                             The
                   Standard
A Reformed         Bearer
Semi-Monthly
Magazine


                                                    In This Issue:

                   Meditation -- Rev. Rodney G. Miersma
                         Filled with the Spirit ......................................................................... 386

                   Editorial -- Prof. David J. Engelsma
                         1998 Synod of the PRC .................................................................... 388

                   Letters........................................................................................................ 390

                   Marking Zion's Bulwarks -- Prof. Herman C. Hanko
                         Montanus:  First Charismatic ......................................................... 391

                   All Around Us -- Rev. Gise VanBaren .................................................... 394

                   Taking Heed to the Doctrine -- Rev. Steven R. Key
                         Christ, Our King (1) .......................................................................... 396

                   Day of Shadows -- Homer C. Hoeksema
                         The Prediluvian Period
                         From the Protevangel to the Flood (Intro.) .................................. 398

                   Ministering to the Saints -- Prof. Robert D. Decker
                         The Discipline of Officebearers (1) ................................................ 400

                   That They May Teach Their Children -- Prof. Russell J. Dykstra
                         Covenant Children--the Organic View ......................................... 402

                   Contribution -- Mrs. Deborah Benson
                         Famine in the Land ........................................................................... 404

                   News From Our Churches -- Mr. Benjamin Wigger ............................... 407





Vol. 74, No. 17
June, 1998


   Meditation                                                                                                                         Rev. Rodney Miersma



                                         Filled with the Spirit

                                           And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one
                                           accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of
                                           a  rushing  mighty  wind,  and  it  filled  all  the  house  where  they  were
                                           sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire,
                                           and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy
                                           Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them
                                           utterance.
                                                                                                                                Acts 2:1-4


                                                                  power of the Spirit that Peter was
P                                                                                                                            by  the  Holy  Ghost"  (Apostles'
           entecost!                                              able  to  preach  the  first  Pentecost                    Creed),  which  is  what  the  angel
                                                                  sermon as he explained the fulfill-                        Gabriel  revealed  to  Mary  in  Luke
       What a glorious and significant                            ment  of  the  prophecy  spoken  by                        1:35:  "The Holy Ghost shall come
event in the history of the church                                Joel so many years before.                                 upon  thee,  and  the  power  of  the
of Jesus Christ. This was the day                                        The  Spirit  is  none  other  than                  Highest  shall  overshadow  thee:
that the resurrected and ascended                                 the third person of the Holy Trin-                         therefore also that holy thing which
Christ poured out upon His church                                 ity. The Father breathes forth for-                        shall be born of thee shall be called
the  Spirit  as  the  Spirit  of  Christ,                         ever  the  Spirit  to  the  Son  as  the                   the  Son  of  God."  Immanuel  is  a
that  He  might  abide  in  and  with                             Spirit of the Father, saying, "Thou                        name expressing this union of the
His church forever.                                               art my Son, this day have I begot-                         divine with our human nature.
       Without that Spirit the events                             ten thee, I love thee." And the Son                                 It was by His Spirit and Word
of  the  death  and  resurrection  of                             breathes forth forever the Spirit to                       that Christ taught His disciples and
Christ cannot be understood, and                                  the Father as the Spirit of the Son,                       performed mighty works while so-
they have no meaning or power for                                 saying, "Abba, Father." And "the                           journing  here  on  earth.  By  this
Christ's  bride.  It  was  under  the                             Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the                      Spirit the human nature of Christ
                                                                  deep things of God" (I Cor. 2:10).                         was sustained while our Savior suf-
                                                                         It is this same Spirit that rested                  fered the wrath of God for our sin
                                                                  upon Jesus in His humiliation. We
Rev. Miersma is pastor of Immanuel Prot-                                                                                     and  guilt.  He  reconciled  us  with
estant  Reformed  Church  of  Lacombe,                            confess that Jesus "was conceived                          God, having given perfect satisfac-
Alberta, Canada.



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386/Standard Bearer/June, 1998


tion  through  the  Spirit.  On  the         ness and in the shadow of death,                The cloven tongues  like as of
third day He was raised from the             to guide our feet into the way of           fire  portray  to  us  what  the  Spirit
dead by the Spirit, as the apostle           peace"  (Luke  1:78,  79).  That  was       does. As the tongues were cloven,
Paul explains, "But if the Spirit of         the twilight.  But when Pentecost           divided into two parts like the hoof
him that raised up Jesus from the            came, that was when the day broke.          of a cow or sheep, so the work of
dead dwell in you, he that raised            The  Spirit  was  poured  out,  there       the Spirit is twofold. One aspect of
up Christ from the dead shall also           was light, and Peter saw the light.         this work is negative, a consuming
quicken your mortal bodies by his                However, the Holy Spirit can-           of that which is of sin, a burning
Spirit that dwelleth in you" (Rom.           not  be  seen  by  the  human  eye.         away of corruption. The other as-
8:11).                                       How was the church to know that             pect is positive, a purifying of that
    Then,  upon  seating  the  as-           the Spirit had indeed been poured           which is in Christ, instilling in us
cended  Christ  at  His  right  hand,        out?    The  Lord  gave  unto  them         the fire of the love of God.
the Father gave the Spirit to Christ         signs.  Three signs were given, each            And  finally,  the  speaking  in
without measure. This Spirit Christ          saying  something  different  about         other tongues indicates to us whom
then poured out upon His church,             the Holy Spirit.                            the Spirit saves. God's church is no
that He might dwell with her and                 The first sign was the "sound           longer  bound  and  limited  to  the
realize  the  prayer  which  He              from heaven as of a rushing mighty          nation of Israel, but is to be gath-
brought to the Father on the night           wind" (v. 2).  There was no wind            ered from all nations, tongues, and
of His betrayal and capture:  "And           present,  nothing  stirred.    But  the     tribes. Here we see the catholicity
the glory which thou gavest me I             sound of a storm filled the whole           of  the  church  and  the  fulfillment
have given them; that they may be            house.                                      of God's Word through Noah to his
one, even as we are one: I in them,              The  second  sign  was  "cloven         son Japheth in Genesis 9:27:  "God
and thou in me, that they may be             tongues  like  as  of  fire"  (v.  3).      shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall
made perfect in one" (John 17:22,            Again, there was actually no fire,          dwell  in  the  tents  of  Shem;  and
23a).                                        but tongues  as of fire, which "sat         Canaan shall be his servant." And
    That  is  Pentecost.  The  Father        upon each of them."                         Isaiah,  as  he  prophesied  of  the
dwells in Christ and pours out all               And, finally, there was a third         kingdom  of  Christ,  said,  "And  it
the  blessings  of  Christ  upon  His        sign.  The 120 "began to speak with         shall come to pass in the last days,
church.  What  a  joyous  day!  We           other  tongues,  as  the  Spirit  gave      that  the  mountain  of  the  LORD 'S
have the blessings of salvation; the         them  utterance"  (v.  4).    Some          house  shall  be  established  in  the
promise  of  God  is  realized.  How         would  have  us  believe  that  the         top of the mountains, and shall be
rich our spiritual life is when com-         miracle was one of  hearing, rather         exalted above the hills; and all na-
pared  to  that  of  the  saints  of  the    than of speaking.  But that is not          tions shall flow unto it" (Is. 2:2).
old dispensation. They lived in the          true. The disciples actually spoke              The effect of the outpouring of
hope of the promise; we live in the          in other languages.                         the Spirit was seen immediately in
realized  promise.  They  lived  by              Now what does this all mean?            those disciples (approximately 120)
pictures;  we  live  by  realities.  For     What  did  those  saints  on  that          gathered there in one place. They
them  the  way  to  the  kingdom  of         blessed  day  understand?  What             spoke the wonderful works of God.
heaven was not yet open; we are              does it mean to us?                         That  should  be  the  result  of  the
in that kingdom of heaven.                       The  sound  as  of  a  rushing          Holy Spirit living within us too. By
    Or, to put it another way, they          mighty wind tells us how the Spirit         speaking  the  wonderful  works  of
lived in the darkness of the night,          works.  The  Spirit  works  mysteri-        God  we  manifest  that  we  belong
while we live in the brightness of           ously. We can see the effects of His        to Christ and that He dwells in us
the day. The people in the old dis-          working. To Nicodemus the Lord              by His Spirit. Let us speak of the
pensation  would  shout  from  the           explained  how  one  must  be  born         cross and of salvation, the promise
valley to their officebearers on the         again,  of  water  and  of  the  Spirit.    and the realization of the promise.
mountaintops,  "Do  you  see  the            To  help  Nicodemus  understand,            Let us be filled with the Holy Spirit
day? Is the day coming?" And the             Jesus used the picture of the wind:         through  the  preaching,  then  pro-
prophets,  seeing  things  afar  off,        "The wind bloweth where it listeth,         claim it to one another, to our chil-
would  only  reply,  "Only  a  little        and thou hearest the sound thereof,         dren, to the church, and to all the
streak, the day is not yet, it is still      but canst not tell whence it cometh,        world.
night."                                      and  whither  it  goeth:  so  is  every         Then we will have a foretaste
    When Christ came, there came             one that is born of the Spirit" (John       of  what  will  be  ours  in  heaven,
the  twilight,  as  prophesied  by           3:8). As the wind, so is the work-          where  we  will  forever  proclaim
Zacharias:  "whereby the dayspring           ing of the Spirit irresistible. When        God's  wonderful  works.  That  in-
from  on  high  hath  visited  us,  to       the Spirit regenerates, one cannot          deed will be glory!   u
give light to them that sit in dark-         resist it.

                                                                                                    June, 1998/Standard Bearer/387


  Editorial


                    1998 Synod of the PRC

H                                         this  is  still  the  situation  today.    possibility of calling a missionary
         ope  Protestant  Reformed        With the concurrence of the DMC,           to  the  Philippines  in  the  next
          Church  of  Walker,  MI  is     the  calling  church--Loveland,             couple of years."
          the calling church for the      CO--recommends that the work in                 The  FMC  informs  synod  that
annual synod of the Protestant Re-        Colorado be evaluated by the end           after the 1996 synod's decision ap-
formed  Churches in  America this         of this year, to determine whether         proving the calling of a missionary
year.  Synod will convene on Tues-        Rev. Miersma remain there "or be           to  Ghana,  West  Africa,  the  FMC
day morning, June 9, in the church        moved to another mission field."           approved the decision of the call-
building of the Hope church.  The             The  DMC  informs  synod  that         ing  church--Hull,  IA--to  discon-
pre-synodical worship service will        Rev. Miersma has been preaching            tinue  calling  a  missionary  to
be held on Monday evening, June           once  a  month  for  the  Sovereign        Ghana.  The reason was informa-
8, at 7:30, in the Hope church's au-      Grace  Reformed  Church  in  Spo-          tion that the government of Ghana
ditorium.  Rev. Ken Koole, presi-         kane, WA.  This church has asked           permits  foreigners  to  come  into
dent of last year's synod, will lead      the DMC to work with them with             Ghana  as  missionaries  only  if  an
the service and preach the sermon.        a view to their "becoming a PRC            organized Ghanaian church spon-
    Much of the agenda is devoted         mission  work  and  church."    The        sors them.  The immigration officer
to missions.                              DMC,  Loveland  consistory,  and           of  Ghana  who  was  the  source  of
    Both  the  Domestic  Mission          Rev.  Miersma  hold  out  the  pros-       this information added, "the Gha-
Committee  (DMC)  and  the                pect of moving the missionary to           naian  authorities  would  then  be
Hudsonville, MI PRC report on the         Spokane, to work with this church.         looking at how and in what degree
work  of  Rev.  Ron  Hanko  in  the           Synod will decide on the pro-          we were helping the people and the
British Isles.  Missionary Hanko is       posal  of  the  DMC  that  a  second       economy  of  Ghana.    If  we  were
working as pastor of the Covenant         home missionary be called "for the         building  churches,  schools,  and
Protestant  Reformed  Church  in          eastern part of the U.S."  He would        hospitals, for example, the authori-
Northern Ireland and as mission-          work  primarily  with  a  group  of        ties would then grant us indepen-
ary in the British Isles.  His work       some five families, mostly from the        dent status."  In subsequent corre-
outside  the  area  of  the  congrega-    Roman  Catholic  Church.    Rev.           spondence with the Ministry of the
tion is centered at present in Wales.     Miersma and other ministers have           Interior  of  Ghana,  the  FMC  has
The DMC arranged that candidate           been working with members of this          learned that it would not be advis-
Daniel  Kleyn  and  Prof.  Herman         group for about two years.                 able to enter Ghana independently.
Hanko  helped  with  the  work  in            The  denominational  Foreign               The FMC is recommending to
Wales this past year.  The DMC is         Mission Committee (FMC) informs            the 1998 synod that "synod instruct
recommending to synod that men            synod  that  Rev.  Allen  Brummel          the FMC to investigate the require-
be sent to the British Isles periodi-     and Rev. Arie denHartog made a             ments associated with sponsorship
cally to assist the missionary with       trip to the Philippines last Decem-        and  to  proceed  with  sponsorship
the work.  The purpose is to deter-       ber.    They  visited  contacts,           providing it does not conflict with
mine  "whether  or  not  to  recom-       preached, taught, and held confer-         the  decisions  of  synod  1996  (Art.
mend in 1999 that synod approve           ences.  At the request of the FMC,         70) and does not compromise the
calling a second missionary to the        Rev.  and  Mrs.  Jay  Kortering  will      teaching and preaching of our Re-
British Isles."                           visit contacts in the Philippines on       formed distinctives."  The commit-
    Home           missionary     Tom     their  way  to  the  United  States  in    tee  is  also  recommending  to  this
Miersma has been based in the San         May of this year.  The FMC desires         year's synod that synod approve a
Luis Valley in Colorado for about         to send two more delegations to the        1999  budget  of  $101,345  for  the
four years.  Synod of 1997 decided        Philippines before synod 1999 "to          general operating expenses of the
that  this  area  has  not  shown  the    prepare the way for establishing a         Ghana  field,  and  $40,000  for  the
growth  or  interest  which  would        mission  field  in  the  Philippines."     initial setup costs.
warrant confining Rev. Miersma's          The  FMC  is  asking  authorization            The  Committee  for  Contact
labors to it.  The DMC reports that       from  synod  to  work  "toward  the        with Other Churches (CC)  reports

388/Standard Bearer/June, 1998


on official visits by its members to         Singapore.  He also preached and              tion in various branches of theol-
the  meeting  of  the  North  Ameri-         taught  in  Myanmar  and  in                  ogy,  Mr.  Brummel  will  become  a
can  Presbyterian  and  Reformed             Singapore.    Some  of  his  teaching         candidate  for  the  ministry  of  the
Council  (NAPARC)  and  to  the              in Singapore was in the ERCS Bible            Word and Sacraments in the PRC.
meeting of the synod of the United           School.  The council of Hope PRC,             In  its  report  to  synod,  the  Theo-
Reformed  Churches  (URC).    The            Walker, MI, calling church of Rev.            logical  School  Committee  (TSC)
CC is recommending to synod that             Jay Kortering (minister-on-loan to            recommends that two men from the
the  PRC  discontinue  sending  ob-          the ERCS), reports that the ERCS              PRC be admitted to the seminary
servers to NAPARC.  The grounds              intend the Bible School to develop            in the fall of 1998.
include:  "1. The important doctri-          into a full-fledged seminary for the              In 1997 synod appointed a spe-
nal differences between us and the           training of Reformed ministers in             cial committee "to investigate the
member  churches  make  member-              that part of the world.                       advisability of investing a portion
ship  in  this  organization  impos-             The CC informs synod that the             of  the  Emeritus  Fund  in  mutual
sible.  2. We ought not to continue          Protestant  Reformed  Church  of              funds,  and  also  to  recommend
sending observers if we have no in-          New Zealand has disbanded.                    proper  management  practices  for
tention of joining."                             The  Evangelical  Presbyterian            the  Emeritus  Fund,  including  the
    The  CC  also  makes  a  recom-          Church of Australia, in a letter to           investigation  of  other  financial
mendation  concerning  relations             synod, has addressed warm greet-              sources."  In its report to the 1998
with the URC.  (The URC are basi-            ings to the PRC.  The Presbyterian            synod this committee recommends
cally Christian Reformed churches            church particularly thanks the PRC            that  synod  make  the  churches
whose secession from the Christian           for the training of their seminarian          "aware  of  the  significant  need
Reformed denomination was occa-              in the seminary of the PRC:                   faced by the Emeritus Fund and to
sioned  by  the  opening  of  the  of-                                                     ask our constituency to remember
fices  of  minister  and  elder  to              We would at this time officially          this need through extra giving and
women in that Church.)  The CC                 extend our heartfelt thanks to you,         estate  bequests."    The  committee
of the PRC is asking authorization             both  officebearers  and  people  of        notes that in the next 15 years, the
from synod to send the following               the        Protestant      Reformed         assessment is likely to double from
to the URC:                                    Churches, for so graciously open-           the present cost of $135 per fam-
                                               ing up your seminary for the fur-
                                               ther training of our student, Mr.           ily.    In  the  next  35-40  years,  the
  1.That the PRC and URC discuss               Mark  Shand,  for  the  ministry  of        prospect is that the costs will esca-
  those  issues  which  have  kept  us         the gospel, and your generous ma-           late to an amount that is about 10
  separate since 1924, viz., common            terial and practical assistance.            times  its  present  level.    The  con-
  grace and the doctrine of the cov-             We  are  grateful  to  know  that         clusion  of  this  committee  is  that
  enant.                                       you  stand  wholeheartedly  com-            additional  study  should  be  given
  2.That  the  PRC  and  URC  deter-           mitted to the Reformed faith as ex-
  mine  if  there  are  other  issues                                                      to  the  following  Emeritus  Fund
                                               pressed in our respective confes-
  which  need  to  be  resolved,  e.g.,                                                    matters:  "Actively pursuing other
                                               sions of faith.  We deeply appre-
  remarriage  of  divorced  persons,                                                       revenue  sources  for  the  Emeritus
                                               ciate your firm adherence to cov-
  labor unions, perhaps church pol-            enant  theology  and  particular            Fund;  setting  up  administrative
  ity issues, and the use of hymns             grace.  We value the emphasis you           practices  for  the  Emeritus  Fund
  in worship.                                  give to exegesis from the original          that are necessary to handle the in-
  3.That the PRC send observers to             languages,  and  your  focus  upon          creasing  complexity  of  its  opera-
  the next synod of the URC if we              preparing preachers of the whole            tion; (and) presenting fair and con-
  are invited and if the URC has the           counsel of God.  It is hard to put          sistent  `savings'  techniques  for
  above  recommendations  on  its              into words our gratefulness under
  agenda.  Ground:  God calls us to                                                        ministers not in the Social Security
                                               God to you for extending a help-
  strive  to  manifest  the  unity  of                                                     program."
                                               ing hand to us, a small denomi-
  Christ's  church,  but  it  must  be                                                         The  Yearbook  Committee  re-
                                               nation,  in  this  vital  task  of  pre-
  unity based on the truth of Scrip-           paring men for the ministry of the          ports the continued, steady numeri-
  ture  as  interpreted  by  the  three        gospel.                                     cal growth of the PRC.
  forms of unity.                                                                              May God increase the churches
                                                 One seminarian graduates from             in number and virtue!
    The  CC  reports  on  a  trip  by        the Theological School of the PRC                 And may they display their vir-
Prof. Herman Hanko to the Evan-              this year.  Nathan Brummel will sit           tue  by  faithfulness,  wisdom,  and
gelical  Reformed  Churches  of              for his oral examination before the           zeal  in  the  major  assembly  that
Singapore (ERCS), sister churches            synod.  With synod's approval of              meets, deliberates, and acts in the
of  the  PRC,    this  past  year.    The    his specimen sermon preached be-              name of Jesus Christ the Lord, this
main purpose was his speaking at             fore the synod and of his examina-            June, God willing.   u
a Reformation Day Conference in                                                                                              --DJE

                                                                                                      June, 1998/Standard Bearer/389


     Letters

                                            there  is  another  explanation.    If     the sin of Herod as "this incestu-
                                            there is, please explain.                  ous and adulterous relationship (em-
s     Ignorance, Misapplication,                              (Elder) Eddie Roberts    phasis  added).    He  concluded:
or Another Explanation                                        Faith Baptist Church     "such a marriage was incestuous.
                                                          Madison Heights, MI          Was  it  not also  adulterous (Rom.
I do not like to give criticism to
     one of the Lord's servants.  But I                                                7:2,  3)?"    (Exposition  of  the  Gospel
must  say  that  I  was  totally  sur-      Response:                                  According  to  Mark ,  Baker,  repr.
prised  by  your  statements  under             Surely it is not as bad as this?       1979, pp. 236, 237)
"Letters" in the 4/1/98 issue of the            In replying to a request for pas-          Nor  is  this  understanding  of
Standard Bearer concerning divorce.         sages  of  Scripture  bearing  on  the     Mark 6:18 limited to Reformed in-
      I love the God of grace and the       duty of a man twice divorced and           terpreters.  The Anglican scholar,
grace  of  God.    I  read  everything      now married to the wife of another         Andrew Cornes, appeals to  Mark
that I can on the subject.  Most of         man, to insert "neighbor's" in pa-         6:17ff.,  with  the  parallel passages
present-day works by Calvinists is          rentheses  after  "brother's"  in  a       in Matthew 14 and Luke 3, in sup-
not scholarly.  I am glad to say that       quotation of Mark 6:18?                    port of his contention that remar-
your paper is one of the rare ex-               Is it ignorance or deceitful ex-       riage after divorce is adultery.
ceptions.  This is why I enjoy read-        egesis to suggest, as I did, that the
ing it so much.  So  this is why I          Baptist's  condemnation  of  Herod           It is not possible to contract a true
was set back by your advice con-            for having his (half) brother's wife         marriage--a  marriage  in  God's
cerning divorce.                            is properly to be explained as im-           eyes--while your divorced partner
      Regardless of one's position on                                                    is still living.  It is only possible
                                            plying the condemnation also of a
divorce,  we  should  not  misapply                                                      to  commit  adultery.    This  is  be-
                                            man's having his neighbor's wife,            cause  the  first  marriage  still  ex-
Scripture to our side of the issue.         though the neighbor is not a rela-           ists.  It may be for this reason that
We all make mistakes.  But I can-           tive by blood?                               Matthew  continues  to  call
not believe that you made one con-              Certainly, the doctrine of my in-        Herodias "Philip's wife" after she
cerning Mark 6:18 with the state-           serted, one-word interpretation of           has divorced Philip and been re-
ment--"Thy brother's (neighbor's)            the text cannot be faulted.  If the          married to Herod Antipas (Matt.
wife."  I know that you know this           10th  commandment  of  God's  law            14:3f//Mark 6:17f, cf Luke 3:19).
was his real, actual, blood brother's       forbids coveting the neighbor's wife,        (Divorce & Remarriage, Eerdmans,
wife.  I do not have to give to you                                                      1993, p. 214)
                                            it  forbids  having   the  neighbor's
the history.  You are a professor.          wife.
To try to pass this passage off as                                                         The  Committee  on  "Marital
                                                Reformed  exegesis  generally
speaking  against  taking  your                                                        Problems--Ecumenical  Synod  Re-
                                            has seen more in the passage than
neighbor's wife after a divorce is                                                     port" was correct when it asserted
                                            only  the  condemnation  of  marry-
totally  misapplying  the  Word  of                                                    in its report to the Fourth Reformed
                                            ing a (blood) brother's wife.
God.    We  both  know  that  what                                                     Ecumenical  Synod  (1958)  that
                                                In  his  commentary  on  Mark
John  the  Baptist  was  preaching                                                     "most exegetes regard the marriage
                                            6:17-29, John Calvin described the
against  here  was  the  Mosaic  law                                                   (of Herod and Herodias - DJE) as
                                            "atrocious  character"  of  Herod's
of  taking  your  natural  brother's                                                   both  adulterous  and  incestuous"
                                            sin this way:  "not only did he keep
wife  as  stated  in  Leviticus  18:16.                                                (Acts  of  the  Fourth  Reformed  Ecu-
                                            in  his  own  house  another  man's
The  Mosaic  law  was  not  against                                                    menical Synod of Potchefstroom South
                                            wife, whom he had torn away from
taking another man's wife after di-                                                    Africa, p. 78).
                                            lawful wedlock, but the person on
vorce  (Deut.  24:1-4)--just  your                                                          To  my  mind,  the  fundamental
                                            whom he had committed this out-
brother's.  As you well know, the                                                      teaching  of  Mark  6:18  is  that  re-
                                            rage was his own brother."  Calvin
law  of  Moses  directed  a  man  to                                                   marriage after divorce to anybody's
                                            added:  "John condemns the rape
marry  the  wife  of  his  deceased                                                    wife or husband is unlawful.  That
                                            still more than the incest."  In his
brother if he had left no child.                                                       the  neighbor  sinned  against  is  a
                                            indictment of Herodias, Calvin did
      I am caught between a rock and                                                   relative aggravates the iniquity.
                                            not speak of an incestuous relation-
a hard place with this.  If you were                                                       Would  you,  therefore,  regard
                                            ship, but of "the disgrace of a pre-
ignorant of this history, what kind                                                    my "neighbor's" in parentheses as
                                            tended marriage"  (Harmony of the
of professor are you?  If you knew                                                     neither ignorance nor deceit, but as
                                            Evangelists, vol. 2, Eerdmans, repr.
and misapplied the passage to your                                                     accounted  for  by  "another  expla-
                                            1957, pp. 220-226).
side  of  the  issue,  what  kind  of  a                                               nation"?
                                                William  Hendriksen  analyzed
Christian teacher are you?  Maybe                                                                                          --Ed.

390/Standard Bearer/June, 1998


s     For All Times, Condemned,              Domine" ("Arise O Lord"), threat-         glory")  is  a  fiction  and  false,  the
Rejected, and Denounced                      ening Martin Luther with excom-           bull declared:
In your editorial, "Where are the munication if he did not repent and
     Theologians of the Cross?" (Stan-       recant his teachings.  The bull listed      For  all  times  do  we  want  them
dard  Bearer,  April  1,  1998),  you        41 of Luther's teachings, which it          condemned,  rejected  and  de-
quoted  Gerhard  O.  Forde  as  say-         condemned  as  "deadly  poison"             nounced.  We order in the name
ing that Luther's Thesis 13 at the           and which were the ground of the            of the holy obedience and the dan-
Heidelberg Disputation, condemn-             excommunication.  The 36th alleg-           ger of all punishment each and ev-
                                                                                         ery  Christian  believer  of  either
ing the Roman Catholic doctrine of           edly erroneous teaching of Luther           sex,  under  no  circumstances  to
free will, was "the only one from            was the following:  "Free will after        read,  speak,  preach,  laud,  con-
this Disputation actually attacked           sin is a matter of name only; and           sider, publish or defend such writ-
in the bull `Exsurge Domine' threat-         as long as one does what is in him,         ings,  sermons,  or  broadsides  or
ening  Luther  with  excommunica-            one sins mortally."                         anything contained therein....  In-
tion."                                           This was a virtual quotation by         deed, they are, upon learning of
      Would you give me the actual           the pope of  Luther's Thesis 13 at          this bull, wherever they may be,
attack on Luther's Thesis 13 from            the Heidelberg Disputation:  "Free          to burn his writings, publicly and
the papal bull, "Exsurge Domine"?            will, after the fall, exists in name        in the presence of clerics and la-
                                                                                         ity in order to avoid the punish-
                   (Rev.) Wesley Pastor      only, and as long as it does what it        ment stated above.
             Christ Memorial Church          is able to do, it commits a mortal
                           Williston, VT     sin."                                         The theology of (man's) glory
                                                 About  the  41  teachings  of         has  always  recognized  and  de-
Response:                                    Luther that it condemned, includ-         tested the theology of the cross.
      In 1520, Pope Leo X published          ing Luther's teaching that free will          The feeling is mutual.
a bull, or official decree,  "Exsurge        (the  heart  of  the  "theology  of                                      --Ed.   u

     Marking Zion's Bulwarks                                                                 Prof. Herman Hanko




          Montanus: First Charismatic

                                             costalism  were  found  in  the           swing.   Weary of the  coldness of
                                             Montanist movement of the third           rationalism, the pendulum swings
Introduction                                 century A.D.                              in the direction of mysticism; and
                                                 There is a kind of a pendulum         then, frightened at last by the quag-
Solomon told us in the book of
        Ecclesiastes that there is noth-     which swings in  the church from          mire of the shifting sands of mys-
        ing new under the sun.  How          one extreme to the other.  It is of-      ticism, the pendulum swings back
often  has  not  modern  history             ten  the  pendulum  between  ratio-       towards rationalism.  Both are re-
proved that to be true.  It is so in         nalism (which makes man's reason          actions; both are wrong.
the world; it is so in the church.           the final arbiter of truth) and mys-          The great lesson to be learned
      The charismatic movement is of         ticism (which makes feelings the fi-      by  it  all  is  simply  this:    Sola
recent origin, and is a phenomenon           nal arbiter of truth).  Both have in      Scriptura, the one great principle of
of the late twentieth century.  And          common that they abandon (or add          the Reformation.
yet it is as old as the history of the       to) the Scriptures as the authority           In Montanism we have the be-
New Testament church.  Precisely             of all faith and life. The one puts       ginnings of mysticism, the charis-
the  evils  of  modern-day  Pente-           reason  in  Scripture's  place;  the      matic  movement,  and  all  revival-
                                             other puts feelings there.                ism.    Yes,  even  the  latter,  for  re-
                                                 Reason and feelings are quite         vivalism is not far removed from
Prof. Hanko is professor of Church His-      opposed to each other, and this op-       mysticism,  and  both  share  many
tory  and  New Testament  in  the Protes-    position  makes  the  pendulum            common features, as we shall see.
tant Reformed Seminary.

                                                                                                  June, 1998/Standard Bearer/391


Montanus and his followers                    many in the church, and, as espe-           haul," so to speak.  Montanism was
         Phrygia is found in central Asia     cially Rome and North Africa were           a reaction against the rationalism
Minor.  It was in this general area           affected by his teachings, the whole        of Gnosticism (see our last article,
that the people later known as the            church  was  thrown  into  commo-           May 1, 1998) and the moral laxity
Galatians  settled,  which  people            tion.  His heresies became the oc-          of the Roman church.
were  the  objects  of  the  mission          casion  for  the  first  synods  to  be         In addition to these character-
work of the church on Paul's first            held in the post-apostolic church.          istics,  the  balance  of  power  was
missionary journey.  They were a                  I suppose even then his whole           shifting  in  the  church  from  the
volatile and excitable people, given          movement  would  not  have  at-             people  of  God  functioning  in  the
to fanatical excesses, and some of            tracted the attention that it did if it     office of believers to an ordained
these  national  traits  carried  over        had not been for the fact that one          clergy, an ecclesiastical priesthood,
after  their  conversion.    Many             of the greatest of all the church fa-       which was to develop into the epis-
strange heresies found in the early           thers, Tertullian himself, joined the       copal  system  of  Roman  Catholi-
church  arose  in  Phrygia.    One  of        movement.  This is always very dif-         cism.
them was Montanism.                           ficult  for  me  to  understand,  for           Against  all  these  things
         Montanus, after whom the her-        Tertullian's  writings  are  some  of       Montanism  reacted.    It  doesn't
esy is named, was born a heathen              the most notable of all the church          sound all that unfamiliar and does
and  may  have  been  a  mutilated            fathers,  and  his  teachings  of  the      not strike one who knows the times
priest  of  the  heathen  goddess             Trinity were the clearest and most          in  which  we  live  as  being  exces-
Cybele, whom the Galatians wor-               biblical of any writer prior to the         sively strange.
shiped.  Around the middle of the             Council  of  Nicea.    In  fact,                The  chief  characteristic  of
second  century,  somewhere  be-              Tertullian's insights did more than         Montanism  was  its  belief  in  con-
tween 150 and 170, Montanus was               any  other  single  writer  to  shape       tinuous revelation.  All the special
converted.                                    that crucially important doctrine of        gifts of the Holy Spirit were con-
         It  was  not  long  before           God.                                        tinued,  claimed  the  Montanists;
Montanus  began  to  have  some                   Yet  he  joined  the  Montanist         and  the  result  was  that  miracles,
strange ideas of what Christianity            movement.  It is a powerful lesson          too, were part of the proper exer-
was all about.  He was of the opin-           to  us  that  the  greatest  of  men  in    cises  of  those  who  possessed  the
ion that most of the Old Testament            the church of Christ are prone to           Holy Spirit.  But prophecy was the
was the time of God the Father; the           error and susceptible to false doc-         main gift which was continued.
first century in the new dispensa-            trine.                                          All those who were truly spiri-
tion was the period of God the Son;                                                       tual were endowed with these spe-
and  with  his  own  birth  and  con-         The views of Montanism                      cial gifts.  No distinction was to be
version, a new age dawned: the pe-                Heresy  never  arises  in  a            observed between clergy and laity,
riod of God the Holy Ghost.                   vacuum.  It is almost always a re-          for men, women, and children alike
         His  chief  appeal  to  Scripture    action  to  some  weakness  in  the         were and ought to be prophets and
was  to  the  lengthy  discourse  of          church.  It is almost always present        prophetesses.   Indeed,  shortly af-
Jesus to His disciples on the eve of          because  the  church  has  unpaid           ter Montanus began his teachings
His  crucifixion,  a  discourse  deal-        debts.  A weakness in the church,           in  Phrygia,  two  women,  Priscilla
ing chiefly with the "Paraclete," the         in life or doctrine, creates a vacuum       and Maximilla, left their husbands
Spirit of truth whom Christ prom-             which a heresy rushes to fill.              and homes to join Montanus and
ised  to  send  to  the  church.                  So it was with Montanism.  At           become prophetesses in his group.
Montanus  became  convinced  that             the time the sect arose, the church             The  prophecies  given  to  the
perhaps  he  himself  was  the                had, generally speaking, enjoyed a          truly spiritual were usually given
Paraclete;  or,  if  not  the  Paraclete      fairly long period of peace, of free-       in  ecstasies  and  trances,  and
Himself,  then  the  inspired  organ          dom from persecution, and of pros-          Montanus described one who was
through whom the Paraclete spoke.             perity.    The  result  was  that  the      in such a trance as a "lyre" or harp
         Usually  the  Paraclete,  so         church had become, in some mea-             on which the Holy Spirit plays the
Montanus claimed, spoke through               sure,  very  much  attached  to  this       melodious songs of heaven--a fig-
him while he was in a trance or in            world, possessor of more material           ure often used to this very day to
a  state  of  ecstasy;  but  what  he         goods than had been the case since          describe  the  prophecies  of  those
spoke was infallible and had to be            her  beginning,  worldliminded  in          who  claim  to  possess the  gifts  of
taken  by  men  as  from  God  Him-           her outlook, and without the spiri-         prophecy.
self.                                         tual  characteristic  of  a  church             While  Montanism  was  in-
         He very soon gained a follow-        which looks for the return of Jesus         tended  to  do  away  with  the  hor-
ing, and his influence spread rap-            Christ.    She  had  accommodated           rible sin of setting clergy above la-
idly.  His views were adopted by              herself to the world for "the long          ity,  it  had  its  own  levels  of  holi-

392/Standard Bearer/June, 1998


ness.    Only  those  who  possessed       not given to anything which could           and  with  strange  noises  that  nei-
the Spirit and could show the spe-         be construed as the enjoyment of            ther  God  nor  man  could  under-
cial gifts of the Spirit were the truly    what belonged to this world.  They          stand.  In a more modern period,
holy;  the  rest  were  looked  down       were an unhappy lot.                        the charismatic movement empha-
upon as "carnal."                              While the early church during           sizes the special gifts of the Spirit,
    It  was  this  idea  that  led  the    the time of the apostles tended to          and  revivalism  gives  evidence  of
Montanists to the notion of a "pure        believe that the Lord was coming            bizarre behavior as being manifes-
church,"  another  idea  which  has        within  the  lifetime  of  the  saints      tations  of  the  Spirit's  presence.
lingered through the centuries and         then  living  (see  Paul's  epistles  to    They come together, however, and
which has had its own attractive-          the  Thessalonians,  e.g.),  these          show beyond doubt that they have
ness.  Only the truly spiritual could      hopes of Christ's imminent return           much in common.  To open oneself
belong  to  the  church,  so  that  the    tended  to  fade  away,  and  the           to  revivalism  is  to cave  in  to  the
church was composed only of true           church became increasingly aware            great evil of Pentecostalism.  The
believers.    How  often  has  it  not     of the fact that it was the will of         two came together in Montanism;
been true  that this notion of true        God that the church be on the earth         today's movement is no different.
believers  dominated  the  thinking        for a great number of years.  The                  Thus it is that Montanism, with
and life of the church.  In fact, this     loss of the hope of an imminent re-         its emphasis on special gifts, and
very idea lies at the bottom of the        turn of Christ soon left a mark of          with  its  trances  and  visions,  was
main tenet of Baptist thinking: the        worldliness  on  the  church.    As         guilty  of  an  excessive  supernatu-
baptism only of believers.  It is the      Montanism rejected the worldliness          ralism  and  puritanism  which  de-
"pure church" ideal.  It is not sur-       of the church it saw the church's           nies the true character of the work
prising, therefore, that Montanism         salvation in a renewed emphasis on          of the Holy Spirit.  One scholar is
denied infant baptism and insisted         the immediate return of Christ.  It         right when he says: "The religious
on believers' baptism.                     became  a  sect  which  taught  that        earnestness  which  animated
    Such views of the church led,          Christ could come at any moment,            Montanism,  and  the  fanatical  ex-
in turn, to a very rigid view of mo-       and  it  attempted  to  persuade  the       tremes into which it ran, have fre-
rality  and  discipline.    The            church at large of the truth of this        quently reappeared in the Church
Montanists  were,  in  their  protest      assertion.                                  after the death of Montanism, un-
against worldliness and carnality,             When  persecution  once  more           der  various  names  and  forms,  as
almost ascetic.  They believed that        broke out under Antonius Pius, this         in      Novatianism,        Donatism,
in  times  of  persecution  believers      persecution  was  interpreted  to           Anabaptism,... Puritanism, Pietism,
ought actively to seek martyrdom.          mean that the final persecution had         ... by way of protests and whole-
They  had  no  sympathy  for  those        come  and  that  the  church  was           some reaction against various evils
who lapsed--i.e., for those who un-         about  to  witness  the  return  of         in the church.  And what may ap-
der the pressure of persecution de-        Christ and the establishment of the         pear perhaps more strange, several
nied their faith, but later repented       millennium.  It is strange that  so         of  those  very  doctrines  of  the
and  sought  re-admittance  to  the        often those two ideas seem to go            Montanists which in their earliest
church.  No lapsed member could            hand  in  hand:  special  revelations       rise  were  pronounced  heretical
ever  again  belong  to  the  church       from God and the imminent return            gradually made their way into the
here upon earth.                           of Christ, the date of which can be         Church of Rome...."
    Tertullian went so far as to say       predicted.                                         The antidote to all such error
that anyone who became guilty of                                                       is the great Reformation principle
any one of  the  seven deadly  sins        The significance of Montanism               Sola Scriptura.  And that principle
had forfeited all right ever to be a           The ecstasies, trances, visions,        means not only that Scripture is the
member of the church on earth.             and  special  revelations            of     sole authority for faith and life, but
    They viewed the institution of         Montanism  were  its  chief  charac-        also  that  Scripture  is  all  that  we
marriage with a great deal of sus-         teristic.  Nor were the Montanists          need  to  know  for  our  salvation.
picion.  They were flatly opposed          able  to  keep  this  aspect  of  their     The doctrine of the sufficiency of
to  remarriage,  even  when  one's         teaching within reasonable bounds.          Scripture leads one who holds to it
spouse  died;  and  they  generally        Montanism  was  characterized  by           to anchor his soul firmly in God's
considered  marriage  itself  to  be       frenzied  activities  of  those  in         Word and to seek for nothing else.
God's  grudging  consent  to  man's        trances, by extremely unusual and                                                   u
irresistible tendency to indulge in        bizarre manifestations of the Spirit,
fleshly lusts.                             by  irrational behavior  which  was
    In eating and drinking, in plea-       condoned  on  the  basis  of  an  ap-
sures and dress, in demeanor and           peal to the work of the Spirit, and
conduct, they were gloomy, sober,          by  utterances  in  strange  tongues

                                                                                                   June, 1998/Standard Bearer/393


     All Around Us                                                                                      Rev. Gise VanBaren

s      Pastoral Network                              experiences and gifts--usually de-         churches  as  inevitable  and  as  ac-
for the "Paranormal"                                 scribed as paranormal--often feel          ceptable.    As  the  editor  pointed
One is hardly surprised at the isolated and encounter denial and out,  those  who  divorce  and  re-
         changes  taking  place  in  Re-             rejection.                                marry can freely sit at the commun-
formed  churches.    Still,  it  does                  The  situation  was  aggravated,        ion table as though there is noth-
come as a bit of a shock to hear of                  Kuyk  suggested,  when  people            ing wrong with their new relation-
a  "pastoral  network  for  the                      were  told  that  their  experiences      ship.
                                                     were  wrong,  sinful  or  even  the
`paranormal'"  in  Reformed  de-                                                                   In  an  article  titled  as  above,
                                                     work of the devil.
nominations.    The  Ecumenical                        Christians with paranormal ex-          William R. Mattox Jr., in Policy Re-
News International, December 10,                     periences and gifts find such judg-       view,  Summer  1995,  Number  73,
1997 reports:                                        ments difficult to swallow.  They         analyzes this divorce situation.  He
                                                     feel  trapped  with  their  faith  be-    begins by deploring the "tragic sui-
       Dutch churches have created a                 tween  their  experiences  and  the       cide  of  Kurt  Cobain  last  year...."
     pastoral network for people with                judgments of others.                      (No, I don't know who he is--but
     paranormal gifts and experiences.                                                         the article states that he is "a cut-
       The network was initiated after                 Hence: a pastoral network for           ting-edge cultural icon married to
     the home mission organizations of          the "paranormal."
     the Netherlands Reformed Church                                                           alternative  rock's  premier  femi-
                                                       It would appear from Scripture
     (NHK)     and  the  Reformed                                                              nist....")      The  suicide  was  con-
                                                that  there  were  indeed  certain
     Churches  in  the  Netherlands                                                            nected with a recent divorce.
     (GKN) noticed that an increasing           "paranormal"  experiences.    One                  The author makes some inter-
     number of people both inside and           thinks of the vision of Peter when             esting points which are worth con-
     outside the church wanted to talk          he saw the sheet with unclean ani-             sidering:
     about their experiences.                   mals  let  down  from  heaven.    He
       Henk Kuyk, a pastor and secre-           heard too the voice saying, "Rise,                 ...As Barbara Dafoe Whitehead
     tary  of  the  NHK/GKN  commis-            Peter, kill and eat."  One also re-              argued in her celebrated article on
     sion of pastoral work, who helped          calls the incident of the young maid             family  break-up  in  the  Atlantic
     create the  network, believes that         in  Philippi  who  had,  apparently,             Monthly,  divorce--like  illegiti-
     the  churches  should  not  reject         certain  "paranormal"  revelations               macy--is strongly linked to a wide
     these people but try to understand                                                          variety  of negative  outcomes  for
     them.                                      about the future.
                                                                                                 children, from child abuse and ne-
       "Some people have a more than                   In the first instance, there was          glect to serious juvenile crime.  A
     usual sensitivity for these things,        infallible, divine revelation.  In the           1994 study of juveniles in the Wis-
     which  other  people  miss,"  Kuyk         second instance one sees the work                consin  correction  system  found
     said.                                      of a demon in the young lady.  So                that 1 in 3 came from divorced or
       According to Kuyk, western cul-          one  wonders  how  the  "para-                   separated homes.  Several studies
     ture is  dominated by knowledge            normal"  must  be  judged  by  the               show that unmarried girls whose
     and methods of perception based            "pastoral network" today?  Would                 parents  divorce  are  much  more
     on  western  science  and  tech-           these  "paranormal"  events  be  in-             likely to engage in premarital sex
     niques.  Other sources of knowl-                                                            and get pregnant out of wedlock
     edge  and  methods  of  perception         fallible revelation--or the work of
                                                                                                 than girls from intact households.
     are hardly considered in western           demons?    There  seems  to  be  no              A  1994  study  by  researchers  at
     societies, he suggested.                   third alternative.                               Duke  and  North  Carolina  State
       He  pointed  out  that  the  Bible                                                        University  reported  that  family
     contained many stories describing          s      "Why Aren't Conservatives                 dissolution is a stronger predictor
     visions, dreams, hearing of voices         Talking About Divorce?"                          of  suicide  for  young  males  than
     and healings, experiences that to-                                                          such factors as unemployment.
     day  might  be  described  as              Our editor in past editorials has
                                                        been capably setting forth the             Despite the clear impact of fam-
     paranormal.                                scriptural  instruction  concerning              ily  break-up  on  children,  "some
       "In  our  church  life  and  theol-                                                       people aren't comfortable talking
     ogy such events are mostly seen            divorce  and  remarriage.    He  cor-
                                                                                                 about  divorce  and  adultery,"
     as belonging to the past," he said.        rectly expresses concern that con-               former Education Secretary Will-
       Dutch  church  workers  have             servatives and evangelicals are not              iam Bennett told a Christian Coa-
     found that people with particular          saying  much  about  the  problem.               lition conference last year.  "But
                                                While  many  deplore  the  growing               it  seems  to  me  we  have  to  talk
Rev. VanBaren is pastor of the Protestant       rate of divorce and the prevalence               about them.  They are before us,
Reformed    Church    of    Loveland,  Colo-    of remarriage, it is nevertheless ac-            and  they  have  great  conse-
rado.                                           cepted  in  most  conservative                   quences."

394/Standard Bearer/June, 1998


    Great  indeed.    The  number  of        ried  couples,  practical  advice  on          couples that succeed work hard at
  children  directly  affected  by  di-      how to strengthen troubled mar-                resolving conflict....
  vorce has more than doubled in a           riages,  and  mentoring  programs
  generation,  from  463,000  in  1960       for younger couples.                             There are others, then, who de-
  to 985,000 in 1991.  Until political         Sermons  that  warn  against  di-       plore the timidity of the church in
  and  cultural  leaders  give  proper       vorce or condemn the casual ter-          facing and condemning this great
  attention  to  the  educational  de-       mination  of  marriages  are  not         evil.  There is a degree of recogni-
  cline--we stand little chance of re-        popular  among  some  ministers,
  versing these trends.                      McManus says.  Sermons that ac-           tion that Scripture itself does not
                                             knowledge that the Bible prohib-          allow divorce and remarriage.  The
    The article contains suggestions         its remarriage in some cases (Mat-        consequences of this great evil are
by the author to reverse the trends          thew 5:32) are even less popular,         recognized  even  by  unbelieving
toward  divorce  and  remarriage.            even  though  unqualified  accep-         "authorities."  And, so we confess,
He  speaks  of  "rebuilding  the             tance  of  divorce  and  remarriage       Scripture is very clear on the sub-
                                             can only discourage marital per-
walls."    Though  many  of  his  re-                                                  ject.  Though one would not expect
                                             severance.
marks  pertain  to  the  secular  and                                                  the unbeliever to be consistent in
                                               The failure of the church (par-
civic,  he  also  emphasizes  the  re-                                                 building the walls which maintain
                                             ticularly the Protestant church) to
sponsibility of the churches in this         significantly  influence  the  sur-       marriage, at least the church ought
whole affair.  His conclusions con-          rounding  culture  can  be  seen  in      to be faithful and call back to the
cerning the churches are revealing.          the fact that four of the six states      clear teaching of the Word of God.
                                             with the worst divorce rates in the
    Over the last three decades, the         country  (Alabama,  Arkansas,             s      RICO's Threat to Free Speech
  walls  surrounding  lifelong  mar-         Oklahoma,  and  Tennessee)  are           Cal Thomas, from the Los Ange-
  riage have crumbled.  The age-old          found  right  in  the  heart  of  the            les Times Syndicate, expresses
  social barriers to divorce, promis-        Bible Belt.                               great concern about a decision of a
  cuity,  illegitimacy,  and  cohabita-        When religious leaders take se-         federal jury in Chicago which in-
  tion  have  been  removed  in  the         riously  their  responsibility  for       voked  the  Racketeer  Influenced
  name of promoting personal free-           strengthening  marriage  in  their        Corrupt Organization Act (RICO)
  dom and self-expression.  A grow-          congregations  and  their  commu-
                                                                                       to convict two pro-life groups and
  ing number of people--especially            nities, divorce does decline....
  those  in  Cobain's  generation--                                                     three pro-life leaders of extortion.
  now  know  first-hand  that  the             One  additional  point  is  made        He writes:
  walls that were thought to entrap         by the author which deserves em-
  and  restrict  were  really  there  to    phasis.                                           The organizations and individu-
  protect.                                                                                  als  convicted  had  aggressively
    ...Challenge the church.  No cul-          Valorize  marital  toughness.                promoted  their  views  outside
  tural institution is more important        There is a common misconception                abortion clinics and, on occasion,
  to the restoration of marriage than        that couples who have good, solid,             turned away women seeking abor-
  the     religious        community.        enduring  marriages  are  "lucky."             tions.    A  1994  law  already  bans
  Churches and synagogues claim a            Supposedly,  happily  married                  the  blocking  of  abortion  clinics,
  time-honored,  divinely-ordained           couples do not face any of the con-            and plaintiffs made clear their ul-
  role  to  help  couples  understand        flicts  and  struggles  that  other            timate objective is to outlaw even
  the moral and spiritual nature of          couples  face.    They  do  not  go            demonstrations  at  places  where
  their marriage vows.  Religious in-        through rough times or encounter               abortions are performed.
  stitutions bear a unique responsi-         serious relational turbulence.                   ...In  this  new  decision,  under
  bility for helping those embarking           The  truth  is,  every  marriage             RICO,  damages  can  be  trebled,
  on  and  struggling  to  maintain          faces  trials  and  hardships  and             and the class-action verdict allows
  marriage commitments.  Similarly,          breakdowns  in  communication.                 the nation's 900 abortion clinics an
  only faith communities can offer           Yes, some couples manage to limit              opportunity to win "damages."
  redemptive  hope  to  people  who          conflict better than others, but ev-             The  morality  of  claiming  the
  have experienced marital failure.          ery  marriage  faces  difficulties.            demonstrations  "restrain  trade"
    While  religious  leaders  do  not       Ruth Bell Graham was once asked                aside,  this  decision  could  come
  bear full responsibility for the ab-       if she had ever contemplated di-               back to haunt those who invoked
  sence of public discourse about di-        vorcing  her  husband,  evangelist             RICO in an attempt to silence pro-
  vorce, they can hardly blame oth-          Billy  Graham.    "No,"  she  said,            tests while their grisly work con-
  ers  for  the  failure  of  many mar-      "but I have considered murder."                tinues.
  riages.  Author Michael McManus              If  every  marriage  faces  chal-
  notes that many churches have be-          lenges,  why  is  it  that  some  sur-           The article concludes:
  come  "blessing  machines"  that           vive and others do not?  Accord-
  wed  interested  couples  but  offer       ing to John Gottman, of the Uni-                 In  modern  times,  free  speech
  few marriage-related services, like        versity of Washington at Seattle,              and expression sustained the civil
  counseling for engaged and mar-                                                           rights  movement  and  ended  an

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  unpopular war.  The First Amend-             win  on  appeal,  the  government         proved murder, would we not also
  ment  protects  flag-burners,  por-          will feel free to muzzle anyone or        be  liable  to  triple  damages  when
  nographers  and  rotten  television          anything of which it disapproves.         some  crazy  individual  decides  to
  and radio.                                                                             blow  up  abortion  clinics  or  kill
    Now only protests against abor-              Whatever one might say about            abortioners?    When  we  condemn
  tion are to be singled out for spe-        the wisdom and propriety of pick-
  cial  penalties, though the author                                                     the sin of homosexuality, and some
                                             eting, the fact is that Thomas makes
  of  RICO,  University  of  Notre                                                       individual decides he will kill ho-
                                             a valid point.  Think of what the
  Dame Prof. G. Robert Blakely, said                                                     mosexuals,  will  the  churches  be
  its sole intent was to curtail orga-       government can do if it can blame           subject to triple damages because
  nized  crime,  not  organized  pro-        and punish groups and individu-             of his insane act?  It almost seems
  test.                                      als  for  crimes  committed  by  oth-       so  in  light  of  the  decision  men-
    If the First Amendment doesn't           ers.  And assess triple damages, no         tioned above.  One can envision the
  protect all, it potentially protects       less!    When,  in  preaching,  we          church having increasingly difficult
  none.    Should  the  pro-lifers  not      strongly condemn the sin of abor-           times in our land.   u
                                             tion, which is nothing less than ap-

  Taking Heed to the Doctrine                                                                          Rev. Steven Key


                           Christ, Our King (1)

                                             office was only a reflection of that        Scripture      exposes      as     the
                                             which was eternally appointed for           world-power of Antichrist.
                                             God's only begotten Son, the Mes-
There is yet one aspect of
           Christ's  office  as  Mediator                                                    Apart  from  the  new  birth  in
           which we  must consider --         siah, our Lord Christ.  Adam's do-          Christ Jesus and His dominion in
the  kingly  aspect.    God  has  or-        minion was a  limited dominion.  It         our  lives,  we  are  all  prophets,
dained  His  Son,  Immanuel,  our            was limited to the earth.  He had a         priests, and kings under the devil.
Lord Jesus Christ, to be King over           complete dominion in the earthly            The expression of that truth comes
all the works of His hands.                  sphere; but it was only an earthly          out in our old man day after day
                                             dominion.  For Adam himself was             after day.
An Eternally Appointed                       earthly.  He was not the Lord from              But it was God's purpose from
Dominion                                     heaven.                                     eternity to raise man to such an ex-
    It  is  clear  from  Psalm  2  that          And Adam fell.  We have con-            alted position that all things would
Christ's kingly dominion was ap-             sidered  the  devastating  effects  of      be subject to him.  And that pur-
pointed from eternity.  His is a do-         the  fall  with  respect  to  the  other    pose  never  changed,  never  could
minion exalted far above the king-           aspects of his office.  The same dev-       change.    All  things  stand  strictly
ship of Adam.                                astation came upon his royal office.        in the service of God and His eter-
    Adam, the first man, was cre-            Not only was the royal power of             nal  good  pleasure.    Christ  shall
ated  king  under  God.    To  Adam          man diminished when God cursed              have dominion!  God has set His
God gave dominion over the fish              the  creation,  but  man  was  no           Son upon His holy hill of Zion.
of the sea, over the birds of the air,       longer king under God.                          All pointed to Christ, eternally
and  over  every  living  thing  that            He remains king.  The domin-            set  in  God's  counsel.    Only  in
moves upon the earth.  To man was            ion of man over the creation is still       Christ  would  all  things  on  earth
given the  anointing to  serve God           seen today, though that dominion            and  in  heaven  be  united  and  be-
as king in the creation.  He was to          is even limited over the earthly cre-       long to His one dominion.
rule  in the  name  of  God  over all        ation.    But  the  real  problem  for          That  Psalm  2  is  written  by
things.                                      man is that he wants to rule now            David and refers to personal expe-
    But in the light of Psalm 2, it          without God.  That is true in every         rience does not change this truth.
becomes evident that Adam's royal            sphere  and  relationship  of  life.        For  David  stands  as  a  type  of
                                             Consequently  there  develops  in           Christ.  We ought not forget that
                                             this world a kingdom of Satan, a            Psalm  2  is  very  specifically  pro-
                                             kingdom that continues to develop
Rev. Key is pastor of the Protestant Re-                                                 phetic.  Proof for that is found in
formed Church of Randolph, Wisconsin.        and  will  culminate  in  that  which       Acts 13:32,33, where Paul preaches,

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"And we declare unto you glad tid-          that rebellion was responsible be-            In the first place, it denies the
ings, how that the promise which            fore  God;  nevertheless,  that  fall     unity of the church throughout the
was  made  unto  the  fathers,  God         was no accident from God's view-          ages.  Scripture clearly teaches the
hath  fulfilled  the  same  unto  us        point.  For it pleased God that in        unity of the church throughout all
their  children,  in  that  he  hath        Christ, not Adam, should all full-        ages,  Old  and  New  Testaments.
raised up Jesus again; as it is also        ness dwell.                               Although  in  the  Old  Testament
written in the second psalm, Thou               Though the powers of darkness         time  of  types  and  shadows  that
art my Son, this day have I begot-          set themselves against the Lord and       church was given a national form,
ten thee."  The same proof is found         against  His  Anointed--as  far  as        it is clear throughout Scripture that
in the epistle to the Hebrews, chap-        their  own  motivation  is  con-          the church of the New Testament
ters 1 and 5.                               cerned--and would gather together          is  one  with  the  Israel  of  the  Old
    Christ  Himself  is  the  root  of      in their attempts to kick God and         Testament.  That truth will require
David.  He is the Messiah, anointed         His Christ off the throne, "He that       further exposition when we get to
to rule in Jehovah's name. He rules         sitteth in the heavens shall laugh."      a consideration of the doctrine of
according  to  the  will  and  law  of      The very Son of God, the only be-         the church.
Jehovah God.  There is no wrong             gotten, Jesus the Messiah, is eter-           Secondly,  the  Bible  does  not
found in Him.                               nally ordained to be the Firstborn        speak of the kingdom of God as an
    Against Him the heathen rage.           of  every  creature,  King  over  all     earthly kingdom.  On the contrary,
They say of God and of His Christ,          things.    And  as  the  Lord  of  His    Jesus  gave  this  testimony  before
"Let us break their bands asunder,          elect brethren and with them, He          Pilate:  "My kingdom is not of this
and cast away their cords from us."         shall  forever  reign  over  all  the     world."
There seems to be no conceivable            works  of  God's  hands.    So  He            Furthermore,  we  read  in
reason.  It is not that He is an in-        reigns  as  God's  Christ,  the           Ephesians  3  that  the  mystery  of
ept governor, who rules wickedly.           Anointed.                                 Christ, hidden in ages past, is now
He is a righteous King.  But against                                                  revealed  unto  His  holy  apostles
Him men rage, simply because He             The Exercise of His Dominion              and prophets by the Spirit, "That
is  God's  anointed,  and  they  hate           The  exercise  of  His  dominion      the Gentiles should be fellow heirs,
God  and  His  precepts,  His  truth,       is unto God's glory and to the sal-       and of the same body, and partak-
and His righteousness.  They imag-          vation of us who believe.                 ers of his promise in Christ by the
ine a vain thing.                               He is King of His church, first       gospel" (v. 6).  There is no longer
    Jehovah speaks, the Almighty.           of all.                                   separation between Jew and Greek.
"Yet have I set my king upon my                 It is necessary to call attention     Christ  is  King  over  all.    All  the
holy hill of Zion."  The language is        to  this  truth,  because  there  are     righteous are the children of God's
very  strong.    "I  have  set  fast  my    those  in  the  church  world--espe-       kingdom, governed and preserved
King.    All  the  raging  of  the  hea-    cially  dispensationalists  and           by the eternal King of kings.
then  is  vain.    My  Christ  reigns,"     premillennialists--who  deny  this.            Christ  rules in  His  church  by
says God.                                   They  are  those  who  teach  that        His Word and Spirit.  Jesus Christ
    And  the  response  of  His             Christ is the King of the  Jews, but      exercises  a  kingly  authority  over
Anointed  is  this:    "I  will  declare    the  Head  of  His  church.    They       and works by the power of grace  in
the decree: the LORD hath said unto         make separation between Jew and           all whom He makes subject to Him-
me, Thou art my Son; this day have          Gentile, between the nation of Is-        self  by  the  gospel.    Christ  estab-
I begotten thee.  Ask of me, and I          rael and the church.  And, although       lishes His kingdom in the hearts of
shall give thee the heathen for thine       with  some  variation,  they  teach       us His elect by sending forth His
inheritance,  and  the  uttermost           that when the Jews rejected Christ,       regenerating  Spirit,  making  our
parts of the earth for thy posses-          He turned to the Gentiles with the        hearts subject to His rule and rul-
sion.  Thou shalt break them with           purpose of gathering for Himself a        ing in our hearts according to His
a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them         church  of  which  He  is  the  Head.     purpose.
in pieces like a potter's vessel" (Ps.      He is not the King of that church,            Not only so, but He sends forth
2:7-9).                                     they say.  When Christ has gath-          His  armies  of  prophets,  apostles,
    Before  the  foundation  of  the        ered  His  church  from  among  the       evangelists, pastors, and teachers,
world God had ordained His Son              Gentiles, He will return to the Jews.     who are under the leadership of the
to  be  King  over  all  the  works  of     And in the nation of Israel He will       Spirit, armed with the Word of God
His hands.  Even though it remains          reestablish the throne of David in        which is sharp and powerful, go-
true  that  the  first  man  plunged        Jerusalem and reign as King over          ing  forth  conquering  and  to  con-
himself and us all into the abyss of        Israel.                                   quer.  He shakes the hearts of His
guilt and misery and death by his               But this teaching is contrary to      people  right  to  the  foundations,
act of willful disobedience, and for        the truth of Holy Scripture.              overturning  every  vain  hope  and

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high  thought  that  exalts  itself         are  citizens  of  the  kingdom  of           giving  us  the  desire  to  repent  of
against Him.                                heaven.  Our great King establishes           our sins and to bow in willing and
    By that rule of His grace, Christ       in the hearts of His people a spiri-          humble obedience to Him.
calls  us  out  of  darkness  into  the     tual rule, even writing His law on                That  is  the  reign  of  Christ  in
light of His glory and grace, into          our  inmost  hearts,  so  that  it  be-       the hearts of His people.  But His
the kingdom of heaven.  That ex-            comes our delight to do His will.             sovereign  rule  embraces  much
plains why, even on this earth, we          He rules in our hearts by His grace,          more.   u

  Day of Shadows                                                                                       Homer Hoeksema



                                  The Prediluvian Period
         From the Protevangel to the Flood
                                                    Introduction

                                            tory, having its own distinct char-           judgment  and  salvation  through
                                            acter and significance, in the light          our Lord Jesus Christ at the con-
                                            of Scripture.                                 summation of all things.
The period of sacred history
       which  we  are  about  to  dis-
       cuss extends from the time of            In general, of course, this pe-               A  few  introductory  remarks
the fall and the first announcement         riod is that of the beginning of the          calling attention to some of the im-
of the  promise to the time  of the         development of the human race as              portant  characteristics  of  this  pe-
destruction of the first world and          a  fallen  race  and  that,  too,  in  a      riod are in order.
the salvation of the church by wa-          fallen and cursed creation.  In close             First of all, a few remarks are
ter.  This is a period of some six-         connection with this, this is the pe-         necessary  concerning  the  biblical
teen and one-half centuries accord-         riod of the beginning of the gath-            account  of  the  history  of  this  pe-
ing to the chronology of Scripture          ering of the church out of the whole          riod.
itself.  To that chronology and its         human race.  It is the period of the              It must be stressed that Scrip-
significance we will give our atten-        beginning of the realization of the           ture  does  indeed  furnish  us  with
tion later.                                 promise of Genesis 3:15.  As such,            an  account of history in those chap-
    What we wish to stress at the           this period forms a unity with all            ters of Genesis which cover this pe-
beginning  of  our  discussion,  first      the  rest  of  the  history  of  the  old     riod.  It is well that this is stressed
of all, is that we are dealing with a       dispensation and, in fact, with all           in  our  day,  when  this  is  widely
distinct  period  of  Old  Testament        of history.                                   contradicted  even  by  those  who
history.  It is generally recognized            But  what  constitutes  the  dis-         claim  to hold  to  Scripture.    They
that this is indeed one of the sev-         tinctive unity of this period?  It is         contradict  the  historical  character
eral main periods of the history of         the fact that the line of this period         of the biblical record in the inter-
the old dispensation.  Rather fre-          is  a  downward  one,  reaching  its          est of upholding the theory of evo-
quently,  however,  this  is  only  a       depth  at the point when  the  first          lutionism.  They attempt to adjust
matter of noting some convenient            world has filled its measure of in-           Scripture to that theory and to the
chronological divisions of history.         iquity and has become ripe for fi-            allegations of those who appeal to
What we must note carefully is that         nal judgment.  In connection there-           scientific discoveries and scientific
the character of the  history of this       with,  it  is  the  fact that  there  is a    dating  processes  which  allegedly
period  marks  it  as  a  distinct  and     distinct  revelation  of  the  wonder         make it impossible and unscientific
unified  period.    It  is  one  of  the    of salvation by grace and of the vic-         to accept the  Genesis record as a
great epochs of Old Testament his-          tory of the seed of the woman, ac-            reliable historical account.
                                            cording  to  the  promise,  in  the               Now it is not our intention to
                                            Flood.    This  is  confirmed  by  the        enter into a lengthy debate about
The late Homer Hoeksema was professor       fact that Scripture itself views both         these  matters.    It  is  certainly  not
of Dogmatics and Old Testament in the       the judgment and the salvation of             our  intention  to  attempt  to  meet
Protestant Reformed Seminary.               this period as typical of the  final          these theories and  disprove them

398/Standard Bearer/June, 1998


on  their  own  ground.    But  it  is       to know with a view to the revela-          ness.  According to the counsel of
worth our while, taking our stand            tion of God's promise and its real-         God, Adam is the progenitor of two
in Scripture, to point out that Scrip-       ization, with a view to the revela-         peoples:    the  seed  of  the  woman
ture  itself  presents  the  record  of      tion  of  the  wonder  of  grace.    As     and  the  seed  of  the  serpent,  the
Genesis as the record of history, of         we  noted,  this  period  includes          sons  of  God  and  the  children  of
historical  facts  and  events  in  the      more than sixteen centuries of his-         men, the righteous and the unrigh-
most  literal  sense  of  the  word.         tory, but it is covered in only a few       teous, the elect and the reprobate.
There is not a scintilla of scriptural       chapters of Holy Writ.  The lion's          Sin and grace are the means to re-
evidence to the contrary; and it is,         share  of  one  of  those  chapters  is     alize  this  cleavage  in  the  human
of course, such scriptural evidence          devoted to the incident of Cain and         race.    After  the  Fall  and  the  an-
which  must  be  adduced  in  order          Abel, the rest of that chapter being        nouncement of the protevangel, the
to convince the believer.                    devoted  to  a  brief  tracing  of  the     Lord does not tarry.  Immediately,
    First of all, we may notice that         line  of  Cain.    Another  chapter  is     this separation is a historical real-
the record of Genesis itself leaves          devoted entirely to the genealogy           ity,  first  in  the  conflict  between
no other impression than that it is          of Adam-via-Seth.  Another is de-           Cain  and  Abel,  and  thereafter  in
a record of history.  This is, indeed,       voted for the most part to the im-          the  division  between  the  line  of
a weighty item.  Any alleged evi-            mediate  prediluvian  period.    An-        Seth and the line of Cain.
dence  or  reasons  for  understand-         other is devoted to the account of              In  the  third  place,  it  is  plain
ing Genesis in another sense than            the Flood itself.  Yet we must re-          that already in this period the Lord
in the historical sense must needs           member not only that the account            establishes  His  covenant  organi-
come  not  from  that  record,  nor          is  truly  complete,  but  also  that  a    cally in the line of continued gen-
from other parts of Scripture, but           careful and consecrated study will          erations.  This was not as yet re-
from the outside.  The natural way           show us that it is much more com-           vealed in so many words, though
to read the account is as an account         plete than might appear on the sur-         it was suggested in the protevangel
of history.                                  face.                                       with  its  prediction  of  a  twofold
    Secondly, all the rest of Scrip-             Finally, as far as the account is       seed.    Later  this  is  explicitly  de-
ture confirms this.  Not only can            concerned, we may notice that all           clared to Noah and still more defi-
no reasons to the contrary be ad-            of this history belongs to a period         nitely and clearly to Abraham.  But
duced from that record itself, but           when there were as yet no Scrip-            a study of the account of Scripture
it is also a fact that Scripture ev-         tures.  The Scriptures which tell us        reveals clearly that from the very
erywhere simply refers to this ac-           concerning this period were writ-           beginning the Lord God caused His
count as an historical account.  This        ten much later.  We will not now            covenant to run in the line of con-
is  true  of  the  record  of  Cain  and     enter into any details as to how the        tinued generations.  His grace se-
Abel.  It is true of Scripture's men-        Holy Spirit may have accomplished           lects a certain race, certain genera-
tion  of  Enoch.    It  is  true  of         this through  Moses.  Suffice it to         tions, which in the outward sense
Scripture's references to the world          mention that for the believer this          are the generations of His people.
of  Noah's  time  and  to  the  Flood.       constitutes no obstacle whatsoever          True, the Lord does not do this at
In other words, one must contra-             as far as the veracity and reliabil-        this  particular  period  by  singling
dict the repeated evidence of Scrip-         ity of the account is concerned.            out  one  nation  as  He  did  in
ture itself and thus assume a posi-              Turning now to the  contents of         Abraham and Israel.  The fact re-
tion contrary to Scripture in order          this account, we may make a few             mains, however, that God's work
to maintain the denial of the his-           introductory observations also.             is accomplished in the line of gen-
torical character of the Genesis ac-             In the first place, it strikes one      erations.
count.    (Thus,  for  example,  with        that  the  account  of  the  Word  of           At  the  same  time,  it  is  plain
reference to Cain and Abel, there            God  is  altogether  different  from        that  the  generations  of  Seth,  the
are such passages as Jude 11; I John         that  of  unbelieving  historians.          generations of the covenant, are al-
3:11,  12;  Heb.  11:4;  Matt.  23:35;       Merely to place this account along-         ready at this time the generations
Luke 11:50, 51.)                             side of many an account in history          of  God's  people  in  the  outward,
    In  the  second  place,  we  may         books, which describes a long pro-          historic sense.  Not all in those gen-
notice that the account in Genesis           cess  of  development  of  mankind          erations  are  spiritual  children  of
is  selective,  even  severely  so.    By    and  of  civilization  through  all         God.  In the generations of Seth are
"selective"  we  do  not  mean,  of          kinds of long "ages," is to see this        the  spiritual  children  of  God,  in
course,  that  Genesis  selects  from        difference.                                 distinction  from  the  line  of  Cain.
various sources and accounts.  We                In the second place, there is in        Nevertheless,  all  the  children  of
mean that in Genesis are recorded            this  period  immediately  a  very          Seth are by no means children of
for  us  only  those  facts  and  those      sharp division of the race into chil-       God.  On any other basis, it is im-
events which it is necessary for us          dren of light and children of dark-         possible  to  understand  either  the

                                                                                                      June, 1998/Standard Bearer/399


intermingling  of  the  children  of           Flood.    One  is  reminded  of  the           that at the beginning and at the end
God and  the children of men be-               words of Psalm 73:18, 19:  "Surely             of  this  period  in  the  biblical  ac-
fore the Flood or the fact that only           thou  didst  set  them  in  slippery           count--in  connection  with  Cain
eight  persons  were  saved  in  the           places;  thou  castedst  them  down            and  Abel  and  in  connection  with
ark.                                           into  destruction.    How  are  they           Noah and the Flood--the Lord our
        In the fourth place, one of the        brought into desolation as in a mo-            God  directly  reveals  Himself  and
most striking characteristics of this          ment!  they are utterly consumed               appears on the scene of history.  He
period  is  the  rapid  decline  and           with terrors."  To be sure, the Word           is  the  God  of  the  promise.    The
speedy  degeneration  of  the  race            of  God  teaches  us  that  things  al-        reins of history are in His hands.
along the  line of the descendants             ways  develop  rapidly,  as  rapidly           He realizes His own promise and
of Cain.  In a period of time of the           as possible.  There is no restraint,           maintains His own covenant in and
approximate  length  of  the  period           no tarrying nor delay in the work              through  all  the  developments  of
from the First Advent to the Refor-            of God.  But particularly rapid is             this period.
mation,  the  whole  world  became             the  development  in  wickedness                   These and other characteristics
ripe for the final judgment of the             and  the  coming  of  destruction  in          of the period we shall note as we
Flood.  This implies that in so short          this period before the deluge.                 study it in detail.  As we said, the
a  period  the  measure  of  iniquity              Finally, we may notice that the            narrative is very brief.  Yet when
was filled.  Like a wild fire fanned           Word of God presents the history               we gather all the data which Scrip-
by a strong wind the power of in-              of this period in such a way that              ture offers about this early period,
iquity spreads through the whole               Jehovah  God  and  His  work  are              we shall discover that all the ele-
race, rapidly developing, until the            very much on the foreground.  Not              ments necessary to give us a clear
process  of  corruption  is  finished          only  is  God  accomplishing  His              understanding  of  that  time  from
and just one family of the righteous           work  throughout  the  period,  but            the viewpoint of the development
is  left  as  a  remnant,  the  only  ex-      He directly reveals Himself in con-            of  God's  covenant  are  present  in
ceptions to the destruction of the             nection with the various events of             the narrative.   u
                                               the  period.    In  fact,  it  is  striking


   Ministering to the Saints                                                                         Prof. Robert Decker



          The Discipline of Officebearers (1)


                                               speak  of  the  discipline  of                 ders of the church.  Not only are
                                               officebearers, but of the procedure            elders appointed by Christ through
The elders of God's church are
          called  upon  occasionally  to
          discipline  a  fellow  office-       to be followed in removing them                the church to care for and rule the
bearer.    Article  79  of  The  Church        from office if they should fall into           congregation, they are also called
Order  of  the  Protestant  Reformed           public,  gross  sin.    If  a  man  were       to  rule  over  their  fellow
Churches (hereafter, the Church Or-            removed  from  office  because  he             officebearers.    Removing  a  man
der)  outlines  the  procedure  to be          committed a public, gross sin and              from  office  who  has  fallen  into
followed  in  removing  a  minister,           if  that  man  remained  impenitent,           public, gross sin is the work, there-
elder, or deacon from office.  Ar-             the elders would need to proceed               fore, of the consistory.
ticle 80 lists some of the "gross sins         to discipline him as outlined in Ar-               Given  the  events  which  gave
which  are  worthy  of  being  pun-            ticles 75 - 78.                                rise to the formation of the Protes-
ished  with  suspension  or  deposi-               While these articles speak spe-            tant  Reformed  Churches  in  1924-
tion  from  office."    Thus,  strictly        cifically  of  removal  from  office,          1925 this is a very important truth.
speaking,  these  articles  do  not            they are properly placed in this sec-          No classis or synod may suspend
                                               tion of the Church Order, since re-            or depose from office.  A classis or
                                               moval from office certainly belongs            synod which would do so  would
Prof. Decker is professor of Practical The-    to the sphere of discipline.  For the          be violating the principle of the au-
ology  in  the  Protestant  Reformed  Semi-    same reason, removing a man from               tonomy of the local church.  Sus-
nary.                                          office is part of the work of the el-          pension and deposition is the work

400/Standard Bearer/June, 1998


of the consistory because it belongs        result in the perpetrator being im-           she  is  soon  destroyed!    One  who
to the sphere of discipline, the ex-        prisoned and even executed.  They             teaches false doctrine consciously
ercise of the keys of the kingdom           are sins reported by the news me-             and deliberately perverts the truth
of heaven.                                  dia.  Such "public, gross" sins be-           of Scripture as that truth is set forth
    The discipline of officebearers         come the occasion for the ungodly             in  the  confessions  of  the  church.
is a very serious matter, more seri-        to  slander  the  church  and  speak          Such  a  false  teacher  is  unfaithful
ous  than  the  discipline  of  other       evil of  the  holy name  of  Jesus  to        to the vows he took when he was
members of the church.  This is the         whom the church belongs.  Further             ordained into sacred office in the
case  because  officebearers  repre-        they are sins, according to Article           church  and  when  he  signed  the
sent Christ Himself, the Officebearer       80, "which in any private member              Formula of Subscription.
of God's church.  The minister, by          of the church would be considered                     2) Public schism.  This is the
virtue of his calling, represents the       worthy of excommunication."                   sin  of  dividing  or  splitting  the
chief Prophet, the elder represents              It ought to be noted that  pri-          church or the denomination.  It is
the  King,  and  the  deacon  repre-        vate  sins  committed  by  an                 often the direct result of false doc-
sents  the  merciful  High  Priest  of      officebearer but repented of need             trine.    The  minister  who  teaches
the church.  The officebearers func-        not  be  reason  for  suspension  or          false doctrine almost invariably has
tion in the church in the name of           deposition unless the sin be of such          supporters  among  the  consistory,
Christ and as clothed with Christ's         a kind that it makes him unworthy             the  congregation,  and  at  the
authority.  This is why Holy Scrip-         to  serve  in  one  of  the  special  of-     broader assemblies.  The result is
ture calls the church to count the          fices of Christ in the church.  Such          that  the  church  or  denomination
elders  who  rule  well  worthy  of         a sin would be a direct violation of          splits.  Those who foment schism
double  honor  and  warns  the              the  qualifications  for  office  of          in the church have various motives:
church, "Against an elder receive           which Scripture speaks in several             defiance of authority, the desire to
not an accusation, but before two           passages.  A man may be guilty of             advance themselves, or self-justifi-
or three witnesses" (I Tim. 5:17-19).       child  abuse  or  of  criminal  sexual        cation.  Whatever the motive, the
Consistories  must  insist  that  this      conduct, and that sin may not be              sin  of  creating  schism  in  God's
latter  rule  be  followed.    At  least    publicly known in the church.  In             church is a sore evil and, therefore,
two must bring charges against an           such cases the man would have to              worthy of suspension and deposi-
officebearer.    Even  at  that,  the       be deposed, and both the deposi-              tion.
consistory  must  investigate  those        tion  and  the  reason  for  it  would                3) Public blasphemy.  This is
charges thoroughly.                         have to be announced to the con-              the sin of wicked scorning of things
    If  an  officebearer  is  deposed       gregation, along with the fact that           holy.  Mocking God's church, His
from office but repents of his sin,         the man has confessed his sin and             people, His holy name, or His in-
he must not be further disciplined.         left it.                                      spired  Word  is  indeed  a  terrible,
He may very well be unworthy, on                 Let  it  be  understood  that  the       gross sin.
account of the sin, to hold office in       list  of  sins  found  in  Article  80  is            4) Simony.    The  attempt  to
the  church  of  Christ,  but  repen-       not intended to be exhaustive.  The           gain an office (usually minister, but
tance makes further discipline im-          article  lists  only  those  gross  sins      it could also be that of elder or dea-
proper.                                     "among  which  are  worthy  of  be-           con) or the attempt to sell an office
    Articles  79  and  80  speak  of        ing punished."  In other words, the           in the church for money is the sin
those sins which render a man wor-          article lists only the chief ones.  To        of simony.
thy of suspension and deposition.           use the language of the article it-                   5) Faithless  desertion  of  of-
Article 79 speaks of "public, gross         self,  it  speaks  of  "the  principal        fice.  This happens when one who
sin  which  is  a  disgrace  to  the        ones."  These are direct, flagrant,           has been properly called by Christ
church or worthy of punishment by           shameful violations of the law of             through  the  church  willfully  for-
the  authorities."    Article  80  lists    God  and  of  the  principles  of  the        sakes  and  refuses  to  perform  the
these sins.                                 Word  of  God  which  govern  the             duties of that office.  To abandon
    These sins of which the Church          church of Jesus Christ.                       the sheep of Christ and refuse to
Order   speaks are gross.  They are              The list contains the following          care for them is as well a terrible
gross  not  from  the  viewpoint  of        "gross sins."                                 sin.
God,  to  whom  all  sins  are  gross,           1) False  doctrine  or  heresy.                  6) Intrusion upon the office of
but  from  the  viewpoint  of  the          Let it not escape our attention that          another.  This gross sin is the at-
church over which the officebearers         this is the first sin on the list.  The       tempt to labor in one of the special
rule.  They are "public, gross" sins.       fathers  regarded  false  doctrine,           offices without a proper call, or it
They are sins which require pun-            heresy, very, very seriously indeed!          is the attempt to labor in a congre-
ishment from the civil authorities.         And  for  good  reason.    When  the          gation where the Lord has  called
They are sins which may very well           church succumbs to false doctrine             another.

                                                                                                        June, 1998/Standard Bearer/401


    7) Perjury.  Lying under oath            which belongs to one's neighbor.                   13) Brawling.  This refers to the
either in the civil courts or in the             11) Acts  of  violence.    This         sin of quarreling and fighting with
church of Christ is the sin of per-          would be any kind of physical at-           fellow church members.
jury.                                        tack upon one's neighbor, includ-                  14) Filthy lucre.  This gross sin
    8) Adultery.  This, of course,           ing the worst of this, murder.              is  the  pursuit  of  dishonest  gain.
is the terrible sin of being unfaith-            12) Habitual drunkenness.  Re-          The sin of covetousness is the root
ful  to  one's  marriage  vows  and          peated  drinking  of  alcoholic  bev-       of this sin.
wife.                                        erages in excess constitutes this sin.             The above are some of the pub-
    9) Fornication.  This is the sin         Officebearers are called of God to          lic,  gross  sins,  the  principal  ones
of sexual uncleanness.  Any form             be sober, temperate, in control of          which render a man worthy of be-
of this is fornication and may not           their faculties.  If they are habitu-       ing put out of office in the church.
be  tolerated  in  an  officebearer  in      ally  drunk  they  certainly  are  not      In most instances one of these sins
Christ's church.                             able  to  care  for  God's  people  by      makes  it  impossible  for  the  de-
    10) Theft.  This sin against the         ministering to them, ruling them,           posed  officebearer  ever  again  to
eighth  commandment  of  God's               or bestowing the mercies of Christ.         serve in office in Christ's church.
Law  is  that  of  appropriating  that                                                                                          u


  That They May Teach Their Children                                                            Prof. Russell Dykstra


    Covenant Children--the Organic View

                                             that God establishes a covenant ob-         are generally regenerated at a very
                                             jectively with each baptized child.         young  age,  most  probably  before
                                             This  covenant  is  conditional,  and       birth.
That the Lord establishes His
         covenant with believers and
         their children means that be-       is either ratified by the child when               Do  these  parents  then  try  to
lievers' children are covenant chil-         he believes, or broken when he re-          distinguish  among  their  children,
dren. They are to be viewed as such          jects  it.  This must  be  rejected  for    which are elect and which are not?
by  believing  parents  and  their           many reasons, especially that God           No.
teachers in the Christian school.            would  establish  a  covenant  with                Do  they  treat  them  all  as po-
    Most Reformed people would               the reprobate seed, knowing them            tential reprobates? They emphati-
agree with the above, even though            to be children whom He eternally            cally do not.
different  explanations  are  offered        rejects.                                           Are  all  their  children  in  the
as bases. The conundrum for many                 A  conditional  covenant  must          covenant  by  virtue  of  their  birth
is reconciling this confession with          necessarily be rejected if the cov-         and or baptism? No, the true spiri-
the truth of sovereign, double pre-          enant is a bond of friendship. It is        tual seed only are in a relationship
destination, and with the fact that          the assertion of the Protestant Re-         of friendship with God.
there are many Esaus in the church,          formed Churches, and, we believe,                  Yet one may object, How can
Esaus born into covenant families.           the truth of the Bible, that the cov-       you view your children as covenant
One theological explanation offered          enant is a bond or relationship of          children when  you cannot be sure
is  that  believers  presume  that  all      friendship that God sovereignly es-         that all of them are elect? The an-
their children are regenerated be-           tablishes with His people in Christ.        swer to that question is that par-
fore they are baptized. This, how-           Thus, the covenant is with Christ           ents view the children organically.
ever, is contrary to Scripture and           and with all those who are in Him,          Parents  and  teachers  are  to  con-
the experience of the church, and            namely, the elect. It is also true that     sider all children of believers to be
simply cannot be maintained.                 parents in the Protestant Reformed          covenant  children  because  of  the
    A second proffered solution is           Churches  view  their  children  as         organic connection each child has
                                             covenant children.                          as a child in a covenant home. This
                                                 Does it follow, then, that these        child was born to  believers. These
                                                                                         believers have the promise of God,
Prof. Dykstra is professor of Church His-    parents  presume  regeneration  for
tory  and  New Testament  in  the Protes-    each of these children? No--though           "I will establish my  covenant be-
tant Reformed Seminary.                      they do believe that the  elect seed        tween  me  and  thee  and  thy  seed

402/Standard Bearer/June, 1998


after  thee  in  their  generations"       (the cosmos ). However, He does not         speaks of the seed of Israel organi-
(Gen. 17:7). How else can they view        love every member of the human              cally, as part of the plant.
their child, but as a covenant child?      race. He hates the reprobate, as He             Likewise,  believing  parents
    To put it another way, believ-         states  in  Romans  9  concerning           rightfully call their children "cov-
ing parents view all their children        Esau.  John 3:16 and Romans 9 can           enant children," "the heritage of Je-
as covenant children for the same          only be "reconciled" by the truth           hovah," and "children of God" be-
reason that a preacher calls the con-      that God loves the organism--the             cause of the covenant of God with
gregation  "beloved  in  the  Lord"        cosmos--and  eventually  cuts  off           believers and their children. They
and Paul calls the members of the          the members whom He rejects.                do not insist that all their children
church  in  Philippi  "saints."  One           The  organic concept  found  in         are elect. However, they know that
can object that not all in the church      John 3:16 is illustrated by the ac-         the Bible calls their children "the
of Philippi were "saints," and not         tivity  of  an  orchard  owner.  The        seed of believers," and thus, "cov-
all members of a given congrega-           grower  may  well  love  the  apple         enant  children."  When  they  deal
tion  are  in  fact  "beloved  of  the     tree  that  stands  before  him.  It  is    with any one of their children in-
Lord."  However,  the  inspired            valuable,  and  he  will  care  for  it.    dividually,  parents  also  use  the
apostle,  and  the  minister  today,       That does not mean that he loves            same judgment of love that is re-
views  the  congregations  organi-         every part of the tree. He cuts off         quired  in  the  church.  Unless  and
cally. Because Christ died for His         all  the  dead  branches.  He  cuts         until a child shows himself to be a
church and redeemed her, the con-          away the suckers. He also prunes            reprobate, he will be treated as a
gregation is addressed, "Beloved in        the tree, cutting off living branches       covenant child.
the Lord." The individual member           that  an  inexperienced  observer               This is the organic view. It is
we are to regard as a believer us-         might think ought to remain. The            not an easy concept, to be sure. But
ing the judgment of love (Canons           orchard  man,  however,  knows              it is very surely biblical.
III, IV, 15). The presence of unbe-        what he is doing. He is making the              Consider then what this means
lievers  in  the  midst  does  not         tree that he wants, the tree that will      for the parents who are entrusted
change the organic view one must           produce the most fruit.                     with the care and nurture of chil-
have of the congregation and the               God knows what He is doing              dren  whom  God  calls  "my  chil-
individual members.                        with  the  "tree"--His  world.  He           dren."  What  a  fearful  thing  it  is!
    This idea of an organism is a          cuts away the dead branches. He             What careful attention is given to
concept that is crucially important        prunes all the unwanted branches,           the  nurture  and  rearing  of  these
for  a  right  understanding  of  the      that is to say, the members of the          covenant  children!  Believing  par-
covenant. It is also found through-        race  whom  He  has  eternally  re-         ents  know  they  have  but  a  few
out the Bible.                             jected, even those of whom we can-          years to train up these children in
    Notice, for example, that God          not see why God rejects them. He            the  way  they  must  go.  Fervent
both views and deals with  all men         will conclude His work when He              prayers arise to their heavenly Fa-
organically.  God  viewed  the  race       has  the  organism,  the  living  tree      ther for wisdom to teach their chil-
of  mankind  as  organically  con-         that He wants. It will produce the          dren aright. For the sake of these
nected to Adam. Adam is the head           most  fruit  that  the  organism  can       children, parents do give their all.
of  the  race.  When  Adam  fell,  the     produce.                                    Personal desires (including enter-
race became guilty before God ex-              These scriptural examples dem-          tainment,  recreation,  and  vaca-
actly because of that relationship.        onstrate that the concept of an or-         tions) are subordinated to the goal
    God also deals with  His people        ganism  is  biblical.  The  same  or-       of giving good instruction to cov-
thus. Israel was the people of God.        ganic conception is used with ref-          enant  youth.  No  amount  of  care
When Achan sinned at Jericho, tak-         erence to believers and their seed.         and  expense  is  too  great  for  this
ing of the accursed thing, God was         God calls children of believers "the        high  calling--to  rear  God's  chil-
angry  with  Israel!   "Israel  hath       heritage  of  Jehovah"--God's  cho-          dren  properly  in  the  fear  of  the
sinned," He told Joshua. How so?           sen  inheritance  (Ps.  127:3).  If  the    Lord.  Understanding  this,  one
Achan was a part of the organism           Bible did not say that, who would           comes to appreciate the zeal for the
of Israel.                                 dare to maintain it? It is also why         covenant  Christian  school  found
    Not only that, God views  His          God calls Israel's babies "my chil-         among Reformed believers.
world  as  an  organism.  This  is  ex-    dren" (Eze. 16:20). Again, we ask,              All  of  this  profoundly  affects
pressed  in  the  well-known  John         Is it because all these children are        the  attitude  of  the  covenant
3:16: "For God so loved the world          His  inheritance?  Does  God  love          teacher. The teacher in the Chris-
that he gave His only begotten Son;        them  all?  No,  there  are  Esaus          tian  school  classroom  views  the
that  whosoever  believeth  on  him        among  the  covenant  seed.  God            students as covenant children. Oh,
should  not  perish  but  have  ever-      knows this full well and does not           sinful children they are, to be sure.
lasting life." God loves His world         love them. Rather it is because He          They are after all from the organ-

                                                                                                  June, 1998/Standard Bearer/403


ism of the fallen human race. None-          the Scriptures. Christian education        thought  will  cause  the  teacher  to
theless, the elect covenant children         is  Christian  nurturing.  The  Spirit     tremble  as  he  looks  over  his  stu-
have a new heart. They have been             uses  this  kind  of  instruction  to      dents. The same is true for the par-
grafted  into  Christ  and  have  His        mold the child, to shape his think-        ent  and  grandparent,  considering
life  in  them.  The  Spirit  of  Christ     ing, his attitudes, and his heart.         the  possibility  that  his  little  boy,
lives within them, for they are cov-             And what of those children so          or his little granddaughter, may be
enant children, and God so dwells            instructed who are, in fact and un-        a  reprobate.  But  unless  and  until
within  them  in  covenant  fellow-          known  to  the  teacher,  reprobate?       that  becomes  manifest,  all  these
ship.                                        What happens to the proper nur-            children will be taught, disciplined,
    The Christian teacher works ac-          turing,  the  godly  correction,  the      and  prayed  for  as  covenant  chil-
cordingly.  He  disciplines  as              Christ-centered instruction? It has        dren  with  the  perfect  confidence
needed,  with  reproof  from  the            the same effect that the preaching         that God will use it all for the nur-
Bible, being fully confident that the        has on the reprobate in the church:        ture of His chosen children.
Spirit will apply it to the heart and        it hardens, drives out, and--terri-             Truly,  the  covenant  of  grace
life of every elect child. The teacher       fying  to  think  about--stands  to         motivates all proper Christian in-
instructs, basing all instruction on         their  eternal  condemnation.  This        struction.   u

  Contribution                                                                                      Deborah Benson


                            Famine In the Land

    "Behold, the days come, saith the        not  present  in  Israel  when  Amos       and lowering.  O ye hypocrites, ye
Lord God, that I will send a famine in       was told to "flee away"?  Of course        can discern the face of the sky; but
the land, not a famine of bread, nor a       it  was.    Amos  himself  had  been       can ye not discern the signs of the
thirst for water, but of hearing of the      sent of the Lord to bring it!  So to-      times?"
words  of  the  Lord:    And  they  shall    day,  the  word  of  the  Lord  is             An evil and adulterous people
wander from sea to sea, and from the         present.  There are faithful bodies        run to and fro looking for a sign,
north even to the east, they shall run       of believers, around the globe, pre-       and find it not.  Yet those blessed
to and fro to seek the word of the Lord,     senting the word of the Lord.  Our         people (the little flock) who discern
and shall not find it."                      own  churches  are  among  them.           the  signs  of  the  times  are  those
                           Amos 8:11, 12     The word of the Lord will go forth         among whom the word of the Lord
                                             among all nations as He promised,          is heard.  Discerning the signs of
                                             and draw out those whom He has             the  times  is  an  assurance  itself,
                                             elected.   Even in this dismal day
Amos brought the word of
         the  Lord  to  Israel.    Israel                                               amid the famine, that our Lord is
         had  fallen,  fat  and  lazy,       of famine, God's people will come          yet  among  His  people!    Oh  how
away from the word of the Lord.              under  His  word.  "Fear  not,  little     we need that assurance!
The  priest,  Amaziah,  brought  the         flock; for it is your Father's good            In an age when the word of the
words  of  Amos  to  the  king,              pleasure to give you the kingdom"          Lord is not heard, we may expect
Jeroboam. The response?  "O thou             (Luke 12:32).                              that frantic and desperate wicked-
seer,  go,  flee  thee  away  into  the          The  temptation    is  to  resign      ness will abound.  We may expect
land of Judah, and there eat bread,          oneself and say, "If God sends His         spiritual  darkness  to  grow.    We
and prophesy there:  But prophesy            word and withdraws it as He wills;         may  expect  corruption  of  men's
not again any more at Bethel:  for           gives  hearing  or  not  as  He  wills,    minds  to  run  in  ever  widening
it is the king's chapel, and it is the       what can we do?  What difference           circles.  We may expect to see (and
king's court" (Amos 7:12, 13).               does it make?"  It should make a           do  already  see)  the  ugly  head  of
    Note that the famine is of the           world of difference to us, for our         Satan wielding and controlling the
hearing.  Was the word of the Lord           Lord states in Matthew 16:2-4, "He         mass deception of the institutional
                                             answered  and  said  unto  them,           church.  We may expect, if it were
                                             When it is evening, ye say, it will        possible, that even the elect would
Deborah  Benson  is  a  member  of  the      be fair weather: for the sky is red.       be  deceived.    The  famine  ever
Bethel Protestant Reformed Church of         And in the morning, It will be foul        grows!  The running to and fro in-
Itasca, IL.                                  weather to day: for the sky is red         creases.  We shall yet pray that the

404/Standard Bearer/June, 1998


mountains would cover us!  Come           informal services in an old ware-             large  congregation,  he  continues,
quickly, Lord Jesus, come quickly!        house appeal to him, and he likes             "By  the  Word  of  God  alone,  the
                                          the  pastor,  who  is  a  charismatic         Scriptures of the Old and New Tes-
In the institutional church               speaker,  dresses  casually,  and             tament,  the Lord God opens eyes
    Is anything different in the in-      shares  his  interest  in  boats.    His      and unstops ears.  My ministry and
stitutional  church  of  today,  from     daughter even attends youth group             life of faith must continue on the
what it was in the day of Amos?           now and she states that it features           basis of a knowledge of His Word,
Those  churches  which  name  the         "a cool band."                                no longer on the feelings I have be-
name of Christ and yet fail to hear           Informal services, an appealing           come so accustomed to following.
the  word  of  the  Lord?    Just  as     warehouse,  nice  pastor,  a  charis-         It is my hope and prayer that the
Amaziah, they are unable to hear the      matic  speaker,  casual  clothing,            God of all grace will move by His
word of the Lord, and unable to bring     boats, and a cool band!  It would             Word and  Spirit, so that we may
it to the people who run to and fro.      seem  glaringly  obvious  that  this          grow in grace and knowledge to-
    A recent article in the April 10,     particular man's goals are still  ma-         gether."
1998 edition of the Wall Street Jour-     terial.                                           The very idea that this might
nal,  entitled,  "Can  You  Go  Back?         Let's  suppose  for  a  moment            occur  seems  laughable.    Why?
--More  Professionals  Return  to          that  the  following  occurred  one           There is a famine.  Can we stretch
Church or Synagogue; Having It all        Sunday morning at the above men-              it just a little further?  What would
Isn't Enough," was very telling in        tioned  church.    The  charismatic           you expect the response to be?  Old
this regard.  The article asserts the     pastor rises to the pulpit, dressed           Testament language:  "O thou seer,
following:  "Churches  and  syna-         in a suit!  He opens his mouth to             go, flee thee away...."  Modern En-
gogues across the country report a        speak,  even  as  his  eyes  well  up         glish:  "The Board of Elders of this
small  but  growing  group  of  suc-      with tears!  "Brethren," he begins,           church regrets to inform you that
cessful  baby  boomers  walking           "we  are  deep  in  our  sins.    After       our pastor has found it necessary
through  their  doors,  and  not  just    careful study of God's Word, I am             to continue his ministry in other ar-
in the Easter-Passover season. But        compelled to inform you that the              eas.  While we have noted a change
this new class of churchgoers is in       principles  which  have  governed             in direction of  late, we  send best
an unusual spot: They're not quite        this  church,  and  my  ministry  to          wishes with our pastor, even as he
sure how, or where, to go back. Re-       date,  have been centered mainly              continues his spiritual journey else-
ligious institutions, in turn, don't      on  those  things  which  please  us.         where.  Effective immediately the
always know how to reach out to           Beginning this morning, a series of           Board of Elders will begin to inter-
them."                                    sermons will be preached on the At-           view  candidates  for  this  pastoral
    In the above mentioned article,       tributes of God.   In addition, the           vacancy.  Interviews will focus on
a series of examples was given of         services  we  have  become  accus-            fresh and innovative ideas, with a
the "search" which is going on by         tomed to, while they are fast-paced,          view to filling the position with an
the "successful baby boomers."  It        fun, and emotionally charged, are             impact oriented minister.  We be-
is  what  Amos  describes  as  "run-      not in accordance with what God               lieve these are qualities more suited
ning to and fro to seek the word of       commands for worship of Himself.              to our needs."  At least Amaziah was
the Lord, and (they) shall not find       Therefore, if we are  here  to wor-           direct and honest!
it."  "Successful baby boomers" are       ship  God, we will do so according                And the baby boomer in the ex-
not  the  only  group  in  which  the     to  the  instruction  of  Scripture.    It    ample?  More than likely he would
"running to and fro" can be seen.         will be difficult for all of us!  We          be comfortable again, free to con-
They are but one drop in an ocean         have all become comfortable with              tinue  his  "pursuit  of  spirituality"
of evidence.                              our "self-styled" religion.  No more          in  material  things.      The  sugges-
    One  man,  after  building  a         testimonials, no more "cool bands,"           tion in the above hypothetical situ-
multi-million  dollar  corporation,       no more lay preachers, no more al-            ation  is  not  that  such  a  transfor-
stated,  "My  goals  have  typically      tar calls, no more children's church,         mation, in the pulpit or the pew, is
been material goals, I've never re-       and no more moralistic, unfounded             impossible  for  the  Holy  Spirit  to
ally had a spiritual life."  He ini-      messages.  We will begin by sing-             accomplish.  The suggestion is that,
tially  went  to  a  church  which  he    ing from the Psalms, we will con-             in a famine of the hearing, it is very
described thus:  "I saw a bunch of        tinue  with  congregational  prayer           rare.  Just as in a famine of meat
old  people,  the  minister  wears        and  the  giving  of  offerings.    Fol-      and bread, it is rare to find anyone
robes and a crown and the build-          lowing  this  will  be  a  sermon,  fo-       at all sitting at a table laden with a
ing itself was very formal and or-        cused on and limited to the study             lavish feast.
nate."  He eventually tried a com-        of who God is, concluding with the                Also in the  Wall Street Journal
munity,         non-denominational        singing of Psalms of praise."  Sens-          article was a list of  the attempts
church which he now attends.  The         ing unease and unrest amidst his              of  different  pastors  to  satisfy  the

                                                                                                    June, 1998/Standard Bearer/405


needs  of  "baby  boomers."    Con-          vest human organs from human fe-            ductive! In any culture, this will be
vinced that there is a vast "minis-          tuses  developed  for  that  purpose        the result of God's withdrawal of
try"  untapped  among  profession-           without  the  benefit  of  a  head  or      His  Word.  The  grounding  and
als in that age group, pastors have          brain.    The  electrical  impulses         guiding principles of life itself are
begun to help them develop their             needed for the growth and opera-            absent, even if they had only been
spiritual  side.  One  example  fol-         tion of the internal organs would           intellectually embraced, (formerly)
lows.                                        be provided by means of computer.           by the culture as a whole.
                                             This  research  is  currently  being
  A  certain  pastor  is  concerned          conducted in Great Britain, where           And Among Us
  about  these  "searching"  profes-         the maintenance of headless frogs               And what of us?  In this fam-
  sionals.  He says they have, "no           is being used to prolong the life of        ine,  we  are  a  rarity.    We  sit  at a
  one  to  talk  to  where  they  say,       "healthy frogs."  The scientist com-        table laden with a lavish feast. The
  `things aren't going well for me.'"        mented that one could not protest           masses hear not the Word of God,
  Most of them are not comfortable
  with  "sharing"  activities,  so  this     to this use of a fetus, as is done in       because  God  has  chosen  to  with-
  kind pastor has taken occasionally         the area of cloning, because, with-         draw the hearing of it. They cannot
  to holding Sunday services which           out a head, there could not be con-         hear  it.    We,  on  the  other  hand,
  honor professionals.  He says, "I          sidered to be "life."  Imagine, the         have  been  abundantly  blessed
  thought  it  was  useful  to  remind       image-bearer of God, a cash crop!           (wholly  undeserved),   with  God's
  them that on a good day they can               In the political arena.  Would          preservation,  presentation,  and
  do a lot of good."                         any  reader  disagree  that  our            hearing  of  the  Word  of  the  Lord
                                             president's alleged activities indi-        among  us.  Shall  we  not  examine
    II  Timothy  3:1-5,  "This  know         cate  a  stellar  example  of    frantic    ourselves?
also, that in the last days perilous         wickedness?  In the discourse over              A recent (two-year), member of
times shall come.  For men shall be          whether  "character  counts,"  we           the Protestant Reformed Churches
lovers of their own selves, covet-           hear the overwhelming conclusion            (PRC),  was  asked  the  following
ous, boasters, proud, blasphemers,           that it in fact does not count! Re-         question:    "In  your  experience  in
disobedient to parents, unthankful,          member the response to the State            the PRC, what is the most glaring
unholy,  traitors,  heady,  high-            of  the  Union  Address?      If  I  can    example  of  the  precious  gift  of
minded, lovers of pleasures more             buy a house, if I can get a raise, if I     truth being taken for granted?"  He
than lovers of God;  Having a form           can  be  assured  that  neither  I  nor     responded thus:  "When I came to
of  godliness,  but  denying  the  power     or my sons will go off to war, etc.,        the PRC, I cried at every sermon, I
thereof: from such turn away."               then nothing else counts.  In essence,      couldn't believe someone was ac-
                                             our nation responded loudly with,           tually  preaching  what  the  Scrip-
Results in the culture                       "I am all that counts."                     tures teach! When I hear the com-
    This famine of hearing has its               In  the  youth.    Foul  language,      plaining about sermons  that goes
effects in the culture as well.  The         unkempt  appearance,  pierced               on, I want to take people and put
culture becomes visibly frantic in           through  every  body  part,  hollow         them out in the `other' churches for
its wickedness.  A few current ex-           eyes, mindless speech, drugs, teen          a  year,  so  they  know  what  they
amples:                                      pregnancy,  abortion,  rebellion,           have!" Perhaps familiarity does in-
    The  area  of  behavioral  re-           theft, gangs, occultism, suicide, and       deed breed contempt!
search.  Man is so frantic to become         cold-blooded,  premeditated  mur-               One of the criticisms often lev-
immortal!  If you don't wear your            der.  All this and more, character-         eled against Reformed believers is
seat belt, you're going to die!  If you      ize the youth of this period in his-        that they are arrogant.  It stands to
don't exercise regularly,  you're go-        tory.                                       reason that the criticism would be
ing to die!  If you don't eat right,             In viewing all the evidence one         partly true and partly the result of
you're going  to  die!     If  you  don't    could find on the demise of our cul-        ignorance about Reformed doctrine
wear  a  helmet  while  bicycling,           ture, one might be reminded of an           or Reformed believers.  Either way,
you're going to die!    If you don't         ant  colony.    When  the  ants  are        seeing we enjoy such a marvelous
detach your air bags,  you're going          busily going about the business for         feast,  it  behooves  us  to  ask  our-
to die! (This year, that is. Last year       which they were created, they are           selves  a  few  questions  now  and
you were going to die if you didn't          a  confident,  courageous,  focused,        again, just to remind us of the rea-
have an air bag.)                            strong, and productive group. Re-           son  for  which  we  should  be
    The area of biological research.         move their "compass" by inserting           humble.  Who chose me to attend the
Recently a noted scientist reported          your foot into the ant hill.  The re-       feast? Who brought me to the table?
on a radio program that it would             sult  will  look  something  like  the      Who prepared the food?  Who labored
be a short number of years (he said          life of our culture:  frantic, defen-       so  that  the  table  might  be  spread?
three to five) before we could har-          sive,  scattered,  weak,  and  unpro-       Who applies its benefits to my soul?

406/Standard Bearer/June, 1998


Is there anything at all which I did to        on Sunday, morning and evening,               they  shall  plant  vineyards,  and
deserve a seat at this table?                  to  Bible  Study,  to  catechism,  and        drink the wine thereof;  they shall
        And,  finally,  are  we  hungry?       to fellowship with like-minded be-            also  make  gardens,  and  eat  the
When the seats aren't comfortable?             lievers any chance we get!                    fruit  of  them.    And  I  will  plant
When  the  sermon  is  "too  long"?                The 6th chapter of Amos begins,           them  upon  their  land,  and  they
When the voice of Christ exposes               "Woe  to them  that  are  at  ease  in        shall no more be pulled up out of
our sin?  When our conscience is               Zion."  May our prayer be that we             their land which I have given them,
pricked?  When we are led through              are not "at ease in Zion."  For in            saith the Lord thy God."
trial?  When there is a dispute with           that day the Lord will bring upon                 Thanks be to our merciful God,
our  brother?  Whatever  our  petty            us a famine, and His Word will not            whose Word among us and the evi-
personal  "issues"  might  be,  they           be heard among us.                            dence of our hearing of it give full
are nothing compared to the gran-                  The  Book  of  Amos  ends  with           assurance  of  His  most  awesome
deur of the banqueting table that              this beautiful promise for restora-           work: bringing us again from cap-
our  gracious  God  has  prepared.             tion of God's people, who of them-            tivity, and restoring to us our eter-
Come to His banqueting table hun-              selves would be running to and fro,           nal  portion  in  the  land  He  has
gry.  No!    Famished.  Against  the           never hearing:  "And I will bring             given  us.    Thanks,  thanks  be  to
backdrop of the current famine in              again  the  captivity  of  my  people         God,  who  giveth  us  the  victory,
the land, we ought to run to church            Israel,  and  they  shall  build  the         through our Lord Jesus Christ!    u
                                               waste cities, and inhabit them; and

  News From Our Churches                                                                          Mr. Benjamin Wigger

                                               servers, but participants, in the wor-        workshops  and  two  classes  for  chil-
Minister Activities                            ship service.                                 dren.  "The Nuts and Bolts of Personal
                                                   On Friday and Saturday, April 24          Evangelism," by Rev. J. Mahtani, and
                                               and 25, the young people of the Byron         "Confronting the Modern Evangelical
Rev. A. Brummel, pastor of the Prot-
        estant  Reformed  Church  in
Edgerton,  MN,  has  received  the  call       Center,  First  in  Holland,  and             with  the  Gospel  of  Grace,"  by  Mr.
to  serve  as  pastor  of  the  South Hol-     Kalamazoo PR churches got together            Todd Lang; and, for the children, "Jo-
land, IL   PRC.                                for  an  overnight  outing  at  Son-Life      seph in Egypt, a Faithful Witness," by
        Candidate D. Kleyn and his wife        Camp in Wayland, MI.  The two-day             Rev. C. Haak, and "A Class for Chil-
moved to Pittsburgh, PA in early May           retreat considered the place of prayer        dren," by Mrs. Sue Poortinga.
to work there for three months with            in the young Christian's life.                    The Evangelism Committee of the
the  group  which  has  been  receiving            On that same weekend, there was           Southwest  PRC  in  Grandville,  MI
preaching and teaching regularly.              also a Spring Post-High Retreat held          planned  a  Spring  Lecture  for  May  1
        The  Consistory  of  the  Loveland,    at Pine Trail Camp in Saugatuck, MI.          with  Rev.  C.  Terpstra,  pastor  of  the
CO PRC has approved the request of             All  the  young  adults  from  area  PR       First PRC in Holland, MI, speaking on
our seminary faculty that Mr. Garret           churches were invited to attend.  Be-         "God's Word and Man's Revising:  The
Eriks  fulfill  his  intern  requirements      sides the obvious camp activities like        Controversy  Over  Gender  Inclusive
there in Loveland from July 1 through          hiking  and  canoeing,  time  was  also       Language."
December 31.  Mr. Eriks will, the Lord         spent around God's Word, discussing               Two of our congregations recently
willing, participate in the teaching of        the subject of "The Last Times."              invited their communities to a special
catechism,  leading  of  societies,  and                                                     worship service.  The Grandville, MI
preaching, and generally becoming ac-          Evangelism Activities                         PRC did so on Good Friday, April 10,
quainted in the work of the ministry
on a practical level.                          The  Evangelism Committee of  the and  the  congregation  of  the
                                                   Kalamazoo,  MI  PRC  sponsored  a         Georgetown PRC in Hudsonville, MI
                                               spring  lecture  at  their  church,  April    did the same on May 3 for their morn-
Young People's Activities                      23, on  the subject of "Prayer."  Rev.        ing service when their pastor, Rev. R.
                                               W.  Bruinsma,  pastor  at  Kalamazoo,         VanOverloop,  spoke  on  the  subject
                                               was the speaker.  He answered such            "Faith Alone."
On April 19  the  young people of
        the  west  Michigan  PR  churches
were invited to an Easter Mass Meet-           questions  as:    Is  prayer  necessary?
ing at the Grandville, MI PRC.  Rev.           Does prayer change God's mind?  And           Congregation Activities
A.  Spriensma,  pastor  at  Grandville,        for what ought we to pray?
spoke to the young people about the                The Bethel PRC in Itasca, IL spon-        The council of the First PRC in Hol-
                                                                                                 land, MI  has informed their con-
importance of "Spirit-Filled Worship,"         sored a seminar on personal evange-           gregation  that  they  have  decided  to
stressing the importance of worship-           lism on May 1 and 2 at the Holiday            preserve the current and original name
ing together and that we are not ob-           Inn where they hold their regular wor-        of  their  church,  and  to  postpone  ac-
                                               ship services.  On Friday night Rev. J.       tion  on  the  proposal  to  change  the
                                               Mahtani, pastor of the Trinity PRC in         starting time of their evening service.
Mr. Wigger is an elder in the Protestant       Houston, TX, spoke on "The Faithful           You  may  remember  that  these  two
Reformed  Church  of  Hudsonville, Michi-      Witness:  Our Call to Personal Evan-          changes  were  proposed  to  coincide
gan.                                           gelism."    Saturday  there  were  two        with  their  moving  into  their  new

                                                                                                        June, 1998/Standard Bearer/407

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


church home this spring.                                                 It now appears that about the first               refuge and my fortress;  My God, in
      Beginning  May  3,  the  congrega-                        of June the congregation of the Bethel                     Him  will  I  trust"  (Ps.  91:2).    Let  us
tion  of  the  First  PRC  in  Edmonton,                        PRC in Itasca, IL can begin the actual                     remember Rev. Mahtani and the saints
Alberta,  Canada  began  meeting  at                            building of their own church building.                     there in our prayers.
11:00 A.M. and 4:00 P.M.  This is to con-                                As many of our readers know, our
tinue through Sunday, October 18 D.V.                           Trinity PRC in Houston, TX will hold                                          Food For Thought
      The choirs of the congregations in                        their  last  Lord's  Day  service  June  9.                      "Happy is the man who has been
Edmonton, Hope in Redlands, CA, and                             After  25  years  of  faithful  labor  it  is              enabled to endure; he rises from the
Southeast  in  Grand  Rapids,  MI  pre-                         the will of God that this church dis-                      deeps of woe like a pearl-finder from
sented  their  annual  Easter  or  Spring                       band.  As difficult as this is, we must                    the sea, rich beyond comparison."
concerts  for  the  edification  of  their                      not look at this only from our perspec-                                                      --Spurgeon   u
church members in April.                                        tive,  but  be  assured  that  "He  is  my

           ANNOUNCEMENTS                                                                                                              WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
                                                                           RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                On May 27 we celebrated the 65th wed-
             WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                                         The Men's Society of Hope PRC (Grand              ding anniversary of our parents, grandparents,
      With thankfulness to God we remember                      Rapids) express their Christian sympathy to                and great-grandparents,
the 45th wedding anniversary of our parents,                    the family of                                                   MR. and MRS. MAYNARD VEENSTRA.
     PROF. HERMAN and WILMA HANKO.                                             MR. RON ENGELSMA.                                 We as a family are thankful to our heav-
We are grateful to God for the covenant in-                              May they find comfort in the assurance            enly Father for the faithfulness He has shown
struction  and  godly  example  that  they  have                that Christ gathers and preserves to Himself               us through their love, guidance, and prayers.
given us.  May God continue to guide them by                    "a  church  chosen  to  everlasting  life  ...  and          May our gracious God continue to bless them
His counsel through the years to come.                          that  I  am  and  forever  shall  remain  a  living        and preserve them in their life together.
      "The Lord shall bless thee out of Zion:                   member thereof" (Heidelberg Catechism, L.D.                      "I will sing of the mercies of the LORD for
and thou shalt see the good of Jerusalem all                    XXI).                                                      ever:  with my mouth will I make known thy
the days of thy life.  Yea, thou shalt see thy                           "For I am persuaded, that neither death,          faithfulness to all generations" (Psalm 89:1).
children's  children,  and  peace  upon  Israel"                nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor pow-         Y     Jay Veenstra
(Psalm 128:5, 6).                                               ers, nor things present, nor things to come,               Y     Ira and Mary Veenstra
Y     Ronald and Nancy Hanko                                    nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature,             Y     Arie and Ann Griffioen
           8 children                                           shall be able to separate us from the love of              Y     Helen Veenstra
Y     Neal and Jeanne Hanko                                     God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Ro-               Y     June VanDenTop
           4 children                                           mans 8:38-19).                                             Y     Gerald and Clara VanDenTop
Y     Kenneth and Mary Hanko                                                                   John Buiter, Pres.          Y     Hazel Besselsen
           2 children                                                                   Michael Lotterman, Sec'y.          Y     Merle and Kay Veenstra
Y     Steven and Beverly Hanko                                                                                                     30 grandchildren, 90 great-grandchildren
           4 children (1 in glory)                                           WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                                                                    Jenison, Michigan
Y     Carlyle and Marcia Miersma                                         On June 27, 1998,
                                                                                                                                   RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
           5 children                                                      BOB and RUTH GARVELINK
                                                                                                                                 The  Adult  Bible  Society  of  Faith  PRC  in
Y     Timothy Hanko                                             will celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary,             Jenison,  MI  expresses  its  Christian  sympathy  to
Y     Daniel and Sharon Kleyn                                   D.V.  We thank God for them and the cov-                   Hermie Veldman in the death of her husband,
Y     Philip and Karen VanBaren                                 enant love and instruction they have given us                                 JOHN VELDMAN;
           2 children                                           through the years.  We thank God for the many
                                      Grand Rapids, Michigan    happy years He has given them together, and                and to Hulda Kuiper and Gerald and Celia Feenstra
           RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                               we pray that He will continue to keep them in              in the death of
      The Sr. Mr. and Mrs. Society of Hope PRC,                                                                                               WINNIE KUIPER,
                                                                His care for many more years to come.
Walker, expresses their sincerest sympathy to Ken                                                                          the mother of Hulda and Celia.
                                                                         "But the mercy of the Lord is from ever-
and Pam Engelsma and family in the death of Pam's                                                                                "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death
                                                                lasting to everlasting upon them that fear him,
father,                                                                                                                    of his saints" (Psalm 116:15).
                                                                and his righteousness unto children's children"
               MR. JOHN VELDMAN.                                                                                                                              Dave Dykstra, Pres.
                                                                (Psalm 103:7).
      May they experience the grace and comfort                                                                                                              Judy VanBaren, Sec.
that the precious words of our Lord afford:  "As for            Y        Craig and Samantha Garvelink                                           REMINDER!
me, I will behold thy face in righteousness:  I shall           Y        Denise Nink                                             The  Standard Bearer is published only once
be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness" (Psalm           Y        David and Kim Monsma                              per month in June, July, and August.  And, since
17:15).                                                         Y        Dan and Pam Kramer                                the July issue treats the decisions of the synod of
                              Rev. J. Laning, President                    13 grandchildren                                the PRC, you may expect this copy to be a bit later
                              Connie Meyer, Secretary                                             Hudsonville, Michigan    than usual in the month.

408/Standard Bearer/June, 1998


