                         The
                     Standard
 A Reformed          Bearer
 Semi-Monthly
 Magazine





                     Ashburnam Place, Battle, East Sussex, England:
                           Site of the 4th Bienniel Conference
                           of the British Reformed Fellowship
                                      .m. see p. 202


Vol. 73, No. 9
 February I, 1997





                                                                       I


CONTENTS:                                                                                                        February I, 1997                                                                       :  Bhe
                                                                                                                                                                                                        Standard
 Meditation - Herman Hoeksema                                                                                                                                                                           j Scarer
        Delivered to Corruption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .195
 Editorial - Prof. David J. Engelsma                                                                                                                                        ISSN 03t32-4692
        A Candid Confession of the Character
                of a Conditional Covenant (3) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  ;`97                     `Semi-monthly, except:monthly  during  June, July, and August.
                                                                                                                                                                            Published by the Fiefo;nned Free Publishing Association, Inc.,
 Go Ye Into All the World                                                                                                                                                   4949  Ivanrest  Ave., Grandville, MI 49418. Periodical Postage
        Encouraging Fruit                                                                                                                                                   Paid at Grandville, Michigan.
                on PRC Missions - Rev. James D. Slopsema ,.....................  200                                                                                        Postmaster: Send address changes to the Standard Bearer,
        Organization of Covenant Protestant Reformed Church                                                                                                                 P.O. Box 603, Grandville, Ml  49468-0803.
                in Northern Ireland - Mr. Allister  Pattison  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201                                                 EDITORIAL COMMITTEE
                                                                                                                                                                            Editor: Prof. David  J.`Engelsma
        BRF Family Holiday Conference - Mr. Lindsay Williams . . . . . . . . . . 202                                                                                        Secretary: Prof. Robed D. Decker
 In His Fear - Rev. Arie denHartog                                                                                                                                          Managing Editor:  Mr.`Don  Doezema
        A Parable to Warn the Young Man About tthe Power                                                                                                                    DEPARTMENT EDITORS
                of the Enticement of the Sin of Immorality (2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207                                                                Rev. W.  Bruinsma, Rev. A.  Brummel, Rev. R. Cammenga,
                                                                                                                                                                            Prof. R. Decker, Rev., A.  denHartog, Rev. M. Dick, Prof. H.
 Contribution - Mr. Phillip  Climer                                                                                                                                         Hanko, Rev. R.  Hank@ Rev. S. Key, Rev. K.  Koole, Rev. J.
        Archaeology and the Bible . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209             Kortering, Rev. D. H. Kuiper,  Mr. J. Lanting, Mrs. M. Lubbers,
                                                                                                                                                                            Rev. T. Miersma. Mr. G. Schipper, Rev. G. VanBaren, Rev. Ft.
 All Around Us - Rev. Gise J. VanBaren . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ~ . . . . . . . . . 212                                  VanOverloop,  Mr. B. vigger,  Rev. B. Woudenberg.
 Search the Scriptures - Rev. Mitchell C. Dick                                                                                                                              EDITORIAL OFFICE                 CHURCH NEWS EDITOR
        The Son of God and Sons of the Devil (1) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (.................... 213                                                                    The Stahdard Bearer              Mr. Ben Wigger
                                                                                                                                                                            4949  Ivanrest                   6597 40th Ave.
 News From Our Churches - Mr. Benjamin Wigger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ~ . . . . . . . . 215                                                               Grandville, MI 49418             Hudsonville, Ml 49426
                                                                                                                                                                            BUSINESS OFFICE                  NEW ZEALAND OFFICE
                                                                                                                                                                            The Standard Bearer              The Standard Bearer
                                                                                                                                                                            Don Doezema                      c/o B. VanHerk
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                                                                                                                                                                            Grandville, Ml              /    Wainuiomata, New Zealand
                                                                                                                                                                               49468-0603
        The Domestic Mission Committee  (DMC) of the Protestant Reformed                                                                                                    PH: (616) 531-1490               UNITED KINGDOM OFFICE
 Churches  (PRC) informs our readers of fruit on the missions labors of                                                                                                              (616) 538-l 778         c/o Mr. Jonathan  McAuley
                                                                                                                                                                            FAX (616) 531-3033               164 Church Rd., Glenwherry
 the PRC consisting of the institution of a church in Northern Ireland.                                                                                                                                      Ballymena, Co:  Antrim BT42 3EL
                                                                                                                                                                                                             Northern Ireland
 Not unrelated to the work there is the spreading witness to the Re-                                                                                                        EDITORIAL POLICY
 formed faith throughout the British Isles by the British Reformed Fel-                                                                                                     Every editor is solely responsible for the contents of his own
                                                                                                                                                                            articles. Contributions of general interest from our readers and
 lowship  (BRF). One aspect of this witness is the BRF Family Holiday                                                                                                       questions for The Reader Asks department are welcome.
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                                                                                                                                                                            editorial office.
 the energetic evangelism of the PRC of South Holland, IL. The local                                                                                                        R E P R I N T   P O L I C Y
 congregation has her vital role in missions.                                                                                                                               Permission is hereby  glanted  for the reprinting of articles in our
        The work did not develop according to plan  -  our plan. The un-                                                                                                    magazinebyotherpublications,provided:  a) thatsuch  reprinted
                                                                                                                                                                            articles are reproduced in full; b) that proper acknowledgment
 folding of God's plan for His church there meant disappointment and                                                                                                        is made; c) that a copy of the periodical in which such reprint
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 194/Sf%ndard  Bearer/February 1, 1997


               Delivered to Corrwptiqm
 W                                                           way, or rather, if he is to go up        M a n   h e l d   t h e   t r u t h   u n d e r   i n
            herefore  God also gave                          that steep road instead of down?         unrighteousness, and God made
            them up to uncleanness                           You say, a wonder. That is a fit-        them so foolish that they made
            through the lusts of their                       ting illustration of my text, in its     themselves gods like to corrupt-
 own hearts, to dishonour their own                          connection.  *                           ible man, and to birds, and  four-
 bodies between themselves:                                      The slippery road is the pro-        footed beasts, and creeping things.
     Who changed the truth  of  God                          cess of sin. The man that puts his       Having made these images, they
 into a lie, and worshipped and served                       feeton  that road is the sinner, in-     go on, and their hearts become
 the creature more  thaq  ,the  Creator,                     deed, the whole world. On that           more darkened, until finally they
 who is blessed  for  e&r.  Amen.                            slippery road the whole world            believe that these images which
                     Romans  1:24,25                         moves by nature. The power that          they have made actually are God.
                                                             pulls the world down is the un-               This is always the case. Some
Introduction                                                 changeable operation of the wrath        people, for example, will find all
     I can best express the main                             of God. The wrath of God pulls           kinds of excuses for not sending
thought of this part of Romans 1,                            man down from sin to sin, until          their children to the Christian
in its connection,by saying that sin                         he reaches the precipice. The only       school. They know better. They
is very successful and prospers in                           power that will not only cause man       know that they should send them
:a11 that it wills, even unto the end.                       to stop, but also cause him to go        to the Christian school. But they
The reason for this prospering of                            up, is the gospel. This is why the       seek all kinds of excuses. Once
sin is the wrath of God. The wrath                           gospel is the power unto salvation.      having started on this road, they
of God prospers sin so that it                               This is why the apostle is not           must go on until they finally be-
reaches its purpose. From a spiri-                           ashamed of this gospel.                  lieve their own excuses.
tual point of view, the sinner does                              The wrath of God is revealed,             So it is here. Man said, "I do
what he pleases.        However, sin                         the apostle had said. When the           not want to serve and glorify;
prospers more than the sinner                                apostle says that the wrath of God       God." He held the  truth,under  in
originally planned.                                          is revealed from heaven, he does         unrighteousness.             God said, "Go
     Let me use a figure. Suppose                            not mean to say that God in              ahead." Then man made images.
there is a steep, icy road that ends                         heaven is angry. But he means to         He knew these images were not
in a precipice. A man sets his feet                          say that there, is an effectual op-      God. But God darkened his heart.
`on that steep, icy road. What will                          eration of wrath in the world. This      Man was carried on until finally
happen? He will go on. He will                               wrath is present, it is around us,       he believed that these sticks and
`be prosperous in his slide down                             it besets us on every side, it works.    stones were actually God. This is
`that road. Can he stop? No, he                              In the face of the operation of this     the course of sin. The next step is
must go on. Why? You say, be-                                wrath, men hold the truth under          moral corruption. This is the in-
cause of the law of gravitation.                             in unrighteousness. The truth is         evitable result. A man is like his
That is, perhaps, correct. But what                          that God is God, that He is glori-       god. If he makes himself a god,
is the law of gravitation? It is the                         ous, and that He must be praised         he becomes like the god which he
`unchangeable operation of God in                            and thanked. Men hold this truth         makes. The reason is that wrath
things. God pulls that `man down.                            under in unrighteousness. They           pulls him down. God brings His
Will God stop because a man puts                             want to be unrighteous. Therefore,       people into heaven. He also brings
his feet on that slippery road? No,                          they hold the truth under in             the wicked into hell.
God does not change. What must                               unrighteousness. As soon as they              This is my text. "Wherefore
happen if that man is to stop half-l" ! do, wrath is revealed.
                                                     .-                                               God also gave them up to unclean-
                                                     3.y         How? In the first place, in that     ness through the lusts of their own
                                                      -     *' their hearts were darkened, so that    hearts, to dishonour their own
                                      c-.
                               -.            .__,            they became religiously foolish.         bodies between themselves: Who
Herman Hoeksema was the first  .edi-.                        This is the punishment of their          changed the truth of God into a
tor of the  Standard Bearer. -.  r  :'                       wanting to do unrighteousness.           lie, and worshipped and served

                                                                                                           February 1, 1997/Standard  Bearer/l 95


 the creature more than the Creator,      tried to explain away the force of           the lust of men's hearts. God gave
 who is blessed forever."                 this word. They have even found              them up  to: uncleanness, through
     Let me call your attention to        in this chapter a classic proof for          the lusts of their own hearts,  `to
 this development of sin and to the       common grace.           They say that        dishonor their own bodies between
 only power that can save man             God's giving man over to unclean-            themselves.,
 from continuing on this road of          ness does not mean that God                      The heart is the center of man's
 sin, until he falls into destruction.    pushes man into sin. This, they              life from a spiritual point of view.
                                          say, would be contrary to God's              Out of the heart are the issues of
 The Meaning                              holiness. They say that it rather            life. All our thinking, our willing,
     The text says that God gave          means that God simply abandoned              our desiring issues forth from the
 them up to uncleanness. What             them. He simply let them go. He              heart. As the heart is, so is the
 does this mean? All sin is unclean-      let them go as I let go my hand-             man, spiritually, morally, ethically;
 ness. But if we read the rest of         kerchief, so that it falls. God first           `Now  there is nothing wrong in
 this chapter, we will see that the       held man back on the road of sin.            the fact that the heart desires. The
 apostle means something specific.        This is called the restraint of sin.         heart is made to desire.  .This is
 What the apostle means with un-          Then God let man go. He stepped              the purpose of the heart. But the
 cleanness is that moral state of         out of man's way so that He did              normal desire of the heart, apart
 heart and mind in which man cor-         not hold him back anymore. Man               from sin, is that it desires after
 rupts himself sexually. Moral dirt       then slipped down on the road of             God. It desires to be pleasing to
 is what the apostle has in mind.         sin.                                         Him, to serve Him, to glorify Him:
 By this uncleanness, the apostle                 This is not so. Did you ever         This was the normal desire of the
 means that God gave them over            see the law of gravitation stop any-         heart. But  I those desires become
 to such a condition of the heart         one from going down? Romans 1                lusts as soon as this heart turns
 and will and mind and desires that       teaches that the wrath of God pulls          away from  `God. Then the heart
 they delight in sexual filth. The        man down. The word used in the               fastens itself on other objects, apart
 effect is that they dishonor their  .- original does not mean "to let go."            from God. It says, "I will no more
 own bodies between themselves.           It rather means "to push down,"              s e r v e   G o d . "
     What the apostle means by this       "to deliver up." It is the same                  Upon what does the desire of
 he explains when he says that this       word that is used for delivering a           the heart fasten itself, if not on
 moral corruption is such that men        prisoner into prison. You do not             God? It fastens itself upon the
 lusted after men, and women af-          deliver a prisoner into prison by            creature instead of upon the Cre-
 ter women. It began with corrup-         letting him go and letting him walk          ator. It seeks things, and it seeks
 tion in the spirit; it ends with cor-    into prison of his own accord. The           to press these things into the ser-
 ruption in the body. This is             same word is used for the deliver-           vice of unrighteousness. This is
 heathendom.        This is civilized     ance of Christ into the hands of             lust. There: are many lusts in the
 Rome. This is reality. This is still     wicked men.                                  world:     lust of money, lust of
 the case.                                        In this same way God delivers        honor, lust of position, the lust of
     Our text is an explanation of        men unto sin. He does so in His              the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the
 many things that we see around           wrath. The wrath of God is re-               pride of life. The lust of money is
 us. It is striking that the world vealed; it operates in the world.                   that we press it into the service of
 that departs from God gives rise         The effect is that men become reli-          unrighteousness. This is why we
 to all manner of uncleanness.            giously foolish and morally cor-             have depression.
 Many of our movies would be out          rupt.                                            Now what does God do? He
 of business if it were not for the               The text teaches, therefore, that    works upon, these lusts by His an-
 sexual filth shown in them. What         God punishes sin with more sin.              ger. He does not let them go. He
 is the reason for the sexually ex-       The road of the world is sin,                works in them. He works in ev-
 plicit pictures everywhere? Why          wrath, more sin, and more wrath.             erything. The purpose of God
 must even ordinary ads contain                                                        working in these lusts is to bring
 unchastity? Unclean minds make           The Manner                                   man as low `as possible. Man says
 unclean things. But remember, the                How does God do this? How            to a cow, "Thou art my god." God
 text explains it as a manifestation      does He do this without becoming             says, "I will see to it that you fall
 of the wrath of God. The wrath           the author of sin? How is it  pas-'          as far `below that god which you
 of God brings men to hell. The           sible? How must it be explained              made as a worshiper ought to be
 wrath of God brings the world to         that the wrath of God, which is              below his god." Thus man comes
' destruction.                            the reaction of His holiness, brings         to fall below the beast. He does
     `Mark well, the text says that       the sinner deeper into sin? The              things a beast will never do.*
 God gave them over. People have          text says that God does it through            `is'd& does it! God says to the

 196/Standard  Bearer/February 1, 1997


sinful world two things. He says,                  with that same unchangeable will          It is the power of God unto salva-
"1 will take your heart and guide                  to become manifest as the blessed         tion. It is a power on the slippery
you in the direction that will bring               one, He assumes an attitude over          road on which wrath pushes man
you lower than the beast that you                  against the wicked. The result is         down and on-which all find them-
serve." He says also, "I will lead                 that, God manifests His wrath by          selves.
you to destruction."                               making       them        unspeakably          How can man be saved? By
                                                   wretched. Antithetically, it be-          means of instruction? This is  im:
The Motive                                         comes manifest that God is blessed        possible. Salvation is not a matter
     Why? The. final reason is ex-                 forever. Joy and glory are a testi-       of education. Man wants unrigh-
pressed in the words, "Who is                      mony that God is blessed forever.         teousness.       What will stop him?
b l e s s e d   forev.er.   A m e n . "   T h e    Wretchedness and misery testify           Shall we give him an example?
meaning,, in the first place, is that              antithetically that God is blessed        There is no example. The whole
God is only good. In the second                    forever. There are but two pow-           world is on that path. No, there
place, being the only good, He. is                 ers operating in history.                 must be a power that can change
the, only blessed  \one.  He is the                    The wrath of God is revealed          that wrath into uplifting love. This
only blessed one as the triune God..               when men serve the creature more          power we have in the gospel. The
In the third place, as the infinite                than the Creator. This does not           gospel is a power. It is a power to
good, He wills to become mani-                     mean that -they serve the Creator         lift man up.
fest as the one" apart, from whom                  too,  .but that they serve the crea-          I am not ashamed of the gos-
there is no blessedness. There may                 ture more. No, the meaning is that        pel, for it is  a:power  of God unto
never be anything in which God                     they serve the creature  instead of       salvation. The righteous shall live
`does not become manifest as the                   the Creator. They change the truth        by faith. He that believeth in Him
blessed one. .                                     of God into a lie. And God pushes         shall not perish, but have everlast-
  There are two ways  fin which                    man down until it becomes mani-           ing life.  Cl
God becomes manifest as the only                   fest that sin is sin.
blessed one. He becomes  mani-                         I am not ashamed of the gos-          * Hoeksema here is describing
:fest as the blessed one in them that              pel. This is the positive thought.        the gross sin of homosexuality re-
fear Him by blessing them. But                     I am not ashamed of the gospel.           ferred to in the passage.




A Candid Confession of the Character
                                                                 of a
                                   Conditional Covenant

,A staunch supporter of the child of believers with His cov- plain, therefore, that it is the char-
          popular doctrine in Re-                  enant love in Jesus Christ and sin-       acter of a conditional covenant to
          formed and Presbyterian                  cerely desires `to save every child.      affirm that God's covenant love in
circles, that God makes a condi-                   This covenant doctrine denies that        Jesus Christ is' wider than the elect
tional covenant with every. physi-                 faith is one of the benefits earned       children of believing parents; that
cal child of believing parents, has                by. the death of Christ  fpr the elect    God's covenant love in Jesus
lcandidly confessed the real char-'                children only and that faith is it-       Christ fails to save many whom
acter of such a  covenan.t,.   `He                 self included in the promise made         God so loves; and, by clear and
frankly acknowledges that, accord-                 by God to the children of believ-         necessary implication, that the rea-
ing to this doctrine of  the,`:cov-                ers in baptism.                           son why some children are saved
enant,  God loves every  physica'l!
                                       _`              The candid confession makes           is not God's covenant love, but

                                                                                                 February 1, 1997/Standard  Bearer/l 97




                                                                                                              i


their own will and work, that is,                    children of believing Abraham and                      breakable precisely by the prom-
faith as their performance of a re-                  Sarah, for example, Esau, were ex-                     ise of God,  ,that is, by the promis-
quired condition.                                    cluded from God's saving purpose                       ing God Himself (Rom.  4:16).
        This was the candid confession               (v. 15); were hated by God before                              It is  exa'ctly  the concern of the
,of Reformed minister, Rev. Cecil                    ,birth (v. 13); and were vessels of                    apostle in Romans  9:6ff. to deny
.,W. Tuininga, in the January  1,1997                wrath fitted to destruction (v. 22)                    that God's covenant Word of
issue of the  Standard Bearer,  in an-               - all, in God's eternal will of pre-                   promise is ineffectual in the per-
swer to questions that I had put                     destination  (vv. -11, 15, 18, 22).                    ishing of so many physical children
to him.                                                   This is also the express teach-                   of believing Abraham and Sarah
        In my editorial in the January               ing of the Reformed creed, the                         (v. 6). The; promise to the "seed
15, 1997 issue of this magazine, I                   Canons of Dordt:                                       of Abraham" was not, in fact, ad-
demonstrated that the character of                                                                          dressed by God to, or intended for,
a conditional covenant, as candidly                    . . . not all (the physical children                 a l l   t h e   p h y s i c a l   c h i l d r e n   o f
confessed by Rev. Tuininga, is con-                    of beliepring' parents - DJE), but                   Abraham,  b1ut only to  .and for, the
demned both by Scripture and by                        some only are elected, while oth-                    elect among the physical children
the Reformed creeds as a depar-                        ers are passed by in the eternal                     (vv. 7-13). The same is true of the
ture from the gospel of sovereign                      election of God; whom God . . .
                                                       hath decreed to leave in the com-                    promise in.baptism today.
grace.                                                 mon misery into which they have                              Some, and only some, among
                                                       wilfully plunged themselves, and                     the physical children of Abraham
Pointed Questions                                      not to bestow upon them saving                       and Sarah were "the children of
        What I have not yet done is to                 faith and the grace of conversion;                   the promise" then (v.  8). Some,
answer the questions that Rev.                         but . . . at last for the declaration                and only some, among the physi-
Tuininga put to me. After he an-                       of His justice, to condemn and                       cal children: of believers are "chil-
swered my questions about the                          punish them forever.... And this                     dren of the promise" today.
real character of a conditional cov-                   is the decree of reprobation . . . (I/                       These are the children to
enant, Rev. Tuininga addressed                         15).                                                 whom alone God addressed, and
pointed questions to me concern-                                                                            addresses, His `promise, "I will be
ing the real character of the un-                         These children (whom God                          your God,  ,and you will be my
conditional covenant: "Now allow                     alone knows) by their unbelief in                      c h i l d . "
me a few questions."                                 later years are guilty of despising                            This covenant promise is gra-
        Fair enough.                                 God's covenant, God's covenant                         cious and (if I may be forgiven a
        I n   w h a t   f o l l o w s ,   R e v .    love, and God's covenant Son                           redundancy) sovereign. It is never
Tuininga's questions appear in ital-                 (Heb.  10:29). They "break" the
                                                     covenant in the sense that they                        without saving effect. It regener-
ics. Because of the length of some                   grievously violate it by holding it                    ates, gives faith (in this order!),
of them, I will not quote them in                                                                           makes holy! and takes to heaven.
their entirety. For the complete                     -in contempt as it is clearly made                     The promise  - the covenant Word
questions, the reader is referred to                 known to them in the'word  of God                      of God  - does this. No child to
the editorial in the January  1,1997                 and the sacraments; by refusing to
                                                     embrace it in faith as they are se-                    whom God addresses it can victo-
issue of the SB. My answers im-                                                                             riously resist it, any more than the
mediately follow Rev. Tuininga's                     riously called by God to do; and                       effectual call of Romans  8:30 can
                                                     by disobeying the command to
questions, in regular type.                                                                                 be resisted by the elect object of
                                                     walk in the covenant by a holy life.                   the call. "Not as though the Word
                                                          But they emphatically do not
 1 .         Is every baptized child, ac-                                                                   of God hath  talcen none effect"
                                                     break the covenant in the sense
  cording to your position, elect and                that, whereas God establishes His                      (Rom.  9:6). Ever!
  hence saved? How then answer                       covenant with them personally,
for  those who reject the covenant.                                                                         A Desire to Save
                                                     whether by promise to them or by
  promises? Do they not break cov-                                                                          All, the Chiidren?
                                                     the work of the Holy Ghost in their
  enant with God?                                                                                              2       . Does! God not love and de-
        Answer: No, according to the                 hearts, they nullify the promise or                       sire the  sdvation   of  all those
doctrine of the unconditional cov-                   undo the work of the Holy Ghost
                                                     within them. God's covenant of                            within the covenant?
enant of grace, every baptized                       g r a c e   w i t h   A b r a h a m   a n d   h i s            Answer:  No, God does not
child is not elect and saved. Some                   "seed" is sure and unbreakable. It                     dove and desire the salvation of all
baptized children are reprobate                                                                             those," whether adults or children,
                                                     is sure and unbreakable with all
and lost according to God's eter-                                                                           who may  for a time live in the
                                                     the seed of Abraham, which seed
nal decree of predestination. This                                                                          sphere of the covenant. By "liv-
is the plain teaching of the Bible                   is Jesus Christ and all the elect                      ing  inthe  @here  of the covenant,"
                                                     (Gal.  3:16-29).  It is sure and un-
in Romans 9:6-24. Some physical                                                                             I;meap- that  ,one is baptized into a

1 E)S/Standard  Bearer/February 1, 1997


true church, is instructed in the        God that He did not have mercy                binds me. This is also the clear
truth of the gospel, makes public        on Esau. Neither may any of us                testimony, incidentally, of the
confession of faith, participates in     puny humans dare to call the elect-           Westminster Confession of Faith
the public worship of God, and           ing and reprobating God into ques-            (WCF). There is not so much as a
shows himself to others as one           tion: "Nay' but, 0 man, who art               hint in the Reformed confessions
walking in obedience to the law.         thou that repliest against God?" (v.          of a universal love of God and of
It is one's holding membership in        20)                                           a universal desire for salvation.
the instituted and visible church.               It is the intention of the apostle    This is why,  ,when Reformed and
    Scripture sharply distinguishes      that what he says in Romans 9 spe-            Presbyterian churches begin to fall
between this formal membership,          cifically of Esau applies also to all         away, they must add such a state-
on the one hand, and spiritual           those physical descendants of                 ment to the  &reeds.  The Presbyte-
union with Christ and His cov-           Abraham who perished in unbe-                 rian Church in the United States
enant people, on the other hand.         lief and disobedience, as well as             of America  (PCUSA)  did this in
The prophets repeatedly distin-          to those physical children of be-             1903 by adding a section on God's
guish the "remnant" from the vis-        lieving parents who similarly per-            universal love and desire for the
ible organization of the nation of       ish down through the ages.                    salvation of all men to the WCF.
Israel and from the majority of                                                        The Christian Reformed Church
nominal members of that nation           A Desire to Save  All Men?                    (CRC) did the same thing in 1924
(Is.  1:9). The apostle confirms this      3;        And in this connection does       by appending an official, binding,
distinction and grounds it in God's        God not desire the salvation  of            qualifying, doctrinal statement to
eternal election: "Even so then at         all men?                                    the "Three Forms of Unity."
this present time also there is a                Answer: No, God does not de-
remnant according to the election        sire the salvation of all men, that           Candor and Clarity
of grace"  (Ram.  11:5). Likewise,       is, "all men" in the sense intended               I have now answered Rev.
the apostle John distinguishes           by Rev. Cecil Tuininga, namely,               Tuininga's questions.
those who for a time are merely          every human who ever lived, lives,                I have answered them as can-
formal members of the New Tes-           and will live.                                didly as he answered mine. As
tament church from "us" who are                  Scripture is against it. Did          frankly as he opened up the char-
the true church. Some go out             God desire the salvation of all               acter of the conditional covenant,
"from us" who, nevertheless,             those who perished in the flood,              so frankly have I opened up the
never were "of us" (I John  2119).       adults and children alike? Did                character of the unconditional cov-
    The entire defense of God's ef-      God desire the salvation of all who           enant.     N o   o n e   -  n o t   R e v .
fectual Word of promise and, with        perished in the fires of Sodom and            Tuininga, not I, not a single reader
this, of the grace of the work of        Gomorrah? Did God desire the                  of the  SB  - can now be ignorant
salvation in the family of father        salvation of all the Canaanites               or confused  ,regarding the differ-
Abraham, rests, in Romans 9, on          whom He commanded Israel to kill              ences between the doctrine of a
the validity of the distinction be-      to the last infant? Did God desire            conditional covenant and the doc-
tween certain children's being "Is-      the salvation of all the heathens             trine of the unconditional cov-
rael" and other children's merely        who lived and died without the                enant.
being "of Israel" (v. 6). To be "Is-     gospel before Pentecost? God                      No one can fail to see that the
rael" is to be living members of         saves only by the Word, and He                differences are fundamental. The
Christ and the family of God ac-         Himself announces that in the time            conditional covenant teaches a uni-
cording to election. To be merely        of the old covenant "He sheweth               versal covenant love of God in
"of Israel" is to be members of the      His Word unto Jacob.... He  hat-h             Jesus Christ; not necessarily for
institution only formally and by         not dealt so with any nation" (Ps.            every human (although the texts
outward profession; it is to be          147:19, 20).                                  that Tuininga raises and the argu-
merely "in the sphere of the cov-                The New Testament agrees. A           ments that he uses to support his
enant."                                  divine desire to save is God's pur-           covenant view are ominous in this
    That God does not love and           poseful will. But He wills to have            respect) but certainly within the
desire the salvation of all who are      mercy on some only and, thus, to              sphere of the natural family of be-
merely "of Israel"  is  `the plain       save them; others, He wills to                lieving parents. God loved every
teaching of the apostle in Romans        harden and, thus, to damn them                physical descendant of Abraham
9:13-15. God did not love circum-        (Rom.  9:18).                                 and Sarah, including Esau. God
cised Esau, but hated him. He                    This is the clear, powerful, and      loves every physical child of be-
never had mercy on him, nor did          (to many) offensive testimony of              lieving parents in the time of the
He wish to have mercy  `on him.          the Canons of Dordt, which con-               new covenant. This covenant love
Nor, I may add, was it unjust of         fession binds Rev. Tuininga as it             of God fails to save many toward

                                                                                           February 1; 19971 Standard Bearer/l  99


whom it is directed. Whether a               ery one of his physical children.             Perhaps my explanation, in ad-
child is saved by this love of God                                                    dition to showing that there is no
depends upon his performance of              Yet Again: Hyper-Calvinist!              conflict between these texts and
a condition, although it is usually              One thing I have not yet done:       the doctrine, of an unconditional
added that the child can perform             I have not explained those pas-          covenant of `particular grace, can
this condition only with the help            sages of Holy Scripture that Rev.        prove that in holding the uncon-
of divine grace.                             Tuininga raised in connection with       ditional covenant the Protestant
    The unconditional covenant               his questions.    In his question,       Reformed Churches  (PRC) are not
teaches that the salvation of the            whether God loves and desires to         hyper-Calvinist.
children of believers is due only            save all the physical, baptized chil-         There was, the reader may re-
to God's love for these children in          dren, he appealed to Matthew             call, at the end of Rev. Tuininga's
His covenant with them in Christ.            23:37.  In his question, whether         letter this familiar, but still hurt-
This love, having its source in the          God desires the salvation of all hu-     ful, dismissal of the  ERC:  "I'wouid
eternal election of grace, is effica-        mans without exception, he  ap-          be very happy to see our  Erotes-
cious:    it infallibly saves every          `pealed to I Timothy  2:3, 4 and to      tant Reformed brothers come to
child who is its object. It is gra-          II Peter  3:9.                           recognize and correct their  li&er-
cious: God `owes it to none of our               He obliges me to explain these       Calvinism and become truly Re-
children.' It is sovereign: No par-          texts `in a concluding editorial on      formed."
ent may contend with God because             his candid confession.                        Is it so? Cl
it may please' God not to love ev-                                                                                             - DJE




                              Encouraging Fruit
                                 on PRC Missions
                                                                                               Rev. $tmes Slopsema

S                                            travels and busied him with a            the British Isles. The men of the
      ome very wonderful things              great deal of work.                      newly organized CPRC are also
      have been taking place in the              The faithful labors of Rev.          members of the BRF.
      United Kingdom (UK), better            Hanko were blessed by our Lord                Mr. Allister Pattison, a mem-
known perhaps to those of us who             last summer with the organization        ber of the newly organized CPRC,
live in the United States as Great           of the CRF into the Covenant Prot-       submitted a report of the organi-
Britain or the British Isles.                estant Reformed Church in North-         zation of the CPRC. The British
    In 1992 Rev. Ron Hanko and               ern Ireland  (CPRC). This newly          Reformed  Joz#maZ,  in its July-Sep-
his family moved to Ballymena,               organized congregation, although         tember 1996 issue, carried a report
Northern Ireland to take up work             not strong in numbers, is strong         of the BRF Conference. The  Brit-
as missionary to the UK. His la-             in the Christian faith. Rev. Hanko       ish Reformed Journal  is a publica-
bors have concentrated in the                remains in the UK, serving as mis-       tion of the BRF. Its editor is Mr.
Ballymena area, where there was              sionary-pastor to the CPRC and           L i n d s a y   W i l l i a m s ,   w h o   a l s o
a dedicated group of believers               developing the contacts he has           authored the report on the BRF
known as the Covenant Reformed               throughout the UK.                       conference and has given his per-
Fellowship  (CRF). Rev. Hanko has                The organization of the CPRC         mission to reprint it in the SB. The
also had contacts throughout the             took place in connection with a          Mission Committee submits these
UK that have taken him on many               conference sponsored by the Brit-        reports for publication in the hope
                                             ish Reformed Fellowship  (BRF).          that they will serve the glory of
                                             The BRF is an organization com-          the  Son,of God, who gathers His
                                             prised of Reformed believers             church,out  of all nations from the
Rev. Slopsema  is, president  of  the Do-    throughout the UK. Its purpose is        beginning to the end of the world.
mestic Mission Committee.                    to promote the Reformed faith in

POO/Standard Bearer/February 1, 1997


    Organization of Covenant Protestant
: Reformed Church in, Northern ilreland
                                                                                                 Mr. AIBister Pattison

0 n Wednesday, July 24th ing appointed as the calling con- the fellowship, Prof. David
        1996, the Covenant Re-             gregation. Tangible support was           Engelsma, of the  PR theological
        formed Fellowship met in           given to the Fellowship in the form       seminary, led the organization ser-
the Town Hall, Ballymena, to or-           of a series of visiting ministers,        vice, an invitation made as a ges-
ganize as the Covenant Protestant          cuIminating  in the acceptance by         ture of thankfulness for the sup-
Reformed Church in Northern Ire-           Pastor Ron Hanko of a call to come        port which  rrof. Engelsma has ex-
land. Without doubt, this was an           to Northern Ireland as a Protes-          tended to the fellowship since its
event of the greatest significance         tant Reformed missionary.                 inception. After a  call to worship,
for those of God's people who                  Pastor Hanko's transition was         singing  of: Psalms, and prayer,
have persevered with such pa-              smoothed by the presence of the           Prof. Engelsma read from Holy
tience in the struggle to begin the        Rev. Gise VanBaren, then engaged          Scripture Matthew  19:13-28.
work of establishing a soundly Re-         in a pastoral visit which had be-              Choosing verse 18 as his text,
formed denomination in Northern            gun in October 1992. Pastor               Prof.  Engekma  then preached a
Ireland and the British Isles. Of          VanBaren remained in Northern             s e r m o n   c e n t e r e d   o n   C h r i s t 's
great encouragement to the mem-            Ireland while the new family              words, "I will build my church."
bers on this happy and solemn oc-          settled in. He had by this time be-       Beginning with the foundational
casion was the attendance of wit-          gun the fortnightly Covenant Re-          conception  :of the church as the  in-
nesses and friends from the Repub-         formed Newsletter, a work which           visible body of the elect and bride
lic of Ireland, England, and Wales.        has been one of the Fellowship's          of Christ, Prof. Engelsma spoke of
Significant also was the presence          central tools of contact, and one         three marks of this body: its
of a large contingent from the Prot-       which the Lord has blessed in Pas-        catholicity; its holiness, and its
estant Reformed Churches in the            tor Hanko's hands with growth in          apostolicity. He went on to show
United States of America, includ-          stature and geographical extent:          that, though the passage speaks of
ing representatives from the elder-        the distribution list is currently in     the invisible body of the elect, yet
ship of the Hudsonville congrega-          excess of four hundred, with re-          the mention of the keys of disci-
tion and a representative from the         cipients based throughout the Brit-       pline in verse 19 demonstrates that
Mission Committee. This com-               ish Isles.                                Christ also' had in mind the vis-
bined presence serves to underline             In response to an invitation by       ible form of the church as it  mani-
the strength and closeness of the
bond which had developed be-
tween the people of the Covenant
Reformed Fellowship in  Ballymena
and the PRC in the past number
of years.
    As a small group of believers,
the Covenant Reformed Fellowship
first met in Larne in January 1988.
After a six month visit from Pas-
tor Ken Hanko, the Fellowship
eventually acquired official status
as a mission field of the PRC in
June of 1990, with Hudsonville  be-



Mu. Pattison, a Telecommunications
Engineer  for  Nortel,  is a member  of     Missionary-pastor Ron Hanko (center) with newly-elected   officebearers (Z-r):
CPRC in Northern Ireland.                   Messrs. John Clarke, Jonathan  McAuley,  Desmond  Callendar,  and Ivan  Reid

                                                                                          February 1,  1997/Standard  Bearer/201


' fests itself on earth in the local con-    membership, the male members                             P R C   a n d   f o r   P r o f .   a n d   M r s .
1 gregation.                                 then took part in the election of                        Herman Hanko. The service was
     Notable -burdens of Prof.               church officebearers, with ballot                        closed by Pastor Ron Hanko in the
Engelsma's  sermon were his  refu-           counting being undertaken by Mr.                         pronouncement of the benediction
'  tation.of  both the, Roman Church's       Henry Boer and Mr. Pete Miedema                          found in  Number,s   6:24-26.
 doctrine  of. apostolic descent             of Hudsonville. As a result, Mr.                              The people of Covenant Prot-
through,  Peter and' the Arminian            John' Clarke and Mr. Desmond                             estant Reformed Church are thank-
 conception of the church as  self-          Callendar  were elected to the of-                       ful to their God for His dealings
building through the will of man.            fice of elder and Mr. Jonathan                           with them over the past eight
Drawing conclusions from. the                McAuley  and Mr. Ivan Reid to the                        years. He' has led them further
words "I will build", and "`my               office of deacon. After the read-                        into a knowledge of His  .precious
 church," Prof. Engelsma demon-              ing of the Form for Ordination, the                      Word. He has preserved them
strated the safety of the church in          officebearers were ordained by lay-                      through difficulty and disappoint-
her, belonging to Christ, and the            ing on  of. hands; and after prayer,                     ment, and he has given them a
inevitability of the completion of           each read and signed the Formula                         faithful and gifted pastor whose
her construction and final triumph           of Subscription. Prof. Engelsma                          ministry and  :labour  of love have
 against, the opposition of the king-        then  ,read the declaration of Insti-                    b e e n   u s e d   ;of  G o d   t o   t e a c h ,
dom of Satan and Antichrist.                 tution: "In the name of the Lord                         strengthen, and admonish both
     After the sermon there fol-             Jesus Christ, I declare that the                         themselves and others. The Lord
lowed public confession of faith by          Covenant Protestant Reformed                             has been good. May He bless us
those in the fellowship. who had             Church in Northern Ireland is now                        yet by using `our tiny and flawed
applied to be received into  mem-            instituted as a true church of Jesus                     witness for the building of His
`bership of the Covenant Protestant          Christ `on earth."                                       church and the establishment of a
Reformed Church. Man-and-wife                     In closing, letters of greeting                     strong and courageous Reformed
representatives from seven fami-             were read by various representa-                         and biblical denomination in the
lies as well as eight individuals            tives from the PRC; Mr. Henry                            UK. Truly we are at best but un-
were asked to confess their faith            Boer for Hudsonville PRC; Mr. Al                         profitable servants. We are small,
publicly by answering four ques-             Rau for the Mission Committee of                         weak, sinful, and despised, but our
tions:                                       t h e   P R C ;   a n d   f i n a l l y ,   P r o f .    help is in the name of Jehovah who
                                             Engelsma for both the Synod of the                       made heaven `and earth.  n
 1) Do you acknowledge the doc-
trine contained in the Old and
New Testaments and in the articles
`of the Christian faith and taught                         E3RF Family Hol'iday
here in this Christian Church to
be the true and complete doctrine
of salvation?                                                               Conferencti
,2)  Have you resolved by th e
grace of God to adhere to the doc-                               27th July-3rd August Ii996
trine,  ,to reject all heresies repug-
nant thereto,  and. to lead a new,                                                                              Mr. b$indsay Williams
godly life?

,3) Will you submit to church gov-
ernment, and in the case you                                                                          country seat of a landed lord; but
should become delinquent (which              Nearly 130 people, com-
                                                          prised of adults, teen-                     now fulfilling a vastly different
may God graciously forbid) to                             agers, and children, from                   role.
church discipline?                           all quarters of the United King-                              Hidden from the main high-
                                             dom, plus some from abroad, con-                         ways by a thick belt of trees, and
4) Insofar as you are able do you            verged on a target just some four                        girt around with a swathe of green
testify to the faith and godly walk          miles west of the historic town of                       meadows and a beautiful lake,
of the brothers and sisters gath-            Battle, in East Sussex, during the                       Ashburnham lay there like a jewel,
ered here this evening purposing             course of the last Saturday of July,
`to be instituted together as a              1996. The "target" was the beau-
church of Jesus Christ?                      tiful Christian Conference Centre                        Mr. Williams  iS editor  of  the British
     After formal reception into             at Ashburnham Place, once the                            Reformed  Jooukal.

202/Standard  Bearer/February 1, 1997


                                                                                               isting in the situation of modern,
                                                                                               and -apostate, evangelicalism. It
                                                                                               was a view which I had just never
                                                                                               thought to review critically, but
                                                                                               the first Monday lecture  .of the
                                                                                               Conference brought  me.,up  with a
                                                                                               severe jolt!  :The church  of-Christ,
                                                                                               I learned, did not exist for  the.ben-
                                                                                               efit of the human race! It existed,
                                                                                               like  everythmg else in creation, for
                                                                                               the glory of God! It is Christ's
                                                                                               bride, predestinated from all  eterl
                                                                                               nity, the very body of Christ, and
                                                                                               He is her Head. And she is His
                                                                                               elect, she existed in Him from be-
                                                                                               fore time. Just like Eve existed in
                                                                                               Adam before she was created,. and
                                                                                               was then formed  `to be his bride!
                          Grounds of                                                           Now  tr3 one  :such as myself, it was
                                   I   Ashbuvnam  Place
  resplendent in the summer sun.          they deliver intensely, faithfully,                  not entirely  :new to  ,hear  this, but
  That its situation in the far south-    with lucidity, and with an ortho-                    it was something new to have it
  eastern corner of England made it       doxy riveted to `the Word of God                     impressed  on my soul powerfully
  difficult for most BRF members          detail by detail. The vitally im-                    such that it threw into sharp relief
  and supporters to reach it did not      portant feature of their ministry                    the other erroneous perspective I
  ultimately attenuate the numbers        was that one tended to forget the                    had carried  iin me like a virus for
  in, attendance, which were slightly     preacher, and view the Saviour, as                   most of my life. After all, our gen-
  higher than that of the last Con-       the Lord Christ gloriously shone                     eration  hadi  been brought up on
  ference in Galashiels  two  years       through the truth of His Word so                     Archbishop  ) William Temple's fa-
a g o .                                   faithfully expounded. In another                     mous dictum, that "the Church of
      Anyone who was present at           age, before the onset of modern                      Jesus Christ: is the one institution
  that last BRF conference in 1994        "ameliorated Calvinism," these                       that exists for the benefit. of those
  will know that it would be an enor-     two would have been regarded as                      who are not  its members." Uttered
  mous task to have a conference          being among the premier preach-                      by the learned and venerable prel-
  more successful than that. Such,        ers in the church worldwide and                      ate, I believe, just before the sec-
  however, were the sentiments cur-       it would have been next to noth-                     ond World War,. it conditioned the
  rent after the 1992 Conference in       ing impossible to secure their ser-                  life and attitude of millions of
  Bangor, Northern Ireland, and af-       vices for one conference after an-                   church-goers within these shores
  ter the first BRF Conference in         other such as we have enjoyed in                     for a generation and more. And
  Wales in 1990. But each time, the       t h e   B R F   s i n c e   1990!   W e   g i v e    millions got: the message, and vot-
next Conference seems to be even          thanks to God for their ministry,                    i n g   w i t h   `t h e i r   f e e t   l e f t   t h e
  better than the previous one! Bear-     we praise Him who gives gifts of                     churches! And those who were
  ing in mind that the two main           grace to His church, for the  up-                    left, were largely  the."`soft  left"
  speakers at every one of these con-     building of the saints!                              w h o   h a v e ' t u r n e d   C h r i s t i a n
  ferences have been the same two              At first sight, the theme of the                churches either into some kind of
  Protestant Reformed theological         1996 Conference seemed not so                        amateur and quasi Department of
  professors, Prof. Hanko and Prof.       stirring as the theme for 1994.                      Health and Social Security . . . or
  Engelsma, it gives some indication      "The Doctrine of the Church" did                     into some kind of "evangelical life-
  of the dedication, effort, and          not seem so inspiring as the "Doc-                   boat" culling the high seas of life
  prayerful study which the two pro-      trine of Sovereign Grace!"                  But      searching to "rescue the perish-
  fessors must be putting into this       we were in for a surprise, and your                  ing." Noble enough causes, but
  work. The standard of their lec-        editor was also in for a shock!                      when they: become the  "raison
  tures, and of their preaching on the    Amazing what faithful preaching                      d'etye"  of the church's existence,
  Sabbath day, was of the highest or-     will do! In my case it uncovered                     then it is a sign of apostasy. "God
  der. Both these men preach and          an erroneous view of what the                        is everything" we were exhorted,
  teach with the mien of lions, and       church actually was, a view which                    time and again at the Conference,
  have intense convictions about in-      I had of course been "brain-                         and "man  is.nothing."  God's glory
  tense Word-of-God truths which          washed" into by a lifetime of ex-                    i s   t h e "raison d'etre" for the

                                                                                                     February I,, 1997/Stan@rd Bearer1203


church's existence, all else is  sub-               Song of Solomon, chapter  6:lO:               one's voice with over a hundred
ordinate.                                           "Who is she that looketh forth as             others in reflecting God's very
     The implications of this  eccle-               the morning, fair as the moon,                words back to: Him in praise. And
siastically  and theologically are  ex-             clear as the sun, and terrible as an          what need for organs or pianos
tensive and important. The  min-                    army with banners?" His  exposi-              when God provides  precentors.
istry of the Word emerges, under                    tion of this text was effectively and         O n c e   again;   w e ,   a p p r e c i a t e d
this God-centered perspective, as                   efficiently a repudiation of the              D e s m o n d   C j a l l e n d a r 's sturdy
being the God-ordained mode of                      modern view, found, not only in               tones, and also the sedate tones of
"gathering and building up                                    liberal theological circles, but    David Blunt, and the melodic Irish
His church." The worship                                         even amongst  evangelicai        tones  of. a new precentor, Mr.
of God engaged in by the                                           circles as well (indeed,       Allister  Pattison  from the new
church, we were  toi&  is                  The worship              sad to say, I have even       church at Ballymena. To these na-
not some pleasant  by-                        of  God.              met it in.modern  "Cal-       tive  precentods a new friend, Mr.
,product  of the  fellow-                   engaged in               vinist" circles), that       Harry Klomp of Melbourne, added
ship of the saints, but                  bY  the  church             the Song of Solomon          his melodious Australian voice as
                                       is  n.ot some pleasant
is the highest function                                              speaks only of earthly       precentor for several of our meet-
of that elect body, in                      by-product                marriage. The  mar-         ings.
that it is Christ's bride                of  the fellowship           riage figured in this            The two professors delivered
                                           of  the saints,
.adoring  her heavenly                                                book is that of the         the sermons  oh the Sabbath. Each
Spouse,          glorifying                    but is                 King of Israel, who of      exposition was profound and stir-
`Him, reflecting back to               the highest function           course was the Lord's       ring, a foretaste of the delights that
Him His own image,                      of  that elect body,          anointed,      thereby      were to come in the following
                                           in that it is
now being recreated in                                                typifying Christ, and       days. It is  im@ossible  to give here,
her by the regenerative                   Chris t's bride            his bride, who must          in this restricted space, a proper
p o w e r s   o f   t h e   H o l y         adoring her              therefore typify the         appreciation of it all. Mr. John
Ghost. And such  wor-                        heavenly               church, the bride of          McAuley   f a i t h f u l l y   t a p e d   t h e
ship must concord with                       Spouse....            Christ, as all the  old-       whole proceedings, and copies of
the Divine protocols, must                                        time Puritans and Re-           the tapes are a must for all of us, I
not be the "will-worship" of                                   formers insisted! A heav-          should think,  j and most certainly
human devising, as if any Tom,                      enly marriage then, and a heav-               to be  recomm:ended for those not
,Dick, or Harry can "feel moved of                  enly, spiritual bride are in view             able to attend  ;the Conference.
,the spirit" so-say to compose and                  under the aegis of the Old Testa-                  Monday came, with an air of
sing any little ditty or import their               ment types and shadows here. Mr.              expectancy. The bookstalls were
`own ideas into this Holy sanctu-                   Blunt expounded the text ably and             laid out with an abundance of high
ary. Only God's Word is satisfac-                   succinctly, drawing attention to              quality  produttions  indeed! It was
tory for the regulation of God's                    each facet therein, namely the                good to see the James Begg Soci-
worship. The bride of Christ must                   "looking forth as the morning,"               ety represented in this respect, and
reflect His likeness back to Him,                   and "fair as the moon," the "clear            to  welcome  several of their mem-
even as Adam saw in Eve "bone                       as the sun," and finally, as "ter-            bers amongst: us for the Confer-
of my bones, and flesh of my                        rible as an army with banners."               ence. In the  ,ensuing four and a
flesh."                                             Each facet was unfolded explicat-             half days during which the  book-
     Thus, then, we immediately                     ing its typical signification as ap-          stalls were open, some  fZ500  worth
found the subject of "the Church"                   plied to the church. Each point               of books were sold! Sure, there
come alive for us, right from Pro-                  was not only profound, but appo-              must have been some enthusiastic
fessor Engelsma's first address on                  site to the themes of the discourses          and avid readers with us!
the Monday morning. Not a few                       to be followed by the professors                   On Monday Professor  Engel-
of those with whom I spoke after                    in the ensuing week.                          sma's theme :was "The Church:
this first address testified to the                        The worship on the Sabbath             E l e c t e d   i n   C,hrist."  P r o f e s s o r
same "lesson-learning" which had                    day of the Conference was, for me,            Hanko followed in the evening
been my own experience.                             unforgettable. The Psalm singing,             with "The Church: Gathered by
     Right from the start, the tone                 a  Capella from the Scottish Psalter,         the Gospel."
of the Conference was set for us                    was a tremendous experience. The                   The Tuesday following these
profoundly by Mr. David Blunt of                    more I use the Scottish Psalter, the          stirring addresses was most appro-
the Free Church of Scotland,                        more I love it. Thin and banal are            priately punctuated by an orga-
speaking at the welcoming service                   the lyrics of the hymn-writers com-           nized Coach  t,our, guided by Mr.
on the Saturday evening. He con-                    pared to the genius of the Holy               Mark Kateley,, around the Sussex
ducted worship, and preached on                     Ghost! What a joy it was to unite             countryside stopping off at the

2041  Standard  Bearer/February 1, 1997


 various martyrs memorials that are       vinistic preaching still resounds           Wednesdav saw Professo
                                                                                                 ,                        r
to be found in that area. Mr.             within those precincts that char-       Engelsma looking into the "Nature
Kateley, a local man, and an  ex-         acterized it from the first. An un-     of the Church,"  to  be followed by
; pert on the history of the local        usual timber-frame structured           Professor Hanko in the evening ex-
martyrs of the Reformation period,       building, it cost  ~l,754..10s..lOd      pounding on the "Institutional
 was able to present an informative       (that's 1,754 pounds and about 54       Form of the; Church." We were
 commentary on all matters of in-        pence to you younger generation          reminded at this juncture how "in-
 terest during the proceedings. We        who can't remember the old fash-        stitutional form" is a vital facet of
 noted how some of the monuments          ioned money!) to build in  1805!        Ecclesiology. Too many modern
 had had certain telling inscriptions    What it has cost to restore, well        evangelicals  land even Calvinists
 defaced  (now  who would have           Jim North can tell you! What it          today eschew any formal ecclesi-
 done that, we wonder?).                  costs in other terms to maintain        astical institution, with the result
     The Coach tour took in Jireh         the preaching of the truth in that      that the churches of today are
 Chapel at Lewes, which lies at the       locality is something else Jim can      characterized by disorganization,
 foot of the hill on which a large        tell you about.                         weakness,  a& lack of vision. Prof.
 memorial to the Sussex martyrs               Following the Coach tour, in        Hanko left us in no uncertainty
 overlooks the town lying in the         the evening Mr. Kateley delivered        that the time: has come to remedy
 valley below. This  1,000~seater,        an able lecture on the martyrs of       this deplorable nonsense.
 191 year-old Chapel was open to          Sussex that fitted appositely into          Thursday was another day of
 us, and we were able to walk right      the Conference theme of the              feasting on the manna sent from
through these delightful premises,        "Church," and was an indication         heaven! Prof. Hanko discussed
 explore the galleries, the vestry,       of how the saints of a by-gone glo-     "The Marks  :of the Church," and
 and even stand in the famous chal-       rious age valued the glorification      rammed home the truth that the
 ice-shaped pulpit, from where the       of God as being more important           church in order to be a true church
 stentorian voices of Jenkin Jenkins     than anything else in life . . . they    has to be much more than an In-
 and William Huntington had thun-        died in that cause. They refused         stitution,  im$ortant  as institution
 dered forth the Reformed and bib-       to compromise on matters of wor-         may be.  Theieffects  of his address
 lical gospel in days of yore. Now       ship, on matters of belief and           on this theme were to make sev-
 resurrected, as it were, from its       behaviour, and they sealed their         eral in the audience initiate seri-
 former decrepitude, under the           testimonies with their own life's        ous reconsiderations concerning
 good offices of Pastor James North,     blood, some 36 of them, ordinary         their present iposition! The Thurs-
the Trustees, and English Heritage       folk with names like Carver,             day evening, address from Prof.
(it is a listed building) it is good     Iveson, Read, Wood, Morris, etc.,        Engelsma was one of the most stir-
to know that the congregation,           but whose faith was more than or-        ring expositions of the Word I
 though small, is worshiping God         dinary, as they endured the fires        have ever heard. Taking as his
 therein again after a gap of about      of the  Marian  persecution without      theme "The Sacraments of the
 ten years, and that the same  Cal-      i faltering.                             Church," he `showed us how the
                                                                                  two sacraments are  centred  around
                                                                                  the preaching of the Word, and
                                                                                  that without  ,this preaching of the
                                                                                  Word the sacraments are essen-
                                                                                  tially useless . . . and thus the error
                                                                                  of Romish and Anglican ritualistic
                                                                                  liturgies was  rthrown into sharp re-
                                                                                  lief, and the primacy of preaching
                                                                                  put in its proper place. The pro-
                                                                                  fessor went on to emphasize
                                                                                  Paedobaptism as a matter of stra-
                                                                                  tegic importance in the revival of
                                                                                  the Reformed Faith, and urged that
                                                                                  the BRF initiate an aggressive po-
                                                                                  lemic against; the errors of the bap-
                                                                                  tist-immersionist movement, the
                                                                                  theology of which was essentially
                                                                                  a denial of the continuity of God's
                                                                                  one Covenant of Grace through the
                        BRF Family Conference 2996                                family.

                                                                                      February a, .1997/Standard Bearer/205


      No conference, I suppose, is         tion." We praise God that the new                 this event to such abundant frui-
 ever complete without its "unoffi-        Irish congregation bears fruit al-                tion. To those too who assisted in
 cial" meetings! The time after the        ready within days of its inaugura-                other ways behind the scenes, such
 lectures was spent by many, espe-         tion. Professor Hanko was able to                 as our treasurer, Mr. Desmond
 cially the younger element, in ex-        present one of these certificates to              Callendar,  to all those who con-
 tended private debates  centred  in       his granddaughter Sarah, who had                  tributed in so many ways, to the
 small gatherings. Sometimes the           also memorized over 150 verses of                 staff at Ashburnham, we express
 debates went on well beyond mid-          the Scripture proof texts which go                our thanks and appreciation. To
 night . . . but amazingly the partici-    with the answers!              Grandson           God above' all we return our
 pants were invariably up in time          Herman Hanko (junior) was also                    thanks for His prospering of His
 for breakfast at  8:30 a.m., if not       recipient of a certificate, as also               people, and feeding His flock.
 for the well-attended morning             were a trio from John and Marlene                       Two years . . . to 1998, if it
 worship at  8:15 a.m.!                    Clarke's family  of. Larne, namely                please God, and many of us might
     It was good to meet again             Andrew, Joanna, and Sarah. We                     meet again, at the fifth  BRF Con-
 friends, many not seen since. 1994,       understand that there are more                    ference. Yes!, We are well on the
 and to make the acquaintance of           catechumens following in their                    way with the planning stage of the
 newcomers. Your editor can now            footsteps, truly we give thanks that              next one. The venue has been de-
 call to mind real faces that go with      the Lord adds to His church such                  cided in the icommittee stage . . . it
 many of the address labels he has         that shall be saved.                              is Castle.  Wallan  at the foot of the
 to stick on the envelopes that carry          I saw some tears shed at the                  mountains of Mourne in Northern
 this journal, people who prior to         end of Friday evening, as farewells               I r e l a n d !   W i t h   1 , 2 0 0   a c r e s   o f
 meeting them at our Conferences           were being said. Many of our                      parkland and woods, a beautiful
 were just names. Now fellowship           friends from America would be up                  lake, pony-trekking, canoeing, all
 in Christ has brought them to life,       right early on Saturday morning                   at hand! And the sea not far away
 as it were, and that, not just for        to make their way to the airports.                d o w n   t h e   r o a d !   T h e   t h e m e ?
 the period of the Conference, but         On Friday night they bade us                      "Eschatology!  The doctrine of the
.it is something which one can             goodbye. This was a re-run of                     Last  Things!I"   D y n a m i t e !   S t a r t
 carry home and treasure in one's          some farewells said earlier in the                saving now,  !you just cannot miss
 memory.                                   week to Lamm and MaryBeth  Lub-                   this one! May God be pleased to
     The Conference drew to a close        bers,    a n d   t h e   e l d e r s   f r o m    b e   w i t h   us;  a n d   p r o s p e r   H i s
 on Friday with a day-long coach           Hudsonville, who had to leave on                  church. May He lead us and re-
 trip to London, during which Mr.          Tuesday. It was good of them to                   store His church as an institution
 Blunt took a party on a conducted         come over and support us, and                     amongst us, and.prepare  us for His
 tour of some of London's salient          more, much more than that, to                     Coming!          His Name be exalted
 and monumental features, includ-          make friends with us. As we stand                 above all! His glorious person in
 ing first the British Museum, with        here in these islands today, many                 Christ be magnified above all! Cl
 its amazing catena of exhibits from       of us alone, many of us misrepre-
 ancient Egypt, Assyria, Babylon,          sented, slandered, vilified, even
 and Israel (many of which are rel-        persecuted, some of us indeed ex-
 evant to the study of the Bible),         periencing poverty, it is a comfort
 and then the famous buildings at          to have their friendship in Christ,
 Westminster.                              their understanding, and their
     Friday evening, with everyone         prayers. The British Reformed Fel-
 sensing' that it was all coming to        lowship has been enriched abun-
 an end for another two years, nev-        dantly by the kindness and help
 ertheless carried some events that        we have received from our friends
 will remain impressed on many a           in the U.S.A. We give thanks to
 memory. Five young catechumens            God  for, His manifold grace to us
 from the newly inaugurated Cov-           in all these things.
 enant Protestant Reformed Church              The Conference was an emi-
 at Ballymena were presented with          nent success again. One conferee
 certificates indicating their profi-      told. me that it was like a "fore-
 ciency in completing all 107 ques-        taste of Heaven" to be there. We
 tions of the Westminster Shorter          appreciate therefore all the hard,
 Catechism, answering to those             behind the scenes, work put in by
 questions with "accuracy, `under-         our secretary, Mr. Tony Horne,
 standing, and Christian  convic-          over the last two years in bringing

206lStandard   Bearer/February  1,1997


           A Parable to Warn the Young Man About the
                                         Power of the Enticement '
                                   of the Sin of Immorality (2)
 It would be good if the reader are used to advertise almost every warned by all of this description
     of this article would open his                   p r o d u c t   u n d e r   t h e   s u n .   T h e    to avoid the adulterous woman at
     Bible to Proverbs 7 and read it                  women who practice this evil pro-                      all cost. When the foolish young
 again.      The harlot portrayed in                  fession are some of the highest                        man in the parable follows the
Proverbs 7 could not possibly                         paid "professionals" in our day.                       dangerous path warned against in
 more accurately picture the impu-                    They are also among the common                         Proverbs 7, he will come to a situ-
 dent immoral women that are so                       people. They are everywhere in                         ation in which the temptation to
common in our modern day world.                       our society. To our godless soci-                      gross sin will become so powerful
These women are glamorized by                         ety these are respectable and popu-                    and overwhelming that no one
the world. They are the heroines                      lar women.             How shockingly                  would be  abIe  to resist. The fault
 of our modern day hedonistic so-                     prevalent all of this is in our mod-                   lies with the foolish young man
 ciety. They have made an "art"                       ern day society.                                       who went to the place of tempta-
 out of the business of enticing men                       But these women are the total                     tion in the world. He allowed
into sin. Their dress, their whole                    opposites of the holy beauty and                       himself to be overcome by the
 demeanor, is geared for this. They                   modesty which the Lord requires                        powerful sin  :of lust that resides in
 are the women featured in  popu-                     of godly women. God has given                          every man's nature.
lar pornographic magazines and                        the beautiful sexual aspect of the                         The harlot has described the
 seen on highway billboards. They                     nature of both men and women to                        pleasure of sin in an irresistibly
are the movie stars of the cinema,                    be used in the holy bond of mar-                       graphic way. She has invited the
produced to entertain sinful men                      riage- for the expression of exclu-                    young man to her marriage bed in
of the world.                                         sive, intimate love and faithfulness                   her own home. There seems to be
     Their ever more daring display                   of husband and wife for one an-                        a bit of hesitation yet on the part
 of immorality is calculated to cap-                  other. The wife is to devote her-                      of the young man in the parable.
 tivate the attention of men and                      self completely to pleasing her hus-                   The evil woman of the parable
arouse their sinful passions in                       band and living faithfully with                        works to allay .any fears that the
more and more powerful ways.                          him. The harlot described in Prov-                     young man she is trying to entice
Images of these women are con-                        erbs 7 does the very opposite. She                     might still have.
stantly being flashed across the                      violates her marriage vows. She                            "For the  goodman  is not at
television screen to seduce the un-                   corrupts the God-given gift of her                     home, he is gone a long journey.
wary viewer. They display their                       feminine nature for lust and en-                       He hath taken a bag of money with
bodies in outrageous swim wear                        ticement, for selfish glory and ag-                    him, and will come home at the
on American beaches to be gawked                      grandizement. She is after every                       day appointed"  (Prov.   7:19, 20).
at by lustful men, many of whom                       attractive man she may meet in so-                     The one last thing that might still
have their wives and families with                    ciety, even though she is already                      deter some from falling into gross
them. Men's clubs where these                         married. She uses her womanly                          sin is the fear of being "caught in
`women         p e r f o r m   a r e   c a l l e d    nature to bring about destruction                      the act." Should the woman's hus-
 "gentlemen's clubs." Images of                       of those who fall prey to her temp-                    band come home unexpectedly, his
these women in, `suggestive poses                     tation.                                                fury may be  Idangerous  and have
                                                           We have considered already                        disastrous consequences. Even the
                                                      much of the vivid description of                       world will sometimes be deterred
Rev.  denHartog  is pastor  of  Hope                  Proverbs 7 which tells us how                          by the fear and shame of being
,Protestant   R e f o r m e d   C h u r c h   i n     these women laden with lust en-                        found out. So the adulteress must
Redlands, California.                                 tice young, foolish men. We are                        by all means  : allay this fear. She

                                                                                                                 February 1, 1997/Standard  Bearer/207


 must give the young man the as-           caldron of wickedness created by         great evil, while others will be able
 surance that "it  is,safe" to commit      this great evil in our society are       to avoid them. Proverbs 7 speaks
 sin with her.                             scarred for life and often in later      of the fearful judgment of God.
  For the Christian, however,              life perpetuate the sins of their fa-    God's  Wordigives  this final warn-
: this is the lowest form of deter-        thers and mothers and reap ever          ing: "Hearken unto me now there-
rent. The fear of God in our heart         increasing misery and wretched-          fore, 0 ye children, and attend to
`. must be the mighty deterrent that       ness. The spiritual and psycho-          the words of my mouth. Let not
 keeps us from great sin. Our              logical hurt this evil causes has led    thine heart decline to her ways, go
 greatest concern must be that God         some even to suicide. But Prov-          not astray in her paths. For she
 sees and knows all that we do.            erbs 7 tells us of even worse con-       hath cast down many wounded:
 The holy God of heaven hates the          sequences.                               yea, many strong men have been
 sin of fornication and adultery. If           "He goeth after her  straight-       slain by her.; Her house is the way
 we love this God, we will strive          way, as an ox goeth to the slaugh-       to hell going down to the cham-
 against every temptation to this          ter, or as a fool to the correction      bers of death." There is no doubt
 sin.                                      of the stocks; till a dart strike        about this consequence because it
         One final powerful form of en-    through his liver; as a bird hasteth     comes as  the sure judgment of
 ticement by the adulterous woman          to the snare and knoweth not that        God. None  ;will be able finally to
 will persuade the foolish young           it is for his life" (Prov.  7:22 and     escape it. God's judgment on this
 man to engage in sin with her.            23). The Bible does not call the         sin is death and hell.
 "With her much fair speech she            young man who follows after this              There can be no stronger warn-
 caused him to yield, with the flat-       sin a "playboy." Adultery is not         ing uttered than this. It is not a
 tering of her lips she forced him"        the proof of manhood but the             warning given only to the world
 (Prov.  7:21). The most powerful          proof of one's great foolishness         in general. This is a warning ad-
 of all appeals to this sin is the ap-     and shameful-weakness. Proverbs          dressed particularly to covenant
 peal to man's pride. The world            7 does not glamorize the prowess         youth. In the world in which we
 and the devil know this very well.        of the foolish young man. It does        live, covenant young men are in
 Tell the young man that he is             not glory over his ability to con-       great danger of being enticed by
 strong and handsome, tell him that        quer many women and "score"              the adulterous woman. This warn-
 he is so manly, tell him that he is       with one after the other. It says        ing is charged with the love of a
 so very desirable. Women find             concerning this young man that he        father for his children: "0 ye chil-
 him attractive. Sexual prowess and        is as an ox going to the slaughter.      dren!" This' loving warning must
 adventurism are considered by the         That is what he truly is in spite of     b e   e a r n e s t l y   a n d   r e p e a t e d l y
 world to be the marks of the real         all the world's esteem of him. The       sounded by parents to their young
 man. The appeal to this proud,            ox is one of the most stupid of all      people and `by the church to the
 sinful passion will be the final          animals. Sometimes the ox is stub-       covenant youth growing up in her
 temptation that the foolish young         born and will not move. But when         m i d s t .
 man will not be able to resist.           he is prodded he will suddenly run            There is forgiveness for this
 There can be no more vivid spiri-         headlong to his own destruction.         vile sin at the cross of Jesus Christ.
 tual and psychological description        A fitting symbol it is, in this pas-     Those who have fallen into it are
 of the power of this sin than the         sage of Scripture.                       urged to flee to the cross in sor-
 description of this parable. It is            The consequences of this sin         row and shame and repentance to
 true to life in our world today.          will follow not merely for those         find the mercy of God and His for-
         What the world, however, al-      who get caught at it. It is undoubt-     giveness. This is the only way of
 ways tries to hide is the inevitable      edly true that there are many who        escape from, the sure and dreadful
 consequences of this sin for the life     do not get caught. Some seem to          and final consequences of this sin.
 of man. Our society has reaped            be able to escape the consequences       Let none hesitate for even one mo-
 the bitter consequences of it al-         of this sin in this life even though     ment. Let none continue in this  --"
 ready in this life. Much of the           they live openly and brazenly in         vile sin that is so abominable to
 wretchedness of betrayal. in mar-         it; For  o.thers the consequence of      the Lord. Let the sinner flee to
 riage and broken homes and aban-          their evil life is obvious. As much      the cross of Christ Jesus for deliv-
 doned children comes from this            as the world vehemently denies           erance  from:the awful judgment of
 sin. This sin brings in its wake          the association between a life of        this sin.        The mercy of God is
 psychological misery and hurt that        immorality and AIDS, the connec-         greater even than this terrible sin.
 is incalculable for men and women         tion is obvious. Proverbs 7 does         The blood of Christ can and does
who are married and violate the            not speak merely about the natu-         wash away this sin also. The peni-
 trust that marriage requires. Chil-       ral consequences that will follow        tent adulterer finds forgiveness
 dren of marriages caught in the           for some from engaging in this           and mercy with God  - but only

 208/Standard   Bearer/February  1,1997


 the penitent one, not those who                           steadfastly avoids every tempta-         and the world of entertainment.
 continue in this sin.                                     tion to this sin in his life. The        We must not allow the spirit of
       There is deliverance through                        Word of God extols such a man.           the age in which we live to desen-
 the power of the grace and Holy                           Great strength is needed. God            sitize us to the seriousness of this
Spirit of God from the great evil                          alone can and does give it.              sin. We must know our own sin-
 of the enticement of this sin and                             God's Word sets before cov-          ful nature and the power of the
 from the deep falls that result from                      enant youth and all of us the wis-       temptation of the world to appeal
 it. Those who have gone in the'way                        dom of God. The law of God               to this sinful nature and the great
 of this sin and become a slave and                        teaches us the perfect wisdom of         danger for all of us that we might
 captive to it must realize that there                     God. The law of God has been             fall into this sin.
 is no other power than the power                          given to us to guard us and to keep          How greatly God has blessed
 of God's grace that can deliver us                        us from every evil way, also the         us with His  ,Word in the church
 from this sin that has destroyed                          evil way of this sin.     The com-       and by giving us His holy law.
 so "many strong men." Without                             mandments  ,of the Lord are good.        How blessed; are those who have
 the grace of God the young men                            Keeping the law of God and re-           the grace and Spirit of God in their
 will only be led deeper and deeper                        sisting the `temptations of sin with     hearts to follow this law and keep
 into a sin that will end in death.                        God's grace and Spirit in our            its perfect wisdom. The book of
 The truly strong man who is pleas-                        hearts is the greatest wisdom and        Proverbs calls the Christian young
 ing to God and brings glory to His                        will bring the great reward of           man to rejoice in the wife of his
name is the one who steadfastly                            God's favor and blessing on our          youth, living in sexual love exclu-
 resists the many temptations to                           life. There is great wisdom in           sively with her. Those who are
 this sin. The wise, godly young                           avoiding even the beginning of the       not married are to keep themselves
 man does not flirt with temptation                        temptation to this sin in our life.      pure and holy because our bodies
 in the imagination that he is strong                      We must do this for the salvation        are temples of the Holy Spirit. Do-
 enough to avoid a fall into sin. The                      of our souls. This means that we         ing this by God's grace will bring
 truly strong young man, spiritu-                          must shun and flee from the many         lasting joy and happiness that the
 ally strong by the grace of God,                          enticements of our modern media,         world does  nbt know.  a



                              Archaeology and the Bible
          he December 18, 1995 issue
 T                                                         moderate majority," who want to          sounds as if  I we are pitting blind
          of  Time  magazine had as its                    be sure that the Bible is scientifi-     faith against scientific reason. I
          cover story, "IS THE BIBLE                       cally "grounded in truth."               intend to demonstrate in this ar-
 FACT OR FICTION? Archaeolo-                                   As Reformed believers we fall        ticle that while the science of ar-
 gists in the Holy Land are shed-                          into what  Time  calls the "Ultra-       chaeology may be reasonable, it
 ding new light on what did- and                           conservative" group. We believe          is not truthful; and a faith that pro-
 didn't occur in the greatest stories                      that the Bible is infallible not only    vides truth is. much to be preferred
 ever told." The article describes                         in spiritual matters, but also in ac-    over a reason that does not.
 recent archaeological finds in Is-                        counts with historical and geo-              Of the other two groups men-
 rael and surrounding areas, and                           graphical content. So when ar-           tioned in the' magazine `article, we
 then categorizes public and schol-                        chaeologists excavate biblical lands     can easily understand the "Athe-
 arly reaction to these finds in three                     and, based on their findings, reach      ists." We accept the Bible as true,
 main groupings:                 "Jewish and               conclusions that differ with the         they reject it. As  Time  points out,
 Christian Ultraconservatives," who                        historical account of Scripture,         even when archaeology supports
 do not believe any part of the Bible                      how should a Reformed believer           a biblical narrative, the atheists are
 is fiction; "Atheists," who want to                       respond?                                 likely to reject both Scripture and
debunk the whole Bible; and  "the1                             It is correct to say that we ac-     science. Their position is one of
                                                           cept the Word of God by faith,           faith, as much as is ours. It is just
                                                           whatever the claims of archaeol-         that the object of their faith is their
 Mr. Climer is a member  of  the Hope                      ogy or any other branch of science.      own vanity.  :
 P r o t e s t a n t   R e f o r m e d   CIitirch   `of    However, making that statement               But what is one to make of the
 Redlands, California.                                     without any further explanation          third category, the "moderate  ma-
                                                                                                        Februay 1,: 1997/Standard  Beqer/2Q9


jority." Many  Evangelicals  fall         how its institutions functioned.            Now let us ask the test ques-
into this category, for they are de-          Perhaps the most important ar-      tion: How do they know that Jeri-
lighted whenever an archaeologi-          tifact that any civilization leaves     cho and its walls did not exist dur-
cal find supports a part of Scrip-        behind is its body of literature.       ing this  time,period?
ture, or, as  Time  says, "strength-      Many societies in the ancient               Just as our society paves over
ens the Bible's claim to historical       Middle East left their writings in      old streets and erects new build-
accuracy." But if a supportive ar-        stone (the hieroglyphs of Egypt),       ings over the remains of old foun-
chaeologist enhances Scripture's          or on soft clay tablets that hard-      dations, so  ,ancient civilizations
claim to accuracy, does a scientific      ened into stone over time (the          built towns and cities over the de-
detractor weaken the Bible's claim        Babylonians and Assyrians). The         bris of earlier structures. When
to truth? And if Christians only          ancient Hebrews apparently used         archaeologists excavate a site, they
accept those archaeological find-         paper, or possibly animal skins.        divide it into different levels, each
ings that they agree with, can they       Since these materials decompose,        level or layer corresponding to a
not be justly accused of being posi-      documents written on them had to        defined era  ,of human habitation
tively childish in their refusal to       be recopied time and again. Ar-         or abandonment. The methods by
face up to disagreeable facts?            chaeologists generally accept           which a date, for a particular level
    The whole unfortunate enter-          hieroglyphs and clay tablets as be-     is determined are quite involved,
prise of trying to verify the claims      ing more.accurate than paper            and a detailed explanation of them
of Scripture with the findings of         manuscripts, since the former are       is beyond the scope of this article.
archaeology rests on a real misun-        more likely to be the original writ-        To gain some idea of what is
derstanding of how the science of         ings. There is obviously much less      involved, consider a future  Brchae-
archaeology and the Christian faith       room for error or editing in a          ologist excavating our civilization.
view the concept of truth. To fo-         document carved on stone than on        He digs down through layer after
cus on this misunderstanding let          a manuscript copy several times         layer of debris, and among this de-
us confront the claims of archae-         removed from the original. The          bris he finds  jfragments  of both ce-
ology with the simple question,           Time  article gives several examples    ramic and plastic plates and other
"How do you know?" The answer             of archaeologists rejecting biblical    kitchenware.: But at a certain level
to this one little question reveals       manuscripts in favor of their own       the plastic disappears, and below
the principles upon which are             theories based on other artifacts.      that he finds only shards of ce-
based all claims to knowledge and             The book of Joshua, chapter 6,      ramic plates: and pots. Suppose
truth by any science, philosophy,         records the destruction of the walls    that at this transition level he also
or religion.                              of Jericho, allowing the Israelites     finds some sort of preserved cal-
    To begin with, we must know           under the leadership of Joshua to       endar dated "1950." He now has
what the science of archaeology is,       conquer the city.  Time  tells us       his dating "key": the calendar and
and the type of claims it makes.          that after extensive excavations at     the plastic dishes. This key tells
Secondly, we must compare and             the site of ancient Jericho, archae-    him that at this initial site plastic
contrast archaeological truth and         ologists have determined that the       dishes were not in use before 1950.
biblical truth. Finally, against this     location was abandoned between          If he encounters plastic dishes at
background, let us review again           about 1500-1100 BC. According to        any other site, in the absence of
the conflict that  Time  calls "fact      them no walled cities existed dur-      any conflicting finds, he can as-
vs. faith."                               ing this time in this area of           sume that the level he finds them
                                          Canaan.. Conservative biblical          in was inhabited in 1950 or later.
Archaeological Truth                      scholars and archaeologists dis-            At Jericho, the scientists found
    Archaeology is "the scientific        agree on the date of the Israelite      some sort of artifacts (probably
study of extinct peoples through          entrance into Canaan, but they          pottery) at  a' certain level that al-
skeletal remains, fossils, and ob-        both agree that it falls well within    lowed them to date that level at
jects of human workmanship (as            the time-range mentioned above.         1500-1100 BC, based upon their
implements, artifacts, monuments,         Given this chronology, modern ar-       "key" with similar artifacts at
or inscriptions) found in the earth"      chaeology concludes that the He-        other excavations. This particular
(Webster's 3rd International Dic-         brews moved onto vacant or              level did not contain the founda-
tionary  of  the  Englisk  Language,      sparsely populated land. This           tions or remains of any city walls,
1981). Archaeologists excavate            thinking allows no walls to come        buildings, or' other structures that
and sift through the remains of an-       tumbling down, and no city to be        Iwould indicate a city. How to ex-
cient civilizations and then try to       conquered.     The skeptics also        plain this discrepancy with the bib-
piece together their findings into        doubt that Joshua even existed.         lical account? The earliest extant
a coherent picture. of how the            Without a battle, who needs a gen-      manuscript of the book of Joshua
people of that society lived, and         eral?                                   dates  Lfrom a period hundreds of

21 O/Standard  Bearer/February 1, 1997


  years after the events described in                proximately 800 BC, some 400               of the levels also show signs of vio-
: the book. Skeptics theorize that                   years after the events, by a blind         lent destruction,  .either by warfare
  such a manuscript, in being recop-                 Greek named Homer. This epic               or natural disaster, such as earth-
  ied from a decaying original, could                work does not give an account of           quakes.       i
  have been altered by a careless or                 the entire war, but it does give a             What of Homer's Troy? Which
  zealo.us  scribe, seeking to glorify               great deal of information about the        level, if any,: matches the magnifi-
  his God and the history of his na-                 Greek expedition, the layout of            cent city of The  Iliad?  Did the Tro-
  tion by inventing a battle that                    Troy, and the leaders and warriors         jan War really happen? Almost a
  never  occurred,and  a leader who                  on both sides of the conflict. In          century  and' a half of modern  sci-
  never existed.                                     other words,                                             .
                                                                      The Illiad  lists many    entific investigation, without any
       The archaeologists who exca-                  specifics that  archaelogists  should      religious interference or bias, has
  vated  Jerich,o   p u b l i s h e d   t h e i r    be able to check.                          yielded a new answer for each new
  theory. These findings were de-                        Perhaps the reader recalls the         investigator,! The archaeological
 bated and ultimately accepted by                    general outline of the Trojan War:         truth about Troy changes with
  most.of the archaeological  commu-                 Helen, queen of Sparta, was car-           each generation of archaeologists.
nity. Unless and until some new                      ried off to Troy by Paris, a prince        The original excavator "proved"
  evidence comes along, the modern                   of the Trojan royal family.. Out-          that  The  Iliad  was as accurate as
science of archaeology has deter-                    raged, a number of. Greek cities           Christians believe the Bible to be.
  mined that the. Israelite conquest                 combined forces, sailed to Troy,           A later archaeological team threw
  of Canaan asdescribed in the book                  and besieged the city for ten long         out most of his conclusions and
' of Joshua is not factual. Specifi-                 years.    They were not able to            "proved" that Homer exaggerated
  cally, Joshua did not fight the                    breach the massive walls of Troy,          greatly, if he told the truth at all.
 battle of Jericho. This is an  ar-                  so finally they resorted to subter-        A subsequent generation of dig-
chaeological truth,  or). more accu-                 fuge. By means of a giant hollow           gers "proved" that an earthquake
 rately, a testing by. archaeological                wooden idol, the famed Trojan              largely destroyed Troy, and that
 research methods  .of a biblical                    horse, the Greeks infiltrated Troy.        pirates finished the job. And so
 story, and the: biblical passage in                 The gates were thrown open, and            on.... The only points that all the
 question fails the test.                            the city was lost. Those Trojans not       experts agree on are that the site
       Conservative biblical scholars                killed were enslaved, and Troy it-         was inhabited for thousands of
  disagree, but their objections are                 self was burned and demolished.            years, and it. is now abandoned.
 tainted because they are trying to                  The victorious Greeks sailed home              But what of the sophisticated
 prove the Bible, instead of looking                 with the beautiful Helen, the cause        techniques for dating artifacts and
at it objectively, or so the scien-                  of it all, "the face that launched a       levels of occupation? Each indi-
 tists say. Now if religion is the                   thousand ships."                           vidual artifact was precisely  cata-
 problem, it seems to me that we                         Since Roman times, scholars            logued by the team that found it.
 could easily demonstrate the ob-                    have debated the veracity of  The          Each highly' trained archaeologist
 jectivity of archaeology in the re-                 Illiad  and other works on the Tro-        looked at those  catalogued  find-
 construction of ancient civiliza-                   jan War. Do they describe a real           ings, maybe did some excavations
 tions by examining a. site that has                 war, or a myth? If there was such          of his own, and then came up with
 no religious significance for today,                a war, how accurate is Homer's             a different interpretation to explain
 but one that has been widely ex-                    telling of it? In the  185Os,  modern      how all those relics got there.
 cavated, by numerous scientists.                    archeology took up the debate.                 The narrator of the documen-
 In such a case, there would be no                   For the last 140 years, team after         tary series takes us through these
 believers to muddy the waters for                   team of scientists has excavated a         diverse theories in six hours of
 the clear thinking scientists. There                now deserted site on the coast of          analysis. At  j.the end, he makes this
 are many such sites; the most fa-                   Turkey. Their very impressive and          startling observation on the  ar-
 mous is Troy.                                       voluminous findings         were re-       chaeologica1  search for the truth
       A number of works of ancient                  viewed in a recent documentary             about the Trojan war:  "There can
 Greek literature are based on an                    series on public television,  .In          never be a  f&al word, only a new in-
oral tradition, passed down by                       Search of the Trojan War.  It is now       terpretation ,by each generation in
generations of bards, of a great                     believed that the site suspected to        terms  of  its own dreams and needs"
war between the city-states  of                      contain the ruins of Troy was con-         (emphasis added). This is the
 Greece and the rich and powerful                    tinuously occupied by humans for           proof, the knowledge, and the
 city of Troy, located in Asia Mi-                   over 5000 years.       It contains 50      truth that modern archaeology
 nor (modern day Turkey),.,. The                     separate levels. Nine of these lev-        gives us:  `I... never a final word,
 most famous of these works .is  .-T,$e              els show the characteristics of true       only a new interpretation...." Cl
 Illiad,  a poem composed&  ap-                      cities, i.e., walls, palaces, etc. Nine                       . . . to be continued.

                                                                                                    February 1) 1997fStandard  Bearer/21 1


n                                                 "1. that we share in their sorrow
      United Reformed Churches                                                           come part of one of these  - rather
                                             and grief over the spiritual decline of
in North America                                                                         than begin another Reformed body of
      n October 1 and 2, 1996, at            the Christian Reformed denomination;        b e l i e v e r s .
                                                  "2. that if they are to secede from
0 Lynwood Christian Reformed                                                                  Secondly, one cannot help but
Church (Independent) in Lynwood, Il-         that denomination, we encourage             wonder which  ;of the decisions of the
linois, another denomination was             them to look to us and join us;             CRC, adopted before they left that de-
                                                  "3. that whether this occurs or
formed.      Representatives from 36                                                     nomination, will now be regarded as
churches, formerly associated with the       not, we will pray for God's blessing        theirs. Are they going to debate anew
                                             upon them as they contend for the
Christian Reformed Church, dealt                                                         all of the questions which were re-
with matters pertaining to the estab-        faith."                                     solved by the  CRC synods of the past?
lishment of a new denomination. Rev.              The body  .also decided to adopt       Are they going; to agree among them-
                                             as their own the liturgical forms and
`E. Knott (formerly of the Protestant                                                    selves to regard as their own those
                                             Form of Subscription as included in
Reformed Churches) was chosen as                                                         decisions taken before  a'specific  date?
president of the meeting, Rev. Ralph         the  Psalter Hymnal,  Centennial Edi-       Obviously, they are not going to adopt
Pontier as vice-president, and Rev.          tion (1976) for use in their churches.      as their own the CRC decisions on
                                                  The next synodical gathering was
`Jerome Julien as clerk.                                                                 women in church office. But are they
     One of the first items on the or-       scheduled for" October, 1997 at. the        going to  adopt;as  their own the deci-
der of business was the choice of            Trinity Orthodox Reformed church, St.       sions'of  the CRC on the movie and
name. Among four possibilities, the          Catharines, ON Canada.                      dance (which had completely reversed
                                                  One cannot help but notice in
name of "United Reformed Churches                                                        earlier stands against "worldly amuse-
in North America" (URCNA) was                their adopted name the emphasis             ments")? Are they going to maintain
                                             upon "churches" (plural) in distinc-
chosen.                                                                                  strictly the stand of the CRC on union
     Most of the business dealt with         tion from the official name of the          membership  or follow the current
church polity, especially the adoption       Christian Reformed Church (singular).       practice of ignoring that? Which song
of a Church Order. That Church Or-           Obviously the URCNA has come to             book of praise  :will they adopt? Will
der follows the pattern of the Church        recognize what the Protestant Re-           they go back to the time when the
Order of Dordt, with changes deemed          formed Churches (plural) pointed out        CRC used exclusive Psalmody? Then
necessary for their present situation.       early on after 1924: the  denomination      we ourselves have  .the question: will
                                             is not the "church," but it is the union
A motion was defeated to refer their                                                     they refuse the `decisions taken in 1924
                                             of like-minded "churches." The sin-
adopted Church Order to the Ortho-                                                       on the "Three  Points of Common
dox Christian Reformed Churches, the         gular used in the name of the CRC           Grace"? Will they declare this to be
                                             lends itself to the developing hierar-
`Canadian Reformed Churches, the                                                         an optional matter for. their members?
Free Reformed Churches, the Protes-          chy seen within its own midst and be-       Or will they continue to maintain
                                             cause of which the URCNA ultimately
tant Reformed Churches, and the Re-                                                      those points? :Will they declare them
formed Church in the United States           had to leave.                               to be an  interpyetation   of the creeds as
                                                  While one cannot help but wish
for evaluation and recommendations.                                                      the CRC did in  1924? That they have
      The churches were divided into         this newly established denomination         come to recognize that a denomina-
three Classes: East, Midwest, and            well, and pray that God may use them        tion consists  of "churches" and is not
West. A church in each grouping was          also mightily in the spread of the gos-     itself the  "chuf&' is an encouraging
appointed as calling church for the          pel, purely proclaimed, still one can       development.  : So, the question re-
first classical meeting. The body also       do so also with a large measure of          mains: what will this denomination
decided that their Article 32 be sus-        concern for the difficult path that this    consider as part of its own heritage
                                             newly organized denomination must
pended "for one year and refer it to                                                     from the CRC; and what will it re-
the next synodical meeting so that           walk. They are to be commended, of          j    e     c    t    ?
like-minded churches and their min-          course, for following the Reformed               Obviously,, they will be walking
isters may be received during that           practice of federation rather than hold-    through a "mine-field." The poten-
year as charter members of the fed-          ing to the Congregational approach of       tial for disaster is there., What will be
 eration without sponsorship and ad-         independentism. Surely, however,            considered as  ,essential  for unity  -
                                             they must be deeply conscious of the
 ditional examination."                                                                  and what optional? We will be watch-
                                             difficulties which lie before them.
      The body also decided to send "a                                                   ing and listening.
                                                  First, it is obvious that this new
communication to the November
meeting of the C.R.C. Inter-classical        denomination does not agree at some         H Meanwhile...,
                                             point(s) with existing denominations,
 conference. This communication shall        such as the Orthodox Christian Re-          Darrell Todd Maurina, in the
include a brief history of who we are                                                              United Reformed News Service,
                                             formed Churches (which also came
and express:                                                                             reports that a  ,number  of non-feder-
                                             out of the CRC), or the Canadian Re-        ated (former): Christian Reformed
                                             formed Churches, or the Protestant          churches decided to hold the meetings
`Rev.  VanBaren  is pastor  of  the Prot-    Reformed Churches, or the Reformed          of the `Alliance of Reformed Churches
 estant Reformed Church  of  Love-           Church US, or others. Otherwise,            as-rplanned,  on' November 12 and 13,
land, Colorado.                              surely, they would be obliged to  be-       1996. This group of churches appears

 21  a/Standard  Bearer/February 1, 1997


to fear federation, lest once again there                 creationism and have respected                  So the number of those who main-
develop a hierarchical structure from                     this pope for his traditionalist        tain the literal creation account of
which they were forced to escape by                       reputation and his emphatic             Genesis 1 becomes ever smaller. What
leaving the Christian Reformed de-                        teaching against abortion.              the pope  declares  can now be used by
nomination.                                                 . ..In his message,' which was        many outside of the churches as proof
                                                          written in French, John Paul re-        that the church no longer is so foolish
n The Pope Speaks out                                     fers to Pope Pius XII's 1950 En-        as to believe the teachings of creation-
on Evolution                                              cyclical  "Humani Generis." That        ism.
A number of readers have called encyclical considered evolution a                                         The mighty attacks of Satan
     attention to many press reports                      "serious hypothesis," John Paul         against the very "foundations" appear
of the declaration of the Pope stating                    wrote, "worthy of a more deeply         to be meeting with great success. He
that evolution is now to be consid-                       studied investigation and reflec-       began his attack in Paradise as he ap-
ered as  8irrefutable. I quote from the                   tion on a par with the opposite         proached Eve with the question, "Yea,
Denver  Post  (though all major papers                    hypothesis.                             hath God said...?" It's been the heart
in the US and the world contained the                       "Today, more than a half cen-         of his battle-plan against the Almighty
same information):                                        tury after this encyclical, new         and His church ever since. If he can
                                                          knowledge leads us to recognize         destroy confidence in God's Word, he
    Pope John Paul II issued.a  state-                    in the theory of evolution more         has won the battle. If Genesis l-3 is
 .ment this week saying new  re-                          than a hypothesis," Pope John           not a literal, reliable account, if these
search shows that physical evo-                           Paul II wrote. "The convergence,        chapters are mythical or some sort of
  lution is " m o r e   t h a n   j u s t   a             neither sought nor induced, of re-      literary device upon which the teach-
  theory," a significant step beyond                      sults of work done independently        ing of evolution can hang, then all of
  the Catholic Church's pronounce-                        one from the other, constitutes in      Scripture can be considered suspect.
  ment nearly 50 years ago that evo-                      itself a significant argument in fa-    Ultimately one must reach the point
  lution was worthy of discussion                         vor of this theory."                    of the "modernist" in the churches
  but still an open question.                               David Beyers, executive direc-        who denies the truth of "blood atone-
    The pope  ne,vertheless said the                      tor of the committee on science         ment."
  human soul is divinely created                          and human values for the Na-                    By grace we must continue to
  anew in each person, and not sub-                       tional Conference of Catholic           maintain steadfastly the truth of He-
  ject to the evolutionary process.                       Bishops in Washington, said of          brews  11:3, "Through faith we under-
  Any other teaching,, he said, is                        the pope's message, "There is an        stand that the worlds were framed by
  "incompatible with the truth                            advance there. The church went          the word of God, so that things which
  about man."                                             from saying you could either ac-        are seen were not made of things
    His statement is not likely to                        cept evolution or some form of          which do appear." It is a matter of
  shake many in his own church,                           creationism, to saying that now         faith.  And all of the declarations of
  which has long assumed the cred-                        we'll accept evolution, which is        the pope cannot change the scriptural
  ibility of evolution and taught it                      the de facto situation anyway.          assertion  that!  the things seen were  not
  in Catholic schools. But it may                         Who questions evolution now in          made of things zuhich  do appear.
  rattle some non-Catholic Biblical                       the Catholic church? I can't re-                                                     cl
  fundamentalists who believe in                          ally think of anybody."





The'Son of God and Sons of thk Devil"

                                                              John 8:37-59

                                                   h      esus establishes two things in                            I
                                                                                                          In our study today we consider
                                                   9-Ir Jthis passage. The first is: He is the first truth established: the
                                                        the eternal and natural Son of God
                                           :                                                      sonship  of Jesus.
Rev. Dick is pastor  of  GYace   :Protes-               come in the flesh. The second is:                 Many things could be said of
tant Reformed Church in  -$tandale,                     the unbelieving Jews are sons of          the  Sonship' of God the Son, our
Michigan.                          .i::         ,>i<    the devil.                                Lord Jesus Christ. The Dutch  theo-

                                                                                                          February 1; 1997/Standard  Bearer/21  3


 logian  Herman Bavinck says this:                                      9:35; the only begotten Son, John                                    because of this  Sonship  he was
                                                                        1:18;  3:16; I John  4:9ff.; God's own                               condemned to death, John  10:33;
       He (Jesus) is the Son of God . . .                               Son, Rom.  8~32; the eternal Son,                                    Matt. 26:63ff.  (The Doctrine of God,
    by nature  and from eternity. He                                    John  17:5, 24; Heb.  1:5;  5:5; to                                  Wm. Hendriksen, trans., p. 270).
  , is exalted high above angels and                                    whom the Father gave "to have
    prophets, Matt.  13:32;  21:27;   22:2;                             life in himself," John  5:26; equal                                    Of course we do not propose
    and sustains a very special rela-                                   to the Father in knowledge, Matt.                                  to dwell on  all the riches of this
    tion to God, Matt.  11:27. He is                                    11:27; in honor, John  5:23;  in cre-                              subject of the ,Sonship of Jesus. But
    the beloved Son in whom the Fa-                                     ative  and redemptive power, John                                  let us now consider just a few
    ther is well-pleased, Matt.  3:17;                                  1:3;  5:21, 27; in work, John  10:30;
    17:5;  Mark  1:ll;  9:7; Luke  3:22;                                in dominion, Matt.  11:27;  Luke                                   things the Savior says of His
                                                                        10:22;  22:29;  John  16:15;  17:lO; and                           Sonship  in this passage.

                                            1     `L  ~`~Y~`X  b      8.  r  ._L     ._  :  _t.      -1,  __  (;    /-          _     /         ,'
                                            :-:.FiW .~~~~~~,.~~~~~~j~~~~~n,  :.qnd .D&$cfiss  jmi
                                                  ,I  .%~                   `,.  L  ._               .  I  / __            1

                                                                     ~convicts") me of sin?" is imply-                                3:15). He is the man-child brought
Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God                                    ing that it is impossible to "pin                                forth of the woman in order to rule
 * John  8:37-59 is remarkable for                                   sin" on Him. And this, because                                   all  .nations with a rod of iron (Rev.
 its teaching of the unique, divine                                  He is sinless! Prove from Scrip-                                 12:5). He is revealed to Abraham
 Sonship  of the Lord Jesus. Jesus                                   ture the sinlessness of Christ. Why                              as the seed who would come forth
teaches that as the Son of God He                                    is the manner of Jesus' birth                                    from his loins and as the One in
 has seen things with His Father (v.                                 (through the conception of the                                   and through whom all nations
38), and  lzeard things from His  ,Fa-                               Holy Spirit in a virgin) important                               would be blessed (Gen.  17:7; cf.
ther (v.  40). As Son, Jesus knows                                   for establishing` the' sinlessness of                            Gal.  3:16, 17; II Sam.  7:12-16;   Ps.
 the  ,Father  .(v. 55). And as Son He                               Christ?                                                          8913,  4          )         .
 has proceeded  from  the Father, be-                                                                                                         Most  co'mmentators would
 ing  selzt from the Father (v. 42).                                 * The Lord Jesus is the perfectly                                agree that it is with reference to
 What does all this tell us of the                                   obedient  Son. He has come only                                  the Christ being the promised seed
 relationship of the Son and the Fa-                                 because Father sent Him (v. 42).                                 of Abraham `that Jesus speaks in
 ther in the Trinity? Is the proces-                                 He speaks and does just what Fa-                                 John  8:56 when He says: "Your
 sion of Jesus from the Father the                                   ther wills Him to speak and do                                   father Abraham rejoiced to see my
 same as His being begotten of the                                   (vv. 38,  47). [Note: in verse 47                                day:            and  the saw it, and was
 Father? Just  when  did the Son pro-                                Jesus claims that His words are                                  glad...." The  .question is: just what
 ceed  from the Father: in eternity?                                 God's words (cf. vv. 43,  45)!1  He                              was "the day," which Jesus says is
In time? Both? (Cf. passages such                                    seeks not His own glory but that                                 His  day that Abraham saw, and
 as Ps. 2:7; Micah 5:2; Heb. 1:5; 5:5.)                              of the Father (vv. 49,501. And'the                               when did he see it, and how?
 Discuss this question: Was the Son                                  Father honors the Son for the Son's                              Some think that when Jesus speaks
 in His humiliation on earth able to                                 obedience (vv. 50, 54). Cite other                               of "my  day:  He is referring to
 "see" and speak of all He had seen                                  passages (for example, John  5:19ff.)                            when Abraham was offering up
 before when He enjoyed the glory                                    where Jesus. teaches this harmony                                Isaac on Mt. Moriah. "Jesus' day,"
 with the Father (John  17:5)?                                       between Himself and His mission                                  according to `this view, was when
                                                                     and the Father's; and  where the                                 the lamb was  given  in the place of
 0~ As the Son of God, Jesus is                                 Father' honors (glorifies) the Son                                    Isaac (Gen. 22)  - a type of Mes-
sinless.  The Jews knew that if they                                 for  the  Son's obedience (for ex-                               siah being offered in our stead.
 could pin sin on Jesus they would                                   a m p l e :   J o h n   11:4;  12:16;   13:31;                   Others think that "Jesus' day" is
lessen His credibility and hinder                                    17:1, 2,  5). How can it be that                                 reference to the  birth  of Isaac.
 His ministry. So they did things                               though Jesus is the Son, and the                                      When  .Isaac  was given to Abraham
 like suggest that Jesus was born of                            perfect Son, yet He learned obedi-                                    in his old age Abraham rejoiced,
 fornication (v. 41, which is a  pos-                           ence by the things which He suf-                                      such is the view, for Abraham was
: sible interpretation of the Jews'                             fered (Heb.  5:8)?                                                    then assured that God would  ful-
 claiming that  they were not born                                                                                                    fill'His  promises and that from his
 of fornication); label Jesus "Samari-                          I* God's Son is ordained to be                                        own loins the Messiah would
 tan" (v. 48); and claim that Jesus                             Messiah, the Christ, the Mediator  of                                 come.           Discuss this concept of
had a devil (vv.  48,52).  But Jesus,                           the covenant  of  redemption.  As such                                "JesusI:  day."                  J u s t   h o w   d i d
 w h e n   H e   a s k s   t h e   q u e s t i o n :            He is the promised seed who would                                     Abraham rejoice in it, and even see
 "Which of you convinceth (that is:                             crush the head of the devil `(Gen.                                    it thousands `of years before Christ

 214/Standard   Bearer/February I,1997



                                                                                                                                                             ,


was even born (cf.  ,passages such         of Himself. How does the reac-                         thing.    But Jesus proves them
as Rom. 4; Heb.  ll:l-19)?                 tion of the Jews  (v.  59) show that                   wrong. He points to His unique,
                                           they  believed that Jesus was claim-                   divine  Sonship. He teaches His
* In John  8:58 Jesus declares to          ing to be divine? How does this                        superiority to Abraham.           Jesus:
' the Jews:    "Verily, verily, I say      text (John  8:58) ground the Heidel-                   seed of Abraham! Jesus:  God  of
unto you, Before Abraham was, I            berg Catechism's instruction on                        Abraham! Our God, and Savior
am." Astounding statement! Jesus           the  Sonship  of Jesus (L.D.  13)?                     for ever! Let us continue to search
by it claims equality with God!                                                                   the Scriptures to confirm our faith
What words in the text prove this?         * The Jews were focusing on                            in Him whose day is and shall be
Compare this with other Scriptures         Abraham. They thought that be-                         forever our light, forever our life,
where God says the same things             ing his (natural) sons was every-                      forever our rejoicing!  Cl




                                           turned to the seminary. May the                        the evening meetings. In addition
Minister Activities                        Lord continue  to~be with them as                      to that work, other efforts went to-
     ev. B. Gritters, pastor of the        they conclude the last year of                         wards work on a house built dur-
R Hudsonville, MI PRC, declined            study at our seminary, and may                         ing a past project/trip to Jamaica.
the. call,  ,he had received from the      He also provide for them in His                        This work will include painting,
South Holland, IL PRC.                     time a place of labor in the midst                     the construction of a shower, and
    Rev. Dale Kuiper, pastor of the        of our churches.                                       the digging of a cistern.
Southeast PRC in Grand Rapids,                  Speaking of our seminary, an                          The group from Georgetown
MI, declined the call he had re-           interim course entitled "Pastoral                      was also busy with the distribu-
ceived to serve  as: pastor of the         Counseling" was taught for a week                      tion of donated clothing, shoes, vi-
Hope PRC in Walker, MI.                    and a half in January by Prof. R.                      tamins, and hygiene items such as
    Rev. R. VanOverloop, pastor of         Decker.                                                soap, shampoo, and toothbrushes.
the Georgetown PRC in  Hudson-                                                                    Through these efforts they hoped
ville, MI, received the call to serve      Evangelism Activities                                  to share the message of the gospel
as our churches' m.issionary  to                T h e   c o n g r e g a t i o n   o f   o u r     with people in much different cir-
Ghana.                                     Grandville, MI PRC began airing                        cumstances and who have a much
                                           their church services on WCET-TV,                      different background, and in the
IXnominational  Activities                 a public access station, on January                    process also be challenged to ex-
    Rev. R. VanOverloop and Prof.          4. These services will be broad-                       amine their own beliefs and their
H. Hanko, two members of our               cast every Saturday and Sunday                         relation to the world around us.
denomination's Committee for               from  12:OO-1:00   P.M.  on channel 10
Contact with Other Churches,               for Grandville -and Georgetown                         School  Actidties
planned to spend, the Lord will-           T o w n s h i p   a n d   c h a n n e l   5   f o r        The Emmanuel PR School So-
ing, two weeks in mid-January in           Hudsonville and  Blendon Town-                         ciety Library Committee, made up
Australia, meeting with  represen-         ship.                                                  of members of the First PRC in
`tatives of the Evangelical Presby-             Fourteen members of the                           Edmonton, Alberta, Canada was
terian Church  (EPC), exploring the        Georgetown PRC left `on January 1                      happy to announce that their li-
possibilities of our forming sister        for a week among the people of                         brary was finally ready to open for
church relations with them. This           the Protestant Reformed churches                       members of their congregation.
was done to fulfill a mandate of           in Jamaica. Few would consider                         They had concentrated on purchas-
`our churches' Synod of 1995. If           it a challenge to leave cold Michi-                    ing good Christian reading, books
interested, you can read more              gan to spend a week in Jamaica in                      that could not easily be found in
about this conference on page 77           January, but, looking over this                        the public library system in
of our 1996 Acts of Synod.                 group's itinerary for that week,                       E d m o n t o n .
                                                                                                                  These efforts were
    The seminary internships have          one sees that a large portion of                       made in the hope that some day
now concluded and the three  stu-          their trip was devoted to serving                      the Lord will pave the way for our
,dents (Daniel Kleyn, Jim Laping,  1       the Jamaicans. The group planned                       own PR grade school to open
and Martin  VanderWalj  have re-,          to assist pastors in special meet-                     there, and these books will serve
                                           ings by sharing their Reformed                         as a good basis for the library
                                           perspectives through workshops,                        there.
,Mr.  Wigger is .a member  of  theTrot-    discussions, song services,and                             First's congregation was also
estant Reformed Church  of  Hfidsbiz-"     neighborhood surveys to promote                        asked to donate Christian books,
ville,. Michigan.                 .

                                                                                                      February 1, l,997/Standard  Beqer/215

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



if possible, now or in the future.                    books reminds me that the Re-                       E-Mail your orders and the staff
And I would expand that request                       formed Book Outlet, a Christian                     will do its best to expedite them.
to the readers of the  Stavldavd                      bookstore run with the help of the
Bearer.  Books must be screened                       Hudsonville, MI PRC, with help                      Foodfor  Thought
by the committee before being                         coming from the membership of                            "I am not going to dispute
added to the library. If interested,                  other PR congregations in West                      with the Apostle, and yet if he
contact Dawn  DeVries  at 10712                       Michigan as well, will be closed                    were here, I should be a little du-
159th St., Edmonton, AB  T5P  3B4                     for the first three or four months                  bious as to his right to the title of
or call (403) 489-6470.                               of this year due to remodeling ac-                  "chief of sinners." I would ask
                                                      tivities in the mall where it is lo-                him whether, if he were the chief,
C o n g r e g a t i o n a l   A c t i v i t i e s     cated in Hudsonville. You may                       I was not the next."
     Writing about good Christian                     continue to call (616) 669-6730 or                                            -  Spurgeon   Cl




                                                                                                                       TEACHER NEEDED!
                                                                    MARRIAGE SEMINAR                           Hope Protestant Reformed Christian
                    NOTICE!!                               The  Edgerton PRC in Edgerton, MN is           School is accepting applications for a junior
     Attention Teachers! Hope Christian               sponsoring a Reformed Seminar on marriage           high teaching pdsition for the 1997-1998 school
School of Redlands, CA, is in need of an ad-          to be held in Sioux Falls, SD on February 27-       year. Those interested should contact Ron
ministrator/teacher or teacher for the 1997-          March  1. The seminar will make use of              Koole at (616) 453-9717 (school) or (616) 735-
1998 school year. Grade assignments are               speeches, workshops, and forums to help             1816 (home) or send an application to the
negotiable. For more information, interested          couples understand and practice God's guide-        school, 1545 Wilson Avenue SW, Grand Rap-
persons should contact the school principal,          lines for marriage. The seminar will be ben-        ids, Ml 49544.
Mr. Ed Karsemeyer, at the school at (909)             eficial for young and old. The Lord willing, we
793-4584, or Doug Pastoor at (909) 792-9392,          will enjoy rich Christian fellowship and encour-                        NOTICE!!!
or Glenn Feenstra at (909) 7945859.                   age one another to greater obedience to our              With thankfulness to God, the faculty of
                                                      Bridegroom, Jesus Christ.                           the Protestant Reformed Theological Seminary
                                                             Theme: "All Walk in Love, as Christ          inform the churches that they have licensed
                                                           also hath loved us." Ephesians 5:2a.           seminarians Nathan Brummel and Garry Eriks
                                                                        Speakers:                         to speak a word of edification in the meetings
                                                                       Pastor Steven Key:                 for public worship. The scheduling of their
                                                          "Loving One Another for God's Sake."            speaking in the, worship services of the con-
        RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                       Pastor Allen Brummel:                gregations will be done by the rector of the
     The council and congregation of                      "Communication in a Godly Marriage."            seminary.
Grandville PRC expresses its Christian sym-                            Pastor Carl Haak:                                                   For the faculty,
pathy to Mrs. Robert Harbach and family in                "The Blessings of a Godly Marriage."                                   Prof. David J. Engelsma,
the death of                                                   Venue: Howard Johnson Hotel &                                                        Rector
         REV. ROBERT C. HARBACH.                          Convention Center in Sioux Falls, SD.
     We mourn, with the entire denomination,                          Time and Date:                                          NOTICE!!
the loss of this faithful warrior for the truth,       Regisfrafion: 3-5 P.M., Thurs., February 27.            Classis West of the Protestant Reformed
who labored diligently as pastor, missionary,             Check  Out: 2 P.M., Saturday, March 1           Churches will meet at the Doon Protestant Re-
and author.                                             Registration: $70 to cover the meals and          formed Church in Doon, Iowa, on Wednesday,
     "I have fought a good fight, I have fin-                 other costs of the conference.              March 5,  1997'at  8:30  A.M.,  God willing. All
ished my course, I have kept the faith: hence-            Hotel costs: $60 per night per couple.          material for the classical agenda is to be in
forth there is laid up for me a crown of righ-          Registration deadline:  February 14, 1997.        the hands of the Stated Clerk thirty days be-
teousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge,                                                           fore the  Classis convenes. All delegates in
shall give me at that day: and not to me only,             For more information concerning the pro-       need of lodging or transportation from the air-
but unto all them also that love his appearing"       gram and registration, please contact Pastor        port should notify the Clerk of  Doon's
(II Timothy 4:7, 8).                                  Allen Brummel at (507) 442-444.1, Fax: (507)        consistory. An officebearers' conference is
                  Rev. Audred Spriensma, Pres.        442-3622, E-mail:  103320.2636@compu-               also planned for Tuesday, March 4.
                        Cornelius R. Jonker, Clerk    servecorn.                                                            Rev. Steven Key, Stated Clerk

21  G/Standard  Bearer/February 1, 1997


