the fol-             men foi the               Holy Spirit in' one's
the word translated "elder." This                 lowing qualifications:                      oflice               heart, he cannot even see
word refers to aged men and wom-                  blameless, the husband of             who possess               the kingdom of God.
en in  some  passages.4 More fre-                 one wife, vigilant, sober, of               t h e s e           Likewise these qualifica-
quently the word refers to the office             good behavior, given to or          quali$?jng  gifis           tions (the "must" applies
                                                  lover of hospitality, apt to             of the                not just to "blameless" but
                                                  teach ("able to exhort  an'd          Holy Spirit. to all of the gifts) are essen-
Prof. Decker is professor of Practical            convince the gainsayers," Titus                          tial gifts for the office of el-
Theology in tI?e Protestant Reformed              1:9), not given to wine, no strik-                     der. Lacking them a man can-
Semirza y.                                        er, not greedy of filthy lucre, patient,        not and may not serve as an elder.

254lStandard  Bearer/March I,1996


Consistories and congregations must            men desiring this office. Young men                 blessed him. That these qualifica-
take great care in nominating and              who possess these qualifications                    tions are gifts of the grace of God
electing men for the office who pos-           ought to desire the office of elder.                means that Christ never calls a man
sess these qualifying gifts of the Holy        They ought to prepare prayerfully                   to the office of the ministry or elder
Spirit.                                        for the office by reading and study-                without also giving him the gifts and
                                               ing the Holy Scriptures. They ought                 qualifications to serve in that office.
         As complex as `the application of     to study the confessions of the                     Those who are called to serve as
  such rules may seem under certain            church. They ought to prepare for                   ministers and elders in the church
  life situations, there is no excuse          this office by reading good Chris-                  may be encouraged by this. Apart
  for our setting them aside or tak-           tian books on the doctrines of Scrip-               from the grace of God the work is
  ing them with anything less than
  the utmost seriousness. The flock            ture, church history, the church or-                impossible, but with the qualifying
  of Christ is too dearly bought for           der, and the work of the church in                  grace of,God  a man is able to teach,
  us to afflict it with the rule of men        preaching, administering the sacra-                 preach, shepherd, and discipline the
  less gifted and diligent than the            ments, and exercising Christian dis-                flock of God.
  Word of God specifies!                       cipline. They ought to cultivate and                         May God raise up young men
         It ought to be the constant prayer    develop these gifts and be willing to               in the churches, grace them with the
  of the church that her Lord and              serve as elders if called by Christ                 qualifications to serve His precious,
  Head will raise up such men to               through His church.                                 blood-bought saints as ministers of
  teach and rule his people. And let               `5) Finally, these qualifications               the Word and elders. Q
  those who aspire to this office set
  foot upon that narrow path with              for the office of minister or elder are
  fear and trembling. They are not,            gifts from Christ, the King of the
  in themselves, sufficient for these          church. This truth has several im-                  1 See Genesis 43:27,  for example.
  things; their sufficiency can  onIy be       plications. One cannot be taught                    2 Exodus 3:16; 17.~5;  18:12, 17-27; 24:1, 9;
  from the Lord, who dearly Ioves              these things. A man must, for ex-                   Numbers 11:16;  Deuteronomy 25:7-9;
  his bride the church.7                       ample, possess the gifts for the of-                Joshua 7~6; Judges 27; I Samuel 4:3; II
                                               fice of the ministry of the Word or                 Samuel 3;17; I Kings 8:l.
         4)  `I Timothy  3:l speaks of a                                                           3 Psalm 23:l; Jeremiah 3:15; Ephesians
                                               he cannot be a minister. No amount                  411.
man desiring the office of a bishop.           of seminary training can change this!               4. I Timothy 5:1-2.
While young men desire or aspire               The most that a seminary education                  5 I Timothy 5:1-2; I Peter  5:1-4;  Acts
to the office of the ministry, we do           can accomplish is to provide the ba-                20:17,28;  James 5:14
not often think of men desiring or             sic tools necessary for the ministry                6 Luke 8:32; John 21:15.
seeking the office of elder. This              and assist a man in developing the                  7 Lawrence R. Eyres, The Elders of the
ought not be! We should think of               qualifications with which Christ has                Church,  p. 36.

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                                                      John  7%31
                                   `CI Am From Him,
                      arid He Hath Sent Me."
                                                                                         )`..      _'               ,      .-                                 J
                                                   After the rejection in  Caper-                  They dih not at that time believe in
                                               naum, the Lord retired from the mul-                Him as the Messiah sent down from
                                               titudes and went about Galilee in an                God. Instead, they saw Him in an
                                               almost secretive way, spending time                 earthly and material sense as one
                                               instructing His disciples concerning                having great potential for advance
                                               His coming sufferings (see Mark 7-                  and honor in this life. To them the
                                               9). This was frustrating to His breth-              Feast of :the Tabernacles was an ex-
Rev. Haak is pastor of Bethel Protes-          ren, who believed that it was in His                cellent ojpportiity  for Him to show
tant Reformed  Chmh in  Ifasca,  Illi-         best interest to draw attention to                  Himself `in Jerusalem and gain pop-
nois.                                          Himself and His mighty works.                       ularity. They urged Him to go down
                                                                                                                         March 1,1996/Standard  Bearer1255


and make Himself known'openly.             from God! My doctrine is not mine               tity (w. 25-27).
     The Feast of Tabernacles lasted       but His that sent me!" What we              5. Jesus' proclamation that He is
seven days (see Lev. 23:33,34;  Num.       must see unfolding before us in the             sent of the Father as His unique
29). The children of Israel were to        passage is that the Lord insists that           an+ only Son (w. 28,29).
dwell in "booths" (tents made out          it is both known and manifested that        6. The twofold response to the
of palm branches) in remembrance           He is uniquely sent of God as the               Lords proclamation (w.  30,31).
of their deliverance from Egypt.           One with Him from the beginning
Also associated with this feast was        (see  Prov.  8:22ff.; Heb.  3:1-3). Fur-                   Questions:
thanksgiving for the completed fall        ther, if one is truly desirous to obey      1. What do you know about the
harvest. Various activities remind-        the will of God as expressed in the             Feast of Tabernacles? Old Tes-
ing Israel of their life in the wilder-    Scriptures, one will know the cer-              tament references? What is the
ness would be performed in the tem-        tainty of both the doctrine and iden-           significance of Jesus' going up
ple throughout the week  - for ex-         tity of Jesus Christ. But  .the Jews            to Jerusalem for this particular
ample, pouring out water from the          who rejected the revelation through             feast?
pool of Siloam in remembrance of           Moses also rejected the revelation          2. Explain why His brethren want-
the water which flowed from the            through the Son and sought to kill              ed Jesus to show Himself open-
rock.                                      Him.                                            ly at this time. Why does the
     Our Lord would have nothing               This they vehemently deny.                  Lord refuse? Does the Lord de-
to do with an open and dramatic            "Who seeks to kill thee?" The Lord              ceive them into thinking that He
campaign to gain earthly populari-         corrects this temporary lapse of                had no intention whatsoever of
ty. Ever before His mind was the           memory by reminding them of the                 going up to this feast?
Father's divine program for His suf-       events of His last visit  to  Judea.        3. What was the spiritual climate
ferings. Jesus knew that the attitude      When He had healed on the Sab-                  in Jerusalem when Jesus ar-
of the world towards Him as the            bath day (John $1-18)  they had in-             rived? What were the people
Messiah could never be one of ac-          deed sought to kill Him, as was also            wondering about and debating
ceptance and honor, but one of ha-         public knowledge among the peo-                 among themselves?
tred because He was the one who            ple. The people remember this, yet          4. Explain the tactics of the Jews
revealed their words as evil. He           they still stumble over His identity            in  ,attempting  to discredit the
waited for His brethren to go up to        as the One sent of God. "Do we not              Lord's teaching and in prevent-
the feast and then, approximately in       know His origins? Is not the Christ             ing the people from listening to
midweek, followed "as it were in se-       One who will mysteriously come                  Him.
cret."                                     down from heaven?"                          5. How does a person know of the
    There is great anticipation                This is the moment for the Son              certainty of the Lord's doctrines
among the people over whether or           to make a clear proclamation of the             and His very identity as the Son
not He will appear at the feast. The       trUth: "I am not come of myself.                of God?
division among the people over Him         He hath sent me!" This Jesus cries          6. Show how the Lord brings out
produces a hushed debate over              in the temple; for it is the very heart         that the Jews' problem was un-
whether He is a deceiver or a true         of the gospel, namely, the call to be-          belief and hatred of Him as the
man of God. The hatred of the reli-        lieve the record that God gave of               One sent of the Father.
gious leaders looms over the scene         His Son! (See I John  5:9, 10, 20.)         7. How does verse 24 fit in?
as none feels free to express himself      This call results in a twofold fruit:       8. How did the Jews expect the
openly concerning Him. Into this           some sought to lay hands on Him . . .           Messiah to appear?
scene the Lord arrives and enters the      other believed on Him.                      9. Explain the significance of Jesus'
temple to teach the people.                                                                cry in verses 28 and 29.
    Immediately, and with some                           Outline:                      10. Discuss the twofold response to
amazement over Jesus' boldness to          1. Jesus refuses to go up to the feast         thei call of the gospel. Bring oth-
engage in public teaching, the Jews            openly (w. l-10).                           er `Scriptures to bear on this
seek to discredit His teaching. "How       2. The debate among the people at              point. How do we account for
can an uneducated man teach any-               the feast, over whether Jesus is           this difference among men?
thing of worth? Being unlearned                a deceiver or not (w. 11-13).              How is the Lord's cry in verses
Himself, all that He teaches must be       3. The Jews' accusation that the               28 ;and 29 different from what is
wrong!"                                        Lord's teaching is false, and the          understood as the free offer of
    In response the Lord penetrates            Lord's response that He and His            the Gospel, and how is it instead
to the heart of the matter that He             doctrine come down from God                the open proclamation of the
has come to address and which is               (w. 14-24).                                particular promise and grace of
essential to knowing Him as the Son        4. The division among the people               God?  Cl
of God, the Messiah. "I am sent                on the question of His true iden-

256lStandard  Bearer/March I,1996


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                        Johannes Maccovius:
                                     Supralapsariatl

 Introduction                                  great Synod of Dort and which had           foppish nobles. He began to engage
            The pages of the history of the    ramifications which touch on our            various, heretics in disputations. The
 church of Christ are filled with large        own lives.                                  Socinian heresy which denied the
 figures who dominate their age and                                                        truth of the Trinity, and the Jesuit
 who cast a long shadow over subse-            His Life                                    heresies which sought to reintroduce
 quent history. But by no means does                Johannes Maccovius was born at         Roman Catholic teachings were the
 God make use only of towering men             Lobzenic in Poland in the year 1588.        objects *of his hatred. Powerful and
 who are gifted beyond us and who              That means, if we would put him in          influential Socinians and Jesuits
 have a work given them of God                 the context of some well-known              matched their debating skills with
 which is remembered throughout                events of the Reformation, that he          this defender of Calvinistic ortho-
 the ages. God uses other men, less-           was born about 25 years or so after         doxy.  :
 er figures, whose names might ap-             Sre writing of the Belgic Confession            It was especially through such
 pear in a footnote or two of some             and the Heidelberg Catechism, and           disputations that his fame spread to
 learned and seldom-read volume,               that at his birth the error of              other lands, and Maccovius soon re-
 but who are not forgotten in heaven           Arminianism was already taking              ceived `&-I invitation from the Uni-
 because their names appear in the             hold in the soil of the Netherlands.        versity  ; of Franeker in the Nether-
 book of life. I am not speaking here               The name Johannes Maccovius            lands to teach theology in what was
 of that noble and exalted company             is his Latin name, which he took, as        a rather prestigious university. In
 of saints whose names no one knows            was the custom in those days, when          1614 he became a doctor of theolo-
 but God alone, whose deeds went               he became professor in a university.        gy and in 1615 he was appointed
 mostly unrecognized in the time               The name given him of his parents           professor of theology. There he re-
 they lived, and whose graves are for-         was Jan Makowsky, a name which              mained for the rest of his life, dying
 gotten They are the "last" which              clearly indicated his Polish ancestry.      in Franeker on June 24,1644.
 Scripture assures us shall be the                  The Calvin Reformation had in-             The man who was his colleague
 "first" in the kingdom of heaven.             fluenced Poland to some extent, and         and chief promoter was Sybrandus
 But I am speaking of others, who in           Maccovius was by no means the only          Lubbertus, who also became his en-
 their own time were recognized as             influential early reformer to come          emy and accuser in the "Maccovius
 men of leadership and outstanding             from that land. Maccovius, after his        Case."
 ability, whom God used sometimes              early education, was sent to Germa-             We are told that, though
 in rather strange ways, but who are           ny, where he studied at the princi-         Maccovius was an extraordinarily
 for the most part unknown today.              pal universities. After completing          homely man, he was a gifted teach-
 It is worth our while to recall from          his studies he returned to Poland,          er and: well liked by his students.
 oblivion some of these names.                 where he visited various rmiversi-          In fact,, he was so' popular that his
            Johannes Maccovius was one         ties in his fatherland as tutor to          fame  sipread  throughout Europe,
 such man. Perhaps his importance              young Polish nobles. Somewhere he           and hi&reputation attracted students
 lies especially in a "case" brought           had become acquainted with that             to Franeker from all parts of the con-
 against him which was treated at the          system of doctrine known as Cal-            t i n e n t .   j
                                               vinism, and he had eagerly em-                  Yet the outstanding feature of
 .;                                            braced it and remained faithful to it       his  life' was his controversy with
 l$ojT Hank? fL professor of Church His-
> <-t;x-                                       all his life.                               Lubbertus;  and in that controversy
`;Y~~IJ and New:.  Testanzxt  in the. @$es-       : But his.activities  were not limit-    lie significant events which are- im-
 t&t Reformed  Semin&y.                        ed to ,the tutoring of spoiled sons of      portant for us today.'


The Controversy                                       Actually,     the      v i e w s   o f    Meyen  all from the Netherlands.
    Although it is not so easy to sort       Maccovius came to the attention of                     It was striking that Gomarus,
out precisely the issues in the con-         Lubbertus and others in the exami-                 himself an ardent supralapsarian,
troversy, it is clear that Maccovius         nation of a student who, in 1616,                  was also on the committee. The
applied what became known as the             was defending various theses in-                   committee met with Maccovius him-
scholastic method to teaching theol-         volved in the ,supralapsarian  posi-               self, as well as with Lubbertus. What
ogy. In brief, the scholastic method         tion. The examiners traced the views               happened on the meetings was nev-
of teaching was a method of apply-           of this student, whose name has been               er revealed, but the committee suc-
ing the principles of logic to theolo-       buried in oblivion, to his teacher,                ceeded in reconciling these two war-
gy and teaching theology as a logi-          Maccovius. Thus, that with which                   ring colleagues. The committee re-
cal system of truth. In fact, it was         Maccovius was charged came really                  ported to Synod that the matter was
the logical clarity of Maccovius'            from one of his students.                          amicably resolved by a decision in
teaching which made him popular                       It cannot be denied that                  which Maccovius himself had par-
with other students.                         Maccovius, brilliant scholar that he               ticipated; that the committee had ex-
    The difficulty seemed to be,             was, carried, by his scholastic meth-              onerated Maccovius from all error
however, that he sometimes carried           od, the doctrines of sovereign and                 of any kind; but that Maccovius was
the system of logical analysis and           double predestination too far, and                 reprimanded for his manner of
development too far. He was ac-              did not properly teach the relation                teaching, for some rash statements
cused, e.g., of giving the same au-          between reprobation and sin. It is                 which he had made, and for his one-
thority to logical deductions from the       also true that Lubbertus, whether he               sided sdpralapsarianism.
biblical truths as he gave to Scrip-         over-reacted to Maccovius' teaching                    And so the matter was laid to
ture itself. But here again, it is hard      or whether he himself did not al-                  rest.
to tell whether he actually did this,        ways have things straight, made
and even whether, in doing this, he          statements which seemed to support                 Conclusion
was far from orthodoxy.                      a desire on Gods part to save all                      This was an interesting aspect
    At any rate, he was a bitter and         men.                                               of the work on the Synod of Dort.
implacable foe of Arminianism and                    Whatever may be the precise                It has significance for us today.
he fought Arminianism hammer and             truth of the matter, the case was                      All who know anything about
tongs. The war which he waged                        brought to the States of Friesland,        the Canons of Dort know also that
against Arminianism made                                which      decided       against        these Canons are infralapsarian. It
him a despised enemy of the             While            Maccovius. Convinced he                has been said by those who support
Remonstrants, for in him             it is surely         had said nothing wrong,               infralapsarianism that supralap-
was found no compromise.            true that the          Maccovius appealed to the            sarianism was anti-confessional.
Enemies of the truth are of-         Canons are            Synod of Dort.                       That would mean that we of the
ten willing to show friend-        infralapsarian,            And so, while the Syn-            PRC, predominantly supralapsarian
ship to defenders of the             the framers            od was doing battle with            in our thinking, are in fact anti-con-
faith as long as there is the       of the Canons           Arminian heresy, it had on          f e s s i o n a l .
slightest hope of compro-          deliberately and         the table as well the case              But the Maccovius case proves
n-rise; Perhaps there was            consciously            of Maccovius. In the ini-           that this ,is not so.
no single theologian more             refised  to          tial stages of the case, the             While it is surely true that the
deeply resented by these              condemn              matter was given to a po-            Canons are infralapsarian, the fram-
heretics than Maccovius.              supralap-            litical commission which at-         ers of the Canons deliberately and
    In the course of his bat-        sarianism.           tempted to settle the matter          consciously refused to condemn'
tles against Arminianism                                 by trying to bring about               supralapsarianism. The issues of
Maccovius was particularly de-                         agreement between Maccovius              supra vs. infra were vigorously de-
termined to defend the truths of                 and his colleague Lubbertus.                   bated on the floor of the Synod and
sovereign and double predestina-             These efforts failed totally.                      each position had its staunch de-
tion. He made his defense over                       After the lack of success was re-          fenders. The Synod had the perfect
against Arm.inian efforts to teach that      ported back to Synod, Synod ap-                    opportunity in the Maccovius case,
Christ willed the salvation of all           pointed another committee to study                 and  cotild very well have used
men. But in the defense of the or-           the matter and come with recom-                    Maccovius' rash statements as an oc-
thodox Calvinistic position, he went,        mendations to Synod. The commit-                   casion, to condemn  supralapsar-
in the opinion of his colleague              tee consisted of Dutch and foreign                 ianism in the Dutch church. By re-
Lubbertus, too far - too far in teach-       delegates: Scultetus from Heidelberg               fusing to do this, and by exonerat-
ing that God decreed the reprobate           in Germany, Stein from Kassel,                     ing Maccovius, the Synod insisted:
unto sin; too far in teaching that.the       Breytinger from Zurich in Switzer-                 that.there was room in the Reformed I.
reprobate sin out of necessity.              land, Gomarus, Thysius, and  a                     churches for the supralapsarian


viewpoint. And this has continued            also, along with the rest of the com-        church. To accomplish that end, God
to the present.                              mittee, brought reconciliation be-           determined the cre2ion and fall of man
      ln the early years of our own          tween Maccovius and Lubbertus.               along with the decree of reprobation.
churches, though now almost no one           And this could only have been done           That the Canons are written from the
cares any longer about such ques-            by showing Lubbertus that                    infralapsayian viewpoint appears from
tions, our fathers and grandfathers          Maccovius, in his opposition to a            such statements as: "Election is the un-
could argue long .and furiously over         universal love of God, was Re-               changeable purpose of God, whereby . . .
the relative merits of the two view-         formed.                                      he hath . . . chosen from the whole hu-
points debated at Dort. But within                                                        man race, which had fallen through their
our churches there was always room           N.B. We add here a note for those who        own fault . . . a certain number of per-
for both viewpoints, and the defend-         are interested in the issues of              sons . . . (li 7). "[God]  leaves  the non-
ers of the one never sought ecclesi-         supralapsarianism  vs. in..alapsarianism.    elect in his just judgment to their own
astical penalties against the other.         The question has to a0 with the order of     wickednegs and obduracy" (I, 6). The
      Gomarus, himself a strong              God's decrees in His counsel. Both agree     %frad' l!ave always feared the "supra"
supralapsarian, did join the commit-         that the sole purpose of God's counsel is    teaching because it could lead to mak-
tee in warning Maccovius against             the glor;l~ of God's name. The "b@`aS"       ing God the author of sin. The "Supras"
using unbiblical methods and mak-            believe that God determined to glori,fi      have always feared the "infraN  teaching
ing rash statements. These same rash         His name by the following order of de-       because it'seemed to make the fall a mis-
statements are condemned in the              crees: man's crehtion,  man`s fall, pre-     take over which God had no control, so
Canons themselves, which tell us in          destination, salvation in Christ. The        that salvabon in Christ is Plan B when
no uncertain terms that we may not           "Supras"  believe that God determined        Plan A failed. The Reformed churches . .
make God the author of sin.                  to glorifi~ His name through Jesus Christ    have  alwhys insisted that both view- '
      But, at the same time, Gomarus         and in Him the salvation of an elect         points are'acceptable.  Cl

   `~&I&@ /i&&j l&l i&i3 /r&$/Mm                                                                         @3g, `s@w4g7il !@y



            God's Providence and Sin

      Having begun our study of              his work is perfect: for all his ways        then would also make God the au-
God's providence, and having tak-            are judgment: a God of truth and             thor of sm.
en the position that God's provi-            without iniquity, just and right is he"          Insisting that "nothing happens
dence embraces all things without            (Deut. 32:4). It was surely with that        in this world without his (i.e., God's)
exception, we stand now before the           truth in mind, that Elihu would say          appointment," a statement based on
question: What is the relationship           (Job 34:10,12),  "...far be it from God,     no fewer;ihan 25 passages of Scrip-
between Gods providence and sin?             that he should do wickedness; and            ture, de Bres continued: "Neverthe-
      The subject before us is one that      from the Almighty, that he should            less, God neither is the author of,
causes us to hesitate, lest we do            commit iniquity.... Yea, surely God          nor can be charged with, the sins
wrong to the God whom we love.               will not do wickedly."                       which are committed. For his pow-
We know that Scripture throughout                How do we possibly maintain              er and goodness are so great and
maintains the absolute sovereignty           God's sovereignty also over sin, and         incomprehensible, that he orders and
of God. At the same time, we real-           yet not attribute sin to -Him as the         executes his work in the most excel-
ize that God is Holy. "There is no           author of it?                                lent  and, just manner, even then,
iniquity with the LORD our God" (II              The Reformed father Guido de             when devils and wicked men act un-
Chron. 197). For "He is the Rock,            B&s, in writing that document which          justly."  !
                                             has become known as The Belgic Con-              We fmd a solid biblical founda-
                                             fession, understood well that in in-         tion for maintaining both truths: 1)
Rev;. Key is pastor of the Protestant Xe-    sisting upon the absolute sdvereign-         that Gods pro,vidence  also encom-
fo&itd  Church' `of Randolph, Wiscon-        ty of God over all things; he would          passes the moral acts of sinful men;
sin? ; i                                     have to answer the charge that he            and 2) that God remains pure and

                                                                                                   March 1,1996/Stanclard  Bearer1259


holy, without iniquity, and cannot        saith the LORD, Behold, I will raise        Jesus, thus fulfilling Gods eternal
be charged with being the author of       up evil against thee out of thine own       counsel. What an amazing testimo-
sm. Let us look at each truth, and        house, and I will take thy wives be-        ny of the absolute government of Al-
then give answer to the obvious           fore thine eyes, and give them unto         mighty God! God reaches His pur-
mystery of this Bible truth.              thy neighbour, and he shall lie with        pose, even our Salvation,  through the
                                          thy wives in the sight of this sun"         schemes and actions of wicked men.
God's governing of man's sin              (II Sam. 12:ll). The Lord Himself
    When we speak of Gods provi-          speaks, saying that He Himself will         God's freedom from the guilt
dence encompassing even man's sin,        do this. Astounding! How bold is            of mati's sin
we must remember that God works           the language of Scripture!                       Yet God cannot be charged with
all things for a purpose. We wrote            The fulfillment of these words          evil. `?Ihere is no iniquity with the
of that truth in a previous article?      is found in II Samuel 16:21,22.  God,       LORD our God." Even though Scrip-
The Lsrd works all things after the       who forbids and abhors all adultery         ture speaks so boldly about God's
counsel of His own will (Eph. 2:ll).      and fornication, punishes David's sin       absolute sovereignty, Scripture is
He will accomplish the highest pur-       by Absalom's public raping of Dav-          careful to uphold  God's  holiness.
pose of His own good pleasure,            id's wives.                                 God is not the author of sin. "Let
namely, to bring all things to final          TQ say that God merely permits          no man say when he is tempted, I
perfection in Christ Jesus. That is       the acts of moral creatures, there-         am tempted of God: for God cannot
how Gsd would glorify Himself.            fore, simply does not harmonize             be tempted with evil, neither
    From the very beginning to the        with Scripture's explicit language.         tempteth he any man" (James 1:13).
end of the world, God governs and         God  governs. The  examples from                 God created us in such a way
guides all things toward the achieve-     Scripture can be multiplied.                that you and I are always responsi-
ment of that end. This truth must             Isaiah points to Assyria as the         ble for  our  actions. He created us
be clear to us. It is fundamental.        axe in God's hand and the rod of            free. We are free to act in accor-
    Even through sin and death God        God's  anger in exercising His wrath        dance with our nature. You under-
upholds and governs all things to         against the wayward children of Is-         stand, ;of course, that our nature is
that end.                                 rael (Is. 10).                              now corrupt. Ever since the fall, and
    That God governs even the sin-            And in Acts, chapter 2, you have        apart from the wonder work of re-
ful actions of men is taught clearly      that remarkable passage that speaks         generation, man's nature is corrupt.
in Scripture. In fact, the language       at the same time of the responsibih-        And because man's nature is totally
of Scripture is far more explicit than    iy  Qf man and the  SQVereignty   Qf        corrupt, his freedom is limited to the
you and I would ever dare to be in        God, as Peter proclaims concerning          bounds of that corruption.2 But we
setting forth this truth. I would not     Christ: "Him, being delivered by            are free to act in harmony with our
dare to speak of  God's  sovereign        the determinate counsel and fore-           nature. We can think our own
government of sin, as does Scripture.     knowledge of God, ye have taken,            thoughts. We make our choices
    An astounding example of this         and by wicked hands have crucified          from day to day, from moment to
is formd  in II Samuel 12. In the con-    and slain" (Acts 2:23).                     momek.  No man is ever compelled
text,  %he prophet Nathan comes to            We have the testimony of the Bi-        by GQ~ to sin. And therefore we are
David, who had been walking in im-        ble that the crucifixion of Jesus was       responsible for our actions.
penitence. David had fallen deeply        a willful act of disobedience and re-            You are responsible for all that
intQ sin, committing adultery with        bellion against God. But we read in         you do. Every man will give ac-
his neighbor's wife, Bathsheba; mur-      Acts 4:26-28:  "The kings of the earth      count  :for his own actions. You
dering her husband, Uriah; and sub-       stood up, and the rulers were gath-         know  ithat. You can't escape that
sequently living a life of deceit and     ered together against the Lord, and         either,; except  you  stand in Christ
hypocrisy.       God in mercy sent        against his Christ.  For of a truth         Jesus who bears the responsibility
Nathan  %he prophet who confronted        against thy holy child Jesus, whom          for your sin.
David with a parable, the conclu-         thou hast anointed, both Herod, and              That is the importance of being
sion of which was, "Thou art the          Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and      one with Christ by faith. When we
man!"                                     the people of Israel, were gathered         belong to Christ, then He stands be-
    That Word of God, being               together, For to do whatsoever thy          fore God and gives account and an-
worked in David's heart by the Holy       hand and thy counsel determined
Spirit, brought David to repentance,      before to be done."                         1
as he publicly confesses in Psalm 51.         Notice, they were gathered toge tli-          See "Providence," the Standard
                                                                                      Bearer, / January 15,1996
But David must also experience            er. In other words, God gathered            2     If the Lord wills, we shall have
God's chastening hand for his sin.        them  together. He gathered them            more to say at some future date con-
    In words we find absolutely           together, so that by their terrible act     cerning man's freedom, and the effec,ts
             , Nathan proclaims, "Thus    of wicked rebellion they crucified          of the fall upon man's wi&        -

26US~andard BearerlMarch  I,1996



                                                                                             ,


swers to our obligation. He does so      the relationship between God's sov-          purposes. But man does so willing-
in perfect righteousness, having sat-    ereignty and man's sin that we sim-          ly, freely. The sinner sins because
isfied God's demand for us.              ply are unable to answer. We see             he chooses to sin The devil hates
    But when, as children of God,        through a glass darkly.                      and seeks to destroy because he wills
we stand before the revelation of            We see indeed. Scripture is              to hate God. And so man also as-
God recorded in the Scriptures, we       clear.                                       sumes the responsibility for his own
also know that behind our freedom            We absolutely refuse to mini-            acts. When God executes His judg-
stands God. God is so sovereign in       mize the all-encompassing nature of          ment in the last day, the sinner will
all things, that even through our        God's sovereignty, or to admit that          freely acknowledge that God is righ-
freedom He is executing and realiz-      man in any way is able to frustrate          teous in condemning him. God con-
ing His counsel for us and for all       God's purposes. To allow for such            victs the world of sin and righteous-
who stand in relation to us. That is     a conception would mean the death-           ness and judgment.
an amazing thing. That ought to fill     blow to our Reformed, biblical faith.                So God works.
us with awe - especially when we         God is and remains the absolute sov-                 That is Scripture.
look back and see that in certain ac-    ereign, who governs all things, in-                  But the manner of this divine
tions which were exceedingly fool-       cluding the sinful actions of men.           work is an inscrutable mystery not
ish, God wrought those actions for           At the same time we repudiate            to be penenated by human reason.
our salvation. That is a work of         the charge of determinism that is            It remains an object of faith.3 And
grace. We do not deserve that He         sometimes brought against our Re-            so we stiy with Calvin, "As for us,
use our sin for our salvation. For       formed confession. God does not              we will adore with all reverence
there are many who stand con-            treat a man like a block of stone.           those mysteries which so far surpass
demned in their unrighteousness,         Man is a freely acting agent. He             our comprehension, until the bright-
and who go to hell responsible for       does what he does voluntarily and            ness of their full knowledge shall
their lives of wickedness before God.    willingly, and therefore remains re-         shine forth upon us in that day when
    The life of Pharaoh is an exam-      sponsible for all his actions.               He, who is now seen `through a glass
ple of this. The account begins in           But we see through a glass dark-         darkly,' shall be seen by us `face to
Exodus 4. We read in different plac-     ly. God's ways are too high for us           face.' Then (saith Augustine) shall
es in that account of Pharaoh's life     to comprehend.                               He be seen in the brightest light of
that Pharaoh hardened his heart be-          In a mysterious way, too deep            understanding, that which the god-
fore God. That was an act of his         for us to fathom, God works with             ly now hold fast in faith."4 -EL!
will - an act freely determined by       man in such a way that man can
him, and an act for which God held       never act against that eternal coun-
him accountable. But at the same         sel of the Almighty. But God works          3        JohrKalvin addresses at length *he
time we read within the same con-        in such a way that He Himself nev-           objections to this truth in his DeJ%nse  of
text that God hardened Pharaoh's         er becomes the subject of man's ac-          the Secret Providence of God, found in
heart. That is emphasized by the         tions. Neither is He in any way              the book Calviu's Calvikwz,  available
apostle Paul in Romans 9:17. "For        guilty of man's sin. All God's works        from the Reformed Free Publishing As-
                                                                                      sociation.
the scripture saith unto Pharaoh,        are righteousness and truth.                4         Calvin's Calvinism,  (Grand Rap-
Even for this same purpose have I            God works with man in such a             ids: Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1950), p.
raised thee up, that I might shew        way that man does exactly what God           289.
my power in thee, and that my name
might be declared throughout all the     g@j&lf  /q&&i&                    ~      `,`.              :
earth."
    So God governs all the actions
of sinful men. But He exercises His      God Meant It for Good: The Cove-             esis 37-50  rightly as covenant histo-
providential handiwork in such a         nant b the Church Today, by Ted             ry, not merely the history of the vi-
way that He Himself is free from all     Hoogsteen. Burlington, Ontario,             cissitudes and eventual success of
sin, and man is responsible for his      Canada: Welch Publishing Compa-             Joseph. In this come&ion,  the au-
own actions.                             ny Inc., 1989. 99 pages. (Paper).           thor corrects the sommon  misinter-
                                         /Reviewed by the editor.]                   pretation of the history that regards
Our refusal  to delve beyond                                                         Joseph as the type of Christ and the
what is revealed                             The title is taken from Joseph's        central figure:
    We readily confess that what is      words to his brothers in Genesis
revealed in Scripture concerning this    50:20  concerning their wickedness in             Occasional attempts have been
truth leaves us very conscious of the    selling him into Egypt, "Ye thought               made to compare Joseph with the
fact that we are mere creatures.         evil .against me; but God meant it                Messiah, as if Jacob's favorite was
There are aspects to this question of    unto good." The book explains Gen-                the forerunner of Christ in this ac-

                                                                                                  Mmch  1,199BIS~and~rdl3earep1281


  count.... Such interpretation  may       young man Joseph. Joseph is the             ernment" and in the Westminster
  not fail to do justice-to Judah. Ail     outstanding instance of the covenant        Confession of Faith.
  Israel served with messianic over-       young person who can and does live              In 17 chapters, each of which
  tones, but not at the expense of the     a godly life, in his youth, by the pow-     consists of several articles, the CP
  main figure in the fourth genera-        er of covenant grace.                       treats ;of the various aspects of the
  tion, i.e., Judah (p. 60).                   Hoogsteen's surprising censure          government, order, and discipline of
                                                                                       the church. The opening chapters
    Although Hoogsteen does not            of the godly Joseph detracts from
                                                                                       are devoted to Congregational
use the term, he teaches that God          the truth expressed in Genesis 50:20,
                                                                                       ecclesiology.
keeps His covenant unconditional-          and from the comfort of the church
                                                                                           1t:is the differences of Congre-
ly: "Despite all the acts of faithless-    implied in the text, for in this case it
                                                                                       gational church polity from Presby-
ness on the part of the early cove-        is perfectly understandable that a
                                                                                       terian polity that concern Reformed
nant people the Lord God sovereign-        very wicked Joseph should be sore-
                                                                                       believers today, as they are the rea-
ly controlled the situation as the One     ly chastised for his evils.
                                                                                       son for this publication of the CP.
faithful to his promise" (p. 25). Is           It is evidently an error on page
                                                                                           The  CP  obviously differs from
there any other possible explanation       83, that Reuben's two oldest sons
                                                                                       Presbyterian church polity in that it
of Genesis 37-50? Hoogsteen also           were killed. The reference to Gene-
                                                                                       repudiates the authority of major as-
affirms the absolute sovereignty of        sis 38:7,10 shows that Juclah's sons
                                                                                       semblies over the local church: "(It
the God of Jacob, Judah, and Joseph        are meant. H
                                                                                       does not belong to synods to) exer-
in history:                                                                            cise . . . any . . . act of church authority
  The Pharaoh, with  the whole Egyp-       The Cambridge Platform: A Plat-             or jurisdiction" (16.4).
  tian population, believed that he        form of  Church Discipline Gathered             Less obviously but equally ef-
  ruled absolutely. Not so. That un-       Out of the Word of God; and agreed          f,ectively, it differs from Presbyteri-
  conditional sovereignty belongs to       upon by the Elders and h4essengers          an polity also by compromising the
  God only, as the covenant Lord.          of the Churches Assembled in the            rule of the local congregation by a
  And he gave Pharaoh a lesson in          Synod at Cambridge in New England           body of elders. The CP  allows for
  world politics (p. 42).                  To be presented to the Churches and         churches without elders  (9.3,4,5);
                                           General Court for their consideration       permits the congregation to depose
    Throughout, there is application       and acceptance in the Lord (A New           their elders (8.7; 10.6); and goes so
of the history to the church today,        Edition  of  the Historic Puritan Con-      far as/to assert that "a company of
particularly to her struggle with          gregational Church Order),  ed.             professed believers ecclesiastically
doubt in the face of adversity: "As        Darrell Todd Maurina. Lawrence,             confederate" is a church "before they
in the world at large, fear suffuses       MI: The Reformed Tract Publica-             have officers, and without them"
also the Church, a contagious mass         tion Committee, 3rd corrected print-        (10.2). In this context, the  CP  de-
infection of doubt that God no long-       ing, 1993. xiv + 57 pp. $12 (paper).        clares that the government of the
er regulates history" (p. 22).             [Reviewed by the editor.]                   church in part "resembles a democ-
    Hoogsteen is mistaken in his se-                                                   racy" (10.3).
vere condemnation of the early Jo-             The justification for this expen-           It is not surprising that, as
seph  - the Joseph of the dreams           sive booklet is that it is the first re-    Maurina observes in his preface,
about his family, the reports about        printing of an important Congrega-          many Congregational churches soon
his wicked brothers, and the coat of       tional church order in modern ty-           did away with elders.
many colors: arrogant ("overween-          pography. Darrell Todd Maurina                  The editor also candidly notes
ing in pride"); power-seeker; brag-        has edited the text by comparing sev-       that the result of the rejection of an
gart; conceited; avaricious; and a         eral modern printings of the Cam-           authoritative synod by the CP is that
tale-bearer (pp. 24, 25, 32, 37). On       bridge Platform  (hereafter  CP), so        there is no solution in Congregation-
Hoogsteen's view, Joseph was worse         that he is confident that this is "the      alism for the problem of division in
than his brothers.                         most accurate of all the editions as        the local church between the elder-
    In fact, none of these actions of      well as the most readily useable by         ship and the membership of the con-
Joseph was sinful. All were holy.          nonspecialists" (p. xiv).                   gregation.
God gave him the prophetic dreams;             The CP is the book of church
Joseph had to prophesy. A child            order drawn up in New England in              Of more impact was the question
ought to report his brothers' wicked       1648 by leaders of the Congregation-          of what to do when the elders and
lives to his parents; otherwise, he        `al churches. It represents their de-         congregation disagreed about a
connives at their sins. If there was       liberate rejection of the Presbyterian        church act and coulr$.not  come to
any folly in the coat, it was that of      polity that had just been set forth at        agreement. Fifty years after  the
Jacob who gave it to Joseph. Scrip-                                                      Cambridge Platform ,was adopt&l
                                           the Westminster Assembly in "The
ture never fastens any blame on the                                                     .`the question`tias  still' a'live is*&:
                                           Form of Presbyterial Church Gov-                                                 -I,:\,?

262lStandard  Bearer/March 1 ,;f996


  The New Haven (Connecticut)                     Editor Maurina is mistaken,             over the congregation by a body of
  County Association was only will-           therefore, when he advertises this          elders and authority over the united
  ing to consent to the later Saybrook        new edition of the CP by suggesting         congregations in prescribed areas by
  Platform if it was understood that          that "Presbyterian readers of the           an authoritative synod. It denies this
  "if the Majority of the Brethren            Cambridge Platform are likely to            Kingship in  its  foundational docu-
  don't consent, the Elders can't pro-
  ceed to act: If the Elders can't con-       find their stereotypes of Congrega-         ment.  :
  sent, the Fraternity can't proceed;         tionalism to be severely challenged"            The CP is not a Reformed op-
  in which Case, it is proper to seek         (p. ix). On the contrary, Presbyteri-       tion, but another system of church
  Council" (p. xi).                           an and Reformed readers of the CP           government.
                                              will find their sober assessments of            Cambridge lies over against
This "Council," it must be remem-             Congregationalism solidly con-              Dordt and the London of the
bered, to which the divided church            firmed.  Congregational&m  denies           Westminster Assembly. Cl
turns in desperation, has no author-          the Kingship of Christ over the
ity.                                          church in its two basic respects: rule




                                              Georgetown's Council and was                cided to change the time of their
                                              meant to give detailed instructions         Sunday evening worship service to
Mission Activities                            as to what family worship should            6:00 P.M. This change took place on
        Before we go any further, we          consist of and how it should be con-        February 4.
have to make one correction from              ducted.                                         In mid-January, after repeated
our last issue of the "News." You                 As you can imagine, there were          bulletin announcements, about 25
may remember that in that issue we            all kinds of activities planned for this    members of the First PRC in
included an item about Rev. Gritters          two-day conference, with many of            Edgerton, MN got together and or-
and Mr. Gord  Wassink  going to               the participants staying over night.        ganized a Choral Society, with Rev.
Northern Ireland for two `weeks to            But the main emphasis of the con-           Brummel being their first president.
visit with our missionary, Rev. R.            ference was family worship, and the
Hanko, and his family, as well as             weekend began with a speech by              School Activities
the Covenant Reformed Fellowship,             Prof. R. Decker, a member of                    Th6 P.T.A. of the Free Christian
on behalf of our calling church, the          Georgetown, on Friday night, deal-          School in Edgerton, MN met Janu-
Hudsonville, MI PRC and our                   ing with the "Historical Basis of           ary 19 to hear Rev. A. Brummel, pas-
churches' Domestic Mission Com-               Family Worship." This instruction           tor.at First PRC in Edgerton, give a
mittee. Well, since that report, Mr.          was followed the next day by a              slide presentation on Myanmar (for-
Wassink's mother became seriously             speech by Rev. B. Gritters, pastor of       merly Burma). The entire congre-
ill and passed away, making it im-            the Hudsonville, MI PRC, entitled           gation of Edgerton  was invited as
possible for him to go. Because of            "Family Worship - How?" It ap-              well.
that, Mr. Tom Bodbyl, another mem-            pears that these two speeches were              There was a special Christian
ber of our DMC, went in his place.            well received; since, a week after the      School Chapel by the Hope Chris-
                                              conference, Rev. R. VanOverloop,            tian School in Redlands, CA last
Congregational Activities                     pastor of Georgetown, took an in-           month.' This chapel was held in the
        On Friday night, the 26th and         formal poll of his catechism students       auditorium of the Hope PRC in
for most of Saturday, the 27th of Jan-        and found that many of them had             Redlands, and the topic was "Obe-
uary, more than one hundred mem-              noticed a difference in their family        dience to Authority."
bers of the Georgetown PRC in                 worship.
Hudsonville, MI met together for a                With that in mind, if you are in-       Evangelism Activities
Conference on Family Worship at               terested in either audio or video               Members of our churches in
Camp Geneva on the shore of cold,             tapes of these two speeches, you can        west Michigan, as well as neighbors
frozen, and windy Lake Michigan.              obtain them from Georgetown by ei-          of the Byron Center, MI PRC, were
This conference was sponsored by              ther calling or writing Mr. Randy           invitedito a series of Community Bi-
                                              Kamminga at (616) 669-0204, or 8541         ble Study Classes at the Byron Cen-
                                              40th Ave., Jenison, MI 49428.               ter church. These classes, hosted by
&fj. Wigger  2s a member of tlzlze Protes-        The Consistory of the Hope PRC          Byron's Evangelism Society, dealt
t&t Reformed ~Clzurch  of Hudsonville,        in Walker, MI, after hearing no ob-         with the subject of the Covenant
Michigan.                                     jections from their congregation, de-       Family; These classes were to be
                                                                                                   March 1,19961Standard  Bearer1263


$jypJ/j/j~~RD
       Bz$m                                                                                                      SECOND CLASS
                                                                                                                 Postage Paid at
                                                                                                                 Grandville, Michigan
        P.O. Box 603
       Grandville, MI 49468-0603

1                                                                            1                                                      I

     held on four successive weeks last        News From Singapore                          Minister Activities
     month.                                        Back in December the Sunday                  Rev. Dale Kuiper, pastor of the
         The first class, entitled "The        School of one of our sister churches,        Southeast PRC in Grand Rapids, MI,
     Blessedness of Single Life," was led      the First Evangelical Reformed               declined the call he had been extend-
     by Byron's pastor, Rev. Doug              Church of Singapore, launched a              ed from the Grace PRC in St-andale,
     Kuiper. The second, scheduled a           noteworthy project. They issued a            MI. Since that decline, Grace formed
     week later, was entitled "The Hus-        challenge to those in Sunday School,         a new trio of the Revs. M. Dick, S.
     band as Head of the Family and the        including the adults, to memorize            Houck, and S. Key. Rev. Dick re-
     Wife as Help Meet for the Husband,"       the 107 questions of the Westminster         ceived the call.
     led by Rev. R.  VanOverloop.  The         Shorter Catechism. Plans called for              The Doon, IA PRC has extend-
     third was to be led by Mr. Don            memorization every Sunday in the             ed a call to Rev. W. Bruinsma of the
     Doezema           and Mr.       Bruce     sanctuary for 20 minutes after               First PRC in Holland, MI.
     VanSolkema  and dealt with "The           church. Prizes were also going to
     Childless Couple in the Church."          be awarded on the basis ,of a writ-          good-nor  Thought
     And the fourth and last class was         ten test in November 1996.                       "It is the peculiar business of
     led by Rev. W. Bruinsma and was                                                        faith's &ye to see in the dark."
     titled, "Nurturing Covenant Chil-                                                                            - A.  Toplady   0
     dren."
                                ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~                                   RESOL"TlON  OF  SYMPATHY  _1
       RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                                                   The School Board of Covenant
         The Men's and Ladies' Society                                                      Christian School of Lynden, WA, on
     of the First PRC of Holland,. MI ex-                                                   behalf of the Society for Protestant
tends its sincere Christian sympa-                                                          Reformed Education in Lynden, ex-
thy to their fellow members, Mr. and                                                        presses its Christian sympathy to
     Mrs. Gordon Wassink,  in the death                                                     our faithful teacher, Genevieve Lub-
     of his mother,                                                                         bers, and to her extended family in
          GERTRUDE WASSINK.                      RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                     the loss of her sister,
         May they find comfort in God's            The Coun'cil of Grandville PRC                   EVELYN LUBBERS.
Word, "The eternal God is thy ref-             expresses its heartfelt sympathy to              "Precious in the sight of the Lord
     uge, and underneath are the ever-         its fellow officebearer, Dennis              is the death of his saints" (Psalm
lasting arms" (Deuteronomy  3:27).             Dykstra, in the death of his ,father,        116:15).
                    Alan Elzinga, President        MR. STANLEY DYKSTRA.                                    Mel Yonkman, President
               Shirley Casemier, Secretary         It is our prayer that the Word of                         Bob Kelley, Secretary
                                               God and His tender mercies will be
                    NOTICE!!                   an unending source of comfort and                            NOTICE!!
        All students enrolled in the Prot-     peace. "But though he cause grief,               All standing and special com-
estant Reformed Seminary who will              yet will he have compassion accord-          mittees, of Synod, as well as indi-
be in need of financial assistance             ing to the multitude of his mercies"         viduals who wish to address Synod
for the coming school year are asked           (Lamentations  3:32).                        1996, are hereby notified that all
to contact the Student Aid Commit-              Rev. Audred Spriensma, President            material for the 1996 Synod of the
tee Secretary, Mr. Larry Meulenberg                    Cornelius Jonker, Secretary          Protestant Reformed Churches
(Phone: 616-453-8466). This con-                                                            should be in the hands of the Stat-
tact should be made before the next                                                         ed  Cle'rk no  Iat& than April 1.
scheduled meeting, March 27, 1996,                                                          Please send material to:
D.V.                                                                                         Mr. Don Doezema, Stated Clerk
                    Student Aid Committee                                                               4949 lvanrest Ave.
               Larry Meulenberg, Secretary                                                         Grandville, Ml 49418

264lStandard  Bearer/March I,1996


