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                                                                                         See "Victors Over Death"- page 267


                         I.                                                                         I,
   Vol. 72, No. 12                                                                                                                    I
1 M a r c h   25,2996


CONTENTS:                                                                                                                                             March 15, 1996

Meditation - Rev. Cornelius Hanko
          Victors Over Death . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..~...............................................                                                                       267
Editorial - Prof. David J. Engelsma                                                                                                                                                                                        ISSN 036213692
          An Open Letter to Gary North (2)
                                                                                                          . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
All Around Us - Rev. Gise J. VanBaren.. . . . . . . . . . . ..~....................*.. .I...........
                                                                                                                                                                                '                          272             Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July, and August.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                           Published by the Reformed Free Publishing Association, Inc.,
Decency and Order - Rev. Ronald L. Cammenga                                                                                                                                                                                4949 Ivanrest Ave., Grandville, Ml 49416. Second Class
          Infant Baptism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274                       Postage Paid at Grandville. Michigan.
Contribution - Rev. Rodney Miersma  _                                                                                                                                                                                      Postmaster: Send address changes to the Standard Bearer,
          Burn Or Bury? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276                        P.O. Box603, Grandville. Ml 494660603.
Day of Shadows - Homer C. Hoeksema                                                                                                                                                                                         EDITORIAL COMMllTEE
                                                                                                                                                                                                                           Editor: Prof. .David J. Engelsma
          Paradise the First (cont.) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  .._.............................. 279                                                                            Secretary: Prof. Robert D. Decker-
In His Fear - Rev.. Arie denHartog                                                                                                                                                                                         Managing Editor: Mr. Don Doezema
          The Calling of the Young Women to Marry                                                                                                                                                                          DEPARTMENT EDITORS
               and to Bear Children . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281                                        Rev. Wilbur Bruinsma.  Rev. Ronald Cammenga. Prof. Robert
                                                                                                                                                                                                                           Decker, Rev. Arie dentlartog, Rev. Carl Haak,  Prof. Herman
Book Reviews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284                 Hanko. Rev. Ronald Hanko, Rev. Jason Kortering. Rev. Dale
News From Our Churches                                                                                                                                                                                                     Kuiper. Mr. James Lanting,  Mrs. MaryBeth Lubbers, Rev.
                                                                            -Mr. Benjamin Wgger  ._................................ 287                                                                                    Thomas Miersma, Rev. Gise VanBaren, Rev. Ronald
                                                                                                                                                                                                                           VanOverloop,Mr.BenjaminWigger,Rev.BemardWoudenberg.
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2661Standard Bearer /March 16,1996


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  *  I  '  -`:  :`:  ,.I:  ~.  ,.  :_  ,.  `-.  ,,  j;..;  ;  .-  r  _        .I  :  ,;(  .":  ;  ;  I  1                        -,-           ) _ _ , Q, __





                            Victors :Over Death.
                                                                                  (`1:           -,     :_       _      .,b                                     I

                                                     and diseases threaten our lives. In                     ly I set myself in the company of the
    0 death, where is  thy sting? 0                  one word, we live in the midst of                       scornful (I%. 21).
grave, where is thy victoy? The sting                death, for `sooner or later the grim                            The trouble is that sin breeds sin.
of a?e~th  is sin, and the strength of sin           reaper takes us as its prey, and soon                   One sinful deed occasions another,
is the law.. But thanks be to God which              our place knows us no more.                             even worse than the former. There
giveth us the victoy through our Lord                        0 Grave! Thou hungry recepta-                   is no turning back. It is impossible
Jesus Christ.                                        cle of the dead!                                        to call a halt. He who sins becomes
                  I Corinthians 15:55-57                     A father and his children stand                 the slave of sin and falls into the
                                                     beside you grieving over the loss of                    bondage of death, according to the
    0 Death! Thou fearful monster                    a wife andjmother. A mother pours                       righteous judgment of God. For the
with thy deadly sting!                               out her sorrows over you in the loss                    soul that sins must die.
    We and our dear ones live all                    of a precious daughter. Many come                               "The strength of sin is the law."
our lives in the awareness of thy                    to visit you, but find no comfort                               God is God, the righteous Judge
presence.                                            here. No one can fill the empty spot                    of heaven and earth. He is our Cre-
    A mother takes her newly born                    left by the loss of a dear one. I know.                 ator, our Sustainer, sovereign Ruler
infant in her arms, holds it close to                        Here Iie the dead of all the ages,              of our lives. He justly demands of
herself, and is immediately aware of                 for it is appointed for all men to die,                 us: Love Me. Serve Me with your
a tremendous responsibility placed                   and afterward follows the judgment.                     whole being, heart and mind and
upon her. Her child must not be                      The grave is the portal, as it were,                    soul and strength. God blesses those
too `hot or too cold, must have                      to hell, for accursed is every one who                  who love and serve Him with eter-
enough food but not too much, must                   does not abide in all that is written                   nal, glorious blessings of intimate fel-
be covered at night but very care-                   in the book of the law to do it.                        lowship and life.
UY*                                                          We must all appear before the                           But, on the other hand, God just-
    As the tot grows older there are                 judgment seat of Christ, that every-                    ly condemns all those who trans-
new threats on its life. Drafts, germs,              one may receive the things done in                      gress His commandments. For "ac-
diseases seem to hover all around.                   the body, according to that he hath                     cursed is every one who abideth not
The little tyke is warned, "Don't do                 done, whether good or evil (II Cor.                     in all that is written in the book of
this," and "Don't do that."                          5:lO).                                                  the law to do it."
    As he goes out to play or is sent                        Dying we all die!                                       The righteous God punishes sin
off to school, other dangers threaten                                                                        already in this life, but not only in
his life. He must learn to look both                            +++  i++  +++                                this life, even in everlasting condem-
ways before he crosses the street,                                                                           nation of hell fire.
and must be alert for automobiles                            "The @i.ng of death is sin!"                            God's justice demands that the
and for all sorts of dangers every-                          I was conceived and born in sin.                soul that sins must die everlastingly
where.                                               The guilt of Adam was my guilt                          under His consuming wrath.
    Actually the threats on ourlives                 from the moment of my conception.                               Left to ourselves we can only cry
only increase. As we grow older,                     Therefore  I: am by nature incapable                    out:
health problems increase, sicknesses                 of any good, depraved, corrupt, in-                             In Thy wrath our spirits lan-
                                                     clined to hate God and my neigh-                                  guish,
                                                     bor.                                                            Sinful `neath Thy searching eye;
                                                             How readily I adjust to sin                             All our days are passed in an-
                                                     round about me. I adapt myself to
Rev. Hanko is a minister emeritus in                                                                                   guish,
                                                                                                                     In Thy wrath we pine and die.
the Protestant Reformed Churches.                    the company of sinners and willing-

                                                                                                                        March 15, i996/StandardBeared267


                                          included in Him. Amazing grace!                        .We can confess with our fathers
         +++  +++  +++                    Boundless love!                                    of former `times, "The eternal Father
                                                 Up from the grave He arose                  of our Lord JesusChrist . . . is for the
     "0 death! Where is thy sting?"              With a mighty triumph o'er His              sake of Christ His Son, my God and
     God is merciful! 0 yes, His mer-              foes.                                     my `Father, on whom I rely so en-
cy is a just mercy! He has in the far            He arose a Victor over death's              tirely, that I have no doubt, but He
reaches of eternity chosen unto Him-               domain                                    will provide me with all things nec-
self in' sovereign good pleasure a               And He lives forever with His               essary for soul and body: and fur-
people whom He takes unto Him-                     saints to reign.                          ther, that He will make whatever
self, saying, I will be a Father unto            He arose! Hallelujah! Christ                evils He sends upon me, in this val-
them,  and they shall be My sons and               arose!                                    ley of tears, turn out to my advan-
My daughters to dwell with Me in                 By Christ's resurrection our sal-           tage; for He is able to do it, being
My house forever.                         vation has become an accomplished                  almighty God, and willing, being a
     To make this possible, God was       fact. When He suffered agonies of                  faithful Father" (Heid. Catechism,
willing to sacrifice His most precious    hell, we suffered those agonies in                 Lord's Day 9).
possession to redeem His people           Him. When He died, we died.                            It may not seem so now, yet it is
from the power of sin and death.          When He arose, we arose! And now                   so very true that the moment of our
He chose His Son, the Christ, to be       we are seated with Him at the right                death is better than the moment of
their Redeemer. And the Son will-         hand of ,God in His glory (Eph. 2:4                our birth. In fact, it is the greatest
ingly surrendered Himself unto the        6).                                                moment of our lives, for it is the          ,
curse of everlasting divine wrath to             "0 Grave, where is thy victo-               realization of God's eternal purpose
bring His people to glory. The Shep-      ry?"                                               with us. Great day! Glorious day.
herd was willing to lay down His                                                             For this is our coronation day!
life for IIis sheep.                                +++  +++  +++                                Besides all that, we have the
    Therefore in the fullness of time                                                        blessed hope that when this earthly
God sent His Son into the world,                 "`But thanks be to God, which               house of our present tabernacle col-
born of the virgin'Mary,  born under      gjveth  us the victory through our                 lapses, we have a house, not made
the law, to bear the curse of the law     Lord Jesus Christ!"                                with hands, but eternal in the heav-
and deliver us from the bondage of               Law! You cannot touch me, you               ens. Christ is there preparing a-place
sin and death into the glorious lib-      cannot  condemn me, for there is                   for us. When that place is ready
erty of the sons of God.                  now no condemnation to those                           and we are ready for that place,
    Who will ever fathom that great       who are in Christ Jesus.                                 He is coming to take us unto
love whereby the Father cast the Son      Through faith in Christ we are              The          Himself, that we may be with
of His bosom from Him, cast Him           as completely righteous as if         moment              Him in His glory.
away in wrath, declared Him ac-           we in our own bodies had             of our death            And, as if all that is of mi-
cursed to utter desolation for your       atoned for all our sins. God          . . . is the        nor importance, our bodies
sins and mine? Who will ever com-         sees no sin in Israel, no trans-      Eeatest             will rest in the grave in an-
prehend the love of Christ that He        gression in Jacob, but deems          moment              ticipation of the coming of the
manifested all His life in bearing the    us worthy of eternal life and          of our            Lord. When He appears, this
curse that should have .fallen upon       blessedness.                            lives.          mortal will put on immortali-
us, and that while we were still sin-            Sin! You no longer have do-                     ty, and this corruptible will put
ners?                                     minion over me. For the law of the                 on incorruption. Death will be swal-
    Why should God have done that         Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made       lowed up in victory!
for me? Do not ask: "Were you             us free from the bondage of sin and                   More than conquerors are we,
there when they crucified my Lord?"       death. `We are new creatures in               through our Lord Jesus Christ!
But rather confess through your           Christ, born again, not of corrupt-                    0 death, where is thy sting? 0
tears: "I was there as part of a fall-    ible seed> but of incorruptible, by the       grave, where is thy victory? I thank
en human race when we cried: `Cru-        Word of:God that livethand  abideth           God in Jesus Christ our Lord! 0 -
cify Him!  Qucify Him!' And we            forever.  :
still make ourselves guilty of reject-           We are washed, sanctified as
ing Him with our sins!"                   saints in Christ Jesus, dedicated to
    Yet God was in Christ reconcil-       our God, to live unto Him even as
ing us unto Himself, not counting         we live through Him. In our hearts
our sins against us. Christ died in       we have the beginning of eternal joy,
our stead. For as in Adam all died        a joy unspeakable and full of glory!
who were in Adam, so in Christ all        No sorrow, no pain, no loss of dear
those are made alive again who are        ones can deprive us of that joy.

266lStandard  Bearer/March 15,1996


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                                                      _  ..





   An Open Letter to Gary North
                                                                         (,Part Two)
                                                                         -

     (In his  "I.C.E. Position  Paper" of            prayer of Answer  ,191," we Re-                                               er, that there is no interaction in the
July 1995, Dr. Gay North responded                   formed amillennialists do think that                                          Standard Bearer with theologians
to the editorid  "Jewish Dreams" in the              Christians should pray the petition                                           and scholars of a contrary mind.
Janus y 15, !995  issue of the Standard              of Question and Answer 191 of the                                                     This is your sixth mistake. You
Bearer.  Here I conclude my response                 Westminster Larger  Catechism.  We                                            are aggrieved that I do not respond
to this leading -Christian  Recon.-                  pray it fervently. We pray it with                                            to, or even mention, the works on
stmctionist pos&dennialist  by way of                the confidence that God will grant                                            postmiUennialism by leading Chris-
an open letter begun in the March 1,                 it. But the granting is not,.and will                                         tian Reconstruction writers: "A se-
1996 issue of the Standard Bearer.)                  not be, an earthly kingdom and                                                rious Calvinist theologian who is do-
                                                     physical dominion. Nor may any                                                ing his best to inform his readers
                                                     Presbyterian have this hope in mind                                           about what lies ahead for the church
    In my response to your col-                      when he prays. If he does, he prays                                           would mention the existence of such
league G&De-Mar  in the-March 15,                    contrary to the revealed will of God                                          books."
1995  issue of  the Standard Bearer,                 and angers God with his self-willed                                                   Did you not notice the quota-
you will discover your fourth mis-                   petition.                                                                     tion  from  David Chilton's  Paradise
take. You claim that "the prayer in                                                                                                Restored, giving publisher, date, and
Answer 191 (of the Westminster                                                No Footnotes                                         pages, in the editorial that you criti-
Larger Catechism - DJE) is clearly                                                                                                 cize? Apart from this, your judg-
a postmillennial prayer." This claim,                          Fifth, you are evidently unfamil-                                   ment is hasty. For I have been fol-
with the implications that you draw                  iar with  the Standard Bearer,  partic-                                       lowing up on N Jewish Dreams" both
from it, is the heart of your piece                  ularly with the editorials in the mag-                                        with responses to letters and with a
against my "`Jewish Dreams." But,                    azine. At one point you express sus-                                          series of editorials, "A Defense of
as I demonstrated to Gary DeMar,                     picion of the editorial "Jewish                                               (Reformed) Amillennialism." In
who also appealed to Question and                    Dreams" as "masquerading as a se-                                             these subsequent articles I have been,
Answer  191'of  the Westminster                      rious theological essay." At another                                          and will be, referring to, quoting
Larger Catechism in support of                       point you ,are disgusted because of                                           from, and responding to the
postmillennialism in creedal  Pres-                  "brief, unfootnoted essays critical of                                        postmillennialists  whom you men-
byterianism;Question  191 does not                   Christian Reconstruction." Here,                                              tion, as well as others.
teach  ,postmillennialism.         The               taking off the gloves, you compare                                                I would have thought that you
Westminster divines did not explain                  me unfavorably with Hal Lindsey                                               received the Standard Bearer regu-
the second petition of the Lord's                    because Lindsey at least has foot-                                            larly. Apparently this is not the case.
Prayer as a postmillennial prayer.                   notes (though inaccurate) in his writ-                                        To ensure that this material is avail-
Since I have already explained Ques-                 ing against the theonomists: "Aca-                                            able to you, I am sending you all of
tion 191 in my response to DeMar, I                  demically speaking, . . . Engelsma is                                       the articles on eschatology that fol-
may  be permitted here merely to                     trailing Hal Lindsey on this issue."                                        low "Jewish Dreams."
quote what I wrote earlier. In order                 - Hal Lindsey!
that the body of this letter not be-                      The Standard Bearer  is not a                                                      Those Insulated  PR's
come overly long, I will add this ex-                theological~joumal.  It is written for
planation of Question 191 as a                       believers, not for scholars and theo-                                             Last, you display ignorance of
postscript.                                     logians. I `trust .that the editorials                                           the membership of the PRC when
    Be assured, contrary to your as-                 are researched and accurate. But as                                         you describe us as "people who are
sertion that "Engelsma does not be-             a rule you will look in vain for foot-                                           very insulated culturally and eccle-
lieve that Christians should pray the                notes. -This does not mean, howev-                                          siastically, and who have not been

                                                                                                                                             March 15,1996/Standard Beared


exposed to the larger world,of Cal-        of her plagues" (Rev.  18:4)?  Was            of human life; there is the oversight,
vinism." I get the impression that         the Holy Spirit an advocate of                admonition, and discipline exercised
you Christian Reconstructionists  sol-     world-flight when He inspired, "Is-           through bodies of elders; there has
emnly pass this nonsense around            rael then shall dwell in safety alone"        been the giving of hundreds of thou-
among yourselves. Some time ago            (Deut. 33:28)?                                sands of dollars to help the poor
another of your men publicly dis-              Visit a PR church, any PR                 through active diaconates; there are
missed us as "rural and isolation-         church. `Talk with a PR minister, any         innumerable books, pamphlets, and
ist." 1 suspect that the source is the     PR minister. If ever you are in               other writings.
Christian Reformed Church's                Grand Rapids, give me the oppor-                      We are doing only that which is
longstanding charge against us of          tunity to introduce you to the typi-          our duty to do, so that we are un-
being "anabaptists" on account of          cal PR church-member, male or fe-             profitable servants. But what the
our denial of common grace and our         male  - knowledgeable of and in-              PRC are doing on behalf of the com-
insistence on a spiritual antithesis       terested in everything Calvinistic.           ing of Christ's kingdom does not suf-
between the believing church and           Meet the farmers, businessmen, doc-           fer by comparison with the efforts
the ungodly world.                         tors, dentists, lawyers, registered           of the whole of Christian Recon-
    It is high time that serious, fair,    nurses, teachers, bankers, engineers,         struction.
Reformed thinkers put this bit of po-      and other members of the trades and                   In fact, if the Holy Spirit should
lemical cheap-shot aside and got           professions.      Let me take you             have in mind (which He does not)
down to brass tacks with the real          through our Christian schools, so             to bring about your millennium, ev-
issues at stake in the Protestant Re-      that you can see that for a long time         erything is in place in the PRC, and
formed denial of common grace and          ( m u c h   l o n g e r   t h a n   Recon-    in other faithful Reformed and Pres-
affirmation of the antithesis. Nomi-       structionists-  have been advocating          byterian churches, for the lightning
nally Reformed and Presbyterian            Christian education) Protestant Re-           to strike. I cannot think of anything
people are going to hell today ex-         formed parents have taken their bap-          that we have left undone, except,
actly because they are conforming          tism vows seriously and have been             perhaps, to pray, "Lord, send reviv-
to the world in keeping with the te-       trainini their children to serve the          al," with the proper, practiced pa-
nets of common grace. In teachings         Lord Christ, in obedience to His will         thos in our throats. But even in this
and conduct, Reformed and Presby-          in Holy Scripture, in every sphere            respect, we are not completely unfit
terian churches are being swallowed        of human life in the world.                   instruments for the arrival of the mil-
up by the world, because they have             "In the world, but not of the             lennium, for we do earnestly pray
convinced themselves that the world        world" ,- this, and not isolation, is         the petition that Jesus taught us,
outside of Christ is full of goodness      our calling, our purpose, and, im-            "Thy kingdom come."
and wisdom by virtue of the com-           perfectly, our life.                                  You end with a challenge:
mon grace operations of the Holy
Spirit.                                       The #Coming  of the Kingdom                  Someday, a theologian in the Prot-
    There is nothing that Reformed                   through the PRC                       estant-Reformed Church ought to
churches and people need more ur-                                                          write a detailed book on escha-
gently today than powerful preach-             Indeed, if someone, foolishly,              tology. Then he should-follow this
                                                                                           with a detailed academic critique of
ing and teaching of the antithesis as      were of a mind to make the com-                 theonomic  postmil-lennialism.  I do
the antithesis is still unashamedly        parison, it would be evident that the           not expect either challenge to be ac-
confessed in the PRC.                      PRC have done, and are now doing,               cepted.
    This has absolutely nothing to         far more, by the grace of God, to
do with world-flight, isolation, and       extend ,the kingdom of Christ than                    Do not give up on us too quick-
insulation. It never did.                  all of Christian Reconstructionism.           ly. For one thing, Herman Hoekse-
    Look into our doctrine of the an-      There is a denomination of sound,             ma has done significant work in
tithesis a little. Judge our position,     Reformed  chuiches across all of              eschatology. Have you read the sec-
not by the caricatures of our ene-         North America bearing witness to              tion on eschatology in his Reformed
mies but by our own confession.            Ring Jesus; there are missions both           Dogmatics?  Have you read his mas-
Was Paul an anabaptist because he          at home and abroad; there is contact          terful commentary on the book of
exhorted, "Come out from among             with and help of likeminded church-           Revelation,  Behold, He Cometh?
them, and be ye separate" (II Cor.         es in foreign lands; there is an ex-                  Besides, more may be forthcom-
6:17)?   Was John trying to form a         tensive system of Reformed, Chris-            ing.
people who would be "very insulat-         tian schools in which thousands of                    It is possible that the eschatology
ed culturally and ecclesiastically"        boys and girls have been reared to            of Christian Reconstruction will in-
when he warned, "Come out of her,          honor the sovereign, triune God;              deed be examined in the light of the
my people, that ye be not partakers        there are the godly lives of thou-            Reformed faith, especially since no
of her sins, and that ye receive not       sands in every ordinance and sphere           one else is doing this.

27OIStandard Bearer/March 15,1996


    There may even be some foot-                him for ever: and that he would be     an explanation that is virtually
notes.                                          pleased so to exercise the kingdom     identical with the explanation of
    Hal Lindsey, indeed!                        of his power in all the world, as      the Heidelberg Catechism in
                                                may best conduce to these ends.        Question 123, will serve to make
                             Cordially,                                                clear the meaning of all of
                                       DJE        This is basically the same expla-    DeMar's quotations from the
                                              nation of the second petition of the     Westminster Catechisms.
P. s.                                         Lord's Prayer that is given in Lord's      In the second petition, the Cat-
                                              Day 48 of our own Heidelberg Cat-        echism explains, believers pray
    You appeal to Question 191 of             echism, with the exception of the        that God in Christ will destroy
the Westminster Larger Catechism              maintenance of the church by the         the kingdom of Satan and build
(WLC) as a confessionally Presbyte-           civil magistrate.                        up the kingdom of Christ, which
rian teaching of postmillennialism.               Neither the Presbyterian nor the     is the church. DeMar thinks that
                                              Reformed explanation is postmil-         this refers to some future time
  The prayer in Answer 191 is clearly         lennial.                                 before the coming of Christ.
  a postmillennial prayer. It was                 I made this clear in my response     Also, he supposes that the de-
  made m a n d a t o r y   b y     the        to your fellow postmillennialist Gary    struction of Satan's kingdom
  Westminster Assembly. It calls for          DeMar, who had also objected to my       and the victory of Christ's king-
  the visible establishment of the            editorial with an appeal to Question     dom in this future time are
  kingdom of God in history....               191 of the WLC, as though this were
  Engelsma owed it to his readers to          Presbyterian postmil-lennialism.         earthly,  that is, physical, politi-
  point out that the Savoy Declara-                                                    cal, social, and visible to the
                                              What follows is my response to
  tion's statement (an Independent                                                     bodily eye. The saints will have
                                              DeMar in the March 15, 1995 issue
  confession - DJE) was lifted from                                                    dominion: the carnal kingdom.
  the Larger Catechism. But to have           of the Standard Bearer.                    He is mistaken on both counts.
  admitted this would have under-                                                      Christ has been destroying the
  mined the force of his statement in             The four quotations by DeMar         kingdom of Satan and building
  the previous paragraph that the               from the Westminster Larger            up His own kingdom, the
  Westminster Confession of Faith               and Shorter Catechisms prove
  does not teach postmillennialism.             absolutely nothing for a               church, ever since He ascended
                                                postmillennial interpretation of       into heaven. The nature of the
    Since our largely Reformed                                                         defeat of Satan's kingdom and
                                                the Westminster documents. No
readership may not be familiar with                                                    of the victory of Christ's king-
                                                amillennialist has any difficulty
this question and answer of the                with these expressions whatso-          dom  is spiritual  It consists of
WLC, I quote it here:                          ever. All of these statements           the gathering out of Satan's
                                               square perfectly with "Engel-           kingdom of the elect; of the
  Q. What do we pray for in the sec-                                                   sanctification of the elect to serve
                                               sma's notion that `the church in
  ond petition?                                the endtime will be a persecut-         the Lord in every sphere of life;
 A. In the second petition (which is,                                                  and of the preservation of the
                                               ed church, not a  triumphal&t
  Thy kingdom come), acknowledg-                                                       church in truth and holiness
 ing ourselves and all mankind to              church."' Christ has been re-           against the onslaughts of the
 be by nature under the dominion               straining and subduing His and          devil. The perfect answer to the
  of sin and Satan, we pray, that the          our enemies by His sovereign            second petition will be granted
 kingdom of sin and Satan may be               power since His ascension into          in the Day of Christ.
 destroyed, the gospel propagated              heaven (Eph. 2:20-23).  The ful-
 throughout the world, the Jews                fillment of this sovereign re-            How does the Larger Cate-
 called, the fullness of the Gentiles          straint and subduing in history         chism itself sum up its explana-
 brought in; the church furnished              does not require the "Christian-        tion of the second petition? `I...
 with all gospel-officers and ordi-            izing of the world" and a king-         that Christ would rule in our
 nances, purged from corruption,                                                       hearts here, and hasten the time
 countenanced and maintained by                dom of earthly power and glo-           of his second coming, and our
 the civil magistrate: that the ordi-          ry. The  :risen  Christ restrains       reigning with him for ever."
 nances of Christ may be purely dis-           and subdues His enemies by His            There is not so much as a hint
 pensed, and made effectual to the             secret providence, and He gov-          of postmillennialism in Question
 converting of those that are yet in           ems and exalts His church by
 their stis, and the confirming, com-          His grace.                              191 of the Larger Catechism or
 forting, and building up of those               The right understanding of the        in the other quotations adduced
 that are already converted: that              Larger Catechism's explanation          by Gary DeMar. One finds
 Christ would rule in our hearts               of the second petition of the           postmillennialism in these con-
 here, and hasten the time of his sec-                                                 fessional statements only if he
 ond coming, and our reigning with             Lord's Prayer, in Question 191,         has decided beforehand to un-

                                                                                           March 15,1996/Standard Bearer/271


  derstand "restrain," "subdue,"                    an  L&ger Catechism. The  Sa-                     Westminster's refusal to do so,
  "defend," and "conquer" in the                    voy Declaration posits "en-                       gave clear expression to the
  earthly sense they had for Old                    larged" churches enjoying "a                      postmillennial dream of an
 .Testament Israel in the day of                    more quiet, peaceable, and glo-                   earthly kingdom. Their church-
  shadows.                                         rious condition than they have                     es are taught to look forward to
    The answer to Question 191 of                   enjoyed" "iri  the  laffer days,  An-             earthly peace, earthly prosperi-
  the Larger Catechism is by no                     fichrisf being desfroyed  . . . and the           ty, and earthly power!
  means "almost identical to that                   adversaries of fhe kingdom 4 his
  of The Savoy Declaration (26.5)."                 dear Son broken" and  "in this                      Christian Reconstruction has no
  Chapter 26.5 of the Congrega-                     world: tl                                    basis in any Reformed or Presbyte-
  tional Savoy Declaration (which                          Take note:  "in this world."          rian creed for its dream of a carnal
  I quoted in the editorial "Jewish                        The Independents who -drew            kingdom in history.  Cl
  Dreams") differs radically  from                   up the Savoy Declaration, dis-                                                   --DJE
  Question 191 of the Presbyteri-                    satisfied with Presbyterian

$@M&                        _        _.     :      ;,'            (     -`.-`y 1      ,:.:     +;      Ja$&Ykq~-m
                                                             '


n A Shameful  Death,  Indeed!                     child abuse I have ever seen."'                     choice," she didn't think this assign-
    Time Magazine, December 11,                            Horrible though the above may              ment would be a problem. She was
1995, has a cover story with the title            sound,  is it not to be expected  -                 wrong. This is what Nurse Shafer
"A Shameful Death." The account                   given the lack of value placed upon                 saw.
is shocking indeed.                                                                                     "I stood at the doctor's side and
                          Though one              human life in our society? Each                     watched him perform a partial-birth
comes to expect the  most  awful                  year, so we are told, there are at least            abortion on a woman who was six
crimes, this one seems almost to top              one and a half million abortions in                 months pregnant. The baby's heart-
them all. The account tells of a cute             this country. That's a total of over                beat was clearly visible on the ul-
little six-year-old. She seemed pop-              30 million since abortion was legal-                trasound screen. The doctor deliv-
ular with her schoolmates and teach-              ized by decree of the Supreme Court                 ered the baby`s body and arms, ev-
ers. She had been taken under the                 of our  land. That does not even take               erything but his little head. The ba-
wing of Prince Michael of Greece,                 into account the many very early                    by's body was moving. His little
who promised to finance her full pri-             abortions caused by medications or                  fingers were clasping together. He
vate-school education up to college.                                                                  was kicking his feet. The doctor
                                                  physical devices.                                   took a pair of scissors and inserted
But this little girl was brutally mur-                     If a small baby is killed just be-         them into the back of the baby's
dered. Murdered by her own moth-                  fore legal birth, that is considered a              head,  .and the baby's arms jerked
er.  Time  states, `When the police ar-           matter of "choice." The fetus is only               out in a flinch, a startle reaction,
rived, she confessed to killing Elisa             a bit of "tissue." But if the mother                like a baby does when he thinks that
by throwing her against a concrete                shorildfkill  the baby immediately af-              he might fall. Then the doctor
wall. She confessed that she had                  ter  birth, the country is horrified.               opened the scissors up. Then he
made  Elisa eat her  own feces and                The details of this murder are broad-               stuck the high-powered suction
that-she had mopped the floor with                cast for all to hear. One is a "shame-              tube into the hole and sucked the
her head. The police told reporters               ful death," the other is merely the                 baby's brains out. Now the baby
                                                                                                      was completely limp.
that there was no part of the six-                removal of tissue.                                    "I never went back to the clinic.
year-old's body, that was not cut or                       In `December 4, 1995 there ap-             But I am  stiIl haunted by the face
bruised. Thirty circular marks that               peared a full page advertisement in                 of that little boy. It was the most
at first appeared to be cigarette                 the Nev York Tithes by the Nation-                  perfect, angelic face I have ever
burns turned out to be impressions                al Right to Life Educational Trust                  seen."
left by the stone in someone's ring.              Fund (reprinted in  Christian News).
`In my 22 years,` said Lieut. Luis                Here is presented a "shameful                         A "shocking death" indeed!
Gonzalez, `this is the worst  case of             death" indeed:                                 Perhaps the description is too much
                                                                                                 for sensitive stomachs. But it points
                                                           In September, 1993 Brenda Pratt       out the callousness evident in our
                                                    Shafer, a registered nurse with thir-        day toward life. Why should the
                                                    teen years of experience, was as-
Rev. VanBaren is pastor of the Profes-                                                           brutal killing of a little six-year-old
                                                    signed by her nursing agency to an
fanf  Rq%rmed  Church  4 Loveland,                                                               gain the attention of Time magazine,
                                                     abortion clinic. Since Nurse Shafer         on its cover, no less - and the bru-
C010Yado.                                            considered herself "very  pro-

2721Standard Bearer/March 15,1996


           tal killing of the unborn be a rou-           single-parent families headed by          nored, the consequences threatened
           tine "procedure" carried out thou-            women in the U.S. live below the          by His Word will surely follow. It
           sands of times every day in our               poverty level. And study after            would seem too late for any gov-
           land?                                         study suggests that children of di-       ernmental body  fo turn back the
               The Congress of the United                vorce bear psychological scars even       clock.
                                                         in the best of circumstances.
           States, according to reports, has               But before we invite state legisla-
           passed a law outlawing "partial-              tors into the delicate area of mar-       n Persecution on a Grand Scale
          birth abortions" such as the one de-           riage mediation, we might  ask them           The  Christian  Renewal, January
           scribed above. The same reports in-           to apply themselves more earnestly        8, 1996, quotes from Frontline  Fel-
           dicate that likely the Senate will be         to the tasks we already have as-          lowship  News concerning the plight
           unable to override the threatened             signed them, namely providing             of Sudan's Christians. Perhaps it is
           presidential veto.                            high-quality public education, equal      well to remind ourselves that Chris-
                                                         opportunity, enforcement of court-        tians in many places of the world
~              But Scripture speaks concerning
           all of this in Romans 1:29-32, "Being         ordered child support, protecting         face severe persecution, slavery, and
                                                         the quality of our air and water, and
           filled with all unrighteousness, for-                                                   death. It is another of the signs of
                                                         maintaining safe neighborhoods....
           nication, wickedness, covetousness,                                                     the end of time.
           maliciousness; full of envy, murder,            It has become apparent to many
           debate, deceit, malignity; whis-                                                            Tens of thousands of Sudanese
~                                                      outside of the church that "no-fault"
           perers, backbiters, haters of God, de-      divorces, marriages quickly made              Christian men, women and children
           spiteful, proud, boasters, inventors        and as quickly broken, have contrib-          have been kidnapped and sold as
           of evil things, disobedient to parents,                                                   slaves by government soldiers and
                                                       uted to the unrest, instability, vul-         Arab militias. A recent research trip
I          without understanding, covenant             nerability of families and especially         by  Chrisfian   Solidarity   Internafional
           breakers, without natural affection,        is dreadfully hurtful to children. The        to the  Nuba  Mountains gathered
           implacable, unmerciful: who know-           writer,  above, would place much of           shocking evidence of the ongoing
           ing the judgment of God, that they          the blame on government for not               Islamic slave trade in Sudan.
           which commit such things are wor-           providing "high-quality public edu-             An Arab slave trader openly de-
           thy of death, not only do the same,         cation," though good education                scribed how marauding gangs of
           but have pleasure in them that do           ought to be provided by parents, not          soldiers have regularly swooped on
           them."                                      government. But there are some                villages of Christians  - killing,
                                                                                                     looting and capturing as many
                                                       state governments, obviously, which
           W New Questions                                                                           slaves as possible. This campaign
                                                       rightly recognize the terrible toll that      was part of the Islamic govern-
           Concerning Divorce                          easy divorces have made on society.           ment's attempt to capture the South
               In the Denver Post I have read          The drama of movie and television             of Sudan for Islam. "The.slaves,  in
           of an attempt to make divorce more          has promoted the ungodly attitudes            most cases children and young
           difficult to obtain. The writer of the      evident in society towards marriage.          women, are taken north where they
           article is obviously opposed to the         Many will doubtless resist, even to           are forced to provide  .agricultural
           attempt, but it is of interest to hear      the death, the attempt of govem-              labor, domestic work and sexual
           what she has to say.                        ments to return to the older "moral-          services against their will," report-
                                                                                                     ed one CSI team member. "Slavery
                                                       ity" of marriages for life, and di-
               In the nightmare scenario of big                                                      is used to debilitate the Christian
                                                       vorces which can be obtained only
             government, where states and fed-                                                       communities; they are forcibly dis-
             eral agencies generate sprawling          on provable grounds of adultery.              persed and/or imprisoned. They
             regulations whose tentacles                   The church, though in many in-            have to surrender and submit to be-
                                              reach                                                  coming Muslims or they are killed."
             into the most private areas of our        stances it has adopted the  same                An Arab slave trader, Ibrahim,
             lives, nothing is so sinister as the      worldly attitudes towards marriage,           described how he resold 162 Afri-
             movement to legislate family val-         knows what God's Word requires.               can children and young women
             ues.                                      It forbids, of course, in the seventh         back to their families. Ibrahim
               The latest tactic, grinding its way     commandment all forms of adultery.            claimed that the raids are organized
             through state legislatures in Iowa        And Christ clearly taught in Mat-             by the government of Sudan which
             and Washington, is the effort to pre-     thew 5 and 19 that marriage is per-           arms the Arab militias and encour-
             vent unhappy couples from getting         manent - for what God has joined              ages them to attack African villag-
             divorced.                                 together let no man put asunder.              es in the South  - keeping booty
               The theory is that kids are better                                                    and capturing slaves.
             off with two parents in the house             But all of this represents anoth-           The research team estimates that
             even if they hate each other.             er sign of .the end of the age. Where         1.5  million  people have perished
               It's not what we might call en-         families are effectively destroyed,           and more than 5 million have been
             lightened public policy....               the consequences will be seen in all          displaced out of a population of 8
     I         . ..The problems caused by divorce      of society. Where God's Word is ig-           million South Sudanese....
             are undeniable. One-third of the

                                                                                                             March 15,1996/Standard Bearer/273     `.


     Christ Himself foretold, "Then              name's sake" (Malt.  249). It is now         tians in this land will have to face
shall they deliver you up to be af-              occurring with increasing frequency          some of the same atrocities for Jesus'
flitted, and shall kill you: and ye              across this globe. Nor is it impossi-        sake.  0
shall'be hated of all nations for my             ble that soon those who are Chris-
 .@&g$&.&@;@   .~;;m$,;,~::  1.  .`.;.:;  .;  _  1:;:  L  ;  ;`  -,,y.`;  -(:::  `--;,:  g@&$&+g~*h*~-~-:;
 ._  -~  _          :.

                                        Infant Baptism

                               "The covenanf  of God shall be sealed unto the children of Christians by bap-
                          tism, as soon as the administration thereof is feasible, in the public assembly when
                          the Word 4 God is preached. U
                                                                                  (Church Order, Article -56)

                               "The ministers shall do their utmost to the end that the father present his child
                          for baptism. "
                                                                                  (Church Order, Article 57)


    With Articles 56 and 57 the                  sponsibility to see to the proper ad-        make them partakers of the .cove-
Church  Order begins its treatment of            ministration of the sacraments in its        nant, but seals the covenant to them.
the sacraments. Ecclesiastical regu-             own fellowship. To be sure!                       The children of "Christians'~ are
lations pertaining to the administra-                But the calling extends further.         to receive baptism. This means that
tion of the sacraments will take up              The churches have a responsibility           the parents must make a Christian
the next nine articles of the Church             with respect to each other - corpo-          confession and be living the Chris-
Order.                                           rate responsibility. In these articles       tian life. Since the confession and
    The space devoted to the sacra-              of the Church Order, the churches of         walk of God's people is under the
ments indicates how highly the Re-               the federation exercise mutual su-           supervision of the local body of el-
formed churches esteem the sacra-                pervision over each other with a             ders, these parents must be mem-
ments in the life of the church. The             view to maintaining the purity of the        bers of the local congregation in
administration of the sacraments has             sacraments.                                  which they present their child for
a vital place in the ministry of the                                                          baptism.
local congregation.                              To whom is baptism                                In this connection, a couple of
    At the same time, the articles of            to be administered?                          questions arise.
our Church Order make plain the zeal                  "The covenant of God shall be                "May parents who are only bap-
of the Reformed churches to guard                sealed unto the children of Chris-           tized members present their child for
the sacraments. The sacraments                   tians by baptism...." The children           baptism?" The answer to this ques-
must be administered, but they must              of Christians are to be baptized. In         tion is "No." The reason is simple.
be administered properly. Precau-                baptism the covenant of God is               If thed parents can assume the vows
tions are taken to prevent their des-            sealed to them.                              of baptism, they can also confess
ecration.                                            Comes out in Article 56, not only        their faith.
    Precautions are taken  by the                the Reformed persuasion concerning                "May parents who are under
churches in common.                              infant baptism, but the basis that un-       censure present their child for bap-
    Each congregation has the re-                derlies this practice. That basis is         tism?" Again, the answer is, "No."
                                                 the covenant of God. The children            Censure involves the suspension of
                                                 of Christians are included in the cov-       the privileges of church member-
                                                 enant of God. If the covenant of God         ship. One of the privileges is the
                                                 is "sealed" unto the children of             administration of the sacraments. If
Rev. Cammenga is pasfor  qf Southwest            Christians by baptism, they are  in          parents are under censure, baptism
Protestant  Rqormed  Church in                   that covenant. Baptism does not              must wait until after the censure is
Grandville, Michigan.

274lStandard  Bearer /March  15,1996


lifted. `It goes without saying that if         One special circumstance relat-            But there are exceptions. It is
only one of the parents is under cen-       ing to the time of the administration      not always possible that fathers
sure, the other parent is still in a po-    of baptism is covered in the deci-         present their children for baptism.
sition to present their child for bap-      sion that our Synod of 1960 append-        Exceptions would include the situa-
tism.                                       ed to Article 56. That decision con-       tion of an unwed mother, a widow,
                                            cerns the baptism of adopted chil-         a father who is incapacitated, or a
When is baptism                             dren.                                      father who is not a member of the
to be administered?                                                                    church. But these are exceptions.
     Article 56 calls for the adminis-        Adopted children shall be baptized       The rule is that fathers present their
tration of baptism `I... as soon as the       only when their legal adoption shall     children for baptism.
administration thereof is feasible...."       have been made final.
     The emphasis is on the feasibili-                                                 How is baptism
ty for the parents. The child must          Who must present                           to be administered?
be home from the hospital and the           the children for baptism?                      Article 56 stipulates: I'... in the
mother sufficiently recovered from              Article 57 answers this question.      public assembly when the Word of
child-birth. But this feasibility also                                                 God is preached."
concerns the church. A consistory             The ministers shall do their utmost          There is to be no private admin-
meeting must be held. Baptism can-            to the end that the father present       istration of baptism. The sacraments
not very well be administered dur-            his child for baptism.                   have been given to the church. The
ing another sRecia1 service, like a             As it is the covenant of God that      sacraments function as means of
communion service.                          underlies infant baptism, it is the        grace in the church.
     Nevertheless, baptism must be          truth of the covenant that lies be-            Here the Church Order is oppos-
administered as soon as is feasible.        hind the stipulation that the father       ing the practice of private baptism
There must be  fto unnecessary de-          present his child for baptism. The         conducted by the Roman Catholic
lay. Respect for the sacrament and          father is the head of his home. He         Church, as well as by certain radical
appreciation for its significance de-       is first of all responsible for carry-     groups that arose during the time of
mand this.                                  ing out the vows of baptism. It is         the Reformation. It is true that ear-
     This is not to approve of the          fitting, therefore, that he present his    ly on the Reformed made certain al-
practice of  vroegdoop,  "early bap-        child for baptism.                         lowances in exceptional cases. It
tism." In the days of the Reforma-              Presenting his child for baptism       was permitted to baptize critically
tion, this was the practice of the Ro-      means more than simply that the fa-        ill infants, or adults who had never
man Catholic Church. Because of             ther holds his child while the ques-       received the sacrament. Condemned
its teaching of baptismal regenera-         tions of baptism are asked and the         criminals facing execution, who had
tion, Rome baptized children when           sacrament is being administered.           repented and desired baptism, might
they were only a day or two old.            That is part of it. But it also means      be baptized, although with the ad-
Often the mother was not able to be         that the father goes before the            vice of the synodical  delegates and
present. Rome even made provision           consistory to request the baptism of       in the presence of the consistory.
for emergency baptisms in case of           his infant.                                    But these were exceptions reluc-
serious illness.                                The Church Order does not re-          tantly granted. The rule was that
    Even in the Reformation church-         quire .fathers  to appear before the       baptism should be administered in
es, many maintained the practice of         consistory in order to request bap-        the public assembly. In time the ex-
early baptism. Often baptism took           tism. Nevertheless, this is the local      ceptions fell away.
place at the first worship service fol-     regulation in all of our churches, so          Not only is the sacrament to be
lowing a child's birth. Because             far as I know. And it is a good reg-       administered in the public assembly,
many churches held mid-week ser-            ulation.                                   it is to be administered "... when the
vices, baptism was administered                 It is a good regulation, first of      Word of God is preached." Here
during these services and not on the        all, because covenant parents ought        the real difference between the Re-
Lord's Day. Some held to early bap-         to seek the administration of bap-         formed and Roman Catholicism is
tism on the basis of the fact that the      tism for their children. It is a good      highlighted. Not the sacraments are
children of Israel were required to         regulation, secondly, because it gives     the chief means of grace, ~1 la Roman
administer circumcision on the              the minister and consistory the op-        Catholicism. But the preaching of
eighth day.                                 portunity to inquire with regard to        the Word is the chief means of grace,
    The practice of early baptism is        the father's understanding of the sig-     and the sacraments are subordinate
not enjoined in Article 56. The sac-        nificance of the sacrament. Ques-          to the Word. The power of the sac-
rament is to be administered "... as        tions or concerns that the elders may      raments in the lives of God's people
soon as the administration thereof          have are able to be addressed.             depends on the preaching of the
is feasible...."                                                                       Word.

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        The sermons preached when         Day on which the minister is preach-       the administration of baptism will
baptism is administered ought to be       ing. Otherwise  a  special sermon          not degenerate into a mere liturgi-
appropriate to the occasion. Bap-         ought to be made emphasizing the           cal ceremony. The covenant God
tism often takes place during the         meaning of baptism, God's covenant         will be honored. The truth of His
morning worship service, customar-        that is the basis for baptism, or the      covenant established with His peo-
ily the service at which the Heidel-      responsibilities of covenant parents       ple in Christ Jesus and in the line of
berg Catechism is preached. Fre-          with respect to their baptized chil-       continued generations will be pro-
quently application to baptism can        dren.                                      claimed. And we and our children
be made out of the particular Lord's             In this way we can be sure that     will be saved. R




                                       Burn Or Bury?

                                          our bodies to the furnace rather than        ly, spreading to northern Europe
        In each edition of the daily      to the grave? When you are dead              and even Ireland.
newspaper one finds a section deal-       you are dead. Does it really matter            In the Mycenaean Age  - circa
ing with notices of recent deaths         whether your body returns to the             1000 B.C.  - cremation became an
along with the funeral arrangements.      dust slotily through decay in the            integral part of the elaborate Gre-
More and more common in the fu-           grave or whether the whole process           cian burial customs. In fact, it be-
                                                                                       came the dominate mode of dispo-
neral arrangements is the notice of       to reduction is over in a matter of          sition by the time of Homer in 800
cremation. Cremation is the reduc-        minutes by fire in the furnace? Per-        B.C. and  was  actually encouraged
tion of a dead body to ashes by           haps the matter of cost enters in.          for reasons of health and expedient
means of fire. More and more peo-         Since funeral expenses are high and         burial of slain warriors in this bat-
ple are seeing this as an alternative     getting higher, should one as a good        tle-ravaged country.
to the more traditional burial in the     steward look to the cheaper altema-            Following this Grecian trend, the
cemetery. For most of us cremation        tive of cremation? To help us answer        early Romans probably embraced
is a subject with which we are not        these questions we will have a look         cremation some time around 600
at all acquainted. Undoubtedly this       at the history of cremation both from       B.C. and it apparently, became so
                                                                                      prevalent that an official decree had
is due to our heritage, for among         a secular and biblical perspective.         to be issued in the mid 5th Century
Christians cremation has never                   From the Cremation Association       against the cremation of bodies
gained wide acceptance. However,          of North America I have an article          within the city.
as the world is becoming increasing-      entitled "History of Cremation,"               By the time of the Roman Empire
ly one community in which we meet         which I will quote in full.                 - 27 B.C. to 395 A.D.  - it was
with many different nationalities                                                     widely practiced, and cremated re-
and cultures we see instances of cre-            Scholars  today quite generally      mains were generally stored in elab-
mation more often. As churches, as          agree that cremation probably be-         orate     urns,       often    within
                                                                                      columbarium-like buildings.
we go to other parts of the world in        gan in any real sense during the ear-       Prevalent though the practice was
our missionary labors, we encoun-           ly Stone Age - around 3000 B.C.
                                            -                                         among the Romans, cremation was
ter cultures where cremation is the              and most likely in Europe and
                                            the Near East.                            rare with the early Christians who
norm rather than the exception. This             During the late Stone Age, cre-      considered it pagan and in the Jew-
would be the case in such countries         mation began to spread across             ish culture where traditional sepul-
as Singapore and India, just to name        northern Europe, as evidenced by          clue entombment was preferred.
tW0.                                        particularly informative finds of           However, by 400 A.D., as a re-
    The question that confronts us          decorative pottery urns in western        sult of Constantine's Christian-
is, should we as Christians commit          Russia among the Slavic peoples.          ization of the Empire, earth burial
                                              With the advent of the Bronze           had completely replaced cremation
                                            Age - 2500 to 1000 B.C. - crema-          `except for rare instances of plague
                                            tion moved into the British Isles and     or war, and for the next 1,500 years
                                           into what is now Spain and Portu-          remained the accepted mode of dis-
Rev. Miersma  is pasfor of the Protes-      gal. Cemeteries for cremation devel-      position throughout Europe.
tant Reformed Church of New Zealand.        oped in Hungary and northern Ita-           Modem cremation, as we know
                                                                                      it, actually began only a little over
276lStandard  Bearer /March 15,1996


  a century ago, after years of exper-     ceased. That should cause our "Re-          burned in disrespect to show God's
  imentation into the development of       formed antennae" to wave in the air,        hot displeasure with them and as a
  a dependable chamber. When Pro-          with the suspicion that something           warning to all of God's people.
  fessor Brunetti of Italy finally per-    must be wrong (sinful) in the prac-             There appears to be one case
  fected his model and displayed it        tice of cremation. Why was it prac-         where the burning of the bodies did
  at the 1873 Vienna Exposition, the       ticed by the heathen and pagan, but         not involve disrespect. That was the
  cremation movement started almost
  simultaneously on both sides of the      not by Christians? A Christian is one       burning of the bodies of Saul and
  Atlantic.                                who has the mind of Christ in him.          Jonathan. In this instance the men
    In the British Isles, the movement     The guide for his life is the Word of       of Jabesh-Gilead sought to protect
  was fostered by Queen Victoria's         God. Thus it is ultimately incumbent        the remains of Saul and Jonathan
  surgeon, Sir Henry Thompson.             on us to see what the Lord's will is        from further desecration by the Phi-
  Concerned with hazardous health          for us as recorded in the Scriptures.       listines. It should be noted also that
  conditions, Sir Henry and his col-           The Bible does not state specifi-       after the burning of the bodies the
  leagues founded the Cremation So-        cally in so many words that crema-          bones were then given a proper and
  ciety of England in 1874. The first      tion is wrong and burial is right. In       decent burial.
  crematories in Europe were built
  in 1878 in Woking, England and           this matter the Scriptures speak by             It would appear, then, that the
  Gotha,  Germany.                         example. Throughout the Scriptures,         burial of the living or the dead in
    Meanwhile in North America, al-        all things being equal, interment or        firewasreservedforthosewhowere
  though there had been two record-        burial was the norm. Most burials           especially immoral or irreligious.
  ed instances of cremation before         seem to have been in a family sepul-        This puts cremation in a very bad
  1800, the real start began in 1876       chre. We are well acquainted with           light.
  when Dr. Julius LeMoyne  built the       the cave ,of the field of Machpelah             However, when we cast a nega-
  first crematory in Washington,           where Abraham buried Sarah. Later           tive shadow upon something, it is
 Pennsylvania.
    In `1884 the second crematory          Abraham was buried there also, as           necessary that we also shed a little
  opened in Lancaster, Pennsylvania        were Isaac, Rebekah, Leah, and              positive light. One of our early
  and, as was true of many of  the.        Jacob (cf. Gen.  23:19;   25:9;   49:31;    church fathers, Augustine, says,
  early crematories, it was owned and      50:13). There were also individual          "The Gospel speaks with commen-
  operated by a cremation society.         graves, such as for Rebekah's nurse,        dation of those who were careful to
  Other forces behind early cremato-       Deborah (Gen. 35:8), and for Rachel         take down His body from the cross,
  ry openings were Protestant clergy       (Gen. 35:X9,20). Other types of burial      and wrap it lovingly in costly cere-
  who desired to reform burial prac-       include the cairn of Achan (Josh.           merits,  and see to its burial. These
  tices and the medical profession         7:26), the.cave of the five Canaanite       instances certainly do not prove that
  concerned with health conditions                                                     corpses have any feeling; but they
  around early cemeteries.                 kings (Josh.  10:27), the pit of
    Crematories soon sprang up in          Absalom (II Sam. 18:17),  and the pri-      show that God's providence extends
  Buffalo,-New  York, Pittsburgh, Cm-      vate sepulchers of the New Testa-           even to the bodies of the dead, and
  cinnati, Detroit and Los Angeles. By     ment. Joseph of Arimathaea had              that such pious offices are pleasing
 1900, there were already 20 crema-        hewn out in the rock such a tomb            to Him, as cherishing faith in the
 tories in operation, and by the time      wherein he and Nicodemus buried             resurrectior? (The City  of  God,
 that Dr. Hugo Erichsen founded the        the Lord `Jesus Christ (Malt.  27~60).      Chap. 13).
  Cremation Association of America         There are many more instances of                In that last clause we are point-
  in 1913, there were 52 crematories       burial, but we will limit ourselves         ed in the right direction. When the
  in North America and over 10,000         to the above as representative ex-          child of God lays to rest a loved one
 cremations took place in that year.
    In 1975, the name was changed          amples.                                     he does so with faith in the resur-
 to the Cremation Association of               As far as cremation is con-             rection. For the child of God the
 North America to be more indica-          cerned, the Scriptures give us no           grave is not the end. Even though
 tive of the membership composi-           record of any cremation as a viable         one knows that the body in the grave
  tion of the United States and Cana-      and proper alternative to burial.           is indeed dead, yet he looks upon it
 da. At the time, there were over          There are recorded instances of             as sleeping, awaiting the day when
 425 crematories and nearly 150,000        death by burning or the burning of          there will be that sound of the awak-
 cremations.                               bones. Harlots were to be burned            ening trumpet. Christ Himself used
    In 1994, there were 1,100 crema-                                                   this kind of language. With reference
 tories and 470,915 cremations.            by fire as fitting punishment and
                                           judgment upon their wicked life             to Lazarus Christ said to His disci-
    What is interesting in that his-       (Gen. 38:24; Lev. 21:9). Achan, the         ples, "Our friend Lazarus sleepeth;
torical account is that wherever           one who took of the accursed thing,         but I go, that I may awake him out
Christianity appeared, the practice        and his family were burned with fire        of sleep"  (John  11:ll). When He
of cremation for the most part             (Josh. 7:15), as were also the ungod-       came to the house  of Jairus, whose
                                           ly of II Samuel 23:7. These all were        daughter was dead, He said, "Give

                                                                                                 March 15,1996/Standard Bearer1277


place: for the maid is not dead, but           cerning the resurrection. In verses           we do so in the hope of the resur-
sleepeth" (Matt. 9:24). So we lay our          36-38 we read, "Thou fool, that               rection, when the body will be raised
loved ones in a cemetery, which lit-           which thou sowest  is not quickened,          in all its glory like unto that of Jesus
erally means Na resting place."                except it die: And that which thou            Christ our Lord. The heathen can see
    Yet more to the point is the anal-         sowest, thou sowest  not that body            only the wrath of God. That is why
ogy between the body put into the              that shall be, but bare grain, it may         their religion is based upon gro-
grave and the seed planted in the              chance of * wheat, or of .some other          tesque shapes and fire. Certainly, the
ground. When one plants a seed in              g-rain: But:God giveth it a body as it        child of God does no; want to emu-
the ground one does so with the ex-            ,hath.pleased  him, and to every seed         late pagan practices. With so .many
pectation that through the death of            his own body." Then a few verses              cremations about us we can become
the seed there comes forth a new               later he continues the picture, "So           insensitive to this. That, of course,
life, a new plant that bears fruit. Af-        also is the resurrection of the dead.         is Satan's aim.
ter the death and raising to life again        It is sown in corruption; it is raised                Let us, therefore, in the hope of
of Lazarus in John 11, Jesus in the            in incorruption: It is sown in                the glorious resurrection continue to
next chapter instructs His disciples           dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is       bury our loved ones as did the saints
with respect to His own death and              sown in weakness; it is raised in             of old. With the apostle Paul may
resurrection. He shows them that the           power: It is sown a natural body; it          we continue to confess, "Therefore,
only way that He will ultimately be            is raised a spiritual body" (w. 42-           we are buried with him by baptism
exalted is through the way of death.           W                                             into death: that like as Christ was
He says in verse 24, "Verily, verily,               With the above in mind it is the         raised up from the dead by the glo-
I say unto you, Except a corn of               practice here in New Zealand for the          ry of the Father, even so we also
wheat fall into. the ground and die,           minister to take a handful of dirt and        should walk in newness of life. For
it abideth alone: but if it die, it            sprinkle itlupon the coffin. Members          if we have been planted together in
bringeth forth much fruit."                    of the family are invited to do the           the likeness of his death, we shall be
    Later the apostle Paul in I                same. The,placing  of the body in the         also in the likeness of his resurrec-
Corinthians 15 echoes the words of             grave is like unto a seed planted;            tion" (Rom. 6:4,5). P
Christ as he gives us instruction con-                                                        ..-;:;c; y- .;I, .;I: ? I_(, ;":$;:-~.
                                                                                            .;, p j :. -_ _ . \
                                                                                                I                         ._  :. --  : I,:: _ _ :.
                                                                                                                   . .                   . .
A sovereign Protector I have,                                           Inspirer and Hearer of prayer,
    Unseen, yet for ever at hand:                                            Thou Shepherd and Guardian of Thine
Unchangeably faithful to save,                                          My all to Thy covenant care
    Almighty to rule and command!                                            I, sleeping and waking, resign.
He smiles, and my comforts abound;                                      If Thou art my shield and my sun,
    His grace as the dew shall descend;                                      The night is no darkness to me:
And walls of salvation surround                                         And fast as my moments roll on,
    The soul He delights to defend.                                          They bring me but nearer to Thee.

Rind Author and ground of my hope,                                      Thy ministering spirits descend,
    Thee, Thee, for my God I avow;                                           To watch while Thy saints are asleep;
My glad Ebenezer set up,                                                By day and by night they attend,
    And own Thou hast helped me till now.                                    The heirs of salvation to keep:
I muse on the years that are past,                                      Bright seraphs despatched from the throne,
    Wherein my defence Thou hast proved;                                     Repair to their stations assigned:
Nor wilt Thou relinquish at last                                        And angels elect are sent down
    A sinner so signally loved!                                              To guard the elect of mankind.
                                     Their .worship  no interval knows:
                                         Their fervor is still on the wing:
                                     And while they protect my repose,
                                         They chant to the praise of my Ring.
                                     I, too, at the season ordained,
                                         Their chorus for .ever will join
                                     And love and adore,. without end,
                                         Their faithful  Creator and mine.Augustus M. Toplady
278lStandard  Bearer/March l&1996


                                                        Chapter 5
             Paradise the First (cont.)
                                           __, `. .:- . . . . . . .",.; `7' .' i'.,:, ._. -: ,:I , _`: .._ __ ,. Y-' -,- ..`, -" . . ,
Forbidden under penalty of death            is to be feared that some such idea             speak, put on his good behavior.
    We must now note especially             is nevertheless in the minds of some            According to this theory, which is
that it was in connection with the          in connection with this expression,             also the presentation of the so-called
tree of knowledge of good and evil           even as it is frequently in the back-          covenant of works, if Adam obeyed,
that death, the universal tyrant, be-        ground when we speak of God try-               then after a longer or shorter period
gab to exercise its fearful reign over       ing Abraham, for example. The idea             he would be rewarded with eternal
mankind. For we read in Genesis             then is that God wanted to find out             life, but if before that period expired
2:16,1?: "And the LORD God com-             what was in Adam. But we must                   he would disobey, then the death
manded the man saying, Of every             remember that every such idea is de-            penalty would be involved. Also of
tree of the garden thou mayest free-        rogatory of God. God does not have              this the Bible does not breathe a
ly eat: But of the tree of the knowl-       to find out what is in the creature.            word, although some such concep-
edge of good and evil, thou shalt           God is God. Known unto God are                  tion is often improperly deduced
not eat of it.  For in the day that         all J3is works from the beginning of            from the prohibition to eat of the
thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely       the world. Not only does the Lord               tree and from the death penalty that
die."                                        our God know all things beforehand,            was threatened upon disobedience.
    Especially in connection with            as it were, but He eternally knows                     In the third place, we must not
that threatened death penalty, the           all His works with a divine, deter-            conceive of Adam in Paradise as
command not to eat of the tree of           minative, sovereign knowledge of                though he were morally neutral
knowledge of good and evil is some-         His own good pleasure. Adam's fall              when he came from the hand of his
times referred to as the probation-         was not an accident as far as God               Creator. In this sense also the com-
ary command.                                was concerned, and it certainly did             mand was not probationary. It was
    This expression, we may note            not take <the Lord God by surprise              not so that the tree and God's com-
immediately, is not found in Scrip-          and necessitate a change in plans on           mand confronted Adam with the
ture. It is a doctrinal term that is        His part. From that point of view,              possibility of starting from a moral-
used rather widely to describe the          it was lnie of Adam even as the                         .ly neutral position and going
nature of the command which God             Scriptures say' of the cross of
gave man concerning the forbidden                                                    The fall         either in the direction of obe-
                                            Christ in connection with
tree. It is intended to express in                                                   of Adam           dience or disobedience. For
                                            Herod and Pontius Pilate
some way that by means of the com-          and the people of Israel and         was necessa y          Adam was created positive-
mand not to eat of the tree `Adam           the Gentiles: Adam did                   to open            ly good, created after
                                                                                                         God's image. By nature,
was put on probation, that is, he was                                                the way
put to the test, put on trial.              ztii  canal  ~~t~f~~                 for the coming          ~~~~~$f~ ~~~o~~
    However, the expression "pro-           before to  .be done (Acts               of  Christ
bationary command" is not without           4:27,28).  The fall of Adam              and the             By nature he was,  nega-
its dangers. First of all, let us note      Was necessary to open the               salvation           tively speaking, able not to
that the term "probationary" cannot                                                of the elect,        sm*
                                            way for the coming of                                          It is in this light that we
mean that God had need of testing           Christ and the salvation of           according to
His own handiwork, in order to find         the elect, according to God's             God's.           must view the matter of
                                                                                                       God's command to Adam,
out what was in it and in order to          counsel.                                 counsel.         and also the attached threat.
find out whether it could stand. It              Nor, in the second place,                          And then we must remember,
                                            does the .term properly denote that             first of aIl, that God's sovereign de-
                                            Adam was put on probation some-                 tree does not alter Adam's moral
The late Homer Hoeksema was profes-         what in the sense that an earthly               freedom; nor does it cancel Adam's
sor of Dogmatics and Old Testtiment  in     judge puts a criminal on probation,             responsibility. On the contrary, the
the Protestant Reformed Semina y.           in.the sense that Adam was, so to               decree of God embraces Adam  ex-

                                                                                                      March 15,1996/StandardBeared279


actly  as a moral, rational, responsi-           The meaning of the threat at-           change. For God cannot change. He
ble creature. We may not be able to          tached to the commandment of God            cannot deny Himself. He cannot
comprehend fully the relationship            was exactly that in that case he            deny His own Word. That Word
between the two; but the fact we ac-         would die.                                  He maintains: man shall live by the
knowledge  - unless we would                     That implies, of course, also that      Word of God! When God maintains
change Adam's moral freedom and              Adam was mortal, not immortal.              that principle of His own law upon
responsibility into sovereignty, and         Again, this does not mean that              the creature who steps outside the
place man on the throne next to, or          Adam was created with death in              bounds of that law, the result is
rather, instead of God Almighty.             him, or that there actually was any         death. Or, to put-it  m-other  words,
        But, in the second place, this is    death in Paradise the First or in all       when God maintains His own holi-
not the question when we speak of            the creation as it was originally. The      ness over against that creature who
the probationary command. Then               contrary is true: Adam had life. But        is contrary to His holiness, the re-
we confront the question: what was           it does mean that Adam was capa-            sult is death.
the moral, spiritual purpose of that         ble of dying and becoming subject                  Notice that this threat is very
command? The answer is that by               to death. The life which he pos-            specific as to time: the day that thou
means of this commandment Adam,              sessed could be lost. Even as he            eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
with his positively good nature and          could fall from his original knowl-         Notice, too, that the threat is very
with his ability not to sin, was mor-        edge, righteousness, and holiness,               plain in its implications: thou shalt
ally placed before the choice of obe-        so he could and would by that                       surely die. This is exactly what
dience or disobedience, and thus was         very fall lose his life and be-                      would happen and what did
put to the test with respect to his          come subject to death.              NJETZ  God happen. Adam became  sub-
faithfulness to God.                             This is precisely the           maintains         ject to death; death began to
        In the third place, from that        meaning of this Word of             His own           reign over him and over the
same moral, spiritual point of view,         God: "For in the day that            hoZiness         entire race. We can make our
the purpose .of that commandment             thou eatest thereof thou           over against       neat distinctions between
was that Adam should reveal his              shah surely die."                  that creature      physical death and spiritual
love of and his obedience to the Lord            This word is simply the           who is          death and everlasting death.
his God antithetically, that is, with        negative side of that funda-         contra y         Then we can limit the con-
rejection of the evil. Morally he was        mental principle of man's life        to His          cept of physical death to the
confronted by the choice for or              to which we referred earlier.       holiness,         moment that we breathe our
against God's Word, and his calling          That principle was: man shall       the result       last. We can philosophize
was to prove the good and accept-            live by every Word that pro-         is death.       long enough that we convince
able and perfect will of God.                ceeds *from me mouth of *God.                       ourselves that Adam died the
        This brings to mind, however,        That was God's law for man's ex-                spiritual death, but not the physi-
another facet of Adam's nature,              istence. In harmony with that law           cal death. There are also those who
namely, that he was lapsible: he             of God, :man might enjoy that life          proceed a little farther and' try to
could fall. The moral freedom which          which is really life. In harmony with       explain God's threat as a mere pre-
Adam possessed was indeed free-              that law of his existence, man might        diction of what would happen if
dom. It was not neutrality. Adam             not only :have continued mere exist-        Adam ate of the tree of knowledge.
did not come into the world moral-           ence: he has that whether in life or        Death, according to this view, would
ly as a blank slate. He was in his           in death.. But he would enjoy life in       be the result of eating of the forbid-
very nature positively good. He was          the true, biblical sense of the word,       den tree, just as death is the result
able not to sin. But his freedom was         the life whose essence is the friend-       of eating poison. Moreover, they
not the highest degree of freedom.           ship and the favor of God.' That life       claim, God intervened with an anti-
It was such that he could lose it            he would enjoy in body and soul, in         dote for this poison, the antidote of
through an act of his own will. It           all his earthly existence, and in all      common grace; and thus this result
was not the same as the freedom              his experience, as long as he contin-       of death was prevented.
which the child of God possesses in          ued in the way of obedience. Man                   But let us notice, in the first
Christ Jesus. According to that free-        lives, truly lives, by the Word of          place, that this entire presentation
dom, which is ours by regeneration,          God.                                       makes a liar out of God. Either God
we are absolutely victorious over sin            The negative ex&ession of that         threatened death on the very day
and death: he that is born of God            same fundamental principle is in the       that Adam ate of the tree, and this
cannot sin. But Adam was so made             threat of death upon disobedience.         threat was carried out, or God
that he could fall from his freedom          For that principle is the expression       threatened death, but He was not
and lose it. It was possible for him         of the living will of God for His crea-    serious about it.
to say "No" to God and "Yes" to              ture, man. Should man step outside                 Notice, in the second place, that
Sin.                                         of that law of God, that law will not      involved here is a very shallow con-

2801StandardBearerlMarch I!!,1996


     @&ion of death, one which does not                    Death is the wages of sin. It is the                      also serves the purpose of God.
     merely distinguish various aspects                    result in the sense that man could                        That purpose of God was from eter-
     of death, but actually separates dif-                 not separate himself from God and                         nity the greater revelation of his own
     ferent kinds of death. But death is                   live. It is the judicatory result. It is                  glory in and through the higher,
     one. That death, the very opposite                    l%mishment.  It is the result not of                      heavenly glory of His people in
     of life, came upon Adam body and                      eating,`but of sin.  -It is the result                    Christ Jesus. For it was God's eter-
     soul, in his entire existence. In his                 because: God, the Holy One, for His                       nal purpose "That in the dispensa-
     physical existence the power of                       own Name's sake cannot live in cov-                       tion of the fullness of times he might
     death reigns over him, and leads him                  enant communion with him that                             gather together in.,one all things in
-    inevitably to the grave. In his spiri-                walks in darkness. He that will not                       Christ; both which are in heaven and
     tual and psychical existence the same                 live by the Word that proceeds from                       which are on earth" (Eph. 1:9-U).
     is true, so ,that-he  is by nature dead               the mouth of God must die; he must                        This purpose He would achieve
     in trespasses and sins. He is so dead                 become, the object of the wrath of                        along the deep way of sin and grace,
     that unless he is born again, born                    God. Adam would die because in                            death and resurrection.
     for the second time, he shall not see                 His righteous wrath God would in-                             Thys in Christ Jesus God main-
     life, but the wrath of God abideth                    flict the death sentence upon him                         tains His covenant, and He main-
     on him. Indeed, Adam continues to                     and recompense to him the wages                           tains it with all who are of Christ,       '
     exist, but he exists mider the reign                  of his own sin. If it had not been for                    all His elect people. Christ it is who
     of death. His life, his real life, the                the fact that with all his death Adam                     is the Friend-Servant of God par ex-
     essence of which is the friendship                    fell on Christ, he surely would have                      cellence. He comes to do the will of
     and-favor of God, he will lose, and                   been swallowed up of death imme-                          God, and to do it over against all
     lose that very day. In its stead the                  diately after he sinned.                                  the powers of darkness. He makes
     wrathof God will be his experience,                       Precisely at this point we must                       His people friends of God again, by
     body and soul, in all of his exist-                   be reminded again that God's coun-                        His atoning blood and through His
     ence; and, but for the grace of God                   sel was `back of all these things. As                     Spirit and irresistible grace. He per-
     in Christ Jesus, that wrath will lead                 we said before, there were no acci-                       fects His people until they shall sin
     him down to the outer darkness of                     dents in Paradise and in the Fall.                        nevermore. Hence, in the new eter-
     everlasting desolation.                               God is God, also when we speak of                         nal Paradise, there shall be the tree
          For we must remember that                        sin. From this viewpoint also we                          of life. But there shall be no more
     while it is true, in a sense, that death              can speak of God's purpose in plac-                       the tree of knowledge of good and
     is the result of sin, this is not to be               ing the, tree of the knowledge of                         evil. For in Christ Jesus all His own
     understood as `meaning that death                     good and evil on Adam's path. No,                         shall have attained to that higher
     is the natural, automatic result of                   God is not the author of Adam's sin.                      freedom according to which all pos-
     eating of the forbidden tree, as                      Yet, sin is not a sovereign power                         sibility of sin shaIl be done away for-
     though it were some  kind of poison.                  alongside our sovereign God. Sin                          ever.  Cl
                                                                                             ,,-  -
       Jl%fgi3m                  "1              *             ,           ,-:     ,-I.     jl.          -~     I       @&&g&M@

        The Calling -of :the Young Women to
                      Marry andito Bear Children .
                                                      I              .d                             .                                                      I
         We have several times used the                    anced emphasis in our preaching to                        widespread. One sees fewer and
     occasion of infant baptism in our                     give instruction regarding the call-                      fewer large families. Even though
     congregation to preach on the call-                   ing of young  men.                                        we live in an age of ease and luxury
     ing of young women. Probably all                         -There is urgent reason in our                         and great abundance, certainly in
     of our ministers have done this.                      day to preach on the above named                          comparison to bygone days, children
     Hopefully we give equal and bal-                      subject. The evil philosophy of fem-                      are considered to be a burden. The
                                                           inism is widespread in the church                         "perfect family" is supposed to be
                                                           at large. We need to guard against                        one with two children, hopefully a
     Rev. denHartog  is pastor of Hope Prot-               its insidious influences even in our                      boy and a girl. Having  more than
     e&ant Reformed Church in Redlands,                    own midst. The philosophy of fam-                         two children is considered beyond
     Calijiwnia.                                           ily planning and birth control is also                    the ability of many women to cope
                                                                                                                            March 15,1996IStandard Beared


with. People in general look down         ment is today considered  outra-            domain and province of the wom-
their noses at large families, won-       geous. Any public person that               an, in which no man. can compete with
dering whether .couples  who have         would dare to make it is tarred and         her. Its greatne?s and its importance
them  might somehow be.ignorant of        feathered  I in our day. A politician       should ever be held:up as woman's di-
birth control methods, a thing cer-       who would say such a thing would            m'nely intended sphere, in which all her
tainly inexcusable in our modern          be forced to resign from office by          womanly qualities and gifts find ji~ll
day.                                      the rabid feminists of. our land. Such      play and happiest gratification."' That
    Furthermore, the role of mother       a statement is hopelessly out of tune       is an excellent statement. It has bib-
in the home is greatly despised in        with our modem society. It is not           lical foundation. It is thoroughly cor-
our society. The career woman is          "politically correct." It is considered     rect and relevant for our times.
glamorized. She is the liberated          terribly demeaning to women. It is                  In the above quoted passage
woman. She is the one who has in-         a slur as serious as the racial epi-       Paul summarizes the role of women
sisted on her rights, which accord-       taphs that are so severely  con-           in three statements. I will therefore
ing to the spirit of our age all wom-     demned by modem society.                   that the younger women: 1) marry,
en must by all means do. She has              Godly women need to know that          2) bear children, and 3) guide the
made a name for herself. in the           the above statement is biblical.                    house. These three are of
world. On the other hand, the moth-       Paul does:not  speak as a male                       course all related, as I want
er `who stays home to give birth to       chauvinist when he gives this                         to point out. Before we do
and raise a family is an ignoramus.       instruction,  to Timothy to be      faigul,            that I must make two neces-
She is counted as a nothing. Her          taught in the church. Paul                             sary balancing statements.
                                                                            godly woman
life is boring. She is wasting her        knew what he was talking          who remains           The first is that it is not the
time. She has submitted herself to        about, even though he him-                              wiIl of God that all young
                                                                                single
some  form of evil bondage that           self was never married, be-        all her life,        women marry: The Lord
hopefully our world is now finally        cause he spoke. by inspira-         and serves           does not in His  provi-
ridding itself of.                        tion of God. But some                the Lord            dence give partners to all
    With all these ideas bombard-         would immediately say               with grace           young women in the
ing the Christian woman today she         that Paul was speaking             in her heart          church. For some this is a
needs to know very clearly what her       only to the age and culture         is pleasing          thing very difficult to ac-
calling is before the Lord. She needs     of his day. In his day             to the Lord          cept. We are deeply sym-
to be encouraged in our day. The          women were uneducated              and can do           pathetic to this. The single
godly woman who stays home to             and were considered to            great things         young women in the church
bear children and to sacrifice herself    have few talents. There was in the kingdom             however  must  never be
to raise them in the fear and admo-       no such thing as "career          of her Lord.         made to feel that if they do
nition of the Lord needs to be            women" in the days of the                             not marry, the purpose of
praised. She needs to be told over        apostle. But our .society  has                       their life is not fulfilled, they
and over of the great honor of her        "greatly improved" the role of                      have no important place in the
position and the great significance~      women, it is claimed. The mod-                   church. To give such an impres-
of her calling-in the church. "Favour     ern-day woman is better educated           sion is grievously to hurt the single
is deceitful, and beauty is vain; but     and much' more highly gifted. She          godly women in the church. I Cor-
a woman that feareth the Lord, she        has learned better things to do with       inthians 7 (another good passage to
shall be praised" (Prov. 31:30).          her life than stay at home and care        preach on in our day) has much to
    For all of these reasons we min-      for children.                              say about the virtues and advantag-
isters must often in our congrega-            Against all of this we boldly say      es of living a single Christian life.
tions preach on these subjects. Scrip-    that Paul speaks the Word of God.          The single Christian woman can de-
ture allows us to do this. There is       Godly women must take heed to it.          vote herself to the service of the Lord
no shortage of texts in the Bible to      Paul speaks of the will of God for         in the church in different ways than
base sermons on this subject.             young women in the church. Paul            a married woman who has the great
    I preached recently on the in-        outlines for godly women a most            responsibility of caring for her hus-
spired words of the apostle Paul in I     honorable and significant role. There      band and children. The faithful,
Timothy 594: "I will therefore that       are few occupations in the church          godly woman  who remains single
the younger women marry, bear             that can compare to the role that
children, guide the house, give none      Go-d has given to women. Lenski,
occasion to, the adversary to speak       in his commentary on this passage,         1 The Infetpretation of St. Paul's Epis-
reproachfully." One might summa-          makes this significant statement:          tles to the Colossians, to the
                                                                                     Thessalonians, to Timothy, to Titus,
rize the teaching of this Word of God     "To rule the house means as wife           and to Phi@non,  by R.D.H. Lenski,
with the statement: "A woman's            and mother in the home, to manage          Augsburg Publishing House, Minneap-
place is in the home." That state-        the household affairs. This is the         olis, MN, 1961, page 676.
262IStandard Bearer/March 15,1996


all her life, and serves the Lord with    (see Rom. 7). But when God takes a         practice the abominable "live-in ar-
grace in her heart is pleasing to the     partner out of life the marriage bond      rangement" with a man that is com-
Lord and can do great things in the       is severed by God Himself, and the         mon in our day, so that if she hap-
kingdom of her Lord.                      man or woman who remains on                pens not to like a man she has slept
  The second balancing statement          earth is free to marry another.            with for a time they can split and
that must be made is that God does                 The younger widows are by Paul    each look for someone else and make
not give children to-every marriage.      even encouraged to marry if they so        another try. Such live-in arrange-
This too is in the providence of the      desire. They are to do that, howev-        ments are a very great evil, and
Lord. The childless married wom-          er, only in the Lord, only if the Lord     God's wrath is upon them. Those
an must by the grace of God also          brings into their lives a godly man.       who live in such a manner are liv-
accept this. This too may be very         It is better not to marry than to mar-     ing in continual fornication and re-
difficult for some to accept. This        ry an angodly  man or anyone with          fusing to take the responsibility and
difficulty must be deeply sympa-          whom you cannot be one in the faith.       calling of marriage seriously. God
thized with. For some this burden         A young widow must not let the             will judge them for this, both in this
involves lifelong pain and anguish.       great sorrow of losing her husband         life and in the life to come. God's
Godly women in such a situation in        drive her to marry any man that            Word exhorts the young woman to
life must be encouraged that this too     might come along and promise to            marry, not only for selfish pleasure
is of the Lord. They also must be         fill the voidin her life. An ungodly       and gratification, but to serve the
told over and over again that God         man will be a lifelong hindrance to        Lord in marriage. She is encour-
has a significant place in His church     serving the Lord and the source of         aged to "make a career" out of be-
for the childless woman. These too        great grief and sorrow over the years      ing a godly wife and mother.
must serve the Lord joyfully and          of married life. Though the instruc-           Marriage, lifelong, faithful mar-
thankfully and with self-sacrifice.       tion in Timothy is directed to yormg       riage, is the necessary, stable, and
History, including Bible history,         widows,' it also very obviously ap-        protective sphere for the nurture of
records the lives of great heroines       plies to all young women in the            covenant children. We said above
of faith who never had children of        church.                                    that the three exhortations of Paul
their own to care for. We are thank-               It is good that the young wom-    in I Timothy 5:14 go hand in hand.
ful to God even today for the out-        en marry. It is still necessary in our     They are beautifully related. The
standing examples of godly women          day to condemn the evil promoted           young woman is exhorted to marry,
in our churches to whom God did           in the Roman Catholic Church. I            to bear children, and to guide the
not give children and who devote          refer  to: the evil of encouraging         house. There are plenty of women
themselves entirely to the service of     young men and young women to be-           today who might go along with the
the Lord in His church. It would be       come monks and mms and requir-             first but who despise the second and
easy to  make a list of these that        ing all, these to make a vow of life-      third exhortations of this passage of
many of us know very well. Some           long celibacy. This is contrary to         God's Word. There are couples who
are known-over the whole denomi-          nature and contrary to the purpose         even before marriage vow that they
nation because of the place they have     of God. I Timothy 594 is a strong          will not have children. Children, in
in the kingdom of the Lord and be-        statement against this practice. Paul      their opinion, are too much of a bur-
cause of their faithfulness.              in I Timothy 3 says that forbidding        den. Children limit especially the
    Some would object that in I Tim-      to marry is a "doctrine of devils."        freedom of `a woman to go out and
othy 5 Paul is speaking of young          The Roman Catholic Church is re-           get her own career. The feminist
widows. This is true. Apparently          sponsible for the floods of evil that      movement has militantly spread the
there were a number of yormg wid-         have flowed from this doctrine of          philosophy that the only way wom-
ows in the church, maybe because          devils in her midst over the centu-        en can be truly free is to be liberat-
so many young men had died in             ries.                                      ed from the bondage of having to
wars. Paul does not allow these               Marriage prepares the young            bear children in marriage and from
young women to be inducted into           woman for a very significant role in       the responsibility of having to care
the special order of widows that ap-      the church. The young woman is             for and raise children.
parently existed in the church that       full of life and energy. She has               The big push for liberalized
Timothy was pastoring. The young          strong sexual desires. Even these          abortion laws is exactly this philos-
widows should be refused. Paul            sexual desires are God-given and in        ophy. A woman must have the right
gives the reason for this in the pre-     themselves good. The young wom-            to terminate any pregnancy that she
ceding verses. The young widows           an must .use this God-given energy         does not want. She must have the
should instead be told to marry and       not in a scandalous life of fomica-        right even to kill her own unborn
bear children. The woman who di-          tion that ;is so common in our wick-       child if this child is in any way go-
vorces her husband and marries an-        ed world but in holiness in the            ing to stand in the way of the wom-
other shall be called an adulteress       sphere of marriage. She must not           an's freely pursuing her own proud,

                                                                                            March 15,1996/StandardBeareti263


selfish goals in life. Young godly           couple any children, and they do the              W.G. devries, in his excellent book:
women in the church-world must be            above, they have fulfilled the God-               Marriage in Honor, makes this state-
constantly reminded of what mon-             ordained, purpose of their marriage.              ment about the philosophy we are
sters of iniquity the advocates of this      But this does not deny that having                discussing: "A married couple that
@ilosophy really are. Recently there         children is still one of the main pur-            decides not to have children has
has been much discussion about so-           poses of marriage. This is obvious,               murdered its marriage from the be-
called partial-birth abortions, a pro-       is it not? Of course it is! God made              ginning. Such a marriage  comes to
cedure, we understand, that involves         it that way.                                      a sterile standstill; it perishes from
surgical removal of the brain of an                 Furthermore, God has won-                  egotism."2 How true this statement
unborn child in its mother's womb            drously joined together the act of                is!
and murdering it in this way. Can            marriage, and the bringing forth of                      For young women the calling to
anyone imagine something more evil           children. The act of marriage in-                 have children is followed by the re-
than that!? I cannot.                        volves the.most intimate expression               sponsibility to "guide the house."
     While others might not go as far        of love and devotion of a couple to               Even if the first and second exhorta-
as this great evil, they nevertheless        each other. The fruit of this inti-               tion are acceptable to some couples,
do not want to have children. It is          mate expression of love is children.              many want nothing to do with the
considered too much of a bother. It          In the act of marriage a husband and              third exhortation to "guide the
requires too much sacrifice. It in-          wife give themselves selflessly to                house." The woman of the world
volves too great a limitation of the         each other. God Himself has joined                must by all means and at all costs
freedom of a couple. to pursue self-         to this the; wonderful fruit of the gen-          have the freedom to pursue her in-
ish ambition. But according to God's         eration of children. This is a beauti-            dependent worldly career. There-
Word the. bearing of children is one         ful thing; The husband and wife                   fore there is so much militancy in
of the great purposes of marriage.           who give themselves to each other                 our time for "good day-care cen-
When this statement is made it is            in such a manner joyfully look for                ters." But can such day-care centers
often countered with a vehement de-          and pray ,that their love for one an-             raise our covenant children? The
fense by those who do not want to            other will bring forth the fruit of chil-         answer to that question ought to be
have children in their marriage, that        dren in the image and likeness of                 obvious to every true, godly, Re-
having children is not the only pur-         both of them. Bringing forth chil-                formed, believing woman and her
pose of marriage. This is a  half-           dren also' involves sacrificial love.             husband.
truth. Yes, it is true that having chil-     To have children one must prepare                        I have.decided  to expand some-
dren in marriage is not the only pur-        for tremendous self-sacrifice.                    what on these subjects, beyond what
pose of marriage. In fact, it can even              But is. this not the great calling         I did in my sermon in church. There-
be said that having children is not          of the whole Christian life, to sacri-            fore we will continue in our next
the first purpose of marriage. The           fice yourself, not to seek your own               Standurd  Bearer article, D.V. Cl
first purpose of marriage is that a          selfish ambition? Do we realize how
man and woman live in love and               totally antithetical the philosophy of
companionship with each other, each          the world, is to the requirements of              2 Marriage in Honor, by W.G. devries,
assisting the other in the service of        God in every area of life, also in the            Paidea  Press, St. Catherines, ON, Cana-
the Lord. If God does not give a             area of our calling in marriage?                  da, 1980. page 180.



 -.-                             ..,_.      -.         `
                                                            ...`
                                                               ,.::             .;n;:;--,,:
                                              _-                                 ,I      .-
                           -.                                              -
                                                      ?             i,'

                                             terpretation," some of which we                   not yet read one volume which is
The Art of Biblical History, by V.           have previously reviewed. The  se-                faithful to the historic and confes-
Philips Long. Grand Rapids, MI:              ries is edited by Moises Silva, pro-              sional truth of the inspiration and
Zondervan Publishing House, 1994.            fessor of New Testament in                        authority of Scripture. This volume
247 pp. (paper). [Reviewed by Prof.          Westminster East. The author of this              too is quite clear evidence that these
H. Hanko.]                                   volume is associate professor of Old              great truths have been abandoned
                                             Testament at Covenant Theological                 by most of the seminaries in our
    This volume is Volume 5 in a             Seminary.                                         country.
series of  seven  books on biblical                 This is the fourth volume in this                 This book is a bad book.
hermeneutics with the general title,         seven-volume series which I have                         It is true that there are passing
"Foundations of Contemporary Jn-             read; and it grieves me that I have               references to inspiration; and the au-

284lStandard  Bearer/March 15,1996


thor makes it clear from time to time                gumentation if one loses sight of the        stand that I was quite at a loss to
that he wants to be included with                    main  question. Once again, the              follow him.
those who hold to Scripture as the                   question which has to be faced is:               One can, following Long's the-
Word of God. One can find such                       When Scripture narrates history, did         sis, say that history is never merely
references on pages 28, 29, 57, 75,                  events take place exactly as Scrip-          history (p. 68); that faithfulness to
for example. But they are, so to                     ture says ,they did? The believer in         the facts allows for freedom in deal-
speak, a mere tipping of the hat to                  Scripture says Yes! Dr. Long says            ing with the facts (p. 70) [One can
the historic faith and, I am con-                    No! The believer says, as Spurgeon           imagine what would happen in a
vinced, a dubious and not very sue;                  did: "If the Bible said Jonah swal-          court of law if a witness tried that!];
cessful effort to leave the impression               lowed a whale, I would believe it."          that the historicity of a passage de-
with the readership that the author                  Dr. Long says, Nonsense!                     pends on its own truth claim, some-
is ortho'dox. But it is deceptive.                       -How does Dr. Long go about              thing not always so easy to deter-
             The author is dealing with the          what amounts to a flat denial of the         mine (pp. 95ff.); that archeological
history of,the Bible and confronts in                historicity' of biblical narrative?          evidence may cast doubt to some ex-
over 200 pages the question: Is the                       It is a long and tedious process        tent on the historicity of Scripture
Bible, in itshistorical narratives, his-             and take.sover  200 pages - not one          (p. 117); and that the mere fact that
tory?                                                single page of which will be of any          a story is realistic does not guaran-
             Now one does not need 200 pag-          help to an anxious child of God who          tee its historicity (p. 179). The tests
`es for that. The question can be an-                wants help in interpreting Scripture.        one must apply to determine the his-
swered, one would think, with a                      It is a fundamental sellout to higher        toricity  of a  passage are so many, so
simple Yes or No. But the book does                  criticism  and higher critical methods.      elaborate, so complicated that no one
not answer the:question  with a sim-                 It is a subtle attack on the truth           unskilled in higher criticism could
ple Yes or No, but rather with a Yes                 which requires a more detailed ref-          possibly apply them. And let it be
and No. And that takes 209 pages!                    utation than can be given in one book        understood: This leaves the ordi-
             Not only does it take 200 pages,        review.                                      nary child of God without any way
but it takes 200 pages of some ex-                        But the author gives himself            of determining whether biblical his-
tremely obscure writing which re-                    away in the title of the book: "The          tory is truly history or not. It takes
quires advanced degrees to under-                    Art of Biblical History."                    very little imagination to see what
stand. One would think that a pro-                        By speaking of "the art" of bib-        this does to his faith when his whole
fessor who claims to be orthodox in                  lical history, the author means to say       faith rests squarely on the historici-
his view of Scripture and who would                  that the historical narratives of Scrip-     ty of Scripture!
want to train men to teach God's                     ture can be compared with a paint-               The author applies all this to a
people to interpret and study Scrip-                 ing. A man may `paint a picture of           few specific historical narratives in
ture would be able to write clearly                  the Grand Canyon of the Colorado.            Scripture. One example will show
and simply. But instead one gets a                   If one would ask: "Is the painting           us what happens. Talking about the
paragraph like the following as im-                  true to the reality?" the answer             way in which Saul became king over
portant for understanding whether                    would be, "Yes and No." It depicts           Israel the author says: "One may
`the Bible is history.                               the Grand Canyon all right, but you          affirm the total trustworthiness of
                                                     must understand that the artist              the Bible and'still hold only a quali-
             At this stage the interpreter is        could not reproduce it  exactZy; and         fied assurance that Saul became king
  sharpening the question  of. the                   the artist retains his artistic rights to    [as the Bible says-he did]."
  text's  truth  claim. The genre  de-               include in his painting interprefution.          This kind of double-talk indeed
  scriptor, historiography, already                  So biblical history is historical all        has to take 200 pages to be made
  i m p l i e s   a      basic    c l a i m   t o    right, but ithings did not necessarily       sensible. Butlet it be clearly under-
  referentiality; the added nuance is
  to ask after the level of detail and               happen the way ,the Bible says they          stood: The Bible is destroyed in that
  precision intended. What kind of                   did. After all, writing history can          kind of argumentation, and God's
  likeness of reality is the narrator at-            never be true to history anyway (pp.         people have nothing left as the
  tempting to create? When once  a                   68ff.).                                      ground of their faith.
  decision on this matter is reached,                     Having committed himself to                 Let it be affirmed one more time.
  the interpreter is faced with a sec-               that position, the author finds him-         The question is: Did events happen
  ond question, How capable is the                   self in some strange waters.                 just exactly as Scripture says they
  narrator of achieving his intention?                    The historical narratives of Scrip-     did? To this the believer says: Yes!
  . . . .                                            ture are said by the author to be$c-         A thousand times, Yes! My salva-
        And so on, and on, and on...,                tion, although it must be added that         tion depends upon it! And he says
        One can easily get tangled in all            he seems to define fiction as artistic       this in spite of all the "learned" ef-
kinds of spurious and deceptive ar-                  writing of history (pp. 62ff.). How          forts to destroy that faith. n
                                                     he does this is so difficult to under-

                                                                                                         March 15,19961Standard  Bearer/285


Faith Alone: The Evangelical Doc-            The Reformers certainly did not            ed in Presbyterianism ought to read
trine of Justifi'cation, by R. C. Sproul.    think so. Apparently the framers           it.
Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1995              and signers of ECT think othenuise....            Several speeches were  .made
pp. 221. $15.99. (hardcover). [Re-           It seems clear that ECT assumes that       which dealt with the history preced-
viewed by Prof. Robert D. Decker.]           Rome is a truechurch and that what-        ing the Assembly, the reasons for
                                             ever doctrinal differences divide her      which it was called, and the work
     Recently a group of leading             from Evangelicalism,  though they          of the Assembly itself. Some very
evangelicals (Charles Colson, James          may be serious, they are not essen-        interesting and important aspects of
I. Packer, et. al.) collaborated with a.     tial to true Christianity or .to per-      this history are brought to light.
group of Roman Catholic theologians          sonal salvation" (p. 30).                         We are told that the absence of
to produce a document called                     The conclusion must be there is        the delegates for long periods of
"Evangel&&  and Catholics Togeth-            no doctrinal basis for cooperation         time (the Assembly met for five
er" (ECT).  The purpose of this ven-         between Rome and evangelicals.             years and  some  delegates were
ture is to articulate a common basis             The book is well documented            present for the entire period) left the
upon which Roman Catholics and               and contains an extensive bibliogra-       churches vulnerable to sectarian in-
Evangelicals can cooperate together          phy. The book's value and useful-          fluences. The assembly. was under
in combatting certain evils manifest         ness are enhanced by three indices:        the complete control of Parliament
in American culture. Among these             a General Index, an Index of Per-          and thus was implicitly Erastian in
evils are abortion, homosexuality,           sons, and an Index of Scripture. It        its constitution; all the more reason
euthanasia, etc.                             also includes a nice, brief summary        why it was significant that a firm
    This book provides .a critique of        of the history of the sixteenth centu-     presbyterian-form of church  govem-
the ECT document and the move-               ry Reformation and its key figures.        ment emerged. Various parties were
ment it represents. In Faith Alone               All who wish to say with Mar-          represented at the Assembly, and of-
Sproul argues convincingly that              tin Luther over against Rome's fun-        ten times difficult and divisive mat-
Rome has not changed one whit                damental errors concerning Scrip-          ters were postponed as together the
since the 16th century Reformation.          ture- and justification, "Here I stand,    men worked at a consensus on these
Putting aside such serious depar-            I can do no other, God help me,"           questions.
tures as Rome's mariolatry, the Mass         will want to read this book. n                    The book is thorough. Analyses
and transubstantiation, papal infal-                                                    of the Westminster Confession, the
libility, and more, Rome with its            To Glorify and Enjoy God: A Com-           Shorter and Longer Catechism, the
false doctrines of the church and in-        memoration  of  the Westminster As-        Directory of Public Worship, and the
fused righteousness denies both the          semb2y. Ed. John L. Carson and Dav-        Form of Church Government are all
formal principle of the Reformation          id W. Hall. Edinburgh: Banner of           discussed and analyzed.
(SoZa Scripturu,  Scripture is the only      Truth, 1994. pp. xiv-338. $32.95 (pa-             A particularly excellent chapter
authority for the faith and life of the      per). [Reviewed by Prof. Herman            on the debate in the Assembly over
Christian) and the material princi-          Hanko.]                                    presbyterian church government is
ple of the Reformation (Sola Fide, Jus-                                                 included, and one can learn much
tification is by grace alone                     The Westminster Confessions of         concerning the unique character of
through faith alone). Sproul points          1643  have given theological, church       Westminster church polity by read-
out that these errors do not lie on          political,, and liturgical form to         ing it.
the periphery, but are radical depar-        Presbyterianism throughout the                    A helpful chapter on the Direc-
tures from the truth of the Word of          world. In 1993, in commemoration           tory of Public Worship gives much
God. By maintaining these errors             of the 350th anniversary of the be-        insight into the regulative principle
Rome denied the Gospel itself and            ginning of the Westminster Assem-          of worship as interpreted by the
was regarded, therefore, by the Re-          bly, a number of noted Presbyterian        Westminster divines.
formers as a false church. Rome              thinkers gathered in Westminster                  A delightful quote from Bishop
ought,to be regarded by evangel&&            Abbey in London. The speeches              Ussher .(himself  not present -at the
today as a false church. Sproul con-         which were delivered at that meet-         Assembly) is worth quoting. "Why
tends, and rightly so, that, "The            ing have been incorporated in book         [ought Catechetical instruction be
question in the sixteenth century re-        form under a title which is taken          given] at home? Because houses are
mains in dispute. Is justification by        from  the first question and answer        the Nurseries of the Church."
faith alone a necessary and essential        of the Shorter Catechism.                         That these speeches have been
element of the gospel? Must a                    Although many books have               made available in book form is rea-
church confess soZu$& in order -to           been written about the Assembly            son for gratitude. One cannot read
be a true church? Or can a church            and its work, this present book            the book without a sense of appreci-
reject or condemn justification by           makes a noteworthy contribution to         ation for the work of these notable
faith alone and still be a true church?      the literature. All who are interest-      men.  Cl

286lStandard  Bearer/March 15,1996


                                                                                   :  -,
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                                                                                                       (            ggjg@$@  @g&i&
            .               ;,     I     .-
                                               gation busy with some improve-             people and young adults, along with
Mission Activities                             ments to their church property.            their friends from the neighboring
       Rev. B. Gritters, representing our      They approved plans back in De-              PR congregations of Doon, IA and
Hudsonville, MI PRC, the calling               cember to complete repair to their         Edgerton, MN, to an evening of fun
church for our denomination's mis-             church basement by adding a hand-            and fellowship on February 2 at the
sion work in Northern Ireland, along           icapped restroom and a new boiler.           Rouwenhort Center in Orange City,
with Mr. Tom Bodbyl, representing                                                           IA. The young people were to be
the Domestic Mission Committee of              Young Adult Activities                       locked in at the Center from 1O:OO
our churches, returned home safely                 The Post-High Young Adults of            P.M.  until   3:OO   A.M.  the next  mom-
from their visit to Northern Ireland           our PR churches in West Michigan             ing.
on -February 12 after a 12-day ab-             met together on January 28 at the                            On Sunday afternoon, February
sence. T,hey believe their trip was a          Faith-PRC in Jenison,  MI to discuss         18, the young people of our West
profitable one, and they report that           the topic, "Visiting the Sick and the        Michigan churches met together for
our ,missionary, Rev. R. Hanko, and            Elderly."                                    a combined mass meeting hosted by
his family, are doing well. They also                                                       the Young People's Society of the
reported that the Covenant Re-                 Minister Activities                          Southeast PRC in Grand Rapids, MI.
formed Fellowship is growing both                  The congregation of the Grace            The Young people heard Mr. Rich-
numerically and in spiritual maturi-           PRC in Standale, MI extended a call          ard Smit, a student in our churches'
ty. The members of the Fellowship              to Rev. M. Dick to serve as their first      seminary and a member at South-
look forward eagerly to Synod's                pastor. Rev. Dick is presently serv-         east, speak on the story of Gideon,
treatment, this summer, of their re-           ing our churches -as pastor of the           as found in Judges 7. Mr.  &it's
quest to be organized into a church.           Immanuel PRC in Lacombe, Alberta,            message for the young people dealt
       The Consistory of the Edgerton,         Canada.                                      with how Gideon was tested, how
MN PRC approved a request from                                                              he was strengthened, and how he
our churches' Foreign Mission Com-             Young People's Activities                    was victorious. Also, the program
mittee that would release their pas-               The 1996 Young People's Con-             included a piano and flute duet by
tor, Rev. A. Brummel, for a possible           vention is now only about four               Alissa Ophoff and Amanda Hekstra.
two-week trip to the Philippines this          months away. A lot of work has yet
summer.                                        to be done by the host societies. And        Food-For zloqght
                                               a lot of money has yet to be raised.                         "Discipleship is not dynamic un-
Congregational Activities                      Just how much is staggering. In a            til it is willing to be despised by the
       Edgerton's Consistory approved          recent convention-news up-date               world. Furthermore, discipleship is
plans for the printing and mailing             from the' South Holland, IL PRC, it          not dynamic until it is despised by
of a tri-fold pamphlet which will              was reported that this year's conven-        the world. And the converse is
serve to introduce their church to             tion will cost right around                  equally true. Discipleship is no; de-
residents of the area.                         $93,000.0b.  A quick look at the `96         spised by the world until it is dy-
       In a recent bulletin from the           convention budget shows that hous-           namic."  c1
Bethel PRC in Itasca, IL we learn that         -mg is the largest item; followed by
their Building Committee has been              activities: and transportation.              ,                                                     `
                                                                                            1:  ,'  :s!!gg~~@*&@,   1
eagerly working on plans for a                     This report also shows that the                -                                         :
building of their own, on their own                                                         1               -.                                    I
                                               two  ma& areas  of income will be
church property. They hope to be               registration and fundraising. Obvi-                                       NOTICE!!
able to submit a concept for a build-          ously the Young People's Societies                            All standing and special commit-
ing, with costs and other details; to          of our churches need our support.                 tees of Synod, as well as individu-
their council and congregation short-          So when you get an opportunity to                 als who wish to address Synod
lY*                                            join them-for a pancake breakfast or              1996, are hereby notified that all ma-
       These past winter months have           a dinner of sloppy joes and hot dogs              terial for the 1996 Synod of the Prot-
also seen our Loveland, CO congre-             or a car wash-or sub sale, please con-            estant Reformed Churches should
                                               sider helping these young people,                 be in the hands of the Stated Clerk
                                               out. Ourconventions are expensive,                no later than April 1. Please send
                                               and they will continue to be - but                material to the Stated Clerk:
Mr. Wigger is a member qf the Profes-          they are worth every penny.                                          Mr. Don Doezema
tunt Reformed Church of Hudsonville,               The Young People's Society of                                    4949 lvanrest Ave.
i&higun.-                                      the Hull, IA PRC invited the young                                  Grandville, Ml 49418
                                                                                                                  March 15,1996/Standard Bearer1267


     si3ANDm
            B@#g&.Jgq                                                                                                               SEiZOND  CLASS
                                                                                                                                    Postage Paid at
                                                                                                                                    Grandville, Michigan
           P. 0. Box 603
           Grandvile, MI 49468-0603
     L                                  .                              .              .I  1                                                                    J
            iVEDDlNG ANNIVERSARY                            RESOLPTION OF SYMPATHY
            On March 16, 1996 our parents                    The CounciJ.of  the First Protes-                 WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
     and grandparents,                                    tant Reformed Church of Grand                        On March 9, 1996 our parents
          MR. and MRS. WILLIAM BU'ITER,                   Rapids expresses its heartfelt sym-            and grandparents,
.    will celebrate their 40th wedding an-'               pathy to its fellow officebearer Mr.             MR. and MRS. VIRGIL WARNER,
     niversary. We are thankful to our                    Kenneth Doezema, in the death of               celebrated their 50th wedding anni-
     covenant God for God-fearing par-                    his mother,                                    versary.
     ents who taught us in His way. May                   MRS. MARTI? (TENA) POEZEMA.                          We thank our heavenly Father
     God continue to bless and keep                           "Happy is he that hath the God             for both of them, for their Christian
     them in His care.                                    of Jacob for his help, whose hope is            upbringing, and-their godly example.
            "But the mercy of the Lord is                 in the Lord his God" (Psalm 1465).              May God continue to be with them.
     from everlasting to everlasting upon                  -Rev. James Slopsema, President                     "For the Lord is good; his truth
     them that fear him, and his righ-                               Drf Ronald VanPutten,  Clerk        endureth to all generations" (Psalm                        -
     teousness unto children's children"                                                                  100:5).
     (Psalm 103:17).                                        RESOLiJTlON OF SYMPATHY                      @ Rev. Steve and Ginny Steenstra
     * Jim and  Laurie.Jabaay                                 The consistory and congregation                    Philip, Joel, Rebecca, and
               David, Michael, Matthew,                   of the Randolph Protestant Re-                                                              Paula
                                              -Katie      formed Ctiurch'express their Chris-            @ Paul and Bev Neerhof
     * William Buiter                                     tian sympathy to James Fisher and                      Carissa, Julie, and Michael
     Q      Bob and Kris Buiter                           Jeanne (G;ary) Buteyn and family in             @ Jack-and Kim Warner
              Thomas, Michael; Molly                      the death of their mother and grand-                   Chad, Kevin, Justin, Jayna,
     *      Dave and Joan Hanko                           mother,                                                                               and Kara
              Andrew, Kurt, Travis                                    GRACE FISHER.                      @     Barry and Mary Warner
     Ogr Wayne and Michelle Buiter                           "Precious in the sight of the LORD                  Kristin, Rachel, David, Lauren,
               Brian, Rachel                              is the death of his saints" (Psalm                                                    and Kelly
     8 Chuck and Heidi Doezema                            116:15).                                                                       South Holland. Illinois
               Rose, Sara, Nathan                                     Rev. Steven Key, President
     @ Rachel Buiter                                                        Benqn Huizenga, Clerk
                                    Randolph, Wiskmsin



                                                                                                          when I Suruey,  a profound ex-
                                                                                                     planation of the various aspects of
           RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY,                                                                   Christ's suffering and death,& good
            The Council of Hope PRC                                                                  devotional reading for the Lenten
     (Walker, Ml) expresses its sincere                                                              Season. This 53%page,  hard-cover
     Christian sympathy to its fellow                                                                book compels the reader to see his
     officebearer Vernon Klamer and his                                                              own worthlessness and the absolute
     family, in the death-of his mother,                                                          necessity of Christ's cross for  his
                  MINNIE KLAMER.                                                                     own salvation, and to seek refuge in
           May they find comfort in the                                                              the shadow of the cross.
     words of II Corinthians 5:1, -"For we                                                               Order from:
     know'that if our earthly house of this,                                                                            R.F.P.A.
     tabernacte were dissolved, we have                                                                              4949 Ivanrest
     a building of God, an house not                                                                          Grandville, MI 49418
     made with hands, eternal in the                                                                          Phone: (616) 531-1490
     heavens."                                                                                                 Fax: (616) 531-3033
             Rev. Russell Dykstra, President                                                         Regular Price: $12.95          Sde Price: $9.95
                            Harry Langerak, Clerk                                                                    (includes  shipping  &  haMing)


     288lStandard Bearer /March 15,1996


