A Reformed ,               rer
Semi-Monthly
Magazine





                    Rev. Robert C. Harbach
                           1914-1996

                                 See "In Memoriam" p. 178



January 15, 1997


CONTENTS:                                                                                                                                       January  15, 1997                                                                                        Qfe.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Standard
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Bearer
Meditation  - Herman Hoeksema
           Inexcusable Madness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171                                             ISSN 0362-4692
Editorial  - Prof. David  J.  Engelsma
           A Candid Confession of the Character                                                                                                                                                                            Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July, and August.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                           Published by the Reformed Free Publishing Association, Inc.,
                      of a Conditional Covenant (2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174                                                                4949  Ivanrest Ave., Grandville, MI 49416. Periodical Postage
Letters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177    Paid at Grandville, Michigan.
In Memoriam  -  Mr. Don Doezema                                                                                                                                                                                            Postmaster: Send address changes to the Standard Bearer,
                                                                                                                                                                                                                           P.O. Box 603, Grandville, MI 49468-0603.
           Rev. Robert C. Harbach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
All Around Us - Rev. Gise VanEMen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182                                                                              EDITORIAL COMMITTEE
                                                                                                                                                                                                                           Editor: Prof. David J. Engelsma
Search the Scriptures  - Rev. Mitchell C. Dick                                                                                                                                                                             Secretary: Prof.  RobFrt  D. Decker
           The Truth Shall Make You Free . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  184                                                                Managing Editor: Mr. Don Doezema
Decency and Order  -  Rev. Ronald  L. Cammenga                                                                                                                                                                             DEPARTMENT EDITORS
                                                                                                                                                                                                                           Rev. W.  Bruinsma, Rev. A.  Brummel, Rev. R. Cammenga,
           Adyittance to the Lord's Supper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185                                                                         Prof. R. Decker, Rev. A.  denHartog, Rev. M. Dick, Prof. H.
Contending for the Faith  -  Rev. Bernard Woudenberg                                                                                                                                                                       Hanko, Rev. R. Hanko, Rev. S. Key, Rev. K.  Koole, Rev. J.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                           Koriering, Rev. D. H. Kuiper, Mr. J. Lanting,  Mrs. M. Lubbers,
           lnfralapsarianism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188                               Rev. T. Miersma, Mr. G. Schipper, Rev. G. VanBaren,  Rev. R.
Book Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190                VanOverloop,  Mr.  6. Wigger, Rev. S. Woudenberg.
News From Our Churches  - Mr. Benjamin Wigger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191                                                                                                              EDITORIAL OFFICE             CHURCH NEWS EDITOR
                                                                                                                                                                                                                           The Standard Bearer          Mr. Ben Wigger
                                                                                                                                                                                                                           4949  Ivanrest               6597 40th Ave.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                           Grandville, Ml 49418         Hudsonvilla, MI 49426

                                                                                                                                                                                                                           BUSINESS OFFICE              NEW ZEALAND OFFICE
                                                                                                                                                                                                                           The Standard Bearer          The Standard Bearer
                                                                                                                                                                                                                           Don Doezema                  c/o  8. VanHerk
                                                                                                                                                                                                                           P.O. Box 603                 66 Fraser St.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                           Grandville, Ml               Wainuiomata,  New Zealand
           Although the purpose of those who write on these pages  is3                                                                                                                                                       49468-0603
                                                                                                                                                                                                                           PH: (616) 531-1490           UNITED KINGDOM OFFICE
faithfulness and clarity, not eloquence, there are some fine phrases                                                                                                                                                                (616) 536-1778      c/o Mr. Jonathan  McAuley
                                                                                                                                                                                                                           FAX: (616) 531-3033          164 Church Rd., Glenwheny
in this issue. They draw the reader to intriguing articles, pieces,                                                                                                                                                                                     Ballymena, Co.  Antrim BT42 3EL
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Northern Ireland
or discussions.                                                                                                                                                                                                            EDITORIAL POLICY
                                                                                                                                                                                                                           Every editor is solely responsible for the contents of his own
            There is the title of the meditation, "Inexcusable Madness."                                                                                                                                                   articles. Contributions of general interest from our readers and
This is another in the series of sermons by Herman Hoeksema on                                                                                                                                                             questions for The Reader Asks department are welcome.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                           Contributions will be limited to approximately 300 words and
the book of Romans as the series was taken down by Martin                                                                                                                                                                  must be neatly written or typewritten, and must be signed.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                           Copy deadlines are the first and fifteenth of the month. All
Swart. The subject is the deliberate "clash" of the natural man                                                                                                                                                            communications relative to the contents should be sent to the
with God.                                                                                                                                                                                                                  editorial office.
            "It matters not that we may have to stand alone in all this                                                                                                                                                    REPRINT POLICY
                                                                                                                                                                                                                           Permission is hereby granted for the reprinting of articles in our
bleak, and religious, wilderness." So wrote the Rev. Robert C.                                                                                                                                                             magazinebyotherpublications, provided: a)  thatsuch  reprinted
                                                                                                                                                                                                                           articles are reproduced in full; b) that proper acknowledgment
Harbach, when he was working as home missionary of the Protes-                                                                                                                                                             is made; c) that a copy of the periodical in which such reprint
tant Reformed Churches. Mr. Don Doezema quotes Rev. Harbach                                                                                                                                                                appears is sent to our editorial office.
in his remembrance on the occasion of Rev. Harbach's death. See                                                                                                                                                            SUBSCRIPTION POLICY
                                                                                                                                                                                                                           Subscription price: $17.00 per year in the U.S.,  US$20.00
 "In Memoriam: Rev. Robert C. Harbach."                                                                                                                                                                                    elsewhere. Unless a definite request for discontinuance is
            Rev. Mitchell Dick exclaims, "Give me  fhnt truth, and give me                                                                                                                                                 received, it is assumed that the subscriber wishes the
                                                                                                                                                                                                                           subscription tocontinue, and he will be  billedforrenewal.  If you
 that liberty . . . or give me death!" He is applying the grand word                                                                                                                                                       have a change of address, please notify the Business Office as
                                                                                                                                                                                                                           early as possible in order to avoid the inconvenience of
 of Jesus Christ,  `I... and the truth shall make you free." Read the                                                                                                                                                      interrupted  delivey. Include your Zip or Postal Code.
 column, "Search the Scriptures."                                                                                                                                                                                          ADVERTISING POLICY
            To what, pray tell, might these lines refer: "Washed with                                                                                                                                                      The  Standard  Bearerdoes  not accept commercial advertising
                                                                                                                                                                                                                           of any kind. Announcements of church and school events,
 cataclysmic dearth; thy baptism is unequaled upon the earth!"?                                                                                                                                                            anniversaries, obituaries, and sympathy resolutions will be
                                                                                                                                                                                                                           placed for a $10.00 fee. These should be sent to the Business
 See the poem by Connie L. Meyer, "To the Earth."                                                                                                                                                                          Officeandshould beaccompanied  bythe$iO.OOfee.  Deadline
            "News From Our Churches" informs us that Edgerton,                                                                                                                                                             for announcements is at least one month prior to publication
                                                                                                                                                                                                                           date.
 Minnesota's Christmas Social debated whether Christmas is Chris-                                                                                                                                                          BOUND VOLUMES
 tian. Why would one think not? And what was the conclusion?                                                                                                                                                               The Business Office will accept standing orders for bound
Mr. Benjamin Wigger does not answer these questions. Not in                                                                                                                                                                copies of the current volume. Such orders are filled as soon as
                                                                                                                                                                                                                           possible after completion of a volume year.
this issue.                                                                                                                                                                                                                16mm microfilm, 35mm microfilm and 105mm microfiche, and
                                                                                                                                                                                                    - D J E                article copies are available through University Microfilms
                                                                                                                                                                                                                           International.

17OjStandard  Bearer/January 15, 1997


                                   l,nexcusable Madness
          Because  that which may be known           ing. The driver sees and hears it.       text tells us of the first result of
     of  God is manifest in them;  for  God          He hears the shrill whistle of the       the madness. It does not tell us
     hath  shewed  it unto them.                     train. But he drives on with the         the complete result. But it tells us
          For the invisible things  of  him          inevitable result that the car is        what is the first result of this mad-
     from  the creation  of  the world are           smashed and the occupants are de-        ness. This first result is that man
     clearly seen, being understood by the           stroyed. What is this? It is mad-        "became vain in (his) imaginations,
     things that are made, even his eternal          ness. Yes, but it is madness for         and (his) foolish heart was dark-
     power and Godhead; so that they are             which there is no excuse.                ened."
     without excuse:                                     Or imagine that in the city
          Because that, when they knew               there is a third rail, highly charged    The Madness
     God,  .they glorified him not as God,           with electricity.     A large sign           The madness is that man knew
     neither were thankful; but  became`vain         warns of the presence of that rail.      God and glorified Him not as God.
     in their imaginations, and their fool-          It is properly fenced off, to keep       The apostle is speaking of man,
     ish heart was darkened.                         anyone from stepping upon that           that is, of the world as it lies in
          Professing themselves to be wise,          rail. Yet someone, in spite of the       darkness, of the world as it lies
     they became fools,                              warning and  in  spite of the fence,     apart from the gospel, as  it does
          And changed the glory  of  the             climbs over that fence and steps         not have the light of the gospel.
     uncorruptible God into an image made            upon that rail and is killed. What       He is speaking of the world in
     like to corruptible man, and to birds,          is this? Madness, you say. But it        which he is called to preach. We
     and fourfooted beasts, and creeping             in inexcusable.                          may say that he is speaking of the
     things.                                             This illustrates what man does       heathen world. Of this heathen
                                  Romans  1:19-23    with the living God. That train is       world the apostle says that it knew
                        ,  j .                       the almighty God, who holds His          God. Their foolishness and idola-
          The passage speaks of what                 course, who does not change His          try are not to be ascribed to natu-
     may be characterized. as inexcus-               way, who never stops. That liv-          ral darkness. It is often presented
     able madness. Rather, it speaks                 ing rail is God, who is a consum-        this way. It is often presented as
     of the inexcusable madness of                   ing fire for all who set themselves      if the heathen stand with out-
     u n r i g h t e o u s n e s s .                 against Him. That mad driver is          stretched hands waiting for the
          Let me illustrate. Imagine that            the sinner. The signs and signals        gospel. This is not the heathen
     in a dark night a car is approach-              are the things that are seen of God.     world according to Romans. The
     ing a railroad crossing, while a fast           These things are clearly seen. Yet       apostle is speaking of the world
     train is coming down the tracks,                natural man goes on, clashes with        apart from the gospel. Of this
     rapidly nearing the road upon                   God, and  is  destroyed. This is in-     world he says that it knew God.
     which the car is traveling. Some                excusable madness.                           When the apostle says that the
     five hundred feet from the cross-                   The text calls our attention to      heathen world knows God, he
     ing, a large sign tells the driver              this inexcusable madness from a          means, in the first place, that they
     that the railroad crossing is near.             threefold point of view. It tells        know that God is. In the second
     The driver  sees that  sign. A little           us, in the first place, what this        place, they know that God is of
     farther, the driver reads another               madness is, namely, "that when           everlasting power.        The apostle
     sign: stop, look, and listen. He                they knew God they glorified him         says this in verse 20: "for the in-
     reads that sign. The signal lights              not as God, neither were thank-          visible things of God from the cre-
     are flashing, and the bells are  ring-          ful." In the second place, it tells      ation of the world are clearly seen,
                                                     us that this madness is inexcus-         being understood by the things
                                                     able, when it says, "that which          that are made, even His eternal
                                                     may be known of God is manifest          power and Godhead." By the eter-
I    Herman Hoeksema was the first edi-              in them, for God  hat-h  shewed  it      nal power of God the apostle sim-
     tor  of  the  Standard Bearer.                  unto them." In the third place, the      ply means the power by which He

                                                                                                 January  15,1997/Standard  Bearer/l 71


is able to do things. They know          verse 18, he holds the truth under      known of God, or, as the original
it. They know that God is and that       in unrighteousness. Therefore, he       has it, that which is known of God.
He is of eternal power. Of course,       refuses to go along with this           This means that what is known of
the apostle means to say too that        power. He goes his own way.             God is manifest in them. Notice
they know that that stick which              This is madness. It is mad-         that the apostle does not say that
they put in the ground is not god.       ness because, no more than that         it is revealed unto them.       It is
They know that.                          train, God will not stop. The truth     manifest in them. It is manifest in
    But they know more. They             does not change because we do not       their heart and mind. The apostle
also know the divinity of God.           want it. God goes on, everlasting       does not mean to say that they
God's divinity is what distin-           power, everlasting divinity. The        have a revelation of God in nature
guishes Him from all creatures.          sinner crosses this everlasting         as it is frequently explained. It is
God's divinity is that which dis-        power and divinity. It is madness       manifest in them. God made it
tinguishes Him from all that we          because the sinner knows that,          known to `them. There is not a
see. As divine, He is not of this        coming against this power and di-       man that does not know that God
world. As divine, He is distinct         vinity, he must be crushed.             is. God makes known unto man
from everything. As divine, He is                                                His eternal power and divinity.
wholly other from all that is called     The Inexcusable Nature                      The apostle explains this.
creature. The heathen know this.             But, perhaps, there was an ex-      "For," he says, "the invisible things
Man knows this. Man knows                cuse. The apostle shows, in verse       of God from the creation of the
God's divinity. God's divinity is        20, that no man has an excuse to        world are clearly seen, being un-
what is called His holiness in           run against the living God and be       derstood by the things that are
Scripture. God's holiness is that        crushed. An excuse is something         made." By the invisible things of
virtue in Him by which He de-            which weakens or even removes           God, the apostle means all the vir-
mands that He must always be             the blame for a fault. If a man         tues of the divine being. You can-
served, worshiped, glorified,            does not reach a certain place in       not see God. God is hid. He is
praised, and thanked. Men know           time, although the sin of being late    hid behind the vail of the material
this.                                    is there, yet it may be excused.        things. The essence of God is not
    Men know that God is not off         The man may not have known; he          seen. But the invisible things of
somewhere in heaven. They know           may have been misinformed; he           God are seen, the apostle says.
that there is power that surrounds       may have been detained so that he           This seems to be a paradox.
them, a spiritual, living power that     could not, come on time. There-         The invisible things of God are
surrounds them, and that demands         fore, he is excused.                    seen. How? By the things that
of them that they glorify Him.               So, perhaps, this man who           are made.    The things that are
This is the train of my illustration.    runs against God has an excuse.         made are the vail behind which
Men know this. Yet they do not           After all, God is invisible. The        God is hid. But that God is be-
glorify God, and thank Him.              apostle says so in verse 20. Phi-       hind the vail is seen. The reason
    To glorify God as God is to          losophers say that God cannot be        is that all these things are words.
acknowledge that God is God, that        seen  - He is invisible  - and,         They are words of God. When
He is good, and that He must be          therefore, cannot be known. The         God made these words, what did
praised and worshiped. To give           atheist says, "Because we do not        He speak about? There was not
thanks means practically the same        see God, there is no God."              anything to speak about except
thing, only with the acknowledg-             But the apostle takes this ex-      Himself. But the apostle says that
ment that from this God we re-           cuse away. He shows that man is         the invisible things of God are
ceive all things. The food we eat,       inexcusable. God has done some-         seen.    They are not merely de-
the water we drink, the air we           thing that makes him inexcusable.       clared. The apostle says that man
breathe, all things, we receive from     What is it? Why is man without          sees them. The apostle does not
Him.     The heathen knew this.          excuse? The apostle explains that       mean to say that man  may  know
They were conscious of the ever-         the invisible things of God from        God, if he only takes notice of
lasting power and divinity of God.       the creation of the world are           these things, but that he may also
    Sin is not ignorance. Sin is cor-    clearly seen, being understood by       not  know God, by not taking no-
ruption by which man refuses to          the things that are made. Verse         tice of them.     No, the apostle
acknowledge God, because he              20 is an explanation of what the        means that man  must  know God.
loves unrighteousness. If a man          apostle mentions in verse 19,           How does he know God? God
loves unrighteousness, he cannot,        where he has said, "that which          brings these things into his heart
will not, and cannot will to glorify     may be known of God, is manifest        and mind.
God. He will not give thanks be-         in them, for God hath  shewed  it          Creation is not a dead book.
cause, as the apostle tells us in        unto them." That which may be           It is a living testimony. Through

172/Standard  Bearer/January 15,1997


it God brings, the invisible things                      self because they wanted a god af-     help and deliverance and salva-
of God into his heart. Just as He                        ter their own heart. They did not      tion." They changed, in their mind
brings the living testimony of the                       want to let God tell them who He       a n d   h e a r t ,   t h e   g l o r y   o f   t h e
gospel into the hearts of His                            is. Then they began to philoso-        uncorruptible  God into an image
people, so He brings the living tes-                     phize. They said, "We will de-         made like to corruptible man, and
timony of creation into the heart                        velop our own system of wisdom."       to birds, and fourfooted beasts,
o f   m a n .                                            This is philosophy. Philosophy         and creeping things.
     For this reason the invisible                       says, "We will determine our own            I am not ashamed of the gos-
things of God are clearly seen. For                      God." This is philosophy. This is      pel of Christ, the apostle says, in
this reason it is a good remedy,                         also the philosophy for which we       the light of this explanation of
even for the Christian, to escape                        take off our cap. All philosophy       man. I would be ashamed of it, if
from this sophisticated world for                        is foolish because it does not want    the gospel had nothing to say to
a time (for we live in a very so-                        God.                                   this man who so holds the truth
phisticated world) and go to the                             What is the result? The apostle    under in unrighteousness. I would
woods, lie on his back, and say                          says that man- became vain. He         be ashamed of the gospel if it did
nothing. Do not say anything, do                         became vain, empty, void of the        not have a remedy. But it has.
not spoil it by talking, just look                       knowledge of God. Man may rea-         For in it  is  revealed the righteous-
up at the sky, listen to the birds,                      son the knowledge of God away.         ness of God which is by faith in
and look at the trees, the flowers,                      Not in his deepest heart, for there    Christ Jesus.
and the grass. This will be the                          he must know God. But man may               I would be ashamed of this
testimony: "God is! God is eter-                         reason so long that he reasons the     gospel if I had to come into this
n a l   i n   p o w e r   a n d   e t e r n a l   i n    knowledge of God away. Espe-           world and offer to this world this
Godhead! God must be praised!"                           cially over generations man may        righteousness. For then it would
     They know God; they know                            reason so long that he reasons the     be hopeless. Man does not want
His eternal power and Godhead;                           knowledge of God away. He be-          righteousness. He loves unrigh-
they know that he must be glori-                         comes vain.     This is what the       teousness. All history shows that
fied and praised.                                        apostle means: Knowing God, he         man does not want righteousness.
                                                         did not glorify and thank Him, and     God's invisible things are clearly
The Result                                               he became vain. He became vain         seen. Although this is not the gos-
     We would say that if man                            with respect to the knowledge of       pel, it testifies of this one thing:
knows God in His power and di-                           God. He became vain, empty,            man does not want righteousness.
vinity and that he must be glori-                        with respect to the knowledge of       He holds the righteousness of God
fied and praised, the expected re-                       God.                                   in nature under in unrighteous-
sult would be that man will glo-                             What was the result? The re-       ness. If I offer to this man the
rify and praise Him. Just as when                        sult was that as soon as they so       righteousness of Christ, he will
the driver of that car sees the signs                    reasoned with regard to God, they      also hold this truth under in
and signals, and hears the train,                        clashed with the wrath of God.         unrighteousness. If he holds the
the expected result would be that                        That wrath of God struck them.         righteousness of God revealed in
that driver step on the brake and                        Their foolish heart was darkened.      nature under in unrighteousness,
stop the car. But the apostle says                       God showed them that their wis-        he will hold the righteousness of
that the expected fails. Man knows                       dom is foolishness. Professing         God revealed in the gospel under
God and that God must be praised                         themselves to be wise, they became     in unrighteousness.
and thanked, but man does not                            fools.                                      But the gospel is not an offer.
give thanks.                                                 You understand, God showed         It is the power of God unto salva-
     Why not?                                            them the foolishness of their wis-     tion. Just as God takes the testi-
     In principle, the apostle gives                     dom when He cast them down be-         mony of nature and carries it into
the answer in verse 18: They hold                        fore the image of corruptible man,     the heart of man, so He takes the
the truth under in unrighteous-                          and birds, and beasts, and creep-      testimony of the gospel concern-
ness. Man wants unrighteousness.                         ing things. God said, "If you will     ing His Son and carries it into the
Now what does He do? He be-                              not serve me, then I will make you     heart of His elect.
gins to talk. The apostle says that                      fools." How does this become evi-           I am not ashamed of the gos-
they became vain in their imagi-                         dent? By their idolatry. God           pel of Christ. For it is a power. It
nations. Or, according to the origi-                     made man foolish, and man made         is the power which the sinner
nal, they became vain in their own                       a picture of a corruptible man, and    needs to save him from the death
reasoning. Man began to philoso-                         of an ox, and of creeping things.      in which he holds the truth under
phize about God. They set aside                          He said to that image: "Thou art       in unrighteousness.  Cl
God's testimony concerning Him-                          my God. From thee do I expect

                                                                                                     January  15,  1997/$tandard Bearer/l 73


                     A Candid Confession of the
         Character of a Conditional Covenant
                                                       0
     God loves every physical child      every child?" the Rev. Cecil W.         these children. As regards this ex-
of believing parents.                    Tuininga wrote, "Yes, God does          act subject and issue, it is the
    In this love, God sincerely  de-     express His love for every cov-         teaching of the apostle of Christ
`sires to save every physical child      enant child." In answer to my           that God did not love both sons of
of believing parents.                    question, "Does this promise indi-      Isaac and  Rebekah.  Before the
    This love of God for every           cate that God sincerely desires to      sons were born or had done any
child of believing parents is cov-       save every child of believing par-      good or evil, God made known
enant  love. It is not merely some       ents?" he wrote, "Yes, God does         that He loved Jacob and hated
superficial affection (supposing         desire to save every covenant           Esau (Rom.  9:10-13).  Scripture
now that there is such a weak and        child."                                 flatly contradicts the teaching of
fleeting emotion in God) that the            Tuininga's candid confession        the conditional covenant, that God
children share with the entire un-       distinguishes itself from the vague-    loves all the children of believing
godly world. It is not merely a          ness and evasiveness at the cru-        parents.
love that desires their temporal         cial points of the statements of            Nor did God sincerely desire
welfare. It is not merely a warm         other defenders of the conditional      to save Esau as is held by the con-
feeling that gives these children        covenant. Nevertheless, it does         ditional covenant. God willed to
`earthly gifts.                          nothing more than make explicit         harden Esau unto his eternal dam-
    But it is the rich, deep love of     what is, in fact, implicit in the       nation (Rom.  9:lS). He made Esau
God revealed in the incarnation          main aspects of the doctrine. If        a vessel unto dishonor (Rom.  9:21).
and death of Christ. It is love that     God at their baptism makes His          He fitted Esau, child of believing
wishes to bestow on them the for-        covenant with all baptized chil-        parents though he was, to destruc-
giveness of sins and eternal life.       dren and if God on His part prom-       tion and endured that vessel of
It is love that longs to have them       ises to all children that He will be    wrath (Rom.  9:22).
as sons and daughters in the fam-        their God in Jesus Christ, God              One thing Esau's circumcision
ily of the Elder Brother. It is love     loves all baptized children with the    (which had the same significance
that sincerely desires their salva-      love of the covenant and sincerely      as the baptism of a child under the
tion.                                    desires to save them. Scripture         new covenant) did not mean:
    Such is the character of the         teaches that the establishment of       God's covenant love for him and,
conditional covenant of God with         the covenant with a person and the      with this love, the desire to save
the children of believers that is be-    promise of salvation are the rev-       him. One thing did not  take/place
lieved, confessed, and defended by       elation of the love of God for that     at Esau's circumcision:       God's
many Reformed and Presbyterian           person.                                 promising to establish His cov-
churches today.                              The candor of the confession        enant with Esau.
    This was candidly confessed          does serve to make clear that the           The character, or nature, of the
by a representative of the defend-       doctrine of a conditional covenant      conditional covenant is          un-
ers of the doctrine in the January       is unbiblical and un-Reformed.          Reformed in that it extends the
1, 1997 issue of the  Standard           For this reason, the candid confes-     saving love of God in Jesus Christ,
Beam-.   In answer to my question,       sion is helpful. The subject is the     the mediator of the covenant, to
"Does the promise that, according        physical children of believing par-     men and women who are not
to Rev. Tuininga, is made by God         ents. More specifically, the issue      saved by that love, but perish in
to every child of believing parents,     is the attitude and will of the cov-    spite of it. God's love fails to save
express God's covenantal love for        enant God in Jesus Christ toward        some objects of that love. God's

174jStandard Bearer/January 15, 1997


love failed to save Esau. The love                     of a universal love of God depen-          On the reckoning of the Canons, if
of God  -  the  covenant  love of God                  dent upon the free will of the-sin-        God loves and desires to save all
- fails, is frustrated, is defeated.                   ner are that the conditional cov-          the children of believing parents,
    It is the Reformed faith that the                  enant teaches universal love in the        Christ also died for all the chil-
love of God in Jesus Christ  -                         sphere of the covenant, rather than        dren.
God's  covenant  lov,e   - is sover-                   in the sphere of the preaching of              Can even the most paradoxi-
eign. It has its way with every                        the gospel worldwide; speaks of a          cal of Calvinistic thinkers be satis-
sinner who is the object of this                       conditional promise, rather than of        fied with the theology of the  con-
love. It saves. No human loved                         a conditional offer of the gospel;         ditional covenant? The covenant
by God in Jesus Christ will perish.                    and locates the conditional address        God in Jesus Christ loves all the
This is the  creedal  doctrine of the                  of God in baptism, rather than in          children alike with His covenant
Reformed faith in the Canons of                        the preaching of the gospel.               love, but designs the atonement to
Dordt.                                                         In the Canons of the Synod of      exclude some of them! He desires
    T h e   o t h e r   s i d e   o f   t h e   un-    Dordt, the Reformed churches               to save them all, but deliberately
Reformed character of the condi-                       have officially condemned the doc-         refuses to accomplish for some of
tional covenant is its necessarily                     trine of a universal, ineffectual          them the redemption upon which
implied teaching that the reason                       love of God dependent upon the             this salvation depends!
why God's covenant love does                           condition of faith as false doctrine,          This thrusts contradiction and
save some children is an act which                     as a form of the "other gospel"            confusion into the mind and will
they perform. The reason cannot                        anathematized          by Paul in          of God. At the very least, it drives
be the love of God itself, for the                     Galatians  1:8,9.                          a wedge between the electing Fa-
very same love is directed also to                             Why the representative of the      ther and the redeeming Son, con-
children who perish. The faith of                      proponents of a conditional cov-           trary to the testimony of Jesus
Jacob, not the love of God, distin-                    enant holds back from acknowl-             Himself in John  6:37-40.
guished Jacob from Esau.                               edging that Jesus died for all the             And what does this say of the
    On the contrary, it is the Re-                     physical children of believers is a        truthfulness of God who, accord-
formed faith that the salvation of                     mystery. He does so hold back.             ing to the conditional covenant,
the children of believing parents,                     To my question, "Did Jesus Christ          declares to every child at baptism,
which is part of the saving of the                     shed His blood for every baptized          Esau as well as Jacob: "I love you
elect church, is due only to the dis-                  child of believing parents?" he an-        with covenant love; I make my
criminating love of God for these                      swers, "No, Jesus shed His blood           covenant with you; I adopt you for
children. "This purpose proceed-                       only for those given Him by the            my son and heir; I sincerely desire
ing from everlasting love towards                      Father." No doubt, there is hesi-          your salvation; and I promise to
the elect, has from the beginning                      tation to contradict the established       give you eternal life"? As He is
of the world to this day been pow-                     Reformed doctrine of "limited              saying these things, it is unalter-
erfully accomplished, and will                         atonement." This is commendable.           ably true that Christ did not die
henceforward still continue to be                              But it is no worse to deny lim-    for that particular child by the de-
accomplished . . . so that the elect                   ited atonement than to deny God's          termination of the God who is
in due time may be gathered to-                        discriminating love and particular         speaking to the child. Christ did
gether into one . .." (Canons 11/9).                   will of salvation, that is, -divine        not confirm the covenant for the
    As the candid confession                           election. Fact is, the Canons of           child, did  not  satisfy divine jus-
makes plain, the conditional cov-                      Dordt ground the atonement in              tice for the child (upon which
enant is essentially the same as the                   election and determine the extent          adoption depends), did not obtain
doctrine that God loves all men,                       of the atonement according to the          salvation for the child, did not
desires to save all, well-meaningly                    number of those whom God de-               earn faith for the child.
offers salvation to all in the gos-                    sires to save:                                 According to the Reformed
pel, and depends for the efficacy                                                                 "Form for the Administration of
of His love and the fulfillment of                       . . . it was the will of God, that       Baptism," the promise given by
His desire upon the acceptance of                        Christ by the blood of the cross,        God in baptism is not abstracted
His offer by the sinner. This is                         whereby he confirmed the new             from the cross, but is based upon
put beyond any doubt by the texts                        covenant,  shouId  effectually re-       the cross and has the cross as its
to which Rev. Tuininga appeals in                        deem out of every people, tribe,
                                                        nation, and language, all those,          content. If then, as the conditional
the questions which he puts to me                        and those only, who were from            covenant teaches, God makes the
in return: Matthew  23:37; I Timo-                       eternity chosen to salvation, and        promise to every baptized child,
thy  2:3,4;.  II Peter  3:9. The only                   given to him by the Father . . . (II/     Christ must have died for every
differences between the condi-                          8).                                       child.
tional covenant and the doctrine                                                                      So much is universal  atone-

                                                                                                      January  15,  1997/Standard Bearer/l 75


ment demanded by a universal              as is the teaching of the conditional                    fill His promise to every child?
love of God in Jesus Christ that          covenant. Also, if faith is one of                           To affirm at the end that the
wherever the latter is taught the         the benefits included in the  prom-                      child fulfills the condition of faith
former invariably follows. This           is,e, God must give faith to every                       "by God's grace" is not sufficient
has `happened in the Christian Re-        child, which the conditional cov-                        to rescue the doctrine of a condi-
formed Church (CRC) as Rev.               e n a n t   d e n i e s .                                tional  covenant'from  heresy.' For
Tuininga, who only' recently left               But in denying that faith is it-                   one `thing, even  ' the outright
this church, knows well. The cov-         self a benefit included in the cov-                      Arminian, who attributes faith to
enant doctrine that prevailed in the      enant promise, the conditional cov-                      man's free will, does not refuse to
CRC from its early days was the           enant goes grievously wrong.                             say, especially when he is being
conditional covenant of Prof. W.          First, this is, in reality, a denial                     pressed by a champion of God's
Heyns.  L)ike  all forms of the con-      that faith is the gift of God to sin-                    free grace, that sinners believe
ditional covenant, this doctrine          ners as the Canons teach in III,IV/                      with the help of God's grace. In
taught a grace, or love, of God for       14. All of the gifts that belong to                      addition, the mere statement that
all the children of believers. This       salvation were earned by the death                       the child believes "by God's grace"
doctrine paved the way for the            of Christ and come to the heirs of                       is overpowered by the teaching it-
adoption of the doctrine of com-          salvation by promise. The Can-                           self that faith is the condition of
mon grace in 1924. The main er-           ons expressly state that Christ                          the fulfillment of the promise and
ror of this dogma of  the.CRC is its      earned faith for all the elect by His                    that, faith is not included among
teaching that God in Christ loves         death  (E/8).  Acts  2:38, 39 teaches                    the benefits that God promises to
and desires to save everyone who          that those who are called receive                        the children..
hears the  gospel.  In the  196Os,  a     the gift of the Holy Ghost, which                            Besides, in the popular presen-
Christian Reformed theologian             includes every spiritual grace, as                       tation of the doctrine of a condi-
publicly advocated universal              promise and by promise.                                  tional covenant, the defenders of
atonement. The synod of the CRC                 Second, the denial that faith is                   this doctrine usually say nothing
refused to condemn this doctrine.         part of the promise contradicts the                      at all about the child's believing
Today, it is widespread in the CRC        confessions.            The Presbyterian                 "by God's grace." The latest issue
to preach that Christ died for all        Westminster Confession of Faith                          of the magazine,  Lux Mundi,  is an
men.    It is equally widespread          teaches that in the covenant of                          example of this. Explaining the
among the people to believe that          grace God  "promis  to give unto                         meaning of baptism, the editor, a
Christ died for all men.                  all those that are ordained unto life                    theologian who holds the condi-
    I would be surprised if, espe-        his Holy Spirit, to make them will-                      tional covenant, writes:
cially in the Netherlands where the       ing and able to believe  (7.31." The
conditional covenant has been             p o i n t   t o   n o t i c e   i s   n o t   t h a t      The triune God himself acts in
strongly promoted, Reformed min-          Westminster strictly limits the                            baptism....     He assures the per-
isters do not teach that Christ died      promise to the elect (which it                             son baptized that the promises of
for all the children of believers and     does), but that it makes faith a ben-                      his covenant are for him. In the
Reformed people do not have this          efit included in the promise itself.                       sign and seal of baptism he  prom-
                                                                                                     ises  such a person regeneration by
as their deep conviction.                      The Reformed Heidelberg Cat-                          the Holy Spirit and forgiveness of
    To my question, whether faith         echism does the same in Question                           sins and eternal life. And to  all
is included among the benefits            74: To the infants of believers, "the                      who accept his promises in faith
promised to the children at bap-          Holy Ghost, the author of faith, is                        God also gives what he promises!
tism, the Rev. Tuininga answered,         promised." In the promise of the                           (Dec. 15, 1996, p. 1)
"No, faith is a condition that a cov-     author of faith to the children is
enant child must fulfill but can          promised the faith of which He is                            There is not so much as a hint
only fulfill by God's grace (Eph.         author. How can Rev. Tuininga,                           that the baptized sinner believes
2:8). If they do not fulfill this con-    bound as he is by the Heidelberg                         "by God's grace." On the con-
dition they are cut off the covenant      Catechism, deny that faith is in-                        trary, the reader is given to un-
tree (Rom.  11:22)."                      cluded among the benefits in the                         derstand that the salvation of the
    This has to be his answer as          promise that God makes to the                            child depends on his own act of
one who teaches that God ad-              children of believers? But if it is                      "accepting" the promises of God.
dresses the covenant promise to           included, how can it be the condi-                       Indeed, this popular presentation
every baptized child. If faith is         tion upon which depends the ful-                         of the conditional covenant teaches
one of the benefits included in the       fillment of a universal promise?                         gross false doctrine: the baptized
promise to every child, faith can-        And if it is included in the prom-                       infant's regeneration depends
not be the condition upon which           ise that God supposedly makes to                         upon his faith. God, we are told,
reception of the promise depends,         every child, why does God not ful-                       promises to regenerate all who  ac-

176IStandard Bearer/January 15, 1997


 cept His promise in faith. James                        whether God the Father makes an           pages, and defended, a doctrine of
Arminiuswas not so bold.                                 eternal covenant of grace with ev-        an unconditional covenant of grace
      The candid confession of the                       ery child; whether God the Son            with believers and their true, spiri-
 character of the conditional cov-                       seals to every child that He washes       tual children according to election
 enant by Rev. Tuininga throws into                      him in His blood; and whether             (a series on "The Covenant of God
bold relief the fundamental depar-                       God the Holy Ghost assures every          and the Children of Believers" in
ture from `the Reformed faith of                         child that He will dwell in him, on       vol. 66; a related series on "The
this doctrine of the covenant. The                       the condition that the  child will be-    Approach to Covenant Children"
root of the errors regarding the                         lieve,  Rev. Tuininga answers, "Yes;      in vol. 67; and a series on "An
love of God, God's will of salva-                        yes; yes."                                `Election Theology' of Covenant"
tion, the cross, the promise, and                            It is this conception of the cov-     in vol. 67).     These articles are
faith is the conception of the cov-                      enant with the children of believ-        readily available. I need not re-
enant as established conditionally                       ers, which refuses to view the cov-       peat what I wrote in them.
with every  child at baptism. This                       enant in the light of predestination          What I must do, however, is
i s   t h e   c o n c e p t i o n   t h a t   R e v .    (as Paul does in Romans  9), that         answer the questions that Rev.
Tuininga affirms when he answers                         necessarily results in the teaching       Tuininga has put to me as a de-
my questions about the work of                           of universal covenant love and a          fender of the unconditional cov-
the triune God described by our                          universal will of salvation within        enant.
Reformed "Form" as the second                            the sphere of the covenant.                   With the same candor with
principal part of the doctrine of                            I have earlier set forth on these     which he answered mine. Cl
holy baptism., To my questions                                                                                                     - DJE



n  Appropriate                                           mention is made that any heads            be pointless and far beyond the na-
     After having read the letter                        that turned were turned in wick-          ture of an article which merely re-
"Not Appropriate"  (Stnndard                             edness."      It is not necessary nor     ports that memory.
Bearer,  Dec. 1, 1996) by Mr. Marc                       judicious to state the  intent of the         Finally, Mr. Carpenter points
Carpenter, and having reread the                         heart  with respect to heads turned       out the lack of emphasis on per-
article entitled "The Reformed                           some years ago. I was struck with         sonal holiness in Reformed circles.
Family: Teachers" (SB, Sept. 15,                         the description of a memory that          While this is always to be a matter
,1996)  by Mrs. Lubbers, I am some-                      indicated a particular teacher to         of great concern, I do not see this
what confused as to the nature of                        have a spiritual, youthful, viva-         as a fault of articles like Mrs. Lub-
Mr. Carpenter's objection.                               cious, and attractive approach to         bers'.  Seeing  physical beauty and
     His letter reads, "my wife and                      the calling God gave her. While           reporting  its existence are never sin-
I were offended at the lack of per-                      some may have turned in wicked-           ful, but placing an importance on
sonal purity that some parts of the                      ness, it is equally possible that they    it above or before spiritual beauty
article endorsed." I am left won-                        turned in awe of the godly atti-          is at fault, for the physical is but a
dering, to whose lack of purity                          tude with which she apparently            picture (poor and sin-filled) of the
does he refer? Mrs. Lubbers' or                          carried herself.                          spiritual. I understood Mrs. Lub-
Miss Reitsma's? Indeed, in the                               Mr. Carpenter also asks, with         bers' descriptions in that light, as
record of Mrs. Lubbers' memory,                          respect to the showing of a movie         seeing and reporting that physical
a portion is given to the physical                       and Miss Reitsma's covering of the        beauty in Miss Reitsma: not more
appearance of Miss Reitsma. Her                          lens at a bedroom scene (of hus-          important, not necessary to and
recollection is that of an eighth                        band and wife), "Were these pro-          not above that spiritual beauty
grade girl, with the accompanying                        tests sinful? Why were her eyes           which God wrought in her, which
sights and understandings. She                           dancing with mischief?" I can only        resulted in a portion of the godly
recalls this particular teacher as                       assume that since she covered the         training of Mrs. Lubbers and many
being.attractive  and describes it in                    lens, she was fully aware of the          others.
that manner. Nowhere does she                            sinful nature of eighth graders to            According to the memory of
suggest that Miss Reitsma acted                          interpret such a scene wrongly and        Mrs. Lubbers, Miss Reitsma con-
inappropriately with the beauty                          improperly. "Mischief in her eyes"        sidered the following worthy of
God  .bestowed  upon her. There is                       is the subjective analysis of an          her daily labors for God's covenant
no lack of purity in  being  beauti-                     eighth grader, remembered over            children: memorizing poetry and
ful; `there is no lack of purity in                      the passage of many years. To             Psalters; singing spirituals; encour-
seeing  it.                                              judge the purpose or intent of such       aging skills of logic and rhetoric;'
     Complaint is given that "no                         a thing at this point in time would       preparing students to live without

                                                                                                      January  15,1997/Stidard  Bearer/l 77


a teacher; enthusiasm for, her call-             Mrs. Lubbers, her teacher's physi-              meditations by Rev. Herman
ing regardless of personal struggle;             cal beauty is wasted and gone, but              Hoeksema.          His piercing insight
respect for and necessity of godly               the spiritual beauty of that confes-            into God's Word, and His simple,
ministers in the school; regular                 sion, which Miss Reitsma was used               straightforward style of exposition
chapels; school programs in the                  of God to impart, has  .remained.               always strengthens my faith and
way  .of music and Scripture; moti-              When I read that beautiful confes-              sends new rays of God's light
vating kids to think; and several                sion, I wept for the covenant chil-             streaming into my heart.
more.                                            dren who do not have the benefit                     Secondly, Rev. Moore's enthu-
    If I had thought there were any              of such teachers, with or without               siasm for the mission work in
possibility that Mrs. Lubbers con-               physical beauty.                                Ghana should be an encourage-
sidered the physical beauty of Miss                  Thank you, Mrs. Lubbers, for                ment for us all to join together in
Reitsma to be essential or neces-                reminding us of the importance of               p r o m o t i n g   t h i s   w o r k   " w i t h
sary to the making of a godly                    godly, Reformed teachers. If God                prayers, gifts, letters, visits, etc.,"
teacher, my doubts would have                    is merciful to provide them, it is              as he suggests. Our churches have
been dispelled when reading the                  of no consequence whether they                  made the decision (guided, we
following: "this vibrant, energetic              remain in our children's memories               trust, by the Holy Spirit), to pur-
teacher lay weak and wasted, her                 as physically beautiful, ugly, or               sue this mission endeavor. May
pallor at one with the white, crisp              otherwise, so long as they recall               our Lord raise up the right man
sheets.      Even those wonderful                and live that godly and Reformed                for missionary, with a willing team
green eyes were robbed of vital-                 way of thinking that Miss Reitsma               of helpers; and may He work pow-
ity." Having seen her beloved                    apparently taught and lived.                    erfully to gather His  own.in that
teacher in the ugliness of death,                                (Mrs.) Deborah Benson           place.
Mrs. Lubbers goes on to recount                                                  Elgin, IL            "Make a joyful noise unto God,
the permanent written record of                                                                  all ye lands: Sing forth the honour
Miss Reitsma's  iast  letters to her             n  Appreciation                                 of his name: make his praise glo-
students.       H e r   w o r d s   ( M i s s        I wish to express my apprecia-              rious" (Ps.  66:1, 2).
Reitsma's) are a lasting, beautiful,             tion for two reasons.                                                            John Hilton
and very spiritual confession. For                   First, I am thoroughly pleased                                          Edgerton, MN
                                                 by your frequent inclusion of





                   ,Rev. Robert C. Harbach

                            Qn  s~tWdCUJ  emqzing,  Decendver   14,  2 9 9 6 ,   the  y?My   ~i~g~il?~~g$   o f   our
                   :  behid-.@v.   Harbaclz  e&cl,   zohen the Lord  took him  from a  7za~7yi7zg  home to
                     : his eternal  hpne   and eternal  Teu?nra.                                                 -,  ,.
                                                                                         ,

    Soft;spoken,   u n a s s u m i n g ,         not to listen long to Rev. Harbach,            light shine before men, and to `set
never one to seek, or even to want,              or to read much of his writing, to             up the standard toward Zion' (Jer.
a place of prominence among men.                 be persuaded that thisminister of              4:6).",     "These are days,? Rev.
    But, in the kingdom, a "giant                the gospel of grace not only talked            Harbach continued, "when preach-
warrior of the faith." In referring              the truth but loved it and valiantly           ing is largely ignored, especially
to him thus in his funeral message,              defended it.                                   Reformed preaching. It is pushed
Rev. Sprjensma was speaking for                      A "warrior." "It matters not,"             aside  .for dashes of religious en-
all those who were privileged to                 he once wrote from a mission field,            tertainment. Men who occupy the
sit  und,er -.Rev. Harbach's preach-             "that we may have to stand alone               pulpit (I hate calling them- minis-
ing, either in an established church             in all this bleak, and religious, wil-         ters) do not preach the Word, do
or on a mission field. One needed                derness. It is our calling to let our          not preach sermons. The people

178/Standard Bearer/January 15, 1997


do not hear the Word. Many of                        beautiful. But in the mad pace of             Moses and  the'song  of the  lamb,
them  do, not ask for bread, being                   our Western life-style we are all             "Great and marvelous are thy
satisfied with stones, which is                      too often heedless of the beauty              works, Lord God Almighty" (Rev.
what they get."                                      fashioned by the divine artisan."             15:2, 3).
 .. "But," he added, "the  preach-                       Rev. Harbach then puts it all                             +++
ing.of the Word is still to be heard.                in  ,perspective  when he concludes,              After his retirement from the
By it we learn to know the truth,                                                                  ministry, and before Parkinson's
embrace it, live in it, and gain                         Not nature itself, not anything           disease left him unable to work at
heaven by it.... For by such means                     of the world, but the spiritual gift        all, Rev. Harbach remained active
the sovereign God purposes to                          and ability to read parables divine         in his study. From his pen came a
save those who believe, and to                         revealed in the creation do com-            number of pamphlets and regular
gather together in one the children                    fort the soul.       50  f i e l d   o r
                                                       Kleinstiickwald  in snow-laden              contributions to the SB. We are
of God scattered abroad."                              winter becomes a haven from the             glad for that; but we are thankful
    R e v .   H a r b a c h   c o n s i d e r e d      strife of tongues and the crashing          especially, that in the good provi-
preaching,"a  very serious steward-                    din of sin in the world. The                dence of God, Rev. Harbach was
ship, a weighty trust committed to                     woods ring with the crow of `the            able to finish his greatest work,
Christ's ministers." His own                           cock pheasant; Black-capped                 Studies in the Book  of  Genesis.  A
preaching reflected untold hours                       Chickadees twitter high aloft; the          lasting legacy! Any reflection on
in the study. So did his writing.                      noisy Titmouse proclaims its pres-          the gifts of God to His church
It sparkled with illustrations not                     ence; the Redpolls and Purple               through the dedicated labors of
only from church fathers but also                      Finches make it a red letter day;
                                                       a Towhee scratches on the leafy             Rev. Harbach would be incomplete.
from English poets and Greek phi-                      forest floor; Pine Siskins appear,          without mention of that book. Its
losophers.                                             then vanish; a small flock of Ce-           "Foreword," written also by the
    Hardly was it the case how-.                       darbirds eats its way through the           undersigned, includes the kind of
ever that all of his source material                   winter berries lading the bushes,           biographical information which,
was on the shelves of his library.                     while ubiquitous Juncos lead the            we think, will'be a fitting conclu-
He was a careful and appreciative                      way on our path! The death of               sion for this article in memory of
student of another "book," one                         winter teems with life! Ask the             its author.
which he "read" with the aid of                        birds of the air and they shall tell
field binoculars, or, sometimes, an                    thee. But He maketh us wiser
                                                       than the birds of heaven. The                              Foreword
underwater face mask and a snor-                       stork in the heaven knoweth her
kel. For the July 1979 issue of this                   appointed time, and the turtle-                 The author, the Rev. Robert C.
magazine Rev. Harbach submitted                        dove and the crane and the swal-            Harbach, was born on July 27,
a "Contribution" entitled "Come                        low observe the time of their com-          1914, in Riverdale, Maryland. As
Ye Apart." In that. single article                     ing; but My people know not the             a boy, he went through the Phila-
are woven effectively references to                    judgment of the Lord. The birds             delphia Public School system, and,
some 45 different kinds of birds.                      observe the approach of winter:             on graduation from high school in
    "There are times," he wrote,                       do we the winter of judgment? 0             1933, thought first of going into
"when in our busy round of toil                        how manifold are Thy works! In
                                                       wisdom hast Thou made them all.             art and journalism.           He had a
and care we must take time to                          The earth is full of Thy riches!            change of heart, however, and en-
come apart and rest awhile or we                         Of all the many references made           rolled instead in the Philadelphia
may come apart. The needed rest,                       in the Bible to nature, the singing         School of the Bible, founded by
one, a grey-beard, finds in twenty                     of birds is mentioned only three            C.I.  Scofield, the noted  dispensa-
minutes of running three times a                       times. Yet in the loud and lovely           tionalist. By the spring of 1939 he
week. But since life today is so                       song emitted from their tiny                had graduated from that institu-
characterized by hurry, why, it                        throats, we think miracles have             tion and went on to study at the
may be asked, take up running to                      not ceased. It must be most glo-             Theological School of the Re-
gain that needed refreshing?  ,-.Why                  rious music that is reserved for
                                                      the saints in heaven, since the              formed Episcopal  Churcl?~  Not
not, rather, take the time to notice                  Lord allows wicked men such                  one to miss an  opportuni-iy both
the flora and fauna, to smell the                     music on earth!                              to gain valuable. experience  a"nd to
flowers? Even though creation's                                                                    be of service, he spent one of the
glorious characters are large                            So much he enjoyed the music              summers of his three year& at the-'
enough`..so that he that runneth                     of little songbirds!  .Now he knows           R.E. Seminary working with-a mis-
may read,. much is missed in the                     also that more glorious music, for            sionary in Kentucky.                      '
flurr'yand-  scurry of life. The                     he has joined the multitude of re-                His wife Roberta, meanwhile,
world is `a beautiful place; as                      deemed in glory, standing on the              was attending night school at the
Moses wrote in Genesis One, very                     sea of crystal, singing the song of           Philadelphia School of the Bible

                                                                                                       January  15,  1997fStandard Bearer/l  79


and she herself graduated from                           In Grand Rapids he submitted          thankful for the restoration of his
there in 1944. That was one year                     to successful eye surgery. In-            sight. That "Book of Creation" re-
after her husband had received his                   traocular lens inserts brought, in        mained as it were open to his
diploma from the Reformed Epis-                      the good counsel of God, restora-         view. But he was concerned about
copal Seminary; After graduation,                    tion of vision to both eyes. Rev.         other books too. The manuscript
Rev. Harbach became involved                         Harbach.  was of course deeply            for a possible commentary on the
with Child Evangelism Fellowship.                    gratefui  to. the Lord for that re-       book of Genesis, for example, lay
From an office in Boston he served                   covery. It meant, for one thing,          unfinished in his study. That was
as director of the `Eastern Massa-                   that the beauties of God's handi-         a project which he very much
chusetts' branch of the Fellowship.                  work in creation would still be           wanted to complete.         A n d   i t
After holding that position for a                    available to his sight. He had al-        seemed for awhile as if it might
couple of years, he received a call                  ways been one to take great plea-         have been placed just beyond his
in 1946 from Emmanuel Reformed                       sure in that. It happens that birds       reach. But, as this volume proves,
Episcopal  Church of Somerville,                     were a special fascination of his.        the Lord willed otherwise.,
New Jersey. He was pastor there                      In Kalamazoo he would carry his               Apart from that unfinished
until, through the influence par-                    books from his study to the living        "book," Rev. Harbach had in his
ticularly of the late Rev.  Ma&us                    room so that, while he was pre-           study shelves of books which for
Schipper,  he decided in 1950 to                     paring sermons, he could keep an          years had been special friends.
move to Grand Rapids, in order                       eye on the bird feeder which stood        When he moved to Victoria, it hap-
to study further in the Theological                  outside the picture window. Dur-          pened that he was not able, or did
School of the Protestant Reformed                    ing his stay `in Houston he loved         not choose, to take with him  all  of
C h u r c h e s .                                    to' go to `the marshlands or to the       his books. As a result, he often
    It was in Grand Rapids that his                  coastal area, loaded down with            felt "like a workman without his
children were  ~born   - Philip in                   telescope, binoculars, camera, and        tools." His "workshop" now was
1951, during Rev. Harbach's first                    field guides. He kept a written           in British Columbia and some of
year in the Protestant Reformed                      record of sightings of different spe-     his "tools" were 2,600 miles away.
Seminary, and Janice in 1955, two                    cies of birds. Letters to his chil-       So close had he always been to
years after his graduation. It was                   dren, from the mission field, often       those tools that, when on occasion
in 1955 also that Rev. Harbach re-                   included detailed accounts of the         he would call or write Phil, asking
ceived a call from the Protestant                    location, time, and circumstances         that a particular volume be sent
Reformed Church in Lynden,                           of his observation of unusual             to him, he would be able to de-
Washington. He served as pastor                      birds.                                    scribe its exact location in the
there for seven and a half years                         His appreciation for natural          study (not only on which shelf it
till, in 1963, he accepted a call from               beauty went far beyond birds how-         was, but what `particular place it
the  .Kalamazoo (Michigan) Protes-                   ever. He used his three-inch tele-        occupied on that shelf  - "third
tant Reformed Church.                                scope not only for studying birds,        shelf on the right, fourth book
    Eleven years later he took an-                   but also for looking into the heav-       from the left side").
other call, this one to serve as                     ens at night. And his camera has              Rev.. Harbach is an avid
home missionary in Houston,                          been used for taking pictures of          reader.    His. knowledge of as-
Texas. During his three years of                     everything from majestic mountain         tronomy (to say nothing of phys-
labor there the Trinity Protestant                   scenery to tiny flowers  - all of         ics) becomes evident in his treat-
Reformed Church was organized,                       which reveal the greatness of their       ment of God's work of creation on
on February 15, 1977. Soon after,                    Creator, to those to whom God has         the fourth day. The same can be
Rev. Harbach took the call to be                     given  spirituaE  eyes  to see. In one    said for what he writes concern-
missionary in Victoria, British Co-                  of those letters to his son Phil, Rev.    ing the fifth day of creation week.
lumbia. It was there that he closed                  Harbach wrote, "How good it is            He can, for example, give an in-
out his active ministerial career.                   to know the Lord! How good that           teresting description of the coot  -
His retirement in 1979, after only                   He speaks to us in His Word.              a kind of "half duck and half
two years of service in Victoria,                    What a glorious word He speaks            chicken" - from  his own observa-
was precipitated by very serious                     to us in the Book of Creation! I          tion  of the bird in a lake near the
sight problems.         Cataracts had                see there His infinite MAJESTY. I         southern tip of Cape May Point in
brought blindness to one of his                      see miracles  before my very eyes.        New Jersey. All of those visits to
eyes and much impaired vision to                     Just a little plover is a source of       the swamps and the sea coast have
the other.      S o ,   i n   1 9 7 9 ,   R e v .    delight, as though it were some-          paid handsome dividends in the
Harbach officially retired from the                  thing supernatural! How glorious          writing of his commentary on Gen-
ministry and returned to Grand                       heaven must be!"                          esis. When the writer is able to
Rapids,                                                  Yes, Rev. Harbach was indeed          describe the beauty of the sea

1 SO/Standard Bearer/January l&l997


floor, having himself donned a face         Rev. Harbach is a scholar. It        God's particular grace and particu-
mask to observe it in the Carib-        is apparent too that his commen-         lar covenant is ably set forth.
bean at Jamaica, it becomes obvi-       tary on Genesis was written by a             His life having been influenced
ous that he is not one who has con-     learned man. But it is not techni-       especially by two books  - Pink's
tented himself with poring over         cal. Frequent reference is indeed        Sovereignty  of  God and Boettner's
theological tomes in ivory towers.      made in the book to the Hebrew           Reformed Doctrine  of  Predestina-
Rev. Harbach has read  widely,  and     and Greek, but Rev. Harbach does         tion  - Rev. Harbach came to -ap-
has a  broad  range of experiences      that in such a way that it is a help     preciate early the truth of double
and interests. In fact, when in his     rather than a hindrance to the se-       predestination. In all of his min-
continued reading he would come         rious reader. One need not have          istry he tried to preach in harmony
upon pertinent information for          had seminary training in order           with that great truth. His book
chapters already completed, he          fully to appreciate this work. Nei-      gives ample evidence of that com-
would make marginal notes for           ther, however; was the book in-          mitment. And, having come out
updating of, or additions or cor-       tended to be merely devotional. It       of Presbyterian background, Rev.
rections to, what he had written        is. that too, to be sure, but, as the    Harbach also learned to appreci-
earlier.  ' Sometimes too he would      reader will very soon learn for          ate the fact that man's aim in life
rewrite certainsections in order to     himself, -the-purpose goes beyond        must be God's aim, namely, the
make relevant application of the        that. The book is first of all in-       glorification of His name. Again,
book of Genesis to eve&  in the lat-    structive. Genesis, as the author        throughout- his ministry, Rev.
ter part of the 1970s and early         points out in his preface, is indeed     Harbach strove to keep that goal
1980s. And all of this continued        the "key to the rest of scripture:"      in view  - not the saving of souls,
right up to the time he had at last     This commentary helps one to get         but the glorifying of God in all
to surrender the manuscript to the      a  good. hold on that key. Where         things. To  .that  :end he wrote this
typesetter. The fruit of that kind      and when appropriate, various            book. And we thank the Lord for
of effort, over a period of some        doctrinal errors and false theories      what He has given us through the
thirty years, can be seen now in        are exposed and refuted. And,            faithful labors of Rev. Harbach. 0
an extraordinarily fascinating book     throughout the book, the truth of
from his pen.                                                                                           Don Doezema



                                                            Would thy newborn
                                                            innocence remain  -
                                                            alas,
                   To the Earth                             `t-is lost, e'en worse  -
                                                            thou cursed!
                                                            And thou, what hast thou done,
        Ah, thou pristine globe,                            but sheltered, fed, and nursed
        fresh                                               the wicked ones!
        from thy Creator's hand;
        embryo                                              Yet  - thou art promised new!
        within the waters                                   Washed
        of thy firmament land.                              with cataclysmic dearth;
                                                            thy baptism is un-
        Pure and warm,                                      e q u a l e d   '
        the very essence      :I                            upon the earth!                                  ,-.-.-,
        of exquisite beauty..
        "It is good,"                                       Noah and his sons beheld
        proclaimed He then;                                 this picture of the seal.
      though not His last words to thee.                    What will' we see
                                                            when we observe
                                                            the coming of the real?

                                                                                         - Connie  .L. Meyer

                                                                                    January 15, 1997/Standard Bearer/l 81


"Reverend or Pastor?"                       fended by a writer who opposed               of the title "Reverend."' He "gra-
    It is not the practice, normally,       those rejecting the title for gram-          ciously" added, "Even though in
of this rubric, "All Around Us,"            matical reasons: The article, in my          such cases the third commandment
to respond to articles written in           opinion, was interesting and infor-          might be broken in ignorance and
other of our church-related papers.         mative. A reader responded by                not in a deliberate and malicious
I am making an exception this time          claiming that  aIZ titles given to           way,  it is still using the Lord`s name
- both because of the seriousness           those  .in the ministry were im-             in vain"  (italics.mine).  That is ob-
of the article itself and because it        proper (including that of "pastor").         viously very strong language  -
relates to articles I had written ear-      He insisted, as others also do in            and a serious charge against all
lier on this same subject.                  the British Isles, that the title of         those who use the title. If this
    The article to which I refer ap-        "Mr." is the only proper title  -            claim is true, there is no more
peared in the young people's                just as it is used when speaking to          room for debate. It is  .not even
magazine, Beacon Lights (Oct.               non-clergy. He did not, of course,           here Pastor Davis' opinioa   about
19951,  titled: "Reverend or Pas-           justify even that title on the basis         what Scripture teaches; he. insists
tor?" by Pastor Bruce Davis. I will         of Scripture  - for it is never used         that this is  Scripture's  (God's) judg-
not be quoting the article except           there when speaking of anyone. In            ment. After Scripture's judgment
for brief statements. The reader is         Scripture normally only first                is presented, and I have read and
referred to that magazine for the           names were used  - something we              considered it, then even the argu-
article itself.                             would consider inappropriate to-             ment of  ignorance  on my part is
    I wrote on the, subject earlier         day.                                         no longer valid. At this point all
(Standard Bearer,  Vol. 64, pages               I do think brother Davis' ar-            "Reverends" are no longer igno-
204 and 369).  .The curious could           ticle deserves some response. Pas-           rant, but are deliberately walking
well examine those articles as well.        tor Davis insisted that respect              in violation to the third command-
    I am not overly interested in           must be shown to those in office             ment. (Even ignorance, however,
entering into debates about the             - not only in the ministry, but              is never an excuse for sin.) For
proper title of one who serves in           also to those in the offices of elder        me to argue against Pastor Davis'
the ministry. When proper respect           and deacon as well. Rightly he.,             position means, in his judgment,
is shown to the office of ministry          pointed out that this, respect is not        that in reality I am arguing against
of the Word, the specific title used        because of the  individual  in the of-       Scripture. If his position is cor-
is to me not that important.                fice, but because of the  office  itself.    rect, surely he can have no fellow-
Granted: it must be in agreement                The article, however,  pre:              ship nor contact with those who
with the teachings of Scripture. It         sented to me some very serious               (knowingly) use the title "Rever-
must also be granted that language          and troubling points. I understand           end";     these live  impenitentZy   in
is the means to convey one's                that to convince others of the va-           violation of the third command-
thought  - also with respect  to the        lidity of one's argument, one tends          ment. That's a terribly serious po-
matter of titles. One faces also the        to use the strongest possible lan-           sition to take.
fact that in some circles, and per-         guage. It reminds me of the "pas-                But let's consider a few of the
haps some nations, the same word            tor" who would pound the pulpit              possible titles which are or have
may communicate different ideas             hard at those points in his sermon           been used for ministers of the gos-
to different people. This possibly          which he regarded to be weakest.             pel. The one Pastor Davis finds
leads to the differing conclusions          I understand too the need to come            objectionable is that of "Rever-
concerning specific titles. A               with Scripture above all to prove            end." Evidently many others feel
minister's "title" might be per-            one's point. The danger here too             the same way  -, judging from the
fectly acceptable in one area but           is that one tends to quote very.             shunning of such. a label by those
might be considered in poor taste,          powerful truths of Scripture  -              whb'. insist on calling themselves
if not worse, in other areas.               which in fact do not prove one's             "pastors." Whatever one might
    In the Standard Beaver (Vol. 64,        contention on the issue which has            think of the title itself, or whether
p.  `204),  I quoted an article in          been raised.                                 one might find a better title, is not
which the title "Reverend" was de-              One very. disturbing argument            the question. Is it a wrong, even a
                                            Pastor Davis presented is this,              sinful,.title?  It surely is if it  is'vio-
                                            "...the judgment of God's Word is            lation of the third  commanclment.
Rev.  VanBaren  is pastor  of  the Prot-    nevertheless that this is a violation        The brother bases this argument
estant Reformed Church  of  Love-           of the third commandment." This              not only on the obvious fact that
land, Colorado.                             he claimed with regard to the use            we do not read of "Rev. Paul," or

1 bP/Standard  Bearer/January 15,1997


     "Rev. Peter," etc. He points espe-             mand, would not the same apply                     he must also serve as "teacher."
     cially to one text in Scripture (as            to this title for the office of minis-             Pastor Davis would nevertheless
     others have also) with the claim               ter of the Word? One may dislike                   drop one part and make use of
     that Psalm  111:9  will not allow this         the title of "Reverend" for other                  only the other. Why? Ought he
     title to be given to  mere man.  We            reasons, but surely not because it                 to separate what God's Word joins
     read there, ".  ..holy and reverend            in  auy way violates Scripture and                 together?
     is his name." He is correct: it                specifically the third command-                         That brings up my second se-
     means here "awesome; dreadful                  ment. In fact it would appear to                   rious objection to his contention
     and terrible in majesty; to be                 be an  appropriate  title in light' of             that "pastor" is the appropriate
     feared with the deepest reveren-               the passages quoted above.                         and scriptural title for ministers of
     tial awe." One must understand,                    Is not the title "pastor" more                 the Word. The minister must truly
     however, that even if this is re-              appropriate? Pastor Davis not                      b e   a   p a s t o r .   H e   i s   a n   "under-
     garded as Gods "Name," Scrip-                  only claims that it is, but he claims              shepherd." This, however, is not
     ture shows clearly that one is also            that it is the -only proper  biblical              the  extent  of his work. The title
     called to "reverence" others who               title. Is this true? If you read the               Pastor Davis takes to himself and
     are mere creatures. The word de-               letter in the  Standard  Bearer  (Vol.             labels as "scriptural" describes
     scribes what is true of  God's name.           64, p.  3691, you will find that the               only  one aspect  of his labors. The
     The word also means to "rever-                 writer there was not only object-                  idea of "teacher" is also a  vital  as-
     ence" or "to fear" in that godly               ing to the title "reverend," `but                  pect of the work  - and Ephesians
     sense  - the concern lest one show             equally so to "pastor." He wanted                  4:ll distinguishes between the
     disrespect in any way to one in                only the respectful address of                     two. The terms are not identical
     authority. But this word can be,               "Mr." Rightly Davis points out                     by any means. I conclude, there-
     and is, used in Scripture also with            that Christ is our "Chief Shep-                    fore, that the title "Pastor" ap-
     respect to humans in authority. But            herd." He is correct also in in-                   pended to a minister's name is, at
     remember also: if the term "rever-             sisting that ministers of the Word                 best, very inadequate because it is
     end" i s   r e g a r d e d   a s   G o d 's    are  "Unhershepherds."  But then                   incomplete.
     "Name," which may not therefore                if he is to be scripturally correct,                    So if "Pastor" Davis insists that
     be used for mere men, the same                 he should use this word "pastor"                   this is his title, I'm not going to
     must be said about the term                    in such a manner that it would                     raise any further objections. He
     "holy." We must not then speak                 clearly distinguish him from the                   ought to consider, however, that
     of a "holy" catholic church. We                "Chief  Shepherd." His title would                 the title is likely an imitation of
     must not use the term "saints" ei-             be more correctly, "Undershepherd                  those who insist that the major
     ther. The text would be in con-                Bruce Davis," right? Otherwise it                  part of the work of the minister is
     flict with Leviticus  19:2 which               might appear to some that he is                    "counseling" and that "teaching"
     teaches that we  must  be holy be-             usurping the position of Christ                    somehow is minimized or even
'    cause God is holy.                             who is  tht  Pastor. Besides, no one               lost altogether. I would see the
         But note a few other passages              is called "Pastor" So-in-so in Scrip-              title "Reverend" more in harmony
     of Scripture that speak of "rever-             ture. We do not read of "Pastor                    with the broad teachings of Scrip-
     ence." In II Samuel  9:6,  Mephibo-            Paul" and "Pastor Peter."                          ture. One might say, in line with
     sheth falls on his face before David               P a s t o r   D a v i s   r e f e r s   t o    Scripture's instruction, "See that ye
     and "did reverence." David did                 Ephesians  4:ll  - a beautiful pas-                reverence those who are called to
     not rebuke him for violating the               sage. He insists that we are taught                minister the Word to you." Such
     third command. I Kings  1:31 finds             there that Christ did not give "rev-               a title does not select one aspect
     Bathsheba bowing before David                  erends" but rather "pastors and                    of his work, but rather emphasizes
     and she "did reverence to the                  teachers" as gifts' to the church.                 the high calling both to pastor and
     king." She was not rebuked at all              But then, following this line of ar-               to teach.
     for this. We find in Ephesians  5:33           gumentation, why would he not                           And I trust that Pastor Davis
     that the wife is to "see that she              use the  whole  phrase in his title:               will retract his serious charge that
     reverence her husband." Or we                  "Pastor  and Teacher  Bruce Davis"?                those who have the title "Rever-
     read in Hebrews  12:9, "We have                That,  after all, is what the passage              end" are thereby violating the
     had fathers of our flesh which  `co&           teaches. In spite of Calvin's sepa-                third command.
     rected  us; and we gave them rev-              ration of these two terms "pastors"                     If we were to follow strictly the
     erence...."    In each instance  -the          and "teachers," the grammar of the                 scriptural pattern, we would not
     "reverence" is directed to those in            passage links the two terms                        use any of these titles (not even.
     authority: the king, the husband,              clearly.        The      "pastor" and              "Mr."). One notices repeatedly
     the father.  -If this is proper, if  this      "teacher" is the same individual.                  that New Testament writers use
     is not violation of the third com-             He must serve as a "pastor" but                    the term "servant" or literally,

                                                                                                            January  15, 1997/Standard  Bearer/l 83


"slave." Paul speaks of himself as                     addresses Timothy and speaks of                     Davis should rather label himself
"servant of Jesus Christ" (Rom.                        the minister of the Word as the                     as "Bruce Davis, slave of Jesus
1:l; Titus  1:l). The term is used                     "servant of the Lord" (II Tim.                      Christ." It does have a better ring,
by the other writers as well (James                    2:24). Properly, therefore, Pastor                  does it not? And that is surely his
1:l; II Pet.  1:l; Jude 1). And Paul                                                                       calling and mine.  0





    The Truth Shall Make You Free
                                                              John 8:30-36


                                Certainly the key verse in this passage is verse 32. There Jesus says:
                         "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."
                               What wonderful gospel here.1 Truth! Yes, there  is  truth! No, every-
                         thing is  not  relative. No, all is not chaos. There  is  truth!
                                Besides,  it can be known!  Besides, this truth  does something.  And that
                         something is very  zuonderful! The truth, and only the truth, and nothing
                         but the truth  makes us free!





Jesus the Truth!                                       Jesus says the truth shall make you                 are exposed to it? How do Jesus'
= When Jesus speaks of the  truth                      free, what is He saying about who                   words in Matthew  11:25, 26 bear
making one free, He is speaking                        is the Author of salvation, and                     upon Pilate's blindness?
of  Himself  making one free. Prove                    how He saves? Show other pas-
this from the passage in John 8:30-                    sages which teach the same things                   Believing the Truth!
36. Show from other Scriptures                         (for example, Jonah  2:9b;  Rom.                    m In verse 30 it is said that many
that Jesus is the truth.                               10:14, 15; Eph.  2:8).                              believed on Jesus. Was this true
= The question is:              what does              m Jesus Christ is  the  truth. Com-                 faith (cf. the context)? How is it
Scripture  nzean  by calling Jesus  the                ment, in this connection, on what                   possible for one to believe on Jesus
truth?  Just what  is  truth (cf. pas-                 is called the Judeo-Christian ethic.                and yet not be saved (cf. 2:23;  7:31;
sages such as Deut.  32:4; Ps.  31:5;                  What does Jesus' being  exclusively                 12:42;  Matt.  13:1-23;  Heb.  6:1-6;
51:6;  117:2;  119:42; Prov.  8:7; Jer.                the truth say of our involvement                    James  2:19)?
9:2b-6;  John  1:14;  14:6ff.;  Rom.  3:3,             in non-Christian organizations                      w Jesus describes both the char-
4, 7;  15:8, 9; I Tim.  3:15)?                         which aim to promote what is said                   acter and the fruit of true faith in
e  .Show from Scripture how truth                      to be the common goals and val-                     verses 31, 32. True faith involves
is revealed in  creation, inspiration,                 ues of all people?                                  "continuing" in Jesus' word; it is
incarnation,      p r o c l a m a t i o n ,   a n d    =  W e   h a v e   a s k e d ,   " W h a t   i s    that `which makes for true  disciples
through the indwelling  of  the Spirit                 truth?"       Pilate asked the same                 (disciples indeed!); it is character-
of truth.  Which revelation of truth                   question (John  18:38). Would he                    ized by and yields the fruit of a
"sets free," that is,  saves?  When                    have known truth had He been                        certain "knowledge" of the truth.
                                                       staring him in the face?! Why or                    Comment on these things in light
                                                       why not? In this connection pon-                    of passages such as Matthew 16:24-
Rev. Dick is pastor  of  Grace  Protes-                der the following questions: Does                   26 and John 15.
tant Reformed Church in  Standale,                     mere  exposure   to the truth imply                 m What, according to John  8:33,
Michigan.                                              that the truth is revealed to all who               did the Jews believe was their

184/Standard Bearer/January 15, 1997


"ticket" to salvation? What are we                  as the Jews were, be "in the house"      tion, on the American Civil Liber-
sonietimes  tempted to trust in in-                 of God (v. 35). What is the reason       ties Union; the statue of liberty;
stead of Jesus Christ? Is it pos-                   for their not abiding for ever?          "Give me liberty or give me
sible to trust in faith itself and not              = Of what does our Christian lib-        death"; the Boston Tea Party; the
in the Lord? How? And why                           erty consist? Is it possible for us      Emancipation Proclamation; the
would that be  wrbng?                               believers to become enslaved to          inalienable right of life, liberty, and
                                                    sin? If this happens, how do we          the pursuit of happiness; "liberty
F r e e   I n d e e d !                             get out? How is the freedom of           and justice for all."
= When Jesus speaks in John  8:32                   the Christian enjoyed through            m Jesus speaks in verse 35 of the
of the truth making one  free,  He is               knowing  the truth (v.  32)?             ground  of anyone's true liberty. He
speaking of the great blessing of                   = Think on how people can be-            Himself  is the ground! This is be-
freedom  from  the slavery  of  sin.  This          come enslaved to other things be-        cause He is, as He says,  the Son
is being free indeed (v.  36)! That                 sides sin itself such as: circum-        who abides forever.  He is the eter-
truth's freedom is freedom from                     stances, a church tradition, drugs,      nal and natural Son of God (LD
sin's slavery is clear from the con-                other earthly things, our past, the      13). And as this Son of God, Jesus,
text (v.  34), in which Jesus speaks                future, peers, enemies. How does         as the commentator D.A. Carson
of those who commit sin (that is,                   the truth liberate us from all these     notes, "not only enjoys inalienable
those who  live  in sin, those who                  things?                                  rights as unique son of God, but
are "accustomed to do evil") as be-                 = Many are the wrong notions of          exercises full authority vested in
ing servants or slaves of sin. Show                 liberty.  The Jews in Jesus' day, for    Him by  the Father (John  3:35) to
from Scripture  that the fallen sin-                example, claimed they "were never        liberate slaves!"
ner is a slave to sin. What does                    in bondage to any man"  (v. 33).         e God's people: free forever in
the reality of sin make of the idea                 What was the Jewish idea of lib-         and through Jesus Christ! And
of "free will," as it is held by many               erty? Americans love their liberty.      loving it! Give me  that  truth, and
so-called  evangelicals?  Those who                 But is the "American idea" of lib-       give me  that  liberty . . . or give me
commit sin can, for a while, and                    erty, and setting people free, bib-      death! Cl
                                                    lical? Comment, in this connec-




 Admittance to the ord's upper

                         ~.&one   shall:b&  admi$ted to the Lord's  Supper   except  &ose who according to
                `.  the  u&ge  sf the church with  wfiich  t&y unite  thetiselves have made a confes-
                      sion.  "f  the  l?eformed  religion, besides being  repu&d to b
                 ., without  which.those  who come-from other churches
                 .            '               <,
                          ,:'  :         _                         '

    Articles 61-64 of the Church                    in these articles a deep concern for     set forth in these articles in many
Order deal with the sacrament of                    the proper administration of the         Reformed churches today is a glar-
the  &ord's Supper. These articles                  Lord's Supper, the purity of the         ing indication of the extent to
lay down the fundamental guide-                     sacrament, and the protection of         which these churches have for-
lines that safeguard the adminis-                   the sacrament against profanation.       saken their heritage and come un-
tration of the sacrament in Re-                         The concern of our Church Or-        der the influence of apostasy.
formed churches. There is evident                   der rests on the conviction of our
                                                    Reformed fathers that the proper         Supervision of the Lord's Supper
                                                    administration of the sacraments             The concern of the Church  Qr-
                                                    is a distinguishing mark of the true
Rev. Cammenga is pastor  of  South-                                                          der is the responsibility of the
                                                    church of Jesus Christ in the
west Protestant Reformed Church                                                              consistory with respect to the
                                                    world. Neglect of the principles
in  Grandville,  Michigan.                                                                   Lord's Supper.

                                                                                                 January  15, 1997/Stiiridard  Bearer/l 85


       This is not to say that the  indi-                   those who are worthy partake of          counter to Reformed tradition, but
 vidual  Christian has no responsi-                         the Lord's Supper, Article 61 re-        is contrary to the Scriptures. It
 bility for the proper administration                       quires of consistories that they ad-     ought to be plain that no child can
, of the Lord's Supper. Not at all!                         mit to the sacrament those who  "...     carry out the requirements of I
 The individual Christian has a re-                         have made a confession of the Re-        Corinthians 11 with a view to par-
 sponsibility with respect to him-                          formed religion, besides being re-       taking of the Lord's Supper:  self-
 self. He must examine his own                              puted to be of a godly walk...."         examination (v. 28); discerning the
 heart and life and be sure that he                         Confession of faith is the way to        Lord's body (v.  29); judging our-
 partakes of the Lord's Supper wor-                         the Lord's table.                        selves (v. 31).
 thily. "But let a man examine  him-                            This confession is to be a con-            This is not to deny that there
 self, and so let him eat of that                           fession of "the Reformed religion."      are varying degrees of understand-
 bread, and drink of that cup. For                          Faith is necessary for a right par-      ing on the part of those admitted
 he that eateth and drinketh unwor-                         taking of the Lord's  Svpper.  But       to the Lord's Supper. This is cer-
 thily, eateth and drinketh damna-                          faith is knowledge. Only those are       tainly the case. There are those of
 tion to himself, not discerning the                        to be admitted to the Lord's Sup-        greater and lesser intellectual ca-
 Lord's body" (I Cor.  11:28, 29).                          per who have a knowledge of the          pacity who confess their faith and
       The individual Christian also                        fundamentals of the Reformed             seek to come to the Lord's table.
 has a responsibility with respect                          faith.    If one's knowledge is          More will be required of those
 to his fellow church members. If                           deemed deficient, the consistory         brought up in the church all their
 he is aware that he is the occasion                        ought to delay admittance to the         lives than of those quite new to
 -of offense against any other mem-                         Lord's Supper in order that fur-         the faith. Those who are new to
 ber, he must clear up the offense                          ther instruction can be received.        the faith will often require private
 before coming to the Lord's Sup-                               Faith is also confidence. The        instruction by the pastor before
 per. "Therefore if thou bring thy                          knowledge of the Reformed faith          making confession of faith. All
 g i f t   t o   t h e   a l t a r ,   a n d   t h e r e    is not merely, therefore, head           these factors must be taken into
 rememberest that thy brother hath                          knowledge. But there must also           consideration by a consistory. Still
 ought against thee: leave there thy                        be expressed the personal convic-        there must be a sufficient grasp of
 gift before the altar, and go thy                          tion on the part of the one making       the fundamentals of the faith and
 way; first be reconciled to thy                            confession of faith of his own           evidence of the putting of the
 brother, and then come and offer                           heartfelt belief of the truths of the    teachings of the Word of God into
 thy gift" (Matt.  5:23, 24). Or, if he                     Word of God.                             practice in everyday life.
 has knowledge that a brother is                                If this faith is a genuine faith,
 walking in sin, in order that the                          it will also be a faith that produces    Procedure for Confession of Faith
 sacraments not be profaned and in                          the fruit of holiness. This, too,              No specific procedure for con-
 order to gain the brother, he must                         must be a concern of the consistory      fession of faith is set forth in Ar-
 deal with the brother in the way                           in those who are admitted to the         ticle 61. The procedure followed
 prescribed in Matthew  l&15-20.                            sacrament:  `I... besides being re-      in our churches rests on the prin-
      But the focus of Article 61 is                        puted to be of a godly walk." For        ciples of the article.
 the responsibility of the  consistory                      this reason, novices and strangers             Those seeking admittance to
 with respect to the administration                         must not be admitted to the Lord's       the Lord's Supper first make con-
 of the Lord's Supper. The elders                           Supper. It may very well be that         fession of their faith before the
 of the church have the calling from                        they are walking godly. But the          consistory. Usually the minister
 Christ to guard the sacrament. In                          consistory must  know  this about        leads their examination, asking
 the past this responsibility was of-                       them. The consistory must be suf-        questions with regard to doctrine
 ten referred to as the elders' call-                       ficiently acquainted with those          a n d   l i f e .    M e m b e r s   o f   t h e
 ing to "fence" the sacrament.                              whom it admits to the Lord's Sup-        consistory are also given opportu-
      Article 61 makes plain that this                      per that it can testify to the up-       nity to question the individual. It
 calling means not only that the el-                        rightness of their walk of life.         is to be recommended that those
 ders bar from partaking those who                              If a confession of faith is re-      making confession of faith before
 are living impenitent in sin. But                          quired of those who are to par-          the consistory be examined indi-
 the calling goes further. The el-                          take of the Lord's Supper, it is         vidually, and not as a group. If
 ders are to do all .in their power to                      plain that Article 61 prohibits          there are a number of confessions
 assure that those who do partake                           young children from partaking of         of faith to be heard by a consistory,
 are worthy to partake.                                     the sacrament. Paedo-communion,          a separate evening ought to be set
                                                            a practice gaining acceptance in         aside to allow for sufficient time
 Confession of Faith                                        many Reformed and Presbyterian           to examine each one personally. In
      In order to assure that only                          churches in our day, not only runs       their absence, the consistory ought

 186/Standard Bearer/January 15, 1997


to take a formal decision approv-                        consistory, of the church from           have received special permission
ing the confession of faith and set-                     which they are transferring their        from the consistory may partake.
ting the date for their public con-                      membership. This membership                   D o e s   t h i s   m e a n   t h a t   t h e
fession of faith before the congre-                      transfer will attest that they are       c h u r c h e s   o u g h t   t o   p r a c t i c e
gation. The person is summoned                           "sound in faith and upright in           "closed" or "close" communion?
into the meeting once more and is                        walk." Within the communion of           Closed communion means that ad-
informed of the decision.  .This is                      the denomination, this attestation       mittance to the Lord's Supper is
followed usually by a prayer of                          must be honored. This is also the        granted only to those who are
thanksgiving and expressions of                          case with respect to membership          members of the congregation or
g r a t i t u d e   b y   t h e   i n d i v i d u a l    transfers from sister churches. If       are members of a sister church.
consistory members.                                      the person concerned cannot be                Our churches practice close
     The second step in confession                       given such an attest because he is       communion. This allows for those
of faith is public confession before                     the object of church discipline, this    who are not members of our
the congregation. Notice of pub-                         must be noted by the consistory          churches or of a sister church to
lic confession ought to be made,                         on the transfer of membership. If        partake after they have received
usually by way of the weekly                             a consistory has reason to ques-         s p e c i a l   p e r m i s s i o n   f r o m   t h e
church bulletin, on at least two                         tion the attest, the matter must be      consistory. This may include those
successive Sundays. This allows                          taken up with the individual con-        who are in the process of joining
for the approbation of the congre-                       cerned and with the consistory           the congregation, or those who for
gation. Barring any lawful objec-                        which granted the attestation.           one reason or another are unable
tions, the public confession takes                                                                to partake of the sacrament in their
place on the date specified, dur-                        Open, Closed, or                         own congregation. It may be that
ing a regular worship service and                        Close Communion?                         they are forced to be absent from
with the asking of the questions                             It ought to be plain that Ar-        their own congregation tempo-
for "Public Confession of Faith"                         ticle 61 opposes the practice of         rarily because of work assignment
that have been adopted in the                            open communion, that is, the prac-       or because they are pursuing an
churches.                                                tice of opening the Lords table to       education.
                                                         all who desire to partake. Partak-            These will be rare exceptions.
Admittance of Those                                      ing of the Lord's Supper is not          A consistory must exercise good
from Other Churches                                      merely a matter of the individual        judgment in each of these cases,
     Although the procedure differs                      conscience. Consistories must ex-        granting special permission to par-
when a consistory receives com-                          ercise proper supervision. For this      take only to those who make  `I... a
municant members from other                              reason it is a good practice that        confession of the Reformed reli-
churches, the principle of Article                       on the Sunday of the administra-         gion, besides being reputed to be
61 applies:  I'..., without which                        tion of the Lord's Supper, a notice      of a godly walk...." In this way
t h o s e   w h o   c o m e   f r o m   o t h e r        be placed in the bulletin that su-       the sacrament will be protected,
churches shall not be admitted."                         pervision is exercised over the ad-      lest it be profaned and the wrath
     In the case of those who come                       ministration of the sacrament, so        of God fall on the whole congre-
from churches outside the denomi-                        that only those who are members          gation (Heidelberg Catechism,
national communion, the  con-                            in good  .standing or those who          Lord's Day 30, Q/A 82). Cl
sistory must be assured that they
confess the Reformed faith and are
reputed to be of a godly walk. It
is recommended that those who
request to join one of our congre-
gations and who come from an-
other fellowship be visited by a
committee of elders. Only if this
committee can report that they are
one with us in the Reformed faith
and life should their membership
be approved and admittance be
granted to the Lord's Supper.
     Those transferring from one
congregation to another within the
denomination must receive mem-
bership attestation from the

                                                                                                       January  15,  1997/Standard Bearer/l 87


                                lnfralapsarianism

    I  have manifested thy name unto          said that we had to come to some           E g y p t "   (Deut.  4:33).   A n d   i n
the men which thou gavest me out  of          kind of an understanding on these          greater detail, in Deuteronomy 7:6-
the world: thine they  weye,  and thou        matters before we could possibly           8:    "For thou art an holy people
gavest them me; and they have kept            draw closer together ecclesiasti-          unto the Lord thy God: the Lord
thy word.                                     cally.                                     thy God hath chosen thee to be a
                                John  17:6        Of these differences the prob-         special people unto himself, above
                                              lem of Infralapsarianism and               all people that are upon the face
    Behind the question of the                Supralapsarianism is probably the          of the earth. The Lord did not set
place of children in the covenant             most difficult to grasp, and yet the       his love upon  you nor choose you,
which so preoccupied the Re-                  most basic; and, as difficult as it        because ye were more in number
formed churches in the  194Os,                is, we should try to understand            than any people; for ye were the
there        were    several       other      this, considering first the idea of        fewest of all people: but because
disjunctives (propositions that ap-           Infralapsarianism, then  Supralap-         the Lord loved you, and because
pear to be mutually exclusive of              sarianism, and finally their rela-         he would keep the oath which he
each other) which had troubled the            tionship to each other and to the          had sworn unto your fathers, hath
Dutch churches for many years:                counsel of God.                            the Lord brought you out with a
the question of whether regenera-                            - - - - - -                 mighty hand, and redeemed you
tion is mediate or immediate                      The word "infralapsarian" is           out of the house of  bondmen,  from
(brought about by means of the                based on the Latin prefix  infra,'         t h e   h a n d   o f   P h a r a o h   k i n g   o f
preaching of the Word or not);                meaning "under," and  Zapsus,              Egypt."
whether justification takes place in          meaning "the fall." The idea is                  It is not our purpose to exegete
eternity or in time; and, perhaps             that the fall comes after or under         these passages in detail, but there
most basic of all, that of Infra and          the fall of Adam in the counsel of         are several things we should note:
Supralapsarianism (the question of            God; that is; that God first decided             1. To begin with, these pas-
whether election or the fall is first         that the man whom He had deter-            sages speak of election in a very
in the counsel of God). These                 mined to create should fall into           warm and personal way. There is
questions have carried on through             sin, and after that determined to          nothing academic or abstract about
the years, and in contemporary                elect some of them to salvation and        them. Election is not a harsh and
theology the Liberated churches               to leave others in the end to be           tyrannical imposition by a God
are possibly the strongest propo-             damned for their sin. Further-             whose only interest is in proving
nents of the one position, and the            more, we cannot escape the fact            His own power, but rather it re-
Protestant Reformed of the other.             that the Bible, as well as the             flects the love and warm tender-
Accordingly it is perhaps not sur-            creeds, often speak of it as taking        ness of a God who knows His
prising that, in spite of our affin-          place after the fall in a rather infra-    people and whose concern is with
ity on church political matters in            lapsarian way.                             maintaining a relationship of
the  194Os, there arose inevitable                In the Old Testament this is           friendship with them, as He had
differences between us theologi-              true almost exclusively. Take, for         begun to do with their fathers.
cally. Rev. Hoeksema and Rev.                 example, some of the very earliest
Ophoff were quite right when they             references to election. They were          1
                                              made by Moses in his final, great                     We see a reflection of this in
                                                                                         our word "inferior." Another varia-
                                              discourses to the children of Israel       tion of this, which was often used at
                                              shortly before his death. "And be-         the time of the Synod of Dort when
                                              cause he loved thy fathers, there-         this terminology originated, was
Rev.  Woudenberg  is  II minister emeri-      fore he chose their seed after them,       "Sublapsarian," in which the prefix
tus in the Protestant Reformed                and brought thee out in his sight          sub was used with  lapsus but mean-
Churches.                                     with his mighty power out of               ing exactly the same thing.

188/Standard Bearer/January 15, 1997


    2. This elective love is causal        ral way this thought runs through                    equating of election and reproba-
as to the manner in which Jeho-            the various discourses of Jesus.                     tion is concerned, and with empha-
vah would deal with Israel there-               Of these, John  6:38, 39 is per-                sis on the fact that both are com-
after. It is a causality, however,         haps the most significant example:                   pletely unconditional. Still this
not in terms of a calculating philo-       "For I came down from heaven,"                       unconditionality is spoken of, not
sophical argument, but in the old          says Jesus, "not to do mine own                      in terms of eternity, but as follow-
Hebraic, biblical sense of the word.       will, but the will of him that sent                  ing the conception of the children
It is based on the responsibility of       me. And this is the Father's will                    in Rebecca's womb, prior to their
a personal faithfulness which God          which hath sent me, that of all                      birth, to be sure, but at a point in
in His unconditional immutability          which he hath given me I should                      time well after both creation and
provides, and from which He will           lose nothing, but should raise it                    the fall of the human race into sin.
not turn away.                             up again at the last day." In this                   Although the decree may have
    3. For us, however, the im-            passage we have one of those great                   been in eternity, the context in
portant thing is that this revela-         summary statements of Reformed                       which it is set forth is distinctly in
tion of divine election appears            theology. Jesus takes predestina-                    time,  after the fall,  and thus in an
within historical context. Very eas-       tion and relates it to the reason                    infvalapsarian way.
ily and naturally these texts ascribe      for His incarnation, for His com-                         And, for the most part, al-
the divine election and choosing           ing "down from heaven," as well                      though with somewhat less clar-
to nothing more than a prior com-          as to the "Father's will which hath                  ity, this can even be said of verse
mitment to their fathers, Abraham,         sent me," relating the whole mat-                    21: "Hath not the potter power
Isaac, and Jacob  - a commitment           ter very closely to the purpose of                   over the clay, of the same lump to
made unconditionally, long before          the divine decrees, and yet in what                  make one vessel unto honor, and
these Israelites were born, but dis-       w e   m i g h t   w e l l   c o n s i d e r   a n    another unto dishonor?" This pas-
tinctly nevertheless,  after the  fan.     infralapsarian way. Election is re-                  sage is significant, of course, be-
In short, it is what we might call         lated to the redemption of a people                  cause it, perhaps more than any
an  infralapsarian  presentation of        already lost in sin and in need of                   other, constituted the ground over
election.                                  salvation, and thus after  (infra)  the              which the lapsarian battle tended
    Again, much the same can be            fall  (lapsus).                                      from the first to be fought. At
seen in a variety of Old Testament              And so the book continues                       least, it was certainly here that
references which in their own              throughout until we come to that                     Theodore  Beza, the successor of
beautiful and historically dramatic        great High Priestly prayer of Jesus                  Calvin and often considered the
way speak of God's election of His         in chapter 17, where in verse 6 He                   father of Supralapsarianism, most
Reople,  as, for example, Psalm            identifies the elect as "the men                     frequently and most pronouncedly
65:4: "Blessed is the man whom             which thou gavest me  out of the                     made his supralapsarian stand, in-
thou  choosest, and  causest to ap-        world," as infralapsarian an expres-                 sisting that the "same lump" of
proach unto thee, that he may              sion as one can think to find.                       this passage is a clear reference to
dwell in thy courts." Or, Isaiah                And John is not alone in this.                  the undifferentiated human race
43:4: "Since thou wast precious in         Possibly no passage identifies                       prior to God's choosing between
my sight, thou hast been honor-            more closely with the doctrine of                    the "vessels unto honor" and the
able, and I have loved thee: there-        predestination in both its positive                  "others unto dishonor," and even
fore will I give men for thee, and         and negative dimensions than does                    more prior to the determination
people for thy life." Each of these        the ninth chapter of Romans, as in                   that there should be a fall. The
texts in its own way speaks of elec-       that foundational passage in verses                  problem is that this passage can
tion as taking place at a certain          10-13, "And not only this; but                       be seen to fit into the  infralap-
point in time, unconditional and           when Rebecca also had conceived                      sarian  scheme of thought equally
founded purely on love, but within         by one, even by our father Isaac;                    well. The clay may easily, and per-
an historical context  after the  falZ.    (For the children being not yet                      haps even more naturally, be un-
    And the same may be said of            born, neither having done any                        derstood as referring to the human
many New Testament passages.               good `or evil, that the purpose of                   race as it is found after the fall,
    In John's presentation of the          God according to election might                      and out of which God by His own
gospel, for example, the idea of           stand, not of works, but of him                      sovereign predestination deter-
election would seem to be inher-           that calleth;) It was said unto her,                 mined to make two kinds of  ves-
ent to the whole structure of the          The elder shall serve the younger.
book, particularly when it speaks          As it is written, Jacob have I loved,
of "those whom the Father hath             but Esau have I hated." Here we
given me" directly or in a related         have what is perhaps the classic                     2     John  6:37-40,44,64, 65; 10:16,25-
variation.2 In a smooth and natu-          scriptural passage as far as the                     29; 12:39-40;   13:lS;  15:16; 17:2, 8, 9

                                                                                                     January  15,1997/Standard Bearer/l 89


sels, some of honor, and others of               perdition all, whom he, in his eter-     ken of in terms of the, already ex-
dishonor. With that, predestina-                 nal and unchangeable counsel of          isting fall, and would appear to be
tion is seen as being after  (infYa   or         mere goodness, hath elected in           very much infralapsarian.
sub) the fall  (lapsus),   providing an          Christ Jesus our Lord . . . leaving           The point of all this is that the
infralapsarian        f r a m e w o r k   o f    others in the fall and perdition         Scriptures are for the most part
thought. The passage by itself can               wherein they have involved them-         written from a historical perspec-
be taken rather easily either way.               selves." Here again, addressing          tive in time; and this is in turn the
    And, accordingly, it is noted                the subject of predestination more       way in which we meet this great
that our confessions often speak in              directly, we find it presented as        reality in our experience. We are
the same way. The  Heidelberg Cat-               taking place after the fall, in what     born as part of a'sinful world, and
echism,  at the only point where it              might well be considered an              we do not know, and cannot know,
touches on predestination, in                    infralapsarian manner.                   the true reality of grace until God
Lord's Day 21, speaks of it in its                   And the same can be said most        comes and chooses us out of the
own profoundly beautiful way:                    distinctly of the  Canons of  Dart,      world, unconditionally and sover-
"The Son of God from the begin-                  which is certainly the most de-          eignly, to gather us into His fel-
ning to the end of the world, gath-              tailed and leading  creedal state-       lowship and love. And this is of-
ers, defends, and preserves to him-              ment concerning predestination in        ten the way in which we can best
self by his Spirit and word, out of              the history of the Christian church.     explain this truth to those who find
the whole human race, a church                   It opens with a reference to the fall    it difficult, by expressing by our
chosen to everlasting life, agree-               into sin, 1:1, "As all, men have         own confession and walk the won-
ing in true faith, and that I am and             sinned in Adam, lie under the            der of the reality that God has cho-
forever shall remain, a living mem-              curse, and are deserving of eter-        sen us, who are no better than the
ber thereof." The statement is                   nal death"; and from there it goes       greatest of all sinners, to be gath-
brief, but as much to the point and              on to note with a simple historical      ered into His love.
as personal as the doctrine of elec-             statement similar to that of the              In all of this, however, there is
tion can be. In one short sentence               other two creeds, "Election is the       another thing which should be
we see the working of election over              unchangeable purpose of God,             noted. While there are many in-
the whole expanse of time, only to               whereby, before the foundation of        stances in which the Scriptures and
have it come to focus on the indi-               the world, he hath out of mere           the confessions speak of election
vidual believer who finds himself                grace, according to the sovereign        as taking place after the fall, they
living and confessing membership                 good pleasure of his own will, cho-      are not doing so in terms of the
in the church of God. But it is in               sen, from the whole human race,          counsel of God. All of these pas-
time and  after  the  fall.                      which had fallen through their           sages are speaking of election as'it
    Even more directly we find the               own fault, from their primitive          enters into the experience of man,
infralapsarian approach to election              state of rectitude, into sin and de-     and that is of course after the fall.
used in the  Be&c  Confession,  Ar-              struction, a certain number of per-      But the lapsarian controversy was
ticle 16: "We believe that all the               sons to redemption in Christ,            not about that.
posterity of Adam being thus                     whom he from eternity appointed               So, in turn, there are many
fallen into perdition and ruin, by               the Mediator and Head of the             other passages that speak of these
the sin of our first parents, God . . .          elect, and the foundation of salva-      things quite differently; and to
delivers and preserves from this                 tion." Once again, election is spo-      these we must return.  Cl



Always Obedient: Essays on the                   five different authors deal with         view. S. A. Strauss, in dealing
Teaching  of  Dr. Klaas  Schilder,.ed.           five aspects of Schilder's thought.      with this subject, points  out  that
J. Geertsema. Phillipsburg, New                  Treated are Schilder's covenant          Schilder's concern was to keep in-
Jersey: Presbyterian  & Reformed                 view, his view of Christ and cul-        tact and emphasize properly man's
Publishing, 1995. vx  + 137pages.                ture (with a comparison between          responsibility and the importance
n.p. (paper). [Reviewed by Prof.                 A. Kuyper and Schilder), Schilder's      of history. Especially in connec-
Herman Hanko.]                                   view of the church, a review and         tion with the latter, Schilder is cor-
                                                 analysis of Schilder's book on           rectly said to have rejected the
    If any one should want a brief               heaven, and Schilder on the sub-         e t e r n a l   d e c r e e s   o f   G o d   a s   a
overview of the teachings of Dr.                 ject of revelation.                      dogmatician's starting point  (21),
Klaas Schilder, this is an excellent                 Of particular interest to Prot-      and thus to have emphasized a
book to purchase. After a chapter                estant Reformed people is the dis-       covenant which was in its es-
describing Schilder's life and work,             cussion of Schilder's covenant           sence an agreement, and was

1 SO/Standard Bearer/January 15; 1997


therefore bilateral and conditional.                             Schilder was a man of many            though the author speaks of a new
      It is evident from Strauss' ar-                        gifts, without any doubt. Anyone          development in the Reformed tra-
t i c l e   t h a t   t h i s   h a s   l e d   t o   a n    who has read his writings, even           dition given us by Schilder, he
Arminian conception of the cov-                              some of them, `will readily ac-           points to Schilder's distinction be-
enant. Describing Schilder's view                            knowledge that he possessed the           tween the church militant and the
of baptism, Strauss writes: "One's                           ability to look at various theologi-      church triumphant as an example,
baptism, therefore, does not imply                           cal questions in different ways and       a distinction almost as old as Re-
a dogmatic, proclamation, for in-                            to express his ideas in sometimes         formed theology.
stance, that God confers salvation                           eloquent ways which were often                 Even in the centerpiece of his
on the elect. But in my baptism I                            fresh and new. But if you ask: Was        theology, the doctrine of the cov-
receive a concrete address from                              Klaas Schilder the original thinker       enant, Schilder had essentially
God, a message that God pro-                                 and theologian he is sometimes            nothing new to offer. The idea of
claims to everyone who is bap-                               claimed to be (also in this book)?        a bilateral and conditional cov-
tized, personally: if you believe,                           the answer is, No. Indeed, the            enant goes back at least to the early
you will be saved" (28,  29).                                book brings that out. In the chap-        17th century in both continental
      J. M. Batteau, in his chapter on                       ter on "Christ and Culture," N. H.        and Presbyterian thought. And
"Schilder on the Church," reiter-                            Gootjes finally sums up Schilder's        Schilder's insistence on this idea
ates some of these ideas and point-                          thought by telling us that Schilder       of the covenant did little, if any-
edly states that on the doctrine of                          emphasized that the Christian             thing, to advance the truth of
the covenant Schilder moved away                             must do his work well whatever it         Scripture with regard to this cru-
from election as the source of the                           is, and that he must do it to God's       cially important doctrine of the Re-
covenant.                                                    glory.     In Batteau's chapter on        formed faith.  0
                                                             "Schilder  ,and the Church,"  al-



Evangelism Activities                                        "Fundamentals of the Christian            of interested believers in Pitts-
      We are happy to include here                           Faith."                                   burgh, PA on Sunday, November
a progress report of the plans by                                The officers have been busy           24. And, second, on Sunday, De-
our Grace PRC in Standale, MI to                             registering the group with the Uni-       cember 8, also at the request of our
begin a Bible Study on the cam-                              versity, arranging for the use of a       M i s s i o n   C o m m i t t e e ,   R e v .   R .
pus of Grand Valley State Univer-                            room, and looking into some sort          Cammenga and Mr. Gary Kaptein
sity, which is virtually on Grace's                          of publicity. Through these efforts       visited with our missionary Rev.
back door, a campus with an en-                              and with the help of the Evange-          T. Miersma and the members of
rollment of some thirteen thousand                           lism Committee of Grace, plans            the San Luis Valley Mission in
students.                                                    now call for the first Bible Study        Alamosa, CO.
      After sending surveys to ev-                           to be held January 7 at 7:00  P.M.  in
ery PR young person attending                                Cabin C on the third floor of the         Congregational Activities
GVSU, Grace called a meeting for                             Kirkhoff  Center, with Rev. M.                 The Building Committee of our
October 20. Approximately 20 stu-                            Dick, pastor at Grace, leading the        Grace PRC in Standale, MI re-
dents attended.                    That group                study.                                    ported to their council that they
elected from among themselves                                    Again this past December the          have contracted an architect to
four officers from various of our                            Evangelism Committee of our               prepare drawings for their church
west Michigan churches to repre-                             Hudsonville, MI PRC advertised            building.
sent them (a requirement of the                              their worship services on Old                  The men and ladies of our
University in order to register the                          Year's and New Year's days. Rev.          Edgerton, MN PRC were invited
group).                                                      Gritters planned to preach on "The        to meet together on December 16
      T h e   n a m e   a d o p t e d   b y   t h e          Heavenly Home We Seek" on Old             for their annual Christmas Social.
young people is "Christians in Col-                          Year's, and "The Christian Life:          Plans called for a debate and dis-
lege," and the topic for discussion,                         Pilgrim and Stranger" on New              cussion concerning the question "Is
although subject to change, will be                          Year's.                                   Christmas Christian?"
                                                                                                            Another interesting question
                                                             Mission Activities                        for discussion caught my eye re-
                                                                 A couple of mission updates:          cently when the Ladies' Bible
Mr.  Wigger is an elder in the Protes-                       first, Rev. M. Dick, at the request       Study of our Southeast PRC in
tant Reformed Church  of  Hudson-                            of our churches' Domestic Mission         Grand Rapids, MI met last month
ville, Michigan.                                             Committee, preached to a group            to consider the question: "Was

                                                                                                            January 15, 1997/Standard Bearer/l 91


                                                                                                                                                             PERIODICAL
                                                                                                                                                             Postage Paid at
  P.0. Box 603                                                                                                                                               G r a n d v i l l e ,
  Grandvil/e, MI 49468-0603                                                                                                                                  Michigan


Pharaoh drowned in the Red Sea?                          concert immediately following                                         Minister Activities
Two Possible Answers."                                   their evening service on December                                          On December 14 Rev. Robert
      Our most recent update of                          15. The choir of the Faith PRC in                                    Harbach was taken home by the
Rev. C. Terpstra and his family                          Jenison, MI presented their annual                                   L o r d   a t   t h e   a g e   o f   8 2 .   R e v .
had him preaching his farewell                           Christmas concert on December                                        Harbach had actively served our
message on December 22. After                            22.                                                                  churches for some 24 years as both
the service, there was a special                                                                                              pastor and missionary. Even after
farewell coffee in the church base-                      School Activities                                                    his emeritation in 1979 he contin-
ment. On Saturday, December 21,                                 Church choirs were not the                                    ued to serve our churches. We ex-
the Terpstras' possessions were                          only ones busy with programs in                                      tend our sympathy to the family,
moved to Holland, MI. Their new                          December. Several of our schools                                     asking that we remember them in
address and phone number are:                            also gave all-school programs that                                   our prayers.
300 E. 18th St., Holland, MI 49423,                      month.                                                                     May God guide the congrega-
(616) 396-8303.                                                 The students of our South Hol-                                tion of Hull, IA PRC as they con-
      Our last "News" included a                         land, IL PR Christian School gave                                    tinue to call a man to be mission-
couple of items regarding recent                         their program, entitled "In the                                      ary in Ghana. Their latest trio for
Christmas choir concerts, and now                        Fullness of Time," on December                                       that call consisted of the Revs. S.
we add a few more. The choir of                          19.       O n   t h e   s a m e   n i g h t   o u r                  Key, K. Koole, and R.  VanOver-
our Peace PRC in Lynwood, IL                             Loveland Christian School in                                         loop.
gave their Christmas program on                          Loveland, CO gave their all-school
December 15. The choral societies                        Christmas program, as did also the                                                     Food For Thought
of our Grandville and Southeast                          students of the Free Christian                                             "Flattery is dangerous.  Self-
PRC presented a joint concert in                         School in Edgerton, MN. The lat-                                     flattery is more dangerous, but
Grandville on December 15. The                           ter developed the theme, "To Us a                                    self-flattery in the realm of spiri-
choir of the Georgetown PRC in                           Son is Given."                                                       tual is most dangerous of all."
Hudsonville, MI presented a brief                                                                                                                             - W.E. Best  a



            RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                       WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                                  1997-`98  school year. For more information, inter-
      The Council of Southeast Protestant Reformed              With thankfulness to God, we are pleased to                 ' ested persons should contact the school principal,
Church expresses its Christian sympathy to Lorna         mark the 40th wedding anniversary of                                 Mr. Ed Karsemeyer, at the school at (909) 793-4584,
VanderVennen  and her family in  the death of her                       MR. and MRS. JIM SCHIPPER                             or Doug Pastoor at (909) 792-9392, or Glenn
husband,                                                 on January  16,1997.  Jehovah has provided in abun- ' Feenstra at (909) 794-5859.
             HENRYVANDERVENNEN.                          dance for  their spiritual and physical needs. They
Henry was a fellow officebearer and long-time mem-       have taught us to glory only in the knowledge and                               RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
ber of our church. "As for me, I will behold thy face    understanding that Jehovah is our Sovereign Savior                         The Council of the  Doon PRC expresses its
in righteous: I shall be satisfied, when I awake,        through Jesus Christ. We pray that Jehovah will                      Christian sympathy to our fellow officebearer, Edwin
with thy likeness" (Psalm  17:13).                       guide them by His counsel throughout their earthly                   VanGinkel,  in the loss of his brother-in-law,
                              Rev. Dale Kuiper, Pres.    pilgrimage.                                                                             MEASE VAN BEEK.
                          Mr. Timothy  R. Pipe, Clerk           We rejoice with them in the words of Isaiah,
                                                         "My spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I                   May he and his family find comfort from Joel  3:16,
                                                         have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy                   "But the Lord will be the hope of his people, and the
                                                                                                                              strength of the children of Israel."
            RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                       mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of                                               Rev. Richard J.  Smit, Pres.
      The Council of the  Doon  PRC expresses its        the mouth of thy seed's seed, saith the LORD from                                                    Gene  VanBemmel,  Clerk
heartfelt sympathy to our fellow officebearers in the    henceforth and for ever" (Isaiah  59:21).
death of their mother and grandmother,                   X&     Gordon and Nancy  Schipper                                                             NOTICE!!
            MRS. MINNIE VAN  DEN TOP.                                   Dale, Eric, Kevin                                           Classis West of the Protestant Reformed
May God's rich grace sustain them and their fami-        *      Randy and Lindy Looyenga                                      Churches will meet at the  Doon  Protestant Reformed
lies in their sorrow and may they be comforted with                     Brent,  Jared, Kristin                                Church in  Doon, Iowa, on Wednesday, March 5,
the words from Psalm  74:12, "For God is my King of      Q      Dan and Julie Kaiser                                          1997 at  8:30 
old, working salvation in the midst of the earth."                      Ross, Alex                                                              A.M.,  the Lord willing. All material for
                                                                                                                              the classical agenda is to be in the hands of the
                          Rev. Richard J. Smit, Pres.    1      Nathan and Jill Kamps                                         Stated Clerk by February 3. An officebearers' con-
                            Gene  VanBemmel,  Clerk                     Sydney, Nicole
                                                                                                  Grand Rapids, Michigan      ference is also planned for Tuesday, March 4.
                                                                                                                                                       Rev. Steven Key, Stated Clerk
192lStandard Bearer/January15,1997


