A Reformed
Semi-Monthly
Magazine





                           See Adam and the Race - p. 336

Vol.  73,  No.  14    I         1;                           I
April  15,  1997


                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         ._.* n-.:
     CONTENTS:                                                                                                                                                      April  15,  1997                                                      *p-J
I                                                                                                                                                                                                                             ,     qfr-7 m
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   9  :SEandard
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   I maser
     Meditation  - Herman Hoeksema
                Despising God's Goodness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315
     Editorial  - Prof. David  J.  Engelsma                                                                                                                                                                                         ~
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      ISSN  0362-4692
                Strictly Confessional Binding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318                                                                      Semi-monthly, except monthly  durfng June, July, and August.
     Letters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320         Published by the Refonnsd  Free Publishing Assoclatlon, lnc,,
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         4949lvanrastAvs..  Grandville.  Ml 49418.  PedodicalPostags
     A Cloud of Witnesses  - Prof. Herman C. Hanko                                                                                                                                                                                       Paid at  Grandvi//e,  Michigan.
                Abraham Muyper: Dutch Calvinist (3) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321                                                                                            Postmaster: Send address changes to the Standard Bearer,
     Go Ye Into All the World - Rev. Jason L. Kortering                                                                                                                                                                                  P.O. Box 603,  Grandvi//e,  MI  49468-0803.
                Demon Possession (2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323                                                       EDfTORlAL   COMMR-TEE
     Search the Scriptures  - Rev. Mitchell C. Dick                                                                                                                                                                                      Editor Prof. David J., Engelsma
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         Sacratary:  Pmf. Robert  D. Decker
                The Good Shepherd, His Shepherds, and His Sheep (1) . . . . . . . . . . . 326                                                                                                                                            Managing Editor  Mr. Don  Doezama
     Contending for the Faith  - Rev. Bernard Woudenberg                                                                                                                                                                                 DEPARTMENT  EDKORS
                The Suprakfra Controversy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327                                                                      Rev. W.  Bruinsma, Rev. A.  Brummel, Rev. R. Cammsnga,
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         Prof. R. Decker, Rev. A.  danHartog, Rev.  M. Dick, Prof. H.
     Day of Shadows  - Homer  C. Hoeksema                                                                                                                                                                                                Hanko,  Rev.  R. Hanko, Rev. S. Key, Rev. K.  Koala, Rev,  J.
                The Fall of Our First Parents (Appendix)                                                                                                                                                                                 Kortarfng, Rev. D. H. Kuipsr, Mr. J. Lanting, Mrs. M. Lubbers,
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         Rev. T. Miersma, Mr. G. Schipper, Rev. G. VanBare",  Rev. R.
                      Adam and the Race (1) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330                                                      VanOverloop, Mr. B. Wigger, Rev.  B. Woudenberg.
     Report of  Classis  West  -  Rev. Steven R. Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333                                                                                                   EDfTORlAL  OFFICE               CHURCH NEWS EDtTOR
     News From Our Churches - Mr. Benjamin Wigger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .334                                                                                                                       The Standard Bearer             Mr. Ben Wiggar
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     ries on Romans. The text, Romans  2:4, 5, is much abused in the                                                                                                                                                                                                     Noihem Ireland
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     God's Goodness."                                                                                                                                                                                                                    REPRINTPOLICY
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     314/Stand@rdiBearer  / A p r i l   1 5 ,   1 9 9 7


                  Despising God's Goodness
                                                                                                                              1
                                                             I                                d                                                              I
                                                                  tries to  lead you to repentance. For      is. He has pictured this man as
0                                                                 this is not true either. Nor is it the     judging and condemning others,
            Y despised thou the riches  of                        meaning of the text. But we must           while doing the same things him-
            his goodness and forbearance                          leave this word exactly as it is, and      self. He condemns the liar, and he
            and longsuffering; not know-                          say, just as we say, poison kills, fire    lies himself. He condemns the
ing that the goodness  of  God  Ieadeth                           burns, and bread nourishes, the            thief, and he steals himself. When
thee to repentance? But after thy                                 goodness of God leads to repen-            he condemns the backbiter, he be-
h a r d n e s s   a n d   i m p e n i t e n t   h e a r t         tance.                                     comes a backbiter himself. This is
treasurest up unto thyself wrath                                      It does this always. We may            characteristic of sinful man. God
against the day  of  wrath and revela-                            know it or not, it makes no differ-        lets him do it in order to make him
tion of the righteous judgment  of God.                           ence, the goodness of God leads to         say that he knows the righteous
                                  Romans  2:4,5                   repentance. You may take poison            judgment of `God, so that he will
                                                                  or you may not, it makes no differ-        be without excuse in the day of
      The heart of the text is un-                                ence, poison kills. You may put            judgment.
doubtedly expressed in the words,                                 your hand in the fire or you may               Now the apostle asks this man
"the goodness of God leadeth thee                                 not, it makes no difference, fire          (and this is the connection), how
to repentance." This is the unde-                                 burns. You may feel the power of           do you explain that attitude? How
niable truth around which the en-                                 the goodness of God or you may             do you come to assume that atti-
tire text in all its details is really                            not, it makes no difference, -the          tude in which you condemn in oth-
grouped. It is the one certainty that                             goodness of God leads to repen-            ers what you do yourself? How
can always be applied and always                                  tance.                                     must that be explained?
stands, to which there is never an                                    But there are those who despise            The apostle knows of but two
exception:          "the goodness of God                          that goodness of God. Despising            possibilities. The first possibility
leadeth to repentance."                                           the goodness of God, they treasure         is expressed in that first question:
      For this reason we must not                                 up unto themselves wrath. It is to         "Thinkest thou this, 0 man, that
change this statement, so as to fit                               those that the apostle calls our at-       judgest  them,which  do such things,
our notion as to what the goodness                                tention in the text.                       and doest the same, that thou shalt
of God ought to be. Poison kills;                                                                            escape the judgment of God?" Is
fire burns; bread nourishes; so, the                              The  Meaning                               this the explanation? If this is the
goodness of God leads to repen-                                       The apostle is still addressing        case, then that attitude is ex-
tance. We must not say, or think,                                 the man of verse 1. He is not ad-          plained.
or attempt to change the meaning                                  dressing any particular class. He              Or, and this is the other possi-
of this statement into something                                  is not addressing the Jew. Nor is          bility, is  that,attitude  rooted in the
like this: the goodness of God  likes                             the Jew excluded. The apostle has          sinful contempt in which you say,
to lead you to repentance. This is                                in mind to apply what he has said          "I know that I shall be in the judg-
not true. Or, the goodness of God                                 to the Jews in a special sense. But        ment, but  I don't care"?                  "Or
                                                                  here he is addressing man. He is           despisest thou the riches of his
                                                                  speaking in the singular. This man,        goodness, not knowing that the
                                                                  the apostle has pictured in a very         goodness of God leadeth thee to re-
                                                                  peculiar and realistic light. That         pentance?"
Herman Hoeksema was the first edi-                                is, he has pictured him just as he             In the original, four words are
tor of the  Standard Bearer.

                                                                                                                    A p r i l   1 5 ,   1997/standafd&arer/315


used, where in our English  trans-               is in God never a will, a desire, to                  "despisest thou the lovingkindness,
lation there are but three. The text,            make the wicked happy. We must                        and forbearance, and longsuffering
therefore, should be read this way:              understand this.              The central             of God; not knowing that the good-
"or despisest thou the loving-                   thought of the text is to emphasize                   ness of God  leadeth  thee to repen-
kindness, forbearance,  longsuf-                 that it is impossible for God to                      tance?" To despise a thing presup-
fering, and goodness of God?" As                 bless anyone, unless he comes to                      poses that we come into contact
to the meaning of these  vari-                            repentance. As long as he                    with it to the extent that we know
ous terms, they are so re-                                  does not come to  repen-                   that which we despise. The apostle
lated that goodness  in-                    When             tance,  and as long as he                 means to say, therefore, that in
                                          He curses
eludes all the other  vir-                                    despises and does not                    some way, to some extent, man al-
tues.     God's loving-                  the wicked,          know the goodness of                     ways comes into contact with this
kindness is His goodness           God does good.             God, he cannot taste the                 threefold manifestation of God, the
manifest. God's  forbear-               God would not         b l e s s i n g   o f   G o d .   W e    heart of which is: the Lord blesses
ante is His goodness                      do good,            must understand,  there-                 the righteous.
                                        if  He blessed
manifest.      God's  long-                                  fore, that the loving-                         Despisest thou this?
suffering is His goodness                the wicked.        kindness of God is that                        It is emphatically in the church,
manifest.                                                  manifestation of God's good-                where the goodness of God is be-
    What is God's goodness?                            ness according to which it is His               stowed, that the goodness of God
In the first place, God's goodness               eternal desire to bless the righ-                     is despised.
is that virtue of God by which He                teous. This is why the natural man                         To despise a thing is to think
is in Himself infinite perfection.               despises that lovingkindness of                       nothing of it. To despise a thing is
This is the background of all other              God. Man will never despise a                         to judge it worthless, not to want
goodnesses. God's goodness does                  general grace. But he despises that                   it. So that when the testimony is,
not mean that he is our benefactor,              God blesses the righteous.                            "The Lord blesses the righteous,"
that He bestows good upon us.                           The other two terms, God's for-                we simply ignore it and continue
God's goodness means, in the first               bearance and longsuffering, are                       to walk in sin. Do you not see that
place, that He is good in the sense              again manifestations of the good-                     the sinner, going on in his own
of perfection. Because God is good               ness of God as revealed in time.                      way, despises the goodness of
in Himself, He also does good.                   God's longsuffering is His desire                     God?
God does good to all creatures.                  to deliver His suffering people, but
There is no exception. He does                   waiting until all things are ripe. If                 Its Cause
good to all creatures, organically               I have my child on the operating                          How is this possible? The
considered and individually con-                 table and that child begs me to                       apostle says that the deepest cause
sidered. God always does good.                   stop, but I keep right on cutting                     is in his impenitent heart. "But af-
He does good to the wicked and to                into the live flesh until the opera-                  ter thy hardness and impenitent
the righteous. When God blesses                  tion is         completed,             I am           heart," the text says. The heart is
the righteous, He does good. When                longsuffering over that child. So                     the center of a man's life from a
He curses the wicked, God does                   God's longsuffering is His purpose                    spiritual point of view. From the
good. God would not do good, if                  finally to bring His people to glory,                 heart is the life of man as to its
He blessed the wicked. This, in the              while permitting them to suffer un-                   spiritual direction. An impenitent
first place. God is in Himself good              til the time is ripe.                                 heart is a heart that cannot repent.
and the overflowing fountain of all                     God's forbearance is the antith-               It is not a  h,eart that does not re-
goodnesses.                                      esis of longsuffering. It is His will                 pent. An impenitent heart is a
    For this reason there is in the              to destroy the wicked in the day of                   heart that  cannot  repent. It is not a
text mention of a threefold mani-                judgment, while allowing them to                      heart that cannot  be brought  to re-
festation of God's goodness. These               prosper until that day. God's for-                    pentance. But it is a heart that can-
three are also related.            God's         bearance is this. I have a man in                     not repent of fitself.
lovingkindness is the first manifes-             my home who eats my bread,                                To repent is to change, so that
tation of His goodness. God's                    drinks my water, wears my clothes,                    our judgment of our own sin is as
lovingkindness is His inmost de-                 and sleeps in my bed. That man                        God's judgment of our sin. An im-
sire to bless the righteous. The                 ignores me and abuses my chil-                        penitent heart is the very opposite.
goodness of God so works and re-                 dren. I forbear from putting him                      It is a heart that loves sin, that
veals itself that there is in God the            out of my house until the time is                     seeks it, that walks in it.
eternal desire to bless the righ-                ripe. This is God's forbearance.                          That impenitent heart, the
teous. You can never say that of                 The forbearance and longsuffering                     apostle says, is hard. It is not hard-
God's attitude toward the wicked.                of God are manifest.                                  ened. It is hard. "After thy hard-
Then He would not be good. There                        The apostle asks the sinner:                   ness," says the apostle. Hardness,

316btandar.d Bearer /April  15, 1997


this is the characteristic of the im-        goodness of God leads to repen-                 quently covered up. It is so cov-
penitent heart. That heart is hard           tance.                                          ered up that frequently we would
so that it is not receptive to repen-             This becomes manifest in those             say that God's judgment is not
tance. When that impenitent heart            who come into contact with this                 righteous. The wicked seem to
sits under the influence of the              fact. It is as though I would say,              prosper, and the righteous are in
Word of God,`and even before that            "Don't you know that fire burns                 trouble. We would say that God's
Word comes to him, it makes up               you?"  - meaning, of course, as                 judgment is :not righteous. This
its mind not to repent. An impeni-           soon as you come into contact with              judgment is so covered up that men
tent heart is always hard. It is not         it. Or, "Don't you know that poi-               have come to the conclusion that
so, that that impenitent heart is first      son kills you?"  - meaning, of                  there is a general grace. God's
soft and that gradually it hardens.          course, when you come into con-                 judgment is now covered up. But
That heart is hard from the begin-           tact with it. So the apostle says:              there comes a day when that cover
ning.  Every, impenitent heart is            "Don't you know that the goodness               will be taken off. That is the day
hard.                                        of God leads you to repentance?"                of the revelation of the judgment
    It is true that there is a hard-         - meaning, as soon as you come                  of God.
ening of the heart in a natural way,         into contact with it.                               That day will be a day of
but not in the spiritual sense. Even              The natural man does not know              wrath. For whom? For that man.
a hard, impenitent heart can be-             that the goodness of God leads to               It will be a day of wrath. That is,
come hardened in a natural way.              repentance. Does he not know the                it will be a day of nothing but
When first that hard, impenitent             fact? He does. This is not the                  wrath. And that man treasures up
heart comes under the influence of           meaning. But he does not know it                wrath. He lays up wrath as one
the Word of God, there are the               in the sense that he does not expe-             lays up a sum of money in a bank.
pangs of conscience, a certain fear,         rience, taste, that the goodness of             He piles up wrath. He' lays up
a trembling, before that Word. But           God leads to repentance, and in the             wrath in the bank of God's judg-
under the influence of the good-             sense that he despises it. He de-               ment. He does that in all his life.
ness of God that impenitent heart            spises the goodness of God as it                He is always increasing his capital
becomes hardened. We can see, of-            becomes         m a n i f e s t   i n    His    of wrath. He treasures up wrath
ten to our deepest sorrow, how the           lovingkindness, forbearance, and                against the day of wrath. You may
impenitent heart becomes hard-               long-suffering, not knowing, in the             call that grace if you please. But
ened. Because of that impenitent             sense of not experiencing, that the             the apostle knows nothing of that.
heart, you do not know that the              goodness of God leads to repen-                     What shall we say then?
goodness of God leads to repen-              tance.                                              I will conclude with that with
tance. This is the immediate re-                                                             which I started. The goodness of
sult.                                        Its Result                                      God leadeth thee to repentance. If
    The Arminian distortion is that               Is this the case? If it is, then           you have not come to repentance,
God is good, in the sense of be-                  there is but one result. This is           you have never known the good-
ing gracious to all. He is                             that that man who so  de-             ness of God. If in the midst of
good, in the sense that He          That man            spises the goodness of God           those men who despise the good-
likes to save all. Because            who so              treasures up wrath against         ness of God, you become a peni-
He likes to save all, He             despises             the day of wrath and               tent sinner, what then? Is there any
tries to lead all to  repen-       the goodness            judgment.                         hope? I am not ashamed of the
tance. When He does so,               ofGod                     There comes a day            gospel of Jesus Christ. That, the
there are some who resist          treasures up            of the revelation of the          apostle still has in mind. I am not
that goodness of God.                 wrath                judgment of God. The              ashamed of the gospel of Jesus
This is the Arminian  dis-           against               text says:       "after thy       Christ. For in it is revealed the
tortion of the text.                 the day               hardness and impenitent           righteousness of God, which is by
    But this is not the  ex-         of wrath             heart, treasurest up unto          faith in Christ Jesus. The righteous
pression of the text. The                  and            thyself wrath against the          shall live by faith. Living by faith,
text does not say: the  good-       judgment.           day of wrath, and  revela-           they say: being justified by faith,
ness of God  tries  to lead you                        tion of the righteous  judg-          we have peace with God. Cl
to repentance. The text makes a                    ment of God." We must not
statement of fact. The text says that        say that there comes a day of the
the goodness of God  Zeads  you  to          judgment of God. This judgment
repentance. It is impossible, if you         is always present. But there comes
leave the text in its meaning, to            a day when this judgment shall be
elicit from it a general grace. It is        revealed.
a general statement of fact. The                  This judgment is now fre-

                                                                                                   A p r i l   1 5 ,   1997fitandard'Bearer/317


            Strictly Confessional Binding

In1951, the synod of the Protes- Although the truth of the un- Faber, a theologian in the Canadian
    tant Reformed Churches  (PRC)         conditional promise of the cov-          Reformed Churches, Schilder's
    adopted a document called "A          enant only to the elect children is      criticism of the "Declaration" has
Brief Declaration of Principles of        not the whole content of the "Dec-       recently been published as the
the PRC" (hereafter, the "Declara-        laration/ it is the main message.        book,  American Secession Theolo-
tion"). This was a time of severe         Specifically rejected by the "Decla-     gians on Covenant and Baptism  b
internal struggle in the PRC over         ration" is the doctrine of a condi-      Extra-Scriptural Binding-a New
the doctrine of the covenant. The         tional covenant promise by God at        Danger  (Neerlandia, Alberta,
issue was whether at baptism the          baptism to every baptized child.         Canada/Pella, Iowa, USA: Inher-
covenant promise is made by God           This was the doctrine of some in         itance Publications, 1996).
to every baptized child or to the         Canada with whom the PRC were                The PRC may be glad that the
elect children only.                      working at the time in home mis-         book is published. It raises the im-
    The former view maintains that        sions. These were Dutch immi-            portant biblical and Reformed truth
the covenant promise depends for          grants who had been members in           of the covenant of God in Jesus
its fulfillment on a condition that       the Netherlands of the Reformed          Christ with godly parents and their
the child must perform. The con-          Churches in the Netherlands ("lib-       children. Even though the purpose
dition is faith.                          erated"), or GKN ("lib."). The ex-       of the book is to oppose the cov-
    The latter view holds that the        plicit purpose of the "Declaration"      enant doctrine of the PRC in the
promise is unconditional. The             was that it be used by the Mission       Reformed community, it does
promise made to the elect children        Committee of the PRC for the or-         present our covenant doctrine to
itself includes the gift of faith to      ganization of churches. The pre-         the Reformed public. In fact,
the child.         On the latter view,    amble reads:                             Schilder's contribution to the book
which has always been that of the                                                  begins by giving the "Declaration"
PRC, the faith of the child is not a        DECLARATION OF PRINCIPLES,             almost in its entirety.
condition unto the fulfillment of          to be used only by the Mission              We hope .that the book fans the
the promise and unto the establish-        Committee and the missionaries          flames of some renewed interest in
ing or maintaining of the covenant          for the organization of prospective    the doctrine of the covenant among
with the child. This is to say, faith       churches on the basis of Scripture
                                            and the confessions as these have      Presbyterian      a n d   R e f o r m e d
is not a condition unto the salva-          always been maintained in the          churches. May there be discussion,
tion of the child. Rather, faith is         Protestant Reformed Churches           and even vigorous debate, concern-
the means by which the promising            and as these are now further ex-       ing the issues clearly outlined in
God realizes His promise in the            pIained in regard to certain prin-      the "Declaration."
child's life and by which the               ciples.                                    I encourage the readers of the
covenanting God establishes His                                                    SB to obtain and read the  173-page
covenant with the child. This is to           As the PRC were in the pro-          paperback, although they will find
say, faith is the means by which          cess of adopting the "Declaration,"      Schilder hard going. He is not al-
God saves the covenant child and          the leading theologian of the GKN        ways characterized by clarity of ex-
by which the child appropriates           ("lib."), Prof. Dr. Klaas Schilder,      pression. Especially the ministers
salvation.                                published a booklet criticizing the      in the PRC will want to read the
    Faith is the  necessary  means.       "Declaration." This booklet has          book. Those who cannot read the
But it is the instrumental "means         now been translated from the origi-      Dutch now have access in English
by which," not the "condition             nal Dutch into English. With an          to Schilder's well-known attack on
unto.`:       )                           essay on the covenant by Dr. Jelle       the "Declaration."

318/Standakd  Bearer /April  15, 1997


    All will be interested in Faber's    adopted by synod, and Article 31           regular, twenty-four-hour days by
analysis of the teachings on the         of the Church Order of Dordt binds         the Word of God calling distinct
covenant of several American theo-       this decision upon all the churches        creatures into existence. The deci-
logians whose roots were in the re-      and members of the federation.             sion would offer the right explana-
formatory movement in the Neth-          This is in keeping with the fact that      tion of the creeds on this matter.
erlands that is known as the "Se-        the "Declaration" is the PR testi-         It would also condemn the false
cession." They are G. E. Boer; L. J.     mony concerning the covenant to            doctrine of theistic evolution.
Hulst; G. K. Hemkes; G. Vos; W.          those who desire to join the PRC.              Who would charge such a
W. Heyns; H. Beuker; and F. M.           If those who want to join are bound        faithful denomination with "extra-
ten  Hoor. In addition, Faber com-       by the testimony, certainly those          Scriptural binding"?
ments on the covenant views of L.        who give the testimony are bound               The second prong of Schilder's
Berkhof, H. Hoeksema, and K.             to believe it.                             attack was the important one. This
Schilder. (I mention in passing that         But Schilder was wrong when            was his condemnation of the doc-
in my own study under Hoeksema,          he criticized the "Declaration" as         trine of the unconditional covenant
in my reading of Hoeksema's              "extra-Scriptural." Schilder's at-         with the elect children as an error,
works, and in all my conversations       tack was two-pronged. He faulted           while defending his own condi-
with other PR ministers, I never be-     the ecclesiastical act itself of adopt-    tional doctrine as the truth. This
fore heard or discovered that            ing such a document. He charged            is also the thrust of Faber's article.
Hoeksema was influenced by               that the PRC erred in drawing up               This is, indeed, the issue.
Geerhardus Vos, as Faber asserts.)       and adopting a document that fur-              If the doctrine confessed by the
Faber devotes several pages to the       ther explains some teaching of the         PRC is  not  the gospel of grace
interaction between Hoeksema and         confessions,         commiting     the     taught by the "Three Forms," the
Schilder.                                churches to this fuller explanation.       "Declaration" is certainly "extra-
    Of great significance is Faber's     At the same time, the document             Scriptural binding." But then it is
candid acknowledgment that the           condemns a certain teaching that           "extra-Scriptural," not because it is
covenant doctrine of Schilder and        conflicts with the explanation. The        a document  ithat further explains
the "liberated" Reformed (al-            second prong was Schilder's at-            and defends a certain teaching of
though, curiously, Faber insists that    tempt to show that the doctrine of         the creeds, but because it corrupts
they do not have a covenant theol-       an unconditional covenant with the         the confessions, spoiling their glo-
ogy) is essentially the same as that     elect alone is erroneous.                  rious message of salvation by sov-
of Christian Reformed theologian,            The response to the first prong        ereign, particular grace alone.
W. Heyns.                                is that it was proper for the PRC to           Does the "Declaration" do this?
    Roelof A. Janssen of Inherit-        compose and adopt the "Declara-            Let the discerning Reformed reader
ance Publications will not mind          tion." The "Declaration" is, as its        judge. It is not difficult to do this.
that, instead of offering a typical      sub-title states, "A Brief Exposition      Simply compare the clear, simple
review, I respond briefly to some        of the Confessions regarding Cer-          explanations of the confessions
of the main positions that the book      tain Points of Doctrine as Main-           with the confessions themselves.
puts forward. Sales will not suffer      tained by the Protestant Reformed          Do they teach what they are said
any on this account.                     Churches."        It consists mostly of    to teach, or not?
    Schilder was right when he de-       quotations from the "Three Forms."             The alternative to judging be-
scribed the "Declaration" as a           What the confessions themselves            tween the doctrine of an uncondi-
"binding."                               teach concerning the covenant of           tional covenant and the doctrine of
    It is binding upon the Mission       God with believers and their chil-         a conditional covenant would be to
Committee of the PRC in their or-        dren is demonstrated. The confes-          take the position that the difference
ganization of new churches. By           sions are brought to bear on the           between the two doctrines is insig-
implication, it is binding upon PR       specific issue of the covenant with        nificant. In this case both are al-
missionaries. They must instruct         our children.                              lowed in the Reformed churches.
those with whom they labor in the            Surely Reformed churches may           The PRC do not believe this. They
truth of an unconditional covenant       do this. In times of controversy,          judge the doctrine of a conditional
promise to the elect in Jesus Christ     they  must  do this. If some are           covenant as defended by Schilder
only, including the elect children       teaching theistic evolution, with          and Faber to be fundamental de-
of believers.                            appeal to the confessions as per-          parture from the gospel of salva-
    It is binding also upon the          mitting this (no imaginary situa-          tion by sovereign, particular grace
members of the PRC. This is not          tion!), it is in order that the            alone. It is condemned by the Re-
because it is a fourth-confession in     churches decide synodically that           formed confessions, especially the
addition to the "Three Forms of          the Reformed confessions, properly         Canons of Dordt.
Unity." But the "Declaration" was        interpreted, teach creation in six,            Nor, despite their protestations

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to the contrary, do the Canadian               is a red herring. The "Declaration"                a will of God to save every bap-
Reformed Churches and the GKN                  bases itself contentedly on the                    tized child and determined by faith
("lib.") think differently about the           infralapsarian confessions.                        as a condition.
doctrine confessed by the PRC. A                   The difference rather is that be-                  Basic to this difference is the
minister preaching the uncondi-                tween particular grace and grace                   absolutely crucial question, "Is
tional covenant with the elect chil-           for all baptized children. It is the               Jesus Christ the head of the new
dren alone would not be tolerated              difference between a love of God                   covenant, or not?" The conditional
in those churches. When the Rev.               only for the elect children and a                  covenant denies it!
Herman Veldman preached the un-                love of God for all baptized chil-                     I encouraged our readers to get
conditional covenant to people of              dren. It is the difference between                 the book defending the conditional
"liberated" convictions  in a Protes-          a promise of the gospel that always                covenant.
tant Reformed congregation,  he lasted         is fulfilled to the object of the                      To the Reformed Free Publish-
less than a year. The congregation             promise by the power of the prom-                  ing Association, I suggest that they
put him out.                                   ising God and a promise that de-                   now publish the "Declaration" as
     There is a real and vital theo-           pends upon the act of the child. It                a separate booklet. With the "Dec-
logical difference between the two             is the difference between faith as a               laration" they could publish a skill-
doctrines of the covenant outlined             gift of God included in the prom-                  fully edited version of Herman
in the "Declaration" and discussed             ise and faith as a condition that the              Hoeksema's explanation and de-
ix-t American Secession Theologians.           child must perform, which faith is                 fense of the "Declaration" at the
     The difference is not, as both            not  part of the promise.                          time of its adoption.
Faber and Schilder suggest, the dif-               In short, the difference is that                   This would promote the knowl-
ference between infralapsarianism              between particular, sovereign grace                edge and study of the "Declara-
and supralapsarianism. This dif-               originating in and determined by                   tion."
ference has nothing whatever to do             eternal predestination and univer-                     And this is necessary both
with the controversy over the cov-             sal, conditional grace originating in              within the PRC and without. 0
enant. The suggestion that it does                                                                                             - DJE

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                                Abraham Kuyper:
                              Dutch Calvinist (3)
                                          1                                 Ij                                                         I

                                               the common folk whose financial                    stitution, and supported by the
                                               burdens were often very great.                     gifts and prayers of the people of
The Educator                                       But his interests in education                 God.
        uyper was deeply interested            went beyond the instruction of-                        The university was organized
        in and concerned for Chris-            fered in what we would call grade                  under five disciplines: theology,
K tian education. Not only                     schools and high schools: Kuyper,                  medicine, jurisprudence, natural
was he concerned that the children             dissatisfied with the apostasy in the              science, and philosophy. Its first
of believers receive instruction in            universities (schools under govern-                professors were: Dr. Kuyper, Dr.
the ways of God's covenant, but he             ment control), set his sights on the               F.L. Rutgers, Dr. Hoedemaker (all
labored long and hard to make                  establishment of a Christian uni-                  three in theology), Mr. D.P.D.
Christian education available for              versity free from government con-                  Fabius (in law), and Dr. F.W.J.
         ,                                     trol. After much labor on his part,                Dilloo (in letters). Five students
                                               the Free University was established                were enrolled at the beginning, but
                                               on October 20, 1880. It was a                      it continued to grow and served to
Prof. Hanko is professor  of  Church           school for the orthodox, free from                 supply Reformed ministers to the
History and New Testament in the               any governmental or ecclesiastical                 new denomination which Kuyper
Protestant Reformed Seminary.                  control, operated as a parental in-                had been instrumental in forming.

320/Standard Bearer  /April 15, 1997


    In this university Kuyper lec-              did introduce new  .ideas  into the       men and a Christian man among
tured in Dogmatics until he was                 body of the Reformed faith, these         Christian men.
forced to retire because of health.             ideas were often outside the main-            He was a family man who rev-
    His interests in university edu-            stream of the Reformed faith of the       eled in the life of his own covenant
cation led him to America. He was               past and innovative in the sense          family. To him and his wife were
invited to deliver the Stone Lec-               that they could be challenged as          born five sons and two daughters.
tures in 1898 and to receive an hon-            unbiblical, unconfessional, and,          Family devotions were important
orary degree from Princeton.                    therefore, wrong. This was true of        to Kuyper. During the evening
These lectures, by no -means                    his view of presumptive regenera-         meal, Kuyper would gather also
Kuyper's better work, were later                tion, e.g., the idea that one must        the servants, into the family circle,
published under the title,  Calvin-             presume the regeneration of all the       read the Scriptures with them, ex-
ism.                                            children born of believing parents.       plain these Scriptures to them, and
                                                This doctrine became a major bone         lead the household  .in prayers to
The Theologian                                  of contention  .in later years and it     God. Mealtime itself was a time of
    That Kuyper was a theologian                was rejected by the church after          discussion,  ifellowship,  laughter,
of  ,note goes without saying. His              him. This was also true of his            and fun.
many years of teaching Reformed                 views on common grace, although               The old year passed away and
theology in the Free University, the            here his influence was very wide,         the new year entered with Kuyper
p u b l i c a t i o n   o f   his.  Dictaten    and his ideas of common grace are         and his family reading the Scrip-
Dogmatiek,  and his many theologi-              still widely held both in the Neth-       tures and in prayer. This was a
cal writings give abundant testi-               erlands and in this country.              family custom preserved until
mony to his theological acumen.                        Although attempts have been        nearly the end of Kuyper's life.
    He was, a  Reformed  theologian,            made to prove that Kuyper, also in            The amount of work Kuyper
unsparing in his attacks on the lib-            the doctrine of common grace,             did was incredible. But he was,
erals whose hatred  -and fury he in-            stood in the line of Reformed             after all, human. And the heavy
curred, and unwearying in his de-               thought beginning with Calvin, it         load of work twice brought him to
fense of the Reformed faith.                    is generally admitted that Kuyper         complete nervous exhaustion.
    In this respect too he was a                introduced into Reformed thinking         Kuyper, as `so many faithful ser-
theologian of the people. He                    a novelty which can hardly stand          vants of Christ, spent himself in the
taught and wrote in a way which                 up under the test of Scripture and        cause of the: gospel. When Kuyper
could be understood by the least                the       Reformed      confessions.      learned his own limitations he took
educated of the church; he could                Kuyper's world-view was closely           three vacations a year, usually
make the most profound truths un-               connected to his views on common          spent in Europe and often involv-
mistakably clear; he rallied the                grace.                                    ing mountain climbing. He had
scattered sheep of the church of                       Kuyper was a man of the an-        learned to love mountain climbing
Christ around the banner of the Re-             tithesis. He believed strongly that       when he was in Switzerland after
formed faith.                                   the antithesis required absolute          his second collapse.
    Yet at the same time his work               separation of the church from the             He was also a man of most un-
as theologian was somewhat lim-                 world in all areas of endeavor, to        usual gifts. His learning was vast,
ited. These limitations were, in                the point that he himself labored         his knowledge of history, philoso-
large measure, due to his wide in-              mightily for a Christian labor            phy, the natural sciences, and poli-
terests, his overwhelming work                  union, a Christian political party,       tics was wide and profound. He
load, and his involvement in all the            a Christian system of education           was capable of speaking fluently
affairs of the Netherlands, politi-             free from any government control.         many of the languages spoken in
cal, ecclesiastical, and social. Al-            Yet he formed a coalition with the        Europe. He  $vas  thoroughly versed
though Kuyper was an articulate                 Roman Catholics and taught a doc-         in Greek and Hebrew. He lectured
and powerful defender of the Re-                trine of common grace which               and wrote in Latin.
formed faith, he made few signifi-              paved the way for cooperation be-             Sorrow also touched his life. In
cant contributions to the organic               tween believers and unbelievers in        1892 his nine-year-old son died,
body of the faith as it had been de-            many areas of life.                       and in  1899>  at the age of 58, his
livered to the church of his time                      But all this is not to minimize    beloved wife died. Kuyper never
by the fathers from the past.                   his strenuous efforts, blessed by         married again and bore the sorrow
    I suppose this statement will be            God, to return the churches in his        of these loss'es to the grave.
sharply challenged, for there are               country to the faith of their fathers.        Though short of stature, his
many who see Kuyper as one of                                                             presence was commanding and his
the greatest of all original theolo-            The Christian Man                         eyes were piercing. He literally
gians. Nevertheless, where Kuyper                      Kuyper was also a man among        preached and spoke hundreds and

                                                                                                Apri/ 15,  7997fitandard  Bearer/321


hundreds of times. And he could          flaws. It is probably characteristic      to bitterness., Kuyper did not  .al;
hold his audience spellbound with        of a forceful personality, as it was      ways successfully resist these
his marvelous voice and forceful         of Kuyper, that he not only held          temptations.
oratorical style. He was uncom-          strongly to his convictions, but was          He died on November  8,192O.
promising in his convictions and         intolerant of anyone who disagreed        The funeral was attended by thou-
conveyed what he believed with           with him. He tended to be dicta-          sands, yet the services were simple.
passion and sincerity. He had the        torial in ecclesiastical and political    Not even one flower or sprig
ability to move people deeply.           affairs, and could not easily abide       adorned the, casket. The climax
     His own spiritual life was one      contradiction from those who were         was the singing, by the throng, of
of devotion and reflection on the        with him in the same cause. As he         Kuyper's favorite psalm: Psalm
Word of God. Though no mystic            grew older, these weaknesses be-          89:7, 8 of the Dutch Psalm book.
in the wrong sense of that word,         came sharper, and the last years of       On his tombstone were engraved
Kuyper spoke often and eloquently        his life were not the happiest. It        the words:  :
of the union of the soul with Christ.    seems as if the temptations of old                   Dr. A. Kuyper
That was the joy of his life and the     age, for one who has labored long                Born October  29,1837
hope that sustained him as he            and hard in the cause of Christ, are       And fallen asleep in his Saviour
looked beyond life to glory.             uniquely temptations to succumb                    November  8,192O
   I But he was not without his own                                                                                    cl





                      Demon Possession (4)
Subsequentto writing our first manic in the lives of individuals against any experimentation. We
                                           and of society. The biblical teach-
      article on this subject, I read      ing about Satan and demons is re-       do not play  wjth demons.
      an interesting reference to de-      ceiving fresh attention. Satan is           The second point we want to
mon possession in the book,  Prac-         seen to be very real. He is no          make in connection with our sub-
tical Theology and the Ministry  of        longer regarded as belonging            ject of demon possession is that
the Church,  published in 1990 and         largely to some far-off orbit, but      Christ has completely stripped Sa-
edited by Harvie Corm. Dr. Roger           his presence and influence are rec-     tan of any control or authority over
Greenway  has a chapter entitled,          ognized in the world's affairs and      the people of  :God and His church.
"Evangelism." In preparation for           in opposition to divine truth and       In Jesus Christ there is deliverance
writing this chapter he sent ques-         righteousness. In short, there is a     from the fear of evil spirits and
                                           fresh emphasis on the immediacy
tions to twenty-five leaders in            of God and the Holy Spirit and of       even the horror of demon posses-
evangelism within the Reformed             Satan and his cohorts. The one          sion because Jesus is Lord.
and Presbyterian community. One            brings comfort and strength to              The  thrilliof  the Christian gos-
of the questions was, How would            God's servants, and the other is        pel is exactly this message.
you compare your thinking today            the archenemy of evangelism.                I wish I could convey to you
about evangelism with your think-                                                  something of, the horror, the fear,
ing on the subject thirty or so years        No longer is this subject of con-     and superstition that is associated
ago? From his summary of these           cern only in relation to heathen cul-     with heathendom and their being
answers I quote one paragraph, en-       tures. The infiltration of the New        under the control of the devil. Why
titled "The Missionary Spirit and        Age Movement forces Westerners            do eastern religions emphasize so
Demonic Oppression."                     to come to terms with their own           much meditation, clearing of the
                                         understanding of demons. This             mind, chanting mantras, focusing
  Related to this, there is surfacing    movement has its roots in pagan           on karma, and such like? It is be-
  a clearer recognition of the  de-      religions and with it all the trap-       cause this is  jtheir answer to the
                                         pings of demons and spirits. All          dread which surrounds the people.
                                         of us do well to have a clear bibli-      The influence: of Taoistic Animism
Rev.  Kortering  is a Protestant Re-     cal perspective in order that we can      (the presence. of the spirits of the
formed minister-on-loan to Singapore.    properly warn our covenant youth          dead) and evil spirits keeps the

322/Standard Bearer  /April 75, 1997


     people in the grip of fear. They             breathe more freely and go on his       ants of the earth are warned.
                                                  way unmolested at least for a               Even though the  -battle  is not
I    are afraid of the spirits of the dead
     reporting to the god of hell that            time.                                   finished, Satan is defeated. Proof
     they are- not living properly, and                                                   of this can be seen in the reason
     of such a god taking vengeance on              How shallow, how horribly             for the victory of the saints over
     them. How  ,will he do this? By            man-centered are the attempts of          Satan. It is through the "blood of
     sending evil spirits into their lives      eastern religion to deliver such          the Lamb,"  the "word of their tes-
     and haunting them, threatening             people from their fears. It is into       timony," and their "love for Him,
     them, even destroying them.                this setting that God in His wis-         even  unto death." Victory over Sa-
         It seems the more "civilized"          dom brings the gospel. The Bible          tan is in the wonderful work of our
     the heathen becomes, the more he           speaks to this kind of fear. There        Lord Jesus Christ. Through His
     tries to deny such influence and           is story after story and  message  af-    blood of atonement, the devil is si-
     put it behind him. Fact is that his        ter message that tell us that God         lenced. He can no more accuse the
     past haunts him no matter how              has given to us His Son who has           brethren.
     modernized he may become. He               conquered Satan.and all his hosts.            There is a legal and judicial ba-
     will continue to think in terms of         The gospel narratives of Jesus' cast-     sis  for our  b;eing  received by God,
     appeasing the gods and the spirits.        ing out  evil spirits speak directly      namely,  the,blood  of Jesus on the
     For this reason you see modern             to them. Yes, they are around us          cross as the  i payment for sin. For
     women with attache cases in hand           all the time. Yes, there are people       this reason He has power to over-
     stopping off at the Chinese temple         possessed of devils. Jesus did not        come the devil. This Jesus demon-
     on the way to work. Among the              destroy the devil and put away all        strated while He was on earth. He
     most educated, the Necromancer             his spirits, but, thanks be to God,       personally resisted the, temptations
     does a booming business to soothe          there is deliverance and victory          of the devil and exercised power
     the superstition of his clients. The       over them.                                to cast out demons. Now in His
     more blatant expressions of fear in            Jesus assured His disciples that      exaltation, Jesus has given to us the
     connection with evil spirits are in        such would be the case. We see            testimony of His Word, the Holy
     the back hills of the undeveloped          this in Luke  10:18, "I saw Satan as      Bible.      Through the wonderful
     world. It is their mind-set, for they      lightning-fall from heaven." This         work of the gracesof  the Holy Spirit
     see evil spirits taking control of         was Jesus' response to the seventy        we are caused to see that God is
     much of their life, and they deal          disciples who returned to Him to          no more angry with us, for we are
     with the mediums to try to dis-            report on their ministry. They had        reconciled  to Him by the death of
     cover how to gain their favor or           said to Jesus, "Lord, even the dev-       His own So(. Now are we the sons
     appease their wrath. Van Rheenen,          ils are subject unto us through thy       of  God, we are His family. There
     in his book, Communicating  Christ         name." Jesus' answer to them was          is a beautiful bond of friendship
     in an Animistic Culture,  quotes           .to point them .to Satan's defeat por-    between God and us.
     James Frazer in this manner:               trayed as lightning falling from              The main point is this, the fear
                                                heaven. This is subsequently de-          of evil spirits is taken away because
      They dog his footsteps, dazzle his        scribed for us in Revelation  12:9,       God  is for us. The beautiful doc-
       senses, enter into him, harass and       "And the great dragon was cast            trine of the covenant is such good
       deceive and torment him in a             out, that old serpent, called the         news  to fearful, superstitious pa-
       thousand freakish and mischie-           Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth         gans. The angels sang of this on
       vous ways. The mishaps that be-          the whole world: he was cast out          the  occasion of the ascension of
       fall him, the losses he sustains, the    into the earth, and his angels were
       pains he has to endure he com-                                                     Christ  into heaven. We do well to
                                                cast  out with him."
       monly sets down, if not to the                                                     declare it to jthe nations.
                                                    The place from which he was
       magic of his enemies;to the spite                                                      We must emphasize now, in
       or anger or caprice of the spirits.      cast is heaven. During the Old Tes-       the third place, that it follows from
       Their constant presence wearies          tament times Satan had access to          this that Christ Himself is  LORD
       him, their sleepless malignity ex-       heaven, as we learn from the book         over Satan and his evil spirits. This
       asperates him; he longs with an          of Job. Being cast to the earth sym-      may sound a bit repetitious, but the
       unspeakable longing to be rid of         bolizes his ultimate defeat. This is      point that  w,e want to make here is
       them altogether, and from time to        learned from the chorus which the         this. Jesus defeated  .the devil and
       time, driven to bay, his patience        angels sang upon this occasion  (w.
       utterly exhausted, he turns                                                        is more powerful than he is, that is
                                                10-12). The theme was that salva-
       fiercely on his persecutors and                                                    true. But we must add to this, that
                                                tion is come to heaven, for the ac-
       makes a desperate effort to chase                                                  even the devils and spirits are now
       the whole pack of them from the          cuser of the brethren is cast down,       subject to Jesus Christ. The real
       land, to clear the air of their          The inhabitants in heaven are ex-         burden of heathendom and its su-
       swarming multitudes, that he may         horted to rejoice, and the inhabit-       perstition  is,this: who is in control

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of the spirits? Are they roaming                             any form of trial without first ob-       the use of the sword of the Spirit
about on their own? Do they strike                           taining the consent of God. We can       which is the Word of God.
at will without any reason? The                              turn  to.Mark 5 and read of the ac-           In this manner we can exalt -in
heathen do not have the answer for                           count of Jesus as He cast the de-        the great doxology of the inspired
this.                                                        mons out of him who was named            Paul when  hy brought.  th&"cower-
        Most heathen cultures have                           Legion. Jesus had complete con- ful eighth chapter of Romans to a
some fables and myths about how                              trol over those demons, to the point     close, "Who shall separate us from
the gods came into being and how                             that He could either cast them into :. the love of Christ? Shall  tribula-
a certain hierarchy exists among                             the deep (out of the country, v. 10);    tiori, or distress, or persecution, or
them. This includes their dealing                            or, as He did,  ,into the swine. Re-     famine, or nakedness, or peril, or
with anger and avenging them-                                peatedly (see the parallel account       sword?"  No;$n  all these things we
selves on people who do not do as                            of this event in Matthew  81, when       are more than conquerors. "For I
they say. These gods have their                              Jesus came face to face with such        am persuaded, that neither death,
evil spirits roaming the world to                            demons, they feared Him greatly          nor life, nor angels, nor principali-
execute their demands. One thing                             and taunted, "What have we to do         ties, nor powers, nor things
becomes very apparent, these poor                            with thee, Jesus,  thouSon  of God?      present, not things to come . . . shall
people do not know why or how                                Art thou come hither to torment us       be able to separate us from the love
these spirits may come. Whenever                             before the time?" Even the "thorn        of God, which is in Christ Jesus our
something goes wrong in their life,                          in the flesh" of Paul was a "mes-        Lord"  (Ram.  .8:35-39).  Angels are
they take to guessing what they                              senger of Satan to buffet him" (see      set against demons as contrasting
have done wrong to bring such                                II Cor.  12:7). That thorn was ulti-     forces in our `lives. Not even de-
hardship and difficulty. For this                            mately from God, for when Paul           mons can separate us from the God
reason they are so vulnerable to the                         sought Him to take it away from          we love in Jesus Christ.
temple mediums. The mediums                                  him, God's answer was, "My grace             This brings' us to the fourth
can do or say almost anything and                            is sufficient." That thorn from God      point of consideration. I can only
some of these people will listen and                         was used by Satan as a means to          introduce it in this article and we
blindly follow them. One such me-                            tempt Paul, but in that he failed,       will have to go into it a bit more in
dium instructed a woman, who                                 for God is Lord over Satan.              our concluding article. This has to
came to him out of concern for her                               This has tremendous implica-         do' with demon possession and
unfaithful husband, that she had to                          tions for the gospel as it is brought    how one is delivered from it.
have sexual intercourse with him                             to those who are gripped in the              We want  :to say  a few things
if she would appease the evil spirit                         fear of demons. As they tremble          about two aspects of this `subject..
in her husband. She consented to                             in the-presence of demonic power,        We should say a few things  ,about
this, only to learn later that his only                      which is real, they see it about         the character of demon possession,
interest was his own lust. In the                            them and have experienced dread-         that is, what marks a person who
extreme, it even involves the kill-                          ful consequences, the good news of       is possessed and how do we know
ing of children to appease the spir-                         the gospel to them is, fear not!         he is possessed? The second is,
its.                                                         There is a way for deliverance.          what must we as Christians or as a
        What a gospel it is to tell such                     There is not only a God who is           Christian church do if it pleases
people that there are not two forces                         more powerful than demons, but           God to use us to deliver such a one
in this world which are fighting to                          there is a God who even controls         from possession?
gain control. It is not the force of                         the actions of demons and turns              Books have been written on
good versus evil. It is not some                             them all for good. God's way of          these questions, but we should at
gods fighting to gain control over                           deliverance is to enable us to "re-      least address them briefly in our
spirits. The gospel is not simply                            sist the devil and he will flee from     next article so. that we can also ex-
to say that Jesus and the Holy                               thee, draw nigh to God and he will       ult in the Name of our Lord Jesus,
Spirit are stronger than evil spir-                          draw nigh to #thee" (James 4:7,8).       who not only delivered people
its.- No, there is only One who is                               The gospel presents demons as        from demons  in His day, but con-
in control, and that is the great Cre-                       very real and powerful, but there        tinues to do so in our day.
ator God. He is even in control of                           is victory over them. The victory            Then we have to say a few
evil spirits because of the work                             comes in the way of putting on the       words about,  the, remaining two
which Jesus Christ His Son did                               Christian armor mentioned in             propositions, that is, that the Chris-
while He was on earth.                                       Ephesians 6, which enables us to         tian can never; become demon pos-
        This is demonstrated to us in                        prevail in our spiritual warfare. He     sessed, and that the best way to be-
the Bible as well. In the Old Tes-                           continues to send his fiery darts,       come secure against the wiles of
tament we are reminded that Sa-                              but we are protected and are able        Satan's assaults is to live a holy life
tan could not even touch Job with                            to drive him away from us through        with God.  Cl

324/Standard  B e a r e r   / A p r i l   1 5 ,   1 9 9 7


                                                                  .
          ".The Good Shepherd, H.is Shedherds,.
     I                                        and His Sheep (1)
                                                           John lO:l-21

                                                         of no little  pracficaI   importance. For    shepherd doctrine today makes for
F                                                        the instruction includes  instruction$       holy sheep. The shepherd doctrine
          ohn 10 contains the doctrine of                and warning about bad shepherds.             read and studied. The doctrine
          Jesus the good shepherd! It is                 Then there were  bad  shepherds in           preached. The shepherd by this
 cripture's  main  passage containing                    the religious community. They did            very gospel doctrine gathers the
this doctrine. As I Corinthians 15                       not care for God's sheep. They de-           lost sheep.  Re sanctifies the gath-
is with regard to the resurrection;                      sired not to feed, but to fleece             ered sheep.  ,And they follow Him.
as Philippians 2 is with regard to                       them! An instance of this bad pas-               As it did in Jesus' day, so the
the incarnation; as Hebrews 11 is                        toral ministry in Jewry was in fact          shepherd doctrine today gives
with regard to faith, so John 10 is                      the occasion for Jesus' instruction          great comfort. The Lord, Jehovah,
with regard to the truth of Jesus                        in John 10. The Pharisees had just           Jesus is my `shepherd! I shall not
the good shepherd.                                       expelled one of God's sheep from             want!      The Lord my shepherd
           The Shepherd Chapter!                         the fold (John  9:24-34)!  So today.         holds me within His tender care!
           As it was in Jesus' day, the doc-             Many are the undershepherds in               Within His flock He folds me, no
trine of Jesus the good shepherd is                      Christendom who enter the fold               want shall find me there! Thank-
of no `little  fheoZog?caZ   importance.                 not by the door, but climb up some           ful sheep. dne flock from Jew and
.It is the truth that Jesus is the God-                  other way. There are thieves and             Gentile. Under one shepherd.
shepher'd!,'  It.is the truth that Jesus                 robbers, strangers and hirelings in              Come, let us search the Scrip-
is the saving shepherd!                                  the church!                                  tures here!  lAbout the good shep-
     `* `As it was in Jesus' day, the doc-                   Sheep  - watch out!                      herd . . . and His undershepherds . . .
trine of Jesus the good shepherd is                          As it did in Jesus' day, so the          and His sheep!

                             I For Study, Meditation, & Discussion
,

                                                         care not for the sheep. But others           0 Jesus' revelation of Himself as
The Good Shepherd                                        enter in by the door. They are au-           shepherd was nothing new. The
                                                         thorized and lawfully called by              Old Testament speaks of Him as
* The first verses of John 10 fo-                        Jesus to care for the sheep. These           shepherd: Explain how Psalm 23,
c u s   o n   J e s u s   a s   t h e   d o o r   o f    are good shepherds. In further               Ezekiel 34,  land other Old Testa-
sheepfold (cf. vv. 1, 2, 7, 9). And                      studies we shall turn our attention          ment passages help us to under-
the- teaching there is  esljecially  on                  more in detail to this "door revela-         stand how Jesus is our shepherd.
how Jesus is the door  with regard                       tion" in verses l-10. But here in            What examples can be cited in the
to shepherds  false and true. Some                       this first study we begin with the           New Testament of Jesus  the good
shepherds.refuse  to enter in by the                     heart of the passage. This is where          shepherd in action (for example, John
door. They are thieves and rob-                          Jesus declares Himself to be the             9:35ff.)?  How have you experi-
bers, strangers, and hirelings. They                     good shepherd (vv.  11,14).  Glean-          enced the good shepherd's care?
                                                         ing from all that John 10 says about
                                                         good shepherds and bad shep-                 0~ Jesus calls Himself the  good
                                                         herds, and about Jesus  the  good
Rev. Dick is pastor  of  Grace  Protes-                                                               shepherd. The late Rev. Robert
                                                         shepherd, make a list of the char-
tatit Reformed Church in Standale,                                                                    Harbach, in his excellent booklet on
                                                         acteristics of Jesus our shepherd.
Michigan.                                                                                             this passage, says that this  state-

                                                                                                               April 15,  1997btandard  Bearer/325


ment of Jesus is equivalent to His             Mark  10:45. There we read that             head? In connection with this; be
saying He is the God-shepherd!                 Jesus gave His life a ransom  for           able to explain and prove with
How is Jesus asserting His divin-              many. The Greek preposition used            other Scripture the doctrine and
ity here (cf. Ps.  23:l;  Matt.  19:16,        in both places is anti. That means:         importance of "limited" atonement.
17)? How is Jesus, as God, and as              "in the place of," or, "instead of."
perfectly righteous shepherd, the              This teaches that Jesus' death was          e The Father is well pleased with
good shepherd in a way no other                as our substitute, in our place. In         His Son, and loves Him because the
shepherd could be?                             other words Jesus' death for us was         Son is obedient to the end in lay-
                                               a substitutionary atonement. How            ing down His. life according to the
* The goodness and love of the                 does this doctrine of the death of          will of the Father (v. 17). Discuss
shepherd Jesus is manifested in His            Jesus differ  `from the notion that         what Jesus means when He says
laying down His life for the sheep             His death was only an example for           that He lays  !His life down "that
(vv.,ll, 15). Regarding this death             us?                                         (in order that) He might take it
of Jesus for the sheep, notice that                                                        again" (hint: confer a text such as
little word "for." Jesus laid down             m Jesus  gives  His life, and lays it       Romans  4:25).
His life for the sheep. In both verse          down.  Why is it so important that
11 and verse 15 the Greek is  huper.           Jesus  willingly,  voZuntariZy   went to    ac The Shepherd-Mediator has the
It means "in behalf of," as in "for            the cross (cf. Heb.  10:7-g)? What          power or authority or right to lay
the benefit of." Some people think             does His giving His life have to say        His life down and take it again,
that the death of Jesus is for the             about all of the purposes of the            having been given commandment
benefit of the sheep only in that His          wicked men who crucified Him (cf.           of His Father  (v.  18). This means
death was an example of what kind              Gen.  50:20; Prov.  19:2; Acts  2:23;       that the Lord Jesus is no suicide.
of sacrifices we ought to make for             4:28, and John  10:18a!)?                   This means that He is not self-serv-
God. Is this true?                                                                         ing. This means that He comes to
                                               w Jesus declares that the good              do and has done Father's will. As
*  .Comparing   S c r i p t u r e   w i t h    shepherd gives His life for  the            God's shepherd! As the God-shep-
Scripture, and prepositions with               sheep. How does this text, in light         herd! As the good, the beautiful,
prepositions, we are led to pas-               of the immediate context, show              the most excellent shepherd of the
sages such as Matthew  20:28 and               that this means Jesus does not lay          sheep!  0
                                               down His life for all men, head for

     I `II         1  m-mm
I                   -


             The  Supra/lnfra  ControvePsy

       or
F since the beginning of the ing with predestination from two whose name stands in history as
       world men have not heard, nor           different points of view, those ap-         the ultimate opponent of what is
       perceived by th,e ear, neither hath     pearing to fit the pattern of what          Reformed. These terms were first
the eye seen, 0 God, beside thee, what         is called  Infralapsarianism,   and oth-    used by them in their  De&ratio
he hath prepared  fof  him that waiteth        ers that of  Supralapsarianism.   The       Sententiae,  as  fecorded  in the  Acta
for  him.                                      problem is that, even while both            of the Synod, where they spoke,
                             Isaiah  53:4      are found in Scripture, they are            rather       m o c k i n g l y ,   o f    the
                                               usually looked upon as mutually             "Supralapsarii"  a n d   t h e   "Sub-
     In recent articles we have con-           exclusive; one can believe only one,        lapsarii"  (or         "lnfraIapsarii").
sidered various biblical texts  deal-          to the exclusion of the other.              Clearly, what they had in mind
                                                      In actuality the terms them-         was the distinction with which,
                                               selves have a suspicious origin,            Arminius had sought to divide and
Rev.  Woud'enberg  is a minister emeri-        having been coined by the Remon-            discredit the historical views of
tus in the Protestant Reformed                 strants, the followers and defend-          predestination, so as to make room
C h u r c h e s .                              ers of James Arminius, the man              for his own. `In this latter end he

326Dtandard  Bearer /April 75, 7997


failed; but the distinction he made                     the more important; for it was this       ing by and reprobating." Although
lived on, and has divided Re-                           that Arminius had been taught by          he claimed :to be able to identify
formed theology ever since.                             Beza during his schooling in              this view already with Augustine,
     It all  began.amid  the festivities                Geneva; and, as much as he had            as though to provide it with a his-
of a wedding celebration. In 1597                       admired Beza as a theologian, a           torical justification, it was essen-
Arminius' aunt married Johannes                         preacher, and a leader, this doc-         tially a new viewpoint which was
Cuchlinus, regent of the states col-                    trine had never set well with him         just beginning to burst forth upon
lege at Leiden. While visiting his                      and his humanist convictions, so          the scene., For a time, it had
aunt's home during the week that                        that in time his resentment of it         seemed, he actually considered tak-
followed, as was the custom of that                     grew and became the central focus         ing it as his own, but eventually
day, Arminius met and found op-                         of his life. His goal was to under-       concluded it could not escape the
portunity to engage in an extended                      mine and destroy it more than any-        conclusion that God ordained the
conversation with another guest,                        thing else; and he began his for-         fall either, and so he rejected it as
the hero of the Dutch revolution                        mal effort to do so in this corre-        well. Behind this view, however,
and respected professor of theol-                       spondence, which soon became a            there was a. significant new men-
ogy at Leiden, Francis Junius. Soon                     debate, with Junius.                      tality  which:was beginning to take
they were engaged in deep discus-                           It was in this second proposi-        hold in European theology, leav-
sion concerning a book Junius had                       tion that he went on to describe          ing its impression on Arminius and
recently written entitled, The  First                   these positions. The first, that of       many others.
Sin  of  Adam,  in which he had                         Calvin and Beza, he described very             In the Netherlands, not insig-
delved into the problems which                          briefly in this  .way, "God when          nificant  was: the influence of  Dirck
arise in relating the fall of man to                    electing and predestinating, also         Volchertsz Coornhert. A leading
the sovereignty of God. This was                        when passing by and reprobating           figure in the Dutch revolution, he
a subject with which Arminius had                       . . . (considered) men not yet cre-       served as Secretary of the States
become increasingly involved  du-                       ated, but to be created." The ref-        General under William of Orange.
ing  .his early years in the ministry,                  erence here was to the order of the       Being a dedicated admirer of
making this exchange of particular                      decrees in the counsel of God, ac-        Erasmus, he became at the same
interest to him, and especially so                      cording to which he saw them as           time a leading defender of the old
when it appeared that Junius might                      teaching that the first act of the di-    Dutch humanism. As such he de-
share some of his own misgivings                        vine counsel was to elect some and        veloped a strong revulsion for the
concerning the views of John                            reprobate others with the intent          Calvinistic preachers who, having
Calvin and Theodore Beza on these                       that He might demonstrate His             come from Geneva, were beginning
matters.       It was not surprising,                   mercy on the elect, and His justice       to dominate the pulpits and reli-
therefore, that before leaving the                      in the rest. To Arminius this made        gious life of their land. The result
festivities he made arrangements to                     God utterly tyrannical and harsh,         was that Coornhert took to going
continue their discussion by corre-                     as well as the author of sin.             about to debate these Calvinists
spondence.                                                  Nor was Arminius alone in this        whenever and wherever he could.
     Arminiusopened  his presenta;                      resentment.     From the very first            But the problem went deeper
tion of the matter like this, "On the                   days of the Reformation, when the         than that. Far more influential all
whole there are three opinions                          famous Dutch humanist Desiderius          through Europe was the Spanish
about this article [predestination]                     Erasmus turned to attack Martin           philosopher  imonk  Luis de Molina.
which have their supporters                             Luther, there had been those who          Being a Romanist, he was forced
a m o n g s t   t h e   D o c t o r s   o f   o u r     had stood in opposition to this doc-      to honor the theology of Thomas
Church. One is that which is called                     trine, making Arminius and his fol-       Aquinas with its acceptance of di-
Calvin's and Beza's; the second, is                     lowers to feel quite justified in tak-    vine sovereignty, but at the same
that of Thomas [Aquinas] and his                        ing up this cause as the central fo-      time, as a Jesuit, he was commit-
followers; the third, that of Augus-                    cus of their lives.                       t e d   t o   d e f e n d i n g   t h e   p a p a c y
tine and those who imitate him."                            In its own way, however, the          against the growing influences of
The second of these three groups,                       other view, that now known as             Calvinism. And so it was that he
that identified with Aquinas, in                        Infralapsarianism, was also impor-        set forth to steer between these by
time fell by the way, but the first                     tant. Arminius thus went on to de-        proposing his original and highly
and the third were those which the                      scribe it as that which "presents         influential concept `of the  media
Remonstrants               i d e n t i f i e d   a s    them (men, looked at generally) as        scientia,  or "middle- knowledge."
supralapsarian and infralapsarian,                      fallen in Adam, and lying in the          In this he proposed that between
by which they are known to this                         mass of corruption and perdition,         God's knowledge of the cause and
day.                                                    to Him (God) both when electing           effect relations which He had im-
  " In a sense the first of these was                   and predestinating, and when pass-        planted in the universe, and that

                                                                                                           April  15;  7997btandard  Bearer/327


of divine freedom whereby He re-                     tion, there had always been com-           was taken  up! and enlarged upon
mains free at any time to do what                    plete agreement as to the first de-        by Klaas  Dijk. in his work on the
He wills, there is an area of middle-                cree in the counsel of God, which          supra/infra   c'ontroversy when he
knowledge which God provides for                     he explained in these words:               wrote,
man in which man is granted free-
dom to do whatever he chooses                          Eternal life is not here primarily        With all of the effort to reconcile
without outside necessity or pre-                      and of itself the work of that Di-        these two positions, no one can es-
determination of any kind.  ,This                      vine predestination, but rather           cape the fact,that there is no con-
undoubtedly had strong influences                      secondarily and by consequence            tradiction between infra- and
on Arminius in the development of                      the result of adoption, . . . shown       supralapsarianism. Everyone as-
                                                       by the  Apostle, Eph. i.5: "Having        sumes one or the other of the two
his views, but it also seemed to                       predestinated us unto the adop-           considerations without rejecting
open a window of opportunity for                       tion of children by Jesus Christ to       the other, or without recognizing
t h o s e   w i t h i n   t h e   R e f o r m e d      Himself, according to the good            the worth of, the other, which is
churches who were uncomfortable                        pleasure of His will." . . . Predes-      to say, there:is no supralapsarian
with what they considered to be                        tination, if you regard its proper        that does not recognize the use-
the overly harsh views of Calvin                       differentia  (distinguishing mark),       fulness of infralapsarian terms;
and Beza.                                             .Scripture being-witness, is "to the       and there is no infralapsarian who
     Among those, for example,                         adoption of children," to filiation       does not finally return to the
were two Dutch pastors in the vil-                     (so to speak) our filial adoption,        supralapsari$n  presentation.
                                                       of which the effect and consequent
lage of Delft, Arrent Cornelizsoon                     is eternal life. Thus it is true that
and Reynier Donteklok. They had                                                                    It was, however, Theodore
                                                       we are predestinated to life, but
a t   o n e   p o i n t   t a k e n   o n   Dirck                                               Beza who saw it most clearly, al-
                                                       the proper expression is that we
Coornhert in a public debate, and                                                               ready well  before the controversy
                                                       are predestinated to "the adoption
had been badly bested, with the re-                    of children" by the special grace        was begun or its terms born, when
sult that they sought to find a Re-                    of our heavenly Father.                  he wrote,
formed alternative to the view of                                                                In his epistles the Apostle Paul
Calvin and Beza which would be                           As far as Junius was concerned,         sets down two ways of doing this:
more generally acceptable. Thus                      predestination had its  different&   or     the synthetic and the analytic.
they, along with others, turned to                   distinguishing mark, in that it was         Here we call "synthetic" the
what appeared to be a mild adap-                     unto the adoption of children. This         method that is a priori, or that de-
tation of middle-knowledge to the                    was the first decree of the counsel         scends from the causes to effects,
Reformed faith. Election, as it is                   and the first intent of God; and all        which the Apostle Paul uses in the.
experienced by sinful man, was                       other things were decreed by God,           epistle to the Ephesians. Having
seen to be projected backward into                   including also the fall, to serve as        explained to us there the ground
the counsel of God as a substitute                   means to bring this about. The              of the spiritual blessings that we
                                                                                                 receive from. God through Christ,
for the view of Calvin. It saw as                    great doctors of theology had al-           he treats election and its causes
God's first decree His determina-                    ways agreed on this; so that, even          before he comes down to its fruits
tion to create a world, after which                  when they spoke of election among           or effects. These effects are the
He decided for some unexplained                      fallen men, this was understood to          external callings by the Gospel, in-
reason that it should fall into sin.                 be behind it all. Both ways of              ternal drawing by the Spirit of
It was only then that predestina-                    speaking have their place; but,             adoption, and justification, sanc-
tion entered in as an expression of                  when correctly understood, they             tification, and other similar evi-
mercy on some, while others are                      are one in the end.                         dences that confirm our election
left in their sin. Somehow, it                           Although the thoughts of                in us. Furthermore, we call "ana-
                                                                                                 lytic" the method that is II poste-
seemed, this left man more respon-                   Junius in this regard have not been         riori, or that jascends from effects
sible for his sin; and it was this                   generally remembered, there are             to causes, which. the same apostle
view that Arminius presented as                      those who have seen it that way  -          uses in the epistle to the Romans.
his third alternative, along with his                as the great Dutch theologian               He discourses at length and ex-
claim that it had historical origins                 Herman Bavinck, when he wrote,              tensively on yustification  by faith,
in the views of St. Augustine.                       `Whether predestination is made a           on hope, and its fruits, and then
    Against this division, however,                  part of the doctrine of God (the  II        ascends finally to predestination
Junius reacted emphatically. To                      priori  order) or is treated as the be-     itself, which comprehends in .itself
him it was complete nonsense.                        ginning or in the middle of the doc-        the supreme principles of our
                                                                                                 hope and our justification by faith.
Such a division, he insisted, had                    trine of salvation (the  a posteriori       From all these things it is appar-
never existed among those who                        order) does not necessarily imply           ent that the chief end of the former
taught election. Rather, in spite of                 an essential difference in prin-            method (the "synthetic") is knowl-
individual differences in  presenta-                 ciple." And this, it would seem,            edge; but the chief end of the lat-

328fitandard  Bearer  /April  15, 1997


  ter (the "analytic") is confirma-        contexts, designating the one as  a        to His people; while the latter, our
  tion of faith, hope, patience, and       priori  (before) or "analytic," and the    infralapsarianism, serves best pas-
  the rest of the Christian virtues.       other as  a posteriori  (following) or     torally for their comfort and en-
                                           "synthetic." And both he saw to            couragement. And so each has its
   His terminology of course was           be not only valid, but having their        place and its value in bringing to
different; "supralapsarian" and            own particular value and applica-          us what "Eye hath not seen, nor
"infralapsarian" were still decades        tion. The former, our  supralap-           ear heard, neither have entered into
away. But, clearly, what he saw            sarianism, has its value in teach-         the heart of man, the things which
were those very same concepts,             ing and explaining the ways of God         God hath prepared for them that
and within their proper biblical                                                      love him" (I Cor.  2:9). Cl
                                                                       1:
Lm
.I`
        @jQ&&xl!@                                                      ,t                   ma m :I.I

         The Fall of Our First Pare
                                                     Appendix
                           Adam and the Race (1)

                                           and Eve, but also for the entire           relationship between Adam and
I                                          race. What Adam would do in re-            the race, therefore, belongs to our
     n our consideration of Paradise       sponse to God's command would              study of the  :original state of recti-
     the First and of the two special      be of significance not only for            tude in Paradise the First, as that
     trees in the garden, as well as       Adam, but also for all of us. What         original state was the stage upon
of the temptation and fall, we have        would become of Adam, that is,             which the tremendous drama of sin
referred almost exclusively to             whether he stood in his original           and redemption had its beginning.
Adam, or to Adam and Eve. Only             righteousness and continued to live        Otherwise we cannot properly un-
occasionally have we made any di-          in God's covenant fellowship, or           derstand the entire history of the
rect reference to the significance of      whether he would fall from that            temptation and fall as the latter are
Adam and of what Adam did and              righteousness, become guilty, and          significant for the entire race and
of what would become of Adam               become subject to death  - this,           with respect to the hopelessly lost
with reference to the human race.          too, would be of significance not          estate of the entire race.
Yet we must clearly understand             only for the individual Adam, but              True,  the record in Genesis
that Adam was not created as a             also for all of his descendants.           does not directly speak of all this.
mere individual and that he did not            Although  .this involves us in         This is due, undoubtedly, to the
stand. in the state of rectitude in        the discussion of a subject which          fact that  the'viewpoint  of Genesis
Paradise, nor fall from that state of      to an extent belongs in the realm          is strictly historical. Indeed, Gen-
rectitude, all alone and  individual-      of dogmatics, particularly anthro-         esis already makes plain that Adam
istically. On the contrary, there          pology, it should nevertheless be          and Eve were to be the parents of
was a very close relationship be-          kept in mind that this is of the ut-       an entire race. For already in Gen-
tween Adam and all his descen-             most importance with respect to            esis  1:28 we learn that God had
dants, the whole human race.               sacred history. We certainly are           blessed Adam  and. Eve and said
What took place in Paradise was            not interested merely in the history       unto them, "Be fruitful, and multi-
of significance not only for Adam          of Adam as an individual, but we           ply, and replenish the earth, and
                                           are interested in Adam's history           subdue it." IMoreover, in Genesis
                                           because it is essentially the history      2 we have the detailed record of
The late Homer Hoeksema was profes-        of mankind, the history of God's           the fact that, God provided Adam
sor  of  Dogmatics and Old Testament       covenant, and the history of each          with a wife, a help meet, thus also
in the Protestant  Reforined  Seminary.    one of us. A consideration of  this        making provision for  the'protectiori

                                                                                            Apri/   1 5 ,   7  997jStandarh  hrer/329


of the human race. But other than                   of the apostle is further to illustrate    law of Moses, death reigned. Even
these two items, there is no men-                   and firmly to establish the truth of       over those who did not sin in the
tion of the race and its relation to                reconciliation through  one,  namely,      same sense in which Adam sinned,
Adam. Genesis presents from a                       Christ, and of justification without       death reigned. Death, universal
historical viewpoint the origin of                  works and preceding all actual             death, is simply an undeniable, a
sin and death in the race of man-                   works of righteousness on our part.        patent fact of man's existence and
kind.     But Scripture elsewhere                       Notice that the sentence in the        history. Death reigns! How do you
abundantly reminds us of this re-                   above verses is not finished. The          explain it?
lationship and traces the universal                 apostle does not finish the sentence           However, when the Word of
facts of sin and death to our very                  in the form in which it is begun.          God here speaks of "death," this
definite relation to Adam. In the                   He begins the sentence with the            means death  iin its full and dread-
first place, we all receive our cor-                words, "Wherefore as.. .  ." You           ful significance. There are those
rupt and depraved nature from                       would expect that this would be            who would explain the text as re-
Adam as our first father. The cor-                  concluded by the words, "so                ferring only to physical death, the
ruption of the human race is a mat-                 also...." Instead, the apostle fin-        death of the `body. But this is in
ter of propagation: the corrupt                     ishes it with the words:  `I.. . who       conflict with the context in verse
stock produces a corrupt offspring,                 is the figure (or: `type') of him that     17: "For if by one man's  offence
and we are all conceived and born                   was to come." Hence, the thought           death reigned by one; much more
in sin. In the second place, this is                is: even as through one man sin            they which receive abundance of
due to the fact that we are all guilty              and death entered into the world,          grace and of  ithe gift of righteous-
in Adam as our representative                       so he (that is: that one man) is the       ness shall reign in life by one, Jesus
head.                                               figure, the type, of him that was to       Christ."       In this verse death in
    To these two aspects we call                    come, namely, Christ. The ques-            Adam is directly contrasted to  life
your attention especially in the                    tion is: how and in what sense?            in Christ. But life in Christ is much
light of Romans  5:12-14. To do this                What is the point of comparison            more than the mere life of the
in this way has the advantage that                  here? The answer is: all have              body: it is life in its full implica-
we do not discuss our relation to                   sinned through one, and all are            tions in fellowship with God.
Adam merely in the abstract, but                    righteous through one. In the one              Hence, death also is to be un-
concretely from the viewpoint of                    case, all who were in Adam sinned          derstood in all its significance. It
our relation to Adam's sin and fall.                through the sin of the one man. In         means all the evils which are the
In the passage mentioned we read:                   the other case, all who were in            result of God's withholding His fa-
"Wherefore, as by one man sin en-                   Christ are righteous through the           vor and fellowship from man and
tered into the world, and death by                  righteousness of the one Christ.           cursing him in His wrath. It im-
sin; and so death passed upon all                       In the passage quoted, the em-         plies death in its physicaZ aspect and
men, for that all have sinned:                            phasis is upon the fact that         all the suffering that is connected
For until the law sin was                    All            all have sinned in the sin  of     with it: the sickness, the misery,
in the world: but sin is                 have sinned         the one man Adam.  To this        the pain, the sorrow which are the
not imputed when there                   through one,         truth especially we want         lot of all men, without distinction,
is no law. Nevertheless                     and all           to call attention in  con-       which wait for men at  `the cradle,
death reigned from Adam                  are righteous        nection with our studies         which follow men and haunt them
to Moses, even over them                 through one.        of Paradise and of the Fall,      mercilessly, and which finally drag
that had not sinned after the                               in order that we may see           them down into the corruption of
similitude of Adam's trans-                               clearly the significance of this     Hades. It implies death in its  spiri-
gression, who is the figure of him                  history for the whole race, for all        tual aspect  and all the spiritual cor-
that was to come."                                  of subsequent history, and for             ruption, the darkness of mind, the
                                                    God's people.                              perversity of  -will, the obduracy of
Universal Death                                         Notice, first of all, that the         heart which this spiritual-death in-
Through One Man                                     apostle in these verses draws our          cludes. It implies  eternal death,  the
    The apostle in these verses                     attention to an astounding fact,           being cast into the outer darkness
draws a parallel between Adam                       namely,  that death reigns over all        of the desolation of hell, where
and Christ. They are alike in that                  men.  He points to this universal          there is weeping and gnashing of
both are representative heads of                    and indisputable fact in proof of          teeth  - the inevitable end.
many, although Christ is by far the                 the statement that all have sinned:            Still more, the apostle speaks
greater and although grace is much                  N . . . and so death passed upon all       of the  reign  of death. He does not
more abundant than sin. This par-                   men, for that all have sinned."            merely say that death was and is
allel extends  fro.m verse 12 to the                Death has always reigned over all          universal, but that it  reigns.  This
end of the-,chapter. The purpose                    men. Even before there was any             implies that death is a power.

33O/Standard  Bearer  /April 15, 7997


Death, even considered from the                      transgressed in that sense. For the         on the way upward. They would
mere physical point of view, is the                  apostle himself said in Romans 2:           have us believe, to one degree or
powerful arch-enemy of all life and                  "For when the Gentiles, which have          another, that man is able to lift
light and joy and hope. Death is a                   not the law, do by nature the things        himself up by his own power, his
mighty tyrant, an unconquerable                      contained in the law, these, having         own effort, his own will. They
foe  - merciless and implacable. It                  not the law, are a law unto  them-          would have us believe that man in
held and it holds undisputed sway.                   selves." Hence, they know better.           his present state has ascended from
To that mighty tyrant man is sub-                    All men know  - thus you may                       the state of a mere brute, in a
ject, and from death's will man can-                 object  - either with the law                        long and painful process of
not deliver himself. There is no                     or without the law, that it is                          development, to his present
way out as far as man is concerned.                  sin to steal, that it is wrong        There is           level of morality and  civi-
No one has ever successfully re-                     to murder, that it is not             no hope             lization.       They would
sisted death's onslaught. No one                                                          PY man
                                                     right to commit adultery.                                  have us admit that man
has ever found the solution to the                       But how superficial is           zn man....            is better than we would
problem of death. There is no es-                    this argument! Did death            .lt is cruel           have reason to expect,
cape from its pursuit.                  Death        begin to reign over men               to tease             that he has made and
reigned and reigns: over man's                       when they had sinned af-          his vanity with          ca,n     make       amazing
body and over man's soul, corrupt-                   ter the similitude of               the gospel             progress in the direction
ing all.                                             Adam's transgression?              of  salvation           of perfection  - or at
     This is a universal and patent                  That is, did death begin              that is              least, that with a little di-
fact. Never was there any man                        to reign over them when             dependent              vine help or a gracious
who escaped this death. Never                        they had actually sinned,         in last instance        offer of help, he can make
was there any man who was born                                                         upon his will.
                                                     actually and consciously                                  such progress.             They
without this death in his body and                   transgressed the law? The           For death            would have us have faith
in his soul. Never was there any                     contrary is true. The apostle         reigns!          in man. The outlook for
man who did not end his existence                    says that death reigns also                           man is hopeful. In this  phi-
in the grave.                                        over those that had not sinned af-                losophy there is no room for sal-
     Even, the apostle says, where                   ter the likeness of Adam's  trans-          vation,  unless salvation means
there was no law, death reigned.                     gression. Death reigned over men            some divine help for a man who is
This serves to emphasize the amaz-                   the moment they were born. Death            essentially good and struggling  up-
ing fact of death. You may per-                      reigned and reigns also over the            ward and willing and able to will
haps say: "God declared his law;                     little baby that has not sinned  con-       to accept any help that is proffered
and no man kept that law. All ac-                    sciously and actually, that does not        him in that upward struggle.
tually sinned, and therefore all are                 yet know the difference between                     There is  po room in this view
punished for this sin with the pun-                  his right hand and his left. The            for regeneration, real rebirth, only
ishment of death." But the apostle                   reign of death is absolutely  univer-       for reformation and building of
points out that this is not accord-                  sal. Death has passed upon all              character. There is no room for
ing to reality. He admits here that                  men!                                        Christ, unless He be the modern
where there is no law at all, there                      This is the awesome fact that           Christ, the Man of Galilee, the great
is no transgression; where there is                  the apostle explains in the rest of         Teacher who shows us the way, or
no  transgression,,there  is no impu-                this passage. The explanation is            the worthy  :example  whom man
tation of actual guilt; where there                  that all have sinned, and that all          may well follow and imitate, or the
is no imputation of guilt, there can                 have sinned in the one man Adam,            compassionate social Reformer
be no punishment, no death. But                      that is, by reason of their relation        whom we ought to assist in  build-
he points us to the fact that even                   to him. We shall explain this in            ing a better world, or even the  po-
then death reigned. Even before                      the next section.                           tential  Sa-rior  whose power to save
the law of Moses was ever given,                         At the moment let us give our           is strictly dependent upon man's
f r o m   A d a m   t o   M o s e s ,   d e a t h    attention to the damning  evalua-           willlingness to accept Him. In this
reigned.                                             tion of man that is implied in this         view of man and his worth, there
     You may, perhaps, object that                   Word of God. What does this truth           is no need of atonement: the cross
nevertheless all men have the work                   mean?                                       of Christ is foolishness indeed!
of the law written in their hearts,                      Evolutionism and all  humanis-          There is no real need of  redemp-
even though they are not given any                   tic philosophies - and, let me add,         tion, for sin is not guilt before God,
code of the law such as was handed                   all humanistic, man-centered  adul-         and man is not under  condemna-
down through Moses. You may at-                      terations of the gospel of sovereign        tion. Man need not be reborn, he
tempt to explain that men died and                   grace - would have us believe that         must be educated  and.  ,reformed,
were subject to death because they                   there is hope for man, that man is          or, at best, he is in  need-  of a  re-

                                                                                                           Apri/   75,  1997/Standaril Bearer/331


birth that is dependent on his will-       men, for that all have sinned." It         never break open the door. Death
ingness to believe and to acknowl-         is not dawn. It is not even twi-           reigns!
edge his need of it, which is, after       light. It is night, black night, for           The problem of man's sin and
all, no rebirth at all.                    man. We are in the darkness of             death is not first of all one of be-
     But Scripture never gives us          the night of sin and death. There          ing  delivered  from the  power  of
this optimistic view of man.               is no hope for man in man. It will         death; it is before all else the ques-
     On the contrary, it teaches us        not do to flatter him with the hope        tion of being  redeemed  from  guiZt.
that man, every man, is dead.              of reaching perfection in his own          Before man can be delivered and
Death reigns! Man is debased. His          strength. That hope is false and           escape from death's power he must
original state was one of perfection.      vain. It is cruel to tease his vanity      have the right to be free from
But he is fallen. He is degraded.          with the gospel of salvation that is       death's reign. Before he has the
He is good no more. He plunged             dependent in last instance upon his        right to be delivered, he must atone
himself from the height of moral           will. For death reigns! And man            for his sin. This he can never do,
and spiritual integrity and life into      is under death. The situation, as          for he is under  .death   - death in
the depth of depravity and death.          far as man is concerned, is utterly        all its dreadful power. Dying he
"Wherefore as by one man sin en-           hopeless.     He is locked in the          dies. He is dead in trespasses and
tered into the world, and death by         prison of sin and death, and he can        sins, and his inevitable end is ev-
sin; and so death passed upon all                                                     erlasting death in hell. Cl





Hyper-Calvinism  and  John  Gill,  b y     Calvinistic heresy that has bedev-             Daniel shows that there was in
Curt D. Daniel. Privately published,       iled genuine Calvinism, that is, the       Gill and in the tradition of English
1983. Pp. xii-912. $60.00 (hard cover).    gospel of grace. The heart of this         Calvinism that he represents a defi-
[Reviewed by the editor.]                  error is its rejection of the "offer"      nite hesitation, if not an express re-
T                                          of the gospel to all who hear the          fusal, to call  ithe unconverted sin-
     his massive work, huge in size        preaching. With this denial goes a         ner to believe on Jesus Christ with
     and bristling with footnotes, is      minimizing of the responsibility of        true (saving) faith. Daniel says that
the author's doctoral dissertation at      man.                                       he was not able to find in Gill "the
the University of Edinburgh. It ex-                                                   invitation `Come to Christ' to the
amines the theological error of              Hyper-Calvinism is that school of        unconverted." Gill restricted this
hyper-Calvinism, particularly in             Supralapsarian "Five Point" Cal-         call to "sensible sinners" (pp. 455,
the teaching of the 18th century Cal-        vinism which so stresses the sov-        456). Daniel quotes Gill as teach-
vinistic Baptist, John Gill. Al-             ereignty of God by over-empha-           ing that the unconverted are
though Daniel concentrates on Gill,          sizing the secret over the revealed      obliged merely to believe certain
he includes in his study other En-           will and eternity over time, that it     facts about Jesus Christ, e.g., that
glish theologians associated with            minimizes the responsibility of
                                             Man, notably with respect to the         He is the Son of God. They are
Gill, e.g., Brine and Hussey, as well        denial of the word "offer" inrela-       not obliged to believe in Him as
as some contemporary theologians             tion to the preaching of the Gos-        Savior. Nor are unbelievers who
whom Daniel regards as hyper-cal-            pel of a finished and limited            hear the gospel but remain unbe-
vinists, notably Arthur Pink and             atonement, thus undermining the          lieving condemned for not believ-
Herman Hoeksema.                             universal duty of sinners to be-         ing with true (saving)  faith.
     In his scholarly attempt to de-         lieve savingly with the assurance            In his The  Cuuse of  God and
termine exactly what the error of            that the Lord Jesus Christ died for      Truth,  Gill wrote: "I do not find
hyper-Calvinism consists of, Daniel          them, with the result that pre-          that any such are exhorted to be-
considers the views of Gill and the          sumption is overly warned of, in-
                                             trospection is overly encouraged,        lieve in Christ for salvation; but as
others on the sovereignty of God;            and a view of sanctification akin        sensible of it" (that is, of their state
predestination; the covenant; justi-         to doctrinal Antinomianism is of-        and condition as sinners, by regen-
fication; faith; "the free offer ques-       ten approached. This (definition)        eration  - DJE; cited on p. 477; see
tion"; the atonement; law; and               could be summarized even fur-            also pp. 461, 462). Daniel con-
grace. A brief history of  hyper-cal-        ther: it is the rejection of the word    cludes that hyper-Calvinism denies
vinism serves as an introduction.            "offer" in connection with evan-         that unbelievers "have the respon-
     It is Daniel's contention that          gelism for supposedly Calvinistic        sibility to believe savingly in
there has been, and still is, a hyper-       reasons (p. 767).                        Christ, for that belongs to those

332fitandcird Bearer /April  15, 1997


who have been regenerated"  (p.                 terian churches condemned at              here. Those professing Calvinists
648).                                           Dordt and Westminster on the ba-          who insist on an "offer" express-
    The reason why  hyper-calvin-               sis of the apostle's doctrine in  Ro-     ing God's love for all and desire to
ism denies that the unbeliever is               mans  9:16.                               save all cannot escape universal
called to believe is its fear that this             By failing to make this funda-        atonement. When universal atone-
would compromise Calvinism. To                  mental distinction, Daniel labels all     ment  is. adopted, the eternal,
call a reprobate unbeliever for                 who deny the "offer" as hyper-cal-        double decree of predestination is
whom Christ did not die to believe              vinists, regardless what specific         rejected.
in Jesus Christ would compromise                doctrine of the offer they have in            Running through the work are
the doctrines of election and lim-              mind. The result is that those            Daniel's interaction with and criti-
ited atonement. To call any unbe-               whose rejection of the "offer" con-       cism of the Protestant Reformed
liever to believe would suggest that            sists of a denial of universal love       Churches  (PRC). He lumps them
an unbeliever has the ability to be-            dependent on the will of the sin-         with the English Baptist  hyper-cal-
lieve, thus overthrowing the doc-               ner are tarred with Daniel's broad        vinists, regardless of the protest of
trine of total depravity.  Hyper-               brush of hyper-Calvinism, even            the PRC. The Protestant Reformed
Calvinism does not understand                   though they preach to all and call        reader who lacks time and inclina-
that God's call, or command, to the             all to believe in Jesus Christ.           tion to read the entire work might
reprobate sinner sincerely to repent                The second fault is gross.            want to read Chapter VIII, "The
and truly to believe expresses nei-             Daniel argues that genuine Calvin-        Free Offer Question" (pp. 364-495).
ther God's purpose nor the sinner's             ism is the doctrine of a saving love          As for Daniel's challenge to the
ability, but only the sinner's duty             of God and a death of Jesus Christ        PRC to show where their denial of
in light of the revelation made in              for all without exception. On this        the "well-meant offer" differs from
the gospel.                                     basis, the proper "offer" is, in fact,    the English hyper-Calvinists' rejec-
    This         a n s w e r   t o    hyper-    the "bold declaration" to all who         tion of the external call of the gos-
Calvinism's basic error, however,               hear the gospel, "God loves you,          pel, the differences are important
is not Daniel's. Daniel responds to             Christ died for you, and now God          and clear. First, the PRC preach
hyper-Calvinism along entirely dif-             pleads with you to believe so that        the gospel of Jesus Christ as Sav-
ferent lines.                                   you may be saved"  (p. 459). Ac-          ior to all indiscriminately, regard-
    Valuable as Daniel's study of               companying this offer is "a suffi-        less whether they are converted be-
this important aspect of the devel-             cient common grace" that enables          lievers or unconverted unbelievers.
opment and struggle of Calvinism                all to accept the offer, if only they     They do not, as Hussey advocated,
is, it suffers from two grave faults.           will (pp. 161,162).                       preach Christ as priestly Savior to
These faults both skew the analy-                   It is Daniel's basic thesis that      believers, but Christ as threatening
sis of the controversy and render               hyper-Calvinism began to develop          King to unbelievers.
false the proposed resolution for a             when, after Calvin, the Reformed              Second, the PRC call, or com-
pure Calvinism.                                 faith adopted limited atonement.          mand, or summon, every sinner to
    The first is that Daniel does not           This jeopardized the offer. What          believe in Christ for salvation with
distinguish "offer" as the promis-              is necessary for the warding off of       true (saving) faith, warning all that
cuous preaching of Christ as Sav-               hyper-Calvinism is the embrace of         those who do not believe will be
ior with its command to all hear-               universal atonement. This involves        held guilty by God for this worst
ers to repent and believe on Jesus              repudiating the decree of reproba-        of all sins. The PRC do not hesi-
for salvation from "offer" as the               tion.                                     tate, or refuse, to give the impera-
declaration to all hearers that God                 This is the remedy for hyper-         tive to all and sundry, "Come to
loves them, Christ died for them,               Calvinism! This exotic mixture of         Christ."
and God is now giving them the                  Arminianism and Amyraldianism,                Third, the PRC do not let
chance to be saved by believing.                Daniel calls, with a kind of fetch-       people think that they can long for
This distinction is both biblical and           ing modesty, "Low Calvinism." It          salvation and desire to believe, per-
confessionally Reformed. "Offer"                is, indeed, low  - very low. It is        haps their life long, and still per-
as promiscuous preaching with a                 abased and debased "Calvinism."           ish (see p. 359).
summons to all to believe in Christ             The glory of salvation in this gos-           In these important matters, the
is the external call of the gospel as           pel belongs to the sinner. Using his      PRC suppose that they are only
taught in Matthew  22:1-14  and in              "sufficient common grace" rightly,        confessing the historic,  creedal  Re-
the Canons,  11/5.  "Offer" as a dec-           he not only saves himself by ac-          formed faith.
laration of universal love and                  cepting the offer but also makes the          Hyper-Calvinism   and  John  Gill
atonement dependent on the                      death of Christ atoning and the           must be ordered from the author.
sinner's will is the Arminian her-              love of God successful.                   The address is: 2456 Devonshire
esy that the Reformed and Presby-                   There is an important warning         Rd., Springfield, IL 62703.  Cl

                                                                                                 April 15,  1997ptandard  Bearer/333


                                                                                            ;i


                                  March  5,1997
                                  at  Doon, Iowa
                                                          Peace and unity are evident in the                Bekkering, A. den Hartog, C. Haak,
The March meeting of Classis churches of Classis West.                                                      S. Key, R. Moore;  Secundi:  M. De
      West was held in  Doon,  Iowa                           Among the business con-                       Vries, S. Houck, M. Joostens, R.
on Wednesday, March 5. The cus-                           ducted,  Classis gave advice in two               Miersma, G. Van  Baren.  Elders:
tomary Officebearers' Conference                          discipline cases, in each case giv-               Primi:  Lamm Lubbers (South Hol-
was held the day before.                           The    ing approval to the actions of the                land),  HP. Meulenberg (Houston),
theme of the Conference was                               consistory. Bethel Protestant Re-                 Bill Smit (Lynden), Fred Tolsma
"Faithful Preaching vs. the Free Of-                      formed Church was granted their                   (Edmonton), Charles Van Meeteren
fer." Pastor Carl Haak gave the                           request to seek from the churches                 (Redlands);  S e c u n d i :   J i m   d e n
keynote address, the theme of                             in  Classis West offerings for their              Hartog (Lynden), John Hilton
which was "Preaching the Mercy                            building fund. Their request will                 (Edgerton),         Robert         Kelley
and Goodness of God to Sinners."                          also be forwarded to Synod, seek-                 (Lynden),       Menno   P o o r t e n g a
Also giving presentations at the                          ing approval for offerings also to                (Peace), Everett Van Voorthuysen
conference were Missionary Tho-                           be taken in the churches of  Classis              (Redlands).
mas Miersma, "Preaching and Mis-                          East.                                                 Among other elections: Rev. S.
sion Work Without a Debilitating                              Classis  granted classical ap-                Houck was re-elected to a  three-
Offer"; and Pastor Jai Mahtani,                           pointments to South Holland PRC                   year term as a  Synodical Deputy
"Preaching the Gospel Promiscu-                           as follows: Rev. S. Key (April 6                  from  Classis West. Revs. R., Moore
ously." Rev. Allen Brummel also                           and 20); Rev..  W: Bekkering (May                 and G. Van  Baren  were elected as
gave a review of the book by Iain                         18 and 25); Rev. C. kaak (June 15                 church visitors, with Revs. A. den
Murray,            Spurgeon   v .   Hyper-                and 22); Rev. S. Houck (July 13 and               Hartog and  St Houck as alternates.
Calvinism.  Tuesday evening, in a                         20); Rev. R. Smit (August 10 and                  Classis also expressed its gratitude
full church sanctuary in  Doon, Pas-                      17); and Rev. J. Mahtani (August                  to emeritus pastor, Rev. George
tor Mahtani gave a slide presenta-                        31 and September 7).                              Lanting, for his many years of
tion of the work being done by                                Classis  approved the following               faithful service as a church visitor
Trinity's congregation in Houston,                        subsidy requests and forwarded                    in  Classis West. Rev. Lanting, for
Texas. The theme of his presenta-                         them to Synod:            Bethel  PRC-            reasons of age, requested to be re-
tion was "Reaching the Nations                            $20,300;  Edgert0.n  PRC-$9,000;                  lieved of those duties.
with the Gospel of Grace." The dis-.                      Edmonton PRC-$32,444; Lacombe                         The next meeting of Classis will
cussion and fellowship at the Con-'                       PRC-$25,934; Pella PRC-$25,000;                   be in Peace PRC, Lansing, Illinois
ference was appreciated by all.                           Trinity PRC-$30,500.                              on September 3, 1997, the Lord
      Pastor Steven Key chaired the                           Voting for delegates to Synod                 willing.
meeting of  Classis on Wednesday.                         1997 resulted in the following elec-                                    Rev. Steven Key,
The agenda of  Classis was brief.                         tions:       M i n i s t e r s :   Primi:  W .                               Stated Clerk





                                                          Congregational Activities                         children baptized. The credit for
                                                          We begin this issue of the this decision should have gone to
                                                                    "News" by making a correc-              our Immanuel PRC in Lacombe,
                                                          tion to the March  1"' issue of the               Alberta, Canada instead. I apolo-
                                                          Standard Bearer.  In that "News" I                gize for that mix-up, but I am also
                                                          reported that the consistory of the               happy to let you know that since
                                                          Grace PRC in Standale, MI decided                 that March  lst issue came out, the
                                                          to give both the  $amphlet  "The                  consistory of our Grace PRC has
Mr.  Wigger is an elder in the  Protes-                   Covenant of God" and the book                     decided to follow the lead of our
pyzt Reformed Church  of  Hudson-                         "Reformed Education" to parents                   Immanuel consistory and do the
pllle, AJichjgan.                                         coming the first time to have their               same. Now first-time parents in

SSb/Standbr&Bearer   / A p r i l   15,  1 9 9 7


Grace will also receive these two                    Holland, and Peace congregations.               as hearing speeches on "The Min-
publications. So perhaps I wasn't                    This recording contains a wide va-              isters' Prayer Life" and "Encour-
wrong after all, just a little ahead                 riety of instrument sounds and is               agement for Overseers."
of myself.                                           of a high recording quality. It in-
     The congregation of our Cov-                    cludes five new arrangements com-
enant PRC in Wyckoff, NJ was                         missioned for this recording. As
pleased to have a good turnout at                    in Volume I, the proceeds will ben-             School Activities
a lecture they sponsored given by                    efit the Bethel PRC building fund.              The congregation of the First
Rev. A. Spriensma on March 7                         Bethel currently worships in a                      PRC in Grand Rapids, MI ap-
while he was in their midst on clas-                 Holiday Inn, battling numerous                  proved a request by the Building
sical appointment. In addition to                    distractions. Watch for announce-               Committee of East Side Christian
members of the congregation, 30                      ments in your bulletins and news-               School regarding the use of the
visitors showed up to hear Rev.                      letters regarding order forms.                  church property. This approval
Spriensma speak on "God's Cov-                           The Council of the Georgetown               calls for tree removal, clearing,
enant of Grace: Agreement or Re-                     PRC in Hudsonville, MI decided                  grading, and seeding the land
lationship?" This was the largest                    that this year's catechism collec-              southeast of the church building
number to appear at one of their                     tions will be for the library of the            which will allow the committee to
lectures in more than five years.                    two seminary students who are                   proceed with plans for a play-
Included in Rev. Spriensma's re-                     members of their congregation.                  ground area and the enhancement
marks was how he had decided to                         `The combined Men's Societies                of a park-like environment. East
leave the CRC for the PRC. Hand-                     of the  Doon, IA, Hull, IA, and                 Side has also received approval
outs outlined the PR view of the                     Edgerton, MN  PRCs  met recently                from the Fire Marshal to use First's
covenant. Those who attended                         at  Edgerton to enjoy a Bible study             lower level as a school facility. The
asked thought-provoking questions                    taken from Revelation 2 to consider             Lord willing, East Side Christian
and stayed quite late afterwards to                  an after-recess program entitled,               School will open this fall at First
talk, a few until almost midnight!                   "The Pros and Cons of the Com-                  with an anticipated enrollment of
     All of the adults in the congre-                puter upon the Life of God's                    around 30 students.
gation had gathered on two week-                     Church."                                            A recent visit to a Lynden rest
day evenings to help hand address,                       On Sunday evening, March 23,                home by some of the students of
stamp, and sort flyers to send to                    the choir of the Lynden, WA PRC                 the Covenant Christian School in
parents listed in the directories of                 presented their spring concert.                 Lynden, WA to present a program
several large area Christian schools                 Lynden was invited to join with the             there was so well received that it
and to the regular church mailing                    choir as they commemorated the                  will continue to be done on a
list. In addition, a bulk mailing                    death and resurrection of our Lord              monthly basis. Different classes
went out to every residential ad-                    and Savior, Jesus Christ.                       will take turns in order for all stu-
dress in two neighboring commu-                                                                      dents to have an opportunity to
nities.     Standard Bearer  readers                                                                 share their love for their Lord.
may obtain a cassette tape of the
lecture and a copy of the handout                    Minister Activities
by writing to Covenant, c/o its                      Rev. R. Cammenga declined the
E v a n g e l i s m   C o m m i t t e e ,   2 8 3        call he had been considering                            Foodfor Tkou&
Squawbrook Rd., Wyckoff, NJ                          from the Hope PRC in Walker, MI.                    "A faith that never wept is a
07481. A check or money order for                    Rev. S. Key declined the call he had            faith that never lived."
$3.00 to cover the duplicating and                   been extended from the South Hol-                                        -  Spurgeon   Cl
mailing costs should be made out                     land, IL PRC.          A n d   R e v .   T .
to "CPRC Evangelism Fund."                           Miersma, our home missionary in
     The group "Make a Joyful                        Colorado, has been extended a call
Noise," originating from the Bethel                  by the Hull, IA PRC to serve as
PRC in Itasca, IL, will be releasing                 our denomination's missionary to
a new cassette/CD this spring en-                    Ghana.
titled, "Volume II Family Favor-                         On March 14 and 15, ministers
ites." This recording consists of 32                 and professors (and their wives) in
tunes, many from the  Psalter  with                  Michigan and Illinois went on a re-
a few well-known tunes, such as                      treat at Camp Miniwanca, in New
"Great is Thy Faithfulness," added.                  Era, MI, the site of the 1997 PRYP
"Make a Joyful Noise" includes                       Convention. Ministers enjoyed a
musicians from the Bethel, South                     time  of fun and fellowship, as well

                                                                                                           A p r i l   1 5 ,   7997jMandard  Bearer/335


                                                                                                                             PERIODICAL
                                                                                                                             Postage Paid at
    P.O. Box 603                                                                                                              Grandville, Michigan
   Grandville, MI 49468-0603





                                                          RESOLUTION OF SYMPTHY
                                                            The Martha Society of the Hull
                                                       Protestant Reformed Church ex-                             WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
                                                       presses its Christian sympathy to                          With thanksgiving to God, we
                                                       two of its members, Mrs.  Dena                         announce the  45'" wedding anniver-
   RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                              B l a n k e s p o o r   a n d   M r s .   S a l l y    sary of our parents and grandpar-
The Council and Congregation of                        Kooiker, in the death of their son                     ents,
Southwest Protestant Reformed                          and brother,                                                    MR. and MRS. GARRET
Church, Grandville, MI mourn the                              JOHN BLANKESPOOR.                                              FLIKKEMA,
loss of its oldest member,                                  May they and their families find                  which took place on March 17,
   MR. ALBERT BLEYENBERG,                              comfort from God's Word, "But                          1997. We are deeply grateful to
whom the Lord called unto himself                      though he cause grief, yet will he                     our covenant God for them and for
at the age of 92 years. We are                         have compassion according to the                       the many years of love and instruc-
thankful to God for the many years                     multitude of his mercies" (Lamen-                      tion that they, have given to us, as
of his faithful witness to the truth                   tations  3:32).                                        well as for the years that they have
that God alone is God. We extend                                       Rev. R.G. Moore, Pres.                 been given in their marriage. It is
our sympathy to his family with the                                          Jannet Moore, Sec.               our prayer that God will continue to
prayer that they may find comfort                                                                             bless them in time to come, and
in God's Word:            "Precious in the                               NOTICE!!                             that we may be blessed through
sight of the Lord is the death of his                       Edgerton PRC announces that                       them.
saints" (Psalm  116:15).                               there are tapes available of the re-                       "Great is the  LORD,  and greatly
             Rev. R. Cammenga, Pres.                   cent marriage seminar speeches                         to be praised; and his greatness is
                      Ken Schipper, Clerk              featuring Revs. Brummel, Haak,                         unsearchable.         One generation
                                                       and Key. Although the quality of                       shall praise thy works to another,
                                                       the tapes is not as good as it could                   and shall declare thy mighty acts"
                                                       be, the content of the speeches                        (Psalm  145:3,4).
  RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                               more than makes up for it.                             * Rev. Richard and
     The Council and Congregation                           To order the 2-tape set, send                                           Marcia Flikkema
of Southwest Protestant Reformed                       $6.00 to:                                                       Tammy,`Tricia, Heidi
Church, Grandville, Ml herewith ex-                              Edger-ton Protestant                         $ George and Denise DeJong
press our sympathy to Mrs. Pearl                                    Reformed Church                                    Matthew
Griffioen and  .family in the loss of                                 P.O. Box 403                            * Bill and Pat DeJong
her husband,                                                    Edger-ton, MN 56128.                                   Brenda, :Paul, Beth, Joanna
        MR. ARIE GRIFFIOEN,                                                                                   % Jim Flikkema
who passed away on March 9,                              RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
                                                                                                                                               Lansing. Illinois
1997. May their comfort be in the                           The Ladies' Society of the
word of the changeless Jehovah,                        Hudsonville Protestant Reformed
"Blessed are the dead which die in                     Church express their sincere sym-
the Lord from henceforth: yea,                         pathy to  Freda Zwak and family in
saith the Spirit, that they may rest                   the death of her father,                                              NOTICE!!!
from their labors; and their works                           MR. TED MIEDEMA, SR.,                                Classis  East will meet in regu-
d o   f o l l o w   t h e m " ( R e v e l a t i o n    at the age of 93. May they find                        lar session on Wednesday, May 14,
14:13b).                                               comfort in the word of God found                       1997 at the  ,Hope  Protestant Re-
             Rev.  R. Cammenga, Pres.                  in Philippians  1:21, "For to me to                    formed Church (Walker, Ml).
                      Ken Schipper, Clerk              live is Christ, and to die is gain."                                          Jon J. Huisken,
                                                                       Rev. R. Flikkema, Pres.                                            Stated Clerk
                                                                          Barb Dykstra, Vice-all

336/Standard Bearer  /April 15, 7997


