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A Reformed
Semi-Monthly
Magazine





                                              See "The Revelation of God's Wrath" - page 123
                                      ..%.
Vol.  73,  No.  6
December   15,  1996


CONTENTS:                                                                                                                                    December  15,  1996                                                                                         Fe
1                                                                                                                                                                                                                     I                               &andard
                                                                                                                                                                                                                           1 `%Y 1
                                                                                                                                                                                                                           &arer
Meditation - Herman Hoeksema
           The Revelation of God's Wrath . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Editorial - Prof. David J. Engelsma                                                                                                                                                                                        ISSN 0362-4692
           A Defense of (Reformed) Amillennialism                                                                                                                                                                          Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July, and August.
                       13. The Victory of Christ in History (concl.) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126                                                                                                     Published by the Reformed Free Publishing Association, Inc.,
In His Fear - Rev. Arie denHartog                                                                                                                                                                                          4949  Ivanrest Ave., Grandville, Ml 49416. Periodical Postage
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           A Parable to Warn the Young Man About the Power
                       of the Enticement of the Sin of Immorality (1) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128                                                                                                        Postmaster: Send address changes to the Standard Bearer,
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Go Ye Into All the World - Rev. Allen J. Brummel                                                                                                                                                                           EDITORIAL  COMMllTEE
           Ghana: A Country of Diversity and Challenge . . . . . . . . . i . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131                                                                                                             Editor: Prof. David J. Engelsma
Search the Scriptures - Rev. Mjfchell C. Dick                                                                                                                                                                              Secretary: Prof. Robert D. Decker
                                                                                                                                                                                                                           Managing Editor: Mr. Don Doezema
           The Light of. the World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133                                             DEPARTMENT  EDITORS
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Taking Heed to the Doctrine - Rev. Steven R. Key                                                                                                                                                                           Prof. R. Decker, Rev. A.  denHartog. Rev. M. Dick, Prof. H.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                           Hanko, Rev. R. Hanko, Rev. S. Key, Rev. K.  Koole, Rev. J.
           The Restraint of Sin? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137                                         Kortering, Rev. D. H. Kuiper, Mr. J. Lanting, Mrs. M. Lubbers,
Day of Shadows - Homer C. Hoeksema                                                                                                                                                                                         Rev. T. Miersma, Mr. G. Schipper, Rev. G. VanBaren,  Rev. R.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                           VanOverloop,  Mr. B. Wigger, Rev. B. Woudenberg.
           The Fall of our First Parents (cont.) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Book Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .       142          EDITORIAL  OFFICE            CHURCH  NEWS EDITOR
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1221  Standard  Bearer/December  15,1996


     The Revelation of God's Wrath
                                         I                                                -                                                J
                                              Men need that righteousness, for                 tally the wrath of God. That wrath
    "For the wrath of God is revealed         the wrath of God is revealed from                of God is revealed, the apostle
from heaven against all ungodliness           heaven against all ungodliness and               says. God's wrath is the constant
and unrighteousness of nzen, who hold         unrighteousness of men who hold                  reaction of His holiness against all
the truth in unrighteousness."                the truth in unrighteousness, that               that refuses to seek and acknowl-
                        Romans  1:18          is, who hold down the truth in                   edge Him as the highest good. It
                                              ynrighteousness.                                 becomes  active.in  the will and the
Introduction
M                                                 In order not to be ashamed of                power to curse. That is God's
          y text is intended to be            a thing that we represent, three                 wrath.
          an added reason for the             things are necessary. In the first                   God is holy. God's holiness is
          statement of the apostle            place, the thing must do what it is              probably His most distinct divine
in verse 16. There the apostle says:          supposed to do; it must do what                  attribute.    When Scripture says
"I am not ashamed of the gospel               we claim it will do. In the second               that God is holy, it sometimes
of Christ.  i I am not ashamed to             place, the thing that we represent               means almost the same thing as
preach it, to represent it, to preach         must actually be needed. In the                  that God is God. God's holiness
it wherever the Lord sends me,                third place, that particular thing               not only means that He is sepa-
even in Rome."                                which we represent must not only                 rated from all sin and corruption
    The first reason for this state-          be needed, but must also be  unexT               and unrighteousness, but it also
ment, the apostle gives in verses             celled, so that nothing can take its             means that He is separated from
16, 17:  "for it is the power of God          place. This, the apostle means to                all creatures. God's holiness is that
unto salvation to everyone that               say in the context.      "I am not               virtue in God by which He is en-
believefh, for. therein is the righ-          ashamed of the gospel of Christ,                 tirely other from any creature. The
teousness of God revealed."                   for it serves its purpose; it is an              distinctive virtue of God by which
Therefore, he is not ashamed of it.           efficacious power.       I   a m   n o t         He is entirely other from the crea-
No one needs to be ashamed of a               ashamed of the gospel, for it is                 ture is this, that God is always mo-
power that accomplishes such an               needed, the world being full of                  tivated by the will to seek  Him2
effect. The gospel is no philoso-             unrighteousness.         I am not                self. God is always motivated by
phy. It is not a human word. But              ashamed of the gospel, for it is un-             the will to seek Himself because
it is a power.                                excelled. No human wisdom has                    He is the highest good. Because
    The other reason why the                  ever effected what the gospel ef-                God is the highest good He must
apostle is not ashamed to preach              fects."                                          seek Himself. What is sin in us,
the gospel is expressed in my text.               For the wrath of God is still                namely, to seek ourselves, is vir-
It might be that, although the gos-           revealed from heaven.                            tue in God. God has His purpose
pel is such a power, men have no                  In this light we must look at                in Himself in all that He wills and
need of it. It might be that, al-             the text. The text in itself is nega-            does. That is God's active holi-
though the gospel is the revelation           tive. The purpose of the text lies               ness.
of the righteousness of God which             not in itself. The purpose of the                    In the second place, because of
is by faith, men are not in need of           text lies in the gospel. The pur-                that fact His holiness reveals itself
that righteousness. But the apostle           pose of the text is to show that                 in a twofold way according-as it
in the text tells us the opposite.            our need lies in the gospel and to               comes into contact with different
                                              create the feeling that we need the              objects. God's holiness is  .mercy
                                              righteousness of that gospel.                    when it comes into contact with
                                                                                               them that seek Him. That is the
Herman Hoeksema was the first edi-            The Wrath that is Revealed                       action of that holiness. That same
tor of the Standal'd  Bearer.                     The wrath of God is  emphati-                holiness becomes wrath, that is,

                                                                                                 December 15, 1996ptandard  Bearer/l 23


divine displeasure, the will to                     that "no" to curse. That "no" does       work, to whom you can give a dol-
curse, unto them who refuse to                      curse, and from it there is no es-       lar in the collection plate. That
seek and acknowledge Him. This                      cape.                                    God is just as much an idol as the
is the meaning of the apostle when                                                           heathen gods of wood and stone
he says that the wrath of God is                    The Provocation of this Wrath            in Paul's day. That is not God.
revealed.      The divine anger, the                      This "no" is constantly pro-       No, but God! If  -you know who
divine displeasure, the will to                     voked by what men do in the              God is, the wholly other, whom
curse, is revealed.                                 world. The apostle speaks reality.       you must always fear, whom you
     We must be careful when we                     He is speaking of the world. He          must always love, whom you must
speak of the wrath of God that we                   is speaking of the world as it re-       always obey, whose will you must
have in mind the wrath of God.                      ally is. He is speaking of the cul-      always do, whose honor you must
The wrath of God is not like the                    tured, the civilized world. He is        always seek, and if then you love
wrath of man. The wrath of God                      not speaking of men in the wilds         Him in reverent fear, then there is
is not a sudden, passing passion.                   of Africa. He is speaking of Rome.       godliness in the heart.
God does not flare up in anger.                     He is speaking of men who stood                 Ungodliness is just the oppo-
God's wrath is constant. It never                   at the pinnacle of culture. He is        site. Ungodliness is that you do
changes. It does not increase or                    not ashamed to preach the gospel         not love Him, do not fear Him, do
decrease. God's wrath is not a                      at Rome, for there the wrath of          not care about Him, never reckon
sudden passion, which soon passes                   God is revealed. This wrath is re-       with Him, and act as if He never
and for which He is then sorry.                     vealed today, as it was then. I          was there. Ungodliness does not
No, God's wrath is constant. It is                  know, men also hold this truth           mean that you curse and swear.
as constant as His holiness.                        down in unrighteousness. But the         That is hardly decent. But ungod-
     In the second place, this wrath                apostle says that there is an actual     liness is that God is not in all your
of God has all the attributes of                      operation of wrath in the world,       thoughts. Ungodliness is that you
the divine being. It is the                                  because the world provokes      breathe His air, eat His bread,
wrath of God. This means                      .q              it. By what? The apostle       drink His water, and partake of
that it is omnipresent. It               "1  aLL   men         says:  ' by ungodliness,      His bounties, and never say,
is everywhere. God is  ev-                zn every              unrighteousness, and the     "Thank you." That is ungodliness.
erywhere. God touches                 station of life           wicked attempt to hold       Ungodly also is modern philoso-
you; He besets you; He                   hold down              down the truth in unrigh-    p h y   ( I   m e a n   p h i l o s o p h y   t h a t
p u r s u e s   y o u ;   H e   s u r -   the  *ruth  in        teousness.    The apostle    throws God away for the pleasure
rounds you. God is  om-              unrighteousness.           does not mean to say         of saying that it cannot find Him).
nipresent.       So also is                This is              that this wrath is re-       Philosophy is ungodliness.
God's wrath.                           the reality  of          vealed wherever there is            In the second place, the apostle
     In the third place,                 the world.             unrighteousness and un-      says that it is unrighteousness that
the wrath of God is  ab-              By this reality           godliness and wherever       provokes God's wrath. Unrigh-
solutely efficacious. That              it provokes             the truth is held down in    teousness follows from ungodli-
is, it cannot be resisted.             from  heaven            unrighteousness. Rather,      ness. Unrighteousness in the heart
                                        God's "no."
It does what it wills. And                                    the apostle means that all     and in the walk is to be contrary
                                                                   a.
it wills to curse. Therefore,                                men hold the truth down in      to the will of God. Not to will
if we would understand the                                unrighteousness. Men of learn-     what God wills, that is unrigh-
reality of the text, we must under-                 ing, philosophers, men of culture,       teousness. The apostle means to
stand that the apostle means to say                 men for whom you take off your           say that the whole world is char-
that there is in this world, in this                hat, all men in every station of life    acterized by this ungodliness and
night of darkness in which we live,                 hold down the truth in unrigh-           unrighteousness. No matter how
an operation of the wrath of God                    teousness.     This is the reality of    cultured, how refined, how civi-
in everything. There is an opera-                   the world. By this reality it pro-       lized that world may be, the natu-
tion of the wrath of God around                     vokes from heaven God's "no."            ral man is ungodly and unrigh-
you and within you. There is in                           What is this provocation? Un-      teous. This is exactly what you and
this world a divine "no" to the sin                 godliness, the apostle says. Un-         I are by nature. And over against
of man. God says "no" always,                       godliness is the opposite of the fear    this ungodliness and unrighteous-
constantly, eternally, in the world,                of God. The fear of God, spring-         ness is God's terrible "no." It pur-
everywhere. God says "no" to the                    ing from the love of God, is godli-      sues you; it curses you; it drags
sin of man. That God says "no"                      ness. If you love God  - not a           you down; and you cannot escape
does not mean that He forbids it.                   god, not a god that is nice and lov-     it.
When God speaks there is power                      ing, not a god for whom you can                 Why do men do this?
in that "no." There is power in                     do something, for whom you can                  Why do men provoke the

124/Shndard   Bearer/December 15.1996


wrath of God, so that it pursues                         Do not say, "Yes, but there is        of that human race. And it brings
them and curses them at every                        common grace." There is no com-           the human race from corruption to
step?                                                mon grace. Do not try to light an         corruption until the end comes,
    Do they not know?                                oil lamp in our night. Our night          and the end is hell.
    Yes, the apostle says in the                     is just as, dark as the night in which        You can see it develop in an
third description which he gives                     Paul preached. Do not try to fix it       individual life, in family life, and
of the world, they hold down the                     up. Do not say, "I don't agree            in the life of society. You can eas-
truth in unrighteousness. This is                    with you." That is not the ques-          ily see this in our American fam-
an ethical principle. This is the                    tion. It is the Word of God. The          ily: the wrath of God is sweeping
dominating principle in the life of                  Word of God tells us that the             it on and bringing it from corrup-
natural man: he holds down the                       wrath of God is revealed from             tion to corruption. You can see' it
truth in unrighteousness. Not  a                     heaven against all ungodliness and        today in our economical world,
truth. Men seek after truth, as,                     unrighteousness of men, who hold          how the wrath of God is bringing
for example, the truth that two                      down the truth in unrighteousness.        it from corruption to corruption,
times two is four. But  the  truth,                  There is no outlet. You cannot            so that today the whole world is
they hold down in unrighteous-                       change it.                                crying for an economic savior."
ness.                                                                                          The general line of the develop-
    What is the truth? The truth                     The Revelation of this Wrath              ment of men, who hold down the
is God. The revelation of God,                           In this night the wrath of God        truth in unrighteousness, is the
God as He is, `God in His righ-                      is revealed. The apostle says that        way of destruction. There is no
teousness, in His holiness, in all                   the wrath of God is revealed from         way out. We must go on. There
His divine perfections, this truth,                  heaven. We cannot see Him. If we          is no escape from this wrath of
the apostle says, men know. This                     could see God as the text pictures        God. It pursues us every step of
is what he says in the following                     Him, the world would not have             the way.
verses. Men know this truth. That                    the peace that it seemingly has.              Is there no way out? Yes, in
is why they say that there is no                     But God is in heaven. We cannot           this night God declared the gos-
God. That  is. why we have athe-                     see Him.      But He frowns from          pel concerning His Son. He de-
ists. Atheism is not ignorance. Do                   heaven. We cannot see Him. He             clared the gospel concerning His
not be deceived by what people                       is in heaven. That is, His face is        Son, who became flesh. He took
call a difference of opinion, or an                  in heaven. But the apostle means          upon Himself our sin. He said:
honest error, when it comes to  the                  to say that in the world this wrath       "It is my delight to do thy will, 0
truth. When it comes to the truth                    of God, this "no" of God, this will       God." And God raised Him from
of God, men hold this truth down;                    to curse is revealed. This does not       the dead.
they suppress it in unrighteous-                     mean that God tells the world                 W h a t   d o e s   t h i s   m e a n ?   I t
ness.                                                about it. But it means that this          means that God said, "I stop say-
    W h a t   d o e s   t h i s   m e a n ?   I t    wrath is operating. It is plainly         ing `no' right here. There is no
means that men want to live in                       visible. We can plainly see God's         more wrath. I poured it out upon
unrighteousness.               They love             anger. We can see it in its opera-        the head of My Son, and My wrath
unrightepusness  and hate righ-                      tion. It is plainly evident that God      has been burned out in Him. He
teousness. Now comes the truth.                      curses. It is revealed everywhere         that believeth in Me shall no more
As the apostle explains in the fol-                  that God curses. Curses what?             see the wrath of God." What does
lowing verses "that which may be                     Sin? No, men! Men who hold the            this mean? It means that he who
known of God is manifest in them,                    truth in unrighteousness.                 says, "There is no hope for me,"
for God hath  shewed  it unto them.                      This is evident in many things.       and says, "Be merciful to me a sin-
They know God." When this truth                      The apostle in the following verses       ner," and seeks his righteousness
comes to men, whether they be                        merely points to the general line         in the risen Lord, will no more
white, black, yellow, or brown,                      in which this wrath is revealed.          taste the wrath of God. Having
whether this truth comes to them                     The apostle draws this line. The          been justified by faith, we have
from creation or from Scripture,                     wrath of God takes hold of man            peace with God.  0
or when it comes to them in the                      and forces him, giving him over
very body of His Son, they say,                      from corruption to corruption. We
"There is no God." Why? Because                      can easily see what is the end of
they hold down the truth in                          that pursuing wrath of God. The           * Hoeksema preached this sermon
unrighteousness. And if the truth                    end is nothing less than hell. The        in the late  193Os,  when the United
persists, as it persisted in Christ,                 wrath of God takes hold of the hu-        States and other nations were suf-
they crucify Him. That is the                        man race. It takes hold of you and        fering from severe economic de-
world. That is you and I.                            me as soon as we become a part            pression  - Ed.

                                                                                                 December  15,1996/Standard Bearer/l 25


  !IBBkm&~l                                                                                                 -.                 ~_
                                                   ;                                                              : .

                                                 A Defense of                                                         .'
              (Reformed) Amillenn~ialism
                   13. The Victory of Christ in History (concluded)

Thegross error of postmillen- poverty, sickness, and war; and of nations. Thus, the nations are
        nialism is that it miscon-                material prosperity -jobs, money,         saved and discipled, as Christ
        ceives the victory of Christ              houses, and long life.                    commanded in Matthew  .28:19. In
in history as carnal rather than                        This is the dominion of Christ      the salvation and obedience of the
spiritual. Gary North is wrong                    that is proclaimed by postmillen-         elect among them, the nations are
when he says, "It's not a question                nialism, especially by Christian  Re-     saved and discipled, regardless of
of `dominion vs. no dominion'; it's               constructionism. This is supposed         the numbers, whether many or
a question of  whose  dominion"                   to be the victory of Christ in his-       few. The postmillennial notion
(Unconditional Surrender,  ICE,                   tory, the flourishing of the Messi-       that the salvation of a nation re-
1988, p. 317).                                    anic kingdom.                             quires the conversion of a major-
     It is emphatically not a ques-                     It is a carnal dominion.            ity of the population is unbiblical.
tion of "whose dominion."                               The victory heralded by Re-         Just as the elect remnant in Israel
     Jesus Christ has dominion.                   formed amillennialism is spiritual.       was the real nation of Israel, even
     Jesus Christ has dominion in                 It is real victory. It is real victory    though they were the small minor-
the world in history.                             here and now. But it is victory           ity  (Ram. 9:6), so also the elect Chi-
     Jesus Christ has dominion                    according to the thinking of God.         nese are the real China, the elect
n o w .                                           It is contrary to human standards         Dutch are the real Netherlands,
     Not only does Jesus Christ                   of victory. It makes all natural hu-      and the elect English are the real
now  .have dominion over all crea-                man thinking about victory, in-           England. If the victory of Christ
tures, including His enemies, by                  cluding that of Christian  Recon-         is a matter of sheer numbers,
His power, but also He now has                    structionism, foolishness. No eye         Christ is the loser in history,.since
dominion in His church by His                     can see this victory, just as no eye      He saves fewer humans than per-
Spirit and Word.                                  can see the kingdom that is estab-        ished in Adam, as even the most
     The question is not, "Whose                  lished by this victory (John  3:3).       optimistic postmillennialist must
dominion?"                                        The victory and kingdom of Christ         admit.
     But the question is, "What                   can only be known by faith.                   Christ's victory in history is
kind of dominion?"                                      The true victory of Christ in       the gathering of the church out of
     Specifically, the question is,               history is His saving of the elect        the nations.          This gathering in-
"Carnal  dominion or  spiritual  do-              church from sin, It is His empow-         cludes that the  ,church is faithful
minion?"                                          ering that church to confess His          to her calling to confess Jesus
     Carnal dominion is earthly vic-              name. It is His preservation of the       Christ. He Himself said that build-
tory. It is victory according to the              church in holiness of life unto life      ing the church is His work in his-
thinking of man. It consists of                   eternal.    To this saving of the         tory (Matt.  16:18, 19). The church
numbers  - the conversion of a                    church belongs Christ's institution       is His glorious and indestructible
majority of -humans; of physical                  of true churches that preach the          kingdom, the fulfillment of the
force  - a Christian police force                 gospel purely, administer the sac-        prophecy of Psalm 72, as the
and army; of control of culture  -                raments properly, and exercise            Heidelberg Catechism teaches in
godly television, radio, and news-                Christian discipline rightly.             Lord's Day 48 when it explains the
papers; o f   d e l i v e r a n c e   f r o m           The conquering Christ gathers       petition, "Thy kingdom come," as
worldly cares and natural miser-                  the elect church out of all nations       meaning, "Preserve and increase
ies  - the virtual eradication of                 and institutes true churches in all       thy church."

126/Standard  Bearer/December 15, 1996


     Since the church is made up                  der the cross" (Matt.  24:9, 10,  21-                  power. Since Calvinists are few,
of her elect members, the domin-                  31; John  15:18-16:4;  John  16:33; II                 and Christian Reconstructionists
ion of Christ is also His reign in                Thess.,  1:4-10; II Tim. 3; I Pet.  4:12-              still      fewer,      the    Christian
the heart and life of each of His                 14;  Rev.).                                            Reconstructionists make alliances
chosen  .people.           The Heidelberg                 Only the spiritual character of                with        the      more     numerous
Catechism begins its explanation                  Christ's victory in each elect be-                     charismatics in order to realize the
of the victorious kingdom of Christ               liever explains the fact that the                      dominion of Messiah (see Bruce
here: "Rule us so by thy Word                     man or woman who, according to                         Barron,  Heaven on Earth? The So-
and Spirit that we may submit our-                Romans  8:37, is conqueror in his-                     cial  b Political Agendas  of Do-
selves more and more to thee."                    tory, indeed, "more than con-                          minion  Theology, Zondervan, 1992
The victory of Christ in history is               queror," is at the same time, and                      and Michael G. Moriarty, "The Do-
the faith, confession, battle against             qll the while, "killed all the day                     minion Pursuit: Will the Church
sin, warfare against the world,                   long . . . accounted as sheep for the                  Christianize the World?" in  The
obedience to the law, repentance,                 slaughter" (v. 36).                                    New Charismatics,  Zondervan,
and, endurance to the end of every                        At the same time, victorious                   1992). The dream of an earthly
elect, redeemed, and regenerated                  and persecuted! Christian Recon-                       kingdom of Christ always pro-
child of God.                                     struction cannot understand this,                      duces strange bedfellows.
     The victory of Christ is pro-                does not know what to make of                                  Worst of all, postmillennialism,
gressive. The perfection of it, as                this. Only the spiritual mind, the                     in fact, charges Christ with being
regards the church, the individual                mind of Christ, understands this.                      a weak and defeated King in his-
elect, and the creation, will be re-              The natural mind supposes that                         tory. At least, up to the present
alized by Christ Himself person-                  the victorious. party does the per-                    time. For as yet His kingdom has
ally at His coming. The perfec-                   secuting.                                              not been victorious in history, as
tion of His victory is not to be                          Blinded by its assumption that                 postmillennialism counts victory.
within history, but as the end of                 the victory of Christ in history is                    For almost 2,000 years Christ has
history (I Cor.  15:22-28; Rev. 21;                       carnal,       postmillennialism                failed to "Christianize" the world.
Rom.  8:18-23). There is good                               stumbles into other, glaring                 So far, He has been a "loser." In
reason for this. It must be                                  errors. For one thing, a                    addition, the leading  postmillen-
demonstrated, so that                    The victory          L o r a i n e   B o e t t n e r   c a n    nialists attribute the failure of
none can doubt or gain-                    of  Christ            cheerily announce that                  Christ to achieve victory to the
say, that Christ, Christ                  in history             the world is getting bet-               weakness and faithlessness of His
personally, is Savior and                is the faith,           ter right along. Chapter                church. The Commander has poor
Lord to the glory of                     confession,              7  of his  The Millennium              troops. J. Marcellus Kik has writ-
God.                                        battle                   (Presbyterian and Re-               ten:
     The King accom-                     against sin,                formed,  1958)  is en-
plishes this victory by                    warfare                   titled, "The World is                 Unfortunately the Church of to-
the gospel (Mark  16:15;                   against                   Growing Better." This,                day does not realize the power
II Cor.  l&3-5).                          the world,                 in a century that has                 that Christ has given her. Christ
     To mock this spiri-                  obedience                  witnessed the horrors                 has placed in her hands the chain
tual victory of Christ is                to the  law,                of Nazi Germany; the                  by which she can bind Satan. She
                                                                                                           can restrain his influence over the
unbelief.                                repentance,                 atrocities of Stalin's So-            nations. But today the Church be-
 T o   b e   d i s s a t i s f i e d    and endurance                viet Union; the slaugh-               moans the fact that evil is becom-
with  it,is ingratitude.                  to the end              ters of Mao's China; the                 ing stronger and stronger. She
    To underestimate its                of every  elect,         killings of Pol Pot's                     bemoans the fact that the world
a w e s o m e   p o w e r   a n d       redeemed, and            Cambodia; the cruelties                   is coming more and more under
wondrous glory is folly.                 regenerated           of the Africans at the                      the control of the Devil. Whose
    To be oblivious to it                    child            present time; and the                        fault is that? It is the Church.
because one has his heart                  of  God.          butcheries of their own off-                  She has the chain and does not
set on a carnal victory and                                 spring by the United States.                   have the faith to bind Satan even
                                                                                                           more firmly. Satan is bound and
earthly kingdom of the Messiah                         This, in a century that has seen                    the Church knows it not! Satan
is "Jewish dreams."                              the "Christian" West sink into the                        can be bound more firmly and the
    Only the spiritual nature of the             depths of approving homosexual-                           Church does it not!  (An
victory of Christ in history harmo-              ity..                                                     Eschatology of Victory,  Presbyte-
nizes with the teaching of the Bible                      For another thing, the dream                     rian and Reformed, 1971, p. 196)
that the church in the world is  a-              of earthly victory arouses the de-
church that is always reproached                 sire to bring it about, quickly. This                   Gary North agrees: "The only
and persecuted  - a church  "un-                 demands numbers and political                           thing that is holding up the  vic-

                                                                                                           December 15,1996/Standard Bearer/l  27


tory of God's home guard is. the               to make His men dependable is a                                 He has been conquering in the
home guard's lack of confidence,               defeated Jesus.                                            gospel from Pentecost to this mo-
lack of training, and lack of tac-                   North admits this: "Christ is                        ment.
tics"  (Umonditional  Surrender,  p.           waiting  fey  His church to  surround                           His Messianic kingdom has
366).                                          Satan's last outpost. Christ is wait-                      come in its prophesied power,
    This is a reflection on Jesus              ing fey the work of the leaven to re-                      peace, riches, and glory. World-
Christ. For, as North declares,                place Satan's leaven in the dough of                       wide!
Jesus is the "Supreme Allied Com-              creation" (Unconditional Suwender,                              Faithful, zealous, energetic
mander" (p. 365). If only, He had              p. 332; the emphasis is North's).                          "troops," made willing in this  j the
better troops, that is, a stronger                   What is the difference between                       day of His power, serve Him, do-
church! But why doesn't He? Has                a Jesus who is helplessly waiting                          ing all that He commands them to
He been unable now for 2,000                   for men to get busy finally to bring                       do, although not perfectly. These
years to create men and women                  about His kingdom and the Jesus                            are the living members of the true,
who are strong and faithful enough             of Arminianism who is helplessly                           R e f o r m e d   a n d   P r e s b y t e r i a n
to do His will and bring about His             waiting for men to let Him reign                           churches in the world.
earthly kingdom?                               in their hearts?                                                Jesus is victor.
    0, the weak Jesus Christ of                      Neither of them is the Jesus                              Really.
Christian Reconstructionism!                   Christ of Reformed amillennialism.                              A spiritual victor.
    The Jesus who depends upon                       Our Jesus is Lord.                                                                                                          cl
men and who is evidently unable                      He conquered in His cross and                                                                               - DJE
                                               resurrection.
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                                          A Parable t Warn
                              the Young Man About
                   the Power of the.Enticement
                    of the Sin of Immorality (1)
For some time already now, this chapter contains for the young My prayer is that the power of this
          the Young Adults Fellowship          (really for the young and the old)                         parable will come across to you
          at our church has been               regarding the enticement of the sin                        and that it will have its intended
studying the book of Proverbs. We              of immorality and the dreadful                             effect.
have been amazed time and again                consequences this sin has for those                             I remind you that throughout
by the treasures of practical spiri-           who fall into it. Because today's                          the book of Proverbs the inspired
tual wisdom which this book con-               society is so saturated with this                          writer is addressing his spiritual
tains.                                         awful sin, and because temptations                         son whom he loves very dearly.
    One of the outstanding chap-               to it are present on every hand, I                         No counselor of the youth ever
ters of Proverbs is chapter seven.             decided to direct the attention of                         loved his patients as this spiritual
Studying it again I was deeply im-             our readers to the extremely effec-                        counselor does. He cares for their
pressed by the powerful warning                t i v e   a n d   r e l e v a n t   p a r a b l e   o f    deepest welfare. He loves them so
                                               Solomon, the wisest man that ever                          much that he earnestly warns them
                                               lived. Perhaps before reading this                         about sin and its dreadful conse-
                                               article you should take time to                            quences. His fervent desire is to
Rev.  denHartog is pastor  of  Hope            read Proverbs 7. I will try to give                        teach his young patients the per-
Protestant Reformed Church in                  a brief summary of the main teach-                         fect and absolute wisdom of God.
Redlands, California.                          ing of this chapter of God's Word.                              Some commentators are of the

1 PSIStandard  Bearer/December 15.1996


opinion that we must understand         therefore he will not spare in the       tion lurks. He enjoys the thrill and
Proverbs 7 as a kind of allegory.       day of vengeance. He will not re-        excitement of temptation. Perhaps
They find not only a warning in         gard any ransom; neither will he         he does not at this time have the
this chapter against sexual sin, but    rest content, though thou givest         express intention in his heart to
a more general description of the       many gifts"  Prov.  6:30-35).            follow after the sin of the deed of
seductive power of sin. Perhaps             In the parable Solomon speaks        adultery. However, he already has
this is true. There is certainly ap-    of looking through the lattice of        adultery in his heart, and in his
plication of this parable to other      the window of his house and ob-          imaginations. Maybe he still thinks
sins in the world. However, we be-      serving a foolish young man in the       that he is strong enough that he
lieve the main purpose of this pas-     streets of the city in the dark hours    can enjoy the thrill of the arousal
sage is to warn about the sin of        of the night. One commentator in-        of his sinful nature without falling
immorality. Such warning is so          terprets the window through              into the gross sin of the deed of
necessary and so urgent in our          which the unnamed observer wit-          adultery. The foolish young man
day.                                    nesses the tragic scene  which.un-       dwells by the corner of the house
    Chapter seven of Proverbs, as       folds in the parable to be "the win-     of the harlot (that is really who
we said, is a parable. There are, in    dow of the Word of God." The             the woman of the parable is,
the main, two characters in this        young man in the parable is said         though she may seem to all ap-
parable.                                to be among the "simple ones."           pearances at times to be a faithful
    The one is a young man. Some        He is described as one "void of          and respectable wife to her hus-
have called him a farmer's son be-      understanding." Though the in-           band).    The young man dwells
cause he seems naive about the          spired writer of this parable loves      near the corner of the harlot's
dangers of the wicked life of the       God's covenant youth very dearly,        house.    He is hoping to get a
city. Such naivete does not of          he minces no words in calling this       glimpse of her, just enough for a
course exist today among farmers'       young man "void of understand-           little excitement.
sons. The young man in the par-         ing." He is tragically foolish. He           Already at this point in the sor-
able may have been a single young       is sinfully foolish. He is woefully      did drama this young man is ex-
man. He may even have been a            ignorant of the great dangers that       tremely foolish. The Christian
young married man, who sins             lurk in the way that he is going.        young man (and young woman) is
grievously against the wife of his      He is however willingly and inex-        exhorted in Scripture to "flee
youth.                                  cusably ignorant, for this young         youthful lust." They are not to flirt
    The other character in the par-     man was one born in a covenant           with temptations.       They are to
able is a scandalous adulteress. She    home. He belonged to the nation          know the extreme dangers of the
is a married woman. She symbol-         of Israel, where the law of God          temptations of the world and stay
izes the epitome of the sin of adul-    was taught to young people from          as far from them as possible. The
tery.                                   childhood on.                            church, in earnest love and con-
    The reason why the second               The foolish young man is pic-        cern for her youth, must warn
character is a married woman is         tured as passing through the street      them regarding the places of
not because the sin of fornication      near the corner of the house of a        worldly entertainment, the dance
(sexual relationships between un-       known adulteress. It is in "the twi-     and the theater, the disco, even the
married young people) is not as         light in the evening, in the black       ribald worldly parties of our day.
serious a sin. Rather, the sin of       and dark night." We can easily un-       What church today loves its youth
immorality is compounded when           derstand these details of the par-       enough to do that anymore?
it violates one's own and someone       able, can we not? Much evil is               We continue to follow the
else's marriage. In chapter six         committed in the darkness of the         vivid picture painted by the in-
Solomon has seriously warned:           night.    Foolish men imagine that       spired writer of Proverbs, but even
"Men do not despise a thief, if he      the darkness of the night covers         in this we must do so with the
steals to satisfy his soul when he      up sin, so that no one sees it being     Spirit of sanctification in our hearts
is hungry; but if he be found, he       committed. By doing their sin in         lest we are stirred up in sinful ex-
shall restore sevenfold; he shall       the night they expect to avoid de-       citement by this picture. This is
give all the substance of his house.    tection. They forget, however, that      an awful picture of the temptation
But  whoso committeth adultery          before God, the righteous judge          of sin. This showing of the bitter
with a woman  lacketh  understand-      of heaven and earth, the darkness        fruits of sin, the judgment of God,
ing: he that doeth it destroyeth        and the light are both alike. The        is not Hollywood's portrayal of the
his own soul. A wound and dis-          darkness does not hide us from           excitement of sin. The parable is
honor shall he get; and his re-         God.                                     intended to portray the reality of
proach shall not be wiped away.             The young man purposely              temptation in order to warn us fi-
For jealousy is the rage of a man:      wanders into areas where tempta-         nally of the dreadful consequences

                                                                                   December 15,1996/Standard Bearer/l 29


of the sin and the judgment of God       are the opposite of the God-fear-      professes to having done her reli-
that follows upon it.                    ing woman who is the keeper of         gious duty. She has made her of-
    The second main character of         the house, who is characterized by     fering in the temple. She is not
the parable suddenly appears on          the godly virtues of a meek and        really such an evil person. Con-
the scene. "And behold, there met        quiet spirit.    The adulterous        sorting with her will not be that
him a woman with the attire of an        women of the world promise a life      bad: Even professing Christians
harlot, and subtle of heart." We         of pleasure and excitement, but        engage now and then in the sin of
must not imagine that this woman         they will in fact bring misery,        immorality. It is not all that  bad:
is a picture only of those engaged       shame, and destruction to those        Everyone is doing it. Make your
in the vile occupation of harlotry.      who fall prey to their temptations.    offering in the temple and your sin
There are many who would not             Solomon wants us all to know how       will all be washed away again and
"stoop so low" as to visit the           terribly ungodly these women are,      you can go on in your life of sin
abode of a harlot. Yet they com-         and how extremely dangerous it         without pangs of conscience.
mit adultery as contemptible and         is to have anything to do with             The woman in the parable fur-
with as disastrous consequences as       them.                                  ther entices the young man by tell-
those who consort with the harlot.           This woman is further said to      ing him the  lie that she has come
Furthermore, the women today             be without and in the streets. She     forth specifically to meet him. She
who profess to be Christians but         lieth in wait at every corner. The     has been diligently looking for
"freely sleep around" with one           meaning of this again is obvious.      him. He is exactly what she al-
man after another who is not their       The temptation of this sin is ev-      ways wanted.           She pretends to
husband are in fact harlots before       erywhere. It is perhaps hard to be-    have genuine love and great inter-
God.                                     lieve that this evil was already so    est in the young man. He is very
    The harlot in the parable is         prevalent in Solomon's day. What       attractive to her. She wants him
wearing her attire. She is dressed       a proof of the fact that there is      very badly. She wants especially
in such a way that she will attract      "nothing new under the sun." The       him and only him, no one else.
the adulterous eye of evil men. She      world has always been engulfed             Finally she gives an irresistible,
finds great pleasure in doing this       by the sins of immorality. Yet  all    graphic, and sensual description of
kind of thing. She prides herself        of it is so much more graphic with     the pleasures of sin that await the
in seeing one man after another          the availability of pornography        young man if only he will come to
give her the look over. She is           and blatantly immoral movies and       her house. "I have decked my bed
shameless in her sin. She has made       videos in our modern-day world.        with coverings of tapestry, with
sin the profession of her life.              There follows in the parable       carved works, with fine linen of
Solomon describes her as subtle          the description of the scandalous-     Egypt. I have perfumed my bed
of heart. The point of this descrip-     ness and brazen wickedness of this     with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.
tion is that with her enticements        woman. "So she caught him, and         Come, let us make our fill of love
she will offer that which will bring     kissed him, and with an impudent       until the morning: let us solace
great sinful pleasure. She promises      face said unto him, I have peace       ourselves with loves."
what she pretends to be good, but        offerings with me; this day have I         W h a t   f o o l i s h   y o u n g   m a n
she has a selfish and desperately.       paid my vows." That she has paid       driven by sinful passions could
evil purpose in her heart. She is        her vows could mean one of sev-        ever resist such temptation? What
seeking her own selfish pleasure         eral things. Some give the mean-       extreme pleasures are promised.
and glory and at the same time the       ing to be that this woman has with         But it must be remembered
ruin  -and complete destruction of       her the portion of the thank offer-    that the reason why this has gone
those who are attracted by her.          ing which those who offered in the     so far is that this young man be-
    "She is loud and stubborn; her       temple were allowed to keep for        gan by dwelling in the streets in
feet abide not in her house." In our     themselves. The devout Israelite       the night by the corners of the
modern world such women are ac-          would take this home for a formal      house of the harlot. This man will
tually glamorized. They are con-         religious ceremony in his own          soon go to his slaughter like an
stantly being featured on the front      home. This woman boasted of            ox. This young man is going the
pages of the world's magazines.          having this portion in her hands       way of hell. He is going down to
They are the movie stars who gain        because she wanted to invite the       the chambers of death. Be warned!
great attention and fame. They           young man she was tempting to             We shall continue our consid-
sometimes make millions through          come to her house for a feast.         eration of this parable next time.
the promotion of their life of sin.         Others have interpreted this                                                    cl
Solomon wants us to know that            part of the parable to be a shock-
such women are the total opposite        ing indication of this evil woman's
of modesty and godliness. They           attempt to "sanitize her sin." She

13OfStandard  Bearer/December 15,1996


                   `Ghana: A Country of Diversity
                                                       and Challenge
After more than 20 years of difficult to predict when one or the manding bribes. The port cities of
           correspondence and visits, other is to begin. Generally the                            the Gold Coast became powerful
           the way has been opened                     most rain, between 30 and 45               commercial centers. In 1807 the
by God for our churches to involve                     inches, falls between March and            slave trade was abolished by Brit-
themselves in a difficult and in-                      July and between September and             ain. Raw materials such as palm
timidating work. This is a work                        November. The month of August              oil and cocoa began to be exported
which could well take as many                          as well as the period from Decem-          in the place of slaves, and the
more years to establish. When by                       ber to February is dry. The hot,           country retained its commercial
God's'grace it becomes established                     dry winds howl across the Sahara           importance.
it will be a work that will require                    from December to February, blow-               In the late  18OOs,  due to the
much  man+ower  and financial sac-                     ing down not only the heat but             greed for new colonies and the
rifice.  ,Out of love for God and                      also the sand from the Sahara              lack of raw materials, Britain in-
His truth we face the challenge                        desert.    The average year-round          vaded the Gold Coast and over-
with confident hope. That chal-                        temperature is 80 degrees Fahren-          threw the existing king. From 1901
lenge is establishing a mission in                     heit.                                      until 1956 the Gold Coast was
Ghana, Africa.                                                                                    ruled by the British, but its people
     Where is Ghana? What is life                      History                                    increasingly chafed under the un-
like in Ghana? How much money                              The country of Ghana has a             fairness of the colonial system.
does an average  Ghanaian  make?                       rich history and an important place        The country finally gained inde-
What challenges do we as churches                      in West Africa. Known from an              pendence in 1957, and in 1960
face in establishing a mission                         early time for its wealth of gold,         Ghana, with its new name, became
there? These are questions which                       Ghana was named "El Mina" by               a republic. Harsh, power-hungry
are being asked after Synod  i996                      the Portuguese, meaning "the               rulers and corrupt politics brought
o f   t h e   P r o t e s t a n t   R e f o r m e d    mine." French explorers called the         Ghana into a bad economic state
Churches approved calling a mis-                       district the "Gold  Coastl" which          throughout the 1970s.            Govern-
sionary to labor in Accra, Ghana.                      remained its name throughout the           ment overspending, mismanage-
                                                       colonial era until independence in         ment, corruption, uncontrolled in-
Location and Climate                                   1957 when it became known as               flation, and drought reduced this
     Ghana, a country of about 18                      Ghana. Ghana still has an esti-            once prosperous country to pov-
million people, is located about                       mated  126,000,OOO  pounds of gold         erty. In 1982 the economy col-
5,000 miles- away from us on the                       waiting to be dug from the ground.         lapsed almost completely. Under
southern coast of West Africa. The                         Many European nations envied           new leadership, the country has
rectangular country compares to                        the Portuguese control of the Afri-        seen steady economic recovery
the state of Missouri in size. The                     can coast, and the Dutch, English,         since 1984 at approximately 5% per
widest distance from east to west                      French, Danes, Swedes, and Ger-            year. Still the average yearly in-
measures about 310 miles, while it                     mans began to flock to the Gold            come per person is only $400.
is 445 miles long from north to                        Coast.      Disputes    a n d   w a r s
south.                                                 abounded over who would control            Education
     Southern Ghana has two wet                        not only the gold market, but also             Children are supposed to go
seasons and two dry seasons. It is                     the slave trade which was becom-           to school for at least 10 years after
                                                       ing increasingly popular. Europe-          they turn six years old. The gov-
                                                       ans traded linen, silk, beads, cop-        ernment provides free schooling
                                                       per, brass, guns, gunpowder, and           throughout the country. Students
Rev.  Brummel is the pastor of the                     alcohol for the gold and the slaves.       are required to study English,
Protestant Reforemd Church in                          Many locals grew rich by working           which is the official language of
Edgerton, Minnesota.                                   alongside the Europeans or by de-          the country. Students can apply

                                                                                                    December  15,  1996/Standard   Bearer/l 31


for admission to one of the three                  and practices have been tolerated                        vate transportation is also com-
universities in Ghana if they do                   and placed alongside Christian                           mon. Due to the inefficiency and
well in school.                                    practices. Membership in charis-                         unreliability of the busing system,
    There are six major language                   matic churches, offering excite-                         synod approved purchasing a
and cultural divisions in Ghana.                   ment and miracles, is growing by                         used, rugged vehicle for our mis-
The country has made remarkable                    the thousands.                                           sionary.
progress in uniting these various                       Northern Ghana contains over
ethnic groups without tension.                     four million people who have                             The Challenges
One contributing factor has been                   never heard the gospel. It is esti-                          Although a high percentage of
making English the official lan-                   mated that another two million                           the southern Ghanaians profess to
guage. Although English is the of-                 northerners have moved to the                            be Christians, many have not
ficial language, one or more of the                s o u t h   a n d   h a v e   n o t   y e t   b e e n    heard the true gospel of Jesus
other languages would have to be                   reached by missionaries. Many of                         Christ.     Enamored by a desire to
learned by the missionary who                      these individuals are being easily                       be like the Europeans, many  Gha-
goes to Ghana. The literacy rate,                  swayed to Islam. Along with the                          naians outwardly profess Chris-
though improving and one of the                    nominal Christians, there remain                         tianity, but continue to practice
highest in Africa, is only 53%.                    over five million adherents of Is-                       their traditional religions. The
                                                   lam and traditional religions                            truth of the gospel which demands
Christianity                                       throughout the southern half of the                      reform in every area  of  life must
    The government of Ghana,                       country.*                                                be preached. Worship which rev-
though formerly hostile to Chris-                                                                           erences God must be promoted.
tianity, now provides its citizens                 Life                                                     Toward that end, synod decided
with religious freedom.                                 A favorite dish in Ghana is                         that our churches should begin
    As early as the mid-1800s                      black bean stew, which contains                          their own indigenous work. Al-
many missionary societies began to                 vegetables, fish, and meat. Fresh                        though we have much contact with
establish themselves in Ghana.                     vegetables, fruits, and various va-                      other groups of believers, espe-
Hundreds of schools were built by                  rieties of meat, especially fish, are                    cially the Evangelical Presbyterian
the missionary societies, and many                 enjoyed by the Ghanaians.                                Church of Ghana, synod deemed
of the Ghanaians became not only                        Housing varies greatly  be:                         it wiser to begin an independent
Christian, but also highly edu-                    tween the different areas of the                         work. Uncompromising, biblical
cated, desiring to become more                     country. In the city of Accra mod-                       worship must be promoted from
"European." Christianity had a                     ern housing and conveniences are                         the beginning.
profound effect on the culture and                 available. In Accra, the mission-                            Our missionary will need to be
society, but did not spread far be-                ary will have ready access to tele-                      polemic in his teaching. Out of
yond the coastal regions of the                    phone services, including access to                      love for the truth we must sharply
country.                                           the Internet. Within the more re-                        defend the truth so that the  Gha-
    B e t w e e n   6 0 %   a n d   7 0 %   o f    mote villages the houses are gen-                        naians may learn to discern the
southern Ghanaians profess to be                   erally rectangular homes with mud                        truth from the error. They must
Christian. Of these, about 30% are                 walls and thatch or tin roofs. A                         be equipped to defend the truth
Protestant, 20% Roman Catholic,                    central well is situated in the                          of the gospel against  Pentecos-
and 20% part of other sects and                    middle of a group of homes, and                          talism, Roman Catholicism, and Is-
groups including Jehovah's Wit-                    all the residents are dependent                          lam.
nesses, Mormans, Church of the 12                  upon it for their water. Few vil-                            Our additional goal is to bring
Apostles, and others. Although                     lages have electricity or access to                      the gospel into the remote north-
40% of southern Ghanaians profess                  telephone.                                               ern regions of Ghana. In order to
to be affiliated with a church, less                    The chief means of transporta-                      accomplish that goal, the mission-
than 15% attend church regularly.                  tion is the public bus system.  Pri-                     ary will labor through preaching
Throughout the entire country the                                                                           and teaching to establish a church
percentages are, approximately:                                                                             in Accra. The Lord willing, once
45% traditional beliefs, 43% Chris-                *    All statistical information is                      a church in Accra is established,
tianity of some kind, and 12%                      gleaned from Patrick Johnstone, Op-                      further outreach will be facilitated
Muslim.                                            eration  World  (OM Publishing:                          to the villages through the agency
    Currently all religions are tol-               Singapore;  1993),  pp. 241-244, and
                                                   Larry Vanderaa,                                          and help of that church. Families
                                                                            A Survey  for  Chris-
erated in Ghana, resulting often in                tian Reformed World Missions  of                         who move to the cities and become
a mixture between traditional                      Missions and Churches in West  Af-                       Christians have relatives and fam-
spirit and ancestor worship and                    rica (Christian Reformed World Mis-                      ily in the rural areas to whom they
Christianity. Pagan world-views                    sions: Grand Rapids;  19911,  pp. 18-23.                 would naturally desire to bring the

132/Standard  Bearer/December 15, 1996


truth.      Depending on how God           ary to be proficient enough in a           those who are nominal Christians,
prospers the work, more mission-           new language to communicate,               but also from the unreached
aries might need to be called to           and four or five years before he           peoples of the world. This is His
labor in this country.                     may be able to preach effectively.         promise: "Lo, I am with you
        The life of the missionary will       .-The  challenge of educating the       alway,  even unto the end of the
involve sacrifice. He and his fam-         children, not only of the mission-         world" (Matt.  28:20). May He lead
ily, along with the volunteer help-        ary but also of the believers whom         us to those whom He in His sov-
ers, will live far below the stan-         God in His grace brings to our mis-        ereign good pleasure has deter-
dards of our country. Most mod-            sion, will demand much wisdom.             mined to gather to Himself. We
ern conveniences are available in              God is sovereign over all mis-         confess: "And that men may be
Accra, but our missionary will not         sion work, including this work in          brought to believe, God mercifully
find there the affluent life-style we      Ghana. We are encouraged that              sends the messengers of these most
take for granted in America. Be-           He has already moved more than             joyful tidings, to whom he wills at
sides, the laws, customs, and val-         five individuals and three couples         what time he'pleaseth; by whose
ues of the culture will be differ;         to express willingness to accom-           ministry men are called to repen-
ent.                                       pany the missionary as volunteer           tance and faith in Christ crucified"
        The learning of another lan-       helpers. He will raise up the man          (Canons of Dordt, First Head, Art.
guage well enough to preach it will        of His choosing to labor as mis-           3). Our prayer is that God will be
take years of hard work. Experi-           sionary. God will produce fruit            pleased to use our churches for
enced missionaries have written            upon the faithful preaching of the         this great work. We firmly believe
that it often takes two or three           gospel. He will use us to gather           that He will bless that work which
years of hard work for a mission-          His precious church not only from          is done to His honor and glory.  0




                     "The Light of the World"
                                                 John 8:12=30

Amazing Teacher, this Jesus of been shedding their glow all over to be: the children of the devil (v.
        Nazareth!                          Jerusalem to  Himself,  the  true light    44).
        What other teacher lectures        of the Feast?  (Cf. D.A. Carson,  The              But Jesus shines. In the pas-
about  Himself?  What other teacher        Gospel According to  Johlz,   p. 337.)     sage before us He boldly declares
speaks with such authority?                Was Jesus' claim to be "the light"         His authority and its heavenly ori-
Whose words besides His not only           a reference to His having exposed          gin (vv. 12-29). He shows He is
inform, but save? Who may teach,           the moral darkness of the scribes          the light who is the Truth who sets
besides Him, and demand for                and Pharisees who had brought to           free (vv. 30ff.). And then, in con-
Himself the  worship  of those who         Him a woman caught in adultery             firmation of His words, the Light
sit at His feet?                           (John  &l-11)?                             shines upon a man blind from his
        Who else might say, would              Maybe a combination of these           birth so that he sees  (9:1-5)! Jesus,
say, could say: "I am the light of         things. Whatever connection Jesus          the light of the world! Truly in
the world"?                                was making between Himself as              Him the Sun of righteousness is
        Astounding claim!                  Light and recent events, the Phari-        arisen with healing in His wings!
        Was Jesus drawing the atten-       sees recognize at least some of the
tion of the people away from the           ramifications of what He says, and
burning torches of the Feast of            therefore seek to discredit Him.
Tabernacles which had recently             They debate about the credibility
                                           of Jesus' testimony (vv.  12-20).
                                           They show they are from beneath            Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God!
Rev.  Dick is pastor of Grace Protes-      (v. 23). They are proven to be ex-                 Jesus' declaration that He is
tant Reformed Church in Standale,          actly what the light exposes them          the light of the world is the sec-
Michigan.                                                                             ond of the great "I Am" statements

                                                                                        December 15, 1996/Standard  Bearer/l  33


in John. The others are in John                        whence I come, and whither I go."            all who follow Jesus true believers
6:35;   10:9,   1 1 ;   .l1:25;   14:6;  i5:5.         Show how Jesus teaches His heav-             (cf. John  6:2,  66)?
What is Jesus saying in each one?                      enly origin in verses 16,  l&23,  26,            The Pharisees were "anti-dis-
How does each relate to the other?                     and 29. How does this fact of                ciples." That is, they were the op-
     The concept "light" in Scrip-                     Jesus' heavenly origin (and  desti:          posite  of disciples of Jesus, and also
ture signifies many things, all of                     nation) authenticate Himself and             opposed  to true disciples and dis-
them good. It signifies things like                    His testimony? Find other verses             cipleship. They  show.this  by not
truth, purity, knowledge, and sal-                     in John where Jesus points to the            believing in Jesus (v.  24). They
vation. Its opposite, darkness,  sigT                  same thing about Himself (for ex-            show this too by not being able to
nifies falsehood, impurity, igno-                      ample,  3:11-13).                            understand that of which Jesus
rance, and damnation. Point out                            Another way Jesus authenti-              speaks (vv.  19,25,27).  They show
from Scripture various texts which                     cates His testimony is by claiming           this by refusing to listen to Jesus'
mention these important concepts.                      for Himself an intimate union with           condemnation of themselves. They
(Hint: start with I John  1:5!)                        the Father in heaven. He speaks,             show this by attempting to trap
     Just how is Jesus "light"? In                     for example, of the fact that He is          Jesus, and destroy His credibility.
Himself? For us? Confer these                          not alone, but with the Father (v.           In connection with this, Jesus
and other passages: Exodus  13:21,                     16; cf. also v.  29). Find other             blames the Pharisees for judging
22; Psalm  27:l;   36:9;  119:105; Isaiah              phrases in this passage which                "after the flesh" (v. 15). What does
49~6;   60:19-22;  Revelation  21:23,24.               show the intimacy of Father and              Jesus mean by judgment when He
If Jesus is the Savior of His  .people                 Son.                                         describes them as being "from be-
only, and that He indeed is, how                           In close connection with the             neath" (or "below"), and "of this
then is He the light  of  the world?                   above, Jesus confirms His testi-             world"  (v.  23)? Is Jesus saying that
Confer John  1:4, 5, 7, 9. How does                    mony by asserting that there is              these religious leaders are from           .
light in creation testify of the true                  perfect harmony between what He              hell? Do we see this kind of  anti-
light, Jesus?                                          says, and what the Father testifies.         Christian leadership in the world
     In the passage which follows                      He speaks, for, example, of the dual         today?
Jesus' declaration that He is the                      testimony of Himself and the Fa-                 In verses 14-29 Jesus authenti-
light of the world, Jesus proves                       ther  - each bearing witness of              cates His testimony. Critics might
that His testimony is authentic.                       Jesus! Show how verses 26, 28,               argue that Jesus engages here in
That is, He shows that what He                         and 29 also teach this. What does            circular reasoning. For one might
has said is true, genuine, and au-                     Jesus' intimacy and harmony with             summarize Jesus' argument thus:
thoritative. The Savior does this                      the Father say of the Lord Jesus?            My record is true because I say
in response to' the Pharisees' ob-                     Reflect, in this connection, on John         so. And because I (and my Fa-
jection that since Jesus bore record                   1:14, 18;  10:30;  17:5 and other rel-       ther) say so, my record is true!
of Himself, His record could not                       evant passages.                              Now this is not  all that Jesus says.
be true  (8:13). In fact, Jesus Him-                                                                But it is essentially what Jesus says.
self had said that if He bore wit-                     That Ye Might Believe!                       This type of reasoning might not
ness of Himself His witness would                          Jesus speaks of him "that                hold up  in a court of law. Nor
not be true (John  5:31ff.).  What is                  followeth me" (v.  12) as one who            will it ever satisfy proud critics of
wrong with bearing. witness of                         is blessed by the light of the world.        the Lord Jesus. But Jesus' testi-
oneself (cf.  8:17; Deut.  17:6)? Strik-               What is it to "follow" Jesus? Con-           mony is enough.1 He testifies of
ingly, in John  8:14 Jesus declares                    fer texts such as Matthew  16:24;            Himself! And the Father bears
that though He bears record of                         Mark  10:21; Luke  9:23; John  10:4,         witness of Him! People ought ever
Himself yet His record  is  true!                      5, 27. How is this "following                to take Jesus, the Son of God, at
How can this be, and not be in con-                    Jesus" related to "thirsting" after          His Word! Comment in this con-
tradiction to what Jesus had said                      God?     "Seeking" the kingdom?              nection on the following: some
in John  5:31?                                         Other similar expressions? How               people think that we can and
     Jesus confirms His testimony                      do we show in our lives that we              ought to use "evidence," scientific
that He is the light of the world,                     are followers of the Lord Jesus?             or otherwise, to defend our faith
i n   a   t h r e e f o l d   w a y   ( c f .   W .    Those who follow Jesus are de-               and the claims of the Lord Jesus.
,H.endriksen's   c o m m e n t a r y   o n             clared to be those who do not walk           These people are called  "eviden-
John).                                                 in darkness (v. 12). Is the "not             tialists." In light of Jesus' method
     In the first place Jesus points                   walking in darkness" here a bless-           of apologetics (the defense of the
to His heavenly origin and desti-                      ing  which the believer enjoys, or a         truth), are evidentialists right?
nation. In verse 14b Jesus declares:                   "way of life," that is, a descrip-           How do such apologetics of the
"I know whence I came, and                             tion of the believer's moral con-            Savior bear upon the preaching
whither I go; but ye cannot tell                       duct (cf. Ps.  27:l;  Eph.  5:8ff.)?  Are    (i.e., is it sufficient)? Upon  danc-

134/Standard  Bearer/December 15, 1996


ing, story-telling, and dramatiza-              rious  truth called "life." What is        How are we this in the preaching
tions in the worship services?                  the relation between light and life?       in the congregation? In our per-
Upon looking for Noah's ark?                    And the covenant of grace? How             sonal witness? On the mission
What of Paul's preaching to the                 is Jesus our life?                         field?
philosophers on Mars' hill (Acts                     >`Jesus  again announces the              In verse 20 is a comment re-
17:16-32)?  What is the relation be-            doom of the unbelieving Jews in            garding the fact that no man laid
tween  faith  and  understanding?               verse 21 (cf.  7~33,  34). Those who       hands on Jesus "for his hour was
                                                do not believe the light of the            not yet come." This speaks of the
Having Life Through His Name!                   world shall not have life. They            fact that God was/is in complete
     Closely related to the concept             shall die in their sins. They will         control of all the history of Jesus'
"light" is the. concept "life." This            go on' seeking. Messiah, but not in        ministry on earth; God so guided
is what Jesus alludes to when He                repentance and faith. They will            everything that nothing could pre-
says that whoever follows Him                   continue to go about seeking to es-        vent Messiah from doing the
will not walk in darkness, but have             tablish their own righteousness,           Father's  .will of being the light of
the light of life  (8:12). In fact, in          but they shall have no blood of the        the world and saving His elect
the opening verses of John, where               Lamb to cover them; How is the             church! Where else in John and
Jesus, the Word, is already intro-              blood of the Lord Jesus that which         all of Scripture do we find confir-
duced as the light, He is also said             cleanses us from all sin, and the          mation of the fact that God is al-
to be the "life" of men  (1:4,  9). So          only sure ground of our life? Do           ways in control  - that is, that He
John elsewhere speaks of Jesus as               babies have the right to life?             is always the  sovereign King?  How
the life, and source of life:  5:26;                 Jesus is the light of the world.      is this same God in `control now,
6:48,  .53;  11:25;   17:3.  F r o m   t h e    But also we, the church, believers,        ruling over all things for the good
above texts and all of Scripture try            are the light of the world (Matt.          of those who love Him until the
to give-a definition of this  myste-            5:14-16).  How is this possible?           eternal  .day dawn in heaven? Q





       An Answer to certain slanders and blasphemies, wherewith

       certain evil disposed persons have gone about to bring the

         doctiine of G.od's everlasting Predestination into hatred.*


                                                             man who art thou that         have a good and favorable cause
                                                         pleadest against God? Shall       are therein more hardy: as in very
                                                0           the thing formed say to him    truth there is nothing more con-
                                                that formed it, why hast thou made         trary to man's understanding, than
                                                me thus?                                   to place the cause of our salvation
                                                                          Romans  9:20     in the good will of God, in saying,
                                                                                           that it belongeth to him alone to
*    This is an excerpt from the book,          Dearly Beloved Brethren,                   choose us: without finding of any-
Sermons on Election and Reprobation                  We must not be amazed if the          thing in us wherefore he should
by  John Calvin,  reviewed elsewhere            article of the everlasting predesti-       choose us: and after he hath cho-
in this issue of the  Standard Bearer.          nation to God, be so assaulted and         sen us, to give us faith through
The excerpt is Calvin's defense of bib-         fought against by  Satan's  main-          which we should be justified. But
lical predestination against attacks            tainers, seeing it is the foundation
upon it by its enemies. The excerpt is                                                     what? Inasmuch as he is not
                                                of our salvation, and also serveth
taken from the "appendix" that con-                                                        bound to the person, it is good rea-
cludes the book of sermons. Only the            for the better magnifying of the           son that he be left in his mere lib-
first part of Calvin's defense is re-           free goodness of God towards us.           erty to give grace unto whom he
printed here, with permission from              On the other side those Dogs               will, and to leave the rest in his
the publisher.                                  which bark against it thinking to          perdition. But I defer myself to

                                                                                             December  15,  1996/Standard  Bearer/l35


entreat more largely of this mat-                      very well confirmeth my saying.            all religion. It pleased God that
ter, because you may have large                        For the Prophet having said, "that         Job  sho\ld  be robbed and spoiled:
discourse thereof in those Books                       God will not have pleasure in the          to be short, all that is there attrib-
which are imprinted: which ought                       death of a sinner", addeth, "but           uted to the Devil, and to those
to content you. Concerning the                         rather will that he return and live."      thieves and robbers, it is said
writing which was scattered about,                     Whereby he signifieth that God             plainly, that it came not to pass
to abolish this article of our faith,                  biddeth and exhorteth all which            but by the good pleasure of  GOD.
in very truth it deserveth no an-                      are gone astray to return to the           Must we therefore conclude that
swer: being on the one side so full                    right way. But not that indeed he          God's will and the Devil's are all
of ignorance and beastliness, that                     leadeth them all to himself by the         one? But they that know that the
everyone ought easily to judge                         power of his spirit. The which he          judgments of God are bottomless,
thereof: and on the other side so                      promiseth not, but to a certain            and shall have once known their
full of impudence, that it is a won-                   number, which appeareth as well            own weakness, will adore them
der how these troublecoasts and                        in the thirty-first chapter of  Jer-       with all reverence and humility
shameless deceivers,, abusing so                       emy4, as in the thirty-seventh of          and know well to put a difference,
villainously the holy Scriptures                       Ezechiel and in the eleventh5 and          although that  GOD  willeth the same
should be hearkened unto: not-                         throughout the whole scripture.            thing that the devil doth, yet that
withstanding because I have un-                            The second reason of this writ-        this is indeed in divers respects.
derstood that there are yet some                       ing is, that all men are created to        And so, that he deserveth always
simple and weak ones that are                          the image of  GOD,  the which he           to be acknowledged righteous, al-
troubled therewith, I therefore                        saith not to have been abolished           though that his counsel be incom-
thought good to take the pain to                       but only subjected to evil. As             prehensible unto us.
show them that will show them-                         though it behooved man at adven-                Afterwards to abolish the Elec-
selves teachable: how they ought                       ture to believe his simple saying.         tion of  GOD,  seeming as though he
to resolve themselves, to the end                      But contrariwise the Scripture             would confess it, he answereth that
they might be no more deceived                         showeth, that albeit there remain          God hath not created nor predes-
by these deceivers.                                    yet some trace of the image of God         tinated any man not to believe,
     In the first place, he that hath                  in us, yet that the whole is disfig-       seeing h e   c a l l e t h   e v e r y o n e .
m a d e   t h a t   w r i t i n g ,   w e r e   i t    ured, so as reason is blind, and           Wherein he showed that he never
Sebastian  Chastalio   or some such                    the heart perverse: wherefore by           .yet learned the ABC of Christians,
like: to show that God hath cre-                       nature we are wholly accursed.             seeing he knoweth not how to dis-
ated all the world to be saved, he                     We see therefore at the least, that        tinguish between the outward
allegeth that he laboreth to draw                      by the will and decree of God, we          preaching, which is done by the
unto him all that went astray: the                     have been all subject to everlast-         mouth of men, and the secret call-
which I confess in respect of the                      ing damnation through the fall of          ing of God whereby he toucheth
doctrine of faith and repentance,                      one man. Concerning that which             the hearts within. Now when it is
the which he  propoundeth  to all                      this troublecoast addeth, that if we       commanded in the last of  Mark7,
in general: be it to draw his elect                    believe, we are delivered through          to preach the Gospel to all, this
unto him, or to make other inex-                       Christ by the power of the gospel,         importeth not that God therefore
cusable. God then calleth every-                       and of the holy ghost: that serves         worketh in all by the power of his
one to repentance and promiseth                        for nothing, but to confirm our            spirit: and when it is said in the
all those that return unto him, to                     doctrine. For it behooveth that we         second Chapter of the first to
receive them to mercy. But this                        always come thither, that none be-         TimothyE, "that God would all men
meaneth not that he toucheth to                        lieve, unless those which are or-          to be saved," the solution is added
the quick by his holy spirit, all                      dained to salvation. Acts  thirteen6       by and by, "that come to the
those to whom he speaketh: as it                       and  all the scripture is full thereof.    knowledge of his truth." Where-
is said by  Isay in the fifty-third                    Wherefore this is as much, as if he        fore then is it, that he himself
chapter', His arm is not revealed                      should say, that the elect of God          would not at that present time,
to all those that hear. To which                       are delivered from that common             that the gospel should be preached
agreeth the sentence of our Lord                       damnation through faith.                   to all? so far off is it that he  hat-h
Jesus  ChrisP, None can come unto                          The third article containeth an        enlightened all the world in the
me, except my father draw him.                         horrible blasphemy that if God             faith. It is marvelous that this
And the holy scripture showeth                         have created men to damn them,             s h a m e l e s s   f o r e h e a d ,   i s   n o t
throughout, that conversion is a                       his will and the Devil's is all one.       ashamed to allege for himself the
special gift of God. And indeed                        They that speak so, show plainly           tenth to the  Romans*l,  where the
the place of  Ezechie13,  whereof this                 enough that they are altogether            text expressly setteth forth that all
troublecoast maketh his buckler,                       mockers of God, and despisers of           believe not the Gospel, because

1 M/Standard  Bearer/December 15, `I 996


that  Isay saith, "that the arm of          God my father." Notwithstand-             world remaineth blind. But be-
the Lord is not revealed to all."           ing this Rustic imagineth he  hat-h       cause it would be too long to al-
Also the sixth chapter of Saint             well escaped, having spoken a             lege all, consider those places
JohnlO where Jesus Christ expressly         word of predestination, without           which are gathered in a little book
pronounceth, "that all that are             making any semblance of the  textI        that our brother master Beza hath
given him of his father come unto           so expressly set forth, where it is       made thereof, and you shall be
him." And touching that, that he            said, "that God will have mercy,          fully satisfied therein.  Cl
saith, "that all shall be taught of         upon him on whom he will have
God:" it is a special promise made          mercy, and that our salvation is of       1      Isaiah  53:l
to the Church: as also the Lord             the same mercy: and not of the            2      John 6:44
Jesus Christ was a faithful exposi-         willer nor of the runner, and that        3      Ezekiel 18:32  & 33:ll
tor thereof, saying": "He there-            before the two twins were born,           4      Jeremiah 31
fore that hath heard and learned            when they had neither done good           5      Ezekiel 11  & 37
of my father, shall come unto me."          nor evil: to the end the purpose of       6      Acts 13:48
Whereby he showeth, that all are            his election might stand sure, he         7      Mark 16:15
not inwardly called. According as           had chosen the one and rejected           8      1 Timothy  2:4
                                                                                      9      Romans  10:16,  20
a little  afteP also he confirmeth          the other." Also when we believe          lo     John 6:37
the same. "Therefore I have said            that this proceedeth of that, that        I1     John 6:45
unto you, that none can come unto           God hath chosen us: Thereupon it          l2     John 6:65
me, unless it be given him from             followeth, that the rest of the           I3 Romans  9:11-U?





                          The Restraint of

           ou will notice that the title    ward actions of man, but in the           volving common grace, which con-
           of this article contains a       heart and in the corrupt nature.          troversy resulted in three minis-
Y          question mark.                   The question, then, is this: does         ters and numerous officebearers
     Having considered what the             God restrain sin by some sort of          being expelled from their offices
Bible teaches concerning man's              inward operation upon the heart           in the Christian Reformed Church.
devastating depravity, as well as           of the sinner, or does He do so
the development of sin, we are left         only by outward compulsion and            The Restraint of Sin as
with a question. We have shown              constraints?                              an Evidence of Common Grace
from Scripture that sin develops                This is an important question.                T h e   C h r i s t i a n   R e f o r m e d
according to the sovereign purpose          If all that is meant by the concept       Church, at the Synod of 1924,
of God, and even as the manifes-            "restraint of sin" is an outward re-      adopted an official position con-
tation of His just judgment against         straint brought about by the con-         cerning the restraint of sin. They
the sinful race (Rom.  1:18-32). But        sequences of man's actions and by         taught not only that there is a re-
isn't it also true that there is a cer-     the works of God's providence, we         straint  of sin, but that there is a
tain restraint of sin?                      agree wholeheartedly that there is        restraint of sin brought about by a
     Before we answer this ques-            such a restraint of sin's expression.     gracious inward operation of the
tion, we would like to respond              The difficulty, however, comes            Holy Spirit upon the hearts of men.
with another question: What do              when one teaches a restraint of sin       This work of the Spirit, though not
we mean by a restraint of sin? Sin,         caused by certain inward workings         renewing the heart unto repen-
after all, is not merely in the  out-       of the Holy Spirit in the sinner.         tance and salvation, nevertheless
                                                This question is of no little his-    puts a check on the development
                                            torical importance to the Protes-         of sin.
Rev. Key is pastor of the Protestant        tant Reformed Churches. It brings                The "second point" of the in-
Reformed Church of Randolph, Wis-           us back to the very origin of our         famous Three Points of 1924 taught
consin.                                     churches and the controversy in-          specifically "that God by the  gen-

                                                                                            December 15, 1996/Standard  Bearer/l 37


era1 operations of His Spirit, with-     the heart of man which in some             upon the heart of the sinner in a
out renewing the heart of man, re-       way changes man's corrupt nature.          positive, though non-saving way,
strains the unimpeded breaking           By "common grace" the Spirit               he speaks of something very dif-
out of sin, by which human life in       works a change in the heart of             ferent.       With the Spirit's work
society remains possible." This re-      man, which is not a saving change,         upon the heart, there is a funda-
straint of sin is a work of "com-        but which nevertheless alters the          mental change in man's very na-
mon grace."                              heart enough so that man is not as         ture, so that he is no longer as de-
    Furthermore, as the "third           wicked as he would otherwise be.           praved as he could be. One may
point" goes on to make clear, this       And as a result of that change in          insist that there  ,is no saving ben-
work of common grace not only            his nature, the natural man is ca-         efit from this work of the Spirit,
restrains sin, but also enables the      pable of performing good works.            and that the unregenerated. man
unregenerate man to do good              They are not works that merit.             will eventually go to hell, but he
works, if only in the realm of soci-     They are not saving works. But             is nevertheless a man whose na-
ety. The second and third points         they are works that God judges             ture has been changed by the Holy
go hand in hand. As a result of          good, which are performed in the           Spirit in such a way that he is now
this restraining-influence of God's      realm of society for the benefit of        able to do good works. Total de-
common grace, and by virtue of a         other creatures.                           pravity becomes partial depravity.
positive, influence of God upon              At issue here is exactly the           There is good in the wicked, even
him for good, the unregenerate           truth of total depravity.                  a basis for  felIowship.
man is able to do good works in              Such a description of the re-                   This theory of common grace
the sphere of things natural and         straint of sin is a denial of the bib-     is wrong.  It  is a poison to the Re-
civil, `even though he remains in-       lical  d,octrine  of total depravity as    formed faith. It is death to the
capable of doing any saving good.        historically recognized by the Re-         antithetical calling of the Christian
    An examination of this idea          formed churches and as taught in           life.
will show that it is a denial of the     our confessions.
fundamental truth of man's total             If one speaks merely about the         The Outward Restraint of Sin
depravity, which truth we have           sinful actions of men being re-                     There is only one correct way
previously discussed.                    strained by God's providence, we           to speak of the restraint of sin, and
    If we speak of the restraint of      have no quarrel. Such outward re-          that is as an outward restraint
sin, we have to remember that sin        straint, as we shall see, can be and       upon the outward expression of
involves not only the outward ac-        is exercised by God without any            sin, which restraint is worked by
tions of man, but also his inward        change in the nature of man. Man           the providence of God.
thoughts and desires. Still more,        remains totally corrupt, incapable                  Remember that God's provi-
sin can also refer to the condition      of doing any good and inclined to          dence is all-encompassing. Provi-
of his nature. The pollution of          all wickedness. Man's conduct can          dence is God's sovereign execution
man's nature is the punishment of        be restrained without any change           of His own counsel with regard to
God upon man because of his              whatsoever in man's nature.                all things. It is His upholding and
guilt. It belongs to that death that         A likeness can be seen in our-         governing all things with one pri-
is ours in Adam. That is what the        selves and our own children. It is         mary purpose in view, namely,
apostle Paul refers to in Ephesians      clearly seen that there are times          that He Himself may be glorified
2:l when he describes all men as         when we are compelled to do                in Christ through the salvation of
"dead in' trespasses and sins."          things that we don't like to do. We        His church.*
That death is a spiritual  .corrup-      sometimes observe in our children                   God does indeed restrain sin,
tion of the nature, the result of        a very bad attitude (a reflection of       but only by the influence of God's
which is that man is incapable of        our own sinful natures, don't for-         providence upon the sinner.
doing any good and inclined to all       get). They are told to do some-                     We would prefer another word
wickedness, except he is regener-        thing, and they grumble and com-           than "restraint." We would rather
ated by the Spirit of God.               plain, and perhaps even say they           speak of God "controlling" or
    The defenders of that restraint      will not. But when they are re-            "steering" the actions of men ac-
of sin which is maintained in the        minded of the consequences of dis-         cording to His purpose., That
theory of common grace hold, on          obedience, they carry out the act,         seems to fit better with the idea of
the one hand, that the Holy Spirit       even though the attitude of their          "governing" that is a well-known
works in the natural man in such         heart has not changed one iota.            element in the definition of provi-
a way that his sinful  actions  are          But when one goes beyond the           dence. But we will grant the use
restrained. But they mean more           truth of outward compulsion or             of the term "restraint," so long as
than this. `They also mean  .that        restraint, and speaks of an inner          the whole idea of the restraint of
there is an  inward  restraint upon      work of the Holy Spirit operating          sin is defined in these terms  - the

138/Standard  Bearer/December 15,1996


outward influence of God's provi-               This, too, is under the providence       instrument in God's hand to gov-
dence upon the sinner.                          of God. A child brought into this        ern society for the sake of His
    God's providence, then, re-                 world and raised on a ranch in the       church.
strains sin in the lives of individual          state of Wyoming will not find               But this providential restraint
people by determining all the cir-              himself in the circumstances of the      or governing of sin must be clearly
cumstances of their lives.                      child raised in the fast life of New     understood as the work of God,
    The time in which a man lives               York City. The expression of his         the work of God by which He gov-
will determine in a measure how                 tot,ally  depraved nature will nec-      erns also the development of sin.
his sin is restrained. The sins                 essarily be different therefore.             Speak of restraint. But don't
which are committed in our licen-               And while all men are equally  cor-      forget, the sinfulness of the human
tious society could not have been               rupt,in their nature, the activity of    race continues to develop. The cup
as readily committed 50 years ago.              that corrupt nature will be quite        of iniquity is being filled  - ac-
In that sense, under God's provi-               different depending on the  circum-      cording to God's sovereign pur-
dence, men were restrained from                 stances in which God places them.        pose. He is giving men over to
certain outward actions because of                  The consequences of sin, which       their sin. Soon that cup of iniq-
the very time in which they lived.              consequences also occur by God's         uity will be filled. And Christ shall
One hundred years ago, for ex-                  government, themselves serve as          return in judgment. And we shall
ample, a woman could become                     a restraint upon man's self-expres-      be saved.  0
pregnant by fornication, but she                sion of sin. To this end also the
would not have been able to mur-                institution of government serves to
der her unborn child by an abor-                restrain sin in society. Govern-         * New readers or those interested in
tion.                                           ment was instituted by God as the        reviewing the truth of God's provi-
    Whether a man is born into                  natural development of the fam-          dence may refer back to the previous
great riches, or into poverty, will             ily, to punish the evildoer and          volume  of the  Standard Bearer, vol. 72,
also govern his sinful actions.                 maintain order in society. It is an      pp. X41,227,259.





                                                         Chapter 6

                   of Our First Parents (cont.)
The Tempter  (2)
W                                               tioned in the curse that is pro-         Genesis record. The contents of
             e must remember, how-              nounced after the Fall. This is un-      the tempter's speech in Genesis 3
             ever, that the real per-           doubtedly due to the fact that Gen-      reveal very plainly that the sub-
             sonality, t h e   s u b j e c t    esis simply `narrates the events as      ject of that speech, is not a mere
speaking through the serpent in                 they took place and as they might        animal, but a moral, rational sub-
the temptation of Adam and Eve,                 have been perceived by the senses        ject. It suggests, too, that this ra-
was Satan, the devil.                           had we been present in Paradise          tional,' moral subject is a wicked
    It is, rather striking that the             at the time. Then we might have          subject, lying against and slander-
devil is not directly mentioned in              perceived the serpent speaking to        ing God, and contradicting God's
the narrative in Genesis 3. He is               Eve as recorded in Genesis 3.            word. This moral, rational, lying,
not mentioned in the account of                     Nevertheless, it is plain from       slandering subject in the tempta-
the temptation, nor is he  men-                 all the rest of Scripture that the       tion is, in the light of all Scripture,
                                                real subject in the temptation was       the devil.
The late Homer Hoeksema was pro-                not merely a serpent, but the devil,         This is plain, in the first place,
fessor  of  Dogmatics and Old Testa-            Satan himself.                           from the fact that always the devil
ment in the Protestant Reformed                     We may note that this is al-         appears in Scripture as the tempter
Seminary.                                       ready suggested  very.clearly in the     and as'the accuser of the brethren

                                                                                           December 15, 1996/Standard  Bearer/l 39


and as the opponent of God and                         ethical sense of the word, though         of the angels and the introduction
of God's cause in the world. Thus                      not sovereignly (John  12:31). In         of sin into the realm of the heav-
the devil appears in the history of                    Ephesians  2:2 it is said of men who      enly spirits and the fall of part of
Job. He appears there as Job's ac-                     are dead in trespasses and sins           them. While the Bible tells us very
cuser when he asks the question,                       that they walk according to the           little in detail as to the creation of
"Doth Job fear God for nought?"                        prince of the power of the air, the       the angels or the fall of the angels,
He appears also as Job's tempter.                      spirit that now worketh in the chil-      but rather presupposes these facts
The Lord gives him the power to                        dren of disobedience, that is, the        throughout, there are certain facts
tempt Job, first by putting all that                   devil. As is well known, Scrip-           which may definitely be estab-
Job possesses in Satan's power,                        ture tells us that the battle of the      lished in the light of Scripture.
and later by giving Satan power                        people of God is against this devil:          1) Scripture always presents
to touch Job's bone and his  fleph.                    "Put on the whole  armour  of God,        the angels, both good and evil, as
Satan's intent is to make Job curse                    that ye may be able to stand              very real and as very really func-
God (cf. Job  1:9, 12; 2:4-6).                         against the wiles of the devil. For       tioning among men and in the his-
      A l s o   i n   t h e   p r o p h e c y   o f    we wrestle not against flesh and          tory of the church and the world.
Zachariah the devil, Satan, is pic-                    blood, but against principalities,        They were originally created as
tured as the adversary of God's                        against powers, against the rulers        heavenly spirits. As such both an-
people:           "And he showed me                    of the darkness of this world,            gels and devils are invisible to our
Joshua the high priest standing be-                    against spiritual wickedness in           earthly eyes, but they are nonethe-
fore the angel of the Lord, and Sa-                    high places" (Eph.  6:11,  12). This      less real and may be perceived by
tan standing at his right hand to                      situation points to an originally         their functions. The good angels
resist him"  (Zech.  3:l).                             formed alliance between the world         are so many ministering spirits,
      In the Parable of the Sower, it                  of evil spirits and the world of          sent forth to minister for them who
is the devil who is represented as                     men, an alliance that operates            shall be the heirs of salvation (Heb.
snatching away the good seed, the                      throughout the ages of the old dis-       1:14). The evil angels always func-
seed of the Word, as soon as it is                     pensation and of the new.                 tion among fallen humanity in
sown.                                                      Principally that alliance is          pride and rebellion against God.
      In the Parable of Tares, it is                   overcome by our Lord Jesus                    2 )   S a t a n   w a s   o r i g i n a l l y   a
the devil who is represented as                        Christ. At the death and exalta-          prince among the heavenly hosts.
sowing the tares, the evil seed, in                    tion of the Lord Jesus, the devil is      In fact, it is not impossible that
the field.                                             cast out of heaven, so that he can        originally he stood at the head of
      Moreover, it is the devil who                    accuse the brethren no more be-           the entire angel world, although
tempts our Lord Jesus Christ at the                    fore the face of God. But even            this cannot be established with cer-
beginning of His public ministry                       thereafter he harasses the church         tainty. But that he was a prince
with a threefold temptation, and                       on earth, furiously persecuting the       among the angels is plain from the
who tempts Him during His en-                          seed of the woman. Finally, for a         fact that he is still called the prince
t i r e   m i n i s t r y .                            short time he gives his power to          of the devils (Matt.  12:24), as well
      At the end of our Lord's                         the Antichristian beast that is pic-      as the prince of this world (John
earthly sojourn, it is the devil who                   tured in Revelation 13. That alli-        12:31). It is plain, too, from the
entered into the heart of Judas                        ance, which is finally destroyed          fact that according to Jude 9 even
Iscariot, the betrayer.                                when the devil is cast into the lake      Michael, the archangel, considered
      Hence, the role of the devil                     that burns with fire and brimstone        it presumptuous to bring a railing
throughout Scripture is that of the                    (Rev.  20:10),,  was originally estab-    accusation against Satan when they
tempter and the accuser of the                         lished in the beginning, when sin         were disputing about the body of
brethren and the opponent of                           was introduced into the world of          Moses. From Revelation  12:7 we
God's cause, and it is not difficult                   men in Paradise.                          know that Satan still has his an-
to recognize the operation of that                         There can be no question about        gels, fallen with him, over whom
same devil in the temptation of our                    it, therefore, that while the serpent     he is prince and whom he leads in
first parents.                                         was the instrument employed in            the battle against God's people.
      In the second place, we may                      the temptation, Satan was the ra-             3) We know also that the
note that Scripture always posits                      tional, moral subject of the temp-        devil and his angels, who consti-
a very close relationship between                      tation, who employed the serpent          tuted a large part of the original
the evil words and works of men                        as his instrument.                        host of angels, had already fallen
and the world of evil spirits of                           As to the identity of Satan, we       at the time of the temptation and
which the devil is chief. It is the                    learn from Scripture that he is a         fall of man. It is not at all neces-
devil who is the prince of this                        fallen angel.                             sary to assume that he fell before
world, who rules this world in the                         This presupposes the creation         the end of the creation-process; it

1  IO/Standard   Bearer/December 15, 1996


is rather proper to think that he                     the living God. But he cannot di-             devil was not sovereign! It was
fell soon after the seventh day.                      rectly attack and oppose God Him-             exactly his temptation that he
Nor does Scripture inform us as                       self. For the devil is but a crea-            wanted to get man to acknowledge
to exactly how sin was introduced                     ture, with all the limitations which          him as sovereign instead of God.
into the angel-world. The reason                      characterize a creature, and God              But God is the eternally sovereign
for this is that it is not necessary                  is the sovereign Creator. Satan,              Lord, and the devil does not usurp
for us to know: the Bible is not                      therefore, if he would attack God,            that sovereignty even temporarily.
concerned about this, but rather                      must attack God in His works and                  Positively, the answer is, from
about the introduction of sin into                    in His Name, His revelation, and              a moral viewpoint, that God's will
the world of mankind, and that                        His Word. Having succeeded in                 was that man should keep the gar-
only with a view to the revelation                    fomenting rebellion among the                 den, should be God's friend-ser-
o f   t h e   w o r k   o f   G o d 's   g r a c e    heavenly spirits, he aims to usurp            vant, should be of the party of the
whereby He saves His covenant                         God's place in the earthly creation           living God. That will was plainly
people from sin and death.                            and to form an alliance with man,             expressed in the command God
     4) But about the nature of the                   the king of the-earthly creation,             gave Adam. The very premise of
sin of the angels there can be no                     against the living God, whose ser-            that command is the sovereignty
question in the light of Scripture.                   vant man was created to be. This              of the good God. He alone has
That sin was pride and rebellion                      is his evil purpose as he comes to            the right to impose His will upon
against God, the sinful desire and                    Adam and Eve in the garden.                   His own creature. Hence, man's
attempt to dethrone God and to                            But let us remember that some-            calling was:     curse that serpent,
be God in the place of God. The                       one else was very really present              and say "No" to his temptation.
fallen angels, originally powerful                    in this scene. There was Eve, and             It makes no difference whether
and glorious creatures, are de-                       Adam, and the serpent, and the                Eve or Adam had any clear knowl-
scribed in Jude 6 as not having                       devil. But God was also there!                edge of the devil.       The serpent
kept their first estate and as hav-                   And certainly we must remember                spoke plain language, and that lan-
ing left their own habitation.                        that what took place in Paradise              guage was the language of enmity
Moreover, the reference to the sin                    did not take place apart from, but            against God. Man was king, called
of the devil is clear in a passage                    according to the sovereign coun-              to exercise dominion in God's
like I Timothy  3:6. There the                        sel of the Lord of heaven and                 Name. His calling was plain.
apostle lays down the requirement                     earth. No devil could invade Para-               That same question, however,
that an elder be not a novice, "lest                  dise; no Satan could employ the               we may ask from the point of view
being lifted up with pride he fall                    serpent as his instrument; and no             of God's eternal counsel and pur-
into the condemnation of the                          tempter could reach Adam and                  pose: why did the devil come to
devil." If we put these references                    Eve, but by the sovereign counsel             Paradise, and why did God so de-
of Scripture together with a de-                      and providence of the Lord our                cree and providentially direct?
scription of the devil's lie in Gen-                  God. Remember that! All crea-                 Then the answer of Scripture is
esis  3:5, where he tempts our first                  tures, including the devil  - for the         that God willed a greater glory
parents that they shall be like God,                  devil is also only a mere creature            than that of the first creation. He
it is plain that the fall of Satan con-               - all creatures are so in God's               willed a greater and higher rev-
sisted in the sin of pride and pre-                   hand, the hand of our heavenly Fa-            elation of His own infinite glory.
sumption, the desire and the at-                      ther, that without His will they              He willed a greater glory for His
tempt to usurp the place of God                       cannot so much as move.                       people. That glory was to be re-
Himself. His sin was an attack                            Hence, apart from the devil's             vealed and achieved only in the
upon the very sovereignty of God!                     reason for the temptation, there is           antithetical way of sin and grace.
     In this light we can understand                  still the question: why did the                  It is this purpose that the devil
the names which Scripture uses to                     Lord our God will? This question              serves according to the sovereign
describe him. They express what                       we can view from a  moral  view-              decree and providence of the Lord
he is. He is the devil, that is, the                  point.                                        of heaven and earth. There is no
mudslinger, the slanderer, the liar.                      Then the answer is, negatively,           dualism in history. There is no
He is Satan, that is, the opponent,                   that our God is not in any sense              fight between God and the devil.
or adversary. This describes what                     the author of sin. God cannot be              The God of our salvation is the
he is in relation to God. He is the                   tempted     w i t h   e v i l ,    neither    God who from moment to moment
slanderer of God Himself, and the                     tempteth He any man (James  4:13).            performs all His good pleasure,
adversary of the living God and                       That is true of us; that was true of          even in and through the very op-
of His cause.                                         Adam in Paradise. God was not                 position of the devil and the power
     This explains Satan's coming to                  the author of Adam's temptation;              of darkness. All creatures, good
Paradise. He is the adversary of                      the devil was the author. But the             and evil, are subject unto Him and

                                                                                                      December 15, 1996fStandard  Bearer/l41


execute His will, even in spite of         that oppose God, and only to serve          of sinful flesh. He crushes the
themselves. According to God's             the revelation of God's marvelous           serpent's head.        He makes all
sovereign good pleasure, the devil,        grace in Christ. Jesus, whereby He          things new. .He delivers His
though purposing opposition and            saves His  pe.ople from sin  and            people unto greater salvation.
rebellion against the living God,          death and delivers them from the            And, in and through Him, all who
nevertheless must needs serve              power of the devil and raises them,         believe on His Name are victors,
God's purpose. He must serve to            through Christ, unto the glory of           more than conquerors.
create' that opposition and rebel-         heavenly perfection.                            Toward the revelation of that
lion against God only to show ul-              This is revealed in Christ. The         Christ all history, from the very
timately how all will be defeated          Son of God comes in the likeness            beginning, moves.  0



Sermons on Election B Reprobation              The publisher has made the book           that all they that are of the church,
    by John Calvin.  Audubon, New          reader-friendly. This reprint is not a        are  not. advanced thereto by their
Jersey: Old Paths Publications, 1996.      mere photolithographed facsimile of           own virtue, and that they have
317 pp., plus subject and scriptural       the original 1579 edition; as is often        not obtained this favor by their
text indexes. $36.95 (hardcover). [Re-     the case, with the reprinting of              merits: but that God hath chosen
viewed by the editor.]                     Calvin's sermons. The text has been           them before they were born (pp.
    These sermons by John Calvin on        newly typeset, so that the forms of           31, 32).
God's election of Jacob and reproba-       letters and the spelling are modern.
tion of Esau were published in En-         Also, archaic words are immediately             Not only do the sermons make
glish for the first time in 1579. Never    explained in brackets by their contem-      clear what predestination is for
again reprinted until now, they have       porary equivalent. For example:  "...       Calvin, but also the importance of the
been unavailable to, and virtually un-     to wit, these Dotards  (foolish talkers,    doctrine for the Christian faith. Pre-
known by, English-speaking people          imbeciles)"  (p. 202).                      destination is an eternal, sovereign de-
for more than 400 years. They were             Nevertheless, the original work         cree that determines the everlasting
originally part of Calvin's series on      was left complete and unabridged.           destiny of every human. It is a de-
the book of Genesis. Calvin began          We have in this volume the sermons          cree that distinguishes between the
the series in September, 1559. The ser-    preached by Calvin in Geneva as the         natural children of believing parents.
mons represent, therefore, the             notable scribe, Denis  Raguenier, took          The significance of election is that
reformer's well-developed exegetical       them down and as the English trans-         it is the source of every Christian vir-
abilities and mature theological posi-     lator, John Field, rendered the origi-      tue, the ground of the assurance of
tion., It should be remembered that        nal French into English.                    salvation, and the truth that attributes
the sermons on Genesis are different           The content is rich: God's sover-       "the whole praise of our salvation to
from Calvin's earlier commentary on        eignty in the predestination of men,        . . . him (God)."
Genesis.                                   not as an abstract treatise but in the          Calvin was not the slick, smiling,
     The sermons that make up the          form of faithful exposition of Old Tes-     positive preacher who is the curse of
content of this book cover Genesis         tament Scripture. Commenting in the         much of contemporary  evangeli-
25:12  - 27:38.                            second sermon on God's deliberate           calism, indeed, of much of nominally
     With this reprint, Old Paths Pub-     government of the birth of the twins        Reformed Christianity. His preach-
lications makes a very valuable work       so that Esau was born first and Jacob,      ing pointed out and condemned the
of Calvin available in English for ,the    second, Calvin explained:                   errors opposed to predestination. The
first time in more  .than 400 years.                                                   enemies could be distinguished as
Preachers and other scholars will want       And why doth God then pull him            "dogs" and "hogs." The dogs were
to study it for its contribution to the      (Jacob) back, and make him infe-          the theologians who spoke and wrote
knowledge both of Calvin's method            rior to his brother, as touching the.     against predestination. The hogs were
of preaching and of Calvin's doctrine        law of nature, and afterwards             those who professed to believe the
of predestination.                           setteth him (Jacob)  .above him           doctrine, claiming to be elect, but
     But the book will also be wel-          (Esau)? In this we see that God           whose unholy lives brought shame
comed by the ordinary church mem-            would shut out all glory of man,          upon the truth that they professed.
ber, especially the Reformed and Pres-       that he would that all height                 Regarding those who opposed
byterian church member. Calvin               should be thrown down, and that           predestination by teaching that elec-
preached to the people of God. He            men should bring nothing of their         tion depends upon foreseen faith,
used language that they would under-         own: to the end to say: I have            Calvin declared that they "have no
stand and that would bring the Word          attained such or such a good              drop of the fear of God."
home to them. In the sermon on Gen-          thing. I have gotten it by mine                Predestination is by no means the
esis  27:31  - 38, Calvin explains that      own industry. We see. then that           only doctrine treated in the book. The
"Esau cried out, yea by yelling and          which I have already touched:             chapters in Genesis covered by these
roaring, and that he howled as it were       that is to say, that we have,here  a      sermons contain many doctrines, in-
a wild beast."                               glass, wherein we may behold,             cluding instruction for the Christian

14PIStandard  Bearer/December 15,1996


  life. Calvin found them all. The tenth            ent that not only were the arguments       guments in their attack upon sover-
  sermon, on Isaac's dealings with                  against the doctrine of predestination     eign, particular grace in the preach-
  Abimelech, is a powerful exhortation              the very same as those still raised to-    ing of the gospel, according to pre-
  to the Christian to purify himself "of            day, but also they were the very same      destination.
  all bitterness, hatred, and rancor, of            as the arguments being raised today            Now the entire English-speaking
  all desire to revenge."                           in defense of the "well-meant offer."      world can read Calvin's rejection and
      Adding to the value of an already             In Calvin's day, "Sebastian Chastalio      refutation of these perennial argu-
  invaluable work  - Calvin! Calvin's               or some such like" argued against pre-     ments against divine predestination.
  sernzons! Calvin's sermons on predes-             destination, that God "laboreth to             The book includes a foreword of
  tination! - is an intriguing "appen-              draw unto him all that went astray";       some  length by the editor of the  Stan-
  dix": "An Answer to certain slanders              that Ezekiel 18:32 and 33:ll teach that    dard Bearer.
  and blasphemies, wherewith certain                God desires to save all; that "God hath        There is also an index of texts and
  evil disposed persons have gone about             not created nor predestinated any man      an index of topics.
  to bring the doctrine of God's ever-              not to `believe, seeing he calleth ev-         Not' to be overlooked is that the
  lasting Predestination into hatred."              eryone"; and that Jesus' call to the       book is a handsome, gold-on-bur-
      `This is a little-known, succinct de-         heavy laden in Matthew 11:28 proves        gundy, hardcover volume. The pub-
  fense of predestination by Calvin him-            that "grace is given equally to all."      lisher has done it right.
  self against certain attacks on the doc-              In our day, the Christian  .Re-            To order, write Old Paths Publi-
  trine, evidently about the time that              formed Church; John Murray and Ned         cations, 223 Princeton Rd., Audubon,
  Calvin was preaching on the doctrine              Stonehouse; Iain Murray and the Ban-       New Jersey 08106 USA. The tele-
( out of Genesis.                                   ner of Truth; and others who profess       phone and fax number is (609) 546-
      From this "Answer" it is  appar-              Calvinism, adopt exactly the same ar-      1501.  0

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                                                                                                                                  ~~,
   :  /li&@&i*.  @$@&-J~Q  -..  ;,  .:.:  `:'  ._:.`,[  `,;  `,  ,.;,,I,,  -.  .'  I  .,               `
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                                                    memorating the event. So before we         how he learned about your homepage
  Young People's Activities                         move  too far away from October, let       in the first place, but at least we had
  The, young people of the me include just one more.                                           a guest who came to church because
      Hudsonville, MI PRC continue to                   The First PRC in Edmonton, AB,         he learned about us on the Net." In-
  be busy with plans for next year's                Canada hosted a lecture on October         teresting that a Netherlander learned
  Young People`s Convention, sched-                 31 with Rev:M. DeVries, their pastor,      about Singapore               churches via
  uled for August 18-22 at Camp                     speaking on the theme, "Contending         Loveland, CO. The world is truly get-
  Miniwanca, on the east shore of Lake              for the Faith in an Age of Tolerance."     ting smaller.
  Michigan near Shelby, MI. Since our               Rev. DeVries  writes that there was an         We have learned that Rev. Moore,
  last update, Hudsonville's young                  excellent turnout for this lecture.        pastor of the Hull, IA PRC, also main-
  people have chosen a convention                   They did extensive advertising, and,       tains a homepage on the Internet. In-
  theme,  ,"Knowing  My God," based on              especially due to the fact that the lo-    terested? He can be reached at http:/
  John 17~3,  with Psalter 64:2 being their         cal Orthodox Reformed Church en-           /www.mtcnet.  net./revmo/
  theme song. They have also asked                  couraged their members to attend,
  the Revs. Ron Cammenga, Doug                      First had a church full. There were        Congregational Activities
  Kuiper, and Carl Haak to speak at                 60-70 in attendance from outside our           Two of our congregations have
  their convention.                                 PRC. Very encouraging.                     enjoyed significant growth this past
      At their November 17th meeting,                   On Sunday, October 27, the First       year, making it necessary to add ad-
  the Young People's Society of the                 PRC in Grand Rapids, MI commemo-           ditional elders to their consistory. Our
  Bethel PRC in Itasca, IL was able to              rated the Protestant Reformation in        Hope PRC in Redlands, CA added one
  hear Seminarian Daniel Kleyn speak                both their services. Their Evangelism      elder at, their congregational meeting
  on "The Reformed Faith in Australia,"             C,ommittee  advertised these services      this December, bringing their total to
  a subject he knows something about,               by means of an insert  ,in a local pa-     five. Also, the Hudsonville, MI PRC
  having been born and raised in Tas-               per. Their congregation was also en-       added two elders, bringing their total
  mania.                                            couraged to invite friends and neigh-      to eleven.
                                                    bors.                                          We also pass along our congratu-
  Evangelism Activities                                 We lift the following, written by      lations to Mr. John C. Lubbers, a long-
      We mentioned last time that many              Rev.  J. Kortering in Singapore, from a    time member of our Hudsonville PRC,
  of our churches were busy this past               recent bulletin of the Loveland,- CO       who this fall began his 61st year as a
  Reformation Day with lectures com-                PRC.                                       member of Hudsonville's Men's Soci-
                                                        Rev. Kortering writes in part, "I      ety. The occasion was marked with
                                                    preached in C.E.R.C. last evening and      an extra special lunch after society
                                                    they told me that they had a man from      provided by Hudsonville's Ladies' So-
  Mr. Wigger is a member                            the Netherlands who attended because
                                    of the Prot-                                               ciety, who meet the same night. May
  estant  Xeforrned Church                          he learned about their presence on         Mr. Lubbers and all the older mem-
                                       of  Hud-     your homepage. They didn't know
  sonville, Michigan.                                                                          bers of our churches continue to be a

                                                                                                 December 15, 1996/Standard  Bearer/l 43


                                                                                                                                                  PERIODICAL
                                                                                                                                                  Postage Paid at
                                                                                                                                                  G r a n d v i l l e ,
 P.O. Box 603                                                                                                                                     Michigan
 Grandville, MI 49468-0603


faithful witness and an encourage-                        ville. But before their scheduled con-                         year's Fall Ladies' League Meeting on
ment to all of us.                                        gregational meeting in early Novem-                            October 21. Rev. R. Moore spoke on
     With the agreement of First PRC                      ber, the council rescinded that pro-                           the theme, "Answering Him That
in Holland, MI, it was decided that                       posal when further investigation re-                           Reproacheth," and Rev. A. Brummel
Rev. C. Terpstra, who accepted the call                   vealed that the additional cost of pre-                        answered some previously prepared
to serve as pastor at First, would con-                   paring the property for building made                          questions.
tinue to serve at the South Holland,                      the total cost too expensive for con-
IL PRC as far into December as pos-                       sideration.                                                    Minister Activities
sible, for the sake of the internship of                           A new Women's Bible Study                                  Rev. S. Key, pastor of the
Daniel Kleyn. Rev. Terpstra will                          Group has begun meeting Thursday                               Randolph, WI PRC, has declined the
therefore give his farewell sermon on                     mornings in the First PRC in Grand                             call he received to serve as pastor of
Sunday morning, December 22, D.V.                         Rapids, MI. For this year they have                            the Hope PRC in Walker, MI.
     The search continues to go on for                    been studying a book entitled, Wometz
a suitable building site for the                          of  the Bible.                                                                 Food For Thought
Georgetown PRC in Bauer, MI.                                                                                                  "The Preaching  of Christ is the
Georgetown's Council had presented                        Denominational Activities                                      thunderbolt, the sound of which
a proposal to their congregation to                                The Hull, IA PRC hosted this
purchase ten acres north of Hudson-                                                                                      makes all hell shake."
                                                                                                                                             - C.H.  Spurgeon   Ll


                                                                                                                                RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
                                                                       WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                                    The Men's Society of Hudsonville PRC
                                                                   On December 14, 1996, our parents and                 expresses its heartfelt Christian sympathy to
                                                                                                                         its President and leader, Mr. Tom Spriensma,
          WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                             grandparents,
                                                                MR. and MRS. JOHN C. FLIKKEMA, SR.,                      in the recent passing of his sister,
     On December 22, 1996 our parents,                                                                                                    IEFKE BOUMA,
  MR. and MRS. DENNIS VAN UFFELEN,                        celebrated their 45th wedding anniversary.
                                                                   We give thanks to God for our parents                 of Friesland, the Netherlands on October 19,
will celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary.            and for the faithful instruction received from                 1996. May the words of Psalm  37:40  comfort
We, their children, would like to thank them              them over the years. We pray that God will                     the family. "And the Lord shall help them,
for their many years of Christian love and guid-          continue to bless them and keep them in His                    and deliver them: he shall deliver them from
ance, They have been a true godly example                 care.                                                          the wicked, and save them, because they trust
to us on how we must strive to live unto our                       "For this God is our God forever and ever:            in him."
Lord. We pray for the Lord's continued bless-             he will be our guide even unto death" (Psalm                                 Gord  VanOverloop,  Vice-President
ings on their marriage and that He may give               48:14).                                                                                Erv Kortering, Secretary
them many more years together.                            8        John and  Ruthanne  Flikkema
     "1 will sing of the mercies of the Lord                         John IV, Amanda, Christian, Hannah,                         RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
forever; with my mouth will I make known thy                                                                Connor            Southeast Adult Bible Society expresses
faithfulness to all generations" (Psalm  89:l).           %        Steven and Karen Ophoff                               Christian sympathy to Neal and Joyce Pastoor
$  D a w n   VanUffelen                                                                                                  and family in the passing of their mother and
* Scott Van Uffelen                                                  Steven Charles
                                                          8        Thomas and Amy Flikkema                               grandmother,
%+ Melissa Van Uffelen                                               Caleb, Kesgen                                                      NELLIE DOEZEMA.
                                  Redlands, California    8        Donald and Gail Kuiper                                     May they experience the loving hand of
                                                                                                                         their Father in heaven even in their sorrow.
        RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                       Emily, Michael, Andrew
                                                          +$       Steven and Pamela Flikkema                            "And we know that all things work together for
     The board of the Reformed Free Publish-                         Jeremy, Ethan                                       good to them that love God" (Romans  8:28a).
ing Association and the staff of the  Standard                                                                                               Rev. Dale Kuiper, President
Bearer  express their sympathy to Mr. and Mrs.                                                 Grand Rapids, Michigan
                                                                                                                                     Mrs. Bernard Kamminga, Secretary
Don Doezema on the death of Don's mother,
              NELLIE DOEZEMA.
     We remind them of the hope of the gos-                                                                      NOTICE!!
pel of the risen Jesus Christ, "For as in Adam                     The Board of Covenant Christian High School is seeking two teachers for the 1997-1998
all die, even so in Christ shall all be made              school year. We will consider applicants with backgrounds in a variety of subjects: English,
alive" (I Corinthians  1522).                             foreign languages, business and economics, or music. Applicants should have, or be working
                  John Kalsbeek, Jr., President           toward, certification in secondary education. Those interested should send applications to Peter
                     Robert Vermeer, Secretary            VanDerSchaaf,  secretary, 1451 Broadview Dr., Jenison, Ml 49428, (616)  455-6605.

144lStandard Bearer/December 15, 1996


