A Reformed
Semi-Monthly
Magazine
                                                                                    In This Issue:
                   Meditation  - Rev. Cornelius Hanko
                              Life with God . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
                   Editorially Speaking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4
                   Editorial - Prof. David J. Engelsma
                              The Reformed Worldview
                              5. Worldvlew, not World-flight ("Anabaptism") . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
                   Letters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7
                   Guest Article - Rev. David Higgs
                              Introduction to the Evangelical Presbyterian Church
                                    of Australia (3) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
                   Contribution  - Rev, Ronald Cammenga
                              introducing Our Second Home Missionary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  11
                   A Word Fitly Spoken -  Rev. Da/e H.  Kuiper
                              Arrows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
                   Contending for the Faith  - Rev. Bernard  J, Woudenberg
                              "Conditions" and the Covenant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
                   Church and State  - Mr. James Lanting
                              State Supreme Court Approves Vouchers
                                    for Religious Private Schools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
                   Search the Scriptures  - Rev. Mitchell C. Dick
                              The Secret of the Fruit of the Vine (2)
                                    Much Fruit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .            18
                   All Around Us  - Rev. Gise VanBaren . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
                   Report of Classis West - Rev. Steven R. Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
                   News From Our Churches  - Mr. Benjamin Wigger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Vol. 75, NO. 1
October 1, 1998


                                                                 Life with God

                                                 And God shall  wipe away all tears from their eyes.Revelation  21:4a

Theredeemed child of God is the many sorrows that encompass body of this death?" (Rom. 7:18,24).
          pictured as coming out of the                           the life of the child of God during                                We also experience daily the
          great tribulation and entering                          his earthly pilgrimage. "Many are                         consequences of the sin of all man-
into heaven with tears running                                    the afflictions of the righteous"  0%.                    kind. Ever since the fall of our first
down his cheeks. God Himself                                      34:19).                                                   parents in paradise, God's curse
takes him, as it were, in His arms                                      We are conceived and born in                        rests, not only on a fallen human
and brushes away the tears  - for-                                sin, and sin characterizes our lives                      race, but also upon all creation.
ever.                                                             as long as we live. We enter the                          Adam was king in paradise. When
                                                                  world as spiritual still-births, dead                     he fell, his kingdom fell with him.
            +++  +++  +++                                         in trespasses and sins. And, al-                          Among the animals, birds, and fish
                                                                  though we are made new creatures                          the one preys upon the other. We
      A vale of tears.                                            by the Spirit with the life of Christ                     wrestle with thorns and thistles,
      In the well-known  shepherd-                                in our hearts, we are still by na-                        weeds and destructive insects, vari-
psalm David describes this life as                                ture sinners who are incapable of                         ous sorts of viruses and germs. We
"the valley of the shadow of                                      any good and prone to all evil.                           suffer from diseases, sickness and
death," which we enter at birth and                                     Though we are righteous in                          pain, the breaking down of this
do not leave until we die.                                        Christ, we still have but a small be-                     earthly house of our tabernacle, as
      A child enters this world cry-                              ginning of the new obedience.                             well as the loss of family and
ing. This is but the beginning of                                 With the apostle Paul we cry out:                         friends.
                                                                  "For I know that in me (that is, in                                Wickedness abounds, lawless-
                                                                  my flesh) dwelleth no good thing:                         ness is on the increase as the end
                                                                  for to will is present with me, but                       approaches. Wars, killings, rape,
                                                                  how to perform that which is good                         stealing, drunkenness, and drug ad-
Rev.  Hanko is a minister emeritus in the                         I find not. 0 wretched man that I                         dictions pervade the world we live
Protestant Reformed Churches.                                     am! who shall deliver me from the                         in.



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    S o l o m o n ,   i n   t h e   b o o k   o f    ciple is not greater than his Lord.                  +++  +++  +++
Ecclesiastes, declares, "Vanity of                   As they have hated Him, they will
vanities, all is vanity and vexation                 hate us. We are persecuted for                God will wipe away all those
of spirit." The apostle Paul re-                     righteousness' sake. False teach-         tears.
minds us in Romans  8:22,23: "We                     ers are prevalent, false doctrines            "0 death, where is thy sting?
know that the whole creation                         that appeal to the flesh are widely       0 grave, where is thy victory? The
groaneth and travaileth in pain to-                  publicized. As the end approaches         sting of death is sin; and the
gether until now. And not only                       we can expect that this will only         strength of sin is the law. But
they, but ourselves also, which                      worsen. Scripture warns against           thanks be to God, which giveth us
have the firstfruits of the Spirit,                  false prophets that make merchan-         the victory through our Lord Jesus
even we ourselves groan within                       dise of our souls. Jesus even warns       Christ" (I Cor.  15:55-57).
ourselves, waiting for the adoption,                 us by asking: "When the Son of                As we approach the end of the
to wit, the redemption of our                        man  cometh, shall he find faith on       valley of the shadow of death the
body."                                               the earth?" We begin to realize           light of the eternal day shines ever
    Besides all that, there is the on-               that already in our day.                  brighter, beckoning us on to
slaught of Satan and his hosts, the                      Nor can we completely ignore          Father's house, where our mansion
enemy of God and of His cause                        the judgments of God that come            awaits us. We live unto the Lord
upon the earth. He is cunning and                    upon the wicked in this present           and we die unto the Lord, for
deceptive, having years of experi-                   time, for we find ourselves in the        whether we live or die we are the
ence in his duplicity and treachery.                 midst of them. Jesus warns us that        Lord's.      Our hope grows into a
He goes about as a roaring lion                      "nation shall rise against nation,        greater longing and eagerness as
seeking whom he may devour, but                      and kingdom against kingdom:              the time of our departure draws
he also comes as an angel of light.                  and there shall be famines, and           near.
He has a large host of demons who                    pestilences, and earthquakes, in              Christ is the resurrection and
are at his service all over the world                divers places.. . . Then shall they       the life, he that believeth in Him,
both by day and by night. Who                        deliver you up to be afflicted, and       though he were dead, yet shall he
knows but what we have a certain                     shall kill you: and ye shall be           live. And whosoever liveth and
demon appointed to watch us, to                      hated of all nations for my name's        believeth in Him will never die.
spy out all our weaknesses, to at-                   sake. And then shall many be of-          Death is swallowed up in victory.
tack at the moment when we are                       fended, and shall betray one an-              Our bodies are laid away in the
most vulnerable and least expect                     other, and shall hate one another"        grave, not only to return to the dust
it. The devil and his cohorts pre-                   (Matt.  24:7-10).                         from which they were taken, but
fer that we completely ignore them,                      We do have the assurance that         to await the return of Christ at the
as if they did not exist.                            "many are the afflictions of the          dawning of the eternal day.
    A demon may likely attack                        righteous, but the Lord delivereth            I like to think that an angel ac-
while we are in church, or while                     him out of them  all'-0%.  34:19).        companies our soul into heaven.
we are engaged in prayer. He may                     We are kept by the power of God           When we enter, our first reaction
use members of our family, or even                   through faith unto salvation ready        likely will be: I might have known.
our closest friend, to tempt us and                  to be revealed in the last day (I Pet.    We are still such fools and slow of
cause us to fall into his snare. He                  1:5). We learn to confess: "It is         heart to understand, but Scripture
is most likely to whisper his de-                    good for me that I have been af-          does tell us much about our future
ception in our hearts when we face                   flicted; that I might learn thy stat-     state. Besides, we already have
some weighty problem or crisis.                      utes"  0%.  119:71).                      peace with God in this life, and a
He knows the solution, which is al-                      We can rest assured that this         joy unspeakable, full of glory  -  a
ways the wrong one.                                  present vale of tears is the valley       foretaste of the eternal joy. This is
    We also live in "this present,                   of the  shadow  of death. The light       especially true while we are in the
evil world" (Gal.  1:4). This evil                   of the Sun of righteousness shines        divine worship service and while
world is not found only in our                       overhead, and at the end of the           we pray.
large cities, in dance halls, on mov-                way appears the light of the eter-            One thing is certain, when we
ies and television. It is-present all                nal day. We have no fear, for our         arrive in glory we will not feel out
around us, in our place of labor                     Shepherd is with us, His rod and          of place. It is true, and in this life
and wherever we turn. We are                         His staff comfort us. Yet the fact        I wonder about that, my parents
called to witness. But we also must                  remains that we leave this present        will no longer be my parents, my
be clothed with the armor of God,                    life, which is nothing more than a        wife will not be my wife, my chil-
ready to stand in an evil day.                       continual death, with tears running       dren will not be my children. But
    Jesus warns us: "In the world                    down our cheeks.                          that will not affect my blessedness.
ye shall have tribulation." A  dis-                                                            We will see and know each other

                                                                                                          October 7,1998/Stamdard Bearer/3


through the now invisible bond, the      facedly confess our sins, realizing         When Moses saw the glory of
bond of love in Christ Jesus.            that in this life sin mars every        God, only after God had passed by,
    We will fit right in. Each of us     thought we think, every word we         his face glowed even after he re-
will have his or her own place in        utter, every act we perform.            turned to the people. But how far
the assembly of God. Scripture               But heaven knows no sin. Our        more glorious will be the revela-
uses the figure of a temple, the         spirit is fully surrendered to God,     tion of God in eternity. His glory
habitation of the Lord, in which ev-     so that with heart and mind and         far exceeds the brightness of the
ery stone has its own place. Scrip-      soul and strength we live solely        sun at noontime.
ture also employs the figure of a        and completely to the glory of God.         There is no night there, no
body. Every member of the body           Nor will there be any consequences      change, no end. Eternity means
has its own place and its own pur-       of sin, as there are here on earth -    that everlastingly we shall continue
pose, each serving the other as a        no infirmity, no weakness, no pain.     to grow in the grace and knowl-
complete and perfect unity. Even         He who was blind sees perfectly,        edge of Jesus Christ in our own
the figure of the family is used; we     she who was deaf hears clearly, the     creaturely measure. Even as there
are fellow-citizens with the saints,     lame walk, and the infirm are           is no end to eternity, there is no
and of the household of God. Each        strong.                                 end to beholding the beauty of the
of us serves the other with our own          But most important of all, we       Lord, growing in the riches of His
gifts and talents, and together we       will see the face of God in Christ      grace. For our infinite God is our
serve unto the glory of our God.         Jesus. It is true that God is invis-    Father in Christ Jesus; we are His
    What will fill us with bound-        ible. No man has seen or can see        family that lives in intimate cov-
less joy is the fact that we  sin no     God. But in heaven He reveals           enant fellowship with Him forever.
more. Now every moment of our            Himself to us in all His perfections    There the covenant of God with His
existence we fail miserably. For         through our Lord Jesus Christ. We       people reaches its full realization,
whether we eat or whether we             will stand in awe at His infinite       and God will be all in all!
drink, we must do it all to the glory    glory, flooded with His dazzling            It is the eternal wedding feast
of God; but every night we shame-        beauty and blessedness.                 of the Lamb!  0





At their annual meeting in June Arie den Hartog in "In His Fear." have already appeared. The con-
      of this year, the staff of the     This column is devoted to the Re-       cluding installment appears in this
Standard  Bearer  (consisting of the     formed, Christian life. Miss Agatha     issue. We are grateful to Rev.
writers and the managing editor)         Lubbers will collaborate with Prof.     Higgs for his readiness to write for
reappointed the editor, managing         Russell Dykstra in writing on           our magazine. We hope that his
editor, secretary, general adjunct,      Christian  educations ("That They       articles are helpful to promote con-
and special issues committee. They       may Teach Their Children").             tact between the Protestant Re-
are Prof. David Engelsma, editor;            Welcome, to the new writers.        formed Churches and the EPC.
Prof. Robert Decker, secretary; Mr.      Thanks, to those who are willing            We have received assurances
Don Doezema, managing editor;            to continue writing for the SB.         from others in foreign lands that
Prof. Herman Hanko, general ad-              Readers will have noticed that,     they will submit articles on their
junct; and Prof. Engelsma, Prof.         having completed his popular se-        churches or on the state of the Re-
Decker, and Mr. Doezema special          ries on outstanding figures in          formed faith in those countries.
issues committee.                        church history; Prof. Herman                The next issue of the  SB-Oc-
    The staff also made decisions        Hanko has begun a new series on         tober 15-will be our special, Ref-
for the content of the magazine in       the church's struggle with false        ormation issue. This time the spe-
the coming volume-year. The ru-          teachers. These articles appear in      cial issue will be devoted to the
brics and writers will be much the       the rubric, "Marking Zion's Bul-        Dutch reformer of the  19fh century,
same as the past year. There will        warks."                                 Abraham Kuyper. We chose the
be a few changes. Rev. Douglas               The Rev. David Higgs, minis-        life and work of Kuyper as our sub-
Kuiper will write the rubric, "Min-      ter in the Evangelical Presbyterian     ject in part because of the current
istering to the Saints," with, Prof.     Church of Australia  (EPC),  re-        commemoration of the  100th anni-
Decker. This rubric explores Re-         sponded quickly to our request that     versary of his famed (or infamous)
formed pastoral labor. Rev. Daniel       he write, informing our readers         Stone~Lectures  at Princeton Univer-
Kleyn will cooperate with Rev.           about the EPC. Two of his articles      sity. These have been published

4/Standard   Bearer/October  1,1998


as  Lectures on  CaIvinism.   But there             informed us that the SB is now the                          unashamedly sets forth and  de-
was more to Kuyper than these lec-                  second oldest Reformed periodical                           fends the historic,  creedal  Re-
tures.                                              in North America. A significant                             formed faith and life, as it did in
        With the issue that you have                distinction! By the grace of God,                           that first issue of October, 1924.
in your hands, we begin volume                      the magazine still faithfully and                               Let us persevere. Cl
75 of the SB. Volume  75! One has                                                                                                                - D J E





                                                   The Reformed Worldview
                   5. Worldview, not World-flighf
                                              (66Anabaptism99)

The Protestant Reformed Reformed believer to live the dis- spheres of creation. It roots in a
          C h u r c h e s   (PRC)   r e j e c t      tinctive Christian life in every                           renunciation of creation itself, as
          Abraham Kuyper's  world-                   sphere.        "The Calvinist demands                      though creation were essentially
view of common grace. They re-                       that all life be consecrated to His                        evil. It interprets the biblical call
ject it root and branch. The expla-                  service, in strict obedience. A reli-                      to separation as the command to
nation of this rejection was the bur-                gion confined to the closet, the cell,                     have no contact with ungodly men
den of the previous three editori-                   or the church, therefore, Calvin ab-                       and women, or as little as possible;
als.                                                 hors"  (Lectures on Calvinism,                             physically to withdraw from soci-
        But this rejection of Kuyper's               Eerdmans, 1953, p. 53).                                    ety, in isolation; to have nothing to
worldview does not stem from, or                          The Dutch theologian is not to                        do with culture-education, busi-
imply, a denial that the Reformed                    be faulted for combating "the                              ness and industry, the arts, recre-
faith is, in fact, a worldview. On                   unhistorical suggestion that Calvin-                       ation, and the like. It is the think-
the contrary, inasmuch as Kuyper's                   ism represents an exclusively eccle-                       ing that sees the life of the Chris-
Stone Lectures were, in the words                    siastical and dogmatic movement"                           tian as  "met een boekje in een hoekje"
of contemporary scholar Peter S.                     (Lectures,  p.  78).                                       (sitting in a corner with a little  Ire-
Heslam,  "an attempt to answer one                         It is not Kuyper's insistence                        ligious] book). The world-flight of
of the most crucial questions that                   that Calvinism is a worldview that                         Anabaptism is the rejection of
has faced Christianity throughout                    is objectionable, but his specific,                        worldview as such.
its history, the question of the re-                 p e c u l i a r   d e s c r i p t i o n   o f   t h i s        Kuyper may even have been
lationship between Christianity                      worldview as a worldview  of com-                          right in his observation that there
and culture," the attempt by                         mon grace.                                                 is an Anabaptistic tendency in
Kuyper was legitimate and praise-                                                                               some, pietistic circles among Re-
worthy  (Creating a Christian                        The Error of World-flight                                  formed churches. Even today it is
Worldview: Abraham Kuyper's Lec-                           We fully agree with Kuyper                           not unknown that in the name of
tures on  CaIvinism,   Eerdmans, 1998,               that the world-flight of Anabaptism                        the antithesis some Reformed
p. 266).                                             is forbidden to the disciple of Jesus                      people question education, espe-
                                                     Christ. Indeed, world-flight is im-                        cially advanced education; are
The Comprehensiveness                                possible. World-flight, as repre-                          doubtful that the library of a Chris-
of Calvinism                                         sented in the Anabaptist radicals                          tian school should contain books by
        Kuyper was right when he as-                 and heretics at the time of the Ref-                       unbelievers; and contend that a
serted the comprehensiveness of                      ormation, is the attempt to live, as                       Christian has no business becom-
Calvinism, that is, that the Re-                     much as possible, in physical sepa-                        ing a doctor, a lawyer, or a politi-
formed faith, extending to all of                    ration both from ungodly people                            cian.
human life, empowers and calls the                   and from the ordinances and

                                                                                                                         October 1,1998/Standard  Bearer/5


A False Dilemma                                          Anabaptist world-flight. So they          "common grace" by name as part
     But Kuyper was wrong to posit                       charged against him. Spearhead-           of the Arminian heresy, and
Anabaptistic world-flight as the                         ing the attack, the Rev. Jan Karel        teaches only particular grace for
s o l e   a l t e r n a t i v e   t o   h i s   o w n    Van  Baalen wrote the booklet, De         the elect alone.
worldview of common grace. This                          Loochening  der Gemeene Grafie:               In this book the Christian Re-
is what he did in the Princeton lec-                     Gereformeerd   o    f     Doopersch?      formed minister waxed hysterical
tures on Calvinism.                                      (Eerdmans-Sevensma, 1922; the En-         in his condemnation of the rejec-
                                                         glish translation would be,  The De-      tion of Kuyper's common grace
  The avoidance of the world has                         nial  of  Common Grace: Reformed or       worldview by his colleagues,
  never been the Calvinistic mark,                       Anabaptist?).  Van  Baalen's  answer      Danhof and Hoeksema: "(They)
  but the shibboleth of the                              to the question of his title was,         deny common grace. (They) be-
  Anabaptist. The specific, anabap-                      "The denial of common grace is            come Anabaptist; (they) end up in
  tistical dogma of "avoidance"
  proves this. According to this                         Anabaptistic" (p. 84).                    Pietism; (they) end up in hostility
  dogma, the Anabaptists, announc-                           Van  Baalen  did not want the         to culture, in a shunning of the
  ing themselves as "saints," were                       church to be under any illusions          world, in a hatred of the world, in
  severed from the world. They                           concerning the seriousness of the         everything that lies along that line"
  stood in opposition to it. They                        sin of Danhof and Hoeksema in re-         (p. 195). What these further bo-
   refused to take the oath; they ab-                    jecting Kuyper's common grace. In         gies might be, Van  Baalen did not
  horred all military service; they                      the common grace controversy that         tell his readers, but he left the im-
   condemned the holding of public                       was then opening up, the Christian        pression that they were fearful in-
  offices. Here already, they shaped                                                               deed.
   a new world, in the midst of this                     Reformed Church was on the "eve
  world of sin, which however had                        of the most important struggle that           So the Christian Reformed
  nothing to do with this our                            it has yet known.         That is the     Church has always represented the
  present existence. They rejected                       struggle between  Calvinism and           denial by the PRC of Kuyper's and
  all obligation and responsibility                      Anabaptism" (Loochening,  p. 9; the       their common grace worldview.
   towards the old world, and they                       emphasis is Van Baalen's). In light       They have parroted and perpetu-
  avoided it systematically, for fear                    of the fact that the Christian Re-        ated Kuyper's false dilemma: the
  of contamination, and contagion.                       formed Church had just con-               worldview of common grace or
  But this is just what the Calvinist                    demned the premillennialism of            Anabaptism.
   always disputed and denied  (Lec-
   tures, pp. 72,                                        Harry Bultema and the modernis-
                      73).                               tic higher-critical views of Scripture    Hoeksema on Worldview
     Kuyper did the same thing in                        of Ralph Janssen (whom Van                    The founding fathers of the
his work on common grace, the                            Baalen  was defending by his attack       PRC,       particularly     Herman
three-volume De                                          on Danhof and Hoeksema), this             Hoeksema, denied Kuyper's and
                              Gemeene Gratie                                                       the Christian Reformed Church's
(Hoveker  & Wormser,  1902-1904)  .                      was a severe indictment of the de-
According to Kuyper, those Re-                           nial of common grace indeed. Van          charge of Anabaptism. Hoeksema
formed, and even Protestant,                             Baalen's booklet received high            repudiated the world-flight of
people in the Netherlands who re-                        praise from virtually all the lead-       Anabaptism and affirmed that the
jected his worldview of common                           ers in the Christian Reformed             Reformed faith is a worldview.
grace and who declined to support                        Church.                                   Hoeksema gave this testimony well
his political activism in the  Anti-                         Over the next year, Van Baalen        before the common grace contro-
Revolutionary Party thereby mani-                        warmed to his task as defender of         versy was underway in the Chris-
fested themselves as guilty of the                       the Reformed faith against en-            tian Reformed Church, when he
Anabaptist error of world-flight.                        croaching Anabaptism. He pro-             was still a minister in good, indeed
     As though the alternatives                          duced another book attacking              high, standing in that church.
were the worldview of common                             Danhof and Hoeksema,  Nieuwig-            Writing in 1919, in the periodical,
grace or no worldview at all, that                       heid en Dwaling: De Loochening  der       Religion and Culture,  Hoeksema de-
is, the world-flight of Anabaptism!                      Gemeene      G r a t i e   (Eerdmans-     clared:
     The Christian Reformed oppo-                        Sevensma, 1923; the English trans-
                                                                                                     Also Calvinism, holding the origi-
nents of Herman K-e&sema  in 1924                        lation would be,  An Innovation and         nal goodness of the world, and
employed the very same tactic                            an Error:    The Denial  of  Common         still professing that the world as
against him. Did he reject the com-                      Grace).  The title is sublime irony.        kosmos is not essentially bad but
mon grace worldview of Kuyper as                         Van  Baalen  borrowed the phrase,           good, being the product of an Al-
perfectly sketched in their three                        "nieuwigheid en dwaling,"  from the         mighty and Allwise God, infinite
points of common grace? Then-he                          Canons of Dordt, which knows of             in perfection, strongly repudiates
must be a modern proponent of                            no common grace in the Reformed             the erroneous separation of nature
                                                         system of theology, condemns

s/Standard  Bearer/October  7, 7998


                                                                                                                                                   ,
 and grace, and always maintained         flatly denied the charge that his de-                new life-view. They are members
 that the power of redemption             n i a l   o f   c o m m o n   g r a c e   w a s      of God's covenant,-His friends in
 through grace is not destined to         Anabaptistic. He insisted that                       the world, subjects of His king-
 remain a foreign element in the                            -                                  dom. And, in principle at least,
 life of the world, but much rather         exactly the opposite is our concep-                they want to live the life of that
 to redeem that life in all its abun-       tion. We exactly will not to go                    kingdom also in the present world
 dance and in every sphere. Cal-            out of the world. It is exactly our                (p 211).
 vinism has always sent its  wor-           purpose to abandon no single
 shippers, equipped with a com-             sphere of life. We have exactly                      Does         this       sound          like
 plete view of life and the world,          called God's people to occupy the                Anabaptism?
 into all the complex relationships         whole of life. However, it is our                    Is this the call to world-flight?
 of human existence to claim it for         will that this people of the Lord,
 Christ our Lord. The truly  Cal-                                                                Or is this the proclamation of
                                            which is His covenant people, in
 vinistic Christian is a Christian ev-                                                       the  worldview of the gospel?
                                            no single sphere of life shall for-
 erywhere and always. In the                                                                     Whether Kuyper's and the
                                            sake or deny its God. That people
 home and in the church, in soci-                                                            Christian Reformed Church's false
                                            is called, in every sphere, to live
 ety and in the state, in shop and          out of grace, out of the one grace               d i l e m m a - c o m m o n        grace or
 office, in art and in science, in          by which they are implanted into                 Anabaptism-was due to igno-
 trade and industry, always and             Christ and love God, so that they                rance, shrewd tactics (Kuyper
 everywhere is the Calvinist a              keep His commandments (pp. 67,                   wanted the support of the people
 Christian, would he be consistent                                                           for his political ambitions), or mal-
 and in harmony with his own con-            68).
 fession. All life and all relations                                                         ice, we leave to God to judge. He
 of life he claims must be based on            He disdained Van  Baalen's  ac-               will. But the dilemma was-and
 and permeated by Christian prin-         cusation of Anabaptism as mere                     is-mistaken.
 ciples. In a word I know of no           "mud-slinging."                                        There can be no question
 view that is broader in its vision,           The mature Hoeksema likewise                  whether Calvinism is a worldview.
 that is more  kosmological  in its       confessed the Reformed faith as a                  For Calvinism is simply biblical
 application, that is more all-em-        worldview. In his commentary on                    Christianity, and biblical Christian-
 bracing in its powerful grasp, that      the book of Revelation,  Behold, He                ity is a distinctive view of all cre-
 is more truly liberating in its          Cometh!  (RFPA,  19691,  he wrote:                 ation with its history and a distinc-
 power than the Calvinistic view
 of life and the world; and it may                                                           tive life in all the ordinances that
 safely be said that, if an indict-          And thus the people of God have                 God has established for man in His
 ment is brought against the Chris-          their own life-view with regard to              world.
  tianity of former ages, as if it           every sphere of life and every in-                   But the question for Reformed
  meant to be an anabaptistic sepa-          stitution of the world. The home                people today is: "which  world-
  ration from the world, Calvinism           is an institution existing primarily            view?"
 should straightway be acquitted             for the perpetuation of God's cov-                   The common grace worldview
  and may, indeed, go with a free            enant in the world. The school is               of the fertile and ambitious mind
  conscience.                                an institution for the purpose of
                                             instructing the covenant children               of Abraham Kuyper in  Lectures on
                                             according to the principles of Holy             Calvinism,  which worldview is now
    Hoeksema  gave the same testi-           Writ for every sphere of life. So-              embodied in the Christian Re-
mony in the heat of the controversy          ciety, with business and industry,              formed Church's three points of
over common grace. Responding                art and science, and all things that            common grace?
to Van  Baalen in a booklet entitled,        exist, must . . . be controlled by                   O r   t h e   p a r t i c u l a r   g r a c e
Niet Doopersch  maar Gereformeerd            the principles of the Word of God               worldview of the mind of Jesus
(Grand Rapids Printing, n.d.; the            and be made subservient to the                  Christ in the Holy Scriptures? Cl
English translation would be, Not            idea of God's kingdom in the                                                             - D J E
Anabaptist but Reformed),  Hoeksema          world. In a word, they have a




                                          A.A. Hodge as saying that the  dif-                other," and that Calvinism and
Radical to the Extreme                    ference between Calvinism and                      Arminianism "together give origin
                                          Arminianism "is one of emphasis                    to  the blended strain from which
    In Robert Decker's review of          rather than principle," that  Calvin-              issues the perfect music which  ut-
David Calhoun's two-volume work           ism and Arminianism are  "neces-                   ters the perfect truth."
on the history of Princeton  Semi-        sary to restrain, correct, and  sup-                    Decker correctly states that
nary  (SB, August,  19981,  he quotes     ply the one-sided strain of the                    "there was some very `strange fire

                                                                                                       October  1,  799Sfitandard Bearer/7


on Princeton's altars."' However,         nable false gospel. Those who be-                 1. My statement concerning
earlier in the review, Decker men-        lieve and preach this false gospel       A.A. Hodge and others, "These
tions A.A. Hodge in the list of           are lost, and those who tolerate, en-    were men strongly committed to
Princeton men who were "strongly          dorse, and promote this false gos-       the Reformed faith," is qualified by
committed to the Reformed Faith."         pel are just as lost. Previous ar-       my reference to "the very strange
I beg to differ. From the above           ticles in the  Standard Bearer,  such    fire on Princeton's altars."
quotes alone, it is obvious that A.A.     as David Engelsma's "Free Willism:            2. It will interest you to know
Hodge believed that Arminianism           Another Gospel" (May  1,1997) and        that for many years Herman
is just an unbalanced form of the         John Pedersen's "Confessions of a        Hoeksema used Charles Hodge's
true gospel. And he does not stop         Harsh, Judgmental, Intolerant            S y s t e m a t i c   T h e o l o g y   (Wm. B.
there. He does not merely tolerate        One" (May 15,  1997), as well as         Eerdmans three-volume edition) as
the false gospel; astoundingly, he        Pedersen's book,  Sincerity Meets the    required collateral reading in his
says that Calvinism is also an un-        Truth  (reviewed in SB, December         Dogmatics classes. This in spite of
balanced form of the true gospel          1,1997),  compellingly bear this out.    the fact that Hoeksema differed
and that Arminianism is  necessary        Far from being "strongly commit-         sharply with Hodge on several key
for balanced gospel truth! He be-         ted to the Reformed faith," A.A.         points of doctrine, the covenant
lieved that Arminianism is neces-         Hodge showed himself to be an un-        and common grace to name just
s a r y   t o "correct" Calvinism!        regenerate agent of Satan in his         two.
"Strongly committed to the Re-            promotion of the false gospel.                3. Your statement, "A.A.
formed faith"? Hardly.                                      Marc D. Carpenter      Hodge showed himself to be an un-
     The true gospel is the good                           Sudbury, Vermont        regenerate agent of Satan in his
news of salvation conditioned on                                                   promotion of the false gospel," is
the blood and imputed righteous-          Response:                                radical to the extreme. It is a judg-
ness of Christ alone. Any other               I have three comments in re-         ment best left only to God Him-
"gospel" that conditions any part         sponse to your letter:                   self.
of salvation on the sinner is a dam-                                                             -Prof. Robert D. Decker





               Introduction to the Evangelical
      Presbyterian Church of Australia (3)

I                                         nomination. Taking these things          that God has established us as
     n the first article that I wrote     into consideration, what wonder of       churches. We both know some-
     for the SB I gave some informa-      wonders that God should raise up         thing of our history. We both ac-
     tion concerning the early settle-    the EPC as a denomination of             knowledge the truths which set us
ment of Australia, and how I per-         churches! He has gathered His            apart (almost alone in the world)
ceive this to have affected us as a       people from the midst of a wicked        as denominations. But there is the
nation. In my last article I wrote,       world: already this is a wonder          tendency, I think, to take these
briefly, about the history of our  de-    that should cause us never to cease      things in stride. Or, on the other
                                          praising our great God. But then         hand, we are inclined to arrogance:
                                          from the milieu of our national          we have the truth, but few others
                                          heritage, and from the midst of          do; aren't we special! Neither of
                                          apostatizing churches, Jehovah es-       these attitudes should be in our
Rev. Higgs is a minister in the Evan-     tablished the EPC.                       midst. Rather, we should see the
gelical Presbyterian Church  of  Aus-         Too often, I fear, we in the PRC     wonder of grace in our existence
tralia.                                   and EPC take for granted the fact        as denominations. Not only so, but

S/Standard  Bearer/October I, 1998


as a consequence we should praise         ters, financially, as fully as they      years ago I wrote for the SB and
God, continually, for His work            ought to be, Having said that,           gave several examples that illus-
among us.                                 however, I must acknowledge that         trated this: I won't repeat those
    In this article I am going to         God has by His  grace~enabled us,        examples. We are scattered as a
speak, generally, of the EPC today,       through a variety of means (not          congregation, and this provides
and more specifically of the              least of which has been the gener-       some difficulties for us. Pastoral
Brisbane congregation in which I          ous giving of the PRC toward all         work is difficult. The communion
am the pastor.                            the students who have studied in         of the saints in regular fellowship
    It may be hard for many of you        the seminary), never to go hungry        is extremely difficult. There are
in the PRC to appreciate the small-       or to suffer want.                       several things that we do as a
ness of us as churches. Our whole             There is something else that         church, therefore, to try to over-
denomination, in terms of num-            you need to know about our               come these difficulties.
bers, is less than one of your larger     churches: they are separated by              In the first place, every June in
congregations. Let me give you            large distances. The churches in         Queensland there is a long week-
some statistics to illustrate this.       Tasmania-Launceston and  Winna-          end. It has become a tradition with
The statistics of congregational          leah-are approximately the same          us to have a family-fellowship
numbers are approximate, as the           distance from Brisbane as Houston,       camp over this weekend. Most
latest official publication to which      Texas, is from Grand Rapids.  Al%        people from the Brisbane congre-
I have access is two years old. I         proximately half way between             gation, and often several from
have adjusted some of these num-          Brisbane and Tasmania is Sydney:         Rockhampton, meet together from
bers if I have personal knowledge         about a 14-hour drive south from         Friday evening till Monday after-
of changes.                               Brisbane.    An eight-hour drive         noon at a camp site on top of Mt.
    We have five congregations,           north from Brisbane is  Rock-            Tamborine. The scenery is mag-
each with a minister and session          hampton. And then, about seven           nificent.    Bush walking tracks
(consistory). The first figure men-       or eight hours north of  Rock-           abound. Native flora and fauna are
tioned in each church will be the         hampton is the  Carins  preaching        profuse. All of this sets the scene
number of communicant members,            station.                                 for a relaxing time of fun and fel-
the second the number of baptized             Our Presbytery, therefore, is vi-    lowship. Often all that happens is
members, and the third the num-           tal. This is the broadest court of       that the saints just sit and talk.
ber of adherents. Launceston: 32;         our denomination. Unlike your            This is good. This helps us to get
20; 2. Winnaleah: 16; 25; 8.              broadest court, all of our ministers     to know each other more, and ap-
Sydney: 10; 6; 5. Rockhampton:            attend-as well as a representative       preciate each other better.
34; 20; 10. And Brisbane: 35; 25;         elder from each congregation. Not            The theme of our most recent
30. In addition, we have three            only is this court necessary, scrip-     camp was personal witnessing.
preaching stations, which come un-        turally, but it provides the means       Both the texts on which I preached
der the jurisdiction of session of the    for our ministers to fellowship with     were appropriate to this theme.
closest church. Under Launceston          each other. As you can appreci-          Also, on the Lord's Day evening I
is the Burnie preaching station: 7;       ate, to remain united in doctrine        gave a lecture on the topic, and
8; 0. Under Rockhampton,  Carins:         and purpose we ministers need to         then there was a question time af-
2; 3; 0. And under Brisbane, Chin-        know each other, to talk about mat-      terwards. After every meal one of
chilla which has 3 communicant            ters of doctrine, and to strengthen      the men communicant members
members. Finally, we have a mis-          each others' hands in our most holy      leads in family worship. The pas-
sion work at Cohuna, which is op-         faith. Presbytery meets twice a          sage of Scripture he reads is rel-
erating like a preaching station un-      year, usually in January and July.       evant to the theme of the camp.
der the Presbytery. We have a min-        Following the last January meeting       Apart from these instances of in-
ister laboring in that work, which        of Presbytery the Presbyters had a       struction the whole camp is de-
has 11 communicant members, 16            week-long conference. One of the         voted to fun, relaxation, and fel-
baptized members, and 5 adher-            main benefits of the conference was      lowship.
ents.                                     the opportunity it provided to get           Secondly most of our meetings
    We have, then, six ministers          to know each other better in an in-      take place in people's homes, on a
serving a total number of approxi-        formal setting. Given our scattered      rotational basis. Now, partly this
mately 350 members and adher-             nature as churches such things are       is due to the fact that we do not
ents. Also, at the moment, our stu-       of great importance.                     have our own church building, but
dent minister, Mr. Mark Shand, is             Not only are our churches scat-      partly also it helps to foster fellow-
studying in your seminary. As you         tered in distance from each other        ship in our scattered congregation.
can appreciate, it is not always an       but, in Brisbane, our congregation       In Australia it is fairly common for
easy thing to support our minis-          is scattered. About two and a half       friends just to "pop in" on each

                                                                                           October   7,7998/Standard Bearer/9


other (stop by, unexpectedly, to         young people to present papers on            per after the evening service on the
visit for coffee). In Brisbane this      various topics. We then discuss              day we have the Lord's Supper.
does not happen among some of            these papers. Generally I give a             Again, the primary purpose of this
us very often because our fellow         follow-up paper on the same sub-             custom is to foster fellowship
saints may live an hour or more,         ject.                                        among us. Due to the smallness of
away from us. To have meetings                    In recent times the ladies have     our congregation we are able to
in our homes, though, encourages         been meeting together for fellow-            hold baptisms whenever they are
us to visit each other fairly regu-      ship and encouraging each other in           needed. We do not have to limit
larly.                                   their faith. Generally one of the            baptisms to a certain Lord's Day
    Let me tell you something            ladies will present a topic for dis-         in the month, as some of your
about these meetings, and about          cussion that is relevant to them as          larger churches have to do.
our public worship on the Lord's         women.                                           There are many, many difficul-
Day.                                              Also, throughout most of the        ties that we face as a small, scat-
    Every Wednesday evening              year there is a pre-confessional             tered denomination in the midst of
throughout the year, except for          class which I run. This occurs, gen-         a wicked world. But there are also
about six weeks during school holi-      erally, every fortnight, depending           blessings innumerable. I have seen
days, we have a mid-week meet-           upon who is involved, how far                evidence of this in our own con-
ing. This is open to the whole con-      away they live, and their circum-            gregation. Since I became the min-
gregation, although, due to chil-        stances as far as transport is con-          ister here, there have been seven
dren needing to be in bed, and for       cerned. We use Rev. Hoeksema's               or eight baptisms and a similar
a variety of other reasons, gener-       "Essentials of Reformed Doctrine"            number of new communicant mem-
ally only one member of each fam-        for this class.                              bers. This may seem to be a small
ily attends. I normally lead these                Catechism classes take place af-    number, but in a church our size
meetings. The occasional exception       ter the morning service on the               this is cause for great joy and
to this is when one of the elders        Lord's Day. To have these classes            praise. I have seen the work of
leads if I am away. Just recently I      at any other time is too difficult,          God in so many ways: in us as
have introduced another exception.       given the scattered nature of the            denomination; in our history; in
Very occasionally I will ask one of      congregation.                                my own congregation; in individu-
the men communicant members to                    Every Lord's Day we have two        als; in our growth in the knowl-
give an introduction to a text that      worship services.           During my        edge of the truth. And it is all of
we are studying. The normal for-         whole time in Brisbane the morn-             God. Let us as the EPC and PRC
mat of these meetings is to work         ing service has been held in a cen-          remember that all blessings come
through a book of the Scriptures.        tral location, and the evening ser-          to us of God. Let us, therefore,
We have just begun looking at            vice has been held in the suburb             bless the God and Father of our
Ruth. This meeting is fairly infor-      where most of our people live. As            Lord Jesus Christ, who hath
mal, with time for questions and         of the first Lord's Day in July, how-        blessed us with all spiritual bless-
comments from others.                    ever, we will be holding both ser-           ings in heavenly places in Christ.
    Friday evenings are set aside        vices in the same central location.                                                rh
                                                                                                                            U
for young people's meetings. Ev-         Our worship services are similar to
ery alternate week is a social night     yours. We open the service with a
for them. On these nights the            call to worship. We have congre-
young people do a variety of things      gational prayers; sing only the
ranging from trips to games to  ice-     Psalms; read from the Scriptures
skating. On the alternate Friday         (generally we have two readings
we have a night of instruction. The      though-one from the Old Testa-
format varies. We have just fin-         ment, and one from the New); pro-
ished working through Prof.              claim the gospel in preaching; and
Engelsma's  Hyper-Calvinism and the      close with the benediction. In the
Call  of  the Gospel.  Next meeting I    morning service I preach through
will take the position of one who        books of the Bible: at the moment
holds to the well-meant gospel of-       we are in the Psalms.            In the
fer, and see how well the young          evening service I am preaching
people can refute me-to see, in          through the Westminster Larger
other words, just how well they          Catechism.
have taken in the truths expounded                The Lord's Supper is celebrated
by Prof. Engelsma in his book. Oc-       four times every year. It is our
casionally I get one or more of the      practices  to have a fellowship sup-

IO/Standard Bearer/October  1, 7998


                          Introducing Our Second
                                   Home Missionary

                                                                                           Aiding Rev. Mahtani in the
                                                                                       work will be his devoted wife,
                                                                                       Esther. The Mahtanis have been
                                                                                       blessed with eight children. A resi-
                                                                                       dence has been purchased that can
                                                                                       serve the Mahtani family well, but
                                                                                       also the needs of the group. Their
                                                                                       address is: 216 Thornberry Drive,
                                                                                       Pittsburgh, PA 15235. Telephone
                                                                                       numbers are:           (412) 371-2277
                                                                                       (home) and (412) 371-2299 (study).
                                                                                           The group is meeting for wor-
                                                                                       ship services every Lord's Day at
                                                                                       the Hampton Inn, located at 4575
                          Missionary Mahtani andfamily
0                                                                                      McKnight  Road. Sunday services
        ne of the highlights of the       Michigan was designated as the               are at  1l:OO  A.M.  and 5:00  P.M.  Be-
        19.98 synod of the Protes-        calling church.                              sides the Sunday services, weekly
        tant Reformed Churches                     Soon after synod's decision, the    catechism classes and Bible stud-
was the decision taken by the             council of Southwest proposed a              ies are being held.
synod, on the advice of the Domes-        trio of ministers to its congregation.           Everyone living in the Pitts-
tic Mission Committee, to call a          From that trio a call was issued to          burgh area is cordially invited to
second home missionary. The de-           Rev. Jai Mahtani to serve as a sec-          attend the worship services. Feel
cision called for this missionary to      ond home missionary of the PRC.              free to contact Rev. Mahtani with
concentrate his labors in the east-       Believing it to be God's will for            any questions you may have.
ern United States, complementing          him, Rev. Mahtani accepted that                  Members of the PRC are en-
the work of Rev. Thomas Miersma,          call.                                        couraged to visit the work in Pitts-
who is laboring as home mission-                   We rejoice that God has so gra-     burgh and become acquainted with
ary in the western part of the coun-      ciously provided Rev. Mahtani for            the saints there.
try. The work would begin in Pitts-       this labor. Pastor Mahtani is not                May God bless the decision of
burgh, Pennsylvania. The reasons          only experienced in the work of              synod  1998!  May He prosper the
for beginning in Pittsburgh were          missions, but has a heart for mis-           labors of Rev. Mahtani! And may
twofold. First, the Domestic Mis-         sions.                                       the work in Pittsburgh flourish! c1
sion Committee has been laboring
with a group of believers there for
over two years. And secondly, the
large city of Pittsburgh provides
the PRC with many opportunities
for labor in a place where the wit-
ness to the Reformed faith is rela-
tively small. Southwest Protestant
Reformed Church of Grandville,

Rev. Cammenga is pastor  of  Southwest
Protestant    Reformed     Church in
Grandville, Michigan.                                                     The Pittsburgh Mission

                                                                                              October 1, 1998/Standard  Bearer/l 7


                                                  Arrows
    The word arrow is not to be found in the New an arrow! If anyone doubts the power of the tongue,
           Testament. In the Old Testament it is used re-         and the difficulty of controlling the tongue, let him read
           peatedly, especially in the Psalms. It comes from      the third chapter of the Epistle of James. Repentance
    the root Hebrew word which means to divide, to cut            can heal the wounds caused by evil words, and prayer
    into two parts; then that which cuts in two, divides,         is needed to prevent the shooting of these sharp ar-
    wounds, destroys; and finally, an arrow with its cut-         rows.
    ting head. Arrows belonged to the offensive armament              Children are called arrows in Psalm 127. After set-
    of the Israelites. Jehu drew a bow and smote Jehoram,         ting forth the preciousness of children, "Lo, children
    "and the arrow went out at his heart" (II Kings 9:24).        are an heritage of the Lord: and the fruit of the womb
    The followers of David were armed with bows, "and             is his reward," David states, "As arrows are in the hand
    could use both the right hand and the left in hurling         of a mighty man; so are the children of the youth."
    stones and shooting arrows" (I Chron.  12:12).  King          Arrows must be crafted very carefully. They must not
    Uzziah prepared a vast array of weapons with which            be crooked or warped, but they must be straight and
    to defend Jerusalem, among them engines to shoot ar-          polished. They must have a sharp point, and then be
    rows and great stones  (II Chron.  26:15).  But for the       aimed at a carefully selected target. So the child must
    most part, arrows are-used  in Scripture in the figura-       be brought up straight, straight according to the Law of
    tive sense.                                                   God. The child must be polished with instruction, cor-
         God has His arrows which He shoots. The arrows           rection, and discipline. And the child must be aimed:
    of God are the lightnings which cleave the atmosphere         aimed at God and His glory, aimed at the kingdom of
    (Hab.  3:11),  the calamities which He sends upon the         God and its welfare, aimed in the way of everlasting
    enemies of Israel (Deut. 32:42),  the famine and pesti-       life! He must not fall short and miss that mark!
    lence that disobedient Israel must experience (Ezek.              Psalm 127 goes on to speak of the "happiness of the
    5:16).  Because God is angry with the wicked every            man that hath his quiver full of them." Clearly, the
    day, "He ordaineth his arrows against the persecutors"        number of children that we have is in view here. We
    (Ps.  7:13), and "shoots at them with an arrow; sud-          take the quiver to stand for the home, and the home is
    denly they shall be wounded"  (Ps. 64:7). God also chas-      to be filled with children. Normally, when God chooses
    tens His people with sharp arrows, as Job experienced,        to bless a man, He does so by giving him children (Ps.
    "For the arrows of the Almighty are within me" (Job           128:3,  4). Quivers are of different sizes, and God de-
    6:4),  and as David complains, "For thine arrows stick        cided that size, and when the quiver is full. With some
    fast in me, and thy hand presseth me sore" (Ps. 38:2).        it is full with one child, with others not until five or six,
    Yet, even though God sets His people as a mark for the        ten or twelve, are born. The God who killeth and maketh
    arrow at times (Lam.  3:12), those that have Him for          alive decides this, not man. Abortion is ruled out here,
    their refuge and fortress need "not be afraid for the         of course. The pill and other contraceptive devices are
    terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day"        ruled out here, of course. Family planning, the decision
    (Ps. 91:5).                                                   of husband and wife as to how many children they are
         Words are like arrows in that they divide brothers       going to have, and just when they are going to have
    and sisters, cut to the quick, wound, and kill. The           them, is also ruled out by this Psalm. The world's low
    children of God live among them that are on fire,             view of children as a bother, as an unnecessary expense,
    "whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a        as a hindrance to the good life; the world's low view of
    sharp sword" (Ps. 57~4).  They "whet their tongue like        child-bearing and the labors of the mother in the home;
    a sword, and bend their bows to shoot their arrows,           the world's usurping of divine right in regard to the
    even bitter words" (Ps. 64:3).  In great distress David       issues of life and death - all this may not influence or
    cries out, "What shall be done unto thee, thou false          control believing parents in regard to their having chil-
    tongue? Sharp arrows of the mighty, with coals of ju-         dren.
    niper" (Ps. 120:3,  4). What a fitting figure! Words, like        Children are the Lord's reward, and that reward is
    arrows, cannot be recalled.        They can both be used      of grace, covenant grace. God gives children, in num-
    over again, but once in flight cannot be taken back.          bers that please Him, in order that the church may come
    You can no more unspeak a word than you can unshoot           forth, and heaven may be populated as it ought to be
                                                                  populated. God takes His seed from our seed. He es-
                                                                  tablished His covenant in the line of continued genera-
  Rev. Kuiper is pastor  of  Southeast Protestant Reformed        tions. He uses believing parents in that great work.
  Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan.                               What a heritage! What a reward! What grace! Cl



lZ/Standard  Bearer/Ocfober  1,1999


              66Conditions99 and the Covenant

                                            seem to be a distinct avoidance of           dosis," which contains the conclu-
                                            what the dictionary has to say. In           sion and actually or by implication
If  thou shalt  confess  with thy mouth     fact, what he gives is more of a             is introduced by the adverb "then."
the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in        carefully fashioned series of rhe-           Such sentences tell us that  if  a cer-
thine heart that God hath raised him        torical questions, set up to allow           tain thing is true or not true,  then
from the dead, thou shalt be saved.         him to give his own rhetorical re-           there is another thing that will be
                         Romans  10:9       sponse as to what the term in his            true or not true in turn. It is a form
A                                           usage is not to be taken to say. His         of logical syllogism designating the
        nyone who lived through             questions accordingly are:                   relationships which exist between
        the Protestant Reformed/                                                         various realities in life. Few lan-
        Liberated controversy of              a.  By condition  do you mean some-        guages are as well adapted to such
the late '40s and early '50s will re-         thing which would  bind  GOD?              careful expressions as is the Greek,
member the debates which took                Then we say unconditionally: "un-           so that we may well conclude that
place over the word "conditions."             conditional is the password!"
                                             b. By                                       it was with good purpose that God
                                                       condition  do you mean some-
On and on they went over the                  thing for  which  God has to  waif         provided providentially that the
question of whether one can prop-            before He can go on? Then we                New Testament should be first set
erly speak of  conditions  regarding         say unconditionally: "uncondi-              forth in that language.
the covenant of grace. Seldom was             tional is the password."                       Of the large variety of condi-
there much consideration as to                c. By condition do you mean some-          tional sentences found in Scripture,
whether these were conditions to             thing we have to fulfill, in order          a good number relate to the matter
enter into the covenant, or within            to merit something? Then we say            of salvation and/or the relation-
the covenant, or resulting from the           unconditionally: "unconditional is         ship of man to God. They tell us
covenant; but argue we did, rarely            the password!"
                                              d. Do you mean by                          when and how these can or cannot
                                                                     condition  some-
with a great deal of understand-              thing which God has  joined fo             take place with all of the certainty
ing, and at times approaching the            something else, to make clear to us         of God's Word. God defines for
banal, but interest and passion               that the ooze cannot come without          us what various relationships in
were there. So it is not surprising           the other  and that we cannot be           life will or will not exist, as, for
that Schilder in turn addressed              sure of the one, unless we are at           example, in John  3:36: "He that
himself to that question in his se-           the same time  assured  of the other?      believeth on the Son hath everlast-
ries of articles critiquing the  Decla-      Then we say unconditionally:                ing life: and he that believeth not
ration  of  Principles.  That was the         "conditional is the password!"             the Son shall not see life; but the
question of the hour.                                                                    wrath of God abideth on him." We
    Striking, and worthy of note,               As far as the Bible is concerned,        are told very simply that those who
is the fact that Schilder starts his        it contains many of what are called          have faith and believe in Jesus
primary treatment of this point in          conditional sentences; and, espe-            Christ are spiritually alive and will
a chapter entitled, "Be Careful with        cially in New Testament Greek,               have this life forever, while those
Dictionaries."    It may well have          their form of construction is care-          who do not believe are without
been with good reason, when one             fully designed to identify the logi-         such life and remain under the
considers that what he sets forth           cal relationship which does or does          judgment of God. And so one can
in delineating the term hardly              not exist between two different hy-          go on through the Scriptures to
meets the requirements of a formal          pothetical propositions. Each of             learn from them of the various re-
definition, and would actually              these sentences is divided into two          lationships which God has or has
                                            parts: the "protasis," which is the          not established for life. We are told
                                            hypothetical clause beginning, ac-           that when certain things are or are
Rev.  Woudenberg  is a minister emerifus    tually or by implication, with the           not true, there are things in rela-
in fhe Profesfanf Reformed Churches.        conjunction "if"; and the  "apo-             tionship to them which are or are

                                                                                                October  7,  1998/Standard  Bearer/73


not true as well.         And it would        would  bind  GOD? Then we say             which is: "lx  By  condition  do you
seem that it is these which Dr.               unconditionally: `unconditional is        mean something for  which  God has
Schilder had in mind when he pro-             the password!'  "      One wonders.       to  wait  before He can go on? Then
posed his last rhetorical question,           What does he mean by a "condi-            we say unconditionally: `uncondi-
"Do you mean by  condition  some-             tion . . . which would  bind  GOD?"       tional is the password.'  N Here
thing which God has  joined to some-          But in the next chapter he goes on        again one is struck by the difficulty
thing  else, to make clear to us that         to explain:                               of the language, as he describes a
the  one  cannot come  without the                                                      condition  as "something for  which
other  and that we cannot be  sure  of          a.God is  nof  bound by anything        God has to  wait  before He can go
the one, unless we are at the same              but only by His Own determined          on." Certainly this is not much of
time  assured  of the other? Then we            will, His  Own  fixed decree or         a definition, but it contains a
say unconditionally: `conditional               counsel,  and His  Own  good plea-      thought he wants to get out none-
is the password!'  N No one has any             sure which He fulfills in His  Own      theless, as comes out in his expla-
problem with this.                              way and time. In His sovereign
                                                good pleasure He has decreed that       nation:
    The problem is that this is not             only the elect will effectively ob-
what the controversy was about,                 tain the benefits which He has            b. Therefore, God doesn't have to
nor does it reflect the use of the              promised in the covenant of grace         wait for anything. He doesn't have
words  condition  and  conditional  in          to those who believe in Him. He           to wait for one who is dead to
ordinary life.                                  has elected certain people to sal-        come. For a dead  person  does not
    If we go to the dictionary, we              vation and  thus  to faith, hope,         come, unless he comes from death
find in Merriam-Webster (perhaps                love, and all that can and has to         to life. And this making-alive lies
                                                                                          only with God the Lord Himself,
the most generally accepted au-                 follow. Election is election; it is       Who is the One who makes alive
thority concerning American En-                 free, unchangeable, and particular.
                                                God has chosen the elect to be            by His own unique  (propnum)
glish) that the first definition of the         drawn out of total death and              work. He doesn't have to  wait for
word  condition  reads:                         therefore He cannot make condi-           anything before He elects. He
                                                tions  which had to  move  Him to         doesn't have to wait for anything
  Condition . . . condicere, to agree, fr.      elect them or would authorize             before He, for instance, takes  to
  corn- + dicere to say, determine              Him to do it. He chooses on the           Himself little children who die in
  a: a premise upon which the ful-              ground of His good pleasure and           their infancy, because He takes
  fillment of an agreement depends:             for no other reason. Whatever the         care of His Own work as is in-
  stipulation                                   elect yield of faith, hope, or love,      tended in the case of the children
  b obs: covenant                               in short, of good works, they can         mentioned in the Canons of Dort
  c: a provision making the effect of           only  yield out of the power that         I, 17. He doesn't have to wait for
  a legal instrument contingent                 He Himself has granted to them            anything with adults, whom He
  upon an uncertain event; also: the            in free grace, according to His           has called by His Word, for when
  event itself.                                 eternal good pleasure.                    He, in their life, wants to say A,
                                                                                          then He says A. When God wants
And with that we gain a little feel           Apparently what Dr. Schilder has            to say B, then He does it, yet al-
as to why Dr. Schilder entitled this          in mind is to affirm his agreement          ways considering the sequence
chapter of his book, "Be Careful              with the Canons of Dordt, and with          which He Himself made for His
                                                                                          Own work, where the B follows
with Dictionaries," for it is this            the Scriptures upon which they are          the A. That is, in all cases in
very meaning which he rather                  based, that the election of the chil-       which He has decided that an A
pointedly avoids in his questions.            dren of God is freely determined            should be written before a B. And
Rather than meeting this meaning              by  Him  on the basis of His own            if it pleases Him to write a B, a C,
of the word  condition  straight on,          good-pleasure, and that He is not           a D, or a Z, in a different way,
Schilder confronts us with several            bound simply to respond to the              then He does it, wherever He
implied meanings, carefully em-               will of man. The way of express-            wills. We think of insane people
bedded in a series of rhetorical              ing this is strained, almost strange;       for instance, who are not able to
questions which by themselves are             but the point he apparently seeks           believe or confess in an ordinary
                                                                                          way and whom He, as far as it
rather obscure. In fact, it is only           to make is well taken. No one               pleases Him, will bring to salva-
when one goes on to his commen-               would disagree with him on that,            tion.
tary on them, given in the follow-            or with his chosen rhetorical re-
ing chapter, that one gains some              sponse, "Then we say uncondition-         Clearly he is speaking to, one of
feeling as to what he actually has            ally: `unconditional is the pass-         those problems into which he and
in mind.                                      word!'  " We would certainly agree        his Liberated colleagues had got-
    Take, to begin with, the first of         with that.                                ten themselves with their view of
these questions: "a. By  condition                So Schilder goes on to his next       a conditional covenant.  .In main-
do you mean something which                   question with its similar response,       taining that the covenant is  condi-

14/Standard  Bearer/October  1,199s


tional, they had to deal with the          which we must fulfill.' Period."'                      it ceases to be a covenant of grace
fact that there are certain baptized       His point is clear. By adding the                      and becomes again a covenant of
members of the church who never            idea of merit, Schilder was divert-                    works. Election implies that God
really come to that capacity where         ing the whole focus of attention                       grants man freely and out of grace
they are able in a self-determining        from the real point. The fact is, of                   the salvation which man has for-
                                                                                                  feited and which he can never
way to fulfill these conditions by         course, that no one was even sug-                      again achieve in his own strength.
way of a conscious faith, such as          gesting the matter of merit regard-                    But if this salvation is not the
little children who die while still        ing a conditional action. Actually                     sheer gift of grace but in some
infants, and retarded souls who            not even Arminius had done that.                       way depends upon the conduct of
never develop to a point of per-           For meritorious considerations one                     men, then the covenant of grace
sonal responsibility in life. And so       has to go all of the way back to the                   is converted into a covenant of
the doctor would assure us that            Semi-Pelagianism of Rome. No one                       works. Man must then satisfy
these conditional structures do not        was accusing anyone of that; and                       some condition in order to inherit
bind God in such a way that He             the introduction of it into this dis-                  eternal life. In this, grace and
                                                                                                  works stand at opposite poles
cannot make exceptions. Regard-            cussion could only serve to divert                     from each other and are mutually
ing that, he would pick up his rhe-        attention from the real question                       exclusive. If salvation is by grace
torical refrain again, "Then we say        which cried to be discussed. The                       it is no longer by works, or other-
unconditionally: `unconditional is         question was not whether man                           wise grace is no longer grace.3
the password.'  U And, at least for        must merit something in order to
the moment, we will let that go as         receive the blessings of the cov-                    And it was that with which Rev.
well.                                      enant, but simply whether there are                  Hoeksema and the  Declaration of
   It is in his third proposition          certain things which man must do,                    Principks  was concerned. Is the
that Schilder' finally gets to the real    certain  conditions  he must meet, be-               covenant of grace completely God's
point  - or nearly so,  "c. By condi-      fore the grace of the covenant is                    work, or partially man's? And are
tion  do you mean something we             realized in his life; or, to put it in               the works of man within it condi-
have to fulfill, in order to  merit        Hoeksema's terms, is faith a means                   tions he must meet, or are they
something? Then we say uncondi-            used by God to bring His children                    means given by God to bring His
tionally: `unconditional is the pass-      into covenant relationship with                      people into a living relation of
word!"' And with his commentary            Himself? That was the heart of the                   friendship with Him?
he explains:                               w h o l e   m a t t e r , a n d   a d r o i t l y        For so many years Hoeksema
                                           Schilder, by throwing in a few ex-                   had tried to bring about an oppor-
  c. Since it all happens freely, merit    tra words which were extraneous                      tunity to sit down and discuss this
  is completely out of the picture.        to the real issue, had sidestepped                   matter with Schilder and, if it
  It wasn't there in Paradise and af-      the problem, forcing Hoeksema, by                    might be, with his colleagues, as
  ter that even less. It is actually       way of default, to lay down what                     one can almost feel in his brief re-
  foolish in this connection to think
  in terms of more or less; earning        he considered the real definition of                 ply to what Schilder was writing:
  anything is principally excluded,        what a condition is, which he did
  also with Adam, the inhabitant of        in these words: "A condition is a                      "0, how sorry I am, that all these
  Paradise, who was righteous be-          prerequisite which one must fulfill                    things were not discussed between
  fore God. Faith is therefore no          or comply with in order to receive                     us as deputies for correspondence,
  merit and faith is never a ground        something or have something done                       rather than to confer, behind our
  for salvation and neither is repen-      unto  him."2 But it was a defini-                      back, with the Revs. De Jong and
  tance.                                                                                          Kok, who were not authorized,
                                           tion, the discussion of which was                      neither, judging from the letter of
                                           never met.
    And with that, for us, the dis-                                                               Prof. Holwerda, capable to speak
                                                              - - - - - -                         for our churches! . .."4
appointment sets in.          Here he           What was being dealt with was
comes to the heart of the whole            not just a fine point of theological                 But in the providence of God it was
controversy-and he sidesteps it.           distinction, or a mere matter of                     never to be.  0
One can feel Hoeksema's frustra-           proper terminology; it had to do
tion as well, when his first response      with the very dynamics of the sal-
to this whole series of questions          vation with which God brings His
was, "But I want to add one more           people into the covenant of grace.
proposition. It is similar to C with            Herman Bavinck put the issue                    1 Standard Bearer, Vol. 27, p. 222.
this difference that I want to stop        in this way:                                         2 Ibid., p. 222.
at `fulfill' and omit `to merit some-                                                           3 Bavinck, Herman,  Our Reasonable
thing.' The proposition then reads:          After all, when the covenant of                    Faith,  Eerdmans, p. 272
`We do not believe in conditions             grace is separated from election,                  4 Ibid., p. 221.

                                                                                                       October  1,1998/Standard   Bearer/l5


                 State Supreme Court Approves
                              Vouchers for Religious
                                             Private Schools

                        The [Milwaukee voucher] program does not involve the state in any way
                        with the school's governance, curriculum, or day-to-day affairs. The state's
                        regulation of participating private schools, while designed to insure that
                        the program's educational purposes are fulfilled, does not approach the
                        level of constitutionally impermissible involvement.
                                         Supreme Court of Wisconsin, Majority Opinion (June  10,1998).


E                                                800 students from low-income             dated notion of a "wall of separa-
       arly this summer, the Wis-                families to escape the embattled         tion between church and state."
       consin Supreme Court gave                 Milwaukee public school system           But, on appeal, the Wisconsin Su-
       the school voucher move-                  and attend "nonsectarian" (nonre-        preme Court overruled the lower
ment its most significant legal vic-             ligious) private schools using a         courts, holding that the Milwaukee
tory. In a landmark 4-2 decision,                state funded tuition voucher.            voucher program was constitu-
Wisconsin's highest court surpris-                   The original MPCP survived a         tional, notwithstanding the use of
ingly ruled that the controversial               number of legal hurdles, but in          public funds by religious schools.
Milwaukee Parental Choice Pro-                   1995 the legislature incensed choice     Reviewing U.S. Supreme Court
gram  (MPCP) passed constitutional               opponents by raising to 15,000 the       church/state cases, the court noted
muster. School choice advocates                  number of eligible low income stu-       that the appropriate standard was
called it a watershed decision in the            dents, and, more importantly, re-        the three-prong test enunciated
now bitter national debate over                  moved the limitation that the par-       years ago by the Supreme Court in
state voucher funds paid to private              ticipating private schools be "non-      the case of  Lemon  v.  Kurtzman:  (1)
schools.         Opponents, including            sectarian," thus allowing parents to     does the challenged law have a
People for the American Way, an-                 choose to place their children in        secular legislative purpose;  (2) does
nounced plans to appeal the deci-                Catholic, Lutheran, and Jewish           its principal or primary effect nei-
sion immediately to the U.S. Su-                 schools. MPCP detractors imme-           ther advance nor inhibit religion;
preme Court.                                     diately challenged the amended           and (3) does it create excessive en-
                                                 program, angrily insisting that tu-      tanglement between government
The Milwaukee Program                            ition vouchers ($2,500 per student)      and religion.
    The experimental Milwaukee                   payable to private religious schools
school choice program was origi-                 was a crass violation of the First       First Prong - Secular Purpose
nally adopted by the Wisconsin                   Amendment prohibiting "establish-            The court quickly found that
legislature in 1989 to allow some                ment of religion."                       the amended MPCP satisfied this
                                                                                          part of the three-prong  Lemon  test.
                                                 The Lemon Test
                                                     The trial court and the state ap-      The [secular] purpose of the
                                                 pellate court both earlier declared        MPCJ?  program is to provide low-
MY. Lanfing, a member  of  South Holland         that the amended MPCP was a vio-           income parents with an opportu-
Protestant Reformed Church, is a practic-                                                   nity to have their children  edu-
ing attorney.                                    lation of the constitutionally man-

1  G/Standard  Bearer/October  1,199s


  cated  outside the embattled Mil-        of the necessary and intervening          Comments
  waukee Public School System.             choice of individual parents."                Because the Wisconsin Su-
  "...State's efforts to assist parents                                              preme Court is the highest court
  in meeting the rising costs of edu-      Third Prong - Excessive
  cational expenses plainly serves                                                   ever to uphold religious school
  this secular purpose of ensuring         Government Entanglement                   vouchers, the ruling will undoubt-
  that the State's citizenry is  well-         Finally, the court faced the          edly give the school choice move-
  educated."                               third element of the  Lemon  test:        ment new momentum, although
                                           whether the amended MPCP                  the opponents of the use of state
Second Prong - Primary Effect              would result in excessive govern-         funds for tuition at private and pa-
of Advancing Religion                      mental entanglement with religion.        rochial schools are apparently de-
    The court admitted that analy-         The court noted that although the         termined to appeal this controver-
sis of the second prong of the             participating sectarian schools           sial decision to the U.S. Supreme
Lemon  test  - does the law's pri-         would be subject to "performance,         Court. Perhaps the central issue
mary effect either advance or pro-         reporting, and auditing require-          of contention will be the "entangle-
hibit religion?  - was more diffi-         ments," together "with nondis-            ment" prohibition. Although the
cult. Acknowledging the requisite          crimination, health and safety ob-        Wisconsin court held that the state
"wall of separation between church         ligations," these oversight activities    will not be involved "in any way"
and state," the court nonetheless          were not a "comprehensive, dis-           with the recipient schools' "gover-
quoted a former U.S. Supreme               criminating, and continuing state         nance, curriculum or day-to-day
Court decision cautioning that in          surveillance" which would consti-         affairs," the fact remains that the
maintaining this wall of separation,       tute constitutionally impermissible       participating religious schools will
courts must be sure "they do not           involvement.     The program, de-         be subject to certain "performance,
inadvertently prohibit the govern-         clared the court, does not involve        reporting and auditing require-
ment from extending its general            the state in any way with the reli-       ments," as well as federal nondis-
law benefits to all its citizens with-     gious school's governance, curricu-       crimination laws. Although the
out regard to their religious belief."     lum, or day-to-day affairs:               court dismissed this state oversight
    Carefully reviewing numerous                                                     as "minimal," many questions re-
Supreme Court decisions that held            Routine regulatory interaction          main as to whether this kind of
that the Establishment Clause is not         which involves no inquiries into        obligatory state surveillance will be
violated when the government of-             religious doctrine, no delegation       fatal to the voucher program in
fers a "neutral service" that is "in         of state power to a religious body,     Wisconsin and similar experimen-
                                             and no detailed monitoring and
no way skewed towards religion,"             close administrative contact be-        tal programs in other states.
the Wisconsin court held that "edu-          tween secular and religious bod-            Historically, governmental
cational assistance programs" do             ies, does not of itself violate the     oversight and intrusion have al-
not run afoul of the Constitution if         nonentanglement command.                ways followed governmental fund-
those programs provide public aid                                                    ing, and it is difficult to envision
to  both  sectarian and non-sectarian      Other Objections                          why such entanglement will not ac-
schools (a) on the basis of neutral,           The court also rejected other         company tuition vouchers. This
secular criteria that neither favor        challenges to the amended MPCP,           unavoidable consequence should
nor disfavor religion, and  (b) only       holding that it was not an "aban-         be deplored not only by church/
as a result of numerous private            donment of the public school sys-         state separatists, but also by par-
choices of the individual parents of       tem" and was still experimental in        ents and teachers in the Christian
school-age children.                       nature since it continues to allow        dayschool tradition who are under-
    Since the  MPCJ?  gives partici-       the state to "measure the effects of      standably wary of state oversight
pating parents the choice of send-         choice and competition on educa-          of private parental Christian
ing their children to a neighbor-          tion." Finally, the court brushed         schools. Health and safety regula-
hood public school, a private non-         aside arguments that the tuition          tions are perhaps unavoidable, but
sectarian school, or a private reli-       subsidy program violated the Wis-         state interference in admissions,
gious school, the program neither          consin Constitution, holding that         curriculum, and financial issues of-
"favors nor disfavors" religion.           public funds may be placed at the         ten sound the death knell for pa-
Secondly, because the amended              disposal of parents so long as the        rental schools. For many reasons,
MPCP provided monetary aid by              program on its face is neutral be-        Reformed Christian parents should
individual tuition reimbursement           tween sectarian and nonsectarian          carefully monitor the tuition
checks payable to the  pauents,  the       alternatives and the transmission of      voucher battle in the coming
court found that "not one cent" of         the public funds is "guided by the        months and years.  Ll
state aid ultimately flows to the re-      independent decision of third par-
ligious schools "except as a result        ties (the parents)."

                                                                                           October 1, 1998/Standard  Bearer/77


                               The Secret of the Fruit of the Vine (II)
                                           "Much Fruit"
                                                       (John 15)

L                                               lieves, and has proven it in his ser-                  fruit. It is fruit which comes out
       ast time we addressed the                mons, that New Age thinking is                         of the doctrine fruit. Fruit which,
       subject of "doctrine fruit."             Reformed thinking which has fi-                        together with doctrine-fruit, comes
       This fruit is either absent              nally, after all these centuries, ar-                  out of the vine. This much more
from many so-called Christian and               rived at theological maturity.. . .                    fruit, and the Vine Himself, is the
church vines, or hanging there, al-             Haven't you come to see this yet?                      focus of our study today.        As we
together rotten-doctrine which                  This is the New Age of Enlighten-                      enter into this, think on Jesus'
gathers flies.                                  ment!"                                                 words: I am the vine, ye are the
    Lest you think this writer is de-               Need I say more?                                   branches: He that abideth in me,
claring doctrinal doomsday when                     But on to another subject.. . .                    and I in him, the same bringeth
in actuality this year and the last                 T r u e   b e l i e v e r s ,   a n d   t r u e    forth much fruit: for without me
decades will be known by connois-               churches, will bear doctrine fruit.                    ye can do nothing. Herein is my
seurs and historians as vintage                 Sound doctrine. Much doctrine.                         Father glorified, that ye bear much
years of truth, allow just one ex-              Doctrine which is the revealed                         f r u i t ;   s o    shall ye be my
ample. A preacher I know was                    truth of the Bible. There will also                    disciples"(John 15: 5,8)!
confronted after a worship service              be other fruit. Much more other
recently by a person who happened
to be visiting that morning, and
who took offense at the preacher's
message. In the sermon the New
Age movement was condemned.
The offended party condemned the
condemnation with words some-
thing like this addressed to the
minister:                                       1. The nature and manifestation                        role? What is the role of the Son?
    "Your understanding of the Re-              of the fruit of believers.                             What is the role of the Holy Spirit?
formed faith is so outdated. No                     List the various fruits men-                       There is something about the hu-
really intelligent person would sub-            tioned in John 15 (don't miss joy,                     man race which makes the hus-
scribe to those ideas anymore. Our              v. 11; prayer, v. 16; and witness-                     bandry of God necessary for any-
minister has often said that the                ing, v.  27!). Find at least ten other                 one to produce fruit. This "some-
more in depth he studies the New                fruits of the Spirit of which the                      thing" is called "total depravity."
Age ideas the less difference he                Bible speaks. What kind of fruit is                    What is this doctrine, and what are
sees between them and the Re-                   this? Do all Christians bear all the                   some texts which teach it? What is
formed faith. In fact, he firmly  be-           fruit of the Spirit?                                   there about a person's lineage, and
                                                                                                       what is true about Adam, which
                                                2. The source of good fruit                            explains our natural fruitlessness,
                                                    Show from John 15 and else-                        our depravity?         Proof? Is it cor-
                                                where how the triune God is the                        rect to say that an unregenerated,
Rev. Dick is pastor                             Author of the good fruit in the lives
                        of  Grace Protestant                                                           unbelieving person, though he may
Reformed Church in Standale, Michigan.          of His people. What is the Father's                    not be able to do a spiritually good

7fQStandard  Bearer/October  1,199s


work, yet can do some good in the        does this by "purging" certain             whacked at by the brutish. For the
eyes of God? Why or why not (cf.         branches, and by "casting forth"           wicked recognize, in the fruit of the
Rom.  14:23; Heb.  11:6; Canons III/     others (John  15:2, 6). What is this       church, the virtue and presence of
IV,  4)?                                 purging and casting forth? Does            the Son of God whom they con-
                                         this passage teach that there is a         tinue to hate. In order to ensure
3. The way fruit is produced.            possibility that true believers will       the comfort of His body Jesus sends
        From one very important point    fall out of Christ, out of salvation?      the Comforter, the Holy Spirit.
of view good fruit in God's people       Why or why not, in light of Scrip-         How, according to John  15:26, 27,
is an absolute given. They produce       ture?    Have- you been purged             does the Holy Spirit comfort?
fruit necessarily, just because they     lately? Are you being purged
are in the Vine, Jesus Christ. It is     now? How does God do this?                 6. The purpose of fruit.
impossible that they do not, for                                                        What does John  15:8 say is the
they are a work of God. What do          4. Strange fruit.                          purpose of fruit-bearing? What do
Psalm  130:4, John  15:16, Romans 6,         By "strange fruit" I refer to per-     Matthew  5:16 and I Peter  2:9 say
Ephesians  1:3, 4, and the Heidel-       secution. Jesus speaks of this in          about this?
berg Catechism, Lord's Day 32            John  15:18ff. Such fruit is not, of
teach regarding this?                    course, something the disciples            7. Perspective: John  20:31.
        At the same time that we say     themselves bear. Rather, persecu-              The secret of the fruit is the se-
that fruit is a given we must be         tion is something that "crops up"          cret of the vine, Jesus the Christ.
clear that God produces fruit in our     as a result of believers' bearing          When Jesus reveals Himself as the
lives not in a mechanical way, but       good fruit. It is the unbelieving          vine (John 15:lff)! He utters the last
in a living, personal way, in and        world's throwing rotten tomatoes           of the "I Am" statements in John.
through our persons. God does not        (and worse!) at a good act. Why?           (The others are found in the fol-
work fruit in us as if we were ma-       What is there in the believer that         lowing passages:  6:35;  8:12;  10:9,
chines-as if He pours in the gas         occasions the wicked world's               11;  11:25;  14:6.) How is Jesus' state-
and starts our engine and away we        wrath? Find several passages in            ment "I Am the Vine" further rev-
go! Rather, He works in us a re-         the psalms in which the psalmists          elation of Himself as the Son of
sponse which is a decidedly human        speak of this persecution.       How       God our Savior?
reaction, a moral reaction, a will-      do the psalmists react to it? Some             This revelation of the Vine and
ing and thinking and heart activ-        of the psalms are  "imprecatory"-          the fruit of the Vine is written so
ity.      He works in our heart, and     in them the psalmist calls down the        that we might believe on the Lord
through our person, and that, to in-     wrath of  -God upon His enemies            Jesus and have life through His
volve us in the fruit-bearing. That      (e.g., Ps.  69:22-25).  Would this be      name. Certainly this is written so
is why Jesus can say we bear fruit,      proper for us? What does the in-           that we might have abundant life,
and even much fruit (John  15:8)!        spired John say in John 15, and            bear more (and more) fruit (John
Reflect in this connection on the re-    what do the following passages say         15:2), and much fruit (John  15:8),
lation between the sovereignty of        about the fact of persecution for the      and that our fruit might remain
God and the responsibility of man,       believer: II Corinthians  11:23-27;        (abide: John  15:16). Do you bear
or the two "parts" of the covenant       Philippians  1:29; II Timothy  3:12?       much fruit? During what seasons
of grace. How does Philippians           How can James say we ought to              are we supposed to be fruitful?
2:12,13 bear on this?                    rejoice in the various trials, which       How might we be more produc-
        The God who works necessar-      would include persecutions which           tive? How do we measure, and
ily and personally to produce fruit      come upon us (James  1:2ff.;  cf.          ought we to set goals for produc-
also works mediately-He uses             these references in I Pet. 1:6,7; 2:19,    tivity: as individuals, families, con-
means. As the farmer works the           20; 3:14; 4:13, 14)?                       gregations, denominations? Three
soil and uses fertilizer, tractors,                                                 kind words a day? More time with
trellises, and whatnot to produce        5. Comfort for heavy-laden                 the children?      Twenty-five new
fruit, so God uses various means         battered branches.                         members a year? Four hundred
to produce the spiritual crop. How           Both fruit-bearing and the fruit       thousand by the year  2000? 0
do John 15 and the rest of Scrip-        of persecution are reminders to the
ture show how the following are          church of its connection with
means God uses to produce fruit:         Christ. Christ bears fruit, Christ
faith; preaching; chastising; our        was persecuted, and therefore His
abiding in Christ; doctrine? Other       people, His body, His branches
means?                                   shall blossom and be heavy-laden
        God works also to produce        with good fruit. They also, be-
fruit in His church increasingly. He     cause of Christ in them, shall be

                                                                                           October 1,1998/Standard  Bearer/79


                                                glittering panoply of supernovas.      many scientists, further proves the
                                                Among them: why is there some-         existence of some divine being:
"Science Finds God"                             thing rather than nothing?
(cf. Romans 1:19-21)
0                                               Sandage  began to despair of an-           Ever since Isaac Newton, science
         ne's attention is immedi-              swering such questions through          has blared a clear message: the
         ately caught by the cover              reason alone, and so, at 50, he         world follows rules, rules that are
         of one of the national news            willed himself to accept God. "It       fundamentally mathematical,
magazines,  Newsweek.  The cover                 was my science that drove me to        rules that humans can figure out.
story, July 20, 1998, is titled, "Sci-           the conclusion that the world is       Humans invent abstract math-
ence Finds God." One is amazed                   much more complicated than can         ematics, basically making it up out
                                                be explained by science," he says.
by the statement!! Science now has                                                      of their imaginations, yet math
                                                 "It is only through the supernatu-
come to the conclusion that there                                                       magically turns out to describe the
                                                 ral that I can understand the mys-     world. Greek mathematicians di-
is truly God?? We are living in an               tery of existence."                    vided the circumference of a circle
age in which, so it seemed, the ma-                                                     by its diameter, for example, and
jority of scientists simply deny the               Some of the reasons that cer-         got the number pi, 3.14159 . . . . Pi
existence of God-or else are ad-               tain scientists have concluded that       turns up in equations that describe
mitted agnostics. But now, it ap-              there is "God" and that He has cre-       sub-atomic particles, light and
pears, many scientists have come               ated all things are interesting as        other quantities that have no ob-
to the conclusion that God must ex-            well. Certain things have been            vious connections to circles. This
ist. They can find no alternatives             mentioned often in the past-which         points, says Polkinghorne, "to a
                                                                                         very deep fact about the nature of
to this conclusion. The  Newsweek              appeared to prove God's existence.        the universe," namely, that our
article contains many reasons                  But to affirm these in a national         minds, which invent mathematics,
which lead some scientists to con-             news magazine is particularly             conform to the reality of the cos-
clude that there must be God. The              striking.                                 mos. We are somehow tuned in
article is introduced by a para-                                                         to its truths. Since pure thought
graph which presents the conclu-                   Physicists have stumbled on           can penetrate the universe's mys-
sions of one astronomer:                         signs that the cosmos is custom-        teries, "this seems to be telling us
                                                 made for life and consciousness.        that something about human con-
    The more deeply scientists see               It turns out that if the constants      sciousness is harmonious with the
  into the secrets of the universe,              of nature-unchanging numbers            mind of God," says Carl Feit, a
  you'd expect, the more God would               like the strength of gravity, the       cancer biologist at Yeshiva Univer-
  fade away from their hearts and                charge of an electron and the mass      sity in New York and Talmudic
  minds. But that's not how it went              of a proton-were the tiniest bit        scholar.
  for  Allan  Sandage.  Now slightly             different, then atoms would not
  stooped and white-haired at 72,                hold together, stars would not            Another scholar points to a re-
  Sandage  has spent a professional              burn and life would never have        lated mathematical formula as
  lifetime coaxing secrets out of the            made its appearance. "When you        proof for God's existence:
  stars, peering through telescopes              realize that the laws of nature
  from Chile to California in the                must be incredibly finely tuned to        To Joel Primack, an astro-physi-
  hope of spying nothing less than               produce the universe we see,"           cist at the University of Califor-
  the origins and destiny of the uni-            says John Polkinghorne, who had         nia, Santa Cruz, "practicing sci-
  verse. As much as any other 20Lh-              a distinguished career as a physi-      ence [even] has a spiritual goal"  -
  century astronomer, Sandage  ac-               cist at Cambridge University be-        namely, providing inspiration. It
  tually figured it out: his observa-            fore becoming an Anglican priest        turns out, explains Primack, that
  tions of distant stars showed how              in 1982, "that conspires to plant       the largest size imaginable, the en-
  fast the universe is expanding and             the idea that the universe did not      tire universe, is 10 with 29 zeros
  how old it is (15 billion years or             just happen, but that there must        after it (in centimeters). The
  so). But through it all  Sandage,              be a purpose behind it." Charles        smallest size describes the sub-
  who says he was "almost a prac-                Townes, who shared the 1964             atomic world, and is 10 with 24
  ticing atheist as a boy," was                  Nobel Prize in Physics for discov-      zeros (and a decimal) in front of
  nagged by mysteries whose an-                  ering the principles of the laser,      it. Humans are right in the
  swers were not to be found in the              goes further: "Many have a feel-        middle. Does this return us to a
                                                 ing that somehow intelligence           privileged place.7 Primack does
                                                 must have been involved in the          not know, but he describes this as
                                                 laws of the universe."                  a "soul-satisfying cosmology."
Rev.  VanBaren  is pastor of the Protestanf
Reformed Church of  Loveland,  CoZo-               Mathematics, in the minds of
rado.                                                                                      Some have even discovered a

go/Standard  Bearer/October  1, 1998


kind of "providence" of God in cre-            What one must notice in an ar-        ality of the two natures of our Lord
ation!                                     ticle such as that in  Newsweek  is       Jesus Christ. The observation of
                                           that the theory of evolution is           "nature" in which the individual
    To some worshipers, a sense of         maintained.         Even the "theolo-     saw something of the wonder of
  the divine as an unseen presence         gians" who are also scientists            Christ's two natures could only be
  behind the visible world is all well     refuse to deny that. In fact, some        seen through the "spectacles" of
  and good, but what they really
  yearn for is a God who acts in the       even claim that evolution shows           Scripture. We believe and confess
  world. Some scientists  s"ee an          somewhat the very nature of God!          that Christ is fully divine and com-
  opening for this sort of God at the          These scientists who have             pletely human. It is indeed a diffi-
  level of quantum or subatomic            "found God," nevertheless refuse          cult concept for the human mind
  events. In this spooky realm, the        to believe the infallible and in-         to grasp. Yet it is essential if there
  behavior of particles is unpredict-      spired testimony of Holy Scripture.       is to be salvation from sin and de-
  able. In perhaps the most famous         The creation account, for instance,       liverance from the sentence of
  example, a radioactive element           is simply a myth to these scientists.     death. Scripture further declares
  might have a half-life of, say, one          Thirdly, these scientists who         not only that "God is light," but
  hour. It has a 50-50 chance of de-
  caying. And what if the experi-          maintain the existence of God, are        also that Christ is the Light of the
  ment is arranged so that if the          of all religions: Jewish, Christian,      world. In connection with all of
  atom does decay, it releases poi-        or Muslim-or of no religious faith.       that, I found extremely interesting
  son gas? If you have a cat in the        There is really no room in their dis-     one thought expressed in the ar-
  lab, will the cat be alive or dead       coveries for the wonder of salva-         ticle:
  after the hour is up? Physicists         tion and the heart of the gospel:
  have discovered that there is no         Christ and Him crucified.                      Take the difficult Christian con-
  way to determine, even in prin-              There is also, however, a re-           cept of Jesus as both fully divine
  ciple, what the atom would do.           minder of the fulfillment of Rev-           and fully human. It turns out that
  Some theologian-scientists see that                                                  this duality has a parallel in quan-
  decision point-will the atom de-         elation 13-the rise of the two              tum physics. In the early years of
  cay or not? Will the cat live or die?    beasts. We have presented the               this century, physicists discovered
  -as one where God can act.               probability of the joining of reli-         that entities thought of as par-
  "Quantum mechanics allows us to          gion and science. This is not on            ticles, like electrons, can also act
  think of special divine action,"         the basis of the infallible Word of         as waves. And light, considered
  says Russell. Even better, since         God, but rather on the conclusions          a wave, can in some experiments
  few scientists abide miracles, God       of scientists who have "discovered"         act like a barrage of particles. The
  can act without violating the laws       God in their scientific studies.            orthodox interpretation of this
  of physics.                                                                          strange situation is that light  is,
    An even newer science, chaos               For other believers, an apprecia-       simultaneously, wave and particle.
  theory, describes phenomena like           tion of science deepens faith. "Sci-      Electrons aye, simultaneously,
  the weather and some chemical re-          ence produces in me a tremendous          waves and particles. Which as-
  actions whose exact outcomes can-          awe,"                                     pect of light one sees, which face
  not be predicted. It could be, says                 says Sister Mary White of
                                             the Benedictine Meditation Center         an electron turns to a human ob-
  Polkinghorne, that God selects             in St. Paul, Minn.                        server, varies with the circum-
  which possibility becomes reality.                               "Science and
                                             spirituality have a common quest,         stances. So, too, with Jesus, sug-
  This divine action would not vio-          which is a quest for truth." And          gests physicist F. Russell Stannard
  late physical laws either.                 if science has not yet influenced         of England's Open University.
                                             religious thought and practice at         Jesus is not to be seen as  really
    One is possibly surprised that           the grass-roots level very much,          God in human guise, or as really
science has now "found God."                 just wait, says Ted Peters of CTNS.       human but acting divine, says
Striking that this is so today after         Much as feminism- sneaked up on           Stannard: "He was fully both."
several generations of scientists            churches and is now shaping the           Finding these parallels may make
have simply ruled out the existence          liturgy, he predicts, "in 10 years        some         people       feel,    says
                                                                                       Polkinghorne, "that this is not just
of God out-of-hand. Yet, is not this         science will be a major factor in         some deeply weird Christian
exactly that of which Paul speaks            how many ordinary religious
                                             people think."                            idea."
in Romans  1:20, "For the invisible
things of him from the creation of             Not only is this forecast likely          Obviously, those of other reli-
the world are clearly seen, being          true, but already it is evident in        gions would not concede this rela-
understood by the things that are          churches of every sort-including          tionship. Nevertheless, it is im-
made, even his eternal power and           many Reformed churches.                   pressive: Jesus is the Light of the
Godhead; so that they are without              There was, I thought, one other       world. Light itself is created to re-
excuse."     The  Newsweek  article        extremely interesting comment in          flect the truth that God is  Light and
clearly confirms this.                     the article. This dealt with the re-      Christ is the Light of the world. Cl

                                                                                               October I, 1998/Standard  Bearer/Z1


              September 2 and  3,1998                    Committees of pre-advice met         pointed the consistory of Loveland
                in Loveland, Colorado                the rest of the day on Wednesday,        to investigate the case and to work
                                                     to formulate advice for  classis  to     with Rev. Smith toward the re-
The March meeting of Classis consider Thursday.                                               moval of all offenses, also deter-
        West was held in Loveland,                       On Thursday,  classis faced sev-     mining to what extent he seeks to
Colorado on Wednesday and                            eral important issues. Two disci-        be reconciled to the PRC. Love-
Thursday, September 2 and 3.                         plines cases were carefully consid-      land's consistory was instructed to
Rev. Richard Moore (Hull, IA) pro-                   ered in closed session, one of which     report with advice to the next
vided able leadership to the  classis                was there by appeal of a member          classis.
as the chairman of this session.                     under discipline. In the case in-            Finally,  classis gave consider-
        The delegates of  Classis West               volving the appeal,  classis upheld      ation to an overture from  Edgerton
gathered already Tuesday evening,                    the decisions of the consistory, rec-    PRC which seeks several changes
together with the congregation of                    ognizing their long, patient labors      in the Church Order.  Classis will
Loveland Protestant Reformed                         in the case, and rejected the appeal,    send the overture on to synod 1999,
Church, in a special worship ser-                    exhorting the appellant to heed the      having expressed approval of some
vice which was conducted by Pas-                     call to turn from sin.  Classis also     of the changes, and disapproval of
tor-elect Daniel Kleyn of Edgerton,                  gave careful pastoral instruction in     others.
Minnesota. The sermon he deliv-                      the case, in an attempt to help the          We may thank God that the
ered was part of his classical ex-                   appellant see the urgency of deal-       meetings showed a good spirit of
amination. The meeting of  classis                   ing with the problem which is the        unity and peace throughout, as
on Wednesday was given to the ex-                    cause of the discipline. In the other    well as much pastoral care in the
amination of Pastor-elect Kleyn.                     case, approval was given for the         deliberations concerning discipline.
With gratitude to God we may re-                     consistory involved to proceed in        With advice carefully formulated
port that Mr. Kleyn passed his ex-                   discipline, even to the last remedy,     by the various sub-committees, and
tensive examination for the office                   if necessary.                            oneness of mind in the matters de-
of the ministry, and that the                            Classis also with gratitude to       liberated,  classis  was able to finish
Edgerton PRC was instructed to                       God received a letter from Rev. Jon      a rather lengthy agenda by 2:00 on
proceed to his ordination and in-                    Smith, in which he expressed a de-       Thursday.
stallation into the office of the min-               sire to be reconciled with our               The March 1999 meeting is
istry of the Word and sacraments.                    churches, having left several years      scheduled to be held in Redlands,
That installation has since taken                    ago in an improper manner. Be-           California.
place, and Pastor Kleyn has taken                    cause Trinity PRC, Houston, from                          Rev. Steven R. Key,
up his labors in Edgerton PRC.                       which congregation Rev. Smith left,                               Stated Clerk
                                                     is now disbanded,  Classis  ap-




Congregation Activities                                  Now, thankfully, all of that ap-
F                                                                                             they look forward to the actual con-
    or over five months the congre-                  pears to be behind them, since fi-       struction of a sanctuary for wor-
    gation of the Bethel PRC in                      nally in late August they were           ship.
Itasca, IL has waited patiently for                  granted their much sought after              In other church building news,
various governing bodies in Cook                     building permit, for which we give       we can report that work at the
County, IL including the highway                     God thanks. Actual construction          church site of our Georgetown PRC
department and the Army Corps                        at Bethel got under way about a          in Hudsonville, MI continues.
of Engineers, to grant their ap-                     week later, with footings for the        Writing this in early September, we
proval to Bethel's building plans                    walls going in as well as a tempo-       can tell you that Georgetown ap-
and issue a building permit.                         rary driveway.                           pears to mirror the pace of Bethel.
                                                         To mark that milestone in            Presently, the footings are all in,
                                                     Bethel's ten-year history, the occa-     which gives a good idea of the
Mr.' Wigger is an elder in the                       sion was marked with an official
                                       Protestant                                             overall outline and size of the
Reformed Church  of  Hudsonviile,  Michi-            ground-breaking celebration on           building. And we also noticed,
gan.                                                 August 31.  In- the coming weeks         near the building site, stacks of  ce-

22/Standard  Bearer/October  1.1998


ment blocks, which by now are            formed faith were prominently dis-              eleventh pastor of our Edgerton,
probably part of the building.           played before the eyes of many.                 MN PRC. We can only stand in
   The next time any of you visit                                                        amazement at this great blessing.
our Randolph, WI PRC expect to           School Activities                               We give thanks to God for His pro-
see something different, since they                                                      vision of another servant to labor
recently voted to make some              0 ur Hope Christian School in
                                              Redlands, CA recently com-                 in His vineyard among us.
changes and improvements to their        pleted a building project which                     Some in our denomination
building and grounds. First,  ~they      added a separate building consist-              were able to attend the recent con-
voted to expand and pave their           ing of two new classrooms and                   ference in Northern Ireland spon-
parking lot with asphalt and sur-        bathrooms. The project was com-                 sored by the British Reformed Fel-
round it with some new sidewalk.         pleted in mid-August, with final in-            lowship.        The conference dealt
Second, they decided to replace the      spection done on August 20, which               with the theme of Eschatology, or
carpeting in their narthex and sanc-     meant that Hope's teachers could                the last times. Profs. D. Engelsma
tuary and add a row of pews. Fi-         finally get into their rooms to be-             and H. Hanko were the principal
nally, they replaced the north door      gin preparations for the school year            speakers. The conference was held
of their church building.                which began some ten days later.                at Castlewellan, Northern Ireland,
    The consistory of the First PRC      So the new building was completed               and according to those who went
in Holland, MI recently reviewed         just in time.                                   from my church, it was very worth-
their decision not to place Bibles                                                       while, with over 100 in attendance,
in the chairs of their new church        Denomination Activities                         both from this country and from
sanctuary. They realized the prac-                                                       various places in the United King-
tical difficulties this created for      At the meeting of Classis West
                                              on September 2, Pastor-elect               dom.
their congregation and for visitors      Daniel Kleyn was examined and
as well. Therefore, beginning Au-        approved for ordination as a min-               Food For Thought
gust 8, Bibles were once again           ister of the Word and sacraments                    "It is more necessary for us that
found under the chairs in First's        in our churches. Friday evening,                we should make a discovery of
sanctuary. However, the elders           September 4, he was ordained into               our faults than of our virtues."
still believe the practice of taking     the ministry and installed as the                                   - C . H .   Spurgeon   0.
one's own KJV Bible to a worship
service is a sound one, and encour-
age their congregation to continue
this practice begun when First was
between church homes and wor-
shiping in a school.
    First also recently invited their
congregation to keep abreast of
current events and trends in the              RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                     YEARBOOK
church world by checking out the             The congregation and council of                             CHANGES:
selection of periodicals and maga-       Grandville Protestant Reformed Church                   (Back of Acts of Synod, 1998)
zines their pastor, Rev. C. Terpstra,    express their sincerest sympathy to our             Please add a telephone number for
leaves in their church library for       members, Mr. and Mrs. Jon Huisken, Mr.          First PRC (Holland): (616) 748-7645.
them to browse through, take             and Mrs. Jack VanDyke, Mr. and Mrs. Jim             Rev. Mahtani's address in Pittsburgh
home, and read.                          VanDyke, and Mr. and Mrs. David                 is: 216 Thornberry Dr., Pittsburgh, PA
                                         VanOverloop  and families, in the loss of       15235; Phone: (412) 371-2277 and study:
Evangelism Activities                    Joanne Huisken's and Elaine VanDyke's           (412) 371-2249.
After a one-year absence, the mother, and Jim VanDyke's and Julie                            Mrs. Roberta Harbach's address
     Evangelism Committee of the         VanOverloop's  grandmother,                     should be: 1035 Village Lane, Jenison,
Hudsonville, MI PRC once again                      FLORA VELDMAN.                       Ml 49428. Her telephone number is:
sponsored a booth at the week-long       May our gracious God comfort them by            (616)  667-0847.
Hudsonville Fair in late August.         His Word, "And I heard a voice from                 Bulletin Clerk of Georgetown: New
Hundreds of fair-goers passed by         heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed           address: 1015 Elmwood Dr. in Jenison.
their booth. Some  stopped and           are the dead which die in the Lord from              The new clerk for Edgerton  PRC is:
said hello, some also stopped and        henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they                 Mr. Allen Brummel
browsed through the large assort-        may rest from their labors; and their works                     P.O. Box 446
ment of pamphlets and books dis-         do follow them" (Revelation  14:13).                        Edgerton  MN 56128
played. But, more importantly, the                    Rev. A. Spriensma, President                  Phone: (507) 442-5931
truth of the gospel and our Re-                           Mr. David Harbach, Clerk

                                                                                                  October 1,1998/Standard Bearer/23


    Barer                                                                                                                            PERIODICAL
                                                                                                                                     Postage Paid at
     P.O. Box 603                                                                                                                    Grandville,
     Grandville, MI  49468:0603                                                                                                      Michigan


               CONGRATULATIONS!                                                                                         RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
           Rev. Meindert Joostens has, by God's                                                                    The Adult Bible Society of Grace PRC
  grace, completed twenty-five years in the                                                                   of Standale, Ml extend their Christian sym-
  ministry of the gospel. The Congregation                    WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                             pathy to Mart and Ann Daling in the death
  of Lynden PRC extends congratulations                 On October  16,1998 our beloved par-                  of her mother,
  to him in observing this milestone and, in        ents and grandparents,                                                MRS. JANICE TOLSMA.
  particular, gives thanks to God that three           GORDON and EILEEN TERPSTRA,                                 We pray that they may find comfort
  years of that ministry have now been given        will celebrate their  45th wedding anniver-               in God's precious Word. "Verily, verily, I
  to us.                                            sary. We express our hearty congratula-                   say unto you, He that heareth my word,
           "How beautiful are the feet of them      tions to them and give thanks to our faith-               and believeth on him that sent me, hath
  that preach the gospel of peace, and bring        ful, covenant Father for their enduring mar-              everlasting life, and shall not come into
  glad tidings of good things" (Romans              riage and for their godly example and guid-               condemnation; but is passed from death
10:15).                                             ance. Our prayer is that God will con-                    unto life" (John 5:24).
           May God richly bless Rev. Joostens       tinue to bless and keep them in the days                                      Rev. Mitchell Dick, Pres.
  in the remaining years of his ministry.           ahead.                                                                  Mrs. Clara VanDenTop,  Secy.
               Congregation of the Lynden PRC            "But the mercy of the LORD  is from
                                                    everlasting to everlasting upon them that                           RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
            RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                  fear him, and his righteousness unto                           The congregation and council of
           The council and congregation of the      children's children; To such as keep his                  Grandville Protestant Reformed Church
  Southwest Protestant Reformed Church              covenant, and to those that remember his                  express their sincerest sympathy to our
  extend their Christian sympathy to the chil-      commandments to do them" (Psalm                           fellow members, Mr. and Mrs. Bernie
  dren, grandchildren, and relatives of             103:17,  18).                                             Kamps and Mr. and Mrs. Titus Kamps, in
              MRS. FLORA VELDMAN                    + Suzanne Looyenga                                        the loss of Bernie Kamps' sister-in-law,
  in her passing to glory. Mrs. Veldman                       Jim and  Lisabeth Verhey, Brendan,                                LISA KAMPS.
  was the widow of the late Rev. Herman                       Brianna, Caitlin, Meghan,  Drew                      May our gracious God comfort them
  Veldman and not only served as his faith-         + Tom and Luanne Schipper                                 by His Word. "The Lord is my rock, and
  ful helpmeet, but also taught for many                      Jason, Dirk, Nicole, Andrew, Betsy              my fortress, and my deliverer; my God,
  years in our Christian schools. May the           l > Rev. Charles and Verna Terpstra                       my strength, in whom I will trust" (Psalm
  bereaved family be comforted with the as-                   Corey, Amber, Kimberly,                         18:2).
  surance of God's Word in Psalm 116:15,                      Thad, Kyle, Justin                                             Rev. A. Spriensma, President
  "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the         + Todd and Val Terpstra                                                       Mr. David Harbach, Clerk
  death of his saints."                                       Gordon, Jillian, Ian, Madelyn
                    Rev. Ron Cammenga, Pres.        +Z+ Jeff and Kathy Terpstra                                                  LECTURE
                           Darrel Huisken, Clerk              Lindsey, Kelsey, Michael, Melanie                    The Evangelism Society of the Cov-
                                                                                    Grand Rapids, Michigan    enant Protestant Reformed Church is
            RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                                                            sponsoring the lecture "Jesus Christ: Vic-
           The council and congregation of First                                                              tor over Hell" to be held Friday, October
  Protestant Reformed Church of Holland                                                                       16, 1998, at 8:00 p.m. in Covenant PRC.
  express their sincere sympathy to Mrs.                                                                      The speaker will be Rev. Martin
  Joan Mass in the death of her husband,                                                                      VanderWal,  pastor of Covenant PRC This
                 MR. PETER MASS.                                                                              lecture is the third and last in a series
  May she be comforted by the words writ-                                                                     based on Matthew 16:18.  The lecture will
  ten by the prophet Nahum, "The Lord is                                                                      be followed by discussion and refresh-
  good, a strong hold in the day of trouble;                                                                  ments. The public is cordially invited to
  and he knoweth them that trust in him"                                                                      attend. The church is located at 283
  (1:7).                                                                                                      Squawbrook Rd., Wyckoff, NJ 07481. For
               Rev. Charles Terpstra, President                                                               more information and directions, call the
                         John VanUffelen, Clerk                                                               church at (201) 891-0902, or visit our
                                                                                                              website  at http://www.covprc.org.

  24/Standard  Bearer/October 1, 7998


