Magazine


                                                                                 In This Issue:
                     Meditation  - Rev, Cornelius  Hanko
                              All to God's Glory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
                     Editorially Speaking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .77
                     Editorial  - Prof. David  J.  Engelsma
                               Our Seminary as Military Academy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
                     RFPA Address  -  Rev. Steven R. Key
                               Reading, Writing, and Heretics (2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
                     Marking Zion's Bulwarks  - Prof. Herman C.  Hanko
                               Arius and the Council of Nicea (2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
                     Go Ye Into All the World  - Rev. Jason L. Kortering
                               Brethren, Pray For Us . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..*...... 85
                     A Word Fitly Spoken  - Rev. Dale H. Kuiper
                               Ransom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .88
                     That They May Teach Their Children  - Miss Agatha Lubbers
                               Establishing Schools to Provide
                                    Reformed-Covenant Education (1) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
                     All Around Us - Rev. Gise VanBaren . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ~ . . . . . ..92
                     Book Reviews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .94
                     News From Our Churches  - Mr. Benjamin Wigger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94




Vol.
November 15, 1998


                                                 All to God's Glory

                                           Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the
                                           glory of God.
                                                                                                                           - I Corinthians  lo:31


T                                                                       A few days later he asked the                                people of Israel drew near to Him
           here was a farmer who had                              boys at the end of the meal? "Do                                   with their mouth, and their lips
          three tall, stalwart sons who                           you want to pray?" Again the re-                                   honored Him, but their heart was
          worked with him on the                                  sponse was, "Of course, we always                                  far removed from Him.
farm. Since the farm was large and                                do." The father asked: "Is that                                             This resulted in a dead formal-
had considerable livestock, all four                              your only reason? Then we won't                                    ism. Israel made law upon law,
men kept busy working at home.                                    pray. We should not pray merely                                    precept upon precept, here a little
They ate their main meal at noon.                                 out of custom." With that he got                                   and there a little, but it became a
According to custom they always                                   up and left the table.                                             mere mouth and lip worship. They
prayed before and after their meals                                     This went on for a short time,                               went through the motions like
and also read the Bible.                                          and then the father said to the boys:                              counting beads or making a certain
       One day the father asked the                               "Do you realize that we are just                                   number of petitions.
boys at their noon meal: "Do you                                  like the heathen? We do not read                                            This dead formalism became pi-
want to read the Bible?" Of course                                the Bible or pray at meals." By that                               ous Phariseeism, like the Pharisee
they did. "We always do." But                                     time the boys were ready to agree                                  who stood in the temple and prayed
the father was not content with                                   that they needed prayer and also                                   thus with himself, "God, I thank
that. He insisted, "Do you feel the                               the reading of the Scriptures at                                   thee, that I am not as other men
need for reading the Bible?" To                                   regular intervals. They read the                                   are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers,
that they admitted that they felt no                              Bible with more interest and                                       or even as this publican."
particular need. So the father an-                                prayed more from the heart.                                                 God condemns that formal wor-
nounced that they would then not                                                                                                     ship most emphatically in Isaiah
read Scripture at their meals.                                                 +++  +++  +++                                         66:3: "He that killeth an ox is as if
                                                                                                                                     he slew a man; he that sacrificeth a
                                                                         Formal worship was the sin of                               lamb, as if he cut off a dog's neck;
Rev. Hanko is a minister emeritus in the                          carnal Israel in the old dispensa-                                 he that offereth an oblation, as if
Protesfant Reformed Churches.                                     tion. The Lord complained that the                                 he offered swine's blood; he that



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74/Standard  Bearer/November  15, 1998


burneth incense, as if he blessed an             we are practical deists. Deists are           The Sabbath on the first day of
idol. Yea, they have chosen their                those who stress natural laws. The       the week is a day of rest. That does
own ways,         a n d   t h e i r   s o u l    world was created to run its course      not mean that it is a day of idle-
delighteth in their abominations."               purely by natural laws.  -There  is a    ness or of resting from the strenu-
                                                 natural cause for spring, summer,        ous toil of the week of preparing
       +++  +++  +++                             fall, and winter; a natural cause for    for another week of hard work.
                                                 rain and sunshine, floods and            But it is the Lord's day, a holy day
    But how about us? How about                  droughts, heat and cold, life and        to be devoted in a special way to
a bit of self-examination? What                  death, etc. These simply happen          the service of God. That means
was my first thought when I awoke                by natural causes, but sometimes,        that we attend public worship to
this morning? Did I begin the day                when things go wrong, it is neces-       devote ourselves to God and hear
with a prayer for strength and                   sary for God to step in. Thus we         Christ speak to us by His Spirit and
guidance? Did I eat my breakfast                 can call in God when the need re-        Word through His servant, the
conscious of the fact that I was do-             quires. The rest of the time we can      minister. It means also that we
ing that to the glory of my God?                 take care of ourselves and take the      busy ourselves in serving God by
Or did I complain about the toast                credit for what we have accom-           being busy in the things of the
being too brown or the oatmeal too               plished.                                 kingdom, in fact, so busy that we
cold? Or was I in such a hurry                       How about our Sabbath wor-           have time only for necessary du-
that I really thought only of eating             ship? Do we begin the day with           ties. Thus in thankfulness we ex-
and getting on with other things?                the thought:                             perience a foretaste of the eternal
    That was only the beginning of                 How dear to me, 0 Lord of Hosts,       rest that remains for the people of
the day. Was I aware of my deep                      the place where Thou dost            God.
dependence upon God? My help-                        dwell;                                    That may require so much ac-
lessness? There are times in our                   The tabernacles of Thy grace in        tivity that it even tires us. A min-
lives when our suffering becomes                     pleasantness excel.
                                                   My spirit longs, yea, even faints,     ister, f o r   e x a m p l e ,   n o t   o n l y
so intense or our problems so                      Thy sacred courts to see;              preaches twice, but often also per-
weighty that we learn to say, not                  My  thirsting heart and flesh cry      forms pastoral duties on the Sab-
"I need Thee every hour, most                        out, 0 living God for Thee?          bath day. This may require all His
blessed Lord," but rather, "Lord, I                  Why do we attend the public          time, yet at the close of the day he
need Thee every second! Every                    worship? Is it because we were           may be called upon to spend the
move I try to make."                             brought up to go to church? Or do        late hours of the day at a deathbed
    Is that not always true? In God              we go to hear the minister, merely       and comforting the bereaved. This
we live and move and have our be-                to enjoy the sermon? We may seek         is his rest, for we rest in the Lord,
ing. We confess: Without Thee we                 to be edified and strengthened in        in the enjoyment of the blessed
,can do nothing. We actually have                the faith, but is that all? Or do we     privilege of preparing for the week
our existence in the palm of God's               go with the thought foremost in our      before us in His service.
hand, under His watchful eye, His                minds of worshiping our God?
ear always attentive to our cry. As                  Do we begin the service with a                +++  +++  +++
Asaph confesses: "Nevertheless I                 sincere prayer for a blessing that
am continually with thee: thou                   we may worship our God to His                 This is something that young
hast  holden  me by my right hand.               praise and that we may be spiritu-       people must still learn to bring into
Thou shalt guide  me- with thy                   ally edified and equipped to serve       practice in their own lives, even
counsel, and afterward receive me                Him from day to day throughout           though they have been taught it
to glory"  (I%.  72:23,24).                      the week?                                from their youth. Young men are
    We so soon forget.          That sin-            Do we indeed worship God in          strong and full of ambition. They
ful desire to be independent, to be              spirit and in truth throughout the       are quite confident of their own
able to take care of ourselves, soon             service? For example, are we sing-       abilities.     They are enthusiastic
takes over. In a doctor's office                 ing from the heart when we enter         about sports and competition.
there was a plaque on the wall that              the presence of the Lord with that       When they plan their future they
said: "God and doctors have some                 powerful: "Praise God from whom          are often thinking of some occupa-
things in common. When people                    all blessings flow"? Does that zeal      tion that will pay well and give
are well they need neither one.                  remain with us in all our singing,       them a life of leisure, rather than
When ailment strikes, both are                   in our prayers, in the giving of our     asking, "How can I best serve the
called in. But when health is re-                gifts, and the listening to what         Lord with my life?" Teachers and
stored, God is forgotten, and the                Christ says to us through the min-       ministers can often give direction
doctor's bill remains unpaid."                   ister, even to the final doxology?       in this regard to young men and
    How true it is that in our lives                                                      young women, especially when

                                                                                               November  75, 7998/Standard  Bearer/75


they recognize certain definite gifts    and his righteousness, and all these          What a blessed privilege is
and talents in them.                     (other) things shall be added unto       granted to covenant parents to re-
    Young women often dream of           you.N "For we must all appear be-        ceive and bring up children in the
marriage and a home. I once said         fore the judgment seat of Christ;        fear of the Lord. There is no higher
to a prospective bride who had her       that every man may receive the           calling on earth than that. The in-
wedding plans thought out to the         things done in the body, according       fluence of a godly parent/  or of par-
finest detail, "You must have been       to that he hath  done, whether it be     ents, extends, not only to the chil-
thinking about this since you were       good  or bad." According to the          dren, but also to the children's chil-
twelve years old." She answered          parable of the talents, we must give     dren in the generations to come.
outright: "I did."                       an account of what we have done               Whether we eat, or whether we
    Both the bridegroom and the          with all that God has entrusted to       drink, may we learn ever more  ea-
bride are so much "in love" that         us, and we will be judged  accord-       gerly to do so unto the Lord. Cl
they are interested only in the fact     ingly .
that they are getting married. Sex
often plays a big part in their be-
ing "in love." And they act and
talk as if they expect their marriage
to be one grand adventure. But
they soon must come to the real-
ization that love, true love, is lov-                          When Unto Thee We Come
ing each other in the Lord.
       444  444  444                          When unto Thee we come
                                              With heads bowed down in prayer
    But how about you and me?                 May our first impulse be
Though we may take life  jar more             To glorify Thy holy name  -         -
seriously because of the many tri-            To praise Thee for the fact that Thou art God -
als that we have experienced, can
we say with David, "I have set the            In deep humility and awe to see Thy matchless grace,
Lord always before me: because                Thy power, Thy glory, mercy, holiness, and love  -
he is at my right hand, I shall not           Thy justice, greatness, Thy long-suffering  -
be moved"? Yes, we do desire to               And  may  we grovel in the dust,
have God at our right hand, ready             Knowing our own weakness, meanness, evil lusting natures,
at all times to come to our aid in
time of need. But do we live in               Selfishness, pride, envy, laziness, deceit.
real God-consciousness? Do we                 May our prayers never be so self-centered that they are
sincerely and prayerfully ask at              A catalog of earthly desires.
each step of the way: "Lord, what             May we seek  Thee,  not self  -
wilt Thou have me do?"                        Lord, be merciful to us  - sinners!
    We are stewards in God's
house, servants of the most high              And may we leave Thy holy courts
God. We must confess: "All that I             With lighter hearts,
am I owe to Thee, Thy wisdom,                 Knowing that our Faithful Savior stands
Lord, hath fashioned me; I give my            In mediation.
Maker thankful praise,  -Whose                God's just and holy wrath is fully satisfied  -
wondrous works my soul amaze."
    We must also be fully con-                He bore the burden; set us wholly free.
scious of the fact that all that we           He even plants desire in our hearts  -
have is the Lord's, which is only             Desire to please Him.
entrusted to us as servants in His            Our filthy sinful natures, changed by love divine.
house. There is nothing of all my             We glorify Thy name!
belongings that I can lay my finger
on and say: "This is mine."                                                                         Thelma Westra
    Therefore we are to use all our
possessions and our gifts and tal-
ents in His service. Jesus  says,
"Seek ye first the kingdom of God

76/standard  Bearer/November 15, 1998


     The previous issue of this                        of "a special line item" in the an-         cially the faith and life of the Prot-
magazine (Nov.  1,1998)  contained                     nual budget.                                estant Reformed Churches and
a   c o n t r i b u t i o n   b y   M r .   P e t e       My purpose is not to comment             people.
Miedema, "The High Cost of Build-                      on the proposal but to encourage                In addition, we welcome com-
ing New Churches." The article                         such contributions on the part of           ment on such articles.
proposed "that the entire denomi-                      our readers. The  Stan&&  Bearer                What do you think of Mr.
nation participate in the funding"                     welcomes constructive, well-rea-            Miedema's proposal?
of new church buildings by means                       soned articles that concern espe-                                             - D J E





                                                Our Seminary
                             as Military Academy*

                                   Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the  grace  that is in Christ Jesus.
                                   And the things that thou hast heard  of  me among many witnesses, the same
                             commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.
                                   Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier  of  Jesus Christ.
                                   No man that warreth entangleth himself zoifh the affairs of this life; that he
                             may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.
                                                                                                 - II Timothy 2:1-4

                                                       and had as its purpose to train             by us as a military academy be-
T                                                      high-ranking officers who remain            cause this is what it is. This is not
         his address on the occasion                   safely behind the line of combat            all that it is. There are other ways
         of the beginning of another                   giving orders to other men who do           of viewing the seminary. But this
         year of instruction and study                 all the fighting. This  academy-            belongs to what our seminary is,
in our seminary proposes that                          our seminary-trains soldiers, the           and all of us who are involved in
among other ways of viewing the                        actual combat-troops. Every one             the school must know this-the
seminary is that of viewing it as a                    who graduates and then is or-               students, the professors, the  syn-
military academy.                                      dained in the office of the ministry        odical committee that supervises
      By military academy is meant                     fights as  a- soldier, is in the front      the seminary, the support staff, and
simply a school that trains soldiers.                  line of battle, handles the weap-           our people.
      "Academy" could be mislead-                      onry, is direct object of enemy fire,           Our interest is particularly the
ing, as though the instruction of the                  endures the "hardness" of war, and          Protestant Reformed Seminary. But
seminary were purely intellectual                      personally destroys the enemy.              the address is not intended to de-
                                                           I considered using the phrase           scribe our seminary exclusively.
                                                       "boot camp" in my topic, "Our               Every theological seminary ought
                                                       Seminary as Boot Camp," but de-             to be a military academy. Every
* The text of the address at the con-                  cided against it. I feared that the         seminary that is faithful to its man-
vocation exercises of the Protestant                   announcement of that topic might            date from God to train ministers is
Reformed Theological Seminary                          be met with an unseemly outburst            a military academy.
held at the First Protestant Re-                       of enthusiastic agreement by our                The seminary is a military
formed Church of Grand Rapids,                         present recruits.                           academy by virtue of the fact that
MI on September  9,1998.                                   Our seminary is to be viewed            ministers, whom, of course, the

                                                                                                       November  15,1998/Standard   Bearer/77


seminary trains and prepares for         this war is life and glory for the            the students the fact of war. It
the ministry, are soldiers. This is      people on behalf of whom the min-             must also explain to them the  na-
clearly taught in the passage of         isters fight as soldiers (and this out-       ture of the war.
Holy Scripture which more than           come-victory-is assured by the
any other establishes the seminary       resurrection of Jesus Christ from             The Nature of the War
in the life of the churches, II Timo-    the dead that the apostle speaks of                   The war in which we are  en-
thy 2:lff. Verse 2 is recognized,        in verse  81, the war means  suffer-          gaged is the spiritual conflict over
and often used, as the classic bibli-    ing and hardship especially for the           the glory of the triune God in His
cal basis of the seminary: among         soldiers. It means death-eternal              incarnate Son, Jesus Christ, by the
the duties of the minister Timothy       death-for some who seem for                   salvation of the elect church. It
is that he commit the truth to faith-    awhile to be part of the victorious           broke out with the promise of the
ful men, who then will teach the         people, the church.                           gospel of Genesis  3:15 by which
people of God.                                    As he wrote II Timothy, Paul         God called Adam and Eve out of
    What is not always noted is          was a prisoner, facing death at the           their unholy alliance with the devil
that in the immediate context of         hands of the foe. This  hard-                            unto fellowship with  Him-
this demand for the training of men      ship befell him as a soldier.                                self. By this, He put  en-
for the ministry is the comparison       He warns ministers and                   Of  all                mity between them as
of the minister to a soldier. Verse      aspiring ministers to  ex-            the failures               the church in Christ
3 exhorts the minister to "endure        pect similar hardships.                  that a                   and the devil.
hardness, as a good [noble]  soZdier              Experience shows         military academy                    In the history of
of Jesus Christ." Verse 4 warns the      that, as in all wars,             might  be  guilty  of,           Old Testament Israel,
minister not to entangle himself         there are casualties in               surely none                  the war heated up.
with the affairs of this life, giving    this war, particularly                  is worse                   This was true  espe-
as the motive that he please him         among the ranks of the               than keeping                 cially during the reign
who has chosen him  "to be a sol-        ministers. Some defect               the students                 of David, when Israel
dier." The force of the extended         to the enemy. They  be-                ignorant                   was attacked by the
comparison is the insistence that        come the bitterest  en-                  of the                  ungodly from every
the minister of the gospel is a sol-     emies of the true church.             war that is               quarter and when Israel
dier.                                    Such, in the apostle's own              raging.                itself attacked and  sub-
    One important model of the           day, were Hymenaeus and                                      dued its enemies. Those
ministry is that of soldier.             Philetus of verse 17. Others                             battles, bloody as they may
    It is worth noting that our Re-      are tripped up or so weakened that            have been, were not the real thing.
formed form for the ordination and       they can no longer fight as minis-            They were merely typical of the
installation of ministers employs        ter-soldiers. When this happens,              battles that the church is fighting
this model. The exhortation to the       the people ask in amazement,                  today. They do indicate the real-
minister calls on him to "bear pa-       "How could this happen?" The an-              ity, the prominence, and the feroc-
tiently all sufferings, and oppres-      swer is that there is a war going             ity of the warfare of the New Tes-
sions,  as a good soldier  of  ]esus     on, and in a war there are casual-            tament church.
Christ."  The prayer beseeches God       ties.                                                 No one who knows the history
to endue the minister "with wis-                  Some members of the visible          of the old covenant can be sur-
dom  and  valor  to rule the people      church (though not of the elect               prised that the church of the new
aright  over which he is set, and to     body of Christ) have their faith              covenant is at war and needs her
preserve them in Christian peace."       overthrown by the enemy, accord-              military academy.
                                         ing to verse 18, so that they perish                  T h i s   g r e a t   w a r   o v e r   t h e
The Real War                             everlastingly.                                Godhead and glory of God culmi-
    War demands soldiers.                         The stakes are high in this war,     nated in the ministry of Jesus
    Our churches, with the true          the very highest. The issues are              Christ. Satan and his forces came
church everywhere and always, are        the gravest: eternal life and eter-           up against Him personally, as the
at war. War is not a possibility.        nal death.                                    apostolic church confessed in Acts
War is not a likelihood. War is not               The reality of this war, our         4:25-28. Rightly, they saw in this
even imminent. But war is raging.        seminary holds before all the stu-            the fulfillment of Psalm 2:
It has been raging for some 6,000        dents.  Of all the failures that a
years without any truce or letup.        military academy might be guilty                      Why do the heathen rage and
The war was declared in a garden         of, surely none is worse than keep-                 the people imagine a vain thing?
east in Eden and has spread until        ing the students ignorant of the                      The kings of the earth set them-
today it is a world war.                 war that is raging.                                 selves, and the rulers take coun-
    Even though the outcome of                                                               sel together, against the LORD, and
                                                  The seminary must keep before

78/Standard  Bearer/November 75, 1998


 against his anointed, saying,                Is it not a privilege to be en-                will accomplishes salvation.
   Let us break their bands asun-         listed in this army? Is this not balm                - The charismatic movement is
 der,  and cast away their cords          for our wounds in the battle? Is                   an enemy. It replaces Christ with
 from us (vv. l-3).                       this not encouragement in the time                 the "Spirit," faith with feeling, and
                                          of weariness and disappointment?                   doctrine with "life."
   Jesus Christ on His part went              Pitted against the church are                          These imposing battalions are
on the offensive against Satan and        the wicked world of ungodly men                    not the real enemy, but only his
the reprobate, ungodly world. This        and women and the churches that                    minions. Both of the opposing
is how he began His ministry              have fallen away and thus gone                     hosts are commanded by a power-
(Matt. 4:lff.). By His death and res-     over to the other side-traitors.                   ful, spiritual prince and lord. The
urrection Christ defeated the foes        This dreadful army also has a ban-                 captain of the hosts of the triune
of God and gained the victory-the         ner: "Man is God."                                 God- is the exalted Jesus Christ.
decisive  victory-for Himself and             Soldiers must know the enemy.                  Over the forces of darkness is Sa-
the people of God.                        This is a first principle of war. Ig-              tan.
    This is part of the training of       norance of the enemy is fatal. In                          The warfare of the church,
the minister-soldier in our semi-         the Protestant Reformed Seminary,                  then, is both offensive and defen-
nary. We do not simply instruct           we teach men to know the enemy.                    sive: aggressively, she promotes
him concerning a great war, but we            The world outside of Jesus                      the kingdom of Christ in all the
instruct him concerning a great war       Christ is the enemy of God, of                      earth and among all peoples, and
that has been decided.            The     Christ, and, therefore, of the                      she defends Christ's kingdom
churches do not simply send him           church. It is the avowed, deter-                    against every assault.
out to fight, but they send him out       mined enemy of the God and Fa-                             It belongs to our seminary's in-
to fight in a war that has been won.      ther of Jesus Christ. The world is                  struction about the reality of the
    Still, Christ did not conquer in      not a friend by virtue of common                    battle that in this great war God is
such a way that the war is over. It       grace.         T h e   w o r l d                                    sovereign. He is sover-
continues, as the persecutions and        showed its colors at the                                            eign not only in that He
struggles that loom-large in church                                               It belongs
                                          cross.                                                              will win, not even in that
history demonstrate. Indeed, the                                                     to our
                                              The Roman Catholic                                              He always wins, but also
war becomes more furious until at                                                 seminary's
                                          Church is an enemy,                                                 in that He decreed the
the very end it climaxes in the                                                  instruction
                                          hostile to the sole Lord-                                           war from eternity for the
gross lawlessness, deep apostasy,                                             about the reality
                                          ship and Mediatorship                                               fullest revelation of His
and great tribulation of the little                                              of  the battle
                                          of Jesus Christ, opposed                                            glory. Since God is truly
season of Satan's loosing, to erect                                              that in this
                                          to the sole authority of                                            God, there is no dualism.
the kingdom of the beast.                                                         great war
                                          Scripture,           hateful                                        In no way does this de-
    The truth about war to the very                                           God is sovereign.
                                          against the gospel of sal-                                          tract from the gravity of
end is taught in our seminary in                                               He is sovereign
                                          vation by grace alone                                               the war, or from the se-
that part of Reformed dogmatics                                                not only in that
                                          through faith alone.                                                riousness of fighting the
known as eschatology.                                                           He will win,
                                          Her hands are red with               not even in that               good fight as a noble sol-
                                          the blood of multitudes                                             dier. On the contrary, it
The Opposing Forces                                                           He always wins,
                                          of God's saints. Rome                                               lends urgency to our
    The opposing forces are the                                                but also in that
                                          is not a "co-belligerent"                                           work as a military acad-
church of Jesus Christ on the one                                             He decreed the war
                                          in the war.                                                         emy. God wills to glo-
side and the ungodly world in                                                   from eternity
                                               Denying all the car-                                           rify Himself in the way
league with the false, or departing,                                            for  t h e   f u l l e s t
                                          dinal truths of divine                                              of this warfare.
church on the other side.                                                          revelation
                                          revelation, theological                                                  The war is spiri-
    The church, the true instituted                                              of His glory.
                                          modernism is an enemy.                                              tual, not physical or po-
church, is the host of the LORD                Arminianism is an                                              litical. It concerns the
God in the world. Of her it holds,        enemy, more dangerous than some                     glory of God and the salvation of
as the Scottish Presbyterians loved        of the others exactly because its at-              elect sinners, not the improvement
to confess, that she is "fair as the       tack is more subtle. Speaking and                  of social conditions for the earthly
moon, clear as the sun, and terrible      singing enthusiastically, and even                  advantage of man. This too our
as an army with banners" (Song             emotionally, of Jesus, sin, grace,                 seminary teaches.
6:lO). In her sound, orthodox, bib-        and salvation, Arminianism denies                         The soldier in this war-the
lical confession, she flies the glori-     that Christ saves and affirms that                 fighter, therefore, is the minister of
ous banner on which is embla-              man saves man.               God's will,            the gospel.
zoned, "In Jesus Christ the Lord,          Christ's cross, and the best efforts                                   (to be concluded)  Cl
God is God."                               of the Holy Spirit fail. Human free                                                     - D J E

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         Reading, Writing, and Heretics (2)

                                                     The Battle That Is Ours                       Writing occupies an important
Abiding Truth                                            To contend speaks of a vehe-          place in this battle.
    That faith is once delivered.                    ment fighting and striving. The               We recognize, of course, that
    D o n ' t   l o o k   f o r   c h a n g e s .    word was often used to describe           the chief instruments in the battle
Changes to the faith are the works                   the striving among wrestlers in the       are the faithful preaching of the
of men's imaginations.                               Olympic games, a battle of sweat,         Word-with which I include faith-
    The truth abides. That is a                      pain, and trouble.                        ful instruction in the catechism
comforting aspect of Jude 3.                             It reminds me of some of the          classroom and privately-as well
    That means, for one thing, that                  championship basketball games             as the faithful exercise of Christian
God's promise shall not fail. The                    that many enjoy watching. Some            discipline.
doctrine that He has committed to                    of the men on those teams play                But I speak tonight with more
His church shall not be changed.                     with great pain, with injuries that       specific application. With respect
    That means, in addition, that                    would have some people in bed.            to the labors of the RFPA and all
the doctrine of faith shall never                    So important do they view that            of us who write, we must recog-
cease in the world. It is a candle                   battle for the championship.              nize the broad influence our writ-
that all the winds of hell can never                 Through sweat and pain they con-          ings can carry.          We know not
blow out, a flame that all the wa-                   tend for the victory, striving to ob-     where our writings go. Especially
ters of trouble can never extin-                     tain that which comes with being          in this age when information is
guish! The same faith we are called                  called "champion."                        transmitted over the Internet in the
to contend for is called in Revela-                      But the word used by Jude is a        blink of an eye to all reaches of the
tion  14:6 the  everlasting gospel.                  compound word which denotes a             world, we must write with pur-
    The errors that have pervaded                    greater contention than known             pose, knowing that God is pleased
the church world unto this day                       among men's games. The efforts            to use this means also in the battle
have not changed the faith one iota.                 put out by a basketball player in         against the devil's lies.
How horrible is the departure from                   the deciding game of that champi-             That means that in our writing
the faith once delivered unto the                    onship series-even a player who           we must give both a sound defense
saints. For it is a departure which                  is playing over his painful  injury-      of God's truth, and careful instruc-
brings about the terrible judgment                   is nothing in comparison to the ef-       tion in that truth.
of Jesus Christ:            "This people             fort required by you and me in con-           When I speak about giving a
draweth nigh unto me with their                      tending for the faith.                    sound defense of God's truth, I
mouth, and honoureth me with                             When it comes to the faith, we        don't mean to imply that God's
their lips; but their heart is far from              are not in a game!                        truth needs our defense in order to
me. But in vain they do worship                          "We wrestle not against flesh         stand. God's truth will endure for-
me, teaching for doctrines the com-                  and blood,!' says the apostle, "but       ever. But that defense is necessary
mandments of men"  (Matt.  15:8,9).                  against principalities, against pow-      for our own sakes and the sakes of
    The faith remains a solid rock,                  ers, against the rulers of the dark-      our children.
the foundation upon which we                         ness of. this world, against spiritual        It is necessary for our sakes,
stand. But the attacks upon that                     wickedness in high places" (Eph.          that we might be able to say with
faith once delivered are many.                       6:12). We are engaged in a deeply         the apostle Paul in II Timothy  4:7,
And we who are saints are ex-                        spiritual battle.                         "I have fought a good fight, I have
horted to contend for the faith.                                                               finished my course, I have kept the
                                                     Doing Battle by Writing                   faith: Henceforth there is laid up
                                                         What is the place, then, of writ-     for me a crown of righteousness."
                                                     ing,  when it comes to this spiritual         But we must also contend for
Rev. Key is pasfor                                   battle in which we find ourselves         that faith and stand with a sound
                       of the Protestant Re-
formed Church  of  Randolph, Wisconsin.              engaged?                                  defense of God's truth for our

SO/Standard Bearer/November  15, 1998


children's sake, that they might un-      Those gainsayers are ones who are        nothing that I say tonight detract
derstand the importance of that           contradicting the truth of God.          from that.
truth, that it is a truth worth dying         Notice,  by sound doctrine, we           Martin Luther, in his treatise
for, that it is truth which alone will    are to exhort and  coIzvict-i.e.,  by    addressed  To The Christian Nobility
give peace upon the Israel of God!        the light of God's truth expose and      of the German Nation,  warned that
    But in our writing we must also       refute  - the gainsayers. Our only       "the writings of all the holy fathers
take the  offensive,  providing posi-     weapon, our only ammunition, in          should be read only for a time so
tive and sound instruction in the         the battle against heresy, no mat-       that through them we may be led
truth. That is, to contend for the        ter what the form, is the truth of       to the Scriptures."+ He cautioned
faith means that in our writing we        God! And it is an effective weapon       that those who read without turn-
wield the sword of the Spirit,            indeed! It is the only weapon the        ing to the Scriptures themselves are
which is the Word of God. And             Spirit  uses! And, oh, to be instru-     like those who read the sign posts
let me emphasize, what is required        ments of the Holy Spirit of truth!       and never travel the road they in-
in our day is clear and concise writ-         The many publications of the         dicate.
ing, with clear definitions and au-       RFPA, with the  Standard Bearer              But the publications of the
thoritative instruction. The author-      leading the way, have played a vi-       RFPA serve the purpose of leading
ity of the  Scriptures  must be evi-      tal role in bearing testimony of bib-    us into a clearer understanding of
dent in our writing.                      lical truth, the light of the Re-        the Scriptures, whether those pub-
    What then shall be the results        formed faith, in an amazingly            lications treat specific doctrines of
of our publishing?                        broad circle, indeed, around the         Scripture, specific books or pas-
    The answer to that question, I        world.                                   sages of Scripture, or the applica-
would have you understand, we do              From personal correspondence         tion of the Bible to specific aspects
well to leave to God. In a sense,         and various contacts that have           of our daily lives.
the question itself may even be im-       arisen in my personal involvement            Even the biographical writings
proper. We don't need even to             with evangelism labors throughout        - I think of the titles Therefore Have
concern ourselves with the results.       my ministry, I have often been           I Spoken  or  Lori  -  show the lives
We simply need to be faithful! Let        amazed at the influence our publi-       of Christians, w i t h   a l l   t h e i r
us remind ourselves of that too.          cations have played in spreading         struggles and sorrows and joys as
    In this day of vast departure         the truth for which we stand, as         they live under the embrace of the
from the authoritative standards of       well as the cause of our Protestant      gospel, to be lives empowered by
God's Word, we live before the            Reformed Churches. There have            the Spirit through the Word.
penetrating light of public opinion.      been numerous contacts whom I                That makes your labors and
That kind of thinking enters the          have met through the years, whose        your support of the RFPA a matter
church too, including our own             initial introduction to our churches     of importance, also in the spiritual
churches.  -We may expect that, in        came through one of our books or         battle that is ours as citizens of the
our writing, whatever we say and          through the Standard  Bearer.            kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ.
however we say it is sure to be dis-          And while our own people, you        We must stand strong as we con-
pleasing to someone.                      and I included, ought to be widely       tend for the faith. We must know
    But we have a duty, and God           read and ought to appreciate the         what we believe. Our children and
has laid it upon us, to take a stand      publishing labors of the RFPA and        our youth must also know and
on the basis of His authority. We         show that appreciation by faithful       must grow in that knowledge of the
are to do so regardless of human          reading, I think we ought not un-        truth of God.
praise or criticism, as to the Lord       derestimate the place these publi-           Let us, therefore, promote that
and not to men. We are to do so           cations occupy in our  witness.  Let     growth by faithful support of this
in a spirit of meekness, beseeching       the Word go forth! Let it go forth       work of writing and publishing
God for wisdom. We are to com-            in truth!                                sound, substantive material,  bibli-
bine firmness with kindness when                                                   cally grounded  material,  truthful  ma-
at all possible. But we are to write      Reading                                  terial.
the truth, and that precisely and             But then let us also promote the         Let us promote it by our labors,
without wavering.                         reading of our materials.                by our gifts, by our attempts to
    Paul wrote to Titus in Titus  1:9         The purpose of such reading is       spread the word.
that the  bishop,  an overseer in the     to strengthen our understanding of           But let us above all read it, and
church, must always be "Holding           the truth of God's Word, and to          teach our children to read what
fast the faithful word as he hath         lead us, therefore, into a deeper
been taught, that he may be able          study of the Scriptures themselves.
by sound doctrine both to exhort              Our reading must begin with          * Martin Luther,  Luther's Works,
and to convince the gainsayers."          the Scriptures, and I would have         vol. 44, p. 205.

                                                                                       November 15,  1998/Standard   Bearer/S1


they are capable of reading. Let                    reading  - again, according to their       word, the word conveying God's
us assign our children at least  se-                capacity to understand.                    truth, is precious to us, as we live
lected portions of the Standard                         Let us show that the written           as God's people in the midst of this
Bearer for their Sunday afternoon                                                              present spiritual warfare.  II;I





          Arius and the Council of Nicea (2)

                                                    of Arius; these doctrines, even            bishops in all came  together-
Introduction
I                                                   through the scurrilous attacks of          which was about one-third of the
     n the last article, when we be-                Satan, were the first to be estab-         total number of bishops in the
     gan to discuss Arius and the                   lished officially in the New Testa-        church. If one would count all the
     heresy he attempted to intro-                  ment church.                               officebearers, the total of delegates
duce into the church, we brought                                                               was between 1500 and 2000. Most
the story up to the Council. of                     The Calling of the                         of them were from the Eastern or
Nicea.                                              Council of  Nicea                          Greek Church. The Western or
     Y o u   w i l l   r e m e m b e r   t h a t        Constantine became ruler in            Latin Church sent only seven del-
Arianism was a denial of the di-                    the West in 312, and over the en-          egates-although their influence
vinity of our Lord Jesus Christ.                    tire empire in 323. He saw in              was far greater than their number.
Arius claimed that, although Christ                 Christianity a hope for an empire              The council met from around
was in a certain sense divine and                   which was old and worn out, on             June 14 to July 25,325.
existed before the worlds were                      the verge of collapse. But the unity           Many bishops took the oppor-
formed, yet He was created and,                     of Christianity was the key to his         tunity to bring to the emperor's at-
as he said, "there was a time when                  use of Christianity for his own po-        tention their own personal griev-
he was not."                                        litical purposes. And now Chris-           ances and problems, but the em-
     The issue, while concentrating                 tianity itself was torn apart. What        peror was not interested. He
on the divinity of our Lord, in-                    a disappointment these squabbling          burned all their papers in one huge
volved the entire doctrine of the                   Christians were to the emperor!            bonfire, and exhorted them instead
holy Trinity: Was Christ divine?                        He saw a ray of hope in calling        to unity. The attention of the bish-
Was the Holy Spirit divine? How                     a council of the entire church to          ops was then concentrated on the
could three persons be divine and                   discuss and settle an issue which          matter at hand.
yet God be one.7  What was the re-                  seemed to him to be much ado
lationship between the three per-                   about nothing, or as Constantine           The Council Meeting
sons?                                               himself put it, a debate over unan-            One delegate described the
     The battle was long and furi-                  swerable and unsolvable riddles.           opening ceremonies in this way:
ous and threatened to tear the                          He summoned the bishops of
church to pieces.                                   the church together to a small town            After all the bishops had en-
     The doctrines were fundamen-                   called  Nicea,   ,in the northwest part      tered the central building of the
tal to the Christian faith, for the                 of Asia Minor, about 20 miles from           royal palace, on the sides of which
doctrines of God and Christ are the                 Nicomedia, the imperial seat. The            very many seats were prepared,
foundations on which is built the                   bishops were instructed each to              each took his place with becom-
whole body of Christian truth.                      take two presbyters along and                ing modesty, and silently awaited
                                                                                                 the arrival of the emperor. The
These doctrines the devil sought                    three servants. The expenses were            court officers entered one after an-
first to destroy through the heresy                 all to be paid for out of the impe-          other, though only such as pro-
                                                    rial treasury, and transportation            fessed faith in Christ. The mo-
                                                    would be provided by the emperor             ment the approach of the emperor
                                                    himself, so that the bishops could           was announced by a given signal,
Prof. Hanko is professor  of  Church                come from every part of the Medi-            they all rose from their seats, and
History and New Tesfamenf in the                    terranean world.                             the emperor appeared like a heav-
Protestant Reformed Seminary.                           Three hundred and eighteen               enly messenger of God, covered
SZ/Standard  Bearer/November 15, 1998


  with gold and gems, a glorious                   able. The Arians, who were de-            gotten, not made, being of one
  presence, very tall and slender,                 voted to their leader and led by          substance  (home-ousion)   with the
  full of beauty, strength, and maj-               him at the council, numbered only         Father....
  esty. With this external adorn-                  about twenty. The largest  party
  ment he united the spiritual orna-                                                           Almost  all present signed the
  ment of the fear of, God, modesty,               was the middle party, itself split       creed, especially when the emperor
  and humility, which could be seen                into numerous factions, but which        announced that any who refused
  in his downcast eyes, his blush-                 was finally persuaded to support
  ing face, `the motion of his body,               the orthodox position.                   to sign it would be banished. Fi-
  and his walk. When he reached                        After preliminary maneuver-          nally only two Egyptian bishops
  the golden throne prepared for                   ings, a creed was presented for con-     plus Arius himself refused to sign.
  him, he stopped, and sat not down                sideration which represented the         They were banished to Illyria and
  till the bishops gave him the sign.              Arian position and was designed          the books of Arius were burned.
  And after him they all resumed                   to get the assembly to approve the       This was by direct order of the em-
  their seats.                                                                              peror, who now had set a prece-
   .-  `1                                          heresy of Arius. This creed was          dent for imperial involvement in all
     Among the many delegates                      rejected with raucous shouts and
                                                   torn to pieces. (Assemblies were         matters of the church.
were some worthy enough to have
our attention called to them. Per-                 somewhat more volatile in those          The History After  Nicea
haps the most notable of all, apart                days than they are now.)                     If the emperor or anyone else
from the emperor, was Alexander                        This paved the way for the pre-      thought that the decisions of the
from Alexandria, the bishop who                    sentation of another creed, which        Council of  Nicea would settle the
had first opposed Arius. And with                  was in all respects sound and            matter, they were sadly mistaken.
him came his deacon, a man by the                  which most of the delegates were         The controversy continued with re-
name of Athanasius. Although at                    willing to sign. The difficulty with     newed bitterness shortly after the
this time only a deacon and a                      it was that it lacked one word           bishops returned to their churches,
young man, his careful arguments                   which the orthodox wanted incor-         and bitter fighting continued with-
on the floor of the council had more               porated. The word, transliterated        out letup.
influence on the formation of the                  from the Greek, is  homo-ousion,  and        The issues became more com-
creed than any other present.                      means "of the same essence." It          plicated, and we need not go into
Athanasius, in the years following                 was an important word and it be-         them in detail here. But they re-
the council, became the man whose                  came yet more important in the           volved chiefly around the one
n a m e   w a s   s y n o n y m o u s   w i t h    years after  Nicea. It expresses the     word the council had insisted on:
Nicean  orthodoxy.                                 idea that the Lord Jesus Christ is       komo-ousion.
     Some delegates present still                  "of the same essence" as the Fa-             The strict Arians had insisted
bore in their bodies the marks of                  ther; that is, that He and the Fa-       on the word  hetero-ousion,  which
the cruel persecution which the                    ther are one in essence.                 means "of a different essence"; but
church endured under Diocletian.                       The word might have been ex-         their numbers were almost zero af-
Polamon had had his right eye dug                  cluded from the creed altogether if      ter the council. But a new party
out. Paul of Neo-Caesarea had                      it had not been for the fact that        arose which wanted to use another
been tortured with red hot irons                   Arius expressed himself as willing       word than  Nicea had used, al-
and had been crippled in both                      to sign the creed without the word.      though not the  ketero-ousion  of the
hands.                                             This readiness of Arius to sign the      Arians. It was the word  homoi-
     Some were ascetics. Jacob of                  creed made the orthodox suspi-           ousion.  You will notice that the
Nisibis had spent years and years                  cious and they fought long and           only difference is a small  3" in it.
living in forests and caves, eating                hard to get it included in the creed.    It is not very much of an exaggera-
roots and leaves like a wild ani-                  They finally succeeded.                  tion  to say that over 50 years of
mal. Spyridion, though ordained                        And so we have our beloved           terrible struggle which followed
as a bishop, had never abandoned                   Nicean  Creed.                           were over the question of an  7."
the life of a simple shepherd  -                       The pertinent part reads (the        And many might be inclined to say,
even while attending to preaching                  entire creed can be found in many        as Constantine himself often said,
and the needs of his congregation.                 different places, including the back     "This is evil wrangling over unim-
     At the outset of the council, the             of the Psalter used in the PRC):         portant differences." But it was
delegates were divided into three                                                           not. The "i" made all the differ-
groups. The orthodox group, led                      I believe . . . in one Lord Jesus
                                                     Christ, the only-begotten Son of       ence in the world. The word komoi-
by Alexander and Athanasius,                         God, begotten of the Father before     ousion,  with the "i," meant that
though numbering less than a                         all worlds, God of God, Light of       Christ was only "like" the Father
dozen was undoubtedly the most                       Light, very God of very God, be-       in essence-"similar to," but not

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"the same as." On that "i" hung            ferent times and he suffered much         Conclusion
the whole truth.                           for the cause of the truth. In fact,          And so the truth of the abso-
    The reasons why the contro-            it seemed at times as if Arianism         lute divinity of Christ and the doc-
versy continued were many, and             was sure to gain the victory after        trine of the holy Trinity was estab-
we cannot recount them all. Many           all.      "The whole world," said         lished as the foundation of all the
who signed the  Nicean  Creed had          Athanasius, "has gone Arian"; and         confession of the church.
done so because they feared ban-           he was not far from wrong. In fact,           One striking and extremely im-
ishment. They were not convinced           his remark has been the occasion          portant aspect of the controversy
of its truth. Many of the issues           for Athanasius to bear in history         is the fact that Athanasius, in his
which  Nicea had attempted to              the (honorable) name: "Athanasius         defense of the divinity of Christ at
settle were not yet clearly defined        contra      mundum":     Athanasius       the Council of  Nicea,  consistently
in the minds of many bishops.              against the world.                        argued his point on the grounds
Many enemies of the truth were                     But orthodoxy did finally win.    that the question  involved our sal-
still roaming the sheepfold of             God often works that way. When            vation.  That is, Athanasius never
Christ as ravening wolves. And             the night is the darkest, then the        permitted himself or the council to
Constantine himself, unable to un-         dawn is about to break. God must          discuss the question as abstract the-
derstand the issues, was not a firm        show that the preservation of His         ology, but insisted that it had to
and dauntless defender of  Nicea as        church is His work, not man's.            do with the salvation of the church.
he should have been.                       And God saves His church when                 His argument, in brief, was
    Constantine's own ambivalence          from a human point of view all is         this. Our lost condition makes sal-
paved the way for Arius to return          hopeless. So it was in the second         vation impossible for us to accom-
from exile. He was recalled be-            half of the 4th century.                  plish. Only God can save. And,
cause he had presented a creed to                  A new generation of theolo-       because salvation comes to us
the emperor which the emperor ap-          gians arose in the East-able men,         through Jesus Christ, Christ must
proved. In fact, Arius even signed         committed thoroughly to  Nicean           be very God Himself.
the Nicene Creed, most probably            orthodoxy. They defined the issues            That insistence of Athanasius
with some sort of mental reserva-          with clarity and biblical discretion.     on looking at the problem of the
tions, or, perhaps, while giving in        The West, always orthodox on this         divinity of Christ as related to our
his own mind a meaning to the              issue, began to exert more influ-         salvation is reflected in the Nicene
creed acceptable to him, but which         ence on the East, especially through      Creed, which in this connection
the creed itself would not bear.           such men as Augustine. The hor-           reads:
    At any rate, the emperor forced        rible notions of Arianism had
the churches to receive him.               reached their high tide and were            I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ
Athanasius, now bishop because of          beginning to wane.                          . . . who, for us men and for our
the death of Alexander, flatly re-                 Another council met, the sec-       salvation, came down  from
fused on the grounds that another          ond great ecumenical council. This          heaven, and was incarnate by the
synod was the only power able to           one met in 381 in the Eastern capi-         Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary,
                                                                                       and was made man; and was cru-
lift the ban imposed on Arius. It          tal of the empire: Constantinople.          cified also for us under Pontius
was, said Athanasius, an ecclesias-        It reaffirmed Nicean orthodoxy and          Pilate; he suffered and was bur-
tical matter, not an imperial deci-        made some changes in the  Nicean            ied; and the third day he rose
sion. The bishop of Constantinople         Creed, not significant, but which           again, according to the Scriptures;
was forced to admit Arius to the           particularly affirmed the divinity          and ascended into heaven, and
table of the Lord against his better       of the Holy Spirit. The  Nicean             sitteth on the right hand of the Fa-
judgment. But the Lord saved the           Creed had, in connection with the           ther; and he shall come again,
table from being profaned when             Holy Spirit, said only: "We believe         with glory, to judge both the quick
Arius died in 336, one day before          in the Holy Ghost." Constanti-              and the dead; whose kingdom
                                                                                       shall have no end.
the Lord's Supper was to be ad-            nople added: "And I believe in the
ministered.                                Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of             How utterly important this is.
    So bitter was the battle, that         Life; who proceedeth from the Fa-             It is the biblical approach, for
even the lowliest fishmonger in the        ther; who with the Father and the         the divinity of Christ is connected
market place and the chimney               Son together is worshiped and glo-        directly with our salvation, some-
sweep in his sooty clothing could          rified; who spake by the Prophets."       thing already evident in Christ's
discuss intelligently the issues in-       (Only later  15891, at a synod in To-     name given Him by the angel. He
volved.                                    ledo, Spain, were the words, "and         shall be called Jesus (Jehovah
    Athanasius, for his strong de-         the Son" added after "proceedeth          saves), for He shall save His people
fense of  Nicea,  was banished from        from the Father.")                        from their sins.
his church no fewer than five  dif-

84/Standard   Bearer/November 15,  1998


     When the Eastern Church,                      conquests.                               mately deny that Jesus Christ is the
some years down the road, failed                       Christ Himself had affirmed          eternal Son of God, very God of
t o   f o l l o w   t h e   e x a m p l e   o f    that He would build His church on        very God. Arminianism leads the
Athanasius and argued over the                     the foundation of the confession         church back to Arianism.
questions of Christ's divinity apart               that He "is the Christ, the Son of           And so John warns us to be-
from the question of salvation, it                 the living God." Thus only is sal-       ware those spirits which confess
fell into barren and fruitless specu-              vation as a work of God alone            not that Jesus Christ has come into
lative argumentation and spawned                   maintained.                              the flesh (that is, that Jesus Christ,
every heresy under the face of the                     Arminianism makes salvation          who is very God of very God, has
heavens. For that sin the judgment                 partly the work of man. Let it           come [that is His divinity] into the
of God came upon the Eastern                       n e v e r   b e    forgotten    that     flesh) is of antichrist, not of Christ
Church, a judgment which all but                   Arminianism is incipient Modern-         (I John 4:1-3).
destroyed it-in the Mohammedan                     ism, for Arminianism, denying that           Salvation is of God!  17
                                                   salvation is of God alone, will ulti-




                   Brethren, Pray For Us....

T                                                  school children and youth who oc-        members of the church, who can
        hese words flowed repeat-                  casionally assure us that they are       speak their dialect, to come and
        edly from the lips of mission-             praying for us. We trust this article    visit with them. Both First and Cov-
        ary Paul. In both letters to               will help them, parents, and also        enant churches are giving more at-
the Thessalonians (I Thess.  5:25, II              our Christian school teachers to         tention to this need and God is
Thess.  3:1), as well as Hebrews                   pray specifically for the Singapore      blessing these efforts. Pray for the
13:18 and others, he reminded the                  churches and their work.                 salvation of parents as they are
church of his need for their                                                                ministered to by the church. In
prayers. We do likewise. We reflect                Singapore                                first generation missions the re-
often upon the meaningful words                        1. The saints in the Evangelical     verse is usually true, God saves
of Heidelberg Catechism, Lord's                    Reformed Churches of Singapore           parents through the children, not
Day 45, A. 116: "God will give his                 carry a burden for the aged, usu-        children through the parents.
grace and Holy Spirit to those only,               ally one or both of the parents ei-          2. Covenant church has lost
who with sincere desires continu-                  ther of members or of friends. Most      their use-permit for their church
ally ask them of him, and are                      of these parents, are steeped in         building. From the perspective of
thankful for them." Little wonder                  idolatry and superstition. They are      Christians, it seems the govern-
that prayer is indispensable for all               the "old generation" who worship         ment is hurting Christianity by not
spiritual progress.                                their ancestors, who visit the           giving use-permits to churches. The
     The purpose of this article is                temples to gain good luck from the       Muslims seem to build their
not to discuss the theology of                     gods, who associate every sickness       mosques almost anywhere, as do
prayer for missions. That may well                 or trial with displeasing their gods,    the Chinese their temples. There
be profitable, but rather we want                  and who blame their Christian chil-      are many Christian churches which
to acquaint you readers with spe-                  dren for this. As long as these par-     are losing their permission to use
cific needs so that you can pray                   ents are strong, most of them re-        their church buildings for Christian
meaningfully for the work in this                  sist all attempts to bring to them       worship. Some, like FERC, have
part of Christ's kingdom. We are                   the gospel of Jesus Christ. Very in-     free-hold property in that they ac-
encouraged to receive letters from                 terestingly, as they get older and       tually own their own land and
                                                   weaker, such resistance seems to         have received permission to use it
                                                   decline in some of them. The bur-        for Christian purposes without the
                                                   den of love increases from their         need to renew. Such land is almost
                                                   Christian children, who want so
Rev. Kortering is a Protestant Reformed                                                     non-existent today and was very
minister-on-loan to Singapore.                     badly for their parents to allow         rare in the past. CERC bought their

                                                                                               November 15,  lQQ&Standard   Bearer/85


property with the need to renew           portunity for Christians to speak of                     flexibility. Should we  `set as our
yearly their permission to use it for     their faith to their neighbors. Pray                     goal to take students to Singapore,
Christian service. They received          that our members may seize this                          or should we set up a school here
notice in May that they can no            difficult time to show to others that                    and have extension courses in the
longer use it for that purpose and        life is more than money and suc-                         local countries in which we are do-
have to terminate such use in one         cess. We must look to the future,                        ing mission work? Presently we
year's time. They have formed a           where moth and rust does not cor-                        are giving most attention to devel-
building committee which has been         rupt and where thieves do not                            oping our courses as modules and
searching for possible suitable land      break forth and steal.                                   teaching them in Singapore, and
or building. Most of what they                    4. We seek your prayers as we                    also using them as extension
find requires a change-of-use per-        chart a course for theological train-                    courses in other countries. This is
mit, which seems impossible to get        ing in  SE. Asia. This involves a                        the easiest way to begin. It is  low-
today. So, do pray that God may           number of concerns. First, we are                        key and less demanding than to be-
give them encouragement and di-           much interested in making avail-                         gin a full-time school. It is some-
rection to know what His will is as       able to our own leaders and other                        thing which we can develop as we
a congregation.       Ideally, if the     students in Singapore, classes for                       go along. It will allow us to in-
ERCS could have congregations at          their own benefit. The Theologi-                         struct students both in Singapore
scattered key places on the island,       cal Training Committee decided it                        and in other countries without hav-
active involvement of the members         is time to address the issue of                          ing all of them come to Singapore,
would be greatly enhanced. Even           Hyper-Calvinism. We are being                            which has its own difficulties. I
if we could worship in homes              accused of being such by some of                         am convinced this holds by far the
(something the present law for-           the Bible Presbyterian Churches in                       most significant long-range impact
bids), it would be helpful. All           S i n g a p o r e   a n d   a l s o   b y   o t h e r    for the spread of the Reformed
these things seem to be impossible        churches in the countries where we                       faith in this part of the world. It is
at this time. Even rented property        are doing ministry. So the com-                          this area also where the PRC and
is hard to find, but maybe the Lord       mittee decided that we ought to                          ERCS need to work together if we
wants to teach us to be pilgrims          have a series of evening lectures in                     are to meet the demands which
who have no abiding place on the          December on this subject and that                        such a project require. Let us pray
earth.                                    Pastor Lau should prepare them.                          that God may guide us in the
    3. The financial crisis is affect-    Do pray for Pastor Lau as he pre-                        proper way as we chart our course.
ing the entire society, including the     pares these studies.
members of the churches. Pray                     Secondly, we believe that it is                  M y a n m a r
that God may use this for His             necessary that we prepare a  Re-                              Do pray for the saints in this
glory. True, we pray locally for          formed Digest, in order that as                          difficult land. We must pray for
our members who have been "re-            churches we can develop in our                           them from two points of view.
trenched," i.e., laid off from work.      theology and communicate this to                              First, many of them suffer be-
Things are done a bit differently         others. Pastor Cheah is editor of                        cause of oppressive government.
here. The government sits down            this project and he is working to                        The Chin State borders India, and
with labor unions and works out           get the first edition out by Novem-                      any border state suffers because of
an agreement how to lower wages,          ber.                                                     insurgency.      The students espe-
cut back working hours, and even                  Thirdly, we believe strongly in                  cially are becoming more active in
adjust prices of merchandise in or-       the need to organize and begin our                       causing trouble. Not too long ago
der to preserve social cohesion.          Bible School. We ask that you pray                       they blew up an electric generat-
This means less money, but at this        for this need because it is not only                     ing plant near Falam, where a large
point in time, most are still able to     urgent, but also the most complex                        number of the URCM churches are
work. This financial crisis is af-        to realize. We have discussed vari-                      located. They give the military
fecting all of Asia, and businesses       ous ways of how to organize this                         some difficulty, and then slip into
and banks are hurting. It is a time       school, and over the years these                         India for refuge. Due to this the
of pain, as Singapore is learning the     ideas have been considered.                              military becomes very hostile to the
hard way that life is not all suc-        Should we have a school operat-                          local people. Though we do not
cess. Even though they may be             ing here in Singapore on a semes-                        know particulars from Chin, we
number one, outside forces can            ter basis and have students come                         read of some of these oppressions
quickly take it all away. There are       here for studies? Should we have                         in the Shan State.
evidences of complaining, worry-          a school which teaches subjects on
ing, showing dismay, as the dream         a  mod-mar  basis, one subject at a                        In May 1998, many villagers who
of Singapore shows some tarnish.          time in a more concentrated man-                           had been forcibly relocated to
At the same time it is a good  op-        ner? This would give us greater                           Kho-Lam had asked permission

86/Standard Bearer/November  15, 1998


from the SPDC (military govern-                       up for 9 days before their release.      and their love of the sovereign
ment) authorities in Nam-Zang to                                                               God.
go and work on the farms outside                                                                  Pray for these saints that they
the village. One man, 45, and                           Secondly, due to many circum-          may not be overcome in their diffi-
some 18 of his fellow villagers                      stances, one of which is poor gov-        cult situation and that they may
managed to get a pass  .from the
authorities in Nam-Zang as well                      erning, the economic situation in         ever look to God for His protec-
as permission from the com-                          Myanmar has become critical.              tion and care. Pray also that the
mander of the local military camp                                                              churches here may be sensitive to
at Kho-Lam, Capt Han Sein, to                            The kyat was trading around           their needs and do all we can to
work on the farms about 4 miles                       360 to the dollar on  Yangon's           help them as brothers and sisters
west of Kho-Lam and they had                          black market Friday (Sept. 11) but       in Christ. Our deacons are actively
been working on the farms from                        earlier crashed through the 400          involved in helping them with their
14-5-98 until 6-6-98 when troops                      mark in some parts of the coun-          orphanages and old people's
from IBZ46 shot at them from a                        try. The black market rate was           homes as well as individual poor.
distance. The villagers all ran                       around 150 to the dollar before
away into the nearby forest with-                     Asia became embroiled in the eco-        God has placed in our midst a
out anyone getting hit and the sol-                   nomic crisis last July. The official     brother and sister from the Philip-
diers left after searching the farms                  rate is six kyat to the dollar but is    pines who in the past have assisted
for awhile.                                            almost totally ignored.                 the poor in Vietnam. They offered
  After awhile, a woman 30, and                                                                to help us by going to Myanmar to
her uncle 40, presuming the troops                       This affects the saints in the        assess how to teach the people to
had really left, went back to the                    United Reformed Churches and              live off the land as best they can
farms with the intention to get                      Protestant Reformed Churches. It          and how we can help them set up
their clothes and beds from the                      is becoming more difficult for them       some sort of way in which they can
farm hut and return to the village.                  to travel to the conferences and
However, as they reached the hut,                                                              earn a little money for themselves
                                                     seminars we sponsor. Due to the
the soldiers came back and ar-                                                                 and not be dependent on outside
rested them and beat (the uncle)                     difficulties, we almost always hold       money.
t o   d e a t h .   ( T h e   w o m a n )   w a s    them in Yangon  (instead of our fly-
stripped of her clothes and raped                    ing to Kale, which is closer to           India/Nepal
many times before she was also                       them). This requires them to walk             Following our trip to India in
shot dead in the hut. After that,                    many miles before they can get to         April we have received a flood of
the troops left the farms and went                   the main road, and then they ride         letters and requests for books and
to Kho-Lam.                                          on the back of large trucks haul-         financial help. Brother Stephen
   On 7-6-98 the villagers at  Kho-                  ing commercial goods. I have seen
Lam heard the news and became                                                                  writes,
                                                     them not even able to stand up
very worried, so that a villager
who had relatives working on the                     straight for the first couple of days       Regarding the seminar, I am com-
farms about 4 miles south of the                     when they arrive in  Yangon,  they          municating all people, I am send-
village went and warned them. On                     are so sore. Yet they come for the          ing to some of them the Xerox
hearing about it, the farmers be-                    Word of God.                                copy of first page message in the
came so frightened that they all                         Rev. Titus wrote me recently,           magazine, Standard Bearer. I have
returned to the village. But when                    "Now our electricity situation is           put a name for this issue that is,
they were still about one mile                       very bad. We get it in ration. And          "Oh! Oh! Food to Soul." I will
away from the village they met the                                                               sent you one just for your knowl-
                                                     any time it can be cut off. I really
same SPDC soldiers coming from                                                                   edge to know what I am doing. I
                                                     miss you, especially whenever I am
the village to search the area and                                                               communicating        a n d   fellow-
they were arrested. Eight of them,                   down with the struggles of my               shipping with our people in our
including the one who came to                        country." We are saddened also              area in Theni,  Periyakulam, and
warn them.                                           that, due to the involvement of             in upper hills.... People told me
   These farmers were taken to the                   some recent public demonstrations           that they received booklets and
`military camp at Kho-Lam and                        which included Americans, the               letters from you. They are very
tortured, also with electric shocks,                 military government's suspicion of          much happy about that. I am
until they lost consciousness for                    Americans has increased. The                sending a long list of people so
some time and one was beaten so                                                                  that you can communicate them.
                                                     ERCS decided that it is best that I
hard that he later died in the                       not go to teach the next seminar in
camp. Twenty five village leaders                                                              He is asking for financial assistance
and elders went to the troops and                    November, but that Pastor Cheah           so that he can send material to
pleaded for mercy. Eventually, the                   go again. Be much in prayer that          these people on a regular basis to
soldiers agreed to release them on                   God may continue to bless this in-        help them grow in the Reformed
paying 15,000 Kyats for each. The                    struction, so that they may grow          faith. He also wants very much to
villagers had been tied and locked                   in the knowledge of God's Word

                                                                                                   November 15,  1998fitandard  Bearer/87


continue to have more teaching           some course of action for them.            grace of God we are the only Re-
seminars in his area.                        Recently we also came into             formed church in Nepal.... As
    Also from southern India,            contact with churches of the               you have shown interest in Nepal
Brother Y. Paul Raj writes,              Diaspora in Nepal and India. Es-            and India it is very good for us to
                                         pecially in Nepal they are doing           have your fellowship with us in
  At present I stay at my home                                                       order to grow in God's Word. We
                                         work in areas in which there is no
  spending all my time in getting                                                   are a very few churches in India,
                                         other Christian church around. In
  myself ready to be trained by you                                                 we are not that much popular.
                                         a recent letter to me, Brother Pallab
  sooner. Some times I go for mis-                                                  Many people do not know about
                                         wrote,
  sion work and some charitable                                                     us. I hope you will come to Nepal
  work. Frequently I meet Ps.                                                       then you will know more about
  Stephen and discuss more about             I am staying a place called Ma-         the churches in Nepal and India.
  our P.R. faith. And also our Lord        hendranagar, in Jnakpur, which is        As my four and half years in
  always enables me to work at a           430 kms. away from Kathmandu.            Nepal, I have found that there is
  village nearby my village. Right         This place is a small town, but this     almost 99% charismatic Christians
  from the beginning we preach             is a center place for the local          in Nepal. It was very difficult to
  things according to our PR faith.        people.... We are only about one         find a Reformed man in Nepal.
  When I look around I see most of         year old church. This church is          Thank God that He has helped us
  the ministers who mislead the            started its work on last year only        to start a Reformed Church in
  people according to Pentecostal          and thus far one person has ac-          Nepal.
  Spirit. Most of the people are be-       cepted the gospel of the grace of
  ing captivated by false doctrines.       God and become baptized. We                 Our hearts are greatly encour-
  As I see this I am greatly dis-          have selected this place because        aged by the financial support of
  gusted and pray the Lord to es-          there were no church for this lo-       our people and also by saints out-
  tablish a P.R. Church in India.          cality which is the house for half
                                           million people. Another lady of 38      side the Protestant Reformed
                                           is preparing for baptism now. Ev-       Churches. With the funds, we have
He is a young man who is willing           ery week there is 18-20 people at-      ample means to do this work as the
and available to be trained to be-         tend our church regularly. We are       Lord allows us time and man-
come a pastor. Both he and Pastor          working in a           completely       power. Just pray for the ERCS that
Stephen are much interested in our         unreached area of Nepal. We are         we may make good decisions as we
sponsoring a work in India. So pray        holding the Reformed faith and          evaluate all these opportunities to
for these brothers and their minis-        we are not compromising with            further the glorious truth of the
tries as well as the ERCS as we plan       any other things. Perhaps by the        sovereignty of our God. 0





                                             Ransom
      Central to the message of the gospel is a ransom, to redeem and deliver from the pen-
               the idea of ransom. The Hebrew word               alty of sin. When this word is found with a
               (kofer)  has the basic meaning of cover-          prefix meaning in the place of, instead of, or
      ing; then it means a redemption price, a ran-              for the benefit of, there is strong emphasis
      som that sets free, satisfaction. This word is             placed on the idea of substitution. Someone
      related to the word atonement and the day of               pays the ransom price in the place of others
      atonement  (yam  kippur),   and to the covering of         and with great benefit for others.
      the ark, the mercy seat. Ransom is closely re-                  The idea of ransom was taught the Israel-
      lated in thought to the concepts purchase, buy,            ites by several precepts of the Mosaic law. If
      redeem. The Greek term means to release on                 an ox with a reputation for pushing with his
      receipt of a ransom, to liberate by payment of             horn kill a man, the owner of the ox shall be


    Rev. Kuiper is pastor of Southeast Protestant Reformed
    Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

SS/f&ndard  Bearer/November  15, 1998


put to death; but if a sum of money be laid           raises them up, gets glory for Himself, and
upon him, he shall give for the ransom of his         frees His people from cruel bondage. Sec-
life (Ex.  21:30). Because the firstborn males of     ondly, these examples show that reprobation
man and of beast belonged to the Lord  (Ex.           serves election, the world serves the church.
13:2,  12), the beasts are to be sacrificed to the    All things are for our sakes! All things are
Lord, but all the firstborn children shall be re-     ours, we are Christ's, and Christ is God's
deemed (Ex.  13:15).  Thus, when Jesus was pre-           A ransom price implies bondage. Man is
sented in the temple at the age of eight days,        subject to the dominion and curse of sin (Gal.
He was circumcised and a ransom price was             3:13 and I Cor.  15:56). In a secondary sense,
paid that He might be free to go about His            man is in bondage to Satan as the head of the
earthly ministry (Luke  2:21-24).  If a hungry        kingdom of darkness, and to the bondage of
man steals, he is not despised; if he be found        the fear of death (Acts  26:18 and Heb.  2:14,
out, he must restore sevenfold (here, the fine        15). But the ransom must not be paid to Sa-
is a kind of ransom). But he who committeth           tan. Sin is not against Satan; it entered into
adultery lacks understanding, and the offended        the world by Satan. Sin is against God. God
husband will not be satisfied with any ransom         must be satisfied with a ransom price in order
(Prov.  6:35).                                        that he might set His people free from bond-
    But it was always plain to the Israelite that     age. And God alone decides what that price
he could not give a ransom for his own soul or        is! The price is death. The price is the death
for the soul of his brother, "for the redemp-         of the Son of God united to human nature.
tion of their soul is precious"  (Ps.  49:7,  8).     The price is voluntary, willing death. The price
Jesus comments on this Psalm, "For what is a.         is loving God and keeping His law, in the
man profited, if he shall gain the whole world,       midst of death and at the moment of death.
and lose his own soul? or what shall a man            "Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the
give in exchange for his soul?" (Matt.  16:26).       law, being made a curse for us" (Gal.  3:13).
The ransom of the soul can be accomplished            The idea of ransom reaches its deepest and
only by God Himself, as God spoke to proud            fullest meaning in the substitutionary work of
Ephraim, "I will ransom them from the power           Jesus Christ!
of the grave; I will redeem them from death"              Instructing His disciples in true greatness,
(Hos.  13:14).                                        Jesus said, "Even as the Son of man came not
    The term ransom is also used with two             to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to
great deliverances that God gave to the Israel-       give His life a ransom for many" (Matt.  20:18).
ites. Of their deliverance out of the land of         Instructing the  ,young Timothy in public
Egypt, that great house of bondage, we read,          prayer, that supplications and intercessions be
"I gave Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia and            made for all men (all kinds or classes of men,
Seba for thee. Since thou wast precious in my         including kings and others in authority), Paul
sight, thou hast been honourable, and I have          writes that this is good and acceptable to God,
loved thee: therefore will I give men for thee,       "who would have all men to be saved and
and people for thy life" (Is.  43:3, 4). Concern-     come unto the knowledge of the truth. For
ing their return from captivity in Babylon we         there is one God, and one mediator between
read, "For the Lord hath redeemed Jacob, and          God and men, the man Christ Jesus; who gave
ransomed him from the hand of him that was            himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due
stronger than he"  (Jer.  31:ll). In both these       time" (I Tim. 2:1-6). Christ gave Himself for
examples, the idea is not that foreign nations        all those given Him by the Father. Rich and
which were wasted by God for the sake of His          poor, male and female, Jew and Gentile, of
people were types or pictures of the great ran-       high and low estate, all are under universal
som price that our sins demanded; this could          bondage. And the only way to be saved is to
never be. But these examples reveal the sov-          be freed from sin and death, from the curse
ereignty of God in the way in which He saved          and all fear, by the ransom price that Christ
His people under the old covenant. He does            alone can bring, and did bring. If He has made
what He pleases with nations and peoples. He          you free, then you are free indeed! Q




                                                                           November 15,  1998fitandard   Bearer/S9


             Establishing Schools to Provide
            Reformed-Covenant Education (1)

                                                   +++  +++  +++
T                                                                                              of the  Standard Bearer  makes obvi-
      his article is an introduction                                                           ous what I have indicated about the
      to several articles concerning           Leadership was provided early                   number of articles.
      the development and estab-          in the days prior to the existence                       A review of the articles writ-
lishing of the Protestant Reformed        of the schools and in the early days                 ten will indicate that some of the
Christian schools. Articles con-          o f   t h e   P R C   b y   R e v .   H e r m a n    articles were critical of the estab-
cerning the development of the PR         Hoeksema and other ministers who                     lished Christian school movement
schools are appropriate in view of        advocated our own Christian                          supported primarily by the CRC.
the planning authorized by synod          schools. These leaders and spokes-                   Others were more positive in that
to commemorate and celebrate the          men for the cause taught and pro-                    they provided specific direction for
75th anniversary of the Protestant        moted the truth that believers                       those developing Christian schools.
Reformed Churches in America.             could most correctly carry out their                 A series of articles has traced the
    Recalling and rereading this          promise to instruct the seed of the                  history of education during the six-
history will be a review for some.        covenant in the doctrines of Scrip-                  teenth century Reformation. Other
For others it will be an introduc-        tures as these are summarized in                     articles have urged parents to form
tion. Those remembering the pe-           the Three Forms of Unity by estab-                   societies and have exhorted parents
riod 1934-1953 in the history of our      lishing PR schools that were staffed                 concerning their responsibility to
churches will remember the estab-         with teachers who were members                       erect distinctively Reformed Chris-
lishment and operation of the First       of the church and had espoused the                   tian schools staffed by well-pre-
Reformed Christian School of              distinctive doctrines that led to the                pared and orthodox teachers. Still
Redlands, California. Some may            formation of the PRC. Not all                        other articles have been concerned
remember attending this school            agreed that such schools were nec-                   with finances, intrusion by the gov-
and learning  -their lessons during       essary, but such leadership did                      ernment, place of doctrine in the
those early days in the church base-      serve to help in the founding of the                 schools, consistorial promotion of
ment of the Redlands  PR Church.          fourteen schools that are in exist-                  Christian schools, etc.
    The establishing and develop-         ence today.                                              The first of the more than 300
ing of the PR Christian schools is                                                             articles published in the  Standard
part of the past which serves as the               +++  +++  +++                               Bearer  concerning Christian educa-
foundation for our current schools.                                                            tion was the text of a sermon
It is an important legacy that we              Since October, 1924, when the                   p r e a c h e d   b y   R e v .   H e r m a n
ought to know and celebrate. It is        first issue of the Standard Bearer  ap-              Hoeksema prior to the existence of
part of the  heritageout  of which        peared, over three hundred articles                  the PRC.        Rev. H. Hoeksema
we live.                                  concerning Christian education and                   preached this sermon in Septem-
    In this first article we intend to    Christian schools have been writ-                    ber of 1916, when he was a minis-
survey the literature and some of         ten and published in the  Standard                   ter in the Fourteenth Street Chris-
the writings that have provided the       Bearer. This plethora of informa-                    tian Reformed Church, Holland,
stimulus and positive direction for       tion and this proliferation of ar-                   Michigan (cf.  Standard Bearer,  Vol-
the development of the PR school          ticles is an indication of the impor-                ume 3, pp. 532-536, September 1,
movement.                                 tance that education of covenant                     1927).
                                          children has in the lives and think-                     The text for the sermon was
                                          ing of members of the Protestant                     Deuteronomy  6:7. In this classic
Miss Lubbers is a member  of  First       Reformed Churches.                                   and well-known passage Moses ex-
Protestant Reformed Church in Grand            A perusal of the recently pub-                  horts the people of Israel to teach
Rapids, Michigan.                         lished index of the first 73 volumes                 the precepts of God diligently to

SO/Standard Bearer/November 15, 1998


their children, to talk of them when                   adopted by the school societies.            in darkness and is perverse in all
they sit in their houses, when they                        We reproduce these principles           its ways because of sin, it is the
walk by the way, when they lie                         because they should not merely              calling of the people of God to live
down, and when their rise up.                          gather dust in the constitutions and        by grace from the principle of re-
                                                                                                   generation according to the will
    Emphasized in the sermon was                       archives of our schools but they            of God in every sphere of life, in-
the truth that the education of the                    should be studied and understood.           dividual, family, social, industrial,
children must be specifically Chris-                   These six principles, composed              political, and ecclesiastical, so that
tian and that education should be                      more than six decades ago, articu-          they may be children of light in           =
viewed as one of the most impor-                       late the basic reasons, the essen-          the midst of a crooked and per-
tant tasks of the Christian parent.                    tials, for the establishing and main-       verse generation. Hence they in-
The sermon demonstrated the bib-                       taining of Protestant Reformed              sist that all education, that must
lical basis of Christian education,                    Christian schools.                          prepare their children for such an
particularly of Christian education                                                                all-sided Christian walk in the
                                                                                                   world, shall be adapted to this
in the school, and stated summarily                           +++  +++  +++                        purpose.
and clearly the fundamental nature
of such education.                                        Six Fundamental Principles               5. It is the objective of the Chris-
     Four years later, in a series of                    1. The Bible is from beginning to         tian school to furnish the pupil
ten editorials running from No-                          end the written Word of God,              with an education which in all its
vember, 1931, to August, 1932,                           given by infallible inspiration. All      branches is rooted in the principle
Herman Hoeksema subjected the                            school administration, instruction,       of the fear of God as the begin-
principles of the existing Christian                     and discipline shall be based on it       ning of wisdom; and thus to co-
                                                         and permeated by its teaching, for
school movement to a careful ex-                                                                   labor, in its own proper domain,
                                                         we acknowledge that the fear of           alongside of and in distinction
amination. He contended that the                         God is the beginning of wisdom.           from the home and the church, to
Christian school movement (Na-                                                                     equip the pupil with that knowl-
tional Union of Christian Schools,                       2.God,  who created and sustains          edge and wisdom which is neces-
now Christian Schools Interna-                           all things and governs them ac-           sary in order that he may be able
tional) was governed by basic prin-                      cording to His sovereign counsel;         to walk in the midst of the world
ciples that are generally Christian                      who is triune and, as such, lives         worthy of the vocation wherewith
but not specifically Reformed.                           an eternal covenant-life of friend-       God calls His people, and that the
     The positive purpose of these                       ship in infinite perfection; from         man of God may be perfect, thor-
                                                         eternity chose and in time forms
articles was to make clear to the                                                                  oughly furnished unto all good
                                                         a people unto Himself, to stand
Protestant Reformed supporters of                                                                  works.
                                                         in covenant-relationship unto Him
Christian education their calling                        in Christ Jesus their Lord, that          6.In determining the Course of
with respect to covenant education.                      they might walk in all good works         Study of the Christian school the
In these articles Hoeksema argued                        which He ordained for them, and           principles heretofore set forth
that. Protestant Reformed people                         in all their life in the world should     should be adopted as a basis for
use the existing Christian schools                       be to the praise of His glory, chil-      the entire curriculum. And of the
as long as nothing more ideal ex-                        dren of light in the midst of a           teacher, upon whom rests the re-
isted. He urged reformation of the                       crooked and perverse generation.          sponsible task of carrying out this
Christian schools that were then                                                                   course   ~of study, it shall be re-
                                                         3.From  a fallen and wholly de-           quired that he present a testimo-
being used but, if that did not suc-                     praved human race, and in the             nial from a Reformed Normal
ceed, he advocated an independent                        midst of a world that lieth in dark-      School. It shall also be required
movement that would establish                            ness, a crooked and perverse gen-         of him that he express full and
schools on fundamentally sound                           eration, God saves His elect, es-         wholehearted agreement with the
principles.                                              tablishing His covenant with them         basic principles heretofore set
     His tenth and final editorial in                    and their children in the line of         forth and that he declare his pur-
this series of articles concluded                        continued generations, forming            pose to make of the teaching pro-
with the  six specific principles                        them by His sovereign grace in            fession no stepping-stone but his
                                                         Christ into a people of Himself,
Herman Hoeksema proposed as the                                                                    life-task.
                                                         that they might be His friends,
basis for all Reformed Christian                         and, living in every sphere of life             +++  +++  +++
education. (Cf. Standard  Bearer,                        from the principle of regeneration          The language of these six prin-
August  1,1932, Volume 8, pp. 488-                       through faith, they should show          ciples is non-compromising and
489.)                                                    forth His praises and walk as chil-      confessionally Reformed. They
     These principles have been                          dren of light in the world.              may appear to be out-of-date to
used by all of the school societies                                                               some, but to the Reformed Chris-
i n   t h e   P r o t e s t a n t   R e f o r m e d      4.In the midst of and in distinc-        tian these principles express the
Churches in the Constitutions                            tion from the evil world that lieth      Reformed distinctives that must

                                                                                                     November 15,1998/Standard  Bearer/9 7


regulate the instruction, discipline,             It should be apparent that             Reformed Christian education free
and administration of truly Chris-            genuine interest and -concern for          from the errors and influence of the
tian schools.       These Reformed            the education of the covenant seed         common grace theories and the de-
distinctives are those that should            has always been the concern of Re-         viant world view advocated by
drive and give direction to all four-         formed believers because of their          Abraham Kuyper and adopted by
teen of the Protestant Reformed               responsibility as a covenant people.       the Christian Reformed Church in
Christian school societies that have          Truly Reformed Christian educa-            1924 goes back to the origin and
established schools and have em-              tion was a significant concern of          early days of the Protestant Re-
ployed teachers to educate the chil-          the early leaders of our churches          formed Churches.
dren and youth attending these                and of the people of the churches.            ~A goodly heritage is ours,
schools.                                      Interest in the PRC for distinctive        marked out with gracious care. 0




                                                  . ..The Greeley service was one            While not an actual merger, the
                                                of many occurring around the na-           Protestant pact calls for much
n  Towards Greater Unity?                       tion to recognize the common               greater cooperation among the de-
A number of newspapers have ground four national churches                                  nominations,     e v e n   a l l o w i n g
         reported an event towards              have found....                             Lutheran clergy to pastor Presby-
which four major denominations                    . . . "It was great," Bob Bischoff       terian churches, and vice versa.
                                                                                           Together, the four churches claim
have been working for a long time.              said.    "There was just the right
                                                humor                                      more than 10 million members.
The Evangelical Lutheran Church                           in it (the sermon)."
                                                  Bersagel`s sermon began with               Nevertheless, the Rev. Timothy
in America, the Presbyterian                    some words on how the different            Lull, president of Pacific Lutheran
Church (USA), the United Church                 churches gathered together for the         Theological Seminary, conceded
of Christ, and the Reformed                     morning.                                   that yesterday's event  - patterned
Church in America recently signed                 . . . "It's so neat to get-everyone      after a larger national gathering
an agreement to have "full com-                 together," said Bernie Bliss, who          two days earlier in Chicago  - was
munion" together. The Greeley                   attends First Congregational.              history with a very small  "h."
Tribune  gave a report titled "Shar-              "We've let stuff on paper keep             . ..Even in the American heart-
                                                                                           land, Lull said, the Lutherans,
ing the Word":                                  us apart when the underlying rea-
                                                son we are all here is to worship."        Presbyterians and  Congregation-
                                                                                           alists can no longer pretend to be
    With choir members providing                                                           the "mainline" Protestants. They
  the background music, the people                Along the same vein, the San             are fast losing "market share,"
  who filled the pews at First Con-           Francisco  Chronicle,  Oct. 7, 1998,         while in the Bay area, "the tide of
  gregational Church Sunday morn-             stated:                                      Christendom  seems to  be ebbing,
  ing broke bread together.                                                                and vital religion manifests itself
    Then the people drank wine to-                Overcoming 470 years of divi-            in other traditions."
  gether.                                       sion, members of four Protestant             Lull's sermon did manage to
    Though the two traditions are               denominations came together in a           find a few rays of light. He noted
  not unusual to see in a church,               historic "full communion" service          that the "formula of agreement"
  Sunday's 11 a.m. service was not              in Berkley yesterday but confessed         between the four denominations
  of the usual kind.                            that they still have a long way to         heals a wound that opened at the
    Five Greeley congregations en-              go-                                        Colloquy of  Marburg  in 1529.
  tered into "full communion" to-                 The service, held in the chapel          That was the fateful session where
  gether. This means that the de-               at the Pacific School of Religion,         Martin Luther, the German Re-
  nominations have decided to heal              was the first church-sanctioned            former, and Ulrich Zwingli, his
  their disagreements with each                 communion service in Northern              Swiss counterpart, could not agree
  other, both nationally and locally,           California where members of the            on whether the bread and wine
  and recognize each others` bap-               Lutheran and Reformed churches             were really the body and blood of
  tisms and ministries. They also               shared in the Christian liturgy of         Christ. Luther favored the more
  will accept members of the other              bread and wine.                            traditional teachings, splintering
  churches to take communion.                     It took 35 years of ecumenical           the young Protestant movement.
                                                negotiations for the Evangelical             . . . "We have sinned by claiming
                                                Lutheran Church in America, the            our differences as more important
                                                Presbyterian Church USA, the               than our oneness in the Body of
                                                United Church of Christ and the
Rev. VanBaren  is pastor of the Protestant                                                 Christ," said seminary student
                                                Reformed Church in America to
Reformed Church  of  Loveland, Colo-                                                       Kirk  Wegter-McNelly,  addressing
                                                make it to the altar.
rado.                                                                                      the congregation.

92fitandard  Bearer/November 15, 1998


    "Forgive us, 0 God," the con-             ternal Revenue Service code                           t h e   f i r m   S i n g e r ,   W o l f   a n d
  gregation replied.                          known as  5Ol(c)3. This IRS rule                      Mongelii, said that the IRS's
                                              (it is not Constitutional law) was                    501(c)3 effectively operates as a
    It is a truism that the oneness           introduced during the Roosevelt                       statist doctrine that tells churches,
of the body of Christ is of utmost            administration as a way to further                    "We'll leave you alone if you leave
importance. Christ Himself prayed             codify the modernist interpreta-                      us alone." In other words, so long
                                                                                                    as the church sticks to its knitting
that "they all may be one; as thou,           tion of the separation between
                                              church and state. Under this law,                     defined by the state, then its  tax-
Father, art in me, and I in thee, that        churches or any other non-profit                      exempt status is secure. If it ven-
they also may be one in us: that              organization are exempt from gov-                     tures beyond these parameters,
the world may believe that thou               ernment taxation so long as only                      however, be assured that the IRS
hast sent me" (John  17:21).  The             a   m i n i m a l   a m o u n t   o f   t h e         will-take notice and begin to come
question remains prominently be-              organization's money and/or re-                       in for a closer look. Is this any
fore us, "Is this beginning of unity          sources are employed in political                     different in principle from what
between the denominations, the                activity.                                             is occurring in China? Churches
unity which reflects that between                Over the years, the IRS has said                   have largely played along, but
the Father and Christ?" Such unity            these moneys and resources can-                       some non-profit groups have not.
                                              n o t   e x t e n d   b e y o n d   5 %   o f   a
is based on truth. The "unity" now            church's or non-profit organiza-                         There's much more, of course,
being practiced by the aforemen-              tion's budget. The IRS also has                      in that article as well as another
tioned denominations can only be              ensured this rule covers specific                    which examines the tax situation
on the basis of the "lowest com-              activities: endorsing or opposing                    in Canada. That of Canada may,
mon denominator." If "truth" is               a political candidate for office, di-                if possible, be even more serious
sacrificed on this altar of "unity,"          recting funds to any one political                   than that of the IRS in the USA.
then one must despair of the con-             candidate or Political Action Com-                   One is, however, reminded of the
sequences. One will surely see this           mittee, and making a church mail-
                                                                                                   attempt of governments to erode,
"unity" resulting further in loss of          ing  list available to one candidate
                                              but not another. Although this                       little-by-little, the position of
"market share." And why? If doc-              IRS rule has kept the church from                    Christ's church. Some countries
trine no longer is significant, if            being taxed as an organization in                    have simply outlawed the church.
"unity" remains the common                    the U.S., it also has contributed to                 But perhaps of greater concern is
theme, w h y   b e l o n g   t o   s u c h    muzzling the church from speak-                      the gradual erosion of the duty and
churches? There could be perhaps              ing against unrighteousness in our                   responsibility of the church by the
a measure of excitement for a time,           land for fear that particular dec-                   state under the guise of "separa-
but when the foundations are de-              lamations against abortion, the                      tion between church and state." It
stroyed, what else can the righ-              public countenancing of homo-
                                                                                                   reminds me again of the story of
teous do-but seek that which still            sexuality, or any other nefarious
                                              activity, such as government wel-                    the frog. When thrown into hot,
highly values the truth of God's              fare, would place the church in a                    boiling water, it will (so I was told)
Word and holds to the old creeds              position of endorsing one politi-                    immediately seek to escape. But
of His church?                                cal platform over another.                           when the frog is placed in cold wa-
                                                 As a result, the church has                       ter which is gradually heated, pre-
n 501(c)3-Bane  or                            sheepishly fallen prey to the mod-                   sumably it does nothing and is
Blessing?                                     ernist interpretation of separation
C                                             between church and state. Ser-                       cooked. Is this what is now hap-
     hristian Renewal,  Oct. 5, 1998,         mons, teaching, and Christian ac-                    pening to the churches of our
     contains several articles treat-         tivity are hardly ever extended to                   North American countries?                     Cl
ing the question of taxation of non-          society at large as they were dur-
profit organizations, including               ing the Reformation, but only to
churches, in the USA and also in              the Christian heart that somehow
Canada. Matters of some serious               must survive in a culture that has
import are presented there. I quote           long been given away. Even  Cal-
just part of the article pertaining           vinistic churches, which have long
                                              stood for the Gospel's power of
to the taxation laws of the USA:              cultural transformation, have re-
                                              ceded into the woodwork, teach-
     . . . My focus here will be on           ing holiness for holiness' sake,
  taxation of the church, which re-           and not for the glory of God as it
  mains tax exempt, but only it               impacts the society in which
  seems if it also remains largely si-        Christians live, work and have a
  lent on issues that the  Churchof           state.
  Jesus Christ is obligated to ad-               Todd Polyniak, a Reformed
  dress. In the U.S., we have an In-          churchman, CPA and partner of

                                                                                                       November 15,  7998/Standard  Bearer/93


                                                           lution"); and his famed inaugural                            He completed the series simulta-
A b r a h a m   K u y p e r :   A   C e n t e n n i a l
Reader,  ed. James D. Bratt. Grand                         address at the Free University                               neously with his election as prime
Rapids,          MI/Cambridge, U.K.:                       ("Sphere Sovereignty").                                      minister" (p. 165).
Eerdmans/Paternoster,  1998. xiv +                              -The articles come from all pe-                             Adding to the value and plea-
498 pages. $29.00 (paper). [Reviewed                       riods of Kuyper's life and cover all                         sure of the work are the pictures,
by the editor.]                                            the amazing Dutchman's interests:                            editorial cartoons from newspapers
M                                                          theology, politics, and culture.                             of the time, and short quotations
         ost of the sixteen pieces by                            All of the articles demonstrate                        from Kuyper's church paper and
         Abraham Kuyper that are the                       t h e   b r i l l i a n t   m i n d   o f   a   g r e a t    newspaper.     Outstanding is the
content of this book have never be-                        scholar. Many shine the light of                             meditation on death written by
fore been translated into English.                         biblical, Reformed truth upon vital                          Kuyper on the occasion of the
They are either published speeches                         issues in church and society. Some                           death of his wife (pp. 408-415).
by the great Dutch theologian and                          display disquieting weaknesses in                            One of the quotations sprinkled
politician, shorter articles, or ex-                       the influential thought of one who                           throughout the book is Kuyper's
cerpts from longer works. Among                            claimed in all things to be a Cal-                           response to criticism from some of
them are Kuyper's account of his                           vinist.                                                      his own followers, that wine was
spiritual conversion ("Confiden-                                 Editor James D. Bratt intro-                           served at the banquet attending the
tially"); his critique of theological                      duces each piece, setting it in his-                         inaugural of the Free University:
liberalism ("Modernism: A  Fata                            torical context and offering pointed                         I, . . . the Reformed are not the sort
Morgana in the Christian Do-                               analysis. The introductions are                              towater down their wine.... From
main"); a well-chosen selection                            helpful.           Bratt acknowledges                        the chocolate kettle and the milk
from Kuyper's still untranslated                           Kuyper's personal, political motive                          and water bottle rises no race of
three-volume work on common                                in writing the series of articles on                         bold Calvinists" (p. 489).
grace ("Common Grace");  a- great                          common grace: with his writings                                  There are some memorable
analysis of the Boer War ("The                             on common grace Kuyper wanted                                lines, e.g., "From . . . Scripture (we
South African Crisis"); Kuyper's                           to bring the Reformed people in the                          have) learned that those can live
penetrating exposures of panthe-                           Netherlands "back in touch with                              who are prepared to die and that
ism and of evolution ("The Blur-                           the larger society and culture-also                          where God is with us no bully can
ring of the Boundaries" and "Evo-                          for immediate political purposes.                            make us crawl"  (p. 44).  Cl





                                                           top and bottom plates for those ex-                          the exterior walls. The storm line
Congregational Activities
T                                                          terior walls.                                                has been placed in the parking lot,
        he Hull, IA PRC recently                                 Of course, this being mid-No-                          and water and sewer lines have
        adopted a proposal to build a                      vember, we can only assume that                              been brought to the building.
new parsonage. Their building                              work has continued at Bethel way                                 This time of year many of our
committee is now in the process of                         beyond the point of wall raising.                            congregations are holding their an-
letting out the project for bids. It                       If you have access to a computer                             nual congregational meetings. The
is hoped that this new home can                            you can check it out for yourself                            Grace PRC in Standale, MI recently
be completed by June of next year.                         on Bethel's web site. They have                              held theirs, and we are thankful
        On Saturday, September i6, the                     many pictures which show the                                 that we can report that their bud-
walls of the Bethel PRC in Itasca,                         progress.          Simply go to our de-                      get for 1999 was approved with no
IL were raised. This, after a week                         nominational                 web          site at            General Fund subsidy being re-
when men from Bethel worked ev-                            www.prca.org, then go to Bethel                              quested from Hope Church. We
ery day at the new church site, cut-                       under the listing of churches and                            join in their thanks to God for
ting, drilling, and laying out the                         click on their "new location."                               reaching this milestone of being
                                                                 Work also continues at the new                         self-supporting, as well as thanks
                                                           church site of the Georgetown PRC                            to Hope, their "mother church," for
Mr. Wigger  is an elder in the Prb~estant                  in Hudsonville, MI. The bulletin                             the years of generous assistance
Reformed Church  of  Hudsonville,  Micki-                  of October 4 reported that the                               that she provided.
gan.                                                       bricklayers were continuing to lay                               On October 16 the Covenant

fl4/3tandard  Bearer/November 15, 1998


Ladies Circle of the First PRC in                      hosted a fall lecture in Grandville,             churches. Their mandate for that
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada spon-                        with Prof. R. Dykstra speaking on                visit of more than two weeks was
sored an evening of  feIIowship  for                   the topic, "God's Priceless  Gift-               to develop our contacts there and
women from their congregation,                         The Family."                                     investigate the possibility of recom-
and their teenage daughters, as                            O n   O c t o b e r   1 6   R e v .   M .    mending the Philippines as a field
well as those from Immanuel PRC                        VanderWal,  pastor of Covenant                   of mission labor. They are sched-
in Lacombe and women from the                          PRC in Wyckoff, New Jersey, gave                 uled to report their findings to the
area. Rev. M.  DeVries gave a short                    a lecture entitled "Jesus Christ:                FMC on November 16, D.V.
meditation on the topic, "The                          Victor Over Hell." This was the
Godly Woman: A Life of Self-De-                        final lecture in a three-part series             Denominational Activities
nial or Self-Fulfillment." A lunch                     sponsored by Covenant's Evange-                  Theannual meeting of the RFPA
followed, as well as some special                      lism Society.                                       was held in late September at
numbers provided by various                                A group of men from the                      Grace PRC in Standale, MI. Rev.
members of the group.                                  Southwest PRC in Grandville, MI,                 S. Key spoke on the topic, "Read-
                                                       the calling church for our mission               ing, Writing, and Heretics."
Evangelism Activities
T                                                      work in Pittsburgh, PA, traveled                     In late September Rev. C.
     he      c o n g r e g a t i o n   o f   t h e     there in late September to work on               Hanko led the men and women of
     Kalamazoo, MI PRC were en-                        the home recently purchased for                  the Eastern Men's and Ladies'
couraged to set aside Thursdays in                     our missionary, Rev. Mahtani, and                League in an informal talk on the
October to attend their churches'                      his family. Various repairs and                  topic, "Spiritual Life of the Family
"Fall Seminars."             The theme for             renovations were planned and a                   after the Children are Grown."
this year's three seminars was "The                    study was built in the basement.
Church: God's Glorious Bride."                             One of the special projects the              Minister Activities
Rev. W. Bruinsma presented the                         Young People's Society of the First              0 n October 7 Rev. and Mrs. J.
first seminar, October 8, on "The                      PRC in Holland, MI is busily en-                      Laning were blessed with the
Church and Her Role in Society."                       gaged in this year is the writing of             birth of a son, Samuel Scott.
Following one week later was Rev.                      monthly letters and or cards to our              Samuel was born about three
B. Gritters, speaking on the subject,                  missionaries and their families,                 months prematurely. He is ex-
" T h e   T r u e   V e r s u s   t h e   F a l s e    Not a bad idea for the rest of us as             pected to be in De Vos Children's
Church."          Rev. Bruinsma con-                   well.                                            Hospital in Grand Rapids, MI for
cluded the short series October 22,                        The delegation of Revs. A.                   ten weeks or so.
speaking on the theme of "Our                          denHartog and  R: Smit have re-                      Rev. and Mrs. R.  Smit thank-
Calling Toward the Church."                            turned home again in late October                fully received the blessed gift of a
     The Evangelism Committee of                       from their travels to the I%ilippines            daughter, Rebekah Ann, born into
the Grandville, MI PRC recently                        on behalf of the FMC of our                      their family on September 24. [7





                                                         RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                           RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
  RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                   The Men's Society of the Hope                    The council and congregation
     The council of Faith PRC ex-                      Protestant Reformed Church of                    of Southeast PRC express their sin-
press their Christian sympathy to                      Redlands, CA extend their Chris-                 cere sympathy to Mrs. Pauline
Elder Gerald Feenstra and his fam-                     tian  sympathy  to the children,                 Breen and her husband in the death
ily in the loss of his mother,                         grandchildren, and relatives of                  of her brother,
       JEANETTE FEENSTRA.                                MRS. JEANETTE FEENSTRA                             MR. HAROLD STEGENGA.
     May they find comfort in these                    in her passing to glory. May our                     May the family find comfort in
words:        "And we know that all                    gracious God comfort them by His                 the words of the psalmist: "Pre-
things work together for good to                       Word. "The Lord is my rock, and                  cious in the sight of the Lord is the
them that love God, to them who                        my fortress, and my deliverer; my                death of his saints" (Psalm 116:15).
are the called according to his pur-                   God, my strength, in whom I will                              Rev. Dale Kuiper, Pres.
pose" (Romans  8:28).                                  trust" (Psalm  18:2).                                                   Tim Pipe, Clerk
            Rev. Kenneth Koole, Pres.                            Rev.  denHartog, President
                  Arie E. Griffioen, Clerk                        Mr. Earl Grothman, Sec'y.


                                                                                                            November 15,  1998fitandard  Bearer/95


        Fe
Standard
  Barer                                                                                                                                       PERIODICAL
                                                                                                                                              Postage Paid at
     P.O. Box 603                                                                                                                             Grandville,
    Grandville, Ml  49468-0603                                                                                                                Michigan


   RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                          WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                                 RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
       The Adult Bible Society of Doon                             With thankfulness to our heavenly fa-                  The Sr. Mr. and Mrs. Society of Hope
PRC express their Christian sym-                             ther we celebrated on September 25 the                  PRC (Walker) expresses its sincerest sym-
p a t h y   t o   o u r   f e l l o w   m e m b e r          40th anniversary of our parents,                        pathy to fellow members Mr. and Mrs. Dan
Charlene Van Egdom in the death                                JOHN and DELORES KUIPER.                              DeMeester, Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Kamps,
of her infant daughter,                                            We are grateful to God for the cov-               and Mr. and Mrs. Gary Nienhuis in the
                   EMILY DAWN.                               enant instruction and godly example that                death of their sister-in-law,
       May she and her family find                           they have given us. May God continue to                               LISA KAMPS.
comfort in God's Word, "He shall                             guide them by His counsel through the                        May the Lord continue to be their
feed his flock like a shepherd: he                           years to come.                                          strength and comfort: "Then spake Jesus
shall gather the lambs with his arm,                               "But the mercy of the Lord is from                again unto them, saying, I am the light of
and carry them in his bosom, and                             everlasting to everlasting upon them that               the world: he that followeth me shall not
shall gently lead those that are with                        fear him, and his righteousness unto                    walk in darkness, but shall have the light
young" (Isaiah  4O:ll).                                      children's children" (Psalm  103:7).                    of life" (John 8:12).
                   Rev. Richard Smit, Pres.                  6 Scott and Joyce Boverhof                                                    Rev. J. Laning, President
                    Karen VanDenTop, Sec.                    l :* Ron and Marlys Kuiper                                           Mrs. Connie Meyer, Secretary
                                                             9 John Kuiper
                                                             +     Dave and Pam Moelker                                RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
       WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                                                                      Jenison, Michigan         The Adult Bible Society of Doon  PRC
       O n   D e c e m b e r   10,  1 9 9 8 ,   o u r                                                                express their Christian sympathy to our
parents,                                                           WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                               fellow member Jean Wynia in the death
 BILL and SHIRLEY FEENSTRA,                                        On November 8, our parents,                       of her mother-in-law,
will celebrate their  50th wedding an-                        DAVID and BONNIE MOELKER,                                    MRS.  JOHANNA  WYNIA.
niversary. It is with thanksgiving                           celebrated 30 years of marriage.                             May she with her husband and family
to our heavenly Father that we cel-                                We thank our heavenly Father for                  find comfort in God's Word, "It is of the
ebrate this event with  theti. "The                          their godly example, and pray that they                 Lord's mercies that we are not consumed,
Lord is my shepherd; I shall not                             will continue to experience the covenant                because his compassions fail not. They
w a n t . . . .     S u r e l y   g o o d n e s s   a n d    love of God in their life together. We thank            are new every morning: great is thy faith-
mercy shall follow me all the days                           God for giving them to us. "Hear, ye chil-              fulness. The Lord is my portion, saith my
of my life: and I will dwell in the                          dren, the instruction of a father, and at-              soul; therefore will I hope in him" (Lamen-
house of the Lord for ever" (Psalm                           tend to know understanding.... Take fast                tations  3:22-24).
23). We are thankful for Christian                           hold of instruction; let her not go: keep                                     Rev. Richard Smit, Pres.
parents who saw the need to edu-                             her; for she is thy life" (Proverbs 4:1,  13).                                 Karen VanDenTop, Set
cate us at Christian schools and                             +> Kris
faithfully lead us in the life of God's                      l 3 Keven                                                 RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
church.            May the everlasting love                  +:+  K a r i                                                 The council and congregation of the
of our God dwell in your hearts for                          9 Kolleen                                               Southeast PRC extend their Christian sym-
years to come.                                               6   K a t i e                                           pathy to the children and grandchildren of
l :* Larry and Linda Feenstra                                                              Grand Rapids, Michigan          MRS. JULIA KORHORN
           Luke, Jennie, Jackie                                                                                      in her passing to glory. The family can
l :* Wayne and Janice Baker                                                    NOTICE!!                              be comforted with God's Word, I
           Bryan, Jacinta, Courtney,                               Classis  East will meet in regular ses-           Corinthians 1555, "0 death, where is thy
                                    Kellie, Kindra           sion on Wednesday, January 13, 1999, at                 sting? 0 grave, where is thy victory? The
+  J o a n n e   F e e n s t r a                             the Byron Center Protestant Reformed                    sting of death is sin; and the strength of
           Keri, Kim                                         Church, Byron Center, MI. Material for                  sin is the law. But thanks be to God,
l 2 Steven and Neva Feenstra                                 this session must be in the hands of the                which giveth us the victory through our
           Josh, Travis, Jeremy,                             Stated Clerk by December 14, 1998.                      Lord Jesus Christ."
                                 Brandon, Grant                                            Jon J. Huisken                                   Rev. Dale Kuiper, Pres.
                                     Redlands, California                                     Stated Clerk                                            Tim Pipe, Clerk

96ptandard  Bearer/November  f5,1998


