A Reformed
Semi-Mot7 fhly
Magazine
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                                                                  rsligions sf this vwQr!o!m

                                                                                      See "All Around Us"- p. 476
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Vol. 72, No%----l
September 1,1996


     CONTENTS:                                                                                                                                        September  I,  1996                                            @#i$.  $hDMD
I                                                                                                                                                                                                               J       ^:& ;$
                                                                                                                                                                                                                              -9
     Meditation - Rev.                                                                                                                                                                                               El
                                                                 Charles J. Terpstra                                                                                                                                                             BEARER
                Transformed by the Sight of Our Lord's Glory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 459
     Editorial  - Prof. David J. Engelsma
                RFPA Publishing Merger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..~.......... 461                                                       ISSN 0362-4692
     Special Article - Herman Hoeksema                                                                                                                                                                               Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July, and August.
                Christian Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..*.................................. 463                                                             Published by the Reformed Free Publishing Association, Inc.,
                                                                                                                                                                                                                     4949  Ivanrest  Ave., Grandville, MI 49418. Periodical Postage
     Church and State - Mr. James Lanting                                                                                                                                                                            Paid at Grandville, Michigan.
                Protestant Reformed Worker Successfully Asserts                                                                                                                                                      Postmaster:  Send address changes to the Standard Bearer,
                      Conscientious Objector Status at Union Shop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 465                                                                                                  P.O. Box 603, Grandville, MI  49466-0603.
     Special Feature - Prof. Herman C. Hanko                                                                                                                                                                         EDITORIAL  COMMll7EE
                Redemptive-Historical Preaching and                                                                                                                                                                  Editor: Prof. David J. Engelsma
                                                                                                                                                                                                                     Secretary: Prof. Robert D. Decker
                      Preaching Christ Crucified (2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 467                                                       Managing Editor: Mr. Don Doezema
     Taking Heed to the Doctrine - Rev. Steven R. Key                                                                                                                                                                DEPARTMENT EDITORS
                Adam, God's Covenant Friend . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 469                                                          Rev. Wilbur Bruinsma, Rev. Ronald Cammenga, Prof. Robert
                                                                                                                                                                                                                     Decker, Rev.  Arie  denl-lartog,  Rev. Carl  Haak. Prof. Herman
     A Cloud of Witnesses - Prof. Herman C. Hanko                                                                                                                                                                    Hanko, Rev. Ronald Hanko, Rev. Jason  Kortering. Rev. Dale
                Hendrik DeCock: Reformed Reformer (2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 471                                                                                      Kuiper, Mr. James Lanting, Mrs.  MaryBeth Lubbers, Rev.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                     Thomas Miersma, Rev. Gise  VanBaren, Rev. Ronald
     When Thou Sittest  in Thine House - Mrs. MaryBeth  Lubbers                                                                                                                                                      VanOverloop, Mr. Benjamin Wigger, Rev. Bernard Woudenberg.
                The Reformed Family: Enemy Within .,.......................................  474                                                                                                                     EDITORIAL OFFICE             CHURCH NEWS EDITOR
     All Around Us - Rev. Gise J. VanBaren . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 476                                                                         The Standard Bearer          Mr. Ben Wigger
                                                                                                                                                                                                                     4949  lvanrest               6597 40th Ave.
     Book Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .      478    Grandville, Ml 49416         Hudsonville, Ml 49426
     News From Our Churches - Mr. Benjamin W'gger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 478                                                                                                    BUSINESS OFFICE              NEW ZEALAND OFFICE
                                                                                                                                                                                                                     The Standard  Bearei'        The'Standard  Bearer
                                                                                                                                                                                                                     Don Doezema                  c/o B. VanHerk
                                                                                                                                                                                                                     P.O. Box 603                 66 Fraser St.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                     Grandville, Ml               Wainuiomata, New Zealand
                                                                                                                                                                                                                       49468-0603
                                                                                                                                                                                                                     PH: (616) 531-1490           UNITED KINGDOM OFFICE
                                                                                                                                                                                                                              6161536-l 776       c/o Mr. Jonathan  McAulev
                Around the first of September the thoughts of many among us turn                                                                                                                                     FAX:  `(616) 531-3033        164 Church Rd., Glenwh&y
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Ballymsna, Co.  Antrim BT42 3EL
     to school  - the "good Christian school" that, according to Article 21 of                                                                                                                                                                    Northern Ireland
                                                                                                                                                                                                                     EDITORIAL POLICY
     the Church Order of Dordt, is a demand of the covenant.                                                                                                                                                         Every editor is solely responsible for the contents of his own
                The article by Herman Hoeksema, "Christian Training," the first                                                                                                                                      articles. Contributions of general interest from our readers and
                                                                                                                                                                                                                     questions for The Reader Asks department are welcome.
     installment of which appears in this issue of the  Stalzdard  Bearer,  there-                                                                                                                                   Contributions will be limited to approximately 300 words and
     fore, is timely. The article was originally a lecture. Evidently  Hoek-                                                                                                                                         must be neatly written or typewritten, and must be signed.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                     Copy deadlines are the first and fifteenth of the month. All
     sema gave it shortly after World War I. It is part of the invaluable                                                                                                                                            communications relative to the contents should be sent to the
     collection of sermons and speeches by  "HH" taken down by Martin                                                                                                                                                editorial office.
     Swart  - the Martin Swart Collection of Herman Hoeksema (MSCHH).                                                                                                                                                REPRINT POLICY
                                                                                                                                                                                                                     Permission is hereby granted for the reprinting of articles in our
     To my knowledge, this speech on Christian education has never before                                                                                                                                            magazinebyotherpublications,provided:  a)thatsuchreprinted.
     been published. Thanks to Mr. Jim Swart, who holds the collection, for                                                                                                                                          articles are reproduced in full; b) that proper acknowledgment
                                                                                                                                                                                                                     is made; c) that a copy of the periodical in which such reprint
     permission to publish the speech.                                                                                                                                                                               appears is sent to our editorial office.
                The Board of the Association for Protestant Reformed Secondary                                                                                                                                       SUBSCRIPTION POLICY
     Education in Lansing, IL has collected and bound together a number of                                                                                                                                           Subscription price: $17.00 per year in the U.S.,  llS520.00
     editorials in the  SB by Herman Hoeksema on the subject of Christian                                                                                                                                            elsewhere. Unless a definite request for discontinuance is
                                                                                                                                                                                                                     received, it is assumed that the subscriber wishes the
     education generally and Protestant Reformed Christian education par-                                                                                                                                            subscriptionto continue, and he will be billedforrenewal.  lfyou
     ticularly. Some of these were written in Dutch and have been translated                                                                                                                                         have a change of address, please notify the Business Office as
                                                                                                                                                                                                                     early as possible in order to avoid the inconvenience of
     into English under the auspices of the Association. Topics include "The                                                                                                                                         interrupted delivery. Include your Zip or Postal Code.
     Place of Doctrine in the Christian School"; "The Christian School Move-                                                                                                                                         ADVERTISING POLICY
     ment: Why a Failure?"; and others.                                                                                                                                                                              The  SfandardBearerdoes  not accept commercial advertising
                                                                                                                                                                                                                     of any kind. Announcements of church and school events,
                Those who are interested can ask for a copy of this collection by                                                                                                                                    anniversaries, obituaries, and sympathy resolutions will be
     writing the Board of the Association for Protestant Reformed Secondary                                                                                                                                          placed for a $10.00 fee. These should be sent to the Business
                                                                                                                                                                                                                     Officeandshould  beaccompaniedbythe$lO.OOfee.  Deadline
     Education, P.O. Box 87, Lansing, IL 60438. Ask for the collection of                                                                                                                                            for announcements is at least one month prior to publication
     articles by Hoeksema entitled, "Christian Education."                                                                                                                                                           date.
                A word of praise is in order to the Federation of Protestant Re-                                                                                                                                     BOUND VOLUMES
     formed School Societies for the course just concluded on principles and                                                                                                                                         The Business Office will accept standing orders for bound
                                                                                                                                                                                                                     copies of the current volume. Such orders are filled as soon as
     practices of Reformed education. More on this later.                                                                                                                                                            possible after completion of a volume year.
                Train up children in the way they should go....                                                                                                                                                      16mm microfilm, 35mm microfilm and 105mm microfiche, and
                                                                                                                                                                                                            - DJE    article copies are available through University Microfilms
                                                                                                                                                                                                                     International.

     458lStandardBearerlSeptember 1,1996


               Transformed by the Sight
                                of Our Lord's Glory

                                                           shined so gloriously that the chil-       mirror in which we behold the
                                                           dren of Israel could not look on it.      glory of the Lord. Christ's glory is
      Able  to gaze on the glory of                        Moses had to put a veil over his          reflected surely in the Old Testa-
our Lord now in this life?! And                            face when he read the law to them.        ment Scriptures, yet weakly and
doing so, to be changed into the                               But how much more glorious            dimly. It is in the New Testament
same image as He, even from glory                          is the gospel ministration of the         Scriptures that we find the clearest
to glory?! That we shall behold our                        new testament! For it is the rev-         reflection of our Lord. In the gos-
Lord's glory in the hereafter is our                       elation of Christ as the Savior from      pel accounts and in the epistles we
great hope, for then we shall see                          sin and death! It is the revelation       are given a beautiful mirror in
Him "face to face" (I Cor.  13:12).                        of the righteousness of God in            which to gaze on our Savior and
That we shall be like Him then, in                         Christ imputed to sinners by faith        His glory. There we see Him in
perfection, is our sure expectation                        alone! It is the revelation of the        the glory of His eternal  Sonship,
(I Jn.  3:2). But now already to be                        Spirit who gives life to dead sin-        in the glory of His perfect man-
a b l e   t o   s e e   H i s   g l o r y   a n d   b e    ners! It is the revelation that causes    hood, in the glory of His humility
changed into His glorious image?!                          believers to behold Christ and be         and obedience, in the glory of His
Almost unthinkable! Hardly pos-                            changed into  His. same image!            suffering and death for us sinners,
sible from our standpoint! Yet that                        Wonderful blessing of God to His          in the glory of His resurrection and
is what our text declares. Amaz-                           own!                                      ascension. No smeared or cracked
ing work of God in Christ and by                                                                     mirror is this which we have in
His Spirit!                                                The Amazing Vision                        the written Word of God! What a
     It is this transforming power                             To behold the glory of the            glorious reflection of our Lord is
of the gospel of Christ in the new                         Lord is the amazing vision believ-        there, and therefore what an amaz-
dispensation which the inspired                            ers have in this life. They are able      ing sight is ours! When I read the
apostle magnifies in this section of                       to see their Lord in His glory while      Scriptures, or the Scriptures are
the epistle. The old dispensation                          He is in heaven and they are on           read to me, I am beholding the
had a glorious revelation too, even                        earth! Here and now they gaze on          glory of my Lord as in a glass!
though it was a ministration of                            Jesus as their glorious Savior and            And so too, secondly, in the
death and condemnation. For it                             Lord! The question is, how? For           preaching of that Word. Such is
was the revelation of God's law                            we cannot pierce through the heav-        the ministry Paul speaks of in the
through Moses demanding that the                           ens with our earthly eyes and be-         context  (3:12;  4:lff.). When he
sinner love and serve Him per-                             hold Christ. How then? We see             preached Christ Jesus the Lord,
fectly, which law could only ex-                           Him "as in a glass," says our text.       God's people beheld the glory of
pose the church's sinners in their                         That is, we see Him by reflection,        their Lord as in a glass. And so
guilt and depravity. And when                              as in a mirror. While in this life        today, when God's Word written
Moses was given that revelation                            we are not able to see our Lord           is preached faithfully by godly ser-
of God's law in the mount, his face                        directly, we can see Him and His          vants of the Lord, the glory of
                                                           glory reflected. That reflection we       Christ is set before us as in a mir-
                                                           find in the Word of God  - the            ror. The preaching holds Him up
                                                           Word of God written (the Scrip-           for us to see by reflection. In that
Rev. Terpstra is pastor  of  the Protes-                   tures) and the Word of God spo-           preaching moment we also behold
tant Reformed Church  of  South  Hol-                      ken (the preaching). The Scrip-           Him in the radiant perfection of
laticl, Illinois.                                          tures, first of all, constitute the       His Person and nature and work.

                                                                                                        September 1,1996/Standard  Bearer1459


What a glorious sight for us sad         are being transformed by this very                       Christ into another. They are ever
and sorry sinners!                       sight! Such is the way it is and                         making progress in their likeness
    Yes, "we all, with open face,"       must be. You cannot behold the                           to Him. This real change is also
are gazing on the glory of our Lord      glory of Christ and stay the same;                       evident from the fact that we are
as often as we open the Scriptures       you must be changed. The reflec-                         being changed "from glory to
and hear the preaching! You un-          tion of His glory is so clear, and                       glory," i.e., from one stage of glory
derstand that the text is referring      the power of His glory is so great,                      to another. We think immediately
only to the sight of believers. This     that you must be transformed by                          of the end of our lives and the
is not the vision of all who read        the sight of it. The vision of His                       hereafter, but the point of the text
the Bible or who sit under the           glory makes you to be like Him!                          is that we are being transformed
preaching. The context reveals           The sight of Him causes you to                           into the image of our glorious Lord
plainly that there are many who          take on His glorious character so                        with each passing day. We move
read the Scriptures and who hear         that you reflect Him!                                    from glory to glory day by day,
the gospel with a veil on their                To be in the same image as                         month by month, year by year.
heart, just like the Jews in the         Christ  - that is one of the pur-                        Amazing change, wrought by the
apostle's day  (3:14, 15). They are      poses of our salvation. Romans                           Spirit of our Lord!
blind in unbelief, and they cannot       8:29 declares that God predesti-                             You understand that that does
and will not see the glory of the        nated His people "to be conformed                        not mean we become more and
Lord, no matter how clearly it is        to the image of his Son." We are                         more perfect in this life. It does
reflected in the Word. Not with          chosen to be like Him, and like                          not mean that we shall attain to
"open face" but with closed heart        Him we must and will be. For                             some level of perfection in this
they "see." And unless they re-          God Himself sees to this, sees to it                     world, so as to be sinless and per-
pent of this sin, they shall see only    "by the Spirit of the Lord." Al-                         fectly holy and heavenly here on
the day of wrath and eternal con-        ready in our regeneration He saw                         earth. No, that cannot be and will
demnation! How serious is this           t o   t h i s ,   f o r   t h e n   H e   w o r k e d    not be! For we are always sinful
matter of seeing! Do you know            through the Spirit to recreate us                        and imperfect in this life, always
this?!                                   in the image of His Son. Yet it is                       in the flesh and of the earth. For
    Let us not forget that it would      also evident from this passage that                      perfection in the image of Christ
be the same for all of us who be-        there is an on-going work of God                         we will have to wait. Yet we are
lieve were it not for "the Spirit of     to make us in the image of His Son.                      being changed into the same im-
the Lord." He it is who has given        For our text says that we are being                      age as our Lord, from glory to
us this "open face" look, for He it      changed (present tense, indicating                       glory! By the grace of the Spirit
is who has "unveiled" our hearts         continuous action). Throughout                           we are being transformed to be like
by the power of His grace in us.         our lifetime, from the time of con-                      Him, to reflect His glory, here and
He converted us and gave us faith,       version on, the Spirit is at work in                     now! We are being changed into
and in so doing gave us the spiri-       us to change us into the same im-                        the likeness of His glorious  charac-
tual eyes to behold the glory of         age of our Lord. Constantly He                           ter and  conduct.  As we behold
our Lord (cf.  4:6). Amazing mercy       works upon us, through our sight                         Christ's glory in the Word, our
of God to us blind-by-nature sin-        of Christ, to make us more like                          hearts are filled with the knowl-
ners!                                    Him, to reflect more of His glory.                       edge of the true God, with wis-
    To behold the glory of the                Make no mistake, this is real                       dom  - the knowledge and wis-
Lord, then, is no natural thing, no      change. From  our point of view                          dom our Lord has! As we behold
automatic thing, but an activity of      this change into the same image is                       His glory in the Word, we are
faith! Consciously, actively, we         almost imperceptible. Slow and                           changed in holiness, so that we
must look  for'and  gaze on our          gradual is the work of the Spirit                        hate and flee sin more and more,
Lord's glory as reflected in the         in us. Yet it is real transforma-                        and delight in righteousness more
Scriptures and in the preaching! Is      tion. That is evident, first of all,                     and more  - the holiness of our
this what you do when you open           f r o m   t h e   f a c t   t h a t   t h e   w o r d    Lord! As we behold the glory of
the Word and when it is opened           "change" literally refers to a meta-                     our Lord in the gospel, we become
to you? Are you beholding your           morphosis, a change from one                             more and more heavenly-minded,
glorious Lord?                           form to another. Just as in the                          setting our minds on things above
                                         metamorphosis of a caterpillar                           and laying up treasures in heaven
The Glorious Change                      there is change from the form of a                       - the heavenly-mindedness of our
    If you are, then you are being       worm-like creature to that of a but-                     Lord! As we gaze on His glory in
gloriously changed, changed into         terfly, so believers are undergoing                      the Word, we learn more and more
the same image as our glorious           real transformation in their lives,                      to be humble, self-denying, loving,
Lord, even from glory to glory! We       from one form of the image of                            obedient, trusting, even as our

460lStandardBearerlSeptember I,1996


Lord was.        Yes, we are being      The Ultimate Goal                       plete for the believer in the return
changed into the same image as              And then you will also reach        of Christ at the end of this age.
our Lord, made more and more            the ultimate goal of this transfor-     Then, through the resurrection his
glorious  as He is ! Amazing won-       mation  - final glorification with      body too will be transformed into
der of grace, applied by the Spirit!    Christ in heaven! That certainly        the perfect likeness of Christ's,
         Are you conscious of this      is implied in those words "from         without sin and blemish, without
transformation? Do you see the          glory to glory." God has deter-         weakness and disease, in perfect
evidence of the Spirit's work in        mined that we shall be perfectly        holiness adapted for life in the
you? Is Christ-like character and       like His Son  - sinless, holy, heav-    glory of the new creation. What a
Christ-like conduct visible in your     enly. And God will see to it that       change that will bring! Then our
life?                                   this purpose is achieved, "even as      sight will be perfect too, for we
    Remember, this change takes         by the Spirit of the Lord." He di-      shall see our Lord at last "face to
place only as we are beholding          rects the Spirit to begin the work      face" and not in a glass darkly
with open face the glory of the         of transformation in us; He directs     (I Cor.  13:12).
Lord! That is the Spirit's means        Him to continue it throughout our           This is our sure hope! The goal
to make us like Christ in glory. If     lives; and He directs Him also to       is certain, not doubtful. Not be-
you are failing to look for Him and     finish it.                              cause of us and our sight of the
gaze on Him in the Word, you can-           And so He does. That perfect        glory of the Lord. But because of
not be changed into His image. If       transformation occurs, first of all,    the Father's election, and the Son's
you are neglecting to behold Him        when the believer dies. Then ac-        redemption, and the Spirit's sanc-
in the preaching, you cannot be         cording to the soul he is renewed       tification. Because the sight and
transformed from glory to glory.        in the perfect likeness of Christ.      the transformation are of God
Only when you and I look upon           His sin is removed and he is made       alone! Let us live in the full confi-
the glory of the Lord are we            wholly holy. He is lifted out of        dence of that work being accom-
changed. Therefore, get looking,        the realm of the earthly and made       plished in us.
believer! Behold Him in the Word,       wholly heavenly. He fully reflects          "Beloved, now are we the sons
written and preached! Study His         the glory of his Lord. Such are         of God, and it doth not yet appear
glory, and the Spirit will mold you     those in glory now. But this trans-     what we shall be: but we know
into your Lord's image! Gaze on         formation will be even more com-        that, when he shall appear, we
His reflected face, and the Spirit                                              shall be like him; for we shall see
will move you from glory to glory!                                              him as he is" (I John 3:2). lZl





               RFPA Publishing Merger

    Last year there was a merger        RFPA merged.      Although both         of God and expressed in the Three
of two religious publishing orga-       went by the same name, they were        Forms of Unity" and "to reveal
nizations. They were not publish-       separate organizations.                 false and deceptive views repug-
ing giants by man's reckoning.              The original RFPA was formed        nant thereto" (Constitution, Art.
The merger had no impact on the         in 1924 in connection with the con-     II). The  Standard Bearer  is the
stock market. The religious press       troversy in the Christian Reformed      publication by which the RFPA has
took no note of the event. But the      Church (CRC) over common grace          been carrying out this purpose for
merger is of interest to the read-      and in connection with the found-       more than 70 years.
ers of the Standard  Beaver.  It has    ing of the Protestant Reformed              Although widely regarded as
importance because it affects the       Churches (PRC). The letters RFPA        the voice of the PRC, the  SB  is not
publishing of Reformed books.           stand for Reformed Free Publish-        the official organ of the PRC as the
    At the annual meeting of the        ing Association. The purpose of         Banner  is the official publication
RFPA in September, 1995, two or-        the RFPA was, and is, "to witness       of the CRC and as the  Chzrrch  Her-
ganizations carrying the name           to the truth contained in the Word      ald  is the official publication of the

                                                                                   September 1,1996/Standard  Bearer/461


Reformed Church in America.                   the PRC of the doctrine of a con-              shall be distributed once each
"Free," in the name Reformed Free             ditional covenant, covenant prom-              month; 2. publish in book form
Publishing Association, expresses             ise, and covenant salvation.                   the writings of our Protestant Re-
that "the Association is non-eccle-               Would the  SB  have resisted the           formed professors, ministers, and
                                                                                             educators, and good material in
siastical in the institutional sense          alien theology in those days, had              the Reformed tradition.
of the word" (Constitution, Pre-              the RFPA and, thus, the  SB  not
amble). This holds, therefore, for            been free? Might not a majority              All decisions regarding the  SB  and
the  SB.  Implied, according to the           favoring the false doctrine at some          the publishing of books are made
preamble of the constitution, is              synod have silenced the editor?              by the (one) board. Membership
that the RFPA "shall not be em-               Or, might not a  synodical major-            on the board is determined by elec-
powered to levy an assessment on              ity foolishly desiring peace at any          tion by a (single) association at its
any church or member thereof."                price have quieted the editorial             annual meeting. Membership in
All these years, the  SB  has been            and other columns? And if the  SB            the association is open to all who
supported only by subscriptions               had been unable to lay bare and              meet the requirements of article 4
and by gifts from churches and in-            defend the real issue of sovereign,          of the constitution. A complete re-
dividuals. This is not to hide the            particular grace, what then?                 port of its decisions regarding the
fact that almost half the cost of                 The other RFPA came into ex-             SB  and the publishing of books
publishing the magazine has al-               istence much later, in 1963. It was          and a financial report are submit-
ways come from collections taken              a small group of Protestant Re-              ted by the board to the association
in the Protestant Reformed congre-            formed men who wanted to pub-                at its annual meeting.
gations. Still, the support is vol-           lish Herman Hoeksema's  Reformed                   There is, however, distinct
untary, not assessed.                         Dogmatics  and, after this, other            funding of the  SB:  "The Treasurer
    The reason, historically, for the         boolcs by Protestant Reformed                s h a l l   k e e p   s e p a r a t e   f i n a n c i a l
non-ecclesiastical, or  "free,ll status       writers. With the approval of the            records for the  Standard Bearer
of the RFPA is the experience of              original RFPA, the new organiza-             and for the publication of books,
the founders of the PRC in the                tion used the name RFPA, al-                 which records will be reported
early 1920s. Because they took is-            though the new publisher was au-             separately to the Society" (Con-
sue with the developing party-line            tonomous. The official name of               stitution, Art. VI, C, 5).
on common grace in the CRC, they              the new organization was "The                      A copy of the revised consti-
were summarily and totally barred             Permanent Committee for the Pub-             tution of the RFPA is available
from writing in the house organ               lication of Protestant Reformed              without charge by writing or call-
of that church.                               Literature" (PCPPRL).                        ing the business office of the  SB.
    As editor of the  SB,  Herman                 Beginning       w i t h   H e r m a n          The purpose of the merger was
Hoeksema more than once called                Hoeksema's  Reformed Dogmatics               the benefit of the book publishing
attention to the free status of the           in 1966, this RFPA organization              venture.
SB.  He stressed that the  SB  could,         has published all the books and                    This is a cause worthy both of
and should, criticize dangerous               materials that are listed in the cata-       the merger and of the support of
trends within the PRC. His policy             log of "Current Publications of the          the readers of the  SB.
was to open up the periodical to              Reformed Free Publishing Assoc."                   The books published by the
dissenting opinions as much as                The funding has been voluntary               RFPA are soundly biblical, Re-
possible, although the editor al-             contributions and profits from the           formed works. They instruct,
ways had the last word.                       sale of books.                               edify, defend the faith, warn, and
    The  SB  is intended to function              At its annual meeting in 1995,           bear witness to the gospel. Some
as a truly free  .press functions in          the original RFPA approved the               are more doctrinal; others explain
civil society.                                full merger of the PCPPRL with               the Reformed, Christian life. Be-
    Time may tell whether the  SB             itself. There is now one board and           cause they are books, their instruc-
will again serve this purpose in the          one constitution. Article III of the         tion and witness are more perma-
PRC and whether the editor at that            constitution now reads:                      nent than other forms of our testi-
time will have the courage to press                                                        mony to the Reformed faith.
the truth of Scripture and the                  To effectuate the purpose con-                   The purpose of the merger is
creeds against an un-Reformed                   tained in Article II, the Associa-         alre.ady   b e i n g   a c c o m p l i s h e d .
doctrinal or ethical development                tion should carry out these activi-        There has been benefit for the pub-
within the PRC.                                 ties: 1. publish and distribute a          lishing of books. The board and
    I say "again" because the                   magazine, to be known as the
                                       SB       Standard Bearer,  twice each               its active sub-committees are pub-
served such a purpose in the late               month except during June, July,            lishing new books and reprinting
1940s and early 1950s against the               and August, during which time it           old works in new and attractive
powerful, malign development in

$~2/Stanclard.Bea~erlSeptember      I,1996


formats. They are energetically so-             to promote sales.                                      bership drive. Enclosed in this is-
liciting suggestions regarding new                   The readers of the SB can help                    sue of the  SB  is a card giving in-
publications, including books that              in this worthwhile work of pub-                        formation. To support the cause
would have to be translated.                    lishing soundly Reformed books.                        of publishing Reformed books as
     A new book catalog, in color,                   They can join the book club.                      a member of the book club, fill in
lists some of the new publications,             Membership is now open to all.                         the card, and send it in.
as well as the books published in               One need not be a subscriber to                            Another way that readers can
the past. I urge our readers to get             the  SB.  There is no membership                       support the work is by contribu-
a copy of this catalog by writing               fee. Membership is simply a com-                       tions, large or small. There may
the RFPA, 4949  Ivanrest  Ave.,                 mitment to buy all new books at a                      very well be those who have a spe-
Grandville, MI 49418, USA. There                35% discount. It entitles the mem-                     cial interest in the publication of
is no cost for the catalog.                     ber also to buy all existing RFPA                      solid, Reformed books and the
     The board is also aggressively             publications at this same discount.                    means to support this work liber-
marketing the books. As money                   The advantage to the RFPA of a                         ally. Designate the contribution
is available, they advertise. They              large membership in the book club                      for book publishing. All gifts are
are working at getting RFPA pub-                is that these assured sales are an                     tax-deductible.
lications in the Christian book                 important financial base.                                  Of course, one supports the
stores throughout North America.                     The board of the RFPA is pres-                    work by buying the books.
They are enlisting the help of the              ently conducting a book club mem-                          And reading them.  Cl
evangelism committees in the PRC                                                                                                        - DJE





                         Christian Training*
                                           I                                                                                                        I
                                                     When not so many years ago                            A lady once asked me to ar-
                                                our country was plunged into the                       range meetings for her so that she
                                                world war, the necessity of mili-                      might speak to the people at these
                                                tary training was impressed upon                       meetings.     The purpose was to
                                                the minds of all. We had dreamed                       warn against the sin of immoral-
*    This article was originally a pub-         of the way of peace. In that dream                     ity, the sin of the seventh com-
lic  lecture  on Christian education            we had not adequately provided                         mandment. She emphasized that
given, apparently, at the First Prot-           f o r   t h e   e m e r g e n c y   o f   b e i n g    particularly that sin had passed all
estant Reformed Church of  Grand                plunged into war. War was de-                          bounds and that it was develop-
Rapids, Michigan by its pastor, Rev.            clared, and we were not ready.                         ing at an alarming rate. She em-
Herman Hoeksema. Evidently, the                 Not only were we not ready with                        phasized that, in her opinion, one
speech was given shortly after World            respect to the fact that we did not                    of the chief causes of the alarming
War I. It is  from the Martin  Swavt            have the means, the ammunition                         spread of immorality was lack of
collection of handwritten transcrip-            and the weapons, to carry on war,                      training in childhood. A want of
tions of sermons and speeches by                but especially with a view to                          education she considered to be one
Herman Hoeksema. It is now pub-                 trained soldiers.                                      of the chief causes. Ignorance was,
lished  fey the first time. The general              What is true with respect to                      in her opinion, one of the main rea-
subject and, particularly, the specific         military training of the world is                      sons  - ignorance with respect to
Yeference  to the Christian school make         also true with respect to its spiri-                   the life of the body and with re-
this speech fitting at this time of the         tual and mental training. Even the                     spect to the evil effects of immo-
year, when we resume the training of            world feels that spiritual, mental                     rality.    It was her opinion that
OUY children in catechism and in the            training is necessary, especially                      proper training would to a large
Christian schools.                              when certain crimes manifest                           extent check this rapid develop-
                                - Ed.           themselves in an alarming way.                         ment of immorality.

                                                                                                           September 1,1996lSt~ndard  Bearer/463


     Of course, I did not agree with      ceptivity.  A child is passive. In       teen years, but also the age of ado-
her.    Knowledge is no virtue.           connection with this passivity, the      lescence, of youth. So the word is
Training does not make a good             child is receptive. It does not take     used of Moses in Egypt. So it is
man. Education is not the cause           an active stand over against the         used of Solomon when he as-
of the perfect man of God, thor-          world. The child receives. It is         cended the throne. So it is used
oughly furnished unto all good            dependent. It is dependent for its       of Samuel. In that same sense Paul
works. Instruction does not keep          food, drink, and clothing. It is de-     uses the word in I Corinthians
an evil man from sin. Education           pendent for its entire physical de-      13:ll:    "When I was a child, I
does not train a man in such a way        velopment. As it is dependent as         spake as a child, I understood as a
that the leopard loses his spots and      to the development of the body,          child, I thought as a child: but
the Ethiopian changes the color of        so it is dependent for its develop-      when I became a man, I put away
his skin. That is impossible. The         ment mentally. Also from the             childish things." Although it is
idea of the world that education          point of view of the development         hard to train the child in its youth
would have the result that our            of the soul the child is dependent.      if it has not been trained in its
prisons would be vacated and we           It receives. The child is easily im-     childhood, nevertheless, as it is to
would have a better world is fool-        pressed. It easily receives. It has      be trained, the child must be taken
ish. Education does not do that,          a strong memory and a strong             in its broadest sense.
and that is not the purpose  o-f edu-     imagination. That power of the               Train the child in the way it
cation. You must have a good man          soul to receive, to store up, to com-    must go. The original word for
to train, if the result of that train-    mit to memory, is especially strong      training is not well expressed in
ing is to be the perfect man of God,      in the child. Therefore, the child       our English version. Training with
thoroughly furnished unto all good        is easily molded. It is easily           us has a purely practical  meaning.
works. As you cannot produce a            shaped. Its mind is easily bent.         But that is not the meaning of the
minister in a theological school, so          In this respect the child is dif-    original word. The term in the
you cannot produce a Christian by         ferent from the man. The man is          original literally signifies: "to stuff
training. That is impossible. But         characterized by stability. He is        one's mouth, to fill one's mouth."
this is all the more reason why a         established in his judgments. The        It is therefore a figurative term. It
Christian should train his children       man has been shaped. He is not           is somewhat akin to the Dutch
in the way they must go.                  easily bent. He does not easily re-      word opvoeden. The term is there-
                                          ceive things. He does not take it        fore derived from the nourishing
The Child to be Trained                   all in. He does not say, as the          of the child physically. You must
    It is but natural that, when          child does, teacher said so, and         fill the mouth of the child with
speaking on the subject of Chris-         therefore it must be so.                 food to cause it to grow physically.
tian education, we turn to Prov-             In between these two periods          That does not mean that your
erbs  22:6, where we read: "Train         stands the age of adolescence, of        bringing that food to the mouth of
up a child in the way he should           youth. Youth is strong, in a cer-        the child is the cause of its growth.
go: and when he is old, he will           tain sense. Youth is strong men-         But it gives the child the opportu-
not depart from it." Man's life is        tally. I write to you, young men,        nity to take that food, to digest it,
made up of several different peri-        because you are strong, the apostle      to assimilate it. The child must
ods. Each has its own peculiar            John says. The beauty of child-          take food, it must digest it, assimi-
characteristics. Not as if you could      hood is obedience. John writes: I        late it, in order to grow. The par-
divide man's life. Not as if you          write to you, little children, from      ents do not cause the child to
could definitely mark off and dis-        that viewpoint of obedience, be-         grow. But they fill the mouth of
tinguish these periods in man's           cause your sins are forgiven. I          the child.
life. That is not the case. Man's         write to you, young men, because             So it is with the spiritual, men-
life is organic. It follows the line      you are strong, and you have over-       tal, psychological training of the
of organic development. Because           come the evil one. The beauty of         child. It is often thought that it is
man's life develops organically,          the old man is wisdom, knowl-            the task of the educator to develop
you cannot divide it into different       edge, understanding. Training            the child. The development of the
periods. Rather do these different        that child, that is the purpose of       child spiritually, mentally, and
periods gradually blend into one          education.                               psychologically does not depend
another.                                     Usually when Scripture speaks         on the educator. But the educator
    Nevertheless, these various pe-       of the child, it uses a word that        must stuff the mental mouth of the
riods in man's life can easily be         has a large meaning. Especially is       child. As the parent brings food
distinguished. There is in the first      this true in the Old Testament. It       to the mouth of the child, so the
place the period of childhood,            includes not only the age of child-      educator must fill the mental
characterized by passivity and  re-       hood up to about twelve or thir-         mouth of the child. The better the

464/Standard  Bearer/September 1,1996


food you bring to that child, the        not be mere intellectual growth.                       ment. The educator must reach
better it will develop. But the          But through the mental mouth of                        the heart of the child. He must
child must assimilate it. The  men-      the child, the will, the desires, and                  not only stuff the mouth of the
tal food which the educator brings       the heart must be reached. If it is                    child, but he must also train it to
is ideas.     That is intellectual       true that the aim of education is                      digest, to assimilate that which he
growth.                                  thoroughly to furnish the man of                       brings to the child.  0
    ,But that is not all. There must     God unto all good works, then the                                       . . . to be concluded.
                                         purpose is not intellectual  attain-





             Protestant Reformed LWorker Successfully Asserts

                Conscientious Objector Status at Union Shop


           "Defendant Nichols had the right, under the religious accommodation provision of Title VII of
     the Civil Rights Act, to make a substituted charitable payment in lieu of joining or financially
     supporting the labor union."
                                                         Machinists  & Aerospace Workers, Lodge 751 v. Boeing,
                                                                                                     662  FSupp. 1069 (1986).

    In the past, many evangelical        biblical principles that govern the                        This writer has represented
churches condemned labor union           relationship between employer and                      several employees who  resigne.d
affiliation as incompatible with         employee (e.g., Eph.  6:5-S; I Tim.                    their union membership upon join-
membership in the church of              6:1, 2; and I Pet.  2:18-21).  This                    ing a Protestant Reformed church
Christ. But almost all denomina-         caused untold hardships for many                       and claimed conscientious objec-
tions today, including most in the       Protestant Reformed workers who                        tors' status at a "closed union
Reformed and Presbyterian tradi-         were either preempted from cer-                        shop." With permission from the
tion, have capitulated to "pew           tain preferable trades or who had                      parties involved, what follows is
pressure" and quietly allow their        to terminate their employment                          the actual correspondence in a
members and officebearers to join        w h e n   t h e i r   e m p l o y e r   b e c a m e    typical case. A similar procedure
the Teamsters, the AFL/CIO, and          unionized.                                             is followed where a union orga-
many other godless unions notori-             But these hardships are clearly                   nizes a factory that was preciously
ous for their corruption, violence,      no longer necessary. A Protestant                      a non-union shop.
and organized crime associations.        Reformed employee may now
Many of these denominations fi-          work at any union shop or in any                              +++  +++  +++
nally acquiesced because a ban on        trade that requires union member-
union membership would exclude           ship. This is because two federal                                                     May 17
their parishioners from many de-         statutes and recent court cases                        Graphic Communications Union
sirable occupations where union          have outlawed compulsory union-                        Local 415-S
affiliation is a prerequisite for em-    ization where the worker holds a                       5717 S. Kedzie Avenue
ployment.                                sincerely held religious belief that                   Chicago, Illinois 60629
    In contrast, the Protestant Re-      precludes union membership.
formed Churches have resolutely          Such a worker can demand the sta-                      Re: Union Membership Resignation
and consistently forbade labor           tus of a "conscientious objector"                          Conscientious Objector's Status
union membership as contrary to          and neither the employer nor the                           Employee: Glen Huisenga
                                         union can retaliate so long as the                         Employer: Calumet Carton Co.
                                         union objector makes a monthly                         Gentlemen:
                                         contribution equivalent to his
Mu. Lading,  a. member of South Hol-                                                                Our firm represents Mr. Glen
                                         union dues to a charitable organi-
land Protestant Reformed Church, is                                                             Huisenga who is presently a mem-
                                         zation.
a practicing  attorney.                                                                         ber of Local 415-S. Enclosed please

                                                                                                   September 1,1996/Standard  Bearer/465


find Mr. Huisenga's resignation                              Would you kindly notify Mr.                                                                               June 18
from the union. Mr. Huisenga in-               Huisenga immediately in writing                                   Graphic Communications Union
forms us that he now believes that             concerning your acceptance of his                                 Local 415-S
union membership is incompatible               resignation and contact my office                                 5717 S. Kedzie Avenue
with his sincerely held religious              to discuss the selection of a mutu-                               Chicago, Illinois 60629
beliefs. He and his  .family are in            ally agreeable charity as outlined
the process of joining the South               above.                                                            Attention: Ellis H. Davis
Holland Protestant Reformed                             Please advise.                                           Re: Conscientious Objector's Status
Church which refuses admission to                                                                                      Employee: Glen Huisenga
                                                                                           Sincerely yours,
union members.                                                                                                         Employer: Calumet Carton Co.  ~
                                                                                         w/s James Lanting
     Accordingly, would you kindly                                                                               Dear Mr. Davis:
accept his enclosed resignation and                                                                                    This letter will confirm our
have his records reflect his new                                                                    May 17       phone conversation yesterday dur-
status as a conscientious objector.            Graphic Communications Union                                      ing which you finally expressed
     You are aware, of course, that            Local 415-S                                                       the Union's acceptance of Mr.
Section 19 of the National Labor               5717 S. Kedzie Avenue                                             Huisenga's resignation. Would
Relations Act (29 U.S.C. Section               Chicago, Illinois 60629                                           you kindly forward me a letter
169) and Title VII of the Civil                                                                                  confirming this acceptance of his
Rights Act (Section  7Ol[j],   4 2             Gentlemen:                                                        resignation in writing, and the
U.S.C. Section  2000e[j]) permit Mr.                         Kindly accept this letter as res-
Huisenga to claim this status. I               ignation of my membership in Lo-                                  union's recognition of his status as
                                                                                                                 a religious conscientious objector.
have enclosed for your perusal the             cal 415-S, Graphic Communica-
decision                                                                                                               You also requested that I fur-
             in Intern. Ass'n.  of  Machin-    tions Union. Union membership                                     nish you with a number of chari-
ists v. Boeing Co., 833  F.2d 1965 (9th        is incompatible with my sincerely
Cir. 1987). In that case the U.S.              held religious beliefs, and I wish                                ties to which Mr. Huisenga's
Court of Appeal (9th Circuit) ruled            to become a conscientious objec-                                  monthly contributions are to be
                                                                                                                 paid. I am in the process of con-
that the Boeing employee involved              tor.                                                              sulting with Mr. Huisenga and will
was protected against being fired                            I wish you to take reasonable                       furnish you with these shortly.
by the Civil Rights Act of 1972                action to accommodate my reli-
which requires employers to make               gious convictions in this regard.                                      We appreciate your prompt at-
                                                                                                                 tention and response to this mat-
reasonable accommodation for                   Kindly notify me in writing re-                                   ter. Should you have any further
workers' religious beliefs, unless             garding your acceptance of my res-                                questions regarding my client's
such accommodation poses an                    ignation and conscientious objec-                                 resignation from your union,
"undue hardship" to the union.                 tor status.                                                       kindly contact me at your earliest
"To prove undue hardship, a                                                                Sincerely yours,      convenience.
union must demonstrate a wide-                                                      w/s Glen Huisenga
spread refusal to pay union dues,"                                                                                                                       Sincerely yours,
the court said.                          d                                                                                      w/s James Lanting Cl
    Also please be advised that                  I.                         .'
                                                                                    (

Mr. Huisenga wishes to have Lo-                 .        C..'       _L       i.
cal 415-S and his employer reason-                L. :`_.                   Two unrelated  ~feder&   la~@s~  now  exert@   rebgious  conscientious
ably accommodate his religious                          .  oblectors  from supporting labor  unions..   see  text, above for an  explana-
views by allowing him to contrib-              . : . tion oF'thede,laws 3iMchprovic(e  m pertmerit  part: '                                  -J
ute monthly an amount equivalent                                                                                (-~  `_  .,      ,_                       `_h
to his union dues to a mutually                         :-  .~~~tio,.;?.o~th,`~R~.   .._.  .`-  .-.:  .I .                              (
                                               >/ " __ (
agreed charity.                                `..'  ,~                    "`Anyemployee  $-a? is a-niempei of and adheres. to established and tradi-
                                                                  (  *`.
                                                                  t~onaI  tenets .or teachings  of a,bona  fide rkligion,  body, or, sect which has
    I have advised Mr. Huisenga                           " historically  heIdco&cienticua objections  to  jo+ng or financially supporting
that his conscientious objector's                     :,:  ,: labor  orgar$zations'ahal$nof  herequ$red  to join-or financially st$port  any
status will in no way affect his con-          . . .         labor organ+zation  as 9condmon of~employtii&;  except that,such  empIoyee
                                                .,  .'
tinued employment and scheduled                                   ,may  be required ..: $0 pay sumsequal to such dues and initiation fees to a
                                                ,,                .r;on-reli~~ous;x;;n-labor  brganizatiprr~l~ri~a~~e  fund.~.."~ 29~$!LC.  , 169. '
promotions and advancement at                                                                 .     I .                                                    d
Calumet Carton. We trust you un-                                                                                                             `-
derstand that any direct or indi-                                                                                  of r&i~ibus`bbse~ance.`and  przic-
rect retaliatory action taken by the                                                                               de`monstrates  that`he  is unable to
union or his employer would be                                                                                        or p~o&ctive  employee's reli-,
an unlawful violation of my                                                                                           Grdship  ofi th& +rtduct of the
                                                                                                                                                   (       I     .,
client's religious freedom rights.

466lStandard  Bearer/September 1,1996


                                           h  `u"c1,.r<j"`8~,.   :*  .,
                                                                                                                                                  `
                                                                                                                                                   .~~~~~.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~


                      *.p+  ,.  -.,  .,./:  ..:\..  :,.  ;.  $             I.                      ,:`,     r     `,'     ,.    ..'     .-





                       Redemptive-Historical
               Preaching and Preaching
                                        Christ Cruciified (2)

     It is in the context of Christ-                                             "treats Biblical history as a num-                               But however that may be, what
centered preaching that we must                                                  ber of independent happenings                                is of greater importance to us is
understand the discussion over re-                                               which are examples for us." Re-                              the fact that those who so strongly
demptive-historical preaching vs.                                                demptive-historical preaching, on                            defend redemptive-historical
exemplaristic preaching.                                                         the other hand, "understands the                             preaching seem to set it over
     In an important writing on this                                             historical accounts in their relation                        against exemplaristic preaching.
subject  (The History of Redemption                                              to each other, in their mutual in-                           And in setting the former over
in the Preaching  of  the Gospel,  by B.                                         ner unity, in their relation to the                          against the latter, the latter is de-
Holwerda) the author states that                                                 center of salvation history." To                             nied as a valid method of preach-
really the origin of redemptive-his-                                             put the differences in another way,                          ing. That strikes us as a mistake.
torical preaching is to be found in                                              we may say that the one method                                   I Corinthians  lo:11  speaks in
"an ongoing discussion and debate                                                uses Bible narratives to find ex-                            so many words of the "examples"
w h i c h   s t i r r e d   t h e   R e f o r m e d                              amples of how we are to live; the                            of the lives of Old Testament
Churches in the Netherlands dur-                                                 other finds Christ and His work                              saints. It is true that the crucial
ing the 1930s." It is the author's                                               of redemption even in sacred his-                            word in that passage can be trans-
contention that during this crucial                                              tory.    The one has to do with                              lated "types," as the defenders of
period of time in the Netherlands                                                "practical" preaching; the other                             redemptive-historical preaching
many ministers in the Reformed                                                   with more "doctrinal" preaching.                             maintain. But it is also true that
churches were guilty of preaching                                                    Although it is not of major con-                         the context compels us to trans-
which could only be characterized                                                cern to us at the moment, it might                           late the words as "examples" and
as "exemplaristic."                          It was Dr.                          be well to mention, at least in pass-                        not as "types."       Referring to
Klaas Schilder who raised a voice                                                ing, that true preaching in the                              Israel's sad history in the wilder-
of protest against this kind of                                                  church of our Lord Jesus Christ                              ness and the judgments of God
preaching and insisted on redemp-                                                has from the beginning of the new                            which came upon the people for
tive-historical preaching, an insis-                                             dispensational era been redemp-                              their disobedience, the apostle
tence which played at least a par-                                               tive-historical. It is a bold state-                         Paul declares:     "Now all these
tial role in his ouster from the Re-                                             ment to suggest that this began                              things happened unto them for
formed Churches in the early                                                     with Dr. Klaas Schilder. Surely no                           ensamples (not types): and they
1940s.                                                                           one can deny that the preaching                              are written for our admonition,
     I may use the definitions of-                                               of the Reformers of the 16th cen-                            upon whom the ends of the world
fered in this book to clarify what                                               tury was redemptive-historical.                              are  come.N  .
is the difference between the two                                                Timothy George, in his  Theology of                              This ought not to surprise us,
types of preaching. Exemplaristic                                                the Reformers,  points out that                              for Scripture is much more bold
preaching, according to the author,                                              Luther insisted that preaching                               than merely to hold up the saints
                                                                                 "must be true to its proper con-                             as examples to us. Scripture in-
                                                                                 tent, which is Christ." And A.                               sists that God Himself is our ex-
                                                                                 Skevington Wood, in his  Captive to                          ample, when in Ephesians  5:l we
Transcript of speech delivered at the                                            the Word,  devotes an entire chap-                           are told to be imitators of God.
graduation of Richard Smit and Cheah                                             ter to "Luther and the Christ-                               And Christ is emphatically de-
Fook Meng, on  ]une  17,1996.                                                    centeredness of Preaching."                                  scribed as an example of patience

                                                                                                                                                 September 1,1996/StandardBearer/467


in suffering for well-doing (I Pet.      imaginations are  capable  of mak-       - that is, that which pulses in the
2:21).  Should  it surprise& then        ing out of them.                         whole of the preaching and gives
that the saints also whose lives are                  ++++                        to the gospel its life and power. It
described in Scripture are held up           All of this leads to the ques-       is the truth of God's eternal pur-
for examples? Hebrews goes so            tion of what constitutes a Christ-       pose to save some and damn oth-
far `as to claim that these very         centered sermon. And to this we          ers. This antithesis is realized in
saints are a cloud of witnesses who      now turn.                                the cross on which Christ both at-
testify of the power of faith, and           Christ-centered preaching is         tained salvation for His people and
whose faith we are to emulate.           preaching which is God-centered.         brought the judgment of God upon
    But this does not mean that we       That first of all. Christ is the Word    the unbelieving. "Now is  come the
are opposed to redemptive-histori-       of God in whom is the fullness of        judgment of this world...."
cal preaching. Indeed we are not.        the revelation of Jehovah God in             That antithesis extends to the
All preaching ought to be redemp-        all His infinite perfections. Preach-    gospel itself. It extends to the con-
tive-historical. Even exemplaristic      ing which is properly and truly          tents of the gospel, for the gospel
preaching. The problem is to set         God-centered is preaching which          is addressed to the people of God.
the two over against each other as       extols the greatness of the glory of     It is the good news from heaven;
if it is a matter of either-or. The      God and brings the people of God         but that good news is for those
fact is that it is both-and.             to give all praise and honor to Him      whom God loves and  for. whom
    Those who want to set the two        who is enthroned on high.                Christ died. It is good news to
over against each other can easily           Secondly,       Christ-centered      those who believe. For  the rest it .
fall into mistakes. It is true, as       preaching is doctrinal preaching.        is bad news indeed, for it is the
the author of the above named            God reveals Himself in Christ in         solemn warning of God that apart
book points out, that exemplaristic      all the truth of His own divine be-      from faith and repentance is death
preaching can deteriorate into           ing. He speaks in Christ of Him-         and everlasting desolation. This
mere homilies and a sort of  do-         self. When I speak of doctrinal          distinction must be made explicit
goodism. He himself gives two            preaching, I mean exactly such           in the preaching so that everyone
striking examples: Jesus' invitation     preaching which explains, ex-            who hears knows that the gospel
to attend the wedding at  Cana of        pounds, and develops the truth of        is a savor of life unto life, but also
Galilee becomes an example of            the Word of God who is the full          of death unto death. And this is
how newly-married couples ought          revelatibn of God Himself. Such          because the gospel is also;- just as
to invite Jesus into their marriages.    doctrine as is proclaimed in Christ-     its good news is for the elect, the
And Jesus' cleansing of the temple       centered preaching is doctrine           power to save them and them
is a homily on how we ought to           which is to be proclaimed for its        alone. The gospel brings antith-
purify the worship of God. No            own sake. While certainly it is true     esis, division, separation. The gos-
Reformed man preaches that way           that preaching attempts to apply         pel is the power of God unto sal-
- or ought to preach that way.           the truth of God's Word to the life      vation to all who believe, and to
    But to         exclude       from    and calling of the people of God,        them only.
exemplaristic preaching the fact         doctrinal preaching is, in its own           Antithetical preaching calls the
that the lives of the saints serve as    right, good and attractive, desir-       people of God to live an antitheti-
our example upon whom the end            able for the people of God, for by       cal life in the world.. That is, it
of the ages is come is equally to        it they come to know the God who         calls them to live that life which is
fall into the error of finding types     loves them. And there is blessed-        a constant witness of the power of
and shadows of Christ in Scripture       ness in knowledge for its own            heaven, of citizenship in the king-
where there are none and where           sake, for eternal life is, according     dom  ,of Christ, which kingdom is
Scripture itself does not give di-       to Jesus own words, to know God          in heaven. It is  not  only a calling,
rection. Then it is easy to make         and Jesus Christ whom God has            however, but also the power itself
the purple cord by which Rahab           sent.                                    to live such a life in this present
let down the two spies from                  Christ-centered preaching is         evil world so that the antithesis of
Jericho's walls a type of the blood      antithetical preaching. This means       the gospel is manifested in the
of Christ by which we escape from        a number of things. Antithetical         walk of those saved by its power.
our own spiritual Jericho. And           preaching is preaching of sover-             .It is immediately clear that
Rahab's faith is no longer an ex-        eign and eternal predestination in       such Christ-centered preaching is
ample to us. Soon that kind of           both election and reprobation.           also exemplaristic preaching.
preaching becomes allegorical and        When the late Herman Hoeksema            Scripture is filled with examples
is a kind of preaching which gives       introduced a series of radio ser-        of saints whose lives testify to us
license to ministers to make of his-     mons on predestination, he called        in calling us sharply to live as they
torical texts anything their vivid       this topic the heart of the gospel       lived. To ignore this is to ignore

468lStandardBearerlSeptember I,1996


an important part of Holy Writ.           of a new and sanctified life in the      that cross of Christ the grace and
We are summoned to a holy walk            redemptive power of the cross. If        strength to walk as God's people
by the testimony of others whose          Scripture is not afraid to depict        in the world. They possess not
witness rings throughout the pages        them in all their sins, it is that we    this strength of their own. They
of Holy  .Writ.                           may find that they are sinners as        have no ability to do such things
        There is much need of practi-     we are. But their noble and as-          as Scripture requires of them.
cal preaching. But at that point          tonishing lives of faith are our ex-     They need the power of the cross.
where practical preaching is no           amples because, if they were as          And when Christ-centered preach-
longer doctrinal preaching, it            sinful as we are, the power of faith     ing leads them to the cross, then
ceases altogether to be preaching.        in them can carry us also. to the        they learn to rely upon it alone, to
Practical preaching is in the truest      pinnacles of trust in God.               seek their strength and life from
sense of the word doctrinal preach-           And finally, Christ-centered         Christ and Him crucified, and to
ing.                                      preaching is preaching which leads       put their trust in that cross.
   But let us be sure we get it           God's people to the cross. Every               Let it be known to God's
straight.       Such exemplaristic        sermon has got to lead God's             saints: In the cross is indeed the
preaching is also Christ-centered.        people to the cross. That is the         power of a new life.
We are called to be imitators of          only place for them to go. That is             If you, beloved graduates, will
God Himself, Scripture tells us;          where they want to go. That is           only understand what it means to
but we are called to be imitators         where they hear the voice of the         preach Christ crucified, to preach
of God  as dear children,  made to be     Good Shepherd who lays down              nothing else, ever, than Christ cru-
such by the power of the cross.           His life for His sheep.                  cified, then you will be faithful ser-
Peter does not exaggerate when he             There are two reasons why            vants of Christ to bring a gospel
implores us to follow in the foot-        preaching always leads to the            into this sorry world which brings
steps of Christ Himself in endur-         cross. The first is obvious: God's       heaven to earth, salvation to God's
ing the suffering which is our lot,       people, overcome with the con-           people, and glory to God alone.
for Christ is an example. But He          sciousness of their sins, need to be     Make your motto and take as the
is our example, as -Peter goes on         led to the cross that they may find      polestar in all your ministry those
to say, because He suffered, the          there forgiveness and pardon, for        ringing words of Paul in the con-
Just One for the unjust, in order         it is in the redemptive power of         c l u s i o n   o f   h i s   l e t t e r   t o   t h e
that He might bring us to God; for        Calvary that alone can be found          Galatians: "God forbid that I
by His stripes we are healed. All         full and free forgiveness of sin.        should glory, save in the `cross of
the saints serve as our example be-       But God's people need to go to the       our Lord Jesus, Christ"  (6:14). Cl
cause they were given the power           cross also so that they may find in





              Adam, God's Covenant Friendl

        As a unique creature who was      us it is an essential element of our     that we see God' as He has re-
created in the image of God, man          Protestant Reformed heritage as          vealed Himself in Scripture. God
was also created a covenant crea-         we maintain the truth of Holy            is Triune. It is not my intention to
ture. Adam was created God's              Scripture. The truth of the cov-         develop that truth now. That has
covenant friend, to reflect the           enant is, in fact, as a golden thread    been done in this column in the
blessed friendship and fellowship         that runs through the whole of           past. I only. summarize. God is
of God's own covenant life.               Scripture and brings all of doctrine     three Persons in one divine Being.
        The truth of the covenant is a    to a personal level of rich experi-      He reveals Himself, therefore, as
truth that we count precious. To          ence and enjoyment. Let us re-           a  covenant  God. What does that
                                          view that truth briefly.                 mean?
                                                                                        We speak of the covenant as a
Rev. Key is pastor  of  the Protestant    The Covenant God                         bond or relationship of fellowship
Reformed Church  of  Randolph, Wis-           To understand Adam's place           and love. Intimate friendship is
consin.                                   as a covenant creature requires          one way to describe the essence of

                                                                                        September 1,1996/Standard  Bearer1469


the covenant. If you think of the          Jesus instructs His disciples in          this creation. All those wonders
idea of a true and close friend, that      Luke  17:lO:  "So likewise ye, when       speak of the glory of God, of His
will help you to remember what             ye shall have done all those things       Godhead, of His power, of His
the covenant means..                       which are commanded you, say,             wisdom.
    God is a  friendship  God, a God       We are unprofitable servants: we              Is it not an incomprehensibly
of fellowship and love. He is that         have done that which was our              wonderful thing that God would
in Himself.                                duty to do."                              create Adam, and you and me, to
  God is a  family  God. He is                 This means that a very com-           share in the divine fullness, to be
that in Himself.                           mon conception of the covenant is         partakers, as the apostle Peter
    The three Persons know each            found  ,wanting.  Most often the          says, of His divine nature?!
other, love one another, and have          covenant between God and man                  Is it not an astounding truth,
perfect fellowship with one an-            is explained as an agreement or a         that God created a man to love as
other in the sphere of eternal good-       contract, within which there are          He loves, to know as He knows,
ness and perfection and life. In           promises to man on God's part             to think as He thinks, to seek the
the Trinity each Person lives the          and obligations which must be ful-        things that He seeks? Is there any-
entire divine life and fullness in         filled  by, man. The trouble is, the      thing higher than that?
His own personal way, but always           idea of man meriting  anything  with          That is  life,  you understand,
in fellowship and unity with the           God is clearly contradicted by the        the highest and most perfect bond
other Persons. There is perfect fel-       Scriptures. Man is always in a po-        of love which is life. It was that
lowship and communion, a blessed           sition of obligation to God. We           divine life of perfect fellowship
relationship of love. The three Per-       do nothing for Him. There is only         and friendship that was reflected
sons of the one divine Being re-           One who could merit anything              in Adam and that he experienced
joice together in their mutual com-        with God,  `and that was Jesus            in the relationship to God in which
munion of love.                            Christ, who alone realizes the cov-       he was created. The Most High
    This fellowship is God's own           enant between God and man.                God revealed Himself to Adam,          0
covenant life. This life of God is             But, positively, the covenant as      and Adam entered into fellowship
complete and perfect. He has no            it applies to  man. and as it applied     with God. He was the friend-ser-
need of anything or anyone out-            to Adam in the beginning is this:         vant of the living God.
side of Himself. Man cannot en-            It is the living relationship of fel-         On the basis of Adam's hav-.
rich God's life in any way.                lowship between God and Adam.             ing been created in God's own im-
    What, then, does that covenant                                                   age, Adam's heart was knit to the
life of God have to do with us?            Man's Life in                             heart of God. His will was in har-
And why, then, do we speak of              God's Covenant Fellowship                 mony with God's will. He heard
God establishing His covenant                  Adam was created to be a par-         God speak, and he understood.
with man? To ask that question is          taker of God's own covenant life!         God hid nothing from Adam, but
to ask why God has taken  US into          He was created God's covenant             opened His heart to him; and
His fellowship. The answer is so           friend, to reflect the blessed friend-    Adam did likewise.
profound, we barely touch the sur-         ship and fellowship of God's own              God entrusted to His covenant
face. God willed to do it! God's           covenant life.                            creature the lordship over all the
sovereign good pleasure and im-                Psalm  ?5:14,  reflects upon that     works of His hands, making Adam
measurable goodness is the only            covenant fellowship that God es-          king in all the vast creation. And
explanation. It may be wholly in-          tablished with Adam (and with all         Adam served and glorified His
adequate to our human under-               those who are in Christ Jesus):           Creator in all that he thought and
standing, but that is the truth of         "The secret of the  LORD  is with         said and did.
Scripture and one that we joyfully         them that fear him; and he will              That was the living bond of fel-
receive by faith.                          shew them his covenant."                  lowship and love in which the first
    God is God alone. Adam was                 Can you possibly conceive of          man stood to his God.
God's Adam. Adam's power was               anything more wonderful than to           Friend-servant of the living
God's power; Adam's talents were           live as a partaker of the perfect         God he was, living in covenant fel-
given him by God alone. God is             family life of the Triune  God?J          lowship with God on the earthly
the Creator and Possessor of all           Can you? He is the living God!            plane.
things. Man cannot do anything             He is the One in whom is no dark-            But as highly as he was ex-
that he does not already owe, nor          ness, the God of infinite goodness        alted, so deeply has man fallen!
bring anything to God that is not          and perfection. At His right hand            God created man His covenant
God's from the very beginning.             there is nothing but pleasures for-       friend. But Adam did not regard
And not only was that true of              evermore!                                 his rich blessedness and honor. He
Adam; that is also true of us. So              Consider all the wonders of           thought he saw something better.

470/StandardBearer/September     1,1996


      He would  hilnselfbe  God! Becom-           pose maintains His covenant. For               gospel of his salvation, "Thy sins
      ing  .unfaithful to his Friend-Sover-       He purposed to raise its revelation            are forgiven thee; go in peace."
      eign, man violated the covenant of          to the higher level of heavenly and                  How wonderful it is when
      friendship, rejected the Word of            everlasting perfection in and                  Christ restores that image of God
      God for the lie of Satan, and be-           through Jesus `Christ our Lord.                in man, giving His elect and re-
      came the enemy of God and the               There is covenant life in Jesus, by            generated children true knowl-
      friend of the devil. And the righ-          the wonder of sovereign grace!                 edge, righteousness, and holiness!
      teous God, who is not mocked,                   How beautiful it is when the                     But how much greater shall
      slays him. Dying we die, the ob-            dead sinner hears the voice of the             that blessedness be when we no
      jects of divine wrath. "There is            Son of God, when he is called from             longer have to contend with the
      no peace, saith my God, to the              darkness unto light, and lives                 corruption of this flesh, and when
      wicked."                                    again in the consciousness of God's            we shall experience perfectly the
              Nevertheless  - and this is the     fellowship and love! How blessed               covenant fellowship of our God in
      wonder of the gospel  - the God             is the moment when the sinner                  heavenly glory! That will be glory
      who is faithful to His eternal pur-         cries out, "God, be merciful to me,            indeed!  Cl
                                                  a sinner," and when he hears the
~     -,
       1:  A  Gloud  677  IHrn@B@&   :  ^                            ~.  .-.  .-  =g;j;  ~.~~~~~~~~~~.~~~~~~~-~~~~~-=~~~.-,~~~,~--I.~=-   :&-  i  -
       "'         i.          .(                                           _-                                                  _=.-  --,z-ld~qr.i--;F-~


                                    Hendrik De
                        Reformed Ref

      Introduction                                    When we look at this fact from                   So these men do not set about
              Reformers are strange people.       the viewpoint of those who do the              the work of reforming. They have
      They do not seem at first glance            work of reformation, we discover               been conquered in their hearts by
      to be cut out for the role. As a            that this great truth translates into          the Holy Spirit, who has sealed the
      matter of fact, if one measures             a naive unawareness on the part                truth indelibly upon their  con-
      their abilities by human standards         of reformers that they have been                sciousness and who has given
      they are the world's worst people           thrust into the role which they oc-            them the determination (often cou-
      for the work into which they are            cupy. They never gave thought to               rageous) to go quietly about their
      thrust.                                     being a reformer; they had no in-              business of doing what has to be
              The reason for this is that the     tention of becoming a reformer; in-            done  - which consists mostly of
      reformation of the church is God's          deed, if the idea had been sug-                the simple act of preaching good,
      work.. We confess in our Heidel-            gested to them, they would have                Bible-centered sermons.
      berg Catechism that the Son of              considered it preposterous. In                      So they never aspired to being
      God not only gathers His church,            fact, Luther himself spoke of be-              reformers. They never considered
      but He also defends and preserves           ing carried along by a tidal wave              themselves to be such unlikely
      it. That is, the work belongs to            of events over which he had no                 people. They were astonished and
      Christ, not to men. This does not           c o n t r o l . And the last thing De          not a little afraid at the forces that
      mean that Christ does not use men;          Cock was thinking about was him-               had been unleashed in the church
      He always does. But He'uses the             self as a reformer in the church.              through their work. Nor did they
      most unlikely so that it may be evi-        For Luther, or Calvin, or De Cock,             "count noses" to see  .how many
      dent that the work is after all His.  '     or anyone else to think of himself             would go along and then postpone
                                                  as a reformer would immediately                moving ahead in the work until
                                                  have disqualified him for the                  they were assured of a following.
      Prof.  Haizko is professor of Church        work. Such is the irony of God's               They simply did what had to be
      History and New Testament in the            ways.                                          done  - in humble reliance on di-
      Protestant Reformed Seminary.                                                              vine grace. God did the rest.

                                                                                                      September 1,1996/Standard  Bearer1471


      And so Hendrik De Cock                             in protest against him.                                  And so tensions continued to
preached to growing crowds in the                            A committee of Classis was ap-                   rise. They reached a kind of cli-
small church in Ulrum.                                   pointed. to investigate, during                      max when Scholte (later to settle
                                                         which investigation De Cock came                     and establish a colony in Pella,
The Work Of Reformation                                  out with a pamphlet with an im-                      Iowa), known to be friendly to De
      A number of events, each                           posing title and one not calculated                  Cock, was forbidden to preach for
somewhat small in itself, brought                        to appease the enemies of the                        De Cock, so that a modernist could
De Cock's work to its climax.                            truth: "Defense  of  the True Re-                    occupy the pulpit. The congrega-
      The more emphatic De Cock                          formed Doctrine and  of  the True                    tion did not take kindly to this,
became in his preaching, the larger                      Reformed Believers, Attacked and                     and the police were called in to
grew the crowds. And the larger                          Exposed by Two So-called Re-                         prevent what was a near riot.
grew the crowds, the stronger was                        formed Teachers, or the Sheepfold
the opposition.                The growing               of  Christ Attacked by Two Wolves                    Secession
throngs forced the Consistory to                         and Defended by  H.  DeCock,  Re-                        Though De Cock had patiently
propose enlarging the auditorium.                        formed Teacher at  Ulrum.                 Both       and humbly submitted for nearly
Even though the people  .them-                           men referred to were colleagues                      a year to the illegal suspension of
selves brought up the money, the                         who had themselves written                           the  Classis,  he remained the ob-
wardens responsible for all build-                       against De Cock and the things for                   ject of hatred. His colleagues did
ing projects refused permission                          which he stood.                                      everything to make his life miser-
and overruled the desires of the                             The  Classis  in the meantime                    able. Slanderous talk was every-
congregation. It was the first hint                      met.      D e   C o c k   p l e a d e d   w i t h    where published about him and
of persecution.                                          Classis  to permit him to defend his                 his wife. The ecclesiastical assem-
     In 1833 De Cock published a                         views on the basis of Scripture.                     blies forced him to pay the ex-
pamphlet which included the Can-                         But he was refused, and in an ille-                  penses of their case against him.
ons of Dordrecht. In the introduc-                       gal meeting he was suspended                         He was never granted a hearing
tion to the pamphlet De Cock                             from office                                          and was told to submit uncondi-
spoke of "a return . . . to the true                                                                          tionally to the assemblies or he
service of God . . . which had been                        in order to maintain law and or-                   would never preach again. When
forsaken by a majority of the popu-                        der in the Reformed Church, to                     he asked for a transcript of the de-
lation as it had turned to the idols                       protect the name and honor of the                  cision, he was mockingly told to
of man's corrupted and darkened                            ministers of the Gospel, and to                    copy it himself and the president
reason." This did not endear those                         prevent more disorders, divisions,
                                                           and revolutions in several congre-                 openly derided him as he pro-
who wanted nothing so much as                              gations in our Fatherland; . . . if                ceeded to do so.
t h e   C a n o n s   f o r g o t t e n   i n   t h e      preachers as DeCock were not                           But the faithful people of God
churches.                                                  halted in their reckless enterprise,               in the country were appalled that
A s   t h e   c r o w d s   g r e w ,   m a n y            this Board fears the worst.                        an honest and godly pastor could
people from other congregations                                                                               be treated in such a way  for. doing
wanted De Cock to baptize their                              While ecclesiastical machinery                   nothing but urging faithfulness to
new babies. They could not, in                           was grinding along, De Cock sub-                     the historic Reformed faith. And
good conscience, have their babies                       mitted to his suspension and                         God in heaven worked His sover-
baptized in their own churches,                          stayed off his pulpit. But as the                    eign work to do what had to be
partly because the old Baptism                           case wound its way through the                       done to preserve and defend His
Form had been replaced with other                        assemblies another issue was                         church.
heretical practices and liturgy, and                     added, the issue of hymn singing.                       Upon returning from the as-
partly because if the old Form was                       De Cock had written the preface                      sembly to his home, `he found his
still used they could not answer                         to a pamphlet in which the author,                   two year old daughter very ill. She
"Yes" to the question whether they                       a layman, had attacked the sing-                     died six days later, and the bur-
believed that the doctrine taught                        ing of hymns in the church. The                      den of great grief at the loss of a
in their church was the truth of                         title of the pamphlet is intriguing:                 covenant  ,child was added to his
God's Word. After careful con-                           The Evangelical Hymns Weighed,                       grief at the apostasy of his church.
sideration, consultation with oth-                       Tested and Found to be too Light.                        Scholte came to comfort the
ers and with his Consistory, and                         It was De Cock's conviction, and                     grieving family. The Consistory
through anxious prayer, De Cock                          correctly so, that heresy had come                   asked him to preach that Friday
baptized these children. This in-                        singing into the church through                      night, October 10, 1834. The Pro-
furiated the authorities. It was in                      hymns which had taken `the place                     vincial Board refused him permis-
fact this issue which was brought                        of the Psalms in the worship ser-                    sion to preach on the Lord's Day;
to  Classis  by De Cock's colleagues                     vices.                                               so he preached in an open field

472/StandardBearer/September I,1996


from a wagon. And De Cock saw                      1834. (signed) J.  J. Beukema, El-                        more than a few people present,
that the only hope for his sheep                   der; K. J. Barkema, Elder; K. A.                          so that it was difficult, if not im-
lay in secession.                                  v a n   d e r   L a a n ,   D e a c o n ;   D .   I '.    possible, to gather in worship on
     And so it came about. It was                  Ritsema, Deacon; Geert K. Bos,                            the Lord's Day.
Monday evening, October 13 that                    Deacon."                                                        If any regulations imposed on
the Consistory came together. The                                                                            them were broken, they were fined
Act of Secession  was drawn up af-                 Persecution                                               vast sums of money. And if they
ter some discussion, signed by the                         Neither De Cock nor his con-                      were unable to pay the fines, true
two elders and three deacons, and                  gregation escaped the heavy hand                          of most of them, their possessions
presented to the congregation                      of persecution. They thought they                         were sold in Sheriff's sales so that
where it was signed by 67 mem-                     would be free to go their own way                         their fines could be paid to the
bers and 63 heads of families  who-                and worship in peace, for the gov-                        government. If even this did not
had not made profession of faith                   ernment had an official policy of                         suffice, they were imprisoned. De
- a total of 247 souls.                            religious toleration and every her-                       Cock himself spent three months
     The document is so important                  esy under the face of the heavens                         in prison separated from wife and
that parts of it ought to be quoted.               was taught in the Netherlands and                         family.
Using Art.  29  of the  Confession  of             in the State Reformed Church. But                               These saints paid the price of
Faith  as its guide, it declared that              this is not the way it goes for the                       faithfulness.
the Church of which the congre-                    cause of Christ. Every heresy is                                It was only after two or three
gation had been a part had lost the                indeed tolerated  - but the                                      decades and many concessions
marks of the true church and that,                 truth is not. There is no                                            to the government that  per-
therefore, "it has now become                      room for God's truth in                              kvery            secution eased. But many
more than plain, that the Nether-                  this world nor in the apos-                          heresy            came to America where
lands Reformed Church is not the                   tate church.                                       is indeed           they could live in peace
True, but the False Church, accord-                        De Cock was not long                    tolerated  -           and enjoy the freedom to
ing to God's Word and Article 29                   alone. He had been joined                       but the truth         worship God according to
of our confessions." The docu-                     already  bv Rev. Scholte,                            is not.          t h e   Scrintures.   I n   t h e m
ment binds those who sign it to be                 and  he  was to be joined by                                       lies the beginning of our
obedient to Article 28 of the same                 three other ministers, one of                                   own churches.
confession and "separate them-                     whom was  Albertus   VanRaalte,                                 De Cock died at the age of 41
selves from those who are not of                   who brought some of the Seceders                          on November  14,1842  in the prov-
the Church, and therefore will                     to Holland, Michigan. And the                             ince of Groningen. He did not live
have no more fellowship with the                   number of people who followed                             long, nor did he see his followers
Netherlands Reformed Church,                       the leaders grew rapidly so that                          gain rest from suffering. But he
until it returns to the true service               seceder churches were organized                           had served his purpose according
of the Lord." The document ex-                     throughout the land.                                      to the will of God, and the time
presses the "willingness" of those                         But it was a bitter and diffi-                    came for others to continue the
who sign it "to exercise fellowship                cult struggle.                                            work.
with all true Reformed members,                            De Cock himself was forbid-                             De Cock was a man of humble
and to unite themselves with ev-                   den to preach in his own congre-                          life, from our point of  ,view unfit-
ery gathering founded on God's                     gation, was expelled from the par-                        ted for the greatness of the work.
infallible Word, in whatever place                 sonage, and was finally forced to                         His followers were, for the most
God has also united the same." It                  settle elsewhere among friends.                           part, the poor, the uneducated, the
specifically states that the congre-                       Soldiers were sent to Ulrum                       despised, the ignoble of the land.
gation is determined to be faithful                and to other places where the                             But, for all that, they were the
to Scripture, to return to the three               seceders had established separate                         godly, the pious, the upright who
F o r m s   o f   U n i t y   w h i c h   a r e    congregations and were billeted in                        genuinely thirsted for that one true
"founded on that Word," to "or-                    the homes of the seceders. These                          heavenly Bread which is Christ
der our public religious services                  people, usually from the poor,                            Jesus our Lord.
according to the ancient ecclesias-                were forced to feed and shelter the                             Together God used them to
tical liturgy," and to return to the               soldiers, tend to their needs, live                       bring genuine reformation to his
Church Order of Dordrecht.                         their lives with the.soldiers always                      church.  0
     "Finally, we hereby declare,"                 present, and try to endure their
so the document concludes, "that                   cruelty, godlessness, and deprav-
we continue to acknowledge our                     ity.
unjustly suspended Pastor.                                 The seceders were also forbid-
     "Ulrum, the 13th of October,                  den to hold any meetings with

                                                                                                                   September 1,1996/Standard  Bearer1473


      >,'       4            . . . .._
              \MYb@D ml&m i!zg@@ h TQfvri@ Hauim                                                /Mm  ~h!hb@@& IIUbblB



                                                 The Reformed Family:
                                          Enemy Within
                                                 II                                                                                   II
     "And have no fellowship with the  un-             our home? Has Egypt even now           in that history, America had stood
     fvuitfil works  of  darkness, but rather          `made himself at ease in our fam-      nose to nose with this ferocious
     reprove them.  "                                  ily room? Is it possible that the      bear.
                             Ephesians   5:ll          enemy within our home is more              In describing the mind-ma-
                                                       deadly than the enemy without?         nipulating which Big Brother
              A good sturdy outside door on            "For we wrestle not against flesh      would impose, Orwell coined the
     our house is important. Because                   and blood, but against spiritual       word "doublethink." "Double-
     of the increasingly high incidence                wickedness in high places" (Eph.       think means the power of holding
     of burglary in our society, this                  6:12).                                 two contradictory beliefs in one's
     door functions more as a barricade                                                       mind simultaneously, and accept-
     than an entranceway. The door is                             ++++                        ing both of them" (1984, p. 176).
     usually solid steel; the window, if                                                      Hence, a person no longer has any
     any, very high so no thug can                         Way back in the 1930s two au-      awareness of the difference be-
     break the glass and easily unlock                 thors gave us a dark vision of our     tween truth and falsehood. Here
     the door. Often it features a dead                future society. Their visions were     is a world of the graying of all
     bolt. No easy access with a credit                totally opposite,  .but similarly      terms, the fogging of all ethics,
     card here. Many doors also have                   hopeless. I remember how the first     morals, and judgments.
     a peephole to ensure that all who                 book, 1984, by George Orwell,              Scary reading. But, except for
     enter are friend or family. The                   frightened me. Orwell predicted        that doublethink, one need not
     alarm system wired to this door is                a culture under the supervising        have worried.
     intricate and sensitive because the               eye of Big Brother. He envisioned          Aldous Huxley's book, Brave
     foe outside is real and deadly. The               a society held in check by authori-    Nezu  World, was far more subtle
     havoc he wreaks is frightening.                   tarian repression. Torture, terror,    and difficult to understand. It
     We are determined he will not                     and brain-washing would charac-        was not nearly as frightening be-
     cross our threshold.                              terize this period until its mem-      cause the book seemed much too
              Does our door also have a                bers would be psychologically          farfetched. I read it quickly, and
     splash of blood on the doorpost?                  manipulated, their minds con-          dismissed it summarily. Huxley
     Has the husband/father of our                     trolled by the Party. In this com-     depicted a culture whose technolo-
     home, in the interest of his family's             pletely bureaucratic society, man      gies undid its capacity to think and
     welfare, taken hyssop, dipped it in               would merely be a number (I had        make judgments. In Huxley's so-
     blood, and painted the lintel and                 just gotten my social security num-    ciety its members are subjected to
     two side posts with blood (Ex.                    ber), never an individual. Of          mind-altering drugs, subliminal
     12:22)? Has he indicated hereby                   course, it would be necessary to       propaganda, and sub-conscious
.    that Christ is inside this home and               ban the books; knowledge to a          persuasion to control the mind and
     Egypt is outside?                                 freedom-loving people is heady         behavior. In this world, all stan-
              Are we certain that the enemy            stuff.                                 dards of morality are forgotten.
     whom we wish to thwart is out-                        I read Orwell's book in my late    Pleasure reigns supreme. Truth is
     side our home? Or, has Egypt al-                  teens, and its message seemed all      irrelevant.    Ban the books? In
     ready tracked his filthy feet into                too possible. Russia, the Giant        Huxley's society there would be no
                                                       Bear,  was pawing its way to the       need for this drastic measure; man
                                                       forefront as a political power,        would willingly give himself over
                                                       threatening the destruction of the     to mindless pursuits.
     Mrs. Lubbers is a wife and mother in              Western nations by thermonuclear           I should have been more con-
     the Protestant  Refo%zed  Church  of              weapons. At least during one hour      cerned, but we didn't even own a
     South Holland,  Illinoi's.

     474lSfandardBearerlSeptember I,1996


television at the time. Nor did                    television's conversations promote         tic information. I am saying we
most of our family or friends.                     incoherence and triviality; that the       are losing our sense of what it
                                                   phrase `serious television' is a con-      means to be well informed. Igno-
               ++++                                tradiction in terms; and that tele-        rance is always correctable. But
                                                   vision speaks in only one persis-          what shall we do if we take igno-
     For those of you who are in-                  tent voice  - the voice of enter-          rance to be knowledge?" (p. 107-
terested enough to read and weigh                  tainment" (p. SO).                         108).
the following quotes, I encourage                      "The problem is not that tele-             "Television is, after all, a form
you, wherever possible, to form                    vision presents us with entertain-         of graven imagery far more allur-
groups to discuss and react to the                 ing subject matter but that all sub-       ing than a golden calf" (p. 123).
book  Amusing Ourselves to Death,                  ject matter is presented as enter-             "Television's strongest point is
by Neil Postman, 1985.               In this       taining . .." (p. 87).                     that it brings personalities into our
important book, Postman convinc-                       "No matter what is depicted            hearts, not abstractions into our
ingly shows that television is the                 or from what point of view, the            heads. That is why CBS' programs
archenemy of higher order think-                   overarching presumption is that it         about the universe were called
ing, public discourse, family com-                 is there for our amusement and             "Walter Cronkite's Universe."
munication, and moral upright-                     pleasure. That is why even on              One would think that the grandeur
ness. It is pure show business,                    news shows which provide us                of the universe needs no assistance
from switch on to switch off. Tele-                daily with fragments of tragedy            from Walter Cronkite. One would
vision is the fulfillment of Huxley's              and barbarism, we are urged by             think wrong.        CBS knows that
envisioned society  - drowning                     the newscasters to `join them to-          Walter Cronkite plays better on
oneself in pleasure and entertain-                 morrow.' What for? One would               television than the Milky Way.
ment, becoming a culture of incon-                 think that several minutes of mur-         And Jimmy Swaggart plays better
sequential claptrap. Graphics and                  der and mayhem would suffice as            than God. For God exists only in
fleeting images have usurped the                   material for a month of sleepless          our minds, whereas Swaggart is
time-honored activity of reading.                  nights. We accept the newscast-            there,  to be seen, admired, adored.
Postman irrefutably proves that al-                ers' invitation because we know            Which is why he is the star of the
most every program seen on tele-                   that the news is not to be taken           show. And why Billy Graham is a
vision from political debates, to                  seriously, that it is all in fun, so to    celebrity, and why Oral Roberts
church services, to commercials, to                say"  (p. 87).                             has his own university, and why
news broadcasts, is pure entertain-                    "Television is our culture's           Robert  Schuller has a crystal ca-
ment.                                              principal mode of knowing about            thedral all to himself. If I am not
     Or, is entertainment the Re-                  itself. Therefore  - and this is the       mistaken, the word for this is blas-
formed Christian's inalienable                     critical point  - how television           phemy" (p. 123).
right?                                             stages the world becomes the
     "Twenty years ago, the ques-                  model for how the world is prop-                       ++++
tion, Does television shape culture                erly to be staged. It is not merely
or merely reflect it? held consid-                 that on the television screen en-              As Reformed Christians we
erable interest for many scholars                  tertainment is the metaphor for all        have said nothing yet about the
and social critics. The question has               discourse. It is that off the screen       problem of drama. Or, isn't drama
largely disappeared as television                  the same metaphor prevails....             a problem with us anymore? Are
h a s   g r a d u a l l y   b e c o m e   o u r    Americans no longer talk to each           the apostle Paul's words no longer
culture....This, in turn, means that               other, they entertain each other.          relevant? "That they all might be
its epistemology goes largely un-                  They do not exchange ideas; they           damned who . . . had pleasure in
noticed.       And the peek-a-boo                  exchange images. They do not ar-           unrighteousness" (II Thes.  2:12).
world it has constructed around                    gue with, propositions; they argue         Or, his indicting words to the  Ro-
us no longer seems even strange"                   with good looks, celebrities and           mans: "Who knowing the judg-
(P.  79).                                          commercials. For the message of            ment of God, that they which com-
     "There is no more disturbing                  television as metaphor is not only         mit such things are worthy of
consequence of the electronic and                  that all the world is a stage but          death, not only do the same, but
graphic revolution than this: that                 that the stage is located in Las Ve-       have pleasure in them that do
the world as given to us through                   gas, Nevada" (p.93).                       them" (Rom.  1:32).
television seems natural, not bi-                      "And in saying that the televi-            People whom one wouldn't al-
zarre" (p.79).                                     sion news show entertains but              low to step over one's door sill are
     "...television's  way of knowing              does not inform, I am saying some-         already comfortably ensconced in
is uncompromisingly hostile to                     thing far more serious than that           the family room, saving us the un-
typography's way of knowing; that                  we are being deprived of authen-           comfortable decision of refusing

                                                                                                 September  1,1996/Standard   Bearer475


them entrance. The village slut,              silly, inane cartoon mesmerizes the                        thee, and take thine head from thee
the whoremonger, the adulterer,               toddlers with mindless blather; the                        .,. that all the earth may know that
the homosexual ("let it not be once           commercial celebrating "eat, drink,                        there is a God in Israel" (I Sam.
named among you . .." Eph.  5:3)              and be merry for tomorrow we                               17:46)?
trumpets his iniquity; the violent            die"  - but not yet, the ad pro-                               "Doublethink."
man, the Sabbath desecrator, the              moting this or that godless life-                              " A m u s i n g   O u r s e l v e s   t o
Christ blasphemer, the dishonorer             style, causes even the boldest                             Death."
of father, mother, teacher, and  ev-          among us to avert our eyes.                                    Will this be inscribed on our
ery other authority named under                   Is-there no ruddy young lad                            doorpost? Cl
heaven exalts his sin; the  covet-            in the land who will cry out to this
ous man boasts of his cupidity; the           Goliath: "This day I will smite



                                               mendation  ot the  REC theology
W The Only Name                                                                                            that there is no salvation apart
                                                conference is adopted, it will also                        from an explicit profession of the
Whereby We Are Saved                           become a subject for study in the                           name of Christ, "inclusivist" ap-
                                               Reformed Ecumenical Council.                                proaches which appreciate  non-
     In the June issue of this maga-              In a June 7 presentation to the                          Christian religions but "refrain
zine, we quoted a letter from a                 Reformed Ecumenical Council, its                           from saying that the non-Chris-
minister in the Reformed Church                 theology conference reported that                          tian religion can itself save a per-
who claimed that salvation was                  "in view of the growing impor-                             son" and that "it is always Christ
possible outside of Christianity                tance of the subject a study com-                          who saves by his hidden presence
                                                mittee should be appointed by the
("God is truly known in a saving                                                                           in the other religion," and what
                                               interim committee to make an  in-
way by others in their own respec-                                                                         Runia termed "the `pluralist' or
                                                depth study of a) the many-fac-                            `liberal' approach" which "no
tive religious traditions"). One                eted problems of religious plural-                         longer has place for the unicity
might wistfully think that such a               ism, b) the biblical view of other                         of Jesus Christ."
view is rare  - at least in the Re-             religions, c) what all this means                            W h i l e   n o t i n g   t h a t    "the
formed community. Sadly, that is                for the communication of the gos-                          exclusivist approach was gener-
not true today.                                 pel to the present world." The the-                        ally held by the Christian Church
     The Reformed Ecumenical                    ology conference also suggested                            up to the Middle Ages and by the
Council, meeting at Calvin College             "`that the REC print and distrib-                           Reformers" and "is also held by
                                                ute widely the papers read at the
in Grand Rapids this past June, has                                                                        the great majority of evangelical
                                                theological conference and ask the
faced the issue and proposed a                                                                             theologians," including those who
                                                General Secretary to bring it to the                       drafted the 1974 Lausanne Cov-
study committee to consider the                 a t t e n t i o n   o f     the       member               enant, Runia said the "inclusivist"
matter.                                         churches."                                                 position dates back to the  second-
     Darrell Todd Maurina, URNS                                                                            century theologian Justin Martyr
press secretary, reports:                          Dr. Klaas Runia, retired rector                         and is held today  i&various  forms
                                              of the theological seminary of the                           by a number of Roman Catholic
  GRAND RAPIDS,  Mich. (June 7,               Gereformeerde Kerken in the                                  leaders. Runia cited W.E. Hock-
  1996) URNS  - A few short weeks             Netherlands at Kampen, presented                             ing, William  Cantwell  Smith, John
  after the crucifixion of Jesus              a paper that touched also on this                            Hick, and Paul Knitter as ex-
  Christ, the apostle Peter declared          subject  - and created quite a stir!                         amples of modern "pluralist"
  to an astounded crowd in Jerusa-                                                                         theologians  - Hocking going to
                                              He explained the different views,
  lem that "there is salvation in no                                                                       the point of stating that "the mis-
  one else, for there is no other             as reported by Maurina, as fol-                              sionary will look forward, not to
  name under heaven given among               lows:                                                        the destruction of these religions,
  men by which we must be saved."                                                                          but to their continued existence
  Nearly two thousand years later,                 Runia  - long regarded as one                           with Christianity, each stimulat-
  the meaning of that passage in                of the most prominent conserva-                            ing the other in growth toward
  Acts  4:12 has become a subject of            tives in his denomination  - sur-                          the ultimate goal, unity in the
  intense debate among professing               prised  some  delegates by the clos-                       completest religious truth."
  Christian theologians. If a  recom-           ing paragraphs of his speech.                                How do such theologians deal
                                                   Runia noted that professing                             with Scripture passages such as
                                                Christians have historically taken                         Acts  4:13 (sic), John  14:6, and I
                                                three approaches to the relation-                          Timothy  2:5 which appear to
Rev.  VanBaren  is pastor  of  the  Prot-       ship between Christ and adher-                             teach exclusive claims of Christ?
e s t a n t   Reformed         Church  o f      e n t s   o f   o t h e r   r e l i g i o n s :   a n      Runia cited Knitter as an example
L o v e l a n d ,   C o l o r a d o .           "exclusivist"  ,approach  declaring                        of a Roman Catholic theologian

476iSfandard  BearerlSeptem  ber 1,1996


   who "believes that these passages                          who spoke in favor of the "unique-                                 I do not know Mr. Rhem. Nor
   apply to Christians only."                                 ness of Christ" in salvation:                                   do I know enough about his views
         "When Christians see Jesus as                                                                                        to have an overall judgment. For
   the way, the life, and the truth,                              "I think the gospel stands or                               myself I wish a fine, conservative
   they actually say no more than                              falls on this issue," said Dr. Roger                           denomination like the RCA, in-
   that this is the way they person-                           Greenway, professor of missions                                stead of forcing a parting of the
   ally experience Jesus," Runia said                           at Calvin Seminary in Grand Rap-                              ways, would have treated this
   regarding such views. "Knitter                              ids and convener of the REC com-                               conflict as a challenge to study the
  ranks it with the exclamation of a                           mittee appointed after its 1992 As-                            questions raised.
  husband to his wife: `You are the                            sembly to draft a document on the                                As to Holy Scripture, there can
  most beautiful woman in the                                  uniqueness of Christ. "This is not                            be no doubt that it should be read
  world.' We have to do with `love'                            a peripheral issue, and if we                                 in its cultural context. If my own
  language, which means that the                               hedge on this we are forfeiting                               denomination, the Christian Re-
  passages I quoted should not be                                                                                            formed Church, had more fully
  taken in an absolute sense, but as                           our right to be called Christians."
                                                                  Greenway  agreed with other                                r e a l i z e d   t h i s ,   i t   m i g h t   h a v e
  confessions that hold true within                            speakers that much of the debate                              avoided the lengthy controversy
  the Christian community only."                               arose from the fact that most                                 on women in church office.
     Runia's paper clearly distanced                           modern Christians did not have                                   On the matter of salvation, it is
  himself from such views. "This is                            close contact with adherents of                               my conviction that there is no sal-
  the reason I take my starting point                          other religions until recent years.                           vation apart from Jesus Christ. I
  i n   t h e   r e s u r r e c t i o n   o f   J e s u s                                                                    also profess to believe in Jesus
  Christ," said Runia. "This, in my                            "A lot of Christians have not                                 Christ. I also profess to believe
  opinion, is the only proper point                            thought this through because they
                                                               have not been confronted by other                             in Jesus as my own savior and
  of departure for getting a good                              worldviews,"                                                  Lord. My church assures me that
  and reliable picture of the real                                                      said Greenway.                       means I am heaven bound. Yet
  Jesus."                                                      "Neither Bavinck nor Kuyper
                                                               dealt extensively with other reli-                            something keeps troubling me.
     However, Runia was not will-                                                                                               I am painfully aware that a ma-
  ing to go as far as many                                     gions, so we need to look at this
                                                               ourselves."                                                   jority of the world's people are
  exclusivists in declaring that no                              However,  Greenway  was will-                               not Christians, and, barring a di-
  one can be saved apart from an                                                                                             vine miracle, never will be. Also,
  explicit profession of faith in Jesus                        ing to grant Runia's point that                               throughout history countless
  Christ. "Does this mean that there                           some Dutch Reformed theologians
                                                               had not been insistent on the                                 numbers of people, many of them
  is no truth in all the other reli-                           "exclusivist" position. "I have not                           not Christian believers, have lived
  gions and that all the adherents                             been very satisfied with the his-                             and died in a hell on earth. Only
  of the other religions will be lost                                                                                        recall the millions slaughtered un-
  forever?" asked Runia.                                       tory of Reformed theologians to
                                                               be clear-cut in their presentation                            der Stalin, the holocaust, Red
                                                               and defense of  exclusivism,"  said                           China, Cambodia, Rwanda and,
    Runia explained his views fur-                             Greenway. "They have held back                                more recently, Bosnia.
ther:                                                          in a way I find surprising."                                    Fine Christian minds have long
                                                                 Greenway  predicted that the is-                            held that it is unthinkable that fol-
    In a subsequent interview,                                 sue of the uniqueness of Christ                               lowing their hell on earth the al-
  Runia confirmed his quote regard-                            was likely to become a divisive                               mighty would send them to an-
  ing the possibility of the Chris-                            issue in the Christian community.                             other hell, one far worse than the
  tian God hearing prayers to Al-                              "I think there's going to be a re-                            first and presumably lasting "for-
  lah but gave further explanation                             fining in both ways; some will                                ever."
  to his views. "I don't want to                               come to a clear and more articu-                                Could it be that evangelical
  identify the concept of God in Is-                           late faith and others will say it                             churches have too narrow an un-
  lam with our concept," said                                  really isn't that important after                             derstanding of the Gospel? Since
  Runia. "The fact that we have                                all," said Greenway.                                         salvation is by grace alone, may
 Jesus Christ makes our concept of                                                                                          we perhaps hope that, through
  God so different from theirs."                                 T h e   P r e s s   h a d   a   l e t t e r   f r o m      Jesus Christ, the almighty has
    "Would the God and Father of                             Rev. Sierd Woudstra, minister in                               ways and is powerful enough to
  our Lord Jesus Christ not hear                                                                                            bring the majority of the human
                                                             the Christian Reformed Church.  In
 such a cry? Would he close his                                                                                             race into his eternal kingdom?
  ears?" asked Runia. "I don't think                         it, he too presents some disturb-                              The Bible offers plenty of open-
 so. I can't believe that God would                          ing ideas concerning salvation.                                ers for that belief.
 not have heard the cries of the Old
 Covenant people when they cried                                I noted that the departure of                                  Dr. Roger  Greenway  is correct:
 out in Auschwitz."                                           Rev. Richard Rhem and his Spring                            "The gospel stands or falls on this
   Dr. Roger Greenway, professor                              Lake congregation from the Re-                              issue....      This is not a peripheral
of missions at Calvin Seminary in                             formed Church of America now                                issue, and if we hedge on this we
Grand Rapids, was one of several                              seems a foregone conclusion
                                                              (Press, May 20).                                            are forfeiting our right to be called

                                                                                                                              September 1,199fYStandard  Bearer1477


Christians." That is a clear and                            calls forth the condemnation of                                              cally follow out of such views
strong statement. I do wonder if                            Revelation  22:18-19.                                                        which insist upon a "common"
he or others in the CRC will fol-                                   Those who deny these clear                                           grace of God and a universal love
low through with this conviction                            Scriptural truths who are within                                             for all of mankind, or an atone-
as pertains to the public writings                          the Reformed camp are also in vio-                                           ment which is for all without ex-
of Rev. Sierd Woudstra.                                     lation of the Formula of Subscrip-                                           ception.
      These strange sounds arising                          t i o n   w h i c h   p r e s u m a b l y   a l l                                    One cannot help but be struck
from "Reformed" camps are                                   officebearers have signed. The Re-                                           by the rapidly changing theologi-
clearly in violation of Scripture                           formed creeds present clearly the                                            cal scene. When "Reformed Chris-
and our creeds.                                             Scriptural truth that salvation is                                           tians" seriously propose that sal-
      To relegate such a clear teach-                       only in Christ and in the way of                                             vation is possible outside of belief
ing of Scripture (Acts  4:12; John                          believing upon Him.                                                          in Christ and without confession
14:6; I Tim. 2:5; Rom. 10:13-15; etc.)                              It is human reasoning and                                            of sin and while still in the dark-
to the trash heap on the claim that                         "logic" which conclude that a "lov-                                          ness of heathendom, when world
these "passages apply to Christians                         ing" and "gracious" God cannot al-                                           religions begin to unite, then
only," or, "that it should be read                          low billions to go to hell only be-                                          clearly the end is near. The sec-
in its cultural context" is to deny                         cause they never heard the gospel                                            ond beast of Revelation 13 is ma-
the infallibility and inspiration of                        or were destined to be born and                                              terializing before our very eyes.
Scripture. It is to render all mis-                         raised in the realm of one of the                                            Remember Greenway's warning:
sion work foolish and even wrong;                           other religions of this world. This                                          "This is not a peripheral issue, and
it is a denial of the mandate of                            reasoning, which contradicts the                                             if we hedge on this we are forfeit-
Christ in Matthew  28:19-20.  It in-                        teachings of Scripture, does logi-                                           ing our right to be called Chris-
troduces
    -.        : "another gospel" which                                                                                                   tians." Cl
                                                                                       ..                                                                        ,  `_'
  Book  R@ti@lW  -                                 `,,.       _         j       :            `,               -.             ,,                  1                   ,,               ;       `,

Our Reformed Church Service                                         In Our Reformed Church Ser-                                          an introduction to The  Church Or-
Book,         by G.              V a n   R o n g e n .      vice Book  Rev. Van Rongen, an                                               der.
Neerlandia, Alberta, Canada or                              emeritus          minister                    o f   t h e s e                   Obviously the book is appli-
Pella, Iowa: Inheritance Publica-                           churches, gives a history of the En-                                         cable and especially valuable for
tions, 1995. 250 pages. $13.90                              glish Bible. He has a helpful es-                                            the members of the Canadian Re-
(U.S.%). (paper). [Reviewed by Prof.                        say on "Church Singing" which in-                                            formed Churches. The non-Cana-
R. D. Decker.]                                              cludes a history of singing before,                                          dian reader, however, will profit
                                                            during, and after the Reformation,                                           from those sections of the book
      This book is about another                            as well as a history of both Psalm                                           which deal with the singing of the
book,  viz.,  the Book  of  Praise:                         and Hymn singing.                                                            church and her creeds and confes-
Anglo-Genevan Psalter.  This lat-                                   Van Rongen gives a brief his-                                        sions.
ter contains the synodically ap-                            tory of each of the Ecumenical                                                       The author's otherwise pleas-
proved Psalm texts and tunes and                            Creeds and the Three Forms of                                                i n g   a n d   e a s y - t o - r e a d   s t y l e   i s
hymns, the Ecumenical Creeds, the                           Unity. Brief commentaries on and                                             marred by his use of the first per-
Three Forms of Unity, Orders of                             histories of each of the Liturgical                                          son personal pronoun. Any future
Worship, Liturgical Forms, Form                             F o r m s   ( i n c l u d i n g   t h e   F o r m                            re-printings ought to be carefully
Prayers, and Church Order of the                            Prayers) are given. There is also                                            proofed so that the few spelling
Canadian (and American) Re-                                                                                                              errors (emiritus for emeritus, e.g.)
formed Churches.                                                                                                                         are eliminated.  n
                                                                                                                     j    ..,..  :\.:
j%$w@   ~~~~.~~~~~~~~~~~,"`.,`,   ::  .;;.y;:.  li','  :!`,  ~  :  ,..,  ;`:y,;;,y   1'  j  ,:.  ,,p  `.~,  ,,  _.
                                                                                                                                             ."&w&  `lg&i$&&
                                                                                                                                                                5;.            `jq@&g
                                                                                                                                                                                       .,;
                                                   _.                                               2.

                                                            Minister Activities                                                          date Richard Smit and Revs.
                                                                    Rev. and Mrs. Mahtani, of the                                        Audred Spriensma and Arie  den-
                                                            Trinity PRC in Houston, TX, were                                             Hartog. Voting was held on July
                                                            blessed with the birth of their sev-                                         14 with a call being extended to
                                                            enth child, a healthy baby girl,                                             Candidate Smit, and he has since
Mr.  Wigger is a  member   of  the  Puot-                   named Mary, born on July 10.                                                 accepted that call.
e s t a n t   R e f o r m e d       C h u r c h   o f               Our congregation in  Doon,  IA                                               On July  24th, the congregation
Hudsonville, Michigan.                                      formed a trio consisting of  Candi-                                          of the Kalamazoo, MI PRC met and

478/StandardBearerlSeptembeil,  1996


extended a call to Rev. Wilbur                        ish literature was therefore for-         completion expected by this
Bruinsma to serve as their pastor.                    warded to First of Holland.               month.

Evangelism Activities                                 Congregational Activities                 Mission Activities
     T h e   c o n g r e g a t i o n   o f   t h e        Rev. Rodney Miersma became                We extend our congratulations
Edgerton, MN PRC sponsored a                          the third undershepherd of the            to the members of the Covenant
Community Bible Study on three                        Immanuel PRC in Lacombe, AB,              Reformed Fellowship of Northern
successive Tuesdays, July 20 and                      Canada at an installation service         Ireland, who by God's grace and
August 6 and 13, in their church.                     held July 19 at Immanuel. Rev. A.         purpose were organized into a
The subject considered on these                       denHartog  of the Hope PRC in             congregation of our Lord and Sav-
three nights was "Calvinism: The                      Redlands, CA led the service,             ior Jesus Christ on July 24. Now
Doctrine of Grace." Edgerton's in-                    preaching, on a theme taken from          they are known as the Covenant
tent with these classes was to dem-                   God's Word found in Isaiah 6:1-8.         PRC in Northern Ireland.
onstrate carefully from the Bible                     The following Lord's Day Rev.                 We can also inform you that
the doctrine of grace, following the                  Miersma preached his inaugural            Prof. D. Engelsma, of our semi- .
f i v e   p o i n t s   o f   C a l v i n i s m .     sermon, based on I Peter  1:23-25         nary, conducted the organizational
Edgerton's entire congregation,                       a n d   e n t i t l e d "God's Eternal    service, preaching a sermon en-
along with family and friends of                      Word." Rev. Miersma and his               titled "I Will Build My Church,"
the congregation, were encouraged                     wife, Sharon, were officially wel-        based on God's Word in Matthew
to attend and be refreshed and edi-                   comed by the congregation the fol-        16:18. Two elders were elected:
fied in their knowledge of these                      lowing day with a picnic in a park        Mr. Desmond Callender for a
fundamental truths.                                   in Lacombe.                               three-year term and Mr. John
     Our Hope PRC in Walker, MI,                          The Council of the Bethel PRC         Clarke for two years. The two dea-
through the efforts of their Re-                      in Itasca, IL, on the recommenda-         cons elected were Mr. Ivan Reid
formed Witness Committee, spon-                       tion of its Building Committee,           for three years and Mr. Jonathan
sored a special worship service on                    adopted a set of conceptual draw-         McAuley  for two. A group of 98
Sunday evening, July 21. We say                       ings to submit to their congrega-         were in attendance for this historic
special only because of the extra                     tion for approval. Work is now            event, with a representative from
effort Hope's congregation put into                   being done on investigating costs,        the local paper there as well. We
inviting those outside their church                   financing, etc. with the hope of          rejoice with them and thank God
to worship with them that evening.                    having a proposal concerning              for His blessing upon our mission
The sermon that evening, deliv-                       building ready for the congrega-          work there. May God bless this
ered by  Rev:R. Dykstra, and based                    tion in the coming months.                beginning and ever cause the Cov-
on Ephesians  2:8, 9, was entitled                        At their annual congregational        enant PRC in Northern Ireland to
"Saved by Grace," and was meant                       meeting held in early June, the con-      stand as a pillar and ground of the
to explain the beautiful truth of                     gregation of the Byron Center, MI         truth.
God's unconditional election.                         PRC approved a proposal to in-
     The Evangelism Committee of                      stall air conditioning in their
the Randolph, WI PRC received                         church building.
from the  Hendry  Correctional In-                        At the same congregational            JFood~or Thought
stitution, Office of the Chaplain,                    meeting in which our Kalamazoo,               "I have no more conception of
Immakalee, Florida a letter which                     MI PRC extended a call to Rev.            a true believer without morality,
read, in part:                                        Bruinsma, they also made deci-            than of a river without water, or
                                                      sions concerning a new parsonage.         of a sun without light and heat."
     There's a large number of His-                   It was decided to hold off on                                     -  Toplady  Cl
  panic inmates at  Hendry and                        building a new parsonage until
  many don't read English. That is                    such time as the Lord provides
  why I asked for literature in Span-                 them with a new undershepherd.
  ish so that those men can be                                                                                 NOTICE TO
  reached by your ministry also.                      School  ActiGities                                  COLLEGE STUDENTS
     Did you know that the Evan-                          At an Association meeting of                       (or their parents)
gelism Committee of the First PRC                     Adams Street Christian School,                      We would like to send the
in Holland, MI has overseen the                       held in early July, a proposal for          Sf3 to our college students.
printing of several pamphlets and                     building expansion was approved.            Please inform us of the college
books in the Spanish language?                        Restroom facilities and three class-        addresses as soon as possible.
The request to Randolph for Span-                     rooms will be added. Work has              Thanks!!
                                                      already begun, with anticipated

                                                                                                   September 1,1996/StandardSearer/479


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    jg@Jggg                                                                                                                            PERiODiCAL
                                                                                                                                       Postage Paid at
    I? 0. Box' 603                                                                                                                     Grandville,  Michigan
   Grandtile,  Ml 49468-0603





                                                                    RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
      RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                   The Council of the  Doon PRC expresses                             NOTICE!!!
     The Council and the congregation of the             their sympathy to fellow officebearer, Alan
Grace Protestant Reformed Church expresses               DeBoer  and his family, in the death of Alan's                  Annual Meeting of the RFPA
its Christian sympathy to the family of                  sister,                                                         September 26, 1996, 8 
     ELDER GERRIT VAN DEN TOP,                                            ARLOA  DeBOER.                                                              P.M.
                                                                                                                               Grandville PRC
who passed into glory on July 7, 1996.                         May they find comfort in the knowledge
     May they find comfort in the Word of God,           that, "God is our refuge and strength, a very
II Corinthians  4:17,  "For our light affliction,        present help in trouble" (Psalm  46:l).                                  Speaker:
which is but for a moment, worketh for us a                                     Edwin  VanGinkel,  President                Rev. Charles Terpstra
far more exceeding and eternal weight of                                              Gene  VanBemmel,  Clerk
glory."                                                                                                                             T o p i c :
                        Rev. M. Dick, President                      WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                                        "The RFPA  -
                          Don Lotterman, Clerk                 With thankfulness to God, our parents                      Stimulator of Sound Knowl-
                                                         and grandparents,                                               edge in an Age of Ignorance"
                                                          MR. and MRS. JOHN KALSBEEK, Jr.,
           WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                           celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary on                      (Four new board members
     On September 12, 1996, the Lord willing,            August 26, 1996.                                               will be elected from a nomina-
our beloved parents and grandparents,                          We are thankful to them for our covenant                 tion consisting of Don DeJong,
    MR. and MRS. RICHARD BLOEM,                          upbringing and their godly example. We pray                    Leroy DeVries, Arnold Dykstra,
will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary.           that the Lord will bless and keep them through                 Leon Garvelink, Jon Hop,
     We are thankful to our heavenly Father              many years to come. "But the mercy of the                      Marinus Kamps, Gordon
for the Christian love they have shared                  Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon
throughout those years and for their Christian           them that fear him, and his righteousness unto                 Schipper,  Mark VandenBerg.)
guidance to us.                                          children's children" (Psalm  103:`17).
     It is our prayer that the Lord will con-            4+ Joel and Jory Mulder
tinue to keep them in His care.                                      Kylie, Collin
     "The mercy of the Lord is from everlast-            Q Jay Kalsbeek                                                       Cassette Tape
ing to everlasting unto those that fear him,             4+ Tim and Gwennan Engen                                         of Recent Public Lecture:
and his righteousness unto children's children"          +Z+ Chad and Erika Stuit
(Psalm  103:17).                                         Q Dan Kalsbeek                                                      "Trying the Spirits"
+ James D. Bloem (in glory)                              + Kristin Kalsbeek                                                  by Rev. M. Joostens
+ Keith and Janice Gort                                  4+ Trevor Kalsbeek
           Timothy, Jonathan, Jeffery                    4+ Alex Kalsbeek                                               Scripture's examination of
                                    Jenison, Michigan    4+ Kenton Kalsbeek                                             evangelical issues facing the
                                                         + Ethan Kalsbeek                                               church today, such as:
      RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                                                                               Women in Office
     The Adult Bible Society of Grace PRC                                                       Grandville, Michigan       Promise Keepers
expresses their Christian sympathy to June                                     NOTICE!!!                                   Classical Reapportionment
VanDenTop and Gerald and Clara VanDenTop                                                                                   Alternative Life-styles
in the death of their husband and brother,                     Each issue of the Standard Bearer is
                                                         available on cassette tape for those who are
             GERRIT VAN DEN TOP.                         blind, or who prefer hearing the  SB to reading                         cost: $3.00
     May they find comfort in the Word of God,           it. This is an excellent ministry of the Evan-
II Corinthians  4:17,  "For our light affliction,        gelism Society of the Southeast Protestant
which is but for a moment, worketh for us a                                                                                         from:
                                                         Reformed Church. The reader is Ken Rietema
far more exceeding and eternal weight of                                                                                         Lynden PRC
                                                         of Southeast Church. Anyone desiring this
glory."                                                                                                                      Extension Committee
                                                         service regularly should write:
                    Larry Meulenberg, President                                                                                 315 N. Park St.
                                                                             Southeast PRC
                       Beth  DeVries,  Secretary                                                                              Lynden, WA 98264
                                                                       1535 Cambridge Ave. S.E.
                                                                        Grand Rapids, Ml 49506

480iStandard  BearerlSeptember  1, I996


