                              The
                    Standard
A Reformed          Bearer
Semi-Monthly
Magazine


                                                     In This Issue:

                    Meditation -- Rev. Richard G. Moore
                          Redemption Through Christ's Blood .............................................. 98

                    Editorial -- Prof. David J. Engelsma
                          The Remarriage of the Guilty Party ............................................... 100

                    Letters........................................................................................................ 103

                    All Around Us -- Rev. Gise J. VanBaren ................................................ 103

                    Search the Scriptures -- Rev. Mitchell C. Dick
                          The Raising of Lazarus (2) .............................................................. 105

                    When Thou Sittest in Thine House -- Rev. Wilbur G. Bruinsma
                          The Covenant of Marriage (2)
                          Courtship Within the Covenant ...................................................... 108

                    Ministering to the Saints -- Prof. Robert D. Decker
                          The Elders and Discipline (2) ......................................................... 110

                    Cloud of Witnesses -- Prof. Herman C. Hanko
                          Herman Hoeksema:  Theologian and Reformer (3) ..................... 112

                    Go Ye Into All the World -- Mrs. Jeanette Kortering
                          Our Work in Myanmar (2) ................................................................ 114

                    Book Reviews ........................................................................................... 117

                    News From Our Churches -- Mr. Benjamin Wigger ............................... 119





Vol. 74, No. 5
December 1, 1997


   Meditation                                                                                                                                   Rev. Richard Moore



                                      Redemption Through
                                                               Christ's Blood

                                             "Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath trans-
                                           lated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: In whom we have redemption
                                           through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins."
                                                                                                                             Colossians 1:13, 14


Blessed redemption!  The text incapable of obtaining the hope of a terror in his inmost being on such
           that  we  consider  in  this ar-                       deliverance and glory.                                            a night.
           ticle  reminds  us  of  a  most                               Our text speaks of darkness as                                      By  this  picturesque  language
precious promise that is given us                                 the  characterization  of  that  in                               we  are  led  to  consider  what  it  is
in  Christ.  Paul  instructed  us  that                           which we were held.    The term in                                from which we are delivered:  the
we are  delivered from  the power                                 our  text  pictures  darkness  as                                 deepest darkness imaginable.  That
of darkness in the redeeming work                                 shrouding  us  like  a  black  cloud.                             darkness is caused by our sin.  It is
of our Lord as He died upon the                                   We are clothed in a deep blackness.                               the most horrible darkness imagin-
cross.  Now the apostle goes on to                                It is in this way that the Scripture                              able to man.  It is the darkness of
point out that not only are we de-                                defines  the  terrible  abyss  into                               death, death which strikes fear into
livered  from  the  power  of  dark-                              which  we  plunged  ourselves  by                                 the heart of man!
ness, but we are translated into the                              sin.  It  paints  in a most striking                                       However, the reason that death
kingdom  of  Christ.    This  is  the                             way  the  picture  of  the  darkness                              is to man such a terror is the fact
amazing wonder of grace of which                                  that  pervades  our  souls.   From  a                             that  it  is  not  just  a  going  to  the
we need often to be reminded  as                                  simply natural point of view, there                               grave, where, says Job, the worms
we pass through this life as strang-                              is  hardly  a  greater  darkness  and                             shall consume the flesh.  But death
ers and  pilgrims.   This is so be-                               gloominess  known  on  this  earth                                is the judgment of God against man
cause we must daily fight the battle                              than a mist-shrouded night.  There                                for his disobedience in sin.  Adam
of  faith,  and  we  are  in  ourselves                           are no stars, there is no moon, only                              was  told,    "But  of  the  tree  of  the
                                                                  a  close,  even  foul-smelling,  cold                             knowledge of good and evil, thou
                                                                  mist that surrounds one on such a                                 shalt  not  eat  of  it:  for  in  the  day
Rev. Moore is pastor of the Protestant                            night.  Even the most bold will, in                               that thou eatest thereof thou shalt
Reformed Church of Hull, Iowa.                                    the middle of nowhere, experience                                 surely die."


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98/Standard Bearer/December 1, 1997


        Clearly,  death  is  said  of  God      against God!  We must make the                debt, to take our guilt, and to re-
to  be  the  penalty  of  sin.    This  is      confession that the psalmist David            deem us.  Wonder of grace!
repeated in Romans 6:23, where the              did in the 51st Psalm. Indeed, dark-              Indeed  it  is  of  grace,  for  re-
apostle points out that the "wages              ness has dominion over us, and as             demption requires that the ransom
of sin is death."  This judgment of             we stand by nature, this alone can            be paid in full. This required that
God against the sinner no man can               be the testimony.                             one  enter  the  suffering  of  death
deny, nor is there any way for man                  How we need grace!  How nec-              willingly  for  us.    And  that  one
to remove this testimony from his               essary that we see Christ as our sal-         could have no sin of His own, for
conscience.    Death  is  the  punish-          vation.                                       a debtor cannot pay the debt of an-
ment of God that sends man into                     We  need  to  see  Christ  as  our        other.  But also, He must be able
deepest darkness, where there can               salvation  because  one  thing  is  so        to bear the debt of those who are
be no hope, no joy, only suffering              very clear to us as we stand before           the debtors. And the debt against
and misery.  For death is to be cut             the  testimony  of  the  Scripture,           us,  the  debt  that  holds  us  under
off from the living, and thus it is             namely, that we cannot save our-              the power of darkness, is the eter-
to be cut off from God's fellowship.            selves.  There is no work that we             nal wrath of an infinite God.  We
God is a light, and there is no dark-           can bring forth to make us worthy             can therefore be delivered from the
ness  in  Him  at  all.    To  be  sepa-        of God's fellowship and commun-               power of death only if there be a
rated from God is to lack all light,            ion!  We are debtors before God,              Mediator  who  is  not  only  very
and to know no fellowship.  This                and  we  cannot  satisfy  this  debt.         man, but also very God.
is the fruit of sin.  The sinner must           Rather,  we  can  only  increase  the
die.                                            judgment  that  stands  against  us.          Redemption!
        Now  our  text  makes  it  clear        And that judgment is that sinners                 Jesus has, according to our text,
that  we  are  come  under  death's             must die.                                     redeemed us in the obedient death
power.    The  power  of  death  has                To be delivered from the dread            of the cross.  He has fully satisfied
the  complete  mastery  over  man.              dominion of darkness, we must be              before  the  throne  of  God's  judg-
This is the idea of the term used in            redeemed by another.  But who can             ment the penalty of our sin.  We
our  text.    The  fruit  of  the  fall  is     stand under this judgment?  Cer-              understand,  then,  that  Christ  has
that  man  became  completely  ob-              tainly no mere creature.  Certainly           completely taken away the guilt of
sessed with sin and was given over              not a sinner!  It is God alone who            His  people  before  the  throne  of
entirely  to  its  judgment.    The             can  save  the  sinner.    It  is  only  a    God's  judgment.    There  remains
apostle Paul points out to us in the            work of grace and mercy that en-              nothing more to be accomplished
second  chapter  of  Ephesians  that            ables  us  to  have  confidence  that         for  us  to  be  delivered  from  the
we are dead in sins and trespasses.             there is fellowship for us with God.          death  that  had  so  completely  en-
Jesus  points  out  that  we  are  so           That grace is the unmerited favor             shrouded us that we had no hope.
dead that we cannot even see the                of God that makes us to be beauti-                This redemption obtains for us
things of God's kingdom.                        ful as He is beautiful.  To be beau-          the forgiveness of sins.  So speaks
        This  is  our  experience.    It  is    tiful is to dwell in His image.  It is        Paul.  Forgiveness means that there
very real to us.  All that man can              to live.  And it is to live in holi-          is a dismission from mind, from the
do,  by  nature,  is  increase  his  in-        ness, righteousness, and with true            consciousness, of the guilt of sin.
debtedness  to  death.    He  has  no           knowledge before God.  Therefore              This is true first of all of God.  His
light or hope. Natural man stands               it is to come to know God and to              justice is fully satisfied, so that He
in  enmity  against  God  and  can              fellowship with Him.                          looks upon His children in Christ
bring  forth  no  good.    He  is  con-             This  grace  is  given  to  us            as  cleansed,  cleared  of  all  guilt,
sumed  daily  by  the  judgment  of             through God's coming in our flesh.            worthy  heirs  of  the  kingdom  of
God that is come upon him.                      It is bestowed upon us by the send-           Christ.  Secondly, it is true of us,
        This is our personal confession,        ing of His own dear Son to redeem             as Christ is proclaimed unto us our
is it not?  In the light of the Word            us.    He  has  chosen  us  from  eter-       Savior.  We see in Him the power
of God we too must say that all we              nity in Him, to be holy and with-             of God's grace to deliver us from
can do naturally is walk in sin, and            out blame before Him.  In love He             our sin, and we are given the as-
we are unworthy of entering God's               predestined us unto the adoption              surance that our sin and its guilt is
fellowship.  We have sinned even                of sons to be heirs of the kingdom            removed, so that we may enter the
when  we  did  not  desire  to.    We           of His dear Son (Eph. 1:3-6).  When           presence  of  God  as  heirs  of  the
have come far short of the glory of             it was wholly impossible for man              kingdom of His dear Son.
God.  Our confession is the same                to deliver himself from the power                 The fruit, then, of our redemp-
as the apostle's:  even the good that           of  darkness,  God  provided  the             tion by Christ is that our guilt is
we would, we have not done.  We                 way.  His Son becomes our Head,               no longer imputed unto us, for it
have sinned, and our sin has been               very  righteous  man  to  bear  our           was imputed unto Christ, and He

                                                                                                   December 1, 1997/Standard Bearer/99


paid once and for all the penalty             term  means  to  transfer,  or  ex-          absolute guilt to that of innocence.
for our sin.  This reveals to us that         change.    We  are  translated  from         And on this basis Christ gives to
the  authority  of  darkness  is  de-         one state to another and one con-            us  His  Spirit  and  makes  us  new
feated completely, and the fear of            dition to another.  A little different       creatures, so that our condition is
death is taken away.  Thus all the            from a translation of mere words             changed  from  that  of  totally  de-
blessings  of  that  redemption  be-          this is, in that the fruit of this trans-    praved sinners to that of the chil-
come our portion.  By grace we are            lation is a radical change.  It would        dren of God, heirs of righteousness
made heirs of eternal life.                   be  like  having  a  language  that  is      and partakers of the life of Christ.
    We are translated indeed! The             fully foreign or unintelligible to us            We are translated into the king-
term translation is one that we are           become  perfectly  clear and  easily         dom of God's dear or beloved Son.
familiar  with  in  regards  to  the          recognizable.    This  is  what  takes       He  is  the  firstborn  among  many
translation  of  the  Bible  from  the        place  spiritually  as  a  fruit  of  our    brethren (Rom. 8:29).  This means
original languages, or to translation         redemption by God's beloved Son.             that we are become sons with Him.
that takes place when one does not            There is an absolute change in our           As Paul points out in Ephesians 1:
speak our language, so we need a              state and life.                              3, He has "blessed us with all spiri-
translator to interpret for us.  This             Our state changes from that of           tual blessings in heavenly places in
is  also  the  idea  of  our  text.    The                                                 Christ."    u


  Editorial



        The Remarriage of the Guilty
                                                         Party

                                              here  to  examine  the  popular  dis-        and  practice  of  the  Reformed
                                              tinction between "innocent party"
N                                                                                          Churches in the Netherlands ("lib-
         ow the guilty party may re-          and  "guilty  party"  in  a  divorce,        erated").
          marry.    The  man  or  the         whether this distinction is as valid             How  the  remarriage  of  the
          woman  who  committed               in  every  instance  as  is  often  as-      guilty  party  is  regarded  in  many
adultery  against  his  wife  or  her         sumed.)                                      conservative Presbyterian churches
husband, thus causing the divorce                 Approval of the remarriage of            is fairly indicated in  the  writings
in his or her first marriage, is al-          the guilty party has become com-             of Jay E. Adams.  In a book that is
lowed to remarry and to be a mem-             mon in the churches.  The Chris-             highly recommended in conserva-
ber in good standing in the church.           tian Reformed Church synodically             tive  Reformed  and  Presbyterian
The churches that are now allow-              approved  the  remarriage  of  the           circles,  Marriage,  Divorce,  and  Re-
ing this are evangelical, Reformed,           guilty party in 1956.  This is also          marriage in the Bible (Baker, 1980),
and Presbyterian churches.  They              the  position,  evidently,  of  those        this popular theologian and coun-
are  evangelical,  Reformed,  and             who  recently  seceded  from  the            selor teaches his readers that "re-
Presbyterian churches that have a             Christian Reformed Church.  They             marriage, in general, is not only al-
reputation for conservatism and or-           lived peaceably with their church's          lowed  but  in  some  cases  encour-
thodoxy.                                      decision for many years.  Objection          aged and commanded.  It is looked
    These churches approve the re-            to the church's teaching and prac-           upon favorably in the NT."  To the
marriage  of  the  guilty  party.    In       tice  of  marriage,  divorce,  and  re-      question, "Who may remarry after
some cases, they may require con-             marriage was not part of their rea-          divorce  and  under  what  condi-
fession of the adultery that broke            son for leaving.  As I pointed out           tions?"  he  answers,  "All  persons
up  the  first  marriage.      But  they      in  the  editorial  of  November  1,         properly divorced may be remar-
approve  the  remarriage  of  the             1997, approval of the remarriage of          ried."  "Properly divorced," how-
guilty party.  (It is not my concern          the guilty party is now the policy           ever, does not mean for this influ-

100/Standard Bearer/December 1, 1997


ential  marriage  counselor  those       Corinthians 7:15, but they too dis-          in the destruction of marriage, fam-
who are divorced on the one bibli-       approved  the  remarriage  of  the           ily,  husbands,  wives,  children,
cal ground, namely, the fornication      guilty party.                                grandparents,  grandchildren,  and
of  one's  mate.    Rather  it  means        For many years, the Christian            others.
"those  who  are  released  without      Reformed  Church  and  other  con-               For  consider:    if  the  innocent
obligations."  These include a pro-      servative  churches  criticized  the         party in a divorce has the right to
fessing Christian who has divorced       stand  of  the  Protestant  Reformed         remarry,  the  reason  must  be  that
his  unbelieving  wife  in  disobedi-    Churches, that Holy Scripture for-           the  marriage  bond  has  been  dis-
ence to the command of Paul in I         bids  all  remarriage  after  divorce.       solved.    Obviously,  one  may  not
Corinthians 7:12.  Also the guilty       Their vociferous argument was that           remarry,  if  he  is  still  married  to
party may be "properly divorced"         the  innocent  party  may  remarry.          someone else.  And this is exactly
so as to be free to remarry.  "Re-       What their argument might be to-             what  the  conservative  churches
marriage  after  divorce  is allowed     day, we do not know, for they have           have said in the past:  the adultery
in  the  Bible  and  ...  the  guilty      all fallen silent on the matter of di-       of  the  guilty  party  dissolves  the
party--after forgiveness--is free to       vorce  and  remarriage.    The               bond.  But if the marriage bond is
remarry."  It makes no difference        churches  do  not  like  to  speak  on       dissolved, it is dissolved, not only
whether the guilty party commit-         this  subject.    Whatever  the  argu-       for the innocent party but also for
ted adultery, divorced, and remar-       ment  might  be,  it  is  certainly  no      the guilty party.  This is in the na-
ried before or after his conversion      longer a defense of the remarriage           ture of the case.  A marriage can-
(pp. 84-96).                             of  the  innocent  party.    For  they       not be dissolved for only one of the
    The  remarriage  of  the  guilty     now approve the remarriage of the            married companions.  If the mar-
party  is  approved  in  many            guilty party.                                riage has been dissolved, the guilty
churches that do not blow a trum-                                                     party has  every right to remarry.
pet before their practice.  In their     Chickens Coming Home to Roost                He has as much right as does the
public  utterances,  they  argue  for        The  radical  change  demon-             innocent  party.    He  is  no  longer
the  remarriage  of  the  "innocent      strates  that  it  is  impossible  for  a    married.  It was his own adultery
party."  Probably, the minister re-      church to restrict remarriage to the         that  dissolved  the  bond,  but  the
fuses to officiate at the wedding of     innocent party.  Such is the pres-           bond is dissolved.  As one who is
the remarriage of the guilty party,      sure of the world, such is the force         unmarried, he has the  right from
for the sake of appearance (mainly,      of the carnal element in the church,         God Himself to marry.  It is pref-
his own appearance).  But minis-         and such is the power of the sinful          erable that he remarry, for it is not
ter,  consistory,  and  congregation     nature of the saints themselves that         good for man to be alone.
allow the remarried guilty party to      a  church  that  opens  the  door                The refusal in the past by con-
remain,  or  become,  a  member  of      "slightly" to the remarriage of the          servative  churches  to  allow  the
the church in good standing.  They       innocent  party  will  eventually            guilty party to remarry was a mis-
too approve the remarriage of the        throw  it  open  all  the  way  to  the      take.  It was a mistake when judged
guilty  party.    I  know  whereof  I    remarriage  of  the  guilty  party.          by  the  standard  of  their  thinking
speak.                                   And  if  the  guilty  party  may  re-        on  divorce  and  remarriage.    One
                                         marry, men and women divorced                can understand why they made the
A Radical Change                         for  any  and  every  unbiblical rea-        mistake and even, to a certain ex-
    The approval in recent time of       son,  including  burning  the  toast,        tent, sympathize with the mistake.
the remarriage of the guilty party       are allowed to remarry.                      The guilty party is a scoundrel.  He
by  these  conservative  Reformed            But there is more to the recent          is unfaithful.  He sins against his
and  Presbyterian  churches  is  a       development than this.  In the ap-           wife.    He  is  responsible  for  the
radical change and a significant de-     proval  of  the  remarriage  of  the         breakup of his family.  Often, he is
velopment.    In  the  past,  these      guilty party the chickens are com-           also responsible for the breakup of
churches have rigorously restricted      ing home to roost. The right of the          his  neighbor's  family.    The  emo-
the right of remarriage to the inno-     remarriage of the guilty party was           tional reaction naturally is to refuse
cent party.  They forbade the guilty     implied in the churches' approval            him the right of remarriage and, if
party to remarry.  They refused to       of the  remarriage of the innocent           he  does  remarry,  the  right  of
allow  the  remarried  guilty  party     party.  What we witness today is             church membership.
membership in the church.  Espe-         simply the logical, inevitable out-              Nevertheless, the conservative
cially  the  Presbyterians  extended     come of the approval of the remar-           churches that approved the remar-
the right of remarriage to the be-       riage  of  the  innocent  party.    The      riage of the innocent party did not
liever who is deserted by an unbe-       evil  tree  now  bears  its  evil  fruit.    base their prohibition of the remar-
lieving mate on account of the gos-      And  the  fruit  is  exceeding  bitter,      riage of the guilty party on Scrip-
pel,  with  mistaken  appeal  to  I      both in the dishonoring of God and           ture.  Nor did this prohibition re-

                                                                                          December 1, 1997/Standard Bearer/101


flect biblical thinking on marriage.        approving, even though the Word           that was the basis of the churches'
Therefore,  it  could  not  stand  the      of God teaches, in language that a        approval of the remarriage of the
test of time.  To say it better, God's      child can understand, "Whosoever          innocent  party:    her  husband's
judgment  in  the  history  of  the         shall put away his wife, except it        adultery dissolved the marriage so
church  has  exposed  the  approval         be for fornication, and shall marry       that  the  innocent  wife  might  re-
of the  remarriage of the innocent          another,  committeth  adultery"           marry.  This is also the notion that
party as erroneous by angrily lead-         (Matt.  19:9a).    When  the  guilty      today compels the churches to ap-
ing the churches to approve the re-         party  in  a  divorce  marries  some-     prove the remarriage of the guilty
marriage of the guilty party.               one else, he commits adultery.  The       party:    having  dissolved  his  own
    As  an  unmarried  man,  in  the        relationship is an adulterous rela-       marriage by his adultery, the guilty
thinking  now  of  those  churches          tionship, so that he goes on com-         husband  has  every  right  to  re-
that approve the remarriage of the          mitting  adultery  as  long  as  he       marry.  In view of the importance
innocent party, the guilty party has        maintains it.                             of sex for marriage and in light of
every right to be married.  He has              Jesus Christ disapproves the re-      the  reaction  of  the  saints  against
been "loosed" from his wife.  Does          marriage of the guilty party.             adultery, it is understandable that
not  the  apostle  teach,  "Art  thou                                                 the churches took the position that
loosed  from  a  wife  ...  If  thou          Reexamining the Traditional               adultery dissolves marriage.
marry,  thou  hast  not  sinned"  (I        Position                                      But the notion is false.
Cor. 7:27, 28)?  Remarriage, there-             Inasmuch as it is their approval          First,  experience  gives  the  lie
fore, does not exclude him from the         of the  remarriage of the innocent        to it:  many marriages of the people
church.  Likely, he will have to con-       party that has brought the conser-        of God have survived adultery.
fess the sin of adultery that he com-       vative churches into open war with            Second, the notion rules out the
mitted when he was married to his           Jesus Christ by now approving the         exercise  of  forgiving  grace  in  the
first  wife  and  also  his  guilt  in      remarriage of the guilty party, the       lives of married believers:  if adul-
breaking up his first marriage, just        churches must reexamine their tra-        tery dissolves marriage, there is not
as any public sinner is required to         ditional stand on the remarriage of       even the possibility that a betrayed
do.  But he may be member of the            the innocent party.  It is unbiblical     husband  or  wife  forgives  the  of-
church as remarried.  He did not            to view marriage as a contract, or        fending  marriage  companion  and
sin when he remarried.  Nor is he           bond, that man can dissolve by his        is reconciled.
living in continual adultery in his         sin  and  at  his  will.    Scripture         Third, and worst, it flies in the
second marriage.  This would im-            teaches that marriage is a lifelong       face  of  the  gospel concerning  the
ply that  he is still married to  his       bond  established  by  God.    God        real  marriage,  of  which  ours  are
first  wife,  but  the  churches  have      makes  the  two  one  flesh  (Gen.        symbols:    our  adulteries  against
said that that bond has been dis-           2:18ff.;  Matt.  19:3-9).  Only  the      God in Jesus Christ do not and can-
solved.                                     death of one of them dissolves the        not dissolve His covenant with us
    To be sure, this approval of the        bond, so that the other has liberty       (see Jer. 3; Ezek. 16).
remarriage of the guilty party is a         to marry again (I Cor. 7:39).  The            Let  it  be  shouted  from  the
nasty, disgusting business.  A fel-         sexual  unfaithfulness  of  one  of       housetops:  adultery does not dis-
low church member may break up              them is ground for divorce in the         solve  marriage.    It  does  not  dis-
my  and  his  own  marriages  and           sense of rightful, even legal sepa-       solve  marriage  so  that  the  guilty
families  by  committing  adultery          ration (Matt. 5:31, 32; Matt. 19:9).      party may remarry.  It does not dis-
with my wife.  After his wife di-           But  not  even  the  innocent  party      solve marriage so that the innocent
vorces him, he may very well re-            may remarry.  If she does, she and        party may remarry.  Only God puts
marry mine.  If he confesses his sin        her  new  husband  are  guilty  of        asunder  what  He  has  joined  to-
of adultery, and my wife does the           adultery (Matt. 5:32b; Matt. 19:9b).      gether,  and  He  puts  asunder  by
same, he may be member with me              She still has a husband.  She is still    death (Matt. 19:4-6; I Cor. 7:39).
in the church--living with my wife.          bound to him, "until death do us              This must be the stand of the
What  happens  to  all  the  children       part,"  as  the  form  of  marriage       church of Jesus Christ.  Only then
involved, only the devil who is be-         states.                                   is  she  secure  against  the  wicked-
hind  the  whole  business  knows.              The thinking that has prevailed       ness of the approval of the remar-
But  this  is  the  implication  of  the    in  Reformed  churches  concerning        riage of the guilty party.   u
position  that  the  innocent  party        the right of the remarriage of the
may remarry.  And this grim, dam-           innocent  party  always  suffered                                           -- DJE
nable  state  of  affairs  actually  ob-    from a fatal flaw.  This flaw should
tains in "evangelical" and "conser-         at last be recognized.  It is the no-
vative" Reformed churches today.            tion  that  adultery  dissolves  the
    This is what the churches are           marriage bond.  This is the notion

102/Standard Bearer/December 1, 1997


     Letters


s      Read on the Web
I have  just  finished reading the between real hyper-Calvinism and history on this site.  Thanks again
     article  on  John  Gill  and  hyper-    what is falsely called hyper-Calvin-         for  posting  this  material  on  the
Calvinism ("John Gill:  Hyper-Cal-           ism,  that  is, the  denial  of  the  so-    web, and thanks for the helpful ar-
vinist? [A Review Article],"  Stan-          called  "sincere"  or  "well-meant"          gument of the article.  I shall keep
dard Bearer, April 15, 1996).  I want        offer.  I have not previously been           it for my files.
to  thank  you  for  posting  this  on       acquainted  with  your  circle  of                                       Rob Ziegler
your  site  and  for  the  professor's       churches (I am a Reformed Baptist),                              Washington, DC   u
clear explanation of the difference          but I  am pleased  to read of your



     All Around Us                                                                                Rev. Gise VanBaren

                                               doctrines:  that  Mary  participates         "apparitions" of the Virgin--more
s      "Mary, Mother of God"                   in the redemption achieved by her            than in the previous three centu-
                                               son, that all graces that flow from          ries  combined,  Miravalle  esti-
                                               the  suffering  and  death  of  Jesus
One  of  our  younger  readers
        called  my  attention  to  the                                                      mates.  Taken together, these vi-
                                               Christ  are  granted  only  through
cover story of Newsweek, August 25,                                                         sions  point  to  what  the  Marian
                                               Mary's intercession with her son,
1997, which presented "The Mean-                                                            movement believes is a millennial
                                               and that all prayers and petitions
ing of Mary--A Struggle Over Her                                                             "Age  of  Mary,"  which  will  pro-
                                               from  the  faithful  on  earth  must         duce a final dogma that confirms
Role  Grows  Within  the  Church."             likewise flow through Mary, who              her  ongoing  maternal  mediation
The article discusses at length the            then brings them to the attention            between God and humankind....
"growing movement in the Roman                 of Jesus.  This is what theologians            ...Not  all  of  it,  however,  is
Catholic church (which) wants the              call high Mariology, and it seems            driven  by  Marian  apparitions.
pope to proclaim a new, controver-             to contradict the basic New Testa-           Feminists  who  20  years  ago  dis-
                                               ment belief that "there is one God
sial dogma: that Mary is a Co-Re-                                                           missed  Mary  as  the  oppressive
                                               and  one  mediator  between  God
deemer...."  He thought it deserved                                                           Virgin-Mother created by a cleri-
                                               and  man,  Christ  Jesus"  (I  Timo-
some comment--and I agree.                                                                   cal  patriarchy  now  celebrate  her
                                               thy 2:5).  In place of the Holy Trin-
       The article reports on petitions                                                     as a "free woman" who chose to
                                               ity, it would appear, there would            say yes to God at the Annuncia-
within the Roman Catholic Church               be  a  kind  of  Holy  Quartet,  with        tion  where  Eve  said  "no"  in  the
to have the pope declare Mary to               Mary playing the multiple roles of           Garden of Eden--and thus made
be "Co-Redeemer."  In the last four            daughter of the Father, mother of            salvation  history  possible.    Even
years,  the  article  states,  the  pope       the  Son  and  spouse  of  the  Holy         liberation theologians have found
has received "4,340,429 signatures             Spirit.                                      in the humble Mary an apt sym-
                                                 "Personally, I'm confident that
from 157 countries....  Among the                                                             bol of God's "preferential option
                                               there  will  be  this  recognition  of
notable  supporters  are  Mother                                                            for the poor."
                                               Marian  truth  before  the  year
Teresa of Calcutta, nearly 500 bish-                                                          The secret of Mary's mysterious
                                               2000," says Prof. Mark Miravalle,
ops  and  42  cardinals,  including                                                         power may be just this: having no
                                               39, the leader of the petition drive         history of her own, she entices ev-
John  O'Connor  of  New  York,  Jo-            and a lay theologian at Franciscan           ery new generation to draw  her
seph Glemp of Poland and half a                University  in  Steubenville,  Ohio.         portrait.    The  Bible  offers  only
dozen cardinals at the Vatican it-             Miravalle has met with the pope              scraps to build on....
self...."  The article goes on to state:         several times and published three              ...From this meager line of de-
                                               books since launching his bold ini-          velopment, Mary gradually grew
       If the drive succeeds, Catholics        tiative at a Marian conference in            in stature.  Astonishingly, this ob-
     would be obliged as  a matter of          1993.  An infallible papal defini-           scure Jewish mother absorbed and
     faith to accept three extraordinary       tion, he says, would put these doc-          transformed  the  most  powerful
                                               trines "at the highest level of re-          pagan  goddesses.    She  was  the
                                               vealed truth."                               Madonna who gives life, but also
                                                 ...In  many  ways,  the  20th  cen-          the Piet who receives the dead.
Rev. VanBaren is pastor of the Prot-           tury has belonged to Mary.  From             Once asceticism became the privi-
                                               almost every continent, visionar-
estant Reformed  Church  of  Loveland,                                                      leged road to Christian holiness,
                                               ies have reported more than 400              she became the perpetual virgin,
Colorado.

                                                                                              December 1, 1997/Standard Bearer/103


  the model of chastity and self-de-        but I will briefly touch upon this            King  David.    The  kingship  is
  nial.    In  431,  the  Council  of       once more.  From the tone of your             passed on to his son Solomon and
  Ephesus issued the first dogmatic         last reply it seems as though you             in  chapter  2,  verse  19,  we  see
  statement on Mary: she was to be          are  more  obsessed  with  the                Solomon  elevate  his  mother
  honored  as  Theotokos,  the  God-        Church's Marian Doctrines than I,             Bathsheba  to  the  queenship.  We
  bearer or Mother of God.  There-          and I'm the Catholic here.  Please            also see in these verses Bathsheba
  after, theologians were unceasing         be aware that most who try to un-             interceding with King Solomon on
  in their efforts to probe the mys-        derstand what the Church teaches              behalf of others.  Now the ques-
  tery  of  her  meaning  within  the       do not begin with the Marian Doc-             tion is, Did Jesus intend to abol-
  fabric of the whole Bible....               trines.    They  begin  with  the             ish all the structure of the Old Tes-
    ...Since June there have been a           Church itself, its history, why the           tament or did he come to complete
  number of conflicting commentar-          Church claims to have the author-             and fulfill it?  The answer can be
  ies on the proposed dogma pub-            ity  she  has,  etc.    Once  these  are      found  in  Matthew  5:17.    Now  if
  lished for the Vatican's consump-         understood,  everything  else  falls          Jesus were truly a king in the line
  tion.    In  one,  French  theologian     into place.  As a convert, I can at-          of David, it would be natural for
  Ren Laurentin, an internationally        test  to  the  fact  that  the  Marian        him to elevate his mother to the
  known  specialist  on  Mary,              Doctrines  are  probably  the  last,          queenship.  This is the whole role
  strongly  opposes  the  proposed          and most difficult to understand.             of  Mary  in  the  Catholic  Church.
  dogma as un-Scriptural and an af-         In  my  last  correspondence  I               She is the Queen Mother and she
  front to the uniqueness of Christ's       brought to your attention former              intercedes for us.
  redemptive  death.    All  this  sug-     Protestant minister Marcus Grodi                Also briefly, in my last reply to
  gests that there is a battle going        and  his  ministry  "The  Coming              you, I recommended that you get
  on behind the scenes for the mind         Home Network."  All these former              a  copy  of  Dr.  Mark  Miravalle's
  of the pope.  But John Paul has a         Protestant ministers say the same             book,  "Mary,  Co-Redemptrix,
  mind of his own.  His devotion to         thing  about  their  journey  to  the         Mediatrix,  Advocate"  to  fully
  Mary seems to have no limits.  His        Catholic Church. They will say it             comprehend  the  dogma  of  Mary
  papal motto, "Totus tuus," means          begins as a detective story, as they          as  Co-Redemptrix.    Have  you
  "All yours"--a reference to Mary.          investigate  the  history  of  the            done so?  Instead you read  Time
  He firmly believes that it was the        Church, reading the early Church              and  Newsweek  magazine's  expla-
  Virgin of Fatima who rescued him          Fathers, etc.  It  very quickly be-           nation of this.  ...If you want to
  from a gunman's bullet--and al-            comes a horror story as they dis-             understand  what  the  Catholic
  most  certain  death--in  1981,  on        cover  the  claims  made  by  the             Church teaches, you won't get it
  the feast of Our Lady of Fatima,          Church begin to make sense.  But              from  Time  and  Newsweek.    The
  as it turned out.  He rarely deliv-       it ends as a love story as they com-          secular  press  is  continually  dis-
  ers a homily or issues an encycli-        plete their journey.                          torting  the  teachings  of  the
  cal  without  praising  the  Virgin         As for the writings of Ligouri,             Church.  If your car were in need
  Mary.    He  routinely  uses  words       etc. why does the Church refer to             of servicing or repair would you
  like Mediatrix, Advocate and oc-          Mary  as  Queen  of  heaven  and              take it to your doctor?  Or if you
  casionally  even  Co-Redemptrix.          earth,  Ligouri  in  his  writings  as        were ill would you seek assistance
  This year he concluded a series of        Queen of Hell and Sovereign Mis-              from your auto mechanic?
  50 Wednesday-noon addresses on            tress of the devils?  Why does the
  various aspects of Mariology, in-         Catholic  Church  seem  to  elevate             The correspondent's appeal to
  cluding one in May in which he            Mary  to  the  level  that  it  does?       the line of David and the "queen
  went  well  beyond  the  silence  of      This  may  be  best  explained  by          mother"  in  seeking  to  show  the
  Scripture to claim that Mary was          looking at the historical and Old           place of Mary in the work of her
  the  first  to  experience  the  Risen    Testament background for it.
  Christ at Easter.  It was, he said,         First of all I'm sure you would           son, Jesus Christ, is absurd.  First,
  only "fitting."                           agree  that  Jesus  is  a  king  in  the    where does this person read of the
                                            line of David.  This can be proven          "queen mother" of David?  Where
    I  had  contact  with  a  Roman         from the genealogy at the begin-            does  he  read  of  all  these  other
Catholic ("converted" from Protes-          ning of Matthew's Gospel.  If you           "queen mothers" besides Bathshe-
tantism) and I asked him about this         study the Davidic Dynasty of the            ba?  Did not the request of Bath-
article in  Newsweek (and a similar         Old Testament you will discover             sheba to Solomon on behalf of an-
                                            that  all  the  kings  in  the  line  of
one  in  Time   magazine).    His  re-                                                  other represent a foolish interces-
                                            David had a queen. But who was
sponse is of interest:                                                                  sion which led even to the destruc-
                                            the queen?  Was it his wife?  No.
                                            It was always the queen mother.             tion of the one for whom she inter-
    In  past  correspondence  I  have       In  all  ancient  monarchies  it  was       ceded?    What  a  poor  example  to
  tried my best to clear up any mis-        the  king's  mother  who  was  el-          support Mariology!  The same cor-
  understandings you may have re-           evated to the queenship.  An ex-            respondent  insisted  that  "Co-Re-
  garding the Church's Marian Doc-          ample  of  this  can  be  found  in  I      deemer" and "Co-Mediatrix" sim-
  trines.  In  my  human  weakness  I       Kings, chapters 1 and 2.  In chap-          ply means that Mary (and we too)
  may not have been very adequate           ter 1, verse 10 we see the death of         stand with or alongside of Christ

104/Standard Bearer/December 1, 1997


in support of His work of mediat-             trine concerning Mary is somewhat             tercede with "saints" so that these
ing with the Father.  But the terms           strange.  Has not the Roman Catho-            can assist them.  To declare Mary
surely  mean  far  more  than  that.          lic Church already denied the sole            to be "Co-Redeemer" would only
Mary is presented as performing a             redemption  through  the  blood  of           compound the heresy already ex-
part,  however  small,  of  the  work         Jesus?    It  insists on  works  which        istent  within  the  Roman  Catholic
of redeeming God's people.  It is             man must perform to finish his sal-           Church.  This would only further
surely a denial of the clear teach-           vation.  Some, called "saints," pre-          detract from the blessed gospel of
ings of I Timothy 2:5, "There is one          sumably do enough works to avoid              salvation  through  the  cross  of
God  and  one  mediator  between              purgatory.  These can enter imme-             Christ.    This  represents  only  one
God and man, Christ Jesus."                   diately  into  glory.    Others  must         further evidence of the departure
         Yet the stir about this proposed     spend some time in purgatory so               from the true gospel by the Romish
new and supposedly infallible doc-            that they may be purged of remain-            Church.   u
                                              ing sins.  Roman Catholics can in-


  Search the Scriptures                                                                                Rev. Mitchell Dick


                The Raising of Lazarus (2)
                                                     (John 11)


In our first study on John 11 (cf.
    the  Standard Bearer,  November
    1, 1997) we introduced the nar-                      For Study, Meditation, &
rative, and noted the main purpose
of  Jesus'  raising  of  Lazarus,                                          Discussion
namely, that it be "for the glory of
God, that the Son of God might be
glorified thereby" (v. 4).
         We noted also that, really, the
main  focus  in  John  11  is  not  on        3. Walking in the day (vv. 9, 10).            God.  Men may make their plots to
Lazarus, nor his death and resur-                 In  answer  to  the  disciples'           kill Jesus.  But the purposes of the
rection, but on Jesus, the resurrec-          question and fear that Jesus would            Lord,  they  shall  be  established!
tion and the life.                            meet His death if He went to Judea            And all in God's timing!  It could
         Let  us  continue  to  have  this    (11: 8, 16), Jesus speaks of walking          very well be, in fact, that Jesus is
biblical focus in our searching the           in  the  light,  and  walking  in  the        implying here that it is  not God's
Scriptures!   In  this  we  show  that        night (vv. 9, 10).                            time for Him to die.  It is  still  the
we  have  the  resurrection  and  the             What does Jesus mean by this?             day;  Jesus  still   has  Father's  work
life!                                             By referring to the day and to            to do on earth.  Therefore, though
         Resurrected and living children      walking in "the day," Jesus is most           the Jews, or even the whole world,
of God, let us search the word of             likely speaking of His day, His time          plot  His  demise,  no  one,  at  this
life!                                         on earth, when He must work the               time, can put Him to death!
         This "for the glory of God, that     works of the Father that sent Him                 Consider here how Jesus rests
the Son of God might be glorified             (cf.  John  9:4,  5).    By  referring  to    in God's sovereignty and goodness,
thereby"!                                     the  twelve  hours  in  a  (the)  day,        and also how He comforts the dis-
                                              Jesus  speaks  of  the  fact  that  this,     ciples  by  referring  them  to  these
                                              His day, His time on earth, is fixed,         virtues of God!  How do we take
                                              ordained  of  the  Father  according          the same comfort in these glorious
                                              to  His  unchangeable  decree.                things?
Rev. Dick is pastor of Grace Protes-
                                              Whether Jesus lives or whether He                 Jesus mentions "walking in the
tant  Reformed  Church  in  Standale,
                                              dies, therefore, is all in the plan of        day," and He says that, in so walk-
Michigan.

                                                                                                December 1, 1997/Standard Bearer/105


ing, one stumbleth not because he          5. Grieving (vv. 17-37).                    His  humanity  and  empathy  and
seeth the light of this world.  How            By  the  time  Jesus  came  to          qualification to be our High Priest
do we walk in the day?  What is            Bethany, Lazarus had been in the            (cf. Heb. 4:14, 15)?
the blessing of walking in the day?        grave  already  four  days  (v.  17).           But how can Jesus grieve?  Does
Comment  on  how  the  following           Jesus finds Jewish comforters there,        Jesus weep as God, in His divine na-
passages  bear  upon  Jesus'  words        consoling Martha and Mary, sisters          ture?  Is it possible for there to be
about "walking in the day":  John          of Lazarus.                                 suffering with God?  Consider and
9:4, 5; 12:35, 36; Ephesians 5:1-20; I         What Scriptures might the Jews          discuss this in light, always in light,
John 1:5-7.  Is there any parallel to      have brought which would provide            of the passages which teach the ab-
what  Jesus  is  saying  here,  in  the    comfort in the loss of a loved one?         solute perfection of God!
Israelites  following  the  pillar  of     Is  there  any  evidence  that  these           What of our grief?  Is it right
cloud and fire in the wilderness?          Jews  would  or  would  not  have           for a Christian to cry?  What com-
                                           brought the comfort of the gospel?          fort can we find in our grieving?
                                               In  Martha's  grief  (vv.  21-27)       How can we comfort others in their
4. "Our friend Lazarus sleepeth"           she  shows  faith.    How  does  she        grieving?
(vv. 11-16).                               show faith?  In what way does she
     The  message  had  come  that         show  little faith?
Lazarus  was  sick.    For  two  days          Jesus works Martha's faith and          6. Lazarus, come forth
Jesus abode where He was.  Then,           strengthens it by one of His seven          (vv. 38-44)!
after announcing His resolve to go         "I Am" sermons (cf. John 6:35; 8:12;            Jesus goes to the grave site of
to Judea, Jesus announced, without         10:9,11;  11:25;  14:6;  15:5).    What     Lazarus.    Lazarus'  body  is  in  a
having  heard  from  anyone,  that         does Jesus mean by declaring Him-           cave, and a stone is laid across the
Lazarus was sleeping, but that He          self the resurrection and the life (v.      entrance to protect it from wild ani-
would  go  and  wake  him  out  of         25)?  What is this life to which Jesus      mals, and to seal in the stench of a
sleep (11:11).                             refers (cf. John 17:3)?   What does         decaying  body.    Jesus  commands
     The  disciples  thought  Jesus        Jesus  say  is  the  relationship  be-      that the stone be taken away from
spoke of literal sleep.  They even         tween faith and life?  How do we            the opening of the grave. Why, con-
thought  that  this,  maybe,  was  a       harmonize  the  fact  of  Lazarus'          sidering what happens next, was it
sign  that  Lazarus  was  recovering       death  and  our  dying  with  Jesus'        necessary that the stone be rolled
(11:12).  Jesus, however, spoke of         promise that those who believe in           away?
Lazarus' death (v. 13, 14), and of         Him shall never die?                            Verses  41,  42  teach  that  the
the  fact  that  He  would  raise              Jesus  asked  the  question  of         raising of Lazarus was in answer
Lazarus from the dead.                     Martha: Believest thou this?  Why           to the prayer of Jesus.  In connec-
     Of death as sleep:                    did He ask this?  Ought ministers           tion  with  this,  our  Savior  makes
*    In one sense, of course, the per-     ask this question of professing be-         this  statement  about  His  prayers:
son  who  dies  is  "asleep"  after        lievers?  Parents, of children?  Mis-       that He knows that the Father hears
death--that is, with regard to the          sionaries, of those who have only           Him always (v. 42).  How does this
body;  the  body  and  bodily  func-       just heard the gospel?  What is the         statement, all by itself, refute the
tions  are  "asleep."    They  are  no     purpose?                                    commonly held view that Jesus is
longer  operative.    But  does  the           How was Mary's grief (vv. 28-           the  Savior  of  all  men,  or  at  least
Bible teach, as some suggest, that         33)  different  from,  but  also  the       intends the salvation of all, even of
also  the  soul  of  man  sleeps  after    same as, Martha's?                          the reprobate?    (Hint: if Jesus is
his  bodily  death,  i.e.,  is  uncon-         Jesus,  at  this  time,  grieved.       the Savior of all, or desires to be,
scious?    What  do  these  passages       This  is  clear  in  that  He  wept  (v.    would He not pray for them?  But
teach  with  regard  to  the  state  of    35); He groaned in the spirit (vv.          if  He  prays  for  them,  then  what
the body and soul after death: Job         33, 38); He was troubled (v. 33).           would happen, according to v. 42?)
7:9,  10;  Ecclesiastes  9:6;  Isaiah          Truly  profound,  this!    Two          What does this statement say about
63:16;  Luke  16:19-31;  23:43;  II        questions  immediately  come  to            Jesus'  harmony  with  the  Father?
Corinthians  5:8;  Philippians  1:21-      mind.  For  what did Jesus grieve?          Does God hear  us always?   How
23; Revelation 7:15-17; 20:4; Heidel-      And how could Jesus grieve?                 do we keep in harmony with the
berg Catechism, LD 22, Q. 42?                  Was  Jesus'  weeping  over  the         Father so that our prayers are not
     *There is gospel in sleep, and        loss of a good friend?  Did He weep         hindered, but heard?
in describing the death of believ-         for  the  others'  sake,  grieving  for         The raising of Lazarus was also
ers as falling asleep.  Comment on         their grief?  Or was He troubled,           by the word of Jesus.  "Lazarus, come
this  in  light  of  such  passages  as    as  some  suggest,  only  because  of       forth!" (v. 43)  was  Jesus'  word at
Acts 7:60; I Corinthians 15:55-58; I       the unbelief of the people?   What          this time.  Look up the following
Thessalonians 4:13-18.                     does Jesus' grieving here teach of          passages,  and  others,  and  reflect

106/Standard Bearer/December 1, 1997


upon this  word of the Son of God:             of God--even in the darkest of our              of the Lord.   What are evidences
Genesis  1;  Psalm  33:6,  9;  John  1;        circumstances?    Just  what  do  we           of this twofold result today?
Romans 4:17; Hebrews 1:3.                      see when we see the glory of God?              8. Perspective (John 20:31).
        Was Lazarus alive by an act of         Why is faith necessary (cf.  I  Cor.           This  miracle  of  the  raising  of
God  before  Jesus  called  to  him  to        2)?                                            Lazarus  was  among  the  many
come  forth?    Or  did  Jesus'  word                 In  their  unbelief  many  of  the      miracles recorded  in John for the
work  the  life  and  the  response  so        Jews, including the Jewish leaders,            purpose of our believing that Jesus
that Lazarus could come forth?                 the chief priests, and the Pharisees,          is  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  God,  so
        These are important questions          were  not  able  to see  the  glory of         that, through faith, we might have
with regard also to the preaching              God in Jesus, and in the miracle of            life through Jesus' name.
of the gospel to sinners, especially           Jesus.   These, upon hearing of the                List  ten  ways  this   notable
if  we  consider  that  Jesus'  call  to       things  Jesus  had  done,  called  to-         miracle, and the whole narrative of
Lazarus is a picture of Jesus call-            gether a  council (a session of the            John 11, reveal plainly that Jesus is
ing  the  believer  to  life  in  the          Sanhedrin: the great council of sev-           the Christ, the Son of God.
preaching of the gospel.                       enty-one  prominent  members  of                   Was Lazarus in heaven in his
        The  question  is:    is  regenera-    the  Jerusalem  community  who                 soul  during  those  four  days  his
tion (the spiritual resurrection life)         judged  important  issues  concern-            body  lay  in  the  grave?    If  this  is
effected  in  the  heart  of  the  dead        ing  the  Jewish  people).    At  the          the case, then surely after his res-
sinner  apart  from,  without  the             council, fear was expressed that all           urrection (and  thus after his soul
means of, the preaching (immedi-               the  people  following  after  Jesus           reunited with his earthly body to
ate regeneration)?  Or is the regen-           would occasion the Romans com-                 continue  on  in  this  earthly  life)
eration  effected  by  means  of  the          ing in and taking away any author-             Lazarus  must  have  had  the  same
preached Word (mediate regenera-               ity to rule that the Sanhedrin pos-            mixed feelings Paul had (cf. Phil.
tion)?    For  reflection  and  discus-        sessed, and also threatening the en-           1:23, 24).  On the one hand, Lazarus
sion consider Romans 10;14, 15; I              tire  Jewish  nation  (v.  48).      It  is    must have felt the most severe "let-
Peter 1: 23-25; Canons III,  IV/11-            probable that the Jews were think-             down" one could possibly experi-
13).                                           ing that Jesus intended to establish           ence: he was let down from heaven!
          Consider in this light the dis-      some kind of earthly kingdom.  The             But on the other hand, Lazarus was
tinction made  in Reformed theol-              Romans,  according  to  the  Jewish            no doubt "lifted up" in his faith--
ogy  between  regeneration  in  the            understanding,  would  see  Jesus              as one surely would be if he had
narrower  sense  (in  the  heart,  be-         and  His  Jewish  disciples  as  a             actually experienced glory ( I Cor.
neath the consciousness of a per-              threat.                                        12:1-7--Paul's experience).
son--likened to the  planting of the                   Caiaphas,  the  high  priest  at            Do  we  experience  this  same
seed  of  life  as  in  natural  concep-       that time, and therefore the presi-            kind of thing?   God has  regener-
tion),  and  regeneration  in  the             dent of the Sanhedrin, then coun-              ated us.  This is a spiritual resur-
broader sense (that life which is al-          seled that, for the good of the na-            rection from the dead, and even the
ready  there ,  energized  by  the             tion, this one man, Jesus, ought to            experience  of  heaven  on  earth
preaching to consciousness and be-             die (vv. 50, 53, 57).                          (Eph. 5:14; cf. Eph. 2:6)!  But God
lieving  activity--likened  to  the                        In verses 51, 52 John has a         is pleased to leave us on this earth,
sprouting  of  the  seed,  otherwise           wonderful,  Spirit-inspired  gospel            and in this vale of tears, fighting
known  as  conversion:  cf.  L.D.  33).        interpretation  of  Caiaphas'  pro-            sin, and enduring all manner of tri-
Consider  also  how  elect  infants,           nouncement!  Reflect upon and dis-             als for God's sake!
when God takes them to glory in                cuss what Caiaphas' words, as in-                  How do we "come out of the
infancy, and how physically (deaf)             terpreted by John, signify regard-             grave," only to have to die again,
and mentally handicapped people                ing:  God's  inspiration  of  His              even daily in the soul, and one day
are called from spiritual death to             prophets  (note:  John  understands            in the body, with joy and confidence?
life and to glory.                             Caiaphas to have been  prophesy-               What is the key to the  blessed res-
                                               ing here: cf. I Pet. 1: 10-12); the sub-       urrection life, while in this life we
                                               stitutionary atonement of Messiah;             do weep?   u
7. Faith and Unbelief (vv. 45-57).             the gathering together of the people
          Many  of  the  Jews  who  had        of God from the nations to be one
come to Mary and who saw what                  church (cf. John 1:29; 10:16; Is. 43:5;
Jesus  had  done,  believed  (v.  45).         Eze. 34:12; 36:24ff.; I Pet. 2:9).
Amazing gift, this faith!  Through                    As then, so now, there is a two-
it, Jesus says, those who believe see          fold  result  of  Christ's  work  and
the glory of God (v. 40)!  How does            word: some believe, and some do
faith enable us to "see" the glory             not, and even seek the overthrow

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  When Thou Sittest in Thine House                                                           Rev. Wilbur Bruinsma


                                        The Covenant of Marriage (2)
    Courtship Within the Covenant

                                                    That means we ought to have          The Goal of Courtship
                                            a proper understanding of dating                 Long before our children have
                                            or courtship.  This is true of us as         reached the age of dating, parents
                                            parents, first of all.  The children
Marriage is an honorable
            state.  It was instituted by                                                 must  determine  the  goal  behind
            God  at  the  time  of  the     God has given us are His children.           this function.  Why will we allow
creation of the woman.  The pur-            Our  children  are  the  heritage  of        our  son  or  daughter  to  "go  out
pose of God in marriage is to give          God to us.  Parents, therefore, are          with" someone on  a date?  What
the believing man and his wife an           obliged to guide their children into         must be our and their goal in dat-
earthly means by which they can             a sanctified view of courtship.  At          ing?  Is the goal of dating simply
experience  with  each  other  the          the  same  time,  however,  young            to  have  good  times  with  persons
great love and friendship that ex-          people themselves ought to be busy           of the opposite sex?  Is it the free-
ist between Christ and His church.          exerting themselves in the pursuit           dom  to  have  no  responsibilities,
This  is  that  mystery  which  only        of proper behavior in this area of           make  no  commitments,  but  just
those  who  are  in  Christ  can  dis-      life.  Both parents and children do          "hang loose" with a girl or a guy?
cover in their marriage.  Marriage          well  to  reexamine  this  institution       Such, of course, is what our mod-
is a covenant bond that symbolizes          that has come to be known as  dat-           ern  society  has  come  to  make  of
the  unbreakable  union  of  Christ         ing.                                         dating.  It is a game--the "dating
and His church.                                     I  approach  this  subject  with     game."    Men  and  women  of  all
    But  if  the  purpose  of  God  in      some  reluctance.    Not  because  I         ages  love  to  play  the  game,  it
our  marriages  is  to  discover  this      have not dealt with the subject be-          seems.  In fact, it has become the
blessed bond of friendship, then we         fore,  but  because  the  conclusions        seedbed of all kinds of immorality
must be careful whom we choose              to which I have come do not seem             and irresponsible living.  Proof for
to be our husband and wife.  If we          to meet with the accepted norm of            this is found in the books, maga-
marry an unbeliever, that intimate          dating  as  it  has  been  practiced         zines,  and  television  programs
bond of love will elude us, and our         among us in the past couple of gen-          which are a reflection of and have
marriage will become a sore bur-            erations.    Because  of  that,  some        a  major  influence  upon  our  soci-
den  rather  than  a  life  of  joy  and    readers will not give these articles         ety.    The  wicked,  unbelieving
happiness.  This is why it is so im-        very serious consideration and will          world  has  succeeded  well  in  dis-
portant  to  think  about  this  before     continue in the direction that has           torting our thinking as to the true
we  marry!    We  wrote  this  at  the      been  set  for  us  by  our  society.        goal of dating.
outset,  and  we  repeat  it  now:    a     Some  young  people  will  snicker               Before parents allow their chil-
good marriage does not simply fall          and think that the views of these            dren to date, it is important to in-
from the sky!  To have a spiritu-           articles  are  antiquated  and  irrel-       still in them a deep understanding
ally  strong  marriage  means  we           evant for today's modern genera-             of the spiritual goal of such an ac-
must take seriously our calling to          tion.  But maybe a few parents will          tion.    Dating  is  courtship.    The
search out a godly spouse!  To have         reconsider what they have been al-           name  has  been  changed  to  take
joy  in  marriage  means  we  must          lowing their sons and daughters to           away  the  serious  implications  of
find a sincere, God-fearing wife or         do,  and  direct  them  in  a  better        this activity in a person's life, but
husband.                                    path.  At the least I hope these ar-         that does not change the fact:  dat-
                                            ticles will challenge all of us, par-        ing is courtship.  In other words,
                                            ents  and  young  people  alike,  to         the goal of dating is to find some-
                                            make  serious  evaluation  of  our           one to marry!  Dating is a means
                                            modern  practices  of  Christian             which a person uses prayerfully to
Rev. Bruinsma is pastor of Kalamazoo        courtship!    After  all,  certainly  all    search for a spouse!  It is a means
Protestant  Reformed  Church  in            of  us  want  to  establish  a  spiritu-     by  which  a  man  and  woman  are
Kalamazoo, Michigan.                        ally strong marriage and home!               able to learn to know each other to

108/Standard Bearer/December 1, 1997


ascertain whether God has indeed             ity, and other gross sins of this na-        that  God  has  shed  abroad  in  the
intended them to spend a lifetime            ture.  The Bible nowhere uses the            hearts of His people.  It is that love
together in marriage.  That is the           term  eros   to  describe  love  or  any     which binds the church, the bride
godly goal of dating.  It is not an          other  type  of  proper  affection  of       of Jesus Christ, together with her
empty game with no meaning.  It              one person toward another.                   Bridegroom in an everlasting bond.
is a means God has given us to seek              Especially  since  the  sexual           That is the love we must discover
and find a godly mate.  What this            revolution  of  the  1960s  this  per-       and nurture while dating.  That is
implies  we  will  consider  in  a  fu-      verted,  twisted  idea  of  love  has        the purpose of courtship within the
ture article.                                come to dominate our society.  This          covenant!  We are to discover the
                                             is why premarital sex is not only            same  friendship  with  that  person
Learning to Love                             excused but lauded as a necessary            we  date  that  we  have  with  our
    If the goal of dating or court-          act  if one  is  to  know  whether  he       God!  Is that a lust-filled, sensual,
ship is marriage, then its purpose           "loves" the person he is dating.  It         fornicating love?  What?  The very
it to learn to love the one we have          is little wonder that our society is         thought of loving God in that way
chosen to date.  Sometimes we find           plagued  with  divorce  and  remar-          repels us!  Then it ought to repel
(either  immediately  or  after  we          riage!  People are falling into and          us in the relationship we nurture
have dated for awhile) that the per-         out of love all the time!  This kind         in our dating life as well!
son  we  are  dating  is  not  the  one      of love does not take time or work!              The love we must seek and cul-
God  has  meant  for  us.    Then  we        And  that  is  because  their  love  is      tivate is that love which holds the
certainly must terminate the rela-           nothing more than lust!  Certainly,          other in highest esteem as one wor-
tionship.  But neither is this done          it is not this type of love we must          thy of our respect and admiration.
frivolously and just because it does         learn of one another when dating!            Such love implies knowledge!  It is
not "feel" right.  Learning to love          In  fact, if  this is the  type  of love     rooted  not  in  the  ever-changing
another  person  takes  time  and            we seek, if the reason we date is to         emotions  and  feelings  of  our  de-
takes work.   Contrary to popular            gain carnal knowledge of another,            sires  but  in  the  stable  and  well-
opinion, a man and woman do not              then our future marriages (even if           grounded  knowledge  and  under-
just "fall in love."  True love be-          we finally marry for the right rea-          standing  of  our  reasoning.    The
tween  a  man  and  a  woman--the             son)  will  be  threatened!    What  a       purpose  of  dating  is  to  discover
love that will bind them into one            threat to the bond of love in mar-           that kind of love!  In other words,
flesh in marriage--takes time and             riage if in the back of one's mind           we must use our dating to get to
effort.  A  person learns this kind          there  always  lurks  the  erotic            know  each  other.    A  man  and
of love.                                     knowledge he had of others when              woman must discover what is the
    Again, this is where the unbe-           he was dating them!  Fornication             spiritual makeup and character of
lieving  world  has  destroyed  the          in dating is condemned out of hand           the person they are courting.  They
proper  conception  of  love.  The           by the Word of God!  "Flee forni-            must  discover  the  flaws  and
"love" on which the vast majority            cation!" we are told (I Cor. 6:18).          strengths of the other's character.
of  unbelievers  build  their  mar-          Why?    Because  the  bond  of  mar-         They must inquire deeply into the
riages  in  our  modern  society  is         riage cannot be founded upon the             spiritual  qualities  of  that  person.
nothing more than lust.  They have           lust  that  is  unleashed  in  fornica-      They must examine and search out
a  sexual  attraction  toward  each          tion!                                        what  makes  that  person who she
other--one  to  which  they  have                 A  good  marriage  does  not             is.  Is she the kind of woman who
given  full  vent  before  marriage,         come by chance.  A good marriage             will love me and care for me and
and one that they think will unite           is firmly grounded on a love dis-            my children the way that I believe
them for a lifetime after marriage.          covered and pursued during court-            she  should?    Will  she  in  my  ab-
At the time the Bible was written,           ship.  That love is not fallen into.         sence guide my home and instruct
marriages in the Greek and Roman             It is cultivated and nurtured while          my children the way I would if I
society  were  based  on  this  same         dating.  And it continues to blos-           were there?  Is this the kind of man
kind of "love."  The Greeks even             som  and  grow  before  and  after           that will support me and my chil-
had  a term  for it.   They  called it       marriage.  What love is that?  It is         dren?  Will he be the spiritual head
eros.  In our English language this          the love that can be found within            that I need to lean on?  Will he in-
Greek term is used too.  We see it           God's  triune  Self.    It  is  the  love    sist  by  instruction  and  discipline
in such terms as "erotic."  This type        which  binds  the  three  persons  of        that my family will be led in the
of  love  is  nothing  more  than  the       the  Trinity  together  in  a  bond  of      way of God's Word?
sensual, sexual lust that arises out         perfectness.  It is that love which              How many young couples ask
of one's base desires.  It is the type       God  has  shown  toward  us  in              these questions when they are dat-
of  "love"  (lust)  that  gives  rise  to    Christ--a love that sent Christ to            ing?  How many diligently search
fornication, adultery, homosexual-           the cross to die for us.  It is a love       into these matters in an attempt to

                                                                                              December 1, 1997/Standard Bearer/109


know  and  love  the  person  they         time!  But they have failed to dis-         love for each other!
court?                                     cover who it is that they are really            A person ought not to date un-
    So  many  young  men  and              marrying.    Then  in  a  year  or  so      til he or she well understands that
women rush into marriage without           (maybe it takes a few years) they           the goal of dating from the start is
taking  time  to  discover  who  the       find  out  that  they  did  not  really     marriage.  Neither ought that per-
person really is that they are mar-        know that person or love that per-          son to date until he or she under-
rying.    They  feel  this  sudden  in-    son.  Some of these marriages by            stands  that  the  purpose  of  court-
fatuation,  this  sudden  giddiness,       God's  grace  remain  intact,  since        ship  is  to  learn  to  know  and  es-
this sudden gush of emotion.  They         God  after  marriage  leads  these          teem  the  other  as  one's  closest
feel a sexual attraction toward an-        couples through much turmoil and            friend, and in that way to love him
other person and they right away           pain into that true love they should        or her.
think:  "it's love!"  They then hurry      have  had  before  marrying.    Most            We  will  discuss  the  practical
into marriage, expecting  that  this       of these marriages are trashed be-          implications of this in the next ar-
fairy tale love will last them a life-     cause  the  couple  has  no  love  for      ticle.   u
                                           God  and  His  Word,  much  less  a

  Ministering to the Saints                                                                   Prof. Robert Decker


          The Elders and Discipline (2)

T                                          correct.  This means that if a mem-         of leaving the church is tantamount
       here are two questions of an        ber is placed under discipline and          to  his  excommunicating  himself
      introductory  nature  which          then decides to terminate his mem-          from the church of Christ.  If, after
      must be answered before we           bership  in  the  congregation,  the        all this, the person persists in his
discuss  Articles  72,  73,  and  74,      consistory  must  honor  this  deci-        desire  to  leave  the  church,  the
which deal with  the  discipline of        sion.    The  consistory  may  not          consistory has no option except to
those who have committed secret            refuse to grant a request for one's         grant his request.  This puts an end
sins.    Those  questions  are:  May       membership  papers.    When  this           to discipline.  In most of our Prot-
non-communicant members (mem-              happens, and it all too often does,         estant  Reformed  Churches,  when
bers  by  baptism)  be  disciplined?       the consistory can and ought to at-         this happens the Dismissal Certifi-
And, Is it possible for impenitent         tempt  to  persuade  the  man  to           cate is delivered to the person by a
members to avoid being disciplined         change his mind and remain in the           committee of elders.
by  leaving  the  fellowship  of  the      church  in  the  way  of  confessing            There  has  been  and  probably
church before discipline is applied?       and leaving his sin.  The consistory        still is difference of opinion in the
The  latter  question  could  be  put      ought to remind such a person of            Reformed churches on the question
this way:  May a consistory refuse         the vows he made at the time he             of the discipline of non-communi-
to grant a person who is under dis-        made confession of his faith.  Con-         cant  members.    There  are  those
cipline his/her membership papers          fession of faith, after all, includes       who  argue  that  discipline  cannot
in order that discipline may be con-       the vow to submit to church gov-            be  applied  to  baptized  members
tinued?                                    ernment in case one becomes  de-            who have not yet made confession
    We answer the second question          linquent in doctrine or walk of life.       of faith.  Others take the position
first.  The Reformed churches have         The  consistory,  if  possible,  ought      that discipline can and must be ap-
always  taken  the  position  that  a      to  remind  the  person  that  one  of      plied  to  older  non-communicant
man's membership in the church is          the purposes of discipline is to save       members.  The latter position, we
a matter of his own choice.  This is       the sinner and that, as such, disci-        believe, is correct.
                                           pline  is  the  rod  of  Christ's  chas-        When the youth of the church
                                           tisement.  The consistory ought also        arrive  at  years  of  discretion  they
                                           to  remind  the  impenitent  that  to       must be pointed to their calling to
                                           leave the church of Jesus Christ is
Prof. Decker is professor of Practical                                                 make  confession  of  their  faith.
                                           a  very  serious  sin  indeed.    He
Theology in the Protestant Reformed                                                    They sin if they do not.  If, after
                                           ought to be reminded that his act
Seminary.                                                                              the elders have patiently  worked

110/Standard Bearer/December 1, 1997


with them, they persist in their re-       one  who  lives  in  disobedience  to       himself  in  need  of  the  cross  of
fusal  to  confess  their  faith  they     the will of God as taught in Scrip-         Christ.
must be erased as members of the           ture  and  summed  in  God's  Law.              In the event the sinner refuses
church.    Erasure  applies  to  bap-      Disobedience is offensive to one's          to repent, the second step is to be
tized members who walk in sin and          fellow saints and to the holy God.          followed,  "...  take  with  thee  one
are  impenitent.    The  elders  must      When one errs in conduct, he sins           or two more, that in the mouth of
patiently and in the love of Christ        against the holiness of the church.         two or three witnesses every word
labor  with  such,  calling  them  to          When these sins are "of a pri-          may be established."  The purpose
faith in Christ and repentance to-         vate  character,"  the  article  says,      of taking witnesses is twofold.  If
wards  God.    They  must  bring  to       Matthew 18 must be followed.  Sins          the one who sinned denies that he
the  impenitent  repeated  admoni-         of  a  private  character  are  sins        has  sinned  as  charged,  the  wit-
tions from the Word of God.  When          which are known only to very few            nesses establish the fact that he has
the  Word  of  God  is  rejected  and      in the church.  Indeed, some might          sinned.  If he admits to the act as
the sinner refuses to repent, and it       argue on the basis of Matthew 18            charged but denies that that act is
becomes  evident  that  he  is  hard-      that a private sin is known only to         sin, the witnesses must show him
ened in his sin, the elders must take      the  sinner  and  the  one  against         from  Scripture  that  his  act  is  in-
a decision to erase him from mem-          whom he has sinned.  In any case,           deed sinful.
bership  in  the  congregation.    Be-     a  private  sin  is  known  only  to  a         This brings us to the rule of Ar-
fore implementing the decision to          very few.  It is not always so easy         ticle 73:   "Secret sins of which the
erase  a  baptized  member  the            to determine when a sin ceases to           sinner repents, after being admon-
consistory  must  seek  the  advice        be private and becomes public.  In-         ished by one person in private or
and approval of the classis.  Upon         dividual cases will have to be de-          in the presence of two or three wit-
securing classis' approval, the de-        cided on their own merits.                  nesses, shall not be laid before the
cision to erase is carried out.  The           If the sin is of a private charac-      consistory."    If  reconciliation  is
sinner ought to be warned that era-        ter, "the rule clearly prescribed by        achieved in the way of the sinner's
sure is tantamount to excommuni-           Christ in Matthew 18 shall be fol-          repenting  after  either  the  first  or
cation.*                                   lowed."    In  verses  15-17  of  Mat-      second step prescribed by the Lord
    This brings us to Article 72 of        thew  18  Christ  lays  down  three         in  Matthew  18,  the  matter  is  fin-
the  Church  Order,  which  stipu-         steps to be followed.  The first is,        ished.  It must not be reported to
lates, "In case anyone errs in doc-        "If  thy  brother  shall  trespass          the consistory.  In the way of the
trine or offends in conduct, as long       against  thee,  go  and  tell  him  his     sinner's  repentance  the  offense  is
as the sin is of a private character,      fault between thee and him alone."          removed.  There is no need of any
not giving public offense, the rule        This does not preclude the possi-           further disciplinary action.
clearly prescribed by Christ in Mat-       bility  of  the  sinner  going  to  seek        If the sinner refuses to repent
thew 18 shall be followed."  This          forgiveness from the brother he has         after the first two steps of Matthew
article obviously applies not just to      offended  (cf.  Matt.  5:23-24).    But     18 are applied, then, says Christ to
the  elders  and  their  work,  but  to    the article speaks of the responsi-         the one sinned against,  "tell it to
all of the people of God.  The ar-         bility of the one sinned against.  He       the church."  This last step is spo-
ticle speaks of two kinds of sin:  er-     must seek out the one who sinned            ken  of  in  Article  74:   "If  anyone,
rors  in  doctrine  and  offenses  in      against him.                                having  been  admonished  in  love
conduct.  The first is any doctrine            At least three important truths         concerning a secret sin by two or
which is contrary to the confessions       are  implied  in  this.    I)  The  one     three persons, does not give heed,
of the church.  There is room for          against  whom  the  sin  has  been          or otherwise has committed a pub-
differing interpretations of a given       committed must make clear to his            lic sin, the matter shall be reported
passage of Scripture.  The confes-         brother the  nature of the  sin and         to the consistory."
sions,  however,  contain  what  the       why, on the basis of God's Word,                In  the  Reformed  tradition the
church believes to be the truth of         his teaching or action is sin.  2) The      word  "church"  has  always  been
the Word of God.  This truth is the        purpose of going to the offending           understood  to  refer  to  the
basis for the  unity of  the  church.      brother is to achieve reconciliation        consistory, the body of elders.  This
This truth must be taught, known,          in the way of removing the offense.         is in harmony with the position of
and  defended  by  the  church's           Jesus adds, "If he shall hear thee,         government  which  the  elders  oc-
members.  One who teaches doc-             thou hast gained thy brother."  3)          cupy in the church of Christ.  This
trine which contradicts the truth of       The one offended by the sin of the          is  also  the  interpretation  of  the
the  confession  "errs  in  doctrine."     brother must be motivated by the            word "church" found in the  Form
That error must be removed or it           desire to save the brother.  He must        for the Ordination of Elders and Dea-
will cause schism in the church.           go to him in humility and with the          cons:  "And thus the ministers of
    One who offends in conduct is          love of God in his heart and as one         the Word, together with the elders,

                                                                                           December 1, 1997/Standard Bearer/111


form a body or assembly, being as              the one against whom the sin was
a council of the church, represent-            committed.  2) The elders must be        * For a more detailed discussion of the
ing  the  whole  church;  to  which            certain that the steps  of Matthew       discipline  of  non-communicants,  we
Christ alludes when he saith, `tell            18 have been followed and that the       call the reader's attention to an inter-
the church'--which can in no wise               sinner remains impenitent.  3) They      esting  article  by  the  well  known
be  understood  of  all  and  every            must give the one charged with sin       church historian, Dr. W. van't Spijker,
member of the church in particu-               the opportunity to defend himself.       "Discipline of Members-by-Baptism,"
lar, but very properly of those who            The  elders  may  not  apply  disci-     which  appears  in  the  magazine,
govern  the  church,  out  of  which           pline until they are certain that the    Diakonia, vol. 11, number 2, Sept. 1997
they are chosen."                              one  charged  is  indeed  guilty  as     issue.  This publication is available in
    Concerning  reports  which                 charged  and  impenitent.    Failure     the Protestant Reformed Seminary li-
                                                                                        brary or by writing Brookside Publish-
come to the consistory, the elders             to observe these principles will re-     ing, 3911 Mt. Lehman Road, Abbots-
must  carefully  observe  several              sult in all kinds of trouble in the      ford, BC V4X2M9, Canada.
principles.    1)  Never  may  the  el-        congregation, and, worse than that,
ders act on rumor or gossip.  They             "the Lord does not command  his
must  listen  to  the  report  only  of        blessing there."   u

  Cloud of Witnesses                                                                             Prof. Herman Hanko


                            Herman Hoeksema:
       Theologian and Reformer (3)

                                               preaching was in careful exegesis,       surance which rested on the faith-
Conclusion                                     which  unfolded  the  riches  of  the    fulness of the promise of God.  His
It is hard to imagine the amount Scriptures and brought them home "blessed hope" was real and cer-
   of  work  which  Herman                     in countless practical ways.             tain.
   Hoeksema produced.  But this                    One  who  heard  him  preach             But his exegesis was always his
was and is true of many whom God               could never doubt that his first love    strength.  It is the strength of his
uses  in  His  church.    They  spend          was  preaching.    I  well  remember     Reformed  Dogmatics ;  it  is  the
themselves in the cause of the gos-            that near the end of his life, while     strength of his many books; it was
pel  and  do  work  that  indeed  de-          he  was  still  preaching,  he  would    the strength of his instruction in the
rives its power from heaven.                   begin a sermon in such a painfully       seminary.  He would debate with
    Hoeksema  was,  above  all,  a             slow  manner  that  one  wondered        us  with  great  patience  and
preacher.    It  is  difficult  for  us  to    whether  he  would  be  able  to  get    longsuffering and would bear with
understand how anyone who heard                through the sermon.  But as he be-       our  immaturity  with  grace  and
his preaching could leave his con-             came  caught  up  in  it,  his  eyes     kindness; but  he  insisted that we
gregation.  He was clear, concise,             would  begin  to  sparkle,  his  face    bolster every argument with Scrip-
biblical, and confessional.  A little          would light up, and he would be-         ture.  If we did not want to take
child  could  understand  him;  an             gin to preach as one who had re-         the time or put forth the effort to
adult versed in theology could be              ceived new life.                         do that, he would not permit us to
stimulated by his thought.  He was                 It  was  also  especially  toward    waste his time.
eloquent,  moving,  forceful,  and             the  end  that  Hoeksema  began  to          He was a man of great physi-
persuasive.  The real power of his             preach  more  and  more  about           cal strength who wore himself out
                                               heaven.  When he spoke of heaven         in his work.  But he was a man of
                                               he would refer to it as "that blessed    great mental strength as well.  He
                                               hope."    This  was  significant  be-    would never cease to amaze us in
                                               cause, as he was ready to explain,       seminary with his ability to show
Prof.  Hanko  is  professor  of  Church        he did not mean that hope was a          the  falsity  of  a  theological  argu-
History  and  New  Testament  in  the          mere "shrug of the shoulders," as        ment with sure, probing, and few
Protestant Reformed Seminary.                  he called it; hope was absolute as-      remarks  that  exposed  the  hollow

112/Standard Bearer/December 1, 1997


character  of  much  theological            complained that he was squander-            sister-church  relationships  estab-
thought.                                    ing his gifts when he spent his life        lished between the Protestant Re-
        He  was  also  a  man  of  enor-    with  two  or  three  students  pa-         formed Churches and the churches
mous  spiritual  strength.    Some          tiently  teaching  them  theology  in       formed under Dr. Schilder's lead-
called  it  stubbornness;  the  Bible       what was little more than a walled          ership  if  a  common  basis  could
calls it steadfastness.  He loved the       hole in the ground.  The only ex-           have been found in the truth.  That
Scriptures,  was  committed  to  the        planation  for  this  can  be  a  total     enjoyment was rooted in part in a
defense of the Reformed faith, and          commitment to the truth of Scrip-           personal affection for Dr. Schilder
would  not  be  moved,  no  matter          ture and the Reformed faith.                himself.  Hoeksema was saddened
what the price.  And he paid a very             The second incident is of a dif-        by  the  rift  between  himself  and
dear price indeed.                          ferent kind.  It took place when in         Schilder and between the churches
        He was a sinful man--as we all       1953 we had to seek other quarters          they represented.  He was  genu-
are.    He  knew  how  great  is  the       for the seminary and we were us-            inely  sorrowful  when  Schilder
miracle of grace that God uses sin-         ing  Adams  Street  Protestant  Re-         died.
ners in His church.  Hoeksema had           formed  Christian  School.    It  was           Hoeksema  preached  in  other
his weaknesses.  He was not above           Hoeksema's 70th birthday.  It was           churches  when  the  opportunity
making  fun  of  shoddy  thinkers           coffee time.  We were in the teach-         was  given  him.    Dr.  Henry
who passed themselves off as pro-           ers' lounge.  Hoeksema was solilo-          Atherton's  Grove  Chapel  in  Lon-
found theologians and made bold             quizing.    His  remarks  went  like        don  is  one  example.    The  Ortho-
but unproved assertions.  He some-          this.                                       dox  Presbyterian  Church  of  Port-
times walked his own path with-                 "Now that I am 70 years old I           land, Maine, near the place where
out due consideration of those who          sometimes  wish  that  I  could  live       Hoeksema  vacationed,  was  an-
were one with him and were  de-             another  70  years.    If  the  Lord        other.  He sought out and eagerly
termined to support the cause for           would give me another 70 years, I           participated  in  a  conference  with
which he stood.                             think  I  could  finally  come  to  un-     ministers  from  the  German  Re-
        But  he  was  absolutely  con-      derstand  the  truth  a  bit.    Now  I     formed Churches of Eureka Classis.
vinced  that  the  truth  which  he         know almost nothing."                       He willingly participated in a con-
preached was the truth of Scripture             I do not know whether he saw            ference  with  Christian  Reformed
and the Reformed faith.  He said            our  jaws  drop  in  amazement.    I        ministers called to try to heal the
in my hearing more than once that           doubt it.  But he added, almost to          breach.  He urged the synod at one
he would stand firm for that truth,         himself, "No, I am glad that I won't        point to send observers to the Re-
even if all others turned away.  His        live very long anymore because I            formed  Ecumenical  Council.    But
conviction was unshakable and his           shall  soon  go  to  heaven.    Then  I     he permitted no compromise when
commitment to faithfulness was to-          shall understand perfectly."                it came to questions of the truth.
tal.                                            It  was  an  important  evidence            Hoeksema  hated  church  poli-
        Yet, when he was in the circle      of the fact that Hoeksema well un-          tics  in  any  form.    His  firm  belief
of friends and fellow saints, he was        derstood that, because the truth of         that  Christ  preserves  His  church
jovial,  with  a  robust  laughter,  a      Scripture is the truth of God Him-          kept him from the evil of playing
ready wit, a warm spirit of cama-           self,  it  is  unfathomable,  and  we       political games in the church, so-
raderie.  Some never came to know           mere men can know only very little          liciting support through ways other
this side of his character, but even        of  it.    He  often  concluded  a  ser-    than  debate,  attempting  to  influ-
within the congregation he showed           mon  with  a  remark  to  the  effect       ence  decisions  by  maneuvering,
it in moments of relaxation.                that  he  had  succeeded  only  in          and "counting noses" to be assured
        Two  incidents  which  demon-       scratching the surface of a text; and       of  sufficient  support  before  mak-
strate Hoeksema's character stand           he often said in his prayer at the          ing a move.  All the things so im-
out in my memory.  The first had            end of the sermon that all he had           portant  in  today's  church  world
to do with our seminary training.           done was mutter and stutter a bit           were abhorrent to him.
        Hoeksema was content all his        about the truth.  It was all rooted             Above all, Hoeksema was used
life to teach in a single room in the       in that great governing principle of        by God to bring reformation to the
basement of First Church, a room            his life that God is God, great and         church.  With the adoption of com-
which  was  dark,  dingy,  cold,            glorious and greatly to be praised.         mon grace the Christian Reformed
damp,  and  wholly  unattractive,               Nor was he a man that gloried           Church  chose  a  path  of  apostasy
when  with  some  compromise  he            in an isolated ecclesiastical life.  It     which would (and has) led the de-
could  have  been  an  outstanding          was forced upon him because of his          nomination  astray.    It  is  under-
theologian  in  the  ecclesiastical         defense of the faith; but it was not        standable  that  common  grace
world  and  a  blazing  star  in  the       his wish.                                   would  receive  a  great  deal  of  at-
ecclesiastical firmament.  He never             He would have enjoyed seeing            tention  in  the  early  years  of  the

                                                                                            December 1, 1997/Standard Bearer/113


Protestant  Reformed  Churches.             important areas.  Undoubtedly be-         God's covenant people, and, above
But  it  is  a  man  who  leads  a  sect    cause of his experience in the case       all, gives all glory to God.  It is a
who never gets beyond criticism of          of  Dr.  Janssen,  who  denied  the       biblical  doctrine  of  the  covenant
heresy,  always  and  only  against         miracles in Scripture and did so on       which begins with God and ends
things,  having  an  obsession  to          the  grounds  of  common  grace,          with  God  and  has  as  its  theme:
write  critically  of  others  without      Hoeksema developed those truths           Glory  to  God.    If  Hoeksema  had
producing  anything  positive.              of  sovereign  and  particular  grace     done nothing else but this, it would
Hoeksema wanted more than any-              in the area of miracles.  In his  Re-     have been enough.
thing else to see the CRC reject the        formed Dogmatics one will find one            He has not been recognized by
false doctrine it had adopted.  But         of the best, most biblical, and most      the church world.  To know the ap-
when  it  would  not,  when  it  cast       beautiful developments of miracles        proval of God was the important
Hoeksema out after stripping him            that one can find anywhere.               thing.  Mostly he knew opposition,
of his office, and when it persisted            He applied the truth of particu-      hatred,  and  slander,  or  cold  and
in  going  its  own  way,  Hoeksema         lar grace to the concept of revela-       disdainful ignoring of him and his
turned  to  the  positive  work  of         tion and subjected the doctrine of        theology.    Records  are  kept  in
church reformation.  Such reforma-          "general revelation"--especially as        heaven  that  are  the  only  ones
tion was in the area of church gov-         many wanted to relate it to com-          which  count.    The  sins  are  there
ernment and liturgy without doubt.          mon grace--to rigorous scrutiny in         too, of course.  They  are covered
The  CRC  had  departed  from  the          the light of Scripture.                   in the blood of Christ.  But the suf-
Reformed  line  in  introducing                 But above all he saw the impli-       fering, the persecution, they too are
hymns  into  worship,  and  the             cations of the doctrine of sovereign      noted.  And God, who had His own
church  polity  of  the  church  had        and particular grace, rooted in eter-     place  in  the  church  militant  for
been corrupted when the broader             nal election, for the doctrine of the     Herman  Hoeksema,  has  His  own
assemblies engaged in discipline of         covenant.  And here is his greatest       place in the church triumphant for
Hoeksema.  But such reformation             work.  He has given the church an         a man who fought a good fight, fin-
was especially in doctrine.                 inheritance  of  the  truth  which  is    ished the course, and kept the faith.
    I cannot spell it out here.  But        powerful, throbbing with life, filled     He  received  the  crown  of  righ-
as Hoeksema stood for the truths            with practical implications for an        teousness which God gave to him
of sovereign and particular grace,          antithetical  walk  on  the  part  of     and  will  give  to  all  who  love
he developed those truths in some                                                     Christ's appearing.   u

  Go Ye Into All the World                                                             Mrs. Jeanette Kortering


              Our Work in Myanmar (2)

                                            They all sat on the floor, but they       They are very concerned for the vil-
Tuesday, January 9.                         brought in some chairs for Fiona,         lage people and have  a great  de-
                                            Leh  Wah,  and  me.   I  made some        sire  to  witness  to  them,  to  share
                                            opening  remarks,  expressing  our        the  gospel  and  help  in  whatever
Conference carried on as be-
        fore.    I  told  Tracy  that  I
        would  really  like  to  meet       thanks that the Lord had brought          way they can.   One question they
with the women during the noon              us there safely and that we had the       came up with was, when they have
break after lunch was finished.  Af-        opportunity of meeting all of them,       their  fellowship,  the  women
ternoon session didn't start until 2        and our desire to get to know them        preach--is  this  right  or  wrong?
P.M.  So she rounded them all up            better.    I  was  surprised  at  how     This  goes  so  painstakingly  slow
and  we  met  in  the  ladies'  house.      quickly  they  responded  and             with interpretation, but you have
                                            opened  up.    They  had  questions       to ask more questions to get a com-
                                            about  how  we  conduct  a  Ladies'       plete picture of what is going on.
                                            Fellowship  in  Singapore,  so  I  ex-    There has been some objection to
Mrs. Kortering is the wife of Rev. Ja-      plained that to them, and told them       "women preaching" by some of the
son Kortering, a minister-on-loan from      about some of  the difficulties the       people.  What it boils down to is
the Protestant Reformed Churches in         women in Singapore encounter, be-         defining their terms.  The women
America to Singapore.                       ing  first-generation  Christians.        were not preaching.  There was no

114/Standard Bearer/December 1, 1997


call to worship.  They were simply         vember, 1994, when the group from                The  three  of  us  met  with  the
meeting together and one was ex-           Singapore  was  in  Myanmar,  and            English  teacher  in  the  afternoon.
plaining a portion of Scripture and        they  asked  Elder  Siew,  who  was          He  took  us  to  visit  his  cousin's
what it meant to her.  Other things        also along at that time, to give the         wife.  His cousin is an orthopedic
they brought up were family prob-          funeral  message.    The  wife  is  a        doctor, and their two sons are also
lems.  For example, a mother had           Christian.  Their oldest daughter,           doctors.  One is in the US special-
a 16 year old son who is rebellious        also a Christian, is very intelligent        izing in internal medicine, and the
against religion.  Their method of         and is studying in the US to be a            younger one is putting in his year
discipline  when  he  was  naughty         doctor.  She's there on a US schol-          of  government-required  medical
was to have him sit on the table.          arship.    They  attend  the  Baptist        service  before  he  goes  on  to  spe-
He couldn't look to the right or to        Church.    He  opened  with  prayer          cialize.    The  whole  family    are
the left, but could only look at the       before the meal, but he said he and          Christians.    She  was  a  school
Bible in his lap and memorize the          his  youngest  daughter  were  not           teacher  for  over  20  years  and  is
verse they assigned to him.  These         "born again" and he asked that we            now retired.  She speaks excellent
people said they don't spank very          pray  for  them.    They  were  very         English,  so  we  thought  she  must
much.  More often they bend the            hospitable.  He  even came  to the           have studied abroad, but she was
index finger, strike the child on the      airport to see us off.  He's a good          never out of Myanmar.  She is busy
head with the knuckle, or talk with        friend of Moses and will do any-             now with translating English works
him.    A  girl  asked  about  a  teen-    thing to help.  They are trying to           into Burmese.  Burmese is written
aged brother who gives in to peer          fix up their house a little--making           with all little circles and curlicues.
pressure  and  listens  more  to           rooms with doors instead of using            She  is  working  on  a  Bible  Story
friends than parents.  One mother          fabric to separate the rooms--and             Book at present, starting with the
is a widow and has four children.          they will also attach the outhouse           New  Testament,  and  having  it
Because  it  is  so  difficult  to  get    to the house and run  a pipe to a            printed in sections.  When she com-
money in Myanmar, she sometimes            drain field or something like that.          pletes  it,  she  hopes  it  can  be
has to go into India to buy and sell       No furniture in the house--just a             printed in one volume.  She gave
in order to provide for them.  How         couple  of  small  tables,  and  they        each of us one of the sections which
frequently and for how long?  Four         borrowed the chairs from church.             is  finished,  so  I'll  take  it  along
times a year, anywhere from two                We continued meeting with the            when  we  come.    She  said,  "The
weeks to a month at a time.  And           ladies after lunch.  Fung Dun had            Lord  has  been  so  good  to  me  all
she leaves her four children alone,        to be the interpreter this time be-          my life, I just want to give the rest
the oldest being 17 and the young-         cause Tracy was busy with some-              of  my  life  in  serving  Him."    She
est eight.  Time is up--promise to          one  else.    They  explained  to  me        offered  that  if  we  have  anything
get back with them the next day.           how they try to provide for others.          that we need translated into Bur-
    Fiona, Leh Wah, and I left then        Rice is their only meal.  They al-           mese, she would be very happy to
and  went  shopping  at  Bogyoke           low a small cup measure for each             do  it  for  us  free  of  charge.    She
Aung San Market.  The two girls            person.  So if six people are eating,        goes into the villages every Satur-
would be leaving on Thursday so            they will measure out six of those           day and Sunday to witness to the
they had to do a bit of sightseeing        portions.  Then they will reach in           poor  people.    She  goes  empty-
too.  The market place is all small        with their hand and take a hand-             handed because she doesn't want
shops, has a lot of character, and         ful  out  and  put  it  in  a  container.    them to listen to her because she
is a good place for souvenirs.  We         "That," they say, "is for the Lord."         brings something for them.  When
had a fun afternoon and met Dad            They accumulate that rice, and then          it  was  time  to  leave,  she  got  her
and Elder Siew at the hotel for din-       all the ladies put their rice together       youngest  son,  who  is  single  and
ner.  That night we chose to have          and give it away.  Before coming             lives at home, to drive us around,
the one western set meal the hotel         to the Reformed church, they were            show  us  Chinatown,  and  take  us
offered, but it wasn't all that great.     members  of  larger  churches,  so           back to the hotel.  It was so nice to
We decided the cooks were better           they  could  give  away  more  rice.         get in the car and have a tape of
at preparing their own cuisine.            Now they belong to a small church,           familiar Christian hymns on.
                                           and they feel bad that they don't
                                           have as much to give.  I explained
Wednesday, January 10.                     about the widow's mite, and said             Thursday, January 11.
    Conference  continues.    We           that in God's sight they were giv-               We said good-bye to the girls
were invited to the house of Moses'        ing generously of what they had.             before leaving for the conference.
neighbor,  who  lives  on  the  other      I tried my best to encourage them,           Now  that  the  girls  were  on  their
side,  for  our  noon  meal.    His  18    and  they  expressed  appreciation           way, I stayed all day at the confer-
year old son passed away in No-            for my meeting with them.                    ence.   Elder Siew  was gone most

                                                                                            December 1, 1997/Standard Bearer/115


of the day.  He wanted to do some         brothers and sisters.  They all live         with a whole lot less than we have.
shopping and he also had to take          in  one  small  rented  house--or  I                 After  the  other  three  left,  we
care of the finances of the confer-       could better call it a room.                 were  told  that  the  noon  meal
ence.  Fung Dun, Tracy, Dad, and I            It's really something to see the         would  be  prepared  for  us.    Dad
walked out to the main road to a          poverty of these people.  You can't          and  I  were  glad.    We  wanted  to
little restaurant for lunch.              remain  untouched.    They  do  not          have the opportunity to eat as they
    The  five of  us all contributed      have running water.  They have no            eat.  But ... no way.  We didn't get
some extra money and  gave it to          washing machines, no refrigerators,          to eat with them, and they contin-
them so they could prepare a spe-         no telephones.  They sleep right on          ued to fuss for us, preparing very
cial evening meal for all the people      the floor without any mattress or            nice special dishes and bringing it
there.    We  didn't  see  what  the      rug.  They must use an outhouse,             over to where the conference was,
people ate,  but I hope it was the        which is a little shack on stilts with       so that we could sit on chairs by
same they gave us.   It  was abso-        an eastern toilet (flat on the floor)        the  desk.    We  didn't  have  to  eat
lutely delicious and was prepared         with  a  pipe  that  goes  down  into        alone.    Fung  Dun,  Moses,  and
very nicely.  The chief cook for the      the ground.  They have a bucket of           Tracy always ate with us, and once
conference was Hla Hla, and she's         water  with  a  dipping  pan  in  the        the executive board had lunch with
an  expert!    After  the  dinner  we     outhouse,  which  one  can  use  for         us.
went  back  to  the  hotel.    Each       flushing.    In  each  neighborhood
evening all the people at the con-        there  is  a  well,  and  one  can  go       Saturday, January 13.
ference had some kind of service,         there to buy water by the bucket-                   Dad finished up his instruction
but since it was all in Burmese or        ful.    Baths  are  taken  outside  by       on the Covenant by "stretch time"
Chin,  without  interpretation,  it       pouring water over oneself with a            and coffee at 10:15.  They had some
wasn't necessary for us to stay, nor      pan.    All  the  laundry  is  done  by      chairs and benches set up along the
did they expect us to.                    hand and hung over a line to dry.            walls  for  us  and  for  some  of  the
                                          (I asked at the hotel if they had a          men during the entire conference,
Friday, January 12.                       washing machine for their laundry            and  the  rest of  the  people sat on
    We  said  good-bye  to  Elder         and  she  told  me,  "No,  we  don't.        straw mats on the floor.  The mats
Siew before leaving for the confer-       We do it all by hand."   Can you             were about five feet square, and I
ence.  The conference continued as        imagine washing sheets and tow-              wouldn't  dare  guess  how  many
before.                                   els every day by hand?)                      people could sit on them.  It sur-
    At noon I met with the widow              I haven't figured out how the            prised us that some of the people
lady  alone  and  then  with  the  or-    people get along during the rainy            did  not  even  get  up  during  this
phanage lady (and my interpreter,         season.  The road is higher up than          time, but just remained sitting on
of course).  I must tell you about        where  the  houses  are,  so  I  guess       the  floor  waiting  until  we  got
the orphanage lady yet.  This is a        that  is  tolerable.    The  houses  are     started again.  (That means sitting
couple up in the Falam province.          all  built  on  stilts.    We  were  told    on the floor for three to three and
They  have  four  children  of  their     that during the rainy season there           a half hours with legs crossed some
own and have taken in 10 orphans.         is a lake with fish swimming in it           way or other!!)  With about 45 min-
It's not so often that we hear of or-     around the house.  Natural ques-             utes  left  for  the  morning  session,
phans nowadays, but in Myanmar            tion is, how do they get about dur-          Dad  took  the  time  to  tell  them
it is very common, due in part to         ing that time?  Everyone wears flip-         about himself--the family he was
the  fact  that  they  cannot  afford     flops, and  they  simply take  them          born into, how his parents desired
medical  attention  when  they  are       off and let the mud ooze through             for him to be a minister, and how
sick.  The church really feels a bur-     their toes and they slip and slide.          the Lord led him in his youth.  He
den  for  these  children,  because           These  people  are  poor  physi-         told them about our marriage and
sometimes there are Christian or-         cally, but they are spiritually rich.        family,  the  churches  we  were  in,
phans, and if there is not a place        We have such an abundance, and               about  our  working  now  in
for them, they will be provided for       it just seems as if our lives have so        Singapore, and the  great blessing
in the Buddhist orphanage and in-         much  clutter  (materialism,  enter-         it is to be able to tell others about
doctrinated  in  Buddhism.    This        tainment, etc.) that draws us away           the gospel.  He shared also several
mother told me how she instructs          from  things  spiritual.    Their  life      Scripture verses which have always
her children that God has blessed         centers  in  the  church.    Their           meant  a  lot  to  him.    After  that,
them  with  parents  and  now  they       thoughts are not on what they can            there were a few questions.
have a calling to be kind to these        get but on what they have--salva-                    Another  beautiful  noon  meal
orphans and help them.  Their chil-       tion in Jesus Christ.   I don't think        was served, and then in the after-
dren gladly receive these orphans         we could even exist on their level,          noon Dad had the introduction to
in  their  home  and  treat  them  as     but  I'm  sure  we  could  get  along        the Heidelberg Catechism.  Back to

116/Standard Bearer/December 1, 1997


the hotel again, where we had just            ing  in  the  Sheaves,"  "How  Great        mushrooms  which  was  delicious!
a  simple  meal  of  fried  rice  since       Thou Art," etc.  In the afternoon,          Another thing that they prepare so
we had such a big dinner at noon.             Tracy and I worked on translating           nicely  is  their  mixed  vegetables.
                                              some  of  the  testimonies  that  the       They serve it on a platter, and it's
Sunday, January 14.                           people had written.  It went faster         so colorful and pretty.
    Sunday  again  and  Dad                   for her if she could just say it, so I          Dad and I would be so tired in
preached  at  Grace  Church.    All           did all the writing.                        the evening after a busy day, that
through the conference, and again                 Hla  Hla  and  her  helpers  pre-       after the others had gone back to
on Sunday, we were just struck by             pared a special dinner for Sunday           Singapore,  we  would  fall  asleep
how heartily the people sing.  No             night.    I  had  watched  them  for        early  at  night,  and  consequently
question  about  it  that  it  really         awhile,  so  I  knew  what  we  were        wake up very early.   Our minds
means a lot to them and they have             getting  and  what  to  avoid.    One       would  then  be  working  a  mile  a
great joy in singing.  They do have           dish was liver and fish eggs.  Dad          minute, thinking about the people
a little book made up in English as           took about three bites of that dish         and all our experiences.  Dad must
well.  In it they have hymns that             before deciding he couldn't handle          at  that  time  have  written,  in  his
they  also  have  in  their  language,        any more of it.  He fed the rest to         mind, quite a few of the reports of
so we can sing together:  "Jesus is           the cat who was frequently around.          his work.
a Rock in a Weary Land," "Bring-              They also prepared some beef with                          ... to be continued   u

  Book Reviews

                                              believe on His Son whom He has                Moreover, the promise of the gos-
                                              not already regenerated.                      pel is that whosoever believes in
                                                  The  book,  therefore,  misses  a         Christ  crucified  shall  not  perish,
                                                                                            but  have  everlasting  life.    This
Today's Gospel and Apostolic Exhor-           grand opportunity.  At the present            promise,  together  with  the  com-
tations:  A Study in the Presentation         time, the Reformed faith is being             mand to repent and believe, ought
of  the  Gospel ,  by  A.  G.  Randalls.      subverted by means of a doctrine              to  be  declared  and  published  to
Windmill Hill, East Sussex, England:          of the preaching of the gospel that           all nations, and to all persons pro-
The  Huntingtonian  Press,  1997.    103
pp.    Price  unknown  (paper).    [Re-       presents the preaching, particularly          miscuously  and  without  distinc-
viewed by the editor.]                        the call, as God's grace to all men           tion, to whom God out of his good
                                              without exception.  This is the doc-          pleasure sends the gospel.
                                              trine of universal, ineffectual grace           Although  Randalls  makes  no
Promising much, this book de
    livers little.  It claims to be "the      that  is  inimical  to  the  Reformed       contribution to the issue of the pro-
first book to set in order true prin-         faith  and  that  destroys  the  entire     miscuous preaching of the gospel,
ciples regarding the way in which             Reformed system wherever it gains           he does make certain things plain
it is safe to address mixed congre-           entrance.  The book reacts to this          beyond the shadow of a doubt.
gations expounding those passages             heresy by denying the creedal Re-               First, the position on preaching
of  Scripture  which  for  too  long          formed doctrine of the external call        that he represents emphatically de-
have  been  misrepresented"  (back            of  the  gospel  altogether.    It  does    nies that God or the preacher ex-
cover).  It intends to set forth the          this  in the name of genuine Calvin-        tends the external call to any but
biblical mode of preaching, particu-          ism.  Thus, the book actually gives         the  elect  and  regenerated  person
larly the call of the gospel, against         aid and comfort to the enemy, who           (see pp. 36, 41, 42, and 76).
the error of a gracious offer to all          now can say that the alternative to             Second, according to Randalls
who hear.                                     their doctrine of universal, ineffec-       and the position that he defends,
    But, in fact, it merely restates          tual grace in the preaching is a doc-       God does give the unregenerated
the position of certain English Bap-          trine  that  makes  promiscuous             person  in  the  audience  of  the
tists,  that  the  external  call  of  the    preaching impossible.                       preaching  of  the  gospel  a  certain
gospel--the  command,  or  sum-                    One fatal weakness of Randalls,         command.    This  is  not  the  com-
mons, "Repent! Believe!--is to be              if  not  of  his  whole  movement,  is      mand  to  believe  on  Christ  pre-
restricted to those hearers who are           the ignoring of the Reformed con-           sented in the gospel.  But it is the
already regenerated.  According to            fessions.    How  can  a  writer  who       command to believe the Bible and
these English Baptists, the Calvin-           claims to be giving the Calvinistic         to believe in God as Creator with a
istic preacher  may  call  no one  to         doctrine  of  the  preaching  of  the       "natural"  faith  that  the  unregen-
believe in Jesus Christ of whom he            gospel completely ignore Article 5          erated  is  supposed  to  be  capable
is not sure that he is already born           of the second head of doctrine of           of (p. 37).  That any professing Cal-
again.    God  commands  no  one  to          the Canons of Dordt?                        vinist  could  think  that  the  com-

                                                                                              December 1, 1997/Standard Bearer/117


manding  God  could  be  pleased             transformed  into  a  "bona  fide  be-        Spirit  has  worked  these  spiritual
with  such  a  "faith"  as  this  is  as-    liever" in order that Peter in Acts           characteristics.    This  tender,  par-
tounding.                                    8:22 may not be found command-                ticular address is the call in its full,
        Evident in this odd doctrine is      ing an unbeliever to repent (see pp.          saving reality:  external summons
a fundamental error of all the En-           37,  38,  46,  49,  53,  54,  and  else-      accompanied by the internal draw-
glish  Baptists  who,  like  Randalls,       where).  This is sinful twisting of           ing of the Holy Spirit.   s
have  denied  that  God  commands            the Holy Scriptures.
unregenerated people to repent of                The  Protestant  Reformed                 Sincerity  Meets  the  Truth ,  by  John  K.
their sins with genuine repentance           Churches must firmly and publicly             Pedersen.  Audubon, New Jersey:  Old
and to believe on Christ with true           decline  to  be  associated  with  the        Paths Publications, 1997.  Pp. vii + 56.
faith.  This is the error of thinking        Gospel Standard magazine in its op-           $5.95 (paper).  (Reviewed by the edi-
that a divine command implies the            position to "offers":                         tor)
ability  to  obey  the  command.    I          The  Gospel  Standard   magazine
have  charged  elsewhere  that  the            stands almost alone (with the Prot-
English Baptists who deny the ex-              estant Reformed Church  [sic]  and          In the clean and decent town of
                                                                                             Evangelical Religion (across the
ternal  call  are  guilty  of  the  same       the  British  Reformed  Fellowship          tracks  from  the  depraved  city  of
basic  error  that  characterizes  the         set up in 1990) in their opposition         Badstuff) was a loving, caring Re-
Arminians whom they oppose.  On                to indiscriminate "offers" (p. 83).         formed  church.    Its  name  was
the basis of the notion that a com-          The Protestant Reformed Churches,             Kindlove  Reformed  Church.    The
mand  implies  ability  to  obey  the        representing the Reformed, confes-            minister, Nuance Greytone, was a
command,  the  Arminians  teach              sional tradition, differ sharply with         friendly, popular pastor.  Polished,
that all men are naturally capable           the  Gospel  Standard  magazine  on           positive,  and  tolerant,  he  knew
of  repenting  and  believing  (free         the important issue of the preach-            how to please everybody.  He re-
will).  On the basis of the same no-         ing of the gospel.  The Protestant            served his criticism for "the T. R.
tion,  such  English  Baptists  as           Reformed Churches do indeed re-               Crowd,"  that  is,  those  Reformed
Randalls deny that God commands              ject and condemn the "well-meant              people who thought, and claimed,
any to repent and believe but the            offer," in the sense of preaching to          that  the  Reformed  faith  was  the
regenerated.  Randalls is aware of           all as God's love for all and desire          one, only, true gospel--the "Truly
my charge, but dismisses it (see p.          to  save  all.      This  is  the  Armini-    Reformed."  Into this church, of a
83).                                         anism,  or  "free  willism,"  con-            Sunday  morning,  came  a  guest
        Third, the position that denies      demned by the Reformed churches               minister, Faith Not-His-Own.  He
that the gospel externally calls all         in  the  Canons  of  Dordt.    But  the       preached the good news of salva-
to repent and believe must griev-            Protestant  Reformed  Churches                tion  by  grace  alone,  grace  that  is
ously distort the clear teaching of          teach and practice the earnest ex-            freely  and  sovereignly  bestowed
the  Bible.    Acts  17:30  is  conve-       ternal call of the gospel to all hear-        upon the elect, grace that is truly
niently  explained  as  referring            ers  without  distinction  and  with-         grace.  In the course of preaching
merely  to  a  "natural"  repentance         out  exception.    That  is,  these           the  gospel,  he  condemned  the
of  which  everyone  is  capable  by         churches hold that  God Himself se-           teaching  that  salvation  is  condi-
nature, not to genuine repentance.           riously  commands,  or  summons,              tioned  by  man's  own  will
Evidently,  God  will  be  satisfied         every  hearer,  unregenerated  as             (Arminianism).  He condemned it,
with this.  Acts 3:19 refers only, we        well  as  regenerated,  to  repent  of        not as an inferior form of the gos-
are told, to a "national repentance"         his sins and believe in Jesus Christ.         pel but as "the Lie."  This divided
on the part of the Jews, which was           Here,  the  Protestant  Reformed              the congregation.  Some were out-
a  "natural  duty,"  of  which,  pre-        Churches differ sharply and signifi-          raged, including Pastor Greytone.
sumably,  Peter's  audience  was             cantly  with  the  Gospel  Standard           Others were saved from their evan-
naturally capable.  Matthew 22:14,           magazine.  I am confident that the            gelical  self-righteousness  and  en-
which is the death-blow to the po-           British  Reformed  Fellowship  also           joyed the comfort of the gospel of
sition of Randalls and the English           declines to be associated with the            grace for the first time.
Baptists, is quickly brushed aside           Gospel Standard magazine.                             Another result of the unwanted
by the explanation that "called" in              This is not to say that Randalls          preaching  of  grace  that  is  really
the  text  merely  means  "hear   the        has got everything wrong.  It is of           grace was that Sincerity, a "nice"
Gospel."  This, in spite of the fact         crucial  importance  to  recognize            member of the church (with a pub-
that the preceding verses state that         and insist that the gospel's address          lic penchant for Sunday afternoon
"called" consists of God's ministers         of the thirsty in Isaiah 55:1 and of          football  games  on  television  that
commanding reprobate, unregener-             the  laboring  and  heavy  laden  in          kept him from the evening service
ate  people,  "Come  unto  the  mar-         Matthew 11:28 is the Savior's lov-            and a private delight in the deprav-
riage."    Simon  the  magician  is          ing call to His own in whom the               ity of Badstuff), met the Truth.  He

118/Standard Bearer/December 1, 1997


will meet Him again at the book's             judgment.    The  Holy  Spirit  was          the protest arises from the passion-
end.  Both times, this "nice" church          absent from all this talk about gos-         ate love of the truth of the grace of
member  painfully  discovers  that            pel  this,  and  gospel  that.    I  feel    God  in  Jesus  Christ.    Mrs.  Hope
sincerity  counts  for  nothing  with         empty, uncared-for.                          Against-Hope gives expression to
the Truth.                                      The Christian allegory teaches             this love:
    This  is  the  story  in  John          some spiritual truth.  It is a veiled            The heart of the good news--the
Pedersen's powerful allegory, Sin-          sermon in writing.  This Christian               grace of God--the right of God to
cerity Meets the Truth.                     allegory  is  a  vehement  protest               give  his  grace  to  whom  he  will,
    As  every  reader  of  John             against the denial of grace in Re-               for his own Glory; and his power
Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress knows,          formed  churches  by  means  of  an              to  do  this  through  the  work  of
an allegory tells an interesting tale.      affirmation of "grace" conditioned               Christ on the cross--this precious
This tale of life-and-death struggle                                                         truth--(is)  ...  the  one  thing  that
                                            by  the  will  of  the  sinner,  or  by          matters over everything else!
in a Reformed church, with its life-        means  of  the  approval  of
and-death implications for one of           Arminianism's  conditioned  and                        The message of the allegory is
the church's members, is interest-          conditional "grace" as a legitimate            that  of  the  Bible,  positively  and
ing.  My 18 year-old son picked the         form  of  the  gospel.    The  author          negatively.  For this, the Reforma-
book  up  and  read  it  straight           himself explains in his preface:               tion contended (I write this review
through without any urging.                                                                on  October  31).    It  is  the  confes-
                                              There  has  never  been  a  more
    An  allegory  is  peopled  with           subtle expression of false doctrine          sion  of  all  the  Reformed  creeds.
aptly  named,  memorable  charac-             than  that  which  affirms  all  the         But  it  is  anathema  in  many  Re-
ters.  In addition to Sincerity and           "truths" of the Christian faith on           formed and Presbyterian churches
Greytone,  Pedersen's  allegory  in-          the  basis  of  human  effort,  merit        today,  corrupted  as  they  are  by
cludes such familiar church mem-              of works, foreseen faith, or "free           their  associations  with  American
bers as Mr. Sly Humble, Mr. and               will."  To affirm grace on the con-          evangelicalism,  that  is,  American
                                              dition of works is the ultimate per-
Mrs. Pants (Smart and Wear), and                                                           Arminianism;  by  their  own  com-
                                              version.  It is The Lie.  And the
Want Pity.  Want Pity can respond                                                          mitment to the doctrine of a love
                                              "Reformed"  establishment  has
to  the  faithful  preaching  and  de-                                                     of God for all and a desire of God
                                              made  peace  with  it.    Apologists
fense of the gospel only by lament-           for  the  truth  of  the  "Reformed          to  save  all;  and  by  their  lust  to
ing unfulfilled personal needs:               Faith" have become apologists for            grow numerically.  To preach the
                                                                                           message of the allegory is to bring
  I  sensed  no  desire  in  this  Faith      Arminianism, defending the false
  Not-His-Own to meet my needs.               gospel as a less consistent version          down upon one's head the wrath
  None.  I am a hurting person.  I            of the same religion as that of the          of nominal Reformed Christianity.
  need  someone  who wants  to  ex-           Apostle  Paul,  of  Calvin,  Knox,           John Pedersen is likely to find this
  tend the gentle touch of a caring           Turretin, and Owen.                          out.
  shepherd.  I got nothing but talk             The allegory is a protest.  But                    This brief work is a little bomb-
  about  sin,  righteousness,  and                                                         shell.  u

  News From Our Churches                                                                            Mr. Benjamin Wigger

                                            so  vital  for  one's  own  peace  and         PRC in Houston, TX, was invited
                                            comfort.                                       to return to Texas Christian School
       Evangelism Activities                    Special applications  are  made            for  yet  another  visit,  to  answer
The  Evangelism Committee of  the to youth and young couples con- more questions on the doctrine of
   Bethel PRC in Itasca, IL has cre-        cerning  the  need  to  adorn  their           predestination.  When he returned
ated a sermon tape album on a se-           lives with true virtues.  This series          this time he also found two Youth
ries  of  eight  sermons  taken  from       includes  "True  Love,"  "True  Hu-            Pastors  from  the  local  Baptist
the admonition of Philippians 4:8,          mility,"  "True  Courage,"  "True              churches in attendance, who were
namely, to think upon those things          Joy,"  "True  Peace,"  "True  Great-           apparently  invited  by  some  high
which are true.  These messages ex-         ness,"  "True  Honor,"  and  "True             school students.  Rev. Mahtani re-
pound  the  great  Christian  graces        Friendship."  The cost of the album            ports that the time spent proved to
                                            is $11.95 and can be ordered from              be very profitable, and he was able
                                            Bethel  Protestant  Reformed                   to answer questions such as, "How
                                            Church,  1047  Florida  Lane,  Elk             can you say God hates; is He not a
                                            Grove Village, IL  60007.                      God  of  love?"  or  "Show  us  from
Mr. Wigger is an elder in the Protes-           In a follow-up to our "News"               the Bible that God sends people to
tant Reformed  Church  of  Hudson-          of November 1, we report that Rev.             hell!"    Some  of  the  positive  fruit
ville, Michigan.                            J.  Mahtani,  pastor  of  the  Trinity         from this visit is already evident,

                                                                                                   December 1, 1997/Standard Bearer/119

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


since  Rev.  Mahtani  has  been  in-            At the request of our Domestic                     Minister Activities
vited to return to Texas Christian          Mission Committee, the consistory
to lead in staff devotions every Fri-       of  the  Georgetown  PRC  in               Our South Holland, IL congre-
                                                                                             gation has extended a call to
day morning beginning in Decem-             Hudsonville, MI sent their pastor,         Rev.  Arie  denHartog,  pastor  of
ber.                                        Rev. R. VanOverloop, to labor for          Redlands PRC.
        The Evangelism Committee of         a long weekend in Pittsburgh, PA
the South Holland, IL  PRC spon-            with a small group which has been                         Food for Thought
sored a Reformation Day lecture at          showing  great  interest  in  our               "If  I  speak  what is  false,  I  must
their church on October 30.  Prof.          preaching.  Our home missionary,           answer for it; if truth, it will answer
R. Dykstra, of our seminary, spoke          Rev.  T.  Miersma,  has  been  there       for me."
                                                                                                              --Thomas Fuller    u
on the subject, "A Restored Trea-           several times, and other of our min-
sure  of  the  Reformation:    Sover-       isters  have labored  there  as  well.           ANNOUNCEMENTS
eign, Free, Double Predestination."         Besides preaching there twice, Rev.
        Rev.  A.  denHartog,  pastor  of    VanOverloop spent some time vis-                               NOTICE!!
the  Hope  PRC  in  Redlands,  CA,          iting and teaching three catechism              Classis East will meet in regular session
spoke  at  a  Reformation  Day  cel-        classes, each of which was several         on  Wednesday,  January  14,  1998,  at  the
ebration on October 31 at Hope, on          hours long, one with teenagers and         Southwest  Protestant  Reformed  Church,
the subject "Reformed Worship."             one with adults.                           Grandville, MI.  Material for this session must
        The Evangelism Society of the                                                  be in the hands of the Stated Clerk by De-
Byron Center, MI PRC, along with                Denominational Activities              cember 14, 1997.
the congregation of the Kalamazoo,          Prof. and Mrs. Hanko left in late                              Jon J. Huisken, Stated Clerk
MI PRC, sponsored a Reformation                 October  for  several  weeks  in
Day  lecture  on  October  30  at  the      Singapore.  Prof. Hanko will preach                            NOTICE!!
Martin Reformed Church in Mar-              in our two sister churches there; the           Subscribe to the  British Reformed Jour-
tin,  MI,  approximately  half-way          Covenant  Evangelical  Reformed            nal,  the quarterly magazine of the British Re-
                                                                                       formed Fellowship.  Every issue thought-pro-
between  Byron  Center  and                 Church  and  the  First  Evangelical       voking and informative.  Subscription 10.00
Kalamazoo.    Rev.  Bruinsma,  pas-         Reformed  Church.    He  will  also        or $16.00 per year.  Contact Mr. Tony Horne,
tor at Kalamazoo, spoke on "Mak-            give several public lectures, teach        "Bromstone,"  Auquorthies  Rd.,  Stonehaven,
ing a Stand on the Truth."                  in their Bible School, and consult         Kincardinshire, AB39 3QB, Scotland, UK.
                                            with them about beginning a semi-
            Mission Activities              nary.  Plans also called for him to
Elder  Perlin  Schut  of  the attend  and  speak  at  a  ministers'                            WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
        Hudsonville, MI PRC and Rev.        conference in Malaysia and preach          On December 4, 1997,
J.  Slopsema  from  our  denomi-            and teach a course to ministers in                  MR. and MRS. GORDON
nation's  Domestic  Mission  Com-           Myanmar.                                                 VAN OVERLOOP
mittee traveled to Northern Ireland                                                    will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary.
on  November  5  to  visit  with  the           Young People's Activities              We praise God for the covenant love and in-
newly organized Covenant PRC in                                                        struction they have given, and we thank our
Northern  Ireland  and  consistory          In a couple of interesting items
                                              concerning our young people, we          heavenly  Father  for  preserving  them  to  this
there, and to help in the oversight         find  that  in  late  September  the       time.  May the Lord give them continued joy
                                                                                       and peace.  "Unless the Lord builds the house,
of  the  mission  work  being  done.        young people of the Bethel PRC in          they labor in vain that build it" (Psalm 127:1).
They  have  a  large  agenda  set  by       Itasca,  IL  spent  a  Saturday  after-    y    Rev. Ron and Sue VanOverloop
the  Mission  Committee  and                noon at the Chicago Art Institute.         y    Jim VanOverloop (and Linda in glory)
Hudsonville's consistory, and will          One month later, completely unre-          y    Tom and Vicki VanOverloop
be kept very busy meeting with our          lated  to  the  above,  the  Young         y    Greg and Vicki VanOverloop
missionary,         with     the     new    People's Society of Bethel met for         y    Randy and Ellen VanOverloop
consistory, and with as many of the         their  regular  weekly  meeting  to        y    Dave and Julie VanOverloop
members and new contacts as pos-            discuss  "The  Human  Body  and                    twenty-seven grandchildren
sible.                                      Correlation to Spiritual Life."                    three great grandchildren
                                                                                                                        Hudsonville, Michigan

120/Standard Bearer/December 1, 1997


