                    The
                   Standard
A Reformed         Bearer
Semi-Monthly
Magazine





                    For  the  theological  school?
                    Oh, yes, indeed, here is my do-
                    nation!    Give  the  professors
                    and  the  students  my  best  re-
                    gards!    But  my  son?    No,  no,
                    no!    My  son  is  going  to  be  a
                    bricklayer,  a  carpenter,  an  in-
                    dustrialist,  a  great  business
                    man.    You  can  get  my  money,
                    but  not  my  son.    It  never  en-
                    tered my mind, or ... my heart!

                      See "Returned to the Lord" -- p. 387


Vol. 73, No. 17
June, 1997


CONTENTS:                                                                                 June, 1997                                                The
                                                                                                                                             Standard
Meditation -- Gerrit Vos                                                                                                                          Bearer
      Returned to the Lord ........................................................................ 387               ISSN 0362-4692
Editorial -- Prof. David J. Engelsma
                                                                                                                      Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July, and August.
      1997 Synod of the PRC:  Ecclesiastical Matters .......................... 389
                                                                                                                      Published by the Reformed Free Publishing Association, Inc.,
Letters ...................................................................................................... 390    4949 Ivanrest Ave., Grandville, MI  49418.  Periodical Postage
                                                                                                                      Paid at Grandville, Michigan.
A Cloud of Witnesses -- Prof. Herman C. Hanko
      George Martin Ophoff:  Humble Servant of the Truth (2) .......... 391                                           Postmaster:  Send address changes to the Standard Bearer,
                                                                                                                      P.O. Box 603, Grandville, MI  49468-0603.
Contribution -- Prof. Robert D. Decker
                                                                                                                      EDITORIAL COMMITTEE
      In Christ, No East or West ............................................................... 393
                                                                                                                      Editor:  Prof. David J. Engelsma
Guest Article -- Rev. Douglas J. Kuiper                                                                                Secretary:  Prof. Robert D. Decker
                                                                                                                      Managing Editor:  Mr. Don Doezema
      Language:  1) God's Gift ................................................................. 395
All Around Us -- Rev. Gise J. VanBaren ................................................ 397                            DEPARTMENT EDITORS
                                                                                                                      Rev. W. Bruinsma, Rev. A. Brummel, Rev. R. Cammenga,
Contending for the Faith -- Rev. Bernard Woudenberg                                                                    Prof. R. Decker, Rev. A. denHartog, Rev. M. Dick, Prof. H.
      The Covenant View of Herman Bavinck ........................................ 399                                Hanko, Rev. R. Hanko, Rev. S. Key, Rev. K. Koole, Rev. J.
                                                                                                                      Kortering, Rev. D. H. Kuiper, Mr. J. Lanting, Mrs. M. Lubbers,
Taking Heed to the Doctrine -- Rev. Steven R. Key                                                                      Rev. T. Miersma, Mr. G. Schipper, Rev. G. VanBaren, Rev. R.
      Our Only Mediator ............................................................................ 402              VanOverloop, Mr. B. Wigger, Rev. B. Woudenberg.
When Thou Sittest in Thine House -- Rev. Wilbur Bruinsma                                                               EDITORIAL OFFICE              CHURCH NEWS EDITOR
                                                                                                                      The Standard Bearer           Mr. Ben Wigger
      The Covenant of Marriage                                                                                        4949 Ivanrest                 6597  40th Ave.
            1. Its Mystery (cont.) .................................................................. 404             Grandville, MI  49418         Hudsonville, MI  49426
News From Our Churches -- Mr. Benjamin Wigger ............................... 407                                      BUSINESS OFFICE               NEW ZEALAND OFFICE
                                                                                                                      The Standard Bearer           The Standard Bearer
                                                                                                                      Don Doezema                   c/o B. VanHerk
                                                                                                                      P.O. Box 603                  66 Fraser St.
   In This Issue ...                                                                                                  Grandville, MI                Wainuiomata, New Zealand
                                                                                                                          49468-0603
                                                                                                                      PH:  (616) 531-1490           UNITED KINGDOM OFFICE
                                                                                                                               (616) 538-1778       c/o Mr. Jonathan McAuley
                                                                                                                      FAX:  (616) 531-3033          164 Church Rd., Glenwherry
      The date of the original publication in the  Standard Bearer of Gerrit                                                                        Ballymena, Co. Antrim BT42 3EL
                                                                                                                                                    Northern Ireland
Vos' meditation brings back memories.  The date was May 15, 1963.  On                                                 EDITORIAL POLICY
                                                                                                                      Every editor is solely responsible for the contents of his own
that date, I was preparing for examination before synod as a graduate                                                 articles.  Contributions of general interest from our readers and
from the seminary of the Protestant Reformed Churches.  I was the only                                                questions for The Reader Asks department are welcome.
                                                                                                                      Contributions will be limited to approximately 300 words and
graduate.  For the first two years, I was the only student in seminary.                                               must be neatly written or typewritten, and must be signed.
This meant that there was no graduate in 1961 or in 1962.  Only one had                                               Copy deadlines are the first and fifteenth of the month.  All
                                                                                                                      communications relative to the contents should be sent to the
graduated in 1960.                                                                                                    editorial office.
      After 1963, there would not be another graduate and candidate for
                                                                                                                      REPRINT POLICY
the ministry in the PRC until 1965.                                                                                   Permission is hereby granted for the reprinting of articles in our
                                                                                                                      magazine by other publications, provided:  a) that such reprinted
      One graduate and one minister added to the churches between 1960
                                                                                                                      articles are reproduced in full; b) that proper acknowledgment
and 1965!                                                                                                             is made; c) that a copy of the periodical in which such reprint
                                                                                                                      appears is sent to our editorial office.
      But in 1963 there were seven vacant churches.  Seven of the nineteen
churches  in  the  denomination  were  without  a  minister  of  the  gospel.                                         SUBSCRIPTION POLICY
                                                                                                                      Subscription price:  $17.00 per year in the U.S., US$20.00
More than one third.                                                                                                  elsewhere.  Unless a definite request for discontinuance is
      The Theological School Committee was reporting that no new stu-                                                 received, it is assumed that the subscriber wishes the
                                                                                                                      subscription to continue, and he will be billed for renewal.  If you
dent had enrolled for the 1963/1964 school year.                                                                      have a change of address, please notify the Business Office as
      This  is  what  the  Rev.  Gerrit  Vos  had  in  mind  when  he  began  his                                     early as possible in order to avoid the inconvenience of
                                                                                                                      interrupted delivery.  Include your Zip or Postal Code.
devotional on Hannah's gift of Samuel to the LORD as he did:  "There is
a grievous shortage of ministers in our churches."                                                                    ADVERTISING POLICY
                                                                                                                      The Standard Bearer does not accept commercial advertising
      The situation at present is by no means this severe.                                                            of any kind.  Announcements of church and school events,
                                                                                                                      anniversaries, obituaries, and sympathy resolutions will be
      Nevertheless, there will be only three men in the seminary this fall
                                                                                                                      placed for a $10.00 fee.  These should be sent to the Business
who aspire to the ministry in the PRC.  There will be no first-year stu-                                              Office and should be accompanied by the $10.00 fee.  Deadline
                                                                                                                      for announcements is at least one month prior to publication
dent.  When one begins work in the seminary, graduation resulting in a
                                                                                                                      date.
candidate for the ministry is four years off.
                                                                                                                      BOUND VOLUMES
      Vos'  unique,  memorable  appeal  to  godly  parents  and  God-fearing                                          The Business Office will accept standing orders for bound
young men, therefore, is timely.                                                                                      copies of the current volume.  Such orders are filled as soon as
                                                                                                                      possible after completion of a volume year.
      Read "Returned to the Lord."
                                                                                                       -- DJE          16mm microfilm, 35mm microfilm and 105mm microfiche, and
                                                                                                                      article copies are available through University Microfilms
                                                                                                                      International.

386/Standard Bearer/June, 1997


  Meditation                                                                                                       Gerrit Vos



                         Returned to the Lord

    For  this  child  I  prayed;  and  the         Is it not grievous?                            No, I certainly would not rule
Lord hath given me my petition which                   333    333    333                  out the divine calling to the minis-
I asked of him:  therefore also I have             I know, I know, there is an easy       try.
lent  him  to  the  Lord;  as  long  as  he    way out.  I have heard it said many                But there is much more to the
liveth he shall be lent to the Lord.  And      times.  "God is not calling minis-         story of a prophet, of a minister of
he worshipped the Lord there.                  ters today."                               the  Word.    God  works  through
                      I Samuel 1:27, 28            Do I deny that God must call a         means.
                                               minister?  Of course not.  I would                 Listen again to Jesus:  "The har-
                                               say  that  the  man  who  becomes  a       vest truly is plenteous, but the la-
                                               minister without the divine call is        borers  are  few;  pray  ye  therefore
There is a grievous shortage
          of ministers in our churches.
          And, as I learn from various         the worst kind of wretch imagin-           the  Lord  of  the  harvest,  that  He
church papers, this shortage is uni-           able.  When these wretches come            will  send  forth  laborers  into  his
versal.                                        before the great judgment seat in          harvest" (Matt. 9:37, 38).
    This  shortage  is  "grievous."            the day of judgment they will hear                 Did not Jesus know that a true
That is correct.  As long as I have            God say to them:  "The prophets            minister  of  the  Word  must  be
lived, and that is sixty-eight years,          prophesy lies in my name:  I sent          called by God, both internally and
it never was this way before.  There           them  not,  neither  have  I  com-         externally?  Of course He did.  He
were always plenty of ministers in             manded them, neither spake unto            knows everything.  But Jesus knew
the churches where I worshiped:  in            them:  they prophesy unto you a            that  His  God  and  Father  works
Holland,  Germany,  England,  and              false vision and divination, and a         through means.
here  in  the  States.    Sometimes  it        thing of nought, and the deceit of                 The general means is certainly
was  even  said,  also  in  our  own           their hearts" (Jer. 14:14).                that  the  whole  church  prays  the
churches, that there were too many                 And  Jesus  said:    "Many  will       Lord  of  the  harvest  that  He  will
young men seeking the holy min-                say to me in that day, Lord, Lord,         send  forth  laborers  into  His  har-
istry.                                         have  we  not  prophesied  in  thy         vest.
    But those days seem to be past.            name?  and in thy name have cast                   Evidently  this  has  not  been
    There are plenty of young men              out devils?  and in thy name done          done.  And evidently this has not
in the church of Christ.  There are            many wonderful works?  And then            been done for a long time.  For the
plenty  of  young  men  with  bright           will  I  profess  unto  them,  I  never    call of God starts very early.
and clear heads.  God also regen-              knew you:  depart from me, ye that                 And that leads us to our text.
erates many young men, and gives               work iniquity" (Matt. 7:22, 23).                       333    333    333
conversion and faith, so that they                 Some  of  these  wretches  were                O, beloved reader, Samuel was
confess the name of their Savior.              even called by Jesus, and they also        a  splendid  example  of  what  a
    But no, they do not give them-             prophesied; but, nevertheless, they        prophet, a minister, should be.
selves to the holy ministry.                   were cast out.  Take, for example                  His  beginning,  as  far  as  the
    Results?    Many  vacant                   Judas,  and  tremble.    Jesus  called     means are concerned, was his God-
churches.  Reading services, some-             him, knowing that he was a repro-          fearing mother, Hannah.
times weeks on end.                            bate, to be an apostle of the Lord,                Here is Hannah:  "For this child
                                               in  order  to  show  to  the  whole        I prayed!"
                                               world that when a reprobate comes                  It has been said that behind ev-
    Gerrit  Vos  (1894-1968)  was  a           very close to Jesus and the gospel,        ery  great  man  stands  a  great
minister  in  the  Protestant  Reformed        he reveals all the filth of his natu-      woman.    Looking  at  Hannah,  I
Churches and a long-time contributor           ral heart.  Remember the sign, the         would almost believe it.  For great
to  the  Standard  Bearer.    He  wrote        devilish sign:  Whom I shall kiss,         she was and is.
this meditation for the May 15, 1963           He it is:  take Him!                               When young girls marry, how
issue of the Standard Bearer.

                                                                                                        June, 1997/Standard Bearer/387


many  can  say  with  Hannah:    for          mother.    And  it  belonged  to  the        Hannah?    And  when  you  have
this child I prayed?  On good au-             means which God employed.                    found her, do you join with her to
thority I  have heard that there is               Can you imagine how Hannah               approach  the  throne  of  grace  to-
sometime the very opposite:  "We              educated little Samuel?  I can.  Oh,         gether in order to petition our Fa-
will not have any children until we           often, very often, she told him in           ther in heaven for a Samuel?
pay for our furniture!"  A far cry!           childlike  language  how  she  had               If and when you do, you shall
    In  Hannah  you  see  how  God            struggled with the Lord to obtain            be blessed in such a deed.
works  through  the  means  He  or-           this son; and how she had vowed                  Only eternity shall reveal how
dained.    We  are  to  pray  for  His        a vow unto the Almighty.  Often              many blessed ministers were born
blessings.                                    she would tell him:  I promised the          from the struggles of a mother in
    The Lord gave Hannah her pe-              Lord God of Israel that you would            Israel.
tition:  the child was born.  And,            stand in the house of God all the                Always remember:   God uses
publicly  confessing  her  struggle,          days of your life!                           and blesses the means.
she named him Samuel.  That name                  Beloved mothers, Hannah pre-                 It is sad  to say, but there  are
means:  "Asked of God."                       pared  her  son  Samuel  to  live  in        many mothers and fathers who are
    But  that  is  not  all.    Listen  to    Shiloh.    You  can  tell.    When  he       duly  concerned  about  their  off-
Hannah:  "He shall be lent to the             heard the call of the Lord time and          spring,  but  it  is  a  concern  about
Lord,"  or,  literally:    "he  whom  I       again and did not know it, he lis-           their carnal advancement.  My boy
have obtained by petition shall be            tened obediently to the advice of            or boys must have a good educa-
returned to the Lord."                        Eli, and when God called again, he           tion, the best education.
    That  is  the  great  thing  about        said:    "Speak;  for  thy  servant              In  the  meantime,  while  he  is
Hannah  with  respect  to  her  peti-         heareth!"                                    studying and struggling to become
tion and the gift of the child.  He               Now  listen,  beloved  reader:           thoroughly prepared for his life's
shall be returned to the Lord!                That first speech to God Almighty            task,  someone  comes  to  the  door
    What  does  that  mean?    It             became  his  whole  life's  program.         and asks for a gift for God.  Sure,
means  that  he  shall  be  dedicated         How he listened to the speech of             sure, sure, here is a ten dollar bill.
to the service of God in the most             God!    And  Israel  was  blessed            You can even have twenty dollars!
intimate  way  possible:    he  shall         through this Verbi Dei minister.             The Chinese and the Africans must
stand  in  the  house  of  God  and                      333    333    333                 have  missionaries  and  ministers.
serve Him in the Word of God!                     And  the  mother  was  blessed.          For the theological school?  Oh, yes,
    Oh, it is a great thing to pray           If you wish to know the extent of            indeed, here is my donation!  Give
for  children  from  the  Lord.    It  is     her blessedness, just read her song          the professors and the students my
also a great thing if the Lord hears          of praise in I Samuel 2:1-10.                best regards!  But my son?  No, no,
you and fills your hearts and arms                This mother of one of the most           no!  My son is going to be a brick-
with children.  It is inexpressibly           glorious ministers of all time con-          layer, a carpenter, an industrialist,
sweet  when  you  hear  your  flesh           tinues her singing in the Paradise           a great business man.  You can get
and blood confess the name of God             of God.                                      my  money,  but  not  my  son.    It
in  His  house.    When  and  if  they                   333    333    333                 never entered my mind, or  ... my
do, there is singing in your hearts.              And Samuel?                              heart!
    But what is sweeter to the taste              Well,  the  text  says  of  him:             Yes, that is right.   It never en-
than to sit in church and hear your           "And  he  worshipped  the  Lord              tered  my  heart.    There  is  the
son preach the wondrous gospel of             there."  To worship is to enumer-            trouble.
the promise?                                  ate all the beauties of the Lord God,                    333    333    333
            333    333    333                 to  tell  of  His  majesty,  to  sing  of        Are  there  any  God-fearing
    How  long  shall Samuel  stand            His wonders all the day long.  It is         young men who read this?
in  the  house  of  his  God?    Listen       to do so before the face of all Is-              Yes, it is late on the calendar.
again to the God-fearing Hannah.              rael,  so  that  they  also  may  learn      It is  very late.  It should have be-
She will tell you:  "as long as he            the praises of the Lord.                     gun  with  your  mom.    But  how
liveth."                                          To worship is to begin our ev-           about  the  holy  ministry  in  your
    Yes, I know, that is a dogma of           erlasting work in heaven here on             church?    Are  you  not  concerned
the church, of the true church.  The          earth.                                       about the fact that we are woefully
calling  of  God  is  without  repen-                    333    333    333                 short of ministers?
tance.  Once a minister, always a                 Mothers!  Daughters of Jerusa-               Would it not be heaven for you
minister.  But the point is that this         lem!    Are  you  not  jealous  of           to  say:    "Speak,  for  Thy  servant
truth  of  all  the  ages  lived  in  the     Hannah?                                      heareth"?
heart  of  this  mother.    It  was  not          Elkanahs!  Ye men of Israel!  Do             And heaven, with its joyful an-
Samuel  that  said  it;  it  was  his         you  look  for  such  brides  as             gels, would say, Amen!   u

388/Standard Bearer/June, 1997


  Editorial



               1997 Synod of the PRC:
                       Ecclesiastical Matters

Article 30 of the Church Or- School Committee informs synod is not feasible.  This is due to the
         der of Dordt requires of all    that,  subject  to  synod's  decision,    fact that there is not a concentra-
              the  church  assemblies    four men will begin full-time stud-       tion of contacts or interested per-
that  they  transact  "ecclesiastical    ies at the seminary in August, 1997.      sons in one area where a mission-
matters  only."    The  work  of  the    Two come from Northern Ireland;           ary could establish a base."
major  assemblies  is  further  re-      one, from Australia; and another,             The  DMC  are  recommending
stricted to matters "as could not be     from  the  Netherlands.    A  goodly      that synod approve calling a sec-
finished  in  minor  assemblies,  or     contingent from the Heritage Neth-        ond  home  missionary,  who  will
such as pertain to the churches of       erlands  Reformed  denomination           concentrate  his  labors  initially  in
the major assembly in common."           will again take selected courses at       the  eastern  part  of  the  United
    Such is the agenda of the 1997       the seminary.                             States.  The man would begin his
synod of the Protestant Reformed             No  man  from  the  PRC  is  en-      work in Pittsburgh, PA.  For a year,
Churches (PRC) that will convene         rolled in the first year.                 the  DMC  have  been  providing
on  June  10  at  Grandville  PRC  in        Missions  will  also  command         preaching  for  a  small  group  in
Grandville, MI.                          synod's attention.  Synod will re-        Pittsburgh, one Sunday a month.
    Much  of  synod's  time--more         ceive reports on the work of Rev.             Although Rev. Jay Kortering's
than 15 hours--will be devoted to         Ron  Hanko,  who  is  stationed  in       title  is  minister-on-loan,  he  is  in-
the examination of three graduat-        Northern Ireland, and of Rev. Tho-        creasingly  active  in  the  work  of
ing seniors from the Protestant Re-      mas Miersma, who is stationed in          missions  of  the  Evangelical  Re-
formed Seminary.  The seminarians        Alamosa, CO.                              formed  Churches  of  Singapore
will be examined before synod in             As  an  independent  congrega-        (ERCS), as Christ gives these sister
dogmatics; church history; church        tion, the  Covenant  Protestant Re-       churches of the PRC an open door
polity; Old and New Testament his-       formed Church (CPRC) in North-            in all that area.  In addition to the
tory; and matters of their own life      ern  Ireland  proposes  that  "the        work in Singapore itself, the ERCS
and calling to the ministry.  They       CPRC,  when  necessary,  seek  the        are working in  Myanmar and In-
will present written exegesis of as-     counsel  of  the  Hudsonville  (MI)       dia.  They are also establishing a
signed Hebrew and Greek passages         consistory."  Hudsonville approves        Bible  School  in  Singapore.    One
of  Holy  Scripture.    In  addition,    "the proposed relationship."  The         purpose,  closely  tied  to  missions,
each will preach a sermon before         Domestic  Mission  Committee              is  the  instruction  of  pastors  and
the synod.                               (DMC) express their opinion "that         others in Myanmar, India, and the
    The students are Daniel Kleyn,       this relationship does not need the       Philippines, in the Reformed faith.
James Laning, and Martin Vander          approval of the Mission Commit-               The ERCS have asked the PRC
Wal.                                     tee or the synod, since the CPRC is       to help in their work of missions
    These  sessions  of  synod  are      an autonomous congregation that           and of the Bible School.  One pro-
open to the public.                      is  seeking  the  assistance  of  a       posal coming from the Committee
    Besides the three who aspire to      `neighboring consistory.'"                for  Contact  with  Other  Churches
the  ministry  in  the  PRC,  Darren         From the British Reformed Fel-        of  the  PRC  (CC)  is  that  the  PRC
Thole graduates from the seminary        lowship in the British Isles, the PRC     contribute  financially  to  the  sup-
this year.  Mr. Thole, a member of       receive  a  request  that  "consider-     port of foreign students who will
that church, intends to be a minis-      ation be given to the sending of a        attend  the  ERCS  Bible  School  in
ter  in  the  Orthodox  Presbyterian     second missionary to the UK."  The        Singapore.
Church.                                  DMC judge that a "second full-time            The Foreign Mission Commit-
    The report by the Theological        missionary in the UK at this time         tee of the PRC (FMC) report that

                                                                                              June, 1997/Standard Bearer/389


Rev. and Mrs. Kortering will visit           ternal relationship as referred to in     of appeal against the minor assem-
a number of contacts that the FMC            the  Constitution  of  the  Contact       bly, the work of the synod prom-
have in the Philippines.                     Committee."                               ises to be positive and pleasant.
       The CC recommend that synod               Synod 1996 appointed a com-               In keeping with the condition
again send observers to the annual           mittee  to  plan  a  75th  anniversary    of the denomination indicated by
meeting  of  the  North  American            celebration  of  the  PRC  for  A.D.      the agenda, under God's blessing,
Presbyterian and Reformed Coun-              2000.    This  committee  is  recom-      the churches continue to grow nu-
cil  (NAPARC).    The  Council  will         mending  that  the  celebration  be       merically.  Larger than ever before
hold  its  1997  meeting  in  Atlanta,       held  at  Calvin  College  in  Grand      in their 72-year history, they now
GA.                                          Rapids, MI, June 19-23, 2000.             number some 6, 390.
       The CC report on their confer-            Southwest  PRC  overtures                 The pre-synodical worship ser-
ence with the Evangelical Presby-            synod "to appoint a committee to          vice will be held in the Grandville
terian  Church  of  Australia  (EPC)         study the advisability of investing       church building on Monday, June
earlier  this  year.    The  conference      a portion of the Emeritation Fund         9, at 7:30 PM, God willing.  Rev.
discussed  theological  differences          in  mutual  funds,  which,  though        James  Slopsema,  president  of  the
between  the  two  denominations.            uninsured,  have  historically  pro-      1996 synod, will preach.  Let our
The subjects were marriage and di-           vided long-term yields significantly      people  assemble  in  gratitude  for
vorce;  the  "establishment  prin-           higher  than  can  be  obtained           God's  favor  on  the  churches  and
ciple"; the  regulative  principle of        through CDs."  The ground is that         in prayer for His presence with us
worship; and eternal justification.          "good stewardship requires atten-         in the future.
The CC are advising synod to de-             tion to possibilities for legitimately        May the Spirit of Jesus Christ
clare that the PRC have a relation-          maximizing return on investment."         give wisdom and faithfulness to the
ship with the EPC which "can be                  Since the agenda is free of any       synod of the PRC.   u
described  as  a  less  complete  fra-       case of doctrinal controversy and                                        -- DJE

     Letters

s      A Radical Stand                       in  the  name  of  unity,  especially     pends  upon  his  choosing  Christ
I am writing concerning your edi- when it comes to Roman Catholi- with a will that is supposed to have
      torial, "Free-Willism:  Another        cism  and  Protestantism.    But  to      the natural ability to do so.  Packer
Gospel"  (Standard Bearer, May 1,            what  extent  do  you  suppose  Re-       refuses  to  condemn  this  free-
1997).  Your article caught my at-           formed Christians and Arminians           willism  as  "another  gospel."    He
tention since I am a recent convert          should separate?  Should there be         defends it as a somewhat deficient
to the Reformed faith.  I have been          no relationship at all?  Do we share      form of the one, true gospel.  This
a  Christian  for  approximately             nothing in common?                        defense  of  free-willism  brings
eleven years, and Reformed for the               It seems that your stand here         Packer into conflict with the offi-
last two.  Would you please reply            is  radical.    Obviously,  you  are      cial  creed  of  the  Reformed
to a couple of questions.                    driven by deep convictions.  I want       churches,  the  Canons  of  Dordt.
       It seems by the title of the ar-      to understand what and why you            This creed repudiates free-willism
ticle that you consider free-willism         wrote what you did.                       --  free-willism  as  such!     free-
another gospel, opposed to the gos-                                  Jim Suttinger     willism  in  any  form!    free-willism
pel  of  grace.    On  pages  343  and                             Sunbury, Ohio       in every form! -- as another gospel
344  it  seems  that  you  contradict                                                  in  the  sense  of  the  apostle  in
yourself by stating that it is not an-       RESPONSE:                                 Galatians 1:6-9.
other gospel.  I do not understand           The  lines  on  pages  343,  344,             This is my stand, and for this
your point, and I would ask you to               "Free-willism  is  not  `another      reason.
clarify your statements, specifically        gospel,' " express the opinions of            It is a radical stand, not in the
those dealing with Packer, Wesley,           James I. Packer and John M. Frame,        sense of being extremist but in the
and Dordt.                                   whom I had just quoted.  The lines        sense of arising out of and giving
       I have been to several Promise        are not intended to express my own        expression to the roots of spiritual
Keepers events over the last couple          judgment.    My  judgment  of  free-      and theological reality.  These roots
of  years.    I  will  admit  that  I  am    willism is expressed in the title of      are:  1) God saves elect sinners by
very uncomfortable with the influ-           the editorial.                            sovereign grace alone;  2) the sin-
ence of the Vineyard on the lead-                The  Methodist  preacher  John        ner cannot save himself by his free-
ership  and  with  the  emphasis  on         Wesley taught the "gospel" of free-       will because he has no free-will --
tearing down denomination walls              will:  the salvation of the sinner de-    his will is enslaved to sin; and 3)

390/Standard Bearer/June, 1997


the false gospel of free-willism, like        grace  of  God  in Jesus  Christ  that     gospel in common, neither do they
the false gospel of works-righteous-          delivers from sin, death, and hell         have in common the pure worship
ness, renders Christ and His cross            without having these "deep convic-         of  God;  spiritual  fellowship;  the
vain and robs God of His glory in             tions"?                                    true church; and the task of preach-
His greatest work.                                Arminianism is another gospel.         ing and confessing the gospel.
    About these truths, I do indeed               The Reformed faith is the one,             My question is this:  why are
have "deep convictions."  Can any-            true gospel of the Holy Scriptures.        confessing Reformed Christians be-
one  who  lives  before  the  face  of            Arminians  and  Reformed  be-          having as though they and the free-
God not have these "deep convic-              lievers, therefore, do not have the        willists do have the gospel in com-
tions"?  Is it possible to know one-          gospel in common.  Not having the          mon?   u
self as the sinner and to know the                                                                                         -- Ed.

  A Cloud of Witnesses                                                                         Prof. Herman Hanko


                     George Martin Ophoff:
 Humble Servant of the Truth (2)

                                              by God, and that (and here is the          the  "proselytizing"  minister  and
Ophoff's Pastoral Work                        wonder)  the  two  so  perfectly           proceed,  in  the  presence  of  his
                                              match.  It soon became evident that        class, to instruct the local minister
                                              Ophoff's gifts  and abilities lay in       in the error of common grace and
George Ophoff was ordained
          into  the  ministry  of  the
        Word  and  sacraments  on             teaching.                                  in  the  necessity  of  the  children's
January 26, 1922 in the Hope Chris-               He  was  a  forceful  teacher  in      learning  the  Reformed  faith  over
tian Reformed Church during the               catechism classes, although he did         against this pernicious error.
evening worship service.  The con-            not usually succeed in remember-               The  same  strength  of  Ophoff
gregation  had  been  in  existence           ing  all  the  names  of  his  catechu-    appeared  in  his  preaching.    His
since 1916, though it had never had           mens, and they could easily "pull          preaching,  especially  on  the  Old
a  pastor.    It  belonged  to  Classis       the wool over his eyes" by reading         Testament,  was  powerful,  Re-
Grand Rapids West, and was sup-               the answers to the questions they          formed,  unique,  gripping.    He
plied by ministers from the Classis           were supposed to memorize, with-           could  bring  the  whole  congrega-
and  by  students  and  professors            out his being aware of it.                 tion,  including  the  children,  into
from the seminary.  It was a rural                He was, however, extremely in-         the lives and history of the saints
congregation  numbering  between              terested in the spiritual welfare of       described  in  Scripture.    And  he
thirty and thirty-five families, most         the children, a welfare rooted, he         could  unfold  in  an  unforgettable
of whom farmed.                               was  convinced,  in  their  thorough       way the riches of Christ crucified
    In many ways and from many                understanding  of  the  Reformed           as the salvation of God's people in
viewpoints,  Ophoff's  strengths              faith.  After Ophoff was deposed           every age.
were not best utilized in the pasto-          from the ministry in the Christian             But he was rarely on time for
ral  aspects  of  the  ministry.    It  is    Reformed Church (though he con-            anything  --  a  weakness  that
always  a  marvel  that  God  gives           tinued to be a minister in the Hope        plagued  him  all  his  life.    In  con-
sovereignly to each man his gifts             Protestant  Reformed  Church),  it         cern  for  the  congregation,  the  el-
and  abilities,  that  the  particular        came to his attention that a nearby        ders would often start the service,
place  of  each  man  within  the             local Christian Reformed minister          and  the  minister  would  appear
church  is  sovereignly  determined           was attempting to persuade some            sometime  during  the  preliminary
                                              of Ophoff's catechumens to attend          acts of worship.
                                              catechism  in  the  Christian  Re-             Ophoff's life was, especially af-
                                              formed Church.  Ophoff's solution          ter 1924, unbelievably difficult as
Prof.  Hanko  is  professor  of  Church
                                              to this problem was to take his en-        he attempted to combine the full-
History  and  New  Testament  in  the
                                              tire catechism class to the home of        time  care  of  a  congregation  with
Protestant Reformed Seminary.

                                                                                                     June, 1997/Standard Bearer/391


the heavy responsibilities of semi-          service in the office of elder in First     Classes  will  show  that  the  same
nary  instruction --  when  the  full         Protestant Reformed Church.                 men who had sought the ouster of
curriculum  fell  on  just  two  men.                                                    Hoeksema would not rest until also
The  result  was  that  his  sermons         Ophoff's Deposition                         Ophoff was put out of the church.
were not always as carefully pre-                George  Ophoff  was  involved           The  material presented  to  Classis
pared as they would have been if             early in the events which led up to         West  was  much  the  same  as  that
he had sufficient time to spend on           the formation of the Protestant Re-         which  had  appeared  in  Classis
them; he often failed to finish a ser-       formed  Churches.    Although  the          East.    From  the  first  day  of  the
mon in the allotted time, and it was         PRC were not formally established           meeting  it  was  obvious  that  the
not  unusual  that  he  would  com-          until January of 1925, Rev. Ophoff          Classis had not come together as a
plete  a  sermon  in  the  afternoon         joined  the  staff  of  the   Standard      deliberative body to discuss the is-
worship service which he had be-             Bearer   in  October  of  1924  and         sues; it had one purpose in mind,
gun in the morning.  He sometimes            wrote his first article in the Novem-       namely to rid the church once and
would reprimand from the pulpit              ber issue.  It was entitled, "A Dec-        for  all  of  anyone  who  disagreed
individual members of the congre-            laration," and was intended to ex-          with  the  synodical  pronounce-
gation  who  had  sinned;  and  his          plain his action:                           ments.  It had one question to ask
condemnation of sin, though stern                                                        Ophoff:  Will  you  sign  the  three
and  unbending,  was  not  always                And thus it happens that I, the         points of common grace or not?
touched  by  a  shepherd's  love  for          undersigned, am of the group ed-              The  demand  came  to  Ophoff
the sheep.  Because bulletins were             iting this periodical.  The fact that     via the insistence of the Classis that
unheard  of  and  the  minister  was           I agree to serve upon the editorial       Ophoff's  consistory  confront  its
required  to  read  the  announce-             staff  of  the  "Standard  Bearer"        pastor  with  these  demands.    The
                                               amounts to an admission on my
ments,  Ophoff  often  became  en-             part that I too reject the views and      missive read:
tangled in the difficult task of find-         conception  of  things  which  the
ing the correct piece of paper con-            term  common  grace  stands  for.           Dear Brethren,
taining the current announcements              For  me  it  is  quite  impossible  to        The Classis Grand Rapids West
among  a  welter  of  slips  of  paper         adhere to the principles embedded           hereby requires you to require of
found in every pocket of his coat.             in the term common grace and re-            your minister:
    Jacob  was  his  favorite  Bible           main on friendly terms with Scrip-              1) That he declare himself un-
                                                                                           equivocally whether he is in full
character -- what Ophoff himself                ture.
                                                                                           agreement,  yes  or  no,  with  the
would  call  "his  favorite  person-                                                       three points [of common grace] of
age."  He himself admitted that this             To  write  for  the  Standard             the Synod of Kalamazoo.
was true  because he saw himself             Bearer and to write this kind of lan-             2) An unconditional promise
in Jacob, who illustrated so vividly         guage was an act of courage born              that  in  the  matter  of  the  three
that  sovereign  election  and  grace        out  of  faith.    The  times  were           points,  he  will  submit  (with  the
makes a saint from a very miser-             troubled  and  dangerous.    A  few           right  of  appeal)  to  the  Confes-
able  character.    Because  his  ser-       months before, in June, the Synod             sional Standards of the Church as
mons were filled with illustrations          of the Christian Reformed Church              interpreted by the Synod of 1924
                                                                                           i.e. neither publicly nor privately
and expressions which were down-             had adopted a statement concern-
                                                                                           propose, teach or defend either by
to-earth,  homely,  and  taken  from         ing common grace which made the               preaching  or  writing  any  senti-
everyday  life,  even  today  those          doctrine  official  dogma  in  the            ment contrary to the Confessional
who heard him preach remember                church.  And, while the Synod had             Standards of the Church as inter-
many of his sermons and the points           not required the discipline of those          preted by the Synod of 1924 and
he was making in them.                       who disagreed with Synod's deci-              in case of an appeal that he in the
    After  the  controversy  over            sion, many had started movements              interim will acquiesce in the judg-
common grace which was the oc-               to rid the church of all those who            ment already passed by the Synod
casion  for  the  beginning  of  the         dared  express  disagreement  with            of 1924.
                                                                                             The Classis further requests you
Protestant  Reformed  Churches,              what  Synod  said.    Ophoff  must
                                                                                           to  furnish  the  Classis  by  10:00
Rev. Ophoff was pastor for sixteen           have  known  that  such  writing              A.M.,  Wednesday  morning,  Jan.
years  in  Byron  Center,  Michigan.         would  eventually  lead  to  trouble          21,  1925,  with  a  definite  written
But, partly because of controversy           for him.                                      answer of your pastor to the two-
in the congregation, the congrega-               And  so  it  did.    Rev.  Herman         fold        requirement     of     the
tion was dissolved and Ophoff was            Hoeksema was disciplined in De-               Consistory.
able  to  devote  all  his  time  to  his    cember  of  1924  by  Classis  Grand
work in the Seminary.  His work              Rapids  East.    Classis  Grand  Rap-           The Classis brushed aside the
in  a  congregation  after  that  was        ids West followed in January.  A            detailed  answer  of  Hope's
limited  to  faithful  and  dedicated        reading  of  the  minutes  of  both         Consistory  and  proceeded  to  de-

392/Standard Bearer/June, 1997


pose from office Rev. Ophoff him-           statement which Ophoff had made              nary was established and operated
self  and  his  elders.    One  deacon      on the floor of the Classis during           under the firm conviction that the
also  was  deposed  while  another          the course of proceedings.  He had           survival  of  the  fledgling  denomi-
agreed to common grace.                     informed the Classis that he would           nation depended upon the training
    From an earthly point of view           rather be shot than to sign the three        of  its  own  ministers.   And  so,  in
the results were disastrous.  Ophoff        points.    The  paragraph  from  the         addition  to  his  pastoral  work,
was stripped of his office, as were         Press reads:                                 Ophoff began teaching Church His-
his elders; the congregation was re-                                                     tory and Old Testament subjects in
duced  to  a  small  group  of  about           Mr.  President,  if  you  were  to       the seminary.  Although the semi-
seven or eight families; the whole            place me before a gun to be shot           nary  could  not  begin  to  compare
movement  numbered  only  three               or set before me the three points          with other seminaries in facilities,
ministers and three congregations;            to adhere to, I would choose the           organization, size of student body,
Ophoff's relatives all remained in            former.    I  cannot  sign  the  three     and prestige, the simple fact is that
                                              points.  If I did I would be tearing
the  CRC,  and  what  had  been  a            the Bible into shreds.  I would be         the seminary turned out ministers
close-knit family was torn apart by           stamping the Word under foot.  I           who in ability to preach and shep-
the split.                                    would  be  slapping  God  in  the          herd  the  church  of  Christ  were
    Nevertheless,  God  used  this            face.                                      head  and  shoulders  above  every
seemingly  hopeless  situation  to                                                       seminary  in  the  land.    While  the
bring  reformation  to  His  church.            It  was  not  a  vain  and  empty        academic aspect of the training was
Common grace is an unwarranted              boast.  The truth was more impor-            good, the success of the seminary
departure from Scripture and the            tant  to  him  than  life  itself.    And    was,  without  doubt,  due  to  the
Reformed confessions and an intro-          the  courage  to  stand  alone,  as          deep spirituality of its teachers.
duction of deadly heresy into the           saints  before  him  had  so  often              I  consider  it  one  of  the  great
church.  The deposition of faithful         done,  was  a  courage  born  in  an         privileges which the Lord gave me
ministers  was  a  terrible  sin.    Yet    unshakable faith that Christ's cause         in  life,  that  I  could  study  under
Ophoff was determined to remain             always has the victory.                      Profs.  Ophoff  and  Hoeksema.    It
true  to  Scripture  and  to his  God.          Such  was,  in  part,  the  begin-       was  a  part  of  a  seminary  educa-
Nothing else mattered.  At the time         ning  of  the  Protestant  Reformed          tion  which  was  better  than  any-
of his deposition the  Grand Rap-           Churches.                                    thing obtainable elsewhere.  I look
ids Press published an edition with                                                      back on those years with gratitude.
the headlines: "OPHOFF PREFERS              Ophoff As Professor                                                                 u
DEATH ."  The reference was to a                From the beginning of the Prot-                            ... to be continued.
                                            estant Reformed Churches, a semi-

  Contribution                                                                                  Prof. Robert Decker


              In Christ, No East or West

So wrote one of the sisters, a wrote, "there is no East or West, in Churches of Singapore (ERCS),
       member of First Evangelical          Him  no  South  or  North;  but  one         who are one with us in the faith,
      Reformed  Church  of  Singa-          great  fellowship  of  love  through-        hope, and love of our Lord Jesus
pore, in a farewell card given to us        out the whole wide world."                   Christ.
just before we left Singapore to re-            My  wife  and  I,  together  with            The  story of our trip to these
turn to the States.  "In Christ," she       Elder and Mrs. Harry Langerak, ex-           churches  really  begins  with  the
                                            perienced the truth of this on our           1996 Synod of our Churches.  That
                                            recent trip to Singapore.  There on          synod decided to send a delegation
Prof. Decker is professor of Practical      the  other  side  of  the  globe  from       to visit Rev. Kortering (a minister
Theology in the Protestant Reformed         North  America  we  found  over              of  the  Protestant  Reformed
Seminary, and a member of the PRC           three  hundred  saints  in  Christ           Churches on loan to the Evangeli-
Committee  for  Contact  with  other        Jesus,  members  of  the  First  and         cal  Reformed  Churches  in  Singa-
Churches.                                   Covenant  Evangelical  Reformed              pore since 1992).  This delegation

                                                                                                    June, 1997/Standard Bearer/393


was to consist of a member of the
Hope PRC Council and a member
of the Committee for Contact with
other Churches.  The mandate for
the delegation reads, "1) To be in
Singapore a minimum of three Sun-
days.  2) To inquire into the physi-
cal and spiritual well-being of Rev.
and  Mrs.  Kortering,  giving  direc-
tion and encouragement as needed.
3) To discuss with Rev. Kortering
the  development  and  progress  of
his work as mandated by Synod as
well as goals for the future.  4) To                          ERCS Contact Committee and PRC delegates
assist  Rev.  Kortering  in  his  work    That evening we attended the ser-           April  5,  I  conducted  a  seminar/
as opportunity arises.  Grounds: 1)       vice in Covenant Church.  Cheah             workshop  on  the  same  subject.
This belongs to the proper super-         Fook  Meng  led  this  service.    On       Both sessions were well attended.
vision of the work of our minister-       Tuesday, April 1, Elder Langerak                On Sunday, April 6, I preached
on-loan. 2) Rev. Kortering's minis-       and I attended the meeting of the           at  the  morning  worship  of  First
ter-on-loan status is up for review       Denominational  Contact  Commit-            Church.  We attended the second
                                                                                      service  in  Covenant  Church  and
                                                                                      heard Pastor Lau preach.  We met
                                                                                      with  both  sessions  (councils)  on
                                                                                      Tuesday, April 8.  At this meeting
                                                                                      Elder  Langerak  spoke  with  the
                                                                                      brothers regarding the work of the
                                                                                      elders and deacons in the church.
                                                                                      Elder  Langerak  answered  many
                                                                                      questions put to him by  the  men
                                                                                      as well.
                                                                                          I gave a lecture on the subject,
                                                                                      "Reformed  Christian  Education,"
                                                                                      on  Friday  April  11.   Mrs. Decker
                       Ladies' Fellowship and PRC visitors                            showed a video of her First Grade
                                                                                      Class at Heritage Christian School,
at the 1997 Synod"  (Acts of Synod        tee  of  the  ERCS.    Present  at  this    and a panel discussion on the sub-
1996, Articles 31, 32; pp. 23-24).        meeting were representatives of the         ject  of  Christian  Education  was
    Elder  Langerak  of  Hope's           Theological Training and Joint Mis-         conducted  by  the  delegates  and
Council and I of the Contact Com-         sion  Committees  of  the  ERCS  as         their wives on Saturday, April 12.
mittee, together with our wives, left     well.                                       Both  sessions  were  well  attended
for Singapore on March 26.  At 1:45           On  Friday,  April  4,  I  gave  a      and a great deal of interest was ex-
AM we arrived in Changi Airport           public lecture on the subject, "The-        pressed in this important subject by
in  Singapore  where  we  were            matic  Preaching."    On  Saturday,         the  young  parents  of  the  two
warmly greeted by Rev. and Mrs.
Kortering,  Pastor  and  Mrs.  Lau,
Candidate and Mrs. Cheah, and a
number of the members of the two
churches.  Pastor Lau led us in a
prayer of thanksgiving to God for
our safe arrival.
    On  Sunday, March 30, we at-
tended  the  morning  worship  ser-
vice  conducted by Rev. Kortering
at First Church.  After the service
the catechism classes were taught
and  the  Sunday  School  met.    We
enjoyed a delicious lunch at church.               Catechism class, First Evangelical Reformed Church of Singapore

394/Standard Bearer/June, 1997


churches.  It is our fervent prayer           weeks  we  were  in  Singapore  we         quested  by  the  ERCS.    Our  Con-
that we were able to "plant some              met with Rev. Kortering on several         tact Committee concurs and is rec-
seeds" which under God's blessing             occasions  and  for  several  hours        ommending  that  Synod  1997  ex-
bear fruit in a Reformed Christian            each  time.    Both  he  and  his  wife    tend his term another five years.
school in Singapore some day.                 are  enjoying  good  health.    They           Finally,  we  strongly  believe
    On  Sunday,  April  13,  I                also  enjoy  their  work  very  much       that  Rev.  Kortering  ought  to  be
preached at the morning worship               (Mrs. Kortering's advice and coun-         commended for the excellent work
service  of  the  Covenant  Church.           sel is sought by many of the sisters       he is doing, with his wife's help,
We attended the evening service at            of  the  churches).    They  are  both     in the ERCS.  The crisis which he
Covenant and heard Rev. Kortering             spiritually strong and testify of the      initially encountered, especially in
preach.      At  6:15  the  following         Lord's  all-sufficient  grace  which       Covenant Church, is over.  There
morning, after Dr. Daniel Kwek led            enables  them  to  do  their  work.        are unity and peace in the two con-
us and a small group from the two             They are thankful to God for their         gregations, and the work is going
churches in prayer, we boarded the            places in His church in Singapore.         forward both within the two con-
plane  for  the  trip  back  to  Grand        From the unsolicited testimony of          gregations and in missions.  This
Rapids.                                       many of the saints it became obvi-         is due to no little degree to the hard
    We  were  impressed  by  many             ous  that  both  Rev.  and  Mrs.           work  and  wise  counsel  of  Rev.
things  during  our  nearly  three-           Kortering  are  much  appreciated          Kortering.  We thank God for en-
week  stay  in  Singapore.    Among           and loved.                                 abling  the  brother  so  to  labor
these were the enthusiastic singing               Rev.  Kortering  strongly  be-         among  our  sister  churches  in
of  the  saints,  the  commitment  to         lieves that there is much work to          Singapore, and we commend him
the  Reformed  Faith,  the  heartfelt         be done in the following areas:            to the gracious care of our Lord.
concern on the part of the elders,                1)  In  the  development  of  the          We urge all of our people and
deacons, and pastors for the people           two congregations as a Reformed            readers to join us in praying daily
of God.  We were also impressed               denomination.                              for the officebearers, for the mem-
with the active role assumed by the               2)  Theological  training  of  fu-     bers  of  the  ERCS,  and  for  Pastor
elders of the church.  They teach,            ture ministers for the ERCS as well        and  Mrs.  Kortering.    May  those
for example, most of the catechism            as  other  Reformed  churches              churches hold to the traditions they
classes.  But what impressed us the           (United  Reformed  Churches  of            have been taught and in this way
most was the wonderful Christian              Myanmar, for example).                     stand fast in the Reformed Faith in
hospitality  and  love  of  Christ                3) Assisting the ERCS in their         Singapore.
shown  to  us  by  the  saints  there.        mission work.                                  To  God  be  the  glory  for  the
This will make our trip unforget-                 For  these  reasons  Rev.              wonderful  work  He  has  accom-
table.                                        Kortering desires that his term as         plished in Singapore through our
    During  the  two  and  a  half            minister-on-loan  in  Singapore  be        churches.   u
                                              extended another five years as re-

  Guest Article                                                                                    Rev. Doug Kuiper


                  Language: 1) God's Gift

                                                  That  we  use  language  every         tinctly Reformed terminology, the
                                              day indicates that language is im-
We use language every
            day.  Speaking and writ-                                                     importance of language is that it is
            ing, reading and hearing          portant.  Not just how we use lan-         one  way  in  which  we  live  both
--  all  are  instances  of  our use  of       guage  is  important,  but  language       covenantally and antithetically.
language.    Without  language,  we           itself is important.  Its importance           Understanding that this is the
could not communicate.                        is  that  by  it  we  have  fellowship     importance of language, we must
                                              with God and  with fellow saints,          be concerned with how we use lan-
                                              and by it we manifest our separa-          guage.  We must use it to defend
Rev.  Kuiper  is  pastor  of  the  Protes-    tion  from  the  ungodly  and  the         the truth and oppose the lie.  We
tant Reformed Church of Byron Cen-            powers  of  darkness.    Or,  to  re-      must use it to show love for God
ter, Michigan.                                phrase this last sentence with dis-        and our neighbor.  We must use it

                                                                                                   June, 1997/Standard Bearer/395


to  worship  God  as  He  has  com-           press the intelligent thoughts of ra-        the last four or five millennia.  As-
manded us in His Word, in obedi-              tional, moral creatures.                     suming we can reject the idea that
ence to the second and third com-                                                          language was a gift of the gods,
                                                       333    333    333
mandments.  We must use it to de-                                                          we have to ask how it was pos-
fend our neighbor's reputation, in                From  where  did  men  get  the          sible for a hominid that presum-
                                                                                           ably communicated not too much
obedience to the ninth command-               ability to express their thoughts to         differently from our present pri-
ment.  In fact, the keeping of every          each other?  The answer is that lan-         mate  relatives  to  evolve  into  a
commandment of God's law will in              guage is a created gift given to us          creature who can do what you and
some way involve the proper use               from God.                                    I are now doing.4
of language.                                      We must  believe that language
    If language is a part of our ev-          is a created gift from God.  There         The writer goes on to speak of the
eryday life, if it is important, and          is no creed, or article of our faith,      biological differences between man
if we must be concerned with how              which says in so many words that           and ape which allowed for human
we use it, then we should have a              God created language and gave it           language to evolve from the com-
Reformed view of what language                to us.  But this fact is implied in        munication system which apes use.
is.    The  purpose  of  this  series  of     our confession when we say, "I be-         Language as we have it is a prod-
articles is to set forth the founda-          lieve in God the Father, Almighty,         uct of evolution from lower forms
tion  for  such  a  view.    I  say  the      Maker of heaven and earth."                of "communication," according to
"foundation"  of  such  a  view  be-              Linguists  have  offered  many         this  view;  and  these  lower  forms
cause much more can be said about             theories which do not proceed from         of  "communication"  are  animal
a Reformed view of language than              this starting point that God is the        sounds.
will be said in these articles.               creator  and  giver  of  language.             A third theory is that language
    The  Reformed  view  of  lan-             Each  of  these  theories  the  Re-        is  an  invention  and  creation  of
guage is that it is the gift of God to        formed person must reject.                 man.  To say that it was an inven-
the human race, and that this gift                One  such  theory  is  that  lan-      tion does not mean that language
can be properly used (covenantally            guage  has  always  existed.    One        was invented all at once.  Rather,
and  antithetically)  by  those  for          cannot determine an origin of lan-         it means that the invention of lan-
whom Christ died.                             guage; it has no origin.  Man sim-         guage took place over a period of
    In  the  first  two  articles  I  will    ply  discovered language.  Holding         time, and in various stages.  This
answer the question, "From where              to this theory, A.W. Schlegel said:        invention  came  about  when  men
did language come?"  We will see              "We do not view the origin of lan-         realized the need to live with each
that it came from God.                        guage  as  something  that  can  be        other in a community, and there-
    Two general remarks are in or-            placed at a particular point in time;      fore the need to communicate with
der at the outset.                            rather we consider it in the sense         each other.  This theory was held
    First, by the word "language"             in  which  language  always                more widely before Darwin's book
I mean the manner in which we ex-             arises...."1   Perhaps this last state-      was published than after, but some
press our thoughts so that others             ment  is  not  clearly  understood.        still hold to this theory today.5
know  and  understand  those                  The  idea  is  that  "language  lives          The  three  theories  mentioned
thoughts.  Language is the means              and  acts  by  its  own  independent       above are very broad.  Within the
of communication.  It does not mat-           rules  and  dynamics,  almost  as          broad  lines  of  these  theories  are
ter  whether  this  communication             though language would exist even           many others.6   Those who promote
takes place by speech, by writing,            if  there  were  no  speakers  of it."2    such theories defend them against
or by sign language.                          Language is above time and space,          the view that language is of divine
    Second, if this is what language          as it were.  It did not evolve, and        origin, created by God.  One man
is, then only rational, moral beings          was not created; it is simply there.       gives three reasons for not believ-
can use it.  The use of language to               A  second  theory  is  that  lan-      ing that God created language: "the
express thoughts in an understand-            guage evolved.  This view has been         large  number  of  different  lan-
able way requires that both the one           widely held since its development          guages,  the  gradual  change  to
communicating  and  the  one  to              in the 1860s, after the 1859 publi-        which all languages seem subject,
whom  the  communication  is  di-             cation  of  Charles  Darwin's  book        and  the  fact  that  children  do  not
rected  be  rational,  moral  beings.         The Origin of Species by Means of          inherit their language."7   Other ar-
God is, of course, a rational, moral          Natural  Selection .3   One writer         guments against the divine origin
being;  He  can  communicate.    So           says:                                      of language could be listed in ad-
can angels and men.  However, ani-                                                       dition to these three, but I will not
mals do not.  The "moo" of a cow                Unfortunately, the real origins of       spend  any  more  time  on  this  as-
and the "neigh" of a horse are not              language  are  as  completely  un-       pect  of  the  subject.    The  point  is
language, because they do not ex-               known as its evolution preceding         that those who set forth the above

396/Standard Bearer/June, 1997


mentioned theories of language feel       invented or discovered.  Such wor-                    Revelation  tells  us  that  lan-
compelled  to  explain  why  they         ship would not be pleasing to God.           guage is God's gift, and God's cre-
think that language could not have        It would not be according to God's           ation.  In the next article we will
been  created  by  God.    That  God      command (indeed it would ignore              see how revelation shows us that.
might  have  created  language  is        God's command), and it would be                                                          u
simply not an option to them.             the worship of a god whom man
                                          has invented, not Jehovah who re-                1 A.W. Schlegel, quoted in James
         333    333    333                veals Himself in His Word.                   H. Stam,  Inquiries into the Origin of
      Our fundamental evaluation of           Furthermore,  because  such              Language: the Fate of a Question, New
these theories is that they do not        theories are instances of unbelief,          York (Harper and Row, 1976), pages
proceed from a standpoint of faith        they do two things.  First, they at-         244, 245.
in the revealed Word of God.  They        tempt to prove scientifically what               2      Stam, op. cit., page 185.
are  instances  of  unbelief.    They                                                      3      Ibid., pages 244, 245.
                                          is outside the scope of science.  As             4      Joseph M. Williams,  Origins of
deny that language is a created gift      Arthur  C.  Constance  says,  in  an-        the  English  Language:  A  Social  and
of  God.    They  deny  the  need  for    swering the question "Who taught             Linguistic  History,  New  York  (The
God at all.  They imply that man is       Adam to speak?": "It may be stated           Free Press, 1975), page 12.
sufficiently able to care for himself     simply, then, that scientifically the            5      G. A. Wells,  The Origin of Lan-
without God's help.  If man does          question  is  beyond  our  reach.            guage ,  LaSalle,  IL:  Open  Court  Pub-
not  need  God,  then  he  does  not      About all that scientific investiga-         lishing Company, 1987.
need  to  fellowship  with  God           tions can do is to demonstrate what              6      For a more complete discussion,
through  language!    He  does  not       cannot  be  the  origin."8   Second,         cf. G. Revesz,  The Origins and Prehis-
need to pray to God, sing to God,                                                      tory of Language, translated from the
                                          they deny God's revelation, which            German by J. Butler, New York (Philo-
or worship God!  Furthermore, if          is the only possible source for an-          sophical Library, 1956), pages 17-87.
man does not need God but never-          swering the question of the origin               7      Wells, op. cit., page 7.
theless  desires  to  pray,  sing,  or    of language.  If science is ruled out            8      Arthur  C.  Constance,  "Who
worship anyway, then man does so          as a source for finding the answer           Taught  Adam  to  Speak?"  The  Door-
on man's own terms and in man's           to this question, then revelation is         way Papers, vol. 2: "Genesis and Early
manner.    Man  approaches  God           the only other source to which we            Man,"  Grand  Rapids  (Zondervan,
through language, which man has           can turn.                                    1975), page 254.


     All Around Us                                                                                 Rev. Gise VanBaren

                                                                                         was his savior, he would now be
                                              The suicides of 39 members of
s     "Salvation by UFO?"                                                                in heaven.
M                                           the Heaven's Gate sect, motivated
       ost of our readers have heard                                                            With  all  due  respect  to  my
                                            by  the  belief  that  their  deaths
        of the shocking multiple sui-                                                    Christian friends, the notion that
                                            would result in their salvation by
cides  of  the  39  members  of                                                          good people who reject Jesus are
                                            a  spaceship  tailing  a  comet,  has
"Heaven's Gate" sect.  One could                                                         damned  but  evil  people  who  fi-
                                            prompted  condemnation  by  fol-
almost with certainty predict that                                                       nally  accept  Jesus  are  saved  is
                                            lowers  of  conventional  religions.         much more pernicious and much
the  unbeliever  would  use  those          Christian ministers warn that sal-           more of an affront to basic prin-
deaths as an occasion to scoff at all       vation  is  possible  only  through          ciples of justice and fair play than
of Christianity and equate its faith        Jesus  and  not  through  astrally           the idea  that some UFO is wait-
                                            hitching a ride on a flying saucer.
with the foolishness of a sect.  That                                                    ing to whisk us away to a better
                                            It is important, however, to take a
quickly became evident in articles                                                       life after we die....
                                            rational  look  at  all  supernatural
written in the press.  It was the oc-       belief systems and to retain criti-
casion  to  mock  Scripture,  the           cal thinking even when one's own                    The  writer  continues  by  em-
church, and God Himself.  Doubt-            beliefs come under scrutiny.               phasizing that "when a follower of
less,  Satan  uses  all  these  things        The essential belief of Christian        one religion condemns the differ-
likewise to persuade many to be-            fundamentalism is that regardless          ing  spiritual  practices of  another,
lieve him -- not God.  An instance           of how good a person you are, you          that person is saying, `My unprov-
of this was printed in the Los An-          will go to hell forever if you don't       able  beliefs  are  superior  to  your
                                            believe in Jesus.  This means that
geles  Times, April 4, 1997:                                                           unprovable  beliefs.'"    The  unbe-
                                            my  mother,  a  Hungarian  Jewish          liever  will  use  every  opportunity
                                            Auschwitz survivor who did not             to mock faith and the testimony of
Rev. VanBaren is pastor of the Prot-        believe  in  Jesus,  is  now  in  hell.
                                            Yet, if Hitler, before he died, had        Scripture.  It is not difficult to see
estant Reformed  Church  of  Loveland,      made a sincere decision that Jesus         the direction in which all this will
Colorado.

                                                                                                      June, 1997/Standard Bearer/397


surely lead.  Here is an individual         imaginable  weren't  high  enough             earth,  and  diseases  will  take  the
who calls the Christian belief "far         Thursday as the Red River climbed             lives of many.
more pernicious and much more of            to its highest level ever."  Concern-             Other reports speak of diseases
an affront to basic principles of jus-      ing Grand Forks, the Mayor stated,            which  are  now  or  will  in  the  fu-
tice and fair play than the idea that       "We  were  better  prepared  at  this         ture affect all of mankind.  Again,
some UFO is waiting to whisk us             time  than  at  any  time  in  the  his-      statements are made that it is not
away to a better life after we die."        tory of Grand Forks, and that isn't           a  question  of  "if"  but  "when"  a
Follow through on what this man             enough."                                      killer virus, against which there is
is  writing.    If  sects  such  as             It  was  called  the  flood  that         no known defense, will spread over
"Heaven's Gate" cult ought not to           could occur once every 500 years              the  earth.    Many  will  die.    One
exist,  then  what  of  Christianity        (others claimed it was once every             newspaper,  The  Record,  May  20,
which is called,  "far more perni-          1,000 years).  Clearly it has been a          1996, stated:
cious and much more of an affront           disaster of devastating proportions.
to  basic  principles  of  justice  and         Another  report  of  a  different             Overuse  of  medicine,  human
fair  play"?    Those  who  sincerely       sort appeared also in many news-                settlement  of  uninhabited  areas,
hold to Scripture as infallible and         papers, including the Loveland Re-              international  travel,  and  poverty
inspired will soon find no place for        porter-Herald, April 19, 1997:                  have combined to produce a dev-
themselves here in this society.  But                                                       astating spread of infectious dis-
                                                                                            eases, a new report says.
it  is  another  reminder  too  of  the       "Worst  drought  in  centuries                  The report by the World Health
very things Christ foretold concern-          strikes Britain"                              Organization,  which  is  based  in
ing the end of the age.                         So much for Britain's reputation            Geneva,  Switzerland,  warns  that
                                              as a foggy, soggy little isle.                the spread of untreatable forms of
s      The "Cruelty" of                         The  past  two  years  have  been           malaria and tuberculosis and the
                                              the driest in London in 200 years,
"Mother Nature"                                                                             emergence of killers such as AIDS
Y                                             leaving  some  tourist  boats  high
       ou  have  doubtless  heard  that                                                     and Ebola threaten to undermine
                                              and  dry  on  the  River  Thames
       and  similar  expressions  the                                                       recent advances in health care.
                                              while water reservoirs fall around
past  months  and  even  years.                                                               "We are standing on the brink
                                              the nation....                                  of a global crisis in infectious dis-
"Mother  Nature,"  an  inanimate                                                            eases," said Dr. Hiroshi Nakajima,
and impersonal entity, seems to be              The past years we have heard                a director-general of WHO.
handing  out  disasters  freely  and        of several terrible hurricanes which              "The  optimism  of  a  relatively
frequently lately.   You have read          struck  the  same  area  within  one            few years ago that many of these
similar reports to those which fol-         season--which normally does not                  diseases could be brought under
low:                                        occur,  it  is  said,  more  often  than        control has led to a fatal compla-
                                            once every 500 years or so.                     cency.  This complacency is now
     "Nature lambastes farmers, ranch-          And  "Mother  Nature"  is                   costing millions of lives."
     ers"                                   blamed  --  although  part  of  the
       Francis and Rosalia Fergel saw       blame is placed upon man, who, it             Or there is the report from the Den-
     a coyote devour one of their fallen    is said, is responsible for the "glo-         ver  Post, April 17, 1997,
     cows during a winter blizzard.  A      bal warming" which is bringing too
     couple  of  months  later,  they                                                         Millions  of  fish  in  North
     watched  32  cows  swim  from  an      much moisture in some areas but                 Carolina's  marshlands  have
     island  of  manure  though  7-foot     not  enough  in  others.    This  will,         turned up dead  with ugly,  open
     floodwaters  that  already  had        reportedly,  bring  additional  and             sores caused by a microorganism
     swallowed four calves....                awful  disasters  to  the  world                that  feeds  on  their  blood.    Now
       ...The Fergels, like many farm-        through the coming years.                       some scientists suspect the organ-
     ers and ranchers in the upper Mid-         Yet, interestingly, a recent re-            ism preys on humans, too.
     west, have lived through six of the    port on volcanoes stated that it is               ...The organism killing the fish
     worst months they can remember,        not a question of "if" but "when"               is known as pfiesteria, and biolo-
     marked by record snowfall, record      a whole series of volcanoes erupt               gists call it "the cell from hell."
     flooding  and  now  record-cold                                                          Pfiesteria  has  been  likened  to
     spring  temperatures...    (Denver       in  the  Pacific  rim  (and  possibly           the  piranha  of  the  microbial
     Post,  April 11, 1997).                elsewhere) at the same time.  This              world.    Yet  a  piranha  wouldn't
                                            will,  it  is  said,  create  a  cloud  of      stand a chance against this blood-
       And the accounts of what oc-         dust  particles  which  will  encircle          thirsty menace....
curred in Fargo and Grand Forks,            the  globe,  cooling  the  climate  to
ND are familiar to most.  The Den-          such  a  degree  that  we  will  enter            These and many similar reports
ver  Post  reported: "Earthen dikes         an  "ice-age"  in  which  the  raising        tell us something, I trust.  The mes-
meant  to  protect  North  Dakota's         of crops will become almost impos-            sage is not the "cruelty" of "Mother
largest  city  from  the  worst  flood      sible, famines will affect the whole          nature."  Unusual things are tak-

398/Standard Bearer/June, 1997


ing place.  "Natural" explanations           trumpets, an increase over the "av-          And  in  Matthew  24  Christ  gives
are given for them all.  But is not          erage" of disasters on the earth.  It        detailed  pictures  of  the  events  of
the ultimate explanation given by            is a reminder from God Himself of            the last days.  He who has ears to
Scripture itself?  Revelation 8 and          the nearness of the end of the age.          hear, let him hear.   u
9  speak  of  the  sounding  of  the

  Contending for the Faith                                                               Rev. Bernard Woudenberg


                         The Covenant View of
                                 Herman Bavinck

                                             opens  the  book.    Interestingly,  I       shelf for Bavinck's great book, Our
                                             found  Faber's  essay  to  be  even          Reasonable Faith,1  and in it to the
    They which are the children of the       more  significant  than  the  articles       chapter on "The Covenant."  I was
flesh, these are not the children of God:    of Schilder.                                 amazed.    Here,  in  most  concise
but  the  children  of  the  promise  are        In this paper Dr. Faber exam-            form  are  all  of  the  essential  ele-
counted for the seed.                        ines  the  positions  of  seven  early       ments of Herman Hoeksema's cov-
                           Romans 9:8        professors of Calvin Seminary, at            enant view -- at almost every point
                                             least  six  of  whom,  he  claims,           precisely opposite to that of Heyns,
As I mentioned a few months formed a consistent line of theo- Schilder,  and  the  Liberated
          ago,  Mr.  Roelof  Janssen         logical  thought  --  essentially  the        Churches.
         from Inheritance Publica-           same as that now held by the Lib-                     333    333    333
tions sent me a copy of their new            erated  Churches  (suggesting,  no               Bavinck begins this study with
book,  American Secession Theolo-            doubt,  that  those  who  would  re-         an extended treatment of the uni-
gians on Covenant and Baptism &              main loyal to the historical teach-          versal desire of man to escape his
Extra-Scriptural Binding  A New             ings of the Christian Reformed can           inborn sense of guilt, and the futil-
Danger,  evidently with  the  inten-         now best ally themselves with the            ity of every human effort to do so
tion that I should comment on it.            Canadian  Reformed).    As  I  read          --  no  common  grace  here.    With
The second part of this book con-            this, however, something struck me           this he lays the foundation for that
sists of Dr. Klaas Schilder's reflec-        as extremely strange.  Faber deals           principle  which  runs  throughout
tions on our "Declaration of Prin-           with the last two of these men, Wil-         his  work,  "In  the  whole  work  of
ciples,"  written originally as a se-        liam Heyns and Foppe M. tenHoor,             redemption  it  is  God  and  God
ries in De Reformatie following its          as though they were of one theo-             alone who manifests Himself as the
formulation at our synod of 1950.            logical cut, while I recall distinctly       seeking and calling One, and as the
Historically these articles are of sig-      how Herman Hoeksema, who stud-               speaking  and  acting  One.    The
nificance, inasmuch as they contain          ied under both of them, took strong          whole  of  redemption  begins  and
Schilder's  only  substantial  reflec-       exception  to  the  teachings  of            ends in Him."2
tions on our churches; and in their          Heyns, while he was quite fond of                Bavinck  goes  on  to state  "the
own way they do bring out some               tenHoor  and  in  a  certain  way            fact that the whole of that redemp-
of  the  most  basic  differences  be-       looked upon him as his own theo-             tive  work  depends  upon  an  eter-
tween us.  It was only after read-           logical mentor.  I do not have ready         nal  counsel," 3     which  he  ap-
ing  them,  and  in  order  to do  the       access  to  the  extant  writings  of        proaches  from  an  essentially
book  justice,  that  I  turned  to  the     tenHoor, but Faber points out that           supralapsarian  point  of  view  by
essay  of  Dr.  Jelle  Faber  which          tenHoor  had  been  a  classmate  of         proposing that, of its decrees, "the
                                             the  great  Dutch  theologian,  Dr.          first  is  election" 4  -- placing it
                                             Herman Bavinck, and a correspon-             thereby at the beginning of the di-
                                             dent with him in later life, leading         vine decrees, which is precisely the
Rev. Woudenberg is a minister emeri-         to the likelihood that their theologi-       principal      point       underlying
tus  in  the  Protestant  Reformed           cal positions were essentially simi-         Supralapsarianism.
Churches.                                    lar.    This  sent  me  quickly  to  the         He  proceeds  to  deal  with  the

                                                                                                     June, 1997/Standard Bearer/399


three primary decrees.  Of the first         enant  completely, and  makes  it a           view of the covenant, and in fact
he says, "Election is not the whole          covenant of works.                            underlie his entire theology.
counsel  of  redemption,  but  is  a             2.Accordingly, Bavinck has ab-                1.It  begins  with  the  fact,  as
part,  the  first  and  principal  part,     solutely no place for a conditional           Hoeksema often stressed, that there
of it.  Included and established in          covenant, as he says:                         is essentially only one covenant.  So
that  counsel  is  also  the  way  in                                                      Bavinck writes:
which the election is to be actual-            if  this  salvation  is  not  the  sheer
ized -- in short, the whole accom-              gift of grace but in some way de-             In the first place, the covenant of
plishment  and  application  of  re-           pends upon the conduct of men,                grace  is  everywhere  and  at  all
demption." 5   Secondly  he  adds,             then the covenant of grace is con-            times one in essence, but always
"The  Mediator  who  will  prepare             verted into a covenant of works.              manifests itself in new forms and
                                               Man must then satisfy some con-
this  salvation  for  them  is  also                                                         goes  through  differing  dispensa-
                                               dition in order to inherit eternal            tions.  Essentially and materially
pointed out.  To this extent Christ            life.    In  this,  grace  and  works         it remains one.11
Himself can be called the object of            stand at opposite poles from each
God's election" (implying, in effect,          other and are mutually exclusive.               2.This  covenant,  being  a  cov-
a kind of  justification in eternity).6        If  salvation  is  by  grace  it  is  no    enant  of  grace  and  not  of  works,
And  so  "in  the  third  place  ...  re-      longer  by  works,  or  otherwise           cannot be broken:
demption or re-creation takes place            grace is no longer grace.  And if it
only through the applicatory activ-            is by works, it is not by grace, or           The  covenant  of  grace  can
ity of the Holy Spirit."7   And with           otherwise  works  are  not  works
                                               (Rom.  11:6).    The  Christian  reli-        throughout  the  centuries  remain
that he is ready to focus on the cov-          gion has this unique characteris-             the same because it depends en-
enant of grace itself.                         tic, that is  the  religion of redemp-        tirely upon God and because God
    In  this  there  are  three  things        tion,  sheer  grace,  pure  religion.         is  the  Immutable  One  and  the
which he immediately sets forth --              But it can be recognized and main-            Faithful  One.    The  covenant  of
placing him in direct conflict with            tained as such only if it is a free           works which was concluded with
the Heyns/Schilder covenant posi-              gift coming up out of the counsel             man  before  the fall  was  violable
                                                                                             and  it  was  violated,  for  it  de-
tion.                                          of God alone.9                                pended  upon  changeable  man.
    1.The first is an emphatic iden-                                                         But the covenant of grace is fixed
tification of the covenant with elec-            3.Bavinck then comes to what                and established solely in the com-
tion:                                        the  Liberated  so  often  present  as          passion  of  God.    People  can  be-
                                             the heart of the whole matter, the              come unfaithful, but God does not
  After  all,  when  the  covenant  of       promise  given  centrally  to                   forget  His  promise.    He  cannot
  grace  is  separated  from  election,      Abraham, and which they are most                and may not break His covenant;
  it ceases to be a covenant of grace        insistent must be conditional in or-            He  has  committed  Himself  to
  and becomes again a covenant of            der to maintain the responsibility              maintaining it with a freely given
  works.  Election implies that God          of man; but Bavinck writes:                     and precious oath: His name, His
  grants man freely and out of grace                                                         honor,  and  His  reputation  de-
  the salvation which man has for-                                                           pends on it.  It is for His own sake
                                               The one, great, all-inclusive prom-
  feited  and  which  he  can  never           ise of the covenant of grace is: I            that He obliterates the transgres-
  again  achieve  in  his  own                 will be thy God, and the God of               sions  of  His  people  and  remem-
  strength....    So far  from  election         thy people.  ...this promise is not             bers their sins no more. Therefore
  and  the  covenant  of  grace  form-         conditional, but is as positive and           the mountains may depart and the
  ing  a  contrast  of  opposites,  the                                                      hills be removed, but His kindness
                                               certain as anything can be.  God
  election is the basis and guaran-            does not say that He will be our              will not depart from us, nor shall
  tee, the heart and core, of the cov-         God  if  we  do  this  or  that thing.        the covenant of His peace be re-
  enant of grace.  And it is so indis-         But He says that He will  put  en-            moved,  says  the  Lord  who  has
  pensably important to cling to this          mity,  that  He  will    be  our  God,        mercy on us (Is. 54:10).12
  close relationship because the least         and  that  in  Christ  He  will  grant
  weakening  of  it  not merely  robs          us  all  things.    The  covenant  of           3.Possibly  most  significant  of
  one  of  the  true  insight  into  the       grace  can  throughout  the  centu-         all, Bavinck presents the covenant
  achieving and application of sal-            ries  remain  the  same  because  it        as being organic in nature:
  vation, but also robs the believers          depends  entirely  upon  God  and
  of their only and sure comfort in            because God is the Immutable One              The second peculiarity or remark-
  the practice of their spiritual life.8       and the Faithful One.10                       able characteristic of the covenant
                                                      333    333    333                      of  grace  is  that  in  all  of  its  dis-
    Clearly,  in  Bavinck's  mind  a             This,  however,  is  not  all.   As         pensations it has an organic char-
separating  of  the  covenant  from          Bavinck goes on, he  lays down  a               acter....  The elect, accordingly, do
election, as Schilder insists must be        series  of  principles,  all  of  which         not  stand  loosely  alongside  of
done, destroys the idea of the cov-          were  to  reappear  in  Hoeksema's              each other, but are one in Christ....

400/Standard Bearer/June, 1997


  It is one communion or fellowship,            will is not a necessity, a destiny,           liness,  but  who  deny  the  power
  endeavoring to keep the unity of              which imposes itself on man from              thereof....  even though there are
  the Spirit in the bond of peace.13            without, but is, rather, the will of          no two covenants standing loosely
                                                the Creator of heaven and earth,              alongside of each other, it can be
    This  perhaps  more  basically              One  who  cannot  repudiate  His              said that there are two sides to the
than  anything  separates  his  view            own  work  in  creation  or  provi-           one  covenant  of  grace.    One  of
from  that  of  Schilder,    who,  like         dence, and  who cannot treat the              these is visible to us; the other also
Abraham Kuyper before him,                      human  being  He  has  created  as            is perfectly visible to God, and to
                                                though it were a stock or stone....             Him  alone....    But  in  the  final
                                                This accounts for the fact that the           analysis  it  is  not  our  judgment,
  had a preference for judicial cat-            covenant  of  grace,  which  really           but God's that determines.  He is
  egories and for terms like statute,           makes no demands and lays down                the Knower of hearts and the Trier
  obligation  and  legal  status,  de-          no conditions, nevertheless comes             of  the  reins.    With  Him  there  is
  fined by the speaking God, the God            to us in the form of a command-               no  respecting  of  persons.    Man
  of  the  Word,  both for  those  who          ment, admonishing us to faith and             looks on the outward appearance
  will  respond  positively,  and  for          repentance.  ...the  covenant  of               but God looks on the heart....  Let
  those  whose  response  will  be              grace is pure grace, and nothing              everyone, therefore, examine him-
  negative.14                                   else,  and  excludes  all  works.    It       self,  whether  he  be  in  the  faith,
                                                gives  what  it  demands,  and  ful-          whether Jesus Christ be in him.19
  Meanwhile, however, the Revs.                 fills what it prescribes.  The Gos-
H. Danhof and H. Hoeksema had                   pel is sheer good tidings, not de-              From all of this it would seem
followed Bavinck's suggestion and               mand but promise, not duty but              apparent  that  among  Secession
focused on the organic relationship             gift.16                                     theologians there arose at least four
of friendship as the heart of their                                                         different strains of covenant theol-
covenantal thought.  To them the                  6.Moreover, such covenant life            ogy:
idea of the covenant as a living re-          flows  from  the  will,  which  is  di-           1. The presupposed unregen-
lationship  was  far  more  biblical          rected by reason, rather than from            eration  of  the  Netherlands  Re-
and far richer in thought than that           a blind faith in what appears to be           formed.
of a legal right to something that            contradictory:                                    2. The presupposed regenera-
might not even be realized in the                                                           tion of Abraham Kuyper.
end.                                            The will of God realizes itself in              3. The conditional covenant of
    4.Seeing  the  covenant  as  re-            no  other  way  than  through  our          Heyns and Schilder.
                                                reason and our will.  That is why
lated  so  closely  with  election,             it is rightly said that a person, by            4. And  that  of  Herman
Bavinck saw, as Hoeksema did af-                the grace He receives, himself be-          Bavinck,  who,  few  would  doubt,
ter him, this election following of-            lieves and himself turns from sin           represented  the  mainstream  of
ten,  if  not  usually,  in  the  line  of      to God.17                                   Dutch Reformed theology.
believing generations:                                                                          It  was  in  this  latter,  it  would
                                                  7.And, finally, the presence of           seem, that Herman Hoeksema was
  Grace  is  not  a  legacy  which  is        unbelievers in the covenant is only           taught by Prof. tenHoor.  And, al-
  transferred  by  natural  birth,  but       in appearance, as in the biblical fig-        though Hoeksema  has often been
  does  flow  on  in  the  river-bed          ure of the chaff among the wheat:             dismissed  lightly  as  rationalistic
  which  has  been  dug  out  in  the
  natural relationships of the human                                                        and one-sided, as it becomes so ap-
                                                But there can also be persons who
  race.  The covenant of grace does                                                         parent that he was simply follow-
                                                are taken up into the covenant of
  not ramble about at random, but                                                           ing  in  the  footsteps  of  Herman
                                                grace as it manifests itself to our
  perpetuates itself, historically and                                                      Bavinck, possibly the greatest of all
                                                eyes and who nevertheless on ac-
  organically,  in  families,  genera-                                                      Dutch Reformed theologians, there
                                                count of their unbelieving and un-
  tions, nations.15                                                                         is  great  reason  to  give  his  teach-
                                                repentant heart are devoid of all
                                                the  spiritual  benefits  of  the  cov-     ings more serious study and con-
    5.The  works  of  the  covenant             enant. ...  In the days of the Old          cern than they have generally re-
then follow as a result of covenant             Testament by no means all were              ceived thus far.
grace, rather than as a condition to            Israel which were of Israel (Rom.
its fulfillment:                                9:6),  for it  is  not the  children  of        (Inasmuch as  Our Reasonable
                                                the  flesh  but  the  children  of  the     Faith  is  no  longer  in  print,  the
  the covenant of grace  ... realizes           promise that are counted for the            Eerdmans  Publishing  Co.  has
  itself in a way which fully honors            seed (Rom. 9:8 and 2:29).  And in           granted  me  permission  to  repro-
  man's rational and moral nature.              the New Testament church there              duce  this  chapter  on  "The  Cov-
  It is based on the counsel of God,            is chaff in the grain, evil branches
  yes,  and  nothing  may  be  sub-             on the vine, and earthen as well            enant  of  Grace"  in  limited  num-
  tracted from that fact....  But that            as  golden  vessels. 18   There are         bers.    Anyone  desiring  to  have a
                                                people who display a form of god-           copy  of  it,  in  order  to  read  this

                                                                                                       June, 1997/Standard Bearer/401


treatment through in complete con-              provide, but was published in English             10 Ibid. p. 274
text, may contact me:                           with  the  rather  bland  title  Our  Rea-        11 Ibid. p. 274
616-345-4556;  BWoudenberg@                     sonable  Faith,  Eerdmans  Publishing             12 Ibid. pp. 274, 275
CompuServe.com; or 1355 Bretton                 Co.,  1956,  and  I  believe  was  repub-         13 Ibid. p. 275
Drive, Kalamazoo, MI 49006.)   u                lished  by  Baker  in  1984,  but  is  now        14 VanGenderen,  Dr.  J.,  Cov-
                                                out of print.                                 enant and Election, Inheritance Publi-
                                                    2 Ibid. p. 265                            cations, Neerlandia, 1995.
        1 Bavinck,  Herman,    This  book           3 Ibid. p. 266                                15 Op. cit. p. 276
was  published  in  Dutch  under  the               4 Ibid. p. 266                                16 Ibid. p. 277, 278
beautiful  name  Magnalia  Dei   ("The              5 Ibid. p. 273                                17 Ibid. p. 278
Magnificent Works of God") and was                  6 Ibid. p. 267                                18 Matt.   3:12;  13:29; John 15:2;
translated into English with the lucid-             7 Ibid. p. 268                            and 2 Tim.  2:20.
ity which only Dr. Henry Zylstra could              8 Ibid. pp. 272, 273                          19 Ibid. p. 278, 279
                                                    9 Ibid. pp. 272, 273

  Taking Heed to the Doctrine                                                                                Rev. Steven Key


                                Our Only Mediator

                                                will not punish any other creature            tempted in all things like as we are,
        "For  there  is  one  God,  and  one    for the sin which you and I have              as we read in Hebrews 4:15.
mediator  between  God  and  men,  the          committed.                                        He must also have a  real hu-
man Jesus Christ."                                  "The soul that sinneth, it shall          man soul, for the soul and body of
                            I Timothy 2:5       die" (Ezek. 18:4).                            man are one and inseparable.  In
                                                    Further, no mere creature can             His thinking and willing, in His en-
                                                possibly  sustain  the  burden  of            tire being, He must be a man like
Such is the gospel proclamation
        of salvation to all who believe.        God's eternal wrath against our sin.          we are men.
        It is the only way of salvation.        As  our  sins  brought  an  offense               Why is that necessary?
        There is one Mediator, one Sav-         against the infinite majesty and ho-              In the first place, the One who
ior.                                            liness of God, they incurred an in-           is to save us must fulfill the very
        There  is  one  God,  who  alone        finite measure of His wrath.  That            law  of  God  which  we  could  not
determines  the who and the how                 wrath is a consuming fire!                    keep.
of salvation.                                       But the gospel which we pro-                  God  created  man  in  His  own
        We  have received grace to see          claim reveals something incompa-              image and gave him life within a
ourselves  as  we  stand  before  the           rably wonderful!                              certain  sphere.    "Thou  shalt  love
great  and  holy  God,  who  is  per-               God  Himself  has  provided  a            the Lord thy God with all thy heart,
fectly  righteous  in  all  His  judg-          way out for us who are hopelessly             and with all thy soul, and with all
ments.  None can escape the pun-                lost  in  sin  and  death.    That  way       thy mind."
ishment of His wrath against sin.               out is a Substitute who alone is able             Just as the fish has life in the
He will have His justice satisfied.             to make satisfaction for us.  He is           sphere  of  the  water,  and  dies  as
        We understand the impossibil-           the one Mediator between God and              soon as it jumps or is taken out of
ity of making that satisfaction our-            man, the man Christ Jesus.                    that  sphere,  you  and  I  have  life
selves.    Far  from  making  even  a
                                                                                              within the sphere of obedience to
single  payment  toward  the  de-               The Man                                       God's law.
crease of the debt we have incurred                 The  Mediator  must  be  true                 And  the  fact  that  we  did  not
toward God, we daily  increase  our             man.                                          keep God's law does not cause God
debt.                                               That  means  that  He  must  be           to change.  He is the unchangeable
        And  should  we  turn  to  any          like us, flesh and blood, with a real         One.  He will never retract His law.
other mere creature to make pay-                human body.  It means that in the             Therefore, the Mediator must also
ment for us, we shall find that God             body  our  Mediator  must  live  in           be One who bears the same human
                                                contact  with  the  same  world  in           nature, whose life is to live within
Rev. Key is pastor  of the  Protestant          which you and I live.  He must face           the sphere of God's law, obeying
Reformed Church of Randolph, Wis-               the  same  temptations,  being                God with body and soul.
consin.

402/Standard Bearer/June, 1997


    In the second place, the Media-          excepted.  He must be true man, in                 For one thing, that is the only
tor must be a man as we are men              order  that  He  may  be  the  fulfill-     possibility of Him  serving as our
because God, pointing to the for-            ment  of the typical priesthood of          Mediator.  Our Mediator must not
bidden tree, said to Adam, "In the           old, "that he may offer both gifts          inherit the guilt of Adam.  He must
day  that  thou  eatest  thereof  thou       and  sacrifices  for  sins:    Who  can     not come under the imputation of
shalt surely die."  The Just One re-         have compassion on the ignorant,            Adam's  guilt.    He  must  be  righ-
quires  that  the  human  nature             and  on  them  that  are  out  of  the      teous, perfectly righteous.
which has sinned shall either make           way"  (Heb.  5:1,2),  and  who  may                We  must  remember  that  our
satisfaction  in  full,  and  so  be  re-    offer  up  the  sacrifice  of  His  body    Lord Jesus Christ is a divine person.
stored to favor, or else that the sin-       once for all.                               If Christ were a  human  person, He
ner  be  made  to  bear  the  conse-             The one Mediator between God            could not escape the imputation of
quences  of  his  sin  both  now  and        and man is the man Christ Jesus.            Adam's guilt.
forever.                                                                                        Guilt is imputed to the person
    Man,  human  nature,  sinned             The Righteous Man                           -- not to the nature, but to the per-
and contracted the debt.  Man must               But it is not enough merely to          son.    And  if  the  guilt  of  Adam
now pay that debt in order to sat-           say  that  the  Mediator  must  be  a       should  be  imputed  to  Christ,  He
isfy God's justice.  There is no al-         man.  He must also be a  perfectly          could not save us.  But Christ is a
ternative.                                   righteous man.                              divine person.
    When  you  understand  that,                 He must be a man; but He must                  He  is  God,  God  in  the  flesh,
then you can also understand the             be a man without guilt -- without            Immanuel.
joy of the church as expressed in            original  guilt  and  without  actual              No other Christ can save us.
the song of rejoicing (Is. 9:6), "For        guilt.                                             Christ did not inherit our guilt.
unto  us a child is born, unto  us a             Original guilt is that which is         He did not.
Son is given."                               imputed to us from Adam.  Actual                   He took it upon Himself.
    This  child  that  must  be  born,       guilt is that guilt which we pile up               Christ  did  not  merely  come
this Son of man, brings great joy to         day after day with our own sins.            forth from the human race, as we
all those who look for Him, because              Guilt is imputed to every man           do.
He is the fulfillment of that which          from Adam on.  But the Man who                     Our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  entered
was  promised  the  church  in  the          will serve as our Mediator must be          the human race.  The human and
Old Testament.  Israel was shown             a man without guilt.                        divine natures were united in the
that her Redeemer must also be the               It  stands  to  reason.    Can  one     one person of Christ Jesus, as He
kinsman of His people.                       who  is  already  bankrupt  himself         was conceived by the Holy Spirit
    In Leviticus 25 we read in the           pay the debt for someone else?              in the womb of the virgin Mary.
law which was the schoolmaster to                All  mankind  has  sinned  in                  That our Mediator is very God
lead  God's  people  to  Christ,  that       Adam  our  head  and  father.    We         is also necessary if He is to sustain
one  who  had  become  a  poverty            have seen that truth from Romans            the eternal and infinite burden of
stricken servant could be redeemed           5 and other passages.  One who is           God's wrath against us.
by his kinsman.  When Naomi said             himself  a  sinner  cannot  possibly               How  terrible  is  that  wrath  of
to  Ruth  concerning  Boaz  in  Ruth         appear  before  God  to  satisfy  for       God!
2:20,  "This  man  is  near  of  kin  to     others.                                            We really have little conception
us, one of our next kinsman," she                Our Mediator must be indeed             of that  wrath.   We can  sing with
was  pointing  to  a  picture  of  the       the Righteous Branch, prophesied            Moses  in  Psalm  90,  "For  all  our
wonder  of  our  redemption  in              by Jeremiah; a man, but a perfectly         days  are  passed  away  in  thy
Christ Jesus.                                righteous man.                              wrath."    But  even  when  we  sing
    We who are redeemed must be                  How then can we be saved?               that from the heart, that song is evi-
able to look to our Mediator and                 Where  shall  we  find  such  a         dence of the truth that we have ex-
say,  "He  is  our  flesh  and  blood,       man?                                        perienced God's mercy.
bone of our bone and flesh of our                God Himself must provide that                  We  cannot  conceive  of  the
flesh."                                      Mediator.                                   wrath which our Mediator had to
    Finally, our Mediator must be                God  Himself  must  become              bear.
very man in order that He might              flesh!                                             It was God's infinite wrath.
serve as our High  Priest and  our                                                              If we had to bear that wrath of
sacrifice. The Book of Hebrews has           Very God                                    God, we would be crushed in a mo-
much  to  say  about  Christ  as  our            Our Mediator, the  only Media-          ment, as a moth underfoot.  Or, to
High Priest and sacrifice.  The One          tor, is Jehovah-salvation.                  use a biblical expression, we would
who is our Mediator must be very                 His name is Jesus.                      be consumed as stubble in the fire.
man, like unto us in all things, sin             He is very God.                                Some years back, in a conver-

                                                                                                      June, 1997/Standard Bearer/403


sation I had with an impenitent sin-         robe, that white robe of righteous-        of death, afflicted, tempted on ev-
ner  who  had  sunk  into  the  deep         ness which must cover every man,           ery  side,  and  moving  steadily
mire of sin, that individual made            woman,  and  child  of  His  entire        closer to death.
the comment, "I think I have come            elect family.                                  Our Mediator must defeat the
near the bottom."  To my sorrow,                 He  must  clothe  us  in  such  a      powers  of  Satan  and  the  sting  of
the statement was not made in sor-           way that God declares of us in time        death.
row of repentance, but as a simple           as well as in eternity, "I see no sin          And  accomplishing  that  vic-
statement of fact from a hard heart.         in my Jacob, and no iniquity in my         tory, He must apply the salvation
    I said, "If only you were say-           Israel."                                   which  He  has  merited.    He  must
ing  that  while  seeing  your  situa-           But the only way in which that         apply it to our lives and conscious-
tion through spiritual eyes of faith,        Mediator can so clothe us is by liv-       ness,  that  God  might  receive  the
eyes  enlightened  by  the  living           ing a perfectly holy life in all obe-      praise and glory that is due to Him.
Spirit of Christ through the Word.           dience to the law of the holy and          The  Christ  must  mold  us  as  His
For then you would see that what             righteous  God,  loving  Him  per-         workmanship, as those who show
you think is bottom has been noth-           fectly with heart, soul, mind, and         forth the praise of our Redeemer.
ing  compared  to  the  infinite  and        strength.                                      For  this  work  our  Mediator
eternal  wrath  of  the  living  God.            Do you see how absolutely im-          must be very God.
Oh,  that  you  would  see  your  sin        possible  this  task  is  for  a  mere         We  must  believe  in  Him,  put
for what it is."                             man?                                       our  trust in  Him,  rely  upon  Him
    That wrath of God is what you                He  must  live  sinlessly  in  this    for  time  and  eternity.    We  must
and I would also face, except that           wicked world which is full of de-          pray through Him, love and praise
the  one  Mediator  is  God  in  the         ceit.  A sinless life must character-      and glorify and thank God through
flesh.                                       ize our Mediator.                          Him.
    One more thing.  Our Media-                  He must indeed be very God.                We cannot  do  this, if He is a
tor must be God, in order to merit               He must also defeat the pow-           mere man.
for  us  and  apply  to  us  the  ever-      ers of this world.                             God  and  man  in  unity  of  di-
lasting life of fellowship with the              We  confess  of  the  Christ  that     vine Person -- He is the one Me-
blessed covenant God.                        He obtained the victory.  But we           diator who gave Himself a ransom
    He must obtain our righteous-            don't see that complete victory yet.       for us and all His own.
ness.                                        We live in the valley of the shadow            And  as  we  must  see:    Apart
    He  must  obtain  that  kingly                                                      from Him there is no salvation.   u

  When Thou Sittest in Thine House                                                          Rev. Wilbur Bruinsma


                 The Covenant of Marriage
                         1. Its Mystery (cont.)

                                             despondency?  It is at these times         were mine from eternity!  Fear not,
                                             in our lives that we hardly dare lift      for I have saved you and will pre-
Sin-weary saint!  Have you
            ever  become  so  burdened
          with  your  sin  that  you  de-    our  prayers  to  heaven  to  plead        serve you!"
spaired?  Have you ever fallen so            with God for forgiveness.  We feel             Burdened saint!  Is it not good
deeply into sin that you wondered            so guilty and unworthy.  Yet, with         for  us  to  know  that  when  the
whether  God  would  accept  you             shame and sorrow we confess our            troubles and cares of this present
again into His presence and favor?           sin before God.  We flee into His          life overwhelm our souls we have
Does your daily battle against sin           loving arms and hear Him say to            a place to run?  When we are for-
at times weary you to the point of           us, "I love you.  And for the sake         saken and alone, when we face per-
                                             of Christ I have forgiven you!  You        ilous ways, when we struggle with
Rev. Bruinsma is pastor of Kalamazoo         need  not  worry  or  despair,  for  I     burdens in the home and at work,
Protestant  Reformed  Church  in             will  not  leave  or  forsake  you  in     we  hear  the  word  of  God  to  us:
Kalamazoo, Michigan.                         your sin!  You belong to Me!  You          "Fear thou not; for I am with thee:

404/Standard Bearer/June, 1997


be not dismayed; for I am thy God:          cast us away.  His promise is sure         when  we  do  our  husband  wrong
I  will strengthen  thee;  yea,  I  will    to those with whom He has entered          and sin again Him (what horrible
help thee; yea, I will uphold thee          into covenant:  "I will never leave        whoredoms  we  commit!),  He  is
with  the  right  hand  of  my  righ-       thee nor forsake thee" (Heb. 13:5).        faithful to us and forgives us of our
teousness" (Is. 41:10).  When these         God  holds  His  people  in  His  al-      sin.  Never will He cast us away
words of God's covenant are whis-           mighty hand, and no one is able to         from Him!
pered  in  our  ears  then  we  find        pluck  them  out.    We  are Christ's          It is to that solid commitment
blessed peace!                              and Christ is God's!                       of God to us that we cling!  "It is
    Suffering saint!  Is the pain so            This  intimate  relationship  be-      of the Lord's mercies that we are
great that it is hard to bear?  Is the      tween  God  and  His  people  in           not consumed, because his compas-
affliction God has sent you in body         Christ  is  labeled  in  Scripture  as     sions fail not.  They are new every
or soul so extreme that you pray            God's  covenant.    God's  covenant        morning:  great is thy faithfulness"
that  God  will  soon  deliver  you         is that bond of friendship and fel-        (Lam. 3:22, 23)!  We would despair
from this misery?  Sickness and dis-        lowship into which He enters with          if  it  were  not  for  that  assurance.
ease can be so hard to deal with --          His  people  in  Christ.    In  several    We  would  lose  all  security  and
especially if it is something we are        different places God's covenant is         peace in life if it were not that God
called  to  bear  every  day  with  no      described  as  a  covenant  of  mar-       is  ever  faithful  and  ever  sure!
end in sight.  Yet, each day anew           riage.    This  is  pointed  out  most     Never  would  the  church  survive
we  are  given  strength  to  bear  it,     beautifully in Ezekiel 16, where the       without  the  knowledge  that  God
even  with  cheerfulness,  because          prophet Ezekiel was instructed to          will never leave her or forsake her.
every day we in faith cling to what         shame  Jerusalem  by  pointing  out        Neither could the individual saint
Paul expresses in Romans 8, "For I          to her what God had done for her.          forge  ahead  in  adversity  without
am persuaded, that neither death,           In verse 8  of that  chapter we  are       the assurance that God is there by
nor life ... nor things present, nor          given a description of God's grace         His side loving and upholding him.
things to come ... shall be able to           towards His people.  "Now when I               We  find  this  same  intimate
separate us from the love of God,           passed by  thee, and looked upon           union between God and His people
which is in Christ Jesus!"  In our          thee, behold, thy time was the time        described  in  a  slightly  different
pains  and  fears  we  run  into  the       of love; and I spread my skirt over        way in the New Testament.  John
open  arms  of  our  God  and  He           thee,  and  covered thy nakedness:         the Baptist testified of Jesus with
holds us tightly there and soothes          yea, I sware unto thee, and entered        these words in John 3:29, "He that
our weariness and pain!                     into a covenant with thee, saith the       hath the bride is the bridegroom."
    Mourning saint!  We weep bit-           Lord  God,  and  thou  becamest            Jesus approved of this description
terly at the death of our loved one         mine."  God spoke similar words            of Himself when later John's dis-
who was so dear to us in this life.         to His church through the mouth            ciples came to Him to ask Him why
At  the  grave  we  are  harshly  re-       of Hosea in chapter 2:19, 20:  "And        His disciples did not fast.  In Mat-
minded  that  the  earthly  relation-       I will betroth thee unto me for ever;      thew 9:15 He answered, "Can the
ship that tied us with him is sev-          yea, I will betroth thee unto me in        children  of  the  bridechamber
ered, ended.  Yet, in the midst of          righteousness,  and  in  judgment,         mourn, as long as the bridegroom
our tears we are reminded, "Yea,            and in lovingkindness, and in mer-         is  with  them?"    New  Testament
though I walk through the valley            cies.  I will even betroth thee unto       Scripture  does  not  speak  of  our
of the shadow of death, I will fear         me in faithfulness:  and thou shalt        marriage to God as much as of the
no evil:  for thou art with me; thy         know the Lord."                            marriage of the church to Christ.
rod and thy staff they comfort me"              There is no better way than this           This  does  not  mean  that  Old
(Ps. 23:4)!  We walk away from the          for the Bible to express the intimate      and New contradict each other, of
grave comforted to know that our            union  of  love  and  devotion  that       course.  Christ is God, after all!  Be-
loved one now experiences perfect           God shows toward His people.  His          sides,  God's  faithfulness  to  His
fellowship  with  God  in  heaven,          church  is His  wife!    God  has  en-     bride, the church, is rooted in Jesus
and that God will walk by our side          tered  into covenant with her and          Christ.  If it were not for the atone-
and help us deal with our loss!             she has become His -- forever!  He          ment of Jesus Christ we would be
    These are but a few times when          swares to her His faithfulness (Heb.       cast away forever on account of our
the believer experiences in life the        6:13-18)!  What a wonderful rela-          sin.  Sin renders us as "women that
faithfulness of God.  God is always         tionship  we  share  with  our  God!       break wedlock" (Ezek. 16:38), and
there to love, strengthen, and con-         God, our husband, delights and re-         we would be judged by God and
sole  us  when  we  hurt  the  most.        joices in us, His bride (Is. 62:4, 5)!     destroyed  by  God  --  unless  God
Neither ought the believer ever fear        We have become the apple of His            remembers  His  covenant  with  us
that  our  God,  once  having  saved        eye, whom He loves and  shelters           and reconciles us to Himself in the
us, will ever grow weary of us and          from  all  harm  (Ps.  17:8)!    Even      blood  of  Jesus  Christ!    In  a  very

                                                                                                  June, 1997/Standard Bearer/405


real way, then, we can say that we         riage.  Rev. Carl Haak recently con-        the cares and difficulties of this life,
are married to Christ!  In fact, by        cluded a sermon on the Reformed             when life seems to be riddled with
means of His death and resurrec-           Witness Hour broadcast with these           troubles,  then  the  godly  husband
tion we have become one flesh with         words:                                      and wife pour out their cares to one
Christ.    This  is  the  testimony  of                                                another.  They share one another's
Ephesians 5:22-33.  Those who are              Only when one knows the liv-            burdens  by  entering  into  one
saved in the blood of Jesus Christ           ing God, only when one fully un-          another's lives.  When one of them
are  in  Christ.   We  do  not merely        derstands  the  grace  of  God,  the      or  someone  they  love  is  racked
walk  with  Christ,  but  we  are  in        faithfulness of God, the tenderness       with pain and sickness, then they
Him  and  He  in  us.    We  become          of  God,  only  then  are  they  fit,     find comfort in one another's arms.
                                             ready  to  live  in  marriage.    Your
bone of His bone and flesh of His            marriage does not begin with your         They embrace each other and hurt
flesh.                                       husband or wife.  It begins with          with each other.  When they mourn
        This happens by means of faith.      God  and  in  how  you  are  living       the loss of a loved one, they find
At the moment of regeneration the            toward God, and the state of your         solace in the friendship they share
Spirit  of  Christ  is  sent  forth  to      heart toward God.                         with each other.  Even when they
dwell in our hearts.  He applies to            Let us then learn of God.  Let          sin  they  know  that  they  can  talk
us the gift of faith, and by means           us bow before His throne.  Let us         about that sin and confess that sin
of  that  faith  we  are  grafted  into      seek His face with all our hearts.        with each other without fear that
Christ.  We are made one living or-          And let us live even as God lives         it will be spread to others.  They
                                             with  His  church.    For  the  Lord
ganism with Him.  His life becomes           calls His church His delight, the         cry  together  and  laugh  together.
ours.  His thoughts and desires be-          one to whom He is married in per-         Their knowledge of one another is
come  our  thoughts  and  desires.           fect delight and love.                    so intimate that they seem to know
Neither  is  there  anything  that  is         May God so bless your marriage          what the other thinks and desires.
able to uproot us from that life and         (Feb. 16, 1997. Broadcast #2823).         They  go  places  together  and  do
salvation which we have in Christ.                                                     things together.  No one can be a
We  are  joined  to  Him  so  closely,         Marriage  is  more  than  just  a       closer  friend.    They  never  grow
so securely, that we can no longer         picture or symbol of the relation-          weary of each other.  They find un-
be viewed apart from Him.  We are          ship between God and His church             ending joy and happiness in the fel-
one flesh with Christ.                     in Christ.  It is a divinely instituted     lowship they share.  The husband
        Talk about intimate union and      bond  by  which  two  believers  are        is in his wife and the wife in her
fellowship!  It cannot be closer than      able  to  experience  in  an  earthly       husband.  They are in every sense
that!  It is inseparable!  Christ has      way  the  blessed  intimacy  they           one flesh with each other.  In this
become our heart and soul and life!        share with God in Christ.  We must          way,  life  in  marriage  reflects  our
He is our everything!  All we are          realize, of course, that marriage is        life with God.
and  hope  to  be  we  owe  to  Him.       a divine institution whether it is the          That  is  the  mystery  of  mar-
We  love  Him  more  deeply  than          marriage of unbelievers or believ-          riage!
anyone  and  anything  else  in  life!     ers.    All  marriage  is  an  unbreak-         Marriage is a union that comes
Our hopes and desires all center in        able bond.  But the wondrous inti-          so close to the mystery of Christ's
Him!    And  Christ,  in  turn,  takes     macy and love that can be found             relationship  with  His people  that
His delight in us.  He defends and         in  marriage  ever  remains  a  mys-        there is nothing in this world that
preserves us with His life.  He has        tery  to  the  unbeliever.    He  may       can better describe it!  And when
given all for us, even suffered the        have what is deemed a good mar-             death severs this earthly relation-
deepest pangs of hell for our sakes!       riage.    Everything  from  an  out-        ship, revealing to us that it is only
This  union  of  Christ  and  His          ward,  even  moral  point  of  view         earthly as opposed to our eternal
church is a blessed mystery which          may indicate that he has a  stable          union with Christ, it tears the be-
is discovered only by believers.           and fulfilling life in marriage.  He        liever apart!  When God takes from
        This is the great mystery that     may even be happy his whole life            us a spouse in death He rips apart
must  be  discovered  in  marriage         long.  Yet, the unbeliever, so long         our flesh; and the pain we experi-
too!                                       as he remains in his unbelief, will         ence  cannot  be  described!    Who
        Husbands and wives, is the re-     never be able to attain to the full         truly can put into words the union,
lationship  of  love  and  fellowship      blessedness of marriage.  Only the          the  unbreakable  bond,  that  the
you share with each other of this          child  of  God  experiences  in  an         child of God experiences with his
sort?  Young person who searches           earthly way in marriage the joy and         marriage  partner?    Who  can  put
for a wife or husband, is it this re-      pleasure that also belongs to him           into words the bond we share with
lationship into which you desire to        in  his  relationship  with  God  in        God  in  Christ?    It  is  a  mystery!
enter?  Our covenant life with God         Christ!                                     This is the covenant of marriage!
must dictate what we seek in mar-              When  we  are  burdened  with                                                 u

406/Standard Bearer/June, 1997


  News From Our Churches                                                                             Mr. Benjamin Wigger


Minister Activities                           breaking ceremony for the building of            tian School in Walker, MI was held on
                                              their new church building.  Following            April 18 at Covenant Christian High
Rev. A. Spriensma received the call
     from our Hull, IA PRC to serve           the  ground-breaking,  there  was  also          School.  It  served  as  a  fitting  way  to
as our churches' missionary to Ghana.         planned  a  program  commemorating               stop and take time to give thanks to
    In news from our sister churches          their tenth anniversary.                         God and also rededicate ourselves to
in Singapore, we learn that Pastor Lau             In connection with these activities,        the cause of Christian education.  Fol-
Chin Kwee, minister of the First Evan-        various members of Immanuel's con-               lowing  the  program,  there  was  an
gelical Reformed Church of Singapore,         gregation expressed a desire to start a          Open House at Hope School.
has  received  the  call  from  Covenant      choir. It was their desire to give their              Even as one school celebrates its
Reformed Church of Singapore to be            first public concert by singing a few            50th  year  we  see  the  beginning  of
their minister.  Covenant called from         numbers at their anniversary program.            plans for another school for our cov-
a  duo  of  Pastor  Lau  and  Candidate            We are also happy to report that            enant young people.  The Secondary
Cheah Fook Meng.                              the  contract  for  the  building  of            School Society of South Holland and
    Rev. C. Haak declined the call he         Immanuel's  new  church  has  been               Peace Churches in Illinois have made
had been considering to serve as the          awarded.  The contractors gave a ten-            a decision to purchase four acres ad-
next  pastor  of  the  Hope  PRC  in          tative starting date of May 19.  This is         jacent to our Peace PRC for a future
Walker, MI.                                   exciting news for all of us and we will          high school.  We rejoice with them in
    We  thank  our  Grace  PRC  in            do our best to keep you informed of              this advance towards their goal of ob-
Standale, MI for providing the follow-        the progress being made.                         taining their own high school.
ing information.  They contacted some              The  Council  of  the  Georgetown                A  meeting  held  April  14  for  the
of our emeriti ministers in late April        PRC in Hudsonville, MI called a spe-             promotion of PR secondary education
and found that Rev. Hanko is active           cial congregational meeting for March            in Northwest Iowa was well attended.
in some translation work, although he         28 after their Good Friday service, to           Seventy-one men from our three area
is  slowing down due to his age  and          consider a recommendation from the               churches,  Hull,  IA;  Doon,  IA;  and
his physical infirmity.  He remains in        Council to purchase 6.2 acres at 7146            Edgerton, MN, gave their signature as
his  home  with  his  daughter.    Rev.       48th St., north of Hudsonville, for a fu-        a show of support for the concept of
Heys  broke  a  hip  a  few  weeks  ago,      ture building site.  This recommenda-            organizing  a  high  school  society.    A
but has improved enough to be moved           tion was approved.  It appears that it           steering committee was appointed to
back to the Hudsonville Christian Rest        will be an ideal site for a future church        write a constitution.
Home, where he is beginning to take           home.    It  is  near  the  center  of  their
a few steps with help.  His wife is still     church population.  It is large enough
in their home.  Rev. Lubbers and his          for  present  needs  and  for  any  long-        Denominational Activities
wife  are  both  in  failing  health,  al-    range  plans,  and  the  parcel  is  very
though he is also working on a pam-           close to their parsonage.  Preliminary           On Sunday evening, April 27, 140
                                                                                                    members  of  the  PR  Mass  Choir
phlet at this time.  Let us remember          site plans, which could change before            made up of a Faith, Hudsonville, and
all  our  emeriti  ministers  in  our         construction begins, call for a church           Southeast  Choirs,  and  singers  from
prayers.                                      building  of  13,500  square  feet,  with        other  congregations  in  and  around
                                              parking for a total of 210 cars.                 Grand Rapids, MI gave their choir con-
                                                                                               cert  at  Fair  Haven  Ministries  in
Congregational Activities                                                                      Jenison, MI.
                                              Evangelism Activities                                 Plans  call  for  this  concert  to  be
From another bulletin of the Grace
   PRC we learn that the site plan for                                                         professionally recorded at a later date
their future church was approved by           The congregation of the First PRC
                                                  in Edmonton, AB, Canada recently             by  the  choir,  with  tapes  and  CD's
Tallmadge Township in mid-April.              sponsored their annual Spring Lecture            available for $8.00 per tape/$11.00 per
    In  observance  of  the  tenth  anni-     on  April  18.    Rev.  M.  DeVries,  their      CD through Heritage Christian School,
versary  of  the  organization  of  the       pastor, spoke on "The Mystery of Mar-            4900  40th Ave., Hudsonville, MI 49426.
Immanuel  PRC  in  Lacombe,  AB,              riage."
Canada, their consistory set aside the             The Evangelism Committee of the
evening of May 16 for a congregational        Hudsonville, MI PRC recently added                          Food for Thought
supper.    Following  the  supper  there      itself to a growing list of our churches              "A  father  is  a  mirror  which  the
was  also  planned  a  short  ground-         who  now  have  a  home  page  on  the           child dresses himself by; let the mir-
                                              World  Wide  Web.    They  can  be               ror  be  clear  and  not  spotted.    Let  it
                                              reached  at  http://www.iserv.net/               not be said to you by your son, `If I
                                              ~hud-prc/.                                       have  done  evil  I  have  learned  it  of
                                                                                               you.'"
Mr. Wigger is an elder in the Protes-                                                                            -- Thomas Watson   u
                                              School Activities
tant Reformed  Church  of  Hudson-
ville, Michigan.                              A program celebrating the 50th an-
                                                     niversary of our Hope PR Chris-

                                                                                                           June, 1997/Standard Bearer/407

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


                                                                 WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                                     RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
       ANNOUNCEMENTS                                         On June 11, God willing, our parents                       The council and congregation of South
                                                        and grandparents,                                        Holland Protestant Reformed Church express
                                                             REV. and MRS. J. KORTERING,                         our  heartfelt  Christian  sympathy  to  Mr.  and
        WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                             will celebrate their 40th wedding anniver-               Mrs. Richard Wories and family in the sudden
      On June 20, 1997                                  sary.                                                    death of their son,
        MR. and MRS. BILL SWART                              God has been good to our family in                             MICHAEL NEIL WORIES.
will celebrate their 50th wedding anniver-              giving us parents who love the Lord.  They                      May you find the comfort found only in
sary.  We rejoice with them and thank the                                                                        the sovereign grace of our covenant God and
                                                        led  us  to  our  Savior  by  their  godly  ex-
Lord for them, for their faithful example,                                                                       be upheld in the Word from Philippians 1:21,
                                                        ample as well as by their constant love,                 "For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain."
for their love, guidance, and prayers.  May             guidance, and instruction.                                                Gil VanBaren, Vice-president
our heavenly Father continue to give them                    As we are separated from them, we                                            George DeJong, Clerk
the assurance of His richest blessings.                 pray  that  God  will  continue  to  provide
      "For the Lord is good; his mercy is               strength and faithfulness as they labor for
everlasting; and his truth endureth to all              Him in Singapore.                                                  WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
generations" (Psalm 100:5).                                  "But  the  mercy  of  the  Lord  is  from
Y                                                                                                                       On  June  18  our  parents,  grandpar-
      Rev. Ron and Sue VanOverloop                      everlasting to everlasting upon them that
Y                                                                                                                ents, and great-grandparents,
      Cal and Linda Kalsbeek                            fear  him,  and  his  righteousness  unto
Y                                                                                                                     MR. and MRS. JACOB REGNERUS,
      Jay and Judy Kuiper                               children's children" (Psalm 103:17).                     will celebrate their 50th wedding anniver-
        21 grandchildren                                Y    Barry and Lori Gritters                             sary.  We are thankful to our Lord for the
        2 great grandchildren                                    Curt, Kevin, Eric, Dan, Brad, Lisa              covenant instruction and care they have
                              Grand Rapids, Michigan    Y    Dennis and Sharon Griess                            given us.  We pray that God will continue
                                                                 Cory, Tara, Justin, Seth,                       to bless them.
        WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                                                                 Derek, Joshua               "For the Lord is good, his mercy is
      On June 19, 1997, our parents and                 Y    Bruce and Joann Klamer                              everlasting, and his truth endureth to all
grandparents,                                                    Alyssa, Jaycen, Deanna, Zachary                 generations" (Psalm 100:5).
     MR. and MRS. CLARENCE PRINCE,                      Y    Leon and Ellen Kamps                                Y      Joan Regnerus
will celebrate their 50th wedding anniver-                       Nick, Caleb, Gina, Jake                         Y      Jake and Rena Mae Soodsma
sary.  We thank the Lord for His sover-                 Y    Rick and Carol Bos                                            Dan and Becky Soter
eign care over them, and pray for His con-                       Andrew, Kayleigh                                             Laura
tinued blessing upon them.                                   (one grand-daughter in glory)                                 James and Heidi Kooiker
      "For the Lord is good; his mercy is                                                           Singapore              Ben Soodsma
everlasting; and his truth endureth to all                                                                       Y      Jack and Sue Regnerus
generations" (Psalm 100:5).                                             CALL TO SYNOD!!                                    Matt, Sarah
Y     Chet and Sharon Haveman                                Synod  1996  appointed  Grandville  Prot-
        Joel & Janna Huisken                            estant Reformed Church, Grandville, Michigan             Y      Steve and Ev Oosterhouse
        Mike Haveman                                    the calling church for the 1997 Synod.                             Mary, Liz, Mike, Jake
                                                             The  Consistory  hereby  notifies  our              Y      Rich and Jan Regnerus
Y     Doug and Mary Jane Prince                         churches that the 1997 Synod of the Protes-                        Jon, Jackie, Dan, Joe
        Hilary Prince                                   tant Reformed Churches in America will con-              Y      Norb and Sandee Alsum
                                   Jenison, Michigan    vene, the Lord willing, on Tuesday, June 10,                       Sandee Lynn, Bob, Levi
                                                        1997 at 9:00  A.M. in the Grandville Protestant                                              Randolph, Wisconsin
              TEACHER NEEDED!                           Reformed Church, Grandville, Michigan.
      Hope Christian School (Redlands) is                    The  Pre-Synodical Service will be  held                             PLEASE NOTE:
seeking  a  teacher  for  the  1997-1998                on Monday evening, June 9, at 7:30 P.M.  Rev.
school year.  The opening is for the middle             Slopsema, president of the 1996 Synod, will                     The summer issues (June, July, and
grades (3-5), but grade assignments are                 preach the sermon.  Synodical delegates are                   August) of the Standard Bearer will come
                                                        requested to meet with the Consistory before                  only once a month.  The July issue will
negotiable.  Interested persons, please call            the service.                                                  include  information  about  Synod  1997,
the school at (909) 793-4584, Mr. Doug                                                        Consistory of           and may therefore appear closer to mid-
Pastoor at (909) 792-9392, or Mr. Glenn                                           Grandville PR Church                July than the first of the month.
Feenstra at (909) 794-5859.                                                    Cornelius Jonker, Clerk.

408/Standard Bearer/June, 1997


