                             The
                   Standard
A Reformed         Bearer
Semi-Monthly
Magazine


                                                    In This Issue:

                   Meditation -- Rev. Cornelius Hanko
                         The Chief of Sinners ........................................................................ 290

                   Editorial -- Prof. David J. Engelsma
                         Where are the Theologians of the Cross? .................................... 292

                   Letters........................................................................................................ 295

                   The Reader Asks ...................................................................................... 295

                   A Word Fitly Spoken -- Rev. Dale H. Kuiper
                         Reaping .............................................................................................. 296

                   Marking Zion's Bulwarks -- Prof. Herman C. Hanko
                         Marcion:  First Bible Critic .............................................................. 298

                   Letter from the Seminary -- Prof. Robert D. Decker.............................. 300

                   Search the Scriptures -- Rev. Mitchell C. Dick
                         "The Secret of the Way" .................................................................. 301

                   Contending for the Faith -- Rev. Bernard J. Woudenberg
                         The Declaration--Unclear(?) .......................................................... 303

                   Taking Heed to the Doctrine -- Rev. Steven R. Key
                         Christ, Our Priest (1) ........................................................................ 306

                   Book Reviews ........................................................................................... 308

                   Report of Classis West............................................................................. 310

                   News From Our Churches -- Mr. Benjamin Wigger ............................... 311




Vol. 74, No. 13
April 1, 1998


   Meditation                                                                                                                           Rev. Cornelius Hanko



                                         The Chief of Sinners

                                                   "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that
                                           Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners;  of whom I am
                                           chief."
                                                                                                                             I Timothy 1:18

                                                                  ated  as  part  and  parcel  of  our                         ruin, so that home life is at a pre-
                                                                  souls.    Let  us  take  that  truth  to                     mium, basically because of this sin-
       A faithful saying.                                         heart and live by it!                                        ful pride, the big I, everyone seek-
       Just as we teach our small chil-                                  As he does so, his own soul is                        ing himself in rebellion against the
dren in their catechism lessons that                              overwhelmed  with  the  very                                 living God.
"Jesus  came  to  save  His  people                               thought.   How very much that glo-                                    That characterizes the history of
from  their  sins,"  so  the  early                               rious gospel of the blessed God (I                           this world.  The full manifestation
church of the new dispensation had                                Tim. 1:11) means to the apostle per-                         of  this  sin  appears  in  the  man  of
certain  favorite  expressions,  such                             sonally!  He adds, as if opening his                         sin, who exalts himself and sits on
as,  "Jesus  Christ  came  into  the                              heart to us:  "Of whom I am chief."                          the throne as if he were God.
world to save sinners."  The apostle                                           333    333    333                                        The Pharisee in us stands in the
Paul  puts  a  divine  seal  on  this                                                                                          temple  praying  within  ourselves,
statement as a faithful, fully trust-                                    I am chief.                                           reminding  ourselves,  that  we  are
worthy saying.  It is the gospel, the                                    That expression has an entirely                       not  like  other  men,  and  we  also
glad tidings of salvation revealed                                different connotation for us, as we                          have  some  person  in  mind.    Like
to us in the Scriptures.  The Father                              are by nature.  We want to be chief.                         Cain we present God with our gifts,
sent His Son, and the Son came into                               In  fact,  ever  since  the  fall  of  our                   or we recount all our good deeds,
our world of sin and death, to save                               first parents in the garden of Eden,                         with  which  we  think  God  should
us  unto  eternal  life.    There  is  no                         we  want  to  be  independent,  to                           be well pleased.
other name under heaven whereby                                   make  a  name  for  ourselves.    We                                  No, we will not admit that we
we can be saved.                                                  want  to  be  as  God,  to  decide  for                      are proud, but we do seek what is
       Paul adds that this glad tidings                           ourselves what is right or wrong,                            to our advantage.  We do have big
is worthy of all acceptation, to be                               what is good or bad, what we may                             ambitions for ourselves.  The world
embraced in faith, to be appropri-                                do or may not do.                                            could  use  more  people  like  us.
                                                                         Sinful  pride  fills  the  souls  of                  When some member of the church
                                                                  mankind.    Nations  go  to  war,                            falls into sin, the thought arises in
Rev. Hanko is a minister emeritus in the                          churches  are  torn  by  heresy  and                         our minds, I would not do a thing
Protestant Reformed Churches.                                     dissension, families are brought to                          like  that--little  realizing  that  we


The Standard Bearer (ISSN 0362-4692) is a semi-monthly,           EDITORIAL OFFICE             CHURCH NEWS EDITOR              SUBSCRIPTION PRICE
except monthly during June, July, and August, published by        Prof. David J. Engelsma      Mr. Ben Wigger                  $17.00 per year in the U.S., US$20.00 elsewhere.
the Reformed Free Publishing Association, Inc., 4949              4949 Ivanrest                6597  40th Ave.
Ivanrest Ave., Grandville, MI  49418.                             Grandville, MI  49418        Hudsonville, MI  49426          ADVERTISING POLICY
Postmaster:   Send address changes to the Standard                 (e-mail:  dje@iserv.net)                                    The Standard Bearer does not accept commercial advertising of
Bearer, P.O. Box 603, Grandville, MI  49468-0603.                                                                              any kind.  Announcements of church and school events,
REPRINT POLICY                                                                                                                 anniversaries, obituaries, and sympathy resolutions will be
Permission is hereby granted for the reprinting of articles in                                                                 placed for a $10.00 fee.  These should be sent to the Business
our magazine by other publications, provided:  a) that such       BUSINESS OFFICE              NEW ZEALAND OFFICE              Office and should be accompanied by the $10.00 fee.  Deadline
reprinted articles are reproduced in full; b) that proper         The Standard Bearer          The Standard Bearer
                                                                                                                               for announcements is at least one month prior to publication
                                                                  Don Doezema                  c/o B. VanHerk
acknowledgment is made; c) that a copy of the periodical in       P.O. Box 603                 66 Fraser St.                   date.
which such reprint appears is sent to our editorial office.       Grandville, MI               Wainuiomata, New Zealand
EDITORIAL POLICY                                                      49468-0603                                               16mm microfilm, 35mm microfilm and 105mm microfiche, and
Every editor is solely responsible for the contents of his own    PH:  (616) 531-1490          UNITED KINGDOM OFFICE           article copies are available through University Microfilms
articles.  Contributions of general interest from our readers              (616) 538-1778      c/o Mr. Simon Cresswell         International.
                                                                  FAX:  (616) 531-3033         62 Moat Road
and questions for The Reader Asks department are welcome.                                      Ballymena, Co. Antrim
Contributions will be limited to approximately 300 words                                       BT42 4DA  Northern Ireland
and must be signed.


290/Standard Bearer/April 1, 1998


have not been confronted with the              Paul is not referring only to his           Yes, the same apostle who re-
same  temptation  or  in  the  same        life before the Lord spoke to him           fers to himself as the chief of sin-
measure that that person was.              on the way to Damascus.                     ners, and means every word of it,
    It is only by the grace of God             It is true that years afterward         also makes bold to say, "For to me
that we learn to plead, "O God, be         Paul was still keenly aware of his          to live is Christ, and to die is gain"
merciful to me, the sinner."               past sins.  Just previous to this he        (Phil. 1:21).  Or even:  "For I have
                                           had  said:    "...  who  was  before  a     learned  in  whatsoever  state  I  am
       333    333    333                   blasphemer, and a persecutor, and           therewith to be content."  And:  "I
    Paul, the chief of sinners?            injurious; but I obtained mercy, be-        can  do  all  things  through  Christ
    Did  he  not  realize  what  kind      cause I did it ignorantly in unbe-          which strengtheneth me."
of people walk our streets, threaten       lief."  In I Corinthians 15:9 he says:          This is not a dualism, but it is
our lives, disturb the peace of the        "I am the least of the apostles, that       the  new  man  in  Christ  who  tri-
community, and fill our jails?             am not meet to be called an apostle,        umphs over the old man of sin that
    Was he not aware of the Hitlers        because I persecuted the church of          wars  in  our  flesh.    The  apostle
and  all  the  others  in  places  of      God."  He also refers to himself as         knew the blessedness of the gospel
power and authority that in wicked         the least of all the saints.                message:    Jesus  Christ  came  into
pride are striving to establish their          Yet  here,  fully  aware  of  the       the world to save sinners!
own kingdom or to make a name              mercies of God, he still speaks of              That  truth  meant  so  much  to
for themselves?                            himself as the chief of sinners.  Not:      him when he sat as a blind man in
    Was he not aware  of the  cor-         I was, but rather:  I am.                   Damascus, realizing how blind he
ruption in the world that today has                333    333    333                   had  been  to  his  own  sin.    That
developed to the misuse of liquor                                                      never  changed.    In  fact,  through-
and drugs, the murder of the un-               Of all sinners I am the chief!          out the years as he labored as an
born, rape, mass murders, suicides,            He  knows  himself  in  his  sin        apostle of Jesus Christ he became
robberies,  and  numerous  other           and misery as no one else but he            ever  more  fully  aware  of  his  sin,
crimes?                                    and God knows him.                          the sin that warred in his members,
    He certainly was.  For in this             In fact, he knows himself as he         his  own  wretchedness,  and  the
same chapter of his epistle to Timo-       knows no one else.  Certainly he is         wonder of grace that delivers him
thy  he  speaks  of  the  lawless  and     aware  of  all  the  sinful  deeds  of      through the power of Jesus Christ,
disobedient, the ungodly and sin-          wicked men who live out their evil          who sought and found him when
ners, the unholy and profane, mur-         lives round about him.  But he is           he  was  lost.    It  is  the  grace  that
derers of fathers and murderers of         keenly  aware  that  he  is  "carnal,       now preserved him unto the end.
mothers, manslayers, they that de-         sold under sin."  He goes on to say,
file  themselves  with  mankind,           "For I know that in me, (that is, in                   333    333    333
menstealers,  liars,  perjured  per-       my flesh) dwelleth no good thing:               Paul, the worst of sinners?
sons, and others who are contrary          for to will is present with me, but             When  I  read  that  I  am  com-
to sound doctrine (I Tim. 1:9, 10).        how to perform that which is good           pelled to say:  Not so, but I.  I my-
    He could speak from his own            I  know  not.    For  the  good  that  I    self am of all sinners the chief.
experience how he suffered at the          would I do not, but the evil which              By the grace of God I still learn
hands of wicked men for the sake           I would not that I do."  And then:          daily that  "I  am  prone by nature
of  the  gospel.    Of  the  Jews  five    "O wretched man that I am!  who             to hate God and my neighbor."
times he received forty stripes save       shall deliver me from the body of               I myself am depraved, corrupt,
one.    Three  times  he  was  beaten      this death?"                                like an apple that is rotten at the
with  rods.    Once  he  was  stoned.          To  which  he  adds:    "I  thank       core.  In me, that is, in my flesh,
He was in perils of robbers, in per-       God  through  Jesus  Christ  our            dwells  no  good.    I  am  of  myself
ils of his own countrymen, in per-         Lord!"  And in the next chapter fol-        incapable of any good and inclined
ils by the heathen, in perils among        lows his beautiful song of triumph          to all evil.  All my "good deeds"
false brethren (II Cor. 11:24-26).         over sin and death, which ends in           are nothing more than "glittering
    Yet,  in  spite  of  all  that,  he    that  powerful  confession:    "For  I      vices."
maintained  that  of  all  sinners  he     am persuaded, that neither death,               Obviously,  from  this  follows
was the worst.                             nor life, nor angels, nor principali-       that I am convinced that the righ-
                                           ties,  nor  powers,  nor  things            teous,  holy  God  cannot  possibly
       333    333    333                   present,  nor  things  to  come,  nor       love me as I am in myself.  How
    We  must  not  misunderstand           height,  nor  depth,  nor  any  other       could He?  That would be in con-
the apostle.                               creature, shall be able to separate         flict with His whole glorious, holy
    He does not say:  Of whom I            me from the love of God, which is           Being.  I find my only comfort in
was the chief.                             in Christ Jesus our Lord!"                  the  fact  that  God  freely,  sover-

                                                                                                  April 1, 1998/Standard Bearer/291


eignly chose me in Christ Jesus.  He               333    333    333                      That  also  means  that  I,  of  all
loves  me,  not  as  I  am  in  myself,                                               men, should overflow with love to
but  as  He  eternally  sees  me,  a            Of no less importance to me is        God and  my neighbors, for he to
member  of  His  elect  family  with        God's  efficacious  grace.   Nothing      whom  much  is  forgiven  loveth
our elder Brother Jesus Christ.             else could save me, a sinner dead         much.  I can and must, by the grace
    For  me  the  particular  atone-        in trespasses and sin.  God brought       of God, forgive those who trespass
ment is an absolute necessity.  Who         renewal, a new heart whereby He           against me, even as I am forgiven.
or what can wash away the guilt             made me a new creature in Christ.             My response must be:  "What
of my sin?  No one.  Nothing.  Only         He  called  me  with  an  irresistible    shall I render unto the Lord for all
God could do that in Christ Jesus.          calling, dragging me, as it were, out     His benefits to me?  I will take up
The  very  God  whom  I  so  griev-         of the darkness of my sin and death       the cup of salvation, and call upon
ously  offend  with  my  sins  is  my       into His marvelous light.  He gave        the name of the Lord!"
only possible Redeemer!  Christ's           me a living faith, whereby I have             What  an  amazing  wonder  of
perfect  sacrifice  on  the  cross  not     forgiveness and life eternal through      grace  that  I  should  be  counted
only atoned for sin, but also mer-          Christ, my Lord.                          among the elect, God's saints, and
ited eternal life of  those given to            How rich, how precious, is the        have a place in His church and cov-
Him  of  the  Father.    God  was  in       glorious  gospel  that  Christ  Jesus     enant now and forever!
Christ reconciling the world (of His        came  into  the  world  to  save  sin-        Thanks be to God for His un-
elect)  unto  Himself,  not  counting       ners, even such as I am.                  speakable gift!   u
our sins against us.

  Editorial


             Where are the Theologians
                                      of the Cross?

                                            Luther's theses was the defense of            Luther  came  to  the  meeting
                                            the theology of the cross against the     with 28  theological and 12  philo-
                                            theology of glory, this book opens        sophical  theses,  or  propositions.
This is the question that is un-
         avoidably  raised  by  the  re-
         cent book, On Being a Theolo-      up the heart of the theology of Mar-      Each of the theological theses was
gian  of  the  Cross:    Reflections  on    tin  Luther.    Since  the  heart  of     followed by a brief explanation and
Luther's Heidelberg Disputation, 1518       Luther's theology was the theology        defense.  To the theses, Luther ap-
(Eerdmans, 1997).                           of the Reformation, the book opens        pended  an  "explanation"  of  the
    In  the  book,  Lutheran  theolo-       up the theology of the Reformation.       question, "Is the will of man out-
gian Gerhard O. Forde gives a brief         It does so in a brief, clear, and po-     side the state of grace free or rather
commentary on the 28 theological            lemical fashion.                          in  bondage  and  captive?"    This
theses  that  Luther  presented  and            The  Heidelberg  Disputation          amounted  to  an  important  treat-
defended at the Heidelberg Dispu-           was convened on April 26, 1518, a         ment of the fundamental theologi-
tation  in  1518.    Forde's  commen-       mere  six  months  after  Luther's        cal issue of the freedom or bond-
tary  is,  with  the  exception  of  the    posting of the 95 theses.  The Dis-       age of the will of the natural man.
criticism  of  the  "third  use  of  the    putation was a direct result of the       The complete text of the theologi-
law" (pp. 108, 109), faithful to the        posting of the 95 theses.  The pope       cal  and  philosophical  theses,  of
theology of Luther, indeed, remark-         had instructed the head of Luther's       Luther's  own  explanation  of  the
ably so.                                    Augustinian  order  to  silence  the      theological theses, and of the ap-
    In addition to the commentary,          monk.    vonStaupitz  rather  asked       pendix on the bondage of the will
the work is valuable simply in that         Luther  to  acquaint  the  Augus-         is found in  Luther's Works, vol. 31,
it makes available Luther's 28 mar-         tinians  with  his  new,  evangelical     ed. Harold J. Grimm (Philadelphia:
velous  doctrinal  propositions,  in        theology by means of a disputation        Muhlenberg Press, 1957), pp. 39-70.
full.                                       on certain theses which Luther was        (In this editorial, I will also be re-
    Inasmuch  as  the  subject  of          to draw up.                               ferring to Luther's own explanation

292/Standard Bearer/April 1, 1998


of  his  theses  in  this  source,  al-     (God's) grace.                                   attacked  in  the  bull  "Exsurge
though it is not included in Forde's            In  an  incisive  analysis  of  the          Domine" threatening Luther with
book, On Being a Theologian.)               theology of glory and its workings,              excommunication.  Luther's reply
    It  was  at  the  Heidelberg  Dis-      Forde writes:                                    to the bull indicates how impor-
putation  that  Martin  Bucer  was                                                           tant  he  considered  this  thesis  to
                                                                                             be.    He said  it  was  "the  highest
won to the cause of the Reforma-              A  theology  of  glory  ...  operates            and most important issue of our
tion, and captivated by Luther.               on the assumption that what we                 cause" (p. 53).
    Gerhard  Forde  comments  on              need is optimistic encouragement,
the theological theses.  These the-           some flattery, some positive think-                  Central to Luther's theology of
ses set forth Luther's beliefs con-           ing,  some  support  to  build  our
                                              self-esteem.  Theologically speak-           the cross was justification by faith
cerning sin, the bondage of the hu-           ing it operates on the assumption            alone.  Luther expressed this doc-
man will, the inability of the  un-           that we are not seriously addicted           trine in Thesis 25:  "He is not righ-
saved man outside of Christ to per-           to sin, and that our improvement             teous  who  works  much,  but  he
form any good work, and salvation             is  both  necessary  and  possible.          who, without work, believes much
by  grace  alone  in  the  cross  of          We need a little boost in our de-            in Christ."
Christ.                                       sire to do good works.  Of course                    Very  definitely  and  promi-
    The  theses,  therefore,  present         our theologian of glory may well             nently  "looming  in  the  back-
the gospel.                                   grant  that  we  need  the  help  of         ground," as Forde puts it, "always
    In  these  theses,  Luther  spoke         grace.  The only dispute, usually,
                                              will be about the degree of grace            is the troublesome question of pre-
explicitly  of  the  "theology  of  the       needed.  If we are a "liberal," we           destination."  In its repudiation of
cross,"  which  he  explicitly  con-          will opt for less grace and tend to          free will, Forde points out, the the-
trasted  with  the  "theology  of             define  it  as  some  kind  of  moral        ology  of  the  cross  unmistakably
glory."  Thesis 21 reads:  "A theol-          persuasion or spiritual encourage-           proclaims  that  "we  are  saved  by
ogy  of  glory  calls  evil  good  and        ment.  If we are more "conserva-             divine election."  "The cross itself
good evil.  A theology of the cross           tive" and speak even of the depth            is  the  evidence  that  we  did  not
calls the thing what it actually is."         of human sin, we will tend to es-            choose him but that he, neverthe-
The theology of the cross is the bib-         calate the degree of grace needed            less, chose us (John 15:16)" (pp. 50,
lical  gospel  of  God's  salvation  of       to the utmost.   But the hallmark of
                                              a theology of glory is that it will al-      51).
dead sinners out of mere grace only           ways consider grace as something of                  Against  the  truth  of  predesti-
through the suffering and death of            a  supplement  to  whatever  is  left  of    nation, which is fundamental to the
the cross of Jesus Christ.  The the-          human  will  and power.   It  will  al-      theology of the cross, Forde notes,
ology  of  the  cross  not  only  rules       ways, in the end, hold out for some
out,  but  also  curses  all  human           free will (p. 16; emphasis added).             the protest is always raised, "We
worth,  will,  and  working  that                                                            aren't puppets, are we?  If every-
would  accomplish  or  account  for             Luther opposed the character-                thing happens by divine will, how
the salvation of sinners, in whole          istic  Roman  Catholic  form  of  the            can we be held responsible?  We
or in part.  Thesis 16 reads:  "The         theology of glory:  "Do what is in               just  can't  accept  such  a  God!
person  who  believes  that  he  can        you, and God will reward you with                There  must   be  some  freedom  of
obtain  grace  by  doing  what  is  in      grace  and  salvation."    Basic  to             choice!"
him adds sin to sin so that he be-          Rome's theology of glory was (and                      This is always the protest by the
comes doubly guilty."                       is) their doctrine of the freedom of           theologian of glory.  Thus he identi-
    In radical contrast and opposi-         the human will:  the sinner has of             fies  himself.    He  is  flushed  from
tion,  the  theology  of  glory  is  the    himself the ability to choose God              his  cover  by  the  theology  of  the
corruption  of  the  biblical  gospel,      and salvation.  Against the Roman              cross.  As Forde observes,
consisting  of  attributing  to  man        Catholic theology of  glory, there-
some "little bit" (to use Forde's de-       fore,  Luther  (in  1518!)  laid  down           the point is that this kind of pro-
scription) of cooperation with God          Thesis 13:  "Free will, after the fall,          test  is  precisely  the  proof of  the
in salvation.  The glory that the the-      exists in name only, and as long as              pudding.  It is evidence of theolo-
ology of glory is concerned to pre-         it does what it is able to do, it com-           gians of glory at work defending
serve  and  promote  is  the  natural       mits a mortal sin."                              themselves to the end.  They ac-
glory of man.  The theologians of               Forde comments on Thesis 13:                 tually admit that they cannot and
glory are offended by the cross' ex-                                                         will not "will" God to be God (p.
posure of man as utterly helpless             This thesis was perhaps the most               51).
in  his  own  salvation  and  utterly         offensive of all to the papal party
hostile to the God who saves him.             in Luther's day.  That is indicated                  Forde calls attention to the fact
The  theology  of  (man's)  glory  is         by  the  fact  that  it  was  the  only      that, although some translations of
                                              one from this Disputation actually
pitted  against  the  theology  of                                                         the theses that Luther argued at the

                                                                                                       April 1, 1998/Standard Bearer/293


Heidelberg  Disputation  speak  of             "So  to  defend  themselves,"           Reformed, preaching today is pre-
the "theology of the cross" and the        says Forde,                                 destination "looming in the back-
"theology of glory," Luther actually                                                   ground," as, according to Gerhard
spoke  of  the  "theologian   of  the        theologians  of  glory  are  always       Forde,  will  always  be  the  case
cross" and the "theologian of glory."        driven to claim at least some free-       when the theology of the cross is
Luther  was  referring  to  the              dom of choice and to play theo-           proclaimed.    On  the  contrary,  as
church's preachers and professors.           logical games, bargaining for little      soon as a minister or a denomina-
He meant to stress the responsibil-          bits.  In one way  or another the         tion  of  churches  show  that  he  or
                                             claim is made that the will must
ity of the church's teachers.                have at least a small part to play        they take divine predestination se-
    In light of this, it is fitting to       (pp. 49, 50).                             riously as the source and founda-
note that theologians of the cross                                                     tion  of  all  salvation,  the  minister
are rare today, exceedingly rare.  A       The  theological  game  that  many          or the churches are buried in pro-
theologian of the cross, according         play  today,  exactly  as  in  Luther's     tests, objections, and charges:  "You
to  Luther  in  Theses  9  and  10,        day,  is  to  concede  that  "without       make  men  puppets!    You  make
judges  all  works  done  "without         grace the will (can) do nothing to          God the author of sin!  You deny
Christ" as "dead" and as "mortal           merit eternal salvation" and to ac-         human responsibility!  Hyper-Cal-
sin."  In his own defense of the the-      knowledge  that  we  are  saved  by         vinists!"
ology  of  the  cross,  Luther  con-       grace.  But immediately they add                Theologians of glory!
demned as sin, and nothing but sin,        that "the will must at least desire             Many whose official confession
every work done by unbelievers:            and prepare for grace" (p. 50).             is that of the theology of the cross
                                               In  his  appendix  to  the  theses      contradict  this  confession  by  the
  "Every one who commits sin is a          that  he  brought  to  Heidelberg  in       teaching  of  a  love  of  God  in  the
  slave of sin" (John 8:34).  How is       1518, an appendix that proved that          gospel  for  all  without  exception
  it possible that a slave of the devil    "the will of man outside the state          and a sincere desire of God to save
  and a captive of the sin he serves                                                   all without exception.  This teach-
  can  do  anything  else  but  sin?       of grace" is "in bondage and cap-
                                                                                       ing, which has their hearts, is the
  How  can  he  do  a  work  of  light     tive," Luther himself passed a dev-
  who is in darkness?  How can he          astating judgment upon the theol-           explicit repudiation of predestina-
  do the work of a wise man who is         ogy--the  "gospel,"  the  teaching,          tion (which teaches love for some
  a fool?  How can he do the work          the message--of the preachers who            only and hatred for the others) and
  of a healthy person who is ill? ...        make the grace of God depend on             the implicit affirmation of free will
  Therefore all things which he does       anything at all in the sinner, par-         (if saving grace in the gospel comes
  are works of the devil, works of         ticularly the sinner's will:                to all alike, the reason why some
  sin, works of darkness, works of                                                     are saved and others are not saved
  folly.... Everything that does not                                                     must be the decision of the sinner).
  proceed from faith is a mortal and         Such teachers attribute nothing to
                                                                                           A theology of glory!
  damnable sin (Luther's Works, vol.         the grace of God except a certain
  31, pp. 65, 67).                           embellishment of our works, not               Even among those who them-
                                             that it may heal the sick but adorn       selves teach an uncorrupted theol-
                                             the strong.  We can do works, but
    This exposes the common grace                                                      ogy of the cross are secret admir-
                                             without  embellishment.    Thus
theologians in Calvinist churches,                                                     ers  and  allies  of  the  theology  of
                                             grace is the most despised thing
who approve and laud the works                                                         glory.  For they never make an is-
                                             and a gift which is not necessary
of  unbelievers  as  good  and  righ-        for us, but exists only because of        sue  of  the  theology  of  the  cross.
teous.  Outside of Christ, accord-           the will and the intention of the         They will not contend with the the-
ing to the flattering theory of com-         one who demands it, as they say           ology of glory.  Never would they
mon  grace,  is  something,  even            (Luther's Works, vol. 31, pp. 67, 68).    throw  their  churches  and  (if  this
much, that is not killed, accused,                                                     were again a possibility, as in the
judged, and condemned by the law               Theologians of glory!                   days  of  the  Reformation)  the  en-
of God, contrary to the confession             Exclaimed Luther, in the next           tire  world  into  uproar  and  up-
of Luther in Thesis 23.                    line:    "What  Christian  will  stand      heaval over the deadness and mor-
    Theologians of glory!                  for such blasphemy?"                        tal  sinfulness  of  all  the  works  of
    The vast majority of Protestant            The answer today is:  any num-          unbelievers;  the  bondage  of  the
preachers,  missionaries,  and  pro-       ber of professing Christians!  Dis-         will;  justification  by  faith  alone;
fessors openly hold with Rome in           ciples of the theology of glory num-        and  eternal  predestination  as  the
adorning  the  sinner  with  a  glori-     ber  in  the  hundreds  of  millions.       fountain and foundation of salva-
ous  free  will  and  in  making  this     Those who believe and confess the           tion.  Much less would they jeop-
free will decisive in the sinner's sal-    theology  of  the  cross  are  a  mere      ardize  their  positions  and  liveli-
vation.                                    remnant, a little flock.                    hoods over these issues.  They are
                                               In very little Protestant, or even      careful not to cast in their lot with

294/Standard Bearer/April 1, 1998


the  despised  theologian  or               the  glory  of  God  (John  12:43,  lit-        If Luther was right in the the-
churches that do boldly and anti-           eral translation of the Greek).             ses of the Heidelberg Disputation
thetically proclaim the theology of             Theologians of glory!                   (and he was), this is a question that
the cross.  Like the theologians in             Where at the close of the 20th          every  confessing  Christian  must
Jesus'  day,  they  believe  all  right,    century are the theologians of the          ask and pursue with all urgency.
but they do not confess.  For they          cross?                                                                               u
love the glory of men rather than                                                                                         -- DJE

  Letters

Further Application of                      Response:                                   with a woman who is not his wife,
"Bert Zandstra"                                 Foolish, sinful men and women           but the wife of another man.  Re-
I read with great interest your ar- can so snarl their marital lives that pentance is such a sorrow for God's
  ticle in the November 1, 1997 is-         a wise man or woman cannot fig-             sake as turns from the sin, which
sue  of  the  Standard  Bearer,  titled     ure out how to set things right.            one  now  hates,  unto  God  with  a
"The Sad Case of Bert Zandstra."                The responsibility and guilt are        determination to please God by a
I  truly  appreciate  your  biblical        theirs.    There  is  no  excuse.    God    life of obedience to the law (Ezek.
stand on divorce.                           made man good.  Man  corrupted              18:30-32; Acts 26:20; Rom. 8:12-14).
    But this leaves me with a ques-         himself.  Even now, fallen men and              This is the way to Christ.  This
tion I hope you can help me with,           women have "the work of the law             is the only  way to Christ.  It is also
as to what God's Word teaches us            written in their hearts" (Rom. 2:15).       the only way into the church--the
in the following situation.                     Regardless of the complicated           true church.
    I have an acquaintance whom             circumstances  that  sin  produces,             Bring  him  these  passages  of
I  have  opportunities  to  talk  to        the  way  of  salvation  is  always         Holy Scripture:
about our great and glorious God            plain:  repentance and faith.               1. "Thou shalt not commit adul-
and the work of Jesus Christ.  He               By  all  means,  call  your  adul-      tery" (Ex. 20:14).
has been open to hearing but as of          terous neighbor to come to Christ.          2. "Whosoever shall put away his
yet does not seem willing to come           Coming to Christ includes repent-           wife,     and      marry       another,
to Christ.  After reading your ar-          ing of  sin (Acts 20:21).  For your         committeth  adultery  against  her.
ticle on divorce, I do not know how         acquaintance, this repentance must          And if a woman shall put away her
to  counsel  this  man  if  he  should      be sorrow of heart for whatever sin         husband,  and  be  married  to  an-
want to join the church.                    he  committed  in  his  previous  di-       other,  she  committeth  adultery"
    The  problem  is,  he  has  di-         vorcing and  for his present adul-          (Mark 10:11, 12).
vorced  twice  and  is  at  this  time      terous marriage.                            3. "It  is  not  lawful  for  thee  to
married  again.    His  present  wife           The  burning  issue  for  him  is       have  thy  brother's  (neighbor's)
has also been married before.  Also,        not how to join a church, but re-           wife" (Mark 6:18).
there are children from each mar-           pentance.  Repentance is necessary!         4. "Know ye not that the unrigh-
riage.                                      True repentance is necessary:  sor-         teous shall not inherit the kingdom
    How am I to counsel him, if he          row of heart that he has offended           of God?  Be not deceived ... adul-
wishes to join the church?  That he         the holy God and exposed himself            terers  ...  shall  (not)  inherit  the
leave his present wife and children         to God's wrath, which will damn             kingdom of God" (I Cor. 6:9, 10).
and try to return to his first wife         him  eternally,  except  he  repent         5. "If  we  confess  our  sins,  he  is
(who  is  still  unmarried)?    Or,         (Luke 13:1-5).  Only in the way of          faithful and just to forgive us our
should  he  stay  with  his  present        repentance can he find forgiveness          sins,  and  to  cleanse  us  from  all
family?                                     in Jesus Christ.                            unrighteousness.  If we say that we
    Please show me what the Scrip-              If  by  the  grace  of  God  he  re-    have  not  sinned,  we  make  him  a
ture teaches us.                            pents, it will be impossible for him        liar and his word is not in us" (I
                            Ron Nyhof,      to  continue  living,  adulterously,        John 1:9, 10).
                        Hamilton, MI                                                                                  -- Ed.    u

  The Reader Asks

                                            Peter.   We ran into disagreement           considered a chosen child of God.
About II Peter 1:9                          on verse 9 of chapter 1.  The ques-             Those  who  said  he  was  not  a
                                            tion revolved around whether "he
Our Men's Society (Hudsonville                                                          child of God appealed to the rule
     PRC) is presently discussing II        that lacketh these things" could be         that Scripture interprets Scripture.

                                                                                                  April 1, 1998/Standard Bearer/295


They  used  the  book  of  James,             (v. 1), "you, ye, your" (vv. 2, 4, 5,       man can see and only those things.
where  James  stresses  that  where           8), "us" (vv. 3, 4).  But in verse 9        The child of God has the faith en-
there is no evidence of good works            the  apostle  describes  "he  that          abling  him  to  see  the  things  afar
it must be concluded that there is            lacketh these things."  In the Greek        off.
no faith.  Therefore "he that lacketh         the text reads, "But to the one to                  This leaves the question, what
... virtue, knowledge, temperance,              whom these things are not...."  In            does  the  text  mean  when  it  says
patience, godliness, brotherly kind-          verse  10  the  apostle  again  ad-         that this man "hath forgotten that
ness  and  charity"  does  not  have          dresses the people of God, calling          he was purged from his old sins"?
good  works  and,  therefore,  does           them "brethren."                            It cannot mean that once this man
not have faith.                               2. The man described in verse 9             was cleansed from his old sins by
    Those who claim he  is a child            "lacketh  these  things."    "These         the blood of Jesus, but now he is
of God appealed to the fact "that             things"  are  the  Christian  virtues       no longer cleansed.  Once cleansed
he was purged from his old sins."             mentioned in verses 5 - 8, viz., faith,     always cleansed.  This is the bibli-
Those  who  are  purged  (washed)             virtue, knowledge, temperance, pa-          cal  truth  of  the  preservation  and
are always children of God, or else           tience,  godliness,  brotherly  kind-       perseverance  of  the  saints.    The
we must say there is a falling away           ness, and charity (love).  While it         meaning  is  that  this  man  was
of  the  saints.    This  child  of  God      is certainly true that one child of         cleansed but only in the outward
who  is  no  doubt  walking  in  the          God may have a greater measure              sense of the word.  He was born of
deep ways of sin nevertheless will            of these Christian virtues than an-         believers, baptized, brought up in
in due time hear and heed the ad-             other,  no  Christian  lacks  them.         the  fear  of  the  Lord  and  in  the
monitions in the verses that follow.          One cannot be a child of God if he          church.  He made confession of his
                          G. Bouwkamp,        lacks God's love or if he lacks faith.      faith.  To all appearances he was a
                             Jenison, MI      All  of  God's  children  have  these       child of God.  He masqueraded as
Answer:                                       gifts, though in differing measure.         a child of  God.   He  was a  hypo-
In verse 9 of II Peter 1 the inspired         3. The man described in verse 9             crite.    In  reality  he  never  was  a
apostle  is  describing  an  ungodly,         is said to be "blind" and one who           child of God.  He was "barren and
carnal member of the church.  This            "cannot see afar off."  He is blind         unfruitful" (v. 8).  All the preach-
man  cannot  have  been  a  child  of         in the sense that he cannot see afar        ing and teaching of the church, his
God.  This interpretation of the text         off.    The  things  afar  off  are  the    participation in the sacraments, all
is based on the following reasons:            heavenly things of God's kingdom            this is to such a hypocrite a "savor
1. Note  that  in  the  preceding             in Jesus Christ.  The things which          of  death  unto  death"  (cf.  II  Cor.
verses  the  apostle  addresses  the          are  near  are  carnal,  earthly,  or       2:14-17).
people of God, "them that have ob-            worldly things.  Those things this                         -- Editorial Committee
tained like precious faith with us"                                                                                             u

  A Word Fitly Spoken                                                                                   Rev. Dale Kuiper


                                                  Reaping
    Scripture often speaks of seed time and harvest, branches and purging the fruitful branches that
        sowing and reaping.  When God speaks to us                   they  may  bring  forth  more  fruit  (John  15:1,  2).
    in these terms, He uses a figure with a deep spiri-              Christ is the firstfruits of them that slept (I Cor.
    tual  meaning  that  is  based  on  the  agricultural            15:20); His resurrection marks the beginning of a
    economy of Israel and that is very familiar to us                great harvest that will not be completed until the
    today.  God is the Lord of the harvest to whom we                last elect is born, saved, and brought to heaven.
    pray for laborers (preachers) that may go forth into             According  to  the  parable  of  the  Tares  and  the
    His harvest (Matt. 9:38).  He is the Husbandman                  Wheat (Matt. 13:37-43), the harvest is the end of
    who  tends  His  vineyard,  cutting  off  unfruitful             the  world,  and  the  angels  are  the  reapers  who
                                                                     gather the wicked that they may be destroyed and
    Rev.  Kuiper  is  pastor  of  Southeast  Protestant  Reformed    the righteous that they may shine forth as the sun.
    Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan.



296/Standard Bearer/April 1, 1998


And finally there is the steady emphasis in Scrip-             weak.  How easy to sow to the flesh!  How hard to
ture  that  all  men  are  busy  sowing  and  reaping.         sow to the Spirit!  "Those that sow in tears shall
"Be not deceived; God is not mocked:  for whatso-              reap in joy" (Ps. 126:5).  This difficulty is recog-
ever a man soweth, that shall he also reap" (Gal.              nized by the apostle in Galatians 6:9, "Let us not
6:7).                                                          be weary in well doing:  for in due season we shall
    The  key  point  is  that  there  is  a  strict  corre-    reap, if we faint  not."
spondence in kind between sowing and reaping.                      Why  might  the  child  of  God  become  weary
You reap what you sow.  "For he that soweth to                 and faint?  Because we shall reap when Christ re-
his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he           turns at the end of the world, the seeming delay
that soweth to  the  Spirit shall of the  Spirit reap          of His coming may cause us to grow faint.  Jesus
life everlasting" (Gal. 6:8).  If a man puts in the            said, "Behold, I come quickly, and my reward is
ground, as it were, sinful words and corrupt deeds,            with me, to give every man according as his work
he reaps in kind:  death and destruction; but if a             shall be" (Rev. 22:12), but that promise was made
man sows words that minister grace and deeds of                two thousand years ago!  Why does He not come?
love, he receives life everlasting.  Another point:            Life is so long.  History goes on and on.
"He which soweth sparingly shall reap also spar-                   There are other reasons.  Perhaps there is in-
ingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap              gratitude on the part of those we seek to help.  We
also bountifully" (II Cor. 9:6).  That is true in agri-        try to restore a brother overtaken in a fault, but he
culture,  and  that  is  true  before  the  face  of  God.     reacts in anger.  We give counsel and advice, but
There  are  degrees  of  punishment,  and  there  are          it is not followed.  Besides, if we continue in well
degrees in heavenly glory and reward.                          doing,  the  world  does  not  leave  us  alone,  but
    Scripture is replete with warnings to the un-              marks  us  for  persecution.    Young  people  in  the
faithful, slothful members of the church.  They that           church  who  sincerely  desire  to  live  a  godly  life
plow iniquity and sow wickedness reap the same                 might say, "What's the use?  Everyone else seems
(Job 4:8).  He that soweth iniquity shall reap van-            to be interested in the wrong and not the right.
ity (Prof. 22:8).  The wicked may sow wheat, but               No one notices that I do the right anyway.  And
they shall reap thorns (Jer. 12:13).  They sow the             are  my  feeble  attempts  at  well  doing  really  no-
wind,  but  shall  reap  the  whirlwind  (Hosea  8:7).         ticed by God and rewarded by God?"
In order to excuse themselves, the wicked accuse                   In respect to all those doubts and inclinations,
Jesus of reaping that He didst not sow (Luke 19:22),           the promise of God is, "We shall reap, if we faint
but Jesus would have none of that.  "Take from                 not!"    The  day  of  harvest  shall  surely  come;  in
him that pound, and give it to him that hath ten               fact,  it  has begun  with  the  resurrection  of  Jesus
pounds."                                                       Christ from the dead.  But we shall reap in "due
    It is striking that the child of God is encour-            season."  This refers to a fixed and definite time, a
aged to sow good works especially in respect to                proper and suitable time.  It would not be proper
the poor and in respect to ministers of the gospel.            for Christ to return at some point before this time.
The Israelites were instructed to leave the corners            That would be premature; that would result in a
of their fields unharvested and some of their grapes           partial harvest, for He cannot come until the last
ungleaned, that the poor and the stranger might                elect is born and comes to repentance (II Pet. 3:9).
have food (Lev. 19:9, 10).  And Paul instructs us              As the farmer must exercise patience for the com-
that continuing in well doing includes doing good              ing harvest, having prepared the soil and sown;
unto all men, especially them who are of the house-            as the husbandman has long patience for the early
hold of faith (Gal. 6:10).  This sowing in well do-            and latter rains and then the precious fruit (James
ing also requires of those who are taught in the               5:7); so must we be patient.  So must we stablish
Word to communicate (give) to those who teach in               our hearts in the Word of God.  For the coming of
all good things (Gal. 6:6).  For, says Paul, "If we            the Lord draweth nigh.
have sown unto you spiritual things, is it a great                 "For  God  is  not  unrighteous  to  forget  your
thing if we shall reap your carnal things?" (I Cor.            work and labour of love, which ye have shewed
9:11).                                                         toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the
    Sowing in the Spirit can be very difficult for             saints, and do minister" (Heb. 6:12).   u
us, because though the spirit is willing the flesh is





                                                                                             April 1, 1998/Standard Bearer/297


  Marking Zion's Bulwarks                                                                     Prof. Herman Hanko



               Marcion: First Bible Critic

Introduction                                 to come under attack in one way                In about 139 Marcion went to
                                             or another is found only in Scrip-         Rome.    There  is  some  dispute
                                             ture.  No individual attack has to
From the beginning of the New
        Testament  church,  God's                                                       among historians as to the precise
        people have been troubled by         be made against any one doctrine           order of events.  Some say that he
heretics.    Paul  warned  the  elders       if the Scriptures themselves are de-       was  refused  admission  to  the
in  Ephesus  that  grievous  wolves          stroyed.                                   church  of  Rome  upon  his  arrival
would  enter  the  church  (Acts                 This  is  what  Marcion  at-           there.    Whether  this  was  because
20:29); he warned Timothy of cor-            tempted  to  do;  and  he  did  it  in     reports  from  Sinope  had  reached
rupt  men  with  reprobate  minds            much  the  same  way  that  higher         Rome, or whether it was because
who resist the truth (II Tim. 3:8);          critics of Scripture still do it today.    Marcion was quick to promote his
and  Christ  Himself  warned  the            That is why I call Marcion the first       ideas in this city, it is impossible
church at Pergamos of the wrong              Bible critic.                              to tell.  Others say that he was a
of keeping in the church those who                                                      member of the church for a while,
held the doctrine of Balaam and of           Marcion's Life                             but  was  constantly  the  center  of
the Nicolaitans (Rev. 2:14, 15).  The            Although the date of Marcion's         controversy and was excommuni-
constant  presence  of  heretics  and        birth is not known, it seems as if         cated once more.  They point to a
the struggles of the church against          he was born within 15 years of the         story that Marcion gave the church
them speak of Satan's relentless at-         turn  of  the  first  century.    The      in  Rome  100,000  sestertii  (Roman
tacks  against  the  church,  even           apostle  John  had  not  been  dead        money) when he was admitted to
though he knows that the gates of            very  long  when  Marcion  entered         membership, but the whole amount
hell cannot prevail against her.             the world, and Polycarp, the first         was returned to him when he was
    It is not surprising, then, that         martyr  of  the  post-apostolic  era       excommunicated.
almost  immediately  after  the  last        and friend of John, knew Marcion.              Polycarp, who met him prob-
apostle died, another heretic arose          Already  in  A.D.  139,  Marcion  is       ably while he was still in Asia Mi-
in  the  church  who  attempted  to          found in Rome spreading heresy.            nor,  called  him  "the  first-born  of
bring in the worst kind of false doc-            He was born in Sinope in the           Satan," and indeed it was true that
trine:  he  launched  his  attack  di-       province of Pontus in Asia Minor           his heresies were deadly poison.
rectly against the Scriptures by de-         some distance east of Ephesus.  He             He founded a church separate
nying that they were the Word of             was born into a Christian family,          from the apostolic church and had
God.                                         for  his  father  was  a  bishop.          considerable  influence  on  many
    This  was  a  subtle  and  inge-         Tertullian, a third century church         who flocked to him and joined his
nious ploy of Satan.  The Scriptures         father, says that Marcion was a pi-        movement.  In fact, his sect spread
are the Word of God in which is              lot of a river boat.                       throughout  the  Mediterranean
found  the  truth  of  God  as  God              Even though almost nothing is          world as far east as Syria and Pal-
makes  Himself  known  in  Christ.           known  of  his  early  life,  there  is    estine.  His church survived until
The  Scriptures  are,  therefore,  the       some evidence that he himself be-          the 6th century, a strong testimony
source of all the church knows of            came  a  Christian  only  after  long      to his influence.
God and of His Christ.  Take away            study, but that he was, soon after             Marcion was an extremely able
the Scriptures and the church has            admission to the church, excommu-          man, skillful in presenting his ideas
nothing.    Rob  the  church  of  the        nicated by his own father for teach-       in  the  best  possible  light,  charis-
Bible, and the church ceases to ex-          ing wrong doctrines.  Apparently           matic  in  his  influence  on  others,
ist.  All of the truth that was later        his father remained suspicious of          and a sufficiently profound thinker
                                             Marcion even when Marcion later            to construct something of a system
                                             confessed his wrong, for his father        of thought.  But he was extremely
Prof. Hanko is professor of Church His-      refused him re-admittance when he          bold  and  forward  and  was  much
tory  and  New Testament  in  the Protes-    applied.                                   like  many  today  who  think  that
tant Reformed Seminary.

298/Standard Bearer/April 1, 1998


they alone possess the truth.  He         Testament was the God of the law:           in the 2nd century I John and I Pe-
was  so  obviously  contrary  to  the     harsh, critical, severe in judgment,        ter were  also accepted as canoni-
truth that none of the orthodox had       cruel in punishment.  On the other          cal.    Revelation,  because  it  had
any difficulty in detecting his her-      hand, the God of the New Testa-             been written by John, was received.
esy.                                      ment  was  the  God  of  the  gospel:       But  questions  remained  among
        It must be remembered that the    kind,  compassionate,  filled  with         some concerning a few other books.
church was in her infancy and had,        love, merciful to those who do not          No  one  was  sure  who  wrote  the
as a result, no systematic doctrine,      measure up to His standards.                epistle to the Hebrews, and its can-
no confessions, no body of truth to           Hence the God of the Old Tes-           onicity was considered doubtful by
which  to  appeal in  its defense  of     tament was the author of suffering          some.  II Peter, II & III John, James
the faith.  Not even the Apostolic        and misery in the world, while the          and Jude were not universally ac-
Confession was in existence as yet.       God of the New Testament was the            cepted.  But because the canon of
It may  have been because of  this        fountain of all that is good.               Scripture was not a source of con-
that the orthodox of his day were             It is very striking that in some        troversy,  no  one  gave  much
more fearful of him and his influ-        modernistic circles a similar view          thought  to  disagreements  on  the
ence on people than of almost any         of God is still taught, and the Old         matter.
other enemy of the church, includ-        Testament similarly rejected.  But              But  then  along  came  Marcion
ing  those  who  persecuted  the          it  is  obvious  that  whether  in  the     and  his  terrible  heresies.    He
church.                                   2nd  century  or  in  the  20th  century    launched his attack at a vulnerable
                                          this  view  is  an  open  attack  on        point.    But  it  was  as  if,  through
Marcion's Heresy                          Scripture.                                  him, God was saying to the church:
        The heresy with which we are                                                  "It is important that you study this
interested at this point is his open      The Church's Response                       question  carefully  and  determine
and blatant attack on Holy Scrip-             God used this attack on Scrip-          what  books  were  inspired  by  Me
ture.  He made it his business to         ture to prod the church into an ex-         and what books were not."  This
decide  what  books he considered         tremely  important  aspect  of  her         the church had now to do.
to be the Word of God and what            calling, viz., to define carefully the          A consensus soon developed in
were not part of the canon of Scrip-      doctrine of Scripture and set down          the  whole  church.    Marcion  was
ture.  He concluded that the entire       what books belong to the Bible and          condemned and his followers were
Old  Testament  ought  to  be  ex-        what books do not.  Up to the time          excommunicated.  By the end of the
cluded, and everything in the New         of  Marcion  the  church  had  not          2nd century, disagreement over the
Testament  which  had  not  been          done  this.    There  simply  was  no       questions  had  ceased.    In  352
written by Paul.  When he had fin-        reason for doing it.                        Athanasius,  bishop  of  the  church
ished  with  the  New  Testament,             Because  the  church  had  not          in Alexandria, sent a pastoral let-
what  he  had  left  was  only  the       done this, different opinions were          ter to all the churches throughout
epistles  of  Paul  and  a  truncated     held  among  the  churches  and             the entire known world, in connec-
gospel of Luke, which, he thought,        saints.  Some held that other books,        tion with the date on which Easter
had been written by Paul.  In fact,       as, e.g., the epistles of Clement of        was to be celebrated, in which he
he  did  not  even  accept  all  the      Rome and Barnabas, were canoni-             listed the 66 books of the canon as
epistles of Paul as canonical, for he     cal.    Others  questioned  whether         we  confess  them  today  to  be  the
denied the Pauline authorship of I        some books in our present canon             Word of God.  And in 393 and 397
& II Timothy and Titus.                   ought really to be there.                   the synods of Hippo and Carthage
        Of course, there were reasons         This  does  not  mean  that  the        officially  fixed  the  canon  for  the
for this position which he took.  He      church  had  no  idea  of  what  the        new dispensation.
had a certain "theology" which re-        canon was.  Almost as soon as the               Before  the  canon  was  finally
vealed his presuppositions, and on        gospels  were  written,  they  were         fixed, the church had to settle a dis-
the basis of which he rejected huge       considered canonical and grouped            pute over the question of the crite-
parts of God's Word.                      together as such.  Because the book         ria  by  which  a  book  could  be
        For one thing, Marcion held to    of  Acts  carried  on  the  history  of     judged as canonical or non-canoni-
some ideas which were Gnostic in          the gospels, it too was considered          cal.    For  example,  some  thought
character.1   But it was particularly     canonical.    When  Paul's  epistles
his view of God which was corrupt.        were  written,  a  "Body  of  Paul's            1 Gnosticism  was  an  early  heresy
He believed that the God of the Old       Writings"  was  soon  circulated  in        which appeared in the church in the
Testament and the God of the New          the church as writings inspired by          third century, although early forms of
Testament were irreconcilable and         God,  and  they  were  accepted  as         it may have been present in apostolic
had to be two different powers in         such by the whole church from the           times.  We shall have opportunity to
                                                                                      discuss this heresy in the next article.
the universe.  The God of the Old         time they were written.  Very early

                                                                                                 April 1, 1998/Standard Bearer/299


that either an apostle or one closely             Since  the  18th  century  the              That wicked men do this is not
connected to an apostle had to be             higher critics of Scripture have fol-       surprising.  That these views have,
an author for a book to be canoni-            lowed in the footsteps of Marcion           more or less, infiltrated almost ev-
cal.    But  the  church  in  fact  used      and have troubled the church with           ery  seminary  in  this  land  and
the same criteria as are mentioned            similar  heresies.    They  too  have       abroad is a sad but undeniable fact.
in our Confession of Faith (Art. 5):          their  "theology"  on  the  basis  of           It was important for the church
the objective testimony of the books          which  they  pass  their  own  judg-        to  establish  what  books  were  of
themselves, and the subjective tes-           ments  on  Scripture.    Their  theol-      God because no possible develop-
timony  of  the  Holy  Spirit  in  the        ogy  is  a  denial,  to  a  greater  or     ment or defense of the truth could
hearts of His people.  The former             lesser degree, of the inspiration of        be made until this was done.  God
refers to the fact that the canonical         sacred Scripture as the sole work           in  His  wisdom  led  the  church  to
books carry their own evidence in             of God the Holy Spirit, and an in-          set down this truth first.  It was to
themselves that they are  inspired            sistence that Scripture, in whole or        be the foundation of all the other
by the Spirit; and the second crite-          in  part,  is  the  word  of  man.    If    truths the church would later con-
rion refers to the testimony of the           Scripture  is,  in  whole  or  in  part,    fess.  God's Scriptures are the rule
Spirit of truth whom Christ prom-             the  word  of  man,  man  can  judge        of  faith  and  life.    Marcion's  her-
ised to the church (John 14, 15, 16)          which parts of Scripture he accepts         esies  were  the  occasion  and  the
as the Spirit who would lead the              and which parts he rejects.                 goad for the church's establishing
church into all truth.                                                                    of its doctrine of Scripture.   u

  Search the Scriptures                                                                             Rev. Mitchell Dick



                   "The Secret of the Way"
                                                   John 14:1-14


                                              Passover!  He is, we must see, still        He  come,  in  our  godly,  believing
                                              fulfilling  all  righteousness,  under      participation in and celebration of
                                              the law until His death, but in this        Christ's death and life.  New Cov-
In the privacy of the upper room
    in Jerusalem Jesus was teaching
    His disciples things of the new           also pointing to Himself, the Christ,       enant  of  the  new  commandment
covenant  of  grace.    The  old  cov-        our  Passover.     Then,  an  entirely      Christ gives: that we love one an-
enant was about to be done away.              new covenant thing!  A new sup-             other as He has loved us.
The old covenant pictures, the sym-           per.  The Lord's Supper!  The re-               Great  instruction  in  the  great
bols, the types were about to be ful-         membrance and celebration of the            and eternal new covenant of grace!
filled  in  the  real  salvation  of  the     Lord's  death  and  life,  and  of  the     The  secret  of  the  Lord  Jehovah,
cross of the Christ.  There must be           communion  there  is  with  God             now being revealed in the bright-
instruction, important instruction,           through Christ's atoning work.              ness of the dawning of the new age.
on this last night before His death.              New covenant: taught in these           The secret of the covenant.  This,
Instruction  in  something  new,              old covenant ways and in this new           this  secret  of  the  new  covenant
something wonderful!                          covenant  Supper.    Covenant  of           must be with those that fear Him
    Listen to the Master's instruc-           God's  salvation  in  Christ.    Cov-       (Ps. 25:14)!
tion.    Jesus  washes  feet!    An  old      enant also in which we have a part.             There needs to be more instruc-
covenant way, still, of teaching the          Not  a  saving  part,  but  a  part  of     tion.  A whole discourse of it.  We
coming  reality  of  the  cleansing           thanks, a part which becomes those          have it recorded for us in John 14-
blood of the Lamb.  Jesus celebrates          who  are  the  saved.    Covenant  in       17.  It is Jesus' final, farewell cov-
                                              which  we  are  obliged  unto  new          enant  discourse.    For  this  Judas
                                              obedience.  Covenant of our wash-           must be gone.  Sometime, probably
                                              ing each others' feet.  Covenant of         even  before  the  institution  of  the
Rev.  Dick is  pastor  of Grace Protestant    our showing the Lord's death till
Reformed Church in Standale, Michigan.                                                    Lord's  Supper,  Judas  had  indeed

300/Standard Bearer/April 1, 1998


left the upper room to betray the           and into the hearts of His own.                 There  are  several  secrets  re-
Savior.                                         Jesus will speak this secret as         vealed of this covenant, really, in
    It is just as the Savior wanted.        only  the  Prophet  of  God  can:    to     this last discourse of  John 14 -17.
Now He is alone with the eleven             the heart, tenderly, making saving          The discourse is  filled with divine
true disciples.  He has secrets just        and enduring impressions.  What             and loving whispers to the friends
for  them  for  now  (afterward  for        He  says,  this  secret,  will  be,  and    of  God!    There  is  the  secret  of
us)!    They  are  the  loved  of  God.     must be with the church.  They must         heaven.  There is the secret of the
They are the lovers of God, people          not lose it or forget it.  It must be       Spirit, the secret of friendship, and
of the covenant, God's friends.  To         the consolation when Jesus is a-dy-         the secret of Jesus praying in the
them,  and  them  alone,  Jesus  will       ing, and when He is gone to glory           sanctuary of the Father.
tell a secret.  He will show them           and  the  disciples  are  left  behind.         Now and in several articles to
the mystery of the gospel of God            It must be with us now. Until the           come we consider several of them.
with  us.    He  will  show  them  the      end of time when He comes again             Secrets!  From God to us!  Listen!
mystery of God with us not only             the church must recall the secret,          Hush!  Shout!  Sing!  How shall we
in the flesh, but in the Spirit soon        and live out of it and by it.               show that the secret of Jehovah is
to be poured out upon the church                New covenant!                           with us?

                                           Questions for Study,
                                  Meditation, & Discussion

1. Heaven (vv. 1-4)                         John:  "I am the way, the truth, and        Jesus as the way to the Father?
Jesus,  knowing  that  the  disciples       the life: no man  cometh unto the
are  troubled  in  heart  at  His  an-      Father, but by me."                         3. Believing in the Way to Heaven
nouncement of the betrayal and of               What does Jesus mean by say-            (vv. 1-14)
His  imminent  demise,  preaches            ing  He  is  a  "way"?    A  way--               Throughout the passage Jesus
heaven. A good example to follow,           where?    A  way--how?    What  is           exhorts to faith.
I am sure, for pastors today: preach        "truth  and  "life"?    How  is  Jesus          Explain how Thomas (v. 5) and
heaven to God's troubled people!            truth  and  life?    What  is  the  con-    Philip (v. 8) show little faith.  How
    What  does  Jesus  here  say  of        nection  between  Jesus  being  the         can we show little faith?
heaven?  Discuss several other pas-         way, and His being the truth and                Three fruits of faith are stated
sages  which  present  the  truth  of       the life?                                   and/or implied in the passage.
heaven.    What  phrases,  words                Jesus says that He is the way--              First:  hearts at peace.  If our
teach that heaven is a real place?          He Himself is the way.   He does            faith is weak, to the degree that it
A great and blessed place? A place          not merely show a way, or teach a           is we are "troubled" (v. 1).  There
for particular people, and not for          certain way, but He  Himself is the         is disquiet in our hearts, a commo-
all?  A sure place?  How does Jesus         way!  He Himself--not an imper-              tion  of  soul,  distress.    But  where
prepare this place for His disciples?       sonal  force,  but  a  Person,  is  the     faith is, there is peace and comfort.
Children  ask  lots  of  questions          way, the truth, and the life!  Note         Comment  on  how  the  following
about heaven.  We have questions            too:  Jesus says He is  the way, and        passages teach this peace through
too.  What  of  heaven  do  we  not         the  truth,  and  the  life!    And  He     faith:  Psalm 42; 55:22; Romans 5:1;
know?  What are some truths about           qualifies  this  by  saying  no  man        Philippians 4.
heaven and about us which explain           cometh unto the Father,  but by me.             The  second  fruit  of  faith  is
why we do not know certain things           Very important that we understand           good works.  No: the fruit is great
about heaven?                               what  Jesus  is saying  here.   He  is      works!    For,  as  Jesus  says,  the
    Jesus  announces  that  He  will        saying:  He is the only way, the only       works  believers  shall  do  are  like
come again (v. 3) to receive the dis-       truth, the  only life, and that there       unto  His  own  works,  and  even
ciples unto Himself.  To what com-          is no other way, no other truth, no         greater  than  Jesus'  works  (v.  12)!
ing again does Jesus refer?                 other life than Jesus!                      What would these works be?  How,
                                                What  does  this  revelation  of        according  to  the  text,  are  these
2. The Way to Heaven (vv. 6-11)             Jesus as the way to the Father re-          works possible?
    At the occasion of the question         veal of the new covenant salvation?             Third,  the  fruit  of  faith  is  ef-
of  the  doubting  Thomas  (v.  5),         Why is there  need  for such a way,         fectual prayer (vv. 13, 14).  "And
Jesus preaches another of the sev-          truth, and life as Jesus?                   whatsoever  ye  shall  ask  in  my
eral "I am" statements recorded in              What  do  verses  7-11  teach  of       name, that will I do....  If ye shall

                                                                                                 April 1, 1998/Standard Bearer/301


ask any thing in my name, I will                other.  He preaches faith in God in              than  through  conscious  faith  in
do it."  What are some principles               Him, and in Him only, revealed.                  Jesus.    How  do  we  stand?    Indi-
of  prayer  brought  out  in  these                  They  stood.    Thank  God  the             vidually?  As churches?
verses?  To what end, according to              disciples stood.  They were sinful.                   Standing  in  these  latter  days
the text, does God answer prayers?              They had little faith at times.  They            will mean trouble. The world and
                                                fled.    They  denied.    But  in  their         the false church tolerate everything
4. Perspective (John 20:31)                     heart, and in the end, they stood                but intolerance.  But we ought not
    Jesus,  in  this  last  private  dis-       for Jesus, and just for Jesus.  They             let our hearts be troubled: Jesus is
course to the disciples, begins by              stood, by the grace of God, though               in  heaven.    There  is  a  place  pre-
teaching something crucial to their             almost all were martyred for their               pared  and  being  prepared  for  us
continued existence as church, and              faith.                                           there.  He will come again to take
to their being part of the founda-                   But  the  church  has  since  de-           us home.
tion of the New Testament church.               parted,  and  fallen.    There  is  this              Secret  of  Jehovah!    Heaven!
He teaches exclusivism.  He teaches             pluralism.  There is the preaching               Fellowship forever with the Father!
He is the way, and that there is no             from many pulpits across the land                And Jesus the way!    u
                                                that there are  other ways to  God


                                           Protestant Reformed Seminary
                                                          4949 Ivanrest Avenue
                                                    Grandville, Michigan  49418


                                                                                                                        March 6, 1998


    Dear Friends in Christ,
         Under the blessing of God we are enjoying a profitable year at the seminary.
         A total of fourteen men are currently enrolled in our school.  Six of these men are full-time students.  Three are in
    their first year of study.  Mark Shand comes from the Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Australia and is preparing
    for ordination in that denomination.  Angus Steward is from the Covenant Protestant Reformed Church in Northern
    Ireland.  Arko denEngelse, originally from the Netherlands, attends the Heritage Netherlands Reformed congregation
    in Grand Rapids.  The other three are members of our Protestant Reformed Churches and are preparing for the ministry
    in  our  churches.    Michael  Kortering  is  in  the  second  year  of  study,  Garry  Eriks  is  in  the  third  year,  and  Nathan
    Brummel is a senior planning to take the oral examination for candidacy before the synod in June of this year.  From
    July  1  through  the  end  of  December,  1997  Mr.  Brummel  successfully  completed  his  internship  requirements  in  Hope
    PRC  in  Redlands,  California.    Seminarian  Eriks,  D.V.,  will  begin  his  six-month  internship  July  1,  1998  in  our
    Loveland,  Colorado  PRC.    Eight  men  from  the  Heritage  Netherlands  Reformed  Churches  are  enrolled  part-time.    In
    addition,  two  ladies  are  auditing  one  course  each.    Rodney  Kleyn  and  David  Overway  are  taking  their  Greek  and
    Dutch Theological Reading courses with us and plan to enroll in the seminary next fall.
         Prof.  Dykstra  has  completed  his  course  work  for  the  Master  of  Theology  at  Calvin  Theological  Seminary  and  is
    busy working on his thesis.  Prof. Dykstra is currently teaching two courses.  He also filled in for Prof. Hanko while
    the  latter  was  preaching  and  lecturing  in  Singapore  and  Myanmar.    The  professors  keep  busy  teaching,  writing, and
    preaching in the churches.
         Thanks to the generous contributions of our people  our library continues to grow.
         Pray for us that  God will enable us  by His grace  to continue to commit the  truth of Holy Scripture  to "faithful
    men who shall be able to teach others also" (II Timothy 2:2).


                                                                                                                   Cordially in Christ,
                                                                                                                     Robert D. Decker
                                                                                                           Prof. Robert D. Decker,
                                                                                                                 for faculty and staff.





302/Standard Bearer/April 1, 1998


  Contending for the Faith                                                              Rev. Bernard Woudenberg


        The Declaration--Unclear (?)

                                            Reformed believers there should be           unclear; and he was out to demon-
    If the trumpet give an uncertain        no need always to be going back              strate this to be so.
sound,  who  shall  prepare  himself  to    to  reexamine  and  reestablish                      Before doing this, however, he
the battle?                                 whether these be true.  In matters           presents us with several prepara-
                   I Corinthians 14:8       of  doctrinal  difference  the  creeds       tory  chapters.    The  first  contains
                                            should be a standard to which Re-            reflections on II Timothy 2:15 and
                                            formed  believers  might  mutually           the  need  for  rightly  dividing  the
                                            appeal.    And  this  was  what  the         word  of  truth,  based  on  a  very
There is something troubling
       about this little book of Dr.
       Schilder's  entitled,  Extra-        Declaration sought to do.                    strained  illustration,  supposedly
Scriptural Binding  A New Danger.              Here in Schilder's book, how-            taken  from Theodore Beza, about
Clearly it was intended to be a re-         ever, already the very second sen-           a mother cutting and dividing food
sponse  to  our  Brief  Declaration  of     tence tells us that this was not to          to various member of her family.
Principles; and Dr. Schilder has the        be his approach, for he writes, "Be-         Next he turns to a quotation from
reputation of having been a keen            cause this document, in our opin-            the old Dutch  Staten Bijbel1  which
polemicist who could zero in on the         ion, is not clear, our members can-          spoke  of  conditions  in  the  cov-
heart of a problem and analyze it           not and may not bind themselves              enant, and challenging Hoeksema
decisively.  Here, however, we find         to it."  Amazingly, for Hoeksema             to dismiss those men as not being
something  quite  different,  an  al-       was  acknowledged  to  be  a  clear          Reformed.    And  then  there  is  a
most uncertain groping about  for           and concise writer also by Schilder,         chapter  entitled,  Be  Careful  with
some issue which could be met.              the  accuracy  of  expression  in  the       Dictionaries,  which  in  itself  could
    As we have seen, the  Declara-          Declaration was to be the point of           have led into the real issue; for he
tion  was  basically  a  very  simple,      attack.    It  did  not  give  Schilder      presents  four  possible  definitions
straightforward document, consist-          much  to  work  with,  for  the  non-        of the word condition in a question-
ing  mostly  of  confessional  quota-       confessional statements in the Dec-          ing form.  He writes:
tions with a few brief conclusions          laration  were  very  few.    But  this
as  to  what  they  teach,  and  what       he did to the very end.                        a.     By  condition  do  you  mean
we  in  our  churches  must  accord-            He started with this statement             something  which  would  bind
ingly  maintain.    It  was  a  natural     from the  Declaration, "Seeing then            GOD?  Then we say uncondition-
approach, for one thing, in which           that this is the clear teaching of our         ally:  "unconditional  is  the  pass-
                                                                                           word!"
Rev.  Hoeksema  and  Dr.  Schilder          confession, we repudiate the teach-            b.     By  condition  do  you  mean
had  always  agreed  was  the  need         ing  that  the  promise  of  the  cov-         something  for  which  God  has  to
for  a  faithful  commitment  to  the       enant is  conditional  and for  all that       wait  before He can go on?  Then
Reformed  creeds  as  the  common           are baptized."  Now in itself it is            we  say  unconditionally:  "uncon-
ground (the loci communes, or place         hard  to  conceive  of  a  more  clear         ditional is the password."
of communion) on which Reformed             and direct statement of the prob-              c.     By  condition  do  you  mean
churches  and  people  everywhere           lem which had been troubling the               something we have to fulfill, in or-
should be able to meet.  It was not         relationships  between  the  Protes-           der to  merit  something?  Then we
that they were in any way thought           tant  Reformed  and  Liberated                 say  unconditionally:  "uncondi-
                                                                                           tional is the password!"
to be superior or even equal to the         Churches,  than  this.    For  several         d.     Do  you  mean  by  condition
Scriptures,  for  they  were  based         years  a  debate  had  been  raging            something  which  God  has  joined
upon  them,  and  from  them  re-           over the questions of conditional-             to something else,  to make clear to
ceived their strength.  But among           ity  in  the  covenant  of  grace;  and
                                            one might well expect that Schilder          1  The Dutch "State Bible," authorized
                                            would set his pen to that; but that          by the Synod of Dordt, contains rather
                                            was not to be.  His whole conten-            extensive  commentary  on  the  mean -
Rev. Woudenberg is a minister emeritus      tion  was  that  the  Declaration  was       ing of the texts as well.
in the Protestant Reformed Churches.

                                                                                                     April 1, 1998/Standard Bearer/303


  us that the  one  cannot come  with-       and  is,  if  that  word  merit  is  re-      election and what flows from it).
  out  the  other  and  that  we  cannot     moved, and the question is asked,
  be  sure  of the one, unless we are        "By  condition  do you mean some-           Actually, very soon after Schilder
  at  the  same  time  assured  of  the      thing we have to do in order to gain        first  published  this  claim,  one  of
  other?  Then we say uncondition-           something?" then what would be              his  readers  in  the  Netherlands
  ally:  "conditional  is  the  pass-                                                    pointed  this  out  to  him;  and  it
  word!"                                     the answer?   With much flourish,
                                             Schilder avoided a real answer to           would have been far more gracious
    Now  all  of  this  sounds  very         that question.                              if he had acknowledged his error
good.  Three of the four definitions             And  so  Schilder  moves  on  to        on  this  point.    But  he  didn't.
Schilder  rejects,  as  though  agree-       his real point, his claim that it is        Rather he went on to claim he had
ing with us that they are to be re-          the  Declaration which was unclear,         not really written what he had, and
jected;  and  the  fourth  is  made  to      ambiguous, and obscure.  This he            continued to claim that nonetheless
sound so innocuous as though to              starts to do with the statement of          he was correct in claiming that this
ask, how could one possibly object           the  Declaration,  "That  election,         expression  was  not  what  was
to that?  And if there is one pos-           which is the unconditional and un-          meant.  In fact, he went on to write
sible good use, should we not ac-            changeable  decree  of  God  to  re-        about  the  word  cause    with  the
cept that as what the Liberated had          deem  in  Christ  a  certain  number        claim  that  it  was  in  itself  a  very
in mind when they used that word?            of  persons,  is  the  sole  cause  and     unclear and ambiguous term which
The  problem  is  that  this  suppos-        fountain  of  all  our  salvation,          should not be used.
edly  good  definition,  "something          whence flow all the gifts of grace,             Next Schilder turns to another
which God has  joined to something           including  faith."      This  Schilder      section  of  the  Declaration,  that
else,  to  make  clear  to  us  that  the    points out might be said by some            which reads as follows (at least in
one  cannot  come  without  the  other       in passing, but it is certainly not a       the copy from which he worked):
and that we cannot be  sure  of the          clear statement  of fact that "elec-
one, unless we are at the same time          tion ... is the sole cause and foun-            a. that all the covenant blessings
                                                                                           are for the elect alone.
assured  of the  other," is really no        tain  of  all  our  salvation."    Such       b. that the promise of the gospel
definition at all.  As Hoeksema was          words  as  cause  and  fountain,  he          ...  concerns  only  the  believers,
to point out, there are many things          claims,  are  words  that  belong  to         that is, the elect.
which are inseparably tied together          time  and  are  not  properly  used           c.  If the promise  of God is  for them
which are nevertheless not condi-            with  reference  to  the  counsel  of         (the little children), then the prom-
tions  to  each  other,  and  when  a        God.  The statement should be that            ise has to be  infallible  and  uncon-
definition can be applied to other           "election is the  grounds of our sal-         ditional  and can  therefore only con-
things than that for which it is in-         vation," not cause and fountain as            cern the elect.
tended,  it  is  not  a  proper  defini-     the Declaration says.                         d. Hence, that promise is surely only
                                                                                           for the elect.
tion.                                            With  this,  however,  there  are
    But there is here a more seri-           problems.    As  Hoeksema  was  to          To us this might seem rather simple
ous matter in the fact that one defi-        point out, the  grounds  for our sal-       and  direct,  but  Schilder  finds  all
nition  is  missing  from  Schilder's        vation are to be found in the death         kinds of vagaries and uncertain ex-
list, and that is the one about which        of Christ, an action which very re-         pressions in it.
the debate had been going on.  In            ally takes place in time, while the             To  him,  for  example,  the  ex-
a way, the third comes close to it,          words cause and  fountain are taken         pression "are for" in the sentence,
when it reads, "By condition do you          from  the  Canons  of  Dordt  them-         "that all the covenant blessings are
mean something we  have to fulfill,          selves [I. A.]                              for the elect alone," comes up as a
in order to merit something?"  And                                                       very vague way of expressing one-
that  is  the  problem.    This  defini-       Art. 6.  That some receive the gift
                                                                                         self.    One  marvels.      Here  is  a
tion interjects the matter of merit,           of faith from God, and others do
                                               not receive it proceeds from God's        phrase consisting of the plural form
and there had never been any de-               eternal decree ... (which, if not lit-      of the copula is,  certainly the most
bate  about  that.    Even  the                erally, has the same idea as that         basic  and  common  verb  in  all  of
Arminians had never claimed that               of a fountain).                           language, and "for," a very simple
the fulfillment of conditions were             Art. 9.  Election is the  fountain  of    and  direct  preposition  relating  a
meritorious;  and  thus  when  he              every saving good ... (where the            subject to its object.  And the word
adds the element of merit into this            expression literally appears).            promise  requires that it be told to
inquiry, it is very easy to answer             Art. 10. The good pleasure of God         whom  it  is  directed.    But  to
emphatically, "Then we say uncon-              is the cause of this gracious elec-
                                                                                         Schilder  it  is  not  clear.  Actually
ditionally:  `unconditional  is  the           tion ... (where we have the idea
                                               of cause ascribed to the good plea-       what  comes  out  is  that  what  he
password!`"  But the question was              sure of God, which gives rise to          wishes to have is a certain legal as-

304/Standard Bearer/April 1, 1998


pect added to the idea of the prom-          spirit it seems to reflect.  Why did       were serious differences among the
ise--a favorite area of thought with          a man of Schilder's brilliance and         followers of Schilder from the start,
him--and  when  the  Declaration              scholarly  ability  spend  his  time       particularly  over  the  doctrine  of
does  not  do  this,  it  being  com-        with such superficial criticisms as        predestination.  Schilder  had  been
pletely  missing  from  the  confes-         these?    Why  didn't  he  deal  with      raised  under  the  theology  of
sions  as well, he  would  maintain          the real questions at hand, and the        Herman Bavinck, just as Hoeksema
that something is wrong.                     quotations from the creeds?  Why           had,  with  its  high  regard  for  the
    And so he goes on.  With the             had he not long before carried out         teachings of Dordt; but many of the
next  sentence  it  is  the  word  con-      his promise to deal with our dif-          young men who followed him, in-
cerns  that he finds unclear; and in         ferences?  And why now, when the           cluding  particularly  Professors
the  next  it  is  the  word  infallible.    alienation  between  the  two  sides       Holwerda and Veenhof, had gained
Ordinary words they are, used ev-            was all but complete, did he begin         their exposure to these doctrines in
ery  day  without  difficulty;  but          at last to write?  To these questions      the highly philosophical and specu-
Schilder finds them inadequate for           we will never really know the an-          lative form that they were given by
coming to the conclusion,  "Hence,           swers, of course, and yet there are        the followers of Abraham Kuyper.
that  promise  is  surely  only  for  the    indications as to what they might          Against this they had reacted, by
elect."      And  it  is  to be  observed    have been.                                 rejecting  not  just  the  system,  but
that the matters involved in these               The first is already detected in       the historical form of the doctrines
sentences are important and were             the  book's  opening  sentence,            themselves.    For  a  time  Schilder
worthy of discussion.  In fact, there        "When  we  mentioned  the  text  of        had  managed  to  keep  things  to-
was  nothing  Hoeksema  would                the   Declaration  we  forthwith  ex-      gether with his claim that these dif-
have desired more than a serious,            pressed our opinion that our mem-          ferences were just in terminology;
forthright discussion of them. But           bers who emigrated to America or           but the fact was that these men had
this?  What was he to say?                   Canada cannot and may not bind             no  real  place  for  the  things  he
    In the end, Hoeksema did write           themselves to the Brief Declaration."      shared with us.  What we may well
very  little  in  answer  to  what  we       Clearly  the  Declaration  had  to  be     have  in  this  book,  therefore,  is  a
find in this book, in part perhaps           rejected at its very start.  By that       last effort on Schilder's part to hold
because of the response he received          time Dr. Holwerda had destroyed            things together with this strained
when  he  tried.    For  some  time          any  real  possibility  of  a  working     effort to focus not on the substance
Hoeksema waited, with the inten-             relationship between us by posting         of the problem, but on the language
tion of responding in length after           his letter to Canada instructing his       and terms in which it is found.  But
Schilder was through.  But Schilder          people to join our churches but to         it  was  not  to  be,  as  he  sensed  in
was going on, and there were pres-           have nothing to do with the theo-          bringing this book to its faltering
sures  on  Hoeksema  to  answer,             logical convictions on which they          end.
which at last he began to do.  With-         were built, and a Liberated minis-             But  there is more in it still to
out  going  into  all  of  the  conde-       ter  was  already  going  about  in        which we must return.   u
scending slurs Schilder had made             Canada  encouraging  those  who
regarding  his  supposedly  hasty            had  joined  our  churches  to  leave                   The Third Day
and poor composition, Hoeksema               and  form  churches  of  their  own.               (or The Mystery of Life)
rather graciously simply remarked,           The result was that the Declaration
"several points of Schilder's articles       served  their  purposes  very  well,        Waters lick a thirsty shore,
are not  to the point."    When, how-        providing something on which the                   Echoing the silence.
ever, this was seen by Schilder, he          division could be blamed.  And so           Lifeless, barren land and sea!
was  piqued;  and,  in  spite  of  his       it has been used ever since.                       Sarah's womb's alliance!
claim  not  to  be  angry,  could  not           But still there are Schilder's lin-
resist retorting, "But in this case I        gering  remarks,  such  as,  "For  as       Barren, and yet fertile, soil
feel like saying, `All right, if that is     long as possible we want to keep                   Waits to hold the Seed.
what you think, I had better stop.'"         the newly developed ties from be-           Out of death sprang forth the life!
And in effect he did.  Little more           ing needlessly severed.  Therefore                 Out of chaff the Reed!
was written; and soon the exchange           we are very careful.  Wherever pos-
was over.                                    sible we want to avoid saying, `This        Now the land her increase yields,
    In total, this book constitutes a        is wrong.'"  One gains the impres-                 Firstfruits paid the debt.
strange  set  of  documents  built           sion that in certain ways he regret-        Come into His presence for
around the claim that the  Declara-          ted making this break; and it may                  Truth and Mercy met!
tion  was too poorly written to be           well have been so.
worthy of consideration.  But it also            Just  recently  it  has  been                                Connie J. Meyer
makes one wonder at the troubled             brought to our attention that there

                                                                                                  April 1, 1998/Standard Bearer/305


  Taking Heed to the Doctrine                                                                        Rev. Steven Key



                        Christ, Our Priest (1)

                                                But a priest is one who is con-            We are rebellious priests.  That
Besides the prophetic aspect of secrated to God with his entire be- is how we stand in Adam.
       Christ's  office  as  God's          ing, with all his heart and soul and           That  is  why  we  must  have
       Anointed,  there  is  the            mind.  In other words, the priest is       Christ.  You must have Christ.
priestly  aspect  to  which  we  turn       one who asks God, "What shall I                He came.  He came, sent from
our attention now.  We do so espe-          do?  What is Thy will? My whole-           heaven,  as  the  only  High  Priest,
cially in the light of the epistle to       hearted desire is to do Thy will in        God's Christ. He came totally dedi-
the  Hebrews.    In  Hebrews,  chap-        love for Thee, O my God."  That is         cated  to  the  service  of  His  heav-
ters  7-10,  there  is  much  develop-      the priest.                                enly Father.  "I come to do thy will,
ment concerning the priesthood of               That was Adam too.  Not only           O my God: yea, thy law is within
our Lord Jesus Christ.  That truth          was Adam created a prophet, as we          my heart."
is  summarized  in  our  Heidelberg         considered previously, but he was              And  God's  will  was  that  His
Catechism (Q & A 31) when it says           also created priest.                       Christ  would  serve  as  our  only
that Jesus is called Christ because             Man was created after the im-          High Priest, redeeming us by the
He is ordained by God the Father,           age  of  God.    With  respect  to  the    one sacrifice of His body.
and anointed with the Holy Spirit,          subject  at  hand,  that  means  that
"to be our only High Priest, who            Adam was created a reflection of           His One Sacrifice
by the one sacrifice of his body, has       God, to do the will of God as God's            The priestly function of Christ's
redeemed us, and makes continual            servant.  And as that reflection of        office comes to focus in the one sac-
intercession with the Father for us."       God, Adam was a priest.  He was            rifice He offered.
                                            consecrated  to  God  in  all  his  be-        How magnificent is the priest-
His Priestly Office                         ing.  He loved to do God's will.           hood of Christ!  That is the whole
    Jesus,  the  Christ  of  God,  is           But sin destroyed that relation-       emphasis in Hebrews, chapter 10.
anointed to serve as our only High          ship in which Adam stood as priest         Jesus Christ came to do the will of
Priest.                                     of God.                                    God:    "By  the  which  will we  are
    That means, in the first place,             In Adam we became rebellious           sanctified through the  offering of
that He is One who is consecrated           priests.  Instead of serving God in        the body of Jesus Christ once for
to God in all things.  He is so for         full  dedication  to  His  glory,  we      all. And every priest standeth daily
our sakes.                                  now  consecrate  ourselves  and  all       ministering and offering oftentimes
    A priest is not, first of all, one      things to the glory of the devil!  We      the  same  sacrifices,  which  can
who offers bloody sacrifices.  In the       ourselves live and use all things in       never  take  away  sins:    But  this
Old  Testament  a  priest  was  one         the service of sin and Satan!              man, after he had offered one sac-
who offered  the  bloody  sacrifices            That is our very nature as it is       rifice  for  sins  for  ever,  sat  down
unto God.  But that was only one            corrupted by sin.  Our bodies are          on  the  right  hand  of  God"  (Heb.
part and the outward appearance             consecrated to doing Satan's will.         10:10-12).
of the priest's office in the Old Tes-      We devote our eyes to that which               In all the sacrifices from Adam
tament.  That priesthood, however,          pleases  that  great  deceiver,  the       to  the  coming  of  Christ,  it  was
is forever finished.  It was only for       prince of this world as it is under        preached that there was a fearful
a time.                                     the power of sin. We open our ears         separation between God and man
                                            to his call and temptations.  We use       wrought  by  man's  sin.    God  will
                                            our hands to offer up sacrifices to        not let sin pass.  The very nature
                                            the devil by touching those things         of  God  as  the  Holy  One  obliges
                                            he would have us touch and doing           Him to punish sin.  We read In He-
                                            those things he would have us do
Rev. Key is pastor of the Protestant Re-                                               brews  1:13,  "He  is  of  purer  eyes
                                            to antagonize God.
formed Church of Randolph, Wisconsin.                                                  than to look upon iniquity."

306/Standard Bearer/April 1, 1998


    But besides that, the word has         types, the pictures, of the one sac-        before the face of God.  God was
gone out of His mouth that the soul        rifice that He Himself would pro-           in  Christ,  reconciling  the  world
that sinneth, it shall die.  And the       vide  for  the  salvation  of  His          unto Himself.  "By one offering he
fire  flaming  on  the  altar,  which      people.                                     hath  perfected  forever  them  that
completely consumed the sacrifice,             The whole Old Testament cries           are sanctified."
was  a  lively  symbol  of  that  fiery    out  for  Christ  as  our  Priest,  who         Jesus  Christ  is  our only  High
indignation that should devour the         would fulfill the entire priesthood         Priest.
adversaries  of  God.    "The  wages       by offering up the sacrifice of Him-            When I contemplate the beauty
of sin is death."                          self once for all.  The law, we read        of this priesthood of Christ, as God
    The truth of  that was seen  in        in  the  first  verse  of  Hebrews  10,     has revealed it to us, I cannot help
the offering of sacrifices year after      was  a  shadow  of  good  things  to        but  think,  How  blessed  we  are!
year  after  year.   Never  could  the     come.                                       How blessed we are as Reformed
priests in Aaron's line effect salva-          In the fullness of time God sent        Christians who find by God's grace
tion  for  those  who  brought  them       forth  His  Son,  ordained  and             our salvation in Christ alone!
the  lambs  and  bulls  and  goats.        anointed the Messiah, to fulfill that           Think  about  the  millions  of
Never with  those sacrifices could         Old Testament priesthood.  That is          people involved in all the religions
they make the worshipers perfect.          the gospel of our salvation.                found  around  the  world.    While
For, as we read in verse 2, "Then              You and I need this Priest.             other  religions  seek  peace  and  a
would they not have ceased to be               Even  the  holiest  among  men          sure conscience, only the Christian
offered?  because that the worship-        have polluted natures, poisoned in          can find it.  Because only we have
pers once purged should have had           the womb with sin.  Those natures           the  foundation  for  harmony  with
no more conscience of sins.  But in        have need of the bloody sacrifice           God which is true peace.  And only
those sacrifices there is a remem-         of Christ to redeem them unto God.          we  have  that  gospel  which  can
brance  again  made  of  sins  every           Our actual sins show our need           settle a conscience which otherwise
year.  For it is not possible that the     of  this  only  High  Priest  and  His      condemns us. The Jews seek it in
blood of bulls and of goats should         one sacrifice.  If He does not take         vain in the  law.   The follower of
take  away  sins."    The  priesthood      those  sins  and  our  guilt  by  the       Islam seeks it  in his outward, le-
of the Old Testament showed that           blood of His cross, they can never          galistic observances which are no
the case of us sinners is helpless!        be taken away.  If not for Christ's         more than a corruption of Old Tes-
    But  although  those  sacrifices       sacrifice, our sins will go with us         tament law.  The Romish seek sal-
and  sin  offerings  were  not  effec-     to the grave and will follow us to          vation in a repeated idolatrous sac-
tive for the forgiveness of sins nor       the judgment seat, crying, "We are          rifice and in meritorious works.
the  redemption  of  those  who            your  works!"    All  our  apologies,           But how terrible is the state of
brought the offerings to God, God          all our tears, can never take away          that man or woman who feels that
had revealed a promise to His own.         our sin.  Even our best works are           intolerable wrath of God burning
God  had  given  an  unchangeable          polluted,  which  means  that  even         within, and the voice of condem-
promise  to  Adam  and  Eve,  the          our apologies and tears before God          nation  echoing  through  the  con-
promise  of  redemption.    But  that      are  as  filthy  rags  except  they  be     science, and there is no relief.
redemption would not come with-            cleansed by the sacrifice of Jesus'             How  terrible  the  shame  and
out great price.  It would come only       body once offered on the cross.             fear and despair which are the ef-
in  the  way  of  a  bloody  sacrifice.        But Jesus Christ appeared, or-          fects of a condemning conscience!
So  God  signified  that  promise  of      dained  by  God  the  Father  and           No wonder men will do anything
redemption by the institution of all       anointed  with  the  Holy  Spirit,  to      to cover up that testimony of God's
the  Old  Testament  sacrifices  and       serve as our only High Priest and           wrath within their own souls!
ceremonies.  They all pointed to the       to  make  that  one  sacrifice  of  His         But how beautiful is the testi-
Messiah, who was to come.                  body  for  our  sin.    As  Priest  He      mony of this precious sacrifice of
    Only in the light of the prom-         stood in our place, the only Priest         Jesus Christ to all you who believe!
ise  and  God's  clothing  of  Adam        who truly could stand in our place.             The believer finds that nothing
and Eve with animal skins by the           For He is God become flesh.  He             less than the great sacrifice of Jesus'
shedding of blood could there be           paid the price for our guilt and sin,       body once offered for sin can give
the expectation of a sacrifice.            redeeming us unto God with a re-            peace  to  a  distressed  conscience
    All the priests of the Old Tes-        demption  that  shall  never  be  re-       and free him from the guilt which
tament could be anointed only be-          moved or obliterated by our con-            brings  death.    Scripture  speaks
cause  of  the  promise  of  Christ's      tinued sinfulness.                          plainly,  and  so  we  stand  con-
coming.                                        This  sacrifice  reached  back-         demned  in  our  own  conscience,
    The sacrifices themselves were         ward and forward throughout all             "By  the  deeds  of  law,  there  shall
appointed by God to serve as the           ages,  fully  cleansing  all  the  elect    no flesh be justified in his sight."

                                                                                                  April 1, 1998/Standard Bearer/307


    Man  can  never  satisfy  God's            by God the Father and anointed by                  Our  salvation  is  in  Christ.
justice  by  doing,  or  by  suffering.        the Holy Spirit, to offer up the sac-          Blessed be God for Jesus Christ our
He  needs  a  High  Priest  ordained           rifice required by God Himself.                High Priest!   u



  Book Reviews


                                               Since Pighius had appealed to the              trine is "in large part an undiluted
                                               church fathers, Calvin on his part             expression  of  Pelagian  ungodli-
                                               draws heavily from the fathers, es-            ness"  (p. 104).  In Pighius' teach-
The Bondage and Liberation of the Will:        pecially  Augustine,  in  defense  of          ing "giving man first place," while
A  Defence  of  the  Orthodox  Doctrine  of                                                   yielding  "God  second,"  we  have
Human Choice against Pighius, by John          the bound will.                                "Pelagius ... vomiting his profani-
Calvin.  Ed. A. N. S. Lane.  Tr. G. I.             But the subject is fundamental             ties  to  the  skies  at  full  strength"
Davies.    Grand  Rapids,  MI:    Baker        to the Reformation's confession of
Books, 1996.  Pp. xxxix + 264.  $17.99         the  gospel  of  salvation  by  grace          (p.  217).    Luther  had  passed  the
(paper).  [Reviewed by the editor.]            alone.    Just  as  Erasmus  (another          same judgment upon the doctrine
                                               Dutchman!)  had  done  earlier,                of the free will in his Bondage of the
The second in the series of Baker against  Luther,  Pighius  had  af- Will.
    publications, "Texts and Stud-             firmed the Roman Catholic heresy                   The  publication  of  Calvin's
ies in Reformation and Post-Refor-             of the ability of the will of the natu-        fullest treatment of the bondage of
mation Thought," is this defense by            ral man to choose the grace of God,            the will and the related doctrines
John  Calvin  of  the  Reformation's           which, according to Pighius, is of-            of grace serves our time  well.  It
doctrine of the bondage of the will            fered  by  God  to  all  alike.    Upon        sets forth the basic issue between
against Pighius.  Surprisingly, this           this choice, for Pighius and the Ro-           genuine Protestantism and Roman
is the first appearance of Calvin's            man Catholic Church, depends the               Catholicism.  Most "evangelicals"
important work on the bound will               salvation of the sinner.                       are exposed as lined up solidly on
and sovereign grace in English.                    Calvin taught a "bound will,"              Rome's  side  of  the  divide.
    In  1542  the  Dutch  Roman                which  he  sharply  distinguished              "Evangelicals and Roman Catholics
Catholic theologian Albert Pighius             from a "coerced will."  He defined             Together" should surprise no one.
responded  to  the  1539  edition  of          the bound will as "one which be-                   The book speaks powerfully to
Calvin's Institutes with a violent at-         cause of its corruptness is held cap-          developments  in  the  Reformed
tack  on  both  Calvin's  doctrine  of         tive under the authority of evil de-           churches.  Against  Pighius' argu-
the  bondage  of  the  will  and               sires, so that it can choose nothing           ment for free will in terms of good
Calvin's doctrine of predestination.           but  evil,  even  if  it  does  so  of  its    works, Calvin responded that the
The title of Pighius' work was  Ten            own accord and gladly, without be-             "worth of good works depends not
Books on Human Free Choice and Di-             ing  driven  by  any  external  im-            on the act itself but on perfect love
vine  Grace.    Whatever  one  may             pulse" (p. 69).  The salvation of the          for God."  Therefore, "a work will
think of Pighius, he saw the issue.            sinner,  therefore,  is  the  work  of         not be righteous and pure unless it
In  1543  Calvin  responded  to                God alone.  Faith is a gift.  Grace            proceeds  from  a  perfect  love  for
Pighius' attack on the bound will              is not offered indiscriminately and            God"  (p.  27).    Being  completely
with  The Bondage and Liberation of            ineffectually to all, but is the effec-        evil, the natural man can do noth-
the Will.  Calvin did not get around           tual power of God to the elect only.           ing but evil:
to responding to Pighius' attack on            Both Pighius and Calvin knew well
predestination  until  1552.    Then,          the  intimate  relation  between  the            I  say  that  man  thinks,  chooses,
aroused by Jerome Bolsec, Calvin               doctrine of the bound will and the               wills, attempts, and does nothing
                                                                                                except evil because of that corrup-
wrote his great defense of predes-             doctrine of predestination.                      tion which has taken the whole of
tination, Concerning the Eternal Pre-              The doctrine of free will, in the            the human soul under its control.
destination of God.  In it, he refuted         sense of man's ability by nature to              And it is in this sense that I say
Pighius, by then long dead.                    choose God, Calvin rightly saw as                that whatever is from us needs to
    The manner of Calvin's treat-              the overthrow of the biblical gos-               be  destroyed  and  renewed  (p.
ment of his subject in  The Bondage            pel of grace.  Significantly, Calvin             213).
and Liberation of the Will makes for           appealed  against  Pighius  to  Ro-
tedious reading at times.  He fol-             mans  9:16.    This  accounts  for             The  apostasy  of  the  Reformed
lows  the  arguments  of  Pighius              Calvin's vehement denunciation of              churches  widely  from  the  ortho-
closely, responding point by point.            the  false  teaching.    Pighius'  doc-        doxy of the Reformation, with fa-

308/Standard Bearer/April 1, 1998


tal consequences for the truth of the         is  divided  into  three  sections:    a    doxy.  And that is where the Bap-
bound will and sovereign grace, is            history  of  Baptist  thought  in  En-      tist movement stands today.
glaringly evident in the insistence           gland  and  America;  a  theological            In  the  second  section  the  au-
that  the  ungodly  are  able  to  per-       section  in  which  the  chief  issues      thor discusses the theological rami-
form good works.                              that  occupied  Baptist  theologians        fications of the doctrinal issues in-
    Calvin  repeatedly  criticized            are discussed; and a practical sec-         volved throughout Baptist history,
Pighius' doctrine that grace is "of-          tion in which the author firmly ad-         and, generally, shows that he is sol-
fered indiscriminately to all"  (see          monishes his fellow Baptists to re-         idly committed to the doctrines of
pp. 188; 196-199; 217).  Indeed, for          turn to their roots.  The first sec-        sovereign grace.  He firmly believes
Calvin this was the root of Pighius'          tion is quite the longest of the three      that  doctrinal  aberration  is  the
errors:                                       and filled with information.                death of the Baptist movement be-
                                                  Tracing the history of the Bap-         cause  persistence  in  doctrinal  er-
  What  then  is  the  reason  why he         tists  in  England  first  of  all,  and    ror is evidence of lack of true faith
  rushes  headlong,  as  if  with  his        pointing out that the Baptists there        (p. 337).
  eyes shut, into such great absur-           did  not  have  their  origin  in  the          And so, in the last section, the
  dity?  It is of course just this, that      Anabaptist movement on the con-             author  calls  the  church  to  repen-
  once he has conceived the idea in           tinent,  but  in  the  independent          tance.  He writes:
  his mind that the grace of God is
  offered  equally  to  all,  provided        movement  that  opposed  Angli-
  that they show themselves  to be            canism,  the  author  demonstrates              I have affirmed historically, and
  worthy of it, he is held prisoner                                                         I hope demonstrated, that Calvin-
                                              that Baptists were throughout their
  by  this  idea,  so  that  he  is  inca-                                                  ism was the dominant theology in
                                              history strongly Calvinistic, espe-
  pable  of  further  perception  or                                                        the most enduring  areas  of Bap-
                                              cially in their emphasis on the doc-
  judgment (p. 198).                                                                        tist life for the first 275 years of
                                              trines of grace.  He deals with all           modern  Baptist  history....    This
                                              the  great  Baptist  preachers  and
    Today the Pighian doctrine of                                                           fact raises several interesting pos-
                                              theologians including Gill, Hussey,           sibilities.  First, we could decide
an indiscriminate offer of grace to           Brine, Crisp, and Fuller.                     that our forefathers were right....
all  alike  reigns  supreme  in  Re-              In examining their thought, the           Or, second, if we decide that our
formed and Presbyterian churches,             author deals with all the important           forefathers were wrong, we must
advertised and defended by nearly                                                           repent of our past, expose their er-
                                              issues  that  came  up  in  the  great
all as impeccable Reformation or-                                                           rors, overtly reject on an institu-
                                              Baptist  controversies:    supra-  vs.
thodoxy.    To  maintain  particular,                                                       tional as well as individual basis
                                              infralapsarianism, election and rep-
effectual grace in the preaching of                                                         the  theological  moorings  estab-
                                              robation,  the  extent  of  the  atone-
the gospel is to invite summary ex-                                                         lished at first, and reconstitute on
                                              ment,  the  call  of  the  gospel,  the
communication from the fellowship                                                           some other basis....  Or, third, we
                                              well-meant  offer, eternal vs. tem-           could conclude that no such thing
of Calvinists:  "hyper-Calvinist!"            poral justification, antinomianism,           as truth and error exists in theo-
    May the book have wide circu-             duty-faith  and  duty-repentance,             logical categories.
lation  among  Protestants.    May            etc.    He  points  out  what  each  of
God thus still use Calvin himself--            the Baptist theologians taught and          After rejecting the last two, the au-
the  genuine  Calvin--to  open  the            believed on these crucial issues.           thor goes on:
eyes especially of the Reformed.                  Turning to American Baptists,
    But  why  did  Calvin  dedicate           and concentrating on the same is-               The lesson of history then is one
the book to Melanchthon?    s                                                               that  screams  to  us,  "REPENT!"
                                              sues, Nettles makes the point that
                                                                                            We  must  turn  from  our  wicked
                                              the  Baptists  in  this  country,  par-       ways and recapture our vision of
                                              ticularly the Southern Baptist Con-
By His Grace and  for His Glory:   A                                                        the glory of God before the cheru-
                                              vention, were solid and orthodox
Historical, Theological, and Practical                                                      bim whisk it off to another place
                                              all  the  way  through  the  19th  and
Study  of  the  Doctrines  of  Grace  in                                                    (pp. 426, 427).
                                              into the 20th century.
Baptist  Life,  by  Thomas  J.  Nettles.
Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House,               Departure began when various                While  we  will  disagree  with
1990.  Pp. 442.  $14.95 (paper).  [Re-        theologians  in  the  church  taught        some aspects of the author's analy-
viewed by Prof. Herman Hanko.]                that  the  atonement  of  Christ  was       sis of the call of the gospel, what
                                              universal in some senses.  Quickly          exactly constitutes a hyper-Calvin-
    The author, professor of church           liberalism took hold as, e.g., in the       ist, is duty-faith a part of the gos-
history  at  Trinity  Evangelical  Di-        University  of  Chicago,  a  Baptist        pel call, etc., anyone  reading  this
vinity  School,  has  written  an  im-        School  established  by  John  D.           book will profit greatly.  The profit
portant and fascinating book about            Rockefeller.  The reaction to liber-        will  come,  not  only  through  a
the history of Baptist thought.  It           alism was fundamentalism, with its          deeper  understanding  of  Baptist
                                              own weaknesses, not historic ortho-

                                                                                                       April 1, 1998/Standard Bearer/309


history  in  this  country  and  En-      the  centuries  are  the  same  issues     church's agenda today.
gland, but also because the issues        which  have  torn  apart  Reformed                 Read the book!  You will enjoy
which plagued Baptists throughout         churches,  and  continue  on  the          it!  u


  Report of Classis West

   March 4, 1998 at Houston, Texas        disband.    After  over  25  years  of     fession:  "Known unto God are all
                                          faithful witness to the truth and ex-      His  works  from  the  beginning  of
The  March meeting of  Classis tensive evangelism labors, they de- the world."  His  Word  never re-
    West  was  held  just  west  of       cided  that  the  Lord  had  revealed      turns  void,  but  accomplishes  the
Houston,  Texas  on  Wednesday,           to  them  that  they  ought  not  con-     purpose  whereunto  He  sends  it.
March 4.  This classis was notewor-       tinue.    With  three  significant         We commend Pastor Mahtani and
thy not only for the business con-        grounds  for  disbanding,  Trinity         his family, as well as the members
ducted, but for the unusual lodg-         presented their case to the classis        of Trinity, to the care of our heav-
ing arrangements.  Because of the         for  approval.    The  grounds  re-        enly Father.
small size of the host congregation,      flected upon the small size of the                 Among  other  business  con-
Trinity PRC, the delegates stayed         congregation, the growing subsidy          ducted, Classis gave advice in one
at  the  J-Bar-J  Ranch,  the  guest      demands  from  the  denomination,          discipline case, giving approval to
ranch where Trinity PRC hosted an         and the inability to maintain an on-       the  actions  of  the  consistory  in-
evangelism  conference  a  couple         going  consistory.    The  light  of       volved.  Subsidy requests from four
years ago.                                Trinity's  witness  will  be  extin-       congregations  were  treated  and
    With delegates staying in close       guished with a final worship ser-          will  be  forwarded  to  synod.
quarters, with bunk beds and com-         vice on Sunday,  June 7, the Lord          Classis acknowledged with thanks-
mon facilities, they enjoyed a great      willing.                                   giving  to  God  that  the  congrega-
time of fellowship, and no little hu-         The  difficulty  of  disbanding        tion  in  Edgerton,  Minnesota  no
mor.                                      was  complicated  by  the  concerns        longer requires subsidy.
    The  customary  Officebearers'        for  Pastor  Jai  Mahtani,  Trinity's              Classis  granted  classical  ap-
Conference  was  held  the  day  be-      minister.  In compliance with Ar-          pointments to South Holland PRC
fore.  The theme of the conference        ticle 13 of the Church Order, Trin-        as follows:  Rev. Joostens (April 19
was "Denominational Unity."  Pas-         ity  sought  approval  for  Pastor         and 26); Rev. denHartog (May 10
tor  Jai  Mahtani  gave  the  keynote     Mahtani's  temporary  emeritation          and 17); Rev. Mahtani (June 21 and
address,  the  theme  of  which  was      after  the  dissolution  of  Trinity       28); Rev. Brummel (July 19 and 26);
"The  Indispensability  of  Denomi-       Church.  Although it is the prayer         Rev. Moore (August 9 and 16); and
national  Unity."    Pastor  Arie         of all that Pastor Mahtani soon re-        Rev. R. Miersma (September 6 and
denHartog gave a presentation on          ceive another call, classis approved       13).
the importance of denominational          his  temporary  emeritation,  recog-               Voting  for delegates to synod
unity  to  missions.  Rev.  Gise          nizing  that  by  June,  through  no       1998 resulted in the following elec-
VanBaren spoke on the dangers of          fault of his own, he will have been        tions:    Ministers:   Primi:   A.
independentism.    The  conference        left  without  a  fixed  charge.    The    denHartog, C. Haak, S. Houck, S.
concluded with a panel discussion         synodical deputies of Classis East         Key, G. VanBaren; Secundi: W. Bek-
on several matters pertaining to the      concurred in that decision.  Pastor        kering,  A.  Brummel,  M.  DeVries,
theme of the conference.  Tuesday         Mahtani's  financial  needs  during        M.  Joostens,  R.  Moore.  Elders :
evening, although not part of the         this temporary emeritation will be         Primi: E. Gritters (Hull), R. Kelley
conference,  Pastors  Brummel  and        provided for by the Churches.  The         (Lynden),  A.  Kooiker  (Hull),  L.
denHartog gave a brief slide pre-         assets of Trinity PRC will be for-         Nelson  (Loveland),  E.  VanVoor-
sentation of their recent trip to the     warded to the Synod after the dis-         thuysen  (Redlands);  Secundi:  R.
Philippines.                              position of the church property.           Campbell (Loveland), A. Hendriks
    Pastor       Rodney        Miersma        Such an occasion is necessarily        (Edgerton), John Hilton (Edgerton),
chaired  the  meeting  of  classis  on    a  solemn  one.    We  believe,  how-      J.  Hoksbergen  (Lynden),  L.  Reg-
Wednesday.                                ever, that the will of the Lord has        nerus Jr. (Randolph).
    The  focus  of  classis'  agenda      been  accomplished,  also  in  the                 Among other elections:  Rev. C.
was the matter of the disbanding          many  labors  performed  in  Hous-         Haak was re-elected to a three-year
of the congregation of Trinity PRC        ton by Trinity's congregation and          term as a Synodical Deputy from
in  Houston,  Texas.    Classis  gave     the  various  pastors  who  have           Classis West.  Revs. R. Moore and
approval  to  Trinity's  decision  to     served them.  Steadfast is our con-        G.  VanBaren  were  elected  as

310/Standard Bearer/April 1, 1998


church  visitors,  with  Revs.  A.           tation of Loveland PRC to host the        ing  is  scheduled  to  be  held  in
denHartog and S. Houck as alter-             next meeting of classis on Septem-        Redlands, California at the invita-
nates.                                       ber 2, 1998.  The March 1999 meet-        tion of Hope PRC, Redlands.
        Classis West accepted the invi-                                                     Rev. Steven Key, Stated Clerk


  News From Our Churches                                                                    Mr. Benjamin Wigger


                                             U.S. Constitution and its Authors,"       their January 18 bulletin and pass
                                             a  thought-provoking  topic.    No        it along to you, our readers.  "The
Young People's Activities                    word on what was decided.                 beauty  of  a  bride  lies in  the  har-
The young people of the Hope                                                           monious  adorning  of  her  whole
        PRC in Walker, MI have been          Congregational Activities                 frame,  so  the  beauty  of  Christ's
busy  working  on  a  fund-raising                                                     bride is in her members living har-
project for the better part of a year        Staying with the Bethel PRC for
                                                a couple more news items, we           moniously according to the eternal
now.  About this time last year they         find that architectural plans have        Word  of  God."    Good  words  for
began gathering the necessary in-            been completed on their proposed          each of us to remember.
formation needed to put together             new  church  building  and  have              Our churches recently received
a church directory that would in-            been  sent  out  to  various  contrac-    notice  from  our  denomination's
clude all the members of the Prot-           tors for bids.  Final cost estimates      Committee for Contact with other
estant  Reformed  Churches  in               were expected by the end of Feb-          Churches  that  they  had  received
Michigan.  But, more than that, the          ruary.    If  all  went  as  planned,     official notification from our sister
thought  of  the  committee  was  to         Bethel could possibly have a con-         church in Wellington, New Zealand
incorporate also a directory of busi-        gregational meeting in early March        that  they  have  disbanded.    They
nesses in those same churches.  Af-          for final review and approval.            have formed themselves into two
ter what must have been a lot of                 In case you haven't heard yet,        fellowships, one in Wellington and
time-consuming  work,  Hope's                the official Bethel PRC web site is       one in Ashurst, approximately 2 
young people succeeded in putting            now  on-line        at:    http://        hours drive from each other on the
together that directory.  It contains        www.mes.net/~bethelpr.  Bethel is         North Island.  It was also their wish
some  50  pages  of  names  of  the          also linked with our other churches       that  the  amount  of  their  General
Michigan  PRC  membership,  fol-             who have home pages on the web.           Fund be divided  into three equal
lowed by some 14 pages of adver-                 As noted in an earlier "News,"        parts between  the  work and  pro-
tising.  All in all, a nicely done di-       the  Faith  PRC  in  Jenison,  MI  ob-    motion of the  Standard Bearer, the
rectory and a good addition to the           served  their  25th  anniversary  on      Reformed  Witness  Committee  of
individual church directories that           February  15.    This  evidence  of       Hope PRC in Walker, MI, and the
each Michigan church has.                    God's faithfulness  was celebrated        radio  ministry  of  the  Reformed
        The  young  people  of  the          that evening with a short program         Witness  Hour  of  the  PRC  in
Grandville, MI PRC recently hosted           which featured Faith's Choral So-         America.  They also wished to con-
a hamburg fry at Hope PR Chris-              ciety,  the  Sunday  School,  the         vey their thanks to all of our church
tian School.  What caught my eye             Voices  of  Victory,  and  others  of     membership  for  all  that  we  have
regarding that event was the fact            their congregation.  A light lunch        done  for  them  over  our  years  of
that Grandville was offering both            followed.    That  Sunday  morning        contact with each other.
sit-down  and  to-go  services.    In        the  congregation  also  had  the
other  words,  fast  food  comes  to         added  blessing  of  celebrating  the     Minister Activities
your young people's fund raising.            Lord's Supper together.                   Our vacant South Holland PRC
        One final item about our young                                                      formed a new trio consisting
people involves the Young People's           Sister Church Activities                  of Revs. Gritters, Koole, and Dale
Society of the Bethel PRC in Itasca,                                                   Kuiper.  Rev. Gritters was elected
IL.    They  met  recently  to  discuss      We extend our somewhat be-
                                                   lated congratulations to one        to receive the call.
the  theme,  "The  Morality  of  the         of  our  sister  churches,  the  First
                                             Evangelical  Reformed  Church  of                   Food for Thought
                                             Singapore, on the occasion of the             "The  only  kingdom  that  will
                                             observance of their 16th anniversary      prevail  in  this world  is  the  king-
Mr. Wigger is an elder in the Protestant     as  a  congregation  on  January  17.
Reformed  Church  of  Hudsonville, Michi-                                              dom that is not of this world."   u
                                             We echo the thoughts taken from
gan.

                                                                                                April 1, 1998/Standard Bearer/311

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



                                                               ANNOUNCEMENTS


           RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
         The  council  of  the  Edgerton  PRC  ex-                                                                               RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
presses its sincere sympathy to the family of                                                                              The  Men's  Society  of  the  Hudsonville
              MRS. HATTIE VER HEY.                              RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                PRC express our heartfelt Christian sympathy
         This charter member of our congregation              The consistory and congregation of Cov-                 to two of our faithful members.
was taken to be with the Lord on February 22,           enant Protestant Reformed Church, Wyckoff,                         Mr. Tom Spriensma in the death of his
1998 at the age of 99 years.  We rejoice that           NJ, express their Christian sympathy to Steve                 sister,
now she is able to experience sweet commun-             & Bev Hanko in the death of their infant son,                               ENGELINE DYKMA,
ion  with  God,  which  was  the  desire  of  her                      ADRIAN MARK,                                   in the Netherlands and Mr. Ray Praamsma in
heart.    "Nevertheless  I  am  continually  with       born February 25, 1998.                                       the death of his beloved wife,
thee:  thou hast holden me by my right hand.            "Blessed be the  Lord, who  daily loadeth us                                JULIA PRAAMSMA,
Thou  shalt  guide  me  with  thy  counsel,  and        with benefits, even the God of our salvation.                 early on Friday morning, February 6, 1998.
afterward receive me to glory" (Psalm 73:23,            He that is our God is the God of salvation;                        May they, as well as all of God's chil-
24).                                                    and unto God the Lord belong the issues from                  dren, find comfort in the Word of God as found
                           Rev. A. Brummel, Pres.       death" (Psalm 68:19, 20).                                     in Revelation 21:3, 4:  "And I heard a great
                                  John Hilton, Clerk                                                                  voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the taber-
                                                                                                                      nacle of God is with men, and he will dwell
                                                                                                                      with them, and they shall be his people, and
                     NOTICE!!!                                                                                        God himself shall be with them, and be their
         Classis East will meet in regular session                                                                    God.  And God shall wipe away all tears from
on Wednesday, May 13, 1998 at the South-                          WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                                 their eyes; and there shall be no more death,
east Protestant Reformed Church.  Material to                 With thankfulness to our heavenly Father                neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there
be treated at this session must be in the hands         we were privileged to celebrate, on March 15,                 be any more pain, for the former things are
of the Stated Clerk by April 15, 1998.                  1998, the 35th wedding anniversary of our par-                passed away."
                                    Jon J. Huisken,     ents and grandparents,                                                                           Erv Kortering,
                                       Stated Clerk          DEWEY and ELAINE VANDER NOORD.                                                                  Secretary
                                                        We are grateful to our heavenly Father for their
                     NOTICE!!!                          love and faithfulness to one another and to
         Each  issue  of  the  Standard  Bearer  is     the church these many years.  We give thanks
available on cassette tape for those who are            to God for providing us with Christian parents                           RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
blind, or who for some other reason would like          and  grandparents  who  have  guided  and  in-                     The  Men's  Society  of  the  Hudsonville
to be able to listen to a reading of the  SB.           structed us in the way of Christ.                             Protestant  Reformed  Church,  expresses  its
This is an excellent ministry of the Evange-                  We pray that God will continue to bless                 heartfelt Christian sympathy to the family and
lism Society of the Southeast Protestant Re-            them and keep them in His care.  "And I will                  friends of one of our faithful members, until a
formed Church.  The reader is Ken Rietema of            establish  my  covenant  with  thee;  and  thou               debilitating disease made it physically impos-
Southeast Church.  Anyone desiring this ser-            shalt know that I am the Lord" (Ezekiel 16:62).               sible for him to attend,
vice regularly should write:                            b     David VanDerNoord                                                   MR. WILLIAM LAFFERTY,
                   Southeast PRC                        b     Randy and Shelley VanDerNoord                           who was taken home  to his eternal rest on
             1535 Cambridge Ave. S.E.                           Ashley, Dewey, Ross, Clark                            February 12, 1998.
              Grand Rapids, MI  49506.                  b     Lee and Brenda Wiltjer                                       May we be comforted in the words of Ro-
                                                                Daniel, Lee Jr., Lauren                               mans  8:38,  39:    "For  I  am  persuaded,  that
                                                        b     John and Deb VanKalker                                  neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor princi-
                      NOTICE!                                   Kyle, Amanda                                          palities, nor powers, nor things present, nor
         This year marks the 20th year of Protes-       b     Ryan and Melanie Zandstra                               things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any
tant Reformed education at Covenant Chris-                      Courtney, Kayla (in glory)                            other creature, shall be able to separate us
tian School in Lynden, Washington.  We ren-             b     Stephanie VanDerNoord                                   from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus
der constant thanksgiving to God for His abid-                                             South Holland, Illinois    our Lord."
ing faithfulness to us.  "... His compassions                                                                                                            Erv Kortering,
fail not, they are new every morning:  Great is                                                                                                              Secretary
thy faithfulness" (Lamentations 3:22, 23).


312/Standard Bearer/April 1, 1998


