                                                            The
                                     Standard
A Reformed                                    Bearer
Semi-Monthly
Magazine

             In This Issue:

  Meditation -- John Calvin
       The Spirit's Testimony
          to the Christ of God .........................266

  Editorial -- Prof. David J. Engelsma
       More Light on Divorce
          and Remarriage:  Matthew 19:9 .....271

  Letters...........................................................273

  The Reader Asks .........................................274

  In Memoriam -- Rev. Barry L. Gritters
       The Reverend John A. Heys ..............275

  Day of Shadows -- Homer C. Hoeksema
       The Setting of the Stage of History ..277

  Search the Scriptures -- Rev. Mitchell C. Dick
       Cross & Double-cross! .......................280

  All Around Us -- Rev. Gise J. VanBaren ...282

  A Word Fitly Spoken -- Rev. Dale H. Kuiper
       Desire ....................................................284

  Book Reviews ..............................................285

  News From Our Churches --
       Mr. Benjamin Wigger .............................286

                                                                           Rev. John A. Heys
                                                                            See "In Memoriam" -- p. 275


Vol. 74, No. 12
March 15, 1998


   Meditation                                                                                                                                              John Calvin




                                  The Spirit's Testimony
                                       to the Christ of God*

                                   Men of Israel, hear these words:  Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved by God
                            among you through works of power, through marvels, and through signs, which God
                            did in the midst of you, as also you know; Him (I say) being delivered through the
                            definite counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by the hands of wicked
                            men and have crucified and slain Him, Whom God has raised up, having loosened
                            the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be held by it.
                                                                                                                                      Acts 2:22-24

A                                                                 time.    So  then,  when  we  see  the                     tion, since He was made man, it is
              fter St. Peter declared in his                      Holy Spirit thus poured out, it is a                       of His fullness that we shall receive
              sermon  that  the  promise                          certain  mark  that  God  has  sent                        grace for grace.  It is, then, by Him
              contained in the prophecy                           Jesus Christ in order to accomplish                        that we shall find grace before God,
of  Joel  had  been  fulfilled,  in  that                         the salvation of men.                                      for if we wish to address ourselves
the Holy Spirit was given to him                                         Now  it  is  a  beautiful  manner                   to His majesty without availing our-
and to his companions, as a testi-                                of teaching and a very suitable or-                        selves of this means, we shall not
mony  and  as  a  pledge  that  God                               der which we must especially note:
wished  to  communicate  the  Holy                                namely,  inasmuch  as  gifts  which
Spirit  to  His  Church  and  to  each                            God  gives  us  through  His  Holy                         *        This  is  sermon  19  in  the  re-
believer, and that, however, great                                Spirit  are  just  so  many  means  of                     cently reprinted volume of sermons
troubles must come, and that the                                  leading and conducting us to Jesus                         by John Calvin entitled, Sermons on
faith of Christians must be proved;                               Christ, in order to learn from Him                         the Deity of Christ.  The book is re-
after all these things, I say, he calls                           all wisdom; for He is the fountain                         viewed elsewhere in this issue.  I
the attention of the Jews to Jesus                                from which we must draw every-                             have broken up the lengthy para-
Christ.    For since  the  Holy  Spirit                           thing.  In fact, firstly, since He was                     graphs, shortened the sermon, and
was given, they had to  recognize                                 from all eternity the Word of God,                         added the title.  The sermon is pub-
the coming of Jesus Christ; because                               He is the life and light of men, and                       lished here with permission from
it  said  that  this  promise  of  Joel                           because  He  has  received  all  the                       Old Paths Publications.
should be fulfilled only in the last                              gifts of the Holy Spirit in perfec-                                                                            --Ed.


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266/Standard Bearer/March 15, 1998


be able to have access to Him.  We           ets have written, and that it is He         He Who was promised in the Law,
must, then, come straight to Jesus           Who has endured death for our re-           that He was put to death and that
Christ, since we know that He re-            demption, and that nevertheless He          He  was  raised  from  the  dead.
ceived in such perfection the gifts          was not held by it, but that He was         There  is where  we  agree  without
of  the  Holy  Spirit,  that  through        risen in glory, triumphing over all         difficulty.  But they must be taught
Him we shall all be able to be par-          His enemies.  So much for the first         why He came, for they do not rec-
takers of them.  Thus St. Peter here         point.                                      ognize Him at all for what He is.
uses a good reason to admonish the                   Then for the second, when we        We know that we must believe that
Jews that the Redeemer has come:             know that Jesus Christ has died for         in Jesus Christ alone and through
namely,  inasmuch  as  the  Holy             us, we must know Who He is and              the merit of His death and passion,
Spirit is poured out, we are in the          what benefit we are to receive from         we have salvation.  The Papists on
last time.                                   Him.                                        the  contrary  attribute  it  to  their
    Then he adds:  "Men of Israel,                   There are two things which we       works and merits, and to their fool-
hear  these  words:    Jesus  of             must note well:  for if we had now          ish inventions, and it seems to them
Nazareth , a man approved by God             to teach a Jew, we would have to            that through this means they can
among  you  through  works  of               begin  by  this  to  instruct  him  in      be sanctified.  They seek, then, in
power,  through  miracles,  and              Christianity, by showing him that           their works that which cannot be
through  signs,  which  God  did             Jesus Christ, Who was born of the           found except in Jesus Christ.  That
through Him in the midst of you,             Virgin  Mary,  Whom  those  who             is how it would not be at all neces-
as you also know; Him, I say, be-            took  rank  over  Him  delivered  to        sary to teach the Papists anything
ing  delivered  through  the                          death, is He Whom God has          touching the person of Jesus Christ,
definite counsel and fore-                               promised to them, and the       but  only  to  show  them  what  His
knowledge  of  God,  you             It is, then,         way in which He has as-        power is, why He came, and what
have taken by the hands             by Him that            signed to them the time       profit we can receive from it.
of  wicked  men,  and               we shall find           He had to come into the          St. Peter here needed to declare
have crucified and slain        grace before God,           world.    Then  how  He      both of these articles:  for the Jews
Him.  It is He through            for if we wish            bore  witness  to  Him,      did not know that Jesus Christ was
Whom  God  has  given                to address             that  He  was  His  Son,     the Messiah sent by God, and still
Himself  entirely  to            ourselves to His           that He approved Him         less the power which was in Him,
you,  and  nevertheless         majesty without             through  signs  and          and why He had come.  Therefore
you  have  put  Him  to        availing ourselves           miracles which He did        he shows them that He appeared
death.    Yet  you  must          of this means,            in  the  midst  of  them,    as Son of God among them in that
know that it is He Who              we shall not            and likewise that after      He was raised from the dead and
had  been  promised  to          be able to have           He     ascended      into     that by this resurrection they could
you in the Law.  He has                access              heaven  He  sent  His         know  that  He  was  such;  because
come to be your Saviour,              to Him.             Holy  Spirit,  following       He was delivered from death and
and you can recognize Him                                what  had  been  predicted      was victorious over it, and there-
in  that  He  has  not  remained                      of Him.  That, I say, is what      fore we must seek in Him life and
in death, for God has rendered Him           we must tell a Jew to cause Him to          salvation.    That  is  what  St.  Peter
victorious  over  it,  and  He  sur-         know Jesus Christ.                          wishes to show in the first place;
mounted it."  That is what St. Pe-                   Then we would have to make          then  he  will  show  what  fruit  we
ter alleges in the first place to the        him  understand  that,  when  it  is        have of His resurrection, and that
Jews,  to  lead  them  to  the  knowl-       spoken in Scripture of the reign of         will be declared afterwards in its
edge of Jesus Christ.  And we must           the Messiah, it is a spiritual reign,       place.
note that he is not here still treat-        in order that he may not be mis-                Now, since we know the inten-
ing only of the death and resurrec-          taken  by  thinking  that  He  is  an       tion  of  St.  Peter,  and  what  order
tion  of  Jesus  Christ.   For, first of     earthly king, as all the Jews imag-         he follows in his sermon, let us fol-
all, the Jews had to know that Jesus         ine.  That is what has made them            low  it,  and  let  us  learn  to  know
Christ was the Son of God.  And              deny  Jesus  Christ,  inasmuch  as          that  as  soon  as  God  has  done  us
that  is  what  St.  Peter  wished  to       they have not seen Him ruling over          some  good,  it  is  inasmuch  as  we
prove by what he here proposes.              the people as they considered that          are members of Jesus  Christ, and
    There  are  two  things  that  we        He ought to do.                             not  that  He  is  moved  to  do  it
ought to know about Jesus Christ.                    Now toward the Papists we do        through  our  works,  nor  for  any-
The  first  is  that  we  must  believe      not  have  to  insist  upon  the  first     thing  we  can  present  to  Him.
that He is the Messiah, that is, the         point,  but  only  upon  the  second.       Therefore, let us wander no longer
Anointed of the Lord promised in             For they will confess with us that          in  our  imaginations,  to  persuade
the Law, and of Whom the Proph-              Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and         ourselves of this or that, but let us

                                                                                                   March 15, 1998/Standard Bearer/267


come straight to the knowledge of            at hand for their sins; and on the            counsel  and  foreknowledge  of
our  sins  to  take  no  pleasure  in        other hand the absolution for these           God."  As if he had said, "Although
them; as we see that St. Peter leads         through  Jesus  Christ  if  they  will        He has been delivered by the hand
the Jews to this when he treats of           recognize Him and address them-               of wicked men and you have put
the death of Jesus Christ.                   selves to Him.                                Him  to  death,  yet  that  was  not
    He  accuses  them  in  the  first            Now the ministers of the Word             done  without  the  will  of  God."
place, saying, "You have murdered            of God have here a norm:  namely,             Now  it  is  not  without  cause  that
Him."  It is clearly seen that this is       that they ought to touch men to the           Peter adds this word, "Through the
not to flatter them.  In fact, St. Pe-       quick,  and  show  them  their  sins,         counsel  and  foreknowledge  of
ter had to put that before them to           in  order  that  they  may  know                      God."  For the Jews could at
prick  them  at  the  heart,  and  to        that God is their Judge Who                             least reply, "If it is thus that
wound  them  to  the  quick;  as  we         will not leave the obstinacy                             Jesus Christ of Whom you
                                                                                         Now
shall see later that they had such           of sin unpunished; and by                                 speak  to  us  is  the  Mes-
                                                                                the ministers
compunction  and  bitterness  of             this  means  they  will  be                                siah, why has He suffered
                                                                                 of the Word
heart,  that  they  were  converted          drawn  to  Him  in  repen-                                 to be thus tormented and
                                                                              of God have here
through it.  By this means he had            tance, which they would                                    put to death?"  And it is
                                                                              a norm:  namely,
to catch the attention of the men to         not do at all unless they                                  a very difficult thing to
                                                                              that they ought
humble them and to lead them to              had  been  reprimanded                                     persuade them of, as we
                                                                                to touch men
the knowledge of their faults.  For          and     treated     rudely.                                still see today that they
                                                                                 to the quick,
if  one  preaches  to  them  always          Therefore  we  must  allow                                 mock  and  say,  "If  Jesus
                                                                               and show them
pleasant and delightful things, he           God to rule over us and to                                were the Son of God, why
                                                                                 their sins....
will only make them gab about it,            condemn us, in order to be                               did He endure this oppro-
and they will wish to be compan-             absolved by Him.                                        brium  of  the  cross?"    So
ions of God, and to enjoy Him like               There are many who would                          wicked men disgorge this blas-
a mortal man.                                surely wish that the Gospel might             phemy because the cross is an ob-
    We see what happened to the              be preached, provided that it might           ject  which  seems  to  them  to  take
Samaritan woman when she speaks              draw  them  to  their  profit  and            away from the majesty of the Son
to Jesus Christ and He offers her            fleshly desire, and that it might be          of  God.    Yet  St.  Peter  anticipates
living water, of which if she drinks         for them a cover for their villain-           such  fancies,  which  could  hinder
she will never thirst, she makes fun         ies.  Now it is not to this end that          the Jews  from giving credence  to
of Him like the harlot that she is;          we must preach; for our Lord Jesus            his teaching.  And he says that not
but after He leads her to the knowl-         Christ  says  that,  when  the  Holy          any of this has been done through
edge  of  her  sin,  telling  her  to  go    Spirit will come, He will rebuke the          chance  (as  they  might  have  sup-
and get her husband, and He de-              world of sin; He will be seated as            posed) but through the will of God.
clares  to  her  all  her  iniquity,  she    a Judge on His throne and He will             Now when we shall fully consider
speaks more humbly than she did              judge the world.  So then, we shall           the power of God, we shall escape
at the beginning.  When He put be-           not  be  able  to treat  faithfully  the      all such fancies.  We know that God
fore  her  simply  the  gifts  of  God,      Gospel so that the world may not              is not at all disproved by sense and
she  made  fun  of  Him:    "And             be led into this condemnation, un-            by reason, and that all that which
whence the container to draw wa-             less each one knows what he is in             He did was proper for the salva-
ter,  seeing  that  the  well  is  so        order to rebuke himself.                      tion of men.
deep?"  But when He said to her,                 Therefore, may those who flat-                 There  is  also  the  resurrection
"You are an  impure woman, you               ter  themselves,  groan;  may  those          which we must diligently consider.
have  had  five  husbands,  and  he          who are satisfied with themselves,            For  although  the  death  of  Jesus
whom  you now have is not your               be frightened; and may those who              Christ  could  scandalize  us,  if  we
husband," then she recognized her            are persuaded that they are righ-             considered it all alone, because of
sin  and  calls  Jesus  Christ  a  holy      teous in themselves, look at them-            the  cruelty  and  shame  of  it,  also
Prophet.                                     selves more closely, in order that            we see in the resurrection a glory
    So then, until men are terrified         all may be led to this knowledge              and  an  admirable  power  of  God,
by their sins, they will never give          of sins by which we shall be led to           which ought to turn us away from
place to the Word of God.  That is           repentance and consequently to the            all the troubles and fancies which
why St. Peter accuses the Jews of            grace of God.                                 could scandalize us.  It is not, then,
having  crucified  and  slain  Jesus             That  is  why  St.  Peter  repre-         without  cause  that  St.  Peter  de-
Christ; not that he takes pleasure           hends  so  rudely  the  Jews,  saying         clares  that  what  Jesus  Christ  en-
in casting upon them this reproach,          that they have crucified and slain            dured was through the providence
but it is in order that they should          Jesus Christ.  Then he adds, "Be-             of God.  Jesus Christ had to be the
know that their condemnation was             ing delivered through the definite            sacrifice offered to God His Father

268/Standard Bearer/March 15, 1998


to blot out the sins of the world.          tified that little sparrows will not                    We must still further parse the
    When, then, we see such a pur-          fall  without  His  ordaining  it.    If,           word  "Counsel."    It  is  true  that
pose to the counsel of God, that we         then, the providence of God is such                 some will speak well of the provi-
may know that all He does is for            that  it  extends  to  these  little                dence of God, but they will have
our benefit, we ought no longer to          beastlets,  it  follows  that  nothing              only a foolish notion of it; for they
inquire why Jesus Christ suffered,          will  happen  unless  God  has  or-                 think that He is resting high in the
because in that we see the infinite         dained it.  Then He adds that the                   sky, and yet He leaves chance or
goodness of God, we see His love            hairs of our heads are numbered.                    nature to rule here below.  On the
which appeared to us (as St. Paul           By  which  He  indicates  the  care                 contrary  it is  here  declared  to us
says)  in  that  He  spared  not  His       which He has for us, and since we                   that  God  ordains  everything  and
own Son, but has delivered Him to           are  members  of  Jesus  Christ  and                disposes of things just as it pleases
death for us.  We see on the other          we are near enough to touch Him,                    Him.  It is true that this is unfamil-
hand  the  obedience  which  Jesus          He wishes that we may know that                     iar  to  us  and  we  cannot  compre-
Christ renders to God His Father.           He holds us for His children.  For                  hend it, but we must be content to
Yet let us not be so presumptuous           although this world may be, as it                   know  that  He  is  the  Governor of
as to enter into these foolish cogi-        were, the house of God, and though                  it, and we must not do at all like
tations by saying, "Why has God             He may be to it the Father of a fam-                some dreamers who say, "And God
done this or that?"  We know that           ily, yet He has His Church by spe-                  knows what will happen, and we
all that He has ordained is founded         cial recommendation, and for her                    do not know how to put it in or-
upon this fatherly love which He            He has a special regard.                            der; of what use to us, then, is His
bore toward us.  So then, in con-               So  then,  we  see  how  we                         counsel  and  advice?"    That,
templating this, we see why Jesus           must think of the providence                              then, is the reason that such
Christ  suffered.    And  that  is  the     of  God:    namely,  that  St.        If, then,             fanatics  wish  to  give  to
reason for which St. Peter said that        Peter  did  not  wish  at  all    the providence             their  dreams,  which  are
God had determined this in His im-          to  put  forward  fantastic       of God is such             such  great  arrogancies
mutable counsel.                            things and then to seek a         that it extends               that  God  will  not  leave
    Besides,  this  was  not  just  left    thousand         subtleties        to these little              them unpunished.  For al-
to  be  done  through  the  hands  of       which  do  not  serve  for           beastlets,                 though God does not call
wicked men.  By which we see that           any edification.  He did             it follows                 us by  His strict counsel,
the wicked may well be able to in-          not  wish  to  proceed  in         that nothing                 to declare to us His will,
jure the good, but they will execute        such a way, but He shows            will happen                 and what He has deliber-
nothing  unless  God  permits  it.          that  God  has  so  well          unless God has                ated  to  do,  yet  we  must
And even we have not any better             proved our salvation, that            ordained               know  that  we  are  gov-
mirror of all that than in the per-         we  must  not  seek  other                   it.            erned  by  His  hand,  and
son of Jesus Christ.  For we must           means than Him Whom He                                     that the wicked will be able
know that all that He endured was           has given us.  Then he wishes                          to do nothing against us, except
predicted  by  the  Prophets.    It  is     to indicate that we are in such wise                insofar as God unleashes the bridle
said that He was put on the cross           in the hand of God and in His ref-                  on them.
even as it was predicted.  There are        uge,  that  one  can  do  nothing                       Yet  He  does  not  cease,  there-
the brigands of Rome who crucify            against us except what He has de-                   fore,  to  have  an  order  in  nature;
Him (that is, the officers who had          termined.  Otherwise what would                     and that is not to say that, as for
been commissioned for the execu-            our lot be?  If we were led through                 us, we must not make use of His
tion); it was thus prophesied.  They        chance  (as  fanatics  consider)  our               counsel.  For God has declared to
give Him to drink a beverage very           condition would be more wretched                    us that He wishes that we should
hard  and  bitter,  they  divide  His       than that of brute beasts.  But when                live by the bread which He gives
clothing, and all that just as it was       we know that God governs every-                     us  to  eat,  and  that  we  should  be
written.    Briefly,  nothing  is  done     thing, it ought to be a great com-                  cured  of  illness  by  medicine.    It
except what God had ordained.  By           fort  to  us,  and  we  can  well  lean             would  then,  be  too  great  a  pre-
this  we  see  that  wicked  men  can       upon it.  We see, then, that it is a                sumption, if we wished to reject the
do nothing, except insofar as God           very necessary virtue that we know                  means which God gives us to rem-
unleashes the bridle upon them; as          the providence of God.  Therefore                   edy our infirmities.  And he who
it is seen that these wicked men do         we must consider that just as Jesus                 thinks he will get ahead by means
not pass the limits which God has           suffered  nothing  without  Divine                  of such presumption--it will be to
given them.                                 permission, so all that will happen                 his  ruin  and  confounding.    For
    Now  what  is  said  of  Jesus          to  us  comes  from  God.    That  is               when we say that the providence
Christ, we must also properly ap-           what we must note from this pas-                    of God proved all things, it is not,
ply to our use.  For He Himself tes-        sage.                                               therefore, that we must reject the

                                                                                                      March 15, 1998/Standard Bearer/269


means which He gives us.                       does not wish at all that they do            lous speculations about it.
    This  is  what  we  must  note             evil, but He permits them to do it,              Now we see that Jesus Christ
touching what can be alleged from              and  they  are  not  at  all  excused        was  surely  crucified  by  wicked
this  passage;  not  at  all  that  we         thereby,  inasmuch  as  they  do  it         men, and yet it was not done at all
should go speculate and invent a               against His commandment.                     without God's having ordained it.
thousand  sophisticated  questions                    We  must  not  say  that  God  is     But God surely used it for another
like the Papists know how to put               the cause of evil, for He does not           purpose.  The wicked men wished
forward; but in all humility let us            commit the vices that we commit.             to  destroy  Jesus  Christ,  and  God
consider  that  not  only  did  God            As also we see that He checks the            wished  that  His  blood  and  His
foresee things, but He disposes of             devil by punishing those who are             death should be a perpetual sacri-
them according to His will.  There-            deserving of it.  The devil commits          fice,  and  that  our  redemption
fore let us learn to commend our-              evil and has no other regard but to          should  be  fulfilled  and  accom-
selves  to  Him  when  we  shall  en-          do evil, and yet God does not let            plished.    So  then,  when  we  con-
dure great assaults of Satan and of            him serve any other different pur-           template that, we have occasion to
the world, of which he is called the           pose.  God will permit a thief or a          glorify God, and he who will come
prince.  And when it seems to us               brigand  to  rob  a  good  man  of           to a contrary conclusion is rebuked
that the wicked ought to crush us,             something, even though he will be            in his own conscience.
let  us  withdraw  under  the  wings           faithful and living well.  Why so?               Now  St.  Peter  says  that  Jesus
of our God, in order that He may               To prove the patience of the latter,         was raised from the dead, to show
give  us  wherewith  to  resist,  and          and in order that it may be known.           that we must always join the res-
that being armed by His power we                      We see what Job said in all his       urrection of Jesus Christ with His
may be able to repulse all tempta-             persecutions, "God had given it to           death.  For if we contemplate Him
tions  which  could  happen  to  us.           me,  God  has  taken  it  away  from         only in His death we shall see Him
For when all the devils and all the            me,  His  name  be  blessed."    And         there entirely full of shame and op-
wicked will have raised themselves             always  he  was  pillaged  by  brig-         probrium,  and  disfigured  like  a
against  us,  He  will  surely  know           ands.    How  does  he  understand           leper; but when we come to the res-
how to bridle them and hold them               that, then?  Does Job accuse God             urrection, we see how He was ex-
tightly, provided that we have re-             of robbery?  No.  We must not un-            alted by the hand of God, Who has
course to Him, putting ourselves                      derstand it thus; for we know         given Him all power in heaven and
in His safeguard.  That is how                           that the brigands are wicked       on earth.  So then, as soon as we
we  must  contemplate  the                                men,  and  they  come  not        have said, "Jesus Christ has died,"
                                         ...in all
providence of God by faith,                                only  against  the  will  of     let us know also that He is raised.
                                        humility
and  not  according  to  our                               God, and in the intention        He is dead according to the weak-
                                      let us consider
senses.                                                    of doing evil; but he looks      ness of the flesh, but in that He is
                                      that not only
    Now,  concerning  our                                   higher,  that  this  is  not    raised,  He  appeared  Son  of  God.
                                         did God
having  said  that  the                                     done  without  the  provi-      That is what St. Peter wished to in-
                                      foresee things,
wicked will execute noth-                                   dence  of  God.    So  then,    dicate  by  saying,  "Whom  God
                                          but He
ing except what God has                                     Job does not attribute the      raised  up,  having  loosened  the
                                         disposes
ordained, many would be                                    evil deed to God, but he         pains of death."
                                         of them
able  to  reply,  "Why?    If                              knows  the  condition  of            Now in that he says the pains
                                        according
that is so, we would have                                  the men.  He sees that the       of  death,  he  does  not  intend  the
                                          to His
to say that God is the cause                              Chaldeans and the Sabeans         pains of physical death which Jesus
                                           will.
of evil, and that the wicked                             are as it were, the scourges       Christ suffered; but the horrible an-
should be excused."  Now to                           of God.  They pillage him, they       guishes in which He was, because
answer we must know in the first               rob him, they kill his servants, they        He  had  to  be  our  Pledge,  and  to
place what the will of God is, and             lead away his beasts; briefly, they          bear the pain of all or sins.  So then,
even how He  declares it to us  in             completely  impoverish  him,  and            He endured not only in the body,
His Law.  We know that He pro-                 nevertheless  he  always  praises            but  also  in  the  Spirit;  yet  it  was
hibits us from stealing.  If I, then,          God, knowing well that this would            not to be conquered by it.
go steal, for example, do I do His             not be done without His ordaining                But we shall not be able now
will?  Certainly when the wicked               it.    Thus  we  must  do;  for  if  the     to  deduce  what  is  needful  to  de-
are  given  to  doing  evil,  it  is  not      wicked persecute us, we must not             clare the meaning of the pains of
doing  the  will  of  God  at  all;  for       regard  them  alone,  but  our  faith        death; therefore we shall reserve it
they well know that God reproves               must fly higher:  namely, to know            for another time.
all that.  When, then, they do evil,           that the providence of God is over               Following this holy teaching let
there is a resistance to the will of           them.  That is how we must judge             us bow in humble reverence.   u
God.  By which it follows that God             the matter, and not enter into frivo-

270/Standard Bearer/March 15, 1998


  Editorial


               More Light on Divorce and
           Remarriage:  Matthew 19:9

                                               case  of  adultery.    On  the  other        And  I  say  unto  you,  Whosoever
                                               hand, the only ground for remar-             shall put away his wife, except it
                                               riage  is  the  death  of  a  spouse.
From a reader in Virginia
      Beach,  Virginia  comes  a  re-                                                       be for fornication, and shall marry
                                               While Prof. Engelsma's arguments
      quest  for  more  light  on  di-                                                      another, committeth adultery:  and
                                               against divorce in the case of adul-
vorce and remarriage.  The request                                                          whoso marrieth her which is put
                                               tery  are  compelling,  particularly
is a response to my series on the                                                           away doth commit adultery.
                                               in light of our adulteries against
subject in recent issues of the Stan-          our Lord, I am still  not clear on
dard Bearer:  "The Sad Case of Bert                                                           Against the seeming approval
                                               how  he  would  exegete  Matthew
Zandstra"  (Nov.  1,  1997);  "The                                                        of the remarriage of the "innocent
                                               19:9.    Either  Engelsma  is  correct
Scandal  and  Silence"  (Nov.  15,                                                        party"  in  Matthew  19:9  stand  a
                                               and  the  WCF  is  wrong  on  this
1997); and "The Remarriage of the              count (notice:  I did not even ask         number of texts that clearly forbid
Guilty Party" (Dec. 1, 1997).  The             about  the  "not  under  bondage"          all  remarriage  after  divorce,  re-
                                               phrase in I Corinthians 7:15!), or
request for more light asks particu-                                                      gardless of the ground for the di-
                                               the WCF is correct and Engelsma
larly  about  the  Word  of  Jesus                                                        vorce.  These passages condemn all
                                               is imposing extra-biblical restric-
Christ in Matthew 19:9.                                                                   remarriage  after  divorce  as  adul-
                                               tions on divorce and remarriage.           tery.
                                               However, if the WCF is correct, I
    Prof. Engelsma's otherwise excel-          still  have  difficulty  with  I
  lent editorial series on divorce and                                                      Mark 10:11, 12:  And he saith unto
                                               Corinthians 7:39 and Romans 7:3.
  remarriage  left  me  in  a  bit  of  a                                                   them, Whosoever shall put away
                                                 I certainly do not want to give
  logical quandary.  Unless I am to-                                                        his  wife,  and  marry  another,
                                               any credence to the Christian Re-
  tally misreading Matthew 19:9, the                                                        committeth adultery  against  her.
                                               formed  and  Van  Tilian  camps
  "adultery" exception seems to re-                                                         And  if  a  woman  shall  put away
                                               which  so  eagerly  embrace  the
  late  directly  to  the  phrase,  "and                                                    her  husband,  and  be  married  to
                                               "paradoxes of Scripture."
  marry another," in which case the                                                         another, she committeth adultery.
                                                 I do not know whether this war-
  Westminster Confession is correct            rants one more editorial, but if the
  in saying, "In the case of adultery                                                       Luke  16:18:    Whosoever  putteth
                                               Standard Bearer can shed any more
  after marriage, it is lawful for the                                                      away  his  wife,  and  marrieth  an-
                                               light on this subject, I will appre-
  innocent party to sue out a divorce                                                       other, committeth adultery:  and
                                               ciate it.
  and,  after  the  divorce,  to  marry                                                     whosoever marrieth her that is put
                                                                        Sean Gerety
  another, as if the offending party                                                        away  from  her  husband  com-
                                                               Virginia Beach, VA
  were  dead"  (WCF  XXIV.V).    On                                                         mitteth adultery.
  the other hand, Prof. Engelsma's
  view that adultery is ground only                                                         I Corinthians 7:10, 11:  And unto
                                             Does Scripture Then
  for "separation" does not seem to                                                         the married I command, yet not I,
  take into account the phrase, "and         Contradict Scripture?                          but the Lord, Let not the wife de-
  marry  another."    However  (and              There  is  one  text  in  the  Bible       part from her husband:  But and
  this  is  my  quandary),  both  I          that might seem to approve remar-              if she depart, let her remain un-
  Corinthians 7:39 and Romans 7:3            riage  after  divorce.   One  text!    If      married,  or  be  reconciled  to  her
  clearly imply that the death of a                                                         husband:  and let not the husband
                                             understood  as  approving  remar-
  spouse is the only ground for re-                                                         put away his wife.
                                             riage, this text would approve the
  marriage.                                  remarriage  only  of  the  "innocent
    The trouble that I have (and I am                                                       I  Corinthians  7:39:    The  wife  is
                                             party," that is, the married person
  greatly troubled by all of this) is                                                       bound by the law as long as her
                                             whose wife (or husband) has for-
  that  these  passages  seem  to                                                           husband liveth; but if her husband
  present  a  contradiction.    On  the      nicated.  All other remarriages are            be dead, she is at liberty to be mar-
  one hand, divorce and remarriage           forbidden as adultery.                         ried to whom she will; only in the
  are apparently permissible in the              This one text is Matthew 19:9:             Lord.

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  Romans  7:2,  3:    For  the  woman        the basis of Matthew 19:9, contra-           "guilty  party,"  it  is  dissolved  for
  which hath an husband is bound             dicted the rule of I Corinthians 7:39        the  "guilty  party"  as  well  as  the
  by the law to her husband so long          that only death dissolves the mar-           "innocent party."  And if there is
  as he liveth; but if the husband be        riage bond so that a married per-            no marriage, the "guilty party" has
  dead, she is loosed from the law           son  is  set  at  liberty  to  marry  an-    every right to remarry.  Being un-
  of her husband.  So then if, while
  her  husband  liveth,  she  be  mar-       other.  Therefore, the Westminster           married, he is at liberty to marry
  ried to another man, she shall be          divines felt it necessary to concoct         (again).
  called  an  adulteress:    but  if  her    the  strange,  startling,  and  obvi-            Thus, Matthew 19:9 contradicts
  husband be dead, she is free from          ously false decree that adultery ef-         itself and plunges the matter of di-
  that law; so that she is no adul-          fectively renders the adulterer--the          vorce  and  remarriage  into  utter
  teress, though she be married to           "guilty party"--dead in the sense             confusion and chaos.
  another man.                               of I Corinthians 7:39.  Thus, they
                                             attempted  to  bring  Matthew  19:9          The Harmony of Matthew 19:9
    The prohibition of remarriage            (as they explained it) into confor-          with All Scripture
in these passages is absolute.               mity with I Corinthians 7:39.                    In  reality,  there  is  no  contra-
    Romans  7:2,  3  and  I  Corin-              The trouble with this is that I          diction between Matthew 19:9, on
thians  7:39  ground  the  absolute          Corinthians 7:39 is not referring to         the one hand, and all the texts pro-
prohibition  in  the  nature  of  mar-       a fictitious, virtual, "as if," unreal       hibiting  remarriage,  on  the  other
riage as a lifelong bond by virtue           death.   The apostle does not say,           hand.  Matthew 19:9 merely  seems
of  God's  sovereign  ordination  as         "but if she or someone else decides          to  approve  the  remarriage  of  the
Creator  and  Governor  of  this             to regard her husband as dead, she           "innocent party."  To say it more
world.                                       is at liberty to be married to whom          accurately, the approval of the re-
    One  text  apparently  conflicts         she  will."    The  death  in  I  Corin-     marriage  of  the  "innocent  party"
with this absolute prohibition of re-        thians 7:39 that alone dissolves the         is  an  inference  that  some  errone-
marriage by a seeming approval of            marriage  bond  so  that  a  married         ously draw from Matthew 19:9.
the  remarriage  of  the  "innocent          person may marry another is real,                The meaning of Matthew 19:9
party."                                      actual  physical death--death  that           is that all divorce except that due
    If  Matthew  19:9  does,  in  fact,      breaks  all  earthly  ties,  death  that     to  the  sexual  unfaithfulness  of
permit  the  remarriage  of  the  "in-       puts  the  man's  body  (that  other-        one's mate is forbidden.  In keep-
nocent party," it flatly contradicts         wise belongs in bed with his wife)           ing with the Pharisees' question in
Scripture's  teaching  on  marriage,         in the grave.                                verse 3, the main subject of the pas-
divorce, and remarriage in the pas-              The  explanation  of  Matthew            sage  is  the  legitimacy  of  divorce.
sages  quoted  above,  especially  I         19:9  that  permits  the  "innocent          The phrase, "except it be for forni-
Corinthians 7:39.                            party"  to  remarry  contradicts  I          cation," gives the one biblical ex-
                                             Corinthians  7:39.    In  this  case,        ception  to  the  prohibition  of  di-
Westminster's Admission                      Scripture contradicts Scripture.             vorce.  It does not give an excep-
of Contradiction                                                                          tion  to  the  prohibition  of  remar-
    Even though it adopts the po-            Is Matthew 19:9                              riage.    To  say  it  differently,  the
sition  that  Matthew  19:9  permits         Self-Contradictory?                          words,  "except  it  be  for  fornica-
the  remarriage  of  the  "innocent              Matters  are  even  worse.    If         tion," give the one biblical ground
party," the Westminster Confession           Matthew  19:9  permits  the  remar-          for  divorcing  one's  wife  (or  hus-
of Faith really admits that permis-          riage of the "innocent party," the           band).  They do not give a biblical
sion of the remarriage of the "in-           text  is  self -contradictory.    Intend-    ground  for  remarriage  after  di-
nocent party," and, therefore, Mat-          ing to forbid the remarriage, among          vorce.
thew 19:9 (as the Westminster di-            others,  of  the  "guilty  party"  as            Christ does mention remarriage
vines  explained  it),  contradicts  I       adultery (this is what the text ex-          in the text.  He mentions this be-
Corinthians 7:39.  It makes this ad-         pressly  teaches),  the  text  actually      cause almost always the man who
mission when, having said, "in the           opens the door to the remarriage of          divorces his wife either intends to
case of adultery after marriage, it          the "guilty party."  It does this ex-        marry another woman or will even-
is lawful for the innocent party to          actly by permitting the remarriage           tually marry another.
sue  out  a  divorce,  and,  after  the      of the "innocent party."  For if the             What  about  remarriage  after
divorce, to marry another," it adds:         "innocent  party"  may  remarry,  it         divorce?  What about the permis-
"as if the offending party were dead."       must be the case that the marriage           sibility of remarriage after divorce
The delegates to the Westminster             bond between the "innocent party"            in Matthew 19:9?
Assembly  recognized  that  their            and the "guilty party" is dissolved.             There is no question about the
permission of the remarriage of the          But  if  the  marriage  is  dissolved,       remarriage  of  the  man  who  di-
"innocent  party,"  supposedly  on           presumably by the adultery of the            vorces his wife unjustly, that is, the

272/Standard Bearer/March 15, 1998


man  whose  wife  has  not  been             doubtful  passage  must  be  ex-            death  dissolves  the  bond.    Adul-
guilty of fornication.  Jesus states,        plained in light of the clearer pas-        tery does not dissolve the marriage
indeed it is His main purpose with           sages.                                      bond.  Emphatically, adultery does
the text to state,  that he commits              But Matthew 19:9 does not end           not have the power to dissolve the
adultery when he remarries.                  in the middle.  There is a second           marriage bond.
      But what about the remarriage          part:    "and  whoso  marrieth  her             Matthew 19:9 is in perfect har-
of the man who divorces his wife             which  is  put  away  doth  commit          mony with all of Scripture in the
on the ground of her fornication?            adultery."  "Her" is the woman of           vitally  important  matter  of  mar-
What about the remarriage of the             the first part of the text who has          riage, divorce, and remarriage.
"innocent party" in Matthew 19:9?            been divorced unjustly and whose                Divorce  is  permitted  on  the
      If  Matthew  19:9  concluded  in       husband  then  married  another,            ground of fornication.
the middle of the text, concluded,           committing  adultery.    She  is  the           All remarriage after divorce is
that is, with the words, ". . . and          "innocent  party."    Nevertheless,         forbidden  as  adultery,  including
shall  marry  another,  committeth           whoever marries her commits adul-           the  remarriage  of  the  "innocent
adultery," there might be some ex-           tery.  Of course, she too commits           party."
cuse  for  uncertainty  whether  this        adultery, if she remarries.                     The reason is that God's hon-
text permits the remarriage of the               Matthew 19:9 condemns the re-           orable ordinance of marriage is a
"innocent party."  Even then, the            marriage  of  the  "innocent  party"        lifelong, indissoluble bond.
church would have to take into ac-           as adultery.                                    Let the saints practice it.
count the clear, explicit teaching of            Why?                                        Let the church proclaim it.
Scripture elsewhere that all remar-              Because the wife (or husband)               And defend it with discipline.
riage  after  divorce  is  prohibited.       is bound by the law to her husband                                                u
Scripture interprets Scripture.  The         (or  his  wife)  as  long  as  her  hus-                                       -- DJE
                                             band  (or  his  wife)  lives.    Only

     Letters

s     Timely Issue on Worship                seems to present two different con-         duction, her ovum, was needed or
                                             cepts concerning the doctrine of the        used by the Holy Spirit to complete
                                             incarnation:    1)  the  body  of  the      the conception?  Was Mary's ovum
My compliments to all the con-
         tributors  to  the  January  15,
1998 special issue of the  Standard          Lord  was  conceived  by  the  Holy         then part of the conception?   No!
Bearer.    I  found  this  issue  to  be     Spirit; 2) the conception was not a         Matthew 1:28 and Luke 1:32 do not
quite instructive and thorough.  As          complete,  single  act  of  the  Holy       even hint in that direction.  Christ's
you  mentioned  in  that  issue,  the        Spirit, but was an act of the Holy          body was not made as a man like
subject of "Reformed Worship" is             Spirit  and  Mary.    Mary's  ovary         one of us, but in the likeness of men
a very timely topic.  It is also one         produced the ovum, and the Holy             (Phil.  2:7);  the  Word  was  made
that  perhaps  even  the  Protestant         Spirit provided the sperm or semen          flesh (John 1:14); "a body hast thou
Reformed  denomination  doesn't              to complete the act of conception.          prepared me" (Heb. 10:5).  God did
emphasize enough.  Our churches                  I have these questions.                 not  send  His  own  Son  in  sinful
have been blessed with a long his-               Rev. Hanko wrote, "The triune           flesh as a son of Mary, but sent His
tory of Reformed, scriptural wor-            God in His Son joined Himself with          own  Son  in  the  likeness  of  sinful
ship services, and it's easy to for-         us by implanting the seed of life in        flesh (Rom. 8:3).  "For that which
get that this is not simply the re-          the virgin."  Is Rev. Hanko speak-          is conceived in her is of the Holy
sult of tradition.  As each new gen-         ing about the spiritual seed as ful-        Ghost" (Matt. 1:20).
eration arises, we need to be con-           fillment of the Messianic promise               Scripture  speaks  of  Jesus  as
stantly reminded of what the true            or  of  a natural  seed  as  of  Adam,      born  of, never born from, a woman.
worship of God consists.  Thanks             Abraham, David, and us?                     If the truth is so profound, beyond
to all the writers for doing exactly             What  scriptural  evidence  is          human comprehension, why delve
that.                                        there  to  support  the  statement,         deeper  and  try  to  explain  that
                             Mike Potjer     "The Holy Spirit laid the sperm of          which has not been revealed?
                            Jenison, MI      life in Mary.  By the overshadow-               The conception of Jesus was not
                                             ing of the Holy Spirit  this seed de-       50%,  but  100%  the  work  of  the
s     Born of a Woman                        veloped into an embryo and a fe-            triune God.
                                             tus  and  into  a  fully  developed             If, as Rev. Hanko wrote, Jesus
                                             child"?    Yes,  the  blood  of  Mary       was  "like  unto  us  in  all  respects
I am writing about the article by
     Rev.  C.  Hanko,  "Mary  the
Mother  of  Our  Savior"  (Standard          nourished  the  child,  but  is  it  im-    except  one,"  was  Jesus  then  like
Bearer, Dec. 15, 1997).  Rev. Hanko          plied here that Mary's ovary pro-           unto us in having a human person,

                                                                                               March 15, 1998/Standard Bearer/273


as  well  as  having  a  human  body           Our fathers declared in the Bel-          See  also:    Luke  3:23-28;
and a human soul?  Was He a hu-            gic Confession, Art. 18, "Therefore       Galatians 3:16; Isaiah 9:6.
man  being?    Would  you  explain         we  confess  (in  opposition  to  the         The writer wonders whether I
this in light of the doctrine of the       heresy  of  the  Anabaptists,  who        believe  that  Christ  had  a  human
Trinity?                                   deny that Christ assumed  human           person.  No, I do not, nor did I state
    Rev.  Hanko  also  wrote:    "He       flesh of his mother) that Christ is       that in my article.  Christ is the per-
was without guilt since He had no          become a partaker of the flesh and        son of the Son of God who took on
human  father."    If  Jesus  was  the     blood of the children; that he is a       our human nature, both as to body
offspring of Mary, can He be with-         fruit of the loins of David after the     and  soul.    This  is  taught  in  the
out guilt?  Or are you implying that       flesh;  made  of  the  seed  of  David    Heidelberg Catechism, Lord's Day
sin only comes through the father          according to the flesh; a fruit of the    14,  question  35:    "What  is  the
and not through the mother?                womb of the Virgin Mary, made of          meaning of these words--`He was
    Our forefathers and the ancient        a  woman,  a  branch  of  David;  a       conceived by the Holy Ghost, born
church fought many wrong teach-            shoot of the root of Jesse; sprung        of the Virgin Mary'?  That God's
ings and laid down in the confes-          from the tribe of Judah; descended        eternal Son, who is, and continueth
sions what Scripture teaches.  We          from  the  Jews  according  to  the       true  and  eternal  God,  took  upon
have  the  Apostles'  Creed  that          flesh; of the seed of Abraham, since      him the very nature of man, of the
states, "Jesus Christ was conceived        he  took  on  him  the  seed  of          flesh and blood of the Virgin Mary,
by the Holy Ghost, born of the vir-        Abraham, and became like unto his         by the operation of the Holy Ghost;
gin  Mary."    The  Nicene  Creed          brethren in all things, sin excepted,     that he might also be the true seed
states, "and was incarnate by the          so that in truth he is our Immanuel,      of David, like unto his brethren in
Holy  Ghost,"  meaning  that  Jesus        that is to say, God with us."             all things, sin excepted."
was incarnate--endowed with hu-                 This is confirmed by such pas-            She  apparently  believes  that
man body, to give bodily form to.          sages of Scripture as Galatians 4:4:      her view protects Christ from origi-
Do we need to add to this?  May            "But when the fulness of the time         nal guilt.  She rejects the idea that
we add to this?                            was come, God sent forth his Son,         the guilt of Adam was transmitted
                       Audrey Mostert      made of a woman, made under the           along  the  line  of  generations
                   Surrey, BC, Canada      law."                                     through the father.  The Scriptures
                                               Also  Acts  3:22:    "For  Moses      teach  that  Christ  did  not  partici-
Response:                                  truly  said  unto  the  fathers,  A       pate personally in either the guilt
    The writer objects rather vehe-        prophet  shall  the  Lord  your  God      or the sin of Adam.  He was kept
mently  to  the  statement  that  the      raise  up  unto  you  of  your  breth-    from both by the miraculous con-
ovum  of  Mary  was  used  by  the         ren, like unto me, him shall ye hear      ception worked by the Holy Spirit
Holy Spirit to complete the concep-        in  all  things  whatsoever  he  shall    without a human father.  "For he
tion  of  Jesus.    She  states  that      say unto you."                            hath made him to become sin for
"Christ's body was not made as a               Romans 1:3:  "Concerning his          us, who knew no sin; that we might
man like one of us, but in the like-       Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which          be made the righteousness of God
ness of men," etc.  This is the error      was made of the seed of David ac-         in him" (II Cor. 5:21).
of the Anabaptists.                        cording to the flesh."                                         --Rev. C. Hanko

  The Reader Asks

                                           Response:                                 adultery with Bathsheba was not.
                                               Polygamy  on  the  part  of  the          Although  there  was  a  certain
Polygamy in the Old Testament              saints in the Old Testament, such         tolerance  of  the  saints'  polygamy
                                           as  King  David,  cannot  be  "justi-     in  the  Old  Testament,  God  did
                                           fied."  It was a deviation from the       judge  the  evil  in  their  lives.    He
King David is called a man af-
     ter God's heart, and we know
that  he  sinned  grievously  in  the      Word of God governing marriage            judged it by the miseries in their
adultery with Bathsheba.  But how          that  had  been  clearly  revealed  at    family  life  that  were  the  conse-
can the number of wives and con-           creation:  one man and one woman          quences of the evil, e.g., the strife
cubines that he had be justified in        for life (Gen. 1:26-28; 2:18-25; Matt.    in  the  families  of  Jacob  and  of
the light of God desiring one man          19:4-16).                                 David.
and  one  woman  to  be  the  basic            But it was a departure from the           There  is  a  difference  in  this
family unit?                               law of chastity that was of a dif-        matter  of  polygamy  between  the
                   (Dr.) Julian Kennedy    ferent order than adultery.  David's      age of the old covenant and the age
             Bournemouth, England          polygamy  was  tolerated  as  his         of  the  new.    Under  the  old  cov-

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enant,  the  saints  were  immature          regards marriage.  Now, in the gos-       up church, particularly as regards
children, living, comparatively, in          pel of the glorified Jesus Christ, the    marriage.   u
shadowy darkness, particularly as            full light has shined upon a grown-                          --Ed. Committee


  In Memoriam                                                                                  Rev. Barry Gritters



              The Reverend John A. Heys

In the early darkness of Monday, Hoeksema.  When HH asked him ship.   Every child who knows the
   February  16,  1998,  the  Lord           what he hoped to do, he said that         Psalter  has  noticed  that  the  two
   took  a  faithful  servant  to  his       he  was  thinking  about  being  a        musical arrangements of the Lord's
eternal  reward.    Rev.  Heys  died         teacher.  Hoeksema  is  reported  to      Prayer  (Psalter  numbers  433  and
peacefully after an 11-month stay            have asked, "Why not become the           434) were both by Rev. Heys.  An
in Hudsonville Christian Nursing             ultimate teacher?"   John took the        accomplished organist, Rev. Heys
Home where he was living because             suggestion, studied in the seminary       played the large organ at First PRC
of complications from a stroke and           under the tutelage of HH, and be-         before he became a pastor.  One of
pneumonia.  Rev. Heys would have             gan his public ministry of the Word       our older members in Hudsonville
turned 88 on March 16.                       and  sacraments  in  Hope  PRC,           remembers taking lessons from the
        By God's grace, Rev. Heys la-        Walker, in October of 1941.               young musician.
bored  so  that  he  could  hear  God            Two months before his instal-             A musician.  An artist.  A pho-
say to him, "Well done, good and             lation at Hope, Rev. Heys married         tographer.  First of all, a pastor and
faithful servant."   Rev. Heys is sur-       Esther  VanBaren.    On  August  20       preacher.
vived  by  his  dear  wife,  Esther          last year, Rev. and Mrs. Heys cel-            In the early 50s, Rev. Heys was
(VanBaren);    three  children:              ebrated their 56th wedding anniver-       asked to teach a course in the semi-
Ardess  and  Burton  VanProoyen,             sary.                                     nary in Homiletics, the art of con-
John  and  Sandy  Heys,  and  Joyce              Hope PRC was his first charge.        structing  a  sermon.    One  of  our
and Sid Niemeyer; and their grand-           He remained there for 14 years, un-       older ministers related his memory
children.                                    til 1955.  From there, the Heys fam-      of Rev. Heys.  "When the minister
        John  A.  Heys  was  born  in        ily moved with their three children       makes a sermon," Rev. Heys would
Grand Rapids, Michigan, on March             to Hull, Iowa, where he served un-        say,  "he  must  put  a  cross  at  the
16, 1910, to Mr. and Mrs. John and           til 1959. Next the Lord led them to       top of the outline, to remind him
Minnie Heys.  John was one of five           the hometown of Mrs. Heys, South          that Christ must be central in ev-
sons.  His father was a carpenter,           Holland,  Illinois,  where  he  re-       ery sermon."
born in the Netherlands.   Minnie            mained for 8 years.   In 1967, the            As  a  pastor,  Rev.  Heys  loved
was born in Pella, Iowa.                     moving  van  went  back  to  Michi-       children.  The glorious truth of the
        He went to Baxter Street Chris-      gan,  this  time  to  Holland  PRC        covenant of grace, established with
tian  School,  and  Grand  Rapids            where  Rev.  Heys  served  for  13        us and our children, gripped him,
Christian  High  School,  where  he          more years until retirement in 1980.      as it should every Reformed pas-
graduated  in  1928.      From  there,       During  this  pastorate,  Rev.  Heys      tor.  So it's not surprising that he
John worked at a furniture factory.          experienced severe heart problems,        was instrumental in the beginnings
One wintry day when he was shov-             which  led  some  to  doubt  that  he     of both Hope Protestant Reformed
eling snow at First Protestant Re-           would live to an old age.   But the       Christian School in Walker, Michi-
formed  Church  in  Grand  Rapids,           Lord  spared  Rev.  Heys,  enabling       gan and the South Holland Protes-
he  encountered  the  Rev.  Herman           him even in his retirement years to       tant Reformed School in Illinois.
                                             be active for more than a  decade             One of God's great gifts to Rev.
                                             longer in preaching, teaching cat-        Heys was the ability to make the
                                                                                       Old Testament historical narrative
Rev. Gritters is pastor of the Protestant    echism, and writing.
                                                                                       come alive for the people of God.
Reformed  Church of Hudsonville, Michi-          Rev.  Heys'  love  for  music  is
gan.                                         well  known  to  the  PRC  member-        Rev. Heys' sermons were like his

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Standard  Bearer  articles--colorful        heading west.  In this way, too, all        God's Word."
and easy to follow.  One of the ser-       the  churches  came  to  know  and              Sometimes little things stick in
mons he preached in Byron Center           love Rev. Heys.                             the  memory.    The  bow  tie.    The
in his last years of preaching was             While  Rev.  Heys  served  the          puns.    The  plays  on  words.    His
from Jeremiah 48,  where Jehovah           churches  in  the  states,  those           unique sense of humor.  "How are
warns that Moab has been at ease           churches  shared  his  heart  with          you feeling, today, Rev. Heys?" the
from his youth, has settled on his         God's people in other lands.  Our           nurses  would  ask.    "With  my
lees,  and  has  not  been  emptied        visits in his last years would bring        hands,  as  usual,"  he  would  re-
"from  vessel  to  vessel."    The  re-    out stories of his work in Jamaica          spond.   Two elders in Hudsonville
marks of the members, for a long           and New Zealand.  Both of these             congregation,  both  former  mem-
time  after  that  sermon  was             mission fields were dear to him; he         bers of Hull PRC, recall Saturday
preached,  were  evidence  of  their       was deeply saddened when the Ja-            mornings  when  their  minister
appreciation for Rev. Heys' ability        maica mission field was closed.  At         would  come  to  the  basement  of
to turn a phrase and to make clear         least nine times he traveled to the         Hull church to heat the church for
and  interesting  even  a  seemingly       Caribbean    to  help  the  mission         catechism.  Dressed in his swallow-
obscure passage such as that.              work  in  Jamaica.      One  "Mission       tailed  black  suit,  Rev.  Heys
    For  many  years  he  wrote  ar-       Contribution"  he  wrote  in  1974          scooped the coal into the pot-bel-
ticles for the Standard Bearer, espe-      shows his love for the people and           lied  stove  and  then  went  about
cially  in  the  rubric,  "The  Day  of    the  work  there.    "Beautiful  Feet       teaching  the  Word.    Nor  do  they
Shadows."  No one who read them            Upon the Jamaican Mountains" re-            forget  that--the  Word.    Who  can
will forget his memorable titles.  "A      lates  his  joy  at  the  ordination  of    forget his reminder that Easter is
Nameless and Shoeless Kinsman."            four  young  Jamaicans  who  had            properly called "resurrection Sun-
"The  Viper's  Brood  Strikes."            been  trained  by  then  Missionary         day"?  Or his instruction that we
"Shameless Nakedness." His love            Rev. George Lubbers.                        are not to pray for our sins to be
for  the  Old  Testament  brought                                                      "blotted out," since Christ did that
forth  a  little  commentary  on  the        What  a  day  it  was!  I  could  not     on the cross?   The Lord used him
book of Ruth, a worthwhile addi-             help but wish that my congrega-           in each of his pastorates to make a
tion to the library of anyone study-         tion (Holland PRC), which so gra-         mark  on  many  individuals.   Rev.
ing that book.                               ciously and often has allowed me          Heys'  ministry  was  effective  but,
    Probably the most lasting con-           to  go  to  Jamaica  (five  times  in     to use his words, always and only
                                             seven years) could have been there
tribution of Rev. Heys' pen are the          to  feel  the  enthusiasm  of  these      because of the blessing of God.
brief devotionals he wrote, at the           young men, to enjoy their preach-             One  of  the  last  sermons  Rev.
request of the Hudsonville Men's             ing which seemed to come out of           Heys  preached  (those  who  at-
Society  (and  still  available  from        their hearts, and to hear these of        tended his funeral will forgive me
them):   Daily Meditations for Spiri-        another  race  speaking  the  same        for repeating this) was on Romans
tual  Comfort  and   Daily  Devotions        glorious truth (and with such con-        8:28: "And we know  that all things
from  the  Psalms.    These  medita-         viction) that we hear from Sabbath        work  together  for  good  to  them
tions--one  for  each  day  of  the           to Sabbath in our churches.               that love God, to them that are the
year--are a brief Reformed expla-                                                       called  according  to  his  purpose."
nation of  the Word of God, simi-              That trip was in 1974, with Rev.        The wonderful truth of God's par-
lar  to  Spurgeon's  "Morning  and         C.  Hanko.    Nine  years  earlier  he      ticular care, of His loving care, of
Evening."    Many  sets  of  these         had first gone to Jamaica with El-          His all-encompassing care, of His
meditations have made their way            der Harry Zwak.                             perfectly wise care, for all His chil-
across  the  continent  and  around            On the floor of the Heys home           dren,  was  embedded  on  the
the world.                                 lies a sheepskin from New Zealand,          brother's mind.  When I would visit
    A perennial delegate to synod,         another  land  that  captured  the          him and Mrs. Heys and make men-
and  many  times  its  president  (I       heart of Rev. and Mrs. Heys.  On            tion of the difficulties of old age,
stopped counting at five as I went         at  least  three  separate  occasions,      the sorrows of physical deteriora-
backwards through the Acts), Rev.          Rev. and Mrs. Heys traveled to the          tion,  the  struggles  of  earthly  life,
Heys was a servant of the churches,        saints in New Zealand to minister           Rev. Heys would never fail to re-
the denomination.  Often he served         to them.  Mrs. Heys speaks of the           mind me, in his kind way, "But you
the  churches  as  classical  church       great joy they had in working with          know that all things work together
visitor,  sometimes  traveling  by         the  congregation  in  Wellington.          for good!"   What a text to let rule
train to reach the distant churches.       With the love of a missionary heart,        our lives.
His  colleague  on  many  of  these        Mrs.  Heys  related:  "This  small              If old age sometimes magnifies
trips  said  that  Rev.  Heys  always      group was strong in the faith and           our  faults  and  weaknesses,  the
knew  the  schedule  of  every  train      was  very  active  in  the  study  of       Lord  was  merciful  to  Rev.  Heys.

276/Standard Bearer/March 15, 1998


From the time I became his pastor,            his needs.                                  explain this responded, "and your
until  early  last  Monday  morning               In  his  later  years,  Rev.  Heys      next will be  Heaven."   How ap-
just hours before he died when he             would have fun reminding me that            propriate.
broke into a smile in response  to            his  name  was  Heys  (with  an  H,)            May God continue to give our
the  gospel  the  last  time,  the            and  that  he  had  served  in  Hope,       churches men who give themselves
brother's kindness and quiet spirit           Hull, South Holland, Holland, and           for the great gospel ministry of our
made it a joy to minister to him in           now was a resident in Hudsonville.          Lord Jesus Christ.   u
                                              Another man who once heard him

  Day of Shadows                                                                                     Homer Hoeksema



                                                        Chapter 9
             The Setting of the Stage of
                                                   History

                                                  There is an important question          like to emphasize this negative as-
                                              that must be answered in connec-            pect  for  a  special  reason,  mean-
God's Temporal Judgments                      tion with these verses.  It is this:        while  ignoring  the  fact  of  God's
We must next consider the what is the idea, the significance, judgments.  This is due, they claim,
            Lord's  pronouncements            of the judgments which God pro-             to a certain common grace of God.
            immediately  after  the           nounces in these verses?                    This view has it that even though
first announcement of the promise,                Not  infrequently  these  judg-         a man should be lost forever, yet it
as  these  are  recorded  in  Genesis         ments  are  merely  considered  as          is  a  matter  of  the  favor  of  God
3:16-19:                                      punishments  for  sin  in  general.         upon him that he may live in this
                                              Scripture teaches, however, that the        world the brief span of his earthly
  Unto  the  woman  he  said,  I  will        true punishment for sin is death in         existence and that the creation was
  greatly  multiply  thy  sorrow  and         the full sense of the word, death in        not immediately destroyed.  God's
  thy  conception;  in  sorrow  thou          all its implications.  It is clear from     common grace, they say, spared all
  shalt bring forth children; and thy         a  simple  reading  of  this  passage       things.
  desire  shall  be  to  thy  husband,        that the full punishment of death               It is but a step from this posi-
  and he shall rule over thee.  And           is hardly embodied in these judg-
  unto Adam he said, Because thou                                                         tion to another position very com-
  hast hearkened unto the voice of            ments which the Lord pronounced             monly held by some, namely, that
  thy  wife,  and  hast  eaten  of  the       immediately  after  the  announce-          God did not immediately destroy
  tree, of which I commanded thee,            ment of the promise.  What we find          all things in order to  give man a
  saying,  Thou  shalt  not  eat  of  it:     in  these  verses  is  the  pronounce-      chance to repent.
  cursed is the ground for thy sake;          ment of temporal judgments, judg-               Scripture  teaches,  however,
  in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all          ments  which  affect  man's  earthly        that God's dealings with men are
  the  days  of  thy  life;  thorns  also     and natural existence and the cre-          neither a matter of common grace
  and thistles shall it bring forth to        ation round about him.                      nor a matter of chances.  There are
  thee; and thou shalt eat the herb               The question is, therefore, more
  of  the  field;  in  the  sweat  of  thy                                                two  glaring  errors  in  both  these
  face shalt thou eat bread, till thou        particularly:    what  is  the  signifi-    views.    The  first  is  that  this  pre-
  return unto the ground; for out of          cance of these  temporal judgments          sentation of a kind of divine spar-
  it wast thou taken:  for dust thou          which are pronounced?                       ing of all things is but a half-fact.
  art, and unto dust shalt thou re-               This question may be put nega-          It  ignores  the  important  fact  that
  turn.                                       tively as follows:  why were things         although the Lord did not imme-
                                              not immediately destroyed after sin         diately destroy all things, He did
                                              had become a fact?  We intention-           something positive.  First of all, the
The late Homer Hoeksema was professor
of Dogmatics and Old Testament in the         ally  phrased  the  question  in  this      Lord had already made known the
Protestant Reformed Seminary.                 way because there are those who             promise, according to Genesis 3:15.

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Secondly, the correct biblical pre-         of  man,  God  now  changes  all  of           serpent  God  said,  according  to
sentation  is  not  merely  that  God       earthly existence, so that it might            verse 14:  "Because thou hast done
spared  things,  but  that  He  pro-        become the proper stage for the re-            this,  thou  art  cursed  above  all
nounced  judgments  upon  all               alization of His purpose in Christ             cattle, and above every beast of the
things.  These judgments are quite          Jesus and along the lines of elec-             field."    According  to  verse  17,  in
a different matter from a common            tion and reprobation.  Hence, while            addressing  Adam,  the  Lord  says:
favor of God.  The second glaring           God  indeed  providentially  keeps             "...cursed  is  the  ground  for  thy
error in these presentations is the         all  things  in  existence,  that  exist-      sake...."    Yet  we  never  read  that
fact  that  God  had  His  sovereign        ence is changed.  While, according             God  says  in  so  many  words  to
counsel and that it is only and al-         to God's providence, all things de-            Adam  or  to  Eve,  "Because  thou
ways  according  to  that  sovereign        velop, they develop from now on                hast  done  this,  cursed  art  thou."
counsel  and  purpose  of  the  Lord        under the influence of the curse.  But         We may ask the question:  why?
our God that all things take place.         they do so, positively speaking, in                    The reason is to be found in the
    It is in this light, therefore, that    order that this cursed world may               fact that though the curse is to op-
the  question  must  be  answered:          serve  as  the  scene,  the  stage,  for       erate  in  their natural  life,  that  is,
what  is  the  significance  of  these      the manifestation of the wonder of             though  they  also,  as  well  as  all
temporal  judgments  after  the  fall       God's grace in Christ, whereby all             mankind, are to experience the ef-
and  after  the  revelation  of  the        things will be renewed and glori-              fects of the curse, the effects of the
promise?                                    fied.  The "sorrow and conception"             operation of the wrath of God, in
    Then we must remember, first            of the woman, her desire being to              their natural existence, yet  essen-
of all, that the first creation did not     her husband and his rule over her,             tially  that  wrath  of  God  was  not
represent God's final purpose, but          the curse on the ground, the bond-             upon them personally.  They were
that according to God's counsel the         age  of  corruption  and  the  vanity          blessed,  and  they  were  already
end of all things was the kingdom           to  which  the  whole  creation  is            saved  from  sin  and  death  princi-
of glory and the perfection of His          made subject, the toil of man, tem-            pally.  They had the promise of the
covenant  in  Christ  Jesus  and,  in       poral death--all these belong to the            final victory and the final salvation.
Him, with His elect people in the           proper setting of the stage for the            This indeed  did not mean,  as we
new creation.  In the second place,         realization of God's purpose.                  shall see later in detail, that they
it was not apart from and contrary              If you would speak of anything             were immediately free from the ef-
to God's counsel and eternal pur-           that  is  common  in  all this,  then  it      fects  of  the  outpouring  of  God's
pose, but according to it that man,         must  be  noted  that  the  temporal           wrath in creation round about them
the king of the earthly creation, fell      suffering,  the  toil  and  labor,  the        and upon human existence.  On the
in  willful  disobedience  and  sin.        vanity  and  the  temporal  death              contrary, they also would tempo-
For, in the third place, God had de-        which are the result of these pro-             rally, and in their natural, earthly
termined to reach that end of the           nouncements of God--these indeed                existence, experience these effects.
kingdom of glory and the perfec-            are common to all men.  Yet, while             But the  meaning, the deep signifi-
tion of His covenant in Christ Jesus        they  are  manifestations  of  wrath           cance,  of  those  temporal  judg-
along  the  deep  way  of  sin  and         for the ungodly, they are not pun-             ments,  also  of  those  judgments
death,  on  the  one  hand,  and  of        ishments  for  the  elect,  for  God's         which directly affected  their own
grace and resurrection, on the other        people in Christ Jesus.  For He bore           existence, the  woman's great  sor-
hand.                                       all our punishments, and there is              row and conception and the man's
    Now what is the meaning and             no  wrath  for  God's  people.    All          toil and sweat--that meaning had
the  effect  of  all  this  upon  God's     things  work  together  for  good  to          been  fundamentally  changed
dealings after the fall?                    them  that  love  God,  who  are  the          through  God's  Word  of  promise.
    In the first place, it is certainly     called according to His purpose.               Though in themselves, indeed, by
true that God by the almighty and               Now let us turn to the details             virtue of God's own Word in the
everywhere present power of His             of this passage and try to see how             probationary command, they were
providence keeps all things that He         all this applies with respect to the           lost and alienated from God, and
has created in existence.  He sus-          text and how it is all worked out              though  in  themselves  they  must
tains  and  upholds  them  by  the          with respect to Adam and Eve per-              needs be the object of God's curse,
Word of His power. He also sover-           sonally also.                                  all  this  had  been  fundamentally
eignly causes them to develop, and              We  may  notice  immediately               changed for them by God's prom-
that, too, in all their inter-relation-     that  God  curses  the  serpent,  and          ise.
ships.  But this is not all.  In the        He also pronounces His curse upon                      Let us clearly understand this.
second  place,  according  to  that         the ground.  But He does not curse                     All  the  temporal  judgments
same eternal purpose and in har-            Adam  and  Eve.    Notice  carefully           mentioned  in  this  passage  must
mony with the changed condition             that  this  is  literally  true.    To  the    needs be seen in the context of the

278/Standard Bearer/March 15, 1998


protevangel:  "I will put enmity be-        stands fast.  But it is the Word of        everlasting  purpose  of  election.
tween thee and the woman, and be-           His  wrath, rooted in His divine ha-       That exception is the woman and
tween  thy  seed  and  her  seed;  it       tred.    The  curse  proceeds  from        her  spiritual  seed,  the  elect  in
shall  bruise  thy  head,  and  thou        God's wrath, that wrath which is           Christ Jesus, in whose hearts God
shalt bruise his heel."  The Word           the perfect and constant reaction of       works enmity against the devil and
of  God,  though  addressed  to  the        His infinite holiness against all that     love toward Himself.  They, there-
tempter, was at the same time the           stands opposed to Him.  That atti-         fore, are blessed, eternally blessed.
Word  of  God's  promise,  of  His          tude of wrath does not merely burn         Toward  them  the  Word  of  His
blessing,  of  His  favor,  for  Adam       within God toward its object, but          curse does not and cannot proceed,
and Eve and for all the seed of the         it  operates.  It proceeds from God        for His own name's sake.
woman.  For that Word proclaimed            in the Word of His curse upon its              That explains why in all these
enmity, spiritual enmity, between           object.    The  sinner  stands  over       temporal  judgments  there  is  no
the  woman  and  the  serpent,  be-         against God.  God in His wrath to-         word of God's curse for Adam and
tween the seed of the woman and             ward that sinner presses him away,         Eve.  The same is true for all the
the seed of the serpent.  And just          operates against him.  What is the         seed  of  the  woman,  through  and
as surely that Word meant the im-           result?    Inexpressible  misery,          in  the  Great  Seed  of  the  woman,
planting of the love of God in their        death.  The result is to live apart        our Lord Jesus Christ.
hearts,  that  love  which  would  be       from God, to have God--God who                  Let us remember that all this is
manifest in enmity against the en-          is really God--against you.  If God         very important with respect to the
emies of God.  Lost in themselves,          is against you, all things are against     meaning of life, with respect to the
Adam and Eve were immediately               you,  and  the  end  is  destruction.      question whether life is worth liv-
rescued by the power of sovereign           Nothing is more inexorably dread-          ing, both for the seed of the woman
grace.  They were regenerated.  In          ful than that, and nothing is more         and  for  the  seed  of  the  serpent.
the light of the promise, therefore,        inescapable.    The  Word  of  God's       Bear  in  mind  that  the  question
they could not be cursed.  In the           curse penetrates its object, pursues       whether life is worth living, since
light  of  God's  Word  of  blessing,       it, haunts it, surrounds it, destroys      the  fall  and  since  the  promise  of
His Word of salvation, it was fun-          it!                                        salvation,  cannot  be  answered
damentally  impossible  that  they                 In that Word of His curse God       without  further  qualifications.    It
should ever hear the Word of His            maintains  Himself  and  maintains         all depends upon who asks it and
curse again.  For the two, blessing         His covenant.  Man violated that           who  answers  it,  and  what  mean-
and  cursing,  are  opposites,                     covenant.  He turned traitor,       ing is put into it.
diametrical opposites.                                allying  himself  with  the          Does a man mean by this ques-
    God's  blessing  is  the             Lost          devil.  He proposed to live     tion:  Is just this present life, with-
powerful Word of His fa-        in themselves,          apart  from  God,  without     out  any  prospect,  worth  living?
vor,  the  Word  of  His        Adam and Eve            God, and to make God a         Does he ask this question as a ma-
grace, rooted in everlast-               were            liar.  But God is the sov-    terialist?  Is this life, of which dust
ing life, proceeding to the       immediately            ereign  of  heaven  and       is the end, worth living? Then the
creature and making that            rescued               earth,  and  He  is  His     answer  of  Scripture  is  definitely
creature  exactly  what           by the power            own party.  As such, in      No.    Even  if  there  were  nothing
His      Word        says,        of sovereign            His  perfect  righteous-     else, nothing after this present ex-
"blessed."  It makes that            grace.               ness  and  holiness  He      istence,  this  life  in  itself  is  not
creature the heir of eter-          ... it was            maintains  Himself  and      worth living.  Its end, then, is van-
nal  life  and  causes  all     fundamentally             His  cause  over  against    ity,  and  its  present  experience  is
things to be in his favor          impossible            the  creature  that  op-      nothing but the wrath of Almighty
and to serve the purpose           that they             poses Him and exalts it-      God, inescapable wrath.  The best
of  his  everlasting  salva-      should ever           self  against  Him.    The     of it is labor and sorrow.  Does a
tion and bliss.  That Word      hear the Word           negative  result  of  God's    man mean:  Is life worth living for
of God's blessing makes a         of His curse         maintaining His covenant        the man who goes to hell hereaf-
man  inexpressibly  happy,           again.           is the curse on that which       ter? Then the answer of Scripture
even in the midst of trouble                         separates  itself  from  Him.     is plain:  don't be a fool!  Is there
and sorrow, for he has the as-                     The devil is cursed.  The whole     any  pleasure  in  a  boat  ride  at
surance that God averts all evil or         creation as it is fallen in man, its       breakneck speed over the Niagara
turns it to his profit.                     king,  is  cursed.    All  mankind,  in    Falls  to  certain  destruction?    Is
    The Word of God's curse is the          itself and apart from Christ, must         there any worth in a life in which
very opposite.  It is the efficacious       also needs be cursed.                      God sets a man in slippery places
Word of the God who speaks and                     But in sovereign grace God had      and casts him down to destruction
it is done, who commands and it             made exception, according to His           (Ps. 73:18)?  Is there any joy in be-

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ing born and in developing for an             that is destined for eternal glory in      For the glory is great, and all that
eternity of sorrow?  What shall a             God's everlasting tabernacle worth         belongs  to  this  present  existence,
man  be  profited  if  he  gain  the          living?  Then the answer of Scrip-         appearance  to  the  contrary  not-
whole  world,  and  lose  his  own            ture is:  Yes, emphatically yes!  Life     withstanding, is subservient to the
soul?                                         with all its trouble and toil and sor-     attainment of that glory, in Christ
    Or does a man mean:  Is a life            rows  and  death  is  worth  living.       Jesus, out of sovereign mercy.     u

  Search the Scriptures                                                                            Rev. Mitchell Dick



                     Cross & Double-cross!
                                                 (John 13:18-38)


It is well that we recall the set- 38) is the announcement and rev- Though He be double-crossed, and
    ting.  Jesus and the disciples are        elation  of  the  betrayer,  Judas         abandoned,  and  denied--through
    in an upper room in Jerusalem             Iscariot.  There is also the predic-       His  being  double-crossed,  aban-
(Mark 14:12-16).  They are keeping            tion by Jesus of the betrayal, of a        doned, and denied--Jesus will go
the Passover (Matt. 26:18ff.).   Of           sort, by His own disciples.  For all       to the cross!
the  exact  order  of  events  at  this       will  be  offended  because  of  Him           See here: Jesus, Lord over the
time it is difficult to be sure.  We          this night (Matt. 26:31).  And Pe-         double-cross!  See here: Jesus, gra-
suggest the order that Hendriksen             ter, who boasts so of his allegiance,      cious, tender, longsuffering Pastor
does, whom we quote:                          will  deny  the  Savior  three  times      of sheep who will be scattered, and
                                              (John 13:36-38).                           even deny Him!  Jesus: showing this
  1.  Jesus washes the feet of his dis-           The  amazing  thing  about  this       all  in  spite  of  and  through  such
  ciples  and  explains  to  them  that       history is how it all serves to fulfill    treachery and little faith!
  he has given them an example to             the  sovereign  good  pleasure  of             Another glimpse, this, into the
  be followed (John 13:1-20).                 God.  What is that good pleasure           heart  of  God!    Into  gospel.    Into
  2.He startles the disciples by tell-        of God?  That Jesus go to the cross!       grace.
  ing  them  that  one  of  their  own
  number is going to betray him.  Ju-
  das leaves (13:21-30).                                       For Study, Meditation,
  3.He  issues  his  "new  command-
  ment" and predicts Peter's denial                                   & Discussion
  (13:31-38).
  4.He institutes the Lord's Supper
  (Matt.  26:26-29;  Mark  14:22-25;          1. Revealing the traitor in order          chosen.  That is: Jesus knew Judas
  Luke  22:17-20;  I  Cor.  11:23-26).        to work faith in the true disciples        when He chose even him to be in
  This important event, having been           (vv. 18, 19).                              His company and to be one of the
  fully  covered  by  the  Synoptists             Jesus had  spoken of the neces-        twelve disciples.  He chose Judas,
  and by Paul, John does not repeat.          sity of His disciples being washed         in fact, that the scripture might be
  5.He    tenderly  instructs  his  dis-      by Him, and the necessity of their         fulfilled that the Christ should be
  ciples  and  commits  them  to  the         washing each other's feet (vv. 10-         betrayed (v. 18).
  Father's care (Farewell Discourse
  and Highpriestly Prayer, chapters           17).  He says now that He had not              What  scripture  was  fulfilled?
  14-17 of John's Gospel)" (NT Com-           been speaking of all the disciples.        What in the Old Testament is a type
  mentary, John, vol. 2, p. 241).             That is, not all would be washed           of Judas' betrayal of Jesus?  How
                                              by Him, not all will serve Him.            will  Jesus'  telling  of  His  prior
    In this passage before us (13:18-             Our  Savior  is  speaking  here,       knowledge of the betrayal  encour-
                                              obviously,  of  the  traitor  Judas        age the faith of the disciples when
                                              Iscariot.  He had hinted at this ear-      the deed is done (v. 19)?
                                              lier (John 6:71; 12:4; 13:2,10).  Now
Rev.  Dick is  pastor  of Grace Protestant    He will hint again.  He says: I speak      2. Senders and Sent (v. 20).
Reformed Church in Standale, Michigan.        not of you all.  I know whom I have            Jesus speaks here, emphatically

280/Standard Bearer/March 15, 1998


(Verily, verily!), of a very close con-    speaks.    Peter  asks  the  disciple       among  the  people.    They  would
nection  between  the  triune  God         whom Jesus loved (v. 23), who was           rather have waited.  But Jesus will
and  Christ  and  Christ's  ministers      leaning, we are told, on Jesus' bo-         not let anyone take His life: He lays
of  the  Word:    "He  that  receiveth     som as they all reclined around the         it down of Himself.  And Jesus will
whomsoever I send receiveth me;            table  as  was  the  custom  in  those      also not let anyone determine when
and he that receiveth me receiveth         days at special meals.                      He shall die: He will die when it is
him that sent me!"                             This disciple whom Jesus loved          determined  of  God.    And  that  is
    What  does  this  text  say  of        was John himself (cf. John 19:26,27;        tomorrow.  Judas...subject of Jesus!
Jesus?  What does it say of ambas-         20:2-9; 21:1, 20-23; 21:24,25).  Does       Satan...pawn of the Sovereign!
sadors of Jesus--apostles then, and         this  mean  that  Jesus  loved  John            The  disciples  are  confused.
preachers  today  (cf.  Matt.  10:40)?     more than the others?  Why does             They thought Jesus was sending Ju-
In light of this, what ought our re-       John not mention his own name?              das, the treasurer of the disciples,
sponse be to faithful preachers?               John,  probably  leaning  back,         to  go  out  and  buy  things  for  the
                                           asks  Jesus  with  quiet  confidence:       feast (i.e. the feast of  unleavened
3. One of you shall betray me              "Lord, who is it?"  (v.  25).  Then         bread,  a  feast  which  began  that
(vv. 21-30).                               Jesus  tells  that  it  is  the  one  to    Passover  night,  and  lasted  seven
    Jesus, at the thought of the be-       whom  He  shall  give  the  sop,  or        days), or to give something to the
trayal, and no doubt of that suffer-       morsel of bread or meat, after He           poor  (vv.  28,  29).    But  we  know
ing  and  cross  to  come,  was            has dipped it (perhaps in the mix-          where  Judas  was  going,  what  he
troubled in spirit (v. 21).  Accord-       ture of bitter herbs and/or a sauce         would do.
ing to the Greek word, this meant          made of fruit and other things).                We know too what this means:
Jesus  was  agitated,  disquieted,             It is Judas Iscariot!  He is the        "it was night" (v. 30). It is almost
struck  with  dread.    According  to      one to whom Jesus gives the  sop            the  hour  and  the  power  of  dark-
our finite minds we are at a loss to       (v. 26)!  John, thus, now knows, and        ness (Luke 22:53).
explain how Jesus, Son of God, can         Jesus had all along.  Perhaps Peter             Devil's night!
be troubled!  But troubled He was!         found  out  too,  that  it  was  Judas,
Troubled  in  His  human  nature,          though we are not told.                     5. Glorification of the Christ
which is like unto ours in all things,                                                 and God (vv. 31, 32).
sin excepted.  Troubled that one of        4. Satan and the Sovereign                      What  does  Jesus  mean  when
His own familiar friends, one who          (vv. 27-30).                                He says that now is the Son of man
ate with Him (cf. Mark 14:18; Luke             After Judas had taken the sop,          glorified, and God in Him?
22:21), would be so dastardly as to        Satan  entered  into  Judas  (v.  27).          How do these verses show the
betray  Him.    Troubled  in  this         The devil has already been direct-          intimacy  of  God  and  the  Son  of
present hour of darkness, knowing          ing the heart of Judas (13:2).  Now         man?
that even His true disciples would         he will possess him!  The devil, dia-
abandon Him (13: 36-38).  Troubled         bolic one!  Here called  Satan , ad-        6. A new commandment
especially at the prospect of expe-        versary!    Arch-opponent  of  God,         (vv. 33-35).
riencing  being  forsaken  by  His         Christ,  and  the  church!    Now               Jesus  announces  His  impend-
heavenly Father (Matt. 27:46)!             indwelling a son of perdition who           ing  departure.    At  this  time  He
    "Verily, verily I say unto you,        has given himself wholeheartedly            gives  them  a  new  commandment
that one of you shall betray me."          to the devil's work.  Now seeking           that the disciples love one another.
Upon this further announcement of          to perform the most devilish deed               The commandment is not new,
betrayal  the  disciples  themselves       since  the  time  he  had  occasioned       as if nothing like it were ever said.
became troubled.  We read in verse         the fall of man: he will seek to fell       Where in the Old Testament do we
22 that the disciples looked one on        the Son of man!                             find  a  similar  commandment?
another,  doubting  of  whom  He               But wait!  Just who is in con-          How  then  is  this  commandment
spoke.  They were exceeding sor-           trol here?  Jesus!  "That thou doest,       "new"?    What,  according  to  the
rowful at this (Matt. 26:22).  Each        do quickly!" (v. 27).  Jesus reveals        passage, is the purpose for the dis-
began to say unto Jesus, "Lord, is         the betrayer, exposes the plot.  He         ciples loving each other?  How do
it I?"  Even Judas asks, "Master, is       compels Judas to go and bring the           we  show  this  unique  love  in  the
it I" (Matt. 26:25)?                       Jewish leaders and their henchmen           church today?  How is our love for
    What is the difference between         in for the kill.  He orders him to be       one  another  in  the  household  of
the questions of the true disciples,       quick about it, even quicker than           faith  different  from  our  love  to-
and the question of Judas?                 he  would  have  liked.    For  Judas       wards unbelievers?
    Simon  Peter  cannot  take  the        and  the  Jews did  not  want  to do
suspense.  He wants to know right          their  wickedness  to  Jesus  on  the       7. Prediction  of  Peter's  denial
away  who  it  is  of  whom  Jesus         Passover, lest they cause an uproar         (vv. 36-38).

                                                                                               March 15, 1998/Standard Bearer/281


    Impetuous  Peter!    He  is  dis-           ready to lay down his life for Jesus'       two: who can know it?).
turbed at the prospect of Jesus' go-            sake?  How does Jesus rebuff him                How  are  we  like  Judas?    Do
ing away.  He asks where Jesus is               (v. 38)?                                    you ever ask, "Lord, is it I"?  How
going, and then, why he may not                                                             are we like Peter?  How does Jesus
follow Jesus.  Jesus says Peter can-            8. Perspective (John 20:31).                here show His tender care of His
not  follow  Jesus  now,  but  only                 Reflect  upon  and  discuss  the        disciples?  Today...of you?
later.  Why is Peter not ready now?             sovereignty and also the suffering              How  does  knowledge  of  the
Does  Jesus  prophesy  here  of  the            of the Savior revealed in this pas-         Christ  revealed  here,  and  of  the
manner in which Peter shall die?                sage (think of the height of the one,       disciples  revealed  here,  enhance
    What  does  Peter  show  about              and  the  depth  of  the  latter;  think    our faith in Jesus, and the richness
himself when he declares himself                also  of  the  relation  between  the       of our life in Him?   u


  All Around Us                                                                                     Rev. Gise VanBaren

                                                of  these  affairs  say  about  the           litical Action Committee conven-
                                                people, the citizens of the United            tion last week that our nation is
"No Morals Anymore?"
                                                States of America?  How must we               crying  out  for  moral  leadership.
                                                                                              If it is, the cry is a muffled one.
                                                evaluate  and  judge  them  in  light
Much has been written, broad-
          cast on radio and television,                                                       Polls show as many as 73 percent
                                                of all of these reports?
and discussed concerning the presi-                                                           approve  of  the  job  President
                                                    Cal Thomas, writer for Los An-
dent of the United States.  Is there                                                          Clinton is doing, including a sig-
                                                geles Times Syndicate, in an article
real scandal, and will it bring down                                                          nificant  majority  of  women  who
                                                appearing in many newspapers, in-
the president?  Or is there a "right-                                                         might  be  expected  to  have  been
                                                cluding the Loveland Reporter-Her-
wing"  conspiracy  to  destroy  this                                                          offended  with  his  "of  course  I'll
                                                ald, February 3, 1998, presents his
president?  What of the intern with                                                           respect  you  in  the  morning"  be-
                                                penetrating comments in an article            havior.    Along  with  Hillary
whom  he  was  presumably  in-
                                                titled,  "Morally  speaking,  it's            Clinton,  we've  put  our  concerns
volved?    Were  there  others  who                                                           about morals and character "in a
                                                mourning  time  in  America."    He
were involved in a "relationship"                                                             box," and prefer to worship at the
                                                writes:
with  the  president?    And  if  this                                                        altar  of  the  economy.    If  the
president is guilty, and if he is ly-                                                         economy is all that matters, then
                                                    When King David of Israel com-
ing, is he not doing exactly what                                                             we really are stupid.
                                                  mitted  adultery  with  the  beauti-
many past presidents have done--                                                                 The prophet Hosea admonished
                                                  ful  Bathsheba  and  sent  her  hus-
howbeit without the close scrutiny                                                            the  ancient  Israelites  when  they
                                                  band  off to the  front lines  to be
of the press?  And how does one                                                               governed themselves according to
                                                  killed  in  battle,  the  prophet           their  equivalent  of  "polls"  and
explain  all  of  this  "news"  to  the           Nathan  confronted  the  king  and          how they felt rather than the laws
young children of our households?                 exposed  his  immoral  behavior.            of God.  This was his indictment:
    And then, there's the governor                This led David to confess his sins          "There is no faithfulness, no love,
of  Colorado--but  that's  another                 and repent.  Today, David would             no acknowledgment of God in the
story.                                            have  hired  a  good  criminal  de-         land.  There is only cursing, lying
                                                  fense  attorney  and used  his  pal-
    This article, however, is not go-                                                         and  murder,  stealing  and  adul-
                                                  ace staff to spin for him and smear
ing  to  add  to  the  confusion  and                                                         tery; they break all bounds....  Be-
                                                  the prophet.
proliferation  of  writings  which                                                            cause of this the land mourns, and
                                                    ...Virtuecrat William Bennett ac-
speculate  and  evaluate  and  then                                                           all  who  live  in  it  waste  away....
                                                  cused  Clinton  of  corrupting  the         Israel is corrupt."
express  judgment.    Time  will  tell            morals  of  the  American  people.            ...If many of us saw ourselves,
what is the final outcome of these                This is a common lament among               or at least saw how we would like
sordid affairs.                                   many who believe the cause of our           to  be,  in  Ronald  Reagan,  Bill
    There  is  another  aspect  of  all           decadence is in the White House.            Clinton reflects who we really are.
of this which some writers rightly                They reason that by replacing the           To  indict  him  is  to  indict  our-
                                                  leader, the followers will become
have pointed out.  The concern is                                                             selves.  He is a mirror that reflects
                                                  more virtuous.  If this were so, 12
not,  first,  what  the  president  did                                                       our darkened souls.
                                                  years  of  Ronald  Reagan  and
or did not do.  Rather, what do all                                                             Forget  whether  the  latest
                                                  George Bush should have made us             charges  are  true.    Bill  Clinton's
                                                  morally better.  It didn't--because          lack of character and candor is be-
                                                  presidents lack the power to trans-         yond  dispute.   Even  his  defend-
Rev. VanBaren is pastor of the Protestant         form hearts toward good or evil.            ers  talk  like  lawyers  instead  of
Reformed    Church    of    Loveland,  Colo-        Former  Vice  President  Dan              prophets.    Clinton  will  probably
                                                  Quayle told the Conservative Po-
rado.                                                                                         hang  on  to  the  end  of  his  term,

282/Standard Bearer/March 15, 1998


  but  his  chance  to  be  a  moral            "Money has a higher value than           termed  an  "alternate  life  style."
  leader, which is an essential com-          marriage  and  family  or  people.         Many churches agree.
  ponent of the presidency, has been          There's been a terrible unfortunate            Consider  how  that  for  over a
  foreclosed.                                 shift in mores," said Thomas.              generation now divorce and remar-
    Hosea pronounced a verdict on               Thomas  thinks  Americans  are           riage has become the standard so-
  another nation that lived like this:        losing  the  sense  of  "moral  out-
  "a people without understanding             rage."    In  fact,  he  thinks  that      lution for a "bad" marriage.  If over
  will come to ruin."  It's mourning          people  would  be  more  upset  if         50 percent of the people so freely
  time in America.                            Clinton cheated on his income tax          can  break  their  marriage  vows,
    Nor is Cal Thomas, a religious            than  on  his  wife  and  that  they       why should they condemn a presi-
and conservative commentator, the             were more upset about selling the          dent  if  he  happens  to  do  so  too?
only  one  concerned.    The  Denver          Lincoln  bedroom  than  about  his         Who cares anymore?  Vows can be
Post, February 7, 1998, contained a           morals, said Thomas.                       taken and broken at will.
front-page  article  titled,  "Ethics           ...Paul  Jessen  of  Colorado  for             Consider  how  that  for  over a
                                              Family Values asks, "What's hap-
worry  theologians."    At  the  very                                                    generation now the churches have
                                              pened to sin?"
least, there are some who are ob-               He  said  many  teenagers  have          basically come to accept this "so-
serving  the  real  moral  meltdown           told him they like to hear about           lution"  to  marital  problems.
in society.  The article stated:              famous people using drugs or be-           Should  church  members  be  con-
                                              ing sexually active "because that          cerned  with  immorality  in  high
    America's  morals  are  breaking          means they can do those things."           places when they accept that com-
  down and the public doesn't seem              Jessen ... quoted Harry Truman:            monly within their own member-
  to  care,  Colorado  religious  lead-       "If  a  leader  is  unfaithful  to  his    ship?  If church members can break
  ers said Friday.                            wife, he will be unfaithful to you         their vows, if they can marry an-
    "I'm  perplexed  and  disturbed           (the voters)."                             other  (which  Christ  calls  "adul-
  about the breakdown of ethics that            ...Doug Groothuis, professor of            tery"  --Matt.  19:9),  who  is  going
  have  been  the  fabric  of  our  cul-      ethics and philosophy of religion
  ture," said William Klein, profes-          at  Denver  Seminary,  said  he  is        to  condemn  the  wayward  politi-
  sor of New Testament at Denver              "puzzled over the artificial sepa-         cian?  Who will cast the first stone?
  Seminary.  "And many Americans              ration between public and private              Consider  how  that  for  over a
  don't seem to be bothered by the            life.  That's a false dichotomy."          generation now the Bible has been
  peccadilloes  or  failures  of  their         "Americans  should  care  about          excluded  from  the  public  schools
  leaders because they want a low-            whether a leader keeps his prom-           and the ten commandments are not
  ering of the standards applied to           ises to his wife," he added.  "The         allowed  on  the  walls  of  its  class-
  them also."                                 Ten  Commandments  are  still  in          rooms.  If a generation arises which
    Klein and other church leaders            place.  They haven't expired, and          knows not the Word and the law
  and theologians made their com-             adultery is still on the list."
  ments  in  response  to  Colorado                                                      of God, on what basis would it con-
  Gov. Roy Romer's statements that              But should anyone be surprised           demn a wayward president?  What
  he has had a relationship with a          at what President Clinton may or             then ultimately matters is not obe-
  woman other than his wife for the         may not have done--and the cur-               dience to God's law, but how much
  past 16 years.                            rent reaction of the citizens of the         food is available for my stomach.
    In  the  days  since  President         country?  Should it be surprising                The whole emphasis on elimi-
  Clinton was first suspected of hav-                                                    nating the basis for true morality
  ing a sexual affair with an intern,       that  "prosperity"  should  be  the          is illustrated by an article appear-
  many  Americans  have  said  they         standard  of  judgment  of  the  per-        ing in World magazine, October 25,
  don't care what the president does        son  rather  than  "morality"?    The
  in his private  life, and  some are       writers above were very correct in           1997:
  already  saying  the  same  thing         evaluating the sad state of affairs
  about Romer.                              in society today.                                How far is a California school
    "There used to be a consensus               But  no  one  ought  to  be  sur-          district willing to go to shield its
  about  the  bad  things  that  moral                                                     students  (and  parents  and  base-
                                            prised.
  people  didn't  do,"  said  Klein.                                                       ball fans) from the Ten Command-
                                                Consider  how  that  for  over a
  Churches  "seem  to  have  an  in-                                                       ments?    A  business  man  in
  creasing  inability  to  influence        generation  now  the  country  has             Downey (near Los Angeles) says
  people about moral issues," said          been  bombarded  with  drama  on               he'll  match  the  district's  efforts
  Klein....                                   television and movie that parades              and will fight as long as it takes
    ...The reaction to reports of pub-        immorality  for  entertainment.                to get his sign re-posted.
  lic scandals "is a true assessment        Sexual "relationships" apart from                Edward  DiLoreto,  the  83-year-
  of people's real values," said Dave       or in addition to marriage are pre-            old owner of an engineering firm,
  Thomas,  graduate  professor  of          sented as the norm.  Homosexual-               was  approached  by  the  Downey
  community  leadership  at  Regis                                                         High School baseball booster club
                                            ity  is  considered  a  "right"  and
  University.                                                                              in 1995.  The boosters were sell-

                                                                                                  March 15, 1998/Standard Bearer/283


  ing  ad  space  along  the  outfield         Dan  Lungren  concluded,  nine
  fence.    Coca-Cola  had  bought             months after Mr. DiLoreto paid for             Mr.  DiLoreto  has  filed  suit
  space,  as  had  some  local  busi-          the sign.                                  against the district on the grounds
  nesses.  Mr. DiLoreto wrote out a              Next, the district cited potential       that they violated his civil rights,
  $400 check and submitted his sign.           lawsuits  from  the  ACLU  or  of-         and  his  freedom  of  speech.    It  is
  It contained 10 "Rules to Live By,"          fended parents, but no one came
  also known as the Ten Command-               forward.    And  even  if  someone         thought  that  the  case  may  go  all
  ments.    That  was  nothing  new;           had come forward, Mr. DiLoreto             the way to the Supreme Court.  The
  he'd used the "Rules" in his ads             offered to hire three attorneys to         school district now complains that
  in  Downey  High  School  football           defend the district.  (Later, in fact,     this case forces them to use mon-
  programs and in the year-book.               an ACLU attorney told district of-         ies, which otherwise would be used
    But this time, school-district of-         ficials  that  if  they  rejected  Mr.     for the education of children,   to
  ficials balked.                              DiLoreto's  sign,  Mr.  DiLoreto           defend  their  position  before  the
    First, officials stalled; they said        could sue and probably win.)               courts of the land.
  they  feared  allowing  the  sign              Still, the district removed all the          One wonders if those who in-
  would be unconstitutional.  Even-            signs  from  the  outfield,  rather
  tually, the  state attorney general          than suffer the children to see the        sist that "personal lives" and "mo-
  issued an opinion saying the sign            Ten Commandments.                          rality" really do not matter, truly
  was  legal.    "If  a  school  district        "We are in existence to educate,         know  what  morality  even  is?
  sells commercial advertising space           not to get involved in religious de-       Could  they  recite  the  ten  com-
  on  a  fence  surrounding  its  high         mands," the school district's law-         mandments?  Too many have never
  school  baseball  field,  it  may  not       yer told the  Los Angeles Times.  " I      even heard of them.  Yes, the coun-
  refuse to accept an otherwise ap-            can think of a lot of different enti-      try gets what it desires and must
  propriate  advertisement  which              ties that would like to come in and        live with the consequences.  This
  contains the Ten Commandments                push their messages on kids.  We           too is another of the signs  of the
  and  clearly  identifies  the  adver-        felt  the  interests  of  the  district
  tising  party,"  attorney  general           were not being served."                    times.   u

  A Word Fitly Spoken                                                                                   Rev. Dale Kuiper


                                                    Desire

Every rational, moral being while they bless the covetous The mind and the thoughts are ac-
       has the ability to desire and         whom the Lord abhoreth (Ps. 10:3).           tivated, so that a person imagines
       does  desire.    God  Himself         And the people of God desire none            something  to  be  worthwhile  and
has strong desire:  He desires not           upon  earth  but  God  Himself  (Ps.         desirable,  and  plans  begin  to  de-
sacrifice  but  truth  in  the  inmost       73:25).  It is even the case that the        velop that will help secure the ob-
parts (Ps. 6:16), and He desires to          beasts desire, for God satisfies the         ject  of  desire.    The  will  is  em-
dwell  in  Mt.  Zion  (Ps.  68:16).          desire  of  every  living  thing  with       ployed,  so  that  thoughts  about
Christ  heartily  desired  to  eat  the      meat (Ps. 145:16).                           something  are  translated  into  ac-
last  Passover  with  the  disciples             Although  there  are  many               tions that will obtain the object of
(Luke 22:15).  The angels desire to          words  translated  in  both  Testa-          desire for oneself.  Perhaps it can
look into the things proclaimed by           ments as desire, the most common             be said that desire is the activity of
the  prophets  (I  Pet.  1:12).    Satan     word  in  the  original  languages           the entire inner life of a man, the
desired to have Peter that he might          means  to  set  one's  passion  upon         life of the soul, as it craves to pos-
sift him as the wheat (Luke 22:31).          something,  to  crave  someone  or           sess  that  which  it  does  not  have.
The wicked desire evil (Prov. 21:10)         something ardently.  The word is             This is all summarized powerfully,
and  boast  of  their  heart's  desire       translated variously as desire, lust,        in  the  negative  sense,  by  James:
                                             concupiscence,  covetousness,  or            "From  whence  come  wars  and
                                             envy.    The  total  man  is  involved       fightings among you?  come they
                                             with desiring.  The heart, the con-          not hence even of your lusts that
Rev. Kuiper is pastor of Southeast Prot-     dition of the heart, gives direction         war in your members?  Ye lust, and
estant  Reformed  Church in  Grand Rap-      in this matter for good or for evil.         have not:  ye envy, and desire to
ids, Michigan.

284/Standard Bearer/March 15, 1998


have, and cannot obtain:  ye fight               ally:  "Neither shalt thou desire thy        desire to work (I Tim. 3:1).  Pastors
and war, yet ye have not, because                neighbor's wife...."  The tenth com-           and all believers desire that every
ye ask not.  Ye ask, and receive not,            mandment speaks to the inner life            believer  show  diligence  in  labors
because ye ask amiss, that ye may                of the soul, of the heart, mind, and         of love, labors of ministering to the
consume it upon your lusts" (James               thoughts, the will and the desires.          saints (Heb. 6:10, 11).  As we live
4:1-3).                                          The  Catechism  gives  to  the  com-         as  pilgrims  and  strangers  in  the
     Because of the old man of sin               mandment  this  meaning,  "That              earth,  we  show  that  we  desire  a
that remains with us, the spirit that            even  the  smallest  inclination  or         better country, that is, an heavenly
dwelleth  in  us  lusteth  to  envy              thought, contrary to any of God's            (Heb.  11:16).    As  newborn  babes
(James  4:5).    Thus  the  believer  is         commandments, never arise in our             we are to desire the pure milk of
warned  against  many  sinful  de-               hearts; but that at all times we hate        the Word, in order to grow in spiri-
sires.  We are not to desire silver              all sin with our whole heart, and            tual  life  (I  Pet.  2:2).    We  desire
and gold (Deut. 7:25); we are not                delight in all righteousness."  Posi-        many  things  of  God,  we  petition
to desire dainty meats (Prov. 23:6);             tively, then, the commandment re-            Him for them, and we have confi-
we are not to desire to be first or              quires of us that we have godly de-          dence that as we pray according to
to have the chief place (Mark 9:35);             sires.                                       His will, our desires are given us
we are not to be desirous of vain                     The child of God  desires that          (I John 5:14, 15).
glory, provoking one another, en-                his (and God's) enemies be brought               All these godly desires are re-
vying one another (Gal. 5:26); we                down and consumed, for the words             ally summed up in Psalm 27, the
are  not  to  desire  again  to  be  in          of  their  lips,  for  their  pride,  for    fourth verse, "One thing have I de-
bondage to the weak and beggarly                 cursing and lying (Ps. 59:10ff.).  His       sired of the Lord, that will I seek
rudiments of the law (Gal. 4:9); we              heart's desire and prayer to God is          after; that I may dwell in the house
are not to fulfill the desire of the             that  Israel  might  be  saved  (Rom.        of the Lord all the days of my life,
flesh (Eph. 2:3).  All sinful inordi-            12:1).    Rather  than  desire  promi-       to behold the beauty of the Lord,
nate  desire  is  forbidden  by  the             nence in the church, the believer is         and to inquire in His temple."  One
tenth commandment, "Thou shalt                   to covet earnestly the best gifts (I         thing   is  the  worthy  object  of  our
not  covet...."    This  interpretation            Cor. 12:31), which are faith, hope,          desire.   One thing will we seek af-
of the last commandment is given                 and  especially  charity.    He  is  to      ter.  One thing forms the center and
by Paul in Romans 7:7:  "I had not               have, with Paul, a desire to depart          focus of our sanctified desire.  That
known sin, but by the law:  for I                the earth and be with Christ, leav-          is God, as He is revealed in all His
had not known lust, except the law               ing  the  time  for  departure  in  the      beauty, grace, and desirableness in
had  said,  Thou  shalt  not  covet."            Lord's hands (Phil. 1:23).  Brothers         His house.  Nothing in all the earth
Coveting  is  sinful  desire.    Notice          in the church are to know that de-           do  we  desire  beside  Him.    Not
that the second giving of the Law                sire for the office of elder is a godly      when we know Him, and have His
in Deuteronomy 5 states that liter-              desire,  understanding  that  this  is       law engraved upon our hearts!   u
                                                 not  a  desire  for  vain  glory  but  a


  Book Reviews


                                                 volumes  are  Calvin's  sermons  on          rectly on the person and ministry
Sermons on the Deity of Christ, by John          Galatians; Psalm 119; and the pre-           of the Savior.  The title of the book
Calvin.  Tr. Leroy Nixon.  Audubon,              destination of Jacob and Esau ac-            is taken from the first sermon, on
New Jersey:  Old Paths Publications,             cording to Genesis.                          John 1:1-5.  In addition, the book
1997.    302  pp.    $34.95  (cloth).    (Re-         Whereas  the  earlier  volumes          contains  one  sermon  on  Jesus'
viewed by the editor)                            made available in modern English             birth; eight sermons on Jesus' suf-
                                                 sermons that had been out-of-print           fering  and  death;  one  sermon  on
To what is fast becoming a very for more than 400 years, this one the resurrection; four sermons on
    valuable  and  attractive  set  of           restores a work that had been pub-           the  ascension;  four  sermons  on
otherwise out-of-print sermons by                lished in 1950.                              Pentecost; and one sermon on the
John Calvin, Old Paths Publications                   As do the others in the set, this       second coming.
has now added this volume of 20                  book  gives  us  the  preaching  of              Although as a rule Calvin ig-
sermons  by  the  Reformer  on  the              Calvin to his own congregation in            nored the Christian holidays in his
birth, suffering, resurrection, ascen-           Geneva, as it was taken down by              preaching,  he  did  once  preach  a
sion, outpouring of the Spirit, and              scribes at the time.  All of the ser-        special sermon on Christmas Day,
return of Jesus Christ.  The other               mons in this latest volume are di-           and twice he preached special ser-

                                                                                                    March 15, 1998/Standard Bearer/285


mons on Easter Sunday (1559 and              ing") in an infallibly inspired Scrip-    material that clamors for the money
1560).  The Christmas sermon and             ture  (sermon  one);  God's  sover-       and time of Reformed Christians--
one of the Easter sermons are in-            eignty over sin (sermon 19); the na-      the  charismatic  and  the  self-cen-
cluded in the book.                          ture of faith (sermon 20).  It is sur-    tered  evangelical  stuff--is  junk
    Elsewhere  in  this  issue,  we          prising  to  learn  that  Calvin  re-     food for the soul, worthless at best
publish one of the sermons.  This            garded at least one phase of Jesus'       and harmful at worst.
may  serve  as  an  example  of              temptation by the devil in the wil-           Calvin,  we  discover,  was  a
Calvin's preaching and of the con-           derness  as  having  taken  place  in     typical expository preacher.  At the
tent of the book.                            an "illusion" (p. 157).                   end of one sermon, he told his con-
    In  connection  with  his  expla-            Like  the  other  books  of  ser-     gregation, "This is what the Gos-
nation  of  the  outstanding  events         mons, this one is especially profit-      pel-writer  wished  to  indicate.    I
that  make  up  Christ's  ministry,          able  for  edification.    Reformed       omit  other  things,  because  time
Calvin  gives  instruction  to  the          people should make such works as          does not permit us to speak of them
people concerning various doctrines          these  their  devotional  reading.        further, and already I have spoken
of  the  Christian  faith:    God's  ac-     Much of the supposedly devotional         too long."  And then he went on
commodation  to  us  (His  "stutter-                                                   for two more pages.  Ah, yes.  u

  News From Our Churches                                                                    Mr. Benjamin Wigger


                                             Young People's Activities                     On January 30 and 31 the con-
                                                                                       gregation of the Georgetown PRC
Minister Activities                          You  may have  heard  by  now
                                                 that  the  Federation  Board  of
R                                                                                      in Hudsonville, MI attended their
    ev. G. VanBaren has declined             our churches' young people's soci-        third  annual  church  conference.
     the call he had been consider-          eties has asked the young people          This year's conference was held, as
ing to serve as pastor of our South          and congregation of the Hope PRC          in the past, at Camp Geneva on the
Holland, IL PRC.                             in Redlands, CA to host the 1999          shore of Lake Michigan.
    We extend our congratulations            Young People's Convention.  Since             Between  130  and  140  of
to Rev. Doug Kuiper and his wife             this is such a large undertaking for      Georgetown's members were able
Teresa on the occasion of the birth          any of  our churches, Hope  asked         to attend part or all of this year's
of  their  first  child,  a  son,  Daniel    their entire congregation to answer       conference.  They heard Dr. Henry
James, born February 9.                      a survey indicating what direction        Krabbendam,  a  professor  at  Cov-
    We  extend  our  sincere  Chris-         they should go.  We are happy to          enant College in Lookout Mt., GA,
tian sympathy to Mrs. John Heys              report that in early February, Hope       give  the  keynote  address  on  the
and her entire family in the death           signed  a  contract with  Camp  Ce-       theme,  "The  Believers'  Calling  to
of  her  husband,  Rev.  John  Heys,         dar Falls Conference Center, a lo-        Witness."
who went to be with his Lord  in             cation  nestled  in  the  mountains           About this time of year we who
glory on February 16 at the age of           outside of Redlands, in preparation       live in the northern hemisphere be-
87.  Rev. Heys served our churches           for hosting next year's convention.       gin to grow weary of the seemingly
faithfully  for  close  to 40  years  as         The Young People's Society of         endless winter, so we heartily agree
pastor in four congregations, end-           the First PRC in Grand Rapids, MI         with the Library Committee of our
ing his active ministry in 1980, al-         served as host society for a Young        First  PRC  in  Edmonton,  AB,
though he continued to stay active           People's Mass Meeting on  Febru-          Canada who recently sponsored a
after  retirement  writing  for  this        ary 18.  Rev. J. Slopsema, pastor at      supper under the wistful theme of
magazine  and  producing  two  se-           First, addressed the young people         "Bring Back Summer."
ries of devotionals, one based ex-           on the topic, "Whose Praise Do You
clusively  on  the  Psalms  and  the         Want:  God's or Man's?"  Special          Evangelism Activities
other primarily on the New Testa-            numbers  were  also given  and  re-
ment.  We echo the psalmist when             freshments were provided.                 The  Evangelism Committee of
                                                                                          the  Byron  Center,  MI  PRC
he  writes  in  Psalm  116:15,  "Pre-            The  young  people  from  the         sponsored  a  community  Bible
cious in the sight of the Lord is the        First  PRC  in  Edmonton,  AB,            Study  Class  during  the  month  of
death of his saints."                        Canada  got  together  with  the          February on the subject, "The Liv-
                                             young people of the Immanuel PRC          ing Word of God."  These classes
                                             in  Lacombe,  AB,  Canada  on  Feb-       were  held  on  three  consecutive
Mr. Wigger is an elder in the Protes-        ruary 13 for an outing to a hockey        Thursdays.  The first class was led
tant Reformed  Church  of  Hudson-           game in Red Deer.                         by  Byron's  pastor,  Rev.  Doug
ville, Michigan.

286/Standard Bearer/March 15, 1998


Kuiper,  and  was  entitled,  "The                           The Evangelism Committee of                         ary issue and had 114 responses.
Bible,  Inspired  by  God,  and  the                    the South Holland, IL PRC offered
Standard of our Faith and Walk of                       a free copy of the late Rev. Herman                                    Food For Thought
Life."  The second was led by Rev.                      Hoeksema's  book  The  Mystery  of                            "The church of the elect, which
Cammenga one week later and was                         Bethlehem  in  a  December  issue  of                    is  partly  militant  on  earth  and
entitled,  "Bible  Translations  and                    World magazine.  As of late Janu-                        partly  triumphant  in  heaven,  re-
Versions,"  and  the  third,  entitled                  ary they had received 119 requests                       sembles a city built on both sides
"Jesus Christ, the Central Theme of                     from that ad.  They also advertised                      of a river.  There is but the stream
the  Bible,"  was  led  by  Candidate                   "Modern Bible Versions" in a Janu-                       of death between grace and glory."
Daniel Kleyn.                                                                                                                                  --Toplady   u


                                                              ANNOUNCEMENTS

                                                                   WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                                               NOTICE!!
          WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                                       AL and DONNA BOVEN                                All  standing  and  special  committees  of
     We express congratulations to our cov-             will celebrate 25 years of marriage, D.V., on            the  synod  of  the  Protestant  Reformed
enant parents and grand parents,                        March 30, 1998.                                          Churches, as well as individuals who wish to
         AL and SHARON BRUMMEL,                              We thank God for the years of Christian             address Synod 1998, are hereby notified that
on the occasion of their 30th wedding anniver-          upbringing you have given us and for the many            all material for this year's synod should be in
sary on March 12.  May God continue to bless            sacrifices you have made for us, to attain the           the  hands  of  the  stated  clerk  no  later  than
them.                                                   high  calling  of  Christian  parents.    It  is  our    April 1.  Please send material to:
b    Rev. Allen and Crysta Brummel                      prayer that the Lord will bless and keep you in                          Mr. Don Doezema
         Dean, Allyn, Ethan                             the  years  to  come.    "Remembering  without                           4949 Ivanrest Ave.
b    Nathan and Paula Brummel                           ceasing your work of faith, and labour of love,                         Grandville, MI  49418
b    Jeff and Jodi Baker                                and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ,
         Daniel, Jeremy                                 in the sight of God and our Father" (I Thessa-
b    Randy and Shari Vaalburg                           lonians 1:3).
         Seth, Paul, Sarena                                                                                                RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
                                                        b    Dean and Heidi Boven                                     The council and congregation of South-
b    Tiffany Brummel                                            Brianna                                          east PRC express their Christian sympathy to
                                 Edgerton, Minnesota    b    Terri Boven                                         Sally tenElshof and family in the death of her
                                                        b    Dustin Boven
         RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                                                                  husband,
                                                                                       Byron Center, Michigan
     The  council  and  congregation  of  the                                                                                    JIM TEN ELSHOF.
Randolph PRC express their Christian sympa-                                                                           "Behold, I shew you a mystery:  We shall
thy to Ronald and Kay Huizenga and family in                                                                     not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a
                                                                RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
the death of Kay's father,                                                                                       moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last
                                                             The Adult Bible Society of Doon PRC ex-
               LOUIS WIERENGA.                                                                                   trump:  for the trumpet shall sound, and the
                                                        press their Christian sympathy to our fellow
     May  they  find  comfort  in  the  words  of                                                                dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall
                                                        members Vernon and Mary Postma in the loss
Psalm 121:1, 2, "I will lift up mine eyes unto                                                                   be changed" (I Corinthians 15:51, 52).
                                                        of her father,
the hills from whence cometh my help.  My                                                                                                 Rev. Dale Kuiper, Pres.
                                                                          MR. JIM BLOM.
help cometh from the Lord which made heaven                                                                                                          Tim Pipe, Clerk
                                                             "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow
and earth."                                             me all the days of my life:  and I will dwell in
                              Pastor S. Key, Pres.      the house of the Lord for ever" (Psalm 23:6).
                               Don DeVries, Clerk                                                                          RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
                                                                                       Rev. R. Smit, Pres.            We extend our sincere sympathy to John
                                                                                 Char VanEgdom, Sec'y.
         RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                                                                  and Sandy Heys and their family in the death
     The council and congregation of South-                                                                      of their father and grandfather,
                                                                RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
east PRC express their Christian sympathy to                                                                                   REV. JOHN A. HEYS.
                                                             The  Ladies'  Aid  Society  of  the
Tom  and  Roberta  Nelson  and  family  in  the                                                                  While we, on this earth, still look on the bot-
                                                        Hudsonville PRC mourn the loss of a fellow
death of Tom's mother,                                                                                           tom side of the tapestry with all of its mixed-
                                                        member,
                 NELLE NELSON.                                                                                   up threads, he sees the finished side which
                                                                   MRS. JULIA PRAAMSMA,
     "The L                                                                                                      reveals the perfect work of God and the Lamb
               ORD  is righteous in all his ways,       whom the Lord took from our midst on Febru-
and holy in all his works.  The L                                                                                in  the  gathering  and  glorification  of  God's
                                       ORD  is nigh     ary 6, 1998.
unto all them that call upon him, to all that                                                                    saints.  Surely, to be with Christ is far better,
                                                             We express our Christian sympathy to her
call upon him in truth.  He will fulfil the desire                                                               surely too because God has said that it was
                                                        husband, Mr. Ray Praamsma.  May he, with
of them that fear him:  he also will hear their                                                                  no longer needful for him to be here on this
                                                        us,  remember  God's  promise  from  Psalm
cry, and will save them" (Psalm 145:17-19).                                                                      earth.
                                                        121:2, "My help cometh from the Lord which
                           Rev. Dale Kuiper, Pres.                                                                         The consistory and congregation of the
                                                        made heaven and earth."
                                  Tim Pipe, Clerk                                                                                                     Loveland PRC
                                                                                       Truett Hugg, Pres.                                Rev. G. VanBaren, Pres.
                                                                                     Donna Boven Sec'y.                                   Mr. Larry Nelson, Clerk

                                                                                                                           March 15, 1998/Standard Bearer/287

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


              WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                                 WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
      On  March  23,  1998,  our  parents  and                On February 8, 1998, our parents,
grandparents,                                                  ED and JEANNE KARSEMEYER,                           PUBLIC LECTURE
                   PROF. and MRS.                        celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary.
                  RUSS DYKSTRA,                               We thank the Lord that He has given them                   Covenant
will celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary,           this many happy years together and we pray           Protestant Reformed Church
the Lord willing.                                        that He will continue to keep them in His care
      We  thank  our  heavenly  Father  for  the         for many more years to come.  "For I am per-          Jesus Christ:  the Church's
years of instruction they have given us, for we          suaded, that neither death, nor life, nor an-
know how great a blessing it is to be able to            gels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things            One Foundation
learn from godly parents.  We praise God for             present, nor things to come, nor height, nor
their godly example and the covenant home                depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to       by Rev. Martin VanderWal
they have given  us these  past years.   May             separate us from the love of God which is in
God continue to bless them in their years to             Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:38, 39).           Friday, March 27, at 7:30 P.M.
come.                                                                                     Their children,
      "Train up a child in the way he should                          Shaun, Renae, Todd, Ryan, Kyle             in the church auditorium
go:  and when he is old, he will not depart                                        Redlands, California                  located at
from it."                                                                                                        283 Squawbrook Road
b     Craig and Heather Hoksbergen                                    TEACHER NEEDED                                   Wyckoff, NJ.
             Colton, Deanna                                   Hull  Protestant  Reformed  School  is  in
b     Michael and Heidi Poortinga                        need of one elementary teacher for the 1998-
b     Christopher                                        1999 school year.  Interested persons are en-           For  further  information,
                        and fiancee Laura Kamps          couraged  to  call either  Pete  Brummel  (712)     please visit our web-site at http:/
b     Ryan                                               439-2490  or  (712)  439-1308,  or  Don             /www.covprc.org.
b     Nathan                                             Hoksbergen (712) 439-1610.
b     Jordan
b     Emily
b     Courtney
b     Holly
                               Grand Rapids, Michigan                                     NOTICE:  SB Index!!
                                                                   The deadline for ordering is past.  And, yes, the typeset copy
                 TEACHER NEEDED
      Adams Christian School of Grand Rap-                    is already at the printshop.  But ... if you forgot, or weren't sure,
ids, MI needs an elementary teacher for the                   and would still like to order -- all is not lost.  Anticipating belated
1998-1999  school  year.    Interested  persons               interest, we did order more than enough to fill the orders received
should contact Ted Pipe at (616) 452-9367, or                 by March 1.  But not a large number.  All we can promise, there-
the school principal, Peter Hoekstra, at (616)                fore,  is  that  we'll  fill  as  many  late  orders  as  we  can,  from  the
531-0748.                                                     extras.
                                                                   The price, remember, is $49.00 -- a bargain from two points
                   PLEASE NOTE:                               of view:  the value of the tool (indispensable for research); and
      The home page of the RFPA can be found                  the cost of production (the RFPA is losing money on this one).
at www.iserv.net/~rfpa.  Please take a moment
to  look  us  up.  Or  e-mail  orders  to                     The project was undertaken only with a view to providing a ser-
rfpa@iserv.net.                                               vice for those individuals, churches, and schools which have a
                                                              good number of the SB bound volumes in their library.
                 TEACHER NEEDED                                    The index will come in one hardcover volume of some 600
      The  Protestant  Reformed  School  of                   pages.  It will include subject, title, and textual indices.  And on
Loveland,  CO  is  in  need  of  an  elementary               your  bookshelf it  will look like one of  your  SB bound  volumes,
teacher (grades 1-3) for the 1998-1999 school                 howbeit a little thicker.
year.  All interested parties should submit a                      This  is  a  while-the-supply-lasts  proposition.    We  urge  you,
resum  to  Patrick  Alsum,  3535  Donath  Dr.,               therefore, if you're interested, to act soon.  The last index was
Loveland,  CO    80538  and/or  contact  either
Leon  Griess  at  (970)  667-8956  or  Patrick                printed 15 years ago.  At intervals like that, the next one would
Alsum at (970) 622-8367.                                      not become available till 2013!


288/Standard Bearer/March 15, 1998


