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                                See "Hyper-Calvinism and Arminianism: the Alternatives?"
                                                                                    - p. 317


     Vol.  72,  No.  14
I    April 15,1996


CONTENTS:                                                                                                                                               April 75, 7996
1                                                                                                                                                                                                              I

Meditation i Rev. Michael J. DeVries                                                                                --
          Coming to the Throne of Grace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315                                                                    lSSNO36%+692
Editorials - Prof. David J. Enge@a
          Hyper-Calvinism and Arminianism: the Alternatives? . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317                                                                                                                               Semi-monthly. except monthly during June, July, and August.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                         Published by the Reformed Free Publishing Association, Inc..
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                     5. Matthew 24 (cont.) . . . . . . . . . . . . .._..................................................                                                                          319                    Postage Paid at Grandville. Michigan.
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All Around Us - Rev. Gise J. VanBaren . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322
Taking Heed to the Doctrine -Rev. Steven R. Key                                                                                                                                                                          EDlTORlAL  COMMITTEE
                                                                                                                                                                                                                         Editor: Prof. David J. Engelsma
          Man: God's Unique Creation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324                                                               S&eta!y: Prof. Robert D. Decker
When Thou Sittest  Iri Thine Hquse - Mrs. AkryBeth Lubbers                                                                                                                                                               Managing Editor: Mr. Don Doezema
          The Reformed Family: Houses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .                                                326;                    DEPARTMENT EDITORS
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Strength of Youth - Rev. Wilbur Bruinsma                                                                                                                                                                                 Decker, Rev.  Arie  denHartog, Rev. Carl  Haak. Prof. Herman
          A Lover of God . . . or a Liar? ..l . . . . . . . .._..............................................                                                                                     328 ' Hanko, Rev. Ronald Hanko. Rev. Jason Kortering. Rev. Dale
                                                                                                                                                                                                                         Kuiper, Mr. James  Lanting. Mrs.  MarySeth  Lubbers, Rev.
Bring the Books - Prof. David J. Engekma                                                                                                                                                                                 Thomas Miersma. Rev. Gise  VanSaren, Rev. Ronald
          John Gill: Hyper-Calvinist? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .._..._.........................  331                                                                                        VanOverloop, Mr. Benjamin Wigger, Rev. Bernard Woudenberg.
Book Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333              EDlTORtAL  OFflCE            CHURCH NEWS EDITOR
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314/StandardBearerlApril15,1996


I     -0  0 0 -


                 .Coiming to the Throm
                                            of Grace

     "for we have not an high priest      profession, to cast it away, to hold    serves us as His covenant children.
whick cannot be touched with the feel-    fast unto the  Tie rather than the         "Let us, therefore, come boldly
ing of our infirmities; but was in all    Truth.                                  unto the throne of grace"! This
points tempted like as we are, yet            Who among us can stand in his       bespeaks our approach to God in
without sin. Let us therefore come        own strength in the face of such        prayer and worship. As we read
bdMy unto the throne of grace, that       temptations? Do we not face a vir-      in Hebrews  10:22,  "Let us draw
we may obtain mercy, and find grace       tual barrage of temptations from        near with a true heart in full as-
to help in time of need."                 that great tempter, Satan? As we        surance of faith, having our hearts
                    Hebrews  4:15,16      stand alone, the broad way of sin       sprinkled from an evil conscience,
                                          is very attractive and appealing.       and our bodies washed with pure
     What a -High Priest we have!         We need grace and mercy to stand,       water." Coming to the throne of
Our risen and exalted Savior, Jesus       to hold fast our profession! Hence      grace, we enter into the fellowship
Christ, is our great High Priest. In      the exhortation, "Let us therefore      of our God. We draw near to wor-
the old dispensation the high priest      come boldly to the throne of            ship and adore Him, to taste and
would pass once .a year, from the         grace...."                              see that He is good. This implies
altar that was outside the  taber-                                                that we are conscious of our need
nacle,`through the Holy Place, into       Come to the throne!                     for God's grace and mercy.
the Holy of Holies, behind the veil,          As a figure of speech in Scrip-        Let us come with "boldness,"
to appear briefly in the presence         ture, the word "throne" refers to       with confidence, and with freedom
of the Thrice Holy God. But our           one who holds dominion and ex-          in speaking! No, this is not a lack
great High Priest, in an infinitely       ercises authority. A throne is the      of awe and reverence such as is so
more exalted manner, has pro-             symbol of royal sovereignty and         often seen in our day in prayer and
ceeded through the heavens into           majesty and of the supreme power        worship. Neither is this boldness
the very presence of the God of           of judgment. Thus, the throne here      a proud and haughty confidence.
our salvation! There He is exalted        signifies God in His absolute sov-      We are not to come before God
.at the right hand of God h high-         ereignty `and power, God in His         with the attitude of the Pharisee
est glory. All power and author-          perfect righteousness and holiness,     in Jesus' parable, who thanked
ity in heaven and upon earth have         and God in His glorious beauty          God that he was not as other, sin-
been given unto Him.                      and majesty.                            ful men or even as the  publican
     Having this great High Priest,           But, notice, it is a gracious       (Luke  l&11). But the idea is that
we are exhorted to  hold'fast our         throne. Grace is the power of God       we come with a boldness or confi-
profession. We are to cling tena-         to save and deliver us from the         dence that is rooted in faith. We
ciously to the truth, the gospel of       bondage of sin. It is the power of      are to approach the throne of grace
Christ, our great High Priest. But        God which sustains us in the midst      with an attitude of confidence that
that is much easier said than done.       of temptations. It is the power of      our God will hear us and grant
We face many temptations in hold-         God which.enables  us to hold fast      our petitions. "But without faith
ing fast our profession. We are           our profession. Thus, grace to de-      it is impossible to please Him: for
tempted on every side to deny our         liver us from temptation, to give       he that  cometh to God must be-
                                          us the victory over temptations, is     lieve that he is, and that he is a
                                          to be found only at the throne!         rewarder of them that diligently
                                          The throne of grace refers to God       seek him" (Heb.  11:6). We must
Rev. DeVries  is pastor of First Prot-    as our Sovereign Friend who by          come unto the throne with a bold-
es tan t Reformed Church in Edmonton,     His grace delivers us and pre-          ness that is rooted in the faith
Alberta, Canada.

                                                                                         April 15,1996/Standard  Bearer/315


which unites us with our great          young people: we are tempted to          ners. In fact, the negative form of
High Priest.                            rebel, to conform to .the world of       this statement indicates that the in-
                                        sin, and to compromise our con-          spired writer has anticipated the
Seeking mercy and grace!                victions. That is true for our chil-     objections we might raise concern-
    We approach the throne of           dren: they are tempted to disobey,       ing the possibility of coming to the
grace with the purpose of obtain-       to lie, to cheat, and to be cruel.       throne of grace.
ing mercy. God's mercy is His de-       And that is true for us, as men              We have not a high priest who
sire to have His people share in        and women, for daily we are              is not able to sympathize with our
His own divine blessedness, His         tempted. Satan would point out           infirmities.    The phrase "to be
desire to deliver us from misery        that if we hold fast our profession      touched with the feeling of" does
and fill us with life and joy. We       we will face hardships, mockeries,       not simply express the idea of the
come to the throne with the pur-        sufferings, and maybe even death.        compassion of one who regards
pose of finding grace, God's sav-       We cannot possibly stand and gain        suffering from afar. On the con-
ing power which upholds us in the       the victory over temptation in our       trary, it emphasizes the feeling of
midst of the strife. We are saved       own strength. In time of tempta-         one who enters into the suffering
by grace alone. We are also pre-        tion we must "come boldly unto           and makes it his own.
served by the grace of our God.         the throne of grace that we may              Our High Priest is touched
More specifically, we seek mercy        obtain mercy and find grace"!            with the feeling of, is able to sym-
and grace "to help in time of                                                    pathize with, our infirmities. Our
need." The phrase "in time of           Encouraged by our High Priest!           "infirmities" are all of our weak-
need" is really one word which re-          We-see the urgency of coming         nesses, those of both body and
fers to the proper time.                to the throne of grace, do we not?       soul. They include our physical
    But when is this time of need?      But there may be many doubts and         sufferings and afflictions, all our
Of course, we need mercy and            fears that assail us. How can we         sorrows, all our anxieties, all our
grace constantly.1 Not for a mo-        approach unto this throne? Are           doubts, all our fears, and the
ment can we stand apart from            we not grievous sinners? Ap-             weakness of our faith as we strive
God's mercy and grace. "To help         proach with boldness? Dare we            to hold fast our profession. We
in time of need" does not promote       appear before the sovereign God?         need not fear or despair! Our
a "fox-hole theology," the notion       Can we ,possibly  stand before His       great High Priest, the Lord Jesus
that we need come to God only           face? Do you dare?                       Christ, endured all our sufferings!
when we find ourselves in danger            Oh, you may say, "But we can         He sympathizes with us; He is
or trouble. We must constantly be       come to the  .throne through our         touched with the feeling of our in-
coming to the throne! That must         great High Priest who has passed         firmities!
be our life; we ought to live in the    into the heavens." But can we?               But still more, He "was in all
consciousness of our dependence         Would such a great High Priest           points tempted like as we are; yet
upon God's mercy and grace. Oh,         have an interest in us? Is He not        without sin." He is a.. tempted
it is certainly true that sometimes     so far above us that it is impos-        High Priest; He has been tempted
we feel the need of approaching         sible for Him to conceive of our         according to the likeness of our
the throne of grace much more           needs? Could such a great High           temptations. "Wherefore in all
strongly than other times, but the      Priest possibly understand the           things it behoved him to be made
need is always there!                   temptations we face in holding fast      like unto his brethren, that he
    But this Word of God empha-         our profession? `Is He not the very      might be a merciful and faithful
sizes that the need is especially       Son of God? Is He not highly ex-         high priest in things pertaining to
there in time of temptation. Temp-      alted at the right hand of the Maj-      God, to make reconciliation for the
tations always have the character       esty on High? Dare we go unto            sins of the people. For in that he
of presenting the way of sin and        Him? Do you dare?                        himself hath suffered being
disobedience as being preferable to         This glorious gospel gives us        tempted, he is able to  succour
the way of faithfulness. The temp-      encouragement to come unto the           them that are tempted" (Heb. 2:17,
tation is always to leave the           throne: "for we have not an high         18). Our High Priest "suffered be-
straight and narrow way, to cease       priest which cannot be touched           ing tempted"!       We recall, of
holding fast our profession, and to     with the,feeling of our infirmities."    course, Christ being tempted in the
walk down that broad way which          Clearly the great glory of the ex-       wilderness by the devil. And
leadeth to destruction.                 alted Christ does not create a bar-      throughout His ministry the temp-
    As God's people in the midst        rier between Him and His people!         tation was there to forsake the way
of this world, we face many temp-       There is :no need for us to imagine      that led to the cross! These temp-
tations in striving to hold fast our    that our great High Priest will          tations were very real!
profession. That is true for us as      have no feeling for us, poor sin-            But even though Christ was in

316/StandardBearerlApril15,1996


all points tempted like as we are,               That is the High Priest we           as we are, `yet without sin. He
there was one fundamental differ-            have! What an encouragement!             knows exactly how we feel! We
ence: "yet without sin." Christ              He sympathizes with our infirmi-         are never without someone who
did not stumble and fall into sin.           ties as no earthly high priest ever      understands!
As the only begotten ,Son of God             could. The earthly high priests of           Seeing we have such a High
in our flesh, He could not sin! But          Aaron's line had the highest privi-      Priest, "let us, therefore, come
our High Priest always walked the            lege of passing once a year through      boldly unto the throne of grace"!
way of perfect obedience before              the inner veil into the Holy of Ho-      Be diligent to seek the means of
His Father, yea, all the way to the          lies to appear for a few minutes         grace! Live a prayerful life! For
cross! Do we realize what this               before God on behalf of the people.      we shall find there in the sanctu-
means? Our High Priest knows                 Christ Jesus is our Advocate and         ary our High Priest, our sympa-
all our temptations; He knows all            Intercessor before the face of the       thetic High Priest, our High Priest
our infirmities; He knows all our            Father constantly! He knows the          who has suffered being tempted.
burdens; He knows all our suffer-            great temptations we face as we          There we shall certainly obtain
ings; for He experienced it all, but         strive to Ihold fast our profession.     mercy and find grace to help in
never once sinned!                           He was in all points tempted like        time of need!  Cl




                                Hyper-Calvinism
                              and Arminianism:
                               the AlternaUives?
                                        I                               L                                                         I
                                             John Gill and the Cause  of  God         enantal theology in the hoary past
    The influential Banner of Truth          and Truth, Go  Publications, 1995,       of Scottish or English Calvinism
Trust in  .Scotland  has just pub-           p. 134).                                 whom The Banner of Truth Trust
lished Iain H. Murray's Spurgeon                 The willingness of The Banner        could resurrect in order to drive
v. Hyper-Calvinism: The Baffle  for          of Truth Trust to pitch battle           the Baptist error from the Re-
Gospel Preaching.  The Trust in-             against hyper-Calvinism is all the       formed field in Great Britain?
tends the book to be major artil-            more striking in light of its policy         Be that as it may, Spurgeon  v.
lery in its war against the dread            of avoiding controversy. The             Hyper-CaZvinism   is, in the main,
foe of hyper-Calvinism in Great              Trust steadfastly refuses, e.g., to      right in both its positive and nega-
Britain.                                     defend the fundamental Reformed          tive theses. The positive thesis is
    Why in an England overrun                and Presbyterian doctrine and            that the preaching of the gospel in-
with liberalism, the mysticism of            practice of infant baptism and the       cludes the call, or summons, to all
the charismatic movement, and                intimately related truth of the cov-     hearers to repent of their sins with
Arminianism, Murray and the                  enant against their detractors in        true repentance and to believe on
Trust fix almost obsessively on the          Great Britain. The rejection of in-      the Savior with genuine faith.
error of hyper-Calvinism is puz-             fant baptism and, with it, the one       This, regardless of their spiritual
zling. Spurgeon  himself, the cham-          covenantof grace is not a whit less      condition and of their eternal des-
pion whom Murray wheels out to               serious an error than hyper-cal-         tiny by divine appointment. The
fight for him in this new book, said         vinism.  Spurgeon himself was            negative thesis is that the rejection
of one of the leading hyper-cal-             guilty of this grievous departure        of what Reformed theology has al-
vinists of his time, "Gill is the            from the Reformed faith. In addi-        ways held as the "external call of
Coryphaeus (leader  - DJE) of                tion, rejection of infant baptism is     the gospel" constitutes hyper-cal-
hyper-Calvinism, but if his follow-          far more widespread in Calvinis-         vinism.
ers never went beyond their mas-             tic circles in the British Isles than        Hyper-Calvinism, a relatively
ter, they would not go very far              is hyper-Calvinism.                      rare error in church history and
astray" (cited in George M. Ella,                Is there no champion of  cov-        by no means one of the most press-

                                                                                                 April 15,1996/Standard  Bearer1317


ing threats to the faith today, ex-       right. Hyper-Calvinism, refusing         Spurgeon's) universal gospel-grace
cept, evidently, in the British Isles,    to call all who hear, seriously          is devastating to the very essence
is a teaching that so exaggerates         cripples .the mission activity of the    of historic, confessional Calvinism.
and distorts an important aspect          church. Thus, contrary to its own        His response, however, is to cre-
of Calvinism as to mar the whole.         intentions, it places an obstacle in     ate completely ungrounded dis-
Whereas the prevailing tendency           the way of Christ's gathering of         tinctions which, while failing to re-
is to come short of full, robust Cal-     His elect church out of the nations.     deem his teaching of universal
vinism, hyper-Calvinism goes be-              But in the grounds attributed        grace in the gospel from the
yond it  ("hyper"  means `beyond').       to Spurgeon by Iain Murray for his       Arminian heresy, hopelessly com-
The error of denying that the gos-        - Spurgeon's  - rejection of             promise his doctrine and, in fact,
pel commands all to repent and            hyper-Calvinism,  Spurgeon fell          render it vulnerable to the charge
believe may with good right be de-        into error that is worse than that       of sheer duplicity.
scribed as hyper-Calvinism be-            which he opposed. This is the er-            First, he invents a distinction
cause those who hold the error de-        ror, fully shared by Murray, that        between ."special electing love
fend it in terms of historic Calvin-      God loves every sinner who hears         which secures" salvation for some
ism. Since the unregenerated sin-         the gospel with a love revealed in       persons and a universal, non-elect-
ner is by virtue of his total deprav-     the crucified Christ and, in this        ing love which fails to secure the
ity unable to repent and believe,         love, desires the salvation of ev-       salvation of anybody.  But both
he may not be exhorted to repent          ery sinner (see pp. 88-97, "Hyper-       kinds  of  love are expressed and re-
and believe. On the other hand,           Calvinism and the Love of God").         vealed in the gospel!         Both are
so they argue, to call the                The preaching of the gospel to all,      preached as desiring the salvation of
unregenerated sinner to believe           particularly the command to all to       sinners!
would be to imply his natural abil-       repent and believe, is now con-
ity to do, so, thus contradicting the     ceived as grace to all. There is             AU references to divine love in
biblical testimony to the sinner's        gospelgrace, that is, the grace of         Scripture are not to be interpreted
natural condition of spiritual            God in the crucified Jesus Christ,         as universal (Arminianism), nei-
death.                                    to every sinner without exception          ther are they  all  to be made par-
    Charles H. Spurgeon was cor-          who hears the preaching.                   ticular (Hyper-Calvinism). There
rect to oppose this  hyper-calvin-            This is Arminianism. This is           is a differentiation observable in
                                                                                     Scripture. In speaking to  Chris-
ism in his time, as is Iain Murray        Arminianism in its rawest, most            tians  Spurgeon would often make
today. The Protestant Reformed            objectionable features: a universal,      the difference clear: "Beloved, the
Churches in America also reject           ineffectual love of God in Jesus           benevolent love of Jesus is more
this hyper-Calvinism. In their            Christ; a universal will to salva-         extended than the lines of his
synodically adopted "Declaration          tion that is frustrated by the con-        electing love.... That (i.e. the love
of Principles of the Protestant Re-       trary will of sinners; grace in the        revealed in Matthew  23:37)  is not
formed Churches: A Brief Exposi-          blessed gospel that is resisted in         the love which beams resplen-
tion of the Confessions regarding         that a sinner to whom God directs          dently upon his chosen, but it is
                                                                                     true love for all that" (p. 98).
Certain .Points of Doctrine as Main-      this grace remains unsaved; and,
tained by the Protestant Reformed         by good and necessary implication,       This distinction compromises
Churches" (1951), they said this:         salvation dependent in the end           Murray's doctrine of a universal
"We maintain . . . that the preach-       upon the decision of man.                love in the gospel. Whereas this
ing comes to all; and that God se-            The alternative to  hyper-cal-       universal love in the gospel is sup-
riously commands to faith and re-         vinism is Arminianism!                   posed to indicate and carry out a
pentance, and that to all those who           So, Spurgeon!                        sincere desire of God to save all
come and believe He promises life             So, also, Iain Murray and The        who hear, in fact it cannot save
and peace." This is the official          Banner of Truth Trust!                   anybody. It is merely a non-elect-
stand of the Reformed churches in             If this was the basis that was       ing kind of love that fails to se-
the Canons of Dordt: "This prom-          proposed in the 1700s for calling        cure the salvation of anyone. What
ise, together with the command to         all to repent and believe, it is no      good is it? What has Murray
repent and believe, ought to be de-       wonder that the English hyper-cal-       gained by inventing it? How does
clared and published to all nations,      vinists said no to the external call     Murray's doctrine of the love of
and to all persons promiscuously          of the gospel. Such a doctrine of        God in the gospel really differ
and without distinction, to whom          the external call flatly contradicts     from that which teaches particu-
God -out of His good pleasure             and, thus, destroys the entire sys-      lar love in the gospel for the elect
sends the gospel" @I/5).                  tem of sovereign, particular grace.      only? And why all the uproar of
    The motive of Spurgeon in op-            Murray is too Reformed not in-        a battle against the doctrine of par-
posing hyper-Calvinism was also           stinctively to feel that his (and

316/StandardBearerlApril15,1996


titular love, or grace, in the                 tions for the Rev. Iain Murray and       amined  in light of Scripture and
preaching?                                     his colleagues at The Banner of          the Reformed confessions (men's
    Second, although affirming                 Truth Trust. First, give up the no-      opinions, even the opinions of
that the distinction between two               tion that' you will ever convert         good men such as Spurgeon, are
kinds of love in the gospel  - an              from hyper-Calvinism, or dissuade        not authoritative).
electing love that secures the sal-            from converting to hyper-calvin-             But there are three distinct po-
vation of some and a non-electing              ism, by means of your doctrine of        sitions, not two as you seem to
love that secures the salvation of             a universal love of God and a uni-       suppose:
no one - is "important,". Murray               versal desire for salvation in the           1) the call is universal grace
adds that in his preaching the                 preaching of the gospel, one soul        (Murray and The Banner of Truth);
preacher should not mention the                who truly knows and loves sover-             2) the call is particular grace
distinction.                                   eign grace. Your doctrine that in        and, therefore, must not be ad-
                                               the gospel God loves and desires         dressed even in its external aspect
  While holding firmly to these im-            to save all sinners without excep-       to any but the elect and regener-
  portant theological distinctions,            tion would drive me  into  hyper-        ated hearer (hyper-Calvinism);
  Spurgeon did not believe that they           Calvinism, if these were the only            3) the call of God in the gos-
  were ones which had  .necessarily            options. At least, in hyper-calvin-      pel, like election whence it origi-
  to be introduced in presenting the           ism God is God, of one mind and          nates and the cross on which it is
  gospel to the unconverted . . . (p.          will; consistent with and true to
  99).               ._                                                                 based, is particular grace, but the
                                               Himself; sovereign in His love in        external aspect of the call  - the
The missionary or evangelist tells             Christ; and carrying out without         summons to repentance and faith
his audience, "The good news is                fail the precious desire to save. At     - may, and must, be addressed
that God loves all of you with a               least, in hyper-Calvinism Jesus is       to all hearers, in dead earnest (the
love in Jesus Christ that desires              the Savior, rather than, in multi-       Protestant Reformed Churches, the
your salvation." He deliberately               tudes of instances, merely a             Covenant Reformed Fellowship of
leaves the impression with his au-             would-be Savior. At least,' in           Northern Ireland, the Evangelical
dience that God loves them all                 hyper-Calvinism the Holy Ghost is        Presbyterian Church of Australia,
alike with the same love and de-               honored as the irresistible power        and others).
sires their salvation with one and             of God in the preaching.                     Why not a conference at which
the same desire. To himself, how-                  Secon,d, rather than to continue     all positions are represented?
ever, the missionary is thinking,              futilely to fire away at the hyper-          What an interesting and worth-
"Some of you He loves merely                   Calvinist fortress with  ,your           while conference this would be.
with a non-electing love that will             Arminian shells, arrange a theo-             If it were held in North
not and cannot save you, and some              logical discussion of the vital doc-     America, it would be hard to find
of you He desires to save with a               trine of the call of the gospel          a church building big enough to
desire that is nullified by His eter-          among all those who are interested       hold the audience.
nal will  not  to save you." Is this           and have something to contribute.            For the sake of the Reformed
not gross deception?                           This could be done in the periodi-       faith and the unity of  Calvin&tic
    I have two, well-meant sugges-             cals or by a conference. Let the         saints.  W
                                               distinct positions be aired and ex-                                         - DJE
                                          A Dbfense of'
                   (Reformed) Amillennialism
                                  5. Matthew 24 (cont.)
                                          I                                                                                        I
          The apparent difficulty with         of the world (v. 3). He has just            In fact, of course, He did not
Jesus' words in Matthew  24:34 is              spoken of His visible, bodily com-       return, nor did the world end, in
that they seem to predict the end              ing in the clouds (v. 30). Then, in      the lifetime of the generation to
of the world in the lifetime of His            verse 34, He declares, "Verily I say     whom He was speaking.
disciples. He has been instructing             unto you, This-generation shall not          Various erroneous solutions
the disciples concerning the  de;              pass, till, all these things be  ful-    have been proposed for this seem-
struction of Jerusalem and the end             filled."                                 ing difficulty. Theological liberal-
                                                                                                April 15,1996/Standard  Bearer/31  9


ism finds in the text evidence that      "for a witness unto- all nations."       tred of the Jewish nation. It was
Jesus Himself, like His apostles         Such also are the events spoken of       delivered also from the clinging,
later, mistakenly supposed that          in verses 29-31: the catastrophic        entangling Jewishness of the now
His personal, glorious, perfected,       signs  i$ the heavens; the sign of       transcended Old Testament wor-
Messianic ruIe over all the world        the Son:of man; the visible coming       ship: the temple service; the civil
would occur within a few years.          of the Son of man in the clouds;         and ceremonial laws of the nation
This is unbelief.                        and the' gathering of the elect by       of Israel; the earthly forms of the
     Others interpret "generation"       the angels with the great sound of       promises and hopes of the people
as referring to the Jewish race, to      a trumpet.                               of God. The grand temple had to
believers, or to the human race.             How then is verse 34'to be ex-       be thrown down, to the last stone,
On this view, Jesus merely af-           plained?                                 so that the mature church of be-
firmed that there would be Jews,             Thenatural sense of "this gen-       lieving Jew and Gentile might
or  behevers, or humans yet alive        eratio$ is the normal lifetime of        flourish in her New Testament
when He would return. This is a          those to whom Jesus was speak-           spirituality.
forced and unnatural reading of          ing. If a generation is of some 40           This deliverance took place
the text. It is an effort to escape      years duration, "all these things"       only by way of struggle, affliction,
the difficulty posed by the words        spoken of in verses 3-31 would,          and tribulation.
of Jesus. It does not do justice to      and did, take place within 40 years          Indeed, all these things took
the vehement assertion by Jesus in       of Jesus' having foretold them.          place in A.D. 70.
verse 35 concerning the truth of             "All these things" would hap-            Typically!
His words.                               pen, or take place. The King James           Merely typically!
    As was pointed out in the pre-       translation, "be fulfilled," might be        Not exhaustively!
vious editorial, the postmillennial      misleading, as though these things           Not in the reality!
Presbyterian J. Marcellus Kik lim-       would occur fully and exhaus-                The reality was yet in the fu-
ited the reference of "all these         tively during the span of that gen-      ture from the vantage point of the
things" to the destruction of            eration. The Greek is simply, ". . .     church standing on the ruins of
Jerusalem in A.D. 70. Implied is         till all these things happen"            Jerusalem in A.D. 70. The early
that verses 3-31 speak exclusively       (geneetai).                              church understood this well, as is
of the destruction of Jerusalem.             "All these things" are the           evident from her exegesis of Mat-
There is nothing in these verses         things that have to do with the de-      thew 24 and related passages af-
that applies to the days leading up      struction of Jerusalem, the (second)     ter A.D. 70.
to the second coming of Christ.          coming of Jesus Christ, and the              The reality is still in the future
There is nothing in these verses,        end of the world. These were the         from the vantage point of the
therefore, that applies to the           things about which the disciples         church in A.D. 1996. The reality,
church at the end of the 20th cen-       asked Jesus in verse 3. These were       as the question of the disciples in
tury. All was exhaustively ful-          the things that Jesus prophesied in      verse 3 plainly shows, is the com-
filled in the destruction of Jerusa-     verses 4-31.                             ing of Christ and the end of the
lem. All is past.  Kik is followed           All these things would happen        world.
in this exegesis by the postmil-         before the generation addressed by           As is always the case with
lennial Christian Reconstruction         Jesus would pass away. They              types, the destruction of Jerusalem
movement.                                would happen within about 40             came far short of complete fulfill-
    This explanation is obviously        years. They would happen in the          ment of the deliverance of the
false inasmuch as it ignores that        destruction of Jerusalem by the          saints in the way of judgment.
Jesus' teaching answers the ques-        then risen and ascended Lord             Verses 29-31 of Matthew 24 make
tion of His disciples about His          Jesus Christ through the Roman           this failure of the type clear be-
coming and the end of the world,         army in:A.D. 70.                         yond any doubt. These events
not only about the destruction of            All these things would happen        await the reality: the end of the
Jerusalem (v. 3). Also, Jesus            typically, or in the historical type.    world.
speaks in verses 3-31 of events that         The destruction of Jerusalem             But this coming reality typified
cannot by any stretch of the imagi-      was a God-ordained historical type       in the destruction of Jerusalem is
nation be restricted to the destruc-     of the deliverance of the elect          certain.
tion of Jerusalem. Such is the men-      church -at the second coming of              The h,appening  of the type ac-
tion in verse 14 of the coming of        Christ through the judgment of           cording to Jesus' words which can-
"the end" (Greek: to  teZos)  after      tribulation. The New Testament           not pass away assures it.
the gospel of the kingdom has been       church was delivered by the de-                               (to be cont.)  0
preached "in all the world" (liter-      struction of Jerusalem. It was de-                                     - DJE
ally, `in the whole inhabited earth')    livered from the persecuting ha-

320/StandardBearerlAprilM,  1996


                                                                                                      ,-'
                                                                         ,I'
lkm


Deathbeds and Angels                         I think it weakens his next section        mind of Rev. Kuiper (for his argu-
    I am writing in response to the          of the article concerning angelic          ment seems a bit uncertain), I sug-
Rev.                                         appearances and leaves the door
         Dale  Kuiper's articles entitled                                               gest that it is better to err on the
"The Reformed View of Angels"                dangerously wide open for abhor-           side that denies these alleged dec-
                                             rent tendencies. Perhaps Rev.
(Standard  Bearer,   Feb. 15 and                                                        larations by those nearing death.
March 1,1996).  In the first article,        Kuiper would like to respond to            The age that we live in is not the
on page 225, he sets forth his ap-           the following observations.                only one that has had an excessive
proach to the subject:                          1) Someone might attempt to             fascination with the study of an-
                                             argue that similar experiences or          gels. Certainly the history of the
  When we studied the available lit-         statements arise from the mouths           church will demonstrate that many
  erature on our subject, we found           of those near death yet still in un-       strange and heretical doctrines and
  that as soon as an author went             belief, as well as those whose             practices have arisen (particularly
  beyond the Bible, without excep-           hearts stop for 15 minutes and are         in the Roman Catholic church).
  tion he became speculative and             alleged to have been "miraculously             5) Lastly, if I were to apply
  fanciful. We are not interested in         brought back to life."                     the logic of Rev. Kuiper's defense
  that. We will restrict ourselves               2) Whatever the experience of          to another scenario, I could defend
  to the Word of God as the only             the believer upon the senses (as we        visions of angels upon conversion.
  source of truth regarding angels.          conceive #of them) after death, or         Of course, this could not be, yet
                                             even at the very moment of death
    However, in the second install-                                                     the points which he makes are that
ment, on page 253, under the sub-            whenever this occurs (the cessa-           the believer anticipates the en-
titled section "Questions that of-           tion of consciousness, breathing,          trance into glory and that the an-
ten arise," he entertains questions          and heartbeat may not necessarily          gels will have a part in bringing
such as "Do angels appear just be-           or immediately equate to "absence          him there. At conversion, how-
fore a child of God dies? Or, just           from the body"), the situation             ever, is not the change which oc-
as a saint expires, is it possible that      which Rev. Kuiper describes is still       curs a miraculous one, where the
he sees angels.3" Some of the com-           prior to death.                            individual is transformed in his
ments of those on their deathbed                 3) Having been at the side of          spirit or soul, filled by the Spirit,
have been offered such as, "Oh,              some believing family members              raised up and made to sit in heav-
it's very beautiful!" and "I hear            who have breathed their last               enly places (Eph.  2:6)? And even
music," or "I see angels!" Rev.              breath, I have, on the one hand,           Rev. Kuiper's comments on page
Kuiper instructs us as to what we            heard statements that evidenced            252 speak of the angels in these
are to think of this, as follows:            disorientation in those that were          heavenly places when he refers to
                                             suffering, and on the other hand           Ephesians 3:lO. He also speaks of
                                             heard statements of peace and se-
  Our response is that it is entirely                                                   the angels who are involved by
  possible. Who are we to say that           curity in Jesus their Savior. This         way of observation and through
  it is not true? If we keep in mind         experience in and of itself means          rejoicing over that conversion.
  that the soul of the redeemed              nothing, yet combined with my                  Although there was much that
  child of God enters into glory at          understanding of the Scriptures, it        was good in these articles, I think
  the moment of physical death,              would tell me that where the be-           that this particular area could have
  and if we keep in mind that Christ         liever has placed full confidence          been dealt with differently, or bet-
  sends His angels to gather His             and trustin  the risen Savior on this      ter yet, perhaps not at all.
  people home, why is such an ex-            side of the grave, he has no need                                 Ernie Springer
  perience not possible? . . . we see        that the sufficiency of the Word of
  no reason to doubt the authentic-                                                                            Audubon, NJ
  ity of these remarks.                      God and the knowledge of the glo-
                                             rious work of Christ in the cross          Response:
    Firstly, Rev. Kuiper's position          cannot supply (Phil.  4:19). Death             The questions with which I
seems to fall into the realm of              is still a curse, and in this life, un-    closed the article on angels were
speculation that he intended to              til we are in the presence of the          asked of me when I spoke on this
avoid. Secondly, even in the ab-             Almighty, the hope and substance           subject in the Grand Rapids area
sence of absolutes, I believe his            for the faithful Christian is in the       last fall. I thought that both in the
conclusion leans more to the side            evidence of that which is not seen         speech and in the SB article I used
of error than truth. Furthermore,            (Heb. 11:l).                               careful enough language that I was
                                                 4) If there is any doubt in the

                                                                                                April 15,1996/St~ndard  Beared


not "instructing us as to what we                        case." Perhaps I could better have               loved one was mistaken and con-
are to think of this." I made the                        said, "This happens rarely."                     fused"? Does someone want dog-
point that it'was  "possible,N  "we                          Does someone want to say it                  matically to say, "It has never hap-
see no reason to doubt," and "this                       is impossible? Does someone want                 pened once"? Very well. I would
may not be experienced in every                          to say to those who have heard                   rather leave open the possibility.
                                                         these deathbed words, "Your                                 - (Rev.) Dale H. Kuiper Cl
                                                                                          ,                                                         I



n What is "Reformed"?                                     w e e k   v o t e d   t o   .censure   t h e      vation without confessed belief
     The  Grand Rapids Press,  Feb-                       congregation's pastor.                            but still through Jesus.
ruary 24, 1996, reports on a con-                            "We will sever ties with the                     The third position, which Rhem
troversy            engaging               Classis        Muskegon Classis," said Don                       holds, states that there is salva-
                                                                                                            tion through other religious sys-
Muskegon of the Reformed                                  VanOstenberg,  chairman of the
                                                          board at the  3,500-member  Christ                tems.
Church. The report, on its front                          Community Church.                                   . . . Christ Community hasn't ex-
page, states:                                               The Rev. Richard Rhem of                        hausted its options within the de-
                                                          Christ Community has been un-                     nomination.
     A pastor with tolerant, yet con-                     der fire for his beliefs in a  non-                 It could transfer to another
  troversial, views on homosexual-                        literal interpretation of Scripture               classis.... Or Rhem himself, who
  ity faces the likelihood of being                       and salvation....                                 is really the point of contention,
  forced out of the Reformed                                The  classis  was scheduled to                  could transfer his credentials to
  Church in America, following a                          meet this morning. Leaders in                     another classis....
  committee recommendation to an                          Classis Muskegon, the group of
  RCA church governing body.                              22 churches that includes Christ                    Darrell Todd Maurina, United
     The Rev. Richard Rhem, pastor                        Community, voted 39-19 last                     Reformed News Service, reports
  of the  3,500-member  Christ Com-                       week that Rhem either recant his                also some of the discussion which
  munity Church in Spring Lake,                           views or move toward a "peace-                  took place on the floor of the
  should leave the RCA due to his                         ful separation" with the  classis.              Classis. There was a majority vot-
  "unacceptable" views on Scripture                       Rhem  1has said he won't recant.
  and salvation, according to the                           And the decision has left other               ing to censure the views of Rich-
  e x e c u t i v e   c o m m i t t e e   o f   t h e     congregations in the conservative               ard Rhem. But two things stand
  Muskegon  Classis, a group of                           classis facing a nagging question:              out in the report: (1) the vote was
  more than 20 Lakeshore-area                             Who's next?                                     38-19 against Rhem; (2) the stron-
  churches.                                                 One minister fears there may be               gest sentiments reported in
    In a letter mailed Friday to                          no place for his congregation in                Maurina's release in support of
  classis  delegates, the committee                       the  classis.                                   Rhem came from a woman minis-
  urged "that Rev. Rhem and the                             "We would be on the side of                   ter and from a woman elder.
  Muskegon  Classis purposefully                          Dick Rhem's stand, and Christ
  move toward a peaceful separa-                                                                          Rhem himself told the  Classis, "I
                                                          Community's stand," said the
  tion, with humility  and a gentle                       Rev. Lawrence Doorn, interim                    am not prepared to say there is no
  spirit." The full  classis will meet                    pastor of Church of the Savior . . .            salvation apart from that mediated
  Thursday at Muskegon's Hope                             in Coopersville. "Whether that                  by Jesus Christ as understood in
  Reformed Church to vote on the                          would, lead us into some difficulty             the Christian tradition. Even the
  measure.                                                or not, that remains to be seen."               Polish Pope agrees with me on that
                                                            .  ..Although  Rhem came under                issue, and so do many, many oth-
    T h e   G r a n d   R a p i d s   P r e s s ,         scrutiny because he allowed a gay               ers, so I'm not really that far off in
March 5, 1996, gave the outcome                           congregation to worship at his                  that area."
of the Classical meeting:                                 church, the  classis' action was                    The women officebearers who
                                                          based on Rhem's beliefs in a non-
                                                          literal interpretation of scripture             supported Rhem's position, stated:
    A Reformed Church in America                          and salvation outside of Jesus.
  congregation in Spring Lake will                          It was the last issue especially                  "There will be many of us who
  leave the regional body that  last-                     that's been a sticking point.                    will still be here who will con-
                                                            Rhem and other scholars have                    tinue the debate," said Rev.
                                                          identified three views with regard               Miriam Baar-Bush  - sentiments
                                                          to Christian salvation. The first                echoed by a number of other del-
Rev. VanBaren  is pastor of the Prot-                     holds that there is no salvation                  egates who reminded  classis that
es tan t Reformed                 C h u r c h   o f       outside professed belief in Jesus.               Rhem was not the  only RCA min-
                                                                                                           ister with similar views.
Loveland, Colorado.                                       The second holds that there is sal-

322lStandardBearerlApril15,1996


   "We here at  Classis Muskegon             One might raise questions too       the church. Promise Keepers must
 are one pocket of our denomina-          about the manner of handling so        do the "preaching" to encourage
 tion; we have to think about our         serious a matter. When heresy          each to keep the seven promises
 brothers in the broader Reformed         arises from within the bosom of        that have been devised. Promise
 Church in America," said Elder           the church, is this the way with       Keepers encourages men to pray
 Marilyn  Rottschaefer  of Christ         which it must be dealt? One re-        for their pastors - but reports in-
 Community Church. "I wonder                                                     dicate that harsh and bitter words
 if this is truly representative of       ceives the impression that Classis
 what the broader denomination            Muskegon is saying, "We have se-       are spoken against any pastor who
 thinks about this...."                   rious differences of opinion about     dares to condemn this movement.
   . . . Baar-Bush made clear that a      Christ and Holy Scripture - so let     Some have even left churches be-
 decision to oppose Rhem would            us separate peaceably." Is this the    cause their pastor or church did
 also have widespread conse-              way to seek the salvation of the       not support this uworthym  organi-
 quences. "This will separate and         sinner?                                zation.
 divide our denomination," said              Meanwhile, various writers              Yet it is maintained that Prom-
 Baar-Bush. "If you want to speak         also point out the relationship of     ise Keepers does not consider it-
 truth, the truth needs to be known                                              self a "church," though admittedly
 that we are. saying anyone who           the "women in office" issue and
 holds the same views as Dick             other issues presently  confronf-      it seeks to "break down the walls"
 needs to be excluded. We are set-        ing many denominations. Rev.           that separate denominations. And
 ting a precedent for other classes;      Daniel Brouwer in  The Outlook,        where is the proof that PK does
 there are  others in the pulpit,         February 1996, reminds his read-       not consider itself a church? Well
 there are those in the Reformed          ers that the same arguments used       - it does not administer sacra-
 Church who teach in our theologi-        to maintain the right of women to      ments  - that is, until recently.
 cal schools, who will be affected        serve in office can be and are be-     The Austin American Statesman,
 by this. Who's next?"                    ing used to promote the legitimacy     February 15,1996, prints an Asso-
   Faced with the inevitability of
 division within the classis and the      of monogamous homosexual rela-         ciated Press release:
 possibility of greater division  but-    tionships. It comes down to this:
 side the  classis, the delegates         "What do we say of Scripture? Is           The Rev. Samuel Edwards be-
 chose by a large majority to fol-        it the infallible, inspired Word?"       lieves portability and convenience
 low the recommendation of the            Only with a proper answer to that        shouldn't be issues when it comes
 classical executive committee. On        question can one rightly grapple         to taking Holy Communion.
 a secret ballot vote,  classis de-       with and answer the many heresies          But a Chicago company is pro-
 cided by a 38-19 margin to ask                                                    moting exactly that in the form
                                          arising today. Where one refuses
 Rhem to recant his views, with                                                    of pre-packaged Communion
                                          to recognize the trustworthiness of
 the understanding that a peaceful                                                 grape juice and wafers, despite
 separation would be sought if he         Scripture in one area, he will in-       mixed reviews.
  does not recant.                        evitably refuse its guidance in            . . . The pre-packaged Commun-
                                          many others also.                        ion cups will be used Thursday
    One wonders what the out-                                                      night when about. 40,000 clergy
come will be. The claim, reported         n The "Church" of the                    will observe Communion at a
                                                                                   Promise Keepers rally in Atlanta's
by Maurina, was that there were           Promise-Keepers                          Georgia Dome....
many others in the Reformed                   Perhaps the title seems inap-
Church who believed like Rhem.            propriate. Many have insisted that         So, now, is this movement a
The 19 votes supporting Rhem in-          the "Promise Keepers" is an orga-      "church"? It has at least one sac-
dicate that in the conservative           nization  .which promotes family       rament offered to the attendants
Classis  Muskegon there are those         life. It especially encourages men     of the Atlanta rally. Is this the
who agree with him. How many              to take their rightful place within    movement that so many, even in
more supporters would he then             the home. It encourages individu-      Reformed circles, are defending?
have within the whole of the de-          als to pray for their pastors.  AlI
nomination?                               worthy goals indeed!                   H What's Next?
    Strange, too, is the strong sup-        But at the same time Promise         Christian 
port he receives from two women                                                                   Nudists?
                                          Keepers increasingly assumes to it-
who serve in the office of elder and                                                 The Christian  News, March 4,
                                          self the tasks  ,which Christ gave
minister. Is it possible that in vio-                                            1996, reports on a strange, nay,
                                          exclusively to the church. The
lating Scriptural instructions con-                                              disturbing movement.
                                          preaching of the Word is not con-
cerning women in church offices,          sidered adequate or sufficient to
there is increasingly a willingness                                                  "Amazing Grace" lifts softly
                                          direct the men of the congregation
to violate other clear instructions                                                into the North Carolina pines
                                          in a godly walk at home and in           from the meeting room where
of Scripture?
                                                                                            April 15,19961Standard Bearer1323


  voices gather greater fervor with                          at the conference which ended           Adam after the fall clothed him-
  each verse in praising God.                                Sunday with a worship service....       self with fig leaves. God replaced
    Take away the video screen and                             "The No. 1 goal of this whole         that with animal skins - remind-
  music and it might be just another                         thing, ultimately, is to glorify the    ing Adam and us that proper cov-
  Saturday night in a Christian                              name of Christ," said Carol Love,       ering for sins requires shed blood.
  campground tradition that goes                             an owner of the Whispering Pines        Now some, claiming Christianity,
  b a c k   d e c a d e s   -  e x c e p t   t h e           Resort....    "We feel like we've
  woman leading the song has no                              been Christians for a long time,        would stand in their shame so that
  clothes on, her husband wears                              and this is our next step to get        all can see - while singing:
  only a T-shirt and all the others                          closer to God."                         "Amazing Grace." It is shocking.
  are similarly undressed.                                                                               The passage of  Hosea 2:2-3
    Welcome to the first Christian                             One .might wonder: what's `this       comes to mind. Is this God's judg-
  Nudist Conference....                                    world coming to? What is the              ment upon those who willfully ig-
    Some 40 Christian nudists from                         "church" coming to?                       nore God's Word and call evil
  around the country stood naked                               There could be given a long           "good"?  cl
  and unashamed before their God                           discourse on the place of clothing.

j  qk&&-qg~~~~  -                                                                    ..  j/                     RkG%s!!R~  1



    Man: God's Unique Creation
                                                      I                                   II!                                            I
    It is unquestionably true, as                              This last statement would cer-        ation in an attempt to compromise
one who subjects himself to the                            tainly find its objectors in our day.     in one way or another with the
revelation of Holy Scripture can                           Many theologians and preachers in         philosophy of evolution.
easily see, that man occupies a                            our day see no relationship be-               In 1988 a committee was ap-
unique place in God's creation.                            tween Adam and Christ. "The im-           pointed in the Christian Reformed
For that very reason Scripture                             portant thing," they say, "is that        Church to investigate for the Board
gives special attention to the ac-                         we know Jesus. There is no need           of Trustees of Calvin College and
count of man's creation. In doing                          to know Adam, if only we know             Seminary the teachings. of three
so, Scripture demonstrates the im-                         Jesus."                                   professors on the subject of cre-
portance of having a correct un-                               There are several reasons for         ation and evolution. In the "Re-
derstanding of Adam, the first                             this disinterest in Adam. For one         port of the  Ad  Hoc Committee"
man, and of his place in the  cre-                         thing, it is indicative of a general      which contained the conclusions
ation and before his God.                                  disinterest in biblical doctrine. For     and recommendations of the com-
                                                           another, the Old Testament, with          mittee as a result of the investiga-
Necessary knowledge                                        all its rich revelation, has fallen on    tion, Dr. Clarence Menninga, one
    A scriptural view of man is es-                        hard times in the church today.           of the professors being investi-
sential. That is true not only in                          This portion of the biblical canon        gated, stated his thoughts concern-
order that we might gain a correct                         is largely neglected, if not outright     ing Genesis 217, where we are told
biblical understanding of our-                             rejected.                                 that "the  LORD  God formed man
selves, who are descendants of                                 But a significant reason for          of the dust of the ground." Dr.
Adam. But to have a correct un-                            much of the disinterest in Adam           Menninga stated, "Maybe the dust
derstanding of man is essential                            is that men have elevated their           is a figure of speech and maybe
also to a true knowledge of Jesus                          theories of science to the level of a     God formed Adam by enabling a
Christ.                                                    god, and they insist that the bibli-      more primitive mother to give
                                                           cal account of man's creation can-        birth to an offspring who pos-
                                                           not be understand literally. Even         sessed the image of God." Imme-
                                                           in Reformed circles in recent years       diately after recording Menninga's
Rev. Key is pastor of the Protestant                       it has become popular to deny the         thoughts, the committee concluded
Reformed Church of Randolph, Wis-                          Bible's literal account of man's cre-     that Dr. Menninga interprets the
consin.

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Scriptures in harmony with the Re-       sinful man, standing in rebellion               the pinnacle of all earthly things,
formed creeds and synodical              against God by openly despising                 as the highest earthly creature.
guidelines.                              His Word, and yet still claiming                Man is God's masterpiece, a sig-
    Another professor investigated       Christ. God was not clear enough,               nificant and unique masterpiece
by that Committee, Dr. Howard            except in revealing Christ. God                 according to God's sovereign and
Van Till, states in his book The         was not clear enough in His ac-                 eternal counsel.
Fourth  Day, "I see no reason what-      count of man's creation. After all,                 Adam was created to occupy
soever to deny that the creation         His account doesn't quite measure               a position at the head of the whole
might have had an evolutionary           up to the "evidences" `of science.              human race.
history or that morally responsible      "But we all believe in Jesus!" Such                 Oh yes, Adam was created an
creatures might have been formed         is their thinking.                              individual, with his own personal
through the processes of evolution-          Let us understand, even the                 characteristics. And he was per-
ary development." Professor Van          simple call of the gospel, "Believe             sonally responsible for all that he
Till also was judged by the Com-         in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou              did over against his God. But
mittee "to be submissive to the          shalt be saved," presupposes a                  Adam was more than an indi-
Word of God as interpreted in the        wealth of doctrine. Back of this                vidual. He was created to stand
Creeds and by the synodical guide-       gospel call lies the doctrine of man,           in a unique relationship to all those
lines ." The  Ad  Hoc Committee          the doctrine of his fall into sin, and          who would follow him in his gen-
showed itself utterly incapable of       the effects of that fall. Behind the            erations.
defending the Genesis account of         call of the gospel lies the doctrine                In the first place, Adam was
man's creation.                          of God's absolute sovereignty, the              created the head of all mankind,
    According to others  - and           doctrine of Christ's anointing, of              our representative head. God cre-
Howard Van Till also fits in this        Christ's :headship,  of Christ's rela-          ated Adam to stand as our legal
category, as his book demonstrates       tionship to the first Adam.                     head. That is evident from  Ro-
- the record in Genesis must be              We must realize, therefore:                 mans  5:12ff: "Wherefore, as by
so interpreted as to deny the lit-       You cannot understand the gospel                one man sin entered into the
eral, historical account. It must        unless you have at least a ba-                     world, and death by sin; and
be made a literary device, a sort        sic understanding of bibli-                            so death passed upon all
of poetic art form into which the        cal truth, also concerning             T h e            men, for that all have
theories of man can be made to           man. When one reads I               biblical                 sinned." All sinned  in
fit, while setting aside the literal     Corinthians  15:22,  "For            truth                   Adam.  We must develop
interpretation of the biblical ac-       as in Adam all die, even       concerning man                that truth further at a
count.                                   so in Christ shall all be          rules out                 later date. When we
    But what is so deceitful about       made alive," he cannot          any false ideas              study the consequences
all these presentations is that they     understand life in             of a superior race            of man's fall, we must
are made under the  guise  of ex-        Christ, unless he under-        when it comes                certainly consider the
egesis, faithful attempts at biblical    stands Adam and his               to skin color              question: How can I be
interpretation; while, in fact, they     death.    "And so it is                   01                 guilty for that sin which
are no exegesis whatsoever, but          written, The first man            nationality.          Adam committed some
the introduction of mere human           Adam was made a living                                 6,000 years before I was
speculation, anti-biblical specula-      soul; the last Adam was                              even born? But the very brief
tion. They are attempts to force         made a .quickening  spirit" (I Cor.             answer to that is this: Adam stood
upon the Bible various theories          15:45).  All these comparisons  -               as the legal, representative head of
and views which plainly contradict       and there are others  - show us                 the human race, a unique creature.
what the Bible states so clearly.        that our.knowledge of Adam is es-               Because he is our head, his guilt is
    Clearly, these men are so un-        sential to true knowledge of Jesus              also ours.
comfortable with what the Bible          Christ. And true knowledge of                      In the second place, God cre-
teaches concerning Adam and              Christ is life eternal!                         ated Adam the father of the hu-
Adam's origin and Adam's  God-               How urgently necessary it is,               man race, and therefore the root
given place in creation that they        therefore, to bow before what God               of the organism which is the hu-
will do anything to deny that bib-       teaches us in Scripture concerning              man race. Out of this one man
lical revelation.                        the creation of man!                            the whole human race developed
    So we hear their cries: "It                                                          organically, even as a tree devel-
doesn't matter what we believe           A unique creature                               ops as one organism from a single
concerning Adam; for we all be-              Indeed, man is himself a                    seed. The apostle Paul referred to
lieve in Jesus!" Such talk is bold       unique creation of God. Adam                    that truth in his sermon to the
to the extreme. It is the talk of        was created by God to stand at                  Athenians, when he said (Acts

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17:26)  that God "hath made of one          are one body. There is no indi-             You will notice in the creation
blood all nations of men for to             vidualism. This is a very practi-       account of Genesis 1 a significant
dwell on all the face of the earth."        cal point when it comes to the          pause immediately before the
    The whole human race finds              truth of the church. All individu-      record of man's creation. That
its root in Adam.                           alism and refusal to be one with        pause is found in Genesis  1:26,
    To put it in clear terms, no            the body of Christ is rebellion         where God speaks to Himself. In
matter what color or nationality            against God who created man an          the fellowship of His own Triune
we may be, we are all related. The          organism, and redeemed an elect         Being He communicates in love.
biblical truth concerning man rules         organism in Christ Jesus. Regard-       The God who is One in Being and
out any false ideas of a superior           less of  tihat men  may  say, and       yet three in Persons speaks within
race when it comes to skin-color            what we may think, we do not            Himself concerning the place that
or nationality. God has made of             stand by ,ourselves  in this world.     His next creature will occupy.
one blood all nations of men.               The human race is an organism           "And God said (within Himself
    That is also a truth that comes         with its root in Adam, even as the      [SK]), Let us make man in our im-
to most beautiful expression in the         church is .an organism with Christ      age, after our likeness."
redeemed church as the elect body           as its organic head.                        Man is to be distinct from all
of Christ, gathered from all na-                So man, the first Adam, occu-       other creatures. God created him
tions, tribes, and tongues. In fact         pied a unique place in God's cre-       in distinction from the angels. He
(just to show how all Reformed              ation - the representative head,        created man in distinction from the
doctrine stands related), the truth         and the first father, the organic       animals.
of the communion of saints is ac-           root.                                       Man was created in the image
tually rooted in the truth of God's             The uniqueness of man's place       of God. It is to that truth that we
creation of man. Even as the hu-            is also signified by his very cre-      must turn our attention next time,
man race is one in Adam, so we              ation. Man was created by a spe-        God  willing.  Cl
who are redeemed in Christ Jesus            cial act of God.





                                           The Reformed Family:
                                                Houses

     "The house of the wicked shall be      goodly part of his annual  income       ery design and whimsy, islands,
overthrown: but the tabernacle  of  the     and life investment is spent on a       skylights, vaulted ceilings, fire-
upright shall Jourish."                     house. Time (l/29/96) reports the       places on every level, have become
                        Proverbs  14:ll     average American as spending            the norm for required living. A
                                            393% of his annual income on a          bathroom  - a luxury in itself  -
    The Arabs live in tents; the Es-        house, up from 205% in 1970.            is no longer merely functional, nor
kimo's, in igloos; the island people,       Owning one's own house is re-           is a bathtub serviceable, but it
in crudely-constructed huts; the            ferred to as U the American             must be a Jacuzzi. One can al-
Englishman, in his compact cot-             dream :m Reformed believers buy         most see the stout, idle Roman loll-
tage. Probably no culture spends            into this dream too.                    ing in his spa, a bunch of succu-
so much on the spacious design of               Some of our houses come             lent grapes suspended overhead.
a house, along with its compatible          closer to being measured in acre-       Consumptive living has a strangle-
furnishings, as the American. A             age than `in square feet. Carpet-       hold on us all  - although I still
                                            ing, window coverings (currently        feel twinges of guilt living in a
                                            billed as window "treatments" -         house which has two bathrooms
                                            I think because one needs a treat-
Mrs. Lubbers is a wife and mother in                                                for two people, when I grew up in
                                            ment after discovering the cost),
the Protestant Reformed Church  of                                                  a home which had one bathroom
                                            elegant furniture, appliances of ev-
South Holland, Illinois.                                                            for twelve people. And the time

326iStandard Bearer/April 15,1996


   and interest (no pun intended)                  The apostle Paul writes to                      builder and maker is God.
   spent on the acquisition of these          Timothy, "For men shall be lovers                         Ostentatious          living      has
   possessions cannot be tallied.             of their own selves, covetous . . .                  brought down civilization after
       The purchase and maintenance           unthankful . . . lovers of pleasures                 civilization. By the very nature of
   of these houses often put kingdom          more than lovers of God; Having                      a self-indulgent life-style, man be-
   causes at jeopardy. And our luxu-          a form of godliness, but denying                     comes at ease with himself, his
   ries speak loudly to our children.         the power thereof: from such turn                    soul, his destiny. He is vulner-
   When we sacrifice too much on the          away."                                               able to the excesses which topple
   altar of materialism, the sense of              It is true, a Christian must not                men and empires. What did Jesus
   urgency about Christian school tu-         be careless or slothful with his in-                 mean when He said, "It is easier
   ition, missions, needy churches,           vestments or belongings, nor is he                   for a camel to go through the eye
   and care of the widow and orphan           required to live in a wattle and                     of a needle than for a rich man to
   wanes. Frequently, husband and             daub; nevertheless, if we truly be-                  enter heaven"? We must take se-
   wife must both work to keep their          lieve that we are pilgrims and                       .riously Christ's admonition that
   financial heads above water. Cu-           strangers in this earth, if we are                   "A man's life consisteth not in the
   riously, I have never heard any-           really convinced that this life is a                 abundance of the things which he
   one say, "My house payment is too          pilgrimage complete with winding,                    possesseth.... Thou fool, this night
   high," but I have heard the usual          tortuous paths and deep, muddy                       thy soul shall be required of thee:
   mumbling about Christian school            sloughs; hazards steep and precipi-                  then whose shall those things be...?
   cost.                                      tous, then, it seems we should be                    So is he that layeth up treasure for
       It is important to remember            traveling a bit lighter. Building                    himself, and is not rich toward
   that our lives and values are open         up equity should be of inferior im-                  God."
   letters to others, especially to our       portance to living equitably.                             Each of us knows the indi-
   children. The principle of pursu-               Perhaps, our existence being a                  vidual trappings of his life. Gross
   ing the finest of everything is not        little more Spartan, we will be able                 materialism comes in all shapes
   disguised from our children, no            to concentrate more keenly on the                    and sizes. Vulgar living is not lim-
   matter how vigorously we con-              pitfalls in our path. With our                               ited to an over-sized, over-
                                                                                                              ._
   demn covetousness. Children are            heads up, and our backs                       _                furnished house. But a
   masters at divining inconsistencies.       less hunched over, we can                     Perhaps,          house is, undoubtedly,
   Our children are learning as by an         be more observant of road                  our existence         one of the priciest  indi-
   inviolable rule what makes us as           signs. And there are road                  being a little         caters of the ostentatious
   parents content and happy.         We      signs. "Thou fool, this                   more Spartan,           life-style. And it is  of-
   may say: this is just a temporary          night thy soul shall be re-              we will be able          ten the benchmark of
   house; it means very little to me; I       quired of thee." "Sell all               to concentrate           other, attendant forms of
   can live without it. But when our          that thou hast and give to                 more keenly            high-living. Now, to go
   children see the time, effort, con-        the poor." "Seek ye first                 on the pitfalls        with the house, we must
   cern, money, and interest devoted          the kingdom of God."                        in our path.        buy into its life-style.
   to these things, our words give            "Where -your treasure is,                                      Weeks of vacation away
   away the real impulse of our heart.        there will your heart be also."                              from its confines (?), and tele-
   Paul says in-II Corinthians 3:2, "Ye       "For unto whomsoever much is                         vision to fill the hours we do spend
   are our epistle written in our             given, of him shall be much re-                      there. Not satisfied any longer
   hearts, known and read of all              quired." The days are evil; our                      with "a  ,chicken in every pot" a
   men."                                      way, booby-trapped, All our pow-                     recreational vehicle in every slot
       How much of our house quali-           ers of observation and detection                     becomes the standard.           It almost
   fies as. shelter (refuge from the el-      are necessary.                                       seems axiomatic: the bigger the
   ements)? . . . and what percentage              Abraham was given the whole                     house and the more commodious
   must be classified as luxurious liv-       land of Canaan by God for his in-                    its facilities, the less time spent in
   ing? Or is luxurious living one of         heritance, yet he owned not one                      it with family and faith-friend.
' our Christian prerogatives? Will            parcel of ground personally.                              Does anyone, anywhere, live in
  it be said of us?                           When his wife Sarah died, he was                     the same house in which he lived
       Here were decent godless               f o r c e d   t o   b u y   t h e   c a v e   o f    when he married? The house in
     p e o p l e :                            Machpelah from the sons of Heth                      which he raised his family? The
       Their only monument an as-             to bury her. Nor would he receive                    house which whispers with nos-
            phalt road                        this land as a gift from their unbe-                 talgia? The house whose creaks
       And a thousand lost golf balls.        lieving hands. Why? Hebrews 11                       and sighs are rich with the secrets
              `(T.S. Eliot,  Choruses from    states: For he looked for a city                     and activities of years gone by?
                             `The Rock')      which hath foundations, whose                        Are we a people who can't cope

                                                                                                             April 15,1996iStandard  Bearer1327


with the little quirks and big in-        "button it," but we also helped          why raw cupidity and envy con-
conveniences which one frequently         each other through the sticky math       trol our society?
has to work around in such a              problems and that elusive vocabu-            What would it be like to dis-
house, but which very things make         lary word. There was a sense of          encumber oneself from the weight
the house more than an edifice -          family. We inadvertently enjoyed         which holds one down in the run-
a house with character?                   the "sense of community" which           ning of our spiritual marathon?
    As a teenager, I shared a bed-        is currently such a popular zip          Sit loose from this world. How
room with three sisters, and,  be-        phrase. You could have fooled us!        does the apostle Paul put it? "Giv-
c!ause  we had the biggest bedroom,       Today, parents  seem to  think that      ing no offense in anything . . . but
it also held the baby's crib. We          children need their own bathroom,        in all things approving ourselves
studied all together at the kitchen       their own bedroom, their own             as the ministers of God . . . as hav-
table; a desk in one's own room           desk, their own bike, their own          ing nothing, and yet possessing all
was unheard of - besides, it was          baseball mitt.      An over-sized        things."
too cold in the bedrooms. Sure,           house, rooms too big, possessions            And oh, `tis true, `tis true: a
we argued; and the person who             which encourage individualism            house is not a home. Cl
talked too `much was warned to            and selfishness, and we wonder





      A Lover of God  or a Liar?
                                                                        n 





    We hear it all the time: love         of our calling toward God. Yet,              I have gleaned from John's
God and love the neighbor. We             since not all our friends and class-     epistles four truths about love that
hear it from the pulpit, in the class-    mates  pick up  the Standard Bearer      we do well to consider.
room from our teachers, and               and read it, maybe it would not
surely we hear it at home from our        hurt to make a few copies of this        Love is of God.
parents. The one, great command-          article to distribute, just to remind        We all claim to love God,
ment of God's law is to love God.         them of their calling too?               right? I mean, if I were to ask you
The second commandment is like                The apostle John is considered       in catechism class if you loved
unto it: love your neighbor.              the expert on the subject of love.       God, I do not think there would
    We do not have to be great            In his three epistles or letters to      be anyone of you who would say,
theologians to understand this            the churches he pinpoints the            "No, I do not love God!" Maybe
command. We do not even have              source and describes the character       there might be one or two with res-
to be an adult or a young person          of love. If we really want to learn      ervations in their hearts, but they,
to know what it is to love God and        what love is, we will not discover       would not be very quick to admit
the neighbor. We are taught this          it in the thousands of sinful love       that to  me  or to others. We all
command of God even before we             novels available on bookshelves          claim to love God. But do we re-
enter kindergarten. For, godly            today. In fact, we wih not find it       ally realize what loving God
youth, what we write in this ar-          in the books of the worldly,  so-        means? Love is not merely a feel-
ticle is not so much something            called experts on love either. They      ing or an emotion. True love goes
new, as much as a reminder to us          have no love for God. How then           much deeper than that. It is rooted
                                          canthey ever possibly tell us what       in the heart and forms an indis-
                                          love:@ If you really want to know        soluble bond with the one who is
                                          all about `love, I suggest that you      the object of that love. This is why
                                          spend some time studying these           we can confidently say, true love
                                          letters of John. He is right on
Rev. Bruinka  is pastor of First Prot-                                             lasts forever. When two people
                                          track. Of course he is - his words       love each other, then they long af-
estant Reformed. Church in Holland,       are infallibly inspired, after all!      ter and seek each other's  fellow-
Michigan.

328/StandardBearerlApril15,1996


ship and companionship. And that        the first: loving God requires that                ten does things to hurt and injure
deep longing forms a bond be-           we love our neighbor. The two go                   me. He speaks evil of me. His
tween the two of them that cannot       hand in hand.                                      actions often are meant to offend
be broken.                                  True love for the neighbor con-                me. How can I love a neighbor of
    For love to be such, however,       sists in the love we have just de-                 that sort? Most of the time I
it must exist between two perfect       scribed. It is a bond that unites                  harbour feelings of revenge. Be-
beings. Where there is sin, where       us with our fellow saints for whom                 sides, my own envy and covetous-
there is wrong committed against        Christ died. Since the hearts with                 ness often lead me to do hurtful
another, love breaks down. Sin is       which we love our neighbor are                     things toward my neighbor. Ah
a horrible canker that, if it is not    sanctified hearts, our love governs                yes, that horrible, horrible sin fac-
stopped, eats away at the longing       our thoughts and desires about the                 tor  - that sinful flesh we carry
and desire we may have for an-          neighbor. God's love in us influ-                  with us everywhere  - it surely
other. To love someone requires         ences our attitude towards one an-                 does mar our relationships with
perfection. This is why we read         other. This is why our claim to                    our classmates and fellow saints!
of love, in Colossians 3:14, as the     love God means very little to Him                  But our sinful flesh cannot be used
bond of perfectness. For two            if He does not see us loving each                  as an excuse for not loving the
people to love each other, there-       other. In fact, John makes a bold                  brother. What should we say
fore, requires that the love of God     statement:    if you say you love                  about our proneness to hate the
abide in them. Only God is per-         God and do not love your brother,                  neighbor? Perhaps we ought to
fect, and in Him alone is found         you are `a liar! How so? You are                   ask ourselves a couple of ques-
true love. God is love. This love       lying about your love for God: if                  tions.
God cultivates in the hearts of His     you do not love your neighbor,                            First of all, do we fight against
people through the work of Jesus        you do not love God either.                        this sin? Remember, Christ died
on the cross. In Christ we have             Now, that is quite an assertion!               not only to gain for us the forgive-
become holy and perfect. Not in         When applied to young people and                   ness of sins, but He died to con-
ourselves, but as we belong to          children it says this: if you hate                 quer the power and dominion of
Christ we are capable of truly lov-     (resent, abhor, are embittered to-                 sin in our lives. Our sinful flesh
ing another person. So, that is         ward, offended at, or in com-                             was crucified with Christ on
love. That is the love that must        petition or angry with) a fel-       -  4.                   the cross. We are no longer
be in our hearts. This same love        low young person in the             tied's law               servants to sin. Do we,
comes to manifestation in our           church or classmate in               demands                  then, earnestly fight the
lives.                                  school, then you cannot              the love                 sinful desire in us to hurt
                                        claim to love God! If you of God by way someone or to "get back"
He who loves God also loves             say you love God and you             of loving                at someone for what he
his fellow  saints.                     hate that brother or sister,                the               did to us? How much do
    Not only does a child of God        then you are a liar! You do          neighbor.                we struggle within  our-
truly love God, but he also truly       not love God! God's law de-                                  selves to love the neighbor
loves his neighbor. This truth John     mands the love of God by way                              as much as we love God?
expresses in I John  4:20, 21: "If a    of loving the neighbor.  How true                  Surely, we ought not to allow the
man say, I love God, and hateth         is the Word of God in I                            sin of hating the brother to rule in
his brother, he is a liar: for he       Corinthians  139: "Though I speak                  us!
that loveth not the brother whom        with the tongues of men and of                            Secondly, how much do we
he hath seen, how can he love God       angels, and have not charity (love),               hate our sin? When we do stumble
whom he hath not seen? And this         I am become as sounding brass,                     into hateful and hurtful words or
commandment have we from him,           or a tinkling cymbal." I can say                   actions toward a fellow saint, per-
That he who loveth God love his         all kinds of nice religious things                 haps a classmate in school, how
brother also." Of course! That          about God, and come off as pious                   much does that sin bother us? Do
makes sense! God has worked in          as ever, `but if I do not have love                we go home at night and loathe
my heart His love, and God has          for my neighbor, then all I am do-                 ourselves for what we did to that
worked His love in the heart of         ing is making a lot of noise!                      person? Do our prayers get stuck
my fellow Christian too. We are             But then . . . there is the sin fac-           in our throats because we know
both made holy in the blood of          tor: "the good that I would I do                   that having hurt our brother we
Christ; we are made perfect in          not, and the evil that I would not                 are not right with God? How
Christ. Does it not follow then that    that I do." It seems to be much                    sorry are we when we sin against
as fellow saints we will love each      easier to love God than to love the                another? Sorry enough to confess
other too?' This is why the second      neighbor. God is perfect and never                 our sin to God? Sorry enough to
commandment of God is like unto         sins against me. My neighbor of-                   confess our sin to the one we hurt?

                                                                                                      April 15,1996/Standard  Bearer1329


Are we lovers of God . . . or are we      when I throw a ball at him or            according to our works. Those
liars?                                    threaten  ito hurt him? Again, the       works will include what we have
     We cannot love God without           question is not: how cool am I           done to our neighbor.
loving the neighbor.                      when I do these things? My guess                  It is true that our place in
                                          is that our sinful natures would         heaven has already been deter-
If a man loves his brother,               tell us that we are really cool! So      mined in eternity. It is also true
he will show that love.                   would plenty of other "cool"             that entrance into the kingdom of
     Loving the brother means that        people! But when we do these             heaven is possible only in the
we must also reveal that love to          things we ought to ask ourselves         blood of Jesus Christ. If our sal-
him in our words and actions.             this question: do we truly love          vation depended on our loving the
Again, this is God's Word to us in        God as we say? Are we lovers of          neighbor perfectly, none of us
John's first letter to the church. In     God, or liars? There is much more        would enter. How thankful we
I John 3:18 John writes, "My little       involved in our words and actions        can be that Christ died for us! But
children, let us not love in word,        than merely our relationship with        it is also true that those for whom
neither in tongue; but in deed and        our neighbor. It is not. simply a        Christ died are believers. And be-
in truth." The child of God, above        matter of being able to get along        lievers are those who walk con-
all other people  i,n this world,         with a brother or sister in the          sciously with their Lord. The
should show compassion and char-          church. Our relationship with God        mind of Christ is in them. They
ity toward his neighbor  - espe-          is involved. Our place in heaven is      hear and obey the exhortation of
cially toward his fellow saints. We       involved!  That is a serious matter!     Paul in Philippians  2:3, 4: "Let
live in a selfish and self-centered                                                nothing be done through strife or
world that is filled with competi-        Only those who love the brother          vainglory; but in lowliness of mind
tion, envy, and strife. In our soci-      have a place in heaven.                  let each esteem other better than
ety, more than  anywhe,re else,                In the day of judgment, when        themselves. Look not every man
people do not show love, but ha-          all nations are gathered before          on his own things, but every man
tred, in their words and deeds.           Christ, He will say to His sheep,        also on the things of others." As
Such ought never to be true of us!        "Come ye blessed of my Father,           believers walk in obedience to this
We say we love God. We say we             inherit the kingdom prepared for         command, they inherit the king-
love our fellow saints. But when          you from the foundation of the           dom of heaven.
it comes to putting those words           world. For I was an hungered, and            What then is the conclusion to
into deeds . . . are we lovers of God,    ye gave me meat: I was thirsty,          all this? "Beloved, let us love one
or liars? The deeds to which we           and ye gave me drink: I was a            another: for love is of God; and
refer, of course, are the words we        stranger, and ye took me in: na-         every one that loveth is born of
speak to and about a person. They         ked, and ye clothed me: I was            God, and knoweth God" (I John
are also what we reveal in our ac-        sick, and ye visited me: I was in        4:7).
tions  - our actual dealings with         prison and ye came unto me"                  I know, young people, none of
someone. We cannot say we love            (Mat?. 25:3436). Then God's saints       this is new. Yet, as old as the com-
someone if we are constantly hurt-        will humbly `ask, "When did we           mandment is to love each other, it
ing him with our words and ac-            do all this to you, Lord?" And He        always needs repeating because it
tions. Neither, when we do this,          will answer them: "Verily I say          is so easily forgotten. In fact, if
can we say that we love God.              unto you, inasmuch as ye have            your parents have not read this ar-
    Let me give an example or             done it unto one of the least of         ticle, run off an extra copy for
two. Can I say I love God when I          these my brethren, ye have done          them. Parents need to be reminded
have just called a classmate of           it unto me"  (Malt.   25:40).  In the    of this commandment too! Cl
mine "stupid," or whispered some-         day of judgment we will be judged
thing mean about her to my                                                                                         I
friends? The question is not sim-                                 Chging to Jesus
ply: do I love my neighbor, but do
I love God? Do I love God when I
roll my eyes at someone or make                 Close to Thee, my blessed  Savior,
a snide remark to him? Do I love                    Keep me walking  day by day;
God when I, with my friends, de-                Let me feel Thy presence with me,
liberately try to walk fast enough                  Be my refugeall the way.
to leave someone else out of the                                                               Standard Bearer,
group? Do I love God`when I
mock a person or his inability to         I
do something.3 Do I love God

33OlStandard Bearer/April 15,1996


      John  GUI:  Hyper-Cdvinist?
                                                    (A Review Article)

                                              I                                    ,                                                                1
John Gill and the Cause of God                       branches, more closely,  judi-                 for consideration in various quar-
and  Truth,  by George M. Ella.                      ciously, .and successfully (cited in            ters. Curt Daniel, e.g., has recently
Eggleston, Co. Durham, England:                      Ella, p. 18).                                   published his  900-page  doctoral
Go Publications, 1995. 365 pp.                                                                       dissertation, "Hyper-Calvinism
$16.95 (paper).                                        Gill crossed swords with                     and John Gill." (I intend to  re-
                                                   Wesley over the doctrines of grace.              view this massive study of "hyper-
    This new, well-written biogra-                 To Wesley's  Serious Thoughts                    Calvinism" in a forthcoming issue
phy of 18th century, Particular                    upon the Perseverance of the                     of the  Protestant Reformed Theo-
(Calvin&tic)  Baptist preacher and                 Saints,  a denial of perseverance,                logical Journal.)
theologian John Gill is welcome for                Gill wrote,  The  Doctrine of the                            Ella makes the issue of. Gill's
several reasons. Gill was a notable                Saints' Final Perseverance.  When                alleged "hyper-Calvinism" a  lead-
pastor, theologian, and Bible com-                 Wesley continued his attack upon , ing theme of the biography. He
mentator. Some of his writings are                 Calvinism generally and Gill in                  exonerates Gill from the charge. In
still being published today. His                   particular with his Predestination               the course of his treatment of this
dogmatics was republished in 1977                  calmly considered, a denial of pre-              issue, Ella makes several  refer-
by Primitive Baptist Library as A                  destination, Gill responded with                 ences to the position of the Protes-
Body of Doctrinal and Practical                    The Doctrine of Predestination,                  tant Reformed Churches.
Divinity.  Baker Book House pub-                   Stated and Set in the Scripture                              It is plain from the book that
lished this dogmatics in two vol-                  light.                                           Gill preached more gospel  with-
umes in 1978 as Gill's Body of Di-                     Baptists should be attracted to                         out the "offer" than his critical
vinity.  In the early days of my                   an account of the life and                                      contemporaries did with
ministry, there were older mem-                    work of the man about                       Gill                 their "offer." Gill `pro-
bers of the Protestant Reformed                    whom Toplady said, "He                 preached                   claimed and defended. the
Churches who used Gill's corn-  j was, I believe, the great-                             more gospel                  gospel of salvation by
mentary on the entire Bible in                     est man the Baptists ever                 without                  sovereign grace without
preparation for Bible study classes.               enjoyed."
    Gill's friends included the ster-                  This is the first thor-            the  l'offrN                ambiguity, hedging, or
                                                                                             than, his                compromise. Ella makes
ling Calvinist Augustus M.                         ough biography of Gill.                                            clear that Gill's main an-
Toplady, and his enemies included                  It is certainly the first                 critical
                                                                                        contemporaries                tagonist, Andrew Fuller,
the notorious Arminian John                        sympathetic  full-scale  bi-
Wesley. Toplady said of Gill:            ' o g r a p h y .                                 did with                   who was largely respon-
                                                                                              their                   sible for fixing the charge
                                                       No doubt the main in-                              "
  Perhaps, no man, since the days                  terest that Gill holds for the            " ofle r.               of "hyper-Calvinism" on
                                                                                                                    Gill's doctrine, was  him-
  of St. Austin (Augustine  - DJE),                Reformed reader is that Gill                                   self heretical in his views of
  has written so largely, in defence               was an important figure in a con-                depravity, irresistible grace, and
  of the system of Grace; and, cer-                troversy in England over the "of-
  tainly, no man has treated that                                                                   atonement.
                                                   fer of the gospel." Gill rejected
  momentous subject, in all its                                                                                 Ella exposes the criticism by
                                                   the "offer" and is widely `regarded              contemporary critics Peter  Toon
                                                   in Calvin&tic circles as a "hyper-               and Erroll Hulse as unscholarly
                                                   Calvinist," if not the father of                 and unfair. Charles H.  Spurgeon
Prof. Engelsma is professor  of Dog-               "hyper-Calvinism." Since the  con-               was a fairer critic:
matics and Old Testament in the Prot-              troversy over the "offer" contin-
es tan t Reformed Seminary.                        ues -unabated today, Gill comes up
                                         i                                                                For good, sound, massive, sober
                                                                                                                   April 15,1996iStandard  Bearer1331


  sense in commenting, who can ex-         may talk of belief but not before.           only evasion of the plain teaching
  cel Gill? Very seldom does he al-        Where does this belief come from?            of Christ but also demeaning to the
  low himself to be run away with          Is it for  all to grasp at, spurned          gospel. The gospel insists on true
  by imagination, except now and           (sic)  by a knowledge of their du-           repentance, nothing less, and on
  then when he tries to open up a          ties? No.... Sinners cannot  pos-            genuine faith, nothing other.
  parable, and finds a meaning in          sibly have any inkling of  respon-                  The basic mistake of Gill and
  every circumstance and minute            sibilities towards saving faith as
  detail; or when he falls upon a          God has withheld these truths                his present-day disciples is their
  text which is not congenial with         from them as fallen creatures....            failure to recognize that total  de-
  his creed, and hacks and hews ter-       Thus the command to exercise                         pravity, or inability, does not
  ribly to bring the Word of God           duty-faith can only be given                            rule out full responsibility.
  into a more systematic shape. Gill       to those who have a faith
  is the Coryphaeus (leader  - DJE)        to exercise dutifully and          The gospel            To put it as sharply as
  of hyper-Calvinism, but if his fol-      a knowledge of their du-           commands                possible: The gospel
  lowers never went beyond their           ties towards God. This          the unregenerated          commands the  unre-
  master, they would not go very           faith is God's gift to his         and totaZZy              generated and totally
  far astray (cited in Ella, p. 134).      elect....    This is all in     depraved sinner             depraved sinner to do
                                           keeping with Gill's  bib-        to do what he              what he cannot do, and
    Nevertheless, in addition to           lical duty-faith teaching          cannot do,               his punishment will
the Reformed charge that Gill as a         that with the grant of                 and his              one day be the greater
Baptist seriously erred in denying         faith comes the  obliga-          puniihment                for his refusal. The
God's covenantal work of grace in          tion to exercise it. What
                                           Gill could not believe            will one day              reason why he is  ac-
the infants of believers, it must be       was that the  duty of the         be the greater           countable to do what he
noted that Gill did, in fact, deny         evangelist was to preach               for  his           cannot do is that the
that the call, or summons, of the          that sinners were  dutv-               refusal.           fault for his inability is
gospel comes to all who hear. This                                                                  his own, not God's.  Be-
                                           bound to exercise  savingly             .
denial is real, and serious, hyper-        a faith of which they knew                             sides, when the sinner re-
Calvinism.                                 nothing and of which they had                jects the gospel in unbelief, he does
    There was a good deal of con-          nothing. He would not preach to              so willingly.
fusion in Gill's own thinking about        the unsaved as though they  were                    If Gill hesitated to affirm the
this matter, due partly to the con-        saved but he preached to save sin-           serious external call to all hearers
fused and confusing errors which           ners (pp. 281, 282).                         because he feared that this-was the
he combatted. Ella's treatment                                                          Arminian offer, his error lay in not
                                             That Gill denied what Re-
likewise is sometimes murky. But                                                        distinguishing between the
                                         formed theology teaches as the
it becomes clear that Gill did not                                                      Arminian offer and the Reformed
                                         "external call of the gospel" is
think that God and the preacher                                                         external call. The Arminian offer
                                         plain enough from his handling of
of the gospel command every                                                             consists of a gracious attempt by
                                         the call in his dogmatics. The only
hearer, unregenerate as well as re-                                                     God to save all who hear, depen-
                                         command that is given to the un-
generate, reprobate as well as                                                          dent upon their supposed free will.
                                         regenerate in the audience of the
elect, to repent of his sins with                                                       The Reformed call consists of a
                                         preacher is that he do what lies in
true, heartfelt repentance and to                                                       summons to all, setting forth their
                                         his natural powers: "perform the
believe on the Savior from the                                                          duty and making plain the one
                                         natural duties of religion"; exer-
heart with a genuine faith. The                                                         way of salvation, which summons
                                         cise a "natural faith"; "believe the
reason given was that the unregen-                                                      God makes effectual by His par-
                                         external report of the gospel"; and
erate is incapable of true repen-                                                       ticular grace in the hearts of the
                                         the like (see Gill`s Body  of  Divin-
tance and faith by virtue of his to-                                                    elect in the audience.
                                         ity,  vol. 2, Baker, repr. 1978, pp.
tal depravity.                                                                                 The book can be ordered in
                                         122-125).
    Reflecting GilI's thinking, Ella                                                    Great Britain from
                                             The truth is that, although the
writes:                                                                                              Go Publications
                                         unregenerated sinner has no abil-                         c/o Peter L Meney
                                         ity to do what he is called by the
  The big question now is, does the                                                                      The Cairn
                                         gospel to do, God commands ev-
  Bible invite all men indiscrimi-                                                                 Hill Top, Eggleston
  nately and everywhere to believe       ery hearer to repent of his sins and                   Co. Durham DL12.0AU.
  as Fuller maintains? No, says the      believe on Jesus Christ presented              In North America, order from the
  Bible.    Repentance must come         in the gospel. Thus, He summons                         Reformed Book Outlet
  first. Belief is always dependent      him to the gospel feast of salva-                            3505 Kelly St.
  on repentance. Repent ye and be-       tion (Matt.  22:1-14). To speak here                    HudsonviIle,  MI 49426
  lieve the gospel (Mark  1:15).         of a merely "legal repentance" and                   (telephone: 616-669-6730). Cl
  When God grants repentance we          of a merely "natural faith" is not

332Mandard Bearer/April 15,1996


         Seasons  of  Refreshing: Evan-           A wrong view -of conversion           Word were laid aside in the
     gelism and Revivals in America,          lies at the-heart of revival theory.      broader and more compelling in-
     by Keith J. Hardman. Grand Rap-          This view is an erroneous view            terests of cooperation for bringing
     ids: Baker Book House, 1994. 304         first promoted by later Puritan the-      , about revival.
     pp. $16.99 (paper). [Reviewed by         ology, basically Arminian, and                 Nor was revivalism free from
     Prof. Herman Hanko.]                     based on a wrong view of the cov-         I postmillennial thinking. The au-
                                              enant of grace, especially the truth      thor makes that clear, e.g., when
         For a thorough history of  re-       that God lestablishes  His covenant       he writes: "Their optimistic hope
     viva1 in the United States one can       in the line of continued genera-          ' was that as evil  d&eased,  good-
     do no better than  ~purchase  and        tions. It is briefly described on          ness and the gospel would increase
     read this book. It is interesting and    page 43:                                   to the point of.bringing  in the mil-
     well-written, and traces the history'                                               lennium" (p. 165).
I    of revivalism from the Great                 Before conversion, every sinner            The book, filled with statistics
     Awakening in New England to                had to undergo certain prepara-          which are intended to prove the
     modern mass evangelism under               tory stages, although those stages       success of revivalism by listing the
     the leadership of Billy Graham and         had no salvific power in them-          numbers of converts, shows the
     Luis Palau. The purpose of the             selves. Such preparations were
                                                similar to Puritan ~convictions,n        carnal emphasis on mere numbers,
     book is not, however, merely to            in which a "law work" based on           which are so important even to
     give a birds-eye view of the his-          the paradigm of the Old Testa-           modern mass evangelism.
     tory, but, as Luis Palau explains          ment  lqgal dispensation mani-               How different all this is from
     in the Introduction, it is hoped that      fested the sinner's helplessness         Scripture's emphases. The battle
     the book will bring about revival          and need. This instruction in            of faith is a battle of the ages in
     in our own day. All the men who            helplessness prepared the  &ner          the defense of truth. The church
     participated in revivals get their         for introduction to the saving           is always a hut in a garden of cu-
     fair share of time: Jonathan               grace of Christ. Preparations . . .      cumbers (Is.  1:8, 9). The life of
     Edwards, Theodore Frelinghuysen,           came  in.the two stages of humili-       the church in the world is the
     Charles Finney, Dwight L. Moody,           ation and contrition (see also pp.       steady progress of an embattled
                                               l15,116).
     Billy Sunday - they are all there                                                   remnant that perseveres by the
     and their views are examined.                The role that the doctrine of          power of Christ in every age even
         The`book is favorable towards        freewill plays in revivalism is ad-        when it can scarcely be found on
     revivalism, but is strangely silent      mitted and defended. As early as           the earth (Be@ Confession, Art.
     for the  most  part on the excesses      Solomon Stoddard (p. 49), the pre-         27); it is not, as revivalism teaches,
     which often accompanied revivals         decessor .of Jonathan Edwards in           a long series of ups and downs
     and speaks sparingly about the           Northampton, this Pelagian heresy          marked by spiritual declines and
     criticisms which were leveled            was a part of revival thinking.            sudden bursts of revival which
     against revivals by orthodox theo-       And it maintained  that  preeminent        soon fade away. The life of the
     logians.                                 place throughout, coming to sharp          child of God is not of such spiri-
         Yet, the book brings out in          expression in Charles Finney's to-         tual lows and highs that revivals
     many ways the' weaknesses of re-         tal rejection of Calvinism (see, e.g.,     bring sudden bursts of intense
     vivalism, and for this reason alone      pp. 122, 147, 156). There was al-          spiritual ecstasy only to be fol-
     it is worth reading.                     ways the tension found in reviv-           lowed by periods of extreme leth-
         The book finds its support for       als between a pious a'dmission that        argy. It is the slow, unnoticed,
     revivals in the Old Testament and        revivals come from God and the , steady progress in sanctification
     Pentecost; but this biblical basis is    need for :man to do something to           which marks the earnest believer
     weak, for the appeal to the Old          bring about revival.                       in his daily struggle with sin and
     Testament is really a misinterpre-           Revivals always bred a false           his  daily putting off the old man
     tation of the place which Israel oc-     ecumenicity. Forgetting important          and putting on the new man, ex-
     cupied in the history of redemp-         biblical and confessional differ-          pressed in confession, sorrow for
     tion, and an appeal to Pentecost is      ences, churches would band to-             sin, and renewed resolve to walk
     a complete misunderstanding of           gether for or be united by revivals        in the ways of God's command-
     what took-place on that important        which, supposedly, swept entire            ments. The work of the Holy
     day when the Spirit was given to         areas. Doctrinal truths of God's           Spirit is not manifested in the
     the church.                                                                         earthquakes of religious frenzy,

                                                                                                 April 15,1996/Standard  Bearer1333


 but in the still, small voice of daily          of the history of the church and                      for that which is contrary to the
 regeneration.                                  the daily, walk of the`believer who                    will of God and a denial of all that
         It is the spiritual aspect of re-       finds his refuge daily in the cross                   Scripture teaches of the age-old
 vivals which is so extremely dan-               of Christ. To pray for revival, as                    battle against sin.  0
 gerous to a proper understanding                the book wants us to do, is to pray


 ,  ~@lf~~f
                                                         i                       /
                                                                                                 I
                                                 in the truth that we enjoy as  ' Rev.  Brummel (August 25 and  Sep-
                                                 churches.                                            tember 1); Rev. Joostens (Septem-
 March 6,1996                                        The,  Classis: considered an  i  her 22 and 29).
 at Pella, Iowa                                  overture which- asked Classis   fl to                        Classis approved subsidy re-
                                                make it their practice to-treat  the                  quests as follows and forwarded
         The March meeting of Classis            questions of Article 41 (of the                      them to Synod: Bethel PRC  -
 West was held in Pella, Iowa on                Church Order) early in the                            $20,300;  Edgerton PRC  - $9,000;
 Wednesday, March 6. The custom-                agenda.`; These questions; which                      E d m o n t o n   P R C   -  $ 3 1 , 7 7 3 ;
 ary Officebearers' Conference was              are asked as part of the mutual su-                   Lacombe PRC - $19,134; Pella
 held the day before. The theme of              pervision exercised among the                         PRC - $22,500; Trinity PRC  -
 the. Conference was "Discerning                churches, have long been asked                        $31,000.
 the Spirits." The keynote address              near the close of the Classis  meet-                          Voting for delegates to Synod
- was given by Pastor Steven Key,               ings. One of the grounds for the                      1996 resulted in the following elec-
 who spoke on "Trying the Spirits."             change pointed Classis  to histori-                   tions: Ministers:  P+ni:  A.  den-
 Also giving presentations at the               cal  prece-dent,  where the practice                  Hartog, C. Haak, S. Key, C.
 conference         w e r e   R e v .   ,Ron    all the- way back- to 1571 was to                     Terpstra, G. VanBaren;  Skmdi:
 Cammenga, "Promise Keepers:                    treat these questions at the begin-                   W. Bekkering, M.  DeVries, S.
 What Should Be Our Response?";                 ning of the Classis  meetings. The                    Houck, M. Joostens, R. Moore. EI-
 Rev. Charles Terpstra, "Confer-                second ground stated that such a                      ders:       Primi:     Robert Brands
 ences: Of What Value?"; and Rev.               change is proper when one takes                       (Loveland),           Allen Brummel
 Michael  DeVries, "The Multiplica-             into account one of the reasons for                   (Edgerton), Ken  DeJong  (Peace),
 tion of Signs and Miracles: An Ex-             the questions, namely, to insure                      Jack Regnerus (Randolph), Bill
 amination of the Influences of                 the unity of faith and walk within                    Smit (Lynden);  Secundi:  John
 Pentecostal&." In attendance at                the federation of churches. And a                     Feenstra        (Redlands), Henry
 the conference were almost all the             third ground pointed to a practi-                     Ferguson (Edmonton),  John.Hilton
 delegates to Classis, as well as sev-          cal consideration of allowing the                     (Edgerton), John Hoksbergen
 eral visitors. The discussion and              Classis,  `early in the meeting, to                   (Hull), Chester Hunter, Jr. (Doon).
 the fellowship were appreciated by             consider any matters that a                                   Among other elections: Rev.
 alI.                                           consistory may. bring under the                       S. Key was re-appointed to a three-
                                                fourth question of Article 41: "Do                    year- term as Stated Clerk. Elder
         Rev. Carl Haak began the ses-          you need the judgment and help                        Ed  VanGinkel was elected to a
 sion of Classis on Wednesday with              of the c!assis for the proper gov-                    one-year term on the Classical
 a devotional based on I Timothy                ernment: of -your church?" Classis                    Committee.        Rev. Key was re-
 4:16,  "Take heed to thyself." Rev.            West  ,adopted the overture and                       elected to serve a three-year primus
 Steven Houck then chaired the                  made it! the practice to ask the                      term and Rev. W. Bekkering was
 Classis  meeting.                              questions of Article 41 immedi-                       re-elected to a three-year secundus
                                                ately after the reading of  .the min-                 term as Synodical  Deputies. Revs.
         The agenda of  Classis  was  1 utes of the previous Classis  meet-                           G. Lanting and G. VanBaren were
 brief. Among the customary re-  'ing.                        '                                       re-elected to be church visitors,
 ports that are received early in the                Classis  granted classical ap-                   wi,th Revs. A.  denHartog  and S.
 agenda, the Church Visitors annu-              pointments as follows: Doon PRC                       Houck as alternates.
 ally give their report at the March            - Rev. Terpstra (April 21 and 28);                            The next meeting of  Classis
 Classis.  The Church Visitors re-              Rev. .DeVries  (June 2 and 9); Rev.                   wiIl be in Randolph, Wisconsin on
 ported that the churches in Classis            C .   Haak  ( J u n e   2 3   a n d   3 0 ) .         September 4, 1996, the Lord will-
West are experiencing the gracious              Immanuel, Lacombe PRC - Rev.                          ing.
blessing of our God upon both                   Moore (April 21 and 28); Rev.                                                Rev. Steven Key,
councils and congregations. We                  VanBaren (June 23 and 30); Rev.                                                  Stated Clerk
give thanks to God for the unity                denHartog  (July 28 and August 4);

334IStandard Bearer/April 15,1996


School Activities                          Itasca, IL, held at the South Hol-           On March 9th the members of
   We received the following note          land, IL :PRC on March 21, spon-         the Southwest PRC in Grandville,
from Rev. R. Moore, pastor of the          sored by the Association for PR          MI got together for their annual
Hull, IA PRC, and now pass the             Secondary Education.                     Spring potluck/pig-roast. And  wf
information on to you. Rev. Moore              At their annual meeting,             could add here that their young
writes, "The Con&story at its last         March 18, the Society for PR Sec-        people's society recently hosted a
meeting, in accordance with its call       ondary Education in Grand Rap-           slide presentation on Ireland and
to promote good Christian schools,         ids, MI approved a proposal from         a past Conference in Northern Ire-
has been working on ways to pro-           their Board of Trustees to rent          land given by Mr. and Mrs. Henry
mote the beginning of a PR Sec-            building' `space to Adams Street         Brands. The intent was to spur
ondary Education Society and has           Christian School for their Junior        some interest in this year's up-
decided to seek out three men              High for the 1996-1997 year. You         coming conference, as well as to
from our congregation to work to           may remember that Adams sold             generate some income for this
organize a basis for establishing          their current property to the pub-       year's young people's convention.
such a society. We have also               lic school system of Grand Rap-
sought out our  Doon consistory            ids, and this will be their last year
and our  Edgerton consistory to            in that location. In addition, we
join,us in  ,this effort. Both of our      have also learned that Adams has         Mission  Activities
sister congregations have agreed to        received .permission  from the First         The Foreign Mission Commit-
obtain men to labor on this com-           PRC in Grand Rapids to use their         tee of our churches is forwarding
mittee; and have whole-heartedly           lower level for grades K-6 for the       to this-year's Synod a proposal to
encouraged us in this labor. In the        next year as well. But we stress         call a missionary to Ghana, con-
future months we shall hear from           that these still remain options. At      tingent upon obtaining the services
this committee.                            this time, at least to my knowl-         of a volunteer(s) lay person(s) to
    "We realize that it may be sev-        edge, Adams Association has not          accompany the missionary and his
eral years before we could possi-          approved either of these choices.        family and to minister to the
`bly bring this goal of having our         And Adams' Board continues to            physical and material needs of the
own school to fruition. But we be-         look at all kinds of different solu-     field.
gin this work now in the hope that         tions to their short and long-term
God will one day make it pos-              g o a l s .
sible."
    We can also conclude by add-                                                    Minister Activities
ing that-in future months, you, the                                                     Our  Doon,  IA PRC has again
readers of the "News," will hear           Congregational Activities                formed a trio from which they wi.lI
more about this worthwhile effort.              The Council of the Grace PRC        call a pastor. This trio consists of
    Almost Simultaneous to the             in Standale, MI called a special         the Revs. Cammenga, Koole, and
above; there appeared a note in the        congregational meeting for  late         Spriensma.
bulletin of the Peace PRC in               February. At that meeting Grace
Lynwood, IL asking these ques-             approved two proposals. First,
tions: "Is PR secondary education          they approved a proposal to pur-
your priority? Should it be? Do            chase five acres on the corner of
you want to know, or consider if           Leonard Rd. and 14th Ave. for a
it ought to be?" Readers were              future building  site.. This site                     Food For mill&t
asked to consider their answers            would place their future church              "When God's Word is re-
and then come and hear a timely            and parsonage just slightly north        moved as the standard of truth,
lecture on that subject by Rev. C.         and west of their current meeting        then man is incapable of distin-
Haak, pastor of the Bethel PRC in          place. Grace also `approved plans        guishing between the truth and the
                                           to rent a house for a temporary          lie."
                                           parsonage located  ,on O'Brien Rd.                                - J.B. Scott  0
                                           in the city of Walker for their first
Mr. .Wigger is a member of the Prot-       pastor, Rev. M. Dick, and his fam-
estant Reformed        C h u r c h   of    ily, who,, the Lord willing, will be
Hudsonville, Michigan.                     arriving later this month.
                                                                                              April 15,1996/Standard  Bearer1335


           TH E
      %Ylz!AdD!                                                                                                            SECOND CLASS
I        /g'                                                                                                               Postage Paid at
                                                                                                                           Grandvile, Michigan
         P.O. Box 603
         Grandville, MI 49468-0603





          WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                                RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                    RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
          On April .25, 1996, the Lord                         The Adult Bible Studies So-               The Council of the  Doon
      willing,                                             ciety of Southwest. Protestant            PRC expresses its heartfelt
          MR. and MRS. RAYMOND                             Reformed Church expresses its             sympathy to our fellow  office-
                   BRUINSMA                                heartfelt sympathy to fellow              bearers, Mr. Peter VanDenTop
      will celebrate their 50th wedding                    members Eric and Melissa                  and Mr. Edwin VanGinkel, in the
      anniversary. We, their children,                     Smith in the death of their un-           death of their brother and
      grandchildren, and great grand-                      born twin sons. May they re-              brother-in-law,
      children are grateful to God, our                    joice in the words  o,f Isaiah              MR. ANDREW VAN DEN TOP.
      heavenly Father, for giving us                       4O:ll b, "He shall gather the                 May God's rich grace sus-
      godly parents and grandpar-                          young lambs with his arm, and             tain them  an,d their families in
      ents. -We are thankful for their                     carry them in his bosom...."              their sorrow and may they be
      godly example and covenant in-                          Rev. Bon Cammenga, President           comforted with the words from I
      struction and pray that the Lord                                   Lisa Langerak, Secretary    Peter 57, "Casting all your care
      will continue to bless and care                                                                upon him; for he careth for you."
      for them in their life together.                                     NOTICE!!                                   Council of.Doon PRC
      "For this God is our God for                             The Hull PRC School has an                         Gene VanBemmel, Clerk
      ever and ever: he will be our                        opening for the 1996-1997
      guide even unto death" (Psalm                        school year. The position is that            WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
      48:.14).                                             of teaching the first grade all              On April  11, 1996, our par-
      @ Jim and Kathy Bruinsma                             day and second grade half                 ents .and grandparents,
                                                                                                             MR. and MRS. ARTHUR
            Kristen, Ryan, Eric                            days.    If interested, call Pete
      @ Jim and Lois Rau                                   Brummel at (712) 439-1308 or                         ZANDSTRA, SR.,
                                                                                                     celebrated their 50th wedding
            Dan and Carol Boeve                            Alvin Kooiker at (712) 7252491.
            Kimmy  and Cheryl Kooiker                                                                anniversary. We are thankful
                  Christina, Brady                                                                   to God for the years He has
                                                             RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
            Jeff and Kim Scholten                              The  :Martha Society of the           spared them for each other and
            Rodney                                                                                   for us. It is our prayer that the
      @I Jerry and Martha Bruinsma                         Doon Protestant Reformed                  Lord, who is good to His people,
      @ Karen Bruinsma                                     Church expresses sincere
                                                           Christian sympathy to Mrs.                will continue to bless them in
                                South Holland. Illinois    Minnie  VanDenTop and family              the years ahead in life's jour-
                                                           in the death of her son,                  ney.
                                                                                                        "For the Lord is good; his
                                                            MR. ANDREW VAN DEN TOP.
                                                               May they be comforted from            mercy is everlasting and his
                                                                                                     truth endureth to all genera-
                     NOTICE!!!                             Scri.ptuie in the words of II             tions" (Psalm 100:5).
          Classis East will meet in                        Corinthians  1:3, "Blessed be             @I Art and Judy Zandstra
      regular session on Wednesday,                        God, even the Father of our                       Jodi, Lisa, Jennifer, Joel
      May 8, 1996 at the Grandville                        Lord Jesus Christ, the Father             0 Gany and Joan Eriks
      Protestant Reformed Church.                          of mercies and the God of all                     Garry and Jennifer,
                            Jon J. Huisken,                comfort.`!                                        Melissa, Beth, Nicole
                                Stated Clerk                    Henrietta VanOort, Vice Pres.        @I Howard and Karen Hoekstra
                                                                Gloria VanBemmel, Secretary                  Heather, Carrie,  Ellie, David

                                                                                                                               South Holland. Illinois
 336/StandardBearerlApril15,1996


