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                      Standard
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                                                               See "The Inexcusable Judge" - p. 267

                                                                       ,`;                       !                       <
Vol.  73,  No.  12    '                  "         -`-        -`-
March  15,  1997


                                                                                                                                                                                                      - "",ip';`z
     CONTENTS:                                                                                                                       March  15,  1997                                                 @&$j                               Pe
I                                                                                                                                                                                          I         I-A
                                                                                                                                                                                                        $ p+g
                                                                                                                                                                                                        _ %& &tandard
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 I marer
     Meditation  - Herman  Hoeksema
            The Inexcusable Judge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267
     Editorial  - Prof. David  J, Engelsma-                                                                                                                                                          ISSN 0362-4692
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                ,:
            A Candid Confession of the Character of a                                                                                                                                                San&monthly,  except monthly during  June, July,  and August.
                      Conditional Covenant (6) . ...' . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269                              Published  by the Reformed Free Publishing  Association,  Inc.,
     A Cloud of Witnesses  -  Prof. Herman C. Hanko                                                                                                                                                  4949 lvanrest  Ave., Grbndville, MI 49418. Periodical Postage
                                                                                                                                                                                                     Paid  at  Grandville,  Michigan.
            Abraham Kuyper: Dutch Calvinist (2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272                                                              Postmaster: Send address changes to the Standard Bearer,
     Taking Heed to the Doctrine  - Rev.  Steven   R. Key                                                                                                                                            P.O.  Box  603,  Grandville,  Ml  49466.0603.
            The Antithesis (2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275         EDITORIAL  COMMllTEE
     Special Feature  - Rev. Ronald  VanOverloop                                                                                                                                                     Editor:   Prof.  David  J.  Engelsma
            Conference of the PRC in America with the EPC of Australia. 277                                                                                                                          Secretary:  Prof.  Robert  D.  Decker
                                                                                                                                                                                                     Managing  Editor:  Mr.  Don  Doezema
     Day of Shadows  - Homer C. Hoeksema                                                                                                                                                             DEPARTMENT  EDITORS
            The Fall of Our First Parents (concluded) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . i-279                                                                            Rev.  W.  Bruinsma,  Rev.  A.  Brummel,   Rev.  R.  Cammenga,
     Search the Scriptures  - Rev.  Mifchell C. Dick                                                                                                                                                 Prof.  Ft.  Decker.  Rev.  A.  dentlartog,   Rev.  M.  Dick,   Prof.  H..
                                                                                                                                                                                                     Hanko,   Rev.  R.  Hanko.  Rev.  S.  Key,  Rev.  K.  Kook?,   Rev.  J.
            When the Light Shines (1) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282                                Kortering,  Rev. D. H.  Kuiper,  Mr. J.  Lanting,  Mrs. M.  Lubbers.
     Decency and Order  - Rev. Ronald  L. Cammenga                                                                                                                                                   Rev. T. Miersma, Mr. G. Schipper, Rev. G. VanBaren,  Rev. R.
                                                                                                                                                                                                     VanOverloop,   Mr.  B.  Wigger,  Rev.  B.  Woudenberg.
            Essentials and Incidentals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283
     All Around Us - Rev. Gise J. VanBaren . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . _ . . . . . . . . . 285                                                       EDITORIAL             OFFICE       CHURCH  NEWS EDITOR
                                                                                                                                                                                                     The  Standard Bearer               Mr.  Ben Wigger
     News From Our Churches  -  A&-. Benjamin Wigger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . i . . . . . .287                                                                                  4949         lvanrest            6597     4Oth'Ave.
                                                                                                                                                                                                     Grandville,  Ml  49418             Hudsonville.  Ml  49426

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     266/Standard   Bearer/March 15, 1997


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                             The lnexcusa le Judge
                                                                :            :                                 _.
                                                                                                  :            .,                                        I_                                           1
                                                                      the apostle has written concerning                                                 It is important that we see this.
         herefore
T thou art inexcusable, the sinner is to take hold of the The apostle addresses a man who
           `0 man, whosoever thou art that                            consciousness of man, it is neces-                                                 judges others. He addresses a man
          judges t: fofor  wherein thou                               sary that the sinner does not ex-                                                  who does the same things, while
judgest another, thou condemnest thy-                                 cuse himself anymore. As long as                                                   he accuses others. Notice that the
self;  for  thou that judgest doest the                               the sinner can find one excuse, he                                                 apostle addresses this man di-
same things.                                                          will not be receptive to the gos-                                                  rectly. He points the finger at him
                                    Romans  2:l                       pel. It is also one of the chief char-                                             and says, "Thou art the man."
                                                                      acteristics of the sinner that he will                                                   The question has been  asked:
      The apostle introduces this sec-                                try to exclude himself from the                                                    what man does the apostle have.
ond chapter by combining it with                                      company of those who are under                                                     in mind? There have been many
the first when he says: "Therefore                                    the wrath of God. According to                                                     answers. The most common an-
thou art inexcusable, 0 man, who-                                     this tendency of the sinful heart,                                                 swer is that the apostle here ad-
soever thou art that judges."                                         the sinner might say, "It is all true                                              dresses the Jews. Those who hold
      "Therefore."                                                    what the apostle has written con-                                                  that position say that  in  chapter 1
      The question is, wherefore?                                     cerning the world. But I am not                                                    the apostle addresses the heathen.
Wherefore is this particular man                                      part of that rebellious, vile, dam-                                                In chapter 2 he addresses the Jews.
whom the apostle addresses inex-                                      nable world." He lifts himself                                                     The reason for this interpretation
cusable?                                                              above the world which the apostle                                                  is, in the first place, that it is evi-
      It is evident that the apostle is                               has described and, instead of be-                                                  dent that the apostle begins a new
introducing a new phase of the                                        ing a defendant, he makes himself                                                  phase of his main theme in chap-
main theme of this part of his                                        a judge.                                                                           ter 2. In the second place, the
epistle. This main theme is that                                                  This tendency the apostle takes                                        apostle literally addresses the Jews
the apostle develops a reason why                                     away. He says: "Therefore thou                                                     in verse 17, where he says: "Be-
he is not ashamed of the gospel of                                    art inexcusable, 0 man, whosoever                                                  hold, thou art called a Jew, and
Jesus Christ. He is not ashamed                                       thou art that judgest: for wherein                                                 restest in the law, and makest thy
of the gospel, because,  Ipositively,                                 t h o u   j u d g e s t   a n o t h e r ,   t h o u                                boast of God.`! In the third place,
it proclaims a righteousness which                                    condemnest thyself; for thou that                                                  the argument is that the apostle is
is free, which is by faith, which is                                  judgest doest the same things."                                                    speaking of one who judges an-
without works. Negatively, he is                                      Then this "therefore" is plain. For                                                other. It is characteristic of the'
not ashamed of the gospel, because                                    also in the last verse of the pre-                                                 Jews, they say, to judge others, and
the world is in need of just such a                                   ceding chapter the apostle had                                                     to place themselves above those
righteousness. It is impossible for                                   said:               "Who, knowing the judg-                                        whom they judge.  Therefore;they
man to attain righteousness. He                                       ment of God, that they which com-                                                  say, the apostle addresses the
is unrighteous, drawn down by the                                     mit such things are worthy of                                                      Jews.
wrath of God which is revealed                                        death, not only do the same, but                                                         I do not agree with this inter-
from heaven. This the apostle de-                                have pleasure in them that do                                                           pretation, even though it is the
veloped in the first chapter.                                    them." Therefore, thou belongest                                                        most general one. My reasons are,
     Now it is not only possible, but                            in this class. For thou doest the                                                       first, that the apostle says, "0
it is also characteristic of sinful                                   same things.                                                                       man." He might have said, "0
man, to look for an excuse. If what                                               In the text, the apostle places                                        Jew." But he does not. He says,
                                                                 the individual in the class of those                                                    "0 man." You can never inter'
                                                                 who are under the wrath of God.                                                         pret this to mean, "0 Jew." Sec-
                                                                                                                                                         ond, the apostle adds: "whoso-
Herman Hoeksema was the  first  edi-                             The Judge                                                                               ever thou art." This cannot mean
tor of the Standard Bearer.                                                       The apostle addresses a man.                                           the Jews only. Third, it is not true

                                                                                                                                                                    March 15, 1997/Standard  Bearer/267


that the characteristic which the         judge in a moral sense. This im-         are doing the same thing? In other
apostle mentions is peculiarly Jew-       plies that we are. able to evaluate      words, it is  ipossible  for us to back-
ish. It is not characteristically Jew-    a moral act. It implies that we are      bite in talking about the backbit-
ish. It is characteristic of every        able to estimate the moral value         ing of others. In one word, it is
sinful heart.     "Thou art inexcus-      of an act. In the second place, it       characteristic of the heart of man
able, 0 man, for thou that judgest        implies that we know the righteous       that he judges another, while he
another, doest the same thing."           judgment of God over the deeds           himself does the same things.
This is not only characteristic of        of men. In the third place, it im-
the Jew, but also of every sinful         plies, with a view to our text, that     His  Imagination
man.                                      this man's judgment is not applied           Why should man do this? The
 Therefore, the explanation is            to himself but to  .others. This is      implication' is that the man who
this. In the preceding chapter the        his mistake. In the fourth place,        so judges another, while he him-
apostle had spoken of the heathen.        the word implies that this man           self does the same things, tries to
But here he is speaking of man,           condemns them whom he judges.            persuade himself that he is judge
including the Jew, but not exclud-        In the fifth place, the word implies     rather than defendant. Thus, he
ing the heathen. In the second            that he expresses this judgment.         imagines that he can persuade God
place, you may notice that the            He openly condemns them before           and others that he is with excuse.
apostle is using the singular. He         others.                                  He lifts himself above all. He
does not speak of men. He spe-                Let us understand that this          takes part with the Judge.. He tells
cifically addresses man. It is im-        man who judges does the same             the Judge that he agrees with him.
portant that we see this. The             things. Notice that the apostle          He tells the Judge that all those
apostle means to point his finger         does not say, thou also  sinnest.        men before him are worthy of
at the individual man. In the third       This is not the point. The point is      death. He  ,makes himself a com-
place, notice this feature of the         that he does the  same  sins. He con-    panion of the Judge in the court-
text, that instead of talking  about      demns another who lies, and he           room. The. man does it. Each man
man, the apostle is now speaking          lies himself. He condemns another        does it.
to  him.                                  who steals, and he steals himself.           What a situation! Everybody
    There is this difference be-          He condemns another who com-             accusing everybody but himself.
tween the viewpoint of chapter 1          mits adultery, and he commits            This is the implication of the text.
and the viewpoint of chapter 2. In        adultery himself. The same moral         What a situation! This is terrible.
the first chapter, the apostle speaks     deeds which he condemns in oth-          Just imagine, in a courtroom there
of the heathen. But in the second         ers, he commits himself.                 are one hundred men, and every-
chapter, he speaks of man, includ-            Let us see how characteristic        one of them demands the sentence
ing the Jews, but not excluding the       this is of sinful man. There is noth-    of the other ninety-nine. This is
heathen, although he has in mind          ing Jewish about it. We find it in       the world. The world is a court-
to apply it specifically to the Jews      our own hearts. How characteris-         room. The judgment is not  com-
later on. In the first chapter, the       tic of the world that the world con-     ing;  the judgment is every  day.  It
apostle speaks in general. But in         demns the world in the things            is true that there is a final judg-
the second chapter, he uses the sin-      which the world does. You find it        ment coming. But the world is a
gular and points at the individual.       in your daily newspapers. A man          courtroom already now.            God
    The question now is, how do           condemns the thief and the bank          judges every man. But in this
you react when what the apostle           robber. At the same time, this           courtroom  ,every man stands be-
says here is laid at your door. The       judge who condemns the thief             fore the face of God and says,
apostle means to say, "Did you un-        himself steals right and left. The       "Yes, condemn them." Therefore,
derstand what I have developed            banker cries bloody murder when          the  apostl,e  says:     "Thou that
here? Well, this applies to you."         one steals from him. But he does         judgest another condemnest thy-
The text must be understood in            not care that after. he has piled up     self, for thou doest the same
this light. We must not say: this         the money of the poor, he closes         things."
is sound doctrine. That is not the        his bank." How characteristic of
question. The question is, when the       one generation to condemn the
word of God comes to us and says,         sins of a former generation. How
thou art that man, what do we             easy we can see, through the beam        * Hoeksema here comments on
say?                                      in our own eye, the mote in the          the social conditions during the
    The text says, "thou that             other's eye. Did you never notice,       years of the "great depression,"
judgest."     The apostle says that       while sitting in company and talk-       specifically the closing of the
man is a judge. Every man is a            ing about another, what a slan-          b a n k s .These sermons were
judge. He must judge. He must             derer he is, that all the while you      preached in the late 1930s.  - Ed.

268fStandard   Bearer/March 15, 1997


    In the second place, the pur-        His Inexcusability                                     does so, he actually includes him-
pose of the sinful heart that so             Therefore, the apostle says:                       self among them whom he con-
judges is to declare himself to be       "Thou art inexcusable, 0 man."                         demns, for he does the same
outside of this judgment.       WhY      What does this mean? Literally, it                     things.
does the sinner condemn the other        means, "to be without defense."                            What shall we say then? We
sinner? What is the underlying           When is a man with an excuse?                          shall say this.  :We will come down
idea? What is there in the sinful        In the first place, when the charge                    from the bench. We will come
heart that makes a man do this?          brought against him is not true.                       down from the bench of our imagi-
It is this, that he means to say, "I     In the second place, if  .that man is                  nary judgeship. We will take our
am better than all the others."          not under obligation. In the third                     place among'the accused. We will
  - You all know the story of            place, when a man is morally not                       stop judging the other; we will
David- and Nathan. As long as            responsible.  ,In the fourth place,                    bring  ourselvies  under the righ-
Nathan is speaking of the other          when what is demanded of him is                        teous judgment of God; and we
man, it is easy for David to con-        physically impossible.                                 will hear the, word of our text:
demn that other man. He  con-                Now the apostle says that in                       "Thou art the man."
demns.the  other man in the thing        God's_  courtroom man is inexcus-                          We will never do it! We will
that he was doing himself. When          able.  .' In the day of judgment, he                   never do it, unless God takes this
David says,  "that man shall surely      will be without defense. In the day                    word and inscribes it in our hearts,
be put to death," he means to say        of `judgment, God will judge ac-                       so that we hear it as the word of
by implication; "I would never do        cording `to truth. The apostle re-                     God: "Thou art that man." Then
that."                                   ally implies that God asks every                       we will say: "Be merciful to me a
    Did you ever notice' that if a       man: "Have you anything to say?                        sinner ."
man really comes to repentance,          Have you anything to say for your-                         But this is the admonition of
he talks about himself alone? He         self?"        And man will keep still.                 the text. Come down from the
says:      "Be merciful to me a sin-     God will say to the others: "Have                      bench. Come down to the floor of
ner." But as long as he talks about      you anything to say for the defense                    the courtroom. On the floor of the
others, he means to say, "I am bet-      of this man?" The world will say,                      courtroom is a Lawyer. Man has
ter."                                    "No, we have always condemned                          no excuse. But for him who places
    Before himself, this means de-       him."                                                  himself on the floor of the court-
ceit. He deceives himself. Before            He is inexcusable.                                 room, among the condemned,
others, it is conceit. Before God,           W h y   s h o u l d   h e   b e ?     The          there is the righteousness of God.
it is self-righteousness. And this       apostle says: "The things wherein                      Jesus Christ is his eternal defense
man, who so judges, will never be        thou judgest another, thou doest                       and apology. And we will say:
receptive to the gospel.                 thyself." When a man judges oth-                       "We, then, being justified by faith,
                                         ers, he shows that he is not irre-                     have peace with God, through our
                                         sponsible. He shows that he can                        Lord Jesus Christ."
                                         evaluate a moral deed. While he                                                               cl
                                                                                                                I
 ~@Jj@&yy                                      .~.                   ..                   ._
                                                                            ._'


A'Candid Confession of the Character
                      of a Conditional Covenant
                                                             (6)
                                                                                                                                        1

                                         for a doctrine that holds that God
T                                                                                               appeals to a  passage  of Scripture
          he third text that the  de-    loves all the physical children of                     which he supposes to teach a  de-
          fender of the conditional      believers with His covenant love,                      sire of God to save all men  with-
          covenant appeals to is I       and that God desires to save them                      out exception. It is no longer a
Timothy  2:3, 4. He is contending        all. In support of this doctrine, he                   matter only of God's desiring to

                                                                                                     March 15, 1'997/Standard  Bearer/269


save all the physical children of              (according to him) is given to ev-               That "all men" in verse 4 does
believing parents. It is now a mat-            ery child alike, depends upon the         not refer to "every human with-
ter of God's desiring to save ev-              child's faith, so in the general          out exception" is proved beyond
ery human without exception.                   preaching of the gospel God's de-         all doubt to every Reformed stu-
    Here again, it is evident that             sire to save all, which is expressed      dent of Scripture from verse 6. In
the doctrine of a conditional cov-             to every hearer by the "well-meant        verse 6 we read of "all" once more.
enant with all the physical children           offer," depends upon the sinner's         But this time the word describes
of believers is essentially the same           faith.                                    those for  ,whom Christ died:
as the teaching of a grace of God                                                        "(Christ Jesus) gave himself a ran-
in the gospel toward all who hear.             The Word "All" in I Timothy  214          som for all, to be testified in due
Both appeal to the same texts.                     Rev. Tuininga stumbles,  seri:        t i m e . "
.Rev. Cecil Tuininga appeals to I              ously, over the word "all." He as-               If "all" in verse 4 refers to "ev-
Timothy  2:3,4 in support of a cov-            sumes that the word "all" means           ery human, without exception,"
enant love of God for all children             "every human without exception."          this is what "all" means also in
of believers. In his recent book               He is wrong. Seldom in Scripture          verse 6. In this case, Jesus died as
advocating that God loves and de-              does "all" mean "every person             a ransom for every man without
sires  to  save  all who hear the gos-         without exception."          Often it     exception.
pel, Iain H. Murray of the Banner              means "all kinds or classes of per-             T h e   corinection   b e t w e e n   e x -
of Truth makes I Timothy  2:3, 4 a             sons," or "all men and women who          plaining "all" in verse 4 as "every
main biblical proof of his doctrine.           make up a certain, definite group."       man without exception" and ex-
He calls I Timothy  2:3, 4 "a cru-                 "All" does not mean "every            plaining "all" in verse 6 as "every
cial text" on behalf of his view of            person without exception" in  Ro-         man without exception" is inescap-
universal, conditional grace in the            mans  5:18b: "even so by the righ-        able  exegetically.  Those who ex-
gospel  (see  Spurgeon v.  Hyper-Cal-          teousness of one (Jesus Christ) the       plain "all" in verse 4 as "every
vinism,  Banner of Truth, 1995, pp.            free gift came upon all  men  unto        man without exception" cannot
149-154).                                      justification of life." The righ-         avoid universal atonement in verse
    This is Rev. Tuininga's appeal             teousness of Christ does not jus-         6.
to the text:                                   tify and give life to "every person             It is also inescapable  theologi-
                                               without exception."                       cally.  If God does indeed love ev-
  And in this connection, does God                 "All" does not mean "every            ery man without exception, so that
  not desire the salvation of all              person without exception" in John         He wills the salvation of every
  men? If not, how do you inter-               12:32:    "And I, if I be lifted up       man without exception, Jesus cer-
  pret I Timothy  2:3,  4? . . . If this is    from the earth, will draw all men         tainly died as a ransom for every
  not the  cIear message of Scripture,
  that God desires all men to be               unto me."     The crucified Christ        man without exception. For Jesus
  saved, then what does it say? (See           does not draw "every person with-         carried out the will of God.
  the  Standad  Bearer,  Jan. 1, 1997,         out exception" to Himself.
  p. 150.)                                         "All" does not mean "every                  Implications of Taking "All"
                                               person without exception" in I                             Universally
    I Timothy  2:3, 4 reads: "For              Corinthians  15:22b: "even so in                 Have Rev. Tuininga and, to be
this is good and acceptable in the             Christ shall all be made alive."          fair, the many other professing
sight of God our Savior; who will              Christ will not raise "every per-         Calvinists who appeal to I Timo-
have all men to be saved, and to               son without exception" unto eter-         thy 2 in support of a doctrine of
come unto the knowledge of the                 nal life in the last day.                 God's loving desire to save all
truth."                                            "All" does not mean "every            without exception considered the
    Rev. Tuininga understands the              human without exception" in I             implications of their explanation of
apostle to teach that God desires              Timothy  2:3, 4. The words "all           the text?
to save every human without ex-                men" occur first in the passage in               1) Ther,e is in God a real will
ception, by having every human                 verse 1. There, they refer to "all        that all without exception be saved
come to the knowledge of the                   classes of men," as verse 2 shows.        and come to the knowledge of the
truth. He  appeaIs to this text in             Christians must pray for "all men."       truth,  which will goes unfulfilled and
support of his doctrine of a condi-            The ruling class ("kings . . . and all    is  everlastin,$y  frustrated.  The text
tional covenant. His explanation               that are in authority") may not be        does not speak of a vague "desire"
of the text, therefore, must be that           excluded from their prayers.              or superficial "wish" (as though
God's desire depends for its real-             Verses 3 and 4 give the ground for        this were possible in God), but of
ization on the sinner's performance            this exhortation: God wills that          God's "will" (Greek:  theloo).   The
of the condition of faith. Just as             all classes and kinds of men be           salvation  of' all without exception
in the covenant the promise, which             saved.                                    is God's well-thought-out and firm

27OIStandard   Bearer/March 15, 1997


purpose. He may have other pur-                 He should be more careful.                           public prayers should be offered
poses. One of them may be the                   The interpretation that I have                      up for them; the apostle meets all
very opposite of this one. But it  .is      given was that of John Calvin.                           objections, so very natural, by ad-
the will of God to save every hu-               In his commentary on I  Timo-                        monishing the Church to pray
man without exception. This is not          `thy  %2:4,  the Reformer responded                      even for them also, and to sup-
                                                                                                     plicate God' to extend His grace
the will of God about a minor mat-          to "those who represent this pas-                        and favour even to them, for the
ter. This  ,is the will of God about        sage to be opposed to predestina-                        Church's quiet, peace and safety
the salvation and damnation of hu-          tion." Their argument was that the                       (Calvin's Calvinism,  RFPA, pp.
man beings.  ,And this purpose is           text contradicts and overthrows                          2 7 5 ,   2 7 6 ) .
not accomplished. This is a  .will          the teaching that "some are pre-
of God that is frustrated.                  destinated by His eternal purpose                           Concerning the word "all" in
    2); God is a God of sheer  self-        to salvation, and others to perdi-                     Scripture over which so many
contradiction. He Himself has or-           tion." Calvin's explanation was                        stumble and which is eagerly used
dained that the only way of salva-          that "the  A.postle simply means,                      by so many to oppose the Re-
tion is one's coming  fo the knowl-         that there is no people and no rank                    formed doctrine of sovereign, par-
edge of the truth, as verse 4               in the world that is excluded from                     ticular grace, John Calvin made a
teaches:  `I... and to come unto the        salvation.... The present discourse                    sharp, important comment  -in his
knowledge of the truth." Even               relates to classes of men, and not                     explanation  :of Daniel  7:27. The
though He wills the. salvation of           to individual persons" (Commentar-                     text promises that "all dominions
all,' He Himself, withholds the             ies on the Epistles to Timothy; Titus,                 shall serve and obey him (Mes-
knowledge of the truth from many            and Philemon,  Eerdmans, 1959, pp.                     siah)."
(as in the time,of  the old covenant);      54, 55).
hides the truth from others (Matt.               Calvin also explained the text                      As, however, it is certain that
11:25, 26); and `employs the truth          in his treatise, "A  Defence  of the                     many have perseveringly rebelled
-to blind and harden others (Rom.           Secret Providence of God." An en-                        against God and the teaching of
9:?8;  11:7-lo),  thus assuring that        emy of the truth of God's sover-                         his gospel, it may seem absurd for
they will not be saved.                     eign predestination had appealed                         the angel to pronounce all the
                                                                                                     powers of the world obedient and
    3) Jesus  .Christ died as a ran-        against Calvin's defense of the                          submissive. But it is worth while
som for every human without ex-             doctrine to I Timothy  2:4. Wrote                        to study the customary methods
ception.    Both exegetically and           Calvin:                                                  of scriptural expression. For in-
theologically, it is certain that if                                                                 stance, by the  hhrase  "all people,"
"all" in I Timothy 2:3,4 means "ev-           And as to your usual way of cit-                       the Spirit does not mean every
ery man without  excegtion,"  this            ing that passage of the apostle                        single person, but simply some
is what "all" means two verses                Paul, "That God would have all                         out of every nation who should
later. All who explain the text as            men to .be saved and to come to                        submit to Christ's yoke, acknowl-
teaching a desire of God to save              the knowledge of the truth" (I                         edge  him to be king, and obedi-
                                              Tim.  2:4), how vain a prop that is                    ently obey his Church.... Some
all  .are  cormriitted,  willy-nilly, to      to put under your error to sup-                        persons foolishly press beyond
universal atonement.                          port it, I think I have shown with                     their meaning words of universal
                                              sufficient plainness already, and                      import, as when Paul says, God
 The Logic of Hyper-Calvinism?                that repeatedly. For it is (so to                      wishes all to be saved. Hence,
    Rev. Tuininga dismisses my in-            speak) more certain than certainty                     they say, no one is predetermined
terpretation of the -text as mere             itself that the apostle is not, in                     for destruction, but all are elect,
.hyper-Calvinistic.  logic-chopping           that passage, speaking of indi-                        that is, God is not God (I Tim.
before I give it.                             viduals at all, but of orders of men                   2:4). But we are not surprised at
                                              in their various civil and national                    such madness as this, corrupting
                                                                                                     the  impious,and  profane, who de-
  Shall we do a little revising               vocations.        He had just before
                                    and       c o m m a n d e d   t h a t   t h e   p u b l i c      sire by their cavils to promote dis-
  say that by "all" God meant the             prayers of the Church should be                        belief in all the oracles of the
  elect? But then the Word of God             offered up for kings and others                        Spirit. Let us clearly comprehend
  would have  .&aid  so! Shall we say         in authority, and for all who held                     the frequency of this figure of
  that it means, "all different kinds         magisterial offices, of what kind                      speech; when the Holy Spirit
  of  people"? If that was the  inten-        and degree  soever  they may be.                       names "all," he means some out
tion of the  Holy Spirit, it would            But as nearly all those who were                       of all nations, and not every one
  have been clearly stated. . . .             then armed with the sword of                           universally  (Commentaries on the
  Hyper-Calvinists, in applying               public justice were open and pro-                      Book  of  the Prophet Daniel,  vol.
  logic to Scripture, come to exactly         fessed enemies to the Church, and                      2, Eerdmans, 1948, p. 78).
  the opposite conclusion. . . . and so       as it might therefore seem to the
  . . . proceed to `reject clear teach-       Church singular or absurd that
  ings of Scripture.                                                                                    Will the advocates of univer-
                                                                                                   sal, conditional grace, whether in
                                                                                                          March 15, 1997/Standard  Bearer1271


the sphere of the covenant or in        estant Reformed Churches  hyper-        sovereign,      p a r t i c u l a r   g r a c e
the wide world, who love to ap-         Calvinists.                             grounded in God's will of  predes-
peal to I Timothy  2:3, 4 now call          Dare they say this about John       tination we do not differ?
John Calvin a hyper-Calvinist?          Calvin, from whose interpretation           John Calvin: hyper-Calvinist?
     It is easy, and even popular in    of I Timothy  2:3,4  and doctrine of                                                d
Reformed circles, to call the  Prot-                                                                               - DJE





                                Abraham Kwyper:
                              I)@$ Cz&i.nist (2)

                                        printer. And his work often con-        ings. Many of the series of articles
The Journalist and Writer
I                                       tinued far into the night. Kuyper       he wrote in them were later pub-
     t is largely through Kuyper's      spent himself in the cause of the       lished in book form.
     writings that his influence has    church and the kingdom of Christ.           The papers were widely read
     continued over the years. Ar-          His literary career really began    by friend and foe, and exerted con-
ticle after article and volume after    in 1866 with the publication of  a      siderable influence on the nation,
volume poured from his pen. It is       Lasco's works which he  .had used       especially in the area of politics.
almost impossible to imagine that       in the writing of his award-win-            It has been said that Kuyper
Kuyper, as busy as he was, could        ning essay during university days.      could have been an expert in any-
write as much as he did.                Kuyper prepared a lengthy intro-        thing to which he set his hands.
     The only reason he did succeed     duction to the set, and did the         There is truth to this. His writ-
in writing so much was his highly       church invaluable service by mak-       ings are not only vast, but are on
structured and disciplined life.        ing available these important trea-     many different subjects. He wrote
Not only those who loved him, but       sures from the past. His life could     widely in the'field of theology; his
also his enemies, wondered if he        have been profitably spent as a his-    lectures on Dogmatics were pub-
ever slept. He himself wrote out        torian: he later edited and pub-        lished under the title  Dictaten
in longhand everything he pub-          lished selected writings of Junius      Dogmatiek (Dictated  Dogmaticsj.
lished, preached, and spoke. His        and Voetius.                            He wrote hundreds of meditations,
mornings were reserved for his              In 1869 Kuyper became asso-         these being perhaps some of his
writing. He absolutely refused to       ciate editor of De  Hera& (The Her-     most enjoyable writings. He pre-
be interrupted during these hours       ald;),  and in 1871 he assumed the      pared many articles on practical
and gave strict instructions to his     editorship of this paper. Its char-     Christianity, material that remains
wife and servants that only a grave     acter could easily be determined        of value to the present. He was a
emergency could interfere with his      by the motto carried on its mast-       student of history and philosophy,
morning's work. In the afternoon        head:    "For a free church and a       of politics and aesthetics, and his
he lectured. From  5:30-6:30  was       free school in a free land." In 1872    writings embrace all these subjects.
dinner hour and time to spend           he became editor of  De  Standaard      He prepared expositions of the
with his family. In the evenings        (The  Standard),  a Christian daily     confessions, the most famous be-
he corrected proofs from the            newspaper. He continued to func-        ing his exposition of the Heidel-
                                        tion as editor of both these papers     berg Catechism,  E  Voto  Dor-
                                        (De  Hera&  was a weekly) until he      draceno (According to the Will  of
                                        was 82 years old, a  span of almost     Dart).  After touring the lands sur-
                                        fifty years. Both papers took con-      rounding the Mediterranean Sea,
Prof.  Hanko is professor  of Church    siderable time, not only for edito-     he wrote two extensive volumes
History and New Testament in the        rial responsibilities, but also for     on the geography, history, and cul-
Protestant Reformed Seminary.           filling the pages with his own writ-    tural life of the many peoples who

272/Standard   Bearer/March 15, 1997


lived in these lands. Some of his                        from doing what he believed right.                         els on the inside, taking possession
writings indicate that he was not                              Kuyper did battle with liberal-                      of all the  pr'operty  and the ar-
a   c o l d   i n t e l l e c t u a l   a s   s o m e    ism and  .modernism  through his                           chives.  These; actions were upheld
charged; emerging from his facile                        preaching and writing, and as his                          by the Synod,  iwhich  deposed them
pen are many writings which can                          influence grew, his work led to an                         all. Two hundred congregations
only be classified as Reformed                           increasing polarization of the or-                         left, with about 100,000 people.
mysticism.           Nabij God te Zijn                   thodox and liberals.                                       This  movem:ent  was called De
(Neanzess to God)  is perhaps his                              The first open conflict was                          Doleantie   (The Grieving Ones, or,
most widely known book in this                           while Kuyper was minister in                               The Aggrieved Ones), a name
field.                                                   Utrecht. The consistory's refusal                          given to designate their sorrow
      His writings (as well as his                       to answer a questionnaire sent out                         over the apostasy of the church
speeches and sermons) abounded                           in the place of a visit by classical                       and their identification over
in illustrations and figures of                          delegates aroused the anger of the                         against their denomination while
speech. Some of his illustrations                        classical board, But it was passed                         they were still a part of it.
are memorable, although there are                        over and the matter never was                                  Althoughithis  too was a genu-
times when one wonders whether                           pressed.                                                   ine reformation of the church of
the illustrations were intended to                             It was only after Kuyper had                         Christ, Kuyper himself recognized
prove a point rather than illustrate                     resigned from the ministry and                             the fact that the Separation of 1834
a point.                                                 had become in 1882 an elder in the                         was also a true reformation. He
      There can be no question about                     c o n s i s t o r y   o f   t h e   c h u r c h   . o f    set about, almost immediately,
it, however, that Kuyper's vast                          Amsterdam, that troubles finally                           seeking contact with the people of
writings have continued to influ-                        came to a head.                                            the Separation, in an effort to unite
ence the thinking of countless                                 The issues were these.                               these two into one denomination.
people.                                                        The Formula of Subscription,                             His efforts were, on the whole
                                                         which formerly had bound all min-                          successful,  an'd in 1892 the two de-
Church Reformer                                          isters, elders, deacons, and profes-                       nominations merged. Four hun-
      After his conversion, Kuyper                       sors to faithfulness to the creeds,                        dred congregations of the Separa-
became an unrelenting foe of mod-                        was changed to require of those                            tion of 1834 and 300 congregations
ernism, which had captured the                           signing it only a promise "to pro-                         of the Kuyperian churches came
universities and divinity schools in                     mote the interests of the kingdom                          together to form De  Gereformeercle
the Netherlands, and which had                           of God in general and especially                           Kerken  (The Reformed Churches).
sapped the church of its spiritual                       those of the State Church"  -                                  In some respects, the marriage
l i f e .                                                where, presumably, "the interests                          was a forced: one. The doctrinal
      The Separation which had                           of the State Church" were decided                          differences were many and signifi-
taken place in 1834 under  DeCock                        by those who held positions of                             cant, although the basic difference
and others had been indeed a true                        power. The consistory of Amster-                           had to do with God's covenant.
reformation of the State church in                       dam, under the leadership of                                   The co-existence of these two
the Netherlands. But by virtue of                        Kuyper, insisted on confessional                           denominations in one church
its very character it had attracted                      integrity of its ministers and                             structure resulted in a great deal
only the lower. classes of people; it                    officebearers.                                             of tension.     The people distin-
had never had any strong theologi-                             Furthermore, within the  con-                        guished between the two by speak-
cal leadership; many of its mem-                         sistory arose the question whether                         ing of the churches of the Seces-
bers had migrated to America un-                         unbelieving young people ought to                          sion as the A-churches, and the
der the heavy burdens of poverty                         be admitted into full membership                           churches of the Kuyperian group
and persecution; and it was itself                       in the church and ought to be re-                          as the B-churches. It often hap-
torn by strife, internal division,                       ceived at the Lord's Supper. The                           pened in various cities and villages
and ecclesiastical separation.                           consistory refused to allow such                           that neither  jthe people nor the
Many faithful to the Scriptures and                      desecration of the Lord's table                            ministers of the one group would
the Reformed creeds had remained                         even though the  practice.was com-                         want to appear in the other.
in the State church.                                     mon and widespread.                                            Immigrants from both parts of
      Kuyper's battle against the                             The result was inevitable. The                        the church went to America and
evils of doctrine and life in the                        assemblies acted against them.                             became in this country the Chris-
church brought him into conflict                         Five ministers, 42 elders, and 33                          tian Reformed Church.
with the theologians, professors,                        deacons were suspended by the                                  It is of no little significance
and leaders. They hated him and                          classical board. The Board also                            that God used Kuyper also to
fought against him bitterly. But                         changed the locks in the cathedral                         bring about  ; reformation in the
opposition never deterred Kuyper                         consistory room and put steel pan-                         apostate State church in the  Neth-

                                                                                                                         March 15, YI 997fSfandard  Bearer/273


erlands, and to preserve the cause               In 1875 he was re-elected, but       on behalf of Christian education,
of His truth.                                this term was interrupted by his         the situation in the Netherlands
                                             second major nervous breakdown           was very much like it is in this
The  Politician                              from overwork. Fifteen months he         country: government schools were
     Perhaps Kuyper's role in the            was incapacitated, months which          supported by all taxpayers; Chris-
political affairs of the Netherlands,        he spent mainly in Southern Eu-          tians schools had to be supported
more than anything else, has had             rope  - Italy and Switzerland.           by the people who did not want
its effect on subsequent genera-                 Upon his return, and through         their children taught in govern-
tions. And it is true that much of           his efforts, the Anti-revolutionary      ment schools; a double burden of
Kuyper's time and activity was               Party was thoroughly organized           taxation and tuition fell upon
spent in politics. His goal was to           with a Constitution, a Statement         them. Kuyper succeeded in get-
restore the Netherlands to what it           of Principles, national and local or-    ting legislation passed which gave
had once been in the golden days             ganization, and a well-formulated        government: subsidy also to Chris-
of its history when the Reformed             platform. Such organization paid         tian  schoolsl
church was truly Reformed and                dividends, and the party contin-             Kuyper pressed hard and long
the government was a strong sup-             ued to increase its membership in        for the Christianizing of the colo-
porter of this orthodox Reformed             Parliament.                              nies under Netherlands rule, and
church. And, as a by-product of                  Nevertheless, as Kuyper and          he sought  1e:gislation  which would
this goal, Kuyper saw that the ad-           his policies were more and more          alleviate the hard lot of the work-
vantage would be an alleviation of           hated by the opposition, the two         ing man  an:d  abolish child labor.
the difficult lot of the common              main parties in Parliament united        Kuyper was astounded to learn
people.                                      against him. The result was that         that little children were required
    We have noticed before that              it soon became clear that the only       to work  70; to 80 hours a week,
I<uyper was a man of the common              way for the Anti-revolutionary           and had to be wakened in the
people. He spoke to them in a way            Party to break the hold of the lib-      morning by being doused with
in which they could understand.              erals on the country was to form a       cold water.
He loved them with a deep love.              coalition with the Roman Catho-              That Kuyper came to power at
He sought, throughout his entire             lics. This coalition was effected        all involved a compromise of his
life, the spiritual, material, and po-       and was victorious in the election       own  positio,n. Early in his work
litical welfare of these kleine   luyden,    of 1888; but its victory was tem-        with the Anti-revolutionary Party,
as he was wont to call them.                 porary and it lost the election of       Kuyper refused cooperation with
    A meeting of Kuyper with                 1891. It was not until 1901 that         the Conservative Party (its name
Groen  VanPrinsterer,  an extraor-           the coalition once again came to         is deceptive; though called "Con-
dinarily capable man of De  Reveil,          power.    This time Kuyper was           servative," :it was closely allied
who was really the founder of the            asked to head the new govern-            with the Liberal Party and was bit-
Anti-revolutionary Party, early in           ment. He became prime minister.          terly opposed to anything the or-
his career (1869) so profoundly              After the dissolution of the gov-        thodox stood for) because they
moved Kuyper that from thence-               ernment and the defeat of the coa-       "subjected even the honor of the
forth he cast his lot with the  Anti-        lition in the election of 1905,          holy God to calculations of politi-
revolutionary Party.                         Kuyper's brief term as prime min-        cal advantage." Yet Kuyper could
    In keeping with his character,           ister came to an end. Twice more         form a coalition with Roman
Kuyper threw himself into the                he served briefly, once in the Sec-      Catholics in' order to gain political
work of the party with vigor and             ond Chamber and once in the First        advantage.  :
enthusiasm, and stood for election           Chamber. But his age and infir-              As he became older, Kuyper
in the Second Chamber of Parlia-             mities were catching up with him         not only did not actively partici-
ment. After being defeated twice             and his terms were ineffective.          pate in party affairs as he once had
at the polls, he was elected from               Although the goals of the  Anti-      done, but he became more and
Gouda in 1874. It was at this point          revolutionary Party were never           more critical of his party, criti-
that he resigned his position as             achieved, some accomplishments           cisms publicly voiced in De  Hevaut
minister      of the church of               of note resulted from the years- in      and  De Starfdaard.  He sometimes
Amsterdam'and  assumed the role              which the party of Kuyper was a          left the impression, rightly or
of emeritus minister, so as to give          force with which the opposition          wrongly, that he was becoming a
himself completely to the work of            had to reckon. Perhaps most im-          bitter old man who could not tol-
Parliament. The law also forbad              portantly, a school bill was passed      erate the leadership of others, es-
anyone from being both a member              which gave the Christian schools         pecially when they disagreed with
of Parliament  .and an active minis-         legal parity with the government         him. And many complained of his
ter of a-church.                             schools. Prior to Kuyper's labors        autocratic leadership.  Q

274JStandard  Beaf%?r/Mardh  15, 1997


                                                                                                                                      I
 1  pj&g&&gJ  &I  iJill@  !ltQx@rn                                               `-
                       .,:  :  _                                                                                                 R& c~&x@m may

                                       The Antithesis (2) :
The truth of the antithesis become citizens of the kingdom of pagan practices. If one were to
           o u g h t   t o   b e   a   d o c t r i n e    heaven, who walk in the light. He                        research many of the unbiblical
           prominent in our thinking.                     implants in our hearts the willing                       practices of the Roman Catholic
It is a very serious matter. The                          desire to live the life of pilgrims                      Church and  ifind  their historical
whole of the Christian life is de-                        and strangers, who serve God and                         roots, he would find them rooted
fined by the antithesis, as we ex-                        not Satan.                                               in paganism., As the church at-
plained that concept in our last ar-                              So God continues to reveal His                   tempted to take under its wing all
t i c l e .                                               glory. The principle of the life of                      nations and all peoples, without
    After man's fall into sin, the                        regeneration and faith in the re-                        true conversion, the loss of the an-
antithesis took on a very specific                        deemed shows forth the glories of                        tithesis brought synthesis, a hor-
form.                                                     God's mercy and grace and love                           rendous corruption which eventu-
    The  thesis,  the revelation of                       against the background of sin's                          ally formed  the impetus for the
God's glory, and the  antithesis,  the                    darkness and the rebellion of this                       Reformation.  ;
contrasting position over against                         world.                                                       Another form of a rejection of
all that which would oppose God's                              And thus is seen the battle of                      the antithesis: is found in Rome's
glory, now stands out even more                           the ages.                                                teaching of  a two-level morality.
sharply.                                                                                                           Whereas we  : maintain the truth
    God came to the fallen Adam                           The Antithesis Rejected                                  that "saints" are all those who are
and Eve, sought them out, called                               But in our day the idea of a                        in Christ Jesus (see Rom.  1:7, e.g.),
them by name, and assured them                            battle is not well liked, not even a                     the Roman' Catholic Church
that in spite of their unfaithfulness                     spiritual  battle.                                       teaches a  sepiarate  level, a higher
He keeps His covenant forever.                                 In our day the term  antithesis                     level of morality and consecration
He promised them the Savior, to                           i s   d e s p i s e d - e v e n   w i t h i n   t h e    to God,  necesbary  for one to attain
be born as the Seed of the woman,                         church. There is another term that                       to sainthood.           From this error
the Head of His elect, who would                          has taken its place.  Synthesis  is                      arises their whole system of mo-
save His  ,people from their sins.                        the desired doctrine today. Syn-                         nastic orders,; with their renuncia-
    God, who Himself is Light and                         thesis  denotes a  putting together,  an                 tion of marriage, vows of poverty,
in whom is no darkness at all, sov-                       attempted  marriage  of yes and no.                      and isolationism. In the meantime,
ereignly and powerfully calls His                         It is the attempt to merge together                      the common  iolk often wallow in
people out of darkness into His                           light and darkness, Christ and                           spiritual ignorance and immoral-
marvelous light. Against the dark                         Belial, the truth and the lie, the                       ity. All of them are in desperate
background of disobedience, rebel-                        church and the world. And the                            need of the gospel!
lion, and death in which once we                          attempt has been largely success-
His people were consumed, our                             ful  - successful, that is, in the                       Common  G&e
great God has revealed His infi-                          devil's terms.                                               Another rejection of the antith-
nite glory and grace, His holiness                             This rejection of the antithesis                    esis is found closer to our own
and righteousness, His life.                              is seen rising on several fronts                         roots, in  the! theory of common
    The Savior establishes the an-                        within the church historically.                          grace. This was the error that gave
tithesis in the hearts of His people                                                                               rise to the  Erotestant Reformed
by His Spirit. He dwells in us in                         Roman Catholicism                                        Churches, when our spiritual fore-
such a way that by His grace we                                The, Roman Catholic Church                          fathers rejected the idea that had
                                                          rejected the antithesis centuries                        been adopted by the Synod of the
                                                          ago.       I t   d i d   s o   b y   a d o p t i n g     Christian Reformed Church in
                                                          Pelagianism as its foundational                          1924 with their "Three Points."
Rev. Key is  pnstor  of  the  Prdestant                   view of man. Eventually that re-                             O n e   aspject  o f   th,at  three-
Reformed  Church  of  Randolph, Wis-                      jection of the, antithesis took the                      headed  mons!ter  maintains  .that in
consin.                                                   form of synthesizing religious and                       the world  of: ungodly and  unre-

                                                                                                                        March 15, ;I 997/Standard  Sewer/275


generate men there is a certain op-                    tion in the Christian Reformed            body of the Christian Reformed
eration of the Holy Spirit which                       Churches."'                               Church from being consumed by
results in the ability of the natural                      This was only one aspect of the       the poison of worldliness, had no
man to do good in the sight of God                     common grace theory as devel-             antidote. The antithesis had been
in certain areas of life. The unbe-                    oped by Christian Reformed theo-          destroyed by the unbiblical doc-
liever does no spiritual good. But                     logians, and to our mind not even         trine of common grace. And to-
he is able, nonetheless, to do that                    the most vile aspect.           But it    day  antithesib   has been replaced by
which is pleasing in God's sight in                    brought devastating consequences          synthesis.       Worldliness has over-
the "civic sphere," i.e., in every-                    to the life of the antithesis. With       whelmed the churches like a flood.
day things.                                            this doctrine, there is a certain area    The people of God grieve.
     Although Scripture teaches                        of common ground on which the                  But still other errors have
clearly that "whatsoever is not of                     people of God may stand with the          brought about a rejection of the
faith is sin" (Rom.  14:23) and re-                    wicked.     Hoeksema prophesied           antithesis within the church world.
veals again and again that God's                       that the adoption of this doctrine
thoughts are higher than our                           would see the church consumed by          Ecumenism  :
thoughts and His standards of                          t h e   w o r l d .                            There is' a fierce attack upon
righteousness far exceed ours, this                        In a futile attempt to prevent        the biblical  iantithesis  by various
theory of common grace maintains                       that from happening, the Synod of         forms of ecumenism, often inter-
that what. Jesus called "an evil                       the CRC in 1928 took a stand              twined with New Age thought.
tree" can bring  forth"good  fruit.                    against worldly amusements. In            Behind most of the contemporary
In fact, it says more. This theory                     its report to the Synod, the study        cry to break down the barriers, and
teaches that the  HoZy Spirit  hangs                   committee faced the question of           the urgent call for tolerance and
good fruits on an evil tree! By the                    the relationship between the              spiritual unity, there lurks a rejec-
work of the Holy  Spirit,  the un-                     church and the world.                     tion of God's truth and a denial of
godly are not so bad after all!                                                                  the antithesis that will eventually
     Herman Hoeksema, in his op-                           "The question arises, what basis      bring the church world into fellow-
position to this teaching, exposed                       of  fellowship there can be  between    ship with Antichrist.
its error by pointing out the irrec-                     the child of God and the man of              Forgotten is what Scripture
oncilable conflict between this                          this world? What have they in           teaches concerning the central
teaching and the biblical doctrine                       common which makes a degree
                                                         of communion possible and               place of  Go&s truth to all of Chris-
of total depravity.                                      legitimate?...The solution is found     tianity. Jesus said (John  8:31,32),
     He pointed to the official con-                     in the doctrine of common grace.        "If ye continue in my word, then
fession of the Reformed churches                         Spiritually  the believers and un-      are ye my disciples indeed; And
which maintains that the natural                         believers have nothing in com-          ye shall know the truth, and the
man is incapable of doing any                            mon, but morally they have. The         truth shall make you free." He
good and inclined to all evil, and                       basis of our fellowship should          made clear  :in His high priestly
that good works are defined only                         never be the sin which we have in       prayer of John 17 that the only way
as those that proceed from true                          common with them, but the grace         in which His people will be re-
faith, are done according to the                         (common) which they have in
                                                         common with us!...This principle        ceived into God's fellowship and
law of God and to His glory and                          can be applied to the sphere of         be sanctified, is "through the truth"
not those that are based upon the                        amusements. In his general grace        (John  17:17,!l9).  So important is
imagination or the institutions of                       God has (1) given certain joys, di-     the truth, that "if we sin  wilfully
m e n   ( H e i d e l b e r g   C a t e c h i s m ,      versions, pleasures to men.... By       after that we have received the
Lord's Days 3 and 33).                                   that same general grace He (2) re-      knowledge of the truth, there
     "Yet," he wrote, "although in                      strains sin in the hearts of the un-     remaineth no more sacrifice for
the abstract and as a matter of                         godly so that the diversions and         sins, But a certain fearful looking
their confession the Christian Re-                      amusements which they devise             for of judgment and fiery indigna-
formed Churches admit this, in                           are not always and necessarily
                                                         tainted with sin.... We do not ad-      tion, which  ishall  devour the ad-
practical life they profess it to be                    vise Christians to seek their            versaries" (Heb.  10:26,27).
wholly different. In this life, with                     amusements in mixed company.                 For all  its outward striving for
respect to the things and spheres                       This is often dangerous. But the         unity, the church of our day falls
of this world, there is nowhere a                       ,mere fact that they meet o,n com-       under the sharp condemnation of
totally  depraved.man,  according to                    mon ground is no proof that the          the-  S p i r i t 's   w a r n i n g   i n   I I
them. All are able to do good. All                      Christian is on forbidden ground."2      Thessalonians 2, where He warned
can live a morally good life."                                                                   of the deceitfulness of that Wicked
     His conclusion? "Total de-                            The fact is, the Study Commit-        One, whose; coming is "with all
pravity has become a mere abstrac-                     tee, though wanting to prevent the        deceivableness of unrighteousness

27@/Stgdard  @egrer/March  15, 1997


in them that perish; because they                   Closer to Home                                              The antithesis, let us under-
received not the love of the truth,                      But having mentioned just a                       stand, involves a life-style.. It in-
that they might be saved. And for                   few of the `various ways in which                      volves a very particular  world-
this cause God shall send them                      the antithesis is rejected in the                      and-life  vieti.        It `is this that we
strong delusion, that they should                   church of our day, we must not                         must consider in our next article.
believe a lie."                                     neglect to mention one other way,                                                                  0
     Forgotten in this prevalent re-                a way that without question has
jection of God's truth in our day                   affected us as Protestant Reformed                     1     H. Hoeksema,  The Protestant
and this denial of the antithesis is                people and churches.                                   Reformed  Churches in America,
what James writes in James  4:4:                         It is possible that while the                     1947, p. 381,.
"Ye adulterers and adulteresses,                    doctrine of the antithesis is main-                    2       Repoft  of the Committee on
know ye not that the friendship of                  tained doctrinally, and while all                      Worldly  Am:usements, To the Synod
the world is enmity with God?                       the above-named errors are re-                         of the  ChriStian  Reformed Church,
whosoever therefore will be `a                      jected, the truth of the antithesis                    meeting in  .Holland,   Mich.,  June,
friend of the world is the enemy                    is denied in practice.                                 2928, p. 15. i (All emphasis is found
of God."                                                                                                   in the  repor$.  SK.)



          Conference of the PRC in America
                            with the EPC of Australia
                                                             *     `;.,                                                       .
                                                                                      -                                                      :c.;-:
                                                                                                                         I
                                                         The invitation for this confer-                   Delegations from the EPC came to
I                                                   ence was sent to the "Committee                        the United: States twice, once in
     n the middle of January 1997,                  for Contact With Other Churches"                       1991 to attend a conference spon-
     during the summerholidays of                   o f   t h e   P r o t e s t a n t   R e f o r m e d    sored by the PRC for their sister
     the southern hemisphere, the                   Churches way back in the spring                        churches, and again in 1993. Dur-
Evangelical Presbyterian Church of                  of 1996. A date was set, topics for                    ing those years the EPC also sent
Australia hosted a conference with                  discussion were chosen, and an                         two men who felt called to the
representatives of the Protestant                   agenda for the conference was de-                      ministry  to; receive their seminary
Reformed Churches in America.                       termined.              And Synod 1996 ex-              training in the theological school
They hosted this conference in the                  pressed itself in favor of such a                      of the PRC. These two men (now
church building of their congrega-                  conference, willing to bear the cost                   Rev. David: Higgs and Rev. Chris
tion in Launceston, Tasmania.                       of just over $5,000, in order that it                  Connors) attended the Protestant
Launceston is approximately as far                  might fulfill its calling to show the                  Reformed Seminary for three years
south of the equator as Grand Rap-                  unity of the church of Christ on a                     beginning in the fall of 1991.
ids, Michigan is north of it. Tas-                  broader level.                                              It was at the meeting of its
mania was a great place to be -if                                                                          Synod in June, 1994 that the PRC
one wanted to escape some of the                              +++  +++  +++                                instructed their Contact Commit-
coldest and snowiest weather to                                                                            tee to continue "to address the is-
hit southwestern Michigan in 1997.                       Contact between the Protestant                    sues in  wh$ch  we differ with the
It was also a great place to be to                  Reformed Churches in America                           Evangelical Presbyterian Church,
enjoy the blessing of the  commun-                  and the Evangelical Presbyterian                       as given by the Contact. Commit-
ion of saints.                                      Church of Australia began in the                       tee, with a view to a conference."
                                                    mid  `7Os, when Prof. Homer  Hoek-                     That decision and subsequent cor-
                                                    sema and Rev. Cornelius Hanko of                       respondence led  to.the  EPC's mak-
                                                    the Protestant Reformed Churches                       ing plans for and sending an invi-
R e v .   Va?zOverloop   i s   p a s t o r   o f    traveled to New Zealand, Austra-                       tation to the PRC to attend a con-
Georgetown Protestant Reformed                      lia, and Singapore, and at that time                   ference scheduled for January 22
Church in  Bauer,  Michigan and  mbm-               met brethren from the Evangelical                      and  23,1997.  The PRC Synod 1996
ber of the Committee for Contact with               Presbyterian denomination. The                         approved the plans made, and at
Other Churches.                                     contact has continued ever since.                      the- same time instructed its Con-

                                                                                                                y March `Y 5; 1@7/Standard%e;%er/277


tact Committee "to continue to                       Coleborn  home. Rev.  VanOver-                                  It had been arranged that the
pursue, in whatever ways possible,                   loop gave a brief introduction of                          conference was to be a part of the
a good relationship with the fel-                    the PRC in America and then gave                           bi-annual meeting of the EPC
low-saints of the EPC of Austra-                     a meditation. After two days in                            Presbytery, the broadest assembly
lia:" In its grounds for that in-                    Cohuna, Rev. VanOverloop flew to                           of the EPC.  ;On the morning of
struction, Synod noted that "of all                  the large island of Tasmania (about                        Wednesday, January 22, therefore,
the Presbyterian churches in the                     the size of the state of Wisconsin).                       the Presbytery constituted itself
world, this denomination is one of                   He was there a guest for three days                        and invited the two representa-
the closest to us in faith and life."                in the home of Rev. Chris Connors,                         tives of the  PRC to seat themselves
To fulfill this mandate of Synod                     the pastor of the Launceston con-                          among them, giving them advisory
the Contact Committee decided to                     gregation. One of those evenings                           vote. At that; point the delegates
s e n d   P r o f .   H a n k o   a n d   R e v .    Rev. VanOverloop led a Bible                               of the Presbytery declared them-
VanOverloop to Australia.                            Study for the congregation. On                             selves a committee of the whole
                                                     another evening he gave a public                           for the duration of the conference,
            +++  +++  +++                            lecture in their church building on                        and the  confeience  began.
                                                     the "Call or Offer of the Gospel."                              The conference itself was well
     The PRC delegation arrived in                   On Saturday he was taken on an                             arranged, providing good oppor-
Australia nine days before the                       hour and a half drive to the north-                        tunity for the presentation and dis-
conference. During those days the                    east of Launceston to the beautiful                        cussion of the four topics which
two men went in different direc-                     village of Winnaleah, where there                          had been selected. The whole of
tions, visiting with the saints in                   is an EPC congregation  pastored                           the first day of the conference was
various congregations of the EPC.                    by Rev. Phil Burley. That night,                           spent with the. reading of eight pa-
This provided them with oppor-                       in Pastor Burley's home, he gave                           pers, two on each subject, one by
tunities to become better  ac-                       an introduction of his congregation                        a man of the' EPC and one by a
quainted.with  the members of the                    and denomination, and then a brief                         man of the PRC. The four men
EPC. Many in the EPC were espe-                      meditation. The next morning he                            who wrote for the EPC were Rev.
cially delighted to meet Prof.                       preached in their beautiful, quaint                        Chris Connors on Temporal Justi-
Hanko, who was one of the men                        country church building. He was                            fication, Rev. `Phil Burley on the
responsible for the seminary train-                  driven back to Launceston in the                           Regulative Principle and Worship,
ing of the two new ministers in                      afternoon, to preach for the                               Rev. Brian Dole on the Establish-
their denomination. Prof. Hanko                      Launceston congregation.                                   ment Principle, and Rev. Chris
and his wife spent a week in the                           Prof. Hanko had been in Aus-                         Coleborn  on  ,Marriage,  Divorce,
home of Rev. and Mrs. David                          tralia before, and had at that time                        and Remarriage.          Prof. Herman
I%ggs in Brisbane, Queensland.                       become acquainted with some of                             Hanko presented papers on Eter-
During and after the, conference                     the people of the EPC. Rev.                                nal Justification and on the Estab-
they were the guests in the home                     VanOverloop had never before                               lishment Principle, and Rev. Ron
of Rev. and Mrs. Chris Connors.                      been to Australia, so he was meet-                         VanOverloop presented papers on
In Brisbane, Prof.  Hank0  led a con-                ing all these people for the first                         the Regulative Principle and on
gregational Bible study, gave a                      time. The nine days of visiting,                           Divorce and Remarriage. [Copies
public lecture, and preached two                     speaking, and preaching, then,                             of these papers may be obtained
times on Sunday, January 19. A                       gave opportunity to become ac-                             for the copying price ($8.00) from
week later, after the conference,                    quainted, or re-acquainted, with                           the Protestant  :Reformed Seminary,
Prof.  Hank0  preached twice on the                  many of the wonderful saints of                            4949  Ivanrest Avenue, Grandville,
Lord's Day, January 26, in the EPC                   this small denomination. All of                            M I   4 9 4 1 8   ( 6 1 6 )   531-1490.1 The
congregation in Launceston, Tas-                     this interchange provided a good                           first day of the conference was
mania.                                               setting for the conference.                                concluded with representatives of
     Rev.  VanOverloop's  stay in                         The evening of Tuesday, Janu-                         each denomination preparing a list
Australia began with a three-hour                    a r y   2 1 ,   t h e   n i g h t   b e f o r e   t h e    of the salient points on each topic
car drive north of Melbourne to                      Presbytery constituted itself and                          which would be discussed the next
Cohuna, Victoria, where there is a                   the conference began, there was a                          day.
preaching station (mission) of the                   worship service led by the Rev.                                The second day of the confer-
EPC. There he was graciously                         Tony Fisk, pastor of the EPC con-                          ence was taken up with a  discus-
hosted for two nights by Rev. and                    gregation            i n   R o c k h a m p t o n ,         sisn of those [points. Each topic
Mrs. Chris Coleborn. On  .one of                     Queensland. The Word of God                                was discussed separately. These
the evenings of his stay there he                    preached and the prayers uttered                           discussions helped to identify the
was introduced to the small con-                     at that time set the tone for the                          areasof  agreement as well as those
gregation as they gathered in the                    conference.                                                of difference. A brief summary of

278/Standard,Seare~~Masch 15, 1997.
      1 I n 1 ._L


each of the four discussions was                         of the Presbytery meeting before        ment        w i t h ' r e s p e c t   t o   t h e
drawn up and approved as an ac-                          he had to depart for home. Prof.        distinctives of Calvinism, of God's
curate description of the discus-                        Hanko attended the meeting on           sovereignty, and of particular
sion.                                                    Friday. During the time that both       grace, and with respect to a rejec-
    The evening of the second day                        men were in attendance, Prof.           tion of common grace and a free
of the conference was spent dis-                         Hanko addressed the Presbytery          offer of the `gospel. Although the
cussing the possibility of a future                      on behalf of the Contact Commit-        differences `were not resolved,  .a
formal relationship between the                          tee and of the Protestant Reformed      better understanding of the respec-
two denominations. The discus-                           denomination. He conveyed greet-        tive positions was gained. Con-
sion was extensive and profitable,                       ings, expressed thanks for the          ferences  suoh as these are very im-
dealing with specific areas of dif-                      warm hospitality shown, and pre-        portant for furthering relation-
ficulty. The discussion concluded                        sented reasons why the PRC              ships.  Wei thank the Lord that
with the Contact Committees of                           would like to maintain and de-          such fellowship and efforts of co-
both denominations being urged to                        velop contact with the EPC of Aus-      operation can be experienced by
continue to discuss the possibility                      tralia. The address also informed       those who agree on the fundamen-
of future relationship. Each Con-                        the Presbytery of the- decision of      tals.
tact Committee also agreed to in-                        the PRC 1996 Synod which urged              The Lord alone knows to what
vestigate how the Continental Re-                        the EPC of Australia to continue        this  contact and fellowship will
formed and the Scottish Presbyte-                        to send their prospective ministers     lead. Already however we see evi-
rian churches established such                           to the PR seminary. This address        dence of the wisdom of Synod's
close relationships when they dif-                       was most warmly received.               having instructed the  Conta,ct
fered on the very same issues                                The spirit of the fellowship and    Committee "to continue to pursue,
which today distinguish the Evan-                        of the conference was excellent. It     in whatever; ways possible, a good
gelical Presbyterian Church of                           was most conducive to open, posi-       relationship. with the fellow-saints
Australia and the Protestant Re-                         tive discussion of differences.         of the  EPC; of Australia." How
formed Churches in America.                              How quickly those who are` total        clear it is that, as synod expressed
    The Presbytery of the EPC of                         strangers can become comfortable        it in the grounds for the above in-
Australia met on the following two                       with each other when they recog-        struction, our relationship with the
days. Rev.  VanOverloop  was able                        nize themselves to be fellow-saints.    EPC "can be a blessing to our
to attend only a couple of hours                         It was a joy to find total agree-       churches."  0





                                                                  Chapter  6
         The Fall of Our First Padents
                                                                (concluded)                                      :  .)                           I
                                                         announcement of the promise of          temptation of him may have taken
Vain Coverings: Aprons of                                the gospel by the Lord God.             place. For  :it was through Adam,
Fig Leaves
W                                                            We must bear in mind that at        not through Eve, that sin entered
                e   n e x t   c o n s i d e r   t h e    this point sin had become an ac-        into the world. "By one man sin
            events which followed                        complished fact, and that, too, for     entered into the world, and death
            immediately upon the                         the entire world of mankind. This       by sin;  andlso death passed upon
Fall and which lead up to the first                      was not accomplished merely             all men, for that all have sinned"
                                                         through the fall of Eve, but cer-       (Rom.  5:12). In Adam's guilt lies
The late Homer Hoeksema' tias  ~YO-                      tainly when she had given of the        the guilt of all. In his corruption
fessot   of  Dogmatics and  OI;d  TeSta-                 fruit of the forbidden tree to Adam     lies the corruption of all. In his
ment'  in the Protestant  Xeforvied                      and when he had also eaten with         first sin is the sin of all as a root.*
Seminary;  1                                             her  - in whatever manner her               It is not so easy to construe a

                                                                                                          March 1.5, 1997/?hh1dard%eizkw/2~9


somewhat intelligible picture in           cannot possibly become a beast or                            in this narrative. The chief thought
our mind of Adam's spiritual con-          a devil, whether in the state of                             of this narrative is that of the Lord
dition at this time. On the one            original righteousness or in the                             coming to seek and to save His
hand, it is evident that he died.          fallen condition or the saved state.                         own. The various elements in the
This was, according to the Word            Sin and death did not change es-                             record of  thisipassage  must all be
of God, connected with the tree of         sentially the nature of man, nor the                         seen in this light.
knowledge of good and evil, a              individual human nature of Adam.                                 Scripture  icalls  attention, first
word which could not fail to be            Man remains man, and Adam re-                                of all, to the vain attempt of Adam
carried out.       Death worked in         mained Adam. Through the Fall                                and Eve to cover their nakedness
Adam and Eve. Man had lost all             Adam became exactly the sinner                               with aprons  of fig leaves. Thus
his excellent gifts: his knowledge,        which he could become in his own                             we read in Genesis  3:7: "And the
his righteousness, and his holiness.       place and circumstances at the                               eyes of them/ both were opened,
He had lost the image of God. Not          dawn of history.                                             and they knew that they were na-
only did he lose that image, but it              But grace, just grace  - forgiv-                       ked; and they sewed fig leaves to-
was perverted into its very oppo-          ing, everlasting, sovereign  loving-                         gether, and made themselves
site. Through his sin man brought          kindness, longing to save the crea-                          aprons."        :
upon himself corruption, darkness,         ture in himself lost and dead  -                                 This does not mean, as the evo-
misery, enmity of God. As the              that grace spread over Adam and                              lutionary theory would have it,
Canons of Dordrecht put it:  `I...         Eve, operating in them as a spiri-                           that originally their eyes were
revolting from God by the instiga-         tual power, and serving to main-                             closed to their nakedness and that
tion of the devil, and abusing the         tain God's covenant.                                         they lived in a condition of a kind
freedom of his own will, he for-                 Indeed, the devil must have                            of childish innocence and naivete,
feited these excellent gifts; and on       had the surprise, the first surprise,                        but that now they passed from this
the contrary entailed on himself           of his life when he saw what took                            state of childlike ignorance and de-
blindness of mind, horrible dark-          place after the temptation. Things                           veloped into moral maturity and
ness, vanity and perverseness of           certainly did not go at all accord-                          moral self-consciousness. Or this
judgment, became wicked, rebel-            ing to the devil's plan after he had                         means as  theyideveloped  from this
lious, and obdurate in heart and           succeeded in tempting first Eve                              state of semi-animal savagery they
will, and impure in his affections"        and then Adam.                                               attained to a state of primitive civi-
(III, IV/l). Gone were man's in-                 This was because, as we have                           lization in which they also began
tegrity and happiness.           Of the    repeatedly emphasized, God had                               to make  and; to use clothing to
sharp and radical contrast between         His eternal counsel. According to                            cover their nakedness, sewing
his fallen estate and his former in-       that counsel He eternally willed to                          aprons of fig leaves for themselves.
tegrity and happiness, Adam must           save His own. Christ, as it were,                            Thus, this  has! sometimes been ex-
have been painfully conscious.             stood behind Adam to catch him                               plained. But; this is not true, in
    On the other hand, there must          when he fell. It is as our Confes-                           the light of Scripture. In their origi-
have been an immediate operation           sion of Faith puts it in Article 17:                         nal state they  jalso knew that they
of grace also. This was not an op-         "We believe that our most gracious                           were naked;  ibut they were not
eration of so-called common grace.         God, in His admirable wisdom and                             ashamed because there was no sin,
For the grace of God is never com-         goodness, seeing that man had                                because they were conscious of be-
mon, any more than God is com-             thus thrown himself into temporal                            ing wholly pure before one another
mon. Nor does the fact of this im-         and eternal death, and made him-                             and before the Lord.
mediate operation of grace imply           self wholly miserable, was pleased                               But now; after they have
that Adam did not die, for die he          to seek and comfort him, when he                             sinned, their eyes were opened in
did. Nor do we speak of an im-             trembling fled from His presence,                            the sense that, they realized their
mediate operation of grace because         promising him that He would give                             sinful condition.      They became
of the fact that Adam did not              His Son, who should be made of a                             conscious of the fact that their bod-
change into a beast or into a devil,       woman, to bruise the head of the                             ies were the instruments of sin and
or become the Antichrist, or any           serpent, and would make him                                  lust, and they sought to cover their
such thing. All these suggestions          happy."                                                      nakedness before one another and
- which have sometimes been                      Both of these elements, that of                        before God with their self-made
made  - reveal an incorrect under-         the reality of sin and yet that of                           aprons of fig  I leaves. Originally
standing both of the nature of man         t h e   r e a l i t y   o f   g r a c e   b r e a k i n g    they were holy. In that state also
and of his fall into sin and death,        through, must be remembered if                               they were naked. But their bodies
as well as an incorrect view of the        we are to understand the  narra-                             were  l-the instruments of holiness,
grace of God. The rational, moral          tive here in Genesis 3. Hence,                               and there was no need for shame
creature, man, remains a man; he           God, not man, is on the foreground                           either before one another or before

28OIStandard   Bearer/March 15, 1997


     God. Through sin their bodies be-        and could only be aware that she         did not become manifest and was
     came subject to sin and death; their     saw him in the same manner.              not yet a matter of their conscious-
     bodies became the instruments of             We must remember, however,           ness; rather, the power of their sin-
     corruption and lust. Spiritually         that this so-called natural shame        ful nature dominated their actions.
     their eyes became closed, closed         is not the expression of any rem-        Those fig leaves represented the
     to righteousness and holiness, both      nant of good that is left in man         desire and the attempt on the part
     with respect to God and with re-         after the Fall. It can hardly be said    of Adam and Eve to cover up sin's
     spect to one another. As moral,          that in these first reactions of         pollution and death's ugliness by
     rational creatures, possessing a         Adam and Eve, in their attempt to        a covering of their own making.
     knowledge of the difference be-          cover themselves and to hide from        This is always foolish and vain.
     tween good and evil and a knowl-         the presence of the Lord, there          How could fig leaves or any other
     edge of the shamefulness of sin,         were signs of the operation of           homemade cloak ever conceal
     they became conscious now of this        God's grace. There was fear, not         them and make them any less na-
     fact that their bodies were the in-      sorrow .and repentance, in these         ked before the Lord? Their real
     struments of sin and corruption.         actions. It is `perfectly true that      problem did not lie in the body,
     They looked upon one another             this fear and  .this natural shame       but in their heart. The solution
     with sinful, lustful eyes.  .Each was    presuppose a" knowledge of the           was not the  .,superficiality  of an
     aware that the other thus looked         wrongness and the shamefulness           outward covering of clothing for
     upon. him.                               of sin: This is a matter of mere         their  physical bodies. But the so-
         Moreover, as Scripture makes         natural light, however, not of           lution was the removal of their in-
     plain in Genesis  3:10, they were        grace. There is no godly sorrow,         ner, spiritual: guilt and pollution
     above all aware of the nakedness         no sorrow after God, in it.              before the eyes of God who knows
     of their sin before God. This was,           Fact is that unless the power        the heart and sees the inward parts
     after all, the chief element. Adam       of God's grace takes hold of sin,        of a man. This is possible only
     himself expresses it when the Lord       the natural man subverts even that       through the blood of atonement,
     calls to him: "And he said, I heard      natural light and holds it under in      which man can never provide, but
     thy voice in the garden, and I was       unrighteousness. When, however,          which God provides for those
     afraid, because I was naked; and I       the power of God's grace takes           whom He seeks and saves.
     hid myself." And the Lord in His         hold of that same knowledge of the            But that foolish and vain at-
     question to Adam very pointedly          difference between good and evil         tempt of Adam  and.Bve  is never-
     connects this consciousness of his       and changes the spiritual direction      theless always the foolishness of
     nakedness on Adam's part with his        of the mind and will, then a man         the natural man. He realizes that
     eating of the tree whereof God had       no longer subverts it in                 something is wrong with him; this,
     commanded him not to eat. They           unrighteousness, but he is led to        he can never escape. But he at-
     became aware, therefore, in their        true sorrow after God, to repen-         tempts of himself to cover up the
     inmost soul that they were ex-           tance, to contrition, to confession.     nakedness of his own sin. He may
     posed before  .the eyes of the Lord          And we must remember that            e m p l o y   f i g - l e a f   a p r o n s   o f
     in their sin and shame.                  this was the direction in which the      Pharisaistic self-righteousness and
       But this was also true in their        Lord God, through all these              work-righteousness. He may fast,
     relation to one another. Adam and        events, was leading Adam and             and he may pay tithes, and he may
     Eve became polluted in their very        Eve, even though at this point they      make sacrifices, and he may do
     bodies by the ugliness of sin and        were not aware of God's grace and        many mighty works. He may en-
     death, and they were aware of it.        did not evince any spiritual knowl-      gage in philanthropy and in hu-
     Adam and Eve mutually were               edge of sin and any hearty confes-       manistic charity, bequeathing the
     aware that their bodies, corrupted       sion. First,. they must learn to         millions that are the fruit of his
     as they were by the spiritual ugli-      know by experience the vanity of         covetousness in exercising the ten-
     ness of sin, were the instruments        their own foolish coverings of fig       der mercies of the wicked, which
     of sin over against one another.         leaves.                                  are cruel. But all his works of righ-
     We must remember that, as they               For sinful and foolish those         teousness are so many fig leaves.
     were now by nature, Adam and             aprons of fig leaves certainly were,     He may employ fig-leaf aprons of
     Eve did not love one another any         and utterly vain.                        his humanistic civilization and his
     longer. They were filled with ha-            Even though the principle of         programs of social reform and im-
     tred, not only against God but           grace  was'already  present in their     provement. `He may fight poverty
     against one another.       As such,      hearts, and even though they fell        and crime. He may strive to raise
     Adam looked upon Eve not in              on Christ, so that they did not per-     the standard of living and improve
     love, but in hatred. He could see
I                                             ish immediately, nevertheless the        his environment, He may educate
     in her only an object of his lust,       operation of this principle of grace     himself and his fellow man. He

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may expend mighty efforts for                             Adam and Eve, according to            mately along this way to the
world peace. But in all these he                      the purpose of God's grace, must          knowledge' that they must be
fails. He does not get at the root                    first be made to learn that their         clothed with, robes, spiritual robes,
of his problem, the nakedness of                      own aprons of fig leaves cannot           of righteousness through the
his sin, his guilt and his corrup-                    prevent them from being afraid in         power of His promise and through
tion in which he stands exposed                       the presence of the Lord, because         the blood of `atonement. Cl
before a holy Lord God. He re-                        they cannot of themselves cover
mains in the vain circle of sin  .and                 the ugliness of the guilt and cor-        *  P r o f e s s o r   H o e k s e m a 's   e x -
death. You cannot cleanse and pu-                     ruption of their sin before the eyes      tended treatment of the relation
rify a well by washing the pump                       of Him with whom they have to             between Adam's sin and the hu-
handle. You cannot deceive the                        do. Their aprons of fig leaves are        man race will follow this explana-
Holy One by covering up the spots                     utterly vain because they are trans-      tion of the Fall of man as an ap-
of. the leopard. You cannot hide                      parent before the eyes of God. The        pendix, "Adam and the Race."
the sinner by a nice suit of clothes.                 Lord purposes to lead them ulti-                                             - E d .
                                 .

                                                                                                             L&!% /!$@&gll E&g
                                                                                                                         9
                     "When the Light Shines". (I) s
                                                                 (John   9)
                                                 1                                                                                              1
E                                                     32). This could only be a miracle         once more that Jesus is from God.
       arlier Jesus had declared His                  of Messiah!                               But their blindness is Jesus' judg-
       identity as the light of the                       But more.                             ment. Jesus says: "For judgment I
       w o r l d   ( J o h n   8:12).   N o w             Jesus shines  saving  light. He       am come into this world, that they
Jesus repeats this declaration (John                  whom He had healed physically             which see not might see; and that
9:5).  Now as well Jesus shows He                     He enlightens in the soul. He gives       they which see might be made
is the light of the world in a most                   the man faith to believe in Jesus.        blind" (v. 39).
remarkable way. He restores the                           Jesus shines  blinding  light. The        Jesus the Christ, the Son of
sight of a man born blind. Such a                     Pharisees refuse to believe that this     God! Savior and Judge!
thing was without precedent (v.                       notable miracle of Jesus proves                When the light shines...!




                                                      not hurt to review! What does             shining by His bodily presence
Jesus the Christ, the Son of God!.                    Scripture teach about Jesus being         among us. But He continues to
                                                      "light," and the light "of the            shine  in and through His Church!
* What Jesus demonstrates in all                      world"?                                   How does He do this (cf. Matt.
of John 9 is what He declares Him-                                                              5:14; II Cor.  4:6; I Tim.  3:15)?
self to `be in verse 5:  the  light'of                * Jesus is the light in His  work-
the world.                                            ing the works of God  who sent            0~ We see the Light shine in vari-
    We have considered the sig-                       Him (v. 4). What works are these?         ous ways in this chapter:
nificance of this title Jesus' claims                                                                First, Jesus illuminates the dis-
for Himself `in our. discussion of                    * Jesus works and shines  "while          ciples with regard to the cause or
John  8:12 (cf. the December 15,                      it.is day" (v.  4), and as long as He     reason for the blind man's blind-
1996  Starzdard   Bearer).  But it does               is~ in the world (v. 5). But there is     ness (v.  3). The disciples were
                                                      a night coming "when no man can           thinking like Job's friends. They
                                                      work" (v.  4)! What is the "night"        were surmising that  ,either  this
Rev. Dick is pastor  of  Grace Protes-                to which Jesus refers?                    man or his parents had sinned.
tant Reformed Church in Standale,                                                               The blindness, they suspected, was
Michigan.:  :                                         I* Jesus no longer is the light           a judgment of God upon him or

282lStandard   Bearer/March 15, 1997


them for some specific sin.' .Jesus                                     makes clay of the spittle, and rubs      man's life. He has just been cast
teaches: sin is not the explanation.                                    it in the eyes of the blind man.         out of the fellowship of the Jews
Rather, God had brought this                                            Then He tells him to go wash in          (v. 34; cf. v. 22). This would make
blindness about in order that the                                       the pool of  Siloam! Concerning the      the man a social outcast and would
works  .of God might be  ~manifest                                      question why Jesus used dirt and         also most likely mean economic
in the man! But this brings up an                                       spittle to heal the man, various an-     hardship.  How does Jesus at this
interesting question: are sick-                                         swers have, been given.        Some      time show that He is the Light who
nesses, diseases, or any trials ever                                    think Jesus was taking advantage         is the Good Shepherd of His
to be regarded as. coming upon us                                       of the healing qualities of the mud.     sheep? (Hint: one way this is seen
oranyone  because of some particu-                                      Some think He was symbolizing            is in Jesus  searching out the man in
lar sin? What other reasons might                                       the creation of man from the dust,       his distress.  He graciously  initiates
there be (cf. Gen.  3:17-19;  Rom.                                      and so at this time "creating eyes"      the contact!)
5:12;21;   E x .   20:5;   E z e k .   18:2-4;                          for the man.  .Others think the              Fourth, Jesus teaches that He
Deut.  28:15-68;  John  5:14; I Cor.                                    anointing with mud and the com-          is come as the light of the world
11:30)? Understanding. that there                                       mand to wash in the pool were a          to  blind  those who remain obsti-
are various reasons why God                                             test of the man's faith, similar to      nate in their unbelief (vv. 39-41;
sends trials our way, what should                                       Naaman's test (II Kings  5:lO). Is       cf. Is.  6:lO;  Mark   4:12). How does
be our reaction to trials  - our own                                    there an answer? Is Jesus teach-         Jesus' statement, "For judgment I
and others'? What comfort should                                        ing a lesson about Himself and  His      am come into this world," harmo-
we take and give in .a `time of trial! :                                heal+g   when He, sends-the man' to      nize with  His teaching in John
What does Jesus' explanation of                                         the  p`ool of  Siloam?  (Hint: look      3:17ff: and John  12:47 that He is
this blindness say of the purposes                                      up in a good Bible dictionary the        come  not  to condemn, but to save?
and sovereignty of God in and                                           history of this pool; confer Isaiah      Who are those who "see" today?
through all things, even hardships?                                     8:6; John  4:10,  7:37; note the name    What evidence do we have of Jesus
          Second, Jesus gives sight to the                              of the pool: "Sent.")                    blinding the wicked today?
man born blind (vv. 6, 7). It is                                            Third, Jesus comes to the man
striking just how Jesus heals the                                       whose sight has been restored, and       * Salvation! Judgment! When
man:              He spits on the ground,                               works faith in the man's soul (vv.       the light  shines! Today! Cl
                                                                        35-38). It is a crucial time in the
 .T.?/I. : .'
.~~~~~~~~~~~-~::   ,...) :; ,--y:;                                            j.          :       1       :        B@Yo   Li??mkTWd  Gi!mxt~
 `...< ,__ `y,,.;;,.v-:.  .;y .i    ,,..  ?-  .:..-,.,   :  ..-    i                                                                            ,.
                              Essentials and Incidentals

                                           Every church shall administer the Lord's Supper in such a manner
                                                              e most conducive to edification; provided, however, that
                                    the outward ceremonies as prescribed in God's Word be not changed
                                    and all superstition be avoided, and that at the conclusion of the sermon.,
                                    and the usual prayers, the form for the administration of the  Lord"s
                                    Supper, together with the prayer for that  purpose  shall be read.
                                                                                                       Church Order, Article 62

Article 62 continues the on those matters deemed essential in the churches. There.is to be uni-
                    Church Order's treatment                            to the administration of the sacra-      formity of `practice among the
                    of the sacrament of the                             ment and those matters left to the       churches in' regard to these ele-
Lord's Supper. The article focuses                                      discretion of the local consistory.      ments.
                                                                                                                     First, the Church Order re-
                                                                        Essentials of Administration'            quires that  ythe-  outward ceremo-
Rev. Cammenga .is pastor  of  South-                                        Article 62 prescribes certain        nies as prescribed in God's Word
west Protestant Reformed Church                                         definite requirements for the ad-        be not changed:..." The reference
in Grandville, Michigan.                                                ministration of the Lord's Supper        here is especially to the elements

                                                                                                                      March 15, 1997fStandard  Bearer/283


r--of the sacrament, bread and wine, stain then from partaking of the and only the second part of the
      and to the liturgical actions in-        wine than that the will of Christ        form is read at the communion ser-
      volved in breaking the bread and         for the administration of the sac-       vice.
      pouring out the wine. These are          rament be contravened.                       This is not a good practice. It
      necessary to a proper administra-            Second, the Lord's Supper is         is not, strictly speaking, in har-
      tion of the sacrament, and indi-         to be administered "at the conclu-       mony with Article 62, which re-
      vidual congregations are not at lib-     sion of the sermon and the usual         quires that the form be read after
      erty to alter the sacrament as it has    prayers...." The fundamental prin-       the sermon and before the admin-
      been instituted by Christ.               ciple honored by this regulation of      istration of the Lord's Supper. Ob-
          At times the question arises         Article 62 is that the preaching of      viously the  re:ference  is to the form
      whether it is permitted to substi-       the Word is the chief means of           in its entirety. Besides, the form
      tute grape juice for wine in the ad-     grace. The sacrament stands in the       is a whole and was not written to
      ministration of the Lord's Supper.       service of the preaching of the          be read in two separate sections
      In many Reformed and Presbyte-           Word.        Without the preaching       on two different' Sundays.
      rian churches today this is done.        there can be no partaking of the             This is not to say that at the
      It is argued that the use of wine is     sacrament with understanding.            preparatory service the first part
      not essential to the sacrament.          Thus, the administration of the          of the form ought not to be read.
      Additionally, the substitution is of-    Lord's Supper may never be di-           This is a good practice, which is
      ten justified on the ground that the     vorced from the preaching of the         followed by many of our churches.
      use of wine may prove a snare to         Word.                                    But when the.Lord's Supper is ad-
      recovering alcoholics (drunkards).           It is customary when the             ministered, the entire form should
          There can be no question about       Lord's Supper is administered that       be read, also the part dealing with
      it that Christ instituted the Lord's     the preaching is shortened to al-        self-examinat'ion,  even though it
      Supper not with grape juice, but         low for the administration of the        may have been read the previous
      with wine. From apostolic times          sacrament within the time con-           S u n d a y .
      the church has used wine in its cel-     straints of the usual worship ser-
      ebration of the sacrament. It was        vice. This is as it should be. The       Incidentals of Administration
      the use of wine at the Lord's Table      sacrament must get its due. But              Although Article 62 lays down
      that led to the abuse of the sacra-      the administration of the sacra-         certain requirements that all the
      ment among the Corinthians (cf. I        ment must never displace the             congregations must meet in their
      Cor. 11).                                preaching, for divorced from the         administration of the Lord's `Sup-
          For good reason the sacrament        preaching the sacrament loses its        per, the main point of the article
      was instituted with wine. The use        value as a means of grace in the         is that "Every church shall admin-
      of wine, in distinction from water       church.                                  ister the Lord's Supper in such a
      or even grape juice, belongs to the          Third, the Lord's Supper is to       manner as it. shall judge most con-
     spiritual significance of the sacra-      be administered after reading "the       ducive to edification...." There is
     ment. Since the sacrament was in-         form for the administration of the       to be liberty exercised by indi-
      stituted with wine; it must be ad-       Lord's Supper, together with the         vidual congregations and  consis-
     ministered with wine. The church          prayer for that purpose...." The         tories in the administration of the
     is not at liberty to change the ele-      adopted form must be used. The           Lords Supper.
     ments of the sacraments. Obedi-           form sets forth what we believe              What are some of the inciden-
      ence to Christ demands that the          with regard to the Lord's Supper         tals connected to the administra-
     church administer the sacraments          and the death of Jesus Christ that       tion of  the-Lord's Supper that are
     as He has seen fit to institute them      is signified and sealed by the           left to the discretion of the local
     in the church.                            Lord's Supper. The reading of the        congregation?
          I have personally asked recov-       form not only prepares the con-              Whether a common cup or in-
      ered alcoholics whether the little       gregation to partake, but also           dividual cups: will be used for the
     bit of wine drunk at the Lord's           points to their calling after having     wine. Whether the congregation
     Supper poses a real temptation to         partaken.                                shall partake, of the elements in
     return to the sin of drunkenness.             In connection with the reading       unison or individually as they are
     Without exception the response            of the form the question is some-        served. Whether leavened or un-
     was that the small sip of wine at         times asked whether it is proper         leavened bread will be used.
     the Lord's Table, drunk in those          to divide the form, so that the first    Whether the elements will be
     surroundings, posed no threat to          part of the form, which deals with       passed through the congregation
     them to fall back into their sin. If,     self-examination, is read the Sun-       so that the members are served as
     however, this is a temptation to          day prior to the administration as       they are seated in the sanctuary,
     an individual, better that he  ab-        part of the preparatory service,         or the members come forward and

     284/Standard   Bearer/March 15, 1997


approach the communion table, or                   in regard to the incidentals must        administration of the Lord's Sup-
are served at tables set up in a par-              not make an issue over these mat-        per. A change may be made, for
ticular room in the church build-                  ters. Suggestions may be made,           example, from partaking individu-
ing. Whether the members shall                     perhaps to the elders at the time        ally to partaking in unison. A
sit or stand to receive the elements.              of family visitation. Those sug-         consistory may judge partaking in
Whether while the elements are                     gestions ought to be considered by       unison to be more edifying, and
distributed the minister shall read                the consistory. But, in the end,         thus an  imIjrovement  in the ad-
a portion of Scripture (the form                   the members of the church must           ministration. of the Lord's Supper.
suggests this and mentions pas-                    be content with the decisions of             Nevertheless, if the controlling
sages that may appropriately be                    the consistory or the majority of        principle is  :the edification of the
read), or the organist play, or the                the congregation as far as the inci-     congregation, then changes in the
congregation sing, or silence be                   dentals of the administration of the     administration of the Lord's Sup-
maintained in the auditorium.                      sacrament are concerned.                 per are going to be few and far
Whether there shall be a special                       Consistories and congregations       between. Continually revising the
thank-offering after the adminis-                  must be guided by what is "most          procedure for the sacrament's ad-
tration `of the sacrament.                         conducive to edification...." That       ministration a consistory's cater-
     All these incidentals are left to             must be the controlling principle        ing to  every.suggestion  and whim,
t h e   j u d g m e n t o f   t h e   l o c a l    - what best serves to edify. That        does not serve the edification of
consistory and congregation. They                  is the apostolic injunction in I         the congregation. Decency and or-
must be viewed as incidentals. A                   Corinthians  14:26: "Let all things      der in the administration of the
member of the congregation who                     be done unto edifying."                  Lord's Supper require a certain
favors a certain change in the ad-                     If this is the principle followed    constancy in the manner in which
ministration of the Lord's Supper                  by a consistory, then it may make        it is administered.  0
                                                   changes from time to time in the
                                                                -.-,  .-
 JQlJ&q@jj@uQ.-~   :1,  .-.  ~.-.  ,,-:--.  I,                                                       ~I&  @l&33   ll&EE$m~J

                                                    this  mostly so you can pray for        now refused to talk further by
H Suffering for                                     this brother, who is so energetic       phone, and ,his father relayed the
Christ's Sake
0                                                   for the Reformed faith and has to       displeasure `of his uncle. Rev. J.
      ne often hears of the persecu-                pay such a high cost.
                                                       Titus returned to Singapore          Kortering reports:
      tion of Christians. Seldom,                   with the urging of his uncle, who
however, does it seem very close                    is leader of the Evangelical Pres-          In the Burmese culture, to have
to us. Always persecution is of                     byterian Churches of Myanmar              a man as important as (Titus')
Christians far away and unknown                     and also head-master of Far East-         uncle tell his father that he had
to us personally. Recently Rev. J.                  ern Fundamental School of The-            an unruly and rebellious son was
Kortering, from Singapore, sent a                   ology, that he ought to read other        most humiliating. Only yester-
                                                                                              day, his father called Titus to tell
letter to our ministers informing                   books than by PRC authors and             him the latest. His uncle refuses
them of the difficult situation con-                 decide where his theological po-         to talk anymore with him; no
fronting Rev. Titus, with whom he                   sition ought to be. He questioned         more phone calls. Also that Titus
has had close contact. I quote part                 whether he could be pastor in the
                                                    EPC or teach in FEFST if he held          will be excommunicated from his
of that information to give our                     to the A-mil and 5 points of Cal-         church and. that he will not be al-
readers an idea of the pressure and                 vinism. Titus returned January 2          lowed to  #each  or teach again.
even persecution some face for                      and felt so guilty for not coming         His wife has to be out of the
maintaining what they believe to                     "clean" with his uncle that he de-       apartment at the college by (the)
be the truths of God's Word.                        cided he had to telephone his             end of February or, as he said,
                                                    uncle and tell him: no more read-         "We will throw her out in the
                                                                                              street."
     I have been keeping you posted                 ing, no more study; I am con-               So Titus has some big decisions
  on (a) situation in the life of Rev.              victed in my conscience of these         to make.
  Titus of Myanmar (Burma). I do                    truths (and) I will bear the conse-
                                                    quences.                                    1. Should  he talk to . . . where
                                                                                             he is attending school to learn if
                                                      There follows a report of tele-        his scholarship is canceled? More
                                                                                             than likely it is.
                                                   phone conversations between Rev.
Rev.  VanBaren  is pastor  of  the Prot-                                                        2. Should he return to
                                                   Titus and his uncle and father.
estant Reformed Church  of  Love-                                                            Myanmar to defend himself be-
                                                   The result was that his uncle has
land, Colorado.                                                                              fore the churches or let it go?

                                                                                                  March 15, 1994/Standard  Bearer/285


      3.    Should he stay in Singapore               H A "Solution" for a                                  within the denomination," said
   and we help him financially so he                  Divided Denomination?                                 VanderPol. "I think that was defi-
   can finish his study (he is three                                                                        nitely on the minds of many
   months away from completing his                    Thetroubles. in, the Christian Re- people at the time of the vote."
   MDiv)?   a Then again, would . . .                    formed Church continue to                             The overture draws a close par-
   ever give him his degree even if                   grow. Now there is the proposal                       allel between the proposed theo-
   he finishes?               s                       presented by  Classis California                      logical classes and the already-ex-
      4.    Should he go to be with his               South to stem the "trickle" of                        isting  synodical  decision allowing
   wife and family, who must be suf-                  churches and individuals from                         each of the CRC's  ,47 classes to
   fering plenty of personal shame                    leaving the CRC. Will it work? It                     declare itself in favor of women's
   in this situation?                                                                                       ordination by declaring the rel-
      Titus' father told him that the                 appears to be more of a "band-aid"                    evant article of the CRC church
   family tie was too. tight to leave                 approach to a situation which re-                     order barring women's ordination
   .his  uncle and join with Titus at                 quires major surgery.                                 to be inoperative. If the overture
   this time. He is also dependent                                                                          is adopted by synod this June, the
   on . . . for money to run his or-                   (February  5,1997)  URNS -When                       CRC General Secretary-will be di-
   phanage.                                    )       Escondido CRC tried last year to                     rected, to "maintain a list of theo-
      What Titus has learned is that                   get  Classis  California South to en-                logically identified classes as well
   the only Reformed system of gov-                    dorse the concept of a  classis  or-                 as those which have declared `that
   ernment is that of the local church                 ganized by theological affinity,                     the word male in Article 3-a of
   autonomy and. no men in the                         the  classis rejected the overture by                the Church Order is inoperative
, church should be "leaders" or  ex-                   a voice vote. This year, a similar                   for their constituent churches and
 ecutive officers. This always leads                   overture from. Escondido calling                     will publish that list annually,
   to hierarchy. Add to that  the.de-                  for four such classes rather than                    along with the presentation of
   dendence  on foreign money and                      a single classis passed by a three-                  candidates for the ministry, in The
   the situation becomes almost  im-                   to-one margin at  Classis  Califor-                  Banner.' (Acts of Synod 1996, p.
+ "*-possible.                                         nia South's January 15 meeting.                      735, item `e')."
      Even `then, if we take Titus un-                   Since November 1995, the con-                         VanderPol said that, based on
   der our wing and lead him into                      cept of a  classis  composed of                      preliminary estimates, nearly a
   t h e   U R C   ( U n i t e d   R e f o r m e d     churches organized on the basis                      tenth of the CRC's 841 organized
   Church) of Myanmar, he will                         of theology rather than geographi-                   churches could eventually end up
   need support, for he doesn't have.                  cal proximity  has,been  a key part                  requesting to join a  classis   com-
   one penny to feed his family or                     of the stated strategy of conser-                    posed of conservative churches
   meet their needs. If we don't give                  vative Christian Reformed leaders                    opposed to the ordination of
   him some money, he would re-                        who want to remain members of                        women. "I have 90 churches that
   turn to Myanmar and eke out a                       the denomination despite its 1995                    have indicated a desire to care-
   starvation diet from other family                   decision to allow the ordination                     f u l l y   c o n s i d e r   a.  t h e o l o g i c a l
' members and more than likely be-                     of women. Endorsed by the 1995                       classis," said VanderPol. "With
 come so physically weak that he                       Interclassical Conference of CRC                     that number, we obviously hope
   would die young. It  seems  God                     conservatives meeting in South                       we can have a pool of many more
   has greater things for him than                     Holland, Illinois, the concept was                   so we can in the end have a sig-
   that. This the ERCS has to sort                     endorsed again by the November                       nificant number of churches and
   o u t   n o w .                                     1996 Interclassical' Conference as                   existing classes."
      The pastors will `be meeting                     an alternative to secession.                            According to VanderPol, the
   with Titus after the Chinese New                      E l d e r   K e i t h   V a n d e r P o l   o f    theological classes could-take two
   Year . . . next Tuesday.                            Escondido CRC, who `also serves                      forms. Just as any of the CRC's
 ' Pray for' the guidance of the                       as vice-president for development                    existing 47 classes can now de-
   Spirit that this young man can                      of Westminster Theological Semi-                     clare itself to be in favor of
   find some way to be used for the                    nary in Escondido and has been.                      women`s ordination, the overture
   cause of the Reformed faith in                      charged by the Interclassical Con-                   would allow existing classes to
   Myanmar.                                            ference with implementing the                        declare themselves opposed to the
      I asked him how he was taking                    theological  classis  proposal, said                 ordination  :of women and endorse
   all of this.                                        he thought-the change in the clas-                   the "United Reformed Affirma-
      He said, "I have such sweet                      sical vote reflected a recognition                   t i o n s ,a"series of statements
  peace  in my heart."  '                              that something needed to be done                     drafted  by' the Interclassical Con-
                                                       to keep conservatives in the Chris-                  ference addressing current issues
      Who of us  .have had to face                     tian Reformed denomination.                          in the CRC. In addition, the over-
such  ' adversity because of that                      "The positive vote at this point in                  ture provides for Synod 1997 to
which we confess and believe?                          my opinion merely points out that                    appoint  a committee to  implement
                                                       people are becoming sensitive to
And who would respond as that                                                                               the creation of new classes when
                                                       that fact that many churches                         necessary by September 1. If new
young  man  did?                                       would leave and/or split if they                     classes are formed, they would
                                                       are not provided a haven of rest                     "initially be geographically  de-

286/Standard   Bearer/March 15, 1997


  fined by and consist of those                            would be that the existing classes                       will be in theirs," said De Moor..
  churches which have indicated                            would lose theological account-                          "To me it's a biblical model of
  their desire to join a theologically                     ability on the right and risk drift-                     mutual accountability and mutual
  identified.  classis  as noted in an                     ing into positions  .diametrically                       deliberation we're dealing with."
  addendum to be  .added  to this                          opposed to those of the conserva-                          The Escondido overture would
  overture prior to Synod 1997" and                        tives.                                                   lead to further fragmentation
  would "receive until January 1,                               "What you're doing by having                        rather than unity, said De Moor.
  1998, without further need for                           a  classis  of theological affinity is                   "What is to prevent the starting
  classical or  synodical  action, any                     to defeat the very purpose of a                          of a  classis  based on the form of
  CRCNA church within its geo-                             classis.  It is to be a governing                        worship?" asked De Moor. "There
  graphical boundaries agreeing                            body where the leading of the                            is no stopping at that point.
  with the above requirement and                           spirit is discerned in matters that                      Where do you draw the line? I
  -wishing to join."                                       are not clearly taught by Scrip-                         draw the line at the creeds. If a
       The United Reformed Affirma-                        ture or the creed,"' said De Moor.                       church goes. outside the bounds
  tions, an extended document                               "We are saying it is a lovely air-                      of the creeds we've got a disci-
  adopted by the 1996 Interclassical                       plane we have here, and we're go-                        plinary case on  our hands, but we
  Conference, addresses a number                           ing to take the left wing and sepa-                      never let each other go and we
  of other issues in addition to                           rate it from the right wing, and                         retain accountability to each
  women in office. "It sets forth the                      we're going to make it fly. It can't                     other."
  historical position of the Christian                     fly that way. In the life of the
  Reformed denomination on issues                          church you need theological ac-                            One wonders: "What about
  such as the foundation of our faith                      countability."                                         cortiorate responsibility?" Are
  and practice, inerrancy of Scrip-                             De Moor proposed the biblical                     those who would  becpme part of
  ture, the church and its worship,                        model  of. the Jerusalem Council                       "conservative" classes really solv-
  its unity, matters of evangelism,                        in Acts 15 as an example of how                        ing their problems?  Their  Synod
  homosexuality, feminine language                         the church should settle disagree-
  for God, and women in the of-                            ments. "I don't think it would                         has taken action for which the
  f i c e s   o f   t h e   c h u r c h , "   s a i d      have helped the cause of Christ                        whole of the denomination is re-
  VanderPol.                                               for Antioch to say if Jerusalem in-                    sponsible. Do the "conservative"
       De Moor warned that the effect                       sists on circumcision, let's just let                 churches really -believe that their
  of conservative churches joining                         them go their own way, we will                         proposal allows them to escape
  theologically identified classes                         be in our own  classis  and they                       this responsibility?  17




           `
                 1
Minister Activities                                      Congregational Activities                                the different conditions  (weather-
Rev. R. VanOverloop declined                                    Two members of the South-                         related, that is) between Michigan
       the call  to:serve  as missionary                 west PRC in Grandville, MI, Mr.                          and California this time of year.
in Ghana. Since that decline the                         D a r r e l   H u i s k e n   a n d   M r .   P h i l    Above you have a congregation in
Hull, IA PRC, the calling church                         Lotterman, have been appointed                           Michigan spending a Saturday
for Ghana, has formed a new trio                         by their Council to collect and pre-                     snow-skiing; and during the same
consisting of the Revs. Key, Koole,                      serve archives of their church.                          month in California we have our
and T. Miersma. Hull's congrega-                         This includes the archives of the                        Hope PRC  in,Redlands  scheduling
tion was  .scheduled  to call on                         various societies and other memo-                        a school and church work day.
March 12.                                                rabilia useful and of interest to                        Plans called for Hope, to spend
       Rev. S. Key, pastor of the                        their congregation. The rommittee                        February 1st planting new trees on
Randolph, WI PRC, received the                           is looking for any material such as                      the school property, building
call to serve as pastor of the South                     old church directories, pictures of                      planters, and painting a new
Holland, IL PRC. And the Hope                            former members, programs of Sun-                         church gate. Try, doing all that in
PRC in Walker, MI extended a call                        day School or other congregational                       Michigan in February!
to Rev. R. Cammenga, pastor of                           activities, and such like.                                   The Council of Edgerton, MN
the Southwest PRC in Grandville,                                T h e   ,Young   A d u l t s   o f   t h e        PRC decided that to enhance the
MI.                                                      Georgetown PRC in Hudsonville,                           spiritual preparation of the Coun-
                                                         MI invited their congregation to go                      cil for worship services, each mem-
                                                         along with them on a ski outing to                       ber would take .a turn reading a
                                                         Northern Michigan on February                            brief portion of Scripture or a short
Mr.  Wigger is an elder  of the Protes-                  22.                                                      meditation along with their prayer,
tant Reformed Church  of  Hudson-                               We could not help but notice                      prior to each service.
ville, Michigan.

                                                                                                                       March 15,1997/Standard Bearer/287




                                                                                                                                I

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

L                                                                                                                                                                           I

Evangelism Activities                                    School Activities                                             renovation plans. This project calls
       The Evangelism Society of the                            Members of the PTA of the                              for three new classrooms, a park-
Byron Center, MI PRC sponsored                           Hope PR Christian School in                                   ing lot, re-roofing the existing
a series of Bible Study classes on                       Grand Rapids, MI were encour-                                 structure, the re-modeling of of-
the subject of "Call the Sabbath a                       aged to attend a special  ETA maet-                           fices, teachers' lounge, and library,
Delight."         This series of three                   ing in mid-February to look at                                and putting, a two-hour fire wall
classes was planned for mid-Feb-                         learning disabilities,' and receive                           between the existing structure and
ruary into early March. The first                        some practical instruction and ad-                            the 1996  expansion.
class, held on February 19, entitled                     vice on instructing children when
"Public Worship," was led by                             these problems arise.
Byron's pastor, Rev. Doug Kuiper.                               On February 10 the Adams
The second, planned for a week                           Christian School Association met
later, was entitled "Private and                         to consider the long-term needs of
Family Worship on the Lord's                             their school. You may remember                                                !Foodfor Ifiought
Day." It was led by Prof. Robert                         that last fall Adams moved from                                    "How many of you would be
Decker, from our Seminary. And                           their original location in Grand                              in church today if you knew that
the third and final class followed                       Rapids, MI to their current build-                            you would be flogged for it in the
on March 4 with Rev. Wilbur                              ing in Wyoming, MI. Work began                                marketplace tomorrow?                    and if
Bruinsma,             p a s t o r   a t       our        already last summer with the ad-                              you were flogged for it tomorrow,
Kalamazoo, MI PRC, leading the                           dition of three classrooms. At this                           how many of you would be here
discussion on "Works of Necessity                        latest meeting, Adams approved                                next Sabbath?"
and Mercy on the Lord's Day."                            Phase 2 building expansion and





           WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                                                                                                             NOTICE!!
       On February 21, 1997 our parents,                                                                                    All standing and special committees of
     MR. and MRS. ALBERT VAN DEN TOP,                               WEDDING  ANNlVEkARY                                Synod, as well as individuals who wish to ad-
observed their 50th wedding anniversary.                        Please join us in extending congratula-                dress Synod 1997, are hereby notified that all
       We, their children, grandchildren, and            tions to our parents,                                         material for the 1997 Synod of the Protestant
great-grandchildren are thankful to our heav-                  DONALD and  BERDINA  LOTTERMAN,                         Reformed Churches should be in the hands of
enly Father for the years He has given them              who will celebrate, D.V., their 50th wedding                  the Stated  Clerkino  later than April  1. Please
together, and for the covenant care and in-              anniversary on March 19, 1997. We thank                       send material to the Stated Clerk:
struction they have given us. It is our prayer           our heavenly Father for preserving them for                                   Mr: Don Doezema
that they may continue to experience the                 both us and the church. "And because he                                       4949 lvanrest Ave.
blessings of our faithful God.                           loved thy fathers, therefore he chose their seed                            Gran'dville.  Ml 49418.
       "For the Lord is good, his mercy is ever-         after them, and brought thee out in his sight
lasting; and his truth endureth to all genera-           with his mighty power out of Egypt" (Deuter-
tions" (Psalm  100:5).                                   onomy  4:37).
8  Johnand  Jean Wynia                                   #      Janice and Clare Kuiper                                             ATTENTION TEACHERS!!
9      Gerald and Bertha VanDenTop                       8      Ed and Mary Lotterman                                       Hope Christian School of Redlands, Cali-
8      Robert and Geraldine Blankespoor                  8      Mary and Harry  VandenBerg                             fornia is in need of an administrator/teacher
%      Wesley and Hester  DeGroot                        +%     Mike and Grace Lotterman                               or teacher for the 1997-1998 school year.
#      Ronald and Deborah Hoksbergen                     8      Marcia and Harv Verbeek                                Grade assignments are negotiable. For more
g: Sharon VanDenTop                                      8      Steve and Maria Lotterman                              information, interested persons should contact
%      Duane and  Sandi   Alsum                                     30 grandchildren                                   the school  princjpal,  Mr. Ed Karsemeyer, at
            33 grandchildren                                        8 great grandchildren                              the school at (909) 793-4584, or Doug Pastoor
            IO great grandchildren                                                           Grand Rapids, Michigan    at (909) 792-9392, or Glenn Feenstra at (909)
                                           Dam,  Iowa                                                                  794-5859.

288/Standard   Bearer/March 15, 1997




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