A Reformed
Semi-Monthly



                                                                                   In This Issue:
                    Meditation  - Rev. Cornelius  Hanko
                               Our Eternal Blessedness in Christ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .98
                    Editorial  -  Prof.   David  J,  Engelsma
                               Our Seminary as Military Academy (2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
                    Letters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
                    Contribution  - Mr. William Oomkes
                               Report on the BRF Family Conference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
                    Ministering to the Saints  - Prof. Robert D. Decker
                               The Elders and Family Visitation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
                    In His Fear - Rev. Arie  denHartog
                               Christ Returning for Judgment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
                    All Around Us - Rev. Gise  VanBaren . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..~.....~.........................110
                    Taking Heed to the Doctrine  -  Rev. Steven R. Key
                               The Son of God . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .112
                    Search the Scriptures  - Rev. Mitchell C. Dick
                               The Secret of the Future . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  ..~. . . . . . . . . . . 115
                    Day of Shadows  - Homer C. Hoeksema
                               The Conflict of Cain and Abel (1) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
                    News From Our Churches  - Mr. Benjamin Wigger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119





Vol. 75, No. 5
December 1, 1998


              Our Eternal Blessedness in Christ

                                           Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath
                                           blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.
                                                                                                                            Ephesians  1:3


B                                                                 the three persons of the holy Trin-                         deeply involved in His work of sal-
          lessed! That is the keynote                             ity.                                                        vation. The devils are subject to
          of the apostle's greeting to                                    Jesus Christ is the Son, the sec-                   His will and tremble before Him.
          the church of Ephesus, even                             ond person of the divine three, who                         The whole universe, with every liv-
as the theme of the epistle is the                                is the Word, God's revelation out-                          ing creature, including the wicked,
blessedness of the church in Christ.                              side of Himself. He is Jesus, Jeho-                         is under His command, that all may
Blessed be God, the Father of our                                 vah-salvation, eternally ordained to                        serve to our salvation and God's
Lord Jesus Christ, who blesses us,                                bring salvation to all those chosen                         glory.
His church, with every spiritual                                  in Him from before the foundation
blessing in the midst of this present                             of the earth.               He is the Christ,                            444   444   444
evil world.                                                       anointed of God as Head and Me-
                                                                  diator of His church, to redeem her                                  The God and Father of our Lord
             444  444  444                                        and bring her into glory through                            Jesus Christ made the heavens and
                                                                  His Self-surrender and His sacrifi-                         the earth and all that they contain
       God is the triune, covenant                                cial death of the cross.                                    by Jesus Christ. The creation ac-
God who is blessed in Himself, the                                        Christ is presented here as He                      count focuses our attention on our
fullness of all infinite perfections,                             is exalted at the Father's right hand                       first parents in the garden of Eden
who lives His own eternally                                       with a name above all names, en-                            as friend-servants of God, on Adam
blessed life of covenant fellowship                               trusted with all power in heaven                            as our covenant head and represen-
within His own glorious Being as                                  and on earth. He is Lord of His                             tative. Christ already stands in the
                                                                  church, eternally appointed to rule                         background, since "all things were
                                                                  over her and bless her in love.                             created  by  him, and  for  him" (Col.
                                                                  Therefore He is sovereign Lord                              1:16). And thus God in Christ made
Rev. Hanko is a minister emeritus in the                          over all the works of God's hands.                          all things with a view to His church.
Protestant Reformed Churches.                                     The angels are at His service, also                                  God in Christ made the myriad



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of angels according to their ranks        Seed-is Christ, and adds: "And if                        bore the wrath of God in our stead,
as ministering spirits. He created        y e   b e   C h r i s t ' s ,   t h e n   a r e   y e    culminating in the painful, shame-
the sun, the moon, and the billions       Abraham's seed, and heirs accord-                        ful, and accursed death of Calvary.
upon billions of stars and set them       ing to the promise" (Gal.  3:16,29).                     He bore our guilt away and mer-
in their courses. He called forth the          The twelve sons of Jacob be-                        ited for us eternal life with Father
great variety of birds of the air, the    came the twelve-tribes of Israel that                    in.  His glory. Surrendering Him-
many sea monsters and all sorts of        were separated from the nations of                       self to physical death, He arose
fishes in the sea, and a large as-        the world as the typical people of                       again on the third day. After mak-
sortment of beasts and animals.           God. For within them was the true                        ing His resurrection known by
And last of all He made man as            Israel, the elect, spiritual Israel to                   various signs and appearances He
king of the earthly creation, serv-       whom God promised the land of                            ascended to heaven.
ing his Maker.                            Canaan as a land flowing with milk                           Of I&m the church of the shad-
    The God and Father of our             and honey.                                               ows sang: "Lift up your heads, 0
Lord Jesus Christ also upholds and              Thus Israel was delivered from                     ye gates, even lift them up, ye ev-
governs all things by His eternal         the bondage of Egypt by the Angel                        erlasting doors, and the King of
counsel and providence, so that           of Jehovah as a picture of our de-                       glory shall come in. Who is this
herbs and grass, rain and drought,        liverance from the bondage of sin                        King of glory? The Lord of hosts,
fruitful and barren years, meat and       and death. They were led through                         he is the King of glory!" In Paul's
drink, health and sickness, riches        the waste and howling wilderness,                        epistle to the Philippians we are
and poverty, yea, all things come         where they were fed by manna and                         told that, because he humbled
to us by His Father-hand. Thus all        given water from the rock. Both                          Himself even unto the death of the
things must serve for the salvation       the manna and the rock were types                        cross, "God hath highly exalted
of the church to His glory.               of Christ. After forty years they                        him, and given him a name which
                                          were brought into the promised                           is above every name: that in the
         +++  +++  +++                    land.                                                    name of Jesus every knee should
                                                David was a type of Christ as                      bow, of things in heaven, and
    Adam and Eve as our first par-        he fought and triumphed over the                         things in earth, and things under
ents experienced intimate com-            enemies of God. Solomon was a                            the earth; and every tongue should
munion with God as He talked              type of Christ in His exaltation.                        confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
with them in the garden of Eden.          Even though carnal Israel forsook                        to the glory of God the Father"
They were called to devote them-          God and turned to idols, God al-                         (Phil. 2:9-11).
selves to Him in love, to care for        ways had His elect remnant among
the garden as His friends, and            them. There were always the seven                                   +++  +++  +++
therefore also to reject all evil by      thousand who did not bend their
refusing to eat of the forbidden          knee to Baal. It was because of that                         This God and Father of our
tree.                                     elect remnant that the psalmist                          Lord Jesus Christ is our God and
    When they sinned they fell by         could sing: "Glorious things of                          Father for Christ's sake. Even as
the mercy of God, as it were, into        thee are spoken, 0 city of God."                         He has chosen us in Him, and has
the arms of Christ. According to          "Beautiful for situation, the joy of                     redeemed us by His blood accord-
God's eternal purpose He gave to          the whole earth, is mount Zion, . . .                    ing to the riches of His grace, He
them and us His covenant promise          the city of the great King." For the                     also blesses us with every spiritual
that He would put enmity between          one place in all the earth where                         blessing in heavenly places in
the Seed of the woman and the             God dwelled among His elect                              Christ.
seed of the serpent. The former           people was Zion.                                             Christ knows His sheep and
would crush the head of the latter.             In the fullness of time the God                    calls them by His Spirit and Word
    At the time of the flood the          and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ                      with a powerful, efficacious call-
seed of the serpent, the reprobate        sent His Son into the world, pro-                        ing, drawing His own out of death
world, had become ripe for judg-          c e e d i n g   o u t   o f   t h e   l o i n s   o f    into life. We who by nature are
ment. God preserved the seed of           Abraham, from the seed of David,                         dead in trespasses and sins are
the woman, His church, in the ark         born of the virgin Mary. He came                         made alive as God's sons and
by the waters of the flood. The           as the Man of Sorrows, the Suffer-                       daughters by the Spirit of adoption.
covenant line continued in Shem.          ing Servant of God.                                      He calls us by name and we come
To Abraham came the promise that                All His life He fought the battle                  to Him. We come with a broken
God would be his God and the God          of the Lord against the forces of                        heart and a contrite spirit to seek
of his seed after him, in the line of     darkness, and as the mighty Con-                         all our salvation in Him alone. We
generations, for an everlasting cov-      queror overcame them, crushing                           are saved by grace through faith,
enant. Galatians tells us that this       the head of Satan. All His life He                       the gift of our God.

                                                                                                         December  1,1998/Standard   Bearer/99


        Through that bond of faith that       rest among the people, the com-              We rejoice in Christ with a joy un-
unites us with Christ we draw our             petitive preparing of nuclear weap-          speakable and full of glory, expe-
life from Christ, even as a branch            ons and ever increasing lawlessness          riencing a foretaste of the eternal
draws its life from the vine. Only            - all serve the Father's purpose to          joy. For nothing can ever separate
in living connection with Christ can          purify and thus to prepare His               us from the love of God in Christ
we bring forth fruit unto everlast-           church for glory.                            Jesus. All things must work to-
ing life.                                         "Why do the nations rage, and            gether for good to those who love
        We are justified, assured by the      the peoples imagine vain things?"            God, the called according to His
Spirit of Christ that we are righ-            God has set His King upon His                purpose.
teous before God, yea, so com-                holy hill of Zion  (I%. 2). Zion is               We say with the inspired
pletely as if we never had sinned             delivered through judgment. The              psalmist:      "What shall I render
nor will sin anymore, as if we our-           judgments that come upon the                 unto the Lord for all his benefits
selves had merited the right to eter-         wicked cause us to look forward              toward me? I will take up the cup
nal life.                                     to the glorious deliverance of the           of salvation and call upon the name
        Through Christ Jesus we bear          children of God.                             of the Lord."
our Father's likeness as His sons                 In a certain sense we suffer                 -We experience covenant fel-
and daughters. He tells us: "Let              more than the unbelievers (Ps. 73).          lowship with our God through
your light so shine before men, that          For we are strangers and pilgrims,           prayer, worship, and adoration,
they may see your good works, and             hated and despised, and often per-           and thus experience a foretaste of
glorify your Father which is in               secuted for righteousness' sake. As          the full life to come. We live by
heaven."                                      cross bearers we fulfill the suffer-         faith and not by sight. For all
        That does not mean that we are        ings of Christ. If in this life only         things a r e   o u r s ,   a n d   w e   a r e
now without sin and do not suffer             we have hope in Christ we would              Christ's, and Christ is God's, to the
trials and affliction. When God vis-          be the most miserable of creatures.          glory of our Father, both now and
its the earth with His judgments,                 Yet we are new creatures in              for evermore.
His people are also involved.                 Christ, with the beginning of eter-               Bless Him ye angels, wondrous
Earthquakes,  floods,- famines, and           nal life in our hearts. We experi-           in might. Bless Him, ye servants,
other visitations affect them as well         ence the peace of God that passes            who in His will delight! Blessed
as the wicked unbelievers. Wars               all understanding, for we know               be the God and Father of our Lord
among the nations, riots and un-              that God chastens us in His love.            Jesus Christ!  0





         Our Seminary as Military Academy *

                           Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ  Jeszrs.
                           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 with the affairs  of  this life; that he
                      may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.
                                                                                       -11 Timothy 2:1-4

* The fext of the address at the convoca-
tion exercises of the Protestant Reformed     The real war is spiritual, not The true church is the host, the
Theological Seminary held at the First               physical.     It concerns the         army, of Captain Christ. The  sol-
Protestant Reformed Church  of  Grand                glory of the triune God in the        dier is the minister of the gospel.
Rapids, MI on September 9, 1998. The          world. The combatants are mighty                 That the minister is a soldier
first installment appeared in the Novem-      spiritual lords, the risen Jesus             and that his ministry, therefore, is
ber 15 issue of the Standard Bearer.          Christ and fallen Satan.                     a kind of fighting are clearly taught
lOO/Standard   Bearer/December  1,199s


in II Timothy 2:1-4. Paul describes            w i t h   c a r n a l   w e a p o n s   i n   I I          minister's instruction of them (vv.
Timothy as a "good soldier of Jesus            Corinthians  10:3-5:                                       25,26).
Christ." With reference to the  min-               For though we walk in the flesh,                           On the other hand, there is the
istry, the apostle states, "no man                 we do not war after the flesh: (For                    warning against heresy, a word in
that  warreth  entangleth himself                  the weapons of our warfare are                         the sphere of the visible, instituted
with the affairs of this life." A min-             not carnal, but mighty through                         church that eats as a canker, over-
ister purposes to "please him who                  God to the pulling down of strong
                                                   holds;) Casting down  imagina-                         throwing the faith of some mem-
hath chosen him to be a soldier."                  tions, and every high thing that                       bers of the church (vv. 17,181.
    In chapter  1:18 of the first                  exalteth itself against the  knowl-                        Such is the importance of the
epistle to Timothy, Paul describes                 edge of God, and bringing into                         office of the ministry that minis-
the charge, or commission, that a                  captivity every thought to the obe-                    ters are hand-picked by Jesus
minister receives at ordination as                 dience  of Christ....                                  Christ. The minister is a good sol-
the mandate to "war a good war-                                                                           dier  "of  Jesus Christ."  Jesus Christ
fare."                                                   Similarly, the main weapon of                    has chosen the minister to be a sol-
    A man who does not care to                   the enemy is the lie, that is, the                       dier. No minister volunteers for
fight in the ministry,  aman who is            word that denies or falsifies God.                         this service, although he is willing
determined  not  to fight, has no                That was the weapon of choice of                         to serve. Every minister is sum-
place in the seminary. If one  en-               the Old Serpent in Paradise by                           marily drafted by Christ. This is
rolls anyway, he must be                                       which he brought down                      why the Reformed church views
discovered and asked to                   A                    the king and queen of the                  the call of the minister as so im-
leave. A pacifist is a threat         pacifist                 original form of the  king-                portant. The first 20 articles of the
to an earthly nation; a min-         is a threat               dom of God with all their                  Church Order of Dordt have to do
ister who is a pacifist is a            to an                  princes and princesses and                 with the call to the office of the
traitor or a coward.             earthly nation;               got the rule for himself.                  ministry.
    The minister is a sol- a minister who                      This is the deadly weapon                      This is why we tell men that if
dier in a special, uniquely        is a pacifist               that the Evil One wields                   they can possibly avoid the minis-
crucial way. There is a              is a traitor              nightly by means of  tele-                 try, they should do so.
sense in which all the                    ora                  v i s i o n   a n d   m o v i e s   t o        And this is why the people of
saints are soldiers, who              coward.                  befool  millions, including                God should receive their minister
also fight. But the Holy                                       multitudes of professing                   and the Word that he brings, so
Spirit identifies the minis-                                   Christians. They  suppos;                  long as he faithfully teaches the
ters as the main fighters. They are              that they are gods over their own                        gospel of the glory and grace of
the soldiers upon whom the fight-                behavior and that whatever pleases                       God and so long as he devotes him-
ing of the rest of the host of Christ            them is good. The lie of evolution                       self to his office, not entangling
depends. The core of the army of                 in the state schools has destroyed                       himself in the affairs of this life.
God is the body of ministers. The                many churches by its aggressive                              The reality of the great war and
ministers are the special forces.                enlistment of the churches' children                     the will of Christ that the soldier
    This is because of their office              and young people in the material-                        be the minister make our seminary
and its function, namely, the office             istic, humanistic, hedonistic king-                      a military academy. It is a school
of the preaching of the gospel.                  dom of the devil.                                        that trains soldiers.
    The warfare of Jesus Christ on                       The most effective form of the                       Because this is the work of the
behalf of the glory of God and  the-             lie is heresy-the teaching of a false                    seminary, our churches insist that
salvation of the church is waged                 gospel by false teachers in a false,                     the teachers themselves be men
and won by the Word of God. The                  or departing, church.                                    with experience in the pastoral
risen, living Christ Himself speaks                      What follows in II Timothy 2                     ministry. That is, they must them-
this Word from heaven, routing the               makes plain that the army of Christ                      selves be men with combat experi-
foe and defending His church. He                 fights with the Word of God and                          ence. They may not be mere aca-
speaks it through the office of the              that the devil's crew fights with the                    demic theologians, "arm-chair gen-
ministry.                                        lie.                                                     erals." Those who are to teach oth-
    The weapon in the real war is                        " T h e   w o r d   o f   G o d   i s   n o t    ers to fight in the front lines of the
the spiritual weapon of the Word,                bound," we read in verse 9. As a                         real war must be men who have
that is, the Word  preached.  The                good soldier, Timothy must rightly                       proved themselves to be capable
Word preached is the glittering, in-             divide the Word of truth (v. 15).                        soldiers in the congregations. This
vincible sword of the Spirit. With               Even some who presently oppose                           has always been the position of the
the sacraments and discipline, the               themselves to the truth, because                         Reformed churches.
Word of truth is the spiritual                   they have fallen into the snare of                           The training in the seminary
weapon that the apostle contrasts                the devil, may be won by the                             extends to the personal conduct of

                                                                                                              December  7,7998@andard   Bearer/707


the future soldiers. Students are                port us financially. It is not to give      errors condemned in the Canons of
taught to "endure hardness," that                us a good living, but to free us            Dordt. Should one fail to do this,
is, to suffer hardship in the minis-             from worldly cares, so that we can          he would be guilty of breaking his
try.      They are taught to expect              fight, undistracted and unencum-            oath. Congregation and consistory
hardship, not only from without                  bered.                                      must then make this an issue with
the congregation but also from                           We train men along these lines      him. Not only is he not a "good
within. The enemies are not only                 in our seminary.                            soldier," but he is no soldier at all.
the wicked world of ungodly men                          Then there is the training of       The soldier fights against the en-
and women and false churches but                 personal conduct that concerns the          emy.
also the sinful natures of the mem-              motive of the men, their motive for             The seminary will not know-
bers of the congregation. Besides,               abstaining from unnecessary and             ingly graduate a tolerant minister.
there are always hypocrites and the              entangling affairs of this life and         If after graduation and installation
carnal seed in the church. The                   their motive for fighting as a sol-         a man shows himself to be tolerant
seminary calls the soldier-in-train-             dier: "that he  mny  please him who         of the lie, a man who cherishes
ing to bear up under the "hard-                  hath chosen him to be  n soldier,"  that    peace and unity at the expense of
ness" without surrender and with-                is,  to  please  Christ.                    the truth, a man who refuses to be
out slackening in the work. Church                       This is why the minister fights     negative in his teaching, the fault
history gives opportunity for this               with-the Word. It is not because            is his own. The seminary is not to
instruction. Pastoral theol-                                  he is personally pugna-        blame.
ogy is full of it.                                            cious. It is not because           But the condemnation of error
        It is also required of the           suck             he loves the glory of vic-     is in the interests of the truth. The
minister that he deliber-                    is the           tory in the cut-and-thrust     negative preaching serves the posi-
ately avoid entangling him-               importance          of theological debate (a       tive proclamation of the gospel of
self "with the affairs of this            of the office       real temptation!). But his     grace. The condemnation of her-
life." Involvement in busi-           of  fhe ministry        motive is to please Jesus      etics and of departing and false
ness, entertainments, and             that ministers          Christ, whose call of him      churches is the means of the salva-
other aspects of the ordi-                 are  hand-         to the ministry, like His      tion of the elect church to the glory
nary life of the citizens is               picked by          call of him to salvation,      of God.
destructive of the calling of                Jesus            has its source in the love
the earthly soldier. To the                 Christ.           of the Lord that moved             We train them to be soldiers.
extent that he involves him-                                  Jesus to give Himself to       After four years, that pass quickly,
self in these things, he can-                                 the cross for him. This is     we send them off to the battlefield.
not fight. Therefore, when the sol-              a soldier that fights out of love for       We know how commanding offic-
dier is serving his nation in the                his Lord.                                   er-s feel when they must send
military, the state supports him.                        This is the motive already of       young recruits into battle.
        This is also true for ministers.         the student in seminary to be hard              The graduates look so  young-
As much as possible, we must stay                on himself in his studies.                  younger all the time. They do not
clear-and free-of matters of ev-                         Primarily, the training by the      yet know-not really, not experi-
eryday life that are perfectly legiti-           seminary consists of instruction            entially-what the "hardness" of
mate for the other members of the                that gives the students the Word            the ministry is, also in the Protes-
church: business ventures; sports;               of truth and that teaches them how          tant Reformed Churches, where the
hobbies that take up inordinate                  to use this Word in the congrega-           ministry is still honored. They will
time; and the like. Worldly prel-                tion. "Commit the things of Scrip-          soon find out.
ates who spent much of their time                ture and the confessions to faithful            The great war rages, in the con-
hunting, making money, and hav-                  men, who shall be able to teach             gregations, among the saints. And
ing a good time contributed might-               others also," the apostle tells Pro-        there are ungodly men who creep
ily to the falling away of the church            fessor Timothy.                             in unawares.
of Rome at the time of the Refor-                        This instruction emphatically           There is a tug at the heart.
mation.                                          includes that they vigorously wield             But the war is more important
        Those things entangle us!                the Word against the lie, particu-          than they. It is worthy of their suf-
        Those things take up our pre-            larly the lie of the denial of salva-       fering and death.
cious time!                                      tion by grace alone.                            And as true soldiers of Jesus
        Those things exhaust our lim-                    The preaching of the minister       Christ, they will be wonderfully
ited energy!                                     must be antithetical.                       strengthened-and rewarded.  Ct
        Those things imperiously de-                     In the Formula of Subscription,                                    - D J E
mand our attention!                              every Protestant Reformed minis-
        This is why the churches  sup-           ter swears to oppose especially the

102ptandard  Bearer/December  I,  1998


W Good Things about the                                  shall pass on to fellow church                          How could it be? The PRC in-
Issue on Kuyper                                          members.                                            debted to Abraham Kuyper? But
                                                             Unbelievable. The Utrecht                       not without authentic (scriptural)
Wonderful, impressive, infor- church-35,000 members? The reservations.
         mative, edifying, and schol-                    Amsterdam church-140,000 mem-                           May the readers comprehend
arly . . . and many other good things                    bers, 136 officebearers, 28 minis-                  what is written.
can be said about the "Special Ref-                      ters?    A   m e g a - c h u r c h ?   G r e a t
ormation Issue" of the  Standard                         preacher, Reformed, true to the                                                Henry Doorn
Beaver  (10/15/98).  This issue I                        Scriptures, man of God!                                                     Kentwood, MI





                   Report on the BRF Family
                                                         Conference

T                                                            We have gained many friends                     whose contact with the PRC and
         he 4th bi-annual Family Con-                    at the previous three conferences.                  BRF was through the Internet. For
         ference of the British Re-                      Each time, in preparation for at-                   the youngest, honors went to
         formed Fellowship was held                      tending these conferences, we                       Suzanna Moore, who was just
i n   C a s t l e w e l l a n   C a s t l e   n e a r    speculate who will be there. Some                   seven weeks old. This year, about
Newcastle in Northern Ireland,                           cannot make it to the conference,                   thirty young adults from the USA
July 25-August  1,1998.   ~~                             while others no longer walk with                    were introduced to this great heri-
     The British Reformed Fellow-                        us. We were also informed of one                    tage of the BRF.
ship are to be commended for their                       man who had attended three pre-                         One of the first things notice-
fine efforts to provide the confer-                      vious conferences, and who went                     able in Northern Ireland is the di-
ences that they have planned. I am                       to glory just prior to the conference.              vision of the country regarding uni-
convinced that there is no other                             One thing that never ceases to                  fication or separation. Flags flying
place in the world that provides                         affect us is that most of those who                 in different cities indicate that the
such an opportunity as their  bi-an-                     attend the conferences struggle                     cities are either Catholic or Protes-
nual conferences. One thing is for                       through life with a lack of fellow-                 tant. The bigger question is, will
sure, there is no place more appeal-                     ship with those of like mind. It is                 ruthless and intolerant Rome  rule
ing to us as a family. The site of                       therefore not only the instruction                  Northern Ireland? Will Northern
this summer's conference was a                           that they enjoy at the conferences                  Ireland be under the rule of the
castle that is well over two hun-                        but also the fellowship. It is im-                  representative of antichrist? That
dred years old, on the grounds of                        possible for us in this country even                is the real question. For this rea-
one of the best arboretums in the                        to begin to understand this void in                 son, some government (Protestant)
UK (talk about an opportunity for                        their lives. They truly understand                  employees who attended this con-
a landscape gardener!).                                  the text, "straight is the gate and                 ference had to "sneak" in and out
                                                         narrow is the way, and few there                    of the meetings, not sleeping in the
                                                         be that find it."                                   facilities, for, if revealed, they
Mr. Oomkes is a member  of  Byron                            This year, people from four                     could be the target of a bomb. For
Center Protestant Reformed Church,                       continents were represented, in-                    this conference was held in enemy
Byron Center, Michigan.                                  cluding Jason from Malaysia,                        territory. Castlewellan is a  Repub-

                                                                                                                 December  1,1998/Standard   Bearer/l03


lican city, with its flags flying (il-                   "The Signs of Christ Coming"                         Bill Oomkes
legally) from the power poles.                       (near but not imminent) by Prof.                        6299 Wing SE.
Never mind that we were in a                         Hanko, on Tuesday evening.                     Grand Rapids, MI 49512,
"Christian conference center." Sa-                       "Christ's Return" (its time,          or in Europe, sending  El0 to:
tan uses these words too.                            manner, and purpose) by Prof.                     Mr. Jonathan  McAuley
     The conference began officially                 Engelsma, on Wednesday evening.                         164 Church Rd.
on Saturday evening, July 25, with                       "The Great Judgment Day" (the                 Glenwherry, Ballymena
a speech, by the present chairman,                   parties, standards, and parts in-                 Co.  Antrim, BT42 3EL
on Matthew  5:13-16:  being the                      volved) by Prof. Hanko, on Thurs-                      Northern Ireland.
light of the world. This is easier                   day evening.                                  One of the characteristics of
said than done, especially in times                      "Our Calling With Respect to          these conferences has been the
such as are experienced in a spiri-                  Christ's Coming and the End of the        lusty Psalm singing from the met-
tual vacuum like that in the UK.                     World" by Prof. Engelsma, on Fri-         rical Psalter. Many of these tunes
This was followed by a question                      day morning.                              are beginning to become quite fa-
period. There are no limits as to                        Friday evening was devoted to         miliar, after these many years of
what questions may be asked.                         a question and answer period on           practice.
     Sunday, w e   w e r e   o f f   t o             all the speeches. This also gave op-          One of the most difficult times
Ballymena for church in the town                     portunity to discuss the differences      of the conference was Saturday
hall. By this time we had renewed                    of the views held by some of those        morning, when we all went our
acquaintances from past confer-                      in the UK.                                separate ways. Although we hope
ences and met most of the new at-                        All of these speeches give great      to see each other again in the year
tendees. Our mealtimes were some                     comfort and hope for the child of         2000 in the beautiful country of
of the best times to converse with                   God. The signs that are presently         Wales, we are also mindful that for
all the different people. We always                  unfolding are sure signs that God         some it may be the last time on this
made sure that we ate with some-                     is in control, and that all things        side of eternity. Such was the situ-
one different at each meal and got                   work toward the coming of the new         ation this year, as just prior to the
acquainted with everyone. This                       heavens and new earth.                    conference Jimmy Fraser was taken
time often serves as a springboard                       All of these speeches are wor-        into glory. He was a faithful at-
for many an in-depth discussion.                     thy of being given again in North         tendee at the three previous con-
The education system in the UK is                    America. The last one especially          ferences.
aimed at developing deep and sys-                    would be an excellent topic for an            The next conference will be
tematic thought processes. There                     evangelism lecture.                       held in Bangor, in beautiful North
are no shallow thinkers in the                           Tapes of these lectures can be        Wales, in July, 2000, the Lord will-
group. This can be area1 challenge                   obtained by sending $18.00 (US) to:       ing. Cl
for one coming from the US. The
British educational system is supe-
rior to ours.
     Now to the heart of the confer-
ence itself. The theme this year                                                Ezekiel's Song
was the doctrine of the last things.
The schedule of speeches was as                                                  Dry Bones! Dry Bones!
follows:                                                                    Now hear the Word of the Lord!
     "The Idea of the World's End"                                                Their ears are stones;
(the place and importance of                                                How hears this desert dust hoard?
eschatology) by Prof. Hanko, on
Monday morning.                                                      And how shall they hear without a preacher?
     "The Millennium" (an exposi-
tion and defense of amillennialism)                                                  So I do preach
by Prof. Engelsma, on Monday                                                 A trembling, foolishness, noise:
evening. He not only defended                                                      Each bone to each!
amillennialism, but pointed out                                          And Flesh and Breath He employs.
that, if one were to hold any other
view, he would find absolutely no                                  And now shall we know that we're His creature!
support from any of the Reform-
ers. The church of the Reforma-                                                                               Connie L. Meyer
t i o n   k n e w   n o t h i n g   b u t   t h e
amillennial view.

104/Standard   Bearer/December 1.1998


                                                  The Elders
                           and Family Visitation

                                                     for the edification of the churches,
W                                                                                                                and thoroughly by the elders at a
             hen we take up the mat-                 to visit the families of the congre-                        regular consistory meeting. This,
                                                     gation, in order particularly to
             ter of the elders' work of              comfort and instruct the members,                           obviously, needs to be done before
             family visitation, we are               and also to exhort others in re-                            the annual visits by the teams of
dealing with a Reformed tradition.                   spect to the Christian religion.                            elders begins. The subject and
Family visitation is a practice not                                                                              Scripture passage should be an-
found in other branches of the                    Strictly speaking, this article re-                            nounced to the congregation sev-
church.      The venerable practical              quires eight visits per family per                             eral weeks prior to the beginning
theologian J.  J.  Van Oosterzee                  year when it stipulates that these                             of family visitation. This allows the
points this out when he writes, ". . .            visits must be "both before and af-                            individual families ample time
it is sufficiently evident that house             ter the Lord's Supper." The greater                            prayerfully to meditate on the pas-
to house visitation may be looked                 frequency was due to the fact that                             sage and in this way prepare them-
upon as a peculiar fruit of the Re-               when this article was written the                              selves to receive the elders.
formed soil."' Though it makes an                 Reformed churches were in their                                     The elders must prepare for
interesting study in itself we do not             infancy in the Netherlands. The                                each family they are scheduled to
intend to consider the history of                 people of God needed more care-                                visit. What is the occupation of the
family visitation, except to note                 ful supervision and instruction in                             husband? What are the specific
that it was initiated by John Calvin              the faith. In our churches family                              needs of this particular family.
in Geneva.*                                       visitation is conducted annually.                              How old are the children? Are the
     Family visitation belongs to the                   Because the Lord, the Chief                              children faithful, obedient  catechu-
official work of the elders of the                Shepherd, calls elders to shepherd                             mens? Are  there young people in
church. The Church Order of the                   the precious flock of God, the flock                           the family? The youth ought to be
Protestant Reformed Churches in                   purchased with the blood of Jesus,                             reminded of their calling to make
America states in Article 23:                     He demands of them that they                                   public confession of their faith  (Ro-
                                                  thoroughly prepare for the work of                             mans  10:9). Family visitation pro-
     The office of the elders, in ad-             family visitation. This preparation                            vides an excellent opportunity for
  dition to what was said in Article              ought to be spiritual. This means                              the elders to remind the young
  16 to be their duty in common                   t h a t ,   b o t h   c o l l e c t i v e l y   a s   a        people of their calling to "marry
  with the minister of the Word, is               consistory and individually and                                in the Lord." If there be a spiritu-
  to take heed that the ministers, to-
  gether with their fellow-elders and             privately, the elders should ask the                           ally-minded young man in the fam-
  the deacons, faithfully discharge               Lord to enable them to do this                                 ily  with intellectual abilities and
  their office, and both before and               work. By means of prayer the el-                               other natural and spiritual gifts
  after the Lord's Supper, as time                ders must  seek the Lord's blessing                            which would qualify him to serve
  and circumstances may demand,                   upon this work among the families
                                                  of the congregation.                                           * J. J. Van Oosterzee,  Practical Theol-
                                                        On a practical level,  con-                              ogy, p. 520.
                                                  s i s t o r i e s   o u g h t   t o   d e c i d e   o n   a    * Those interested in the history of the
                                                  theme or subject to be used on the                             practice of family visitation may con-
                                                  visits to the families of the congre-                          sult: I?. Y.  DeJong,   Taking Heed to the
                                                  gation. A specific passage of Scrip-                           Flock,  pp. 19-24;  J.J. Van Oosterzee,
                                                                                                                 Practical  TheoIogy,   pp. 518-520; or John
Prof.  Decker is professor  of  Practical The-    ture should  be  read.  Both the sub-                          Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Reli-
ology in the Protestant Reformed Semi-            ject and the Scripture passage                                 gion,  Book IV, XII,  2; Commentary  on
nay.                                              should be discussed prayerfully                                Acts  20:20-21.

                                                                                                                     LSecm&er   1,7998/Mandard   Bearer/705


the Lord in the ministry of the                        connection the reports of the vari-                      respected Rev. Gerrit Vos told this
Word, let the elders encourage him                     ous visits must not be oral and                          writer during his seminary days,
to face' the question whether the                      ought not be mere generalities.                          "Robert, the Lord puts a `billy goat'
Lord calls him to pursue that lofty                    They should be detailed enough to                        or two in  .every  congregation to
calling. Are there any weaknesses                      give the consistory some idea of                         keep the preacher humble." Rev.
evident in this family which ought                     what is going on with each family.                       Vos proved to be right! These com-
to be addressed? Any strengths in                           As to the method of conduct-                        plainers usually direct their some-
which they ought to be encouraged                      ing the visit we note that each visit                    times cruel criticisms against the
to persevere? What specific appli-                     must be opened with prayer. Peti-                        officebearers. More often than not
cations from the Scripture passage                     tions must be directed to the Lord                       they complain against the preacher,
should be made to this particular                      for each member of the family con-                       criticizing some aspect of his work
family?                                                cerning his/her place and calling                        (especially his preaching) or of his
     Sometimes it happens that the                     within the family, the church, and                       life. The sermons are too long, too
subject and Scripture passage cho-                     society. Prayer serves the purpose                       brief, too doctrinal and deep, too
sen do not apply with quite the                        of putting all concerned in a proper                     practical and light, etc. With these
same force among all the families                      frame of mind for a fruitful dis-                        let the elders be patient, but firm.
of the congregation. For example,                      cussion of each one's needs and                          Sometimes chronic complainers
the elders may want to select an                       concerns on the basis of God's                           need sharply to be rebuked from
appropriate Psalm upon which to                        Word. This prayer ought to be of-                        the Word of God. The  spiritually-
base their visit with an elderly                       fered very soon after the elders ar-                     minded, godly elder will know
couple living in a retirement or                       rive. Time must not be wasted on                         how to respond to these.
nursing home. Sanctified discre-                       "small talk."                                                The minister ought to be re-
tion needs to be used in this re-                           After the prayer, one of the el-                    quired to take part in leading the
gard.                                                  ders must read Scripture. He                             family visitation. Especially in the
     Family visitation should be di-                   ought then briefly expound the                           larger congregations wherein the
rected towards the normal, not the                     verse or verses chosen for the ba-                       minister is kept extremely busy, he
abnormal. By this we mean that                         sis of the visit. After this the elder                   ought not have any more visits
matters of a disciplinary nature                       must ask questions of and discuss                        than any of the other elders. In
ought not be saved for the annual                      the Word with each member of the                         other words, divide the families by
family visitation. The same would                      family. The elders must take care                        the number of elders (minister in-
apply to the work of the deacons.                      not to dominate the discussion.                          cluded), so that each elder has an
The elders must not be called upon                     Rather, they must try to get the                         equal number of family visitation
to admonish someone concerning                         people to "open up." Let the el-                         calls. When the team consists of
poor stewardship. Nor must fam-                        ders listen carefully and "between                       the pastor and an elder, the elder
ily visitation become the time for                     the lines" so as to discern the                          ought to participate. The elder
families to bring their criticisms of                  needs, concerns, and problems of                         ought not allow the minister to
the way things are being done in                       the family members. Care should                          dominate and do all the talking.
t h e   c o n g r e g a t i o n   o r   o f   t h e    be taken by the elders too that they                         Each visit ought to be closed,
minister's preaching, criticisms                       not neglect the little ones and the                      as it was begun, with an appropri-
which they have accumulated dur-                       young adults of the families. Near                       ate prayer. The elder who leads
ing the past year. If a member has                     the end of the visit opportunity                         the visit ought to allow time and
a problem of this sort he ought to                     should be given for any of the fam-                      opportunity for his fellow elder to
speak to the officebearer involved                     ily to bring up any questions or                         ask questions and make appropri-
or the consistory immediately.                         concerns he/she may have. This                           ate comments. The non-presiding
     A record should be kept on file                   must not be allowed to degenerate                        elder ought to lead in the closing
of all the visits made. This gives                     into a "gripe session." But, for all                     prayer.
the elders a record of the content                     of that, family visitation can often                         May God in His mercy grant
of each visit. Elders know what                        provide the elders a wonderful op-                       that the Protestant Reformed
subjects and Scripture passages                        portunity to offer well-founded ad-                      Churches may continue faithfully
have been discussed.                       Thus        vice and/or instruction from Holy                        to maintain the practice of family
consistories avoid duplication and                     Scripture which will prevent little                      visitation along the lines offered
repetition. Elders ought to take                       problems and concerns from be-                           above. The practice has proved to
note of any particular problems or                     coming big and serious later.                            be a wonderful means to instruct,
concerns which might arise and                              It should be remembered too                         edify, and unite the people of God
which might need to be pursued                         t h a t   t h e r e   a r e   a l w a y s   a   f e w    in the truth of Scripture. CI
by a committee of elders or brought                    "chronic complainers" in every
up again the following year. In this                   congregation. The late and highly

106/3andard   Bearer/December  I,1998


                                 Christ Returning
                                       for Judgment

I                                            in judgment. The judgment of the         all men shall give an account of
      had occasion to give special           Lord will be for them a day of ter-      every idle word they have spoken,
     consideration to this subject in        rible darkness and dreadful calam-       which the world only counts as
     connection with preparing a             ity. Those who belong to Christ will     amusement and jest: and then the
sermon on this aspect of our Lord's          have unspeakable comfort when            secrets and hypocrisy of men shall
return. Both the Heidelberg Cat-             He comes for the judgment.               be disclosed and laid open before
echism and the Belgic Confession,                Article 37 of the Belgic Confes-     all. And therefore the consider-
                                                                                      ation of this judgment, is justly
in their articles about the return of        sion is certainly one of the most        terrible and dreadful to the
the Lord, focus on this aspect of            beautiful statements regarding the       wicked and ungodly, but most de-
the Lord's return almost exclu-              return of the Lord found anywhere        sirable and comfortable to the
sively.                                      outside of the Bible itself.             righteous and elect: because then
                                                                                      their full deliverance shall be per-
  What comfort is it to thee that              Finally we believe, according to       fected, and there they shall receive
  Christ shall come again to judge             the Word of God, when the time         the fruits of their labor and trouble
  the living and the dead? That in             appointed by the Lord (which is        which they have borne. Their in-
  all my sorrows and persecutions,             unknown to all creatures) is come,     nocence shall be known to all, and
  with uplifted head I look for the            and the number of the elect com-       they shall see the terrible ven-
  very same person, who before of-             plete, that our Lord Jesus Christ      geance which God shall execute
  fered Himself for my sake, to the            will come from heaven, corporally      on the wicked, who most cruelly,
  tribunal of God, and has removed             and visibly, as He ascended, with      persecuted, oppressed and tor-
  all curse from me, to come as                great glory and majesty to declare     mented them in this world; and
  judge from heaven: who shall cast            Himself the judge of the quick and     who shall be convicted by the tes-
  all His and my enemies into ever-            the dead, burning this old world       timony of their own consciences,
  lasting condemnation, but shall              with fire and flame to cleanse it.     and being immortal, shall be tor-
  translate me with all His chosen             And then all men will personally       mented in that everlasting fire,
  ones, to Himself into heavenly               appear before this great judge,        which is prepared for the devil
  joys and glory (Heidelberg Cat-              both men and women and chil-           and his angels. But on the con-
  echism, Lord's Day 19).                      dren, that have been from the be-      trary, the faithful and elect shall
                                               ginning of the world to the end        be crowned with glory and honor;
     The well known theme of the               thereof, being summoned by the         and the Son of God shall confess
Heidelberg Catechism of the                    voice of the archangel, and by the     their names before God His Fa-
Christian's only comfort in life and           sound of the trumpet of God. For       ther, and His elect angels; all tears
                                                                                      shall be wiped from their eyes;
death that he belongs to His faith-            all the dead shall be raised out of
                                               the earth, and their souls joined      and their cause which is now con-
ful Savior Jesus Christ shines                 and united to their proper bodies,     demned by many judges and mag-
through in its article on Christ com-         in which they formerly lived. As        istrates, as heretical and impious,
ing for judgment. The wicked have             for those who shall then be liv-        will then be known to be the cause
every reason to contemplate with              ing, they shall not die as the oth-     of the Son of God. And for a gra-
great terror the return of the Lord           ers, but be changed in the twin-        cious  reward, the Lord will cause
                                              kling of an eye, and from corrupt-      them to possess such a glory, as
                                              ible, become incorruptible. Then        never entered into the heart of
                                              the books (that is to say the con-      man to conceive. Therefore we ex-
                                              sciences) shall be opened, and the      pect that great day with a most
Rev. denHartog  is pastor of Hope Protes-     dead judged according to what           ardent desire to the end that we
tant Reformed Church in Redlands, Cali-       they shall have done in this world,     may fully enjoy the promises of
fornia.                                       whether it be good or evil. Nay,        God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

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 AMEN. Even so, come, Lord Jesus                 ets spoke of this repeatedly. The                   zations in the transgression of all
 (Rev.  20:20).                                  coming of the Lord will be a day                    of the holy commandments of
                                                 of great and terrible wrath. The day                God, the jesting about what is
       Once again notice the  beauti-            of the Lord's return is called the                  abominable to God, the filling of
ful element of comfort expressed                 day of vengeance. (See Isaiah 63                    the world with the vilest of adul-
in this confession of the Reformed               and Joel 2 for example.) The New                    tery and fornication, and worst of
believer. The Reformed believer                             Testament is full of the same            all the brazen blasphemy of the
looks for the return of the                                    language. (See Hebrews                name of God promoted in our land
Lord "with ardent desire."                                      10 and 12; II Peter 3;               will all some day be judged in the
How much is this true of                   ii$$z                Jude 14 and 15; and so               fierce and holy wrath of God.
us?                                       an account  of        much of the book of                      The apostate church that has
       There are many  won-         every idle word             Revelation.) The  na-                denied virtually every fundamen-
derful aspects of the                       they have           tions of the world are               tal article of the faith, and that tol-
Lord's coming that we                spoken, which              enemies of the living                erates the grossest iniquity in her
could occupy ourselves               the world only             G o d   o f   h e a v e n   a n d    midst, all in the name of love, will
with. We will limit our                      counts                                                  find in the day of judgment that
comments to the  state-              as amusement               earth. The vast majority
                                            and jest:           of the men on the earth              the Lord is angry with her with ter-
ments of these confessions                                     are the enemies of God                rible judgment. All her glorying
regarding the judgment with                                 and followers of the evil                in herself, all her boasting about
which the Lord will come. We will                one. Rather than teach that God                     love and tolerance and magnanim-
write a second article about the ex-             will in the end save the vast ma-                   ity, all her pride in the huge num-
pectation of the coming of the                   jority of mankind, the Scriptures                   bers that follow her teachings and
Lord. The character of this expec-                teach the very opposite.                           praise her for accommodation to
tation will of course be entirely                        Until the very end, most of the             the prevailing philosophy of the
determined by what we believe                     world's population will remain                     time, for all this she will come into
concerning the nature of His com-                 heathen. It will also be the case                  judgment. She will be judged as
ing. Few churches today preach                    that near the end of the world,                    having hated the truth and righ-
the distinctive truths contained in               when the Lord comes again, most                    teousness of God and for having
the above quoted confessions.                     of Christianity will have become                   gloried in herself rather than in the
       Even the fact as such that the             apostate. The fierce anger of the                  sovereign, righteous, holy, and in-
Lord will come in judgment upon                   Lord will be poured out on those                   finitely glorious Lord of heaven
this wicked world is something                    who have denied the name of                        and earth. The faithful church of
commonly denied in the church at                  Christ and crucified the Son of                    Jesus Christ in true love for God
large today, and increasingly so in               God afresh. The apostate church                    and for His glorious sovereignty
Reformed churches. From many                      will be judged for joining forces                  and righteousness must faithfully
corners the teaching of  universal-               with the wicked world against the                  preach and warn men of this world
ism is being promoted. Many even                  true church as enemies of God. The                 both within and without the church
today imagine that this present                   true church will be but a small rem-               about the coming judgment.
world is getting better and better.               nant in the last days. She will be                     Jesus will come personally to
According to the teaching of many                 hated, despised, and persecuted in                 the judge the earth. He will come
churches today most if not all men                the last day.                                      literally and bodily as the incarnate
will be saved. This is the conse-                        This world cries out for judg-              Lord. This too is denied by many
quence of the prevalent heresy of                 ment. Wickedness abounds in the                    theologians in the church. They
our day that God loves all men.                   earth. Every day the news media                    teach the heresy that there will re-
The Word of God clearly teaches                   in our land portray the evil times                 ally never be a literal return of the
that the Lord will come to judge                  in which we live. The fiasco our                   Lord at all. The truth of the Lord's
the ungodly with terrible judg-                   nation is going through with its in-               return only means that He returns
ment. He will come to make righ-                  cumbent president, the gross im-                   in spirit whenever men speak
teous discrimination between men.                 morality of other of our leaders, the              about Him in the church, and His
He will come to execute terrible                  impenitent wickedness of those in-                 spirit is revived among His fol-
vengeance on His enemies. The                     volved in the scandals of our day,                 lowers. This world will continue
Lord will come to burn up this                    the nonchalant attitude of much of                 on indefinitely. As the ages go by,
wicked world with the fire of His                 the American public-all of this                    it will get better and better, so that
holy wrath.                                       cries out to high heaven for judg-                 there will be no need for a final
       The Scriptures are very plain              ment. The wickedness produced                      judgment by a personal and literal
regarding these truths of the Lord's              daily by Hollywood and Broad-                      return of the incarnate Lord.
 coming. The Old Testament  proph-                way, the glorying of these organi-                      But the Lord will return  per-

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sonally as judge for the sake of His                     to judge all men. The righteousness                    of conscience. The saints of God
beloved saints. The same Lord                            of the Lord's judgment will be the                     on the other hand have a pure con-
who died on the cross to justify His                     revelation of His glory. The day                       science. They have the peace of
saints shall appear in that last day                     of His judgment will be the public                     knowing that they are justified in
to judge them to be righteous.                           justification of His elect. The righ-                  Christ before God. But there will
     The Bible indeed teaches that                       teousness of the cross will be ex-                     in the last day be an objectively real
the Lord in His first coming did                         alted as having covered forever the                    judgment. There are many things
not come to condemn the world but                        guilt of all of His chosen ones. This                  about how exactly the judgment
to save it. Yet already when He                          will be the exceeding great glory                      will take place which we cannot
was on the earth and when He                             of the judgment. But the glory of                      know now. We must remember
went everywhere preaching the                            Christ will also be revealed in the                    that the last judgment will be a
truth concerning Himself, the                            just vengeance that He will execute                    great wonder, even as all the works
judgment of God was revealed.                            on His enemies.                                        of God  in. Christ are wonders of
Those who believed on Him were                                   The judgment of Christ will be                 God. But we must maintain the
given the hope of eternal life, and                      in connection with the victory of                      objective reality' of the judgment.
those who did not believe were de-                       the cross and the righteousness that                   The many visions concerning this
clared by the Lord to be con-                            He accomplished there. That is ex-                     judgment found in the Scriptures
demned already. All men will be                          actly why it is so fitting that Christ                 make this very clear. (See for ex-
judged for what they have done                           will be the final judge. Christ will                   a m p l e   M a t t h e w   25:31ff.;   I I
with the Christ and for what they                        appear as judge in order to reveal                     Corinthians  5~10; and Revelation
have done with His truth.                                the justice of His cause. This cause                   20.)
     Jesus Himself declared that He                      is despised by the wicked world.                               All men that ever lived,  fro'm
would judge all men. "The Father                         It is defended and preached by His                     the beginning to the end of time,
judgeth no man, but hath commit-                         faithful church.  -The true church is                  must appear before the judgment
ted all judgment unto the Son.. . .                      persecuted and hated in this un-                       seat of Christ. The heathen who
And hath given Him authority to                          godly world because she represents                     never had the gospel preached to
execute judgment also because He                         and boldly preaches the righteous-                     them will also be judged. They will
is the Son of God" (John 5: 22                                     ness and truth of the cause of               be judged for their idolatry. This
a n d   2 7 ) . The inspired                                         the Lord. The most  griev-                 idolatry will not be recognized as
apostle testifies,  "For we                            The            ous persecution that the                  a sincere searching after God or as
must all appear before the                    same Lord                church receives for repre-               an innocent alternative name for
judgment seat of Christ;                       who died                senting the cause of the                 the worship of the true God. It will
that every one may re-                       on the cross              Lord comes not from the                  be judged because it is the fruit of
ceive the things done in                       to justify              heathen world but from                   denying and opposing the truth
his body, according to                        His saints               the apostate church. This                that God clearly revealed in His
t h a t   h e   h a t h   d o n e ,          shall appear              apostate church will be                  creation concerning His own eter-
whether it be good or                     iin that last day            overwhelming in number,                  nal power and Godhead. It is de-
bad" (II Cor.  5:lO). It is                 to judge them              presence, and power in                   nied by many modern-day mission
because of this great truth                       to be                the last days before the                 endeavors that the heathen will be
that Paul in the next verse                    righteous.             Lord's return. The apos-                  judged. This has caused the church
says, "Knowing therefore                                             t a t e   c h u r c h   c o m m o n l y    to lose her reason for preaching the
the terror of the Lord, we per-                                    mocks and ridicules the faith-               gospel of Christ. The Word of God
suade men; but we are made mani-                         ful church for what she preaches                       in Romans 1 is very clear. The hea-
fest unto God; and I trust also are                           about the Lord. But in the day of                 then will be without excuse.
m a d e   m a n i f e s t   i n   y o u r   c o n -           the Lord's judgment it will be                            But those who have known the
sciences" (II Cor.  5:ll). With these                         clearly revealed that this church                 truth and have departed from it
words also agrees the statement in                            and she alone has truly represented               will receive a double punishment.
Romans: "But why dost thou judge                              the cause of the Lord. The Lord                   The apostate church in the last day
thy brother? Or why dost thou set                        will reward His church for her                         will be judged to be the great
at nought thy brother? For we shall                           faithfulness.                                     whore portrayed in the book of
all stand before the judgment seat                                The coming of the Lord for                    Revelation. She will receive the
of Christ" (Rom.  14:lO).                                judgment will be an objectively real                   punishment prophesied there. It
     The return of the Lord for judg-                         event. There is indeed in this                    will be worse than the punishment
ment will be the revelation of His                            present age a judgment of God in                  of the heathen who never had the
glory. He will be glorified as the                            the consciences of every man. Even                gospel preached to them.
one whom God appointed and                                    the wicked can sometimes already                          We cannot help but realize that
who has the authority and power                               in this world have great torment                  the articles of the Heidelberg  Cat-

                                                                                                                        December  1,1998/Standard   Bearer/709


echism  and Belgic Confession re-               wicked will be sent away into eter-     quenched? Do these words come
ferred to above were written in the             nal darkness and the terrible fire      from the Lord who is love?
context of the great Protestant Ref-            of the judgment of God. This too            The saints will be personally
ormation. The lines in those days               is much denied in our day. It is        rewarded for their works, for their
were clearly drawn by the Reform-               argued that a God of love will          faithfulness, for their suffering, and
ers. Apostate Christianity in our               never find pleasure in the eternal      especially for the persecution
day has blurred the lines. It is even           burning of His creatures in hell. It    which they endured in the world.
being said that Protestantism                   is argued that eternal punishment       Great shall be their reward. The
should join again with Rome, even               is far too severe a judgment for sin    deepest cause of the reward of the
though Rome is as apostate as she               that was done only in the short mo-     saints is God's sovereign gracious
ever was and continues to show the              ments of time. But all this is noth-    election of them. Of this our Re-
signs of being- the foreshadowing               ing more than humanistic argu-          formed confessions speak repeat-
of the Antichrist. In the days of the           mentation. Such humanistic argu-        edly in describing the coming judg-
Reformation many faithful saints                ments have little regard for the se-    ment of the Lord. The reward of
suffered great persecution because              riousness of man's sin. This sin is     the saints will be a gracious re-
af their love for the truth of Christ.          so serious because it is committed      ward, merited for them by the Lord
Many thousands died as martyrs.                 against the most holy majesty of        Jesus Christ.
Even in our day the faithful church             God. The arguments of the hu-               Christ Himself, who by His
is despised and ridiculed.  Thetime             manists have little regard for the      amazing sacrifice of love on the
will come again before the Lord's               fearfulness of God's infinite, per-     cross atoned for the sins of the elect
return when the faithful church                 fect, absolute holiness and righ-       and justified them by His cross,
will be severely persecuted by the              teousness. The apostate church          will personally appear in the day
apostate church. She will be hated              cares more for man than it does for     of judgment. He shall justify His
in the world for the Lord's sake.               the glory of God. It is striking how    saints before the whole world.
The great comfort of the church un-             often our Lord Himself spoke of         That is the reason why the saints
der the cross is the truth that the             the coming of the judgment. He          "expect that great day with a most
Lord shall appear as the final judge            spoke of the eternal destruction of     ardent desire to the end that they
in the end to reveal who has truly              the wicked. He gave some of the         may fully enjoy the promises of
stood for His Word and His righ-                most terrifying descriptions of the     God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
teousness. He shall appear to save              judgment of hell as being the place     Amen."     Therefore the constant
and deliver and to glorify His faith-           of weeping and gnashing of teeth        prayer of the church as she suffers
ful church.                                     and the place where the worm            persecution in the world is, "Come,
         The consequences of the judg-          dieth not and the fire is not           Lord Jesus, Yea, come quickly."
ment will be everlasting.                The                                                                                     Ll




                                                the country-and even over the             hate crime laws to include of-
@ "Hate Crime" Laws                             whole world. Doubtlessly, every           fenses based on sexual orientation,
A horrible crime was commit- one of the readers of this article has saying Sunday that the killing of
         ted some miles north and west          heard of the event. The two young         gay Wyoming student Matthew
of Loveland-in Laramie, Wyo-                    men accused of killing Matthew            Shepard shows the government
ming. A young man, Matthew                      Shepard were caught and are pres-         must take a stronger stand.
                                                                                            Reno, appearing on  CNN's
Shepard, was tied to a fence in a               ently held for trial. If convicted,       "Late Edition," said such nation-
desolate area and deliberately                  they can and likely will receive the      wide legislation is needed to ad-
beaten until he was almost dead.                death penalty.                            dress "situations where the state
A few days later he did die in the                 A spate of articles have been          cannot or will not take action."
hospital in Ft. Collins. Matthew                printed about all of this-many of           She said a bill introduced almost
Shepard was "gay." This terrible                which advocate expanded "hate             a year ago-but not passed by the
act has been widely reported across             crime" laws.      The Denver Post,        current Congress-sends "a clear
                                                October 19, 1998, reports the reac-       message from the federal govern-
                                                tion of Attorney General Janet            ment, if we can get it passed, that
                                                Reno.                                     hate crimes will not be tolerated."
                                                                                            . ..Reno said the legislation
Rev.  VanBaren  is pastor  ofthe Protestant                                               would not pre-empt state action
Riformed  Church  of  Loveland, Colo-              Attorney General Janet Reno            against those involved in hate
rado.                                            urged Congress to expand federal         crimes. The Justice Department

1 lO/standard  Bearer/December 1,199s


 would consult with states, she           sponse to the heinous crime in          crime that is motivated by racial,
 said, and "if the state after con-       Wyoming this week-two thugs             or religious, or other kinds of big-
 sultation cannot do it and says          beating a young man to death.           otry, but with the end result be-
 that the federal government              Defenders of free speech and pri-       ing, in each case, the deliberate
 should proceed, this is too impor-       vate  conscien<e  should take this      murder of an individual. Should
 tant for this nation not to let jus-     liberal offensive very seriously.       we have two separate standards
 tice take its course."                   And we need to begin by think-          for these two murders? Or should
   Gary Bauer, head of the Family         ing through the call for hate           we judge by the nature of the act,
 Research Council, said conserva-         crimes legislation in the wake of       not the nature of the attitude that
 tive groups like his are being           the Wyoming murder. In fact, we         accompanied the act? Does the
 smeared by those who blame them          are seeing the ruthless exploitation    fact that I kill you in cold blood,
 for inciting an anti-gay atmo-           of this terrible tragedy by those       without the fires of racial or other
 sphere with their campaigns to get       who wish to push the agenda that        hatred in me, mean that my kill-
 gays to go straight.                     will give them the power to co-         ing of you is somehow less ter-
   He said on CNN that his group          erce conscience on issues `of moral     rible than the other killing?
 is not going to change its opposi-       concern.                                   The proper approach to take to-
 tion to gay marriages and other            Because what do we find-if we         ward crimes is to judge the act,
 gay lifestyle choices, and said it       examine the details  of>the situa-      not the attitude. We must insist
 was "terrible that the murder of         tion in Wyoming? It was, indeed,        that our government restrict itself
 this young man is being ex-              a terrible crime of physical vio-       to punishing the action, because
 ploited" by the Clinton  admini&         lence. But if we examine the le-        the government has no right to
 tration.                                 gal facts of the situation, it turns    punish attitudes. The real pur-
    Reno also pressed for expanded        out that if the murderers are con-      pose behind the hate crime  legis-
 hate crimes legislation when she         victed of this  crime.fhey  stand in    lation movement, however, is to  :
met last week with representatives        danger of the death penalty, be-        accord to the government the right
 of more than a dozen gay and les-        cause the death penalty exists in       to punish attitudes.
 bian groups.                             Wyoming for this kind of a hei-            But not all attitudes, mind you.
                                          nous murder. So people are clam-        Just those attitudes that disagree
    One wonders, of course, about         oring that we need to pass hate         with the liberal ideologues and
the  purpose of "expanded hate            crime laws, and yet based on the         their state religion. These  would-
crime laws." What would such              nature of the act of terrible vio-      be thought police are trying to
laws mean for the two young men           lence itself, the men who did it         take advantage of a terrible and
                                          are already subject to the death         real crime in order to criminalize
accused of this terrible crime?           penalty. Is it proposed that mur-        the offense of dissent from the re-
They already face the death pen-          ders that are also hate crimes           ligion of sexual indulgence. They
alty. Or is it directed against those     should be punished more severely        want to force us to treat it as a
who condemn homosexuality? Is             than by the death penalty? (The          terrible crime if someone consid-
such condemnation now to be               criminal might respond: "I regret        ers homosexuality to be immoral.
judged as a "hate crime?" Is  the         that I have but one life to give for     And so they are using this episode
government, in its court system,          my crime!" -G.V.B.)                      and other episodes, where the
going to be the judge of one's              The whole concept of hate              crimes in and of themselves would
thought as well as one's act?             crimes is faulty. There are indeed      justify harsh punishment, in order
                                          crimes motivated by hatred, but it       to convince us that harsher pun-
    One might even ask, "What             is not entirely clear to me what         ishment is needed because of the
crime is ever committed in love?"         that does to the crime itself. Take      attitude that accompanied the
And is the crime any worse when           an example. Let's say that I am a        crime.
one kills a "gay" person because          ruthless drug dealer, and one of           The fact that Wyoming law al-
he hates "gays," than when he kills       my drug deals goes wrong be-             ready envisions death as the ap-
a little old granny in order to take      cause somebody double-crosses            propriate penalty for such cases
her purse?                                me. And I don't hate this indi-          just makes it clearer that the goal
    There are presented some very         vidual; I don't feel anything in         of the liberals is not to strengthen
serious reflections on the propos-        particular.    I'm a crook myself,       punishment of crime. What is re-
                                          and expect that people are going         ally going on here is an effort to
als to pass "hate crimes" laws (and       to be crooked. But in a very cold-       convert our laws in such a way
most states have some form of             blooded and calculated way I re-         that the liberal ideologues of the
these already). One of interest was       alize that my whole business will        permissive left will be able to en-
written by Alan Keys, himself a           fall apart if I let people cross me      force their ideology with fire and
man of "color." It appeared in the        up this way. So I plot, and sys-         the sword, particularly against
World Net Daily, October  16,1998.        temically carry out, the extermi-        people of faith, who, based on
                                          nation of this person who crossed        their scriptural beliefs, refuse to
    A great furor on behalf of "hate      me up. But there is no hatred in-        accept their culture of sexual li-
  crimes legislation" is being stirred    volved.                                  centiousness and self-indul-
  up by the usual suspects in  re-          Put  that  side by side with a         gence....

                                                                                     December  1,1998/Standard   Bearer/l  11


     . ..The hate crimes legislation           . ..The whole push with respect        when it attempts to govern their
  movement is bogus, but the exist-          to hate crimes legislation is an ef-     hearts, that is simply an excuse for
  ence of hateful attitudes toward           fort to create a body of law that        the worst kind of tyranny. And
  the Christian conscience is unde-          allows the government to coerce           make no mistake, tyranny is what
  niable. This is a very dangerous           opinions, and to punish people be-        these liberals seek to impose on
  world that we are moving into.             cause of their opinions. In this         us.
  And sadly speaking, it is clear that       particular case, the opinion that is
  opponents of the Christian con-            going to be punished is the opin-           The warning is appropriate  and
  science will use every opportunity,        ion that homosexuality is immoral       very necessary. Truly we live in
  and will even make use of terrible         and against the laws of God. That       dangerous times. Is it perhaps true
  and tragic events, in order to pro-        opinion is now going to become a
  mote their political agenda. And           crime. And this whole push with         that all who condemn the sin of ho-
  that is what is happening in the           respect to hate crimes is an effort     mosexuality will soon be judged
  Wyoming case. We face the pro-             to establish that agenda....            guilty of a "hate crime"? How long
  motion of a political ideology that           . ..Jefferson said that the opin-    will it be before the Bible itself is
  aims at arming the liberal left with       ions of men were not under the          judged a book encouraging "hate
  coercive force of law as its advo-         jurisdiction of civil government.       crimes! when it condemns so
  cates come after those who dis-            At the end of the day, government       strongly homosexuality-which
  agree with their immorality.. . .          can govern men's actions, it can-       must therefore be outlawed?        0
                                             not govern their hearts. And





                                       The Son of God
                                            The Unique Son                           unique, being the only One who
I                                              He is, in other words, a unique       has seen God, living eternally in
     n our treatment of the names of        Son.                                     the very bosom of the Father.
     our Savior, we drifted into the           That is certainly the emphasis            The writer to the Hebrews con-
     consideration of His threefold         in the first chapter of John's gos-      firms the same in Hebrews 1,
office as Mediator. Thus we have            pel account. "In the beginning was       where he refers to and explains cer-
looked at the name Christ, the              the Word, and the Word was with          tain of the inspired Psalms. He
Anointed, as His mediatorial work           God, and the Word was God. The           writes in Hebrews  1:5-B: "For unto
comes to expression in His work             same was in the beginning with           which of the angels said he at any
as Prophet, Priest, and King.               God. All things were made by him;        time, Thou art my son, this day
     That leaves us with two other          and without him was not any thing        have I begotten thee?" (That is
prominent names which we must               made that was made. In him was           Psalm 2.) "And again, I will be to
yet consider. Scripture does reveal         life; and the life was the light of      him a Father, and he shall be to
still other names of our Mediator,          men" (John l:l-4).                       me a Son?"      (That is Psalm 89.)
but, other than the names Jesus and            This Word is very God. John           "And again, when he bringeth in
Christ, there are but two names             goes on in verse 14: "And the            the firstbegotten into the world, he
that are used frequently in the New         Word was made flesh, and dwelt           saith, And let all the angels of God
Testament Scriptures. I refer to the        among us, (and we beheld his             worship him." (That is what God
names Son of God and Lord.                  glory, the glory as of the only be-      says concerning His Son, accord-
     The name Son of God is used            gotten of the Father,) full of grace     ing to Psalm 97.) "And of the an-
some 48 times in Scripture. Still           and truth." Still more, we read of       gels he saith, Who maketh his an-
more, Jesus is denoted as the only          this same "only begotten" One  (v.       gels spirits, and his ministers a
begotten Son of God.                        18): "No man hath seen God at            flame of fire. But unto the Son he
                                            any time; the only begotten Son,         saith, Thy throne, 0 God, is for
                                            which is in the bosom of the Fa-         ever and ever: a sceptre of righ-
Rev. Key is pastor of the Protestant Re-    ther, he hath declared him."             teousness is the sceptre of thy king-
formed Church  of  Randolph, Wisconsin.         So this only begotten Son is         dom."    (Again, quotations from

172/Standard  Bearer/December 1,199s


Psalm 104 and Psalm 45.)                  Son. And therefore Jesus Christ,                       power also to forgive sins!
     Finally, to mention but one          the only begotten Son of God, is                           Men could see Him, hear Him,
more passage, I John  5:20: "And          Himself God. He alone is the natu-                     understand Him, even oppose
we know that the Son of God is            ral Son of God.                                        Him. And that is exactly what they
come, and hath given us an under-              That means also that He pos-                      did to the very Son of God. How
standing, that we may know him            sesses in Himself all the divine per-                  easy it is to deny that He is God at
that is true, and we are in him that      fections. Our Savior is almighty,                      all! That is what they did.  "Hi
is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ.    all-wise, all-knowing, everywhere                      was in the world, and the world was
This is the true God, and eternal         present, eternal, and so on and so                     made  by him, and ihe  wodd  knew hi&
life."                                    forth, the overflowing fountain of                     not." They even killed Him be-
     So the Scripture extols Christ       all good. And  ~when He became                         cause He confessed that He was the
as the unique Son of God.                 f l e s h ,   H e   d i d   n o t   s h e d   H i s    Son of the living Go.d.
     He is unique, the only begot-        Godhead. His incarnation, His                              They admitted that He was a
ten Son.                                  coming into our flesh, did not mean                    wonderful man, a good man, that
     That means there is none other       that He left the bosom of the Fa-                      He spoke with authority. And they
who is begotten of God as a natu-         ther in order to become a mere                         still admit it. They will even grant
ral son. Christ is not a created be-      man. The Suffering Servant of Je-                      you that He was a man entitled to
ing. He did not come into being           hovah is  very God.                                    the name "Son of God," even the
by virtue of His being born. He is,                                                              greatest son of God, although there
as the Bible puts it, "the firstborn      Perfectly Revealed                                     are many other sons of God. But
among many brethren, the firstborn             The  SonHimself~  has perfectly                   just as in Jesus' earthly life, so now,
of every creature." But that refer-       revealed this. The only begotten                       those who are caught in the bond-
ence of Colossians 1, which speaks        Son, the unique Son of God, came                       age of unbelief deny that He is
of Christ as firstborn in the coun-       so close to us that He, as it were,                    God. Not only the cults do, but
sel of God, is true only of the Son       challenged sinful men to deny His                      much of the so-called Christian
of God in human nature. And               Godhead, while at the same time                        church does.
Christ has not only a human, but a        revealing that Godhead in many                             There are all kinds of heresies,
divine nature.                            ways to those who knew Him by                          some of which are very subtle,
     So again, the emphasis here is       faith.                                                 which deny the deity of our Lord
on the truth that Christ is God. In            We read it in John 1. He re-                      Jesus Christ, and which, when em-
His divine nature He is not born,         vealed His eternal power and                           braced, deny all possibility of sal-
but begotten. He does not have            Godhead by creating the world!                         vation.
His origin in the divine conception,      "All things were made by him and                           The errors of some would not
nor in the divine counsel. He Him-        without him was not any thing                          even require our attention, if only
self is the Author of that divine         made that was made." But then                          they would speak in plain language
counsel.                                  John writes, "He was in the world,                     and declare clearly that Jesus is not
     Nor is Christ a son by adop-         and the world was made by him,                         God. But those who want to instill
tion. God has other children, be-         and the world knew him not."                           the poison of their false doctrine
gotten according to His sovereign         Though "the heavens declare His                        into the minds of us and our chil-
decree of election in Christ and by       glory and the earth sheweth His                        dren never proclaim their heresies
the Spirit's wonder work of regen-        handiwork," in the revelation of                       openly. Rather, they try to hide
eration. But they are all children        Jesus Christ, God seems hid!                           the real meaning of their views by
by adoption and by spiritual re-               He lay as a baby in the manger                    speaking in the same terms as the
birth. The Son is not adopted. He         of Bethlehem, helpless and depen-                      church.
is the only begotten, without be-         dent upon Joseph and Mary. He                              When the Jehovah's Witnesses
ginning and without end, the Al-          grew up like any other child; ex-                      (so-called) come to your door and
pha and the Omega, the first and          cept, even then, they could see He                     strike up a conversation, and you
the last.                                 was different, unique.                                 ask them, "Do you believe that
     According to Hebrews  1:3, He              He revealed His Godhead re-                      Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the
is the express image of God's per-        peatedly, so that there could be no                    living God," they say, "Oh yes!"
son. And therefore He is the eter-        misunderstanding. He spoke with                        And they try to deceive you and
nal Son of God. He is Son by an           authority second to none. His won-                     make you believe that they are fel-
unchangeable act of the Father            der works, beginning in  Cana of                       low Christians, and that there are
within the divine essence, in which       Galilee, revealed His eternal                          many aspects of their religion that
the Father is active with all the in-     Godhead. And not only did He                           make it more desirable than yours.
finite fullness of His Godhead.           have power to heal and to raise                        It is only when you ask them, "Do
Eternally the Father gives life to the    men from the dead, but He had                          you believe then that Jesus Christ,

                                                                                                     December  1,1998/%andard   Bearer/l  13


the Son of the living God, is God in          Its emphasis in Scripture makes       gotten Son. Christ revealed  Him-
the flesh," that their heresy will be     clear that it is very important and       self as the Son of God from the mo-
exposed and they will ardently            necessary for the church to  main-        ment He began to speak. He alone
deny the deity of Christ. Then you        tain this confession and to insist        can be our chief Prophet, because
must call them to repentance and          that Jesus Christ is the only  begot-     He is the Son of God in the unique
tell them that without confessing         ten Son of God.                           sense.
Christ as God in the flesh, they are          If we do not maintain the  con-              Christ is also our only high
lost.                                     fession that Jesus is the only  be-       priest, who by the one sacrifice of
    That denial of the Son of God         gotten Son of the living God and          His body has redeemed us and
is also found with the Mormons or         very God Himself, we have lost the        makes continual intercession with
Church of the Latter Day Saints           Savior!                                   the Father for us. To believe in
(LDS people, as they are often                We have confessed that                          Him is salvation for you. But
called), as well as other cults.          Jesus, the Christ, is our                             deny that Jesus is the Son
    But the same denial of Christ's       chief Prophet. As such               Deny              of God, and you empty
Godhead has permeated a large             He reveals unto us the se-         that Jesus           the cross of all its power.
part of the nominal Christian             cret counsel and will of       is the Son of  God,      Deny that He is the
church today. Much of the mod-            God concerning our  sal-        and you empty           unique Son of God, and
ern church is built upon a philo-         vation. But that is  pos-          the cross            the One who died on
sophical Christ. Its proud, hope-         sible only if He is the Son        of all its          that middle cross of the
less structure is built not upon the      of God. God must speak.             power.             three is no different from
only begotten Son of God, but upon        As the writer to the He-                              the others. His blood has
a man whose example of goodness           brews says in Hebrews  1:1,2:                    no more value than the blood
and nobility and love for all is set      "God, who at sundry times and in          of the malefactors.
before all men, that all might reach      divers manners spake in time past                Deny that Christ is the Son of
deep within and make themselves           unto the fathers by the prophets,         God, and you have no salvation!
like him.                                 Hath in these last days spoken unto              It is that serious! For redemp-
    For the most part, that is the        us by his Son, whom he hath ap-           tion is the bringing of satisfaction
perspective of the modern church          pointed heir of all things, by whom       to God to satisfy His justice. Only
today, which has no Savior and            also he made the worlds."                 the infinite Son could satisfy for the
therefore fiids in common all kinds           Christ cannot be our chief            sins committed against the infinite
of social causes and religious ac-        Prophet if He is not the Son of God.      majesty of God. God was in Christ
tivism. Without the Son of God as         That is why they who deny the de-         reconciling the world unto Himself.
God in the flesh, the unifying con-       ity of Christ, also inevitably deny              We must confess Jesus Christ,
fession of the church (Matt.  16:18)      the authority of His Word. Then           the only begotten Son of God.
is lost, and churches are coming          the Word, the Bible, has no author-              That is the confession upon
closer and closer together in error,      ity. If Jesus is a mere man, His          which the church of Christ is built
bringing about the amalgamation           Word is also the word of a mere           in all ages.
which will be the religious aspect        man. And men are liars. Deny                     Only upon that confession can
of Antichrist.                            that Jesus is the unique Son of God,      we claim inheritance as the chil-
    The faith and hope of the             and there is no standard of truth         dren of God. For in Christ, the
church cannot possibly rest in a          anymore. All men are right. All           eternal and natural Son of God,
mere man! When you and I con-             men worship the same god.                 there is salvation by adoption for
fess with God's church, "I believe            And that is exactly where the         us who were no children.
in Jesus Christ, the only begotten        modern church is today, and where                So John writes those solemn
Son of God," the object of our faith      most churches are going. Beware!          but beautiful words in I John
is always God, who reveals Him-           That is exactly why to a great ex-        5:12,13: "He that hath the Son hath
self through the Son as the God of        tent the  differences between the         life; and he that hath not the Son
our salvation. Deny that unique           church and the world has been             of God hath not life. These things
character of the Son, deny that He        wiped out-to the point where the          have I written unto you that be-
is God, and you end up with the           devil himself can hardly tell the         lieve on the name of the Son of
hopeless confession, "I believe in        difference anymore between his            God; that ye may know that ye
man." That is the proud philoso-          children and the so-called children       have eternal life, and that ye may
phy of unbelief.                          of God. That is why the  anti-            believe on the name of the Son of
                                          Christian world power is develop-         G o d . "   tl
An Important Confession                   ing so rapidly, taking all men un-
         Our confession of the Son of     der its giant wingspan.
God is an important confession.               But we believe in the only  be-

114/Standard   Bearer/December  1,199s


                The Secret of the Future
                                                         (John  16)

                                               Dreaders dread the future. They          fortune cookie. But the Word of
                                               are pessimistic enough about the         God, and the Word of God only,
      ascinating is man's fascina-
F                                              present. Tomorrow, they are  sure,       reveals the secret of the  future-
     tion with the future. It is not           their glass will be less than  half-     all we need to know about it.
     even here. It is a nothing. It            empty. The next day their cup (of           The Word of God says: the  fu-
might never even be-that certain               suffering) will be overflowing. Fu-      fzrre is in God's hands.  The only
future of man's imagination. And               ture, for them, is worse than the        God, the sovereign King-God
yet not only are we interested in it,          monster under the bed. This One          owns the future. He ordained it.
but we are often  taken  24~  by it and        is going to get them. And no one         He knows the end from the begin-
into it in our thoughts. Powerful              can turn on the light to make it go      ning.    His purposes are accom-
nothing, this elusive Future! Never            away.                                    plished in and through it. There is
is-never seen, never touched,                      Now that the next millennium         no chance-god who throws a mon-
never now. Yet  ever  is-calling,              is at the door, out is coming the        key wrench or a thousand into
gripping, exciting,  aluring.  One             futurist in us all. Among the reli-      God's decree. There are no  devil-
day in gathering darkness it is that           gious folk, everyone and his             gods who will upset God's good
wolf-there lurking, soon to pounce             Jehovah's Witness uncle (I can           plan. There are no human beings
we just  know,  are Future's fangs.            imagine) are predicting the end.         who can know and create the fu-
Then another day it is a sun bright-           The Pope is looking forward to the       ture-no human masters of fate.
ening our spirits-Future rays of               year 2000 and the jubilee year of        Rather, the God who is in the heav-
hope. And just about every day                 his making, and hundreds of mil-         ens has done and shall do whatso-
Future is the thief stealing us from           lions are hoping from him for an-        ever He pleases  (Ps.  115:3).
our now and work, making day-                  other astounding infallible pro-             The Word of God is that the
dreamers out of us.                            nouncement            about     Mary     future, God's future, is just this: the
    Future is a delight of optimists.          (Mediatrix?).     Those who know         comitig  of  the Lord.  All the future,
And aren't we all that at least some           computers and how much the               every future second, minute, hour,
time? Is it not the case that at least         world needs them have made  Y2K          day, week, month, and year, the
once we have viewed our present                our common concern. National             exalted Lord Jesus will be coming!
as a glass half-full (or more), and            Geographic has recently proph-           Every nation, every president,
thought, even, that the future will            esied the problems of population         earthquake, tempest-every event
certainly be fuller? The optimist              as we enter the twenty-first cen-        and person and power great and
relishes the possibilities Future              tury.     And no doubt there are         small will serve this main event,
holds forth. Future is all the stuff           plenty who are planning now for          this coming of the Lord. Just as all
optimistic dreams are made of. Ev-             that New  Year's party.. . .             things were made by and for Jesus
erything we might want to be is                                 **x-c+*                 (Cal.  1:16)  in the beginning, and
there in the "just might be" of to-                What of the  future...and Chris-     throughout all history-past He was
morrow. There is the dream ca-                 tians?                                   coming to save His own, so all
reer. Soon will be the dream house.                Two things direct our view of        things proceed since Jesus has
One day, you just know it, your                the future. One is the Word of           come the first time in humility, in
ship will come in. And two weeks               God. Note well! It is not a crystal      order that He might come again the
from now will be the dream  Sfan-              ball. Not a guru. Not your local         second time in glory.
dard Bearer article.. . .                      arithmatic  theologian (the guy who          Into that Word, and into the
     Dreamers love the future.                 adds up some numbers or pretends         truth of the future, therefore, we
                                               to find "the code" in Scripture and      are led by  hope.  The Word of God,
                                               claims by his calculations to be able    and the hope God gives, are the
Rev. Dick is pastor                                                                     two things that determine how we
                        of Grace Protestant    to tell when Christ will come). Not
Reformed Church in Standale, Michigan.         a palmist. Not the message in the        view the future.         This hope is

                                                                                             December  7,7998/Standmd  Bearer/l 15


faith's hope. Faith is the substance           The future peace and joy in                  the church; the presence of Christ
of things hoped for (Heb.  11:l).         Jesus in the midst of tribulation                 in the church.
Faith rests in God now; faith's hope      and distress at the hands of the un-                  John  16:14  teaches the main
reposes in a certain conviction that,     godly is, for the disciples, due to               work of the Spirit: to glorify the
come what may, God will come.             an outstanding future work. It is                 Lord Jesus. How does the Spirit
Faith's hope is telescopic, looking       the work of the cross, the atone-                 do that? What does this teach us
with sure sight into the future,          ment the Savior will make. Future.                about discerning the spirits of the
even to the end. Faith's hope is          So certain Jesus is that He presents              age, to see whether they be of God
lively, living hope of those born         His future cross victory, the victory             (I John 4:1-3)?
again (I Pet.  1:3), so that that fu-     of a few hours away, as now: I have
ture of Christ's coming is now.. . .      overcome the world  Cu.  33)!  Let us             3. Future Joy  (vv.  20-22).
We are so certain of it...We can          by the light of the Word and hope,                    The disciples would surely
taste it!                                 look into the secret of the future,               weep when Jesus was crucified.
                   *****                  and that, with as much confidence                 But soon their sorrow would be
    In this last part of Jesus' fare-     as the Savior whose future first in-              turned into joy (John  16:20). What
well discourse (John 16) Jesus fo-        volved His exposure to an infinity                is the Christian joy? How is our
cuses on the future. As He has said       and eternity of wrath. Covenant                   joy distinguished from the joy of
before, so Jesus tells the disciples      secret. That we might grow more                   unbelievers (cf. John  15:ll;  16:22,
here that the future for the dis-         in the knowledge and delight of the               24,33)?
ciples is persecution, tribulation.       fellowship we have with the God                       The other day my six-year-old
The future is, however, bright. For       of our now and of our forever.                    son told me I ought to smile more.
the future of the disciples is the             Good Bible Study! Of the Fu-                 Listening to and learning from our
presence of the Holy Spirit Com-          ture! Of the God of the future! Of                little children (0, the sermons they
forter.      He will work faith and       the coming of the Lord in the fu-                 preach!) is surely one way to de-
peace and joy in Jesus.                   ture! All is well!                                velop the joy-fruit of the Spirit.
                               For Study,                           '                       What are other ways we can grow
                                                                                            in joy?
             Meditation, & Discussion                                                           Of course, there are some who
                                                                                            think our theology hinders our joy.
                                                                                            What of it: are Calvinists sad, sour
1. In the future ye shall have            is preached today have been cruci-                sticks-in-the-mud?
tribulation  (vv. l-3).                   fied?
    In light of this and other pas-                                                         4. Future Prayer  (vv. 23-26).
sages which speak of the persecu-         2. In the future the Holy Spirit                      The Bible speaks here and in
tion of the saints (e.g., the Psalms!;    (vv. 7-16).                                       other places of prayers that the dis-
John  15:18-25; Philippians  1:29; II          Jesus has spoken of the com-                 ciples of Christ shall make after
Timothy  3:12), consider and discuss      ing of the Holy Spirit several times              Jesus is gone. Jesus speaks in His
the following:                            in this last discourse. About the                 last discourse, for example, of
    What does the wicked world            Holy Spirit consider and discuss:                 prayers from now on being made
hate about the church?                         What are the various names                   in Jesus' name  (16:24); of their cer-
    From whence does the worst            given the Holy Spirit? What do                    tainly being answered  (vv. 23, 24);
persecution come? Why?                    these say of His identity and work?               and of their being mediated from
    How can some people think                  When exactly does the Spirit                 on high  (16:26). Consider and dis-
they are doing God service (John          come?       Was He present in the                 cuss prayer. What is it to pray in
16:2) when they persecute the             church in the Old Testament (cf.                  Jesus' name?  Are  OUY prayers an-
people of God?                            J o h n   7:39)?   H o w   w i l l   H e   b e    swered? How can we grow in ef-
    How is this persecution evident       present  more in the future of which              fectual, fervent prayer living?
today: in laws and actions of gov-        Jesus speaks?
ernments; in the media; in the ac-             According to John  16:8-11,                  5. Future Perspective (John  20:31).
tivities and pronouncements of            what is the Holy Spirit's work in                     These things of the future are
churches? How do we experience            the world? Is there any evidence                  written that we may believe that
persecution?                              of His working to save, if possible,              Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God,
    Is there evidence that our own        the wicked reprobate?                             and that believing we might have
ungodliness and compromise are                 From John  16:7, 13, 16, 22 and              life through His name. How do
reason for there being so little per-     other passages explain the relation               Jesus' predictions work faith (cf.
secution in our life?                     between the Spirit and the follow-                John  14:29;  16:4)? In light of the
    Would the tolerant Jesus who          ing: the church's comfort; truth and              Word of the future would you con-
116/Standard   Bearer/December  1,1998


sider yourself an optimist? A  pes-          end of a very precious relationship.      Are you joy-full? Joyful, full of
simist? A realist? An  optimil-              It may bring persecution. You may         hope in the future, shall we not
lennialist? Tomorrow may bring               die. But tomorrow, as the next day,       then purify ourselves (I John  3:3),
the loss of a job. It  may  mean the         and the next,  the Lord  fs  coming!      and  wafch? Cl



                                    The Prediluvian Period
        From the Protevangel to the Flood
                                  The Conflict  of Cain and Abel (1)

                                             at the very dawn of history.              carried on to its climax and ulti-
                                                 2. In the second place, the an-       mate realization in Christ and An-
Introduction
T                                            tithesis between the seed of the          tichrist.
      he peculiar character of sa-           woman and the seed of the serpent             4. Finally, we may observe
      cred history comes to the fore         is very marked. In Cain sin reveals       that the victory in this conflict is
      immediately when we study              itself as enmity against God and as       by faith-faith which is the sub-
the biblical narrative concerning            a reaching out for the things of this     stance of things hoped for and the
the prediluvial world.            For the    world. In Abel the grace of God           evidence of things not seen. "By
Scriptures do not furnish us with            becomes manifest in a clinging to         faith Abel offered unto God a more
any kind of account concerning the           the promise and a willingness to          excellent sacrifice than Cain, by
personal history of Adam and Eve,            be a pilgrim and stranger in the          which he obtained witness that he
nor even with an account concern-            earth for the sake of the city that       was righteous, God testifying of his
ing their family and its history in          hath foundations. Between the two         gifts: and by it he being dead yet
detail. But it immediately centers           there is enmity, an enmity which          speaketh" (Heb.  11:4).
our attention on but one event in            becomes manifest sharply as soon
the lives of their two son, Cain and          as the right conditions and situa-       The Setting
Abel, and to this one event devotes          tion are present. Cain's act of mur-           After a brief mention of the
 what might seem, superficially con-          der is not merely fratricide: it is      birth of Cain and Abel and of their
 sidered, to be a disproportionately          the murder of the righteous by the       respective occupations, the Bible
 large place.                                 unrighteous, of the godly by the          simply introduces the narrative of
     What, we may ask, might the              ungodly. This history is intended         the conflict between them by the
 historical significance of this obvi-        to reveal that no human ties of           words, "And in process of time it
 ously significant narrative be?              blood relationship and natural love       came to pass...." In attempting to
     In answer to this question, we           are strong enough to wipe out the         place this narrative in its proper
 point out the following:                     antithesis or to prevent the conflict     time-setting, we may note various
     1. In the first place, it reveals        between the ungodly and the               scriptural data. In general, first of
 that the prophetic announcement of           godly.                                    all, this event belongs  zuithin  the
 Genesis  3:15 to the effect that                 3. In these two sons of Adam          first 130 years of history, for Adam
 Adam and Eve were to be the pro-             and Eve we behold the representa-         was 130 years old when Seth, the
 genitors of a twofold and antago-            tive commencement of the conflict         replacement of Abel, was born.
 nistic seed goes into fulfillment im-        of the ages. We see in their con-         More specifically, in attempting to
 mediately after the Fall. It is not          flict the motif of subsequent his-        place the narrative in that 130-year
 delayed, but the conflict between            tory. For Cain is succeeded by his        period, we may at least say that it
 these two parts of the one human             generations, who are also spiritu-        appears to have taken place later,
 race, existing side by side in spiri-        ally like him and who compound            rather than earlier, during that pe-
 tual enmity, begins to be revealed           his sin. Abel is replaced by Seth         riod. For one thing, Cain and Abel
                                              and his generations, the genera-          are grown men. For another, Cain
 The late Homer Hoekselna  wus professor      tions of the sons of God. The con-        was very probably married at this
 of Dogmatics and Old Testament in the        flict begun with Cain and Abel is         time. Still more, there must have
 Protestant Reformed Seminary.

                                                                                             December  1,1998/Standard   Bearer/l  17


been a good many more children                 l.Cain was firstborn. Very            weak and the base and the de-
of Adam and Eve at this time. For          likely we must understand Eve's           spised and the things that are not,
not only does Cain marry and be-           words, "I have gotten a man from          in order to bring to nought things
get children; but he also goes out         the Lord" (hence, Cain, "ac-              that are, in order that no flesh
soon after the curse is pronounced         quired"), as reflecting her faith in      should glory in his presence (I Cor.
upon him and builds a city (Gen.           the promise of God, though she            1:26-29).
4:16, 17). While, therefore, we can-       was mistaken. Abel is second, even            In the third place, these very
not precisely date this event (which       granting the possibility that he may      natural differences lend emphasis
is also unnecessary), it appears           have been Cain's twin. Here we            to the natural and historic and out-
rather clear that it took place a          see an instance of that which re-         ward similarity between the two
good many years after the expul-           peats itself frequently in the his-       and thus underscore the sharp
sion of our first parents from Para-       tory of God's covenant, namely,           spiritual contrast between them. In
dise.                                      that the firstborn according to the       the historic, external sense of the
                                           flesh is not the heir of the promise.     word, Cain and Abel were both
The Offerers                                   2.There is ground for believing       children of God's covenant, though
    For a proper understanding of          that Cain was the stronger of the         Cain was in the spiritual sense a
this facet of sacred history, it is im-    two, endowed with the greater             stranger to its fellowship and bless-
portant to consider its two main           natural gifts. Apparently Eve's sec-      ings.    It is true, of course, that
characters, Cain and Abel. Both of         ond son calls to mind the frailty         God's covenant had not yet been
them brought offerings to Jehovah,         and vanity of human existence, for        revealed and established formally.
but the Lord had respect  onlyunto         she names him Abel, which means           The Lord had not yet singled out a
Abel and his offering. What ac-            "breath" or "vanity," which would         tribe or nation or separate family
counts for this? What was the dif-         seem to point to the fact that Abel       as His covenant people. There was
ference between the offerers?              was a weakling. Besides, the very         but one family which constituted
    In order to see that difference        difference in occupations points to       the human race at this point.
in sharp focus, we must consider           a difference in natural endow-                But there can be no doubt that
the two offerers, first of all, from a     ments. Cain turns his ambition to         the covenant had been maintained
natural point of view.                     the earth. He will subdue the earth       and revealed after the Fall, that
    We note, in the first place, that      and grapple with the curse that is        Adam and Eve had a part in it, and
Cain and Abel were brothers, sons          on the ground and labor for the de-       that the promise of the covenant
of the same covenant parents and           velopment of the things of the            had been given them. Cain and
members of the same covenant               world. But Abel turns to the quiet        Abel both were born of covenant
household. It has even been sug-           life of a keeper of sheep.                parents and were both, in the ex-
gested, on the basis~  of the fact that        Moreover, even as Cain is the         ternal sense of the word, covenant
in connection with the birth of Abel       stronger and is endowed with              children. As such they occupied a
the words, "And Adam knew Eve              greater natural gifts, so these traits    similar position and had many
his wife," are not repeated, that          also become manifest later in his         things in common. They both had
Cain and Abel were twin brothers.          generations. The men of talent and        the same direct traditions from
The latter, however, cannot be de-         power, the men who become fa-             their parents and were acquainted
termined with certainty. If it were        mous and powerful, the great              with the early history of creation
true, it would serve to sharpen the        builders of civilization, are found       and of the Fall. They were both
conflict and the antithesis involved,      in Cain's generations. All of this        acquainted with Jehovah and His
even as was the case later with            is significant. This difference be-       Word. They knew about Paradise
Jacob and Esau. Apart from this            tween Cain and Abel is character-         and about the state of original righ-
possibility, however, the fact re-         istic of all history and of God's         teousness and about the Fall into
mains that Cain and Abel were              work in history. Not among God's          sin and death of their parents.
brothers. In them, therefore, the          people, but among the ungodly are         They knew of the curse that was
fact that Eve was to be the mother         found, as a general rule, those who       pronounced upon all things. They
of a twofold seed immediately be-          are endowed with the greater natu-        knew about the protevangel and
gins to be realized. The conflict          ral gifts. The mighty and the noble       about the enmity and conflict
between Cain and Abel arises from          are not found among the children          which the Lord had announced, as
a spiritual antithesis which exists        of the light, but among the children      well as about the promise of vic-
in the natural sphere of a close,          of darkness, who with their great         tory for the seed of the woman.
brotherly relationship.                    natural endowments turn to the              The narrative plainly presup-
    In the second place, we may            world, in order to find their por-        poses, as does the rest of Scripture,
note certain natural differences be-       tion below. At the same time, God         that they knew about proper sacri-
tween these sons:                          has chosen the foolish and the            fice to the Lord as a means and

1  l&Standard Bearer/December  I, 1998


symbol of exercising communion                                   ence concerning righteousness and                              them. On the contrary, the differ-
with God. They knew, too, about                                  life in contrast with corruption and                           ence was a spiritual one which
the necessity of a righteousness                                 death. Besides, we must not over-                              c a m e   t o   m a n i f e s t a t i o n   i n   a n d
which was not their own and not                                  look the fact that their very sur-                             through their own natures and in
by their own works.                                              r o u n d i n g s   r e m i n d e d   t h e m   o f            and through their own conscious,
        There may be a danger of over-                           former things. The garden of Eden                              intelligent, willing conduct, though
estimating the degree of  know&dge                               was still there; and the way to the                            fully-  in -harmony with God's sov-
and light which they possessed, so                               tree of life, guarded by cherubim,                             ereign decree and according to His
that we think of Cain and Abel in                                w a s   t h e r e .   A b o v e   a l l ,   w e   m u s t      promise. Cain was wicked, and his
terms of the fuller and brighter                                 keep in mind that they were the                                works were evil; Abel was righ-
light of revelation which we now                                 recipients of direct revelation. God                           teous, and his works were righ-
possess. But there is a greater dan-                             spoke to them.  He  &,p6ke  not only                           teous (I  john  3:12).
ger in the opposite direction. We                                to Abel and gave him the testimony                                   Such were the offerers in this
certainly must not conceive of these                             that he was righteous; but He also                             narrative.
men as primitive, ignorant, heathen                              spoke to Cain, as is plain from the                                  They both offered: the righ-
savages, standing very low on the                                narrative of Genesis 4.                                        teous Abel and the wicked Cain,
evolutionary scale, possibly with                                      Yet spiritually  there was day                           both  bf them covenant children,
their feet hardly on the rung of the                             and night difference between Cain                              both of them of God-fearing par-
ladder which represents humanity.                                and Abel. The Word of the Lord                                 e n t s ,   b o t h   o f   t h e m   b o r n   i n   t h e
        Do not forget that they pos-                             was realized in them. The one was                              sphere of the covenant, both of
sessed a veritable treasure of rev-                              elect, the other reprobate. The one                            t h e m   h a v i n g   r e c e i v e d   c o v e n a n t
elation even at that early date. We                              was of the seed of the woman, the                              t r a i n i n g .   T h e   c o n t r a s t   b e t w e e n
must not minimize the value of the                               other of the seed of the serpent.                              them is not between a heathen and
d i r e c t   t r a d i t i o n   w h i c h   t h e y   r e -    Not fatalistically was this Word of                            a child of God, but between righ-
c e i v e d   f r o m   t h e i r   p a r e n t s ,   w h o      t h e   p r o t e v a n g e l   c a r r i e d   o u t   i n    teous and wicked in the sphere of
could relate by firsthand experi-                                                                                               the covenant.  17



                                                                 well  recelvecl wherever they went and                         "Kerormea  Worship," with their pas-
Mission Activities                                               they were very impressed by how ea-                            tor, Rev. M. Joostens, speaking. Rev.
         ednesday evening, November 4,                           ger the people are to have the truth                           Joostens planned to consider such as-
wRevs. B. Gritters and K. Koole                                  brought to them.                                               pects of worship as its central purpose,
left Detroit, MI for a two-week visit to                               In late October Rev. C. Terpstra                         worship in the light of Scripture, and
Northern Ireland, the Covenant PRC                               and Elder Al Rau made visits to Spo-                           Reformed worship versus contempo-
in Northern Ireland, and our churches'                           k a n e ,   W A ,   L o v e l a n d ,   C O ,   a n d          rary services.
missionary there, Rev. R. Hanko and                              A l a m o s a ,   C O   o n   b e h a l f   o f   o u r              The Bethel PRC in Itasca, IL spon-
his family. While there, the emissar-                            churches' Domestic Mission Commit-                             sored a Reformation celebration on
ies' work was to include preaching,                              tee. Plans called for them to meet with                        October 23 at the  Wheaton College
visiting the consistory at least two eve-                        Loveiar$`s  consistory and Missionary                          Church in  Wheaton,  IL. Prof. D.
nings to conduct church visitation and                           Rev. T.  Miersma  to review his labors                         Engelsma spoke on the topic, "Justifi-
discuss possible sister-church rela-                             in the San Luis Valley. Rev. Terpstra                          cation by Faith Alone, Why Is It Still
tions, visiting as many of the families                          planned to preach once both in Spo-                            Important Today?" Bethel considered
as possible, and spending time with                              kane and in Alamosa.                                           this an important and timely topic in
the Hankos to minister to their needs.                                 While filling the pulpit of the                          light of the recent discussions between
They planned to return, D.V., on No-                             South Holland, IL PRC in mid-Octo-                             Evangelicals  and Rome on justifica-
vember 18.                                                       ber, Prof. H. Hanko also agreed to give                        tion. It seems very important today
        Revs. A.  denHartog  and R. Smit                         a brief informal presentation on the                           that as children of the Reformation we
returned safely home in late October                             work of our churches in Northern Ire-                          know and declare the truth of the only
from their trip to the Philippines.                              land and Wales. You may remember                               way a person can be right with God.
Thankfully, the areas they visited                               that he and his wife just recently re-                               We couldn't let this issue of the
were spared the brunt of the destruc-                            turned from that area, having spent                            "News" go by without passing along
tive storms that swept over the Phil-                            the past few months laboring in Wales                          our congratulations to the Loveland,
ippines the two weeks they were there.                           on behalf of our churches and our Do-                          CO  PRC,~  which celebrated their  40th
They reported briefly that they were                             mestic Mission Committee.                                      anniversary as an organized congre-
                                                                                                                                gation on October 30. This celebration
                                                                 Evangelism Activities                                          was marked in part by a Reformation
Mr.  Wigger  is an elder in the Protestant                       The Evangelism Committee of the Day lecture by one of their former pas-
Reformed Church  of  Hudsonville, Michi-                              Lynden, WA PRC sponsored a                                tors, Prof. D. Engelsma, speaking on
gan.                                                             public lecture on October 23 entitled                          "Celebration of Gracious  Faithful-

                                                                                                                                      December  1,1998/Standard   Bearer/l 19


     Jhe
Standard
 &arer                                                                                                                                PERIQDICAL
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  Grandville, MI  49468-0603                                                                                                          Michigan


ness." Activities around the lecture          completion of outside work and the                              a Ladies League Meeting in  Edgerton
included a dinner, followed by a pro-         start of inside walls. Some floors have                         on the subject of "Angels."
gram of thanksgiving and praise, with         been poured, and trusses for the fel-                                                       Giougbit
the lecture and a time of fellowship          lowship hall and south wing were  de-                                          !Food~oor  
afterwards.                                   livered  in late October.                                             "He cannot have God for his Fa-
                                                                                                              ther who refuses to have the church
Young People's Activities                     Denominational Activities                                       for his mother."
In an effort to generate enthusiasm 0 ctober 29 Rev. D. Kleyn, pastor of                                                                    - Augustine  0
  for next summer's young people's                   the Edgerton, MN PRC, spoke at
convention, the young people of the
Hope PRC in Redlands, CA began
publishing       "The        Convention
Chronicle" in October, and we pass                                                                                     WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
part of that information on to you,                                                                                 On November 17,
hoping that it will do the same for you.                                                                               MENNO and SADIE  SMITS
    The site for the convention is the                                                                        celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary.
beautiful, 145 acre Camp Cedar Falls,                                                                               We thank God for the loving and faithful
near  Angelus  Oaks. It includes facili-               WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                                    parents and grandparents He has given us.
ties for basketball, softball, volleyball,           With great thankfulness to God, we ex-                   Their commitment to God and His truth has
tennis, and swimming. The young               tend our congratulations to our parents and                     been an example to each of us.
people also report that after sampling        grandparents,                                                         "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and
the cooking, the food is as good as             PETER ROY and JOHANNAWESTRA,                                  lean not unto thine own understanding. In all
that of most conventions.                     who celebrated their 501h  wedding anniversary                  thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct
    The conventioneers will be housed         on November 26, 1998. We thank them for all                     thy paths" (Proverbs 35, 6).
in cabins that hold 16 to 24 people.          the loving care they have given and the godly                   @k    Rich and Frieda  Smits
They include bunks, heaters, electric-        example they have been. It is our prayer that                           Mark and Laura Moes
ity, and mirrors (very important).            the Lord will continue to bless them and keep                           Jack and Valerie Krysheld
                                              them in His care.                                                       Rich and Mary Smits
Ministers                                            "But the mercy of the Lord is from ever-                 Q     Carl and Trudy Smits
      e rejoice with Rev. Allen and           lasting to everlasting upon them that fear him,                         Ross and Sue Rispens
wCrysta Brummel in the birth of               and his righteousness unto children's children;                         Dan and Julie Lyzenga
a son, Brandyn Trey, born October 27.         To such as keep his covenant, and to those                              Mike and Lisa VanDrunen
                                              that remember his `commandments" (Psalm                                 Carl and Deb Smits
Congregational Activities                     10317, 18).                                                             Joel and Deb Smits
0 ur Byron Center, MI PRC ad- 9 Art and Karen Flier                                                           #     Clyde and Beth Rinsema
     dressed a problem that many of                    Duane, Laura, Kara, John                                       Dan and Sarah Rinsema-Sybenga
us have faced or will face in the fu-         sic    Peter and Jan Westra                                             Nathan Rinsema  and Nikki Kuik
ture when our children attend cat-                     Peter, Kevin, Jason, Brian, Kristen,                           Rebecca  Rinsema
echism on a week night at church. In-                                                          Nathan               20 great grandchildren
stead of bringing your children to cat-       *      Marlin and Sandy Westra                                                                          Lansing, Illinois
echism by  6:45, returning home, and                   Aaron and Donita, Robyne, Sara,
coming back within the hour, why not                                         P h i l i p ,   K a t e l y n           RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
stay to study God's Word? Byron               $4     Ed and Verna Westra                                            The consistory and congregation of the
Center's Men's Society began meeting                   Eric, Valerie, Joel, Evan, Lisa                        Loveland Protestant Reformed Church extend
Monday nights at  6:45 during the cat-        %      Gary and Jeri Westra                                     their sympathy to Mr. and Mrs. David
echism class of the evening.                           Jeff, Glenda, Steve, Brett, Kyle,                      Poortinga, their children and grandchildren, in
    In the latest bulletin from our                                                            Janelle        the death of Mrs. Linda Poortinga's father,
Bethel PRC in Itasca, IL we find that         % Bruce Westra                                                               MR. JACOB POTTS,
the roofing of their sanctuary is now         +%     Bart and Jan Zandstra                                    on Friday, October 23, 1998. May the God of
complete, with steeple, and the  com-                  Brianna, Brent, Justin, Jared                          all grace comfort them with the confession of
ing week asphalt was scheduled to be                                                            Hull, Iowa    the Psalmist, "As for me, I will behold thy face
poured.                                                                                                       in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I
    News from Georgetown PRC in                                                                               awake, with thy likeness" (Ps. 17:15).
Hudsonville, MI also includes reports                                                                                                Rev. G. VanBaren,  Pres.
that brick work continues, with                                                                                                               Larry Nelson, Clerk

120/Standard   Bearer/December  I,1998


