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                                                                 See "The Manifestation of Jesus to Mary" - p. 291

vol.                                                                                   Ia                                             I
Avrill,   1    9    9    6
  I     I


                                                                                                                                                                                                                                I


CONTENTS:                                                                                                                                                             April I, 7996.

Meditation - Herman Hoeksema                                                                                                                                                                                       .  1
       The Manifestation of Jestis to Mary . . . . . . . :; . . . . . . .._................_..........  I.. 291
Editorial - Prof. David J. Engelsma                                                                                                                                                                                                  lSSNO362-4692
       A Defense of (Reformed) Amillennialism
               4. Matthew 24 (Again) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . i.;... . . .. . . . . . ..*........................*... 294'                                                                                                  Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July, and August.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     Published by the Reformed Free Publishing Association, Inc..
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News From Seminary Hill . . . . . .._...................................................................  gil                                                                                                                        Postage Paid at Grandville, Michigan.
All Around Us - Rev. Gise J. VanBaren . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .                                                                                          Postmaster: Send address changes to the Standard Bearer,
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     P.O. Box 603. Grandville, Ml  4946Bo603.
Ministering to the Skints -Prof. Robert D. Decker                                                                                                                                                                                    EDITORJAL COMMtlTEE
       The C;ifts Necessary for the Office of-Elder . . . . .._............................  300                                                                                                                                     Editor: Prof. David J. Engelsma
A Cloud of Witnesses - Prof. Herman ,C. -Hank0                                                                                                                                                                                       Secretary: Prof. Robert D. Decker
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     Managing Editor. Mr. Don Doezema
       William Ames: Puritan in the Netherlands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  ,302
Contending for the Faith - Rev. Bernard Woudenberg                                                                                                                                                                                   DEPARTMENT EDITORS
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     Rev. Wilbur  Btuinsma, Rev. Ronald Cammenga, Prof. Robert
       To Keep the Record Straight (1) ..!................................,..................  304                                                                                                                                   Decker, Rev. Aria  denHartog, Rev. Carl  Haak, Prof. Herman
In His Fear - Rev. Aiie denHartog                                                                                                                                                                                                    Hanko, Rev. Ronald Hanko, Rev. Jason  Kortering, Rev. Dale
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     Kuiper, Mr. James  Laming, Mrs.  MarySeth  Lubbers, Rev.
       The Calling of the Young Women to Marry                                                                                                                                                                                       Thomas Miersma, Rev. Gise  VanBaren, Rev. Ronald
               and to Bear Children (2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306                                                                VanOverloop,Mr.6enjaminWigger,Rev.BemardWoudenberg.
Day of Shadows - Homer C. Hoeksema                                                                                                                                                                                                   EDITORIAL OFFICE             CHURCH NEWS EDITOR
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     The Standard Bearer          Mr. Ben Wigger
       The Fall of Our First Parents . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309                                                                      4949  lvanrest               6597 40th Ave.
News From Our Churches                                                                                                                                                                                                               Grandville. Ml 49416         Hudsonville.  Ml 49426
                                                                    - Mr. Benjamin. Wigger. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .311
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pliance with the rule of Article 67 of the Church Order of Dordt.                                                                                                                                                                                                 Northern Ireland
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     EDITORIAL POLICY
        In keeping with this observance, we publish the sermon by Herman                                                                                                                                                             Every editor is solely responsible for the contents of his own
Hoeksema on John 20:11-X3, "The Manifestation of Jesus to Mary," as the                                                                                                                                                              articles. Conbibutionsofgenerl  interestfromourreadersand
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     questions for The Reader Asks department are welcome.
meditation in this issue.                                                                                                                                                                                                            Contributions will be limited to approximately  300 words and
        The sermon is vintage Hoeksema.                                                                                                                                                                                              must be neatly written or typewritten, and must be signed.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     Copy deadlines are the first and fifteenth of the month. All
        The story behind the publication of this sermon is intriguing.                                                                                                                                                               communications relative to the contents should be sent to ihe
        In the days when Hoeksema was at the height of his powers as an                                                                                                                                                              editorial office.
exegete and homiletician, that is to say, a preacher, his sermons were not                                                                                                                                                           REPRtNT  POUCY
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     Permission is herebygranted forthereprfntingofarticlas inour
recorded. But a member of Hoeksema's huge First Church congregation,                                                                                                                                                                 magazine byotherpublications,provided:  a)thatsuhrepnnted
Mr. Martin Swart, took down the sermons in his own system of shorthand.                                                                                                                                                              articles are reproduced in full; b) that proper acknowledgment
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Immediately after the service, when the sermon was still fresh in his mind,                                                                                                                                                          appears is sent to our editorial office.
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290/StandardBearer/Aprill,  1996


I       -0  0 0                                                           I'
                   -



                            The .Manifestation
                             of Jesus to Mary'

     . . . Jesus saith unfo  her, May. She        That ,John looks at the resurrec-     flected in Mary, and determined by
turned herself, and saith unto him,           tion from the viewpoint of the ac-        it, that we wish to consider Mary.
Rabboni;  which is to say, Master.            tivities and movements of Mary is         In other words, we wish to see the
     Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not;      easily explained. It was Mary who         resurrection of Jesus through Mary.
for I am not yet ascended to my Father:       brought the report of the resurrec-           Then we see two things. In the
but go to my brethren, and say unto           tion to him and Peter. Mary came          first place, on that third day none
them, I ascend unto my Father, and            and told Peter and John about the         of the disciples believed or expected
ysur Father; and to my God, and your          open seprilchre, and also her con-        the fact of the resurrection. Surely
God.                                          clusion. Upon the report of Mary,         they had been told, and they had
     May Magdalene came and told the          John and Peter run to the sepulchre.      been told plainly. If we look at the
disci$les  that she had seen the Lord,        It is because of .the marvel of that      words which Jesus spoke before His
and that he had spoken these things           grave, and especially of the linen        death, it is almost unbelievable that
unto her.                                     clothes which lay in the grave, not       the disciples could be so in the dark.
                          John 20:11-18       neatly folded up, as it is usually ex-    They had been plainly told that the
                                              plained, but just as Jesus lay in         Lord must suffer and die, and be
     The fact of the resurrection of          them, that. John believed. Not be-        raised again the third day. Yet none
Christ on the morning of the third            cause of the report of Mary, but be-      expected the resurrection. This
day, and all that is connected with           cause of the marvel of the grave,         shows how impossible it is, if our
it, is viewed, in the gospel of John          John believed. It seems that Mary         heart and mind are filled with our
from the viewpoint of Mary                    followed John and Peter. But the          own notions, to receive the things
Magdalene. It is Mary Magdalene,              disciples had run. Mary came to           of the kingdom of God. That is true
according to the gospel of John, who          the sepulchre when the disciples had      today. You can sometimes instruct
went to the sepulchre. The other              returned, so that we find Mary here       children in things which men will
women are not even mentioned. Al-             alone. We find her here with a very       not receive. The reason is that when
though we know that there were                foolish question. But it is a ques-       the hearts are filled with notions of
others that accompanied Mary, they            tion born of love.                        our own we cannot receive the
are not even mentioned by John.                                                         things of the kingdom of God. That
Yes, even though we know that                 Jesus hides Himself from her              was the trouble with the disciples.
Mary did not really reach the sep-                You understand that it is not         Surely they had an earthly concep-
ulchre, but when she saw that the             our calling and purpose to preach         tion of the kingdom. All did. But
stone was rolled away from the sep-           on Mary. That is beside the point.        not only did they have an earthly
ulchre, something which had been              It is not that a study of the charac-     conception, they also had set their
a matter of concern for them while            ter of Mary Magdalene would not           hearts on that conception. They did
they were on the way, she immedi-             be interesting. But it is not the pur-    not want another conception, and
ately returned and told the disciples.        pose of the text to bring the figure      they could not receive it. Though
                                              of Mary before us. To the contrary,       Jesus tells them that He must suffer
                                              it is the purpose of the text to bring    and die, and on the third day rise
                                              our attentron upon the resurrection       again; and though Jesus told them
     * This is an Easfer  strmon  of          of the Lord. There is here a mani-        to go to Galilee and that He would
Herman Hoiksema,  preached to the con-        festation of'the risen Lord. Him we       see them there, they stayed in
gregation of First PRC in Grand Rap-          want to see. It is only in as far as      Jerusalem and paid no attention to
ids, MI. It has never before appeared         the resurrection of the Lord is re-       it. We must not look at the love of
in' print.

                                                                                                 April 1,1996/SfandardBearerl291


the women going to the grave. That               Flesh and blood cannot inherit the         Jesus appeals to Scripture. He in-
they were not on the way to Gali-                kingdom of heaven. Jesus arose             structs them in the Scriptures.
lee, but to the grave, was an act of             with a spiritual, a heavenly body.         When they see the Scriptures, they
unbelief.                                        If Jesus had not appeared, if He had       see Him for a moment, and then He
     In the second place, the idea of            not shown Himself, He would never          disappears again. That is a differ-
the resurrection was not understood              have been seen. If the disciples had       ent manifestation from the manifes:
by them. They believed in the res-               seen Jesus come out of the grave, it       tation to -Mary, or to Thomas. To
urrection. They believed in the res-             would have given them a wrong im-          the sojourners to Emmaus, Jesus
urrection on the last day. They had              pression. They would have looked           shows Himself as the fuhillment  of
seen the resurrection of Lazarus and             at the resurrection in a natural way.      Scripture. To Thomas, He appeared
others. They had some conception                 That is one element.                       differently. He comes to Thomas'
of the resurrection of Jesus as they                 The second element is the open         senses. He comes to Thomas so that
had seen it typically. But of the res-           grave. The purpose of the angels at        Thomas can see Him.
urrection, a resurrection that                       that grave was to keep that                So also He appears differently
would be wholly different,                              grave undisturbed. The open         to Mary. Jesus appears to her in
                                          That
that they did not understand.                            grave proved two things. It        the garden. But Mary did not see
That they could not under-                they           proved in the first place that     Him. That does not mean that Mary
stand. Therefore Jesus must            were not           Jesus was not there. In the       was so filled with sorrow that she
do two things. In the first           on the way          second place it proved that       could not see Jesus. But Jesus so
place, He must convince              t0 Gazizeer but      He had left in a remarkable       appeared to Mary, that she could
them of the fact of the res-          to the grave,       way. That was plain from          not see Him. Jesus appeared to
urrection, He must instruct           was an act          the place where he lay. It        Mary, not by sight, not by reason-
them in the resurrection.                  of             was plain from the linen          ing, but by striking a road straight
And He must teach them that             unbelief.        clothes, which lay in the          to her heart. We know very little of
His resurrection was not a re-                          grave just as Jesus had lain        Mary. We know that Jesus had cast
turn to this life. Of these two                      in them. They lay in the grave         seven devils out of her. We know
things He must convince the dis-              just as they had been wrapped                 that from that moment Mary had
ciples.                                          around His body. Jesus had risen           followed Jesus. From that moment
     How? There are especially five              out of them without even disturb           Marys life had been bound up with
elements that enter into that work               ing them. If we consider this, we          Jesus' earthly form, To follow Him,
of Jesus by which He convinces the               see what a marvelous testimony that        to minister unto Him, to give Him
disciples of His resurrection. There             open grave was for the disciples.          drink and food, to tend. to His
is, in the first place, the marvel of                In the third place, there was the      clothes, that was Mary's life.
the resurrection itself. The resur-              preaching of the angels. The angels            It is from that point of view that
rection of Jesus was a marvelous                 preached. They brought the mes-            we must look at Mary here in the
thing. No one was there when it                  sage of the resurrection of Jesus to       garden. What did Mary want?" She
took place. We do not even know                  the disciples.                             wanted the body of Jesus. You say
the exact moment when it took                        In the fourth place, after the res-    that is but natural. It is but natural
place. Jesus was raised before the               urrection, Jesus did not have the          that she should go to the sepulchre,
stone was removed. The resurrec-                 former communion with the dis-             expecting to find a body. The oth-
tion was not witnessed by anyone.                ciples. He came occasionally, and          ers did that too. But not as Mary.
Why not? Because it could not have               then left again. That left an impres-      When Mary does not find the body
been witnessed by earthly eyes. It               sion with the disciples.                   of Jesus, she is filled with grief.
could have been witnessed if the res-                Finally, there are these manifes-      Why? Because she cannot do that
urrection of Jesus had been like that            tations of Jesus, ten of which are re-     last service to that body. Mary is
cf Lazarus. You could see the res-               corded in the Scriptures. One of           looking for a dead body. Notice,
urrection of Lazarus. You could see              them was to Mary Magdalene. You            that dead body she calls her Lord.
him rise and come out of the grave.              must remember that these manifes-          Notice too, that her mind is so con-
But that is not the case with Jesus.             tations :of Jesus were not all alike.      centrated upon the body of Jesus
Jesus arose with a spiritual body.               We see that He manifests Himself           that she does not see anything else.
That does not mean that it was not               in a different way to Mary from the        She is not amazed, as the other
material. But it does mean that it            way in which He manifests Himself             women had been, when she sees two
differed materially from our present          to the sojourners to Emmaus, or to            angels sitting there by the sepulchre.
body. Our body belongs to the                 Thomas. He appeared to the so-                For when they address her, she an-
sphere of the earthly things, so that        journers to Emmaus, also by hold-              swers them as though it were a com-
we cannot enter into the sphere of            ing tht5.r eyes, so that they could           mon thing to see angels, and to hear
the heavenly with our present body.           not recognize Him, but in their case          them speak. When the gardener, as

292lStendard Bearer/April  1,1996


she .sr$posed, asked her why she             eyes that she could not recognize         before. In the second place, it means
wept,.and whom she-sought, she an-           Jesus. But because Jesus appeared,        that she shall touch Him again.
swered him as if the gardener knew               intentionally, in a form that Mary    Touch Me not, for I am not yet as-
all about it If thou have borne Him          would not recognize. Jesus said, be-      cended unto My Father. But go to
hence, tell me where thou hast laid          fore He said anything else, I am not      My brethren, and say unto them, I
Him.                                         the same, ;Mary. He addresses her         ascend unto My Father and your Fa-
    Finally, -notice that Mary's mind        in a different voice. He does not         ther, and to My God and your God.
is so concentrated on her search for         speak to Mary in His old voice. If            That means two things. In the
the body that she-says: if you will          He had, Mary would have recog-            first place, My Father is your Fa-
show me where you laid Him, I will           nized him. But Jesus addresses            ther, and My God is your God.
take Him away. Just imagine Mary             Mary in a different voice. Whom           There is a new fellowship.
carrying the body of Jesus away. So          seekest thou?                                 In the second place, it means,
that it comes down to this: Mary                    Now  iwe would expect that         when I am ascended to My Father
had placed all the love of her heart         Mary would say: I seek the old            and your Father, then I will let you
on the Lord, ai she had known Him            Jesus. But she does not. She says:        touch Me. Then I will let you touch
in His earthly form. She revealed            if thou hast taken Him away, tell         Me, in a more blessed, spiritual,
that love of her heart by following          me wherexthou hast laid Him, and I        heavenly, eternal way. For when
Jesus and ministering to His earthly         will take Him away. Notice, after         Jesus ascended, He received of the
needs. You must understand, Mary             Jesus has plainly shown that the old      Father the Spirit. When He had re-
was not a woman like, for example,           fellowship is gone, He shows that         ceived the Spirit, He fulfilled the
Salome. None of the disciples had            there was a new fellowship, in the        promise of letting His people touch
a clear conception of the kingdom            name "Mary." In that name Jesus           Him, by coming to them and dwell-
of heaven. But that was especially           addresses Mary in her heart. In that      ing in them, in the Spirit. We have
true of Mary. Mary cared ,nothing            name, Jesus said to Mary: although        fellowship with Jesus in a far more
about conceptions. There are such            thou canst not come to Me, I, from        blessed sense than Mary had before
people. Mary liked to hear Jesus             My sphere, will come to thee.             the resurrection. In a far more
speak, she liked to sit near Him and                That is the fellowship which we    blessed sense do we respond to the
listen to His sermons. But for the           have with Him. We do not see Him.         calling of our name, and say,
rest, Mary liked to serve and wait           But although we do not see Him,           Rabboni.
on Jesus.                                    He comes to us, as He came to                 If we have heard Jesus call our
                                                    Mary, and He calls to us, He       name, and we have responded, then
Jesus reveals Himself                                 calls our name, and we have      we will go and walk as disciples of
to Mary                                               direct fellowship with Him.      that Lord. We will expect the day
    To that Mary, Jesus re-          havexcome         That we have today, 0, the      when we shall touch Him. For we
veals Himself, Mary had .to            to seek         blessedness of hearing Jesus    shall touch Him, and see Him face
learn three things. In the           a dead `Ordt call our name. That was the          to face. Not because He shall come
first place, that Jesus is alive,     and Ifind       blessedness of Mary. When        to us, but because we shall be drawn
                                       a living
In the second place, that she                         she heard it, Mary turns         to Him. And then we shall have
must keep away from Him.                Lord.         around and says, Rabboni.        fellowship with Him, for ever and
She will never-be able to fol-                       This means that Mary had not      ever.  Cl
low, to serve, to wait on Jesus again.      yet changed. She still wants the old
In the third place, Mary must learn         Jesus. When Mary says, Rabboni,
to know Jesus in a higher fellow-           she means to say: I have come to
ship than the. former fellowship. If        seek a dead Lord, and I find a liv-
Jesus had appeared to Mary as He            ing Lord.
had been before, she would never
have understood the reality of the          Jesus instructs Mary
resurrection. Therefore, Jesus with-        in His resurrection
draws in order that Mary may be                     Jesus says, touch Me not.
instructed.                                         why?
    First, the angels address Mary.                 That is the comfort
They say unto her: woman, why                       Jesus says, I am not yet as-
weepest thou. Then she hears some-          cended to My Father. Touch Me
thing behind her, and turning she           not, for I am not yet ascended to
sees a man. That man was Jesus.             My Father. That means, in the first
But Mary did not know Him. Not              place, that iMary can no more min-
because sorrow so beclouded her             ister unto Jesus, as she had done

                                                                                                    April 1,1996/Standard  Bearetf293


                                                                                II                                                        I
I
                                             A -Defense of
              (Reformed) Aiydlennialism
                                         4. Matthew 24 (Again)

         The risk that an editor takes             fense of (Reformed)  Amillen-               the church has ever faced. It ren-
     when he launches a series of edito-           nialism."                                   ders the people oblivious to the
     rials is that the series will be inter-                                                   gathering storm at this very mo-
     rupted. Reasons for the interrup-               Lest I be guilty of failing to do what    ment" (p. 318).
     tion are varied - and sometimes                 little I can to stop the decline from         The second installment ran in
     compelling.                                     the truth of amillennialism, I intend     the April 15,1995 SB (pp. 341-343).
         The danger includes that the in-            to devote future editorials to a bib-     This editorial dealt with one of the
     terruption will be extended for some            lical, confessional defense of            biblical passages that are fundamen-
                                                     amillennialism against the errone-
     time and several issues of the maga-                                                      tal in the controversy, Revelation 20,
                                                     ous doctrine of  postmiUennialism.
     zine.                                           These awill have the "Christian Re-       the only passage that mentions the
         By the time the editor resumes              construction" movement especially         "millennium." The editorial took
     the series, the reader has forgotten            in view  (SB,  March 15, 1995, p.         note of the explanation of Revela-
     the earlier articles in the series.             296).                                     tion 20 by Presbyterian exegete J.
         This danger with all its fulhress                                                     Marcellus Kikand by the Christian
     has overtaken the editor of the Stan-             The series, therefore, concerns         Reconstructionist David Chilton. It
     d&d Bearer.                                   the biblical doctrine of  the  last         demonstrated that the phrase,
         In the January 15, 1995 SB ap-            things, a prominent and vital sub-          "thousand years," is a figurative de-
     peared an editorial,  `: Jewish               ject in our day. It is also controver-      scription of the entire age of the new
     Dreams," rejecting the earthly king-          sial as the recent exchange with Dr.        covenant during which particularly
     dom of postmillennialism as the               Gary North indicated.                       the martyred saints are raised in
     hope of the Christian. The March                  The first instalhnent appeared          their souls at the moment of death
     l,, 1995 issue of the magazine con-           in the April 1,1995 issue of the SB         to live and reign with Christ in
     tained two letters critical of the edi-       (pp. 317, 318). That editorial              heaven.
     torial, as well as a defense of the           showed the radical differences be-
     editorial by the editor ("A Letter            tween amillennialism and post-                Revelation 20 is no support to
     and Response on `Jewish Dreams"`).            millennialism. It quoted with ap-             postmillennialism, but rather a
         The March 15,1995 SB also con-            proval the declaration by the Chris-          refutation of that  error. The saints
     tained a letter that was sharply criti-       tian Reconstructionist Gary North             do not gain earthly victory in the
                                                                                                 world; rather, they suffer and are
     cal of "Jewish Dreams." The au-               that                                          beheaded. History does not come
     thor of this letter was Gary DeMar,                                                         to i& end with ,the earthly triumph
     leading advocate of the post-                   premillennialism,       postmillen-         of the church; rather, Satan is
     millennialism of the Christian Re-              nialism, and  amilIennialism  are           loosed, and the hordes of the un-
     construction movement.                 The      theologically incompatible. God             godly attack the church and the
     heart of the letter was a defense of            cannot be pleased with all three.           saints. The hope held before the
                                                     At least two of them should be dis-
     postmillennialism on the basis of                                                           people of God is not a carnal king-
                                                     carded as heretical, if not today,
     Question 191 of the Westminster                                                             dom on earth; rather, it is our liv-
                                                     then before Christ comes in final
     Larger Catechism. To this letter                                                            ing and reigning with Christ in
                                                     judgment (p. 317).                          heaven at death (p. 343).
     also, the editor responded ("An-
     other Letter and Response on `Jew-            The editorial charged post-                     The third instalhnent is found
     ish Dreams"`).                                millennialism with the sin of leav-         in the May 1,1995 SB (pp. 365-367).
         DeMar's letter, bristling with            ing "the people (of God) unprepared         The topic of this editorial was
     challenge, became the occasion for            for the struggle that lies ahead for        "Apostasy and Persecution." With
     the series of editorials on "A De-            the church, the fiercest struggle that      reference to Gary  DeMar's   Last

     294lStandard Bearer/April I,1996


Days Madness: Obsession of the                   hand, rings true to history, past and       term `Antichrist' for a present-day
Modern' Church, (American `lision,               present. To refer only to -this one         or future political ruler. The proper
1994),  i t   p o i n t e d   o u t   t h a t    vital element .in the ,controversy; the     context is theological and pre-A. D.
postmillennialism, especially the                true church has always been and is          70" (Last Days Madness, p. 204).
Christian Reconstructionist brand,               today the remnant according to the              The  same  author has written
puts the great apostasy and great                election of grace. When and where           that the church must "recognize that
tribulation of the New Testament                 has the true church ever been the           the Great Tribulation is a past
Scriptures in the pasf. Against this             majority? It was the remnant in ap-         event." For "the tribulation had ref-
false and dangerous teaching, the                ostolic times; it was the remnant at        erence to the Jews, the people of
editorial argued from Scripture and              the time of the Reformation; it is          Judea." It was "the destruction of
the confessions that the'apostasy of             the remnant today. Why, even in             Jerusalem" (Last Days,  pp. 119,
II Thessalonians 23 and the great                Israel/ Judah, it was the remnant.          110).
,tribulation of Matthew 2421 are still               Awareness of developments in                The exegetical basis of "Chris-
to be expected by the church, al-                the world `in light of the prophecy         tian Reconstruction's" grand vision
though both are also present reali-              of the Holy Scriptures is not, how-         of a "Christianized" world - the
ties. It quoted the powerful state-              ever, the main reason for the aston-        victory of the gospel in history - is
ment in chapter 11 of the Second                 ishment of, the Reformed Christian          largely the interpretation of Mat-
Helvetic Confession (1566):                      at the dream-world of post-                 thew 24 by J. Marcellus Kik. The
                                                 millennialism. His amazement at             Presbyterian's interpretation of
  And from heaven the same Christ                postmillennialism's rosy forecast of        Jesus' eschatological discourse has
 will return  ' in judgment, when                the earthly future is mainly due to         been reprinted in a book titled, An
  wickedness will then be at its great-          the contrary testimony of the Bible.        Eschatology of Victo y (Presbyterian
  est in the world and when the An-                  What of the apostles' prediction        and Reformed, 1971), pp. 53-173.
  tichrist, having corrupted true reli-          of departure from the faith in the              Kik explains the chapter in such
  gion, will fill up all things with su-
  perstition and impiety and will cru-           last days in II Thessalonians 2:3; II       a way that verses 4-31 refer exclu-
  elly lay  ,waste the  Chvrch with              Timothy 3, 4; Il Peter 2; and I John        sively to the destruction of Jerusa-
  bloddshed and flames (Dan., ch.                2118,     19?                               lem by Rome in A. D. 70. Nothing
  11).                                               What of the apostle's warning           in these verses refers at all to Jesus'
                                                 of a coming Antichrist in II                second coming and the events that
    The fourth installment ap-                   Thessalonians  2?                           immediately precede His coming.
peared, in sequence, in the May 15,                  What of the apostle's alerting          The abomination of desolation in
1995  SB  (pp. 389, 390). The title              the saints to an impending tribula-         verse 15 refers only to the desecra-
was, "A Defense of (Reformed)                    tion as an .element of those things         tion of the temple by the "idolatrous
Amillennialism  (4): Matthew 24."                that must shortly come to pass be-          ensigns" of the invading Roman
So far the hazard that threatens edi-            fore the coming of the Lord, in the         army  (p. 104). The  "greattribula-
torial series was avoided. It was                book of Revelation, e.g., 3:lO; 6:9-        tion" of verse 21 refers only to the
after this installment that disaster             11; 7:9-17;  ll:l-12;  12:17; 13;  14:9-    suffering of the Jews at .the time of
struck.                                          13;15:2; 16; 17; 19:2, 19-21; and 20:4,     the destruction of Jerusalem. The
    As for the content of that fourth            7-lo?                                       false Christs and false prophets of
installment, its subject is so impor-                The answer given by the                 verse 24 refer only to the pretender-
tant to the controversy, and so                  postmillennialist, particularly the         Messiahs and false teachers among
closely related to the article that              "Christian Reconstructionist" (such         the Jews at that time.
must follow, that, rather than sum-              as Gary DeMar, who asked for this               The "coming of the Son of man"
marize it, I must reprint it in part.            biblical defense of amillennialism),        in verses 27 and 30 is not the vis-
What follows then is the last part of            to all of these astonished questions        ible, bodily return of Christ, but His
the fourth editorial in the series.              by the Reformed Christian is that           revelation in the preaching of the
This concerns the postmillennial in-             all of the prophecies of apostasy,          gospel by the apostles. The gather-
terpretation of Matthew 24.                      Antichrist, and tribulation have al-        ing of the elect by the angels in verse
             *** ***  *w                         ready been completely fulfilled.            31 is the spiritual saving of the elect
    The happy predictions of                     They are past events. The church of         through the gospel. "Angels" are
postmillennialism for the church in              A. D. 1995 does not need to con-            human preachers.
the world are overthrown by 2,000                cern herself with them. Nothing of              The preliminary signs in the
years of history.                                them is -yet future. All was fulfilled      heavens of verse 29 are not the lit-
    Postmillennialism's denial of                in the destruction of Jerusalem in          eral darkening of the sun and moon,
apostasy, antichrist, and persecution            A. D. 70.                                   prior to Jesus' second coming, but
is refute'd by historical events.                    Postmillennialist Gary DeMar            the going out of the figurative light
    Amillennialism, on the other                 writes, "It is unbiblical to use the        of the Jews as a nation in A. D. 70.

                                                                                                      April 1,1996/Standard  Bearer1295


"The sun of Judaism has been dark-            The key to Matthew Twenty-four           nial of apostasy, Antichrist, and
ened" (p. 128). The shaking of the            is verse 34.... Every thing men-         great tribulation for the church in
powers of the heavens in verse 29             tioned in the previous verses were       the future. For in the light of this
"refers to Satan and his angels" .(p.         (sic) to be fulfilled before the con-    explanation of Matthew 24, the
                                              temporary generation would pass
133).                                         away.... The first thirty-four verses    postmillennialist goes through the
     The basis for this understand-           of Matthew 24, along with verse          entire New Testament rigorously
ing of Matthew 24:4-31 according to           35 . .,. deal with the destruction of    applying all prediction of such
Kik and his "Christian Reconstruc-            Jerusalem (pp. 59,60,67).                things to the destruction of Jerusa-
tion" disciples is Jesus' word in                                                      lem.
verse 34: "Verily I say unto you,               Gary DeMar agrees:                         Fundamental to this interpreta-
This generation shall not pass, till                                                   tion of Matthew 24 is Kik's expla-
all these things be fulfilled." Kik           The events rehearsed in the Olivet       nation of verse 34, the "key" to the
explains this word as meaning, very           Discourse are signs leading up to        chapter. If Kik is wrong here, his
simply, that every single prophecy            and including the destruction of         whole postmillennial conception of
of Christ in verses 431 was fulfilled,        Jerusalem in A. D. 70. These chap-       the earthly future collapses like a
exhaustively, in the lifetime of the          ters have nothing to do with when        house of cards.
                                              Jestis will return at the final judg-
generation that was alive at the time         ment. There are no observable                "This generation shall not pass,
of Jesus' instruction. All was ex-            signs leading up to His bodily re-       till all these things be fulfilled."
haustively fulfilled in A. D. 70 in           turn (Last Days, p. 151).                    Does Christ teach that every last
the destruction of Jerusalem. Noth-                                                    particular in the preceding verses
ing foretold in verses 431 pertains             This interpretation of Matthew         was fulfilled exhaustively in A. D.
to the second coming.                       24 is basic to the postmillennial de-      70? We shall see. 0
                                                                                                                        -DJE



n  Psalm-Singing in the Con-                s o d - then something is not right.       church the psalms as the spiritual
sciousness of the Congregations                 I refer Mr. Kuiper to the lengthy      song of the people"). One of the
                                            study committee report ("Acts of           conclusions of the study committee:
     Because the hymn/psalm ques-           Synod;" PRC, -1960, pp. 87-116) on         "The hymn cannot and may not be
tion is larger by far than a mere dif-      the basis of which our churches            compared to the Psalm. The former
ference of opinion between two              eventually rejected a recommenda-          is the work of man, the latter the
writers of letters to the editor, please    tion that Article 69 of the Church         work of God."
allow me to respond briefly to the          Order be changed to allow in our               On page 111 Herman Hoeksema
letter of Mr. Gerald Kuiper ("Cor-          worship services the singing of            is quoted as having offered the CRC
rection and Comment") in the Feb-           hymns "which are faithful versifi-         synod of 1928 this bit of advice rela-
ruary 15,1996 issue of the Standard         cations of Scripture." In it he will       tive to the hymn-question: that
Bearer.                                     discover that what I wrote concern-        synod "admonish the leaders and
    It seems to me that to argue, in        ing Ephesians 5:19 and Colossians          the consistories especially to coop-
defense of hymns, as Mr. Kuiper             3:16 is not just my "opinion." It is       erate in reviving the psalms in the
does, that some hymns are better            the explanation upheld by Clement,         consciousness of the congregations."
versifications of the Scripture than        Jerome, Beza, Owen, and a "host of         That's it. It takes a concerted efirt
are "many of the songs in our               other able and accepted Reformed           to assure that the psalms are not
Psalter, II and that hymns based on         Bible expositors" (pp. 105-108).           lost "in the consciousness of the con-
"other parts of the God-breathed            Clearly, it is the psalms of David         gregations." How can we expect
Scriptures" are no less appropriate         which are here prescribed by Paul          our children to come to know and
for singing in our homes, schools,          for the people of God. That's the          to understand and to love the
wedding, funerals, etc., than the           point.                                     psalms if, though they sing them in
psalms is to miss the point.                    "The psalms are dictated by the        church on Sunday, it is hymns, ei-
    May we sing hymns? Of course!           Holy Ghost. When we sing them,             ther primarily or exclusively, that
But when hymns virtually displace           we are sure that God lays His words        they memorize in school and hear
the psalms in many of our homes,            in our mouth, as though He Him-            at home? We ought  all  to work
school programs, weddings, and fu-          self sings them in us in order to ex-      harder at it. That was my point. Cl
nerals - "in times of distress and          alt His honor" (p. 108, from John                                   John VanBaren
joy, as well as during special sea-         Calvin, who "gave back to the                                      Grandville, MI

296lStandard  Bearer/April I,1996


                                   News from Seminary Hill

    By this time we are well into the second semester at the Protestant Reformed Theological
Seminary. Prof. Engelsma taught the interim course this year on "Contemporary Theology." In
eight successive mornings right after the Christmas/New Year break, the class covered the devel-
opment of liberal Protestant theology from, Schleiermacher to Barth.
    In addition to their other course work, seven of the eight full-time students are presently
involved in practice preaching. By the end of the semester, each will have preached twice before
the faculty and student body on assigned passages of Scripture or Lord's Days of the Heidelberg
Catechism. Only the first-year student is exempt from these rigors.
    Four seminarians are regularly speaking a word of edification in the churches, helping in filling
vacant pulpits. Five are assisting area pastors in teaching catechism classes. These activities are
good experience for the students. The professors also preach regularly.
    Four students from the Heritage Netherlands Reformed Congregations are taking two courses
for credit. A graduate student at Calvin Theological Seminary is sitting in on one class. A pre-
seminary student who plans to begin seminary this fall is taking one course. Several members of
the PRC are auditing courses.
    A number of ministers have contributed to the spiritual life of the seminary community by
leading in our weekly chapel devotions. We thank them for this.
    The faculty has just put out the spring, .1996 issue of the Protestant Reformed Theological
Journal. This &&page journal contains several articles on various aspects of the Reformed faith and
life, as well as reviews of significant theological books. The journal is published twice each year.
    Senior seminarian Richard Smit will be examined before synod this June, God willing. If the
examination is successful, he will graduate ,and be declared eligible for a call in the PRC.
    Special student Cheah Fook Meng is completing a special three-year course. Soon after the
graduation exercises during the meeting of :synod in June, he and his wife Lee Choo will return to
Singapore. There he will be examined by the Evangelical Reformed Churches of Singapore with a
view to his entrance into the ministry in those churches.
    Internships have been arranged for third-year seminarians Daniel Kleyn and James Laning.
Mr. Kleyn will do his internship in the Sout$r Holland PRC in South Holland, IL. The internship of
Mr. Laning will be supervised by the Council of the Southwest PRC in Grandville, MI. The intern-
ships will run from July to the end of this year.
    Third-year, diploma non-licentiate (he does not intend to enter the ministry in the PRC) semi-
narian Darren Thole plans to do an internship during the same time under the auspices of the
Orthodox Presbyterian Church.
    The synod of 1996 must appoint a new professor to replace Professor Hanko. This is required
by the rule that "a new professor shall be appointed when any of the active professors reaches the
age of 65." Prof. Hanko has served the churches in the seminary since 1965. The rules permit the
profess-or who has reached the age of 65 to continue to teach on a yearly basis until he is 70. The
churches should make this important change at the seminary a matter of prayer.
    The student body, faculty, and support staff are using and enjoying the new addition to the
seminary building. Recently, a couple donated a lovely grandfather clock to the seminary. It
stands in the lounge area, impressively visible from the entrance to the seminary. Such interest in
the school is encouraging. Especially those ,who may not yet have seen the new addition are
warmly invited to stop in and see it - and us.
    We ask for the continued prayers of the. churches, as of all the supporters of the seminary, that
the Lord Jesus Christ by this means will give able, faithful pastors and teachers to His church.

                                                                                       For the faculty,
                                                                                   Cordially in Christ,

                                                                        yfdf~+~
                                                                       Pr . David J. ngelsma, Rector


                                                                                   April 1,1996/Standard  Bearer1297


n The Inclusive Bible                         Sometimes it means repeating                movement has started unveiling its
                                                                                          plans for more than 20 men's con-
    You have doubtlessly read of              "God" incessantly:                          ferences at sports arenas this year,
the "Inclusive Bible." It is man's              "God is my shepherd, I shall not
                                              want. God makes me lie down in              and two of the events' already have
attempt to improve on the revela-             green pastures, and leads me be-            sold out.
tion of God to us given in Holy               side  stilI waters; God restores my           The movement, which encour-
Scripture. It seems that in the minds         soul. God leads me in paths of              ages men to be more committed to
of some the old Bible is no longer            righteousness for the sake of God's         their families and their Christian
suitable for our current day and age.         name."                                      faith, held conferences in 13 cities
Nor is this merely a matter of trans-           St.  Paul doesn`t address "breth-         last year. A total of more than
lation - this is deliberate revision          ren," but "brothers and sisters" and        720,000 men attended.
                                                                                            A 1996 conference planned for
of the Word of Holy Scripture. We             "sisters and brothers" alternately.
                                                                                          Indianapolis sold out in eight days.
quote part of an article appearing            Even  the Devil's sex is carefully un-
                                              specified, so there is some comfort         An event in Minneapolis sold out
in The Christian News, January 29,            for men....                                 shortly after the Indianapolis con-
1996.                                           The new version avoids offense            ference.
                                              at  alli costs  - even imaginary of-          "Some of them sold out relatively
    Christians have always  believed          fense. "The blind" become "blind            quickly last year, but eight days is
  that God is omnipotent and omni-            people." "Lepers" become "people            pretty quick," said Promise Keep-
  scient. Well, the divine attributes         with leprosy." "Slaves" become              ers spokesman Roger Chapman.
  have been expanded: He is now in-           "enslaved people." "Dark" and                 The theme of this  yeais confer-
  clusive, too. In fact He is no longer       "darkness" have been edited out to          ences is "Break Down the Walls."
  "He."                                       avoid aspersions against  "dark-              "There are centuries-old walls
    "Our Father-Mother in heaven,             skinned people." St. Johns critical         built of pain, hurt, neglect and
  hallowed be your name," goes the            references to "the Jews" have been          abuse," said Promise Keepers'
  Lord's Prayer . . . in The New  Tes-        tactfully altered, though St. John          President Randy Phillips. "Our de-
  tament and Psalms: An Indusive              hims$f (like all the central figures        sire is to exalt the person of Christ
  Version,  published by Oxford Uni-          in the Gospel) was a Jew. (Hey  -           and power of the cross in a way
  versity Press. This new version is          what,  about the Romans?) Even              that breaks down the wails that ex-
  not  really  a translation, but an at-      "right hand" has been deleted in            ist brother-to-brother,  brother-to-
  tempt, based on the New Revised             deference to southpaws....                  sister, and church-to-church."
  Standard Version, to correct earlier
  translations.                                 Well!!                                      Bill McCartney writes in his
    According to the editors' intro-            Will there be no end of attacks         Men of Action Newsletter of Janu-
  duction, it not only reflects but also    on Holy Scripture? If the devil can         ary 1996,
  "attempts to anticipate developments
  in the English-language with regard       not d&troy the Bible, he will see to
                                                                                            We must learn what it is to be
  to specificity about a number of is-      it that :it is so altered as to lose all      broken and emptied before the
  sues such  as  gender, race, and          reliability and infallibility. Surely         Lord. A broken man can be used
  physical disability" (emphasis in         none who value the inspired Scrip-            by God to break down walls. This
  original).                                tures will even consider using such           means to forfeit all of our self-in-
    . . . Masculine pronouns for the        a tainted paraphrase (it is not a "ver-       terests, all of our suspicions about
  Deity have been pruned  away. "In         sion" or "translation"). This type            others, all of our negative attitudes
  this version," the editors announce       of work can only come from those              and all of our unforgiveness and
  proudly, "God is never referred to        who deny the inspiration of the               condemnation of others. Can any-
  by a masculine pronoun, or by any                                                       thing less  qualify us as a disciple
  pronoun at all." Often this means         Word of God.
                                                                                          of Jesus Christ (I John  4:19-20;
  "changing the syntax of a sentence                                                      James  5:6-lo)?
  so as to avoid using  a  pronoun."                                                        . ..Men. let us begin to break
                                                                                          down the walls - by laying down
                                            n Promise Keepers                             our  Iives and hungering for God's
                                                                                          will.
                                            Again
                                                The Religious News Service re-              And an invitation was sent to
Rev. VanBaren is pastor of the Protes-      ports (Feb. 2,1996):                        area churches near Ft. Collins, Colo-
tant Reformed Church of Loveland,                                                       rado to attend a local rally with the
Colorado.                                       The Promise Keepers men's

296Mandard Bearer/April 1,1996


Promise Keepers' theme: "Break              ing that began Jan. 19, became No.            We can but watch and pray.
Down the Walls." The invitation             27 on Tuesday.                            The night is far spent, the day is at
included the plea, "Please plan to            The most recent calamity has left       hand. It is the time for diligence
attend this evening of fellowship,          Washington, Oregon and Idaho              and faithfulness on the part of the
praise and worship. Join us in `unit-       drying out from floods that began         church.
                                            a week ago. These states estimate
ing' as the Body `of Christ!!"              damage will top $620 million.
    The intent of the movement be-            The 27 declarations are  cIose to
comes ever clearer. This year the           the full-year average since 1991:
emphasis is upon "Breaking down             37.6 declared disasters.
the walls." These "walk? are not              Also among 1996's disasters are         n Development of the
only such as exist within families,         January'sstorms and floods in the         Computer
but also those which exist between          East.                                         Revelation 13:15, "And he had
denominations of churches as Ro-              The Eastern storms caused $535          power to give life unto the image of
man Catholic, .Protestant, and even         million in insured losses, while          the beast, that the image of the beast
Mormon (though the latter can by            Pennsylvania alone estimated flood
                                            damage at $700 million.                   should both speak, and cause that
no stretch of the imagination be in-          Meanwhile,  _ growers in the            as many as would not worship the
cluded in "church"). Clearly the            Southeast, have requested a decla-        image of the beast should be killed."
walls are to be broken down not by          ration because of freezing weather            From the Denver Post:
resolving differences on the basis of       earlier this month, and Montanans
Scripture, but ignoring them. Could         are waiting for one as a result of            Would you believe that fifty
this work be one more way of es-            floods.                                     years ago this month (February),
tablishing that one world church -            FEMA also has people deployed             scientists in Philadelphia unveiled
the church of antichrist?                   to work  ;in the Virgin Islands,            the Electronic Numerical Integra-
                                            Puerto Rico, Florida and Georgia,           tor and Computer, ENIAC? The
                                            which were struck by hurricanes             first electronic computer weighed
                                            last year [and in] California, which        30 tons and filled a room.
                                            is recovering from the Northridge             A  few years later, experts were
                                            earthquake in 1994.                         predicting that computers might
                                                                                        someday weigh as little as 1.5 tons,
n SIGNS OF THE TIMES:                         The theory is that the El Niiio           and that dozens of them might be
                                          current in the Pacific Ocean is the
"A Record-setter                                                                        installed around the world.
                                          cause of this increase in disastrous            Today, computers weigh far less
for Disasters"                            storms. And perhaps scientists can            than 1.5 tons. Tens of millions of
                                                                                        them go into service each year,
    We have been reading of vari-         come up with some reasonable ex-              ranging from massively parallel
ous and serious disasters occurring       planations :for every disaster that           computation engines that simulate
across our country. A short article       strikes.                                      weather patterns to humble little
pointing this out was in the Denver           But does not Jesus indicate               chips in wrist watches and dolls
Post of February 15,1996:                 (Matt. 24:7), "For nation shall rise          and automobile dashboards.
                                          against nation, and kingdom against             What about 50 years from now?
    Floods, snow, winds and ice have      kingdom: and there shall be fam-                Even the experts know it is reck-
  contributed to making 1996 - only       ines, and pestilences, and earth-             less to forecast computer technol-
  six weeks old  - a record year for      quakes in divers places"? In fact,            ogy more than five years out.  Bill
  disasters.                              we have here a strong reminder of             Gates once said that 640 kilobytes
    The government already has is-        the testimony of Revelation which             of  R4M ought to be enough for
  sued 27 disaster declarations, the      speaks of the seven trumpets in               anyone.
  largest number so early that "any-      which one third of the earth is de-
  one can recall," said Phil Cogan  of                                                    so -
                                          stroyed - an increase from the nor-                      what once seemed impos-
  the Federal Emergency Manage-           mal one fourth. Do we hear the              sible is now taking place. Within
  ment Agency; 21 states are in-                                                      fifty years' we have computers
 volved.                                  beginning of the sounding of the            which are vastly superior to that
    FEMA, which provides equip-           trumpets? ,We may not know yet              original one, in schools, in the work-
 ment, loans and grants to affected       for sure. It is remarkable, however,        place, and in many homes. It would
 communities, has staff working on        that the secular press points out the       then seem very possible that Rev-
  all 27.                                 startling increase in disasters. If this
    II We have not had a moment that      continues, what will happen to the          elation 13 is near fuhillment  as well.
 we could at least catch our breath                                                                                             cl
                                          insurance companies? If it contin-
 and catch` up," said FEMA chief          ues, what will happen with the
 James Lee Witt.       .                  countrys "balanced budget"? What
    Vermont, suffering from flood-        will happen'with the stock market?

                                                                                                 April 1,19961Standard  Bearer1299


                          .
                        The Gifts Necessary
                     for the Office of Elder

     Of the several passages which         or an adulterer. Rather, he must be        pathetic, to "feel with" God's people
speak to this subject, I Timothy 3:1-      chaste.                                    in their needs after the example of,
7 and Titus 1:5-9 are the most com-         , In addition the elder must be           our merciful High Priest, Jesus (Heb.
prehensive. These passages present         "vigilant, sober, and of good behav-       4:15-16).
the following qualifying gifts:            ior." Vigilant means the elder must            The elder must be apt to teach.
blameless, the husband of one wife,        be serious minded. He must as well         He must be skillful in teaching,
vigilant, sober, of good behavior,         be alert to the dangers which              qualified to teach: This certainly
given to or lover of hospitality, apt      threaten God's, people. The elder          implies that the elder has a calling
to teach ("able to exhort and con-         must be aware of the temptations           to teach. .He is a "pastor-teacher/
vince the gainsayers," Tit. 1:9), not      God's people face from the devil,          according to Ephesians 411 and I
given to wine, no striker, not greedy      the world, and their own sinful            Thessalonians 5:12-15. The reference
of filthy lucre, patient, not a brawler    flesh. Sober means of sound mind.          here is not merely to teaching cat-
("not given to riot," Tit. 1:6), not       The elder must not be swayed by            echism classes or leading Bible
covetous, rules his house well, not        sudden impulses. He must be dis-           Study Societies, but in ail his spiri-
a novice, has a good report of them        creet. The elder must always be            tual oversight of his fellow
that are without, not soon angry,          ready and willing to listen to the         officebearers and the congregation
lover of good men, just, holy, tem-        people of God in order to form             the elder is busy teaching from the
perate.                                    sound judgments. He must be of             Word of God. Family visiting, sick
     The first group of these is           good behavior. This refers to or-          visiting, comforting the sorrowing,
largely positive. The list is headed       derliness, a well ordered life. The        counseling those with problems, rul-
by "blameless." Literally this word        elder must live with decorum and           ing, governing the congregation, ad-
means "not open to censure, irre-          modesty. His life's affairs, his work,     monishing the wayward, exercising
proachable." In all of his life there      family, and finances must be in or-        discipline - all of these functions
must be nothing worthy of censure,         der.                                       involve teaching. God's Word must
not even a hint of anything. The                   Given to hospitality is another    be brought to bear in ail these cir-
elder must be a man of unquestion-         necessary gift for the elder. "A lover     cumstances and to all of these needs.
able morality and uprightness.             of strangers" is the literal meaning       The elder needs teaching skills. The
     He must be "the husband of one        of this `word. This does not mean          elder must develop this gift of teach-
wife." This does not mean that the         merely that the elder's house must         ing first by prayerful study of the
elder must be a married man. Paul          be open to all, or that he must be         Word of God itself, by a study of
as an apostle was also an elder, and       willingto provide food, shelter, and       the doctrines of Holy Scripture as
he was a bachelor. The point is that       fellowship to the needy. It means          set forth in the Reformed confes-
the elder must be beyond reproach          this too, but there is much more. A        sions, and by a study of good, sound
in his marriage. He must be a good         hospitable elder is one whose heart        books.
and faithful husband, married in the       is open to the needy, the poor, the            The second group of qualifica-
Lord. He must not be a fornicator          lonely widow or widower, the little        tions is largely negative. The elder
                                           lambs of the flock, the young man          must not be "given to wine." Liter-
                                           or woman in the church who has             ally the text reads, "not one who
                                           no friends, the sick, the sorrowing,       sits long at his wine." He must not
                                           the anxious, despairing, and fear-         be a drunkard, one addicted to al-
Prof. Decker is professor of Practical     ful. Hospitality refers to a willing-      cohol. Scripture does not forbid the
Theology in the Protestant Reformed        ness toI spend oneself and be spent        moderate use of alcohol. Jesus
Seminary.                                  for the ~saints. It is to be truly sym-    made and drank wine. Paul in this

300lStandard  Bearer/April I,1996


same letter tells Timothy to "use a       seek wealth is indeed very sinful.         waited one year before ordaining el-
little wine for thy stomach's sake        We are called to be goodstewards            ders in the churches established on
and thine often infirmities" (I Tim.      of the  Lords gifts. Our earthly            their first missionary  journey.3
5:23). But drunkenness is every-          goods must be used for God's King-          Some churches have a rule that new
where condemned by Scripture.             dom. Certainly a covetous lover of          converts or people coming from
Certainly one who is enslaved by          money is unfit to oversee God's             other denominations must attend
this sin is not fit for the office of     church.  ;  3                              services and participate in the life
elder.                                        Verses 4-7 of I Timothy 2 list          of the church for one year before
    The elder must be "no striker."       the last three qualifications. An el-      becoming members.
A striker is a bruiser, always ready      der must rule well his own house.              Finally, the elder must have a
with a blow, contentious, pugna-          He must be not a tyrant, but a faith-       good report from those who are out-
cious, or quarrelsome. Closely re-        ful husband and father. He must            side of the church. "Good report"
lated to this is the "brawler" men-       be one who has his children in sub-         means a good testimony. An elder
tioned in the same verse. This lat-       jection with all gravity. An elder          must not have a bad reputation in
ter was added no doubt for empha-         must not have unruly, disobedient           the work place or community. He
sis. It refers to a hardheadedness,       children.: The reason for this is that      must be known as a sincere, honest,
unreasonableness, one who is al-          if one does not know how to rule            and irreproachable Christian, If he
ways fighting. We ought to note           his own house, he cannot take care          does not have this testimony he falls
that most brawling in the church is       of the church.                              into reproach and the snare (trap)
done with words. Samuel Miller                The elder must not be a novice.         of the devil. And this brings shame
comments in this connection, `I... of     A novice is one newly planted in            to the name of Christ and His body,
all characters in a congregation, an      the faith, a recent convert. These         the church. 0
indiscreet, meddling, garrulous, gos-     are often full of zeal initially, but
siping, tattling Elder, is one of the     they have not yet been tested,
most  pestiferous."l  Such men do         proved in the battle of faith. They        l. Samuel Miller, The &Zing Elder,
not seek the peace of Jerusalem, but      need experience. The danger of             p. 254.
in pride they seek themselves. The        electing a novice is that he will be-
result is that the congregation is tom    come proud and fall into the con-          2 I Timothy 6:6-19.
by schism and strife, confusion, and      demnation of the devil. This is no
all kinds of evil. God's people can-      doubt why Paul and Barnabas                3. Acts 14:21-23 and I Timothy 522.
not grow in the knowledge of the
truth and in the grace of the Lord
Jesus in such an environment. Strik-
ers and brawlers scatter the sheep                          IS  CIFE  woqyKm?INq?
and are not fit to rule and care for
God's precious flock.                       Life is worth living,
    The elder must also be patient.           If lived to Him
Here is the sharp contrast. The el-             Who paid my penalty.
der must be no striker or brawler,
but he must be-patient. The word            All is worth giving,                 And then the giving
itself means "seemly, suitable, equi-         If given for Him                      Of His blest Word,
table, fair, mild, gentle." This kind           Who gave Himself for me.             That some may seek His face.
of man is fair minded, wilhng to
listen to all sides of a dispute. When     Life's not worth living               There's no real living
convinced by the Word of God he               If lived for self,                    Apart from Him
stands without compromise, but                  `Tis hollow mockery.                 Who gave Himself for us.
when convinced by the Word that
his position. is in error, he readily       `Tis not worth living,               The joy of giving
admits he is wrong. Gently and                `Tis wasted time,                     Is known to those
with the longsuffering of Christ he             And ends in misery.                  Who bow at Jesus' cross.
leads and guides the sheep. Pa-                                                                              -H.  McD.
tiently he bears with the weak.            Life is worth living
    Neither must an elder be covet-           If but for this,                                   from the April, 1926
ous, i.e., a lover of money. The love           To :praise Him for His grace.                           Standard Bearer
of money is the root of all  evil2
Riches and money in themselves are
not sinful. To love money and to

                                                                                                April 1,1996/Standard  Bearer/301


  `
    A~@f'
                              ~~              .,            ;;        -              :+@&&&@@g~@                                1


                                     William Ames:
           Puritan in the Netherlands

 Introduction                              Dutch ministers preached in English        and had the same structure of arch-
     Almost from the beginning of          churches and English preachers             bishops, bishops, and ,priests (along
 the history of the Reformation in the     found many years of enjoyable la-          with a multitude of other offices) as
 Netherlands a Puritan strain could        bor in Dutch churches. The con-            Rome had - except for cardinals
 be found in the Dutch Reformed            tacts were of many kinds, very close,      and a pope. In worship most of the
 Churches. This Puritan influence          and frequent.                              trappings, ceremonies, robes, litur-
was to continue for many years and              All this brought into the Neth-       gies, and symbols which were a part
 it made an indelible mark on Dutch        erlands a Dutch Puritanism which           of Romish worship could be found
 thought.      Some even speak of          remains in the Dutch churches to-          in the Anglican church as well -
"Dutch Puritanism."                        day.                                       and can still be found there today.
     The reason why a Puritan influ-           William Ames was one of the                Within the Anglican Church
ence could be found among the              Dutch Puritans.                            was a large group of clergy and
Dutch was the close contact,                                                          people who wanted more complete
throughout the centuries, between          Life in England                            reformation, not only in doctrine,             '
the Dutch and the English. The En-             Almost nothing is known of the         but also in church polity and wor-
glish came to the help of the Dutch        early life of William Ames; not any        ship. They made every effort to
in the War for Dutch Independence          of the details of his early life have      change the Anglican Church but
under William the Silent. The En-          come down to us. He was born in            were blocked in their efforts by
glish sent representatives to the          1576 in Ipswich, Suffolk, Co. Nor-         Elizabeth, who insisted on confor-
Synod of Dort (although it is a mat-       folk. This means that he was born          mity throughout her realm. Most
ter of debate whether they were of         in a town a short distance north of        clergy when forced to sign the Act
any assistance in the battle against       London near the Sea. And he was            of Conformity, did so. Some did
Arminianism). During the time of           born when Queen Elizabeth sat on           not. They became known as Puri-
Spanish persecution in the Nether-         the throne of England as the last of       tans because they wanted to purify
lands, many fled to England and            the Tudors. She had already seen           the church beyond what had so far
found refuge there; and during the         to it that Parliament passed the Act       been accomplished. They were also
efforts of the Stuart kings in England     of Conformity, which required that         known as Non-conformists, a name
to impose prelacy on all the               all churches follow the pattern of         which stuck for many years.
churches, many refugees found a            the Church of England both in wor-             For the most part the Non-con-
haven in the Netherlands. One need         ship and church government.                formists, though continuing to pro-
only think of the Pilgrims who, af-            These circumstances of Ames'           mote their non-conformity and
ter fleeing England, lived for a time      birth are so important that his en-        though refusing to sign any Acts of
in and near Leyden before sailing          tire life was controlled by them.          Conformity, stayed in the church.
for America. English scholars were         And so we shall have to say a few          Where else could they go? It was
recognized for their learning and          things about the struggle which            not until the Great Ejection that non-
were invited to Dutch universities         went on in England as a result of          conformists were expelled from the
to teach, and Dutch scholars found         Elizabeth's rule.                          Anglican Church and Non-conform-
positions in English universities.             The Church of England was, at          ist Churches sprang up throughout
                                           least officially, quite Calvin&tic, as     England.
                                           expressed in the 39 Articles of the            William Ames was a Puritan in
Prof: Hanko is professor of Church His-    Church of England - the official           the Anglican Church, outspoken and
toy and New Testament in the Protes-       creed of the church. In government,        vocal, and one who refused to bow
tant Reformed Semina y.                    the church was strictly hierarchical       before the dictates of Elizabeth. Nor

302lStandard  Bearer/April I,1996


could Archbishop Bancroft's most          was still raging, Ames was called            ognition of his contributions to the
strenuous opposition to non-confor-       before Dr. Carey, the master of the          university, made him rector in 1626.
mity move him. I suppose that if          college, and told he should wear a           During this time he had the privi-
Ames had been content to moder-           surplice, which was a robe worn by           lege and pleasure of serving with
ate his protests and keep his objec-      clerics to add to the dignity of their       Maccovius, of whom we spoke in
tions to himself he would have sur-       office. The Puritans had rejected the        our last article.
vived within the Anglican Church          use of such "papal" garments, but                Sadly, though, his abilities were
and would have been able to keep          the Anglicans were then and are              not recognized by his countrymen,
his post in Cambridge. But that was       now favorable to such clothing. Dr.          and the adage mentioned even in
not in his nature. He believed            Carey insisted that Scripture re-            Scripture that a prophet is not with-
deeply that prelacy, hierarchy, and       quired him to wear it, and when              out honor, save in his own country,
all the remnants of Rome that re-         Ames, rather astonished, asked for           `was true of Ames.
mained in the Anglican Church dis-        the text where such a command was                During the twelve years of his
honored God and made the church           found, Carey quoted the passage:             stay in Franeker, Ames served the
a wicked institution. His deep com-       "Put on the armour of light," which,         Dutch Reformed Churches well. He
mitment to these principles came to       Carey insisted, referred to a white          did battle against the high church
expression in his strong opposition       surplice. Ames' refusal to be                prelates in England and continued
to .the established church's practices    swayed by such exegesis infuriated           to write against their superstitious
and made him a passionate de-             the master.                                  ceremonies and Ron&h practices,
fender of Puritan goals.                                                               while defending vigorously the
    Ames received the bulk of `his        Ames' Labors in the Netherlands              regulative principle of worship. Ri-
education at Christ's College, Cam-           It was in the Hague that Ames            chard Baxter, famous for his still
bridge, where he studied under the        found employment as chaplain to              popular book, The Reformed Pas-
famous Puritan supralapsarian Wil-        Sir Horace Vere, the commander of            tor, left Anglicanism to join the Non-
liam Perkins. Being an ardent Puri-       the English troops in the Nether-            conformist movement because of the
tan he could hope for no advance-         lands, and at the same time served           writings of William Ames.
ment within Anglican circles.             as minister of the English church in             Ames also wrote extensively
Hence, when an opportunity to be-         the Hague.                                   against Roman Catholic error and
come chaplain of Cambridge Uni-               But the long arm of Ames' en-            took on the great Bellarmine, per-
versity opened up, he took it.            emies in England reached across the          haps the greatest of all Roman
    His stay in Cambridge did not         channel. The archbishop of Canter-           Catholic theologians since the time
last long. The very nature of an          bury wrote a letter to Sir Ralph             of the Reformation.
established State Church was con-         Winwood, the English ambassador                  But his chief enemies were al-
ducive in England to careless and         to Netherlands, to see to it that            ways the Arminians, whose theol-
profane living. The students in           Ames was removed from his posi-              ogy he detested as rationalistic and
Cambridge were no exceptions.             tion. His letter ended with these            humanistic - which it truly is. Not
And so, when Ames preached a ser-         words: "I wish the removing of him           only were they subjected to his
mon against various evil practices        to be as privateZy  and as cleanly CIII-     scathing attacks in print, but Ames
among the students, such as card-         ried as the matter will permit. We           was chosen to attend the Synod of
playing and gambling, his enemies         are also' acquainted what English            Dort, where he participated in their
took the opportunity to work for his      pr&zchers are entertained in Zeeland,        trial and condemnation. He was, in
censure. Hating him for his non-          whereunto in convenient time we              fact, paid four florins a day to at-
conformity, they used Ames` ser-          hope to give a redress."                     tend the Synod, and he served with
mon as an excuse to get rid of him.           But his persecutors could not fi-        distinction as assistant and private
    Ames quite clearly saw that he        nally keep him from finding em-              secretary to the president, the fiery
would be expelled from the Univer-        ployment in the land where he had            Johannes Bogerman. Ames' work
sity if he fought his case; and so he     chosen to make his home  - al-               was chiefly behind the scenes.
left the university and made his way      though they tried desperately. Be-               But William Ames always loved
to the Netherlands. After a brief         cause of his vast learning and great         above all the pastoral ministry and
stay in Leyden, he went to the            +ility Ames was called to be divin-          wanted to return to it. Added to
Hague.                                    ity professor at Franeker in                 this was a severe case of asthma,
    An interesting anecdote describ-      Friesland in 1622. Twelve years he           which made it difficult for him to
ing an event which took place prior       served in this prestigious school,           breathe in the winter months. He
to Ames' departure from the uni-          and his fame spread throughout all           was in fact so stricken that he feared
versity shows how clearly the issue       Europe. Students came from remote            every winter would be his last in
was reaIly one of non-conformity.         parts of the continent to study un-          the cold and damp northern prov-
While the storm over his sermon           der him, ,a.nd the school itself, in rec-    inces.

                                                                                                 April 1,1996/Standard  Bearer1303


     Thinking perhaps that the south-                    His wife and family did move          the Anglican Church and suffered
ern part of the Netherlands would                   to the new world after Ames' death         the awful persecution which was the
be better for his health, Ames took                 and took his extremely valuable li-        lot of the ejected ministers.
a call to the church in Rotterdam,                  brary with them. This library was               Although Ames was by no
where he served the Lord for a brief                an extraordinarily valuable legacy         means well known, the Dutch Re-
time. But the climate here did not                  in America, for he had one of the          formed Churches .owe him a great
make much difference in his asthma,                 finest libraries in the country, and       debt for his unwavering and uncom-
and Ames made plans to move to                      America, at this time in her history,      promising stand against  Armin-
America to settle among the Dutch                   was almost entirely without books.         ianism; and the Puritanism for
churches in New York or New Jer-                        Ames' son William returned             which he fought in England was to
sey. He died, however, before he                    from America to England and was            be his legacy in the Netherlands as
could make the move, and finished                   vocal in, the Non-conformist move-         it lived on in various branches of
his work on earth on November 14,                   ment in England until he, along with       the Reformed churches. Cl
1633 at the age of 57.                              so many others, was ejected from




      To Keep the Record Straight '
                                                                   (11
                                               I                                 I'                                                              I
     We recently received a copy of                 is little room for Canadian Reformed       marks should be seen in the light of
an article (which has by this time                  writers to defend their position in       seeking to promote understanding
probably appeared in print) written                 the Standard Bearer, the official pub-     and unity in the relationship with
by Dr. J.  DeJong, editor of the                    lication of the Protestant Reformed       the Protestant Reformed Churches.
Cl&on magazine of the Canadian                      Churches.                                 In many ways we share a common
                                                        I would not willingly return to
Reformed Churches, the Canadian                                                               history and common concerns! We
wing of the Liberated Churches. I                   these points were it not for another      can appreciate their warnings
was happy to receive it; for, if we                 series of remarkable allegations pub-     against the theory of common grace,
are to gain a full understanding of                 lished recently in Christian Renewal      and against the dangers of
this important chapter of our his-                  by Rev. B. Woudenberg.' Somehow           Arminianism! But to understand
tory, it is important that we under-                the issue of the PRC's relationship       each other's position, we need to
stand also how those on the Liber-                  to those whom they call "the Liber-       cover a good deal of ground, also
ated side of these issues perceive                  ated" just does not want to go away.      in the exact sequence of events sur-
the matters with which we have                      In fact, Rev. Woudenberg had a            rounding the early immigration.
been concerned. His article read as                 lengthy series of .articles dealing
follows:                                            with the !Liberated' in the Standard      The immigration situation
                                                    Bearer in `which many issues previ-             In his response to Rev. J.
Just for the record                                 ously discussed in the pages of           Tuininga of Lethbridge, Rev.
     Readers of Clarion will recall                 Clarion  were again brought  for-         Woudenberg reviews the early his-
that on more than one occasion vari-                ward.2 His remarks in Christian Re-       tory of the immigration in Canada,
ous writers, including myself, have                 newal only summarize what he had          and the effects this had on the Prot-
interacted with church leaders in the               said earlier in these articles.
Protestant Reformed Churches. Re-                       Some aspects of Rev. Wouden-
peated attempts to promote a mean-                  berg's comments in Christian Re-          1.    This concerns a response of Rev.
ingful discussion have not had                      newal merit a response. I prefer to       Woudenberg to Rev.  Jelle  Tuininga of
promising results. Except for the                   focus this time not primarily on doc-     Lethbridge, see  Chtistiun  Renewal  October
                                                                                              13,1995, p. 3 (Reader's Forum). The same ar-
occasional letter to the editor, there              trinal questions but questions of         ticle appeared in the Stundurd   Bearer, Vol.
                                                    church history. If there is to be any     72, No. 4 (Nov. 15,1995), 89-91
Rev. Woudenberg is pastor                           progress in ecumenical discussions,
                               of the Prot-                                                   2.
estant Reformed Church                              we must at least have a proper view             I refer to the  sties of articles "Taking
                            of Kalamazoo,                                                     Heed to Doctrine" as published intermittently
Michigan.                                           of what actually happened. My re-         in the Standard Bearer from May, 1992

304lStandard Bearer/April  I,1996


e&ant Reformed Churches. He says               I will bypass the remarks made        mutual correction, He wanted to
that the Protestant Reformed               about Prof. K. Schilder. Earlier in       give equal room to both views, and
Churches first welcomed the new            his article Woudenberg says that          so let matters resolve themselves
immip~ts with open arms. While             Schilder .was not inclined to give        through process of learning, study,
Rev. H. Hoeksema had said that he          definite answers on the differences       debate and interaction. If necessary,
did not agree with Schilder's con-         between himself and Hoeksema. I           this would lead to a new ecclesias-
cept of the covenant, he was willing       would only ask where this informa-        tical consensus through discussion
to give Schilder and the Liberated a       tion comes from; articles in De           at the various ecclesiastical assem-
fair hearing. New immigrants com-          Reformatie appear to tell a differ-       blies - although it should be noted
ing from the Liberated churches in         ent story. Yet my real concern is         that Holwerda himself does not
Holland were assured that they             the letter of Holwerda. For in            mention this possibility. Holwerda
were welcome in the PRC. As                Woudenberg's view, this letter was        simply followed the norms of Scrip-
Woudenberg says, `I.., although we         the occasion for the rift between         ture regarding the gathering of the
had no hesitancy about receiving           "Liberated" immigrants and the            church as applied to the concrete
their members, we were careful to          Protestant Reformed Churches. Is          situation facing the immigrants.
inform them that, while they were          this true?
free to believe about the covenant                                                   The later history
what they would, they could expect         A look at the letter                            Was this letter the occasion for
a different view to be preached from           Perhaps it should be noted first      the rift? That appears to me as an
our pulpits."3                             of all that Prof. Holwerda's letter       inaccurate rendition of the facts. For
    So far there is little disagree-       was published without his consent,        this advice of Holwerda was fol-
ment aboutthe  course of events.           and in complete disregard of its          lowed by the early immigrants both
There is no doubt that the early `Lib-     stated intent. In this letter, written    in the Hamilton and in the Chatham
erated' immigrants had a view of           to brother J. Koster of Chatham,          area. Chatham was first instituted
the covenant which differed from           Prof. Holwerda only states that, in       as a Protestant Reformed Church,
the one promoted by the Revs.              accordance with what he had               and Hamilton also opened its pul-
Hoeksema and *hoff. But the PRC            learned from the PRC ministers Kok        pit to ministers from the Protestant
had other ministers with different         and DeJong, there was no binding          Reformed Church. Much apprecia-
views, and there was sufficient room       to the opinions of the Revs. Hoek-        tion was expressed for PRC work-
for various views on the covenant.         sema and  Ophoff.5 In the letter          ers such as Rev. Cammenga and
The only requirement was that all          Holwerda expresses his disag-ree-         Rev. Petter. Thus, while the immi-
be bound to God's Word as con-             ments with the hesitancy of the           grants did not want to adopt the
fessed in the Three Forms of Unity.        Synod of Amersfoort 1948 to enter         PRC view of the covenant they re-
                                           into correspondence with the Prot-        mained open to fellowship with
T+e letter of Prof. Holwerda               estant Reformed Churches, and he          these churches, and willingly ac-
    All this changed, according to         also states, "The Protestant Re-          cepted PRC ministers.
Rev. Woudenberg, when a letter was         formed Church is the true church".              How did the rift come? It came
written by Prof. B. Holwerda to one        He then expresses the hope that Lib-      through the adoption of the infa-
of the new immigrants concerning           erated immigrants, having joined
the course of action they ought to         the PRC, might assist in a "deepen-
follow.    As Woudenberg puts it:          ing of insight." He quotes Rev. Kok       3.    Christinn  Renezml,  October 23, 1995,
"But then it was discovered that           who had said, "We can learn from          page 3.
Prof. Holwerda was privately ad-           each other." And Holwerda ex-
vising those same immigrants (`Lib-        presses the wish that the doctrinal       4.    Ibid., 3.
erated', JD) to join the Protestant Re-    riches of the Netherlands might be        5.
formed, but to ignore Hoeksema's           passed on to the Protestant Re-                 The text of the original letter can be
                                                                                     found in the Stundurd Beurer, Vol. 25, #20,
covenant view and work their own           formed Churches.                          (Aug 1,1949),  p. 469. Rev. Woudenberg gives
into our churches - and even more,             It is clear from the letter itself    a (rather poor) translation of the same in the
that certain of our ministers had pri-     that there is no substance to the         Standard Bearer, Vol. 68, #15, (May 1,1992),
vately expressed their approval of         rather coloured allegations of Rev.       355-356.
this. That, and not Schilder's igno-       Woudenberg. For he reads Prof.            6.    This is clear  from  what he wrote in 1992:
rance of our differences was what          Holwerda's letter as a distinct plan      "...Prof. Holwerda, rather than contacting  our
brought about the breakdown of re-         of attack against the Protestant Re-      churches openly and discussing our differ-
lationships between us and the Lib-        formed Churches, a pre-arranged           ences, was secretly instructing the immigrants
erated, as well as causing a major         strategy of infiltration.6 But that is    to infiltrate our churches and take them over
                                                                                     for  their view." The Stundurd Bearer, Vol. 68,
disruption in our own denomina-            entirely misconstrued, for Holwerda       No.  15  (May  1,1992), 356. Nothing of this
tion."4                                    promoted mutual upbuilding and            can be found in Holwerda's letter.

                                                                                                   April 1,19961Standard Bearer/396


     mous Declaration of Principles by            facts? We can always debate the           channels of discussion open, and
     the PRC Synod of 1951. Before that           issues, but the sequence of events        hope and pray that through contin-
     time, that is, for two years (!) after       should not be hopelessly skewed           ued study, prayer and dialogue, we
     the letter of Prof. Holwerda, there          and misr:epresented in favour of vin-     may witness the growing unity of
     was .ongoing fellowship with the             dicating our-theological perspectives     those who according to the norms
     PRC. Only when the Synod adopted             on the covenant How can we ever           of the word belong together in the
     the Declaration as a binding state-          make progress in Reformed                 Lord.
     ment for the institution of new              ecumenicity if we do not accurately                                            J. DeJong
     churches, only then did the breach           recount the past?
     come. At this point Chatham could                Even a. neutral reader can see              This then constitutes the article
     no longer remain in the fellowship           that the :Hoeksema-Ophoff maneu-          of Dr. DeJong. As you may note,
     of~PRC churches. The rift came not           vers in 1949 and 1950 were an over-       he focuses most of his attention on
     from a personal letter, but from the         blown and highly charged reaction-        the letter of Prof. Holwerda, which
     very public Declaration of  Prin-            ary attempt to shore up Hoeksema's        from a historical point of view is
     ciples.7                                     view of the covenant. Had the             certainly appropriate. In fact, how
         If the thesis of Rev. Woudenberg         brothers been more cautious and           one understands this difficult but
     was correct, there would not have            less stringent in their approach, they    important juncture in our history
     been a two-year interval before the          would not have lost so many people        will be reflected in how one inter-
     schism with the Protestant Re-               to the CRC and the Canadian Re-           prets the various nuances found in
     formed Churches actually took                formed Churches.                          that letter. In order to try to make
     place. If the personal and private               Prof..K. Schilder repeatedly said     our viewpoint clear, we will deal
     letter of Prof. Holwerda had the             to Rev. Hoeksema: we have no spe-         with that letter in terms of the his-
     kind of effects as suggested by Rev.         cial view of the covenant. Indeed,        tory that led up to it in our next
     Van Woudenberg the rift would                there were many different views on        articles.  Cl
     have taken place immediately, or at          the covenant going right back to the
     least shortly after the letter itself was    early days of the Secession. It is
     written. Not only do we have the             true that the Liberation produced a
     clear mark of the two-year interval,         crystallization of Reformed under-        7.     The decision of the  consistory  of
     we also have the official declaration        standing. regarding the covenant.         Chatham is found in De Reformutie Vol. 27,
     of the con&story of Chatham con-             But no one view was ever adopted          No. 9 (December 1,  1951), 79. The decision
                                                                                            and further elucidation is signed by the broth-
     firming the exact reasons for their          as confessionally binding. In fact        ers J. Koster, president, and J. Van Dieren,
     secession.                                   "Liberated" means that binding to         clerk. For more on the content of the Declara-
         I write these lines not to need-         one particular view on the'covenant       tion of Principles and the decision of the
     lessly provoke conflicts or to open          was explicitly rejected.                  co&story of Chatham, see W.W.J. VanOene,
                                                                                            Inheritance  Presemed.  The.  Can&an Re-
     old wounds. My only point is:                    Since we have so much- in com-        formed Churches in Histoticul Perspective
     should we not first be sure of the           mon, we can only strive to keep           (Premier, Winnipeg,  1975), 6447.





                                The Calling of the
                    Young W0rne.n to Mar
                    and to Bear Children (7)

.                                                     We return in this article to the      enant children. 3) Guide the house.
            I                                     three exhortations that Paul, the in-     We saw in our last article how these
                                                  spired apostle of the Lord, gives to      three are related.
     Rev. &nHartog is pastor of Hope Prot-        young women in the church in I                  Young women in the church
     estant Reformed Church in Redlands,          Timothy 5:14. He exhorts them to:         must realize what a tremendous
     California.                                  1) Marry :m the Lord. 2) Bear cov-        calling it is to bear covenant chil-

     306/StandardBearerlApril1,1996


dren; God has given you this call-       deemed eternally in heaven prais-           can be absolutely sure that all the
ing in His grand and wonderful cov-      ing and glorifying God? What                urging for a supposed societal role
enant purpose. It is His purpose to      earthly achievement or career could         in caring for children is going to fall
gather His church from the begin-        possibly  c.ompare with this? The           flat in helping to improve the way
ning to the end of the world from        God-fearing woman properly de-              America raises its youth, as long as
the generations of believers.            sires to serve her Lord in this man-        women everywhere are being en-
    We conceive and bring forth our      ner. She says with Mary, the mother         couraged to forsake their God-or-
children .in sin. From birth they are    of the Lord, "Behold-the handmaid           dained responsibility to II guide their
just as wicked and depraved and          of the Lord; be it unto me accord-          house."
damn-worthy as we are. Not one           ing to thy word" (Luke 238).                       The word that is translated in
of them could possibly by his physi-         The calling of the young woman          the KJV as "guide the house" is a
cal birth have any claim to the king-    in the church, however, does not            compound word. The compound
dom of God. If it were not for the       end when she has given birth to cov-        word is a combination of a word
grace of God, we with our children       enant children. She must for the            that means house and another that
would be condemned forever with          sake of these covenant children, and        is, literally, "despot." The godly
the ungodly world. But God, by           also for the continuation of God's          young woman is to be a "despot"
His sovereign grace, is pleased to       purpose for her marriage, "guide            in her home. That of course does
save us and also those He `has or-       her house." Covenant children must          not mean that she is to be a cruel,
dained among our children. He is         be nurtured, cared for, protected,          unloving tyrant in her home. Nei-
sovereignly pleased to continue His      trained, and disciplined in the cov-        ther does it  mean that the young
covenant with them from generation       enant home. God ordained it that            woman is to usurp the authority of
to generation.                           way. The godly woman has a very             her husband in marriage and in the
    In every age new lines of the        great role in this also. Except for         home. Such an interpretation would
covenant are  begun. By the power        those children whom the Lord is             contradict other Scriptures. Rather
of the preaching of the gospel to the    pleased to take out of this life in         the wife and mother is a "despot"
nation's, God's elect are brought        infancy, God will have His covenant         in her home when she takes charge
unto salvation and into His church.      children trained from childhood on          in the  covenant  home. She must
Sonietimes whole families are saved      in the way of the Lord. For this                  manage her home. She must bear
at  once, as we  find to have been       He is pleased to use God-fear-                      the responsibility that God has
true several times in the book of        ing women. This role for the             There        given her. She must manage
Acts. The church of God is contin-       godly woman requires great          is hardly         her home well, to be "on top
ued with these new generations and       responsibility, years of faith-    any earthly         of things," have things un-
with those who have for many gen-        ful labors, and tremendous                             der control for the purpose
                                                                            occupation
erations been members of God's           self-sacrifice. But this is        fhat requires       of raising her Children in the
covenant. What a wonder it is that       pleasing unto the Lord and                             fear of the Lord. This re-
many of us can trace God's covenant      will be greatly rewarded.           more self-
                                                                              sacrifice         quires her constant presence
lines back for many generations.             No other institution in        than the role       in the home. This requires
This is all because of the faithful-     the world; only the covenant                           hard and diligent work on
ness and mercy of God and not'be-        home, can nurture covenant           of being
                                                                              a godly           her part. This requires great
cause of `our own efforts. It is not     children. Not even the church        mother.          talents and great skill and
something  inherited on account of       without the home can really do                       great wisdom on her part. It
our natural relationships to our par-    that. Certainly not an ungodly                      requires wholehearted and
ents and grandparents on the one         "day-care `institution." How can any              complete devotion. There are in
side and to our children on the          thinking, godly woman imagine               fact hardly any God-given talents
other. God saves each new genera-        such a thing? For this reason God           that cannot be employed for this
tion by His amazing grace in Christ      has called you young women to               purpose to the fullest extent. There
Jesus and through repentance and         "guide your house." Mrs. Hillary            is hardly any earthly occupation that
faith in Him.                            Clinton is advocating in her newly          requires more self-sacrifice than the
    Among the greatest of God's          publicized book that society in gen-        role of being a godly mother. Lov-
wonders is that He uses us, and par-     eral must.nurture children. This is         ing self-sacrifice is one of the most
ticularly you godly young women,         all terribly hypocritical when she is       glorious of all Christian virtues.
to bring forth the `children of the      a 1eading:advocate  of feminist phi-               Children need a lot of love and
covenant. Stop and think of the as-      losophy that promotes the great evil        care and discipline, especially in
tounding wonder of this! What            of abortion and does everything in          their early lives. They are very im-
could be more wonderful than that        its power to "liberate" the woman           pressionable. They are greatly in-
our children will some day be            from the  home and to demean the            fluenced by what goes on in the
among the company of the re-             role of the women in the home. We           home, or, in some instances, what

                                                                                                 April 1,1996/Standard  Bearer1307


does not go on in the home. They            children. She must be a role model           when this woman faithfully serves
need to be molded and directed in           for them. She must be a model of             God, all that mockery will be put to
their young lives. The world is full        self-sacrifice and tender and com-           silence, because God will exalt her.
of great evils that have tremendous         passionate Christian love. Children,             Paul laments that already in his
potential to corrupt our children and       especially covenant children who             day many had turned aside unto the
to harden the sinful nature that they       have the Spirit of God in their              devil. Many more today in the
were born with. The world can eas-          hearts, will notice this. They will          sphere of the church who profess to
ily lead our children totally astray,       be greatly influenced by this. They          be Christians have "turned aside
through books they read and televi-         will by the grace of God in their            unto the devil." They have done
sion they watch and all the other           hearts follow this role model. This          this because they have forsaken their
many influences of the world that           will be to the credit of their godly         responsibility in the home in order
come into their lives almost from           mothers, and to the rightful and             to go out into the world.
birth on. The devil wants our chil-         godly praise of these great women                The role of the God-fearing
dren, especially those born of cov-         in the church.                               young woman in the home is an
enant parents. If he can get them                  Paul concludes his admonition         honorable role. It is one of greatest
already when they are young, they           to the godly young woman by tell-            significance. It is one that when
will follow him all their life. The         ing her that she must be careful that        faithfully carried out will bring the
wicked world wants to make its              the adversary does not speak re-             greatest reward from the Lord.
own impact on our children, to              proachfully of her. The positive im-         Proverbs 31 describes the virtuous
mold them according to its own evil         plication of that statement is of            woman. She is very obviously the
and godless philosophy. The godly           course that the great concern of the         woman who "guides her house"
woman is called to do all in her            God-fearing woman must be that               well for the sake of her husband and
power to prevent this from happen-          she glorifies God. To do that she            family. She is no modem-day, glam-
ing.                                        must avoid as much as possible a             orous career-woman great in the
         Chiefly, covenant children need    life-style that will bring reproach to       world of the ungodly. She is a
to be nurtured and instructed in the        the name of God. The world follows           woman who fears God. The in-
great principles of the Word of                    the .devil. It praises its own. It    spired writer of Proverbs says:
God and the fear of His                               glamorizes the most wicked         "Favour is deceitful, and beauty is
name. They must from                 The godly          women of the world. The          vain: but a woman that feareth the
childhood be told the                 woman             heroines of the world are        Lord, she shall be praised." The
blessed truths of the gos-             in the            the Marilyn Monroes, the        godly woman who has been a guide
pel. It takes a lot of time       covenant home          Elizabeth Taylors, the          of her house will be praised. She
and effort and sacrifice to           must be             Murphy Browns, and all         will not in our modem world have
do this. There is no such         a daily example         the other wicked, vain,        the praise of men. But who cares
thing as quality time ver-           before her           and adulterous movie           about that anyway?           All such
sus quantity time in this            growing,             stars that are so famous       worldly praise is vain. The godly
matter. It takes a lot of         impressionable         in the media. The wicked        woman who has been faithful to
quality time and effort.             children.          world knows very well            serve in her God-ordained sphere
The godly mother in her                               that God's Word demands            in the home shall finally be praised
God-ordained sphere in the                          a radically different life on the    by God. And an added blessing of
home must diligently and faithfully         part of those who profess the Chris-         no small account which God gives
teach her children the truths of            tian faith. Therefore when those             as her reward already in this life is
God's Word, as these little children        who profess the Christian faith live         that her children shall rise up and
eat from her hands and sit on her           just like the rest of the .world, the        call her blessed; her husband also,
knees. Mother must each day give            adversary will speak reproachfully.          and he shall praise her. Cl
her children a balanced measure of                 The adversary loves nothing
love, care, and compassion, with            more than ridiculing God's people.
firm and consistent discipline. A           By doing this the devil blasphemes
woman who is totally exhausted by           God and those who confess to be
a career outside of the home is             His children. The God-fearing
hardly fit to do this. She does not         woman strives by God's grace as
have the emotional and psychologi-          much as possible to avoid this, be-
cal energy that is needed for this          cause she loves God and seeks in
role.                                       all things the glory of His name.
    The godly woman in the cov-             Certainly the world, especially to-
enant home must be a daily example          day, mocks the godly woman in the
before her growing, impressionable          role that God has given her. But

306/StandardBearerlApril1,1996


                                                                             !
1                    !gkqy@P~~                                               ;-                     w&g&g$i@(


                                                       Chapter 6
        The Fall of Our First Parents

The Tempter (1)                               thology. It consisted in some deed;         says - for the Bible is the Word of
        We now turn to Scripture's            it involved an actual temptation. If        God - that the serpent was the
record concerning the temptation              this is not true, then there is no such     tempter, and that the serpent spoke
and fall of our first parents in Para-        thing as the fact of sin. If it is true,    to Eve. Men say, "No, this is myth;
dise the First, and in particular to          then why is it not literally as Scrip-      there was no serpent, and there was
the record of Scripture concerning            ture informs us?                            no speech of the serpent," contra-
the tempter, the agent in that temp-              Moreover, we call attention to          dicting God. This is the serious-
tation and fall. He is described in           the fact that there is absolutely noth-     ness of the matter. A theory like
the opening words of Genesis 3:               ing in the simple and matter-of-fact        this is the lie of the devil over
"Now the serpent was more subtle              narrative which leaves the impres-          against the truth of God.
than any beast of the field which             sion that Scripture intends to relate           There are others who attempt
the Lord God had made. And he                 myths or to put forth parables or           to explain that the name "serpent"
said unto the woman, Yea, hath God            allegories. The Bible indeed uses           here is a mere symbolical name for
said, Ye shall not eat of every tree          parables and allegories, and even           the devil. Certainly, they say, the
of the garden?"                               fables, but when it does so, it leaves      "serpent!' spoke, but, they say, all
        The first fact which must be em-      no doubt about the fact that it is          the rest of Scripture plainly tells us
phasized in this connection is that           doing so. IHere in Genesis there is         that the serpent is the devil.
the tempter was a real serpent.               not even so much as a hint of this.             Now it is certainly true that the
        There.are many modem theolo-          There is only one possibility open,         Bible elsewhere alludes to the ser-
gians and teachers who in one de-             and that is to accept what is written       pent and his poison figuratively, as
vious manner or another want to               here literally.                             symbolizing the power of evil and
deny this and want to maintain that               Moreover, it must be empha-             the influence of the devil. Thus, you
this `narrativ,e of the Fall is a bit of      sized that this is a very serious           read in Psalm 140:3, a passage which
mythology. They point to what they            thing, not a matter of theological          is quoted in Romans 393, where the
claim is the obvious impossibility of         hair-splitting and something about          apostle is describing the depravity
a narrative like this, and they go on         which the church ought not to con-          of the natural man: "They have
to assert that it does not really mat-        cern itself. `We must not be deceived       sharpened their tongues like a ser-
ter whether you believe in those              about this in this age of alleged tol-      pent; adders' poison is under their
wonderful stories literally. The im-          erance. The truth comes to the part-        lips." The Lord Jesus addresses the
portant thing is that you retain the          ing of the ways with the lie at this        hypocritical Scribes and Pharisees in
kernel of truth that is conveyed by           point. Those who deny the literal           the following language, according to
the stories. What is that so-called           character of the narrative and the          Matthew 23:33: "Ye serpents, ye
kernel of truth? This, that somehow           factualness' of what is related are de-     generation of vipers, how can ye es-
man was tempted to sin.                       nying the reality of the fall into sin.     cape the damnation of hell?" But
        But we call your attention to         They are denying sin. When you              references of this kind do not prove
this, that the fact of sin is ysome-          deny sin, you must needs deny sal-          the point. For, in the first place,
how" not a bit of mythology, but a            vation also: for there is no room           these very figurative references are
terrible  and  real  fact  Thatfact of sin    for salvation where there is no sin.        only possible because of the fact that
certainly took place. It certainly has            In addition, they are doing the         the serpent, the real serpent, was
its origin in fact, not in a bit of my-       very thing that the devil did accord-       the instrument of the devil in the
                                              ing to this narrative. God had said,        first temptation. In the second
                                              "Thou shalt surely die." The devil          place, it is obvious from the text in
The late Homer Hoeksema was profes-           said, "Ye shall not surely die," con-       Genesis that this serpent was not a
sor                                                                                       symbolical serpent. According to
        of Dogmatics and OZd  Testament       tradicting God. Thus it is with the
in the Protestant Reformed Seminary.          question under consideration. God           verse 1, he is classed.with the beasts

                                                                                                   April 1,1996/Standard  Beared


of the field, "He was more subtle          If you, ask whether the serpent            man this is different. The devil has
than any beast of the field which          spoke, whether he was ,able to com-        access to our hearts and minds. He
the Lord God had made." Accord-            muriicate with man, the answer             has an ally in man's sinful nature.
ing to the curse pronounced upon           must needs be: yes, for the Bible          This is also true of the Christian in
him in verse 14, this serpent is the       tells us this. If you then ask whether     this life, even though he is regener-
same creature that we now know             this is not impossible, then the           ated and is principally a new man.
as going on his belly in the dust of       counter-question is in order: why          The foe is within the gate, in the
the ground.                                should :it be impossible, when God         Christian's flesh, his old nature. Be-
     Hence, there can be no question       Himself tells us that he spoke to          cause of this situation, the devil can
about it, that the Word of God here        Eve? Is the fact that the serpent          tempt us from within. But that was
is speaking of a real serpent.             does not now so speak a reason why         not the case with Adam. Adam was
     However, we must remember             he should not have had some power          perfect, even though he was fallible.
that it was the serpent not as we          to communicate with man origi-             He was filled with the knowledge
know the snake today. We know              nally, or a reason why the devil           of God and righteousness and holi-
him as he has been humiliated and          could not have used that power for         ness. There was no corruption and
cursed because of his speaking             his end? For while we must remem-          no inclination toward corruption in
against God and against man, as he         ber that the devil was the moral,          his nature. The avenues of his mind
is described in 3:14: "And the Lord        rational subject speaking through          and heart were closed toward the
God said unto the serpent, Because         the serpent in Paradise, yet we must       devil. Hence, he could only be. ap-
thou hast done this, thou art cursed       also remember that the devil could         proached from without. For this,
above all cattle, and above every          not give to -the serpent the power of      the devil, who is a spirit, had need
beast of the field; upon thy belly         speech. The devil is not God! Be-          of an outward form, of an instru-
shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou         sides, the narrative certainly does        ment, an agency, from the realm of
eat all the days of thy life."             not leave the impression that Eve          man's earthly sense-experience.
     This does not mean that we are        was taken by surprise, that she con-           This meant, of course, that the
able to determine in detail the            sidered :it extraordinary that the ser-    devil was limited to some created
former appearance of this creature.        pent spoke to her. At least, the nar-      form. The devil cannot create a
Nor is this necessary. There may,          rative tells us very matter-of-factly      form for himself; he is but a crea-
in fact, be many questions which we        that Eve replied to him.                   ture himself, and does not have the
cannot answer, but also which we               3) .As we already pointed out,         power to create. Certainly, God
need not answer, except for                later in the chapter we learn that         does not create special forms suit-
curiosity's sake.                          originally the serpent did not belong      able for the devil's nature: for the
     On the other hand, we may well        to the "creeping things," but that the     devil is the enemy of God. Satan
take note of some significant points       curse pronounced upon him re-              was, therefore, limited to some cre-
in the light of Scripture.                 versed his status from the most            ated form. Then he would natu-
     1) The Bible  tells us that the       subtle among the beasts to that of         rally choose the animal. For this
serpent was the most subtle of the         the lowliest. Again, if you inquire        was the creature nearest to man. It
animals. We must not understand            whether originally the serpent had         was through this creature that he
the term "subtle" in the evil sense,       wings or legs, there is no answer.         could most easily approach man and
but in the favorable sense. This           But surely, Scripture leaves the im-       the subject of the forbidden tree. If
points to the fact that the serpent        pression that the serpent was origi-       then we remember that the serpent
was endowed originally with a high         nally among the higher animals,            was more cunning than any beast
degree of animal intelligence. `Al-        those which would be classed as            of the field, and that the serpent had
though we can hardly imagine this          most nearly akin to man, and that          the power of communication with
today, after the radical change            he was originally noble in form and        man, and was perhaps of all the ani-
which was wrought through the              stature, not lowly and crawling on         mals nearest to man originally, then
curse, it is not impossible that origi-    his belly in the dust of the ground.       we can somewhat understand that
nally the serpent was closest to man           All this brings us to the ques-        Satan saw in the serpent the instru-
among the animals and somehow              tion: why did the devil employ the         ment most fit to serve him in his
represented the animal world with          serpent in the temptation of our first     wicked purpose. Q
man.                                       parents?
    2) It is evident that the serpent          In answer to this question, we
possessed some form of speech. If          should note, in the first place, that
you ask whether the serpent had the        the devil had need of some external
power of human language, we                form and some external instrument
would have to answer that this is          in order i to approach Adam and Eve
obviously limited to human beings.         with his temptation. With sinful

31 O/Standard Bearer/April I,1996    .


Sister-Church Activities                   provided an interesting report of his    come, God willing, the C PRC in
    The Covenant. and First Evan-          and Mr. Tom Bodbyl's recently con-       Northern Ireland. May God grant
gelical Reformed Churches of               cluded visit with our missionary,        them the desires of their heart."
Singapore, through their Evangeli-         Rev. R. Hanko, his -family, and the
cal Reformed Bible School, recently        Covenant Reformed Fellowship in          Congregational Activities
sponsored a new Bible study class.         Northern Ireland.                            The ReformedFellowship of the
Rev, Lau Chin Kwee, pastor at Cov-             Rev. Gritters writes that the        South Holland, IL PRC invited all
enant, set the course direction for        "CRF is eager to organize. And that      those in their congregation inter-
this three-month course. The course        was the work that Tom and he dis-        ested in hearing a lecture on the doc-
title `was "Spiritual Gifts." It was       cussed with them throughout the          trine of the last things to join them
designed to address spiritual gifts        stay there. They met with all the        on Sunday, February 25, in the as-
ip the church, treating I Corinthians      men of the Fellowship and tried to       sembly room at South Holland PR
12, and applying it to the unique          lay out the questions the Con&tory       School, to hear Prof. D. Engelsma,
situation faced by- those two con-         of Hudsonville and the Mission           of our seminary, speakon that topic.
gregations in Singapore. The course        Committee had asked to be dis-           A coffee pot was also promised to
was to include also some workshops         cussed. Then, throughout the stay,       be on.
for practical applications as well.        they had dinner (`tea') with each
This class was to meet every week          family, family visitation with the       Evangelism Activities
at the First E.R.C. beginning Febru-       family, and then lengthy discussion          This past year the Evangelism
ary 6 and running through April 30.        with the adult family members            Committee of the Faith PRC in
                                           about organization. They also met        Jenison, MI has tried something a
Mission Activities                         with the whole group the Sunday          little different, in that they have ad-
    Our Home Missionary, Rev. T.           evening before they left, summa-         vertised in the Traverse City paper,
Miersma, was in Florence, KY for           rized for them what they had found,      Cadillac paper, and Muskegon
three weeks in mid-February to in-         and left them with their very favor-     Chronicle, offering a one-year free
vestigate the possibility of a field in    able impressions of the group and        subscription to the Standard Bearer.
this, area. The request to investi-        our missionarys work.                    These three cities are all between
gate this area came from the Coun-             "They also tried to meet with        one and two hours north of the
cil of-the South Holland, IL PRC to        Rev. Hanko daily to discuss his          Jenison area and represent smaller
the Mission Committee last fall. It        work as  .missionary.  They were         areas that may have been over-
was.South Holland's belief that this       very encouraged by the diligence he      looked in the past. Faith has also
area was worthy of being investi-          shows in his work. He spends day         been encouraged by the results, a
gated and that they (South Holland)        and night preparing for sermons          total of seven families so far have
had gone as far as they could in this      and speeches, Bible studies and vis-     requested this subscription.
work. Rev. Miersma also planned            its. He writes letters to people all         The Evangelism Committee of
to make a trip to Pittsburgh, PA dur-      over the UK (England, Scotland,          the Grandville, MI PRC is experi-
ing that three-week period to visit        Wales, and Northern Ireland) an-         menting with video taping their
some families there who have ex-           swering questions that are raised        worship services for possible broad-
pressed interest in the Reformed           from their bi-weekly Newsletter.         casting at a later date.
faith and our churches.                    Many of their visitors, as well as
    In the most recent issue of "The       isolated groups of believers, have       Young People's Activities              .
Closer Look," a monthly newsletter         come to them through the Newslet-            The Young People's Society of
of the Hudsonville, MI PRC, Rev.           ter that he writes and mails out to      the Randolph, WI PRC again invited
B. Gritters, Hudsonville's pastor,         over 500 addresses. The members          the young people of the South Hol-
                                           of the CRF receive his ministry with     land, Peace, Bethel, and Pella con-
                                           great joy and enthusiasm. We are         gregations to a skiing outing at Cas-
                                           thankful ,that God gives them a          cade Mt. in Portage, WI. This was
                                           faithful missionary and pastor."         to be an overnight trip with a gym-
Mr. Wigger is a member of the Protes-         Rev. Gritters concludes his re-       night scheduled for Friday night,
tant Refotied Church of Hudsonville,       port by writing, "Seek God's bless-      February 2, and skiing on Saturday,
Michigan:                                  ing on the CRF, which hopes to be-       February 3. The expected 70 young

                                                                                              April 1,1996/Standard  Bearer/31  1


                                                                                                                      SECOND CLASS
                                                                                                                      Postage Paid at
                                                                                                                      Grandvile,  Michigan
        p.0. Box603
        Grandvile,  MI 49468-0603

 t                                                                                  I!                                                              1
 people were to stay'with members                           Rev. M. Dick, of the Immanuel         Food-for TKougk
 of our Randolph church.                               PRC in Lacombe, AB, Canada, has                "The true Christian will main-
                                                        accepted the call he had been ex-         tain firmly that nothing can be right
 Minister Activities                                   tended from the Grace PRC in               which God says is wrong"
         Rev. W. Bruinsma declined the                 Standale, MI                                                       - J.C. Ryle Cl
 call he had been extended from our
 Doon, IA PRC.




         WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                              RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                      WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
         On March 23, 1996, our parents                     The ,Men's and Ladies' Society            On April 5, 1996, we celebrate
 and grandparents,                                     of the First PRC of Holland, Michi-        the 40th wedding anniversary of our
          MR. and MRS. HOWARD                          gan expresses their sincere Chris-         parents and grandparents,
                    KRAKER,                            tian sympathy to Cornelius and                  VERNON and BARBARA
celebrated their 40th wedding anni-                    Frances Doezema in the death of                            KLAMER.
versary.                                               her brother,                               We thank our heavenly Father for
         We are thankful to our heavenly                          JAMES DYKSTRA.                  the faithfulness He has shown us
Father for giving us God-fearing par-                       May they find comfort in God's        through their love, guidance, and
ents and for the covenant instruc-                     Word, "The eternal God is thy ref-         prayers. May our gracious God con-
tion we received from them. It is                      uge and: underneath are the ever-          tinue to bless and preserve them.
our prayer that God may continue                       lasting arms" (Deuteronomy 33:27).         "I will sing of the mercies of the Lord
to bless them for many years to                                            Alan Elzinga, Pres.    forever: with my mouth will I make
come.                                                                  Shirley Casemier, Sec'y    known thy faithfulness to all genera-
         "For the Lord is good; his mercy                                                         tions" (Psalm 89:i).
is everlasting; and his truth endureth                                 NOTICE!!!                  @I Tom and Vicky VanOverloop
to all generations" (Psalm 1005).                           Classis  East will meet in regular          Brandon,  Heidi, Heather,
0 Dale and Ruth Kraker                                 session on Wednesday, May 8,1996                                                Hillary
           Ryan, Lauren, and Lisa                      at the Grandville Protestant  .Re-         @I Rev. Chuck and Verna Terpstra
@ David and Sharon Kraker                              formed Church. Material to be                    Corey, Amber, Kimberly,
@ Dave and Denise Overweg                              treated at this session must be in                            Thad, Kyle, Justin
           Danae                                       the hands of the Stated Clerk by           @I John G. and Valerie VanBaren
                               Allendale.  Michigan    April 10, 1996.                                  Jennifer, Jordan, Jill, Jared
                                                                 Jon J. Huisken, Stated Clerk     @I Bruce and JoAnn  Klamer
                                                                                                        Alyssa, Jaycen,  Deanna,
      RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                             RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                                    Zachary
        The Council and congregation of                    The Men's and Ladies' Society          @I David and Vonda Jessup.
the Loveland Protestant Reformed                       of the First Protestant Reformed                 Nathan, Katelyn, Chad
Church extends its sympathy to Mr.                     Church in Holland, Ml expresses            @I Steven and Brenda Langerak
Paul Griess in the death of his sis-                   their heartfelt sympathy to Mr. and              Daniel, Tyler, Brianna
ter,                                                   Mrs. Henry Lubbers in the death of         @ Brent and Shelli Klamer
        MRS. CONNIE TROUTMAN.                          his sister,                                     Jessica
It is our prayer that God may gra-                               HERMINA JELSEMA.                                         Byron Center, Michigan
ciously provide in the knowledge that                      `I... whether we live therefore, or
He works all things together for good                  die, we are the Lord's" (Romans
to them that love Him (Rom. 8:28).                     14:8).
            f    Rev., G. VanBaren, Pres.                              Alan Elzinga, President
                       Robert Brands, Clerk              Mrs.  LaVern Casemier, Secretary

312lStandardBearerlApril1,1996


