                    The
                   Standard
A Reformed         Bearer
Semi-Monthly
Magazine





                       Summer and the Sabbath?
                       Rather,  summer  against  the
                     Sabbath,  and  the  Sabbath
                     against summer.
                       Among  many  Reformed
                     people,  as  among  many  other
                     professing  Christians,  summer
                     wins  out.    The  summer-plea-
                     sures of the people breach the
                     Sabbath  day  as  the  swelling
                     seas pierce a great dike.



                    See "Summer and  the Sabbath," p. 437


Vol. 73, No. 19
August, 1997


CONTENTS:                                                                                     August, 1997                                                      The
                                                                                                                                                         Standard
Meditation -- Rev. Cornelius Hanko                                                                                                                            Bearer
      Our Delight in God's Law ........................................................................435
Editorial -- Prof. David J. Engelsma                                                                                               ISSN 0362-4692
      Summer and the Sabbath ..........................................................................437                        Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July, and August.
                                                                                                                                  Published by the Reformed Free Publishing Association, Inc.,
Letters ...................................................................................................................439
                                                                                                                                  4949 Ivanrest Ave., Grandville, MI  49418.  Periodical Postage
When Thou Sittest in Thine House -- Rev. Ronald J. VanOverloop                                                                     Paid at Grandville, Michigan.
      Current Threats  To Raising God's Covenant Children ...................440
                                                                                                                                  Postmaster:  Send address changes to the Standard Bearer,
All Around Us -- Rev. Gise J. VanBaren .........................................................443                                P.O. Box 603, Grandville, MI  49468-0603.
Special Feature -- Prof. Robert D. Decker                                                                                          EDITORIAL COMMITTEE
                                                                                                                                  Editor:  Prof. David J. Engelsma (e-mail:  dje@iserv.net)
      The Reformed Minister:  A Biblical Profile ........................................445
                                                                                                                                  Secretary:  Prof. Robert D. Decker
Guest Article -- Rev. Douglas J. Kuiper                                                                                            Managing Editor:  Mr. Don Doezema
      Language:  God's Gift (2) ..........................................................................448                     DEPARTMENT EDITORS
Go Ye Into All the World -- Rev. Jason L. Kortering                                                                                Rev. W. Bruinsma, Rev. A. Brummel, Rev. R. Cammenga,
                                                                                                                                  Prof. R. Decker, Rev. A. denHartog, Rev. M. Dick, Prof. H.
      Demon Possession (3) ................................................................................449                    Hanko, Rev. R. Hanko, Rev. S. Key, Rev. K. Koole, Rev. J.
Taking Heed to the Doctrine -- Rev. Steven R. Key                                                                                  Kortering, Rev. D. H. Kuiper, Mr. J. Lanting, Mrs. M. Lubbers,
                                                                                                                                  Rev. T. Miersma, Mr. G. Schipper, Rev. G. VanBaren, Rev. R.
      God's Way ... Or No Way ..........................................................................452                       VanOverloop, Mr. B. Wigger, Rev. B. Woudenberg.
News From Our Churches -- Mr. Benjamin Wigger ....................................454
                                                                                                                                  EDITORIAL OFFICE              CHURCH NEWS EDITOR
                                                                                                                                  The Standard Bearer           Mr. Ben Wigger
                                                                                                                                  4949 Ivanrest                 6597  40th Ave.
   In This Issue ...                                                                                                              Grandville, MI  49418         Hudsonville, MI  49426

                                                                                                                                  BUSINESS OFFICE               NEW ZEALAND OFFICE
                                                                                                                                  The Standard Bearer           The Standard Bearer
      The third installment of Rev. Jay Kortering's intriguing series on de-                                                      Don Doezema                   c/o B. VanHerk
                                                                                                                                  P.O. Box 603                  66 Fraser St.
mon possession appears in this issue.  He writes, obviously, out of his                                                           Grandville, MI                Wainuiomata, New Zealand
own experience as minister-on-loan to the Evangelical Reformed Churches                                                               49468-0603
                                                                                                                                  PH:  (616) 531-1490           UNITED KINGDOM OFFICE
of Singapore.  His analysis of the possibility and nature of demon posses-                                                                 (616) 538-1778       c/o Mr. Jonathan McAuley
                                                                                                                                  FAX:  (616) 531-3033          164 Church Rd., Glenwherry
sion  today  is  guided  by  careful  attention  to  the  teaching  of  Scripture.                                                                              Ballymena, Co. Antrim BT42 3EL
                                                                                                                                                                Northern Ireland
Kortering proposes that there can be, and is, demon possession of "non-
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Christians" today and that "the preaching of the gospel includes the au-                                                          Every editor is solely responsible for the contents of his own
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thority of Christ to cast out demons."  The previous two articles ran in
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                                                                                                                                  editorial office.
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434/Standard Bearer/August, 1997


  Meditation                                                                                Rev. Cornelius Hanko



                Our Delight in God's Law

    Blessed  is  the  man  that  walketh     nore his rebellious heart.  He pun-        the Most High; yet they refuse to
not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor       ishes ungodly men by giving them           recognize  it,  drowning  out  their
standeth  in  the  way  of  sinners,  nor    over to their ungodliness.                 misery in sordid carousing.
sitteth in the seat of the scornful.  But        These ungodly are sinners.  All            In all that, they reveal their ha-
his delight is in the law of the Lord;       that is in their heart and mind be-        tred of God and of all that is holy.
and in his law doth he meditate day          comes manifest in their daily walk         God's  law  is  an  offense  to  them,
and night.                                   of life.  Again, not as if they do not     because  it  condemns  them.    The
                           Psalm 1:1, 2      know the difference between right          word  "sin"  has  been  wiped  out
                                             and wrong.  They know very well            from their vocabulary.  If they pos-
                                             that  when  their  neighbor  takes         sibly  could,  they  would  banish
                                             something  from  them  he  is steal-       God, His law, and His people from
Blessed!  Thrice blessed is the
         man  whose  delight  is  in
         God's law!                          ing and that anyone who takes the          the face of the earth.
    He  does  not  consort  with  the        life of another is a murderer.                 There  is  development  in  sin.
ungodly.  The  ungodly  are  those               But they rationalize their own         Sin  breeds  sin  unto  death.    Each
who, according to the original, are          sin.  If others were to do the things      individual sinner fills his cup of in-
careless, ruthless, filled with hatred       they  do,  it  would  be  wrong,  but      iquity and perishes forever in tor-
against  God  and  His  just  com-           for  them,  under  their  circum-          ment under the wrath and sore dis-
mandments.                                   stances, it is excusable or even nec-      pleasure of a righteous God.
    They counsel together in their           essary. Though their conscience ac-            Woe  unto  the  man  who  com-
ungodliness.  God is not in all their        cuses them, they deliberately sup-         mits  himself  to  the  path  of  sin.
thoughts, for they banish Him from           press their conscience until it is too     Woe unto  him who allows sin  to
their hearts and minds.  They think          hardened to speak anymore.                 have  dominion  in  him.    The  text
and  plan,  desire  and  crave  only             These sinners serve their idols        says that  he  walks, he stands, he
that  which  is  contrary  to  God's         -- maybe a husband or wife, a son           sits corralled in the bondage of sin
holy will.                                   or a daughter, a home or an auto-          and death.  He who sins becomes
    They boldly choose their own             mobile -- which they  love rather           enslaved in sin even unto death.
idols before His very face.  This is         than God.  In defiance of God's law
not ignorance, as if they know no            they commit every conceivable sin.                333    333    333
better.  This is deliberate defiance         One  sin  leads  to  a worse  sin,  for
of the Most High.  They know that            they are completely enslaved in the            The righteous person is in ev-
God  is  the  only  true  and  living        bondage of sin and death.                  ery sense the very opposite.
God,  but  they  banish  Him  from               Even  that  is  not  the  worst.           No, not as if he is naturally bet-
their thoughts.                              They not only do those things but          ter,  nor  because  he  has  Christian
    God is a righteous God, a God            they take delight in and seek the          parents who create a healthy, spiri-
of  justice.    His  righteousness  de-      company  of  those  who  do  them.         tual atmosphere in the home, nor
mands that He maintain His name,             They are scornful.  They jest and          because  he  is  a  member  of  the
His  honor,  and  His  praise.  His          mock with all that is holy.  Their         church by baptism.
righteousness demands of all man-            language is besmirched with curs-              According to his natural birth
kind that they love and serve Him            ing,  swearing,  and  blasphemy  in        he is born of sinful parents, he has
alone.  He would cease to be the             the company of sinners.                    their ungodly nature and traits, for
just, holy, and righteous God if He              Although  they  know  no  real         he is conceived and born in sin.  He
were  to  love  the  sinner  or  to  ig-     joy, they try to convince themselves       is wicked, depraved, incapable of
                                             that they are having a good time           any good, and inclined to all evil.
                                             while they are engaged in their sin-           It is only by the grace of God
                                             ful  revelries.    Actually  they  are     and the renewal of the Holy Spirit
Rev. Hanko is a minister emeritus in         most  miserable,  for  already  they       that  the  righteous  man  does  not
the Protestant Reformed Churches.            experience the anger, the wrath of         walk in the counsel of the ungodly.

                                                                                                August, 1997/Standard Bearer/435


He  loves  God  and  seeks  Him  in         next door is very nice, even though         God's just condemnation.
prayer.                                     he wants nothing to do with reli-               He  sees  Christ,  who  bore  the
    He does not stand with sinners.         gion.  He and his wife seem to love         wrath of God in hellish agony and
Not as if that were no struggle.  He        each other.  Their children are well        torment for the sake of those given
fully realizes that in him, that is,        cared for and well behaved.  They           Him  of  the  Father.    He  sees  in
in his flesh, dwells no good.  He is        even willingly help those who are           Christ the High Priest who brought
prone by nature to hate God.  He            in need.                                    the perfect sacrifice for His people.
must pray, "Who can understand                  That is very well possible.  To             He  is  drawn  by  the  voice  of
his errors?  cleanse thou me from           all outward appearances they live           Jesus calling, "Come unto me, all
secret  faults....   Let  the  words  of      according to the second table of the        ye that labor and are heavy laden,
my mouth, and the meditation of             law.  It may seem to us that there          and I will give you rest.  Take my
my  heart,  be  acceptable  in  thy         is a certain restraint of sin in their      yoke upon you, and learn  of me;
sight, O Lord, my strength, and my          hearts, and that as a result of this        for I am meek and lowly in heart:
redeemer" (Ps. 19:12, 14).                  restraint they live a respectable life      and  ye  shall  find  rest  unto  your
    He shuns the scorner's seat.  In        and are good neighbors.                     souls.    For  my  yoke  is  easy,  and
his  heart  he  declares:    "Do  not  I        But our God tells us that it is         my burden is light."
hate them, O Lord, that hate thee?          impossible to keep the second table             By  the  renewal  of  the  Holy
and  am  I  not  grieved  with  those       and ignore the first.  God is  God,         Spirit, God's law is written in his
who  rise  up  against  thee?"  (Ps.        who  created  us  and  upholds  and         heart and becomes his guide on the
139:21).                                    sustains  us  every  moment.    He          path  of  true  thankfulness  to  God
          333    333    333                 does  not  exist  for  us,  but  we  are    for  all  His  boundless  benefits  He
                                            created for His sake, to love, serve,       bestows on him.
    His delight is in the law of Je-        and glorify Him.  That is the chief
hovah.                                                                                             333    333    333
                                            purpose of mankind.  He tells us
    Jehovah is the covenant God of          that "whether ye eat or drink, or               O the blessedness!
His  people.    By  His  Word  and          whatsoever ye do, do it all to the              Jehovah,  He  is  God,  and  He
Spirit  He  assures  them:    "Ye  are      glory of God."  For "all that is not        alone!  He is my God and I am His
my people."  And He raises the re-          of faith is sin."                           forever and ever!
sponse in their hearts:  "Thou art              That which may appear to be                 I  experience  that  "the  com-
our  God  forever  and  ever."    The       "good" to us is still evil in the sight     mandments of the Lord are pure,
love  of  God  is  spread  abroad  in       of  God.    It  is  true,  as  Scripture    enlightening the eyes."  I know my-
their hearts.                               teaches us, that there is none that         self  as  a  wretched,  guilty  sinner,
    God's law in the broadest sense         doeth good, no not one.  There is           prone by nature to hate God and
is His Word, the entire Scripture,          none that is righteous in the sight         the neighbor.  No "common grace"
which is the lamp before our feet           of God, not a single one.  I need           brings improvement in my life.  I
and  the  light  upon  our  pathway.        but search my own heart and life            am incapable of any good and in-
God has given us the perfect rule           to  know  that.    But,  we  say,  how      clined to all evil.
of life, the sure guide, which shows        about  those  "good"  deeds  of  the            My  only  refuge  is  in  Christ.
us  in  His  Word  the  narrow  way         wicked?  He realizes very well that         Every day anew I must flee to Him,
that leads to heaven.                       to  be  successful  he  must  devote        confessing my sins and guilt, seek-
    We have that law spelled out            himself  to  his  work,  and  to  be        ing forgiveness through His aton-
for  us  in  the  ten  commandments         happy he must make a good home              ing blood.  "The law of the Lord is
that were written on two tables of          for himself and for his family.  He         perfect, converting the soul."
stone.  Jesus sums up the demand            must also be a good neighbor.  That             Thus, for me, the law becomes
of  the  law  by  teaching  us:   "You      is foremost in his life.  God is not        a  power  unto  salvation,  my  sure
shall love the Lord your God with           in all His thoughts.  Even if he does       guide on the road of sanctification
your  whole  being  and  in  all  that      put on a pretense of religion, this         that leads to eternal life.  "The tes-
you  say  and  do.    You  shall  love      is still a sham, sheer hypocrisy.           timony of the Lord is sure, making
Him above all else.  This is the first          The man who loves God takes             wise  the  simple.    The  statutes  of
and  great  commandment.    And             delight  in  His  law  and  meditates       the  Lord  are  right,  rejoicing  the
from that follows:  You shall love          on that law day and night.  He sets         heart."
your  neighbor  as  yourself."    We        himself  before  the  mirror  of  the           "More  to  be  desired  are  they
cannot  love  God  and  hate  our           law.  He sees himself a sinner who          than  gold,  yea,  than  much  fine
neighbor,  nor  can  we  love  our          transgresses  all  God's  command-          gold:  sweeter than honey and the
neighbor  --  family  or  friend  --          ments and keeps none of them.  He           honey comb."
without loving God.                         realizes  his  sinfulness,  his  guilt;         I love those who love God and
    But, you counter, my neighbor           daily he makes himself worthy of            am a friend and companion of all

436/Standard Bearer/August, 1997


those who fear the Lord and keep            righteousness will be in His merit          In Him I receive the blessed assur-
His precepts.                               and by His grace in me.                     ance:  "Come, thou blessed, and in-
    When soon I stand before the                I will be judged only as I am in        herit the kingdom."
great  white  throne,  naked,               Christ  and  according  to  what  He            O how love I Thy law, it is my
wretched, laden with guilt, all my          accomplished in and through me.             meditation all the day!   u

  Editorial


              Summer and the Sabbath

                                            ing with devotion to God in pub-            lovers of God have not yet learned
                                            lic, family, and private worship is         the ways of the Roman Catholics,
Summer is the time of vaca-
        tions.    The  people  travel.
       They are gone from home for          the  doing  of  works  of  love:    fel-    who have a mass on Saturday night
weeks.  Some go abroad.  Through-           lowship with God's people in their          in order to free up the entire Sab-
out  the  summer,  families  leave          homes;  hospitality  to  the  lonely;       bath for themselves.
home on the weekends to camp in             visits to the sick, burdened, griev-            The Lord's Sabbath, on its part,
the parks and at the beaches.  Es-          ing, and aged.                              interferes  with  the  people's  sum-
pecially  is  this  true  over  holiday         The  day  of  merely  16  or  18        mer.  As the people look ahead to
weekends.  Others spend the week-           waking hours is far too short.  At          the summer, there stands the Sun-
ends  in  their  trailer  or cottage  at    the end of it, the godly pray, "Lord,       day squarely athwart their vacation
some distant lake.                          give  us  the  eternal  Sabbath;  `O,       plans.  It spoils this trip.  It rules
    More and more, this is summer           send the day of joy and light.'"            out  that  cruise.    It  curtails  the
also for the members of the Protes-             The people's summer conflicts           weekends.  It deprives the people
tant Reformed Churches.  The Lord           with  the  Lord's  Sabbath.    Travel       of the gloriously sunny afternoons.
gives  to  many  such  riches  and          plans make it impossible to attend          It  cuts  into  the  full  week's  vaca-
luxuries  that  they  can  be  away         church.  The nature of the vacation         tion by demanding that the vaca-
from their work for weeks, travel           requires that they travel on the Sab-       tioners  leave  for  home  on  Friday
widely, and live more or less com-          bath.  The boat leaves early Mon-           in order to attend church.  It keeps
fortably  elsewhere  than  in  their        day morning.  Or the vacation ends          the young people out of the popu-
home.                                       on Saturday, and they must be at            lar summer games.
    Against this nothing is or can          work  on  Monday  morning.    Or                Summer and the Sabbath?
be alleged, but this is the summer.         there  is  so  much  more  to  see  in          Rather,  summer  against   the
    The Sabbath is the day which            such  a  short  time  that  they  must      Sabbath,  and  the  Sabbath  against
the  Lord  has  set  apart  from  the       use Sunday to see the sites and the         summer.
other days, to be devoted to Him            scenery.                                        Among        many       Reformed
by His people.  The Lord requires               In  some  Reformed  circles,            people, as among many other pro-
that  on  this  day  they  "diligently      many regularly and openly devote            fessing  Christians,  summer  wins
frequent the church of God, to hear         the greater part of the Sabbath to          out.  The summer-pleasures of the
His Word, to use the sacraments,            their recreations.  They swim, sail,        people breach the Sabbath day as
publicly to call upon the Lord, and         and  sun.    Their  sons  and  daugh-       the  swelling  seas  pierce  a  great
contribute to the relief of the poor,       ters  play  in  the  Gus Macker  bas-       dike.
as  becomes  a  Christian"  (Heidel-        ketball and Little League baseball              The  churches  and  their
berg  Catechism,  Lord's  Day  38).         tournaments.                                officebearers share the guilt of the
For the sake of this worship of God,            Where there is still some fear          desecration of the Sabbath by the
they  are  to  lay  aside  their  every-    of God, or, probably, hesitation to         people.  They cave in to the pres-
day  work  and  their  ordinary             give up the tradition of Sabbath ob-        sure of the people's lust for plea-
earthly pleasures.  The public wor-         servance totally, the people go to          sure and disgust for the praise of
ship of God issues in personal and          church  in  the  morning.    The  sec-      God.  The minister fears to instruct
family  prayer,  singing,  study  of        ond  service  is  neglected.    Atten-      and  warn.    The  elders  dare  not
Scripture,  and  edifying  reading,         dance is pitiful.  It is surprising that    visit,  admonish,  and  discipline.
during the rest of the day.  In keep-       these lovers of pleasure rather than        The churches cancel their evening

                                                                                                 August, 1997/Standard Bearer/437


service.  At last, they do away with       observe one day in the week--Sun-            commandment belongs to the first
the second service altogether.             day--with special uses is the clear,         table of the law.  Obedience to the
    A  remarkable  instance  of  this      emphatic  teaching  of  the  Heidel-        fourth  commandment  fulfills  the
sorry  sacrifice  of  the  Lord's  Sab-    berg Catechism.  Lord's Day 38 ex-          first  and  great  commandment:
bath  on  the  altar  of  the  people's    plains that God in the fourth com-          Love the Lord your God!
pleasure was a decision by the 1995        mandment  requires  "that  I,  espe-            Those  who  fail  to  come  to
synod  of  the  Christian  Reformed        cially  on  the  Sabbath,  that  is,  on    church  diligently,  using  the  Sab-
Church.  Synod changed the article         the day of rest, diligently frequent        bath for their own pleasures, sig-
of the church order that required          the church of God...."                      nal their lack of love for God.
the congregations to "assemble for             The  fourth  commandment  is                What  ingratitude!    With  the
worship at least twice on the Lord's       still  binding  under  the  new  cov-       very riches and luxuries God gives
Day."  It replaced the words, "at          enant.                                      us, that enable us to take vacations,
least," with the word, "ordinarily."           The fourth commandment still            travel,  and  live  away  from  home
The article now reads:  "The con-          sets aside one day of the seven as          (against which nothing is or can be
gregation shall assemble for wor-          special:  the day of rest.                  alleged),  we  forget  His  day,  His
ship ordinarily twice on the Lord's            In  the  fourth  commandment,           worship,  His  gospel,  and  Him
Day...."                                   God still requires the man, woman,          Himself.  Against this, everything
    "Ordinarily!"    Because  the          young person, and child whom He             must be alleged.
people no longer care to come to           has redeemed from sin, death, and               The church that connives at the
church twice on Sunday, especially         hell  and  taken  into  His  covenant       people's profaning of the Sabbath
in the summer.                             to devote the day to Him.  Under            demonstrates that she loses, or has
    "Ordinarily!"    Whenever  the         the new covenant, the friend and            lost, her first love.
church feels like it, and whenever         servant  of  God  does  this  by  dili-         Love the Lord your God who,
the  people  find  it  convenient  to      gently frequenting God's church.            in Jesus Christ, gives you both eter-
come.                                          Implied in the Catechism's ex-          nal life and the good things of this
    "Ordinarily" sounds the death          planation is that the Sabbath day           life with His blessing.  Love Him
knell for the second service in those      is now the first day of  the  week.         by remembering the Sabbath day,
Christian Reformed churches that           God  has  perfected  His  work  and         to keep it holy.
may yet hold it.   With its "ordi-         fulfilled  His  rest  in  the  resurrec-        Fifty-two weeks a year, every
narily,"  synod  killed  the  evening      tion of Jesus Christ from the dead.         year as long as you live.
service.                                   The  Sabbath  is  now  also  the                Including summer.
    How  radically  different  was         "Lord's day," that is, the day of the           The Sabbath day controls and
this synod's reaction to the people's      risen Jesus Christ (Rev. 1:10).             shapes  the  summer  of  the  saints,
dislike  to attend  church  twice  on          The Synod of Dordt reaffirmed           that is, the law of God directs our
Sunday from that of the Synod of           this  understanding  of  the  fourth        lives in the summer as always.  It
Dordt.    Confronting  widespread          commandment.  It declared that "a           makes certain trips impossible.  It
opposition on the part of the people       definite  and  appointed  day  has          prohibits  some  activities.    It  cuts
to a second  service (at which the         been set aside to the service of God,       into vacation-time.  It crosses our
Heidelberg  Catechism  would  be           and that for this purpose as much           will, disappoints our desires, and
preached),  Dordt  told  the  con-         rest is required as is necessary for        changes our plans
sistories to hold the second service       the  service  of  God  and  for  hal-           The law of God has a way of
even if the minister preached only         lowed contemplation."  From this            doing this.  It is the authoritative,
to  his  own  family.    Dordt's  deci-    it  follows  that  "this  day  must  be     unyielding  will  of  the  sovereign
sion breathed the zeal and courage         so consecrated unto the service of          God.
of the church with her first love.         God that upon it men rest from all              It is also for our good.
    For  the  faithful  church  there      servile  labors,  except  those  re-            We need the spiritual rest that
can  be  no  dislodging  of  the  Sab-     quired by charity and present ne-           is  enjoyed  at  church  through  the
bath day.  The Sabbath day is es-          cessities and likewise from all such        gospel  and  sacraments  of  Jesus
tablished, blessed, and hallowed by        recreations as prevent the service          Christ.  We also need relief from
the  Lord  God.    It  is  established,    of God."  And this, said Dordt, is          our wearisome earthly labors and
blessed, and hallowed in the fourth        the  meaning  and  requirement  of          our  often  frantic  pleasures.    We
commandment of God's law:  "Re-            the  fourth  commandment  of  the           need rest and relief weekly.  Our
member the Sabbath day, to keep            law of God.                                 Father and Creator knows us.
it holy."                                      The  importance  of  the  obser-            We do  not need this particular
    That the fourth commandment            vance  of  the  Sabbath  day,  there-       vacation, or that specific trip.
at its very heart is still God's re-       fore, is that it expresses the love of          Have a restful summer!   u
quirement that the covenant people         the  church  for  God.    The  fourth                                       -- DJE

438/Standard Bearer/August, 1997


     Letters


                                             plainly stated.  It is not clear from       to-date question, but in doing so,
                                             whom the quotation is taken, Carey          appears to have missed the woods
                                             or Timothy George (the author of            for the trees.  It is my contention
s     Andrew Fuller, No Calvinist            the book referred to).  In any case         that  drama  is  but  one  facet  of  a
Never before have  I written a it does represent Fuller's views.                         much wider subject area:  that of
       letter to the editor of any pe-             The last part of the quotation        the proper use of the human imagi-
riodical, nor did I intend to do so          states:    "The  failure  to  believe       nation.
this  time,  thinking  that  surely          stemmed not from any physical or                It seems to me that to question
someone else would "take up the              `natural inability,' but rather from        the  validity  of  drama  is  also  to
cudgel."    Having  waited  several          a `moral inability' which was the           question  whether  it  is  consistent
months, however, with no one else            result of a perverted human will."          with  godly,  Christian  behavior
having addressed the problem that            This  is  nothing  but  regurgitated        even to read novels and plays, let
troubled me, I felt I should write.          Arminianism,  straight  from  the           alone participate either passively,
      I refer to the article in the April    gullet of Fuller.                           as a spectator, or actively, as an ac-
1,  1997  issue  of  the  Standard                 He  taught,  as  the  quotation       tor,  in  their  dramatization.    Seen
Bearer, entitled "If God  Is Sover-          shows, that man's depravity con-            in this light, the question of drama
eign,  Is  Evangelism  Urgent  and           sisted  only in an unwillingness to         is only the tip of an iceberg which
Necessary?"  I wish to make it clear         obey  God's  law  and  to  heed  the        includes the propriety of the "let's
that  I  have  no  problem  with  the        gospel summons.  As far as his na-          pretend" play activities of our chil-
theme of the article or its conclu-          ture  was  concerned  he  was  per-         dren to the painting of landscapes.
sion,  but  with  several  statements        fectly  able to do so, he only  would           Might it not be possible that in
made in the article.                         not do so.  This has been well ex-          outlawing acting because of the im-
      In the first place, Brother Allen      pressed in the phrase "he could if          plicit  deception  involved,  many
Brummel  suggests  that  Andrew              he would."                                  other forms of sophisticated make-
Fuller was a Calvinist and a teacher               Thus  Fuller  emphatically  re-       believe  are,  thereby,  also  repro-
of Calvinism:  "Due largely to the           jected  man's  "natural  inability"         bated?  One may well criticize ab-
theological  influence  of  Andrew           and denied thereby also the bibli-          stract  art  for  conveying  no  infor-
Fuller,  a  fellow  Particular Baptist       cal and Reformed doctrine of total          mation  about  the  world,  but  it
minister,  Carey  came  to  see  that        depravity.    This  was  the  corner-       would be equally nave to suggest
evangelism and Calvinism could be            stone of a whole aberrant system            that  the  events  depicted  in
reconciled" (p. 297).                        of "theology" which rejected sub-           Constable's  rural  English  land-
      Now  it  is  certainly  true  that     stitutionary  satisfaction  for  sin,  a    scapes ever happened.  Is it, there-
evangelism and Calvinism can be              strictly particular atonement, etc.         fore, wrong to look at Constables
reconciled, and it may even be that                While  we  certainly  need  ar-       because they are the elaborate in-
William Carey truly saw how they             ticles  in  the  Standard  Bearer  on       ventions  of  one  man's  romantic
could be reconciled, but if he did,          missions,  please  let  us  not  have       imagination?
he did not learn this from Andrew            Andrew Fuller held up as Calvin-                In  this  letter,  much  appeal  is
Fuller.  Fuller was most emphati-            ist or even as a friend of  Calvin-         made to "tradition" as represented
cally  neither  a  Calvinist  nor  a         ism, nor his views represented as           by  the  writing  of  Herman
teacher of it, but an enemy.                 a proper biblical "reconciliation" of       Hoeksema.   Is it satisfactory in  a
      If Carey learned anything from         God's sovereignty and missions.             Reformed denomination to analyze
Fuller,  he  learned  Arminianism,                                (Rev.) Ron Hanko       an important contemporary situa-
Amyrauldianism, Grotianism, and                            Kells, Northern Ireland       tion on the basis of the words of a
Neonomianism,  not  Calvinism.                                                           theologian,  no  matter  how  great?
Fuller's views of man's natural con-                                                     We may be relieved when we find
dition were Arminian; of the atone-                                                      that we have come to the same con-
ment, Grotian; of the extent and ef-                                                     clusion  as  a  great  mind  like
ficacy of the atonement, Amyraul-            s     Another Episode                       Calvin's,  but  his  testimony  alone
dianian;  and  of  the  law,  Neon-          in the Movies-Issue                         is not the reason why we cleave so
omian.                                                                                   strongly  to  the  Reformed  world
      In  the  quotation  on  page  297      In  a  letter  entitled  "Movies:
                                                  Where do we stand?" (Standard          and life view.  Might it not be that
of the  Standard Bearer Fuller's er-         Bearer, May 1, 1997), H. Boonstra,          we Reformed have become a little
rant views of man's condition are            Jr. raises a most interesting and up-       too used to calling great men to our

                                                                                                    August, 1997/Standard Bearer/439


aid  in  the  defense  of  the  faith       ing.    No  human  may  act  out  the          s    Heretical Gospel
which we profess, at the expense            life of another.  If he acts out the
of sober and dispassionate exami-           life of the godly, he plays at holi-           The May  1st issue of the Stan-
                                                                                                dard Bearer contained an excel-
nation of the Word of God?                  ness.  If he acts out the life of the          lent  article  titled  "Free-Willism:
    In  conclusion,  could  I  then         ungodly,  he  plays  at  unholiness.           Another  Gospel."    It  has  been  a
throw  in  my  penny's  worth,  and         Those  who  watch  amuse  them-                long time since I have seen in print
encourage the editor to include a           selves with the playing at one or              (or heard, for that matter) such a
series  on  this  broader  agenda.    I     the other.  But neither holiness nor           forthright denunciation of this he-
for  one  would  be  glued  to  every       unholiness  may  be  the  object  of           retical gospel.  With your permis-
episode.                                    playing.  The holiness of God for-             sion, I would like to reprint copies
                       Allister Pattison    bids it.                                       of this article to place on our book
             Kells, Northern Ireland            The reason, then, why the the-             table.    The  article  will  be  repro-
                                            ater and movies have always been               duced in full, and the article will
Response:                                   gushing  fountains  of  spiritual,             have both author and source listed
    The issue for the Protestant Re-        moral sewage is that the curse of              on a title page, giving full credit to
formed  Churches  is  not  imagina-         the holy God rests on the enterprise           the Standard Bearer.
tion.                                       itself of acting.                                                      Lee Carl Finley
    The issue, rather, is the ungod-            The  command  to  the  saints,                   Reformed Baptist Bible Study
liness and moral filth that are over-       young and old, more urgent in 1997                                  East Sparta, OH
whelmingly the content of movies,           than ever before in the history of
whether in the theater or on televi-        development  of  wickedness,  is:              Response:
sion.  Movies are a powerful means          Avoid movies!  "Have no fellow-                     Permission granted.
of Satan to develop the depravity           ship with the unfruitful works of                                               -- Ed.
of the world and to corrupt Chris-          darkness" (Eph. 5:11).
tians.                                          Read books.                                                                       u
    With this, the issue is the un-             Good books.
lawfulness  of  impersonation,  act-                                           -- Ed.




  When Thou Sittest in Thine House                                                         Rev. Ronald VanOverloop



            Current Threats To Raising
              God's Covenant Children*


                                            It is difficult to live a godly life. when God separated the seed of
                                                 It  is  difficult  for  all  of  God's    the  woman  from  the  seed  of  the
                                                people, but it seems especially            serpent. The devil has been unre-
Rev.  VanOverloop  is  pastor  of           difficult for young people (and for            lenting in his efforts to destroy the
Georgetown  Protestant  Reformed            their parents).                                Seed of the woman. This makes for
Church in Bauer, Michigan.                        It  has  been  said  that  it  is        constant  spiritual  warfare.  The
                                            harder to be a godly young person              Heidelberg  Catechism,  while  ex-
    *This  is  the  substance  of  a        today than it was in the past. From            plaining  the  sixth  petition  of  the
speech  delivered  to  the  Parent          one perspective this is not true. The          Lord's Prayer, declares that every
Teachers  Association  at  Heritage         people of God in every age live in             believer faces three mortal enemies
Christian School.                           a spiritual battle. This battle began          against  which  he  has  to  fight  all

440/Standard Bearer/August, 1997


his life. These mortal enemies are         those  instruments  of  the  devil               television, and videos are also se-
the devil, the world, and his own          which threaten a godly walk.                     rious threats to godliness in young
flesh. Believers have always been              A great threat to a godly walk               people.  Believing  parents  must
in this same spiritual battle, which       in  our  day  is  substance  abuse.  By          ever be on guard against the devil's
manifests  itself a little differently     that I mean the use of tobacco, al-              use of these instruments to cause
in  each  generation.  And  in  every      cohol, illegal drugs. I learned that             the less mature to fall into sin.
age  believing  young  people  fight       researchers  found  marked  in-                      Parents  must  be  alert  to  an-
this same spiritual battle, but they       creases in the use of tobacco, alco-             other instrument the devil is using
do so without a high level of spiri-       hol,  and  illegal  drugs  during  the           to  attack  godliness  in  young
tual maturity. The devil knows of          past five years among eighth and                 people,  namely,  the  evil  uses  of
this weakness and makes every ef-          twelfth  graders  in  the  state  of             Internet.  It  is  not  uncommon  that
fort to take advantage of this lack        Michigan.  These  researchers  be-               young  people  and  also  children
of spiritual maturity. So today's be-      lieve that the rise in cigarette smok-           know their way around computers
lieving young people face the same         ing among teens may have contrib-                and  the  Internet  more  than  their
mortal  enemies  their  parents  and       uted to a parallel rise in marijuana             parents. There are three particular
grandparents  faced  when  they            use. It is believed that attitudes and           uses  of  the  Internet  which  I  will
were young.                                beliefs about the dangers and con-               mention  here  as  threats  to  godli-
    However,  from  another  per-          sequences of drug use continue to                ness.  First,  pornography  and  nu-
spective the battle is more severe         soften among teens, which soften-                dity are readily available. Also, the
today than in the past. With the re-       ing  is  largely  responsible  for  the          cults  make  use  of  web  sites,  in
turn  of  the  Lord  ever  closer,  the    increased  use.  These  researchers              which they present themselves in
devil knows that his time is short.        found that teens today know less                 the best  light and where they re-
His efforts to destroy the cause of        about  drugs  and  the  dangers  of              cruit  members.  Finally,  on  the
Christ  are  more  desperate.  With        drug use than the previous genera-               Internet are chat lines, where one
craft and guile the devil makes use        tion of teens. This is due in part to            can easily connect with others who
of this present evil world as an in-       a significant drop in anti-drug mes-             can  assert  an  ungodly  influence.
strument to attack and destroy the         sages. It is also a fact that more of            Parents must be aware of these evil
people of God, either individually         the music industry is blasting out               uses of the Internet and must moni-
or collectively. But believing par-        a pro-drug message in their music,               tor  their  children's  use  of  the
ents  and  their  believing  young         words, and titles.                               Internet.
people  must  not  fear.  They  have           Another threat to living godly                   Another threat to godliness is
no more reason to fear today than          as a believing teen is ungodly  mu-              an  excessive  attention  to  sports,
God's people ever did. God's grace         sic, and the influence of  television            whether  by  participation  or  by
is always sufficient. Even in the last     and videos. In these media horrible              spectating.  It  would  seem  that
days,  immediately  before  our            sins are portrayed without any                         sports is an innocent alterna-
Lord's  return,  we  find  I  Corin-       expression  of  God's  righ-                             tive to all the other threats.
thians 10: 13 to be true, "There hath      teous  judgment.  Take                                        That it is, when, like most
no temptation taken you but such           only the one example of             ... school-aged            other things, it is used in
as is common to man: but God is            the  taking  of  God's                 children                moderation.  All  things
faithful, who will not suffer you to       name in vain. How fre-              no longer fear             without moderation are
be tempted above that ye are able;         quent  is  not  the  name           that they will             sins, and it takes spiri-
but will with the temptation also          of  the  holy  God  mis-            "get it worse"             tual maturity to exercise
make a way to escape, that ye may          used or damned?! Then                    from                  moderation. Already as
be able to bear it."                       consider how the Spirit             their parents              believing teens we must
                                                                                 than from
       333    333    333                   directed  the  Reformed                                       be aware that "bodily ex-
                                           fathers  when  they  said             teachers.           ercise  profiteth  little:  but
    The devil uses many forces to          that  there  "is no  sin greater                       godliness  is  profitable  unto
attack God's young people. These           or  more  provoking  to  God,"                   all  things,"  both  for  this  life  and
forces vary depending on the age           (Heidelberg  Catechism,  q.  100).               for the life to come (I Tim. 4:8).
and personality and position of that       Our silence "makes us partakers of                   The  last  threat  I  would  men-
young  person.  The  devil  is  ex-        these  horrible  sins  in  others"  (q.          tion in this article is that of an in-
tremely  crafty  and  most  wise           99). Also we must be aware of the                creasing disrespect for those whom
(worldly) to use what he knows to          fact that Walt Disney has deliber-               God has placed in authority over
be the most effective instrument to        ately  shifted  away  from  "family              us.  Teachers  report  that,  while
make each elect stumble and fall.          values" toward acceptance and ap-                there  has  always  been  the  sin  of
Believing young people and their           proval  of  homosexuality  and  of               disrespect,  today  the  disrespect
believing parents must be aware of         New Age values. Ungodly music,                   seems to be more blatant  than  in

                                                                                                     August, 1997/Standard Bearer/441


previous generations. I wonder if          body of this death." Godly parents,              problem  and  behavior  instead  of
this is not in part because school-        young  people,  and  children  must              personality  traits  or  the  child's
aged  children no longer  fear that        fight this war in the consciousness              value as a human being. And re-
they will "get it worse" from their        that  this  trio  of  forces  is  greater        member that we are  always show-
parents  than  from  teachers.  (The       than we can withstand in our own                 ing  them  how  to  respond  to  the
world seems to be influencing the          strength. But through Christ we can              threats -- by our example.
church  concerning  the  use  --            do all things. So let us constantly                    And  thirdly,  do  we  keep  the
rather, lack of use -- of the rod.)         be  striving  to  know  what  it  is  to         big picture in view? Remember that
Also, in the world about us there          fight  in  the  strength  of  the  Lord.         we are the adults and they are the
is an increasing disrespect for those      Parents  must  guide  their  young               children. Do not make their expe-
in  authority,  for  example,  for  the    people  and  children  in  the  effort           riences yours, so that you live their
President of the United States. It is      to fight in the might of the Lord.               life or you  live your  life through
believed  that  disagreement  with             Another source of the power of               them. Parents must be aware that
the President's policies and politics      these threats is peer pressure -- es-             this  is  a  constant  danger  arising
gives  license  to  disrespect.  The       pecially  for  school-aged  children.            from their own flesh. It is so easy
Scriptures demand otherwise. And           Peer  pressure  --  the  desire  to  be           for  parents  so  to  identify  them-
the Heidelberg Catechism is again          liked -- is a tremendous power in                 selves with their children that they
a wise guide in teaching that I must       every age, but especially when one               forget that they are the adults.
"show all honor, love and fidelity         is young, whether a believer or an                     Remember the nature and lim-
... to all in authority over me, and         unbeliever. The desire to be loved               its  of  our  calling  as  parents,  be-
submit  myself  to  their  good  in-       and noticed makes each threat so                 cause believing children are God's
struction and correction, with due         powerful.                                        children. They are God's far more
obedience; and also patiently bear             The awareness that the power                 than they are ours, from the view-
with their weaknesses and infirmi-         of the threats lies more within us               point both of salvation and of cre-
ties, since it pleases God to govern       than outside us in the instruments                    ation.  This  means  that  we  are
us by their hand" (q. 104). Our Re-        the devil is using should in-                             not to hold them too closely.
formed fathers were well aware of          fluence  believing  parents                                 We  must  love  them  as
the  human  tendency  to  be  disre-       as they nurture their chil-        ... the banning           God's  children  with  a
spectful to those in authority when        dren  in  the  fear  of  the           of these               biblical  love  which  is
we see their weaknesses and sins.          Lord.  This  means  that               threats                 unconditional;  and  we
As parents we must ever be mind-           the  banning  of  these             is not really              must love them as our
ful of the necessity and importance        threats  is  not  really               fighting                children  conditionally.
of our showing only respect for all        fighting the battle where             the battle               We are not to be condi-
in  authority  over  us,  so  that  we     it  has to  be  fought.  Be-        where it has              tional  about  their  per-
might be good examples. Also, we           lieving parents must con-                    to be           son  or  obedience.  We
must not weary to place before our         stantly  be  teaching  their           fought.              must  be  able  to  let  them
children and teenagers the demand          children  to  fight  against                              go if they show themselves
of their heavenly Father's law that        their own flesh and the desire to                     to be unrepentant and unrespon-
they  honor  those  He  has  placed        be wanted or liked by others. This               sive  to  our  repeated  admonitions
over them. And this demand must            must  receive  the  focus  of  godly             and those of the church.
be enforced.                               parents' attention as they strive to                   As parents we teach and teach
        333    333    333                  teach their children to be godly.                and teach, and we pray and pray
                                               Secondly,  godly  parents  must              and  pray.  Instruct  constantly  in
    There are threats to godliness         pay much attention to the kind of                God's  Word,  which  is  the  armor
in our believing young people and          life  which  is  being  lived  in  their         which protects and equips them for
children.  How  do  we  respond  to        homes.  Is  it  the  setting  for  good          spiritual  warfare  (Ephesians  6).
the threats and how do we respond          communication  between  parents                  Most  simply,  teach  them  God's
to our children when they fall be-         and children? Parents, as the more               commands. Demand unconditional
fore the threats?                          mature, must not stop trying to es-              honor  for  those  by  whose  hand
    First, are we aware of the real        tablish  rapport.  This  they  can  do           God is pleased to govern them. The
power of the threats? Their power          by  listening  when  their  young                purpose of our instruction is that
is what the Heidelberg Catechism           people  do  talk  and  by  showing               our  children  be  disciplined,  i.e.,
calls the mortal enemy of "our own         they  understand  even  when  they               that  they  be  able  to  say  "No"  to
flesh."  The  strongest  and  fiercest     disagree. Parents should talk about              their own flesh, be ready to repent
foe of the trio of mortal enemies is       non-threatening subjects; and they               quickly,  and  be  able  to  grasp
our own flesh, which in Scripture          should avoid constant criticism and              quickly the truth of forgiveness in
is called our "old man" and "the           nagging.  They  should  speak  to  a             the blood of Christ.   u

442/Standard Bearer/August, 1997


     All Around Us                                                                                     Rev. Gise VanBaren



                                               the center" in his conduct of syn-            s      Two Denominations Break
                                               odical sessions.                              Relationship with the CRC
s      The Christian Reformed                    "My prayer is this will be a uni-                  Both the Orthodox Presbyterian
Synod                                          fying  synod,  unlike  some  of  the          Church  and  the  Presbyterian
There were several issues at the ones we have had," said DeVries. Church  in  America  have  ended
       synod  of  the  Christian  Re-          "I hope that it is one of harmony.            their relationship with the CRC on
formed Church, meeting in Grand                I believe in openness, and hope-              the issue of women serving in of-
                                               fully that's what will happen."
Rapids,  Michigan  on  June  14-21,              According to DeVries, the ma-               fice.  The Christian Observer reports:
which  should  be  of  interest  and           jor  issues  at  synod  will  include
concern  for  those  of  us  who  ob-          whether  CRC  members  may  ad-                      While the OPC cited a number
serve from the sidelines.   The first          dress God as "Mother," structural                  of  reasons  for  concern  in  recent
was the election of their president            issues in Canadian ministries, and                 years,  the  formal  motion  cited
--  and  his  comments  about  the              possibly abortion.                                 only the 1995 decision to allow the
situation in that denomination to-               DeVries said he was deeply sad-                  ordination of women to office.  Re-
day.  The following quotations are             dened by the secessions that had                   sponding  to  CRC  concerns,  the
from  the  reports  of  the  URNS  of          occurred from the CRC in recent                    General  Assembly  passed  a  mo-
                                               years, partly in response to issues                tion without audible dissent not-
Darrell T. Maurina:                            such as abortion and feminine lan-                 ing that last year's decision "was
                                               guage for God but mostly due to                    carefully worded to avoid saying
       In a highly unusual move, the           women's  ordination.  Since  1993,                 that  the  CRCNA  is  not  a  true
     Christian Reformed synod elected          the CRC has lost over 30,000 mem-                  church of Jesus  Christ"  and that
     two  Holland  area  pastors  as  its      bers.                                              "no  OPC  General  Assembly  has
     president and vice-president.               "I'm saddened by it, deeply sad-                 ever made such a judgment."
       Meeting  yesterday  at  Calvin          dened," said DeVries. "The main                      ... After breaking with the CRC,
     College, the broadest assembly of         focus  should  be  Christians  seek-               the Assembly established "corre-
     the 285,000-member Christian Re-          ing  and  ministering  to  the                     sponding relations" with the larg-
     formed Church voted to elect the          world."...                                           est group seceding from the CRC,
     Rev.  Michael  DeVries  of  Pillar                                                           the  United  Reformed  Churches,
     CRC as its president and the Rev.                                                            and  voted  to  express  "thankful-
                                                 One  must  be surprised  at the
     Wayne  Brouwer  of  Harderwyk                                                                ness to God for their love for the
                                             "deep sadness" of DeVries.  Where
     CRC as its vice-president.                                                                   truth of God and the purity of the
       DeVries'  congregation  is  the       was the "main focus" of the CRC                      church  of  Jesus  Christ,  welcome
     convening  church  for  this  year's    synods when they adopted a clear                     them  to  the  family  of  Reformed
     synod, meaning that he served as        statement showing from Scripture                     churches, and pray for the bless-
     temporary president until the per-      that  women  can  not  serve  in  of-                ing of God on their ministry."
     manent  officers  were  elected.        fice--then on the following synod,
     DeVries will also conduct today's       without  altering  the  earlier  deci-                 The  Christian  Observer  reports
     synodical  prayer  and  praise  ser-    sion, declare that the Church Or-               also  the  reaction  of  Leonard
     vice at 4 p.m. at his congregation,     der  article  forbidding  women  to
     founded 150 years ago by the Rev.                                                       Hofman,  administrative  secretary
                                             serve in church offices could be set
     Albertus  VanRaalte  as  First  Re-                                                     of the CRC's interchurch relations
     formed  Church  of  Holland,  the       aside so that in some churches and              committee,  under  the  heading,
     "mother church" of the rest of the      classes women could nevertheless                "Leonard  Hofman  had  a  second
     West Michigan congregations that        serve.  To change the direction of              bad day":
     formed  the  Christian  Reformed        the churches in such high-handed
     Church and the Midwest wing of          fashion is hardly the way of "Chris-                   Rev.  Leonard  Hofman  said  he
     the Reformed Church in America.         tians seeking and ministering to the                 was "stunned" by this week's ac-
     DeVries has pastored in Holland         world."    One  wonders  how  the                    tions  by  the  PCA  and  the  OPC.
     since 1980, and until 1993 served                                                            "I'm obviously emotionally moved
                                             CRC  can  "minister  to  the  world"
     the  Harderwyk  church  now                                                                  when churches in close fellowship
                                             while      maintaining        such         a
     pastored by Brouwer....                                                                        with us in a period of a week re-
       ...The election of a synod presi-       duplicitous position.                                move ties with us," said Hofman.
     dent often provides an early indi-          One  might  question  too                          Observers  in  Grand  Rapids
     cation of the tenor of the synodi-      DeVries' "aim for the center" as he                  weren't surprised.  John Suk, edi-
     cal  delegates.  DeVries,  who  de-     led the synod.  Ought not the guide                  tor of the official CRC Banner, sug-
     scribed  himself  as  a  theological    be, not the "center," but Scripture                  gested in the June 9 issue that it
     moderate, said he would "aim for        and the confessions?                                 was time to rethink relations with

                                                                                                         August, 1997/Standard Bearer/443


     the PCA and the OPC and explore            "I came inclined to vote against        s    Other CRC Synodical
     relations  with  other  denomina-        theological classes, but you have         Decisions
     tions.                                   convinced  me  we  need  each
                                              other," said Rev. Larry Meyer of          The synod did firmly reject the
                                                                                             use of feminine or neutral pro-
                                              Faith Community CRC in Beaver             nouns when speaking of God.  One
                                              Dam, Wisconsin.
                                                "If  we  do  not  make  room  for       delegate emphasized,  "Our synod
                                              those on the right, I am afraid we        opened two doors already; one is
s      Theologically-identified               are going to lose that voice," said       wide open for those women who
Classes?
O                                             Meyer.  "I fear that if we do not         want  to  be  ministers  and  elders,
        vertures to establish "theologi-      make room for those on the right          one is slightly open for those who
        cally-identified Classes" were        we will make a hard turn to the           want to be homosexual," said Rev.
presented  to  synod.    It  was  sup-        left."                                    Kenneth Cho of Immanuel Korean
posed to be a way to keep in the                Elder  Marlin  VanSchepen  of           CRC in Rowland Heights, Califor-
CRC those who opposed women in                Classis  Minnesota  South  urged          nia. "There are some delegates who
office but wanted to remain in the            delegates  to  consider  the  conse-      want  to  open  the  door  to  calling
denomination.    Since,  for  the             quences. "I think all of us realize       God female. I appeal to you to close
present at least, women were not              we are at something of a defining
                                              moment  for  the  Christian  Re-          that door, and close it tightly; do
to be delegated to synod nor serve            formed  Church,"  said  Van               not debate this long, close it tightly,
on  synodical  committees,  such              Schepen,  noting  that  some              or  there  will  be  a  big,  big  storm
classes could allow those to remain           churches  believed  they  were  not       come in."
in the denomination who could not             being  served  effectively  by  their          The Synod also dealt with the
in good conscience serve in classes           current  classical  affiliation  and      question of ministers who leave the
where  women  were  delegated.                looked to theological classes as an       CRC.  Should they  simply be "dis-
(Doubtlessly, it is but a matter of           alternative to denominational re-         missed," or deposed?  The various
time before a change at synod takes           alignment.                                classes have dealt with this in dif-
place  also  --  the  matter  is  to  be         That reasoning didn't appeal to
                                              Dr.  Jeff  Weima  of  Calvin  Semi-       fering ways--leading to confusion
reviewed in the year 2,000.)   Many           nary, who said one delegate had           and opposition.  Also, there was a
waited the outcome of this recom-             told him he would be voting for           question  whether  CRC  ministers
mendation, thinking this to be the            the proposal to stave off a seces-        ought to participate in the installa-
solution to living within a severely          sion despite believing the proposal       tion or ordination of officebearers
divided denomination.  The URNS               was a bad idea. "I am firmly con-         in  those  churches  which  left  the
reports:                                      vinced that theological classes are       CRC.
                                              a terrible thing and the death blow            Another knotty issue was that
     Would  allowing  Christian  Re-          for the church," said Weima. "We          of the articles of incorporation.  The
     formed opponents of women's or-          either  are  a  model  of  the  family
                                                                                        synod  recommended  changes  in
     dination to have their own theo-         and work through our differences
     logically-identified  classes  be  a     or we aren't."                            these  articles  so  that  it  is  clearly
     "terrible thing and a death blow           Others  reminded  synod  that           stated that the property belongs to
     to the church" or a way for con-         only one day earlier they had ap-         the denomination.  If there is a di-
     servatives and progressives to live      proved transferring three churches        vision  within  a  congregation,  the
     with each other despite their dis-       --  including  Pine  Creek  CRC  of        classis  would  determine  that  the
     agreements?                              Holland which opposes women's             group which remains faithful to the
       Those two visions led to heated        ordination and Trinity CRC of Mt.         CRC  position  would  retain  the
     debate at synod June 19 on a pro-        Pleasant which wants to ordain its        property.    All  newly  organized
     posal  that  approximately  four         female pastor -- from one classis
                                                                                        churches  and  those  receiving  de-
     dozen conservative churches be al-       to another due to factors unrelated
     lowed  to  organize  four  new           to geography. "The mechanism is           nominational support would be re-
     classes which would remain mem-          in place; if churches want to go to       quired to adopt this change.  Self-
     bers of the CRC but adopt a set of       a classis that is of like mind, the       supporting  churches  would  be
     conservative  theological  affir-        mechanism is there and in place,"         urged to adopt the same change.
     mations  on  such  subjects  as  gay     said  Elder  Larry  Baar  of  Classis          Dr. Hessel Bouma, a professor
     marriage,  women's  ordination,          Muskegon.                                 at Calvin College whose views on
     worship,  and  feminine  language          In  the  end,  synod  rejected  the     abortion  have  been  questioned,
     for God.                                 proposal  to  create  theologically-      was not rebuked by the synod as
       Numerous  delegates  warned            identified conservative classes on
                                                                                        several  classes  requested.    The
     that  failure  to  grant  theological    a voice vote. An earlier procedural
     classes  could  lead  to  even  more     motion showed a 125 to 59 mar-            synod  rather  decided  that  it  was
     secessions  from  a  denomination        gin  against  considering  a  report      not necessary to appoint a commit-
     that has lost over 30,000 members        favoring theological classes.             tee to study the issue of abortion
     in the last five years.                                                            or to review Bouma's beliefs.   u

444/Standard Bearer/August, 1997


  Special Feature                                                                                     Prof. Robert Decker


                    The Reformed Minister:
                                  A Biblical Profile

                                               him, he will shepherd the people             history  of  the  church.    He  must
                                               of God with the Word of God.  This           know  how  God  gathered  the
                                               call of Christ to the ministry comes
Delegates to the Synod of
          1997, members of the Theo-                                                        church throughout the ages.  The
          logical  School  Committee,          through the church.                          minister must know the battles in
esteemed colleagues of the faculty,                All this we assume to be true.           which the church was engaged and
graduates of the class of 1997, and            You are committed to the Reformed            how the church developed her un-
fellow saints in Christ:  Beginning            faith.  If not, resign your candidacy,       derstanding  of  the  doctrines  and
with  his  first  convocation  service         leave  the  churches,  and  go  else-        truth of the Word of God.  He must
and  throughout  his  four  years  in          where.  But you are committed to             have a good grasp of historical the-
the seminary a student hears cer-              the Reformed faith and, the Lord             ology.
tain  themes  repeated  over  and              willing, Christ through the church               The  minister  must  be  able  to
over.    Tonight  I  present  without          will call you to the ministry.  The          work with  the original languages
apology to you who graduate some               question we propose to answer in             of Holy Scripture, the Hebrew of
of those themes one last time.                 this address is: What ought a Re-            the Old Testament and the Greek
    There are certain characteristics          formed  minister  look  like  in  the        of the New.  Only having a thor-
of a Reformed minister.  He must               light  of  Scripture?    What  are  the      ough knowledge of these will the
be committed to the truth of Holy              gifts,  talents  that  according  to         minister be able to bring out of the
Scripture, the faith once delivered            Scripture must characterize the Re-          Scriptures  things  old  and  things
to the saints.  He must be commit-             formed minister?  We must be se-             new.
ted to the truth as summed in the              lective, we cannot be exhaustive.  I             All  this  means  the  minister
Reformed  confessions,  the  Three             Timothy 3:2-9 and 4:11-16 list the           must have the desire and ability to
Forms        of     Unity     and     the      fundamental,  indispensable  gifts           spend many hours with the books!
Westminster  Standards.    And  he             which every bishop (minister or el-          The fact that you have completed
must be committed to this truth as             der) must have.  We will consider            four years of seminary instruction,
it is, by God's grace, taught in the           some of these.                               the fact that you have successfully
Protestant  Reformed  Churches.                    There are certain natural gifts          completed a six-month internship
And to be a Reformed  minister he              (we  all  realize  that  there's  a  cer-    and  that  you  have  done  some
must be called by Christ.  Christ is           tain  spiritual  dimension  to  these        preaching in the churches, the fact
the  Good,  the  Chief,  the  Great            natural gifts) necessary for the min-        that  you  have  successfully  sus-
Shepherd of the sheep.  Christ cares           ister.  The first are intellectual gifts.    tained  your  oral,  comprehensive
for His sheep through those whom               A  minister  needs  a  thorough              examinations before the synod, all
He calls to this office.  To be a min-         knowledge  of  the  Word  of  God.           this does not mean that you have
ister a man must be authorized and             What  we  mean  is  that  he  must           arrived!   All this doesn't mean that
qualified by Christ to minister to             know the Scriptures; he must be "at          you are theologians or even good
the people of God.  And if the min-            home" in the Bible.  But more than           ministers.  The most that the semi-
ister is faithful to Christ who calls          this,  the  minister  must  know  the        nary  can  give  you  are  the  tools
                                               doctrines of the Word of God and             which  you  need  to  use  in  a  life-
Prof. Decker is professor of Practical         he must know how these doctrines             time of study.  This is what God
Theology in the Protestant Reformed            are related to each other.  He must          calls you to do when He says, "Ne-
Seminary.                                      know and apprehend the truth of              glect not the gift that is in thee....
    *    This  is  the  text  of  the  com-    Scripture  and  be  able  to  defend         Meditate  upon  these  things;  give
mencement address given at the semi-           that truth against the many errors           thyself  wholly  to  them....    Take
nary  graduation  of  Daniel  Kleyn,           and heresies abounding especially            heed  unto  thyself,  and  unto  the
James Laning, Darren Thole, and Mar-           in our day.                                  doctrine;  continue  in  them...  "  (I
tin VanderWal on June 16, 1997.                    The  minister  must  know  the           Tim.  4:14-16).    Hence,  plan  on  a

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lifetime  of  serious  and  diligent        ister looks like.  He's a man of sym-       those who preach Christ from spu-
study of the Word of God.  Learn            pathetic understanding.                     rious motives in Philippians 1:15-
from the giants of the past and be              The  Reformed  minister  must           18.    Some  were  preaching  Christ
a lifelong student of theology.             also be apt to teach (I Tim. 3:2).  Lit-    out of envy and strife, some out of
    This is what the Reformed min-          erally he must be skillful in teach-        contention and not sincerely, while
ister looks like.  He's a student of        ing, i.e., he must be able to teach.        others were preaching out of pure
the Word!                                   This means that the minister must           motives.    But  the  apostle  doesn't
    Then  there  are  those  gifts  re-     be able to make clear what Scrip-           care, because, whether in pretense
lating to the people of God.  The           ture teaches.  He must have the gift        or  in  truth,  Christ  is  being
Reformed  minister  must  have  a           from God to unfold the mystery of           preached, and in that he rejoices.
sympathetic  understanding   of  the        the gospel.  The Bible calls minis-         God even used a wicked Balaam,
people of God entrusted to his care.        ters  "pastors  and  teachers"  (Eph.       held up in II Peter 2 as the example
By "understanding" we mean that             4:11).  The minister is a pastor, i.e.,     of  a  false  teacher,  to  bless  His
the  minister  must  know,  not  just       one  who  shepherds  the  flock  of         people.  And Jesus sent Judas along
human nature in general, but the            God,  and  he  is  a  teacher.    This      with the other disciples to the lost
human  nature  of  the  children  of        doesn't mean the minister is both           sheep of the house of Israel (Matt.
God.  The minister will know then           a pastor and a teacher; he's a pas-         10).  So, in the objective sense, God
that the people of God are sinners,         tor/teacher.  This is one office.  The      can  and  has  used  a  reprobate  to
saved in Christ, but sinners.  They         idea is that the minister shepherds         minister to His people.
have but a small beginning of the           the  people  of  God  by  means  of             But  we  take  the  subjective
new obedience and, therefore, will          teaching them out of the Word of            viewpoint and emphasize that the
manifest  all  kinds  of  weaknesses        God.  Hence, the Reformed minis-            Reformed minister must be a child
and sins.  They will be involved in         ter is always teaching.  When the           of  God.    This  means  he  must  be
a  daily  battle  against  their  sinful    minister  preaches,  he  is  teaching.      characterized  by  a  genuine  spiri-
natures, and in this way they need          He's  teaching  in  the  catechism          tuality or piety. The minister must
to grow in sanctification.  But the         classes and when he leads the Bible         have a deep sense of his own sin-
minister must also have an under-           study societies.  Not only so, but          fulness and his need of the grace
standing of the individual members          when he admonishes the wayward              of God in all his work among God's
of  the  congregation.    He  must          he does that by teaching them from          people.  He  must  be  deeply  im-
know  their  strengths  and  weak-          Scripture the right way of faith and        pressed  with  the  holiness,  the
nesses as well as their individual          repentance.    When  the  minister          goodness,  the  greatness  of  God!
needs and circumstances.                    comforts the dying and sorrowing,           The minister must be a man who
    But that must be a  sympathetic         he does so by teaching them from            fears  God!  He, in fact, must be an
understanding.    The  word  "sym-          the  Word  of  God.    When  he  en-        exemplary Christian, one who is a
pathetic"  means  to  "feel  with."         courages the sick or the aged, he           worthy  example  to  the  people  of
The minister represents Christ, and         does  that  by  teaching  them  from        God.    This  means  the  Reformed
Christ is "touched with the feelings        Scripture.  This is in harmony with         minister will be a man of prayer.
of the infirmities" of God's people         the  nature  of  inspired  Scripture.       He will set aside time each day to
(Heb. 4:15).  The minister, then, af-       "All scripture is given by inspira-         spend  in  personal  private  devo-
ter the example of the chief Shep-          tion of God, and is profitable for          tions.  He  will meditate on God's
herd, must feel with God's people.          doctrine, for reproof, for correction,      Word  and  he  will  pray  daily  for
This  means,  for  example,  that  he       for instruction in righteousness" (II       God's grace and Holy Spirit to en-
must  not  merely  know  that  they         Tim. 3:16).  If God's people are not        able him to shepherd the people of
sorrow, but must weep with those            instructed  in  righteousness;  if          God.  The minister will do this be-
who  weep.    He  needs  to  rejoice        they're not taught the doctrine of          cause he knows that "God will give
with those who rejoice.  He's got           the Word of God, they will be de-           his grace and Holy Spirit to those
to  bear with  the  weak.    He  must       stroyed for lack of knowledge (Hos.         only, who with sincere desires con-
have sympathetic understanding of           4:6).                                       tinually ask them of him, and are
their  fears  and  doubts,  their               The Reformed minister must be           thankful for them" (Heidelberg Cat-
struggles  and  temptations.    Only        a skillful teacher.  This is what he        echism, q. 116).
then will the Reformed minister be          looks like.                                     This is what the Reformed min-
able to bring to bear the Word of               Among the spiritual gifts a min-        ister looks like.  He's a godly, spiri-
God to the needs of the people of           ister must possess we mention first         tual, pious man who fears God and
God both in his public preaching            the fact that he must be a  child of        is given to much prayer.
and  teaching  and  in  his  private        God.    It's  certainly  true  that  God        The  Reformed  minister  must
counseling of God's people.                 can  bless  His  church  through  an        also be a man of patience.  He needs
    This is what the Reformed min-          ungodly man.  Scripture speaks of           this gift because of the sinfulness

446/Standard Bearer/August, 1997


of the people of God.  He needs to         perfectness."    Love  is  a  bond,  it     love for one another" (John 13:35).
bear long with the weaknesses of           unites, makes one.  In other words,         Love is the fruit of the Spirit, ac-
God's people.  Especially does the         God's love is fellowship.  And it's         cording  to  Galatians  5.    It's  the
minister need patience with those          a bond of perfectness.  Love exists         more excellent way, according to I
who are quick to criticize him,  par-      only in the light.  God's love can-         Corinthians  13.    You  may  speak
ticularly his preaching.  The Scrip-       not flourish in the darkness of sin.        with the tongue of men and angels,
tures require of a minister that he        In sin there's no love, only hatred         but without love you're only mak-
not  strive,  but  be  gentle  and  pa-    and lust.                                   ing noise like a cymbal.  You may
tient (II Tim. 2:24-26).                       That bond of perfectness is in          have the gift of prophecy and un-
    The Reformed minister must be          God.  God is love, says Scripture (I        derstand  all  mysteries  and  all
truthful with the people of God.  He       John 4:8).  This is the chief virtue        knowledge, you may have all faith
must  always  speak  the  truth  --         of  God's  being,  He  is  love.    The     so as to be able to move mountains,
publicly in his preaching and teach-       Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit        but  if  you  have  no  love  you  are
ing,  privately  as  well.    He  must     live together in the bond of perfect        nothing!  Nothing profits you with-
speak the truth even when it hurts.        love.  The wonder of it is that God         out the love of God.
If all of God's people are called to       in  His  perfect  love  chose  us  and          The  Reformed  minister  has  a
"speak  the  truth  in  love"  (Eph.       all of His people in Christ before          heart filled with the love of God!
4:15),  how  much  more  isn't  that       the foundation of the world to be           And because he does, the Reformed
necessary for the minister!                His  beloved  saints.    In  love  God      minister is a humble man.  He has
    The minister must also be faith-       sent His only begotten Son into the         a deep sense of his own sins and
ful.  He must not waver in his love        world to suffer and die on the cross        sinful  nature.   Daily he  struggles
and commitment to God and His              to redeem His chosen from sin and           against the weaknesses of his faith
truth.    Neither  must  the  minister     death.  And God shed abroad His             and the evil lusts of his sinful na-
waver in his love and commitment           love  in  our  hearts  by  the  Holy        ture.  And he has a deep sense of
to God's people and his calling to         Spirit so that we love Him and re-          God's greatness, and goodness, and
care for them.                             veal  that  love  of  God  to  one  an-     glory.  He fears God!  He stands in
    The  Reformed  minister  needs         other  in  the  communion  of  the          awe  before  the  Almighty.    He
boldness.  He needs boldness to take       saints.                                     knows  that  he  cannot  function
a resolute stand for the truth even            Holy  Scripture  carefully  de-         without  God's  grace.    He  can't
in the face of opposition.  He needs       scribes God's love as self-denying          preach  one  sermon,  comfort  one
boldness to make known the "mys-           and self-sacrificing.  "God so loved        sorrowing soul, encourage one sick
tery of the gospel" (Eph. 6:19).           the world that he gave his only be-         or  dying  child  of  God,  admonish
    In all of this the minister must       gotten Son" ... (John 3:16).  In love,        one wayward saint, teach one class
be  an  example  to  the  believers.       therefore,  we  always  deny  our-          without the grace of God.
Scripture requires this of ministers.      selves and seek the good and sal-               Knowing  this  he  is  a  man  of
The inspired apostle tells the saints      vation of our fellow saints.  I Cor-        prayer.    Daily  he  seeks  the  grace
in  Philippi  to  "follow  us  as  your    inthians  13  speaks  of  God's  love:      and Holy Spirit of God to enable
examples,"  and  he  exhorts  Timo-        "Love suffereth long, and is kind;          him to be a faithful Reformed min-
thy, the preacher, "Be thou an ex-         love envieth not; love vaunteth not         ister to the people of God.  And,
ample of the believers" (Phil. 3:17;       itself,  is  not  puffed  up,  Doth  not    strengthened by means of the Word
I Tim. 4:12).  So it is with the Re-       behave itself unseemly, seeketh not         and prayer, gladly in love to God
formed  minister.    He  must  be  a       her  own,  is  not  easily  provoked,       and for His people, humbly as be-
model of the Christian's life for the      thinketh  no  evil;  Rejoiceth  not  in     fore God's face, he spends himself
people of God to whom he minis-            iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;       and is spent in the ministry of the
ters.  He must never contradict by         Beareth  all  things,  believeth  all       Word!
ungodliness what he preaches and           things, hopeth all things, endureth             No  one  put  it  better  than  the
teaches.  The minister must be able        all things.  Love never fails."             late Rev. Gerrit Vos did in a letter
to say to the people of God, speak             The gift of God's love is indis-        to  me  shortly  after  he  became
as I speak, do as I do, live as I live,    pensable for the Reformed minis-            emeritus, "My son, of all the things
train your children as I train mine,       ter.  He must have it or he cannot          I counseled you, remember this, be
love your wives as I love mine.            be a minister.  This is plain from          humble.  There is a humility which
    This is what the Reformed min-         the  emphasis  Scripture  places  on        is  feigned,  that's  abominable  in
ister looks like.                          this gift.  Love, Jesus taught us, is       God's sight.  Be humble from the
    But  the  greatest  gift  the  Re-     the fulfilling of the law of God.  It's     heart, and God's people will bear
formed  minister  needs  is  the  love     the fundamental mark of Jesus' dis-         you up in their arms."
of God.  The love of God, according        ciples, "By this shall all men know             This is what a Reformed min-
to Colossians 3:14, is "the bond of        that ye are my disciples, if ye have        ister looks like.   u

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  Guest Article                                                                                     Rev. Doug Kuiper


                  Language: God's Gift (2)

                                              not matter whether this communi-           heirs of salvation (Heb. 1:14).  That
                                              cation  takes  place  by  speech,  by      they are sent forth to minister (that
                                              writing, or by sign language."  (I         is, to serve) indicates that the Lord
A Reformed view of lan-
          guage must begin with the
           assertion that the ability         might  add,  "or  by  any  other           has spoken to them, and they are
to  express  thoughts  by  means  of          method.")  Only rational, moral be-        obeying His Word.
language  comes  from  God.    This           ings can use language.  Bearing all            Jehovah spoke to Adam in the
means  that  the  original  language          this in mind, we can say that God          Garden of Eden (Gen. 3:8ff.).  Ap-
which  Adam  spoke  was  not  in-             uses language.                             parently He spoke to Adam before
vented or discovered by Adam, but                 God's  use  of  language  is           the fall as well.  He spoke to Noah,
was given by God to Adam.  This               greatly  different  from  our  use  of     Abraham,  and  other  prophets  by
means also that God created man               language.  This is true in the first       means of dreams and visions.  In
with the ability to use language.             place because He is perfectly righ-        the Old Testament, dreams and vi-
    That  language  is  a  gift  from         teous, and we are not.  We can and         sions  were  His  ordinary  way  of
God is a matter of our faith.  In the         do  use  language  in  sinful  ways;       communicating  His  Word  to  His
last article I mentioned three theo-          God never does.  God's use of lan-         prophets.  God spoke to Moses, not
ries  regarding  the  origin  of  lan-        guage is greatly different from our        simply in dreams and visions, but
guage which do not proceed from               use, secondly, because He is Spirit,       "mouth to mouth," as He said to
the starting point that God is the            while we are flesh and blood.  We          Aaron  and  Miriam  in  Numbers
creator  and  giver  of  language.            use our tongue, lips, voice box, and       12:6-8:  "If  there  be  a  prophet
Each theory looks to science to ex-           hands to communicate.  God does            among you, I the Lord will make
plain  the  origin  of  language.    I        not have such physical organs.  He         myself known unto him in a vision,
mentioned also that each theory is            communicates in a different way.           and  will  speak  unto  him  in  a
an instance of unbelief.  For a sure              Nevertheless,  God  communi-           dream.   My servant Moses is not
explanation  of  the  origin  of  lan-        cates.                                     so,  who  is  faithful  in  all  mine
guage, we must look to God's rev-                 The three Persons of the Trin-         house.    With  him  will  I  speak
elation.   Now  we  will  do  that --          ity  communicate  among  them-             mouth to mouth, even apparently,
we will look to God's Word.                   selves.  So we read in Genesis 1:26,       and not in dark speeches; and the
                                              in connection with the creation of         similitude of the Lord shall he be-
        333    333    333                     man: "Let us make man in our im-           hold: wherefore then were ye not
    In the first place, God's Word            age, after our likeness."  And again       afraid to speak against my servant
tells us that God is a communicat-            in Genesis 11:7, in connection with        Moses?"
ing God.  He uses language.                   the destruction of Babel: "Go to, let          God also spoke and speaks to
    To understand  what  is  meant            us  go  down,  and  there  confound        creatures  which  are  not  rational
by  the  statement,  "God  uses  lan-         their language, that they may not          and moral.  He called forth this cre-
guage," remember that in the last             understand one another's speech."          ation and all creatures (Gen. 1; Ps.
article I said language is "the man-          Communication  is  part  of  God's         33:6, 9), and through Christ He up-
ner  in  which  we  express  our              covenantal life within Himself.            holds  them  by  the  word  of  His
thoughts so that others know and                  The Triune God communicates            power (Heb. 1:3).  The difference
understand those thoughts."  Fur-             to  rational,  moral  beings  outside      between  God's  speech  to  these
thermore, I said: "Language is the            Himself.  He speaks to angels.  Job        creatures and His speech to ratio-
means of communication.  It does              1 and 2 show that He spoke to Sa-          nal, moral creatures is that, while
                                              tan.  He sends His elect angels on         all  creation  glorifies  and  praises
                                              their missions.  I Chronicles 22:27        God, inanimate creatures are inca-
Rev.  Kuiper  is  pastor  of  the  Protes-    speaks of Jehovah commanding His           pable  of  having  fellowship  with
tant Reformed Church of Byron Cen-            angel.  The angels are "ministering        God.  Only rational moral creatures
ter, Michigan.                                spirits, sent forth to minister" to the    can have fellowship with God.

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    So God uses language.                   whether in creation or in Scripture,         guage.    Language  is  a  gift  from
    We  should  understand  how             if the Spirit does not enlighten their       God.
God does so.  He is not a man, so           minds.                                           To deny that God gave us lan-
He does not speak as a man.  He                 That God is a communicating              guage,  one must deny more than
speaks by condescending to make             God  is  significant.    It  is  possible    Genesis 1-3.  Moses, reluctant to go
Himself known to men  in such  a            for such a God to have fellowship            to the Israelites in Egypt to deliver
way that men can understand Him.            with man.  It is also possible, for          them, said to God: "I am slow of
    God has used and uses differ-           this  reason,  for  man  to  have  fel-      speech,  and  of  a  slow  tongue."
ent  methods  to  make  Himself             lowship with God through Christ.             God put Moses' argument to rest
known.  He speaks in and through                   333    333     333                    with a question: "Who hath made
creation;  every  creature  in  some                                                     man's  mouth?  ...  have  not  I  the
way  testifies  of  God.    In  the  old        God's Word tells us, secondly,           LORD ?"  (Ex.  4:10-11).    Jehovah
dispensation  He  used  prophets,           that God gave man language.                  made  the  mouth  and  hands,  the
speaking to them through dreams                 The creation account in Genesis          parts of our body which we use to
and visions (cf. Heb. 1:1).  He also        shows this.  That God created man            communicate by speech or writing.
used the written word, particularly         is really proof enough that He also          He also gave us the ability to com-
the  law,  which  He  gave  to  Israel      created language, for He made man            municate  by  these  means.    Lan-
through the prophet Moses.  At the          a  rational,  moral  creature.    That       guage is His gift.
end  of  the  old  dispensation  He         God spoke to Adam after creating                 God gave us this gift in order
spoke through the person and work           him  (Gen.  1:28-30;  2:16-17)  indi-        that  we  might  fellowship  with
of  Christ  (Heb.  1:2).    Christ  was,    cates that Adam was capable of un-           Him.  Through this gift man is able
and is, the "Word" (John 1:1).  In          derstanding what God said.  Gen-             to  understand  God's  speech  and
the  new  dispensation  He  speaks          esis 1 and 2 show Adam using lan-            speak to God.  In addition, man is
through Christ (Heb. 1:2) and the           guage soon after his creation.  He           able to have fellowship with other
complete  written  revelation  of           named  the  animals.    Soon  after          humans,  especially  with  fellow
Scripture.                                  that,  God  formed  Eve  out  of             saints of the body of Christ.
    Ultimately we can speak of one          Adam's flesh and bone, and Adam                  It is a marvelous gift which we
way in which God makes Himself              named her "Woman" (Gen. 2:23).               have been given!  We have a duty
known.  That way is the Spirit.  The        Did Adam discover this language              to use that gift properly.  In a fu-
different methods mentioned in the          which he used so soon after his cre-         ture  article  we  will  examine  that
last paragraph are all means which          ation?    Did  he  invent  it  quickly?      duty.    Before  doing  so,  however,
the Spirit has used or still uses to        The answer is clearly "No."  There           we  will  turn  our  attention  in  the
reveal  God  to  His  people.    Men        can be no doubt, then, that he was           next article to the interesting phe-
cannot  understand  God's  speech,          created with the ability to use lan-         nomenon that happened at Babel.
                                                                                                                                 u

  Go Ye Into All the World                                                                       Rev. Jason Kortering



                     Demon Possession (3)

                                                There are so many far-out and            ease  and  attributing  character
                                            wild-eyed books about demon pos-             faults to demon possession. I per-
We should consider in a
              little more detail how we
              know if a person is actu-     session and deliverance that I can           sonally have had to minister to a
ally demon possessed? This is nec-          understand why a Reformed man                man  who  had  been  worked-over
essary  to  consider  in  connection        would simply throw up his hands              for  five  days  as  attempts  were
with the method of deliverance.             and deny its existence. That is an           made to deliver him from the de-
                                            easy  way  out  of  the  mess.  The          mon of self-seeking. The poor fel-
                                            Charismatic and Pentecostal move-            low  was  a  physical  and  mental
                                            ment has not helped in this regard           wreck.  Interestingly,  all  during
Rev.  Kortering  is  a  Protestant  Re-     either. We all know how they go              those five days his would-be heal-
formed minister-on-loan to Singapore.       about seeing demons in every dis-            ers never once opened their Bibles

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to read what God has to say. For            jection of a new personality in the        ing thanks unto the Father which
that matter, neither has the Roman          victim.  During  the  attack,  the         hath made us meet to be partakers
Catholic glamorization of exorcism          victim's personality is completely         of the inheritance of the saints in
helped one bit. Abuse spreads even          obliterated,  and  the  inhabiting         light: who hath delivered us from
further.  I  suppose  you  have  read       demon's  personality  takes  over          the  power  of  darkness  and  hath
of the episode in California where          completely  --  so  completely  that        translated us into the kingdom of
a Korean woman was killed by her            the  demon  refers  to  the  "pos-         his  dear  Son."  Because  of  this
own husband in the process of ex-           sessed" in the third person, an ele-       change,  our  response  to  Christ  is
orcism. He was joined by a Pres-            ment which Unger observes to be            not fear, but the Spirit of adoption,
byterian  deacon  in  their  local          entirely lacking in cases of insan-        whereby  we  cry,  Abba  Father
church who also participated in her         ity.  Such  persons  imagine  them-        (Rom. 8:15).
death. In their exorcism ceremony           selves to be Jesus Christ or other                 From a little different point of
they literally stomped the woman            characters.                                view,  we  look  at  Matthew  12:24-
to death in an attempt to force out             In various degrees, three more         32,  where  Jesus  was  accused  of
the demon. This went on for some            things take place. First, the demon        casting out demons by Beelzebub,
five hours.  One is inclined to use         possessed has supernatural knowl-          a  demon.  Jesus  calls  this  "blas-
such incidences to declare belief in        edge and intellectual power. Unger         phemy," for that constitutes a di-
the presence of demon possession            gives examples from both the Bible         vided house. How much more that
to be illegitimate and wrong.               and mission history. Second, super-        would  be  true  if  Jesus  would  al-
    Yet,  we  cannot  do  this.  A far      natural physical strength is evident       low  a  demon  to  be  enthroned  in
more sober approach is suggested            in the possessed. Third, there are         the heart of one of His dear chil-
to us in the book by Merrill Unger          evidences of moral depravity.  The         dren where He reigns. It is impos-
entitled, Demons in the World To-           demon  causes  the  possessed  to          sible to conceive of this. This must
day.  If  you  are  interested  in  this    speak in a vile manner or even to          in  no  way  detract  from  the  clear
subject, you do well to read it. His        delight in violence or in sexual ex-       teaching of the Bible that we Chris-
description of demon possession is          cesses.  From  a  different  point  of     tians  "wrestle  against  demons"
as follows:                                 view, they frequently rave at any          (Eph. 6:12). Satan goes about as a
                                            spiritual  activity  such  as  Bible       "roaring lion" whose attack is fo-
  Demon possession is a condition           reading and prayer. This was evi-          cused upon Christians (I Pet. 5:8).
  in which one or more evil spirits         dent when the demons expressed             He  even  buffets  us  through  our
  or demons inhabit the body of a           their rage against the presence of         "thorns in the flesh" (II Cor. 12:7-
  human  being  and  can take  com-         the Lord Jesus.                            10).
  plete control of their victim at will.        Because  Jesus  Christ  defeated               Since  non-Christians  are  the
  By  temporarily  blotting  out  his
  consciousness, they can speak and         the devil and all his hosts through        ones who are possessed, it fits the
  act through him as their complete         His death and resurrection, He is          purpose  of  God  to  deliver  such
  slave and tool. The inhabiting de-        also the One who is able to defeat         from demon possession for the sake
  mon or  demons comes  and goes            him in the arena of battle. This is        of the gospel. Such deliverance is
  much  like  the  proprietor  of  a        important for us to remember. No           the prelude to salvation. This was
  house who may or may not be "at           human  being  can  deliver  another        evident in the biblical accounts and
  home".  When  the  demon  is  "at         human being from the throes of the         also  witnessed  by  many  mission-
  home", he may precipitate an at-          devil. This is the work of our Sov-        aries bringing the gospel to the lost.
  tack.  In  these  attacks  the  victim    ereign Lord alone.                         Such deliverance is not only for the
  passes  from  his  normal  state,  in
  which  he  acts  like  other  people,         We  must  also  remember  that         sake of the individual (which in it-
  to  the  abnormal  state  of  posses-     Satan never is allowed to take pos-        self must be unfathomable relief),
  sion.                                     session of the Christian. He is able       but even more so is for the further-
                                            to influence and tempt the Chris-          ance of the gospel. Such a display
    When  this  takes  place,  Unger        tian, but not take possession as we        of power has a moving effect upon
suggests, we can look for definite          described  it  above.  This  observa-      those  who  receive  Christian  mis-
distinguishing  marks.  These  are          tion is deduced from the teaching          sionaries into their midst. The same
collated  from  the  scriptural  ac-        of  Scripture  which  speaks  of  the      is true in a culture such as America,
counts  of  demon  possession,  and         work  of  salvation  in  the  child  of    where  there  is  a  transition  from
they are in turn confirmed by re-           God. II Corinthians 5:17 calls one         secularism and scientism to spirit-
ports  of  many  missionaries  and          who is saved a "new creation."  In         ism and mysticism.
others who have had to deal with            Ephesians 1:13 we read that we are                 How must such casting out of
this.    He  suggests  that  the  chief     "saved  with  the  Holy  Spirit  of        demons be done?
characteristic is the automatic pro-        promise."  The words of Colossians                 The first thing we ought to em-
                                            1:12,13 form such a promise:  "Giv-        phasize  is  that  the  concept  and

450/Standard Bearer/August, 1997


practice of exorcism is fraught with         the  deliverance  from  demon  pos-          just command them to "come out,"
dangers.  Even  the  heathen  go             session.                                     but  ordered  them  into  the  abyss,
through magic rites to cast out evil             This  is  important  for  mission        making  an  exception  at  the  time
spirits. Most of the time this is ac-        work. The preaching of the gospel            when the demons begged to enter
companied with inflicting pain on            includes the authority of Christ to          pigs  instead.    Over  against  this
the possessed. We must have none             cast out demons in the name of the           point of view, there are many in-
of the chanting and magical blood            living Lord. That preaching is the           stances  cited  in  mission  accounts
which marks the abuse of this ac-            word of the exalted One, who has             where  demons  left  the  possessed
tivity by many Charismatics. As in           defeated  Satan,  who  also,  in  the        just because they were commanded
most  of  their  "worship,"  they            bringing of the gospel to the hea-           to do so in the name of the Lord
grieve the Holy Spirit. It is better         then, demonstrates His great power           Jesus.
that we not use the term exorcism,           over  all  evil  forces  by  delivering          I frankly have to admit that I
because of the abuse that is associ-         captives of Satan through the word           haven't  come  to  a  conclusion  on
ated with that practice.                     and  prayer  of  the  missionaries.          this issue. It seems to me the issue
    The  place  of  casting  out  de-        When  missionaries  stand  in  the           is this:  May the missionary/pas-
mons in the New Testament, as re-            presence of one who is possessed,            tor say, as part of the gospel mes-
corded  in  the  New  Testament  it-         they must bring the good news of             sage to the demon possessed, "In
self, must caution us so as not to           the gospel to him or her, declaring          the name of Jesus, come out!"  He
elevate it to some place of distinc-         that in Christ there is deliverance.         does  have  the  authority  to  speak
tion and power. It can be demon-             They  must  call  such  a  one  to  re-      in the name of Jesus.  That is what
strated that the casting out of de-          pentance of sin and to fall before           makes the preaching of the gospel
mons was almost completely lim-              the cross of Jesus in whom alone is          distinctive.  It is also true that he
ited to Jesus and His disciples (see         life  everlasting.  Such  a  one  must       has the authority to command men
Luke 10:19, 20). Also, we must ob-           be called to embrace Christ and for-         everywhere to repent and believe,
serve that in the great commission           sake all evil.  He must turn to God          that  is,  to  issue  the  command  to
as expounded both in Acts and in             in  humble  confession  of  sin  and         more  people  than  it  may  please
the  epistles  of  Paul,  Peter,  and        seek deliverance.                            Jesus to save. Would that also be
John,  there  is  no  explicit  instruc-         This brings up yet another in-           true  if  the  missionary/pastor  ad-
tion to cast out demons, nor is there        teresting side question. In bringing         dresses a command to a demon to
mention  of  such  activity  in  the         the gospel to such a possessed per-          come out as part of the gospel to
early  church.  From  this  point  of        son  and  in  praying  for  him/her,         the demon possessed?  There is a
view,  the  casting  out  of  demons         should the demon(s) be personally            difference, obviously. If it does not
was  part  of  the  special  phenom-         addressed?  Should the missionary            please Christ to use it for deliver-
enon such as miracles, speaking in           or pastor speak directly to the de-          ance, the effect is the same as all
tongues,  etc.  which  were  done            mon  and  command  him  to  come             gospel preaching, a double effect.
away  with  when  the  Holy  Spirit          out in the name and authority of             At least we can do more reflecting
gave the church the completed rev-           Jesus Christ?  In my search for an           upon this issue.
elation of God in written form, the          answer to this question, I find that             Finally, we  must remind our-
Bible.    What  does  this  tell  us?  It    Christians have divided views. In            selves that, even though Christians
seems  to  me  we  learn  this,  that        Singapore  there  has  been  quite  a        cannot be "possessed" by demons,
there  was  no  special  "gift"  given       controversy in local churches over           the spiritual warfare is sharp and
to some person to cast out demons.           this issue. The point at issue is this,      decisive.  How  can  we  best  equip
Rather,  the  deliverance  from  de-         is it giving too much credibility to         ourselves in this spiritual battle?
mon possession is connected with             the demon and too much power to                  We  don't  have  to  go  around
the  preaching  of  the  gospel.  The        the  pastor  if  he  sets  forth  such  a    marking  off  territory  and  people
word of the gospel and the power             direct confrontation?  It is argued          with holy water, claiming that they
of prayer is that  which God uses            that Jesus had the authority to do           are thereby protected by the blood
to deliver from demons. The min-             this, and He knew His own inten-             of Jesus. Such foolishness smacks
istry of the Word is that which de-          tion, so that when Jesus made such           of  the  darkness  of  heathendom,
livers one from demons (Col. 1:13).          a command it was effectual and al-           caught in the web of superstition.
The power of the Word preached               ways delivered the possessed from                The best safeguard against the
is that of continual prayer, even as         the demon. It seems that the dis-            wiles of the devil is to stop play-
Jesus told His disciples that certain        ciples  had  this  power  as  well,  as      ing  with  him.  Years  ago,  when  I
demons can be cast out only with             they reported to Jesus upon their            was a student at Calvin, I made a
much  prayer  and  fasting  (Matt.           return (Luke 10:17).  Morrison, in           chapel speech entitled, "The devil
17:21). The prayerful preaching of           his book The Serpent and the Cross,          on  the  leash."    The  point  of  that
the Word of God is the vehicle for           suggests  that  even  Jesus  did  not        speech was that, though we never

                                                                                                    August, 1997/Standard Bearer/451


want  to  give  complete  control  to      which involve using the power of          to God. Holiness is exemplified by
Satan because we know his wiles,           the mind to do wonders (and there         wearing the protective armor (Eph.
we  do  like  to  have  him  for  our      are so many of these that entertain       6), and using the offensive weapon
"pet,"  like  a  dog  on  a  leash.  We    today) put the devil on the leash.        of the Word of God to speak to our-
imagine that he is then under our          We Christians must know that the          selves and to others as to how we
control.    We  allow  him  just  so       horror of Satan's deception, as seen      are to live in this world to the glory
much influence in our lives as we          in those "possessed," must teach us       of God.
please. We do this when we mess            that we are to be in dead earnest             "Be ye holy, for I am holy" (I
around  in  his  territory.  Today's       when we deal with him.                    Pet. 2:16 and Lev. 11:44). There is
movies  that  deal  with  the  extra-          More positively, and it is good       no more effective safeguard against
sensory  and  extra-terrestrial  just      to leave on a positive note, the best     the wiles of the devil.
play into the devil's hands.  Any-         guard against any temptation and              Thanks be to God for such de-
thing that has to do with fortune          allure of the devil is to walk close      liverance and salvation in our Lord
telling,  the  occult,  and  games                                                   Jesus.   u


  Taking Heed to the Doctrine                                                                      Rev. Steven Key



                  God's Way ... Or No Way

                                           Netherlands,  where  he  became  a            But because his teachings have
                                           disciple  of  Hendrikus  Berkhof,  a      gained a fairly broad influence, es-
In the past couple years there has Dutch Reformed theologian." pecially by Eerdmans' publication
     been a stirring controversy in            That report was telling to me.        of  the  English  translation  of
     the  Reformed  Church  of                 Hendrikus Berkhof has been a          Berkhof's  dogmatics,  Christian
America concerning one of its min-         very influential contemporary theo-       Faith ,  we  do  well  to  consider
isters.  Richard Rhem, a pastor in         logian  in  the  Hervormde Kerk  (the     briefly what this man taught.  Then
Spring Lake, Michigan, has taught          Reformed Church or State Church)          perhaps  we  can  begin  to  under-
publicly that faith in Jesus Christ        in  the  Netherlands,  where  he          stand how it is that a minister in
is  not  the  only  way  to  salvation,    served for many years as the Pro-         the Reformed Church of  America
and that Jews, Muslims, and those          fessor of Theology at the Univer-         can teach that Christ is not the only
from other religious backgrounds           sity  of  Leiden.    But  through  his    way to salvation.
may be as likely to enter heaven as        writings  Berkhof's  influence  has
those who profess faith in Christ.         reached into an even wider circle         Hendrikus Berkhof's "Christ"
    The  periodical  Christian  Re-        in the Reformed church world on               Berkhof's stated aim in his dog-
newal  reported  in  September  of         the  continent  and  in  the  United      matics  was  "to  present  a  restate-
1996 that the case had even drawn          States.                                   ment  of  the  gospel."    It  soon  be-
the  attention  of  the  New  York             That he has had such an influ-        comes  evident  that  the  reason
Times.    What  struck  me  as  inter-     ence only shows how apostate the          Berkhof  needed  such  a  "restate-
esting was that the Times reported         broader  Reformed  church  world          ment of the gospel" is that he re-
that Rhem, who supposedly began            has become,  and  how  the lack of        jected  the  very  foundation  of  the
his ministry as a theological con-         true  spiritual  knowledge  has  left     faith,  namely,  the  inspired  Scrip-
servative, changed his outlook "af-        many  in  Reformed  churches              tures.    He  needed  a  "restatement
ter he studied during the late 1960s       throughout  the  world  aimlessly         of the gospel" because the gospel
at the University of Leiden in the         tossed  about  with  every  wind  of      unveiled in Holy Scripture is a gos-
                                           doctrine.                                 pel he found repulsive and unac-
                                               Hendrikus Berkhof is a theolo-        ceptable.
                                           gian whose teachings are contrary
Rev. Key is pastor  of the  Protestant                                                   We believe, as our Belgic Con-
                                           to the truth of the historic Chris-
Reformed Church of Randolph, Wis-                                                    fession puts it in Article 7, that the
                                           tian faith.
consin.                                                                              doctrine of the Scriptures "is most

452/Standard Bearer/August, 1997


perfect  and  complete  in  all  re-        called it instead "one form of ex-            Jesus Christ, so he does today!
spects."  We believe, further, that         istence."                                         And  if  Satan  and  his  false
the Bible is the infallible and com-                Take these things into account,       teachers  were  to  succeed  in  any
plete written record of God's rev-          and you can begin to understand               way to rob the church of the knowl-
elation in Christ to His people.            how  a  Reformed  minister,  enam-            edge  of  Jesus  Christ,  of  God's
    Every portion of the Word of            ored with the teachings of the pro-           Christ, they would rob the church
God reveals  Christ  to us.  To lose        fessor  he  esteemed  so  highly,             of everything.
the Scriptures, therefore, or to re-        would deny Jesus as the only Sav-                 Our salvation cannot be accom-
ject them as the Word of truth that         ior.                                          plished  except  by  the  Mediator
they are, is to lose the entire foun-                                                     who is revealed in Holy Scripture!
dation of Christianity and the gos-         No New Thing                                      Deny that Christ is eternal God,
pel itself!  It is to lose Christ!                  This denial of God's Christ and       the second Person of the Holy Trin-
    Hendrikus  Berkhof  was  very           the biblical doctrine of salvation in         ity, and you have no salvation left!
critical  of  the  traditional  view  of    Christ alone is no new thing.                 Deny that Christ is very man, born
the  doctrine  of  inspiration.    The              It is a denial that began from        of  the  virgin  Mary,  flesh  of  our
Bible to him was something other            Christ's very birth and has contin-           flesh and blood of our blood, and
than the infallible, organically in-        ued throughout the ages.                      you lose the Christ of God and all
spired, and authoritative Word of                   A number of heresies arose in         possibility of your salvation!
God.                                        the  early  New  Testament  church,               If the church is robbed of the
    For that reason he was left to          from the first to the fourth centu-           Christ of God, the church has noth-
search for the historical Jesus, turn-      ries.  And by the time the church             ing left, absolutely nothing!
ing  to  higher  criticism  and  ulti-      fathers had dealt with them and set               The philosophies of men may
mately  denying  the  very  deity  of       forth the truth over against them,            teach all kinds of ways to everlast-
Christ.  In Berkhof's words, "The           those heresies had occupied much              ing happiness and peace, all kinds
New Testament shows us a history            time and controversy.                         of  ways  to  "salvation,"  whatever
in which the man Jesus, because of                  Finally,  at  the  Council  of        that means.  They may lay claim to
his total obedience even to death,          Chalcedon,  in  the  year  451,  the          a Jesus of their own imaginations,
may  share  in  the  life  and  rule of     Christian  church  faced  the  Scrip-         and even confess to be "Christian."
God."                                       tures and declared that Christ is the         But the end of those who reject the
    The virgin birth of Christ was,         Person  of  the  Son  of  God  in  hu-        Christ revealed in Scripture will be
to  Berkhof's  mind,  a  myth.    He        man nature, and that these two na-            everlasting  damnation,  as  all  the
viewed  it  as  regrettable  that  the      tures -- human and divine -- are                deceitfulness  of  man's  depraved
virgin birth received a central place       without change, without mixture,              heart is revealed for the abomina-
in such confessions as the Apostles'        without separation, and without di-           tion that it is in God's sight.
Creed, thus making it a touchstone          vision.  The doctrine of Christ was               The lesson?  We must know the
of orthodoxy. This gives you but            fixed, and the measure of biblical            truth of the Word of God.  And we
a  taste  of  Berkhof's  doctrine  of       orthodoxy was clearly understood.             may not assume a sympathetic at-
Christ.    One  thing  is  sure:                    What is frightening, however,         titude toward those who would in-
Hendrikus  Berkhof's  doctrine  left        is  not  that  such  attacks  upon  the       troduce  false  doctrine  into  the
him without the Savior revealed in          biblical  doctrine  of  Christ  would         church of Christ.
Scripture.  Jesus as Jehovah salva-         continue; but that they have now                  What says the Scripture?
tion, Immanuel, God with us, was            reached into the Reformed church                  It  is  either  God's  way,  or  no
lost to him.  His "Lord" is not the         world.  In fulfillment of the Bible's         way.
Lord God.  His "Lord" is a man --            warning, certain men have crept in                There is absolutely no salvation
more powerful than all other men,           unawares, denying the only Lord               outside of Jesus Christ.  And Jesus
but a man.        While the Christian       God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.               Christ  is  not  a  figment  of  man's
church  throughout  the  ages  has                  Who  sees  the  seriousness  of       imagination, but the Christ of God,
confessed  with  Thomas  (John              this error?                                   God become flesh, that we might
20:28),  "My  Lord  and  my  God,"                  There  is  no  new  thing  under      be saved.
Berkhof refused to confess this, nor        the sun.                                          Jesus Christ is the Mediator of
could he.  He was blinded to the                    Just  as  Satan  from  the  begin-    God's providing.
Christ revealed in the Scriptures.          ning of history labored bitterly to               He is the only Mediator.
    One more thing:  In his treat-          prevent the coming of Jesus Christ,               Salvation is God's way ... or no
ment  of  the  ascension,  which  he        and just as in the apostolic era and          way.   u
also considered a regrettable article       the years of the early New Testa-
of the Apostles' Creed, Berkhof de-         ment  church  Satan  labored  with
nied  that  heaven  is  a  place.    He     bitter hatred to rob the church of

                                                                                                  August, 1997/Standard Bearer/453


 News From Our Churches                                                                   Mr. Benjamin Wigger




                                          Mission Activities                         Congregational Activities
Minister Activities
H                                         Our Hull, IA PRC formed a new
        ighlights of this year's Synod         trio from which they were to          Several parents from  our  Hope
                                                                                        PRC in Redlands, CA recently
        were many.  But perhaps the       call  a  missionary.    This  trio  was    discussed with their Consistory the
one that will have the most impact        made  up  of  the  Revs.  S.  Key,  K.     need of instruction in church his-
on us as churches was the gradua-         Koole, and J. Mahtani.  From these         tory  for  their  young  people,  and
tion  of  three  seminarians:    Mr.      three, Hull extended a call to Rev.        approval  to  go  ahead  was  given.
Daniel  Kleyn,  Mr.  James  Laning,       J.  Mahtani,  pastor  of  the  Trinity     It  was  felt  that  this  instruction
and  Mr.  Martin  VanderWal.    We        PRC in Houston, TX.                        could best be given through a spe-
pass along our congratulations to             Rev.  R.  Hanko,  our  churches'       cial  society  for  this  purpose,  and
each of them and add our prayer           missionary  to  Northern  Ireland,         two  men,  Mr.  Doug  Pastoor  and
that our heavenly Father will ap-         and  his  family  returned  home  in       Mr. Steve Feenstra, volunteered to
point them a place in our churches.       July for a few weeks of vacation.          teach the class.  Curriculum mate-
       Rev. B. Gritters, pastor at our    A tentative schedule called for the        rials were obtained from our Cov-
Hudsonville, MI PRC, declined the         Hankos  to  travel  from  Ireland  to      enant  Christian  High  School  in
call he had been considering from         Houston,  TX  to  visit  and  renew        Walker, MI.  This instruction will
the  Hope  PRC  in  Walker,  MI  to       past  friendships  at  Trinity  PRC.       be given to eighth and ninth grad-
serve as their next pastor.               Then on to Michigan to spend time          ers at Hope.  The  class began on
       The Council of South Holland,      with  the  family,  followed  by  a        June  13  and  will  met  every  two
IL PRC discussed the ever-increas-        week of meetings with our Mission          weeks year-round.
ing workload of a minister in their       Committee and the Council of the               Recent  bulletins  from  our
congregation and then appointed a         Hudsonville,  MI  PRC,  the  calling       Immanuel  PRC  in  Lacombe,  AB,
committee to study the concept of         church,  concluding  with  a  Pig          Canada contain progress reports on
their calling two pastors.  However,      Roast  and  get-together  with  the        the  construction  of  their  church
after  study  of  this  matter,  the      congregation  at  Hudsonville,             sanctuary.  With only one issue of
Council decided to call one minis-        where Rev. Hanko was to be given           the  SB each month in the summer,
ter and to consider areas of assis-       an  opportunity  to  promote  his          it  is  impossible  to  keep  up  with
tance  to  reduce  his  workload.         work and report on the field.              progress, but that does not make it
South Holland's Council presented                                                    any  less  interesting.    And  since
the trio of Rev. A. denHartog, Can-       Evangelism Activities                      most of us cannot take a little drive
didate  J.  Laning,  and  Rev.  G.        After  much consideration, the and have a look, we include here
VanBaren.  A meeting to call was               Evangelism Committee of the           that the foundation and walls have
set for July 14.                          Hope PRC in Redlands, CA has de-           been poured, the heating/electrical
       Candidate  Cheah  Fook  Meng       cided to suspend its sponsorship of        work is under way, and a new well
accepted the call to serve as pastor      the  Reformed  Witness  Hour  on           has  been  dug.    By  now  the  con-
of our sister church, the Covenant        KPRO because of a lack of response         crete  floor  has  also  been  poured,
Evangelical  Reformed  Church  in         to the program.                            and  carpenters  have  begun  fram-
Singapore.  He was ordained and               Hope's Consistory has also de-         ing the walls.
installed as their pastor on Sunday,      cided  to  discontinue  the  Bible             Immanuel's Ladies' Guild also
June 22.                                  Study  it  was  sponsoring,  at  least     sponsored  a  Garage  Sale  the  last
       We pass along our congratula-      for the summer, to Victorville, CA.        two days of May to raise proceeds
tions to Rev. and Mrs. R. Smit, who       One  of  the  key  families  has           to help stock the kitchen of the new
were  blessed  with  the  birth  of  a    dropped  out,  and  attendance  has        church.
baby  boy,  John  William,  on  June      not  been  good.    Hope  has  con-            On Sunday, June 8, the congre-
19.                                       ducted  more  than  two  year's  of        gation  of  our  Loveland,  CO  PRC
                                          Bible study in Victorville, includ-        welcomed to their services Dr. and
                                          ing a doctrinal study on the doc-          Mrs. Morton Smith, Rev. and Mrs.
                                          trines of grace.  Though this is dis-      Charles  L.  Wilson,  and  Rev.  and
Mr. Wigger is an elder in the Protes-     couraging, nevertheless we believe         Mrs.  Eugene  Case  from  the  Pres-
tant Reformed  Church  of  Hudson-        God's  Word  will  not  return  unto       byterian Church in America.  These
ville, Michigan.                          Him void.                                  couples were in the area in order

454/Standard Bearer/August, 1997


to attend their church's General As-              Sister Church Activities                    ter-church in the wonderful way in
sembly (Synod) to be held in Colo-                                                            which  the  Lord  continues  to  add
rado Springs.                                     The Lord's Day, April 27, was a
                                                      special  one.    On  that  day  at      to His church in their midst.
     At  the  request  of  Loveland's             First Evangelical Reformed Church
Consistory,  Dr.  Morton  Smith                   in Singapore, six infants were re-                      Food For Thought
kindly consented to give informa-                 ceived  for  baptism,  four  adults              "Of  love  there  are  two  prin-
tion  concerning  the  Presbyterian               were  baptized,  and  another  three        ciple offices, one to give, another
Church  in  America  after  their                 made  confession  of  their  faith  in      to forgive."
evening service.                                  the Lord.  We rejoice with our sis-                                    -- John Boys   u


                                                       ANNOUNCEMENTS

                  NOTICE!!                                      NOTICE!                                       NOTICE!!
     Classis East will meet in regu-                  Classis West of the Protestant               Seminary  Convocation  will  be
lar  session  on  Wednesday,  Sep-                Reformed Churches will meet at the          held on Thursday, September 4, at
tember 10, 1997 at the Kalamazoo                  Peace Protestant Reformed Church            7:45  P.M.,  in  Byron  Center  PRC.
Protestant  Reformed  Church,                     in Lansing, Illinois, on Wednesday,         Prof. Dykstra will be the speaker.
Kalamazoo,  MI.    Material  for  this            September  3,  1997  at  8:30  A.M.,        Show your support of our seminary
session  must  be  in  the  hands  of             God  willing.    All  material  for  the    by your attendance at this impor-
the Stated Clerk no later than Au-                classical  agenda  is  to  be  in  the      tant occasion.
gust 11, 1997.                                    hands  of  the  Stated  Clerk  thirty
                        Jon J. Huisken            days before the Classis convenes.
                              Stated Clerk        All delegates in need of lodging or                          NOTICE
                                                  transportation  from  the  airport                               to
     WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                          should notify the Clerk of Peace's                      College Students
     On August 20, 1997, we will re-              consistory.  An officebearers' con-              Please  remember  to  let  us
joice with our parents and grand-                 ference is also planned for Tues-           know your college address as soon
parents,                                          day, September 2.                           as possible.  We would like to send
      MR. and MRS. GERRIT                                             Rev. Steven Key,        copies of the  Standard Bearer to
                 HOLSTEGE,                                                 Stated Clerk       each  of  you  who  are  living  away
as  they  celebrate  their  50th  wed-                                                        from home while in college.
ding anniversary.  We are grateful                  RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
to our heavenly Father for His sov-                   The  council  and  congregation
ereign care over them.  We are also               of  South  Holland  Protestant  Re-              WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
thankful to Him for the godly par-                formed Church express their Chris-               On  July  8  our  parents  and
ents He has given us and for the                  tian  sympathy  to  Mrs.  Jacoba            grandparents,
Christian example they have set for               Lenting  in  the  death  of  her  hus-      GEORGE and EPKE JOOSTENS,
us.    We  pray  that  God  may  con-             band,                                       celebrated their 50th wedding anni-
tinue  to  bless  them  and  care  for              MR. ADRIAN J. LENTING, SR.                versary.
them in the years that lie ahead.                     May  she  and  the  family  find             We,  their  children  and  grand-
     "I will sing of the mercies of the           comfort  in  the  Word  of  God  in  II     children, thank our heavenly Father
Lord forever:  with my mouth will I               Corinthians  4:16-18:    "For  which        for the years He has given them.
make known thy faithfulness to all                cause we faint not; but though our          It is our prayer that God will con-
generations" (Psalm 89:1).                        outward man perish, yet the inward          tinue to bless them and keep them
Y    Gary and DaVona Holstege                     man  is  renewed  day  by  day.  For        in His care.
       Mical, Nathan, Ross                        our light affliction, which is but for           "For  the  Lord  is  good,  for  his
Y    Doug and Mary Jane Prince                    a  moment,  worketh  for  us  a  far        mercy is everlasting, and his truth
       Hilary                                     more exceeding and eternal weight           endureth to all generations" (Psalm
Y    Allen Holstege                               of glory; While we look not at the          100:5).
Y    Don and Nancy VanderIest                     things which are seen, but at the           Y    Rev. Meindert and
       Britton and Nicole, Daniel,                things which are not seen:  for the                               Beverly Joostens
                               Justin, Alex       things which are seen are tempo-                   Dan and Faith Bult
Y    Joyce Holstege                               ral;  but  the  things  which  are  not            Tim, Steve, Joy, Paul
Y    David and Sharon Kraker                      seen are eternal."                          Y    Bill and Alice Joostens
       Jared                                                 Gil VanBaren, Vice-Pres.                Rachel, Rebecca, Joseph,
                          Grandville, Michigan                  George DeJong, Clerk                                              Sarah

                                                                                                         August, 1997/Standard Bearer/455

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



                                                              BACK TO SCHOOL SPECIAL
      WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                                                                  S
      On August 15, 1997, our par-                                                              HOW ME THY WAYS
                                                  Book 1, 339 pages (paper) $18.95
ents and grandparents,                                                                     Grades 4-6
                                                          Genesis - I Samuel
        MR. and MRS. STUART                                                                by Gertrude Hoeksema
               BYLSMA,                            Book 2, 189 pages (paper) $11.95
will celebrate their 50th wedding an-                    II Samuel - Malachi               The student text focuses on
                                                                                                understanding the deeper
niversary.  We give God thanks for                   Workbook, 55 pages (paper)            concepts and themes underlying
blessing their marriage these many                              $4.95                      historical events.  The workbook
years, for giving them to each other                                                       develops these studies through
in  the  bond  of  marriage,  and  for            Book 3, 200 pages (paper) $11.95         mapwork, time lines, and by
giving us to them in His covenant                      Intertestamentary Period            correlating scriptural references.
                                                         and New Testament
faithfulness.  We are deeply grate-                  Workbook, 54 pages (paper)
ful also for the covenant home they                                                        "Thanks to solid Dutch Calvin-
                                                                $4.95
provided and for the covenantal in-                                                        ism, your children are expected
struction  we  received  in  the  truth                                                    to learn something....  Delight-
of God's Word.  We pray that God,                                                          ful, easy to use....  Very solid --
in  His  grace,  may  continue  richly            SUFFER LITTLE                            no hype or tinsel, and definitely
to  bless  their  marriage  in  the  fu-                                                   none of this wretched pandering
ture  and  that  we,  together  with                CHILDREN                               to self-esteem."
them,  may  walk  in  faithfulness  to            by Gertrude Hoeksema                                           -- Mary Pride
Him.                                              Books 1-3,                                     Big Book of Home Learning
      "Blessed  is  every  one  that              Workbooks 2, 3
feareth the LORD; that walketh in his
ways.  The L                                                                                            Grade 4 Text
                 ORD  shall bless thee            To teach the Bible to little
                                                      children is a serious and                      (Genesis - I Samuel)
out of Zion:  and thou shalt see the              often difficult task.  These Bible             366 pages (hardcover) $20.95
good of Jerusalem all the days of                 manuals, designed as teacher's                          Workbook
thy  life.    Yea,  thou  shalt  see  thy                                                           68 pages (paper) $5.95
                                                  guides, simplify and organize
children's children, and peace upon               Bible stories in a covenant                           Grade 5 Text
Israel" (Psalm 128:1, 5, 6).                      perspective.  It is an invaluable                  (II Samuel - Malachi)
Y     Gary and Marilyn Bylsma                     tool which can be used by school               366 pages (hardcover) $20.95
        David and Chris Linker,                                                                           Workbook
                                                  teachers, Catechism instructors,                  73 pages (paper) $5.95
        Steve, Dan, Amy, Andy,                    Sunday School teachers, and
                              Ryan, Brett         parents.  The set includes two                        Grade 6 Text
Y     Rev. Rich and Marcia Flikkema               workbooks for the students.                    (Intertestamentary Period and
        Tammy, Tricia, Heidi,                                                                          New Testament)
                           (Kyle in glory)                                                       332 pages (hardcover) $20.95
                                                  "The emphasis is upon the                               Workbook
Y     Carole tenHaaf                              teacher as the cherisher of the                   72 pages (paper) $5.95
        Mike, Jon and Sharon tenHaaf,             Word teaching children to
             Brian, Carolyn, David, Gary          likewise love it and conform
Y     Phyllis Bylsma                                                                             Send order and payment to:
                                                  their lives to it....  One of the few
Y     Tim and Sharon Rus                                                                    Reformed Free Publishing Association
                                                  pieces of Christian Education
        Chad, Kelly, Courtney, Alisha,                                                               4949 Ivanrest Avenue
                                                  material that sets forth before the           Grandville, Michigan  49418-9709
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456/Standard Bearer/August, 1997


