A Reformed
Semi-Monthly
Magazine


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                                 . , `,,                                                          that  he? children  shduld be
                                                                :                                 gatheredl together, but even
                                                                                                  though she was unwilliing,  He
                                                                                                  gathered together as e-any of
                                                                                                  her children as He  tiished:
                                                                                                  for He does not will  some
                                                                                                  things and do them, &d will
                                                                                                  others and do them  riot; but
                                                                                                  `He hath done all that He
                                                                                                  pleased in heaven  and in
                                                                                                  earth."' - A u g u s t i n e
                                                                     I'                                                                                                                                                                      I
                                                                                                            See "A Candid Confession df the Character
                                                                                                                                of a Conditional Covenant" - p. 221


Vol.  Z;r,  NO. 7U
February  15, 1997


CONTENTS:                                                                                                          February 15, 1997                                                                                !  m
                                                                                                                                                                                                                    iStandard
                                                                                                                                                                                                                    ~ t%arer
Meditation  - Herman Hoeksema
       Given Over to a Reprobate Mind . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219                                       ISSN 0362-4692
Editorial  - Prof. David J. Engelsma
      _ A .Candid Confession of the Character.                                                                                                                                      Se@monthly,  except mon!hly during' June, July, and August.
                of .a Conditional Covenant (4) . . ..I . . ...' . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ~ . . . . . . . . .221                                    Published by ihe Reformed Free Publishing Association, Inc.,
                                                                                                                                                                                    4949  Ivanrest  Ave.,  drandville,  MI 49416. Periodical Postage
A Cloud of Witnesses - Prof. Herman C. Hanko                                                                                                                                        Paid at Grandville,  MIichigan.
       Abraham Kuyper: Dutch Calvinist (1) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  /I . . . . . . . . . 224                                                  Postmaster:   Send iddress changes to the Standard Bearer,
Contribution - Mr. Philip Climer                                                                                                                                                    P.O. BOX 603, Grandville, Ml  49466-0603.
       Archaeology and the Bible (2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227                                EDITORIAL  COMMllTEE
                                                                                                                                                                                    Editor: Prof. David  Ji Engelsma
All Around Us - Rev. Gise J. VanBareri ,.......  i. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ~ . . . . . . . . . 229                                                 Secretary: Prof.  Rob&D. Decker
Search  the Scriptures - Rev. Mitchell C. Dick                                                                                                                                      Managing Editor:  Mr; Don  Doezema
       The Son of God and Sons of the Devil (II) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..I . . . . . ~ . . . . . . . . . 231                                                              DEPARTMENT  EDiORS
Day of Shadows - Homer C. Hoeksema                                                                                                                                                  Rev. W.  Bruinsma,  qev.  A.  Brummel, Rev. R. Cammenga,
                                                                                                                                                                                    Prof. R. Decker, Rev. A.  denHartog, Rev. M. Dick, Prof. H.
       The Fall of Dur First Parents (cont.) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233                                            Hanko, Rev. R. Hanko. Rev. S. Key, Rev. K.  Kc&, Rev. J.
Contending for the Faith - Rev. Bernard Woudenberg                                                                                                                                  Kcrtering, Rev. D. H. Kuiper, Mr. J. Lanting, Mrs. M. Lubbers,
                                                                                                                                                                                    Rev.T. Miersma. Mr. b. Schipper, Rev. G. VanBaren, Rev. R.
       Supralapsarianism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236    VanOverloop,  Mr. B.  wigger,  Rev. B. Woudenbsrg.
News From Our Churches - Mr. Benjamin Wigger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239                                                                        EDITORIAL  OFFICE.                     CHURCH   NEWS EDITOR
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      The Meditation, transcript of a sermon preached by Herman                                                                                                                          49466-0603
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  Given .Over to a Reprobatei Mind

                                          over against that sinner who will                with unrighteousness, he becomes
     And even as they did not like to     not glorify and thank Him, in His                filled with all:vices,  such as envy,
retain God in their -knowledge, God       wrath. This wrath pushes the sin-                murder, deceit, and malignity.
gave them over to a reprobate mind,       ner down,                                        The final result is that he begins
to do those  thin@  which are not con-        The apostle mentions three                   to act. When #God gives men over
venient.                                  stages in this awful process. In                 to a reprobate mind, they become
                         Romans  1:28     the first place, the sinner becomes              whisperers, backbiters, haters of
I                                         a religious fool, so that he bows                God, despiteful, proud, etc.-
     n my explanation of verses 24        down before an image made like                       Is there any hope? What shall
     and 25 I compared the way and        unto corruptible man, and birds,                 we do in such a world? Shall we
     development of sin to a smooth       and beasts, and creeping things.                 build up institutions of education?
and slippery road upon which the          When man refuses to glorify ,and                 With these institutions of  educal
sinner slides down to destruction.        thank God, the first downward                    tion the world goes to hell.                 .
He is forced down by a power              step is always that man becomes a                    Shall we  !reform  this world?
which the apostle described as the        religious fool, bowing down before               With this reformation the world
revelation of the wrath of God.           an image. It makes no difference                 goes to hell.
     God is the doom of the sinner.       whether he carves this image in                      Shall we: have federations?
     For this same reason we may          wood or stone, as the heathen did,               Men who slide down, when they
compare the development of sin as         or whether he carves it in his                   federate, slide down together.
described in these last verses of         mind, as do the modernists of to-                    No, we shall say, "I am not
Romans 1 to an organic growth.            day.                                             ashamed of the gospel of Christ,
Sin can never stop.  It must con-             The second stage, the apostle                for it is the power of God unto
tinue to work until it has cor-           pictures in verses 24-27. God gave               salvation."
rupted every relation of life. This       them over, the `apostle says, to the                                                     ,
is not due only to an inherent            stage that makes them lower than                 The Meaning'
power of sin. But it is also due to       the beast. If a man wants to wor-                    The mind lis man's moral judg2
the fact that God works in sin.           ship the beast, why. should he not               ment. It is th,at faculty of man by
God is not the power of corrup-           become lower than the beast which                which he is able to distinguish be-
tion. But God is the power that is        he worships? But wrath does not                  tween good and evil. It is that
able to cause the sinner to corrupt       stop with this one sin. Sin does                 faculty of man by which he. can
himself unto the very end. God            not stop. It goes on until it bears              distinguish between the truth and
works in sin, causing the sinner to       fruit in every relation of life, so              the lie, between righteousness and
go down from corruption to cor-           that the third stage is that God                 unrighteousness. Not only does
ruption and to destroy himself.           gave them over `to a reprobate.                  the mind distinguish, but also it is
     The beginning was `that man          mind, to do those things which are               that faculty that counsels the will.
did not want to glorify and thank         not convenient.                                  We might say; that the mind is our
God. By that beginning man                    What this means is described                 moral attorney. It tells us what
stands opposed to the ever present        in the following verses. When God                we should do,and what we should
,and ever living God. The ever            gives the sinner over to a repro-                not do. This is the function of the.
present and ever living God stands        bate mind, three things happen. In               mind.
                                          the first place, this sinner becomes                 Now the text speaks of a rep-
                                          f i l l e d   w i t h   a i l   .manner   o f    robate mind. The original uses a
                                          unrighteousness,* such `as fornica-              word meaning a mind "not ap-
,Herman  Hoeksema was the first edi-      tion, wickedness, covetousness,                  proved." It refers to a mind that
tor  of  the  Standard Bearer.            and maliciousness. Being so filled               has been put: to the test and has
                                                                                              February 15, 1997/Standard  Beaierl219


failed. It is a mind that has been        when he fell into all kinds of bes-                  ner `motives -bear fruit in actions.
condemned and rejected. It is a           tiality.                                             The man that is full of envy, etc.,
mind that does not function prop-                 But the text means that God                  begins to act. What does He do?
erly. The proper function of the          gave man over to bear the fruit of                   He does things that are unseemly.
mind would be to distinguish be-          sin to its fullest extent in every re-               Notice that: the text says that this
tween what is good and what is            lation of life. There is a working                   is the intended result. God gave
evil. Having distinguished be-            of God in man's soul, in his mind,                   them over to a reprobate mind, to
tween what is good and what is            in his will, in his desires. This                    do things which are not conve-
evil, it is the function of the mind      working is a working of wrath.                       nient. This is God's purpose. This
to persuade the will to `determine        God works in this mind in wrath.                     is the purpose of His anger. The
that which is good. The function          In what way? He causes this mind                     purpose of ,God is not to hold the
of the mind is not only to distin-        to bear all the possible fruits of                   sinner back. The purpose is that
guish between good and evil. But          sin.                                                 the sinner become manifest in all
the mind is also to persuade the                  What are the possible fruits of              his folly and corruption. If this is
will to determine what is accord-         sin? The next verse tells us. God                    to become  j manifest, the sinner
ing to the will of God.                   gave man over to a reprobate                         must do things. God will not let
    A reprobate mind functions            mind. The result is that he begins                   the sinner rest until he does things,
perversely. Suppose that one must         to bear every possible fruit of cor-                 in order that he may become ripe
give testimony in a certain case.         ruption, so that he becomes filled                   for judgment and that it may be-
A reprobate mind distinguishes            with every possible unrigh-                          come manifest that God only is
between what is the truth and             teousness. He does not become to-                    g o o d .
what is the lie concerning this case.     tally corrupt. He zuas totally cor-                       They do things that are un-
But at the same time this mind            rupt. But he bears every possible                    seemly, that is, things that do not
compiles all kinds of lies and per-       fruit of unrighteousness.                            fit, the apostle says. The empha-
suades the will to tell that which                When God influences the                      sis of the text is that these things
is the lie. That is a reprobate           thistle, it bears fruit. When God                    do not fit with the way God rules
mind. A reprobate mind is a mind          influences the good tree, it brings                  things. If I put my hand in the
that distinguishes between good           forth good fruit. When He influ-                     fire, God keeps right on working
and evil, but persuades one to de-        ences the corrupt tree, it brings                    in that  fire; The result is that I
termine that which is evil. Of this       forth corrupt fruit. When God in-                    burn my hand. So God causes man
mind the apostle is speaking.             fluences the sinner, he becomes                      to do things that do not fit with
    To this reprobate mind, God           f i l l e d   w i t h   e v e r y   f o r m   o f    the way He !rules things.
gave man over. This "giving over"         unrighteousness.                                          What these things are, the
is not meant in a passive sense.                  What is this? The text says:                 apostle mentions in verse 29 and
The word does not mean, "to let           fornication; wickedness; covetous-                   the following verses. Whisperers,
go." God cannot let things go. A          ness, that is, greed of every kind;                  the apostle' says, that is, people
God who lets things go, we do not         and maliciousness, that is, the de-                  who secretly talk about you; back-
fear. But the word means that God         sire to do someone wrong.                            biters, that! is, wagging of the
takes the sinner and delivers him                 When he has borne this fruit                 tongue when you are not present;
up to corruption, or, to change the       in its general motives, man bears                    haters of God, literally in the origi-
figure, pushes him down from cor-         still more fruit. He becomes full                    nal, hated of God; despiteful;
ruption to corruption.                    of envy, murder, debate, deceit,                     proud;  boasiers;  inventors of evil
    God is the doom of the sinner.        malignity. Under the influence of                    things, that :is, inventors of things
    When the text says that God           God's wrath, the reprobate mind                      to do evil with; disobedient to par-
gave man over to a reprobate              bears fruit.                                         ents, that  is; setting aside all au-
mind, that is, when God gave him                  So it was with the world of                  thority; without understanding;
over to such moral judgment, the          Rome. So it is with the world of                     covenant breakers, that is, unfaith-
meaning is not that God made his          today. If we scratch off a little of                 ful in any relation of life; without
judgment corrupt. His judgment            the varnish, what do we find? We                     natural affection, so that the
is already corrupt. The mind is           find these things. These things are                  woman can' give up the child of
already corrupt, when man refuses         boiling at the fountain heads of the                 her bosom*.
to glorify and thank God. It is al-       world.                                                    This is the result. This was
ready the judgment of a reprobate                                                              the case in the Roman world.
mind that changed the glory of the        The Result                                           These sins came forth out of that
uncorruptible God into an image                   What is the result? This is ex-
of corruptible man and of beasts.         pressed in verse  2~3: Man does                      *    in  the  1930s; in the  199Os,  "mur-
God had already given him over,           things that are unseemly. The in-                    der the child of her womb."  - Ed.

PPO/Standard  Bearer/February 15, 1997


one sin. These sins lie at the bot-      They knew God. But they did not          tom of it all. It is the wrath of
tom of the  .woe of the world of         want to keep this knowledge of           God that is at the bottom even of
today. It is these sins that destroy     God in their mind. The original          war, of the present confusion of
the home, that destroy society, that     uses a strong expression. The            the world, and of the depression.
destroy the world.                       original means: they did not think           What shall we do? Shall we
    What shall we do?                    God worthy to keep in mind. They         call a prayer :day? This is folly,
    I will go a.step farther. ,These     knew God.       They considered          Away with all that is of man!
sins are in your heart and in my         whether they would keep God in           From the point of view of man, it
heart. I do not mean to say that         mind. They came to the conclu-           is hopeless. Why? Because it is
every one of these sins is in the        sion that God was not fit to keep        the wrath of God that takes hold
heart of every individual. But all       in mind.                                 of man and iulls him down into
these sins are in the hearts of men          Why?                                 hell. Let us confess that it is hope-
in -general, so'. that the one mani-         Did they not know any better?        less.
fests this sin; and the other another    Was it an error on their part? No,           What shall we do? We shall
sin. These sins are in your heart        but they wanted to live in               say: "I am not: ashamed of the gos-
and in mine.                             unrighteousness. It was not an in-       pel of Christ, for it is the power of
    This is the, doom of the sinful      tellectual error. It was a moral         God unto salvation." For what do
world.                                   question. They did not want to           we need? We: need righteousness;
  `. God forces. it down from cor-       keep God in mind.                        we need holiness; we need a power
ruption and into destruction, into           Even as they did not see fit to      to snatch us away from the wrath
hell.                                    keep God in mind, so God gave            of God. The gospel is a revelation
                                         them over to an unfit mind, to do        of the righteousness of God, which
The Reason                               things that are unfit. Why? Be-          is by faith in Christ Jesus.
    Why does God do this? The            cause it must become manifest that           This gospel is a power. It is
text explains it. "Even as," the         he who does not think God fit to         not an offer. But it is a power. It
apostle says, Even as is the sin,        keep in mind must run to destruc-        is a power taking man out of the
so is the punishment.                    tion.                                    power of sin  :and lifting him up
    "Even as."                               What shall we do? Nothing.           into the glory of everlasting life.
    Even as what?                        Not if we want to reform the                 Hopeless, from the point of
    What was the sin? The sin was        world.                                   view of man, and of the world!
that they did not like to retain God         What shall we do? We shall               Full of hope in the cross of Cal-
in their knowledge. That is, they        conclude that it is hopeless. It is      vary!
did not want to keep the true            the wrath of God that is at the bot-         The righteous shall live by
knowledge of God in their mind.                                                   f a i t h .   Ll




 :A Candid Confession of the Character
                                                     .of a
                           Conditional Covenant
                                                       (4)
At the end of the letter in Tuininga appealed to several texts 4; and II Peter 3:9 (see the Stan-
          which he candidly  con-        in Scripture in support of his doc-      dad  Bearer,  Jan. 1,1997, p. 150).
          fessed the character of a      trine. These, texts are Matthew              Although he presents no expla-
conditional covenant, Rev. Cecil         23:37;,Romans,lO:21;  1,Timothy  2:3,    nation of the texts, Rev. Tuininga

                                                                                     February 15, 1997/Standard  Bearer/221


makes clear what his understand-          dence,  almost insulting:                           essentially the same error as .that
ing of the texts is. For him, the                                                             of the "welI-meant  offer of the gos-
first two texts mean that God               Shall we do a little revising and                 pel." This is the error of a univer-
loved every physical descendant of          say that by "all" God meant the                   sal grace of God in Jesus Christ
Abraham in the time of the old              elect? But then the Word of God                   dependent, for its saving effect
covenant, and willed to save them           would have said so! Shall we say                  upon the will of the sinner. And
all. Since the fulfillment of God's         that it means "all different kinds                this, we contend, is the "other gos-
love and desire to save depended            of people"? If that was the inten-
                                            tion of the .Holy Spirit, it would                pel" of Galatians  .1:8, 9 and  Ro-
on each Israelite's performing the          have .been clearly stated. If this                mans 9:16,  the !`gospel" of Armin-
condition of faith and since many           is not the clear message of Scrip-                ianism which was exposed and
Israelites refused to perform this          ture, that God desires all men to                 condemned by the Reformed
condition, God's love was frus-             be saved, then what does it say?                  churches at the Synod of Dordt.
trated in many instances, and His                                                                 Now to: the texts.
will to~save came to nothing.                  Any  ' other interpretation than
    He understands. the last two          his explanation of -universal grace                 "How Ofteiz Would I have Gath-
texts exactly the same way, except        and a desire in God that all with-                  ered Thy Children"
that these texts extend God's love        out exception be saved must be "a                       Matthew 23:37 is the climax of
and will to save to every human           little revising" of Holy Scripture.                 Jesus' expression of indignation
who ever lived, iives, and will live.     But. the revising of the Word of                    against  the! wicked rulers of Old
    In this explanation of these fa-      God, whether little or large, is                    Testament Israel:  "0 Jerusalem,
miliar passages, Rev. Tuininga is         anathema to the Reformed Chris-                     Jerusalem,  I thou  ,that killest the
representative of all who hold a          tian.        '                                      prophets, and stonest them which
universal, conditional covenant,               In response to this challenge, I               are sent unto thee, how often
that is, a doctrine of the covenant       will do two things. I will briefly                  would I have gathered thy children
with Abraham and his seed that            interpret the texts raised by Rev.                  together, even as a hen gathereth
cuts the covenant loose from pre-         Tuininga, and I will show that the                  her chickens under her wings, and
destination and that makes the            interpretation that I give has been                 ye would not!"
covenant promise dependent upon           the interpretation of these texts by                    It was Jesus' will to gather
the condition of faith.                   the orthodox defenders of God's                     Jerusalem's: children. The gather-
    Rev. Tuininga identifies his ex-      sovereign grace down through the                    ing is certainly their salvation. But
planation of the passages as Re-          ages.                                               Jerusalem's children are not all the
formed.                                        Before I proceed with this                     physical descendants of Abraham.
    The rejection of his explanation      agenda, two observations are in                     The children of Jerusalem, mother
of the texts by the Protestant Re-        order. First, the texts to which                    of the people of God, are the same
formed       Churches  (PRC),  he         Rev. Tuininga appeals are the very                  as the children of Abraham, father
brands as "hyper-Calvinism": "I           texts to which the enemies of pre-                  of the people of God. The chil-
would be very happy to see our            destination and salvation by sov-                   dren of Jerusalem are those who
Pro.testant Reformed brothers             ereign grace have always ap-                        are in Jesus: Christ by divine elec-
come to recognize and correct their       pealed.           Pelagius raised them              tion, as the lapostle  teaches in Ro-
hyper-Calvinism and become truly          against Augustine. Erasmus raised                   mans 9:6-131 and Galatians 3:29.
Reformed."                                them against Luther. Pighius and                        There is distinction in the text
    The defender of a conditional         Georgius raised them against                        between "Jerusalem" and "thy
covenant of universal grace is con-       Calvin. Rev. Tuininga can find the                  children." Christ did not will to
fident. He challenges the advo-           evidence of this' in Augustine's                    gather "Jerusalem." The reprobate
cate of the unconditional covenant        anti-Pelagian writings; in Luther's                 rulers of the apostate institution
of particular grace to explain the        B o n d a g e   o f   t h e   W i l l ;   and in    with the hardened people whom
texts. If God does not love and           Calvin's treatises on predestination                they controlled, Christ willed to
desire the salvation of all those         and providence in  Calvin's Cal-                    damn in just judgment (see vv. 33-
within the sphere of the covenant,        vinism.                                             36, 38, 39). He willed to gather
why did Jesus say in Matthew                   The second observation is that                 specifically, and only "thy chil-
23:37, "How often I wanted to             the appeal to these texts by the de-                d r e n . "
gather your children . . . but you        fenders of a conditional covenant,                      That Christ's saving will was
were not willing"? If God does            with the interpretation of the texts                particular is plain from the ex-
not desire the salvation of all men       as teaching a universal grace of                    ample that  IHe employed: "even
without exception, "how do you            God in Jesus Christ,; confirms the                  as a hen gathereth her chickens."
interpret I Timothy 2:3,4?"               conviction of the PRCthat the doc-                  No hen wishes in her instinctive
    .He becomes bold in his confi-        trine of a  conditional*covenant  is                way to gather all the chicks on the

222/St@ndard  Bearer/February 15, 1997


farmyard, but only her own brood.         ering of sinners is centrally His         whatsoever He pleases, or if the
Similarly, the Christ of God has          atoning death. Thus, and in no            power of His alkighty will is hin-
His own "brood" among the Jews,           other way, He gathers. If now He          dered by the' will of any creature
as among the Gentiles.           His      willed to gather every physical          whatsoever.
"brood" is "all that which the Fa-        Jew, He certainly died for every
ther giveth me" (John  6:37-39).  It      physical Jew. By their interpreta-          Immediately, in section XCVII,
is "the children which God hath           tion of Matthew 23:37,  the defend-     he cont.inued:
given me" (Heb. 2:13).                    ers of the conditional covenant
    The right interpretation of           necessarily arrive at universal, in-      Hence we must inquire in what
                                                                                    sense is said of God what the
Jesus' words in Matthew 23:37 in-         effectual atonement.                      apostle has r$ost truly said: "Who
sists that Jesus did, and does, gather                                              will have all; men to be saved" (I
Jerusalem's children. He gathers          Augustine on Matthew 23:37               Tim. 2:4). For, as a matter of fact,
every one of them; not one of them            The particularistic interpreta-      not all, nor even a majority, are
is lost. He gathers them in spite         tion of Matthew 23:37 that I have         saved: so that it'would seem that
of Jerusalem's opposition: "and ye        given is biblical. It does full jus-      what God wills is not done, man's
would not." He redeemed all of            tice to the text itself ("thy chil-       will interfering with, and hinder-
them by His death. He effectually         dren"; "as a hen gathereth her            ing the will, of God. When we
calls all of them by His Word and         chickens"). It harmonizes with the        ask the reason why all men are
                                                                                    not saved, the ordinary answer is:
Spirit.  .He will raise all of them       grand theme of all of Scripture,          "Because men themselves are not
from  the, grave on the last day.         that Christ the Savior, grace, and        willing." This, indeed, cannot be
Not `one of Jerusalem's children,         salvation are for the elect alone,        s&d of infants, for it is not in their
whom Christ willed to' gather, per-       by the will of God.                       power eitherit will or not to will.
ishes. The will of the Christ and             Rev. Tuininga dismisses this          But if we could attribute to their
the will of God who sent Him              interpretation beforehand as              will the childish movements they
make this certain.                        merely the "logic" of  hyper-Cal-         make at baptism, when they make
                                          vinists.                                  all the resistance they can, we
Messiah's Failure                             He should be more careful.            should say that even they are not
                                                                                    willing to be'saved.
    Have Rev. Tuininga and the                The interpretation that I have
other defenders of a conditional          given was also that, in the main,           Then follows Augustine's in-
covenant considered the implica-          of Augustine. The great church          terpretation of Matthew  23:37:
tions of their explanation of Mat-        father gave this interpretation in
thew 23:37?                               his book, The Enchiridion on Faith,       Our Lord says plainly, however,
    1) The Messiah of God failed          Hope and Love.  "Enchiridion"             in the Gospel, when upbraiding
in His official labor on behalf of        means `handbook.' Augustine               the impioud city: "How often
God. For surely Jesus speaks in           wrote the book in A.D. 421 as a           would I have gathered thy chil-
the text as the Messiah. Many             summary of his thought on the es-         dren together, even as a hen
whom He, as the Messiah, willed           sential teachings of the Christian        gathereth her chickens under her
to gather, perish.                        religion. It may be regarded as           wings, and ye would not!" (Matt.
    2) The will of man overcomes          the first Christian dogmatics. Such       23:37)  as if the will of God had
the will of God's Christ, indeed,         a judge as Adolph von Harnack            been overcome by the will of men,
                                                                                    and when the weakest stood in
t.he will of God in our flesh. The        (no hyper-Calvinist!) regarded this       the way with their want of will,
Son of God wills to gather. Sinful        work as Augustine's "matured ex-         the will of the strongest could not
ecclesiastical rulers will that He        position of the Symbol (the              be carried out. And where is that
not gather. Their will prevails; His      Apostles' Creed  - DJE)" and as           omnipotence' which' hath done all
will is defeated.                         "our best guide" to Augustine's          that it pleased on earth and in
    3) Jesus Christ died for every        thought.                                 heaven, if God willed to gather
physical descendant of Abraham.               In section XCVI, Augustine            together the children of Jerusalem,
Whatever may be the extent of             taught God's sovereignty as re-           and did not! accomplish it? Or
Christ's will to gather, the will that    gards sin. If we do not believe           rather, Jerus?lem  was not willing
                                                                                    that her children should be gath-
He expresses in Matthew 23:37 is          that God's sovereignty governs            ered together, but even though
carried out in His death a few days       evil, Augustine wrote,                    she was unwilling, He gathered
later.    Jesus wills to gather                                                     together as many of her children
Jerusalem's children in His cross,          the very first sentence of our          as He wished: for He does not
just as Jerusalem wills by that             creed is endtingered,  wherein we     will some' things and do them,
same cross, considered now as the           profess to believe in God the Fa-       and will others and do them not;
evil deed of men, that He not               ther Almighty: For He-is not truly     but "He hath done all that He
gather her children. Jesus' gath-           called Almighty if He cannot do         pleased in heaven and in earth"

                                                                                     February 15, 1997ptandard  Bearer1223


   (Augustine,  The Enchiridion on          the very first article of the Chris-                  Will the advocates of univer-
  Faith, Hope and Love,  ed. Henry          tian faith, "I believe in God the Fa-             sal grace, whether in the sphere of
   Paolucci, Chicago: Henry  Reg-           ther Almighty."                                   the covenant or in the wide world,
   nery Company, 1961, pp. 110,                 How serious is their explana-                 who love to appeal to Matthew
   111).                                    tion of the text, in the judgment of              23:37, now call Augustine a hyper-
                                            Augustine, he indicated in the next               Calvinist?
        Augustine  :flatly contradicted
the interpretation of Matthew 23:37         line:                                                 It is easy, and even popular in
by Rev. Cecil Tuininga and, to be                                                             Reformed circles, to call the PRC
fair, the interpretation by hosts of          And, moreover, who will be so                   hyper-Calvinists.
                                              foolish and blasphemous as to say
professing Calvinists today.                                                                      Dare they say this about Au-
                                              that God cannot change the evil
        Augustine regarded the expla-                                                         gustine, from whose interpretation
                                              wills of men, whichever, when-
nation of the text by the defenders                                                           of Matthew 23:37 and doctrine of
                                              ever,     and    w h e r e s o e v e r   H e
of a conditional covenant and by                                                              sovereign grace we do not differ?
                                              chooses, and direct them to what
the defenders of a "well-meant of-            is good?                                            Augustine: hyper-Calvinist?
fer of the gospel" as endangering                                                                                                  0
                                                                                                                           - DJE





                  Abraham Kuyper: Dwtch
                                           Calvinist (1)

Introduction                                men of forcible personality. They                 pulpits and held all the significant
          hough it does not happen of-
T                                           are men  towards whom it is im-                   posts in the `universities and semi-
          ten, there are times when         possible to be neutral. Every ac-                 naries. While Reformed people
          God is pleased to raise up        quaintance either loves them                      could be found and Reformed min-
in His church men of such out-              deeply or hates them passionately.                isters still preached here and there,
standing ability and conviction             Augustine was such a man; Calvin                  the church itself was in the hands
that their work leaves an indelible         and Luther also were hated by                     of and was directed by those who
mark on subsequent history. It is           many and loved by many. I<uyper,                  had become ,enemies of the faith.
as if, by them, God alters signifi-         perhaps more than any other per-                      Abraham's father, a pastor in
cantly the course of events. Au-            son of his generation, was de-                    this denomination, was himself
gustine was such a man. So was              voutly loved and profoundly                       somewhere between liberal Mod-
Martin Luther, and so was John              hated.                                            ernism and orthodox Reformed.
Calvin. One hesitates somewhat                  And his shadow over the                           Two significant reformatory
to put Abraham Kuyper in such               church is long. It reaches to the                 movements  :had swept the Neth-
lofty company, and there are rea-           present.                                          erlands. The first was called De
sons why he does not completely                                                               Reveil  (The Renewal), a movement
fit.        Nevertheless, Abraham           Childhood and Youth                               which was found in every country
Kuyper came close to being one of               Abraham Kuyper was born in                    in Europe in which Protestantism
them.                                       a parsonage on  October 29, 1837                  had taken root. It bore, however,
        Usually such men as God is          from Rev. and Mrs. J.F. Kuyper,                   some marks of Humanism in the
pleased to use are men of extraor-          in the small fishing village of                   Netherlands; and it refused to en-
dinary ability not only, but also           Maassluis, the Netherlands. The                   gage in true church reformation,
                                            Reformed churches in the Nether-                  believing that the State church
                                            lands had fallen on bad times.                    could be reformed from within.
Prof.' Hank0 is professor of Church         Over the course of the centuries it               The second was called De
History and New Testament in the           had become thoroughly apostate.                    Afscheiding  :(The Separation), of
Protestant Reformed Seminary.              Modernists occupied thousands of                   which DeCock  was the leader. The

224/Stamdard  Beare&February  15, 1997


movement had demonstrated pow-                      tion of students for university          of Reformation times. The other
erfully that the common people                      studies.. -He graduated in 1855 and      school was the so-called Ethical
thirsted .for a return to Scripture                 delivered the valedictory address,       School, which promoted an ecu-
and the confessions, to sound bib-                  but delivered it  in. German and         menical religion of wide tolerance
lical preaching and a holy walk.                    spoke on the topic: "Ulfilas, the        on the basis of an emphasis on the
It spread like wildfire through the                 Bishop of the Visigoths, and his         inner, ethical life of man.
Netherlands, but soon became the                    Gothic Translation of the Bible."            It is  no; wonder that when
object of the persecution and op-                       Upon completion of his stud-         Kuyper graduated on December 6,
pression of the government. It was                  ies in the gymnasium, Kuyper en-         1861 he came out of the school a
a movement that attracted thou-                     tered the University of Leiden, a        rather  thorqugh  modernist. Yet
sands, but was composed mainly                      university 280 years old, with an        even during j these years God gov-
of the common folk, the simple                      enrollment of 500-600 students.          erned events in such a way that
and uneducated people, those on                     Kuyper earned sufficient money to        Kuyper's surrender to Modernism
the lower rungs of society, those                   support himself during his three         was not comblete.
whom Kuyper himself was later to                    years of university studies by do-           From divinity school, Kuyper
call "de  kleine  Zzlyden" (the small               ing some private tutoring.               went on to gain his doctorate,
folk). This separation was three                        It seems as if all the influences    something which he accomplished
years old when Kuyper was born.                     on Kuyper at this time were bad,         in 1863.
That hardly any mention of it can                   something not so strange when one
be found in Kuyper's writings in                    considers the sad state of ortho-        Conversion and Early Ministry
the first 20 to 25 years of his life is             doxy in the nation's universities.           God made Kuyper a powerful
perhaps indicative of the fact that                 His most influential teacher was         Reformed preacher and an amaz-
it was scorned by the educated and                  Dr. Matthias DeVries, professor of       ingly effective defender of the Re-
ignored by the majority in the State                literary studies, under whom             formed faith. How did all this
church  - after all, the sophisti-                  Kuyper learned the beauty and            come about?,
cated leaders in the church could                   power of good writing and under              Three events in Kuyper's life
not take seriously a movement                       whose tutorship Kuyper devel-            can be descrqbed as elements in his
which attracted such lowly and                      oped a unique and forceful style         conversion.
despised throngs. None of the in-                   of writing that was to stand him             The first took place during
f l u e n c e s   o f   D e   Reveil   o r   D e    in good stead all his life.              Kuyper's university days. The
A f s c h e i d i n g   seemed to hav e                 Kuyper graduated in 1858             University of Groningen was of-
touched Kuyper.                                     summa cum laude, but a modernist         fering a prize for the best essay
     Bram (as he was called) did                    from a modernistic school. What          submitted on the subject of a com-
not attend grade school, but was                    little orthodoxy his parents may         parison of Calvin's and a Lasco's
instructed by his parents in his                    have communicated to him was             view of the church. With charac-
home. Particularly his mother was                   lost in the swirl of liberal thought.    teristic thoroughness and zeal
his instructor.            From her he                  In 1858 Kuyper entered the           Kuyper devoted all his time and
learned French. His father, fluent                  Leiden Divinity School to study for      energy to the researching of this
in German, taught him that lan-                     the ministry. Again the influences       subject and the development of the
guage. Kuyper showed early in                       were uniformly bad. Dr. L.W.             thought. Not content with second-
life an aptitude for languages and                  Rauwenhoff, committed to an              ary sources, I he scoured Europe's
the ability to master any subject.                  evolutionistic view of history,          libraries to find the writings of  a
     In 1841 the family moved to                    taught church history. Dr.               Lasco, but to no avail. Finally, in
Middleburg, the capital of the                      Abraham Keunen, a higher critic,         desperation, !he went to the home
province of Zeeland. This historic                  taught Bible studies. Dr. Joannes        of his old teacher, Dr. DeVries,
city was also on the sea, and while                 Henricus Scholten, an arch-heretic       who sent Kuyper to DeVries' fa-
growing up here Kuyper devel-                       who denie'd the bodily resurrection      ther, now an ;old man, but one with
oped a strong love for the sea and                  of Christ, taught Dogmatics.             a good library. The old minister
a strong desire to spend his life                       In addition to these influences,     was too old to remember what he
on board ship.                                      two current schools of thought in        did and did not have in his library,
     In 1849 the family moved to                    the Netherlands also moved               but asked Kuyper to return in a
Leiden when Rev. Kuyper took up                     Kuyper in the  .direction of Mod-        week.  KuyRer,  not expecting any
new ministerial duties. Abraham                     ernism. One was the Groningen            help from fhis source, was as-
had access to excellent schools                     School of thought, which really          tounded to fmd on the table a high
here. For six years, Kuyper at-                     was nothing else but a promoter          pile of  a Lasco's works. Kuyper
tended "gymnasium," a school                        of a Christian Humanism after the        considered this so wonderful, es-
which was geared to the prepara-                    order of Erasmus, the Humanist           pecially in the light of the fact that

                                                                                                February15,.  1997/StandardBearer/225


this was apparently the only col-          clear she would do this `only be-          gan, although at. the time'there  was
lection in Europe, that he received        cause he was a fellow human be-            little evidence-of it.       `.
it as a special miracle, a miracle         ing, not a brother in Christ.                  This latter. involved the failure
which forced him to consider the                   It is quite amazing that Kuyper    of the consistory to answer a ques-
reality of God's providential direc-       had the grace and humility not             tionnaire which was sent by a com-
tion of his'life and the lives of men.     only to inquire from her concern-          mittee of the  Classis  and which
    The second event was directly          ing her reasons, but also to return        was a substitute for the practice
related to. the first.                     again and again to her home when           of church' visitation.                 The
    Kuyper plunged. into his stud-         she `told him that he was preach-          consistory refused to answer, first,
ies of a Lasco with such vigor that        ing false" doctrine and that his soul      on the grounds that the work was
he hardly slept at  all: The result        was in danger of eternal hell. It          not properly being done when
was that, although he completed            was here at the feet of these              done by questionnaire, and, sec-
his paper (written in Latin), and          humble  barishioners  that Kuyper          ondly, that  jthe work was hypo-
although he won the coveted prize;         was led back to Calvin and the Re-         critical when an apostate body was
he suffered a total, nervous col-          formed fathers, and from them to           inquiring into the spiritual health
lapse from overwork. He could              the Scriptures, the one great foun-        of a congregation. This refusal
not read or write, but had to con-         tain of the Reformed faith.                could have been construed as an
tent himself with trying to buiid a                                                   act of rebellion, punishable by the
model  &hip while vacationing in           T h e   P r e a c h e r                    Classis. But; the broader ecclesias-
Germany in an effort to recoup his                 I<uyper was a powerful and ef-     tical assemblies chose not to force
s t r e n g t h .   '                      fective preacher. As he moved              the issue and backed down with-
"It was towards the end  ,of this          steadily towards the Reformed              out requiring compliance.
eight `months of recuperation that         faith, his preaching reflected his             I n   1870   K u y p e r   w e n t   t o
Kuyper read Charlotte M. Yonge's           commitment to the truth of Scrip-          Amsterdam,i  a church of 140,000
book,  The Heir  -of  Redclifle;-   The    ture and the heritage of the Re-           members,  1:36 officebearers, 28
story of a proud successful man            formed fathers. His sermons at-            ministers,  10: sanctuaries, and four
who is humbled and a poor. and             tracted others: some because they          chapels. It  :was the most presti-
lowly man who is exalted had a             could delight in his oratorical skills     gious church in the country, the
profound effect on him. He him-            and his masterful use of the Dutch         most influential, and the most ven-
self said, "What I lived through in        language; others because Kuyper            erable. It was a strategic place for
my soul in that moment I fully un-         preached a gospel for which their          Kuyper to continue his work.
derstood only later, yet from that         souls thirsted and which was dif-              Kuyper was without any doubt
hour, after that moment, I scorned         ficult to find in any other place in       the  most  popular minister of his
what I formerly esteemed, I sought         the Netherlands.                           day, and `he drew throngs of
what I once dared to despise."                     That Kuyper's influence upon       people whenever and wherever he
    The third event came during            his times and subsequent history           preached. Not only were his ser-
Kuyper's ministry.                         was so great was undoubtedly due           mons powerful defenses of the Re-
    After completing his doctorate         to the fact that he was first of all a     formed faith; but they .were  mas-
in 1862 (his thesis was a modifica-        preacher.. God uses preachers:             terpieces of literary style and ora-
tion of his prize-winning work on          Augustines and Calvins and                 torical delivery. Yet always  .his
a Lasco and Calvin), he took the           Luthers and Knoxes. The power              preaching was directed `towards.
call to a congregation in Beesd and        of reformation in the church is            the common folk, the kleine Zuyden.
married johanna  Hendrika Schaay,          above all else the power of preach-        Kuyper had that ability to address
a girl from ,Rotterdam.                    ing.                                       his preaching and teaching to ev-
    The congregation, a small vil-                 Kuyper soon moved from             eryone  - an ability which great
lage church, was composed of               Beesd to Utrecht, a church of              preachers have. He could teach
simple villagers, `some of whom            35,000 members and 11 ministers.           the children in catechism in a way
were themselves modern and                 The year was 1867. It was a min-           which  woulid pull them to the
worldly, but some of whom were             istry of about three years, filled         edges of their seats. And he took
orthodox and sincere: In an effort         with many events. Here Kuyper              the time and made the effort to
to get to know his parishioners,           met Groen VanPrinsterer  and cast          visit regularly the orphanages,
Kuyper visited each in turn. He            his lot once for all with the Anti-        where the orphans could also be
was surprised and'chagrined when           revolutionary Party. Here Kuyper           taught the Word of God.
one, peasant girl of thirty,  Piet-        became an editor of De  Hera&                  Not only were' his `sermons
ronella Baltus, refused to shake his       (The HeutiZd), a post he was to hold       powerful and masterful, but his li-
hand. Finally  KuyRer' prevailed           the rest of his life.  .And here his       turgical work in the pulpit was
upon her to do so, but she`made it         church reformation work really be-         meticulously done and carefully

i26/Stan&d  kieiwer/February  15; 1997



                                                                                                      !


delivered. His prayers were elo-             State church. But it did mean that       soon to give himself to politics.
quent and led the soul of the                the orthodox were in the majority            Personally I can never under-
humble saint to God. His reading             and could control the affairs of the     stand this move of Kuyper. One
of Scripture was an experience in            church, so that Reformed preach-         who is called to be a minister is
itself. One fellow professor, Dr.            ing and instruction became the or-       called for life, and this highest of
Rutgers, said once  .t.hat hearing           der rather than the exception.           all callings has such a grip on the
Kuyper'read, just read, Psalm 148                Polarization was, however, the       soul of the faithful ambassador of
was clearer exposition of that               result. When Kuyper preached a           Christ that to Ileave it is impossible.
Psalm than' most sermons                     sermon on "The Assurance of Elec-        Paul himself struck the only pos-
preached on iti and brought tears            tion," a modernist minister  fdl-        sible note: "Woe.is me if I preach
to his, eyes.                                lowed immediately with a `sermon         not the gospel." : I<uyper resigned
    It was during his work as min-           on "Let.Anyone Who Comes With            in 1874.  He; had  ,been elected to
ister in Amsterdam that he strove            Another Gospel Than That Christ          Parliament and he could not take
mightily for the renewal and ref-            Died For ,-Ail Men Be Accursed."         his seat in`that body without leav:
ormation of `that church. It was a           Nevertheless, for the first time in      ing the'ministry.
time of struggle and bitter infight-         years and years,.  .the Reformed             A case can be made for the fact
ing, but the result was that the             faith and the truth of' the confes-      that Kuyper's departure from the
church in Amsterdam became a                 sions were being proclaimed and          ministry was  in some respects the
strong Reformed church, with the             defended from the pulpits in             beginning  .of his  loss% of power.
majority of the elders and minis-            Amsterdam.                               That may strike some who have
ters supporting Kuyper. This did                 Becaus.e  of Kuyper's great abil-    read his biographies as strange and
not mean that the modernists and             ity as a preacher, it is more ,than      untenable. It  is arguable however;
liberals were expelled  .from the            sad that he laid down his office so      and we shall take a closer look at
church: this was impossible in a                                                      some aspects .of this question. Cl




     ; &whaeology and the Bible
                                                            (2)
Returning to archaeological ogy, as demonstrated in the search Many secular archaeologists
       excavations in the lands of           for Troy, and it has nothing to do       questioned the existence of King
       the Bible, let us review the          with Christianity or any other re-       David, because there are no extant
case of Joshua and the battle of             ligion.                                  manuscripts by or about him dat-
Jericho. `The current secular view               The skeptic may think  .that I . ing from the time of his rule (tra-
is that no battle took place there,          am merely playing with word              ditional dates  1025-985  BC). As
and no walls existed. The proof is           meanings in reaching this conclu-        with Joshua and the conquest of
in the  pottery,`so to speak. But            sion. Perhaps he would say that          Canaan, these scientists, speculate
the final -word is not in; and it            the present theory of "no walls at       that the legend of David may have
never will come. in. This is not             Jericho" is  substantially  true, and    been added by a scribe recopying
the conclusion of a religious fanatic        that later excavations in the area       documents at a much later date,
defending Scripture, this is the             will "fine tune" it. The skeptic         trying to "i&rove" the history of
method of the science of archaeol-           would be wrong. In archaeology           Israel. But in  modern'Israe1  in
                                             any theory, no matter how well es-       1993 an inscri@ion in stone dating
                                             tablished, can  ,be turned. on its       from about 900 BC was found con-
                                             head by the next shovel full of dirt     taining the  ,phrases "House of
Mr.  CZiTer  is a member,  of  t&i  Hope     at-the next excavation. The  Timi        David," and `King of Israel." .That
Profestant   Refdr~ze'd,   Ch'iirzh   o f    article provides us with just such       one inscription was enough to turn
Redlands,  California.                       an example.                              skeptical  ,opinion around; now it
                                 !A
                                                                                         February 15,  1997/Standard  Bearer/227


is generally accepted that David          know if those indestructible clay        double talk. `,It is simply unscien-
really existed.                           tablets of the Assyrians or Hittites     tific to believe that the Bible speaks
    A monument and inscription            are true or not, and we never will.      truthfully on: historical matters be-
from 1200 BC commemorating                The same can be said for the Egyp-       cause it says, it does. It  inust be
Joshua's victory at the mighty            tian Hieroglyphs and even for our        checked, or "`verified." But what
walls of Jericho would similarly          friend Homer. He tells a wonder-         can Scripture be checked with?
turn the archaeological world's           ful story, but we will never know        Archeological methods of research
theory of the Hebrew conquest of          if Achilles and Hector. really           can provide us with mountains of
Canaan on its head. Does such a           fought outside the walls of golden       information about the type of pot-
monument exist? I have no idea.           Troy.                                    tery and spears used in ancient Is-
But I am certain that the archaeo-                                                 rael, and we should respect that
logical truth about Joshua and Jeri-      Biblical Truth                           information and the scientists who
cho will not be the same fifty years          Scientifically, we do not now        work so diligently to extract and
from now as it is today, just as          know if the Bible is true, and we        study the artifacts they find. But
today's theories differ from the          never will. But by faith every be-       any theory they come up with con-
conclusions of fifty years ago.           liever knows that it is completely       cerning any part of biblical history
    The reader may wonder at my           true.                                    is by definition false, and one can-
phrasing in saying that the truth             Scripture teaches that from          not verify any narrative with a
of a past event is going to change        eternity past God predetermined          false theory.' The "moderate ma-
every fifty years. How does the           everything, everyone, every action,      jority" can't: test biblical history
truth of the past change? Obvi-           and every moment. By His Spirit          with scientific methodology, and
ously, it never does.                     and His Word He executed His             I do not see that they have any
     We have an account in writ-          eternal plan and brought the uni-        other candidates to verify it with,
ing of Joshua and the Israelites          verse and time itself into existence.    so they must either receive it in
conquering the walled city of Jeri-       Since He precedes creation, includ-      faith or reject it for no good rea-
cho. Now that event either took           ing time, He stands outside of it        son.
place or it did not take place. The       and is therefore unchanging.                 The reader may wonder why I
same can be said for any recorded         When He inspired the prophets            have confined my discussion of ar-
event. The Greeks sailed to Troy          and apostles to write down that          chaeology and the Bible to the Old
to get Helen,. or they did not.           portion of His eternal plan which        Testament, and why I have not
David reigned in Jerusalem, or he         He chose to reveal to us He di-          considered the subject of miracles.
did not. The theorizing of mod-           rected them to write His unchang-        Aside from time and space con-
ern day archaeologists does not           ing  Word describing His  unchang-       straints, there are two main rea-
change one jot or tittle of history,      ing  plan. When it comes to the          sons that I have limited the evalu-
because it has already occurred; it       past, how could anyone possibly          ation:    1) The New Testament
is out of our grasp, we can never         imagine a more authoritative his-        manuscripts are now generally ac-
re-live or recall those events. Even      tory than the Word of the One who        cepted, even among skeptics. (A
if an archaeologist constructed a         determined that history and then         few generations ago they were not
theory that was absolutely accu-          brought it to pass?                      accepted as genuine, but someone
rate in `explaining the Trojan War,           Revisiting Joshua and Jericho        came up with a new theory and
or Joshua and the battle of Jeri-         one last time, let us pose the same      now they are>. The skeptics do
cho, no one would ever know it            question to the biblical narrative       not believe what the manuscripts
was absolutely accurate, because          that we did to the archaeological        say, but they do accept them as
we cannot go back in time and test        theory. How do you know that             dating from the apostolic age. 2)
the theory against the reality.           the scriptural account of the battle     Archaeological methods of re-
    This may all seem very basic,         of Jericho is true? Because the          search. cannot give us even one
but it demonstrates that archaeo-         Bible says so. No theory here, just      true theory of any period of his-
logical research fails to give us his-    truth, from the God of truth, who        tory that does not speak of
torical truth not just occasionally,      not only observed the events at          miracles. Given that failure, how
but consistently. No theory of his-       Jericho, but predestined them be-        can archaeologists even begin to
tory based upon archaeological re-        fore creation itself. To doubt the       comment  wiith any credibility
search has ever been true. New            veracity of any historical event in      upon a part `of Bible history that
theories will continue to pour out        Scripture is to doubt the very na-       does contain imiracles?
of the excavation pits, but none of       ture of God Himself.
them will ever be true either.                The "moderate majority" will         "Fact vs. Faith"  .'
Naturally this conclusion includes        discount this argument as an eva-            The notion of "fact vs.~ faith,"
written records also. We do not           sion, circular reasoning, and            as  Time  puts it, now can'be seen

228/Standard  Bearer/February 15,`1997


                  .                       ;_
     in all of its silliness and absurdity;     form ,u&n: which it `is presented.       that-  blasph:mer.  David had, to
     To ,test .any &riptural historical ac--    We-must not take lightly the .de-        battle the enemies of Israel.  physi-
     count by means of any theory of            nial of the accuracy of biblical his-    tally. Our war with the enemies
     archaeology is to test that which          tory. by modern archaeology. If          of the church is spiritual and in-
     cannot be false by means of that           we do not proclaim the truth about       tellectual in nature, but it is just
     which cannot be true. It is the            Joshua and Jericho or King David         as real, and just as deadly.
     height of nonsense.                        or any other historical narrative in          As Christians, let our posture
         The Bible is the means by              Scripture we are guilty of not pro-      be one of righteous indignation
     which God reveals His plan of re-          claiming "the whole counsel of           against this igiant of skeptical ar-
     demption to His people. As such,           God.`! We are in a battle for truth,     chaeology that slurs the history of
     it is primarily concerned with             and we must look to the heroes of        the church of Almighty God. Who
     spiritual matters, and when we             the faith for patience and courage       are these archaeologists who think
     read it we should also be prima-           to see our way though it.                they can disprove Scripture with
     rily concerned with the spiritual              When the youthful David vis-         a piece of broken pottery dug out
     knowledge it contains. But the             ited his brothers on the battlefield,    of the  mud?: What is the "moder-
     great drama of redemption .is be-          he heard Goliath taunting Israel.        ate majority" that dares tell us
     ing played out upon the stage of           He was indignant, declaring "... for     what parts of the Bible are "rea-
     the physical universe and history.         who is this' uncircumcised Philis-       sonable" to believe in? The battle
     We cannot fully appreciate the             tine that he should defy the armies      is joined. Let Reformed believers
     scope and grandeur of God's plan           of the living God?" (I Sam. 17:26).      step. forward and speak the truth,
     of salvation if we neglect the plat-       He immediately volunteered to            i n   l o v e .   0
~                                               face Goliath in combat, and slew




                                                And the rosaries of those present          her. neck, inside her ski jacket.
     n Visits of the Virgin Mary -              had turned into gold. Sadly, the           Then "everything opens up and
     And the Millennium                         man had forgotten his own rosary.          becomes clearer."
            ecent  news reports speak of
     R                                          It lay in his dresser drawer. But             Snow may or may not come this
            a reflection said to be of the      when he returned home, lo, the ro-         night to Emmitsburg, a town with
            Virgin Mary on the win-             sary also had changed into gold!           one street  light,  surrounded by
     dows of the Seminole Finance                   The old tales are still being re-      farms. Pendleton thinks not.
                                                                                              But the Virgin Mary will be
     Corp. in Clearwater,  Fl. The ac-          peated  - and with increasing fre-         here, because this is a Thursday
     count brought to mind similar re-          quency. The Denver Post, Decem-            and she comes every Thursday
     ports made in the past.                    ber  21,1996, records details of one       night, believers say. Pendleton is
         I recall being in a campground,        of the latest incidents:                   one of the `many who regularly
     years ago, tenting next to a Ro-                                                      flock to this gray stucco church
     man Catholic family. The man                   Some say that when the Virgin          to hear her weekly message and
     joined us at our campfire and                Mary comes down, they smell              feel her mysterious presence.
     promptly began telling of his own            roses. Some say they see the sun            With incense and candles burn-
     encounter with the Virgin Mary.              wheeling in the sky. When she            ing, they gather in the sanctuary
                                                                                           and murmur "Hail Mary" after
     He claimed to have been at a site            appears, some see her blue robe
                                                                                           "Hail Mary;" the beads of their
     where the Virgin Mary had repeat-            shimmer.
                                                    Some say she turns the chains          rosaries slipping through their
     edly appeared. While he was                  of their rosaries to gold.               fingers as they wait.
     there, it had happened. The Vir-               When the Blessed Virgin comes             In these  times of sin and confu-
     gin Mary came and spoke to cer-             to Donna Pendleton, the young             sion, in these days of approach-
     tain individuals who were spon-             mother from this rural part of            ing millennium, believers say the
     sors of this, event. How did he             Maryland. says, Mary just slips           Mother of Cod is visiting Earth
     know that the Virgin.Mary  had in            quietly into her heart.                  with increasing regularity.
                                                                                              "Oh yeah)" says David  Zappar-
     fact appeared? He did not see her              Nothing "like a lightning bolt,"
                                                                                           dino, a musician and a regular
     -but there was the smell of roses.           says Pendleton, whose face is ra-
                                                  diant as she stands on the dark          here at St. Joseph's Church, "...she
                                                 sidewalk outside St. Joseph's             is part of  the plan."
                                                 Church.                                      . ..The Bible contains sparse ref-
     Rev.  VanBaren  is pastor. of the Prot-        Her visit feels like "a tingle,"       erences to the mother of Jesus, but
     estant Reformed Church  of Love-            says Pendleton, who wears her             that has not stopped scholars
     land, Colorado.                .,           little boy's crystal rosary around        from delving the Scriptures for

                                                                                            February 15,`i 997/Standard  Bearer/229


  clues to her character. And it has       There is but one way to God and                               teaching would have been ex-
  not stopped generations of devo-         that is through His Son, our Lord                             pected  given,its  context as a book
  tees from shaping her to their  dis-     Jesus Christ.                                                 of proclamation.     "I don't think
 parate   n e e d s .                                                                                    we should try to whitewash this.
     She's been portrayed as both                                                                        book and say there is no possibil-
  virgin and mother, saint and fer-        n Thk Bible a Wax Nose?                                       ity of constructing  ,an exclusivist
  tility goddess. She's ridden to                                                                        view of the church; the only thing
  battle with the Crusaders and ral-       DarrellTodd Maurina of the
                                                       U n i t e d R e f o r m e d   N e w s             I would argue is this is not the
  lied the followers of labor orga-                    Service reports that the                          only  voice," said Rhem.
  nizer Cesar Chavez. She is Notre         Rev. Richard Rhem, pastor of                                    According to Rhem, it is incon-
  Dame, lady of all the cathedrals         Christ Community Church in                                    sistent to sa'y the Bible is clear on
  of France, and La Morenita, the          Spring Lake, Michigan, made the                               salvation apart from Christ when
  dark little Virgin of Guadalupe,         statement, "The Bible is a wax                                Scripture also appears to be clear
  midwife of peasant mothers               nose," at a conference hosted by                              on such matters as the immediacy
  throughout Latin America.                                                                              of the  return.of  Christ and the or-
     She is the patroness of legions       the RCA's Regional Synod of the                               dination of women. "How, can
  of unchurched spiritual searchers        Mid-Atlantics.              Here Rhem pub-                    we honestly say that when we re-
  and she also receives the daily de-      licly expressed his position:                                 alize those documents were writ-
votions of Pope John Paul II. The                                                                        ten by those  w'ho  honestly be-
  pope says that in 1981, Mary                  "The question is not whether                             lieved they were at the end, and
  saved him from an assassin's bul-          non-believers -can be saved, the                            they were not at the end?" asked
  let, noting the attempt on his life        question is whether  ;salvation  is                         Rhem.      "We are not seeing the
came  on the anniversary of her              through Jesus Christ` alone," said                          death of the great religious tradi-
  1917 appearance to three children          Rev. Richard Rhem  . . . . "When you                        tions, we are seeing their resur-
  in Fatima, Portugal....                   tell me I must say it is through                             gence and their renaissance."'
                                            Jesus Christ alone I don't know                                "...Has human experience taken
    What is striking is not so much         what to do with the Jewish be-                               precedence / over Scriptures?"
the increasing number of "appear-           lievers I have become so fond                                asked Rhem. "Yes, I hope  so,; and
ances" of the Virgin Mary as this           of...."                                                      that's why I am in tiouble. I don't
millennium comes to its close, but              "I have been hesitant to engage                          think you' can understand' the
                                            in biblical discussion because the
the increasing number of people                                                                          Bible apart from human experi-  h-
                                            biblical answer is divided," said
who                                                                                                      ence, and I don't think you can  s
        believe such things. Many see       Rhem.         "The Bible speaks with                         understand human experience
the "image" of Mary on windows              more than one voice."                                        apart from the categories of Scrip-
of buildings; they "smell the                  Rhem noted that the November                              ture."
roses" when Mary shows herself;             9 event was the first time he had
individuals claim that Mary speaks          spoken publicly on the contro-                                 In responding to Rhem's
to them and reveals secrets of fu-          versy surrounding his views, said                          speech, Dr.  Paul Fries, professor
ture events.                                he did so -with trepidation, em-                           at the  RCA+ New Brunswick
    This surely is another of the           phasized that he was not trying
                                            to be a "crusader," and said he                            Theological  Seminary,.commented:
signs of the end, when peoj+e.are           was surprised that his views had
ready to believe that which is so           created such' a controversy. "I                                "The Bible says more, is more
very contrary to Scripture. The             cannot believe that this issue is of                         complex on these issues than our
Post itself remarks upon the fact           such interest that it would get on                           theology has  ,often  allowed," said
that "the Bible contains sparse ref-        the front page of the New  York                              Fries.    "I've had secular people
erences to the mother of Jesus...."         Times; I think perhaps it is reflec-                         who know about the situation in
Those who know Scripture ought              tive of the church being reflexive                           Spring Lake who can't believe the
to recall the emphasis  ,of the             and afraid," said Rhem. "I don't                             church is still doing heresy- things
                                                                                                         in  this day. This is not helping
apostle Paul, who insisted that he          think I have said anything new; I
                                            don't think I have said anything                             our witness."
"determined to know nothing                 well."
among you save Jesus Christ and                "I found that in the early church                           One must truly be appalled
him crucified" (I Cor.  2:2). No            there was a strong strain of  .uni-                        that the case `of Rhem should be
mention of "roses" or "golden ro-           versalism, of the  ultimate  triumph                       termed a "heresy trial" which both
saries" or secret messages from the         of the grace of God,"  said  Rhem,                         unbeliever and "believer" consider
blessed Virgin. Scripture empha-            also noting that some "high Cal-                           out-of-place in our present age.
sizes not Mary but Christ. It has           vinists" historically taught  .elec-                       More appalling still is that this is
been the design of the deviI to turn        tion to universal salvation.                               regarded as "not helping our wit-
people from the cross to some al-              Rhem  acknowledged that the
                                            Bible included                                             ness." ~4K'zat  iwitness? Dpes this
ternative.                                                             some  apparently
                   .But even the Virgin     c l e a r   t e a c h i n g .   o n   s a l v a t i o n    not confirm the witness that Christ `
Mary is no alternative to the cross.        through Christ and that such                               is the  iWay, the only Way, of sal-

23O/St+ndard  Beart?r/Fed&y  15, 1997
             ._


             `
             .          .         .
vation?, `Ori is now the witness of               day some. wouid condemn Elijah           severed his irelationship  with that
the church to be that there is uni-               for such heresy hunting. Rather,         denomination. An agreement was
versal salvation  - and that too,                 many would have Elijah declare,          made by the RCA classis to have
through any form of religion? One                 "Follow Jehovah or follow Baal.          such a separation. But now other
recalls the challenge of Elijah to                Eith,er way will bring you to            charges evidently have been raised
the people of Israel,  `IHow long                 glory."                                  against Rhem - which the Classis
halt ye between two opinions?, If                     The situation of Rhem seems          believes must first be dealt with
the Lord be God, follow him: but                  murky at present. Is he, or is he        before he can be released from the
if Baal, then follow him." But to-                not, still a minister in the Re-         RCA.  R
                                                  formed Church of America? He



   `The Son of God and Sons of the Devil,

                                                        John 8:37-59

H                                                 the greatest honor among men, and        Abraham did (v. 56).
          e's got you `n me, brother,             even to the salvation of God. Jesus              Jews who do not believe in the
          in His hands. He's got the              acknowledges that the Jews have a        Lord Jesus are not true children of
          whole w o r l d   i n   H i s           noble natural line. Of course!           Abraham. They are not, therefore,
hands...." Such are words of a song               There were great advantages to be-       true children of God! They have
popular years ago. The words be-                  ing of the natural seed of Abraham       another father, even the devil (v.
tray a religion. It is the religion of            (cf. Rom.  3:1, 2;  9:1-5). But Jesus    44)!
the universal brotherhood of man.                 refutes the Jews' claim to be true               Such is Jesus' word about the
It is the religion of the universal               children of Abraham. For if they         sonship of some of the most reli-
fatherhood of God.                                were true children of Abraham,           gious people in the world  - of
    But Jesus does not sing that                  they would do Abraham's works            some, even, who ardently claim Je-
song. This we-are-all-one-family                  (v. 39). And this means they would       hovah God to:be their God and Fa-
religion was never His.                           have Abraham's faith. And this           ther. This too is Jesus' word about
    Jesus' denial of the universal                means they would believe on the          the  sonship ,of  all who refuse to
brotherhood of man, and His de-                   promises of God which are fulfilled      believe on, Him: they are sons of
nial that God is the Father of all,               in the Christ whom Jesus is! The         t h e   d e v i l .
are seen clearly in His clash with                Jews, in other words, if they were               About the Father? Jesus sings
the Jews in John 8:37ff.                          Abraham's true children, would           this: "He has the whole Cht~ch in
    The Jews claim a pedigree, a                  rejoice to see Jesus' day, just as       His hands!" To the praise of
blood-line, which entitles them to                                                         Father's electing grace!



                                                  That Ye Might Believe!                   God: Romans  3128, 29;  4:11, 12;
                                                                                           9:6ff.; Galatians 3:7,28,29; 4:21-31?
                                                  * The Jews thought that being of         In this passage in John 8, what does
                                                  the naturu2 seed of Abraham was          Jesus say characterizes true Jews?
                                       d     -    being the true, seed of Abraham.
                                                  What do the following texts say are      * The Jews, went so far as to say
Rev;  .Dick  .is pastor  of  Grace  Protes-       the source and characteristics of        that they had God as their father
tant Reformed Church in Standale,                 being,a true son of Abraham, a true      (v. 41); Scripture indeed does teach
Michigan.                                         Jew, and therefore a true child of       that God is the Father of Israel:

                                                                                               February 15,1997  /Standard Bearer/231


E x o d u s   4:22;  J e r e m i a h   31:9;    hearing or not hearing God's             but a few of God's `people die `in
Deuteronomy 14:1,2; Malachi 2:lO.               words, and therefore being a child       their bodies?: (In this connection,
Explain how God could call an en-               of God or not is whether that per-       think on the few who did not and
tire nation His "child" or "son"                son is "of God" or not. What does        will not die in their bodies. What
when not all, but in fact only a                it mean to be "of God"? When is          are the purposes of God in having
small remnant, were truly His                   one "of" God? How and for what           some never see bodily death?)
own?                                            reason does this occur (cf. texts
                                                such as John3:3, 5; 5:44; 644; 8:47;     c* Jesus promises that the life He
ut What the Jews were teaching                  10:26)?  How does this exclude           gives is enjoyed by those who
was that, through things and rites              boasting for those of us who be-         "keep" His saying (v. 51). What
"natural" (blood, circumcision),                lieve? Does being "of God" mean          is the "saying" one is to keep?
spiritual blessings were communi-               that God's elect were never chil-        How does one keep it? How does
cated. Roman Catholics teach a                  dren of the devil, even before they      Jesus' promise here of life through
similar error. There is, according              were converted?           What of        (and only through) obedience har-
to them, grace worked in the sac-               Ephesians 2:3 which speaks of us         monize with the gospel that we are
raments, regardless of faith. HOW               as being by nature children of           saved by grace only, and not by
can this myth be perpetuated                    wrath, even as others?                   our works?  :
among us today, that salvation is
rather an "automatic" or "natural"              [* The father of the unbelieving         * There is urgency here! Jesus
thing, due to outward relation-                 Jews is the devil. Jesus minces no       is speaking to people who were
ships and ceremonies? What about                words. "Ye are of your father the        pretenders to true religion. They
the good gifts of God's provi-                  devil," He says. "And the lust of        who went about seeking to estab-
dence? Is having these an evi-                  your father ye will do" (v.  44)!        lish their ow:n righteousness were
dence that God is your Father?                  Here, among other things, Jesus es-      in fact lost in sins, slaves of the
Think, in this connection, on what              tablishes the truth of the existence     devil, bound for hell. If they did
Asaph discovered when he went                   of the devil! The devil is real! He      not repent, woe to them! So we
into the sanctuary (Ps. 73)!                    is the prince of this world, the         must be warned, lest we be found
                                                prince of darkness! Using a con-         to be sons of!the devil (cf. P.s. 2:12;
v Clear proof of the Jews' not be-              cordance and good Bible dictio-          I Cor.  9:27)!1  In this connection,
ing Abraham's true seed was their               nary list the names the Bible gives      think of fivelfruits of being a true
relation to Jesus. They did not                 to the devil. What is the history        child of God! Are they evident in
truly believe Jesus (vv. 30, 31), for           of the devil? What are some of           your life? Is your life and is my
Jesus' word had no place in their               the things he does? What three           life a rejoicing in Jesus' day?
hearts (v. 37). Besides that, rather            occupations of the devil does Jesus      How?
than rejoicing to see Jesus' day (cf.           mention here? Give some ex-
v. 56 and my comments on the                    amples of the devil "in action"          cc In this age of "tolerance," and
same in the article prior to this),             from the record of Scripture; from       amid the pre,vailing religion of the
they sought to kill Jesus (vv. 37,              our own experience in the world          universal brotherhood of man,
59)! True sons of Abraham and of                today. How are the devil's char-         how do  we'show   our  distinction
God would continue in Jesus'                    acteristics and purposes seen in his     from the sons of the devil? Is there
words (v. 31), would love Jesus (v.             children?                                any place for  cooperation  between
42), and rejoice in His day (v. 56)                                                      the church and the world in "com-
- just as Abraham did! Why is                   Having Life Through His Name             mon causes"?
loving attachment to Jesus neces-               0~ Jesus' mission is to give life (v.
sary for one to be a child of God               51). In  Him  is life (John  1:4). He    cc Church!,        T r u e   s o n s   o f
(cf. John 3:16,  17; 5:36, 37; 8:18, 27,        is given that whosoever believeth        Abraham! Sons of God, through
29;  10:36;   11:42;   12:49;   14:6, 10;       on Him might have everlasting life       faith in Jesus Christ the eternal
123, 8; I John 5:1)?                            (3:16).  He promises life, for He        Son! Preach! Rejoice: God  has
                                                has the words of life (6:63,68). He      the whole world, and all history,
m In verse 43 Jesus gives the rea-              is .the way, the truth, and the life     in His hands! To execute destruc-
son for the Jews' failure to under-             (14:6). Think on this life: its          tion upon the devil and his chil-
stand Jesus' speech: it was because             source, its nature, its length, and      dren! To save and to preserve His
they could not hear His word? Ex-               our knowledge and enjoyment of           own by sovereign grace! Live the
plain this inability to hear.                   it. Here in John  8:51 Jesus prom-       life of Father's true sons! Blessed
                                                ises that one who keeps His say-         sons. Holy sons. Praising sons!
(* In verse 47 Jesus explains that              ing shall never see death. How is                                               cl
the fundamental reason for one                  this to be explained, seeing that all

232JStandard  Bearer/February 15, 1997


                                                   Chapter 6
        The Fall of Our First Patients
                                                       (cont.)


                                          God had created her. But, in the         problem, much more difficult than
The Temptation and Fall                   first place, there may indeed be         when he tempts us. We are fallen.
             e are now ready to give      something in the fact that Adam,         The inclination to doubt, to unbe-
             our attention to the         not Eve, had received the com-           lief, to lust, to pride, is present in
MTtemptation and fall of                  mandment directly from God, al-          our very nature. Because sin is
Adam and Eve as recorded in Gen-          though this cannot be of great im-       already present in us, in heart and
esis 3:1-6. In this simple and brief      portance.                                mind and will, waiting, as it were,
historical record of the temptation           In the second place, we must         to be appealed to, we are easy vic-
and fall of our first parents there       remember that Eve was not the            tims of the temptation of the Evil
are various easily discernible steps.     head and thus did not bear the re-       One. But Eve was pure of nature,
The first of these is described in        sponsibility which Adam had.             as was also Adam. She was with-
the first three verses of Genesis 3:      This is not to say that Eve was not      out sin and j without any inclina-
"And he (that is, the serpent) said       personally responsible; she cer-         tion to sin.  ;The spiritual attitude
unto the woman, Yea, hath God             tainly was. But because Adam was         of her inmost nature was one of
said, Ye shall not eat of every tree      the head, not only of the woman          perfect integrity, Only she had the
of the garden? And the woman              but of the entire race, his position     peculiar freedom and power to
said unto the serpent, We may eat         was the more responsible.                change this perfect integrity into
of the fruit of the trees of the gar-         In the third place, if we bear       an attitude of corruption and sin
den: But of the fruit of the tree         in mind the possibility that the         by an act of her own will. Eve
which is in the midst of the gar-         woman's nature was more suscep-          was not morally perfect in. the
den, God hath said, Ye shall not          tible to an appeal to the senses         highest sense, so that there was no
eat of it, neither shall ye touch it,     than that of the man, that her na-       possibility of sin for her; but she
lest ye die."                             ture was closer to the occasion of       was fallible.
    First of all, we must notice that     the temptation, that the devil, in           Hence, the devil's problem was
the tempter addressed himself to          order to create the lie, had to im-      to play upon Eve's will in such a
the woman, not to the man. And            press upon the tempted the beauty        way as to make her desire the very
the question may be asked: Why?           and desirability of the tree through     object forbidden by God; so that
    The answer to this question           an appeal to the senses, and if we       she would choose it rather than
cannot lie in the possibility that the    add to this the possibility that         God's way. To obtain this result,'
woman could be more easily                Adam could more easily be                the forbidden fruit had to be pre-
tempted because she was morally           tempted through his wife than by         sented to her mind as above all
weaker. This is not true. Adam            the tempter in person because of         things desirable. And in order to
and Eve both stood in moral in-           the close proximity of Eve to            achieve this purpose the devil had
tegrity as they came from the hand        Adam, then we can somewhat un-           to create the lie about the tree of
of their Creator. Eve was no more         derstand this approach of Satan.         knowledge of good and evil; he
inclined to sin than was Adam.            We may add that this manner of           had to contradict the truth of God.
There was no weakness in Eve as           approach is quite in keeping with            Let us see how this was done.
                                          his deceitful and wily nature.               The devil begins by attempt-
                                              In considering the tempter's         ing to sow doubt in the soul of
                                          approach to Eve, we must remem-          Eve; and he does so by means of a
The late Homer Hoeksema was pro-          ber that there is a considerable dif-    very subtle question, "Yea, hath
fessor  of  Dogmatics and  Old Testa-     ference between the temptation of        God said, Ye:shall  not eat of every
ment in the Protestant Reformed           Eve and our temptations today.           tree of the garden?"
Seminary.                                 The devil confronted a difficult             Let us understand the intent

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of this question. It was not the          and do not kill, that partaking of       knowledge of good and evil; in-
devil's purpose to create confusion       this one tree can possibly be bad        stead she designates it as "the tree
in Eve's mind as to the meaning           for us?"                                 which is in the midst of the gar-
of God's command and to attempt               How well the devil succeeded         den."              :
to change God's word in Eve's             with his introductory question be-               In the third place, she exagger-
mind. That would have been a              comes evident immediately. For           ates and twists the command of
foolish attempt on the devil's part.      Eve begins to yield.                     God when she adds to it that they
For not only was the command-                 Evidence of her yielding may         might not  even touch the tree.
ment of God so simple and plain           already be seen in the fact that Eve     God had never said this. Not only
that there could be no confusion          takes up the discussion of the mat-      is this exaggeration a sign of weak-
about it; but also such a question        ter with the serpent. For one thing,     ness, but it leaves the  impr&sion
would exactly call to mind God's          there is at least the indication of      that the  de91 had certainly suc-
rich goodness. They had already           pride already in the fact that she       ceeded in mziking  Eve think of the
eaten of the fruit of the other trees,    ignores Adam. If we remember             tree itself in `terms of its being a
and death had not come. More-             that the probationary  cominand          death-dealing tree.
over, in that case the devil suc-         had a unique significance, if we                 This last: is certainly the im-
ceeded not at all: for in the stron-      bear in mind that the future of the      pression left by the fourth misquo-
gest terms Eve denies that. God           whole race was involved, if we           tation: "lest ye die."  l+re Eve
had forbidden them to eat of ev-          keep in mind the fact that Adam,         betrays the +ct that she  IS think-
ery tree. Besides, we must remem-         not Eve, was the head of the hu-         ing of the  p:ossible  conseqiiences
ber that sin is exactly not based         man race, if we remember also that       of eating of  .or touching  th@ tree,
on mental confusion and lack of           Adam was the head of the woman,          rather than of obeying God's com-
clarity with respect to God's com-        and if, finally, we remember that        mand. For She presents death as
mands.                                    Adam, not Eve, had received the          the result of eating of the fruit of
    No, the devil by means of this        command of God directly, then            the tree, or of touching  the tree,
question very subtly purposes to          there is reason to believe that pride    rather than tis the punishment of
create an introductory basis for his      already motivated Eve when she           sin.
argument.       He wants to bring         presumed to discuss the matter                   Especially this last is very im-
home to Eve's mind the idea that          without Adam. She should have            p o r t a n t .
that tree will not kill her, that the     said,  "Jus.t a minute; let me call              The devil had succeeded. The
tree will make her like God, and          my husband." Moreover, her only          seed of doubt had already struck
that there is a reason why God for-       reply to the serpent, should she         root in Eve's:soul.  She was think-
bade her and her husband to eat           give one, should have been a re-         ing within h&self, "We may eat of
of that one tree. To accomplish           buke, for there was criticism of         every tree, but this tree will sup-
this purpose he calls attention to        God in the very question which the       posedly kill us. How can that be?"
the general fact: trees do not kill;      serpent asked her.                               Now the devil moves in
in fact, by the fruit of the trees you        But it is important to notice        boldly. The' sedond  stage of the
live; for has not God permitted           Eve's reply. For in her answer           temptation is described ifi verses
you to eat of every tree of the gar-      there is clear evidence that she         4 and 5: "And the serpent said
den? He means to arouse in Eye's          yielded to doubt. Eve answers:           unto the woman, Ye  shall not
soul the question: if we may  .eat        "We may eat of the fruit of the          surely die:  #For God doth know
of all the trees in the garden, what      trees of the garden: But of the fruit    that in the day ye eat thekeof, then
possible harm can there be .in eat-       of the tree which is in the midst of     your eyes shall be opened, and ye
ing of this one tree? This the devil      the garden, God hath said, Ye shall      shall be as God (not:  as "gods"),
does, not by means of a forthright        not eat of it, neither shall ye touch    knowing good and evil."
statement, but by a subtle ques-          it, lest ye die." In this answer                 Notice now that the devil's
tion, a question designed to make         there  a.re four distinct points in      word is a flat cotitradictiion of the
Eve ponder the answer and to              which Eve misquotes and misrep-          Word of God. He is the liar from
come to the devil's conclusion. In        resents God's command. In the            the beginning. He boldly contra-
this question, he already brings in       first place, Eve uses the plural,        dicts God  atid replaces the truth
God? This is above all necessary.         "Ye," while God had used the sin-        of God by his own lie. This lie is
The hidden intent of the question         gular "thou" and had addressed           based on the' argument i&plied  in
is to make Eve say within'herself:        Adam alone when He announced             his first question. The devil per-
"I wonder why, if trees would kill,       the command. She presumed to             ceives that  the heart of Eve has
God did not forbid us to eat of all       speak for her husband.,                  been prepared for this bold con-
the trees? And how can it be, if              Secondly, she  avoids  mention-      tradiction. She has yielded to the
the other trees are good for food         ing the name of the tree of the          doubt of the first question'. The

234/Standard  Bearer/February 15, 1997


devil had, in effect, argued, "Trees      tened  to the slander of the devil.      manifested; sin's "vainglory of
do not kill, do they? This tree will      Moreover, she is swelled with            l i f e . "
surely not kill." Eve shows that          pride: she will be like God and              It could'but follow, then, that
she has yielded by continuing to          independently determine what is          Eve committed the actual deed of
listen to the devil; she shows that       good and evil.                           sin and ate :of the forbidden tree.
she is ready to be convinced.                 Then comes the third step. The       It could also only follow that she
    But this is not enough. Eve's         devil has done his evil work, and        tempted her husband. She had
mind is ready for another evil mas-       what is now successfully im-             plunged herself into misery, and
ter stroke of the devil. For there        planted  ,in Eve's heart and soul        she knew it; She herself was mo-
must have been a reason why God           must only bear its fruit: she sur-       tivated by enmity against God and
forbade them to eat of the tree. Of       renders to lust. This is described       by the love of darkness rather than
this situation the devil takes ad-        in verse 6: "And when the woman          light, also in her attitude toward
vantage in order to slander God,          saw that, the tree was good for          her husband. She could not toler-
first of all. He connects his lie with    food, and that it was pleasant to        ate the fellowship of the sinless,
the tree. He speaks an apparent           the eyes, and a tree to be desired       holy, righteous husband; she there-
truth:. "Ye shall know good and           to make one wise, she took of the        fore sought immediately to bring
evil. Your eyes shall be opened."         fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave     him down with her into death. In
    To. this he adds  the  lie of all     also unto her husband with her,          this she succeeded - apparently,
-lies: "Ye shall be as God." Thus         and he did eat." -                       if we may judge from Scripture's
he ascribes evil motives to God.              Eve now. beholds the tree en-        brief statement of it, without much
"God doth know this," he says.            tirely apart from the Word of God.       of a struggle. The devil had cal-
He pictures God as a God who              She beholds that it is good for          culated correctly when he plotted
does not seek the highest good for        food. This must certainly have           to tempt Adam through his wife.
His creatures, but their evil. He         been true in itself. But in the light        In conclusion, let us take care-
presents the true good of Adam            of the Word of God, it was the lie.      ful note of the fact that all that is
and Eve as lying in the direction         But the power of.sin had already         involved in the sin of our first par-
of disobedience. He presents the          darkened Eve's understanding             ents is a matter of their fundamen-
end of sin as a good to be desired:       spiritually. She sees food value in      tal, spiritual, ethical viewpoint,
"Ye shall be as God." Here the            the fruit. How could it possibly         proceeding from their inmost na-
devil is revealed in his true char-       kill? Here is manifested the "lust       ture. Their nature was penetrated
acter as the adversary of God, who        of the flesh" mentioned in I John        by the lie of the devil. Their na-
opposes and contradicts the Word          2:16.                                    ture  - heart and mind and soul
of God,, and as. the slanderer of             Secondly, Eve beholds the tree       and strength, - was changed spiri-
God, the liar, who always speaks          as pleasant to the eyes. This also       tually and became sinful. From
of his own and lies. Here sin is          was undoubtedly true, apart from         the viewpoint of that sinful nature,
revealed in its deepest principle:        the Word of God. That tree was           the lie looked to be the truth, evil
It is to negate God, to deny God          not in itself ugly. But in the light     appeared good, the way of death
and His sovereignty. Sin means            of God's Word it was a tempta-           appeared to be the way of life, the
that man will be his own god, de-         tion, of vanity, from which her          way of misery appeared the way
termining for himself what shall          eyes should have been turned             of happiness. Here lies the deep-
be good and evil.                         away. Now, however, the tree be-         est root of sin. Let us remember
    Eve believed the devil. She           gan to be attractive to her. Here        this. Sin is! not a matter of the
goes on listening. She contem-            is manifested sin's "lust of the         mere intelle$t, not a matter of ob-
plates what the tempter says. This        e y e s . "                              jective evidence, not a matter of
is the same. as believing him. The            In the third place, Eve now be-      argument. It is not any of the
elements of this attitude of Eve are      holds the tree as "desired to make       former that  j makes the world of
very plain. In the fist place, there      one wise." She sees the violation        sinners believe the lie. The trouble
is in Eve doubt and unbelief with         of the Word of God as the way to         is with the nature. In the deepest
respect to God's Word. She is             true wisdom and the tree as a            sense, it is with the heart, from
open to questioning and even to           means to make her wise. This is          which are the issues of life. That
contradiction with respect to that        because she views the tree from          heart, and the entire nature with
Word of God. She is no longer             the viewpoint of the devil's lie, "Ye    it, is corrupt. To that corrupt na-
minded to. accept that Word un-           shall be as God, .kno,wing good and      ture the lie looks good, and the
conditionally. In the second place,       evil." That tree could instruct her      way of sin is attractive, beautiful,
there is in her a repudiation and         and open her eyes! :, She sets aside     desirable to make one wise.
disavowal of the love of God. For         the Word of .God a.@~ already pre-           For the same reason, salvation
otherwise she could not have lis-         fers her own, judgment. Here is          is not a matter of education or of

                                                                                      February  15,1997/Standard  Bearer/235


reformation. It is a matter of a             ous change  -of regeneration  - a       That wonder-work of regeneration
divinely and sovereignly wrought,            change through which all things,        is a  resurrec;tion  from the dead:
radical change of the heart: a               God, self, sin, the truth of God's      and it is the' work of God alone,
change that is powered by the cru-           Word, appear different, radically through the Spirit of our Lord
cified and risen Lord, a change              different - that change is before       Jesus Christ, crucified and raised.
from death unto life. That  marvel-          all else the work of God's grace.                      : (to be continued) Cl




                             Supralapsarianism  i

I3aving predestinated us turn to comment on this work. is, they speak of individuals being
             unto the adoption  of  chil-                    - - - - - -             chosen or elected by .God as they
             dren by Jesus Christ to him-       In dealing with the lapsarian        exist in time' and are fallen into
self, according to the good pleasure  of     controversy we are dealing with         sin. Their election comes to them,
his will.                                    the subject of the counsel of God       therefore,  after  the  faZl,  which is
                          Ephesians  1:5     and the order of its decrees.           what the word  infralapsarian  would
                                                The counsel of God is His eter-      seem literally to mean. The thing
    A few days ago I received from           nal thought or plan concerning ev-      to note, however, is that not one
Mr. Roelof Jansen of Inheritance             erything that takes place in time,      of these texts is speaking of the
Publications a copy of a new book            as He says of Himself in Isaiah         counsel of God, but they all speak
he has published which includes              46:9, 10, "I am God, and there is       rather in terms of the experience
within it a translation of Dr. Klaas         none else; I am God, and there is       of man in time. But what we-want
Schilder's booklet, Extra-ScripturaZ         none like me, declaring the end         to take note `of now is that there
Binding  - A New Danger.  This               from the beginning,. and' from an-      are other passages in the Bible
work appeared originally as a se-            cient times the things that are not     which do. speak of the counsel of
ries of articles in  De Reformatie           yet done; saying, My counsel shall      God, and give toits order quite a
criticizing the "Brief Declaration of        stand, and I will do all my plea-       different perspective:
Principles" soon after it was drawn          sure." Clearly God is speaking              Among these passages there is,
up by the Protestant Reformed                here of His own distinctive nature,     perhaps, none more basic than that
Synod of 1950. I read through it             that which sets Him apart from ev-      which we find in Ephesians  1:5:
with a high degree of fascination,           ery other being. He tells us that       "Having predestinated us unto the
finding it to be for me a most dra-          all things which exist apart from       adoption  ofi children by Jesus
matic illustration of the difference         Him are known and ordained by           Christ to himself, according to the
between the thinking of Dr.                  Him in a totality of thought which      good pleasure of his will." Actu-
Schilder and that of the Rev.                was completed entirely before any       ally it was John Calvin in his In-
Herman Hoeksema.                             of these things ever came to exist.     stitutes [111:24:5],  who first pointed
    Had I received it earlier, be-           But the important thing for us at       to this text w,hen dealing with the
fore I wrote my previous article             this point is that, according to the    subject of what is .primary in the
on infralapsarianism, I would no             Scriptures, there was a relationship    counsel of God.
doubt have begun comment on it               which God had ordained between              The point is that here, at the
immediately; but now, for the sake           the various parts of this plan, that    beginning of this most important
of continuity, it is perhaps best            is, between the various decrees         chapter concerning the predestina-
that I first finish this treatment of        which constitute the elements of        tion of God,, Paul is speaking of
basic doctrinal differences between          His counsel.                            the first purpose of God; and he
us and the Liberated, and then re-               In our last article we took note    tells us that it is to be found in the
                                             of the fact that there are many pas-    will of God to have a people  who
                                             sages in Scripture which speak of       may be adopted to be His children
Rkv.  Woudenberg  is a minister-emeri-       election in what might well be con-     in Jesus Christ His Son. This is
tus in the Protestant Reformed               sidered an infralapsarian way; that     God's first or original decree.
Churches.

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God's first purpose in creation was       whom He is bringing to salvation,          is a temporal order in the decrees
not simply to have a world, or to         much as we read in Isaiah  43:21:          of God.  Anid,  in the second place,
demonstrate His ability to make           "This people have I formed for             open the way to find an answer
such a world. Neither was it, as          myself; they shall show forth my           to the question: why is there a
was `commonly thought Calvin              praise." It is what election is all        reprobation? . . . We, therefore,
taught, that God made a world pri-        a b o u t . '                              would like  ito present the matter  `,
                                                                                     of God's counsel of predestination
marily so that. He would be able            Nowhere;: however,  is this              as follows., God conceived and
to demonstrate that He was a God          brought out more dramatically              willed all things in His eternal de-
of mercy and of justice. God's first      than at the conclusion of that great       cree for His  :own  name's sake, that
purpose was that He should have           prayer of Jesus in John  17:22-24:         is, to the glory of His name and
a people who would in the end be          "And the glory which thou gavest           the reflection of His divine, infi-
adopted into His own circle of            me I have given them; that they            nite  virtues'and  life. And as the
Triune life, or, as Peter expressed       may be one, even as we are one: I          highest in God is His own cov-
it, II Peter 1:4, "that . . . ye might    in them, and thou in me, that they         enant life,  FIe willed to establish
be partakers of the divine nature."       may be made perfect in one; and            and to reveal His covenant in
                                                                                     Christ; and all other things in the
This is, in turn, the essence of elec-    that the world may know that thou          counsel of God as related to that
tion, for God knows from the be-          hast sent me, and hast loved them,         main purpose of God as means.
ginning who these people person-          as thou hast loved me. Father, I
ally and individually are.                will that they also, whom thou hast      There is always order and relation-
  Nor is this text unique in              given me, be with me where I am;         ship in the  ,works of God. His
teaching this. It runs all through        that they may behold my glory,           counsel is not a number of scat-
the Bible, as when Moses, as the          which thou hast given me: for thou       tered decrees more or less loosely
ambassador of Jehovah, said to            lovedst me before the foundation         related to each other. Rather, as
Pharaoh, "Israel is my son, even          of the world." In this chapter we        God Himself; it is one (Deut.  6141,
my firstborn. And I say unto thee,        are brought into the inmost circle       all the parts of His counsel are re-
Let my son go, that he may serve          of the divine life as the Son speaks     lated together as a logical whole,
me" (Ex.  4:22,   23). And in  Hosea      in the Spirit to the Father and tells    serving that purpose which is first.
ll:l, "When Israel was a child,           us of the first and foremost pur-            In the Old Testament one of
then I loved him, and called my           pose of the divine mind. God from        the most beautiful texts relating
son out of Egypt." All through            the beginning wills to have a            this is Isaiah:  43:4-7:  "Since thou
the Old Testament the nation of           people whom He may bring in the          wast precious in my sight, thou
Israel, as representative of all          end into His inmost sacred circle        hast been honorable, and I have
God's elect people, is looked upon        of divine fellowship and love.           loved thee: therefore will I give
as those who were chosen to be            And it is for this that He sent forth    men for thee; and people for thy
the children of God. And so, when         His Son.                                 life. Fear not: for I am with thee: I
we come to the New Testament,                 More.over, once we have              will bring thy seed from the east,
we have that beautiful doxological        grasped that truth, we begin to see      and gather thee from the west; I
chorus found in Romans 8 and cen-         that there are many passages of          will say to the north, Give up; and
tering in verses 14-17: "For as           Scripture which explain the whole        to the south, keep not back: bring
many as are led by the Spirit of          of human history in relation to          my sons from far, and my daugh-
God, they are the sons of God. For        this. All of history is related to       ters from the ends of the earth;
ye have not received -the spirit of       this first purpose as a means re-        even every one that is called by
bondage again to fear; but ye have        lates to its end, much as Rev.           my name: for I have created him
received the Spirit of adoption,          Hoeksema explained in his Re-            for my glory; I have formed him;
whereby we cry, Abba, Father.             formed Dogmatics (pp. 164-165):          yea, I have made him." Israel was
The Spirit itself beareth witness                                                  God's chosen,people,  a nation rep-
with our spirit, that we are the              We must emphasize not so             resentative  of: His elect in all ages;
children of God: and if children,          much what is first or last in the       but Isaiah came to them in a most
then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-        decree of God, but much rather         depressed situation. Among the
heirs with Christ; if so be that we        place ourselves before the ques-        nations of this world, few ap-
suffer with him, that we may be            tion: what in those decrees is con-     peared to be! of less importance
also glorified together." It is this        ceived as purpose, and what as
                                           means? What is the  main  object        than they. And yet Isaiah's assur-
appointment to be adopted as chil-         in those  decrees,  and what is sub-    ance to them: was that they were
dren of God which lies at the heart         ordinate and subservient to that       still first in the purposes of God.
of Christianity, and runs through-         main object?  In,this  way we first     In fact, all of the other nations,
out the Scriptures as God's pri-            of all escape the danger to leave      which seemed to be great in them-
mary viewpoint toward those                the impression that there after all     selves, were there only to serve the
                                                                                      February 15, 1997fSfandard  Bearer/237


cause of  Israelis salvation. It is a         In a somewhat different way,          When Paul speaks here of "whom
thought that runs through the             it is this also that is brought out       he did foreknow," he undoubtedly
whole of the Old Testament Scrip-         by Paul in Romans 9:22,23: "What          has in mind that great first pur-
tures, and sets forth the underly-        if God, willing to show his wrath,        pose of God, ,as in the divine mind
ing design of the whole counsel of        and to make his pow.er known, en-         He envisions: the end from the be-
God.                                      dured with much longsuffering the         ginning (Is. 46:10),  that goal of hav-
    No one, however, could trans-         vessels of wrath fitted to destruc-       ing a people adopted "by Jesus
late this more succinctly into New        tion: and that he might make              Christ to himself" (Eph. 1:5). And
Testament terms than did the              known the riches of his glory on          so, accordingly, He predestines
apostle Paul, as when he said in I        the vessels of mercy, which he had        them "to be conformed to the im-
Corinthians 3:21-23, "Let no man          afore  prepared unto glory." This         age of his Son." It is this that He
glory in men.. For all things are         passage is important because it is        is bringing about with the "all
yours; whether Paul, or Apollos,          one of the relatively few passages        things" of verse 28. And so He
or Cephas, or the world, or life, or      in Scripture that speak particularly      calls them, justifies them, and fi-
death, or things present, or things       of reprobation, the fact that there       nally brings them into glory. It is
to come; all are yours; and ye are        are other people who are alto-            simply the outworking of his origi-
Christ's; and Christ is  God/s." In       gether like the elect except for the      nal love with which He loved
Corinth, of course, there was a           fact that God has not chosen them.        them.
great deal of division which had          They from the beginning were or-              And the surety of that love
arisen among various factors in the       dained for a different purpose.           Paul goes on to exalt in that final
congregation over the question of         This purpose is not in them; God          triumphant refrain, verses 35-39:
who was most important; and each          is not a sadist who created a             "Who shall separate us from the
sought to establish his own pre-          people simply so that He might            love of Christ? shall tribulation, or
eminence by claiming association          cast them into hell. Rather, they         distress, or persecution, or famine,
with a figure he thought most im-         too, in that great mystery of the         or nakedness, or `peril, or sword?
portant in that early church. But         wisdom of God, like all other             As it is written, For thy sake we
Paul comes back in this text to           things, are there "that he might          are killed all; the day long; we are
scold them for their foolishness.         make known the riches of his glory        accounted  assheep for the slaugh-
All these people, he points out,          on the vessels of mercy, which he         ter. Nay, in all these things we
who seemed so important to them,          had  afore prepared unto glory."          are more than conquerors through
were but servants. Their purpose,         Even the reprobate serve the sal-         him that loved us. For I am per-
like all other things in this world,      vation of the people of God.              suaded, that neither death, nor life,
is to bring salvation to those who            But possibly no text lays out         nor angels, nor principalities, nor
are chosen of  God; If one be a           this design of the counsel of God         powers, nor things present, nor
child of God, all things are there        more beautifully and practically          things to come, nor height, nor
for his sake; for there is nothing        than the last part of Romans 8.           depth, nor any other creature, shall
more important to God than that           There we have verse 28, which so          be able to separate us from the
His people be brought into the            often has been a comfort to so            love of God, which is in Christ
communion of His inner circle of          many of God's little ones: "And           Jesus our Lord."
love. All things are there for those      we know that all things work to-              If then this is true of "all
who belong to Christ, even as             gether for good to them that love         things," it certainly includes also
Christ belongs to God.                    God, to them who are the called           the fall into sin. We certainly don't
    Nor is this greatly different         according to his purpose." Here           understand  ,a11 the workings of
from what Paul says even more             is that same thought again; all           God; but the plan is clear. The
poetically in II Corinthians  4:15:       things are there for those who are        fall, like everything else, was or-
"For all things are for your sakes,       chosen by Him. But the thought            dained to bring about God's first
that the abundant grace might             does not end there. Paul goes on          decree. In fact, as we have seen,
through the thanksgiving of many          to explain, verses 29, 30, "For           even the reprobate are there for
redound to the glory of God."             whom he did' foreknow, he also            that purpose. Election is above
Once again, Paul distinctly lays it       did predestinate to be conformed          (supra) the: fall (the Zaps-us).
out that in the overall plan of God       to the image of his Son, that he          Supralapsarianism is found di-
concerning this world, His first          might be the firstborn among              rectly laid out in the Scriptures
purpose is in His people. They            many brethren. Moreover whom              when it speaks of the counsel of
have been first from the beginning;       he did predestinate, them he also         God.          :
and all other' things are there so        called: and whom hejcalled,  them             And with that we have one of
that they may `share eternally in         he also just&e& an,d whom he jus-         the most beautiful truths of the
the glory of God.                         tified, them  `lie'  aik  `glorified."    Bible, introducing us to a dimen-

238/Standard  Bearer/February 15, 1997


sion of existence which we could            pose of "them that love God, . . .      ways past finding out! For who
never discover by ourselves (Job            the called according to his pur-        hath known the mind of the Lord?
11:17).  Behind this world which            pose." It alone brings meaning to       or who hathi been his counsellor?
we observe, there is another real-          this world, and to those who are        Or who hath first given to him,
ity which brings it all together, the       being prepared unto eternity, as        and it shall be recompensed unto
counsel of God. And in that there           Paul so beautifully expressed it        him again?, For of him, and
is a direction and purpose that             (Rom. 11:33-36): "0 the depth of        through him; and to him, are all
comprehends all things, and does            the riches both of the wisdom and       things: to whom be glory for ever.
so in a way that serves the pur-            knowledge of God! how unsearch-         A m e n . "   0
                                            able are his judgments, and his



Minister Activities                         is training for the ministry in the     of fellow members. It  .also will
    The councils of two of our va-          OK.                                     provide a way of giving updated
cant churches presented new trios                                                   information  : on evangelism and
to their congregations, from which          Congregational Activities               will create an opportunity for
they were to call a pastor. Hope                Having mentioned this year's        Bethel's members to contribute po-
PRC in Walker, MI was to call               up-coming synod in June, we are         ems and articles..
from a trio of the Revs. R.                 reminded that the Building Com-             The congregation of the
Cammenga,  S.  Houck,  and K.               mittee of the' Grandville, MI PRC,      Randolph, WI PRC was treated to
Koole; and the congregation of the          this year's host for Synod, was         a combined bulletin for their Old
South Holland, IL PRC would call            busy asking for donations from          Year's night and New Year's morn-
a pastor from  a trio made up of            their congregation for much             ing services.  ; Not only did it in-
the Revs. A.  denHartog,  S. Key,           needed kitchen supplies, so that all    clude Rev. Key's sermon titles for
and K. Koole.                               would be ready later this year          those two services, it also included
                                            when synod spends some time at          a wide variety of appropriate
D&&ninational Activities                    their church. Synod at Grandville       quotes from such men as Matthew
    The regular semester for our            will give many from outside the         Henry,      Augustine,         Charles
Protestant Reformed Seminary be-            west Michigan area an opportunity       Spurgeon, and John Calvin. It also
gan on January 21. Three students,          to see firsthand the recently com-      provided a look back at congrega-
D. Kleyn, J. Laning, and M.                 pleted additions to our Grandville      tional statistics for 1996, including
VanderWal  are in their final se-           Church.                                 births and baptisms, new mem-
mester at the seminary. They will               On Friday, January 3, the in-       bers, confessions of faith, those
continue with regular course work           stallation service and welcome for      who left by transfer, those who left
to complete their requirements for          Rev. C. Terpstra, new pastor at the     for other churches, and those who
graduation, but they also will be-          First PRC in Holland, MI, was held      entered into `glory. A nice way,
gin preparing for synodical exams           at the Hudsonville, MI PRC.             we thought, to bring the year to a
in June, the Lord willing.                      In order that they might be         close.
    We are also happy to note that          "well read" in the Word, the con-
Seminarians Gary Eriks (2nd-year            gregation of the Grace PRC in           School Activities
student) and Nathan Brummel                 Standale, MI was encouraged to              The Hope Foundation of the
(3rd-year  student) have been li-           pick up a Bible-reading schedule        Hope PR Christian School in
censed by our Seminary to speak             from their  ,pastor,  Rev. M. Dick.     Walker, MI is once again this year
a word of edification in our                Although the schedule was not           sponsoring a Travelogue Series as
churches.                                   written by him, he did recommend        a way to generate some income for
    Remember these men, as well             it in the hope that it would serve      their  foundaten.  Their goal is, of
as M. Kortering (lst-year student),         to give some direction and disci-       course,. to accumulate a large
who study for the ministry of the           pline to reading the Bible for the      enough balance that an annual dis-
Word in our churches.                       coming year.                            bursement of I earned income will
    A fourth senior, Mr. D. Thole,              A new monthly newsletter, en-       have a positive effect on the oper-
                                            titled, appropriately, "Bethel          ating budget of Hope School. This
                                            News," was introduced to our            year there are four travelogues
                                            Bethel congregation in Itasca, IL in    scheduled to be held at Grandville
Mr.  Wigger is an elder  of  the Protes-    January. This letter was started        High School: The first one, en-
tant Reformed Church  of  Hudson-           in the hope.,,of providing a way of     titled "Pacific Coast - Top to Bot-
ville, Michigan.                            making known the needs and joys         tom," was presented by Ken

                                                                                       February 15, 1997/Standard  Bearer/239

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



Lawrence on January 18, with                                    efforts of some of the men of the
three more coming in February,                                  Lynden, WA PRC who took ad-                          Food For Thought
March, and April.                                               vantage of the heavy snowfall to                           "You may take one step from
         We are also happy to report                            raise funds for the school. They                     Paul to Augustine, then from Au-
that the "storm of the century,"                                organized and went door-to-door                      gustine to Calvin, and then - well
which literally shut down the town                              in Lynden with shovels and heavy                     you may .keep your foot up a good
of Lynden, WA, only slightly dam-                               equipment, offering to clear walks                   while before. you find such. an-
aged our Covenant Christian                                     and driveways for a donation to                      o t h e r . "
School there. And we applaud the                                Covenant Christian School.                                            -I Charles  Spurgeon  0



                TEACHER NEEDED!                                                    NOTICE!!
         Hope Protestant Reformed Christian                          Hope Protestant Reformed Christian
School is accepting applications for a junior                   School will graduate its 50th class in June,                       CALI,  TO ASPIRANTS
high teaching position for the 1997-1998 school                 1997. To commemorate this milestone a cel-                           TO'THE MINISTRY
year. Those interested should contact Ron                       ebration is being planned for the evening of               All young men desiring to begin studies
Koole at (616) 453-9717 (school) or (616) 735-                  April 18, 1997. Please plan to join us.              for the 1997  - 1998 academic year in the Theo-
1816 (home) or send an application to the                                                                            logical School of the Protestant Reformed
school, 1545 Wilson Avenue SW, Grand Rap-                              RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                        Churches should make application at the
ids, MI 49544.                                                       The Junior Mr. and Mrs. Society of Hope         March 20, 1997 meeting of the Theological
                                                                PRC (Walker) express Christian sympathy to           School Committee.
             WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                                Jeff and Kathy Terpstra and their children in              A testimonial from the prospective
         With thanksgiving to God, our parents and              the death of her father,                             student's consistory that he is a member in
grandparents,                                                            HENRY VANDER VENNEN.                        full communion, sound in faith, and upright in
               MR. and MRS. ALVIN                                    May they be comforted in His word and           walk; a certificate of health from a reputable
                       DE YOUNG,                                be sustained by God's grace. "The Lord will          physician; and high school and college tran-
celebrated their 35th wedding anniversary on                    give strength unto his people; the Lord will         scripts must accompany the application. Be-
February 14, 1997.                                              bless his people with peace" (Psalm  29:ll).         fore entering the seminary, all students must
         We give thanks to our heavenly Father                                      Prof. R. Dykstra, President      have earned a bachelor's degree and met all
for our faithful, covenant upbringing, and pray                                    Brenda Langerak, Secretary        of the course requirements for entrance to the
that He will continue to bless them and keep                                                                         seminary. These entrance requirements are
them in the years to come.                                                   ATTENTION TEACHERS!                     listed in the seminary catalog available from
         "And all thy children shall be taught of                    Hope Christian School of Redlands, Cali-        t h e   s c h o o l .
the Lord; and great shall be the peace of thy                   fornia is in need of an administrator/teacher              All applicants must appear before the
children" (Isaiah  54:13).                                      or teacher for the 1997-1998 school year.            Theological School Committee for interview
+t+      Dan and Laura  Schipper                                Grade assignments are negotiable. For more           before admission is granted. In the event that
                                                                information, interested persons should contact
              Bradley, Nicholas, Erika                                                                               a student  cannot,appear  at the March 20 meet-
                                                                the school principal, Mr. Ed Karsemeyer, at          ing, notification of this fact, along with a sug-
Z@       Todd and Lisa Groenendyk                               the school at (909) 793-4584, or Doug Pastoor        gested interview date, must be given to the
              Ethan                                             at (909) 792-9392, or Glenn Feenstra at (909)        secretary of the Theological School Commit-
                                          Jenison,  Michigan    794-5859.                                            tee before this meeting.
             ATTENTION TEACHERS!                                                                                           All correspondence should be directed to
         East Side Christian School of Grand Rap-                                  NOTICE!!                          the Theological School Committee,
ids, Michigan will be opening on September,                                                                                         4949 lvanrest Avenue
1997, D.V. The Board is seeking one admin-                           All students enrolled in the Protestant
                                                                                                                                    Grandville, Ml 49418.
istrator/teacher and two teachers for our multi-                Reformed Seminary who will be in need of
                                                                financial assistance for the coming school year                                 Jon Huisken, Secretary
grade classrooms ranging from pre-K to grade                                                                                        * *       * l * * *
9. Part-time positions will be considered. A                    are asked to contact the Student Aid Commit-
                                                                tee Secretary, Mr. Larry Meulenberg (Phone:                The Protestant Reformed Seminary ad-
supportive environment will be provided, in-                    453-8466). This contact should be made be-           mits students of any race, color, and national
cluding experienced teacher-aides.                                                                                   or ethnic origin.
         Contact Dr. Dwight Monsma at 2141                      fore the next scheduled meeting, March 4,
Jefferson Dr. S.E., Grand Rapids, Ml 49507                      1997, D.V.
                                                                                            Student Aid Committee
(616) 241-0823 or FAX (616) 942-9894.                                             Larry Meulenberg, Secretary
24O/Standard  Bearer/February  15, 1997


