                    The
                   Standard
A Reformed
Semi-Monthly
Magazine           Bearer

                      Upon the incarnation as the
                      beginning and the resurrec-
                      tion as the end depends the
                      gospel,  the  gospel  of  our
                      justification.  If that child of
                      Bethlehem  is  not  God,  He
                      did not bear our sin.  And if
                      He  is  not  raised,  He  failed
                      to atone.


                    See "Separated unto the Gospel" -- p. 3


Vol. 73, No. 1
October 1, 1996


                                                                                                                                                    The
CONTENTS:                                                                      October 1, 1996                                               Standard
                                                                                                                                                 Bearer
Meditation -- Herman Hoeksema
     Separated unto the Gospel .................................................................3                     ISSN 0362-4692
Editorials -- Prof. David J. Engelsma                                                                                  Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July, and August.
                                                                                                                      Published by the Reformed Free Publishing Association, Inc.,
     Changes in the Next Volume ..............................................................6                       4949 Ivanrest Ave., Grandville, MI  49418.  Periodical Postage
     A Defense of (Reformed) Amillennialism                                                                           Paid at Grandville, Michigan.
           10.  A Spiritual Fulfillment of Isaiah 65:17ff. .............................7                             Postmaster:  Send address changes to the Standard Bearer,
                                                                                                                      P.O. Box 603, Grandville, MI  49468-0603.
Cloud of Witnesses -- Prof. Herman C. Hanko
     Martin Luther:  German Reformer ......................................................8                          EDITORIAL COMMITTEE
                                                                                                                      Editor:  Prof. David J. Engelsma
Apples of Gold .............................................................................................10        Secretary:  Prof. Robert D. Decker
A Word Fitly Spoken -- Rev. Dale H. Kuiper                                                                             Managing Editor:  Mr. Don Doezema
     Liberty ...................................................................................................11    DEPARTMENT EDITORS
                                                                                                                      Rev. W. Bruinsma, Rev. A. Brummel, Rev. R. Cammenga, Prof.
Taking Heed to the Doctrine -- Rev. Steven Key
                                                                                                                      R. Decker, Rev. A. denHartog, Rev. M. Dick, Prof. H. Hanko, Rev.
     Our Death in Adam .............................................................................12                R. Hanko, Rev. S. Key, Rev. K. Koole, Rev. J. Kortering, Rev. D.
                                                                                                                      H. Kuiper, Mr. J. Lanting, Mrs. M. Lubbers, Rev. T. Miersma, Mr.
Church and State -- Mr. James Lanting
                                                                                                                      G. Schipper, Rev. G. VanBaren, Rev. R. VanOverloop, Mr. B.
     U.S. Supreme Court Rejects Colorado's Constitutional                                                             Wigger, Rev. B. Woudenberg.
           Amendment Repudiating Preferential Treatment of                                                            EDITORIAL OFFICE              CHURCH NEWS EDITOR
                                                                                                                      The Standard Bearer           Mr. Ben Wigger
           Homosexuals .................................................................................14
                                                                                                                      4949 Ivanrest                 6597  40th Ave.
Contending for the Faith -- Rev. Bernard Woudenberg                                                                    Grandville, MI  49418         Hudsonville, MI  49426
     More About Logic ...............................................................................16               BUSINESS OFFICE               NEW ZEALAND OFFICE
                                                                                                                      The Standard Bearer           The Standard Bearer
Search the Scriptures -- Rev. Mitchell C. Dick                                                                         Don Doezema                   c/o B. VanHerk
     John:  From the Mountain Top .........................................................19                         P.O. Box 60366 Fraser St.
                                                                                                                      Grandville, MI                Wainuiomata, New Zealand
All Around Us -- Rev. Gise J. VanBaren ...................................................21                               49468-0603
                                                                                                                      PH:  (616) 531-1490           UNITED KINGDOM OFFICE
Report of Classis West -- Rev. Steven Key .............................................23                                       (616) 538-1778       c/o Mr. Jonathan McAuley
                                                                                                                      FAX:  (616) 531-3033          164 Church Rd., Glenwherry
News From Our Churches -- Mr. Benjamin Wigger .................................23
                                                                                                                                                    Ballymena, Co. Antrim BT42 3EL
                                                                                                                                                    Northern Ireland
                                                                                                                      EDITORIAL POLICY
                                                                                                                      Every editor is solely responsible for the contents of his own
                                                                                                                      articles.  Contributions of general interest from our readers
                                                                                                                      and questions for The Reader Asks department are welcome.
                                                                                                                      Contributions will be limited to approximately 300 words and
   In This Issue ...                                                                                                  must be neatly written or typewritten, and must be signed.  Copy
                                                                                                                      deadlines are the first and fifteenth of the month.  All
                                                                                                                      communications relative to the contents should be sent to the
                                                                                                                      editorial office.
      Herman Hoeksema was, by all accounts, a great preacher.  It will be                                             REPRINT POLICY
                                                                                                                      Permission is hereby granted for the reprinting of articles in
evident from his series of sermons on Romans which begins in this issue
                                                                                                                      our magazine by other publications, provided:  a) that such
that at the heart of his preaching powers was the gift of exegesis.  He                                               reprinted articles are reproduced in full; b) that proper
                                                                                                                      acknowledgment is made; c) that a copy of the periodical in
had a profound, penetrating insight into the meaning of Holy Scripture
                                                                                                                      which such reprint appears is sent to our editorial office.
and a wonderful ability to teach this Word of God to the people of God.
                                                                                                                      SUBSCRIPTION POLICY
Our readers will delight themselves in these meditations.                                                             Subscription price:  $17.00 per year in the U.S., US$20.00
      Mr. James Lanting informs us concerning the inexorable progress of                                              elsewhere.  Unless a definite request for discontinuance is
                                                                                                                      received, it is assumed that the subscriber wishes the
one of the most significant movements in the United States, indeed in                                                 subscription to continue, and he will be billed for renewal.  If you
Western civilization:  the legitimizing and legalizing of homosexuality.                                              have a change of address, please notify the Business Office as
                                                                                                                      early as possible in order to avoid the inconvenience of
Lanting explains the decision by the U.S. Supreme Court this summer                                                   interrupted delivery.  Include your Zip or Postal Code.
overturning a Colorado law that prohibited giving homosexuals special
                                                                                                                      ADVERTISING POLICY
rights.  See "Church and State."                                                                                      The Standard Bearer does not accept commercial advertising of
                                                                                                                      any kind.  Announcements of church and school events,
      Rev. Gise VanBaren reviews the decisions by the 1996 synod of the
                                                                                                                      anniversaries, obituaries, and sympathy resolutions will be
Christian Reformed Church.  One of these decisions was the refusal to                                                 placed for a $10.00 fee.  These should be sent to the Business
                                                                                                                      Office and should be accompanied by the $10.00 fee.  Deadline
change  an  earlier decision  authorizing  the  ordination  of  women  to  all
                                                                                                                      for announcements is at least one month prior to publication
church offices.  Read "All Around Us."                                                                                date.
      Not  to  be  overlooked  is  the  poem  by  Suzanne  Terpstra Looyenga.
                                                                                                                      BOUND VOLUMES
With the unique power of poetry, it speaks to the struggle of the suffer-                                             The Business Office will accept standing orders for bound
                                                                                                                      copies of the current volume.  Such orders are filled as soon as
ing believer.  Read, and then reread, "Reckoning."                                                                    possible after completion of a volume year.
      A  somewhat  different  dress,  but  the  same  Standard  Bearer,  now
                                                                                                                      16mm microfilm, 35mm microfilm and 105mm microfiche,
beginning its 73rd year.                                                                                              and article copies are available through University Microfilms
                                                                                                       -- DJE          International.


2/Standard Bearer/October 1, 1996


  Meditation                                                                                        Herman Hoeksema




             Separated unto the Gospel

    "Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ,          there must have been a good deal            much as that faith by which man
called to be an apostle, separated unto        of  connection  and  traveling  be-         is justified cannot possibly rest on
the  gospel  of  God,  (which  he  had         tween Jerusalem and Rome.  There            the  word  of  man,  the  apostle  in-
promised afore by his prophets in the          were connections of business, etc.          troduces  himself  to  the  Roman
holy  scriptures,)  concerning  his  Son       Besides, the large congregation at          church in our text as one separated
Jesus  Christ  our  Lord,  which  was          Jerusalem soon was scattered, due           unto the gospel.  That is the theme
made of the seed of David according            to  persecutions.    Undoubtedly            of this part of the epistle.
to  the  flesh;  and  declared  to  be  the    many went to Rome.  Perhaps the
Son of God with power, according to            congregation at Rome was finally            A Significant Gospel
the spirit of holiness, by the resurrec-       established  by  one  of  the  helpers          Notice  that  the  apostle  is
tion from the dead."                           of the apostles, although it is not         speaking of the gospel of God.  The
                          Romans 1:1-4         certain.                                    gospel,  as  to  the  meaning  of  the
                                                   According  to  the  evidence  of        word, is good news.  It is a good
                                               the  epistle,  the  congregation  con-      message, a tiding of joy.  As to the
                                               sisted of converts out of Jews and          scriptural  meaning,  the  gospel  is
It is not known what is the be-
   ginning, and what is the origin
   of the church at Rome.  Certain             Gentiles.                                   in  the  first  place  a  message  from
it is that the Romish tradition that               As  to  its  contents,  the  theme      God.  That is an essential element
Peter  was  the  founder  of  it  and          of the epistle is clear.  This is due       of the gospel.
that he was the first bishop cannot            to the fact that there was no par-              In the second place, it is a mes-
stand  the  test  of  Scripture.    We         ticular reason in the congregation          sage  from  God  to  His  people  as
may believe that, if the apostle Pe-           which causes the apostle to write           they are in this world.  It is a mes-
ter  had  been  instrumental  in  es-          this  epistle.    There  were  no  her-     sage  from  God  in  this  world  of
tablishing the church at Rome, at              esies and no particular sins against        darkness, of sin, and of death.  It
the  time  when  Paul  writes  this            which the apostle is called to warn         is  a  message  from  God  in  that
epistle, the apostle Peter must still          the congregation.  He simply states         world in which His people are by
have been there and he must still              that he longed to see them, but was         nature  children  of  wrath.    It  is  a
have been, according to the Roman              let  hitherto.    And  so  he  felt  the    message  from  God  in  that  world
Catholic  claim,  overseer  of  the            need  of  writing  them.    What  we        in which His children  are loaded
church.    And  that  is  impossible.          have,  therefore,  in  this  epistle  to    with sin and in which everything
For Paul would never interfere in              the Romans is a quiet development           about them testifies of sin and of
another  man's  work.    He  would             of one theme.  That theme is that           death.    In  that  darkness  comes  a
not have written this epistle.                 a man is justified, not by the works        message.    It  is  a  message  that
    Besides,  in  the  long  list  of          of the law, but by faith in Christ.         comes from heaven, a divinely au-
names mentioned at the end of the                  We find  that there is a three-         thoritative message, a message that
epistle,  Peter  is  not  even  men-           fold division.  The first is that it is     is glad news.
tioned.                                        impossible for man to become righ-              That news consists in this that
    As to the origin of the church,            teous  before  God  on  the  basis  of      those  who  are  in  darkness  see  a
                                               works.  The second is the expound-          great light; that those who are in
                                               ing of the positive doctrine of jus-        sin  receive  righteousness;  that
                                               tification by faith.  And the third         those  who  are  in  death,  receive
                                               is the application of that doctrine         life.  That is the gospel.
                                               of  justification  by  faith  to  them          Now  notice  that  the  apostle
                                               that are so justified.  Inasmuch as         tells us concerning that gospel that
Herman Hoeksema was the first edi-
                                               that is the main theme, and inas-           it is the gospel of the Son of God,
tor of the Standard Bearer.

                                                                                                   October 1, 1996/Standard Bearer/3


Jesus Christ our Lord.   He is the           a Greek.  But He took on the flesh           to be the Son of God by the resur-
object  of  that  gospel.    It  is  con-    from the heart of the covenant line.         rection from the dead.
cerning Him that glad news comes             He was made of the seed of David.                    Why  does  the  apostle  select
from heaven.  It is the gospel con-              That,  God  declared.    That  is        these two?  It is evident that these
cerning His Son, who as we know              the gospel, you understand.  That            two  mark  the  beginning  and  the
Him,  as  He  stands  with  His  face        is the one fact of the gospel.               end  of  His  being  with  us.    That
toward us, is the Lord Jesus Christ,             The other fact is the resurrec-          period was the period.  In that pe-
and  who  as  He  stands  with  His          tion.  God declared concerning His           riod the gospel is realized, the gos-
face  to  the  Father,  as  we  do  not      Son  that  He  was  powerfully  de-          pel which concerns His Son.  It is
see  Him  and  know  Him,  is  the           clared  to  be  the  Son  of  God,  so       in  that  period  that  God  comes
eternal  Son.    As  He  stands  with        that we also know Him as the Son             from heaven in His Son, is with us
His face to us, as we see and know           of  God  by  the  resurrection  from         for thirty-three years, and then re-
Him, He is Jesus of Nazareth, who            the dead.  "Declared to be the Son           turns.    All  that  lies  between  that
became  like  unto  us  and  walked          of  God  with  power,  according  to         beginning and that end constitutes
among  us  for  thirty-three  years.         the spirit of holiness, by the resur-        the gospel of our salvation.  That
He is the object of that glad news.          rection from the dead," the apostle          is the only historical basis for all
    If you ask, what does God de-            says.  "According to the  spirit of          that we believe.  That is really the
clare concerning His Son, what is            holiness"  stands  over  against  the        gospel.
the  contents  of  that  glad  news,         flesh here.  The spirit of holiness                  Now what happened?
then  the  apostle  mentions  two            is not the third person in the Trin-                 In the year A.D. 1 God came,
facts.  The first is His incarnation.        ity.  It is not the Spirit of sanctifi-      through  His  Son,  into  our  dark-
The second is His resurrection.              cation, as the Dutch translation has         ness.  Here, there was nothing but
    Notice:    "concerning  His  Son         it ("De Geest des heiligmaking").  But       darkness, sin, and death.  The Son
Jesus Christ our Lord, which was             the spirit of holiness refers to                     of God came into our darkness
made of the seed of David accord-            the  divine  nature  of  Jesus.                        and  death.    If  He  was  not
ing  to  the  flesh;  and  declared  to      God is a spirit.  His nature            On the           the Son of God, then there
be the Son of God with power, ac-            is  spiritual.    The  chief        incarnation          is  no  gospel.    Then  there
cording  to  the  spirit  of  holiness,      characteristic of God as a             of the Son         is no hope. If the modern
by  the  resurrection  from  the             spirit  is  that  He  is  holy.         of God            interpretation  is  correct,
dead."    That,  God  declared  con-         When  the  apostle  says           hangs all the          there is no gospel.  On the
cerning His Son.                             that  He  was  declared  to        righteousness          incarnation of the Son of
    According to the flesh, He was           be  the  Son  of  God  with            which is          God  hangs  all  the  righ-
made of the seed of David.  Flesh            power  according  to  the              by faith.         teousness which is by faith.
in  the  text  does  not  mean  sinful       spirit of holiness, the mean-                          He entered into our life.  He
flesh,  but  means  His  human  na-          ing  is  that  Jesus  according  to                  became  like  us  in  everything,
ture.    It  means  His  human  body         His human nature is of the seed of           sin  excepted.    He  became  a  man
and soul.  Jesus, according to His           David,  but  that  according  to  His        among  men,  weak  and  suffering.
body and His soul, was made.  He             divine nature He is the Son of God.          Not  only  that,  but  He  died.    He
was  made  of  the  seed  of  David.         Now then, that is the gospel.                died as all men die.  But if that is
That is, He assumed, He took upon                That  powerful  demonstration            all  that  can  be  said  about  Him,
Himself, that flesh, that body and           of Jesus as the Son of God is the            there  is  no  gospel.    For,  viewing
soul.  He took that flesh from the           resurrection.    When  He  lies  as  a       Him  as  the  Son  of  God  entering
heart  of  the  covenant  line  which        babe  in  Bethlehem,  that  does  not        into  our  night,  we  are  watching
was  in  David.    You  may  notice          become manifest.  As far as we can           and  wondering  whether  He  will
that,  according  to  prophecy,  the         see, He is just like any other babe.         come  out  of  that  night.    No  man
heart  of  the  covenant  line  runs         But when He rises from the dead,             ever  did.    No  man  ever  entered
through David's house.  The cov-             we have a powerful demonstration             into our night and came out of it.
enant  line  is  like  a  pyramid  that      that He is the Son of God.                   When the Son of God comes into
has  for  its  base  the  seed  of  the          Now then, we have this:  The             our  night,  the  question  is,  what
woman.    For  its  apex  it  has  the       gospel is glad news, coming from             will  become  of  Him?    In  breath-
house of David.  The last that we            heaven, concerning the Son of God            less expectation the church stands
have  in  Scripture  concerning  the         who, as we see Him, is Jesus Christ          and  asks  the  question,  what  will
coming  of  the  Son  of  God  in  the       our  Lord.    That  which  God  de-          become of Him?
flesh  is  that  He  will  take  on  the     clares  concerning  His  Son  is  that               He  was  raised!    The  Son  of
flesh  and  blood,  not  merely  of          according to the flesh He is of the          God came, and He walked among
man,  but  of  David.    Jesus  could        seed  of  David,  but  according  to         us, and he bore our sins, and with
not be a Roman; He could not be              His  divine  nature  He  is  declared        our  sins  He  sank  into  death,  but

4/Standard Bearer/October 1, 1996


He was declared to be the Son of                ideal man is born.  Modern theol-              ceived  the  promise.    God  finally
God in the resurrection.  Upon the              ogy  is  the  setting  aside  of  God's        declared it through His Son, when
incarnation  as  the  beginning  and            interpretation.  After setting aside           He  sent  Him  into  the  world.
the  resurrection  as  the  end  de-            God's  interpretation,  it  interprets         Through Him God spoke directly
pends the gospel, the gospel of our             that  Babe  itself.    Then  you  have         to His people.  He says, "I am the
justification.    If  that  child  of           nothing left.  For there is nothing            way, the truth, and the life; I am
Bethlehem is not God, He did not                to see.  From our side that Babe is            the resurrection of life."
bear  our  sin.    And  if  He  is  not         just like all others.  That is mod-
raised, He failed to atone.  But in             ern theology concerning the cross.             A Necessary Separation unto that
the  resurrection  He  was  power-              Set  aside  the  declaration  of  God          Gospel
fully  declared  to  be  the  Son  of           concerning the cross, and you have                 In  the  new  dispensation,  the
God.  That is the gospel.                       nothing  left  but  the  pitiful  spec-        apostle says, He still declares that
                                                tacle that a man is cruelly put to             same  gospel.    The  apostle  means
Divinely Declared                               death, whether that man be guilty              to say, "Don't take it as my word.
    That gospel God declares.  We               or innocent.                                   If you ask me, how did you get it,
read in the text that it is the gos-                  In  the  third  place,  the  gospel      Paul?    Did  you  go  to  school  to
pel  of  God.    "Paul,  a  servant  of         must be declared by God because                learn it?  Did you prepare for it?
Jesus  Christ,  called  to  be  an                    it is only on the basis of God's         Did you receive it by coming into
apostle,  separated  unto  the                          declaration  that  we  can  be-        contact with philosophers?  What
gospel  of  God."    It  is  the          On the          lieve  impossible  things.    I      then?  The answer is, `Paul, a ser-
gospel  of  God.    That  is,              basis           believe in such impossible          vant  of  Jesus  Christ,  that  is,  His
God  is  the  author  of  that           of God's          things as the forgiveness of        slave,  who  is  to  speak  what  He
gospel.    God  made  that             declaration,        sin.  That that God who is          tells me to.' "
gospel.    He  conceived  of             I believe         unchangeably  righteous                 "Called  to  be  an  apostle!"    It
the  glad  news  concerning              that the          forgives sin is impossible.         was far from the mind of Paul to
His Son to His people.  He             impossible          Yet, on the basis of God's          become an apostle.  So far was it
made  that  gospel.    God  is         is possible.       declaration,  I  believe  that       from his mind that he persecuted
the author of that gospel be-                            the  impossible  is  possible.        the church, and raved against that
cause He realized it in the full-                      All  such  things  that  are  con-      gospel.  But Christ called him.  He
ness of time.  In the fullness of time          tradicted by all that is around me,            separated him unto the gospel.  He
God rent the heavens and sent His               I  believe.    I  live  in  the  valley  of    so separated him that Paul became
Son into our darkness.  He loaded               death.  I die and I am gone.  In the           the instrument of the Spirit to re-
upon Him our sin.  He gave Him                  midst of that, I believe that I have           ceive the gospel and to declare it.
over to the death of the cross.  He             eternal life.  All about me contra-            So that we have that gospel in the
poured the vials of His wrath over              dicts it.  And I believe.  Why do I            Holy  Scriptures.    The  Scriptures
Him.  And He raised Him; He glo-                believe?  Did Moses say so?  Then              are  God's  testimony  concerning
rified Him; He set Him at His right             my  faith  is  vain.    Did  Isaiah  say       His Son to His people.
hand  in  the  highest  heavens;  He            so?  Did Paul?  That faith cannot                  The  practical  application  is
gave Him the Spirit without mea-                rest on the word of man.  If I am              that upon the basis of God's dec-
sure.                                           to be confident  of that righteous-            laration we believe, as soon as that
    But the gospel is also the gos-             ness and life in the midst of death,           gospel speaks to our heart, the im-
pel  of  God  in  the  sense  that  He          then there is only one that can tell           possible  possibility,  by  the  grace
declares it.  He is the only one who            me.    If  there  is  ever  to  be  glad       of God, that our sins are forgiven
is  able  to  declare  it.    In  the  first    news for me, then it must be God               and that we have eternal life.  The
place,  this  is  because  man  is  not         that brings it to me.                          Son of God was made flesh from
able  to  understand  and  interpret                  This is what the apostle says.           the seed of David.
that gospel concerning the Son of               That is why he says, "The gospel                   Do you believe it?
God.  Suppose that it was left up               of  God,  which  He  had  declared                 The  Son  of  God  was  raised
to man to interpret the facts.  He              afore by his prophets in the holy              from the dead.  Do you believe it?
would never come to this gospel.                scriptures," that is, in the old dis-              Do you say of the Son of God,
All the philosophy of man cannot                pensation.  He declared it through             "Our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom
interpret  that  Babe  in  Bethlehem.           His prophets.  He declared it as a             I  belong?"    Then  this  gospel  is
All  modern  theology,  for  that  is           promise.  In the old dispensation              yours, and you can rejoice, "I then,
modern  theology,  in  interpreting             God  said,  "My  Son  will  come."             having been justified by faith, have
that  Babe,  sets  aside  God's  inter-         His  people  suffered.    But  they            peace with God."    u
pretation  of  that  Babe,  and  then           clung to that word of God.  They
you have nothing left but that an               died  in  that  faith,  not  having  re-

                                                                                                         October 1, 1996/Standard Bearer/5


  Editorials



                  Changes in the Next Volume

The October 1 issue of the We encourage the various so- are and what, their subjects.
          Standard  Bearer   begins  a      cieties and classes to study the gos-          Contributions  from  our  read-
          new  volume  of  the  maga-       pel of John at this time, using the        ers are welcome, according to the
zine.                                       introductions provided in the SB.          policy that is stated on the mast-
        Much will be the same as the            Our  thanks  to  Rev.  Haak  for       head.
last volume.                                his work.                                      One  name  no  longer  appears
        At its annual meeting in June,          Rev. Kenneth Koole will coop-          on the masthead.  Because of age
the  staff  approved  the  following        erate with Rev. Arie denHartog in          with  its  infirmities,  Rev.  John  A.
changes.                                    the  column,  "In  His  Fear."    We       Heys is no longer able to write for
        Some  of  the  meditations  will    have asked Rev. Koole to concen-           the magazine.  He has graced the
be  sermons  on  Romans  preached           trate  on  the  subject  of  Christian     pages of the  SB for more than 50
by  Herman  Hoeksema  in  First             education.                                 years.    He  has  written  regularly.
Protestant  Reformed  Church,                   Rev. Steven Key will continue          He has written much.  He has writ-
Grand Rapids, Michigan, as taken            to  teach  Reformed  doctrine,  fol-       ten  well.  Nor,  in  my  experience,
down in shorthand notes and then            lowing the order of the traditional        did  he  ever  miss  an  annual  staff
transcribed by Martin Swart, long-          six loci (topics) of Reformed dog-         meeting.  The  SB has been vitally
time  member  of  First  Church.            matics:  the doctrines of God; man;        important to him.
There  is  strong  internal  evidence       Christ; salvation; church; and last            To the Rev. John A. Heys, on
that Hoeksema preached these ser-           things.  He had willingly stepped          behalf of the staff and the readers
mons in the late 1930s.  The long-          in already last year at our request        of  the  SB  all  these  years,  thank
hand  transcription  will  be  edited       to  help  out  in  the  department  of     you.
for publication by the editor of the        "Taking Heed to the Doctrine."                 As  for  us  to  whom  the  duty
SB.  There are plans that these rich,           The  rubric,  "Strength  of            now falls to carry on, may we be
powerful,  and  very  valuable  ser-        Youth,"  is  dropped,  at  least  tem-     faithful.
mons,  most  of  which  have  never         porarily.    Rev.  Wilbur  Bruinsma            The  next  issue  of  this  maga-
before been published, will even-           moves  over  to  the  rubric,  "When       zine -- October 15 -- will be a spe-
tually  be  published  by  the  Re-         Thou  Sittest  in  Thine  House,"  to      cial, Reformation issue devoted to
formed  Free  Publishing  Associa-          take on, with Mrs. MaryBeth Lub-           the  doctrinal  and  ecclesiastical
tion as a sermonic commentary on            bers  and  Rev.  Ron  VanOverloop,         struggle  in  the  Protestant  Re-
Romans.                                     the  responsibility  for  articles  on     formed  Churches  in  1953.    Our
        We open up the series in this       Reformed family life.
issue with Hoeksema's sermon on                 Assisting Rev. Ronald Hanko,
Romans 1:1-4, "Separated unto the           Rev.  Jason  Kortering,  and  Rev.
Gospel."                                    Thomas Miersma in producing ar-
        Interspersed among these ser-       ticles  on  missions  will  be  Rev.
mons will be meditations by oth-            Allen  Brummel,  member  of  the
ers.                                        Foreign Mission Committee of the
        We  welcome  Rev.  Mitchell         Protestant  Reformed  Churches.
Dick  to  the  staff  of  regular  con-     We welcome Rev. Brummel to the
tributors.    He  will  replace  Rev.       staff and look forward to his con-
Carl  Haak  in  preparing  explana-         tribution.
tions  and  outlines  of  select  pas-          The  other  rubrics and  writers
sages  of  Scripture,  especially  for      remain as before.
the benefit of the classes of Bible             A  number  of  ministers  have
study among our readers.  He will           agreed  to  write  a  few  articles  on
take up  where Rev. Haak  left off          various topics of their own choos-
in the gospel of John.                      ing.    Time  must  show  who  they                Rev. and Mrs. John A. Heys

6/Standard Bearer/October 1, 1996


readers will recall that the special        cial  issue  concerning  the  history       the Christian Reformed Church are
issue last year was "The Reforma-           and issues of the origin of the Prot-       still available.   s
tion of 1924."  Copies of that spe-         estant  Reformed  Churches  out  of                                         -- DJE


                     A Defense of (Reformed)
                                       Amillennialism
                     10. A Spiritual Fulfillment of Isaiah 65:17ff.

The literal interpretation of They were not the reality of the churches and by their own heroic
       Old  Testament  prophecy             prophecy for the spiritual Israelite        efforts,  in  alliance  with  the
       ends  in  a  carnal  Messianic       at  that  time.    He  or  she  saw         charismatics,  bring  about  their
kingdom.                                    through them and beyond them to             dream.  The whole world, includ-
    The literal interpretation of the       better  and  higher  prospects:    the      ing  every  nation,  is  governed  by
prophecy of Isaiah 65:17ff., advo-          things that eye has not seen, that          Christians and fulfills the fondest
cated  by  postmillennialist  Chris-        ear has not heard, and that never           expectations  of  Kik,  Boettner,
tian Reconstructionism, ends in an          entered  into  the  heart  of  man  to      Rushdoony,  North,  Chilton,  Gen-
earthly kingdom of Christ.                  imagine,  the  things  that  God  has       try, and the others.
    Besides,  a  consistently  literal      prepared for them that love him (I              We  Reformed  amillennialists
interpretation  leads  to  absurdity.       Cor. 2:9).                                  will not be jumping for joy.  Why
Not  even  the  most  ardent  advo-             Must  it  be  spelled  out?             should  we?    There  will  be  death
cate and practitioner of a literal in-      Houses,  fruitful  vineyards,  suc-         in that world.  Sooner or later, we
terpretation  of  Isaiah  65:17ff.  can     cessful labor, trouble-free days, no        will  still  have  to  feel  the  bitter
carry  it  off,  as was  demonstrated       crying,  long  earthly  life,  and          pang of separation from a beloved
in the previous editorial.                  Jerusalem are all things that eyes          wife,  child,  parent,  and  friend.
    But Old Testament prophecy of           have  seen,  ears  have  heard,  and        What difference does it make that
the  coming  Messianic  kingdom             have entered into the heart of man          we go through this grief after 500
may  not  be  interpreted  literally.       to  imagine.    These  are  not  the        years  rather  than  after  50  years?
To  do so  is, at  best,  to become  a      things,  therefore,  that  God  pre-        Indeed, the grief after 500 years of
dispensational  premillennialist,           pared  for  the  spiritual  Israelites      love must be worse than the grief
turning eschatology into the resto-         who loved Him.                              after 50.
ration of Old Testament Israel and              Those earthly trivia, once used             There  will  be  sin  in  the
its  earthly  glories,  and,  at  worst,    to represent the heavenly kingdom           postmillennial  kingdom.    Every
as Herman Bavinck warned us, to             and life, certainly are not the real-       day  we  will  know  our  misery  of
lapse into Judaism.                         ity of Old Testament prophecy for           guilt and shame, the worst misery
    The  New  Testament  instructs          us  New  Testament  believers  who          of  all.    Every  day  anew  we  will
us  to  interpret  Old  Testament           have already begun to experience            have  to  battle  indwelling  sin,
prophecy  spiritually.    In  the           the  life,  riches,  and  glory  of  the    which wrenches from us the groan,
earthly  figures  familiar  to  the         risen  Christ  by  the  gift  and           "O,  wretched  man  that  I  am."
prophets  and  their  hearers,  the         indwelling  of  the  Spirit  of Pente-      What difference does it make that
Holy  Spirit  of  Christ foretold  the      cost.                                       Gary  North  sits  on  the  throne  of
spiritual  glories  of  Jesus  Christ,          I  do  not  think  that  the            the world and that Kenneth Gen-
His church, and His new creation.           postmillennial  Christian  Recon-           try, Jr., is in charge of radio, tele-
Those  earthly  features  of  the           structionists  really  appreciate  the      vision,  movies,  and  the  internet
prophecy -- houses, fruitful vine-           absolute disinterest with which the         worldwide?
yards,  successful  labor,  trouble-        Reformed  amillennialist  regards               There  will  be  hordes  of  un-
free days, no crying, long earthly          the  splendid  earthly  kingdom  of         godly in this postmillennial king-
life, Jerusalem -- are not the real-         postmillennialism.                          dom, on the admission of even the
ity of the prophecy.                            Suppose for a moment that the           most  optimistic  postmillennialists
    They never were the reality of          Christian  Reconstructionists  by           themselves.    They  will  hide  it.
the prophecy.                               their  constant  badgering  of  the         Outwardly,  they  will  conform  to

                                                                                                October 1, 1996/Standard Bearer/7


the  law  of  God,  particularly  the      Reconstructionism's kingdom.  In-         hate  and  curse  Christ  morning,
civil regulations of the Old Testa-        deed,  we  would  be  groaning,  as       noon, and night, is the climax and
ment Bible, either out of selfish de-      we  do  today,  waiting  for  the  re-    conclusion of Christ's kingdom.
sire to enjoy the material prosper-        demption of our body (Rom. 8:23).             Behold ... a dismal flop!
ity  or  out  of  fear  of  Christian      We would be crying night and day              If  that  is  the  Messianic  king-
Reconstructionist vengeance.  But          for  divine  vengeance  on  Christ's      dom at its very highest and great-
in their hearts they will hate God.        and our enemies (Luke 18:1-8).  We        est,  Christ  is  destined  to  be  dis-
They  will  be  rebels  inwardly           would be praying fervently, "Lord,        played publicly as a royal failure.
against the Christ.  At the end of         put  an  end  to  this  postmillennial        The  Christian  Reconstruc-
the  millennium  they  will  rise          business as soon as possible, and         tionists never tire of railing upon
against the Lord (Rev. 20:7-9).            come quickly."                            Reformed amillennialists as defeat-
    This will grieve the Reformed              What is even more distressing         ists.    They  do  not  hesitate  to  ac-
amillennialist.    If  there  were  but    for  the  Reformed  amillennial  be-      cuse the church in history of being
one  enemy  of  Christ  in  the  king-     liever  is  that  this  postmillennial    responsible for the failure of their
dom, this would grieve him.  For           kingdom is supposed to be the cul-        millennial kingdom yet to appear.
there  would  be  in  the  Messianic       mination  and  final  form  of  the           Talk about defeat!
kingdom  a  despising  of  God's           Messianic kingdom.  According to              Is their earthly kingdom with
commandments,  at  the  very  least        the  postmillennialists  generally        its sin, death, and sinners the best
in the hearts and minds of the un-         and  the  Christian  Reconstruc-          that Christ can do as king?
godly.  And, as the Psalter puts it,       tionists in particular, with the end-         That Christ is a sorry failure.
"because  Thy  statutes  are  de-          ing of the millennium the kingdom             I  do  not  believe  it  for  a  mo-
spised, with overwhelming grief I          of  Christ  comes  to  an  end.    The    ment.  The Reformed amillennialist
weep."                                     eternity that follows will not be the     recoils  from  the  very  notion  as
    There will be no vision of God         Messianic  kingdom,  but  only  the       blasphemy.
in the face of Jesus Christ in this        bare kingdom of God.                          The  postmillennial  dream  is
kingdom  of  postmillennialism.                As  regards  the  kingdom  of         not the Messianic kingdom, much
Still only in a glass darkly.              Jesus Christ, that's it!                  less the apex and end of it.
    For these reasons alone, we Re-            That earthly reign by means of            Nor  is  this  the  prophecy  of
formed  amillennialists  would  not        the church, filled with sin, death,       Isaiah 65:17ff.
be  enthusiastic  over  Christian          and unregenerate reprobates who               As we shall see.   u
                                                                                                                      -- DJE

  Cloud of Witnesses                                                                          Prof. Herman Hanko


                                     Martin Luther:
                              German Reformer

                                           men.    He  had  preserved  His           church  became  more  difficult  to
Introduction                               church  through  the  Waldensians         find.
                                           hiding in the valleys and caves of
G                                                                                        God has His own way and His
          od  had  preserved  His          the Alps to escape the brutality of       own  time  of  doing  that  which
          church  throughout  the          the Inquisition.  He had preserved        needs to be done to preserve His
          dark  and  dreary  Middle        His church through faithful follow-       church.  Applicable to the church
Ages  when  apostate  Rome  con-           ers of the two Johns: John Wycliffe       as  well  as  to  creation  is  the  old
trolled the life and consciences of        and John Hus.                             adage:  "It  is  always  darkest  just
                                               But the institute of the church       before  dawn."    Darkness  grew
                                           was corrupt and the saints of God         deeper  in  Europe  under  Rome's
                                           had no place to go with their chil-       heavy hand; the dawn was about
                                           dren to be nourished by the Bread
Prof.  Hanko  is  professor  of  Church                                              to break.  It broke with the com-
                                           of  Life.    And  gradually,  under
History  and  New  Testament  in  the                                                ing  of  an  insignificant  monk  out
                                           Rome's  terrible  pressures,  the
Protestant Reformed Seminary.                                                        of Saxony in Germany  when hope

8/Standard Bearer/October 1, 1996


for reformation was gone.  It broke         lastic thought, logic, metaphysics,         ering a busy  man with silly little
from an unexpected source and in            rhetoric, and physics -- the tradi-          things.
a surprising place.  It is the story        tional studies of his time.  Because            God sent him some help in the
of one of the greatest works of God         the Renaissance had entered Ger-            monastery,  perhaps  sufficient  to
in the church since the time of the         man universities too, he also stud-         keep  Luther  sane,  although  not
apostles.    It  is  doubtful  whether      ied  the  Latin  classics  and  devel-      sufficient  as  yet  to  bring  Luther
such a story shall again unfold un-         oped in poetry and music.  Prob-            peace.  The help came from Johann
til  Christ  returns  at  the  end  of      ably  at  20  years  of  age  he  saw  a    von Staupitz, the Vicar-general of
time.                                       complete  Bible  for  the  first  time,     the  monastery,  one  who  because
                                            at which time began also a struggle         of his mystical leanings knew more
The Reformation in Luther's Soul            in Luther's soul which, created by          about  salvation  than  the  whole
    From  our  earthly  and  human          God,  was  the  burden  of  his  own        Romish church, but who never left
perspective  it  seems  as  if  God  is     personal  salvation.    In  1502  he        Rome  for  all  that.    von  Staupitz
never in a hurry.  He seems to take         graduated  from  the  university            directed  Luther  to  Scripture,
His  time  about  things  which  ap-        with  an  A.B.  degree  and  three          turned  Luther's  thoughts  to  the
pear to us to be so crucial that any        years  later  obtained  an  A.M.,           forgiveness  of  sins  in  the  cross,
delay is disastrous.  So it was with        roughly equivalent to a  Ph.D. to-          and planted the seeds of the priest-
Luther.                                     day.  Law was his main concern,             hood in Luther's soul.  In 1511, in
    In  the  latter  part  of  the  15th    because  it  was  his  father's  wish       one  of  Luther's  periods  of  black
century,  the  situation  in  Europe        that he devote himself to what was          despair, von Staupitz, while sitting
seemed to be so bad that,  if God           one of the most promising careers           with  Luther  under  a  pear  tree  in
did not do something very shortly,          in Roman Catholic Europe.                   the garden of the monastery, told
it would be too late and the church                But God had other plans.  Two        Luther  to  prepare  himself  for
would  be  forever  gone  from  the         events brought Luther into a mon-           preaching  by  becoming  a  Doctor
earth.    Reformation  had  to  take        astery: one was the sudden death            of  Theology.    Luther's  response
place or reformation would never            of a friend either killed in a duel         was:  "Your  honor,  Mr.  Staupitz,
take place.                                 or  struck  by  lightning;  the  other      you  will  deprive  me  of  my  life."
    But, although when the refor-           was  a  terrible  thunderstorm  in          Only half in jest, Staupitz replied:
mation  did  come  it  came  as  the        which  he  thought  he  would  die          "Quite  all  right.    God  has  plenty
mighty surge of a tidal wave which          and pleaded with St. Anne to spare          of  work  for  clever  men  to  do  in
engulfed Europe, it after all came          him,  promising,  if  spared,  to  be-      heaven."
very slowly and scarcely noticed.           come a monk.  He was spared, and                The time spent in the monas-
It came as a still small voice in the       a monk he became -- on July 16,              tery  was  necessary  for  Luther  to
soul of Martin Luther.                      1505.                                       realize  that  the  theology  of  the
    Martin  Luther  was  born  No-                 He  wanted  to  be  a  monk  be-     Romish church was wrong because
vember  10,  1483  in  Eisleben,            cause  he  thought  of  the  convent        it taught salvation by works.  And
Prussia,  in  Saxony  of  Germany.          as the way to bring some peace to           the  works  which  God  required
His parents were rather poor, but           his fear-filled soul -- peace which          could never be performed by man.
honest  and  industrious,  pious            came from the assurance of God's            Luther himself was plagued with
members  of  the  Romish  church.           love.  God put him in a monastery           the thought that one either did not
And  Luther  was  brought  up  un-          so  that  he  could  learn  the  utter      do  enough  good  works,  or  the
der the strict discipline and super-        uselessness  of  every  prescription        works which he did were not suf-
stition of the church.  He received         Rome offered to attain this peace.          ficiently good to earn his salvation.
his  early  education  in  Mansfeld,        But Rome's prescriptions were no            And because no works could earn
Magdeburg,  and  Eisenach.    Be-           prescriptions  at  all,  because  they      salvation, the peace and joy of sal-
cause  his  parents  were  unable  to       were  based  on  what  man  had  to         vation  could  not  be  found  in
support him, he sang to earn a bit          do.                                         Romish  prescriptions.    Luther
of  money  and  was  helped  by                    And, indeed, in the monastery        needed to learn this lesson in the
Ursula  Cotta,  wife  of  one  of  the      he tried it all.  As he himself put         school of the Holy Spirit, because
wealthy  merchants  in  Eisenach.           it,  he  out-monked  all  the  monks.       no reformation would ever be pos-
His  upbringing  was  the  rough            He  mistreated  himself  so  badly          sible without learning it.
training  of  the  peasantry  and  he       with various works of penance that
bore the indelible marks of his up-         he  harmed  his  health.    He  con-        Luther's Conversion
bringing all his life.  It made him         fessed sins to his superior so often            Luther entered the priesthood
a man of the people.                        and in such detail that he was told         and said his first mass on May 2,
    At 18, in 1501, he entered the          finally either to commit some sin           1507.  But he continued his stud-
university of Erfurt to study scho-         worth confessing or to quit both-           ies  towards  a  doctorate  in  theol-

                                                                                                   October 1, 1996/Standard Bearer/9


ogy  which,  when  completed,                theological "breakthrough" did not           come  to  the  point  where  people
opened the door for him to become            dawn  immediately  on  Luther.               call the children of Christ by my
professor  in  the  University  of           Once having seen this great light,           evil name?
Wittenburg.  In the winter of 1512           he  now  had  to  re-read  and  re-
the  Reverend  Doctor  Martin                study the Psalms and Paul, for, un-            Or a bit later, in a sermon:
Luther began his teaching with lec-          derstanding that salvation through
turing on the Psalms, on Romans,             imputed  righteousness  lay  at  the         I simply taught, preached, wrote
on  Galatians,  on  Hebrews,  and            heart of Scripture, he had to look           God's Word; otherwise I did noth-
                                                                                          ing.  And then, while I slept, or
again on the Psalms.  He saw these           again at it all from the viewpoint           drank  Wittenburg  beer  with  my
studies  as  crucial  and  later  said:      of this "heart."                             Philip and my Amsdorf, the Word
"In the course of this teaching, the                                                      so  greatly  weakened  the  papacy
papacy slipped away from me."                The Reformation                              that never a prince or emperor did
    The  breakthrough  in  under-                The reformation had been, by             such damage to it.  I did nothing.
standing  came  with  new  insights          God's grace, completed in Luther's           The Word did it all.
into the phrase, "The righteousness          soul.  It was now time for the work
of God," as it appears in Romans             to  begin  in  the  church  at  large.         This conviction of Luther that
1:17: "For therein is the righteous-         God had readied the man He was             what  happened  was  God's  work
ness of God revealed from faith to           to use, and even if Luther did not         was  apparent  at  the  time  of  the
faith: as it is written, The just shall      know  it,  the  people  of  God  were      theses.  Luther, rather innocently,
live by faith."  Luther had always           now to be led out of the Egypt of          wanted a general discussion.  God
thought of God's righteousness as            Rome's church into the Canaan of           took  the  theses  and  through  the
God's essential perfection and His           the  gospel.    And  Luther  was  ap-      marvel  of  the  printing  press
consequent  hatred  of  sin.    He           pointed the Moses.                         caused  them  to  be  distributed
looked  at  God's  righteousness  as             The  work  began  when  the            through the whole of Europe, and
God's  burning  wrath  against  any          monk Tetzel decided to hawk his            they  shook Europe to its founda-
one who did not keep God's ways              indulgences  in  Saxony  of  Ger-          tions.    The  theses  were  the  germ
perfectly.                                   many, where the news of it came            of the gospel of salvation in Christ
    But  in  what  later has  become         to Luther's attention.  Luther, con-       alone,  a  truth  for  which  Europe
known as Luther's "tower experi-             vinced in his own soul of the evil         hungered.   u
ence" he suddenly came to under-             of  indulgences,  decided  to  open                           ... to be continued.
stand  that  the  phrase,  "the  righ-       the  subject  to  debate  among  the
teousness  of  God,"  did  not  refer        monks  of  the  Augustinian  Order
to  God's  hatred  of  sin  rooted  in       of which he was a part.  To invite
His own perfection, but meant that           others  to  the  debate,  he  attached       Apples of Gold
God imputed righteousness to the             95 theses to the chapel door of the
sinner without works and only be-            church of Wittenburg, as notice, to
cause  of  the  merits  of  Christ.    It    anyone  wishing  to  participate,                      Reckoning
was  a  righteousness  freely  given         what  the  subject  of  the  debate                   (Romans 8:18)
to undeserving sinners by faith.  It         would be.
seemed  to  him,  Luther  later  said            It  became  evident  from  this                        Counted --
in  describing  this  event,  that  the      time on that the reformation was                  All counted -- hairs,
gates  of  heaven  themselves  were          indeed  the  work  of  God,  not  the          Sparrows' falls, and tears,
opened before him.  Suddenly his             work of Luther.  It had been God's               Stars, stumbling sheep;
awful  sense  of  guilt  and  unwor-         work in Luther's soul, but it con-              He knows their number,
thiness fell away; his desperate at-         tinued  to be God's  work as  well.                 Does not slumber,
tempts to achieve peace with God             Luther  himself,  in  describing  the                Does not sleep.
through his labors seemed stupid             progress  of  the  Reformation,  was
and useless; all his monkish ritu-           later to say:                                               And we,
als were exercises in futility.  He                                                           Who, nightly counting,
was without any sin, not because               The first thing I ask is that people       Tally losses slowly mounting,
he did not sin, but because Christ's           should not make use of my name,             Numbering trials, griefs, and
righteousness  was  freely  given.             and  should  not  call  themselves                         pains,
He  was,  as  he  described  it,  righ-        Lutherans  but  Christians.    What                 Fail to reckon,
teous  and  a  sinner  at  the  same           is  Luther?    The  teaching  is  not      Fail to see our Keeper beckon
                                               mine.    Nor  was  I  crucified  for
time.  This brought peace, even in             anyone....  How did I, poor stink-        As He sums the heavenly gains.
the struggle with sin.                         ing  bag  of  maggots  that  I  am,
    The  full  implications  of  this                                                         -- Suzanne Terpstra Looyenga

10/Standard Bearer/October 1, 1996


A Word Fitly Spoken                                                                                   Rev. Dale Kuiper

                                                  Liberty

 To appreciate the concept liberty or freedom as bondwoman (Hagar), but of the free (Sarah) (Gal.
       an aspect of salvation, we must understand its             4:22-31).  But if someone thinks he must  do some-
       counterpart of slavery or imprisonment as an               thing to be saved in addition to the work of Christ
 aspect  of the  curse.    These  ideas  are  contrasted  in      (such as circumcision or any other work of the law),
 Isaiah  61:1,  where  the  prophet  states  that  he  was        he  is  a  debtor  to  do  the  whole  law.    Then  Christ
 anointed  by  the  Spirit  "to  proclaim  liberty  to  the       profits him nothing, he is fallen from grace (that is,
 captives, and the opening of the prison to them that             he may not claim salvation is by grace alone, other-
 are bound."  The chief prophet, Jesus, applied these             wise grace is no more grace), and he entangles him-
 words to Himself at the synagogue of Nazareth (Luke              self again in the yoke of bondage (Gal. 5:1-4).
 4:18).  True liberation theology is the setting forth of             After Paul has established that justification is by
 God's  only  begotten  Son,  joined  to  human  nature,          faith alone without the works of the law (Gal. 3:11),
 as the only way by which man must be saved.                      he goes on to warn the freely justified sinner not to
     It belongs to the curse of God upon the sinner               use liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but to serve
 that he is a slave to sin (Rom. 6:6), a captive to the           one another in love (Gal. 5:13).  And Peter instructs
 evil motions of his flesh (Rom. 6:12), a prisoner in             those  who  have  been  made  free  "not  to  use  their
 solitary confinement with the death sentence upon                liberty for a cloak of maliciousness, but as the ser-
 him.   Man's condition of captivity  or liberty is  al-          vants of God" (I Pet.  2:16).   Being  made free from
 ways  the  outgrowth  of  his  state  or  relationship  to       sin  by  being  baptized  into  the  death  of Christ,  we
 the law of God.  Does the holy Judge of heaven and               have  become  the  servants  of  God,  and  have  fruit
 earth declare a man to be innocent according to the              unto  holiness,  with  the  end  everlasting  life  (Rom.
 law?  Then he is a free man.  Or, does the righteous             6:22).
 Judge declare a person to be guilty and yet under                    Although the curse of the law has been removed
 the  law's  curse?   Then  he  is  a  captive,  bound  fast      from us in that Christ bore that curse away as our
 under the dominion of the law.                                   Substitute, strikingly the law continues to occupy an
     The Hebrew word for liberty is very expressive:              important place in the Christian's life.  Heaven and
 it means roomy, spacious, or broad.  We may think                earth shall pass away, but the law shall never pass
 of a child joyfully romping across a broad meadow                away!  Freedom and law are not mutually exclusive.
 of grass and flowers, enjoying the fresh air and sun-            Freedom  is  not  to  do  what  one  pleases,  but  to  do
 shine.  The contrast is the cramped experience of a              what pleases God!  A life of freedom is not a life of
 smelly  cell  where  one's  activity  and  view  are  se-        disregard for the commandments of God, but it is a
 verely  restricted.    The  Greek  word  for  liberty  ex-       life lived with the law inscribed on our hearts by the
 presses  the  idea  of  being  without  restraint,  not  a       Holy  Spirit,  a  life  of  constant  meditation  upon the
 slave, exempt from liability, completely free.  Again,           law, a striving to bring every aspect of our lives into
 the contrast is that of being hemmed in, a slave to a            harmony with God's precepts.  For the law does not
 cruel master, liable to punishment, without hope in              forbid us any good thing!  Life under the law of God
 the world.                                                       is  roomy,  spacious,  and  broad!    The  psalmist  ex-
     That Christ proclaims liberty to the captives, that          plains,  "And  I  will  walk  at  liberty;  for  I  seek  thy
 there is a church that enjoys that liberty and gladly            precepts" (Ps. 119:45).  And James, as he insists that
 preaches  the  liberating  gospel  to  the  ends  of  the        faith is a living, working faith, calls the law of God
 earth, is solidly based on the work of Christ on the             the perfect law of liberty (James 1:25), and the royal
 cross.  He was made of a woman, made under the                   law of liberty (James 2:8-12).  To walk with God, to
 law, to redeem (purchase free) those that were un-               walk as God walks, to walk thankfully as God de-
 der the law (Gal. 4:4).  Christ has redeemed the elect           crees, that is glorious liberty (Rom. 8:21).
 church from the curse of the law, being made a curse                 All the truth as it is in Christ, embraced with a
 for us (Gal. 3:13).  Believers, as children of the prom-         believing heart, makes us free (John 8:32).  If the Son
 ise  and  born  of  the  Spirit,  are  not  children  of  the    makes you free, then are you free indeed (John 8:36)!
                                                                                                                             u

 Rev. Kuiper is pastor of Southeast Protestant Reformed Church in Grand
 Rapids, Michigan.


                                                                                                 October 1, 1996/Standard Bearer/11


  Taking Heed to the Doctrine                                                                              Rev. Steven Key


                             Our Death in Adam

                                              God  had  given  everything,  the          are  regenerated  by  the  Spirit  of
                                              whole  world  was  cast  into  spiri-      God, it is no wonder that men ob-
Sin entered this world exactly
         as it is recorded for us in the
         book  of  Genesis,  chapter  3.1     tual  poverty.    By  the  first  man,     ject strenuously.
We  believe  the  historical  account         Adam, the whole human race was                     This rejection of what the Bible
of God's Scriptures.  According to            cast into bondage to sin and cor-          says  about  the  extent  of  our  cor-
God's own account, as revealed by             ruption.    Dead  in  sin!    That  de-    ruption is nothing new.  It really
His  Spirit  to  Moses  and  thus  re-        scribes man as the consequence of          goes  as  far  back  as  Adam,  who
corded  in  Genesis  3,  a  sorrowful         Adam's fall.                               pointed  his  finger  at  the  woman,
transgression  took  place  in  that                                                     the implication being that he was
beautiful  garden  which  was  the            An Unpopular Doctrine                      not as bad as she.
first paradise.  In the midst of that             The  truth  of  which  we  speak               But  there  are  questions  that
God-glorifying  creation,  in  that           is a very unpopular doctrine.  That        arise  in  our  minds  which  Adam
tabernacle which God had created              man sins is undeniable.  Sin is ev-        did not have to face. After all, he
as  the  place  where  He  delighted          erywhere.  It surrounds us; it fol-        was  directly  involved  in  commit-
to  meet  in  covenant  fellowship            lows us; it is within us.  It speaks       ting  the  first  sin.    But  how  is  it
with the man whom He had cre-                 to us from every page of our daily         possible that I am corrupt for that
ated after His own image, in that             newspapers.    It  is  openly  por-        which  Adam  did  thousands  of
paradise         where      everything        trayed on the television screen and        years ago?  I don't know the man;
breathed  of  the  perfection  and            is found in the streets of even our        I was not there when he sinned; I
greatness of the living God, there            smallest communities.                      likely  don't  even  have  the  same
man  sinned  and  brought  corrup-                Furthermore,  that  sinful  man        skin  color.    How  can  I  bear  any
tion upon himself and his poster-             is under the power of death is also        blame or guilt for something Adam
ity.                                          undeniable.  There is no man that          did?
        There in the first paradise the       will say with confidence, "I am not                Those  are  questions  that  de-
perfect  man  robbed  God  of  His            going to die."  Sin and death are a        mand  an  answer.    Regardless  of
due  honor.    He  cast  God  out  of         universal  phenomenon  in  this            the answer, the fact is clearly set
his  heart.    He  severed  the  bonds        world--although some, not know-             forth in Romans 5:  By the one sin
of friendship, only to reestablish a          ing or not believing the Bible, may        of  Adam,  the  whole  human  race
bond of friendship with the devil             want to avoid connecting the two.          was  brought  under  the  dominion
himself.    He  who  had  been  cre-              But  the  extent  of  sin's  power     of guilt and corruption.  But how?
ated  to  manifest  his  love  and  af-       over man is a very unpopular truth         That is the question.
fection  to  his  Creator  committed          today.    In  this  day  when  self-es-
spiritual suicide.  He kindled the            teem  is  the  rage,  and  when  any       The Influence of Pelagius
fires  of  hell,  as  it  were,  with  his    talk about sin is viewed as a thing                There was a man who came up
own  hands!    And,  in  doing  so,           detrimental  to  man's  psyche,  to        with  an  answer  to  this  question.
Adam  brought  the  whole  human              speak  about  being  corrupt  and          His name was Pelagius.  He was a
race into the bondage of guilt and            filled  with  hatred  and  evil  is not    church man, a monk, who lived in
sin and death.                                popular,  even  among  those  who          the late fourth and early fifth cen-
        By man corruption entered the         are  called  to  preach  the  Word.        turies.    His  answer  was  basically
world -- by man who was created                Many who stand in pulpits today
in the image of God.  By man who              would rather speak  sweet things,
was in need of nothing, to whom               without regard to whether or not           1
                                              they  be  true.    When  the  Heidel-                     Because Prof. H.C. Hoeksema's
                                              berg Catechism insists that we are         account of the fall is being reprinted
                                              so corrupt that we are wholly in-          in the  Standard Bearer I will not en-
Rev. Key is pastor  of the  Protestant                                                   ter into a discussion of the historical
                                              capable of doing any good and in-
Reformed Church of Randolph, Wis-                                                        development of the fall, but refer the
                                              clined to all wickedness except we
consin.                                                                                  readers to those articles.

12/Standard Bearer/October 1, 1996


this:  All sin must be an individual           And through the course of history               You will notice that the whole
act, and all guilt is only the conse-          God preserved the true faith in the         section  of  Romans  5,  verse  12  to
quence of that individual act.                 line of those followers of August-          the  end  of  the  chapter,  speaks  in
       That  answer  of  Pelagius              ine,  who  himself  followed  the           legal  terms--offense,  judgment,
sounds pretty good, doesn't it?  I             teachings of Scripture.                     condemnation, righteousness, jus-
like  that.    It  seems  only  fair.    If        The trouble was that not many           tification--all legal terms.  In the
Adam  did  something,  that's  not             wanted  to  stand  with  Augustine          eighteenth verse it is not the ques-
my problem.  If you sin, that's not            on  the  foundation  of  Bible  truth.      tion of personal corruption and ac-
my problem.  Only if I commit the              The teachings of Pelagius, because          tual, personal sin that the apostle
sin do I bear any consequences of              they were so appealing to the na-           speaks  about.    He  is  speaking
it.                                            ture and pride of man, were well            about our guilt .
       Pelagius  taught  more.    He           received by the church at large.                To be guilty is to be deserving
taught  that  the  sin  of  Adam  af-              Before  too  many  years,  with         of punishment, a punishment that
fected  only  himself,  and  did  not          only  slight  change,  the  views  of       fits  the  crime  of  which  we  are
corrupt his children at all.  All in-          Pelagius had become the views of            guilty.  The apostle speaks of judg-
fants, therefore, are born in exactly          the  church.    And  those  views,          ment that comes upon  all men be-
the  same  state  and  condition  as           which in their altered state became         cause of one man's offense.
that of Adam before the fall.  The             known  as  semi-Pelagianism,  per-              Condemnation has come upon
problem is:  Adam gave us a bad                meate  not  only  the  entire  Roman        all men.    And  this  condemnation
example,  and  we  by  nature  are             Catholic doctrine of salvation, but,        is  just!    But  what  is  its  justice?
imitators.    We  too  must  make              sad to say, much of Protestant doc-         This condemnation comes upon all
choices, as Adam had to, between               trine  as  well  in  our  day,  even  in    and has its basis of justice, not in
good and evil.  And because of the             those churches that once were Re-           the many offenses of all men, but
evil  environment  into  which  we             formed.  The truth of total deprav-         in the one offense of the first man,
are born, most of us  become sinful            ity is corrupted and rejected.              Adam.  Adam's guilt is imputed,
and corrupt.                                                                               is charged, to all mankind, to each
       I  like  that  too,  don't  you?        Adam's Legal Headship                       and every one of his posterity.
When we do wrong, you  see, we                     When  we  turn  to  Romans  5,              The only way that that can be
can  blame  our  environment.    We            verses  12  and  following,  we  find       is on the basis of a legal oneness
can blame the bad example of our               the  very  clear  teaching  that  we        between Adam and all men.  There
parents.    We  can  blame  sinful             stand in such a close relationship          is  a  legal  solidarity  of  the  entire
church  members.    We  can  blame             to  Adam  that  his  fall  had  a  pro-     human race in Adam as its repre-
that  teacher,  that  employer,  that          found effect upon us all.  "Where-          sentative head.
politician.                                    fore,  as  by  one  man  sin  entered           The  truth  of  Scripture  con-
       Along  these  same  lines               into the world, and death by sin;           demns  all  individualism  when  it
Pelagius  taught  that  the  solution          and so death passed upon all men,           comes  to  man.    That  is  why  the
is  to  be  found  along  the  lines  of       for that all have sinned....  There-        unity of the church is such an im-
gradual  development.    If  we  can           fore as by the offence of one judg-         portant  factor,  to  which  we  are
improve a man's environment and                ment  came  upon  all  men  to  con-        called repeatedly in Scripture.  We
give  him  a  better  education  and           demnation,  even  so  by  the  righ-        are  one  body.    And  though  there
better surroundings,  he soon will             teousness of one the free gift came         are  many  individual  members,
choose what is right and will serve            upon all men unto justification of          many persons, yet are we  one.  So
God.                                           life" (Rom. 5:12,18).                       it is with the entire human race.
       Pelagius did not want the truth             The same truth is expressed in              Pelagius and all his followers
of  total  depravity.    He  did  not          I  Corinthians  15:22:    "For  as  in      want  individualism.    Scripture
want to say that man is bad, rot-              Adam all die...."                           condemns  individualism  and
ten to the core.  He wanted to find                That one man, Adam, was the             teaches corporate oneness, corporate
good  in  man,  in  every  man,  an            gateway through which the awful             responsibility,  corporate   guilt.
original goodness in every man, by             flood of sin broke upon the whole           When  Adam  sinned  that  first  sin
which  man  himself  has  power  to            human race.  And in the wake of             in  paradise,  we   sinned.    We  all
prevail  over  evil.    The  problem           that flood of sin came death.  Be-          sinned  in  Adam.    We  all  became
was that his answer had no basis               cause we are Adamites, we are un-           guilty when that one man, Adam,
in  Scripture.    It  was,  therefore,  a      der sin's domain.                           our  legal  head,  fell  and  declared
wrong answer.                                      The  explanation  for  that  is         war against the Almighty God.
       God  raised  up  Augustine  to          found in this, that Adam stood as               Perhaps  the  question  arises:
defend the truth of the Scriptures             the legal head of the whole human           Why  did  God  create  the  human
over  against  the  Pelagian  error.           race.                                       race with such a legal solidarity in

                                                                                                  October 1, 1996/Standard Bearer/13


Adam? Be  careful  how  you  ask          as Creator to form His creation ac-        tablished such a legal relationship
that  question.    If  your  question     cording to His will and good plea-         between  Adam  and  the  human
contains even a hint of sinful criti-     sure.                                      race, for it was His purpose to save
cism of God's way, to you comes               But should you ask the  ques-          to  Himself  a  people  in  Christ.
the Word of God in Romans 9:20:           tion  by  faith,  with  the  desire  to    From  that  fallen  race  in  Adam,
"Nay  but,  O  man,  who  art  thou       know your Creator better -- Why             God would redeem a people who
that  repliest  against  God?    Shall    did  God  create  the  human  race         stand  in  a  similar  relationship  to
the thing formed  say to him that         with  such  a  legal  solidarity  in       their Redeemer who is Christ, the
formed it, Why hast thou made me          Adam  --  the  answer  from  Scrip-         last  Adam  and  the  Lord  from
thus?"  God has the perfect right         ture is plain:  In wisdom God es-          heaven.   u

  Church and State                                                                                Mr. James Lanting


                           U.S. Supreme Court Rejects Colorado's

                           Constitutional Amendment Repudiating

                          Preferential Treatment of Homosexuals


                  We cannot accept the view that Amendment 2's prohibition on specific legal protec-
             tion  does  no  more  than  deprive  homosexuals  of  special  rights.    To  the  contrary,  the
             amendment imposes a special disability upon those persons alone.  Homosexuals are
             forbidden the safeguards that others enjoy or may seek without constraint.
                                                               Romer v. Evans, U.S. Supreme Court (1996)
                                                                                         (Majority opinion).

                  The  Court's  majority  opinion  contains  grim,  disapproving  hints  that  Coloradans
             have been guilty of "animus" or "animosity" toward homosexuality, as though that has
             been  established  as  Unamerican.    But  I  had  thought  that  one  could  consider  certain
             conduct reprehensible -- murder, for example, or polygamy, or cruelty to animals --
             and could exhibit even "animus" toward such conduct.  Surely that is the only sort of
             "animus" at issue  here:   moral disapproval of homosexual conduct, the  same sort of
             moral disapproval that produced the centuries-old sodomy criminal laws that we held
             constitutional in Bowers.
                                                               Romer v. Evans (1996) (dissenting opinion).


The Cultural War                          by "life partner" survivors of ho-         tain cities, they have managed  to
                                          mosexual employees?  Must insur-           sponsor  and  enact  expansive  leg-
                                          ance companies ignore the distinc-         islation  that  affords  them  special
                                          tive health insurance risks associ-        status.  These ordinances typically
May landlords refuse to
           rent to homosexual part-
           ners  when  doing  so          ated with insureds who are homo-           prohibit  "discrimination"  against
would  violate  their  conscience?        sexuals?  May a public school dis-         them  in  housing,  employment,
May  municipalities  deny  pension        trict refuse to hire a  teacher who        education, and health and welfare
death-benefit payments requested          is an avowed lesbian?  These and           services.
                                          many  other  homosexual  issues                The Colorado cities of Aspen,
                                          have fueled an unprecedented and           Boulder, and Denver recently en-
                                          bitter cultural debate in this coun-       acted  such  ordinances  which
Mr. Lanting, a member of South Hol-       try  during  the  last  decade.    But     banned  such  "discrimination"
land Protestant Reformed Church, is       because homosexuals have recently          against  persons  "because  of  their
a practicing attorney.                    become politically powerful in cer-        sexual orientation."  These munici-

14/Standard Bearer/October 1, 1996


pal laws affording special protec-         constitutionality  of  the  Georgia               posed is born of animosity toward
tion of certain persons because of         sodomy  criminal  statute.    Judge               the  class  of  persons  affected.***
their  immoral  sexual  conduct  en-       Scalia,  a  Roman  Catholic,  filed  a            We  must  conclude  that  Amend-
raged many Coloradans who then             vigorous  dissent  castigating  the               ment 2 classifies homosexuals not
sponsored a statewide referendum           majority  for  a  decision  devoid  of            to further a proper legislative end,
                                                                                             but to make them unequal to ev-
to amend the Colorado state con-           "support in law or logic."                        eryone  else.  This  Colorado  can-
stitution  to  prohibit  homosexuals                                                         not do.
from being singled out for special         Amendment 2
treatment.  After a contentious and            The       state      constitutional
caustic  campaign,  the  so-called         amendment  challenged  by  homo-                Scalia's Dissent
Amendment 2 was adopted in 1992            sexuals was an attempt by the vot-                  Justice Scalia, joined by Justice
by a majority of voters in a state-        ers of Colorado to repeal the con-              Clarence Thomas and Chief Justice
wide  referendum.    Homosexual            troversial  ordinances  passed  by              Rehnquist, filed a strongly worded
"task  forces"  immediately  filed         several  municipalities  protecting             dissent arguing that the Court had
suit to have the courts declare that       persons  discriminated  against  by             absolutely no legal justification for
Amendment  2  violated  the  U.S.          reason  of  their  supposed  "sexual            preempting the will of a majority
Constitution which guarantees all          orientation."    The  Amendment  2              of  Coloradans.    The  amendment
citizens "equal protection of laws."       read as follows:                                denying  special  status  to  homo-
                                                                                           sexuals, wrote Scalia, is "not only
The  Romer v. Evans Decision                   Neither  the  State  of  Colorado           unimpeachable  under  any  consti-
    In a bitterly divided 6-3 deci-          nor  any  of  its  agencies,  political       tutional  doctrine  hitherto  pro-
sion  released  early  this  summer,         subdivisions,  municipalities  or             nounced,  it  has  been  specifically
the Supreme Court ruled in favor             school districts shall adopt or en-           approved by Congress and by this
of the homosexual plaintiffs, hold-          force any law or policy whereby
                                             homosexual,  lesbian  or  bisexual            Court."
ing that Amendment 2 evidenced               orientation, conduct, practices or
an  impermissible  "animus"  or              relationships  shall  constitute  or              In  holding  that  homosexuality
"animosity"  toward  homosexuals             entitle  any  person  to  have  or              cannot  be  singled  out  for
which deprived them "equal pro-              claim  any minority status, quota               disfavorable treatment, this court
tection of the law."   Homosexual            preferences,  protected  status  or             contradicts  a  decision,  unchal-
groups across the country were ju-           claim of discrimination.                        lenged here, pronounced only 10
bilant, ecstatically declaring Romer                                                         years  ago  in  Bowers  v.  Hardwick,
v. Evans a victory exceeding their             Colorado  and  proponents  of                 and places the prestige of this in-
                                                                                             stitution  behind  the  proposition
most optimistic expectations.  The         the  amendment  argued  to  the                   that opposition to homosexuality
national  press,  particularly  the        Court  that  Amendment  2  merely                 is as reprehensible as racial or re-
weekly  news  magazines,  ran  sto-        "puts  gays  and  lesbians  in  the               ligious  bias.    Whether  it  is  or  is
ries  of  elated  leaders  of  homo-       same position as all other persons"               not  is  precisely  the  cultural  de-
sexual organizations pictured with         and "does no more than deny ho-                   bate  that  gave  rise  to  the  Colo-
raised  and  clenched  fists  of  tri-     mosexuals  special  rights."    The               rado  constitutional  amendment
umph.                                      State  of  Colorado  also  justified              (and  to  the  preferential  laws
    Evangelical  leaders,  "family         Amendment 2 as providing respect                  against  which  the  amendment
value" proponents, and most con-           for other citizens's freedom of as-               was directed).  This Court has no
                                                                                             business  imposing  upon  all
servative  constitutional  scholars        sociation,  in  particular  the  liber-           Americans  its  own  resolution  of
were  stunned  by  the  Romer  v.          ties of landlords or employers who                that  debate,  pronouncing  that
Evans  decision thwarting the citi-        have  personal  or  religious  objec-             "animosity" toward homosexual-
zenry of Colorado's intent to pre-         tions to homosexuality.                           ity is evil.  I vigorously dissent.
serve  traditional  sexual  mores.             The  majority  opinion  rejected
The Romer v. Evans decision is rap-        these  arguments,  finding  instead                 Addressing the majority's first
idly earning notoriety for its glar-       that:                                           argument  that  the  challenged
ing lack of legal rationale, substi-                                                       amendment  denied  homosexuals
tuted only by the Court's transpar-            Amendment  2's  sheer  breadth              equal protection of the laws, Scalia
ent  endeavor  to  legislate  rather         is so discontinuous with the rea-             argues  the  amendment  prohibits
than  interpret  our  nation's  laws.        sons offered for it that the amend-           only  special  treatment  of  homo-
                                             ment seems  inexplicable by  any-
Also  noticeably  absent  from  the          thing but animus toward the class             sexuals  and  nothing  more.    The
majority's  opinion  was  even  a            that  it  affects;  it  lacks  a  rational    only denial of equal treatment the
passing  reference  to  its  Bowers  v.      relationship to legitimate state in-          homosexuals  have  arguably  suf-
Hardwick decision of only ten years          terests; it raised the inevitable in-         fered is this:  They may not obtain
ago in which the Court upheld the            ference that the disadvantage im-             preferential  treatment  without

                                                                                                  October 1, 1996/Standard Bearer/15


amending the state constitution.  If            And  a  fortiori  it  is  constitution-       son  have  fewer  constitutional
this is denial of equal protection,             ally  permissible  for  a  State  to          rights than homosexuals.
Scalia  writes,  then  "our  constitu-          adopt an amendment not even dis-
tional jurisprudence has achieved               favoring homosexual conduct, but            Conclusion
terminal silliness."                            merely  prohibiting  special  protec-           Certainly  the  Romer  v.  Evans
                                                tion  upon homosexual conduct.              decision is one of the most deplor-
Special Protection for Homosexu-                                                            able Supreme Court rulings in re-
                                                  Justice Scalia also criticized the
als                                                                                         cent  years.    As  Justice  Scalia  la-
                                              logic of the majority opinion by re-
       The dissent also addressed the                                                       ments, the absurd notions that ho-
                                              ferring to the analogy of the cur-
majority's failure to recognize the                                                         mosexuals deserve preferential sta-
                                              rent prohibition of polygamy.  In
legitimate  rational  basis  for  the                                                       tus and that Western society's tra-
                                              fact, the constitutions of Arizona,
amendment, i.e., the prohibition of                                                         ditional  disapprobation  of  homo-
                                              Idaho,  New  Mexico,  Oklahoma,
special treatment for homosexuals.                                                          sexuality  constitutes  illegal  dis-
                                              and Utah contain provisions even
Scalia then chides the majority for                                                         crimination,  now  have  the  impri-
                                              today  declaring  that  polygamy  is
not even mentioning the  Bowers v.                                                          matur of the U.S. Supreme Court.
                                              "forever prohibited."  Thus, argues
Hardwick decision:                                                                          Although the ordinances adopted
                                              Scalia, polygamists, and those who            by Denver, Boulder, and Aspen are
                                              have a polygamous "orientation,"
       In  Bowers  v.  Hardwick  we  held                                                   not yet universal, it is not unrea-
                                              have likewise been singled out for
  that  the  Constitution  does  not                                                        sonable  to  assume  that  countless
  prohibit what virtually all States          a  "much  more  severe  treatment"            cities  and  counties  will  now  be
  had  done  from  the  founding  of          than  the  mere  denial  of  special          compelled  by  homosexual  propo-
  the  Republic  --  making  homo-             treatment or favored status of ho-            nents  emboldened  by  Romer  v.
  sexual  conduct  a  crime.    It  if  is    mosexuals:                                    Evans, to pass similar laws requir-
  constitutionally permissible for a                                                        ing  landlords,  employers,  public
  State  to  make  homosexual  con-               The majority's disposition today
  duct criminal, surely it is consti-                                                       service establishments, and others
                                                suggests  that  these  [anti-po-
  tutionally permissible for a State            lygamy] provisions are unconsti-            to violate their moral and religious
  to enact other laws merely  disfa-            tutional, and that polygamy must            conscience  by  acquiescing  to  the
  voring homosexual conduct.  (Af-              be permitted in these States on a           increasingly offensive demands by
  ter all, there can hardly be more             state-legislated,  or  perhaps  even        the  homosexual  community,  or
  palpable discrimination against a             local-option,  basis  --  unless,  of        face  criminal  or  civil  liability  for
  class  than  making  the  conduct             course, polygamists for some rea-           violating these new laws.   u
  that  defines  the  class  criminal).

  Contending for the Faith                                                                 Rev. Bernard Woudenberg


                                  More About Logic

                                              Liberated,  and  newly-federating             fix  human  reason  within  its  pre-
                                              churches.  It seems to me that the            scribed  bounds.    Unbelievers,  we
In the February 26 issue of
       Christian  Renewal    there  ap
       peared the following letter by         heart  of  the  issue  involved  with         know, suppress the truth (Rom. l:
a Mr. Tim Gallant reflecting on our           the  Protestant  Reformed  under-             18), making their autonomous rea-
past writings.  It read as follows:           standing of the covenant and their            son the arbiter over God. But be-
                                              rejection of the free offer has not           yond  this  extreme  lies  the  possi-
Limits of Human Reason                        yet been articulated clearly.                 bility  that  we,  even  as  believers,
       I  have  followed  with  interest          It is thought that we who ac-             demand that as finite, sinful crea-
the discussion between J. Tuininga,           cept the free offer reject logic. The         tures we can fit an infinite, incom-
B.  Woudenberg,  and  other  broth-           problem,  however,  is  not  with             prehensible  God  into  our  logical
ers from the Protestant Reformed,             logic per se, but rather with the ex-         constructions.  This  is  another,
                                              altation  of  finite  human  reason           more  subtle  form  of  idolatry  of
                                              over the Word of God.  We do not              reason, which, I concede, most of
                                              hold  contradictory  views  in  ten-          us are guilty of in one way or an-
Rev. Woudenberg is a minister emeri-          sion,  but  we  recognize  that  the          other.
tus  in  the  Protestant  Reformed            richness of biblical revelation must              The PR's do not see how God
Churches.

16/Standard Bearer/October 1, 1996


can freely offer the Gospel to un-         The PR's claim that the Principles            it is not irrational; it is simply the
believers,  while  simultaneously          are  simply  a  return  to  the  early        biblical  doctrine  of  the  covenant,
decreeing  them  to  reprobation.          faithful teaching of the confessions          which  seems  to  defy  (not  deny)
But     using     identical     logic,     and the Reformed Fathers.  In ac-             logic.
Arminians do not see how God can           tuality,  the  Principles  contradict             It  is  not  enough  to  deny  the
freely, "sincerely" uphold His righ-       the confessions.  For example, the            "new  hermeneutics."    We  also
teous  Law,  and  yet  decree  that        Canons of Dort say that "the chil-            must deny any thorough-going ra-
men break it.  Or, to put the mat-         dren of believers are holy, not only          tionalism  which  flattens  the  tex-
ter even closer to home, does God          in nature, but in virtue of the cov-          tured richness of God's Word for
really sincerely despise sin in His        enant of grace, in which they, to-            the sake of fitting it into the lim-
children?  If so, why do they yet          gether with the parents, are com-             ited envelopes of our reason.  Be-
sin  since  God  has  the  power  to       prehended"  (1.17).    This  has  led         cause  of  this,  we  must  resist  the
change  this  fact?    Are  His  state-    to PR contortions:  Gen. 17:14 now            Protestant  Reformed  approach  to
ments about His hatred of sin in-          means that the father who fails to            Scripture on these issues.  We must
sincere?    Should  we  mark  them         circumcise his child has broken the           be reformed to all of God's Word,
with  asterisks?    What  about            covenant by failing to pass on the            in the glorious completeness of its
Adam?  Did God decree the Fall?            sign.  In arguing this, Woudenberg            counsel.
If He did not, then He is not abso-        writes, after a "close look at (this)                                      Tim Gallant
lutely  sovereign.    But  how  could      leading  text,"  that  "the  breaking                                    Sexsmith, AB
He  justly  decree  the  Fall,  when       of the covenant is not to be first in
Adam  was  not  created  corrupt?          it and then out."                             To this I submitted the following
For that matter, how could Adam                Apostasy  is  impossible.    But          reply:
fall if he was created upright?            how  can  this  interpretation  stem          Dear Mr. VanDyk,
    You  see,  we  are  dealing  with      from a close look at this verse?  For             I  was  intrigued  by  Mr.  Tim
reason  both  crippled  by  the  Fall,     it  is  the  "uncircumcised  male             Gallant's  letter  in  your  February
and  limited  by  creaturehood.            child" -- that is, the "person (who)           26 issue of Christian Renewal, pri-
What  may  seem  contradictory  to         shall  be  cut  off  from  his  people;       marily  because  it  brings  our  dis-
it may be perfectly consistent, but        he has broken My covenant." It is             cussion  of  the  place  of  logic  in
simply beyond our grasp.  A state-         beyond question that the primary              Christian thought into a new and
ment  that  rings  of  truth  in  one      covenant-breaker  in  the  text  in           altogether desirable area.
sense  may  be  untrue  in  another,       question  is  not  the  father  at  all,          To begin with, it is always in-
and we may have difficulty in dis-         but the child who has not received            teresting  to  hear  others  describe
tinguishing between those senses.          the sign -- "in (the covenant) and             what  we  in  the  Protestant  Re-
The law of non-contradiction still         then out."                                    formed Churches are supposed to
stands,  but  we  have  to  concede            Moreover, Woudenberg's sug-               believe and teach, when what they
that we are necessarily limited in         gestion  is  in  direct  contradiction        say  is  such  that  one  like  myself,
our application of it.                     to Hebrews 10, which tells us that            who has lived his life at the heart
    Meanwhile, drawing the Prot-           he  who  has  broken  covenant  has           of  the  PRC,  has  never  heard  or
estant Reformed line in the sand,          "trampled the Son of God under-               taught.  And yet, perhaps, this is
the  Declaration  of  Principles  en-      foot, counted the blood of the cov-           to be understood, seeing it clearly
shrines the refusal to concede such        enant by which  He was sanctified a           derives,  not  from  a  study  of  our
limitations.    Or  is  it  enshrined?     common  thing,  and  insulted  the            material, but from certain cursory
Woudenberg denies that the PR's            Spirit  of  grace"  (v.  29).    There  is    deductions  made  according  to  a
have  elevated  the  Declaration  to       no  honest  way  of  escaping  the            logic quite different from our own;
confessional  status:  "It  was  not       force  of  these  words.    The  Spirit       and it is that difference to which
that  anyone  joining  our  churches       of  grace  sanctifies  people  in  the        our discussion now turns.
was required to consider this bind-        blood of the covenant -- and these                 This is the real value of what
ing on their consciences...."  On the      people  are  not  elect.    There  is         Mr.  Gallant  brings  out.    Rather
other hand, what he does not tell          grace, there is sanctification in the         than faulting us for using logic at
us is that it was made very clear          covenant  ("in  it"),  and  there  is         all,  as  the  others  have  done  thus
that no man holding to the Liber-          apostasy  ("out").    [It  should  be         far  --  on  the  presumption  that
ated  view  of  the  covenant  would       clarified  that  covenant  judgment           logic in itself is something bad --
ever hold ecclesiastical office in the     visits disobedient children within,           he recognizes the need for it; for,
PR churches.                               and also excommunicated children              whether  one  acknowledges  it  or
    Functionally  speaking,  this          without.    Excommunication  itself           not, some kind of logic has to be
means  that  the  Principles  were         is,  of  course,  a  covenant  judg-          there if intelligent communication
treated  as  a  confessional  matter.      ment.]    That  is  not  Arminianism,         is to take place.  There has to be

                                                                                                   October 1, 1996/Standard Bearer/17


an understanding of how thoughts               will is free.  Nor was it long there-        ter, how could Adam fall if he was
relate,  and  a  standard  by  which           after  that  Peter  Ramus  made  out         created upright?"  These tensions
truth  is  gauged.    The  question  is        of  rhetorical  principles  a  popular       to him I am sure are very real, as
what logic this is to be.                      form of logic based on "eloquence"           his  logic  demands  they  be.    And
    In our day we live in a world              as  its  standard  for  determining          that is the point.  When contradic-
permeated with a logic of relativ-             truth, after which he joined the Re-         tions are accepted, nothing is right
ity  (Einstein  amazingly  seems  to           formed  church  world  and  spread           or wrong in itself, and every ques-
have  left  his  mark  almost  every-          his views broadly among many of              tion someone would think to bring
where).    Nothing  is  true  or  false        its  scholars.    It  was  in  this  that    up regarding the Scriptures must
in  itself,  but  only  as  it  relates  to    Jacobus Arminius was first trained           be taken seriously, as Mr. Gallant
other things; and at any time that             --  and  I  can  point  out  precisely        thinks he must.  But it doesn't have
can  change.    What  is  true  at  one        where,  in  the  first  defense  of  his     to be that way.
time,  and  with  relation  to  one            (Arminian) principles while debat-               When  one  accepts  the  often
thing, becomes the opposite at an-             ing with Francis Junius (a student           stated  principle  of  Scripture  that
other.  But we have learned to live            of Calvin's and a strong proponent           God in his revelation does not con-
with such contradictions, and even             of  traditional  logic),  he  used  the      tradict  himself,  one  can,  by  care-
become  fascinated  by  them,  as              principle  of  contradiction  both  to       fully  comparing  each  Scripture
nearly  every  form  of  modern  art           affirm the basic attributes of God           with  all  Scriptures  --  in  the  way
--  to  say  nothing  of  politics,  etc.       appealed  to  by  Junius,  and  deny         traditional Reformed hermeneutics
-- brings out.  Each in its own way             them  in  the  same  breath,  as,  for       always did -- find those currents
seems to have become completely                example,  when  he  argued  "God             of  thought  that  run  consistently
taken  up  with  meaningless  con-             possesses  the  eternal  and  un-            through  the  whole,  and  set  them
trasts and conflicts, as though that           changeable  form  ...  in  a  change-        forth as truth (as our  confessions
is  what  life  is  all  about.    And  it     able  way."    To  him  such  contra-        have done), and reject their oppo-
has  folded  over  into  religion  as          dictions  were  acceptable  as  long         sites  as  error  (as  they  all  do  as
well,  until  faith  is  seen  as  a  leap     as they could be convincingly put.           well).
into  the  incomprehensible  dark-                 Striking, however, is the simi-              But that is not all.  Sound logic
ness  of  enigmas  and  dilemmas,              larity of this to those who would            also tells us where not enough is
rather  than  the  "certain  knowl-            criticize us in the PRC.  It is not as       known for surety such as this, as
edge"  and  "assured  confidence"              though  I  would  accuse  them  of           in those instances where God has
we have been taught by our past.               Arminianism (the matter is far too           withheld  certain  things  from  us,
    And  yet,  as  modern  as  this            complex for such simplistic judg-            like  He  did  when  Moses,  strug-
might  seem,  its  history  lies  deep         ments; and I would think better of           gling with the question of how Je-
in  the  rhetorical  logic  of  ancient        them than that); but their rejection         hovah  could  both  be  just  in  the
times  with  its  concept  of  duplex          of consistent logic certainly leaves         punishment of Israel's sin and still
veritas  (double truth).  Already in           them defenseless against it, as be-          lead  them  graciously  into  the
1277 a group of students from the              comes  evident  when  Rev.  J.               promised land, exclaimed, Exodus
College  of  Arts  at  the  University         Tuininga is driven to claim that to          33:18, "I beseech thee, show me thy
of Paris, who wanted to maintain               be Reformed is to be neither a con-          glory," to which the Lord replied,
the  non-Christian  views  of                  sistent -- or "hyper" -- Calvinist             :20-23,  "Thou  canst  not  see  my
Averroes, were disciplined for de-             or an Arminian, but both.  And it            face: for there shall no man see me,
fending  the  proposition,  among              is this, I would suggest, that causes        and live.  And the LORD said, Be-
others, that theologically the world           Mr.  Gallant  to  be  caught  on  the        hold, there is a place by me, and
was created, but philosophically it            horns  of  the  dilemmas  he  lists          thou shalt stand upon a rock:  and
is eternal -- anticipating Howard               when  he  asks,  "Does  God  really          it  shall  come  to  pass,  while  my
VanTill  by  a  bit,  it  would  seem.         sincerely  despise  sin  in  His  chil-      glory  passeth  by,  that  I  will  put
But  it  was  not  until  the  Renais-         dren?  If so, why do they yet sin            thee in a clift of the rock, and will
sance  that  such  views  came  into           since God has the power to change            cover thee with  my hand  while I
their  own,  and  were  carried  via           this  fact?    Are  His  statements          pass by: and I will take away mine
humanism  into  northern  Europe.              about His hatred of sin insincere?           hand, and thou shalt see my back
Philip Melanchthon defended rhe-               Should we mark them with aster-              parts:    but  my  face  shall  not  be
torical  logic  insistently,  allowing         isks?    What  about  Adam?    Did           seen."  God would reveal as much
him, as it did, to uphold both the             God  decree  the  Fall?    If  He  did       as it was good for Moses to know,
theology  of  Luther,  based  on  the          not, then He is not absolutely sov-          but no more -- and strikingly what
bondage of the will, and his own               ereign.    But  how  could  He  justly       He  revealed  was  the  doctrine  of
favored  view  of  synergism,  with            decree  the  Fall,  when  Adam  was          election  (compare  Ex.  33:19  with
its presupposition that the human              not created corrupt?  For that mat-          Rom.  9:15,16),  but  not  who  the

18/Standard Bearer/October 1, 1996


elect are, or why they are chosen            to search, as the Bereans did [Acts        what God has said (for which test
and others passed by.  Such limi-            17:11];  and  in  doing  so  he  will      our creeds are  a wonderful tool);
tations  proper  logic  recognizes,          grow,  whether  he  come  to  final        and,  until  he  does,  to  discuss  it
and  is  satisfied  to  stay  within,        conclusions or not,  into a greater        perhaps  as  something  to  be  con-
without  having  to  struggle  with          appreciation  for  and  fellowship         sidered, but without claiming it to
their  contradictories,  as  Mr.  Gal-       with the living God (which is what         be God's Word.
lant seems pressed to try.                   the covenant is finally all about).            And  so,  we  would  hope  and
    And there is more.  Besides the              And  so,  perhaps  above  all,         pray that what remains of the Re-
things which God tells us He has             what  sound  logic  does  is  to  pro-     formed faith today will draw back
withheld,  there  are  others  in  the       tect  us  from  radical  conclusions       from  this  strange  flirtation  with
Scriptures,  of  which  good  logic          with  inadequate  footing  in  the         contradictory logic, and return to
warns  us  we  do  not  know  suffi-         Word.    No  one  should  presume          the  way  of  the  fathers  in  which
cient  to  be  sure.    It  may  be  that    that, because he has found a text          only  sound  theological  develop-
not enough has been revealed, but            or  two  which  seem  to  support  a       ment can take place, and which we
it may also be that our study has            favored view of his, that he is free       have received from the past be pre-
simply  been  inadequate,  or  that          to  present  it  as  God's  Word  re-      served.
God has not yet given us the spiri-          gardless  of  how  it  conflicts  with                    - - - - - - -
tual  insight  required  (for  under-        other texts; and yet, with all of the          In many ways this strikes at the
standing  God's  Word,  after  all,          Pentecostal influences of our day,         heart  of  the  whole  matter,  for  it
takes  more  than  just  mental  acu-        this is exactly what is being done         deals with the oneness of God; and
men;  one  must  be  led  into  it  by       repeatedly.  But it should not be.         few things are more basic than this.
the  Spirit,  a  gift  only  grace  can      Before  anyone  accepts  or  teaches       But it also reaches out and touches
provide  [John 16:13]).  Neverthe-           anything, he should be sure that it        on  nearly  everything  else,  as  we
less, one can and should continue            is  in  harmony  with  the  whole  of      hope to show as we go on.    u

  Search the Scriptures                                                                            Rev. Mitchell Dick

      John:  From the Mountain Top
                                   (Searching John with Purpose)


                                                                                        Perspective
                                                 Second, we plan on continuing              The  gospel  according  to  John
                                             a study of the gospel according to         was inspired for a special purpose.
With this study we begin
             our searching the Scrip-
             tures together.                 John.  This study was begun a few          That  purpose  is  expressly  stated
    A few things before we begin.            years ago in this magazine by the          in John 20:31: "But these are writ-
    First,  as  to  the  manner  in          Rev. Carl Haak.  The reader or so-         ten,  that  ye  might  believe    that
which we ought to engage in Bible            cieties  which  are  interested  in        Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God;
study:      May  we  ever  be  as  the       studying  John  and  who  do  not          and that believing ye might have
Bereans!    May  God  grant  us  His         have Rev. Haak's previously pub-           life through his name."
grace and Holy Spirit to search the          lished articles are welcome to cop-            Though  the  text  tells  the  rea-
Scriptures  as  becomes  Christian           ies of these.  Just contact the busi-      son,  first  of  all,  why  Jesus'  signs
nobility!    May  the  profit  of  our       ness office of the SB.                     (miracles,  v.30)  were  written
searching  be  our  sanctification               Third,  as  we  study  the  Scrip-     down,  it  is  clear  from  the  whole
unto the praise of God!                      tures together there may be ques-          book of John that the whole book
                                             tions the reader may have.  Here           was written for the same purpose.
                                             is an open invitation to ask them          John is inspired by the Spirit of God
                                             of  me  in  the  pages  of  this  maga-    to reveal the identity of Jesus as the
                                             zine.  I do not claim, of course, to       Christ,  the  Son  of  God,  and  to  give
Rev. Dick is pastor of Grace Protes-         have all the answers.  But certainly       faith and life through His name!
tant  Reformed  Church  in  Standale,        we shall search the Scriptures to-             I  would  like  the  purpose  of
Michigan.                                    gether, and be built up in our faith!      John expressed in John 20:31 to be

                                                                                               October 1, 1996/Standard Bearer/19


our  "mountaintop,"  from  which            The  whole  book  is,  as  one  com-        Having life through His Name!
we view the fertile plain which is          mentator  has  said,  a  veritable              What  blessed  life  there  is
this entire gospel.  This being the         "self-disclosure" of Jesus.  In John        through  the  Name,  and believing
case,  three  things  follow  which         Jesus  is  revealed:    both  through       the  Name  of  Jesus!  This  life  of
will be important for our study of          His  own  deeds  and  words,  and           faith,  John  teaches,  is  a  life  not
John.                                       through John's inspired  commen-            from blood, nor of the will of the
    First, since the Spirit inspired        tary on the blessed Savior.                 flesh, nor of the will of man, but
John  to  reveal  that  Jesus  is  the          See  how  this  is  the  case!    In    of God (1:13).  Further, the life we
Christ, the Son of God, we ought            the beginning verses we are intro-          receive  through  faith  is  a  life  of
to  search  John  especially  for  this     duced  to  One,  Jesus,  who  is  the       the fullness of God in Christ (1:16);
truth. In other words, we ought to          eternal  Word  of  God,  very  God          a born-again life (3:1-13); a life sus-
be focused.  To be sure, we should          Himself and the revelation of this          tained by the water of life which
learn everything we can about ev-           God (1:1-18). In the same chapter           is a well of water springing up into
ery  aspect  of  this  Word  of  God.       Jesus  is  pointed  out  as  the  Lamb      everlasting life (4:14).  It is a life,
We must know, for example, who              of God who takes away the sin of            too,  of  body  and  soul  due  to  the
the  Pharisees  are  of  whom  John         the  world  (1:29,36).    In  chapter  2    Father's  raising  up  the  dead,  the
speaks.    We  ought  to  investigate       He  performs  His  first  miracle  at       Son quickening whom He will (v.
the various ceremonies involved in          the  marriage  in  Cana,  showing           21), and our being raised up in the
the Old Testament Passover feast,           plainly His divine, creative person         resurrection unto life (v. 29).  And
and  other  feasts  mentioned  in           and His office as Messiah.  John 3          in  John  6,  through  the  record  of
John.    And  knowing  the  geogra-         reports that the Son was sent into          the feeding of the 5000,  we  learn
phy  of  Palestine  will  be  helpful.      the world to be its Savior.  And so         of the abundance of the life Jesus
But in all things we must see how           on through the chapters: the rev-           gives:  for  eating  of  this  One,  the
Jesus is set forth as the Christ, the       elation of Jesus, the Christ, the Son       bread from heaven, is to have ev-
Son of God.  If we miss this, then          of God!                                     erlasting life (v. 47).
our study will be hindered.
    Second, since the Spirit's pur-         That ye might believe!                      For study, meditation, and discus-
pose  for  writing  John  is  that  we          John  emphasizes  the  impor-           sion:
believe what is said of Jesus, then         tance of true faith in this Jesus who       *    The  Bereans  "searched"  the
we too will want to be confirmed            is  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  God.        Scriptures  daily.    They  probably
and  built  up  in  our  faith.      We     More  than  Matthew,  Mark,  and            did  not  have  concordances  and
want to know the Scriptures, and            Luke combined, John uses the verb           commentaries  as  we  do.   Discuss
to  be  able  intelligently  to  discuss    "believe."    In  addition,  there  is      how  these  "helps"  to  our  search-
them and witness to the truth.  But         much  instruction  given  on  true          ing are beneficial.  What else is im-
our primary purpose is to believe,          faith,  and  many  miracles  are  re-       portant for our searching the Scrip-
and  to  grow  in  faith  in  Jesus  the    corded in John for the express pur-         tures?
Christ of God!                              pose, as John says, "that ye might          *  In introducing this study I have
    Third,  since  the  Spirit's  pur-      believe."                                   suggested a "perspective," a view-
pose in writing John is that we be-             Thus we read that John came             point from which we might study
lieve what is said of Jesus in order        to  bear  witness  of  the  light,  that    John.  Do you think that the entire
that believing we might have life,          all  through  Him  might  believe           Scriptures  may  be  read,  for  our
as we study John we will want to            (1:7), and that as many as received         edification, from this same vantage
be  appreciating  more  and  more           (believed) Christ, to them gave He          point of John 20:31?
that  life  we  have  in  Christ.    Our    power to become the sons of God             *  I have cited only some examples
goal, too, will be that our believ-         (1:12); that the disciples when they        of how John, in the first chapters
ing study will help us to live out          witnessed the miracle of Cana be-           of his gospel, reveals that Jesus is
of that life, and to look forward to        lieved (2:11); that the Son of God          the  Christ,  the  Son  of  God,  and
the  glorification  of  that  life  in      is sent that whosoever believeth on         leads  us  to  faith  in  Him.    Search
heaven.                                     Him  might  have  everlasting  life         these  Scriptures  yourselves  for
                                            (3:16).    Faith  is  described  as         many more examples!
The  first  chapters  of  John  seen        "drinking" of the water Jesus gives         *  Since John 20:31 is our "vantage
from the mountaintop                        (4:14);  believing Christ is believ-        point,"  let  us  make  sure  we  are
*  Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.     ing Moses and all of the Old Tes-           familiar  with  the  names  "Jesus,"
    The  reader  will  note  how  the       tament  which  testifies  of  Him           "Christ," "Son of God," and what
identity of Jesus as the Christ the         (5:39ff.); and in John 6:50, believ-        these signify. Also, be sure to un-
Son of God is brought out in ev-            ing  is  described  as  eating  Christ,     derstand "faith," and "believing,"
ery  chapter  of  the  book  of  John.      the bread of life.                          and  the  "life"  we  have  through

20/Standard Bearer/October 1, 1996


faith.    You  may  wish  to  consult       through  John  is  that  God's  elect       might  "have  life."    What  is  life
the  Heidelberg  Catechism  for  a          might believe -- for the first time,         without faith? How does one know
summary  of  Scripture's  truth  re-        and,  when  they  are  given  faith,        when he or she has life?  How do
garding  the  names  of  the  Media-        that believers might also continue          we  live,  enjoy,  and  show  the  life
tor:  L.D. 11-13, and also L.D. 7 on        to believe and be strengthened in           we  have?    What  is  the  origin  of
"faith"  (cf.  also  The  Westminster       faith.  What does this purpose in           the life of which Jesus speaks?  Can
Confession  of  Faith,  chapter  14).       John  20:31  teach  ought  to  be  our      you show all this from Scripture?
But most importantly: discern from          focus  and  goal  as  we  witness  to           Next time I hope to study with
the Scriptures all that these names         those who do not believe?  John's           you John 7:32-36.
and words mean.                             purpose in our believing is that we             May God richly bless our Bible
*    The  purpose  of  the  Spirit                                                      study!   u

     All Around Us                                                                             Rev. Gise VanBaren


s     An Obituary for the C.R.C.?           of racial and ethnic minority mem-          training in the CRC Seminary (or
                                            bers was appointed.  The commit-            acceptance of ministers from other
                                            tee  "is  mandated  to  assist  in  en-     denominations  by  way  of  Arts.  7
                                            suring  that  committee  appoint-           and 8 of their Church Order).  Be-
One reviews the decisions
          taken  at  the  Synod  of  the
          Christian Reformed Church         ments  in  the  Christian  Reformed         cause of many defections in recent
this past summer with concern and           denomination be  sensitive to and           years,  there  are  many  of  the
alarm.  The course of that denomi-          inclusive  of  the  various  ethnic         churches without ministers.
nation, as reported by conservative         communities."                                   The  Synod  declared  21  men
CRC  observers,  appears  to  follow            2)  In  decisions  relating  to  in-    and 3 women to be candidates for
unrelentingly a downhill course.            ter-church relations, the Synod fur-        ministry of the Word in the CRC.
      Some  of  the  significant  deci-     ther  distanced  itself  from  the          The vote for the women was sepa-
sions of the Synod are reported in          Gereformeerde          Kerken        in     rate from that of the men.
The  Outlook,  July/August  1996.           Nederland  (GKN).    It  decided  to            4)  Synod  dealt  with  various
The reporter, Cornelis P. Venema,           "discontinue  the  practice  of  ex-        overtures  concerning  changes  in
mentions  some  of  the  following          changing  fraternal  delegates  at          the  Church  Order.    It  refused  to
with his own comments about the             major  assembles    and  placing  a         allow a Classis (or Classes) to be
decisions.                                  moratorium on new joint ministry            established without regard to geo-
      1)  The  Synod  made  decisions       projects."    But  despite  overtures       graphic  boundaries  but  rather  on
relating to the diversity within the        to  break  relationships,  despite          the  basis  of  doctrinal  confession
church (5% are other than white).           grievous  doctrinal  errors  in  the        (i.e.,  those  who  refuse  to  declare
According to Venema, though the             GKN, the CRC refused to break the           the  word  "male"  inoperative  in
church is rightly reminded of the           relationship.                               their Article 3a.).  It did, however,
need to be tolerant and to recog-               The  Synod  further  dealt  with        decide  that  there  could  be  legiti-
nize racial and ethnic diversity, the       correspondence from the Orthodox            mate  grounds  for  a  church  to  be
Synod  was inclined  to follow the          Presbyterian  Church  (OPC)  in-            transferred  to  a  more  "conserva-
practice  adopted  within  our  own         forming  it  of  the  decision  of  the     tive" Classis (or a more "progres-
country.  There appears to be a de-         OPC to suspend relationships with           sive"  church  to  a  more  "progres-
liberate  attempt  to  establish  a         the  CRC,  and  break  them  com-           sive" Classis).
quota system assuring that minori-          pletely  in  1997  if  the  CRC  main-          5) Synod dealt with overtures
ties receive their fair share of ap-        tains  its  stand  on  "women  in  of-      concerning the issue of homosexu-
pointments  within the denomina-            fice."    The  Synod  also  answered        ality.  Venema states, "Observing
tion  --  appointments  based  not           correspondence  relating  to  the           the actions and decisions of Synod
necessarily upon qualification but          Presbyterian Church in America's            1996 relative to the matter of ho-
on  race.    A  committee  composed         decision to call the CRC to "repent         mosexuality, it seems fair to con-
                                            and  rescind"  the  action  of  Synod       clude  that  this  issue  will  be  the
                                            1995 (re women in office).                  next to test the resolve of the de-
                                                3) Synod appointed a commit-            nomination in respect to its bibli-
                                            tee to examine the question of the          cal  and  confessional  commit-
                                            routes  followed  for  entrance  into       ments....
Rev. VanBaren is pastor of the Prot-        the ministry of the CRC.  Present               6) Synod refused to adopt the
estant  Reformed    Church    of            policy requires at least one year of        recommendations  of  one  of  its
Loveland, Colorado.

                                                                                               October 1, 1996/Standard Bearer/21


study  committees  to  change  the              Venema accuses the Synod of                the  church  with  any  opportunity
three  forms  of  unity  by  making         indecision in key issues before it.            for  ratification.    We  are  betrayed
them more acceptable with "Gen-             His conclusion is this:                        because  we  are  not  playing  on  a
der-Sensitive  Language."    Synod                                                         level  field.    The  majority  gets  its
judged  "that  the  CRC  Worship                As is often the case in such cir-          way.  So, confrontation is over and
Committee  had  violated  its  man-           cumstances, synod found a vari-              we  lost, not because  we  failed  to
date  by  `in  some  cases'  changing         ety  of  reasons  to  avoid  doing           debate  properly,  but  because  the
the  theological  intent  of  the  con-       what it was asked to do.  Some of            rules  were  changed  to  give  the
fessions."                                    these  reasons  may  even  have  a           other side the advantage.  So the
                                              measure of validity.  However, it
    7) The Synod reaffirmed its de-           is impossible to suppress the con-           fight is over."
cision  of  last  year  concerning            viction  that  these  issues  of  indeci-        Now  what?    The  Outlook ,  I
women in office.  A majority and              sion on Synod's  part are symptom-           think  rather  sadly,  does  not
minority report from its advisory             atic  of  a  pattern  of  indecision  and    present  a  clarion  call  to  reforma-
committee  was  presented.    The             uncertainty to speak directly to the         tion.    The  editorial  of  the
majority report was adopted by an             controversial issues of the day.   At        VandenHeuvels  speaks  of  "Con-
overwhelming  vote  of  122  yes  to          no  previous  synodical  assembly            frontation"  (which,  in  their  judg-
54  no.    The  motion  with  its             that I have observed was the ap-             ment,  is  now  over);  "Consolida-
grounds was:                                  peal to the text of the Scriptures           tion" which must now take place
                                              or the confessions as  absent  as it
                                              was at this synod.  The reason for           especially  at  the  "Inter-Classical
    That synod not accede to over-            this  absence  is  not  hard  to  dis-       Conference" which will be held in
  tures which ask for a revision of           cover --  the Christian Reformed de-          South  Holland,  IL  in  November;
  the decision of Synod 1995 regard-          nomination  is  no longer  marked  by        and "Continuation"  which really
  ing  women  in  office,  but  that          an  exegetical  and  confessional  con-      presents  no  recommendation.    In
  Synod 1996 affirm the 1995 deci-            sensus on the issues before it.  The         fact, one wonders whether the in-
  sion:  "A classis may, in response          glue that holds the denomination to-
  to local needs and circumstances,                                                        tent of the editors is to recommend
                                              gether  is  increasingly  composed  of
  declare that the word  male  in Ar-                                                      remaining and continuing the fight
                                              historical  and  institutional  ingredi-
  ticle 3a of the Church Order is in-                                                      in the CRC, or something else:
                                              ents, decreasingly of biblical and con-
  operative,  and  authorize  the             fessional ones.
  churches under its jurisdiction to                                                           The  future  of  the  Reformed
  ordain and install women in  the              Venema  concedes  that  the                  faith is bright, however.  It might
  offices  of  elder,  minister,  and                                                        not flourish any longer in the CRC
  evangelist."  Grounds: a. Previous        battle with respect to the "women                as it once did.  But it will flour-
  study  committees  ...  have  estab-      in office" issue is over.  He states,            ish.    Those  who  have  pledged
  lished viable biblical grounds for        "Let no ink or paper be wasted on                their lives to uphold this faith are
  this position.  b. It has not been        writing  overtures  or  appeals  to              not  going  to  withdraw  into  a
  proved that this action is in vio-        synod  on  this  issue  asking  for  a           small  hurt  minority  which  licks
  lation of the Church Order. c. The        revision  and  a  return  to  the  his-          its wounds.  Not at all.  We will
  denomination  is  not  well  served       toric position.  The time for battling           hold forth the great truths of the
  by continual reversals on this is-        the  issue  of  women  in  office  in  the       Reformed  faith,  probably  with
  sue.                                      Christian Reformed denomination is,              others who share this great heri-
                                                                                             tage.  There are people who must
                                            humanly speaking, over.   Here con-
    8)  The  Synod  took  also  vari-                                                        hear  the  gospel.   There  are  chil-
                                            servatives  can  almost  agree  with
ous  decisions  on  other  issues.    It                                                     dren  and  young  people  to  be
                                            the progressives in concluding that
refused to declare the teachings of                                                          taught and inspired.  We must get
                                            a continued fight about this issue
Calvin professor Hessel Bouma III                                                            on  with  the  Great  Commission
                                            would  be  a  fruitless  diversion  of           both in terms of the cultural man-
to be in opposition to the position         the  churches'  energy  and  re-                 date  and  the  spread  of  the  gos-
of the CRC on abortion.  It adopted         sources."                                        pel.  The work must be done.  We
a change in Art. 51 of their Church             Editors  Thomas  and  Laurie                 are eager for it.
Order to read, "The congregation            VandenHeuvel  agree:    "But  what
shall  assemble  for  worship,  ordi-       makes me feel so utterly betrayed                  Venema  also  expresses  opin-
narily  twice on the Lord's Day, to         now  is  that  the  majority  has  de-         ions on the course the "conserva-
hear God's word...."  It adopted a          termined  something  to  be  right             tives"  ought  to  take.    He  insists
schedule for a one-calendar week            without  compelling  Biblical  war-            that it would be "irresponsible" to
synod  beginning  next  year.    It         rant.  The majority can put into a             continue with "business as usual"
"provisionally adopted" a new set           supplement  to  Church  Order  Ar-             in  the  CRC.    However,  his  pro-
of abuse guidelines which set aside         ticle  3a  something  which  contra-           posal  is  that  the  "conservatives"
the guidelines presented to Synod           dicts Article 3a without providing             remain  for  the  time  being  in  the
1995.                                                                                      CRC,  gather  in  "provisional  fel-

22/Standard Bearer/October 1, 1996


lowship," and "inform the denomi-            biblical,  confessional  and  church         vatives"  then  "level  the  playing
nation that they reserve the right           order commitments.  The purpose              field" by declaring also parts of the
to  declare  inoperative  those  sections    of  such  discussions  would  be  to         Church Order to be "inoperative"?
of the Church Order and its supple-          separate  from  the  Christian  Re-          If the "liberals" can run roughshod
ments that restrict the freedom of ac-       formed  denomination  and  join  a           over their Church Order, does that
cess to their pulpits of men who meet        more  biblical  and  confessionally          justify  "conservatives"  doing  the
the biblical requirements for office and     Reformed          communion           of     same thing?  And what of "corpo-
have  been  examined  by  their              churches."                                   rate  responsibility"?    Or  is  there
churches."                                       That  seems  hardly  a  clarion          no such thing?  The official deci-
    He  recommends,  secondly,               call either.  Doubtlessly, there must        sions  of  the  Synod  are  the  deci-
that the "conservatives" enter into          be a high degree of frustration by           sions  of  the  Christian  Reformed
discussions with existing or newly           "conservatives" because of the il-           denomination.  How long can one
emerging  Reformed  denomina-                legal  and  unbiblical  action  of  the      remain, in good conscience, under
tions  "who  share  their  historical        CRC  Synod.    But  ought  "conser-          those decisions?   u

  Report of Classis West

                   September 4, 1996         tendance were not only the mem-              The Protestant Reformed Churches
              at Randolph, Wisconsin         bers of the congregation and sev-            have much reason for thankfulness
                                             eral  visitors,  but  also  the  28  del-    to God in His continued provision
On  September  4,  Classis egates of Classis West, as well as of men to labor as ministers of the
     West  met  in  Randolph,  WI            three ministers from Classis East,           Word and sacraments.
with Rev. M. Joostens of Lynden,             Pastors  Cammenga,  Koole  and                   Most of the remaining business
WA serving as president of Classis           Woudenberg,  who  were  in  atten-           of  Classis  was  quite  routine.
for this session.  The main item on          dance as synodical deputies.  The            Classis  West  welcomed  Pastor
the agenda was the examination of            following day was spent in exam-             Rodney  Miersma,  who  recently
Pastor-elect Richard Smit, who had           ining Pastor-elect Smit in the sev-          took  up  his  new  labors  in
received  and  accepted  the  call  to       eral  areas  of  doctrinal  studies,  as     Immanuel  PRC,  Lacombe,  AB,
serve as pastor in the Doon Prot-            well as his knowledge of Scripture           Canada.    It  was  also  noted  at
estant Reformed Church of Doon,              and the confessions.                         Classis that Rev. Miersma this year
IA.  A special worship service was               Classis West, with the synodi-           marks his 25th year in the minis-
called by Randolph's consistory for          cal  deputies  expressing  hearty            try  of  the  Word,  and  that  Rever-
the evening of March 3, at which             agreement, voted unanimously to              ends  Gise  VanBaren  and  Bernard
time  Mr.  Smit  led  the  congrega-         approve Pastor-elect Smit's exami-           Woudenberg have served now for
tion in worship and proclaimed the           nation, and advised the Doon PRC             40 years in the ministry.  How the
gospel  from  Genesis 6:8,  "Noah's          to  proceed  with  his  ordination.          years so quickly pass!
Finding  Jehovah's  Grace."    In  at-                                                          Rev. Steven Key, Stated Clerk

  News From Our Churches                                                                       Mr. Benjamin Wigger

                                             much for granted.                            proposed  East  Side  Christian
School Activities                                The Lord willing, our Hope PR            School  met  for  an  organizational
                                             Christian School in Walker, MI will          meeting to help lay the foundation
In  glancing back over  the past
  few  issues  of  the  "News,"  it          graduate  its  50th  class  in  June,        for the future of their children.  On
seems  that  we  were  just  writing         1997.  To commemorate this mile-             the  agenda  that  evening  were
about  the  end  of  another  school         stone a special program and open             Board nominations, presentation of
year and now suddenly, almost as             house will be held April 18 of next          a constitution, and information re-
if  without  effort,  we  find  our          year.    We,  of  course,  will  have        garding  the  anticipated  Fall  1997
Christian schools starting up again.         more about that later.                       opening, D.V.
Perhaps  we  take  our  schools  too             But even as one school makes                 Our denomination's Seminary
                                             plans  to  celebrate  its  50th  birth-      Convocation was held this year at
                                             day,  another  is  just  beginning.          the  Faith  PRC  in  Jenison,  MI  on
                                             That beginning took place on July
Mr. Wigger is a member of the Protes-                                                     August  29.  Prof. R. Decker gave
                                             30 at our First PRC in Grand Rap-
tant Reformed  Church  of  Hudsonville,                                                   the  address  entitled,  "Brethren
                                             ids,  MI  when  supporters  of  the
Michigan.                                                                                 Pray for Us."

                                                                                                 October 1, 1996/Standard Bearer/23


    The
Standard
 Bearer                                                                                                                            PERIODICAL
                                                                                                                                   Postage Paid at
   P.O. Box 603                                                                                                                    Grandville, Michigan
  Grandville, MI  49468-0603



Congregational Activities                  much interest shown, and delight                            best when he wrote, "I was happy
    The Council of the Grace PRC           was  expressed  in  the  Reformed                           to  have  found  your  site  among
in  Standale,  MI  called  a  General      faith.    If  you  care  to  mark  your                     other  Christian  sources.    It  is  a
Information Meeting on September           calendars,  the  next  conference  of                       wonderful  feeling  that  there  are
5  for  their  entire  congregation  to    the BRF will be held in two years,                          Christians  everywhere  in  the
discuss  a  rough  draft  of  a  build-    D.V.,  in  a  castle  in  Northern  Ire-                    world,  and  one  can  keep  contact
ing for worship to be constructed          land.  The subject will be the "Doc-                        with unknown friends and broth-
on  their  property.    This  building     trine of the Last Things."                                  ers in the name of the Lord."
would eventually be used for a fel-              You  may  remember  that  our
lowship room when the sanctuary            Trinity  PRC  in  Houston,  TX  has                         Mission Activities
is  completed.    The  Council  was        been busy with an active outreach                                   The Hull, IA PRC has made a
looking  for  their  congregation's        to  the  large  Indian  population  in                      trio  for  calling  a  missionary  to
agreement with this proposed con-          the  Houston  area.    In  news  from                       Ghana.  Revs. W. Bekkering (Pella,
cept before proceeding with more           Trinity,  we  learn  that  Pastor                           IA), W. Bruinsma (First, Holland,
definite plans.                            Mahtani and Mr. Jerry Nainani re-                           MI),  and  A.  denHartog  (Hope,
    Members  of  the  First  PRC  in       cently  traveled  to  Dallas  to  meet                      Redlands, CA) were on that rio.
Grand Rapids, MI were invited to           with the  SWAMI Executive Com-                                      From their trio, the Hope PRC
a  family  camping  get-away  for          mittee to discuss future plans for                          in Walker, MI has extended a call
three days in late August.  Fami-          a  conference  in  Houston  and  an-                        to Rev. denHartog.
lies  spent  an  enjoyable  time  to-      other  in  India  in  1997.    It  is  also                         Rev.  W.  Bruinsma  has  ac-
gether  at  Baldwin  Oaks  camp-           encouraging to note that this group                         cepted  the  call  he  received  from
ground  in  Hudsonville,  MI.    Ac-       has, at Trinity's recommendation,                           the Kalamazoo, MI PRC.
tivities included horseshoes, swim-        adopted  the  Apostles'  Creed  as                                  Rev. R. Flikkema and his fam-
ming,  volleyball,  campfires  (with       their "Statement of Faith."  These                          ily moved to Jenison, MI at the end
s'mores), biking, and more.                young  Sindhi  converts  are  eager                         of August.   While he  waits upon
    As many of our regular read-           to receive further instruction in the                       the  will  of  the  Lord,  he  will  be
ers  know,  next  year's  Young            Reformed faith.                                             teaching  catechism  for  different
People's Convention will be hosted               The Loveland, CO PRC shared                           churches and leading some societ-
by  the  congregation  of  the             some responses they have received                           ies.
Hudsonville,  MI  PRC.    Activities       from  their  "Home  Page"  on  the
at  Hudsonville  are  accelerating         Internet.    Responses  have  come                                          Food  For  Thought
with a view to that event on Au-           from Hong Kong, California, and                                     "Our hearts are like the earth
gust  18-22  of  next  year.    Hud-       Germany.  And a respondent from                             upon which we tread; let it alone,
sonville's  convention  Steering           Germany perhaps summed up the                               and it is sure to bear weeds."
Committee  held  an  informational         intent  of  our  churches'  outreach                         -- J.C. Ryle on Proverbs 29:15   u
meeting  after  the  evening  service                                               ANNOUNCEMENTS
on  August  25.    The  congregation
heard of plans made to date, and                                                                                              NOTICE!!!
they  were  able  to  see  a  video  of                                                                        On September 1, 1996, our pastor,
Camp  Miniwanca,  where  next                         RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                        REV. RODNEY G. MIERSMA,
year's convention will be held.                  The  Ladies'  Society  Ruth  of  Hope  PRC            completed 25 years in the ministry in the Protestant
                                           (Walker, MI) expresses sincere Christian sympathy           Reformed Churches.  For this we praise and thank
                                           to  fellow  member  Theresa  Reitsma  in  the  death  of    our covenant God.
Evangelism Activities                      her husband,                                                        "For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus
    From all reports coming from                              TOM REITSMA.                             the  Lord:    and  ourselves  your  servants  for  Jesus'
the British Reformed Fellowship's                May she and her family find comfort and peace         sake.  For God, who commanded the light to shine
                                           in God's Word, "But though he cause grief, yet will
Family  Conference  held  July  27                                                                     out  of  darkness,  hath  shined  in  our  hearts,  to  give
                                           he  have  compassion  according  to  the  multitude  of     the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the
through August 3 in East Sussex,           his mercies" (Lamentations 3:32).                           face of Jesus Christ" (II Cor. 4:5, 6).
England, it seems to have been a                                         Ev Langerak, Secretary                                            Jim Wierenga, Clerk
tremendous  success,  with  more                                                                                                                  Immanuel PRC
than 100 participants.  There was                                                                                                        Lacombe, AB, Canada

24/Standard Bearer/October 1, 1996


October 1, 1996/Standard Bearer/25


