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                             See  "Free-Willism:  Another  Gospel"  -  p.  342


Vol.  73,  No.  15
May  1,1997


                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    7"he
CONTENTS:                                                                                                                                                        May  1,1997                                              -ec
                                                                                                                                                                                                                      fqs)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                           I 1 1
                                                                                                                                                                                                                       `$g-,,$               Mandard
                                                                                                                                                                                                                        +-q&Y I Barer
Meditation  - Herman  Hoeksema
          The Revelation of the Righteous Judgment of God . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339                                                                                                                  ISSN  0362-4692
Editorial - Prof. David  J.  Engelsma
           Free-Willism: Another Gospel . . . . . I,......,.........................................  342                                                                                                            Semi-monthly. except monthly durfng  June, July, and August.
Letters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  ,...... . . . . .345    Published by the Reformed Free Publishing Assocfatfon. Inc.,
                                                                                                                                                                                                                     4949  lvanrffit Ave., Grandvllle, Ml 49419.  Perfodical Postage
A Cloud of Witnesses  -  Prof. Herman  C. Hanko                                                                                                                                                                      Paid at Grandville. Michigan.
          George Martin Ophoff: Humble Servant of the Truth (1) . . . . . . . . . . 346                                                                                                                              Postmaster:  Send  address changes to the Standard Bearer,
All Around Us - Rev. Gise J. Van&fen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348                                                                           P.O. Box  603. Grandville. Ml 494699603.
Taking Heed to the Doctrine  - Rev. Steven  Key                                                                                                                                                                      ElNTORIAL  COMMmEE
           How Then Can We Be Saved? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350                                                           Editor:  Prof. David J. Engelsma
                                                                                                                                                                                                                     Secretary: Prof. Robert  0. Decker
In His Fear  - Rev.  Arie denHartog                                                                                                                                                                                  Managing  Edltor:  Mr. Don Doezema
          Seek Ye First the Mingdom of God and Its Righteousness . . . . . . . 352                                                                                                                                   DEPARTMENT  EDITORS
Day of Shadows  - Homer C. Hoeksema                                                                                                                                                                                  Rev. W.  Bruinsma. Rev. A.  Brummel. Rev.  Ft. Cammenga,
                                                                                                                                                                                                                     Prof.  FL Decker, Rev. A.  denHartog, Rev. M.  Dick, Prof. H.
          The Fall of Our First Parents                                                                                                                                                                              Hanko, Rev.  Ft. Hanko, Rev. S. Key, Rev. K.  Koole. Rev. J.
                Adam and the Race (2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355                                        Kortedng.  Rev. D. H. Kulper,  Mr. J. Lanttng.  Mrs. M. Lubbers,
                                                                                                                                                                                                                     Rev.T. Miersma, Mr. G. Schlpper, Rev. G. VanBaren, Rev. R.
Book Reviews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357             VanOverloop,  Mr.  B.  Wlgger,  Rev. Et. Woudenberg.
News From Our Churches - Mr. Benjamin Wigger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . *.. 359                                                                                                         EDITORIAL  OFFICE             CHURCH  NEWS  EDITOR
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                                                                                                        I     -





                         The Revel                                                 of the
             Righteous Ju                                                        nt of God

                                            tion is: "Thinkest thou this, 0 man,    who will reward every man accord-
     Who will render to every man ac-       that thou shalt escape the judgment     ing to his deeds?
cording to his deeds:                       of God, because thou judgest oth-           Then the apostle knows of but
     To them who by patient continu-        ers in the things which thou doest      two possibilities. On the one hand,
ance in well-doing seek  for  glory and     thyself?" Is this the explanation?      they "who by patient continuance
honour and immortality, eternal  life:      Is this the reason why you assume       in well-doing seek for glory and
     But  unto them  that  are  conten-     that attitude in which you judge        honour and immortality, eternal
tious, and do not obey the truth, but       others in the things you do your-       life." On the other hand, it  is  pos-
obey unrighteousness, indignation and       self? In other words, "Thinkest         sible that a man has been conten-
wrath.                                      thou that by making thyself judge,      tious and, therefore, did not obey
                          Romans 2:6-8      thou shalt not be among the con-        the truth; he shall be judged wor-
                                            demned?" This is one possibility.       thy of  indig,nation and wrath.
          he apostle is still addressing
T                                               Or, and this is the second pos-     These are the only two possibili-
          man. He is still addressing       sibility, "Despisest thou the good-     ties. There is no other possibility,
          the man to whom he had            ness of God? That goodness of           because God is the only standard.
spoken in verse 1. No longer is he          God, which becomes manifest in          God is the Judge, but He is also
addressing the Gentiles. Nor is he          lovingkindness,  forbearance, and       the only  staitdard  according to
exclusively addressing the Jews.            longsuffering. That goodness of         which that judgment shall be.
But he is addressing man  - any             God which becomes manifest in               We have in the text, therefore,
man, man in general, and yet ev-            this, that God loves the rightkous      the truth of the righteous judgment
ery man individually. Not all men,          gnd hates the wicked. That good-        of God in its revelation. It is not
but each man, the apostle is ad-            ness of God which leads to repen-       the judgment of God of which the
dressing, both in the context and           tance. Despisest thou that good-        text speaks. The judgment of God
`in the text.                               ness of God, not knowing it?" Is        takes place always. God always
    This man is addressed as a sin-         this the explanation?                   judges the deeds of men. But the
ner, such as he is in the sphere of             But the apostle means to say,       text speaks of the  revelation  of this
this present world. The apostle has         "Whatever may be the explanation,       judgment of God.
told him that while he exalts him-          thou that judgest others and doest
self as judge over the deeds over           the same things art continually         A Revelation of All the Evidences
others he himself is doing the same         busy in heaping up wrath against            T h e   e v i d e n c e s   w h i c h   a r e
things. Therefore, he is his own            the day of wrath and revelation of      brought into that court, the text
judge, while he pretends to be a            the righteous judgment of God."         says, are the  ,works, the deeds, of
judge of others. This is character-         This is true. Therefore, in the text    men. These deeds are not the ob-
istic of the sinner.                        the apostle speaks of the righteous     jects to be  jqdged. They are the
    The apostle asks this man two           judgment of God.                        evidences. The one to be judged is
questions, in order to obtain an ex-           What is that righteous judg-         man. What  tiust be made plain of
planation from him. The first  ques-        ment of God? What will be its pro-      every man is .what he is worth. Or
                                            cedure? How is it possible? In          rather, it must be made plain that
                                            what possible state can a man stand     every man is worth what God
                                            in that righteous judgment of God?      judges him to be worth.
                                                                                       God has :no need of a day of
Herman Hoeksema was the first edi-          What must be the possible verdict?
                                                                                    judgment. He does not even have
tor  of  the  Standard Bearer.        .'    What must be the verdict of Him

                                                                                             May 1, 1997ptandard  Bearer/339


need of our works as evidence.                  sin before the Lord? It does not                   ally are, and what we are worth.
God knows our works from eter-                  seem so raw then. We forget about                  This must be revealed.
nity. In this sense, God has no                 these evil things. But all these sins                    This day must come. It is com-
need of a day of judgment. He                   God will produce.                                  ing. If this is the case, how shall
knows who is worthy of eternal life                  He will produce them to your                  we appear? In this revelation of
and who is worthy of indignation                consciousness. He will convince                    God's righteous judgment, there
and wrath. But the purpose of                        you that they are yours. You                  will be only two possibilities with
the day of judgment is that                            will never say in that day,                 regard to those who are to be
everyone may  justify  God             ... .             "I never  did that." There                judged. The reason is that God is
                                          1t must
when He judges.           God        be made plain        will be no denial in the                 Judge, and He is the only standard
knows what every man's               that every man       day of judgment. They                    by which man shall be judged.
spiritual, ethical value is.            is worth          will be brought to us as                 There are  6nly two possibilities,
But if God is to be  justi-            what God           our works. God has a                     namely, that we stand before Him
fied, that is, if in the  con-           judges           way of doing this.                       as righteous, or as unrighteous.
sciousness of every moral              him to be          H e   w i l l   b r i n g   t h o s e          Who are the righteous? Notice
creature God is to appear                worth.          works as evidences before                 how the apostle describes the righ-
as just when He judges, so                              our  conscidusness  and be-                teous. He describes them as those
that every man may be ex-                             fore the consciousness of all                who seek for glory and honour and
posed as a liar and God become                  moral creatures, angels, and men.                  immortality. This first of all. In
manifest as true, then the day of               The Lord says that what has been                   the second place, they are those
judgment must come. If this day                 done in secret will be preached                    who seek  for these things in the
is to be a. revelation of the righ-             from the housetops. That is, your                  way of patient continuance in  well-
teous judgment of God, God must                 works will be made perfectly plain                 doing. This man, who from the
produce His evidences. This He                  to me and to all the world. He                     moment of his birth to the hour of
will do. He will produce His evi-               will expose your and my works to                   his death has sought for glory and
dences, not to Himself, but to us,              the world. Exposing them, He will                  honour and immortality in the way
to every moral creature, to men                 cast the light of His own judgment                 of patient continuance in well-do-
and angels.                                     upon them in order that the answer                 ing, this man shall be righteous.
    This evidence will be the works             to the question as to the purpose,                       When the apostle says that they
of man. The works of man will be                the motive  - why did you do it?                   seek for glory, honour, and immor-
the evidence by which his worth                 may be plain.                                      tality, he does not mean to say that
will be shown. God will render to                                                                  this man seeks for  any  glory,
every man according to his works.               A Revelation of Every Man                          honour, and  :@unortality. In a way,
These works of man are all his ac-              Who is to be Judged                                all men seek;for glory, honour, and
tivities between the hour of his                     The apostle says that God will                immortality. But the apostle means
birth and the moment of his death.              judge every man according to his                   real  glory,  real  honour, and  real im-
They are all his activities in con-             works. Notice, not the deeds                             mortality. If we seek this, we
nection with his position, his occu-            are to be judged. But man                                   shall surely find it.
pation, and his relations.                      will be judged. Every man                 Every  man          Real glory is essentially
    These works are not limited to              will be judged according               will be judged         the glory of God. This is
what is seen by men. They are not               to his deeds. That is, the               according to          the only glory there is. If
only the outward works which we                 real value of every man                    his deeds.          we seek this glory, glory
see. No, they are all that man does             will be exposed as God                      That is,           being the radiation of
between the hour of his birth and               sees his worth by the                   the real value          good, then we seek God
the hour of his death in the sense              evidence of his works.                  of every man            and His glory as our
of speaking, seeing, hearing, think-                 How is this  pos-                will be exposed           own.      W e   m a y   s a y
ing, willing, and desiring. They in-            sible? Why are a man's                   as God sees            therefore, that if we
clude the works which man never                 works evidence of his                     his worth             seek glory, we seek
knew or which he conveniently for-              worth? The answer is                  by the evidence          God.
got. We do this. We do a certain                that they are in relation to            of his works.         Honour is not any kind
evil, and then we conveniently for-             man as fruit is to the tree.                                of praise. But honour  be-
get about it. We like to remember               By their fruit ye shall know                              longs to God. If we seek the
our good deeds and talk about                   them. As you know a tree by its                    honour of God, we seek that
them. But our evil deeds we like                fruit, so you can know man by his                  honour of God by which He  ap-
to forget. Did you never notice that            works. These works are his fruit.                  proves of us.
when you commit a sin, you let a                Accordingly, God will use all these                      "Immortality" is a weak  trans-
day go by before confessing that                works to show what you and I re-                   lation. The original means  "incor-

340/Standard  Bearer /May 1, 1997


ruptibleness." If we seek  incorrup-        This is the principle from which he           just. All the world will say that
tibleness, we seek God and that             lives. In this principle, of course,           His verdict is right.
blessing by which we may be in-             he disobeys the truth.                              On the other hand, they who
corruptible before Him. This is                 This is the other possibility. A          by patient continuance in  well-do-
why the text says that we can seek          third there is not. We shall appear            ing seek for glory and honour and
this only in the way of patient con-        in that judgment according to that             immortality will receive eternal
tinuance in well-doing. Well-do-            one class or the other.                        life. Eternal life means that life
ing is that which is in harmony                 Which will it be?                               which Scripture always  pic-
with the will of God. If we do the              When God exhibits your                            tures, not only as  everlast-
will of God, we seek Him. Con-              and my works, and you see             ... when         ing, but also as the highest
tinuance in well-doing means con-           those works, and you say of       we have seen          life. It is perfect  fellow-
tinuous, uninterrupted seeking of           them, "Yes, they are mine,"       that the case          ship with God.
immortality. Patience means that            what do you think it will             of man             You say, how is this  pos-
we walk in that way no matter how           be? Will it be one long            is hopeless,          sible? My answer is that
much we suffer.                             way of seeking for glory           God comes             it is  ,impossible.  If you
         If we meet the day of the righ-    and honour and  immortal-                  to us         ask, how can anyone
teous judgment of God in this way,          ity? Or, which is the other           with the           come to eternal life?  -
it will be all right. If from the mo-       alternative, will our works           gospel.           the answer is that it is  im-
ment of our birth to the moment of          reveal that we have been                               possible. It is impossible to
our death, we have never sought             partisans? Will they reveal                          come to eternal life, if one
anything but glory and honour and           that we have sought the world, not             from the moment of his birth to the
immortality; if we have never               for God but for ourselves?                     moment of his death must, in the
sought anything but God's face and              Which will it be?                          way of patient continuance in  well-
fellowship, we will be righteous.                                                          doing, seek glory and honour and
Then, when we face him in the               A Revelation of the Final Verdict              immortality. The apostle means
judgment day, it will be all right.             The apostle does not answer.               exactly to say  .that it is impossible.
This is one possibility.                    But the apostle says that God will                  Because it is impossible, the
         The other possibility is ex-       reward every man according to                  apostle is still thinking of the main
pressed in verse 8. They who are            those works. To them who have                  subject of the context: I am not
contentious, and do not obey the            been unrighteous, have been con-               ashamed of the gospel of Jesus
truth, but obey unrighteousness,            tentious, and have disobeyed the               Christ.  There.was  only one among
"indignation and wrath." They are           truth, to them God will give the               mankind who sought, in the way
the unrighteous.                            reward of indignation and wrath.               of patient continuance in well-do-
         The word "contentious" in our          When God gives His wrath to                ing, glory and honour and immor-
Bibles rests on a mistaken transla-         anyone, it means that He gives him             tality. That was not a mere man.
tion.       The- original word really       the complete operation of His                  That was Immanuel, God in our
means "partisanship." What is a             wrath and indignation. It means                human nature.
partisan? Let me illustrate. Take,          that He pours out the intense heat                  God did it!
for example, in the evil sense, a           of His wrath upon all who have                      Jesus Christ, from the moment
politician. He is one who uses the          been contentious and have dis-                 of His birth until the moment of
position in which he is supposed            obeyed the truth. All will admit               His death, sought glory and honour
to serve the community, not be-             that this judgment of God is just.             and immortality, in the way of pa-
cause he wants to serve the com-                We can see this now. God is                tient continuance in well-doing.
munity but to advance himself.              God. As God, He says, "Love Me."               Finally, He said, "It is finished."
This is a partisan. This is awful,          This is good. All else is evil. God           He did so as the revelation of God's
but it is quite common in our day.          says, "Love Me." The sinner says,              righteousness for His people.
Such a man uses his job for him-            "I will not." He turns his' back                    Therefore, when we have seen
self.                                       upon God until he stands before                that the case of man is hopeless,
         God has given man a position.      the face of God, and God shows to              God comes to us with the gospel.
His position is that he is king. God        him that he is worthy of indigna-             He proclaims a righteousness
has appointed man to be king in             tion and wrath, that he is worthy              which is His and which He has re-
creation. Why is man appointed              of hell. The sinner will say, "This            alized in Christ.
king? In order that he should seek          is right, this is all that I am worthy              I am not ashamed of the gos-
the glory of God. But he is a parti-        of." All who deny this  here  make             pel of Jesus Christ, the heart of
san. He uses his position  in, cre-         God a liar. But  there  it will be dif-        which is: the righteous shall live
ation, not to the glory of God but          ferent. There will be no denial               by faith.  D
to oppose Him and to seek self.             there. All will admit that God is

                                                                                                    May 1, 1997/Standard  Bearer/341


                                                                  iillism:
                                                                         ospel


                                              will, the sinner allows God's quick-           not the good news that the gracious
            here is one gospel. This gos-
 T                                            ening power (grace) to have its way            God conceived in eternity and re-
            pel is the message of salva-      with him.       The salvation pro-             vealed in time in Jesus Christ. It is
            tion in Jesus Christ by grace     claimed by the gospel of  free-                not the faith of the Bible.  Free-
alone. "Grace alone" means that               willism is man's salvation of him-             willism sets forth another way of
God saves sinners. God saves sin-             self by choosing God, opening up               salvation than the way of faith in
ners according to His own attitude            his heart to let Jesus in, making a            Christ: the  .decision  for Christ by
of favor (grace) toward those sin-            decision for Christ, accepting the             the dead sinner. It proclaims an-
ners whom He saves. God saves                 offer made well-meaningly to all,              other savior than Jesus Christ: the
sinners by His own quickening                 and fulfilling the prerequisite for            willing sinner. It worships another
power (grace) in the hearts of those          regeneration and conversion.                   god than the God of the one gos-
whom He wills to save. "Grace                     This gospel is wildly popular.             pel: a nice, well-intentioned, lov-
alone" means that grace is without                But it is "another" gospel. It is          ing, helpless, bumbling deity, who
supplement, condition, or  assis-             "another gospel" precisely in the              is perfectly, willing to share the
, tance.                                      sense in which the apostle speaks              glory of salvation with every Tom,
      "Grace alone" means that the            of "another gospel" in Galatians               Dick, and Harry.
salvation of sinners does not de-             1:6-g.  It is a gospel that adds a                 Free-willism denies the cross.
pend on, is not due to, and is not            work of man to the work of God in              The cross redeemed no one. The
accomplished by the worth, will, or           Jesus Christ. It is a message that             cross accomplished nothing. The
work of those sinners. Not at all!            makes the grace of God dependent               cross was not substitutionary sat-
Not any aspect of salvation!                  upon some act of man. It is a mes-             isfaction of the justice of God re-
 "Grace alone" means that man                 sage that calls the sinner to coop-            garding those for whom Christ
does not save himself.                        erate with God in Christ. It is a              died.  Many,for  whom Christ died
     This is why the gospel is good           message that rejects "grace                       perish in hell. Those who are
news. This is why the gospel ex-              alone" for "grace  and"  (or,                       saved by the cross are saved,
alts God.                                     "grace but"). The other  gos-                        not because of the cross but
     This is also why the gospel is           pel in the Galatian churches        "Grace            because of their decision for
offensive to men.                             was "grace and human  cir-          alone"             Christ, their acceptance of
      Offended by grace  - free, sov-         cumcision." Free-willism is       means that           the well-meant offer, their
ereign, particular, almighty grace                                                grace is
                                              the gospel of "grace and                               act of believing.
- men change God's gospel, cre-               human will."                        without              This condemnation of
 ating other gospels more to their                                              supplement,
                                                  As "another gospel,"                               free-willism is not the  pri-
liking. There are many of them.               free-willism is not an  ac-        condition,          vate opinion of the author
All have one thing in common:                 ceptable, though somewhat                or            of this article. Much less  is
they are gospels of man.                      deficient, version of the gos-    assistance'         it the  .eccentric  stand of the
     One such gospel is free-willism.         pel, but a perversion of the                         denomination of churches in
This is the message that God's sal-           one gospel. It is not an  en-                       which he is a minister.
vation of the sinner depends upon             couraging, though undeveloped,                     That free-willism is another
the activity of the sinner's will. The        beginning of the gospel, out of                gospel, which is no gospel, is the
sitier's will is free, that is, it is able    which the full gospel can be  ex-              official confession, and urgent  tes-
to choose for God as well as against          petted  to grow, but an enemy of               timony, of the Reformed churches
Him. By the free, sovereign activ-            the one gospel that nurses a  mur-             in the world. They have voiced
ity of his will, the sinner makes             derous hatred toward the one  gos-             their, confession, once for all time,
God's willingness (grace) to save             pel and those who confess it. .                in the Canons of Dordt.  Free-
him effectual. By this act of his                 Free-willism is no gospel. It is           willism, which at that time took

 342/Standard  Bearer /May 7. 1997


form in the heresy of Arminianism, by God's mercy alone as is the                                  the same gospel that Rome has:
the Reformed churches have                   teaching that man's own works  co-                    man saves man by his free-will.
damned as "the Pelagian error out            operate in salvation. The one  gos-                       The threat is graver.
of hell." Many Reformed churches             pel is the message that salvation is                      There are toleration of, com-
require all their officebearers to           alone of God who shows mercy.                         promise with, and even approval
subscribe this creed. Subscrip-                      Against the one gospel stand                  of free-willism within the Presby-
tion explicitly expresses that                         two other gospels, which                    terian and Reformed churches.
the one subscribing agrees                 The           are no gospels: salvation                 Men who profess Calvinism (a
with Dordt's condemna-             teaching that         by man's willing, and                     mere identifying label of the gos-
tion of free-willism. It            salvation is          s a l v a t i o n   b y   m a n 's       pel that God saves men-elect
binds the subscriber "to           at least partly         working. Both agree                     men-by sovereign grace alone)
refute and contradict"               a matter  of           that man saves him-                    and who are esteemed as Calvin-
this false teaching and              man's will             self, at least in part.                ists speak well of, and defend, free-
"to exert (himself) in               is as much                 To teach that salva-               willism as gospel. Arminian  free-
keeping the Church free              an enemy                tion depends on, or is                willism is not the best and highest
from such errors."                 of  the gospel            due to, or is made ef-                form of the gospel. It definitely
         Presbyterians who          of  salvation           f e c t u a l   b y   m a n 's         leaves something to be desired. It
affirm commitment to                  by God's               choosing Christ, or                   could be wished that it would
the system of doctrine              mercy alone              opening his heart to                  shake off certain of its weaknesses.
set down in the                       as is the             let Christ come in, or                 But it is, for  .a11 this, gospel. It is
Westminster Standards                 teaching              a c c e p t i n g   a n   o f f e r    the one gospel.
likewise express con-                that man's             made well-meaningly                        James I. Tacker, who, though
d e m n a t i o n   o f   free-      own works             to all, or fulfilling a                 not ecclesiastically Presbyterian or
willism as another gos-              cooperate            condition in order then                  Reformed himself, nevertheless has
pel.       For the system of       in salvation.          to be born again and                     tremendous influence on Presbyte-
doctrine set down in the                                converted is the lie. It is                rian and Reformed churches and
confession and catechisms of                           not merely  a  lie. It is  the              Christians,     compromises with
Westminster is the gospel of                         lie. In comparison with this                  Wesleyian free-willism in an article
salvation by grace alone, to which           gross blasphemy, this monstrous                       that is bearing bitter fruit in Re-
free-willism is diametrically oppo-          robbery of God of His glory in the                    formed circles. Packer is intent on
site.                                        work of salvation, women in                           defending the gospel preached by
         God judges free-willism as an-      church office is a small sin.                         John Wesley-Wesley, who blas-
other gospel in His inspired, clear,               Free-willism is a real threat to-               phemed God's eternal predestina-
and authoritative Word. He does              day to the true churches of Christ.                   tion (source and foundation of the
this in every passage that teaches           Free-willism has always been the                      gospel of grace) as few enemies of
salvation by His own gracious will           heart of the false church that is                     grace have ever done. Packer
and work. "For by grace are ye               Rome. Luther taught us this in his                    speaks of "evangelical  Armini-
saved through faith; and that                On the Bondage  of  the Will.                         anism." He claims that "Wesley's
(faith) not of yourselves: it is the               Now free-willism has infil-                     teaching included so much Refor-
gift of God: Not of works, lest any          trated and corrupted much of  Prot-                   mation truth." Packer diagnoses
man should boast" (Eph.  2:8, 9).            estantism. Many of the self-styled                    Arminianism, that is, the gospel of
         God exposes free-willism by         "evangelical" churches and preach-                    free-willism, as "an impoverishing
name as one of the leading forms             ers are free-willist. These are the                   reaction from it (Reformation
of the false gospel that always              churches and churchmen repre-                         teaching), involving a partial de-
threatens to supplant the one gos-           sented by the magazine  Christian-                    nial of the biblical faith in the God
pel: "So then it (salvation) is not          ity  Today.  These are the preach-                    of all grace. The lapse is less seri-
of him that willeth, nor of him that         ers who dominate religious radio                      ous in some cases . ..." "Calvinists
runneth, but of God that sheweth             and television. This is the reason                    should  ther,efore  approach pro-
mercy" (Rom.  9:16). Salvation is            why Billy Graham and his associ-                      fessed Arminians as brother
not of man's will. Man's will and            ates cooperate with the Roman                         evangelicals  itrapped  in weakening
willing have nothing to do with the          Catholic clergy in their "evangeli-                   theological mistakes, and seek to
saving of elect sinners.. They are           cal" endeavors. This is the reason                    help them to a better mind"
excluded as much as is man's run-            why prominent Protestant  "evan-                      ("Arminianisms,"  in The Manifold
ning, or working. But the teaching           gelicals" are defecting to Rome.                      Grace  of  God,  Puritan and Re-
that salvation. is at least partly' a        This is the reason for the recent                     formed Studies Conference, 1968).
matter of man's will is as much an           union of "evangelicals"' and Roman                        Free-willism is not "another
enemy of the gospel of salvation             Catholics. The "evangelicals" have                    gospel." The condemnation of

                                                                                                            May 1,1997/Wxndard  Bearer/343


 Dordt does not apply to this brand          Presbyterian          a n d   R e f o r m e d         Christian out of such a movement
 of free-willism.                            churches. Wherever the doctrine                       as Promise Keepers. The Reformed
         The Presbyterian theologian         of a love of God in the gospel for                    Christian may not subject himself
 John M. Frame tolerates, if he does         all men and a desire of God in the                    to free-willist preaching. He may
 not approve, free-willism in his re-        preaching of the gospel to save                              not worship with those who
 cent work on C. Van Til:                    all men is accented and de-                                    claim  :to have saved  them-
                                             fended, there free-willism                                       selves by their free will. He
   There is a great gulf between             has established its strong-                Wherever                may not pretend spiritual
   Christianity and unbelief.... Is          hold. In time, the entire                the doctrine
   there also a "great gulf" between                                                                             oneness with those who
                                             system of the doctrine of                  of a love
   Reformed Christians and non-Re-                                                                               hold "another gospel."
                                                                                          of  God
   formed Christians . . . ? Arminian-       salvation by sovereign                                               He may not promise to
                                                                                      in the gospel
   ism . . . (is) erroneous in some mea-     grace alone will be sys-                                             help break down the de-
   sure, I would say, but (it has)           tematically destroyed.                   for all men                 nominational barriers
   much in  common  with the Re-                And the end will be                   and a desire                between Calvinist and
   formed faith at the deepest level.        sheer theological mod-                       of  God                 Arminian churches.
   Thus, we should not criticize (it)        ernism.                                      in the                  God forbid!
   in the same terms that we use to             In his  Crossed Fin-                   preaching                      It will keep the Re-
   criticize unbelief....    I am confi-    gers,  reviewed in this                  of  the gospel
   dent that Reformed believers  are,                                                                             formed Christian out of
                                                                                         to save
   in general, of one heart with their      issue of the  Standard                                                interdenominational
                                                                                         all men
   Arminian brothers and sisters            Bearer, Gary North                                                    Bible studies. How can
                                                                                      is accepted
   (Cornelius Van Til, P&R, 1995, pp.       demonstrates that the                                                 a Reformed Christian
                                                                                     and defended,
   211,212).                                apostasy of the North-                                                tolerate study of the
                                            ern Presbyterian Church                            there             Word of God that pro-
         Free-willism is not "another       began with the toleration                free-willism                fesses to be neutral and
gospel." Dordt was wrong in its             of Arminianism. The his-               has established              non-committal regarding
condemnation of  free-will&m.               tory of the Christian Re-               its stronghold.             the doctrinal difference
         The acceptance of free-willism     formed Church provides                                           between Calvinism and
within the nominally Reformed               the same terrible lesson.                                      Arminianism, that is, be-
churches is evident from the mur-           Herman Bavinck gave the warn-                                 tween the one gospel and "an-
derous opposition on the part of            ing long ago when he wrote,                            other gospel"?       How can a Re-
these churches to churches and              "Remonstrantism (Arminianism)                          formed Christian participate in a
ministers that condemn  free-               paved the way for rationalism"                         Bible study that gives equal time
willism as soul-destroying,  God-           (The Doctrine of God,  Eerdmans,                      to free-willism and sovereign
dishonoring heresy. The "Conclu-            1951, p. 366).                                        grace? How can a Reformed Chris-
sion" of the Canons of Dordt indi-              R e f o r m e d   c h u r c h e s   m u s t       tian be involved in a Bible study
cates the enraged slander of the Re-        preach and teach salvation by sov-                    that does not defend salvation by
formed churches by the  free-               ereign grace alone. As they do,                       grace alone and condemn  free-
willists at the time of the synod of        they must condemn free-willism.                       willism?
Dordt. Today, all these slanders                Reformed Christians must con-                           The good and right stand for
are wrapped up in one epithet, and          fess salvation by sovereign grace                     grace and against free-will must
hurled at the churches that are             alone. As they do, they must con-                     govern our church membership,
faithful to Dordt:  "hyper-calvin-          demn free-willism.                                    our  Iively  church membership.
ist!"                                           This stand will preserve us, as                         Where is sovereign grace faith-
    There are ministers who are be-         Reformed churches and as Re-                          f u l l y   a n d   :uncompromisingly
ing killed all the day long by nomi-        formed Christians, in the danger-                     preached and defended, with an
nal Calvinists for no other offense         ous times in which we live and are                    accompanying condemnation of
than that they preach the gospel of         called to glorify God by a sound                      free-will?
grace in such a way that they ex-           confession and an obedient walk.                            There, and nowhere else, every
pose and condemn free-willism as               It will keep us as churches out                    child of God belongs, come what
the lie.                                    of ungodly, destructive ecumenical                    may.
    As might be expected from the           alliances. We have no unity with                            There, and nowhere else, I be-
expressions of tolerance for  free-         free-willist Rome. We have no                         long, with my family, come what
willism and from the rage at those          unity with free-willist "evangeli-                    may.
who dare to condemn free-willism,           cal" Protestantism. We have no                              For there, and nowhere else, is
the error itself now corrupts the           unity with compromising Re-                           the one gospel.  0
confession and preaching of many            formed and Presbyterian churches.                                                     - DJE
                                               It will keep the Reformed

344/Standard  Bearer /May 1, 7997


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                                 ,I,,                            `
                                                                      ,              __




                                                 that bear the name Christian, the                   that no child of God is able to ap-
      n Movies: Where Do We Stand?               youth of the church are taught that                 pear on the stage or on the screen,
      A                                          a good movie and a good theater                     playing the part of an ungodly
           fter reading "The Reformed            are not bad; who lets her young                     man. To be an ungodly man and
           Family: Teachers,"  (Standard         men and young women in her                          to live an ungodly life in reality
      Bearer,  g/15/96)  and the subse-          own college be instructed to ap-                    is admittedly an abomination in
      quent letters, I would like to make        preciate the beautiful things that                  the eyes of IJehovah.  But to play
      a few comments.                            are played in the theater; who                      such a part is no less abhorred by
                                                 banishes her faithful servants that
          My concern is centered prima-                                                              him.
                                                 desire to teach and to maintain the
      rily in the paragraph that relates         true  .line of doctrine in life with              And he continues a little further
      Miss Reitsma showing her history           regard to these things of the
      class a secular movie with bedroom                                                           down:
                                                 world; and who, thereupon, sits
      scenes supposedly involving a hus-         serious in  synodical dignity to                       And to the Most High; who de-
      band and wife.                             "solve the problem" of worldly                      sires truth  `in the inward parts,
          Allow me to quote Herman               amusements.                                         and in whose eyes  all hypocrisy
      Hoeksema as related by Gertrude                                                                (emphasis mine  - HDB) is an
      Hoeksema in her biography of him,         Rev. Hoeksema continues:                             abomination, these things were of
      Therefore Have I Spoken,  pages                                                                darkness and of the evil one....
      183-185. Mrs. Hoeksema takes this            Dr. C. Bowman, professor in                          The ethics of the professor with
                                                 `Ethics in the Theological School of
     - quote of Herman Hoeksema from                                                                 regard to movies are-not those of
                                                 the same churches, prepared a lec-
      the  Standard Bearer,  vol. III, pages                                                         the word ofi God.
                                                 ture on "Movies" and with it he
      318-320. The article is entitled, "A                                                              We advise him to burn his lec-
                                                 appears occasionally in public to                   ture.          '
      `Compromise on Movies." Al-                enlighten the Church with regard
     _ though written 70 years ago, this         to this "serious problem."                             Strong language indeed, and
      article stands unquestionably rel-           The principle of the movie is ac-               this 70 years; ago!
      evant for us today.                        cepted by him. A movie is not                          To whom, may I ask, did Rev.
          Mrs. Hoeksema first tells of her       necessarily bad. But `not all mov-                Hoeksema refer when he said  "We
      father-in-law's deep concern with          ies are good even as not all mov-
                                                 ies are bad. God's people, there-                 differ emphatically..."?                   Was
      the impact of the am.usement craze         fore, must distinguish. They must                 H o e k s e m a 's   c o n c e r n   f o r   t h e
      on the lives of the church of to-          decide for themselves what is                     "church of tomorrow," for us, per-
      morrow. (I hardly need to empha-           good and what is bad and take                     haps somehow misguided? I  .be-
      size that his concern was for us to-       the former....                                    lieve even he would be shocked to-
      da y.)                                        We differ emphatically from the                day at the inroads that drama and
I         Secondly, she states that the ar-      professor of Ethics.                              movies have made into our homes
      ticle was written in April, 1927, just        We claim he does not under-                    and, yes, even into our schools un-
      before the Christian Reformed               stand the matter; that his advice                der the disguise of educational. I  -
      Synod's "Thou Shalt Not's" of              is positively dangerous; that he                  wonder,  "Mere do we stand?" Does
      1928, occasioned by the pleas of           c a t e r s   t o     the    s p i r i t   o f
                                                 worldlimindedness in that lec-                    anyone know? Does anyone dare
      various Classes to Synod for a defi-       ture....                                          axymore to answer this question
      nite stand on amusements. The  ar-            But the movie and the theater                  for the "Church of tomorrow?"
      title follows, in part:                     are to be condemned principally.                 Perhaps we too have some burn-
                                                  There is no good movie. A Chris-                 ing to do in order to lay full claim
          One cannot, forsooth, help to be'       tian theater and a Christian movie
        sarcastic when he beholds the             are a contradiction in terms.                    to the title,  !"The  Children of the
        church who sits still and raises no         And the reason is, that you can-               Reformation! of 1924."
        cry of indignation,  &hen  in her         not play with life and be accept-                                             H. Boonstra,  Jr.
        schools (emphasis mine - HDB),            able in the sight of the Lord.                                             Lynden, WA  0
                                                    Certainly, it must be evident,




                                                                                                               May 7) 1997/Standard  Bearer/345


                            George Martim Bphoff:
                Humble Servant of the Trutfi (1) '
                                          I                              II                                                    I

Introduction                                   education in the scales of the one       formed faith, I write these lines
        part from my parents, two              thing theological education is all       with thankfulness to God for my
        men had the most influence             about: learning to preach the gos-       seminary  pro;fessors.
A        on my  Iife: my two pro-              pel of Jesus Christ according to the
fessors in seminary. The one was               Scriptures and the Reformed con-         Early Life and Training
Rev. Herman Hoeksema; the other                fessions. I never wanted to study            George Ophoff was born in the
was Prof. George M. Ophoff. From               elsewhere, did not in fact even give     city of Grand; Rapids, Michigan on
Rev. Hoeksema I learned Reformed               it a thought. I have never had one       January  25,189l.  He was the old-
Dogmatics and how to exegete the               moment's regret that the place           est of eight children born to
New Testament; from Prof. Ophoff               where I studied was the dingy            Frederick H. Ophoff and  Yeta
I learned the history of the church            "seminary room" in the basement          Hemkes Ophoff. Frederick Ophoff
of Christ and how to exegete the               of First Church.                         worked in a furniture factory in
Old Testament. They determined                     The only possible explanation        downtown Grand Rapids, to and
the nature of my ministry in the               of all this is the fact that the two     from which `place he walked to
church of Christ.                              professors who taught us every-          save the nickel-cost of streetcar
     The seminary was meeting for              thing we know about theology and         fare. The hours were long: from
most of the time I was studying for            preaching were two men, them-            6:00 in the morning to 5:00 in the
the ministry in the basement of                selves gifted preachers, who were        afternoon,  six  days a week. And
First Protestant Reformed Church.              wholly committed to the Reformed         the rather meager wages could
The one room set aside for semi-               faith and the cause of our Lord          barely support the family and pro-
nary had nothing to commend it                 Jesus Christ.                            vide Christian school tuition for the
as  a.classroom conducive to study.                In all the world no two men          children.
The student body was small. The                could be found working together              The household lived a rather
library was all by non-existent. The           who were so different from each          normal life for a second generation
seminary boasted no support staff:             other. It was itself a miracle of di-    immigrant family. The Dutch com-
no secretary, no administrator, no             vine grace that those two men not        munities in Grand Rapids were
registrar, no department heads, no             only worked together from the be-        close-knit, and life centered in the
records. Just two professors and a             ginning of the history of the Prot-      church. The  / churches were com-
handful of students.                           estant Reformed Churches in 1924         posed of immigrants from the
     I am bold to say that we re-              to the late 50s  - a period of over      Netherlands and their children and
ceived some of the best theological            35 years - but did. so in unity, har-    grandchildren; and they were scat-
education available in this country            mony, singleness of purpose, and         tered throughout the city. Almost
if not abroad. Yet this seemingly              equal devotion to the cause of           all of them had roots in The Sepa-
bold  stafement is. only true if one           Christ.                                  ration, the reforming movement in
weighs  -the  val,ue  of theological               I have written of Rev. Herman        the Netherlands which had been
                                               Hoeksema. The delightful task of         launched by  Henrick  DeCock and
                                               writing of Rev. George Ophoff now        which had come to Michigan un-
                                               awaits me. It is the story of a man      der the leadership of  VanRaalte.
                                               whom I respected greatly and                 In keeping with  the.traditions
          I     b
Pioi  $hko is  '  &fess;:   ~of Church         whom I learned to love deeply.           of those who belonged-to this par-
&@.stoTy   i&d  i$eg  Tes@?ne& in the          That his name may not be forgot-         ticular group of Dutchimmigrants,
Protestant  Refomed  Seminary.,                ten by those who love the Re-            the family was a  godlyl`and pious

346/Standard  Bearer /May 1, 1997


family willing to sacrifice for the               Preparation for the Ministry             out in his place of work. Although
cause of Christian instruction.                       From that point on, Ophoff's         he escaped from the building when
Ophoff received his instruction in                education was repeatedly inter-          it began to burn, he rushed back
the home, in  Oakdale  Christian                  rupted. Apparently the reason was        into the building to rescue a very
School, and in Franklin St. and                   in part a lack of finances in the        precious watch which he had left
Oakdale  Park Christian Reformed                  Ophoff household, which forced           on the shelf in his department. An
Churches. It was truly a  covenan-                him to drop out of school and seek       explosion tore to pieces that part
tal instruction which Ophoff him-                 employment with a local ice com-         of the building, and Frederick
self, in all his life, considered a               pany*                                    Ophoff was badly burned. He died
great blessing.  Innhis  later years in               Another event was to alter his       the same day at the age of 52, leav-
seminary Ophoff was wont to                       life significantly. Between Ophoff's     ing a widow and eight children.
s p e a k   o f    w h a t   h e   c a l l e d    college studies and seminary work,           The second incident was also
Gereformeerde gevoelhoren,  which is              while he was laboring at the ice         somewhat revealing with regard to
translated, "Reformed antennae."                  company, his maternal grandfather        Ophoff's  chaFacter. As one of his
By this expression he referred to                 fell and broke his hip.                  course  requiirements,  he was as-
one who had a deep sense of what                      Ophoff's grandfather, Gerrit         s i g n e d   a   p;aper  o n   " c o m m o n
was included in the Reformed faith                Hemkes, had been born and raised         grace," an issue under discussion
and an ability to detect unerringly               in the Netherlands, had entered the      in the churches. He had a great
that which was opposed to it.                     ministry of the churches of The          deal of difficulty with the paper,
Ophoff firmly believed that such a                Separation led by DeCock,  and had       chiefly because of the fact that he
sense for what is truly Reformed                  come to this country when he took        could not fit the current teachings
could only be gained through  cov-                a call extended to him from the          on common grace into the organic
enantal instruction given to the                  Christian Reformed congregation          body of Reformed thought. It
children of God's covenant in                     in Vriesland, Michigan. Because of       seemed to conflict with everything
church, home, and school.                         his many abilities, he was called to     he knew of the Reformed heritage
     While Ophoff was not himself                 be assistant professor in the semi-      of the truth.
a brawler, but rather something of                nary in Grand Rapids, where he               Finally, in sheer desperation,
a loner, he nevertheless did not run              served with distinction.                 he decided to approach the subject
from a good fight, and he was                         When as a relatively old man         from the viewpoint of its being a
quick to come to the defense of one               Prof. Hemkes broke his hip, Ophoff       doctrine contrary to Scripture. Un-
who was being unjustly or cruelly                 was sent by his parents to the home      aware of questions concerning its
taunted on the playground, even if                of his grandfather, to live with him     biblical character which had al-
this involved a battle with his                   and care for him. Ophoff never re-       ready appeared in some places in
peers. His mother despaired of the                turned again to his home.                the church, and using a denial of
many ruined clothes in which he                       God has his purpose in all our       common grace. only as a "working
came home  - in days when one                     sufferings, sorrows, and disap-          hypothesis," he discovered that this
pair of trousers and one shirt was                pointments. So it was in this in-        approach solved all his problems.
worn all week long, to be washed                  stance. Because of the care of his       To use his own words, "Suddenly
on Saturday and put on again on                   grandson, Prof. Hemkes was able          the light went on," and all the
Monday. He had on his right hand                  to remain at his home until he died.     pieces  beganto  fall into place. The
a crooked index finger, with which                But Ophoff also benefited. It was        paper became easy to write.
he often gestured on the pulpit and               Hemkes who encouraged him to                  Whatever may have been the
in class, the legacy of one such                  return to school, who helped him         reaction of his professor to this pa-
brawl in which his finger was bro-                with his studies, and who provided       per, Ophoff himself became subjec-
ken.                                              a quiet place to pursue his studies.     tively convinced that common
     At the time Ophoff graduated                 Furthermore, Hemkes, a very              grace was contrary to Scripture and
from grade school, there was as yet               gifted man, was able to give Ophoff      the Reformed confessions long be-
no Christian high school. Calvin                  a great deal of instruction in and a     fore the controversy became pub-
College, organized exclusively for                deep and abiding love for the Re-        lic in the churches. `And that con-
the training of teachers and minis-               formed faith.                            viction was  40  ie'mhin  unalterable
ters, incorporated various high                       In 1918, at 27 years of age,         throughout his life.
school subjects into its curriculum.              George entered Calvin Seminary.               During his seminary years,
To this school Ophoff went with                   Two events of these years must be        George-.-m-et a~nd married  _  J.ane
his mind set upon being a minister                recorded.                                Boom, with whom he had four
of the gospel. He graduated from                      The first was tragedy in the         sons. God gave  .him a `wife who
the highschool  part of it in 1909 at             Ophoff family. George's father was       was truly  a'help-meetfor'him.  She
the age ,of 18.                                   fatally injured in a fire which broke    was a beautiful woman  of  -amaz-

                                                                                                     May 1.. 7997fitandard  Bearer/347


ing character, herself born in a Re-           still living,  tHeA newly, married         in a Christian Reformed Church in
formed home and brought up in                  couple moved in with  him. George          Riverbend, Michigan. The congre-
the Reformed faith; but a woman                and Jane were married  inaAugust,          gation is now the Hope Protestant
who completely devoted herself to              of 1920, and in December of 1920           Reformed Church in Walk& and
her husband. She  was to be his                Prof. Hemkes died.                         has its sanctuary within a long
support and encouragement in un-                      In May of 1921 George gradu-        block of where the old church once
believably difficult years that lay            ated from the seminary, and  .in           s t o o d .   U
ahead. Because Prof. Hemkes was                January of 1922 he assumed the re-                                  (to be continued)
                                               sponsibilities of his first pastorate


   Mum'
                    Kl&                                                                        ~  g&&@&&l+@&
                                                                                                             I.
n  Salvation Through                             an action that has not been recog-       that this points to the growing lib-
Christ  Alone?                                   nized by the denomination pend-
T                                                                                         eralism in the Reformed Church of
     he United Reformed News Ser-                ing resolution of an unrelated           America. Others insist that current
     vice  reports that by a margin              charge of "gross sexual  .miscon-        requirements  .do precisely what the
of 23 to 22 (a  2/3 affirmative vote             duct" against Rhem, dismissed by
                                                 the RCA's Muskegon  Classis on           proposed question was designed to
was  required), the Reformed                     grounds of insufficient evidence         duplicate. If churches answer
Church's classes has rejected a                  and currently on appeal to the Re-       "yes" to the question whether they
church order amendment that                      gional Svnod of the Great Lakes.         "preach in conformity with the
would have required all minis-                        . ..The' hotly-disputed amend-      Word of  God: and the RCA doctri-
ters and churches throughout                            ment would have required          nal standards;" yet teach that there
the denomination to reaffirm                             each of the RCA's 46 classis     are other paths to eternal life, then
annually that salvation is           If churches          presidents to ask each          additional questions would  seTve
through Christ alone.                                      church and minister in
                                    answer "yes"           their  classis whether "the    no useful purpose. If one can
                                   to the question          doctrines of the gospel       falsely  answer the first, he could
     "This indicates a real              whether             [are] preached in your       as easily do so to the second. The
  split on a very funda-            they "preach             church in their purity in
  mental issue," said Rev.                                                                only answer, of course, is that dis-
                                    in conformity             conformity  with...the
  Patrick Shetler of First                                                                cipline must be faithfully exercised
                                         with the             truth that divine re-
  Reformed Church in                                                                      in harmony with the Word of God
                                    Word  of  God             demption from sin is
  Grant, who drafted the                                                                  and the doctrinal standards of the
  amendment in response             and the RCA               only by grace through       Reformed Church.
  to the conflict over Rev.              doctrinal            faith in the perfect
                                                              work of the Lord Jesus
  Richard Rhem, pastor of           standards,"               Christ alone, the only      n That  Hoaosexuality Issue
  Christ           Community             yet teach           mediator between God
  Church in Spring Lake,                                                                  The URNS reports also on a con-
                                    that there are            and humankind." Each            troversial issue of the Calvin
  Michigan, and his view             other paths             RCA  classis  president
  that faith in Christ is not                                                             College Chimes. The  Chimes  (the
                                   to eternal life,          must already ask each
  necessary for salvation.                                                                student newspaper) has been the
                                   then additional           year whether ministers
  After the Rhem debate                                                                   cause for controversy in the past.
                                     questions              and churches preach in
  began, a second RCA                                                                     In its March  7 issue, there is in-
  pastor was drawn into the         would serve             conformity with the           cluded a four-page supplement
  conflict when retired cam-             no useful         Word of God and the
                                                           RCA doctrinal standards.       which introduces the subject of ho-
  pus minister Rev. Don                  vurvose.                                         mosexuality. Interviews are re-
  VanHoeven  o f   K a l a m a z o o   '  '                                               corded with  ,several  homosexual
  was formally rebuked by his                            Last year's general synod        alumni. An article by Calvin  Col-
  classis for writing articles in the                 had approved the proposal.          lege-professor'Dr.  Phil Holtrop pre-
  Kalamazoo  Gazette  supporting               Before final approval,  2/3 of the
  Rhem's -views.-                              Classes were also to approve, fol-         sented the "Five stands Christians
    Rhem 1 and- his ch&h  seceded              lowed by another majority vote by          take  - and what to do now."
  from the RCA on July 4, 1996, in             the Synod this summer. But the             Darrell Maurina,  United'Reformed
             .I                                final vote, 23 no, 22 yes, and one         News Service, reports:
                                               postponed, means that the proposal
                                               has failed. Various con&ions                  According to Holtrop;the  posi-
Rev.  VanBaren  is pastor of the  riot-                                                    tio& include Peclaring  that "there
                                               have been drawn from the defeat.
estant Reformed Church of Loveland,                                                        is no homosexual `orientation' a or
                                               Some conclude, with justification,
Colorado.                                                                                  `condition,' but that suchxlongings

34&3tandard Bearer /May 7, 7997


 (and a fortiori actions) are simply r     tation&,  th@ -the Bible must not'be          The report adds that in Sudan
 sin"; the official CRC position that      the ultimate guide; one must be           some Christians-often  children-
 homosexual practice violates              able.to listen to the "hurting" mem-      are sold into slavery for $15 a head.
, Scripture but that "we should            bers of the community. "Medical,          Others are forced to convert to Is-
 have compassion on homosexual                                                       lam. In Pakistan, under blasphemy
 people and sympathize with them           biological, and social studies affect
 because of their painful experi-          the way we  .read the Bible." Why         laws,  non-Muslims may be forced
 ences"; and a third position de-          is it that in the past 25 or so years     to convert to Islam or face death.
 claring that while homosexuality          the church suddenly has a higher,         In China Christians who worship
 is contrary to God's will, "we -          better, and different understanding       in churches that are not state run
 and the church  - should allow            about the scriptural teachings con-       face prison  or even torture.                         Re-
 for faithful, monogamous relation-        cerning women in  office  - and           ports are presented that claim the
 ships for homosexual people who           now about homosexuality? How              past century `was one of the worst
 truly love each other and cannot          can things change after virtually         in connection with the persecution
 be celibate" as an alternative to                                                   of Christians; It is one further sign
 promiscuity.                              2000 years of clear understanding
   A fourth and fifth position  -          on `these very issues? This is in-        of the times in which we live.
 both'closely related - were also          deed  `.increasingly  a "slippery
 outlined by Holtrop. "A fourth            slope" which brings formerly or-          n  Now, What  toDo?
 approach has come to be common            thodox churches down the road to          The same issue of U.S. News has
 in the last two decades, among            increasing departure from the                 a startling article -titled:- "OK,
 both  homo-' and heterosexual             Word of God.                              OK, cigarettes do kill  - A- tobacco
 people, among both conservatives                                                    company ends decades, of denials."
 and liberals," wrote Holtrop.             n  Persecution
 "The representatives of this think-                                                     Given how many times over the
 ing often engage in sophisticated               .S. News and World  Report,
                                           U                                           years  tobac,co company officials
 biblical exegeses and conclude                 March  31,1997,  reports on the        have denied that smoking causes
 that the Bible does not condemn           persecution of Christians:                  cancer, last week's confession
. homosexual acts within a bond of                                                     from Liggett, maker of Chester-
 fidelity." The fifth position, ac-            At the close of a century that          field cigarettes, is astonishing in
 cording to Holtrop, is that "in-            witnessed particularly horrific ex-       its directness. "We at Liggett
 creasing numbers of biblical ex-            amples of man's inhumanity to             know and acknowledge that . . .
 egetes, theologians, and pious              man, the ongoing repression of            cigarette smoking causes health
 Bible readers are saying today that         Christians worldwide receives             problems, including lung cancer,
 the Bible does not address specifi-         scant notice. China, North Korea,         heart and vascular disease, and
 cally the condition of homosexu-            and Vietnam all bar or severely           emphysema," said Bennett LeBow,
 ality, or homosexual actions per se         restrict the activities of Roman          chairman of Liggett's parent com-
 within a bond of commitment that            Catholic priests. In Egypt, 18            pany, Brooke Group, in a written
 we may have to each other."                 Christian Copts were massacred in         statement. "We at Liggett also
   "This is not to suggest that the          recent weeks, reportedly by Is-           know and acknowledge that . . .
 Bible is irrelevant, since there are        lamic extremists. In Algeria, Mus-        nicotine is addictive,"
 guiding principles of love, justice,        lim guerrillas kidnapped seven
 wisdom, maturity, or discernment            Trappist monks a year ago and slit
 in the Scriptures that are utterly  II      their throats.                              The announcement, of course,
 propos," wrote Holtrop. "It is to             Now, Christian leaders are get-       gave fits to the larger tobacco com-
 say (as is the case of the women-           ting help from Jews. Last week,         panies. It gave much ammunition
 in-the-office issue, and others) that       at a conference hosted by               to  lawyers who are suing these
 the Bible cannot be and will not            Washington's Center for Jewish          companies for the sickness or death
 be the only `authority' or `voice'          and Christian Values, religious         of clients. It gave states, likewise
 that we listen to in struggling with        leaders discussed the lessons of        suing these companies for recov-
 the challenge of homosexuality.             the 30-year campaign to free So-        ery of costs for health care of ciga-
 Medical, biological, and social             viet Jews.. . .                         rette addicts, basis for their claims.
 studies affect the way we read {heii-         . . .What  explains the widespread
 Bible."                                     indifference to Christian oppres-           But  do  ,we now have. a, prob-
                                             sion? In part, it's "secular myo-       lem too? What  are.:we. to say of
   So there is introduced in a pub-          pia," says Nina Shea of Freedom         Exodus  20:1S9   andtit&explanation
lic manner the question of homo-             House, a human-rights group.            in the Heidelberg Catechism, ques-
                                             "There's a view that someone who
sexuality.  Though Holtrop insists                                                   tion  105?        And what about I Cor-
                                             stands before Army tanks in
that he does not take a position on                                                  inthians 
                                                                                     _ _. .< %LI 3.16~173  And is
                                                                                                J~~,.u,~..ir.~.  _ A..--   ad&c@;l,
                                             Tiananmen is a hero, while some-                                                JII
the f&propositions presented, the                                                    a sin?
                                             one willing to lay down his life                  ,,I,  `t. ,I  :  :,ri  s,  ,t  ,I  ?:;i;I':  ;  0'
question, might well be asked,               for his religious faith must be a            \ - I( \  .cj  I, ,  '  '  ;  .`\"I;\r) ,  c,  ,I\?.\
"Why  :notYL  * Much of the presen-          zealot."                                                                               ,()`L  .,,; I

                                                                                                 hQy.1,  1997/StandiirtiBear'er;/349


                ow Then Can We Be Saved?
                                                                              ..*

         cripture  teaches that the natu-        We ask this -urgent question                 look not merely for an escape from
           ral man is in an absolutely       now as those who have  <been                     hell. We look for much more. We
         hopeless state and condition.       touched by the Spirit. And the sin-              look for the  favor of  God.  Ours is
We are members of a corrupt race             ner who has been born again-by                   the consuming desire to have the
in which we are conceived and                God's wonder work of regeneration                consciousness. of God's fellowship
born in sin, and are wholly inca-            does not ask for an easy way out                 a n d   l o v e .
pable of doing any good and in-              of a bad situation.        We are no                  Furthermore, if we are to es-
clined to all wickedness. We are             longer denying the reality of the                cape the punishment of everlasting
guilty before God. Our natures are           seriousness of our sin.                          death and be received into God's
corrupt. Our sins continue to ac-                We are no longer among those                 favor, we must not only be trans-
cumulate an immeasurable moun-               who try to bring themselves to be-               ferred from the legal state of guilt
tain of debt before God.                     lieve that the situation is not nearly           into the legal state of those who
    Furthermore, our sin is not a            so serious, and that the picture of              are innocent, but we must also be
minor fault, but an attack upon the          man has been colored too dark.                   delivered from our shameful con-
holiness and righteousness of the                Nor do we raise the question,                dition. All sin and corruption must
God with whom we have to do. All             "How then can we be saved?" with                 be rooted out and destroyed, and
departure from God's law, no mat-            the slightest hope that God will just            we must be filled with the love of
ter how minor it may appear to us,           overlook and forget about our guilt              God.
must stand condemned by God,                 and sin.                                              To be changed from guilty to
lest He deny Himself and His holi-               We understand fully that there               not-guilty, from haters of God to
ness.       And that condemnation            is no possibility of sinning in God's            lovers of God  - that is salvation.
brings death in all its forms, finally       universe and getting away with it.                    Apart from that, there may be
everlasting death and damnation.             We read in Galatians 6:7,8,  "Be not             something which society calls "re-
                                             deceived; God is not mocked: for                 habilitation," that which enables
An Urgent Question                           whatsoever a man soweth, that                            one to function better in soci-
    We ask the question therefore            shall he also reap. For he                                 ety while he continues on
(and to us it is an extremely ur-            that soweth to his flesh                   We                the way to hell. But  an-
gent question): How then can we              shall of the flesh reap  cor-      understand                 other salvation there is
be saved?                                    ruption." That truth is  fuZZy   that there                    not.'
    We ask this question from a              expressed throughout all                  is no                         How then can we
particular point of view. We are             Scripture and in the soul         possibility of                be saved? This is the
not interested any longer in merely          of every man. The wages                 sinning in              question of those whose
escaping the consequences of our             of sin is death.                 G o d 's   u n i v e rhse ear t s   h a v e   b e e n   re-
own sins. We have played that                    Nevertheless, we ask           and getting                 new'ed by God's  power-
game from the time we were small             the question in all serious-              away                ful work of grace. With
children, always trying to escape            ness. We who have been                   with it.            the apostle Paul in  Ro-
the consequences  ,,  of our actions.        given by God to see our mis-                               m a n s   7   w e   c r y   o u t ,   " 0
We have found time and.,time  aga,m          ery seek a way out of our  spiri-                     wretched man that I am! who
that the consequences of our sins            tual death. We have seen the  righ-              shall deliver me from the body of
are inescapable.                             teousness and holiness of God and                this death?"
                       I  1-n                know that His wrath is just. We
                        I.  ,*  ,.           ask with all urgency, "How can we                Required Satisfaction
Rev. Key `is  pastoi"df'the'  Protekkzt      be  saved?"                                           If we shall be saved, it will be
Reformed Church  of  Randolph, Wis-              Still more, when we inquire                  in a way approved  by,.God.  The
consin.                                      about that way of salvation, we                  way of escape, the way-of  deliver-

35OjStandard Bearer /May 7, 7997


ante, must not in any way violate          debt. We owe Him. We owe Him                       and merit one's own salvation. All
the justice and holiness and honor         perfect love.                                      ancient idolatry and religion  cen-
of God.                                           It is only when we understand               tered in a self-made salvation.
    That means that God cannot             the unchangeable character of                      That was also the sin of the church
simply issue a pardon by cancel-           God's love-demand that we can  ap-                 in Jesus' day, as was seen  particu-
ing our guilt arbitrarily. He can-         prehend in a limited way the  ter-                 larly in the Pharisees. It has been
not for a moment simply suspend            rible reality of necessary  satisfac-              the sin of  IRoman Catholicism
His justice. The guilt must be paid,       tion. God requires the payment of                  throughout the centuries. It is the
the debt cleared. As long as we            everything that we owe.           The                     sin of the modern church as
are guilty, there is no hope for us.       debt must be fully satisfied.                                   well, which has taken the
And salvation implies that our             He who will satisfy must                                         cross and the blood of  Cal-
                                                                                          this is
guilt be paid only in a way which          voluntarily bear the full                "'                           vary out of the preaching
                                                                                 the heart
is in harmony with God's righ-             punishment of sin in  lov-               of evey                       of the Word, and replaced
teousness.                                 ing obedience to God and                                                it with the social agendas
                                                                               false religion
    God's justice must be satisfied.       for  #the sake of God's                                                 of men.
                                                                                    there is
    The curse, which rests upon ev-        righteousness.                                                                   B u t   i f   y o u   h a v e
                                                                              and there ever
eryone who has failed to obey even                Do you understand                                                been born again by the
                                                                                    has been
a single one of God's command-             what that means for us?                                                 Spirit, if you have the
                                                                                    -toty
ments, can be taken away only by           That means that while                                                   beginning of the new life
                                                                                    to work
rendering perfect satisfaction to the      loving Him perfectly we                                                  of Christ in you, you
                                                                                 one's own
justice of God. God cannot accept          must bear the burden of                                                  know that there is  noth-
                                                                              righteousness
a partial payment and forgive the          God's infinite and eternal                                              ing you can bring to God
                                                                                 and merit
balance of the debt.                       wrath against our sin and                                               to satisfy His justice, but
                                                                                     one's
    From one point of view it is           guilt.                                         own                     that you only daily  in-
true: God can do all things. That                 Perfect satisfaction is                                        crease your guilt.               And
                                                                                salvation.
is, He can do all things that are in       required. Without it there                                       you say, "God, be merciful
harmony with His Being and will.           can be no salvation.                                            to me, the sinner." That is
But don't forget, God cannot do                   That puts us in a terrible                         the reality of the Christian life,
anything that would conflict with          predicament, doesn't it? Not only                  as we stand before the all-glorious
His own Being, with His holiness           are we failing to pay our back debt                God.
and righteousness. For that very           towards the satisfaction of God's                         Our situation is so serious that
reason there are things that God           justice; but to the contrary, we are               there can be no hope of salvation
cannot do, just because He is God.         continuing even daily to increase                  in us.
He cannot sin. He cannot lie. He           our indebtedness before God! As                           There is only one way in which
cannot set aside His own justice           Isaiah puts it, Even our  righteous-               we can be saved. There is only One
and holiness. Satisfaction must be         nesses are as filthy rags! Even                    who can and did satisfy the justice
made.                                      when I do something that appears                   of God for us and in our place. He
    What is  +equired for such sat-        to you to be a very good work, that                is the  Ones whose Word Peter
isfaction?                                 deed was corrupted by my old, sin-                 preached, when he explained the
    Satisfaction is not the mere           ful nature. So rather than reduc-                  power by which the impotent man
bearing of punishment for sin. The         ing our debt with God and making                   was healed. I refer to Acts  4:10-12.
reprobate who are damned and in            satisfaction of His justice, we con-
hell certainly bear the wrath of God       tinue to  increase  our debt. Even as                     Be it known unto you all, and
without end. But they never atone.         God's people we do that.                              to all the people of Israel, that by
Their bearing of punishment never                 You don't go before God, lay-                  the name' of Jesus Christ of
satisfies God for even one of their        ing claim to your performance of                      Nazareth, whom ye crucified,
                                                                                                 whom God raised from the dead,
sins. For the fact is that even in         meritorious religious acts, do you?                   even by him doth this man stand
hell God's demand is  trumpete.d           Would your claim to salvation be                      before  you whole. This is the
forth, "Love Me!"         A n d   t h e    that your parents brought you up                      stone which was set at nought of
damned cannot fulfill that demand.         in the church, or that you attend                     you builders, which isbecome the
    Positively, therefore, the act of      church regularly, or that you are                     head of the `corner. Neither is
satisfaction is the payment of the         not so bad as other men are? Oh                       there salvation in any other: for
love-debt to God even while He re-         no!                                                   there is none other name under
veals Himself in His wrath against                If you think about it, this is the             Wve,~l.gi.vcn   -  aplong.  -men,
the sinner.     We stand before            heart of every false religion there                   whereby we must be saved.,, Cl
                                                                                                     .
God as -debtors. He continues to           is and there ever has been - to try                       I      -       `.I,
demand from us the payment of a            to work one's own righteousness

                                                                                                                 May 1, 1997/Standard  Bearer/351


                                                                         I
     5cJbrj&p                      `:         ,y                                          ~~&jQJ@@j&jQg


                                Seek Ye First the Kingdom
                            of God and Its Righteousness

      "`But seek ye first, the kingdom  of    tion of the kingdom. There have          means the rightful ruler of this
God, and his righteousness; and  alI          even been zealous advocates of the       world. He rules only by the sover-
these things shall be added unto you."        kingdom of Christ who have an en-        eign permission of God. His de-
                          Matthew  6:33       tirely misdirected zeal for the king-    struction has, been absolutely de-
        his is the great command of
T                                             dom.                                     termined from the beginning.
        our Lord in the Sermon on                   The general idea of the king-          It was God's sovereign pur-
        the Mount. The meaning is  '          dom of God is plain. The king-           pose, even in and through the fall
not that we must seek the kingdom             dom is the sovereign and supreme         of the devil, to bring into this world
first and then afterwards can seek            rule of God. It is the place where       a more glorious Ring. It was His
a number of worldly things, such              God is known and acknowledged            eternal purpose that His only be-
as riches and glory and the plea-             as God, the holy and sovereign and       gotten Son, the incarnate Lord
sures of this world. Rather, the              righteous God of all. It is the place    Jesus Christ, should be the ever-
meaning  of this exhortation is that          where He is worshiped, glorified,        lasting and glorious King of His
we  .must.  seek the kingdom always,          and served by His subjects. The          kingdom in the new heavens and
in all things, .as the principal con-         kingdom is the place where God is        earth. By His decree God has de-
sideration in our life. Everything            the savior and protector of His elect    termined to set His Son on His holy
else must be subservient to our               people. In the sphere of the king-       hill of Zion. The consummation of
seeking the kingdom. All the                  dom, God reveals His splendor and        all things will be the final exalta-
things of this world have their sig-          glorious majesty, His power and          tion of the Lord Jesus Christ at the
nificance  *for us only in that they          goodness among His people. There         right hand of God. The elect of
help us to seek the kingdom of                is  no more glorious realm imagin-       God shall belaround the throne of
God. When we understand the ex-               able than the realm of God's king-       God and of  I-Iis Son Jesus Christ.
hortation of our Lord in this man-            dom. There is no greater blessed-        Together with the angels the re-
ner, we see that it is truly a tre-           ness imaginable than the blessed-        deemed of God shall sing the glo-
mendous perspective of life that              ness of being a citizen of the king-     rious song, "Alleluia: for the Lord
the Lord sets before us.                      dom of God. The whole universe           God omnipotent reigneth. Bless-
      To understand the great impli-          is the kingdom of God because He         ing, and honor, and glory, and
cations of this exhortation it is of          created it and He is sovereign Lord      power, be unto Him that sitteth
paramount importance that we                  over it.                                 upon the throne, and unto the
rightly understand what is meant                    Satan struck a breach in the       Lamb forever, and ever. Amen."
by the concept "kingdom of God."              kingdom of God when he exalted               The truth of the final and glo-
In the history of the church there            himself in pride against God and         rious triumph of the kingdom of
has been much misunderstanding                vainly desired himself to be king        God is the grand theme that- runs
about the nature of the kingdom               of God's universe. Because of his        throughout the Scriptures from be-
of God. Many have taught an al-               rebellion against God he became          ginning to end. Think of the great
together carnal idea of the king-             the archenemy of God. Satan              part which the theme of the king-
dom. -- A carnal idea of the king-            brought about the fall of man and        dom of God plays in the history of
dom was in fact the prevailing er-            instigated in the heart of man re-       the Old Testament. We may even
ror of the Jews of Jesus' day, and            bellion against God, his creator and     say that the central type of the Old
even of Jesus' own  disciples,before          rightful Lord. Satan became the          Testament is the kingdom of David
Pentecost. Modernism has as one               prince of darkness of this present       and  Solomonias  it foreshadows the
of  its chief errors a false  concep-
                :                             world through his great wicked-          triumphant and glorious kingdom
L                                   . I .     ness in bringing about the fall.         of Christ. The prophets of the Old
key. denHartog  is pastor o{Hope:Prot-        However, he is only a usurper of         Testament again and again speak
&tint Reformed Church  in `Redlands,          God's throne. He rules only for a        of-the coming of the Messiah as the
California.                                   short space of time. Satan is by no      coming of  th,e great and glorious

35QStandard Bearer /May 7, 1997


King who will be the Son of David.       destroyed Christ at the cross. But          will not come through the conver-
He will establish a perfect kingdom      Scripture testifies that in the cross       sion of the majority or all of the
that shall triumph over all the king-    Jesus spoiled principalities and            peoples of this world. It will not
doms of this world and shall be an       powers, making an open show of              come through carnal political or so-
everlasting kingdom of righteous-        them, utterly putting them to               cial achievements according to the
ness and glory.                          shame. That Christ was trium-               wisdom and  lpower  of men of this
    When the Lord Jesus was born         phant as the mighty Lord of His             present world. The kingdoms of
in the fullness of time, it was im-      kingdom was proven in His resur-            this present world will in the end
mediately declared that He was the       rection from the dead on the third          be destroyed by King Jesus because
great King born from David's line.       day and His exaltation at the right         of their wickedness.
But the wicked Jews rejected Christ      hand of God. We believe that now                    The second truth that follows
because they were looking for a          King Jesus is enthroned in the              from this is that in their calling to
carnal king. They hated the righ-        heavens in highest glory as God             seek the righteousness of the king-
teousness of God that Christ             determined from eternity. To Him            dom of God those who are truly
preached. They finally crucified         has been given all power and au-            citizens of the kingdom must sepa-
Him, in the hope of utterly destroy-     thority in heaven and in earth. He          rate themselves from this present
ing Him, that they might raise up        rules supremely over all the uni-           world. The great kingdom calling
their own king. The nation of Is-        verse. Jesus, the King appointed            sounded throughout the Scriptures
rael still today looks for a king of     by God, rules sovereignly and with          is: Come ye out from among them
their own making.                        almighty power through the his-             and be not partaker of the abomi-
    It is amazing how much Jesus         tory of this world. His purpose in          nations of this world. He that will
spoke of His kingdom when He             this rule is finally to realize His glo-    be a friend of this world is an en-
was on this earth. Jesus teaches us      rious  hqavenly  kingdom of righ-           emy of God. Compromise with this
very plainly concerning the nature       teousness in the new heavens and            world in its wickedness will lead
of His kingdom.          His many        earth.                                      to being destroyed out of the king-
parables set forth the mysteries of          The kingdom of Jesus will               dom of Christ. Those who join
the kingdom. The beautiful "Ser-         come through the destruction of             with this world, even in the fool-
mon on the Mount" is a mighty            the kingdoms of this world. Many            ish imagination that by doing this
treatise regarding the kingdom. It       who claim to be advocates of the            they will bring the citizens of this
is of greatest importance that we        kingdom of God willingly forget             world into the kingdom of God,
listen to Jesus' own instruction con-    this. They teach that the kingdom           will in fact be destroyed by the
cerning the nature of His kingdom.       of God will come through the bet-           same righteous judgments that in
This is something that many, even        terment of the kingdoms of this             the end will  idestroy all the king-
up to today, fail entirely to do.        world and that these will finally           doms of this world. To put this in
    Jesus declared plainly that His      evolve into the kingdom of God              other words, seeking the kingdom
kingdom would be a heavenly              and of Christ. Scripture is plain           is emphatically an antithetical call-
kingdom. It would not be a king-         that this world will in the end grow        ing.
dom of this world. Jesus declared        worse and worse in its enmity                       The kingdom of God and of
that His kingdom would be a king-        against God, its rebellion against          Christ  Jesus%  a kingdom of righ-
dom of righteousness and peace           Him, and its transgression of all of        teousness.      The Sermon on the
with God. It would be realized           His commandments. When the cup              Mount makes this so plain. The
first of all in the hearts of His        of iniquity of this world is full,          kingdom of God is characterized by
people by His Spirit and through         King Jesus will come to destroy the         the righteousness of God. The
the preaching of the Word. Ac-           kingdoms of this world. He will             glory of the kingdom of God is the
cording to the abundant testimony        dash them to pieces like a potter's         glory of the perfect righteousness
of Jesus, His kingdom would not          vessel. Jesus' destruction of the           of God. There can be no compro-
be finally realized until the day of     kingdoms of the world will be His           mise of this righteousness. Righ-
His return. Then it would be real-       fearful righteous and holy judg-            teousness is the foundation of this
ized in the new heavens and the          ments on them. The glory of King            kingdom. For this reason, to es-
new earth.                               Jesus will shine most brilliantly           tablish this kingdom Jesus had to
   ,The kingdom of Jesus was es-         when He executes righteous judg-            die on the cross. Almost no one
tablished at the cross. This was         ment on the kingdom of this world.          understood this truth at the time
something which was entirely un-             Two truths are abundantly               when Jesus was crucified. Even
expected by carnal and wicked            plain from this. The kingdom of             Jesus' own disciples little under-
men. Rather, the enemies of Christ;      Jesus will not be of this world. It         stood it. They did not understand
inspired by the devil himself, imag-     will not come through the change            this truth until the Spirit of Christ
ined that they had defeated and          of the institutions of this world. It       was poured into their hearts.

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    The great issue of the kingdom         Jesus taught this great truth of the    our Lord Jesus is the truth that this
of God is the issue of righteous-          kingdom to Nicodemus.  Nicode-          kingdom is heavenly. It is heav-
ness. This truth of the kingdom is         mus belonged to the sect of the         enly in distinction from, in opposi-
again largely forgotten and even           Pharisees. The main characteristic      tion to, being earthly. This has
denied by many modern-day ad-              of this sect was the false idea that    great implications for what it
vocates of the kingdom of God.             they were citizens of the kingdom       means truly to seek the kingdom.
When Christ was crucified, the             of God through their own works          To seek the kingdom one must be
world imagined that it had tri-            of righteousness. Jesus condemned       other worldly, heavenly minded.
umphed in putting King Jesus to            this teaching and the vain imagi-       One cannot seek the kingdom while
death. In fact, through the cross          nation of the Pharisees. Therefore      setting his heart on the things of
Jesus was absolutely victorious and        He told Nicodemus to his utter dis-     this world. We can seek the king-
triumphant over Satan and all that         may and confusion that except a         dom only by forsaking this present
follow him.                                man be born again he cannot even        world. To seek the kingdom, the
    The only way that we can un-           see the kingdom of heaven.              citizens of this kingdom must be
derstand this is if we understand              Jesus declared in the Sermon        ready to sacrifice if necessary all
that the great issue of the kingdom        on the Mount, "Except your righ-        the things of this present world, to
of God is righteousness. Christ es-        teousness shall exceed the righ-        have nothing in this world.
tablished this righteousness               teousness of the scribes and Phari-         In the measure that a man sets
through His sacrifice on the cross.        sees, ye shall in no case enter into    His heart on the things of this
By means of the sacrifice of the           the kingdom of heaven." How the         world he makes it impossible to
cross, Jesus gained the right to de-       Pharisees hated this teaching of        seek the kingdom. The love of the
liver His elect people from the            Jesus. It would not be an exag-         things of this present world will
kingdom of darkness of this                geration to say that one of the main    draw a man away from seeking the
present world and to make them             reasons why the Pharisees and           kingdom. Seeking the kingdom we
heirs of His blessed and everlast-         other leaders of the Jews crucified     must be ready to count the things
ing kingdom of righteousness. Be-          Jesus was because of this particu-      of this world as secondary in sig-
cause of the righteousness of the          lar teaching regarding the righ-        nificance.      If necessary we must
cross, Jesus arose in triumph from         teousness of the kingdom of             suffer the loss of the riches and
the dead and was exalted at the            heaven. It would also not be an         glory of this world and wait pa-
right hand of God. Jesus is King of        exaggeration to say that the chief      tiently for the true and lasting glory
His kingdom because of righteous-          reason why the truth of the king-       and blessedness of the kingdom
ness. This righteousness is His            dom is hated in the world today,        that shall come down from heaven.
glory and power. Seeking the king-         even by those who seem to be ad-            That the kingdom of Jesus is
dom of Christ is therefore with            vocates of this kingdom, is the         heavenly means that it is a  .future
grace in our hearts and by faith           spiritual hatred of the righteous-      reality. It cannot and will not be
seeking the righteousness of the           ness of this kingdom.                   perfectly realized on this earth but
cross of Christ Jesus.                         The elect of God become spiri-      in a future realm which the Bible
    Another great truth of the king-       tual citizens of the kingdom of God     calls the new heavens and earth.
dom that Jesus in all His teaching         through the wonder work of regen-       The citizens of the kingdom live in
on this great subject made so plain        eration. Without regeneration no        hope and expectation for the glori-
is the truth that His kingdom is           one will see the kingdom. The           ous and blessed realization of the
first of all spiritual in nature. It is    kingdom therefore is first of all a     kingdom  tha:t is yet to come. *
not carnal and earthly. It does not        spiritual reality accomplished by           We have outlined what we be-
come through carnal and earthly            God in the hearts of His people by      lieve are several of the great truths
measures. It is not realized by the        the working of the Spirit of Christ.    of the kingdom as they are taught
strength and wisdom of men. This           This truth is also largely ignored      us in Scripture and by the Lord
truth of the kingdom is intimately         by many modern-day preachers of         Jesus Christ Himself. Only when
related to the truth of the righ-          the kingdom. Our Lord Jesus re-         we have a right understanding of
teousness of God which character-          ferred to this great truth of the       these truths of the kingdom can we
izes this kingdom.                         kingdom when He declared: "The          have any understanding at all of
    That the kingdom of Jesus is a         kingdom of God  cometh  not with        what our Lord means when He ex-
spiritual kingdom means first of all       observation: neither shall they say,    horts us to seek first the kingdom
that it has spiritual characteristics      Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold,     of heaven and its righteousness.
and spiritual requirements. We do          the kingdom of God is  within  you"     We shall consider some of the prac-
not, we cannot enter into the king-        (Luke  17:20,21).                       tical applications of this in our next
dom by  any~ human efforts,  w.is-             One more characteristic of the      article.  Cl
dom, strength, or achievements.            kingdom taught again and again by           *

354/Standard  Bearer /May 1, 1997


                                                    Chapter 6
                 The Fall of Our First Parents
                                                     Appendix
                                Adam and the IRace (2)

All Sinners Through One Man
T                                         structs us: "The sting of death is        sinned even before they were born?
      he question is: what is the         sin, and the strength of sin is the       The answer is: they all have sinned
      explanation of this astound-        law." Also, "Cursed is everyone           through and in the one man Adam.
      ing and awesome fact of uni-        that continueth not in all things         Through one man sin entered into
versal death? How is the univer-          which are written in the book of          the world, the world of man. That
sal reign of death even before and        the law to do them" (Gal.  3:lO).         one man is the first man who ever
apart from any actual and con-            Death, therefore, is punishment. It       was, the man who was not born,
scious transgression of the law to        is the clear manifestation of the fact    but created, namely, Adam. Death
be explained?                             that the Holy One is turned against       entered into the world because of
    To understand this question           us in holy and righteous wrath.           sin. This is emphasized once more
.and its solution, we must remem-             This can only mean that death         in the latter part of verse 12 when
ber another significant fact. Death       reigns over all men because all men       the apostle says: "And so death
is punishment. Death is not natu-         have sinned. Let us understand            passed upon all men, for that (or
ral. It is not the inevitable and nec-    this clearly. Death is punishment.        `because') all have sinned."
essary end of all life, the normal        But there can be no punishment                Here, therefore, is the scrip-
termination of a normal process.          without guilt. Punishment with-           tural explanation of the universal-
According to Scripture, death is the      out guilt would be the height of          ity of sin and death.
punishment of sin. It is always the       injustice, and God is just. Punish-           This explanation is not the hu-
execution of a sentence, a divine         ment implies guilt. Guilt is the li-      manistic and Pelagian explanation,
death sentence. It is the manifes-        ability to punishment. But there          which attempts to account for the
tation of the wrath of God. This          can be no guilt without a real trans-     dreadful, universal phenomenon of
we have already seen in connec-           gression, a violation of the law. It      sin and death by the theory of the
tion with the forbidden tree in           follows, therefore, that there must       imitation of a bad example and the
Paradise. God said to man, "For           needs be sin before there can be          influence of an evil environment.
the day that thou eatest thereof          death. Hence, if, as the text says,       This view is always  individualistic.
thou shalt surely die." And die           all men die, this can only be be-         It always insists that sin is only in
Adam did, not because that tree           cause all have sinned.                    the  deed,  never a matter of the cor-
was a kind of poison but because              But the question is: how have         ruption of man's very nature. Hu-
God in His righteous judgment in-         all men sinned? This is the ques-         man nature is inherently good, and
flicted the death sentence on him.        tion now, especially in the light of      it always has the power to deter-
Thus it is always with death ac-          the fact that the text emphasizes         mine either for good or for evil, ac-
cording to Scripture. "In thy wrath       that death reigned universally even       cording to this theory. The will is
we pine and die," the psalmist of         when there was no law and even            free. There is no such thing as a
Psalm 90 complains. "For the              over those who had not sinned af-         bondage to sin. Adam's nature did
wages of sin is death," the apostle       ter the likeness of Adam's trans-         not become corrupt through that
tells us in Romans  6:23. The same        gression. Yet all have sinned. Oth-       one act of breaking God's com-
apostle, in I Corinthians  15:56,  in-    erwise the punishment of death            mandment. He may have become
                                          could not come upon all. How,             weaker, and it may have become
                                          then, have they sinned? The an-           more difficult for him after that
The late Homer Hoeksema was  profes-      swer is:  they have all sinned even       first sin to return to the way of obe-
sor  of  Dogmatics and Old Testament      before  they were hop.                    dience. But his nature did not be-
in the Protestant Reformed Seminary.          But how could all men have            come corrupt.

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     Thus every child that is born is    answer; and it is not the meaning         tion of the human nature is to be
inherently good, born with a will        of the text in Romans 5:12.               traced to the one, first sin of Adam
that can choose freely either for            It is indeed true that we were        as its beginning. In Paradise not
good or for evil. The natural or         organically in Adam. This is one          only the individual human nature
moral character of a baby is a tabula    important aspect of the relationship      of Adam, but the nature of the
YUSLI,  a blank slate, on which one      between Adam and the human race           whole race was corrupted. This
may write what he pleases, and on        and between Adam's fall and our           can only be because when God cre-
which the child himself writes as        sin. Adam was the father (or: the         ated Adam, He created an organ-
he grows up, covering it with the        organic head) and root of the en-         ism, the organism of the human
writing of good or evil. If you put      tire human race. Because of this          race. Adam was the father, the
the question, how it must be ex-         relationship, the whole human race        root, the bearer of the nature of the
plained. that every man sins and         became corrupt through Adam's             entire race. For God "hath made
that the writing on this blank slate     corruption. This is always Scrip-         of one blood all nations of men for
invariably proves to be evil, the an-    ture's presentation of the reality of     to dwell on all the face of the earth"
swer is: environment! They explain       sin and death. Sin is not merely in       (Acts  17:26).
that, as soon as a child comes into      the deed. The Bible insists that                 Nevertheless, this does not ex-
the world, the language of sin is        man himself, his nature, his mind         plain the universality of death. It
inscribed on that babe's character.      and will, is corrupt, so that he is       does not explain, in this connection,
A$ the child grows up, it comes in-      dead through trespasses and sins.         how we all sinned before we were
creasingly into contact with bad ex-     The whole human nature is de-             born in and through the one man
amples and evil influences. So it        praved, and every individual hu-          Adam. For, in the first place, al-
is that all men become disposed to       man being is born in sin. Man is          though our whole nature was  or-
sin and form evil habits. Hence,         really dead and has the wrath of          ganically  in Adam, we were not in
also, to improve men you must            God abiding in him, unless he is          that sense personally and individu-
educate them and improve their           reborn through the Spirit of Christ       ally and actually present in Adam
surroundings and provide them            and believes in the Son of God            in Paradise, and we did not actu-
with a good environment. To save         (John  3:36).  The imagination. of        ally sin. Adam sinned the sin, not
mankind we must build a better           man's heart is evil from his youth        we.
world and apply ourselves to so-         (Gen.  821).    Again, the tree is               In the second place, if this were
cial improvement and to character        known by its fruits. "A good tree         the whole explanation, would not
building.                                cannot bring forth evil fruit, nei-       the universality of sin and death
    But notice that in the light of      ther can a corrupt tree bring forth       be a matter of injustice? Are we
Scripture the Christian should have      good fruit" (Matt.  7:16-18).             then not the innocent victims of
no part of this philosophy, neither          This is true of the individual        Adam's transgression? He sinned,
in his view of sin and salvation,        sinner. It is also true of the race as    and we all suffer and come into the
nor in his view of education and         a whole. The tree of the human            world with a corrupt nature. Are
psychology. Sin and death are not        race is corrupt and produces cor-         men not to be pitied, then, for their
to be explained thus, that every         rupt fruit. The stock is corrupt,         deplorable state, rather than to be
man has followed Adam's bad ex-          and it  inevitabIy  produces a cor-       condemned? Moreover, in that
ample, and sinned, and died. This        rupt offspring. For, "Who can             case can we be held responsible for
is exactly disproved by the state-       bring a clean thing out of an un-         our actual sins and transgressions
ment in verse 14 that death passed       clean? not one" (Job  14:4). So the       if we are born with a nature that is
upon all men, even upon those who        psalmist complained, "Behold, I           not able to keep God's law and is
had not sinned after the similitude      was shapen in iniquity; and in sin        inclined to all wickedness? We are,
of Adam's transgression.                 did my mother conceive me" (Ps.           in that case, born with a corrupt
    Nor is the answer to the ques-       51:5).                                    nature, and we cannot help it. We
tion how it is that we all sinned in         This is the doctrine of  inherited    never personally had the opportu-
the one man Adam to be found in          pollution.  It means that the very        nity to choose for the good. We
our organic relation to Adam.            seed of man is corrupt, that the act      are victims of circumstances and
Thus some attempt to explain it.         of generation by the father and of        are to be pitied instead of con-
Adam had the whole human race            conception by the mother takes            demned for our misdeeds.
in `his loins. We were, therefore,       place in the sphere of sin, and that             In the third place, this would
actually in him, they say. Thus the      the nature of the child who is            lead to a contradiction of the
whole human race sinned because          brought forth is depraved, totally        thought of the text. For remem-
they were organically in the first       depraved, unless. the divine won-         ber, that very spiritual corruption,
man, their father Adam.                  der of regeneration intervenes,. , It     that very depravity of our nature,
    But this cannot possibly be the      means that this universal  corrup-        is  .but an aspect of the death that

356fitandard  Bearer /May 1, 1997


came upon all men. But that death,         of it. Let us pay attention to the       fact that only thus can we under-
including our spiritual death, the         fact that throughout this passage,       stand that Christ is the only hope
corruption of our nature, is itself        beginning with Romans  5:12, the         of His people, their sole comfort in
punishment. It is on account of our        apostle speaks  Zegd language.  This     life and in death. For do not over-
guilt. It is the punishment of a sin       is why he can conclude, as he does,      look the last expression in this pas-
which we all committed in and              in that same legal terminology:          sage: "Adam was the figure (that
through the one man Adam.                  "By the  offence  of one judgment        is, the type) of him that was to
    How did we all sin and become          came upon all men to condemna-           come." This does not mean that
guilty and liable to the punishment        tion" (Rom.  5:18).                      Adam was a type of Christ in ev-
of death? The answer is: in and                This is the doctrine of  original    ery respect,  :but in a certain par-
through the sin of the one man             guilt.  It is based upon the truth       ticular respect  - here, the respect
Adam in the Iegal sense.                   that our relation to the first man       that is under discussion in the en-
    How was this possible?                 Adam was such that he was our            tire passage. Hence, he was a type
    The answer is: because Adam            representative head, and acted as        of Christ as Head, representative
was our head  in a representative          such in Paradise the First.              Head.
sense. He was not only organically             You and I cannot object to this          Adam was the head of a legal
the father of the race, the progeni-       doctrine that it is not fair, that we    corporation, the human race. So
tor of the race, so that we all in-        had nothing to say about Adam's          Christ is the representative Head,
herit our nature from him. But he          representation of us. In the first       not of all men, for then all men are
was our representative head in the         place, all of our objecting will not     necessarily justified and saved in
covenant, and we were legally in           change the grim and hard reality         Him, which is not true. But He is
him.                                       of the hopelessness of our sin and       the representative Head of the
    God created the human race             death, our inherited pollution of        church, of the elect, of all His own,
not only an organism with Adam             nature and our original guilt. But,      whom the Father gave Him before
as the root and first father, but He       in the second place, this would be       the foundation of the world.
also created the race as a legal soli-     the height of sinful rebellion. For          Adam sins for all, so that all
darity, a legal corporation, with          shall the thing formed say to Him        have sinned when'he sinned.
Adam as the representative head.           that formed it, "Why hast thou           Christ. obeys for all the members
Adam was our legal head before             made me thus?" What if the Sov-          of the corporation of which He is
God in His covenant. As such, he           ereign of heaven and earth de-           the Head, so that all have obeyed
was legally representative of the          signed and created the race as such      and are righteous before God when
entire human race. Hence, when             a legal solidarity in its representa-    He obeyed. We do not die in the
Adam sinned and became guilty,             tive head, Adam? Shall we, puny          deepest sense because of our ac-
the entire race, being in him le-          creatures of the dust, and sinners       tual sins. We are born in death
gally, became guilty in and through        `besides, have the audacity to chal-     because we have sinned before we
that one sin. In that legal sense all      lenge His doings? Shall we not           are born  - in Adam. Thus we can
sinned when Adam sinned. Death,            rather bow in the dust and cry out:      also understand that we do not live
death in all its implications, is the      "Sinners we are! sinners by nature!      - thanks be to God  - because of
punishment of that sin. So death           hopelessly lost sinners! such sin-       our actual good works. For then
passed upon all men, for that all          ners that we could never deliver         we could never live! But we are
have sinned.                               ourselves from the power of a uni-       reborn and are alive unto good
    This is the plain teaching of the      versal sin and condemnation and          works because we have obeyed be-
passage we have been considering           death, in and under which we are         fore we are so reborn  - in Christ
and the only possible explanation          born"?                                   Jesus our Lord.  Cl
                                               Finally, do not overlook the
                                                                                                 am.     .     .     .    .     ..-Ea


 g&g&-@                                    - a history  - of the apostasy of        church that  ,recently  helped to
                                           the Northern Presbyterian Church         sponsor the "RE-imagining  Con'
Crossed Fingers: How the Liberals          that culminated in the deposition        ference"at  which idolaters, mostly
Captured the Presbyterian Church,  by
Gary North. Tyler, Texas: Institute for    of  J. Gresham  Machen  in 1936. At      female, represented the God of
Christian Economics, 1996. Pp. li  -       that time,  Machen  founded what is      Scripture as a pagan goddess with
                                           now the Orthodox Presbyterian
1023, plus indexes of texts and  sub-                                               Presbyterian gold and silver. In the
jects. $34.95 (hardcover). (Reviewed       Church. Earlier he had started           late  1800's, this was the church of
by the editor)                             Westminster Theological Seminary.        the Princeton Seminary of the
                                             1 The Northern Church is known         Hodges and B. B. Warfield.
    he
T book is a blockbuster, big  ' today as the Presbyterian Church                       How did the church of Samuel
    and explosive. It is the  stidy        in `the USA  (PCUSA). This is the        Miller, Charles Hodge, and B.B.

                                                                                             May  1,  i997/standard  Bearer/357


Warfield  come to this? How did                      decline became precipitous with              blies? Its members couldn't. This
this church earlier, in 1924, become                 the admission into the denomina-             is why 1903 marks the institu-
the church of the Auburn  Affirma-                   tion in 1906 of some 1,100 congre-           tional end of the Old School's re-
tion?,  The Auburn  Affiirmution   was               gations of the Arminian, vehe-               sistance in the name of Confes-
                                                                                                  sional Calvinism  (p. 356).
a document signed by more than                       mently anti-Calvinist Cumberland
1,200 Presbyterian ministers, deny-                  Presbyterians.                                  North is right that the modern-
ing that such cardinal Christian                         Crossed  Fingers  demonstrates         ists in particular who captured the
doctrines as the virgin birth of                     that Arminianism is the first, deci-       Northern Presbyterian Church and
Jesus Christ are necessary to be be-                 sive move of a church toward mod-          all theological liberals in general
lieved.                                              ernism.       The reason, although         are wicked men and women. Even
    G a r y   N o r t h   a n s w e r s   t h i s    North does not spell this out, is          more disgusting, though, to a man
"How?"                                               that by its denial of a sovereign          or woman of  integrity are  the "con-
    There was the recommended                        God, Arminianism  is  modernism in         servatives" who, in the end, re-
training of ministers, especially col-               principle.                                 fused to fight for the faith and
lege and seminary professors, in                         One of the important lessons           church of Jesus Christ, but sub-
the infidel universities in Germany.                 that North expressly draws from            sided quietly into their comfortable
The result was the corruption of                     the history is that the  confession-       positions in the apostate  church-
those who were to teach the Pres-                    aIly Calvinist church must do battle       the Clarence  B. Macartney's. "Af-
byterian Church's future pastors                     with the first appearance of mod-          ter 1936, they kept their pulpits and
and teachers.                                        ernism in the form of Arminian             then collected their pensions" (p.
    There was, for many years, the                   doctrine. North refers in this con-        31). These men gave the church to
failure of the orthodox to discipline                nection to the history of the con-         the liberals. The liberals perish. As
heretics.     Running through the                    troversy in the Christian Reformed         North notes, there are sanctions af-
book is the refrain, "The issue was                  Church over common grace result-           ter all: eternal hell. Can the com-
sanctions," that is, discipline. The                 ing in the formation of the Protes-        promising "conservatives" be
church did not hold her                              tant Reformed Churches (PRC).              saved?
officebearers, particularly her min-                 North praises the PRC and holds                 Reformed and Presbyterian be-
isters and professors of theology,                   them up to the churches for emu-           lievers should read this book, es-
to a "strict," that is, genuine sub-                 lation, although he does not have          pecially the ministers and ruling el-
scription to the confessions.                        the details of this history perfectly      ders. The same grim patterns that
    This is the meaning of the                       straight:                                  marked the apostasy of the North-
book's curious title, Crossed  Fin-                                                             ern Presbyterian Church are evi-
gers. The modernists in the church                     In 1923, the  Christian Reformed         dent in any number of Reformed
signed their subscription vow with                     Church accepted a similar  creedal       and Presbyterian churches. If there
the fingers of their other hand                        revision that spoke of "the favor-       is not yet found the attack on Scrip-
crossed behind their backs. They                       able attitude of God toward man-
                                                       kind in general." Westminster            ture and the rejection of atonement
lied. And the orthodox let them                        Seminary's Cornelius Van Til             in the blood of Christ that mani-
get ,away with it.                                     would later write a book defend-         fest full-blown modernism, there is
    Doctrinally, the falling away of                   ing this revision: Comtnor~ Grace....    the fatal undermining of predesti-
the church into sheer unbelief and                     But this revision led to a split in      nation in the teaching of a univer-
the depravity of life that issues                      the denomination. The Protestant         sal love of God and a desire of God
from it took place by means of the                     Reformed Church understood the           to save all men that will certainly
church's toleration of Arminianism.                    threat to Calvinist orthodoxy            end in full-blown modernism.
North speaks of the "evolution of                      posed by the revision; its 1924               The book  will serve Protestant
Presbyterianism from Calvinism to                      Synod rejected it (p. 354). Unlike
                                                       the members of the Christian Re-         Reformed readers well by keeping
Arminianism to liberalism" (p.                         formed Church who would depart           us on our guard. We have no mod-
947). The merger of the Old School                     on principle to form the Protes-         ernists. (North would say that we
(Calvinistic) and the New School                       tant Reformed Church in 1924 af-         lack both the size and the money
(Arminian) in 1869 was the begin-                      ter the CRC added the plank on           to be of any interest to modernists.)
ning of the end. The descent into                      Cod's favor toward mankind in            W e   h a v e   n o   A r m i n i a n s .   B u t
modernism quickened with the re-                       general in 1923, the Old School de-      Crossed  Fingers  warns of an atti-
vision of the Westminster Confes-                      cided in 1903 to remain in the de-       tude in the church that clamors for
sion in 1903 to express a universal                    nomination by continuing to play         toleration and peace on behalf of
love of God for every human and                        the game (of "let's pretend" re-
                                                       garding the confessions). But how        the,$urch's work, especially her
a desire of God to save all men (pp.                   could the Old School speak  judii        mission work, at the expense of
352-357). Westminster's predesti-                      cially as self-conscious Calvinists      sound doctrine.
narian theology was gutted. The                        in future denominational assem-

358/Standard  Bearer /May 7, 1997


     Modernism was hostile to any                   Being North, his style is lively:     Church fell, in part, because the
     screening of the Church in terms           "modernism's view of the true sac-        theologians lost their postmil-
     of the Westminster Confession.             rament: power leading to control          lennial vision. But these notions
     Modernists announced another               over church assets"  (p. 22). Again:      are easily spotted.. They do not sig-
     standard: peace, toleration, and
     work. This meant peace and tol-            "When modernism's fat lady fi-            nificantly affect the narrative.
     eration for them while they                nally sang, she would have her foot            The reader should not overlook
     worked to subvert the enforce-             on her opponent's neck" (p. 902).         the first appendix, "H.L. Mencken's
     ment mechanism undergirding the            Yet one more instance: "The               Obituary of  Machen."  The praise
     Westminster standards (p. 895).            trinitarian confession basic to eccle-    of  Machen  and the skewering of
                                                siastical success today is drums,         modernism by this unbelieving,
This attitude is a breeding-ground              guitar, and electronic keyboard" (p.      profane newspaper columnist must
for doctrinal departure.                        912).                                     have pierced even the seared con-
       North has done his research.                 North does grind his postmil-         sciences of the liberals who had just
The work is documented. He                      lennial axes. He imposes Ray              savaged and then deposed Machen.
writes history the way it ought to              Sutton's doctrine of the covenant         It will be more tolerable in the day
be written, not dispassionately but             on the Presbyterian history. He           of judgment for Tyre and Sidon
with zeal for the truth and righ-               suggests that the Presbyterian            than for Chorazin and Bethsaida.
teousness.                                                                                                                              Cl


I                                          -

Evangelism Activities
I                                               remarriage on the World Wide              "A Funny Thing Happened in
     f you have World Wide Web ac-              Web. This teacher spoke about it          Church Last Week . . . or was it so
     cess to web pages, be sure to              to his  6th grade students, and the       funny?"; and "Heaven or Hell . . .
check out our Loveland, CO  PRC's               result was `several questions.            or going nowhere fast."
well-done home page. (Address:                  Again we are reminded of the                   The Evangelism Committee of
http://www.iserv.net/-prc/                      many opportunities we are given           the Georgetown PRC in  Hudson-
prc.html). It is an excellent source            today to give answers from Scrip-         ville, MI made plans recently to
of PRC information and lists  -                 ture to some of the questions that        sponsor a special community ser-
among other things, over 76 pam-                continue to come our way.                 vice. An informational meeting for
phlets available through the Evan-                  We also couldn't help but no-         their congregation was held on
gelism Committee of the South                   tice a letter sent to the Evangelism      March 9, and the service followed
Holland, IL PRC. These pamphlets                Committee of our South Holland            a week later on March 16. For this
and other materials can be accessed             PRC which pointed out in a strik-         morning  sei'!vice,  Rev. R. Van
and obtained by on-line comput-                 ing way just how often the Spirit         Overloop  preached from Acts  4:12,
ers, and printed out on your own                uses what seem to us to be insig-         under the theme, "The Only Name
computer printers. Giving the ad-               nificant means to spread His Word.        for Salvation."
dress to friends or relatives who               This person, now living in Sale,
go "on-line" is another way of pro-             Victoria, Australia, first became         Congregational Activities
moting our churches' literature and             aware of our churches when he             The congregation of the Hope
making.others  aware of and appre-              came across one of our Psalters                PRC in Redlands, CA approved
ciative of our reading materials.               while working in the city of Jerusa-      a motion from their consistory to
       Somewhat related to the above,           lem. He was again reminded of             repair their church parking lot and
we also pass along an item from                 our churches when he recently             at the same time also extend the
the bulletin of our Randolph, WI                came across the booklet "Try the          parking lot to the north. This will
PRC. Their pastor, Rev. S. Key, re-             Spirits," by Prof. D. Engelsma.           give  them more than 30 new park-
ceived a letter from a reader at                    The Bible Study Class at Grand        ing spots.
Faith Christian School in Yuba                  Valley State University, sponsored             Rev. R. Cammenga, pastor of
City, CA who had seen Rev. Key's                by our Grace PRC in Standale, MI,         the Southwest PRC in Grandville,
sermon from Matthew  19:9 con-                  appears to be progressing nicely.         MI, recently agreed to repeat his
cerning the subject of divorce and              There are between 12 and 17 at-           seminar on "The Writing, Compi-
                                                tending each week. Some of their          lation, and Translation of the Bible"
                                   .            weekly topics have been: "Roman           f o r   o u r   G e o r g e t o w n   P R C   o n
Mr.  Wigger is  un elder in the Protes-         Catholics and  Evangelicals  To-          Wednesday evenings in April.
tant Reformed  Church  of  Hudson-              gether  - is this a match made in              The Council of the Bethel PRC
viZZe, Michigan.                                heaven?"; "Virginity! who cares?";        in Itasca, IL approved a request
                                                    ?

                                                                                                     May 1, 1997fitandard Bearer/359


 fii?i%w@B                                                                                                                            PERIODICAL
                                                                                                                                      Postage Paid at
   P.O. Box 603                                                                                                                       Grandville,
   Grandville, Ml 49468-0603                                                                                                         Michigan


from members of their congrega-                        glory on April 3, at the age of 89.                  Walker, MI  ,also formed another
tion to hold a pre-school Sunday                       We extend our Christian sympathy                     trio of the pastors C. Haak, S.
School class for 20 minutes after the                  to the family, finding our comfort                   Houck,  and K. Koole, from which
morning services for those who are                     in the assurance of God's Word as                    they too will call a pastor.
interested.         There will be two                  found in Romans  8:18.                                                Foodfor coiou&t
classes: one for 2 and 3-year olds,                         Our South Holland, IL PRC                                "The more God blesses you, the
the other for 3 and 4-year olds.                       will call another pastor from the                    less you shall be able to see of any
     The Young Adults of the                           trio of Rev. C. Haak, Rev. G.                        adequate reason in yourself why, you
Loveland, CO PRC, with the help                        VanBaren, and Prof. H. Hanko.                        should be blessed."
of their congregation, once again                           O u r   v a c a n t   H o p e   P R C   i n                                - C .   Spurgeon   C l
sponsored their annual Spring Re-
treat. Loveland's pastor, Rev. G.                                                                                      WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
VanBaren, and Rev. R. Miersma,                                                                                       On May 9, God willing, our parents and
                                                                        IN  MEMORIAM
pastor of the Immanuel PRC in                               On February 21, 1997 our covenant God           grandparents,
Lacombe, AB, Canada, were this                         and Father, in His inscrutable wisdom, was             MR. and MRS.  HILBERT  KUIPER, SR.,
year's speakers.                                       pleased to bring to his eternal home at the          will celebrate their 501h wedding anniversary.
                                                       age of 46 years our brother in Christ,               We are thankful to God for the years of cov-
Mission Activities                                                                                          enant instruction, love, and care which they
T                                                                    ROBERT CHARLTON.
     he Domestic Mission Commit-                                                                            have given us. We pray that God will continue
                                                       As consistory and congregation of First PRC
     tee of our churches now has its                                                                        to bless and strehgthen them.
                                                       in Edmonton, AB, we give thanks and praise                    "For the Lord is good, his mercy is ever-
own home page on the Internet.                         unto our God for the years Bob was in our            lasting, and his truth endureth to all genera-
The address is http:/ /missions.                       midst, for the exercise of the communion of          tions" (Psalm 1005).
iserv.net.                                             the saints that Bob's illness afforded us, and       % Linda Kidder
     Prof. and Mrs. Decker, along                      particularly, for the good testimony that by
                                                       grace Bob gave in life and in death: "For I          %        Al and Donna Boven
with Mr. and Mrs. Harry Langerak,                      know that my redeemer liveth..." (Job 19:25).        %        Jay and Judy Kuiper
left on March 26 to labor for al-                                    Rev. Michael  DeVries, President       *        Daryl and Sharon Kuiper
most three weeks in Singapore.                                                 George Tolsma, Clerk         %        Hib and Bev Kuiper
They were sent by our denomina-                                                                                        20 grandchildren
tional Contact Committee and by                                        CALL TO SYNOD!!                                 4 great-grandchildren
our Hope PRC in Walker, MI, the                             Synod 1996 appointed Grandville Protes-                                                Hudsonville, Michigan
calling church for Rev. Kortering.                     tant Reformed Church, Grandville, MI the call-
The 1996 Synod mandated this trip                      ing church for the 1997 Synod.                                   WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
to investigate the work of Rev.                             The Consistory hereby notifies our                       We are thankful to God for His faithful-
K o r t e r i n g   a n d   t o   d e t e r m i n e    churches that the 1997 Synod of the Protes-          ness in giving our dear parents and grandpar-
whether to extend Rev. and Mrs.                        tant Reformed Churches in America will con-          ents,
Kortering's stay in Singapore as                       vene, the Lord willing, on Tuesday, June IO,                    JOHN and BETTY  EKEMA,
minister-on-loan for another five                      1997 at 9:00 A.M. in the Grandville Protestant       60 years of marriage on May 12. We are thank-
years.                                                 Reformed Church, Grandville, MI.                     ful for their instruction of God's Word. May
                                                            The Pre-Synodical Service will be held          God continue to Ibless them.
                                                       on Monday evening, June 9, at 7:30 P.M. Rev.
Minister Activities                                                                                                  "Thy mercy, 0 Lord, is in the heavens;
R                                                      J. Slopsema, president of the 1996 Synod, will
      ev. John Heys, emeritus minis-                                                                        and thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds"
                                                       preach the sermon. Synodical delegates are
      ter in our churches, was hos-                                                                         (Psalm 365).
                                                       requested to meet with the Consistory before
pitalized in early March with pneu-                    the service.                                         %        John and  Tina  Ekema
monia and other complications.                              Delegates in need of lodging should con-        8%       Bob and Kathy  Ekema
However, later that month he                           tact Mr. Cornelius Jonker, 4639 Ju-Le-On Dr.         fe:      Jim and Linda (in glory)  VanOverloop
moved to Hudsonville Christian                         S.W., Grand Rapids, Ml 49544. Phone: (616)           EBZ:     Jim and Sally  Koll
Nursing Home.                                          453-l 247.                                                      15 grandchildren
                                                                                           Consistory of               2 grandchildren in glory
     Mrs. Helen Schipper, widow of                                               Grandville PR Church                  2 great-grandchildren
Rev. Marinus Schipper, passed into                                          Mr. Cornelius Jonker, Clerk                                             Redlends. California

360/Standard  Bearer /May 1, 1997


