Magazine


                                                                                       In This Issue:
                       Meditation - Rev. Steven R. Houck
                                  The Messenger of the Covenant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
                       Editorial - Prof. David J. Engelsma
                                  The Coming of the Head of the Covenant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
                       Letters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .127
                       Taking Heed to the Doctrine - Rev. Steven R. Key
                                  Confessing Our Lord (1) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
                       Go Ye Into All the World - Rev. Arie denHat?og
                                  Further Investigation of the Philippines
                                  as a Possible Mission Field . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
                       All Around Us - Rev. Gise VanBaren . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
                       Ministering to the Saints - Rev. Douglas J. Kuiper
                                  The Relationship of the Diaconate
                                  to the Other Special Offices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
                       That They May Teach Them to Their Children - Prof. Russell J. Dykstra
                                  The Great Value of Reformed, Christian Education (1) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
                       Search the Scriptures - Rev. Mitchell C. Dick
                                  The Secret of the Lord's Prayer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  141
                       News From Our Churches  - Mr. Benjamin Wigger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143





  Vol. it), NO.  0
  December 15, 1998


    The Messenger of the Covenant

                                    "...and  the Lord, whom  .ye seek, shall  suddenly  come to his temple, even the
                                    messenger  of  the  covenant, whom ye delight in..:."
                                                                                                                                 Malachi 3:lb

                                                                  which shall prepare thy way be-                                    As the Angel of Jehovah, Christ
I                                                                 fore thee."                                               walked and talked with Adam and
      n this prophecy Malachi speaks                                    Since the first messenger men-                      Eve in the garden of Eden. He ap-
      of the coming of the Messenger                              tioned in the verse prepared the                          peared to Abraham with two regu-
      of the covenant. That Messen-                               way for the second, the Messenger                         lar angels of God. As the Angel of
ger is Christ.                                                    of the covenant must be Christ.                           Jehovah, Christ led the people of
     The first part of this verse is an                           Christ is called something similar                        Israel out of the land of Egypt and
obvious reference to another mes-                                 in Hebrews  12:24, "And to Jesus                          through the Red Sea on dry ground.
senger, John the Baptist. We read,                                the mediator of the new cov-                              He led them through the wilderness
"Behold, I will send my messen-                                   enant...." The Mediator of the cov-                       and brought them into the prom-
ger, and he shall prepare the way                                 enant and the Messenger of the                            ised land.             He appeared before
before me.. . ." John the Baptist was                             covenant are the same                                     them as the cloud of God's glory
the messenger of God who was                                             In Malachi  3:l He is called the                   which led them by day and night
sent by God to prepare the way for                                "Messenger" of the covenant. The                          and which filled the tabernacle.
the coming of Christ.                               Christ        word "messenger" is the  same                                      We have a beautiful reference
quoted the first part of this verse                               word which is so often translated                         to the Angel of Jehovah in Isaiah
in reference to His forerunner. We                                in the Old Testament by the word                          63:9:  I'... and the angel of his pres-
read in Matthew  ll:lO, "For this is                              "angel." Angels are messengers of                         ence saved them: in his love and
he, of whom it is written, Behold, I                              God. That Christ is called the                            in his pity he redeemed them; and
send my messenger before thy face,                                "Messenger" or "Angel" of the cov-                        he bare them, and carried them all
                                                                  enant identifies Him as "the Angel                        the days of old." The Angel of Je-
                                                                  o f   J e h o v a h "         who             appeared    hovah was the Angel of God's pres-
                                                                  throughout the old dispensation.                          ence because in that Angel, God
Rev. Houck  is pasfor of Peace Profesfanf                         He was not a regular angel but  the                       was present with His people to save
Reformed Church in Lansing, Illinois.                             Angel of the Lord.                                        them. That was Christ in His  pre-



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lZZ/Standard   Bearer/December  15,1998


incarnate manifestation. He was          with us only because we are united         denly come to his temple, even the
God's Angel, God's Messenger.            to Christ. Thus, Christ is the Mes-        messenger of the covenant, whom
    But notice in this verse He is       senger of the covenant in the sense        ye delight in: behold, he shall
not called the Angel or Messenger        that He is the recipient of the cov-       come, saith the  LORD  of hosts." Je-
"of Jehovah" but the Messenger "of       enant. God is His God and He is            hovah of Hosts, the God of His
the covenant." That teaches us           God's Son. Christ has intimate fel-        people, solemnly declares the com-
Christ's relationship to the cov-        lowship with God. He knows and             ing of Christ. First He says that
enant. The covenant of which this        loves God and is known and loved           the Lord shall suddenly come to
verse speaks is the one covenant         by God.                                    His temple. He explains that by
of God which He establishes with             Christ is the Messenger of the         saying that the Messenger of the
all of His elect people. It is the       covenant also in the sense that He         covenant shall come.
covenant which God made with             is the basis of the covenant. Be-                The Old Testament is full of
Abraham and his seed. It is the          cause God is holy and we are sin-          passages which look forward to
covenant which He established            ners, the only way that we can have        Christ's coming. The coming of the
with the people of Israel and which      covenant fellowship with God is            Messiah was so central to the old
He makes with us believers of the        through the forgiveness of our sins.       dispensation that we find hundreds
new dispensation. That covenant          Christ accomplished that by His            of passages which speak of it.
is the bond of friendship and fel-       suffering and death on the cross.          These prophecies were themselves
lowship which God has with His           That is why the blood of Christ is         part of the preparation for the com-
people. It is the relationship in        called "the blood of the covenant"         ing of Christ. They pointed God's
which He is our God and we are           (Heb.  13:20). There can be this ev-       people to Christ and His coming.
His people. It is salvation itself,      erlasting covenant of grace be-            They not only informed God's
for God's people partake of God's        tween God and-His people only be-          people that the Messenger of the
eternal life.                            cause of the blood of Christ.              covenant was coming but they pro-
    What does it mean that Christ            Christ is the Messenger of the         duced in God's true people a long-
is the Messenger of that covenant?       covenant because He is the One             ing for His coming. That is what
Normally, when we think of a mes-        who establishes the covenant with          the old dispensation was all about.
senger we think of someone  who.         us so that we experience it in our               John the Baptist was the last of
delivers a message. That is what         lives. He causes us to have fel-           a long line of prophets who spoke
the angels did in the old dispensa-      lowship with God and to know His           of Christ's coming and thus pre-
tion. That is also what John the         love and grace. That was true all          pared the way for that coming. He
Baptist did as the messenger of          through the old dispensation.              was privileged actually to see
God. But as the Messenger of the         Christ caused Adam and Eve to              Christ when He came. That is what
covenant, Christ does much more          have fellowship with God as He             made him the greatest of all the old
than simply deliver a message. In        walked and talked with them in the         dispensational prophets.
the covenant, Christ is the One who      garden.          Christ appeared to               What a glorious day that was
stands between us and God and            Abraham and had communion                  when Christ came. The Angel of
unites us to God. Specifically,          with him. The same is true of the          the covenant came not as an angel
Christ is the Messenger of the cov-      new dispensation. Christ regener-          but as a man. What a glorious day
enant in three ways. He is the ob-       ates us through His Spirit. He                    when the virgin conceived in
ject of the covenant, the basis of       gives us faith and repentance.                        her womb. The power of
the covenant, and the One who es-        He unites us with God. As                               the Highest  overshad-
tablishes the covenant.                  a result, we experience           The Messenger          owed her.           The Holy
    As Messenger of the covenant,        covenant friendship with          of  the covenant        Ghost came upon her.
Christ is the object of the covenant.    God directly through                 does not             What a glorious day
Christ is "the seed" of Abraham.         Him. We walk and talk             merely bring us         w h e n   i n   t h a t   l o w l y
When God established His cov-            with God and He with                a message             stable the Christ child
enant with Abraham and his seed          us. Thus the Messenger                 about              was born. The  Messen-
He established it with Christ. We        of the covenant does not           the covenant           ger of the covenant  be-
read in Galatians  3:16, "Now to         merely bring us a  mes-            but He brings         came flesh of our flesh
Abraham and his seed were the            sage about the covenant           us the covenant        and bone of our bone.
promises made. He saith not, And         but He brings us the  cov-            itself.           He became like you and
to seeds, as of many: but as of one,     enant itself.                                         me in all things, sin  ex-
And to thy seed, which is Christ."           In this verse God declares                      cepted. What a glorious day
Ultimately Christ is the only one        that this Messenger of the covenant        when He began His public  minis-
with whom God establishes His            is coming. We read, "...and the            try, when He was seen by John the
covenant. God makes His covenant         Lord, whom ye seek, shall  sud-            Baptist and others, and when He

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declared Himself to be the prom-          divine nature took upon Himself a           Even at the time that the Lord
ised Messiah by His word and              human nature.                           came to His temple, Israel did not
works.                                       The result is that the Word of       seek after Him and delight in Him.
    That coming of the Messenger          God tabernacled among us. John          The Messenger of the covenant was
of the covenant was the most sig-         1:14, "And the Word was made            born in a stable because there was
nificant event in all of history. For     flesh, and dwelt among us..  .." The    no room for Him in the inn. That
when Christ came, God came. We            word "dwelt" means "to tabernacle       indicates that there was no room
read, ". . . and the Lord . . . shall     or tent" among us. God came to          for Jesus in Israel, nor in the world.
suddenly come . . . even the mes-         live in His house among us. That        Even though large crowds followed
senger of the covenant.. .  ."  ~ This    house is the body of Christ. That       Jesus at first, they soon forsook
verse speaks of the Lord coming.          is the wonder of the incarnation.       Him. Most of Israel hated Him.
That can be none other than God.          The infinite God, who knows no          Finally they could not tolerate His
Yet that Lord is identified as "the       bounds, who cannot be limited by        presence anymore. They crucified
messenger of the covenant." The           space and time, came to dwell in a      the Lord of glory. "He came unto
meaning is clear. In the coming of        body.    All the fullness of the        his own, and his own received him
the Messenger of the covenant,            Godhead dwells in that body. That       not" (John  1:ll).
God came. The Messenger of the            is the way God will manifest Him-           Rather, the statement of this
covenant is God come in the flesh.        self to us throughout all of eter-      verse refers to the elect remnant.
That is why this Messenger of the         nity. Forever and ever we will see      The Lord came to His church and
covenant was given the names              God in the human nature of Christ.      she delights in her Messiah. She
"Jesus" (Jehovah Salvation) and           Is that not a great wonder?             rejoices in her Lord. She finds her
"Immanuel" (God with us). In the              But that means that the Mes-        peace and comfort in the Messen-
coming of Christ, Jehovah God             senger of the covenant came to          ger of the covenant.
came to save us.                          dwell with His people, the church.          Thus all through the old dis-
    That is further indicated by the      The church is the body of Christ        pensation the true church sought
fact that the Messenger of the cov-       (Eph.  1:22-23). The church is also     the coming of Christ. The godly
enant came to His temple. We read,        called the temple of God in I           waited for that great day of the
I, . . . and the Lord, whom ye seek,      Corinthians  3:16, "Know ye not         Lord. They lived for the coming
shall suddenly come to his temple."       that ye are the temple of God...?"      of Christ. They sought the  seed.of
When Christ came, He did not              When Christ came, God came to           Abraham, the Son of David. The
come just anywhere. He came to            live in His church. In the body of      same was true at the birth of
His temple. Just as the Angel of          Christ, God and man are united to-      Christ. Think, for instance, of
the covenant, the cloud of God's          gether. Thus the coming of the          Zechariah, Elisabeth, and John the
glory, came to the temple and tab-        Messenger of the covenant brought       Baptist in the womb of Elisabeth.
ernacle in the old dispensation,          about the realization of covenant       Think of the shepherds who went
when the Messenger of the cov-            fellowship with God. In the body        to see the newborn King and the
enant came, God came to His               of Christ, God is our God and we        wisemen  who came from the East.
temple. These words refer to the          are His people who live with Him.       Think of Anna and also of Simeon
physical temple which had been re-            That brings us to the reception     who waited for the Lord's Christ
built by  Herod. Jesus came to and        which Christ received when He           and who saw the Lord's salvation.
cleansed that temple which was            came to His temple. Notice the          God's people looked for and de-
His Father's house. He healed the         verse, ". . . and the Lord, whom ye     lighted in the Messenger of the cov-
sick in that temple. He preached          seek . . . even the messenger of the    enant.
in that temple.                           covenant, whom ye delight in...."           And so it must be today. Oh,
    But that physical temple was          Here we learn that the coming of        there is much which seems to be a
only a type of the real temple. The       the Lord was sought by the people       seeking after Christ which is not.
real temple is the body of Jesus          of Israel and that they delighted in    We see that especially at this time
Christ. That's why Christ could           the Messenger of the covenant.          of year. There are lights in the
say in John  2:19, "Destroy this          This cannot mean that the people        streets. People are shopping and
temple, and in three days I will          of Israel as a whole were seeking       buying gifts. Homes are filled with
raise it up." He spoke of Hisbody,        after the Lord and His coming.          Christmas trees and other orna-
which the Jews would destroy, but         That is not so. Israel cared noth-      ments. But we know that in spite
which He would raise up on the            ing about the true Messiah and His      of all of that, most people are like
third day. Thus we have a decla-          coming. That is demonstrated by         the majority of the Israelites. They
ration that when Christ came, the         the fact that they killed the proph-    care nothing about the true Christ.
Lord came to His body. The sec-           ets who were sent to prepare the        If He were here, they would cru-
ond person of the Trinity in His          way of the Lord.                        cify Him just as the Jews did. Even

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now they persecute the prophets of      in our flesh! The Messenger of the       all of our life. We may not live for
the Lord. We must not be fooled         covenant came to His temple! That        this world. Christ is to be our life.
by all of this "Christmas" activity.    is a wonderful truth. Do not take        We are to seek Him in all that we
The world hates and rejects the         it for granted. Do not let it be-        do. We ought to delight in the fel-
Messenger of the covenant.              come common. It was a miracle, a         lowship and friendship which we
    But we who are of the elect         great miracle. It is the central         have with God in Him. That ought
remnant must seek Him. We may           miracle of the whole plan of salva-      to be so important to us that we
not get caught up in all that the       tion. Rejoice in it and thank God        want it more than anything else.
world offers as Christmas. We are       for it.                                  For that fellowship with God in
to rejoice in His birth. God came            What is more, we ought to seek      Christ is eternal life.  Cl
                                        the Messenger of the covenant in




                         The Coming of the
                    Head of the Covenant

                                        women, which makes the Savior            of His "holy covenant" (Luke 1:72).
                                        necessary, tells the people of the       What brings the conception about
H                                       covenantal nature of their guilt and
        ow many of us will cel-                                                  is the covenant promise: "the oath
                                        depravity.      "By one man sin en-
        ebrate Christmas as the                                                  which he sware to our father
                                        tered into the world, and death by
        coming of God's Christ for                                               Abraham" (Luke  1:73). Isaiah  42:6
                                        sin; and so death passed upon all
the covenant?                                                                    prophesies Him as God's gift "for
                                        men, for that all have sinned"
    The non-Reformed churches                                                    a covenant of the people." From
                                        (Ram.  5:12).      Likewise, faithful
certainly will not. The worst of                                                 this passage Simeon drew his in-
                                        preaching of the Savior and His sal-
them will rejoice that Jesus came                                                spired welcome of the Christ-Child
                                        vation must set forth their covenan-
to free the poor, blacks, women,                                                 in Luke  2:32: "A light to lighten
                                        tal nature: "by the obedience of
and homosexuals. The best will                                                   the Gentiles, and the glory of thy
                                        one shall many be made righteous"
herald Jesus' birth as simply God's                                              people Israel."
                                        (Ram. 5:19).
gift of a Savior for sinful men and                                                  Covenant defines Jesus Christ
                                             If the note of covenant is miss-
women. All ignore the covenant.                                                  and describes His mission. One
                                        ing from our Christmas song, our
    But what of us who are Re-                                                   can no more explain Jesus Christ
                                        celebration is weak, if not false.
formed? Do we see the birth of                                                   apart from covenant than he can
                                             What kind of celebration of a
Jesus in light of the covenant, in-                                              understand Charles de Gaulle
                                        husband's birthday is it, that is
deed as fulfillment of the covenant                                              apart from the glory of France.
                                        oblivious to the unique relationship
promise? Do we embrace Him who                                                       Jesus' birth is the coming of the
                                        in which he stands to the celebrat-
was born of the virgin as the Christ                                             "messenger of the covenant"  (Mal.
                                        ing wife?        Even though she is
of the covenant? Is the benefit of                                               3:l).    Lying in the manger in
                                        thankful for his gifts-food, cloth-
His birth, over which we make                                                    Bethlehem was no merely private
                                        ing, a house, perhaps jewels and
merry, enjoyment of the covenant?                                                person, nor a highly gifted indi-
                                        trips-who would praise a wife's
Do we proclaim the baby born in                                                  vidual who would captivate many,
                                        celebration, if she ignored the mar-
Bethlehem as head of the covenant                                                nor even simply the one who was
                                        riage itself whence the gifts spring
of grace?                                                                        to save sinners in God's name. But
                                        and which they are intended to
    Is this our proclamation of                                                  He was the Servant of Jehovah in
                                        strengthen?
Him, not only within the congre-                                                 history--the Servant of Jehovah.
                                             As gift of the triune God, Jesus
gations but also to the whole, wide                                              And His service would be that of
                                        was sent into the world on behalf
world in missions? Surely, sound                                                 the "mediator of the new cov-
                                        of God's covenant. What accounts
preaching of the misery of men and                                               enant" (Heb.  12:24). By Him, the
                                        for His birth is God's remembrance       triune, true, and living God would

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make a new covenant with the  hu-                       Jesus Christ is more than the             and contract with the covenanting
man race of election (Heb. 8).                   servant of God, to realize the  cov-             God  a s   a   r e a l ,   t h o u g h   p e r h a p s
    The eternal Son of God came                  enant. In His two natures, divine                lesser, party to the transaction,"
into the world in the incarnation                and human, united in His one  (di-               and, "Yes, but we must cooperate"?
in order to restore friendship  be-                     vine) person, Jesus is the  cov-                 Christmas, that is to say Cov-
tween fallen, guilty, corrupt,                              enant.  He is Himself the             enant, is grace, all grace, only
and hostile people and                                        covenant between God                grace. Whoever will not see this
God. This is salvation.              Celebration               and man. For the  cov-             cannot celebrate. Celebration of
This is life. This is bliss.         of  the birth              enant  is the union and           grace, by mouth and by hand, is
This is glory.                            of  Jesus,            communion of God with             the real work in the covenant, and
    He will mediate  be-                  therefore,            man, and Jesus is in              this too is of grace.
tween God and the elect            magnifies God,               Himself this union and                   Singing the Psalms directs us
race that has faithlessly                 God  only,            communion.                        rightly in this aspect of the celebra-
deserted Him and that             and extols grace,                   The Word of God             tion of the birth of Christ also.
hatefully opposes Him.                      grace              names Him "Emmanuel,"
His mediation will consist                  only.             that is, "With-Us, God"                Who is there like to Thee, through-
of the redemption of the                                     (Matt.  1:23;  cf. Is.  7:1&. The           out this vast creation,
cross, that obtains the right to                        name does not merely reveal                 Jehovah, Lord of hosts, the God
fellowship with the blessed God,                 what He will do. But it reveals                         of our salvation,
and of the renewing of the Holy                  who He is:           God-taking-us-hu-                Arrayed like Thee with power and
                                                                                                         faithfulness astounding,
Spirit, that unites these men and                mans-into-fellowship-with-Him-                        Constraining saints to praise Thy
women with God by faith.                         self.                                                   wondrous grace abounding?
    In this way, Jesus Christ will                        Or, simply, Covenant.                                                       (Psalm  89)
reveal to the covenant people the                         What remains is that He make
eternal friendship of God towards                His human nature spiritual and                          All of this depends upon God's
them.                                            glorious through the crucifixion                 sending of the Christ as the heact of
    The friendship of the covenant               and resurrection and that He unite               the covenant.
is of the highest order. It is that of           all of His own to Himself by the                        The covenant of grace is not
family: adopted sons and daugh-                  gospel and the Spirit.                           headless. God forbid! In this case,
ters living with God. It is that of                       Celebration of the birth of             all the members are so many unre-
children who know and enjoy God                  Jesus, therefore, magnifies God,                 lated individuals. At best, God
as the God of goodness in Jesus                  God  only,  and extols grace, grace              brings each person into the cov-
Christ.                                          only. Mary magnified the Lord                    enant purely as an individual, on
    What love permeates this life!               (Luke  1:46). Zacharias blessed                  his own, altogether apart from any
    What intimacy characterizes it!              God, attributing the Savior and His              head. Since membership in the
    What benefits of salvation are               salvation to the work of God (Luke               covenant is salvation, in this case
part of it!                                      1:67-80). The angels praised God                 salvation is a purely individualis-
    What a disclosure to them of                 (Luke  2:13,14).                                 tic matter.
the being and counsel of the Fa-                          God realizes His covenant with               At worst, each member of the
ther is the privilege of the children!           His people. God realizes His cov-                covenant comes in as a head unto
Adam and Eve never knew God so!                  enant by the wonder of incarna-                        himself. He himself earns for
    What a glorious work is the                  tion.                                                     himself the right to the cov-
calling of every child: service of                        Where is man?                                       enant and its blessings. He
the heavenly Father. The Christian                        What slightest role            Celebration           himself works up in  him-
life of holiness and good works is               does his work or his will                 ofgrace,             self the life that befits the
covenant life.                                   play?                                    by mouth              covenant.
    This is the truth about the birth                     How does the  cov-            and by hand,                      That "holy thing"
of Jesus. This must be our celebra-              enant-let us say,  Cov-              is the real work          that was conceived by the
tion. Our singing of the Psalms is               enant-depend on man's                in the covenant,          Holy Spirit was the  "fed-
such a celebration.                              worth?                                  and this too           era1  (that is, `covenant')
    For him My mercy shall endure,                        Who dares to stand             is of grace.          head" of the new human
    My covenant made with him is                 before the pregnant womb                                    race.       He came into the
         sure,                                   of the virgin with his, "Yes,                            world as the legal  representa-
    His throne and race I will main-             but there are conditions that we                 tive of the people of the covenant.
         tain                                    must fulfill," and, "Yes, but we
    Forever, while the heavens remain                                                             His obedience will be imputed to
                                                 must accept the well-meant offer,"
                              (Psalm 89).                                                         them for righteousness.  Accord-
                                                 and, "Yes, but we must bargain                   ingly, He will be the living source

126/standard  Bearer/December  15,1998


of their spiritual life. With Him,         sentative of others in the covenant
with Him personally in the human           of grace, so that His obedience            Ye seed from Abraham descended,
nature, God has established the            would be imputed to the others as          To whom His favors were ex-
covenant (Psalm  89:3, 4, 28). To          their righteousness. And just as the          tended,
Him, to Him personally in the hu-          first Adam justly transmitted the          And Jacob's children, whom the
man nature, God has made the               depravity of his nature to all whose        L o r d
promise of the covenant (Gal.  3:16,       representative he is, so also the sec-     Has chosen, hearken to His word.
29).                                       ond Adam shares His own holiness           He is the Lord, our Judge divine;
        The man whom God the Cre-          and life with those whom He rep-           In all the earth His glories shine.
ator formed from the dust was the          resents (Rom.  5:12ff.).                   Jehovah's truth will stand forever,
"figure" of the man formed from                Made with Christ as head, the          His covenant-bonds He will not
David's daughter (Rom  5:14). Just         covenant extends to all those, but            sever;
as the first Adam was created as           those only, who are in Him by sov-         The word of grace which He com-
the legal representative of others         ereign, eternal, divine election.             mands
in the covenant of creation, so that           Thus the covenant is sure, to          To thousand generations stands;
his disobedience would be imputed          the comfort of every one who be-           The covenant made in days of old
to the others as their guilt, so the       lieves in Christ. This too is our          With Abraham He doth uphold
second Adam was given by God               Christmas celebration in the                                    (Psalm  105).  Cl
the Redeemer as the legal repre-           Psalter.                                                                   - DJE





                                             With some it is full with one child,    decisions in life. This is especially
                                             with others not until five or six,      true of the New Testament saints,
                                             ten or twelve, are born. The God        and let us never desire to be back
                                             who killeth and maketh alive de-        in the shadows of the old dispen-
                                             cides this, not man. Abortion is
H Family Planning                            ruled out here, of course. The pill     sation, under the law as it were a
                                             and other contraceptive devices         schoolmaster, but enjoying the true
T                                                                                    freedom, as free-born sons of Sa-
        hough I routinely enjoy the          are ruled out here, of course. Fam-
                                             ily planning, the decision of hus-      rah, to meet the daily decisions
        Standnrd Bearer  and find it to      band and wife as to how many            head on. As God brings trials in
be instructive and encouraging, I            children they are going to have,        our lives, so also He leads us to
am troubled by some statements               and just when they are going to         make decisions, even as regards to
touching our responsibilities re-            have them, is also ruled out by         children.
garding our children in the article          this Psalm.                                 Make no mistake: we must
entitled "Arrows," by Rev. D.                                                        make these decisions carefully,
Kuiper, in his rubric, "A Word Fitly           A few points are well sup-            very carefully. We must be thor-
Spoken,"(Oct.  1, 1998). In his at-        ported by Scripture: children a           oughly knowledgeable of God's
tempt to warn us against worldli-          great blessing (no true Christian         will, as He has set it forth in Holy
ness, the reverend actually steers         parent would have difficulty with         Writ and as He has taught us
us away from responsible decision-         that) and the abomination of abor-        through the preaching and example
making! After quoting the text of          tions ("Thou shalt not kill"). The        of our parents, pastors, and others.
the "happiness of the man that hath        difficulty I have is with your com-       We must be sure to make decisions
his quiver full of them"  (I%.  127),      mentary regarding our "planning"          which are directed to God's glory,
he writes:                                 of children. Though ultimately the        conform to His will, and are to the
                                           "planning" or decision-making is          spiritual benefit of ourselves, our
  Clearly, the number of children          God's (Proverbs  16:9; "A man's           families, and the church. Though
  that we have is in view here. We         heart deviseth his way; but the
  take the quiver to stand for the                                                   this is not easy, it is possible, by
                                           LORD  directeth his steps"), never-
  home, and the home is to be filled                                                 God's grace.
                                           theless, God in His wisdom has
  with children. Normally, when                                                          Do these decisions involve how
                                           given (poured forth) the Spirit of
  God chooses to bless a man, He                                                     many children and when? How can
  does so by giving him children           Christ unto His dear children, en-        they not? If the reverend is consis-
  (Ps.  128:3, 4). Quivers are of dif-     abling them, not to walk with             tent, he would have to admit that,
  ferent sizes, and God decided that       blindfolds on, hoping all goes well,      with his position, a man could not
  size, and when the quiver is full.       but to make important (dividing)

                                                                                        December  15,1998/Standard   Bearer/l27


be separate from his wife for any                    not advocating abstinence for a            conviction that this is solely God's
amount of time, lest he interfere                    time and with consent as an aid to         prerogative is based on the follow-
with God's plan. Even the apostle                    "family planning" but as an aid to         ing:
Paul permits such decisions (for a                   spiritual life. Indulgence in the use                 a. To God belongs the is-
season, and with consent, I Cor.                     of God's good gifts may, at times,         sues- of life and death  (I Sam.  2:6).
7:5).       O u g h t   w e   t o   d o u b t   a    cause our prayer life to suffer. Ab-       Notice, this is taken from Hannah's
believer's decision in circumstances                 stinence and fasting are suggested         prayer of thanksgiving just after
such as these: a mother finds her                    as means to improve this.                  she had received Samuel from God.
life in danger; a father is suffering                    3. New Testament, Spirit-filled                   b. God gives conception to
mental depression; or a marriage                     children of God ought to have the          whom, when, and as often as, He
is breaking at the seams and un-                     same high regard for children as           pleases (Ruth  4:13).
dergoing counsel?                                    did the Old Testament saints. I                       c. God alone knows the fu-
        Indeed, as the reverend wrote,               know of no laws that were abro-            ture, and He knows us better than
we do not condone "the world's                       gated by Christ in this regard. So         we know ourselves.
low view of children as a bother,                    no attempt is being made to put us                    d. God has promised never
as an unnecessary expense, as a                      back in the shadows of the old dis-        to burden us above what we are
hindrance to the good life; the                      pensation.                                 able to bear (I Cor. 10:13).
world's low view of child-bearing                        4. Indeed, we must do all                         e. God alone knows His
and the labors of the mother in the                  things according to God's will as          elect children, especially the church
home; the world's usurping of di-                    set forth in Holy Writ. The article        yet to be born. He will bring that
vine right in regard to the issues                   interpreted, briefly, one passage of       (latent) church forth from believ-
of life and death-all this may not                   that Holy Word, and warned                 ing parents for the most part. We
influence or control believing par-                  against such excuses as we have            stand in His service in this regard.
ents in regard to their having chil-                 heard in defense of "family plan-          We hope you, and others, find this
dren." These are the lame excuses                    ning" :                                    helpful.
of the world. On the contrary, a                                a. "You have to use your                     -Rev. Dale H. Kuiper w
believing husband and  wife~  have                   common sense." No, we must use
a deep yearning for the blessing of                  sanctified judgment.
children; yet God may choose to                                 b. "I don't want to bring
give us personal limitations and                     children into the world that will be
bring us into circumstances in                       ruled by Antichrist." God prom-            n  The  & Appreciated by the
which He indeed calls us to make                     ises to be with us unto the end of         Dutch Speaking
decisions in the matter of our fam-                  the world.
ily.                                                            c. "I can be a better parent    Uwordt van hart bedankt voor de
                                                                                                         4 "editorials"  aan  "common
        We need guidance to make                     to one or two children, than if I          grace" (see the May 15, August,
these decisions, not advice to shirk                 have many." How do you know?               September 1, September 15, and
our responsibilities by all-encom-                              d. "I may only bring as         October 1, 1998 issues of the  Stan-
passing rules set by others. Let us                  many children into the world as I          dard Bearer).
pray for wisdom that we may make                     can afford, and that includes tu-                  N a   5 0   jaren   v r a g e n d   o m
the decisions we ought to make,                      ition payments." Here the issue is         Abraham Kuyper eindelijk een
and may live only to His glory.                      money! And God knows we need               open begrijpelijk antwoord.
                               Brian Rypstra         money. Therefore He will provide                   Mijn hartelijke dank.
                               Lynden, WA            for us one way or another, by way
                                                     of our daily labors or by way of                   [A heartfelt thanks to you for
RESPONSE:                                            the love gifts of His people.              the four editorials on common
        To what I have written in the                    5. We are not trying to steer          grace.
brief article entitled "Arrows," let                 anyone away from responsible de-             After 50 years of wondering
me add the following for your con-                   cision making, because we do not           about Abraham Kuyper, finally a
sideration.                                          believe that anyone has the right          clearly understandable answer.
        1. There certainly are excep-                to be making decisions in the area                 My heartfelt thanks.1
tions to what was written, as you                    under question: number of chil-                             (Mrs.) Minnie V. Bleeker
pointed out. The emotional and/                      dren and when to have these chil-                             Schnecksville, PA  0
or physical health of the mother is                  dren. We are trying to warn God's
a legitimate consideration, and the                  people away from presumptuous
advice of the medical profession-                    decision making, that is, of presum-
als ought to be considered.                          ing the right to make decisions
        2. In I Corinthians  7~5 Paul is             which belong only to God! My

12S/standard  Bearer/December  15,199s


                Confessing Our Lord (1)

                                            Lord is to place a limitation around    Jesus as Lord. There are many who
W                                           myself, and to walk according to        say that they love Jesus, who call
            e have seen and believe         the dictates and will of Him who        themselves Christian, but who
            that the only begotten          is higher than I. It is to acknowl-     want nothing to do with a Christ
            Son of God is very God.         edge that I am but a servant, a         who is Lord over them. In this ar-
And because Jesus Christ is  God,           slave. And how we hate servitude        ticle and the next we must give
He is the unique Son. He alone is           - by nature. From that point of         some consideration to that error.
the eternal and natural Son of God.         view we can certainly understand           B u t   we  i m m e d i a t e l y   a n d
He alone is Savior. "There is none          the desire to shake off the per-        openly confess that to claim Jesus
other name under heaven given               ceived bonds of Jesus' lordship.        as  Savior  is to submit to Him as
among men, whereby we must be                  But that so many would deny          Lord.  Another gospel there is not!
saved" (Acts  4:12).                        Jesus' lordship is astounding sim-         This is a truth that bears great
    But this same Christ is also our        ply because the Bible itself so         significance -both with respect to
Lord.                                       clearly sets forth this very truth!     the assurance that is ours as Chris-
    He who has redeemed us from                 Jesus pointed to Himself as the     tians and also with respect to the
all our sins has also claimed us as         fulfillment of Psalm 110, when, in      way we live. You and I are called
His own property.                           a conversation with the Pharisees,      to stand always before Jesus Christ
    We make this confession in full         He asked them, "What think ye of        and to join Thomas in the confes-
realization that this truth is widely       Christ? whose son is he? They say       sion: "My Lord and my God."
rejected by Christians in our day.          unto him, The son of David. He
That there are multitudes of Chris-         saith unto them, How then doth          His Unique Lordship
tians who deny Jesus' lordship over         David in spirit call him Lord, say-         When we confess our faith in
them is astounding to us. It isn't          ing, The  LORD  said unto my Lord,      Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son,
astounding in the sense that we do          Sit thou on my right hand, till I       our Lord, we are confessing not
fiot understand  why  people would          make thine enemies thy footstool?       only that Jesus is the only eternal
take such a position. After all, to         If David then call him Lord, how        and natural Son of God, but also
confess Jesus Christ as Lord is to          is he his son? And no man was           that His lordship is unique.
acknowledge that we are small. To           able to answer him a word, neither          Christ is Lord  alone.  The One
confess Jesus Christ as Lord is nec-        durst any man from that day forth       God, Jehovah, is Lord over all, and
essarily to deny oneself and to ac-         ask him any more questions" (Matt.      He now reigns by His exalted Son,
knowledge another more important            22:42-46).                              Jesus Christ.
than self. We were those who had                This was one of the first points        It is exactly from this point of
to be saved. Christ is the One who          of emphasis in the apostles' preach-    view that we reject categorically all
alone could save us. Doesn't it             ing immediately after Pentecost         religions that do  not maintain this
stand to reason, then, that He has          (Acts  2:36): "Therefore let all the    confession. True Christianity is not
a right and a power that we do not          house of Israel know assuredly,         a religion that can be placed in cat-
have? Doesn't it stand to reason            that God hath made that same            egories with other world religions.
that He has something more than             Jesus, whom ye have crucified,          We do not put Buddhism or Hin-
we?                                         both Lord and Christ."                  duism or Islam or Judaism as reli-
       To confess Jesus Christ as my            How frequently in the New           gions on equal footing with Chris-
                                            Testament is the Savior referred to     tianity. We refuse to give legiti-
                                            as  Jesus Christ  our Lord!             macy even to those sects that call
                                                Yet in recent decades there has     themselves Christian but deny the
                                            been a rising movement in evan-         unique lordship of Jesus Christ, the
Rev. Key is pastor of the Protestant Re-    gelical Christendom which denies        only true God.
formed Church  of  Randolph, Wisconsin.

                                                                                       December  15,1999/Standard   Bearer/l29


    Christ alone is Lord! And He         among men, whereby we must be                             Him Lord. His lordship is not con-
is Lord indeed.                          saved."       Jehovah is Lord alone.                      tingent or dependent upon any-
    Christ is Lord exactly as the        And Jehovah reveals Himself in the                        thing we may do. He is not and
only begotten Son of God. It is He       face of Jesus Christ. -That confes-                       does not become our Lord because
of whom the apostle writes in  Ro-       sion is inseparable from salvation.                       we acknowledge Him as such and
mans  10:12,13: "For the same Lord       One who does not confess Christ                           are willing to serve Him. We all
over all is rich unto all that call      as Lord is not saved.                                     are called to serve Him. But His
upon him. For whosoever shall call           Satan, for that very reason,                          lordship is not dependent on
upon the name of the Lord shall          would try to destroy that confes-                         whether or not we obey that call-
be saved."                               sion. The saints in the early church                      ing. He is Lord, Lord over every
    Deny that Jesus is God, and the      were placed before the choice of                          aspect of our life, at all times and
confession of His lordship becomes       saying, "Jesus is Lord, but Caesar                        everywhere. Do you confess Him
a farce. If He is a mere man, why        is also Lord," or being executed.                         as such  - exclusive Lord over
not cast off His demands and twist       Satan does not want an exclusive                          you?
His precepts to serve our own pur-       Christianity. He strives to bring                             This is one area where those
poses? But He is not a mere man.         about        a   f a l s e   C h r i s t i a n i t y ,    who deny the lordship of Christ err
He is God in the flesh.                  anti-Christ. So the saints were told,                     grievously. Some certainly misun-
    As the divine person of the Son      "You may confess Jesus is Lord, so                        derstand, while others twist the
of God, Christ is Lord over all.         long as you confess in the same                           Scriptures to their own damnation.
    He is Lord by virtue of His be-      breath that Caesar is Lord." Their                        The following are a few quotations
ing Creator. John writes concern-        refusal to make that compromise                           from some who deny the truth that
ing the Son of God in the first chap-    meant for some of them that they                          we confess:
ter of his gospel account, verse 3,      were burned at the stake, for oth-                            - "Lordship salvation contra-
"All things were made by him; and        ers that they were thrown to the                          dicts Scripture."
without him was not any thing            lions, for others that they were                              - "This message is accursed of
made that was made."           As the    roasted alive in boiling oil. By faith                    God."
owner of that creation, He rules         they walked the way of death,                                 - "The person who preaches
over all and everything in such a        rather than deny the unique and                           such a message is also accursed of
way that together all things serve       only lordship which belongs to                            God."
His sovereign purpose.                   Christ Jesus, the only begotten Son                           - "It hinders the growth of the
    But when we confess Jesus as         of God. By faith they confessed                           body of Christ  - this will stop the
Lord, we are confessing His lord-        the name of Jesus, that He is Lord                        growth of the local churches."
ship over us. We confess the lord-       alone, and that there is no Lord                              These quotations are from a
ship of the only begotten Son of         next to Him or instead of Him.                            book entitled  Handbook of Personal
God who is Jesus Christ our Sav-             When we call Jesus Christ our                         EvangeZism,   authored by Stanford,
ior. He not only created. But to         Lord, we do not place Him in a                            Seymore, and Streib, and referred
fulfill the eternal counsel and will     class of lords, but we acknowledge                        to and criticized by Ernest C.
of God, He was conceived by the          Him as the sole Lord over us and                          Reisinger in his book, Lord b Christ:
Holy Spirit and born  ~of the virgin     over all.                                                 The Implications  of  Lordship  for  Faith
Mary. He suffered under Pontius              Obviously, that bears great sig-                      and Life.
Pilate, was crucified, dead and bur-     nificance to our own lives. He is                             Those who deny the lordship
ied.    He descended into hell.          not a lord, alongside many other                          of Christ are frequently  dispen-
Unfathomably deep was the suffer-        lords in our life. He is not a lord                       sationalists. They are those who
ing of Jesus! He suffered for us,        for one day of the week, or part of                       tear the very fabric of the Bible,
for all His people - because of-our      one day. When we confess Him as                           making separation between Old
sins. He suffered and died, that         our Lord, our Lord by virtue of His                       and New Testaments and denying
we might never have to bear the          death for us and exaltation at God's                      the unity of the church and the one
everlasting and infinite wrath of        right hand, we are confessing that                        gospel of grace. Dispensationalists
God. But having accomplished the         His is an unlimited lordship. We                          generally have a Jewish and there-
purpose for which He became              confess that which is recorded in                         fore earthly concept of the king-
flesh, this Jesus, the only begotten     Romans  14:8:  "For whether we live,                      dom. Consequently, they deny the
Son of God, was raised and exalted       we live unto the Lord; and whether                        kingship of Christ over His church,
at God's right hand. He is Lord          we die, we die unto the Lord:                             and teach rather that He is King
indeed!                                  whether we live therefore, or die,                        only over the nation of Israel, that
    We must maintain that He is          we are the Lords."                                        earthly kingdom which is still pre-
the only Lord. For "there is none           `And we must recognize that                            cious in His sight. They err greatly.
other name under heaven given            Christ is not Lord because we made                            They teach that the gospel of

130/StandardBearer/December  15,1998


grace brings complete freedom                 separate fundamental biblical                    lordship of Christ have another
from any demands. In 1922, Lewis              truths that are meant to exist in                gospel, which therefore  is no gos-
Chafer, a prominent  dispensa-                perfect harmony with each other  -               pel!
tionalist theologian, wrote in his            truths such as law and gospel, law                       Saving faith, union with Christ,
book  Grace: The Glorious Theme,              and grace, saving faith and good                 brings the whole man into subjec-
"The Christian's liberty to do pre-           works as the fruits of that faith.               tion to Him. That which we think,
cisely as he chooses is as limitless              Reisinger points out -cor-                   that which we will, how we make
and perfect as any other aspect of            rectly, in many cases, we judge  -               our decisions, and the actions that
grace."                                       that the father of this denial of                we take, all are now subject to our
     We insist, however, that the             Christ's lordship is Arminianism,                Lord Christ. That is true because
lordship of Christ  does  press upon          the mother is dispensationalism,                 Christ Himself brings us into will-
every aspect of our lives, bringing           with the mother's sister being                   ing subjection to Him. That is why
us into  willing  subjection. And we          antinomianism, and all bringing                  I Corinthians 12:3 tells us, "No man
charge those who deny the lord-               their evil influence upon their                  can say that Jesus is the Lord, but
ship of Christ with attempting to             daughter and niece. We make bold                 by the Holy Ghost."           Cl
                                              to say that those who deny the





Further Investigation of the Philippines
                     as a Possible Mission Field

                                              ond, a city called Bacolod, which                Cagayan. Looking back we can see
I                                             is on the island of Negros. The two              the leading of the Lord in this. In-
     t was my privilege and joy,              places are very different the one                stead of the planned series of for-
     along with Pastor Richard                from the other.                                  mal messages we visited in vari-
     Smit from our church in  Doon,               In Cagayan De Oro we visited                 ous homes of the members of this
Iowa, to make another visit to the            with a Bible Study group called                  Bible Study group. We had a good
Philippines. We made this visit as            "The Independent Bible Study Fel-                opportunity to meet with and get
representatives from the Foreign              lowship." This is the same group                 to know the members of the group
Mission Committee of the Protes-              we visited with last year. The word              in the settings of their own homes
tant Reformed Churches and in                 "independent" in this name was                   and families. Especially in the
harmony with the decisions of the             chosen to emphasize the desire of                provinces of the Philippines, one
1998 synod. It was another excit-             this group to have a self-support-               sees immediately that the standard
ing and eventful visit, about which           ing work, one that is not financially            of living is much lower there than
we can write only a very little in a          dependent on a Western church, as                in America. Cagayan De Oro is a
short Standard Bearer article.                are so many Protestant churches in               city of some 600,000 inhabitants,
     The FMC planned that our del-            the Philippines. This we consid-                 most of whom live in what by
egation should spend most of the              ered to be commendable. Though                   American standards are most
time in two places: the first, a city         with much struggle, with meager                  humble dwellings. Some of these
called Cagayan De Oro, which is               resources, and a very humble meet-               homes do not even have running
on the Island of Mindanao; the sec-           ing place, this group is self-sup-               water. Water has to be laboriously
                                              porting in the work it is doing.                 hand carried every day from quite
                                                  Originally we had planned to                 a distance away. We got firsthand
                                              give a series of messages to this                experience of the great difficulties
                                              group. For various reasons which
Rev. denHartog  is pastor of Hope I?rotes-                                                     of day-to-day living in a country
tariff Reformed Church in Redan&  Cali-       we will not go into, our plans were              such as the Philippines. We were
fornia.                               v-.
                                  * 3fl *     c h a n g e d   a f t e r   w e   arrived.bin    again deeply moved by the  real-

                                                                                                       December  15,1998/Standard  Bearer/l31


                                                                                        would have to be prepared to
                                                                                        make. We met with two mission-
                                                                                        aries who had been living there for
                                                                                        some time already, and we learned
                                                                                        some things from them that we be-
                                                                                        lieve will help us to guide future
                                                                                        decisions regarding possible mis-
                                                                                        sion labors in the Philippines. I
                                                                                        could easily write a lengthy article
                                                                                        detailing all the interesting experi-
                                                                                        ences we had. We hope to be able
                                                                                        to relate some of these later in slide
                                                                                        programs.
                                                                                            O u r   s e c o n d   s t o p   w a s   i n
           Members of the Bible Study Fellowship in Cagayan De Oro                      Bacolod City. The men with whom
ization of how much we in America       evening meeting was really more                 we met in Bacolod have united in
have in comparison to other             of a Bible Study than a worship ser-            a small society which they call
peoples of the world.                   vice. We were not in Cagayan for                "Conveners of Historic Christian-
    At each home that we visited        the Wednesday evening Bible                     ity." Some of the members of this
we read a passage of Scripture and      Study, though we had attended                   group attended the conference last
spoke with those in the home about      this meeting on our visit last year.            year in Daet. Some are pastors in
spiritual things, somewhat as we            During the course of our  six-              various churches in Negros and
do when we make family visitation       day stay in Cagayan we had three                surrounding islands. The Conven-
calls in our home congregations in      somewhat more formal visits with                ers are reading books and litera-
the US. We talked about the in-         the three leaders of the Bible Study            ture published by the Reformed
volvement of the family members         Fellowship.    In these visits we               Free Publishing Association and in
in the life of the Bible Study and      talked with the men about various               our churches. These men have
the various problems which they         aspects of what it would mean if                varying degrees of knowledge and
face as Christians in a culture as      the PRC would send a missionary                 understanding of Reformed truth.
difficult and economically de-          to the Philippines to work among                Some of them in fact can discuss
pressed as the Philippines. We ob-      them. We asked them to consider                 Reformed doctrine on a very high
served family life and learned          whether they would be interested                plane. Our fellowship with these
something about the spiritual char-     in such a prospect. We had three                men in the truth of the Word of
acter of the homes. We were very        very good discussions and were                  God was very encouraging and
well received. Those we had met         left with some good impressions of              blessed. On the Lord's Day that
on our first visit last year became     the three leaders of the Bible Study            we were on the island of Negros,
more dear to us as we got to know       Fellowship. We concluded that if                both Rev. Smit and I preached in
them better. The people we vis-         the Lord should open the door for               small churches some distance away
ited appreciated very much our          our churches to begin a mission                 from Bacolod. We had a wild taxi
readiness to come into their homes,     work in the Philippines, Cagayan                ride for more than an hour through
and they spoke of the encourage-        might be a good place for us to                 the countryside and saw many in-
ment of our visits. Each visit was      start, especially if the Bible Study            teresting things along the way. The
ended with a time of prayer.            Fellowship would desire us to                   churches to which we were brought
    Though it is not a formally or-     come and help her to  estab-
ganized church, the Bible Study         lish a Reformed church
Fellowship regularly holds worship      among them.
services on the Lord's Day. On              The six days spent in
Sunday morning I was given the          Cagayan enabled us also to
opportunity to preach in one such       see some of the city and ex-
service. The audience was made          perience the culture. We had
up of about 50 people, pretty much      opportunity to consider a
of all ages, including families and     little what it would be like
a goodly number of young people.        for a family from the USA
Pastor Smit was asked to speak at       to live there, the particular
the evening meeting, which had          hardships they would face,
fewer people in attendance. This        and the sacrifices thev             -_     _
                                                                      ,    Church in which the PR emissaries preached

132Btandard Bearer/December  15,199s


                                                 Association. He is e:--  ;
                                                  earnestly looking for a
                                                  place in which he can
                                                  worship in a manner
                                                  consistent with his
                                                  new found faith and
                                                  which is not charis-
                                                  matic. We could only
                                                  wish that already now
                                                  we could do more for
                                                  this young Christian
                                                  and those like him.
 Rev.  denHartog  and Pastor Lapiz             While we were in Manila we                       Rice drying on the road
                                          had the pleasure of an unexpected
are led by men involved with the          visit of one of the pastors from                   The two and a half weeks of
Conveners.                                Daet whom we had met last year.             our visit left us again overwhelmed
    Besides the more formal meet-         He traveled for ten hours on the            with the many experiences we had.
ings with the brethren in the Con-        bus just to meet us. Daet was dev-          We realize that our visits were
veners group, we had several ex-          astated by the two typhoons that            short and very limited in scope. It
tended times of fellowship with           struck the Philippines during the           would not be wise to draw too
them while seeing sites in the city       very weeks we were visiting.                many conclusions from these vis-
of Bacolod. We also had fellow-           Many of the members of the                  its. One cannot learn a situation
ship times in our room at the ho-          churches in Daet suffered great            in a significant way in such a short
tel. The city of Bacolod has a popu-      losses, though none were injured            time. We therefore cannot at this
lation of about 400,000. As far as         or lost their lives. The pastor from       point lay out the way we should
we could tell, this city is more pros-     Daet again expressed his great in-         proceed. We also wait to hear
perous, though only relatively             terest in growing and developing           about the lasting effects of our vis-
speaking, than Cagayan. This is            in the knowledge of the Reformed           its on the people with whom we
due in part to the sugar cane plan-        faith. He continues to be very in-         met. Our prayer is that the Lord
tations in this area. From our  five-      terested in exploring the possibili-       will give us direction on how to
day visit we gained a deeper               ties of our churches helping him in        move ahead toward the possible
knowledge of, and developed                his own personal development, and          goal of a mission field. Perhaps
Christian friendship with, the             helping those also whom the Lord           this will come in the form of a spe-
brethren of the Conveners. They            has brought under his instruction          cific request from one of the groups
have a love for the truth of the gos-      and care.                                  with whom we met-a kind of
pel we call the Reformed faith, and            We had time in Manila to visit          "Macedonian call."
therefore it is easy to establish a        the Immigration Office to get some                Without making premature
bond with them that even after a           preliminary information regarding          judgments we can make at least a
short time is hard to break when           the possibility of obtaining the           few observations. The Lord has
one must leave again.                      right for a missionary family from         His saints in the Philippines who
    We spent our last couple of            the PRC to enter the Philippines           have the beginnings of love for the
days in Manila. There we visited           should one be sent to work there.          Reformed gospel, and some more
with two men who came in contact                                                       than the beginnings. The Philip-
with our churches through                                                                        pines is not a heathen coun-
electronic mail and corre-                                                                       try. It is in fact devoutly Ro-
spondence with one of our                                                                        man Catholic. The work of
ministers. And we also met                                                                       missions in the Philippines
with the same young Chris-                                                                       therefore involves largely
tian man who visited with                                                                        the calling of God's people
us last year. He longs for                                                                       out of the darkness of Ro-
the opportunity to grow in                                                                       man Catholicism. In mod-
the knowledge of the Re-                                                                         ern day Protestantism such
formed faith which he has                                                                        work would be viewed as
learned in large measure                                                                         unnecessary         and     even
through reading the Standard                                                                     wrong. It is being said that
Bearer and books from the                                                                        Protestants ought not pros-
Reformed Free Publishing                                                                         elyte Roman Catholics, but
                                -`. "I' Rev.  denHartog  visiting with members of the BSF
                                                                                             December  15,1998/Standard   Bearer/133


recognize them rather as brothers               The work, we believe, should             tive would of course ultimately be
in Christ who are not in need of               involve establishing churches that        to witness more broadly in the
any conversion to the Protestant               are truly Reformed in doctrine,           community in which we labor, in
faith.       We believe that mission           worship, and Christian living.            order to help a newly established
work among Roman Catholics even                Such,.a work will involve tremen-         Reformed  church to gather others
today is true mission work and                 dous challenges.  There'will be op-       whom the Lord might by His grace
work that carries on the purpose               position to it from various sources       and Holy Spirit bring to the knowl-
of the Reformation.                            even from other Protestants. There        edge and love of the truth of His
    The church situation among the             will be difficulties. We heard com-       Word. If we could begin a work
Protestants in the Philippines is              ments from some connected with            by establishing a Reformed congre-
much like it is in so many other               Reformed churches in the Philip-          gation in one area by the grace of
countries. There are major ecu-                pines that it is impossible to have       God, we could also better help the
menical efforts to bring all Protes-           worship services in the Philippines       other groups with whom in the
tants together in a liberal and apos-          that are not charismatic in charac-       Lord's providence we have come
tate denomination. The charis-                 ter. Only this  .type of worship ser-     in contact and whom we have
matic movement has had a broad                 vice appeals to the emotional char-       known for a number of years.
influence in the Philippines. There            acter of the people of the Philip-        These various groups are actually
is a very great need for a Reformed            pines. Others told us that Re-            quite far distant from each other.
work and a Reformed church                     formed doctrine does not fit in the       And distance is complicated by the
founded on the glorious doctrine               Philippines. We believe that the          fact that the groups are on differ-
which the Lord in His mercy has                Reformed faith, which is the gos-         ent islands of the Philippines.
preserved in our churches here in              pel, is culturally transcending and            Let us pray. to the Lord ear-
America.         There are groups of           applicable to people of all nations.      nestly for His guidance. May He
Christians in the Philippines who                  Should the Lord use us to es-         use us to strengthen those who al-
desire such a work. It is our prayer           tablish a Reformed church in the          ready love His Word, and to gather
that the Lord in His providence                Philippines, our desire and objec-        those whom He has ordained to
might use us for this work.                                                              eternal salvation.  0



I Preservation of  Saints-                       he had been born again, his sal-        cause we have been saved." It is
                                                 vation is ensured. Sinning-even
and Sin                                                                                  never: "We have been saved and
W                                                repeatedly-would not bar his            therefore we do as we please." But,
           as Clinton's religion at fault        soul from heaven. "There's no           as usual, it is the church and its
           for his sexual escapades?             way you can get right with God          doctrines of grace which receive
    One is constantly amazed at the              by doing good," explains the Rev.       the blame for the "evil which we
attempts of many to place the                    James Dunn, an FOB and head of          would not."
blame of Clinton's problems on                   the liberal Baptist Joint Commit-
someone or something else. Now                   tee on Public Affairs. "We do
                                                 good, not in order to be saved, but     n Is Marriage Optional?
an article, appearing in  Newsweek,              because we have been saved."
November 2,  1998,  seems to place                                                       Thesame issue of Newsweek pre-
the blame for his sins on his                                                                sents a rather troubling por-
                                                   Clinton was "born again," ac-
Baptistic views-especially on                                                            trayal of marriage in the  21St cen-
                                               cording to the article, when he was
what we call the "preservation of                                                        tury. The estimate of the writer is
                                               seven. It would appear that the
saints" or "eternal security." The                                                       that 10% of the population will
                                               doctrine of "preservation of saints"
article states, among other things,                                                      never marry. The writer states:
                                               was at fault for his behavior since
this:                                          it makes Clinton convinced that                Getting married used to be a
                                               whatever he may do, his salvation           prerequisite for the most impor-
         But Clinton's troubled personal       is now  guaran-teed.  It is similar to      tant decisions of life.... Today it's
  life-and his repeated verbal eva-                                                        common for unmarried couples to
  sions-also bears a distinctive               the old error condemned in  Ro-             move in  together, pick out china,
  Baptist stamp. Like most Baptists,           mans 6: "Let us sin that grace may          b u y   a   d o g - e v e n   c o n c e i v e   a
  Clinton was taught that because              abound." But let none mistake the
                                               truth of the matter. Sin is not the         child-without bothering with the
                                               result of the truth of preservation         legalities. The rules of courtship
Rev.  VanBaren  is pastor of the Protestant                                               and;mating  are changing steadily
                                               of the saints.     Rather this truth
Reformed Church of  Lovelqd, Colo-                                                         as i&e century nears its close, and
rado.                                          leads. to this: "We do good . . . be-       by 2025, when the children of the

134fitandard   Bearer/December  15,1998


  millennium begin to settle down,       this also affected the  churches-               faced Central American leaders
  the venerable institution of mar-      and our churches?                               gathered Monday to appeal for
  riage may be more flexible and                                                         more aid in recovering from Hur-
  less mandatory than ever. Al-                                                          ricane Mitch even as a growing
  though Americans still over-           H More' Signs of the Times                      army of rescue workers struggled
  whelmingly prefer marriage to be-          A careful observer is struck by             to help hundreds of thousands of
  ing single, cohabitation is on the     the number of things occurring in               victims.
  rise: more than 4 million hetero-      the realm of God's creation. The                  Honduran President Carlos
  sexual couples now live together,      scientists seem to have an expla-               Flores Facusse called his country's
  up from about 2 million in 1978.       nation for it all-and even warn of              $4.2 billion debt "unpayable" af-
  Divorce, of course, is still very      increasingly devastating disasters              ter one of the worst natural disas-
  easy to obtain despite a growing                                                       ters of this century in the Ameri-
  movement to make it tougher. As        which will surely fall upon this                cas.
  a result, sociologists now estimate    earth. Reading just one issue of              .-- "In 72 hours; we lost what we
  that the percentage of Americans       the Denver Post recently (Nov. 10,              had built, little by little, in 50
  who never marry will grow, from        19981,  one notes the report  of. at            years," he told a news conference
  5 percent to about 10 `percent of      least two- terrible disasters affect-           following the summit....
  the population, in years ahead.        ing large populations. The first
 The social forces behind these          was in Bangladesh, a country of-                  One reads with increasing fre-
  shifts run deep and will last well     ten affected by cyclones. This  low-          quency of
  beyond 2000. The most  obvious-                                                                     "natural disasters"
                                         lying country is quickly flooded by
  is the advent of broader career op-                                                  which are the "worst of the cen-
  portunities for women. In the          the heavy rainfalls. And now an-              tury" or the "worst in recorded his-
  195Os, says Andrew  Cherlin of         other awful event is reported:                tory." Our own country has been
  Johns Hopkins University, "every                                                     hit very hard over the past 10 to
  breadwinner needed a home-                 Bangladesh is in the midst of             20 years with disasters of major
  maker-they had a need for each           what some experts say could be              proportions. One wonders what
  other, and that kept most mar-           the biggest mass poisoning in his-          lies still ahead? Surely the book of
  riages together. Today it's easier       tory. Dangerous levels of arsenic           Revelation speaks to these disas-
  for either spouse to walk away if        have been found in the ground-              ters. Are not all of these things
  they're unhappy. It isn't that mar-      water, entering millions of people
  riage isn't taken seriously today,       sip by sip as they drink from a             evidence of the fulfillment of the
  but it's less necessary." Co-habi-       vast system of tube wells. Most             running of the last three of the four
  tation is on the increase because        of these hand-operated pumps are            horses? And the increase reminds
  the social taboos against it have        10 to 20 years old, which is about          that the trumpets of Revelation are
  weakened....                             how long it takes the arsenic to            now sounding-for there is the
                                           do its lethal work, killing with one        prophesied increase of these
    It is a sad commentary on our          of several cancers.                         troubles which fall upon the earth.
society. It is a sad commentary              The unfolding crisis is the un-
                                           intended consequence of a colos-            Millions are being killed  in war-
also on churches which now accept          sally successful safe-water pro-            fare. Millions are killed by dis-
divorce and remarriage-and even            gram. For 25 years, the govern-             eases. And, so we are told, more
condone this co-habitation. Few            ment along with UNICEF and                  than a million people have died in
care anymore that all of this is vio-      other aid groups has weaned vil-            this century through "natural" di-
lation of the seventh command-             lagers from disease-carrying pond           sasters. Surely our Lord's return
ment-the ten commands have                 water and helped them to sink               must be near at hand!
long ago been removed from most            pipes into underground aquifers.
walls of buildings and from the            The naturally occurring arsenic             n Quest for Faith
hearts of mankind. Morality is             that tainted these subterranean
                                           sources was overlooked.                         Again, from the Denver Post,
regulated only by "social taboos."                                                     November 7, 1998, is an article
    The article even recognizes part         The same paper reported on                which briefly treats of religious
of the problem: "broader career op-      some of the misery in Honduras                trends for the  21st century. The ar-
portunities for the women." The          and neighboring countries. Hon-               ticle reviews a book, "Shopping for
family disintegrates. Children           duras had about 10,000 to  2O;OOO             Faith: American Religion in the
grow up without supervision of           people killed (no one will ever               New Millennium," co-authored by
parents. That basic institution of       know for sure how many there                  Don Lattin and Richard Cimino.
society, marriage, is rapidly crum-      were), and the country was virtu-             The article stated:
bling. The consequences  are'al-         ally destroyed when Hurricane
ready seen on every hand. `It- is        Mitch hit.                           . . .        But they try to identify trends.
truly one of the obvious  sign&  ,of                                     `t  __. :       Lattin has been religion editor of
the times. How much has  a#  of             Overwhelmed by disaster, grim- '             the San Francisco Chronicle for 15

                                                                                          December  15,1998/Standard  Bearer/l35


 years, and Cimino is editor of  Re-            bral, belief is growing, he said.        ficulty is that many today place
 ligion Watch,  a New York City or-             For example, many can find a re-         themselves above the body of
 ganization that monitors religion               ligious experience in channeling        Christ manifest on this earth.
 trends.                                         or Pentecostal worship....              These separate themselves from the
    Lattin said they didn't poll cur-                                                    communion of saints (for it seems
 rent religious feelings, but sum-              One is reminded of Christ's
 marized polls done recently.                                                            they are the only "saints" remain-
                                               warning, "Then if any man shall
 Some of those polls show: Seven                                                         ing on the earth). They separate
                                               say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or
 of 10 Americans believe one can                                                         themselves from the preaching of
 be religious without going to                 there; believe it not. For there shall    the Word and the sacraments (for
 church; 40 percent said a person              arise false Christs, and false proph-     no church can possibly do it the
 doesn't have to believe in God to             ets, and shall shew great signs and       way these insist it must be done).
 experience the sacred and 99 per-             wonders; insomuch that, if it were        These sin grievously against Scrip-
 cent of family physicians think               possible, they shall deceive the          ture which is addressed to the
 faith helps patients respond to               very elect. Behold, I have told  you      church, and which speaks of that
 treatment.                                    before. Wherefore if they shall say
    Other polls show that 56 per-                                                        church as the very "body of
                                               unto you, Behold, he is in the
 cent of Americans pray, chant or                                                        Christ."
                                               desert; go not forth: behold, he is
 play meditation tapes on the job                                                            And how true it is that today
 to relieve stress. Thirty years ago,          in the secret chambers; believe it        "religion becomes stress reduction,
 one of 25 Americans left their de-            not" (Matt.  24:23-26).                   rather than salvation."    Religion
 nominational heritage. Now the                    Some strange things go on to-         is no more a worship of God, but
 number is one of every two or                 day. One can experience the "sa-          "people  want  to know how to `do'
 three Americans.                              cred" without believing in God??          religion." Religion has become a
        "Americans have a practical            And 70% of Americans can be reli-         "touchy-feely" activity, and God
 faith " Lattin said. "They want a             gious without going to church??
 payback. Religion becomes stress                                                        and His Son Jesus Christ have no
                                               The earthly manifestation of the
  reduction, rather than salvation.                                                      part in it. One senses the rise of
                                               body of Christ is considered  imma-
  People want to know how to `do'                                                        the antichristian spirit and the im-
  religion."                                   terial and unnecessary?? The dif-         minent appearance of the Anti-
        Experiential, rather than cere-                                                  christ.  0.





        The Relationship of the Diaconate to
                          the Other Special Offices

0                                              appreciation to which it is entitled.     that the office is denigrated either
            f the three special offices in     It has been either totally discarded      in practice or in thinking. In prac-
            the church of Jesus Christ         or else corrupted, because its true       tice, perhaps the council of the
            (those of pastor, elder, and       character was lost sight  of."i In        church denigrates the office by ex-
deacon), that of deacon seems to               some denominations the office does        pecting the deacons to focus more
receive the least attention. One               not exist. In others, although the        on the general finances of the
man, writing on the subject of the             office exists, its character and the      church than on the work of distrib-
diaconate, says that throughout the            work assigned to it are not in ac-        uting alms and caring for those in
history of the church this office              cord with Scripture's requirements        need. Also in practice, perhaps the
"has not found the recognition and             for the office. Even in Reformed          people of the church denigrate the
                                               churches, in which the office exists      office by being reluctant to avail
                                               and in which sincere effort is made       themselves of the mercies of Christ
                                               to see that the deacons carry out         which the deacons administer. In
Rev.  Kuiper  is pastor  of  the Profesfanf
Reformed  Church of Byron Center, Micki-       their work in accordance with             thinking, perhaps the people of the
gan.                                           Scripture, the very real danger is        church denigrate the office by

136/Standard   Bearer/December  15,199s


viewing the diaconate as inferior            word "deacon" is not used. Acts           and 27 mention "elders and dea-
to the eldership, and by thinking            6:1-6 records the institution of the      cons" in one breath, showing the
that a good deacon "graduates" to            office in the New Testament               equality of the two offices.
become an elder as he grows older.           church. Other passages of Scrip-              This being the official teaching
       We ought not  - we  must  not         ture imply the office of deacon by        of Reformed churches and the
- denigrate the office in such a             referring to the saints' duty to give     teaching of Scripture, we are
way. The office of deacon is an              for the relief of the poor, but no-       obliged to view and treat the
important office in the church of            where else is explicit reference          diaconate as being equal to the
Jesus Christ. It must be held in             made to the office of deacon.             other special offices..
high esteem, and must be regulated               Nevertheless, the Word of God
according to the Word of God. The            does set the office of deacon on a                +++  +4+  +++
deacons must be faithful in doing            par with that of elder. In both I
the work which pertains particu-             Timothy 3:8-13 and Philippians  1:l           This parity is due to two basic
larly to their office. The people            the office of deacon is mentioned         similarities between the office of
must be faithful in supporting the           in connection with that of elder          deacon and the offices of pastor
deacons with their alms, and in              (bishop). Many of the qualifica-          and elder.
calling upon the deacons when le-            tions for the offices of deacon and           The first similarity is that all
gitimate needs require it. The of-           elder are the same  (I Tim. 3). That      offices are fundamentally positions
fice must not be viewed as being             Paul's letter to the Philippians is       of service to God in the church.
subordinate to, but on a par with,           addressed to the saints with the          Herman Hoeksema defined an of-
that of elder and pastor.                    bishops and deacons indicates the         fice as "the position in which man
       With this article we begin an         equality of these two offices, and        is authorized and qualified to func-
examination of the office of dea-            implies that both offices are essen-      tion in the name of God and in be-
con, with the goal that we as Re-            tial for the organized congregation       half  of. God's covenant and king-
formed believers give the office the         of saints in the new dispensation.        dom, to serve Him and to rule un-
high place which God's Word gives                That the Reformed churches of-        der Him."* This is true fundamen-
it.                                          ficially teach the parity of this of-     tally of the office of Mediator
        As an introduction to this           fice and the other offices is evident     which Jesus Christ holds. Second-
study, this article will compare and         from several documents. First, one        arily it is true of the offices of el-
contrast the office of deacon to the         of our major creeds, the Belgic Con-      der, deacon, and pastor in the
offices  ~of elder and pastor.               fession, makes this clear. In Ar-         church to which Jesus Christ calls
                                             ticle 30 the diaconate is specifically    men.
           +++  +++  +++                     mentioned in connection with the              That the office of deacon is a
                                             other two offices as being neces-         position of service is clear from the
        In the first place we must stress    sary for the proper government of         word "deacon" itself, which in the
that both Scripture and the Re-              the church. We read that, in addi-        Greek means "servant." Though
formed churches officially teach the         tion to the elders and pastors, also      the word "deacon" is found only
parity, or equality, of the office of        the deacons "form the council of          five times in the KJV, the Greek
deacon with that of pastor and el-           the church." Article 31 explains          noun  dinkonos,  from which the
der.                                         that deacons, as well as ministers        word "deacon" comes, is translated
        It is a fact that Scripture nei-     and elders, must be put into office       "minister" twenty times in the KJV,
ther refers to the office of deacon          only after an election by the church,     and "servant" seven times.
nor uses the word "deacon" as of-            no man may take the office of dea-             Not only the diaconate, how-
ten as it refers to the other special        con to himself.                           ever, but also the other offices are
offices or uses the word "pastor"                Second, although the Form of          positions of service. That the
or "elder" (or "bishop"). In fact,           Ordination of Elders and Deacons          apostles viewed their office as such
the word "deacon" occurs only five           does not explicitly state the fact of     is clear from the record of the in-
times in our King James Version.             the equality of the offices of elder      stitution of the diaconate in the
Four of these five instances are in I        and deacon, it assumes this equal-        New Testament church. We read
Timothy  353-13, which lists the             ity, inasmuch as the same form is         that the apostles resolved to give
qualifications which God requires            used for both offices.
of a deacon. The other instance is               Third, the church order of the
in Philippians  l:l, in which Paul           Reformed churches makes this par-         1 William Heyns,  Handbook for Elders and
addresses the saints at  Philippi            ity of office clear. Article 2 teaches    Deacons,  (Grand Rapids: William B.
                                                                                       Eerdmans Publishing Co.,  1928), page 285).
"with the bishops and deacons."              that the diaconate is, in fact, one       2 Herman Hoeksema,  Reformed Dogmatics,
Scripture explicitly refers to the of-       of the special offices in the Re-         (Grand Rapids: Reformed Free Publishing
fice one other time, although the            formed churches. Articles 16, 17,         Association,  1966),  page 363.

                                                                                           December  15,1998/StandardBearer/l37


themselves "continually to prayer,                     Christ carries out the kingly and         on the cross, that we might be rich
and to the ministry of the word"                       prophetic aspects of His office, re-      through His poverty. This doctrine
(Acts  6:4). In this verse the word                    spectively.                               serves as the basis for the com-
"ministry" is the translation of a                         As our -only High Priest, Christ      mands of verses 7, 10, and 11 to
Greek noun with the same root as                       did or does especially three things:      the Corinthian saints to give of
diakonos,  that is, service. This ba-                  first, He offered Himself as the          their goods for the relief of the
sic similarity among the offices re-                   only and complete sacrifice for the       poor. Although Paul does not ex-
quires of us that we consider the                      sins of God's people; second, He          plicitly mention the involvement of
offices to be equal.                                   intercedes for God's people; and          the deacons in this collection of
        The second similarity is that in               third, He blesses God's people. By        alms, their work is implied. They
every special office, that of deacon                   each of these three tasks God, in         must gather the alms, and distrib-
included, the exalted Jesus Christ                     Christ, shows Himself merciful to         ute them or see that they are dis-
continues to function as Mediator                      His people. He sees the depth of          tributed. By doing this work, the
of His church. Therefore each                          our misery and our inability to es-       deacons manifest the mercy of
officebearer, whether minister, el-                    cape that misery of ourselves, and,       Christ to His people. As Christ
der, or deacon, is the personal rep-                   moved with compassion, lifts us up        took pity on us who are spiritually
resentative of Jesus Christ to the                     from the depths of our misery to          poor by nature, so the deacons
people.                                                the heights of joy and blessedness.       must take pity on those who have
        The one Mediatorial office of                  Because sin is the source-and cause       needs of the body, and perhaps of
Jesus Christ is threefold: He is                       of our misery, Christ's one sacri-        the spirit. And as Christ gave of
Prophet, Priest, and King. He has                      fice on the cross took away in prin-      Himself for the salvation of those
exercised these three aspects of His                   ciple the guilt and corruption of         who are poor by nature, so the dea-
one office throughout history, from                    our sin, and His blessing which He        cons must work for the good of
the beginning of the church's ex-                      continually bestows on us through         those who are needy.
istence in the Garden of Eden until                    His Spirit consists of the progres-           Having understood this, we
now. In the Old Testament He did                       sive realization in us of the forgive-    can see the second distinction be-
so through the prophets, priests,                      ness of our sins and the new life of      tween the office of deacon and the
and kings in Israel whom God                           Christ.~                                  other offices: the work of the dea-
raised up to their respective duties.                      The deacon carries out the            cons, specifically, is that of serving
While on earth He did so by His                        priestly work of Christ in the            tables, that is, being sure that the
teachings, miracles, and death on                      church. He does so not in the way         poor of the church are cared for.
the cross. During the New Testa-                       of adding to Christ's atoning work.       It is that work which the apostles
m e n t   H e   c o n t i n u e s   t o   d o   s o    We know that Christ's self-sacrifice      realized they were doing, at the ex-
through His Spirit working in the                      for our sins was performed once           pense of the ministry of the Word
hearts of all believers, and espe-                     and completely. To attempt to add         of God and prayer (Acts  6:4). To
cially through the work of His                         to this work of Christ is to deny         this work the first deacons were
Spirit in the hearts of men whom                       the sufficiency of His death on the       appointed. The deacons must care
He calls to the special offices.                       cross, and to deny that He is the         for the physical needs of the mem-
        Because Jesus Christ continues                 only Mediator. In no sense, there-        bers of the congregation, and for
to work in His church through each                     fore, does Christ continue to carry       their corresponding and related
of the offices, those offices are                      out His atoning work through the          spiritual needs. This makes them
equal. The saints of the church                        office of deacon. Nor, of course, is      distinct from the other offices. Pas-
must remember that the deacons                         the deacon able to intercede for us       tors must busy themselves with
are as much representatives of                         at God's right hand, or effica-           teaching, and elders with ruling.
Christ to them, for their salvation,                   ciously to bestow upon us the spiri-      Both pastor and elders  serve  in this
as are elders and pastors.                             tual blessings of salvation which         regard  - they serve God who ap-
                                                       Christ gives through His Spirit.          pointed them to their office, and
           444  444  444                                   However, there remains a cor-         they serve the people. But this ser-
        There are, however, important                  relation between Christ's atoning         vice is related more to the people's
distinctions between the office of                     work and the work of the deacons:         souls than to their bodies. The dea-
deacon and that of elder and pas-                      the deacons, on behalf of the             cons, on the other hand, care for
tor.                                                   church, must show mercy to those          the physical needs, not to the ex-
        In the first place, through the                in need. To this correlation Paul         clusion of any spiritual needs of the
office of deacon Christ carries out                    refers in II Corinthians  8:lff. In       people, but rather with those spiri-
especially the priestly  aspect of His                 verse 8 we are told that Jesus            tual needs which arise directly
Mediatorial office, while through                      Christ, who was rich, became poor         from their physical needs.
the offices of elder and pastor                        through His incarnation and death

138/Sandard   Bearer/December  15,1998


                                               so, Christ exercises His priestly of-      other offices demands that we as-
    We see, then, that the office of           fice in her midst, blessing her poor       cribe to deacons the work which
deacon is a necessary office in the            and needy, and blessing the whole          God gives them, and encourage
church, in its own right.              The     congregation in their giving for the       them in this work. Its parity with
church always has her poor, and                needs of the poor.                         the other offices demands that we
thus always has the duty of caring                 The necessity of having this of-       not denigrate it in our midst.
for her poor. This she does through            fice in the church demands that we             Let us seek to do these things!
the office of deacon. And in doing             honor it. Its distinction from the                                             0




          The Great Value of Reformed,
                   Christian Education (I)*

T                                                  Finally, there is always the nag-      and John Calvin, the man used by
           he great value of Reformed,         ging voice of the flesh whispering,        God to complete the Reformation.
          Christian education is a topic       "This is not worth it." The pres-          It takes us into the Netherlands
           that deserves attention.            sure of finances may give it voice.        where Calvinism flourished and
    There is little appreciation in            As tuition costs rise or income dips,      developed in a unique way with a
the society at large  forReformed,             the flesh wonders, "Is it worth all        particular emphasis on the cov-
Christian education. There may be,             this money?" When hours upon               enant.
here and there, a desire to have               hours are poured into the Chris-               Reformed  doctrine  is set forth
something generally Christian-a                tian education: the arduous labor          in the three creeds: the Heidelberg
school that opens with prayer,                 of establishing and maintaining the        Catechism, the Belgic Confession,
teaches morals, has somewhat bib-              schools and the work of teaching           and the Canons of Dordrecht.
lically based discipline. But  Re-             day after day, long hours; when                Reformed is always  biblical  be-
formed, Christian education is not             troubles brew and long meetings            cause to be Reformed is to be al-
desired.                                       become the rule; when tension              ways reforming, that is, always go-
    Secondly, there is little knowl-           arises among very friends-the              ing back to God's Word in confes-
edge of what Reformed, Christian               flesh cries out, "This is not worth        sion and walk. Since it is inherently
education is! What makes Chris-                the grief!"                                biblical, Reformed education is also
tian education to be Reformed?  Even               In the face of all this, it is good    Christian education.
less understanding exists of the  ba-          for us to be reminded of the great             The term  Christian  has to do
sis  of this education and the  mo-            value of Reformed, Christian edu-          with Christ. Christian education
tives for providing it.                        cation.                                    has Christ at its center. Christ is
         Thirdly, the large and growing            What is Reformed, Christian            the core of its instruction. He is the
home-schooling movement poses a                education? Please note that the            focal point of all Christian instruc-
threat to the Christian school in lo-          terms Reformed education and               tion. All Christian instruction
cations where the school, due to its           Christian education will be used in-       somehow points to Him who is the
small size, struggles to maintain it-          terchangeably.                             Word, the revelation of God.
self.                                              The term  Reformed,  historically,         Christian  education  is, first of
                                               takes us into the camp of Luther           all, the work of teaching, of giving
                                               and the great sixteenth century Ref-       knowledge about God and His cre-
                                               ormation when God reformed His             ation. Proper Christian education
Prof. Dykstra is professor of  Church  His-    church by calling a remnant out of         is more than that. It is  rearing  the
tory and New Testament in the Protes-          the apostate Roman Catholic                covenant child. It is the work of
tant Reformed Seminary.                        Church and reestablishing His              molding character, developing at-
*Originally given as a speech at the 1998      church on the basis of the Bible.          titudes, establishing biblical think-
Spring Banquet  of the Reformed Heritage       Reformed  brings to mind Geneva            ing patterns, right goals, and godly
Christian School, Kalamazoo,  Mich.

                                                                                             December  15,1998@andard  Bearer/l39


living in the hearts, minds, and          church-run- Such schools are estab-      tion does not fall on dead, stony
lives of covenant children. And one       lished and governed by a church          hearts, but on regenerated hearts
thing more education is, namely,          and funded. by the church budget         changed by the Spirit.
the passing down of knowledge             (not free-will offerings). Their pur-         How do believing parents deal
from believing parents to their chil-     pose is to indoctrinate the children     with their children? Because of the
dren.                                     with the particular doctrines of the     promise of God to establish His
    By definition, then, Reformed,        church. The Roman Catholic               covenant with believers and their
Christian education is  covenantal.       schools are the most notable ex-         seed, believing parents deal with
To understand this we need to dis-        ample of parochial schools.              their children as covenant children.
tinguish it from other forms of edu-          Christian schools are not paro-      Though the parents know and be-
cation. First, we distinguish it from     chial. In fact, Christian education      lieve that the lines of election and
home schooling, where a mother or         is not the calling of the church as      reprobation cut through families of
father or both seek to teach their        church. Christ commanded His             believers, they view their children
children. It is not my intent to set      church to be occupied with three         organically. In the same way, Paul
up the Christian school against           things in particular: preaching the      addressed the church of Philippi:
home schooling. Nor am I suggest-         Word, administering the sacra-           "To all the saints in Christ Jesus
ing that home schooling cannot be         ments, and exercising Christian          which are at Philippi." Again, as
Reformed. In a covenant home,             discipline. Christian schools must       he wrote to the church in Ephesus:
such instruction obviously has a          be parental, not parochial.              " T o   t h e   s a i n t s   w h i c h   a r e   a t
covenantal aspect to it. Still, a             Finally, we distinguish Chris-       Ephesus, and to the faithful in
Christian school is something dif-        tian schools from private schools.       Christ Jesus" (Eph.  1:l). Paul knew
ferent because it involves many           Christian schools are not private        that not everyone in the churches
children from many covenant               academies established for one or         of Ephesus and  Philippi  were be-
homes. Reformed, Christian educa-         another reason-perhaps to avoid          lievers. Why then address them
tion has historically been con-           the vices found in the public            thus? He did so because he viewed
cerned, not merely with the chil-         schools, or to get a "better" educa-     the group organically, as one, as
dren of one covenant home, but            tion. Christian schools are paren-       the church of Jesus Christ.
with the children of all the cov-         tal, not private.                             In the same way parents view
enant homes in a given locale.                A Christian school is a  cov-        their children as covenant children,
    We must differentiate between         enantal school, a parental school. It    even though it may well be that
Reformed, Christian education and         is set up by believing parents to        God has not established His cov-
state or public education. The gov-       fulfill the demands of the covenant,     enant with every child.
ernment establishes schools to            vows made at baptism. Its purpose             Parents have an obligation to
serve the state. These schools are        is broader and deeper than merely        raise their children as covenant
agents for accomplishing the state's      imparting knowledge. It is the rear-     children. They must teach their
goals, to inculcate the state's think-    ing of the child that concerns Chris-    children about God and His works.
ing and morals and to give the pre-       tian education. Christian education      Parents are to teach their children
scribed knowledge approved by             is rearing the covenant child in the     to love God, to fear and obey Him.
the state. This in spite of the fact      fear of the Lord, in order to bring      Children must learn to live as cov-
that the Bible demands that par-          him to maturity and equip him to         enant friends of the living God in
ents, not the government, train           serve God, and enable him to live        the world.
their children.                           as a friend-servant of God in the             Scripture is plain in this regard.
    There was a day when parents          midst of the earth.                      The believing parent is com-
to a large degree ran the public              Thus: Reformed, Christian edu-       manded, Teach the words of God
schools. Teachers were accountable        cation must consciously be based on      "diligently unto thy children,
to parents and local school boards        the covenant.                            and.. . talk of them when thou sittest
who represented the parents. But              The covenant is the relation-        in thine house, and when thou
this is emphatically no longer the        ship of friendship that God sover-       walkest by the way, and when thou
case.  In  Zoco parentis,  the teacher    eignly establishes with His people       liest down, and when thou risest
standing in the place of the par-         in Christ. God establishes this cov-     up"  (Deut. 6:7). Fathers are admon-
ents, is dead in the public school        enant with believers and their seed      ished to bring their children "up
system. Christian schools are not         in the line of continued generations     in the nurture and admonition of
state schools, and state schools are      (Gen.  17:7). Within the sphere of       the Lord" (Eph.  6:4). Children are
not Christian.                            the covenant, God ordinarily regen-      exhorted, "Hear, ye children, the
    We must distinguish Reformed,         erates His elect as children. Thus       instruction of a father, and attend
Christian education from parochial        parents are able to give instruction     to know understanding"  (Prov.
schools. Parochial schools are            to their children, and that instruc-     41).

140fitandard  Bearer/December  15,1998


    Most parents find themselves           the point that most parents find                The Christian school is an ex-
unable adequately to carry out             themselves unequal to the task.             tension of the home because par-
their calling. There are several rea-      Children must be able to use the            ents band together to form school
sons for this. First, father is gone,      knowledge gained by man and the             societies. Societies elect boards.
not home with the children on the          technology developed. They must             School boards set the policies of the
farm as in days gone by. That              both be taught the facts and have           school and hire teachers. Teachers
means the whole burden of in-              all the knowledge put into a bibli-         then stand in the place of the par-
structing the children falls on the        cal perspective. This kind of teach-        ent  (in  loco parentis).  They are to
mother. If she is to be faithful to        ing takes training and study, hours         teach the children as the parents
her calling, she cannot do all her         upon hours of preparation. Few              would if they could.
labors  and  give all the instruction      parents have this opportunity.                  What a beautiful gift the Chris-
to the children. Perhaps she can               These factors have led Chris-           tian school is to covenant parents!
"make  .do" just as a mother who           tian parents to establish Christian         It is a means given to parents to
works outside the home can "make           schools to fulfill their covenantal         help them fulfill their covenant ob-
do" taking care of the material            obligations.                                ligations to bring up their children
needs of the family. However, the              The Christian school is, there-         in the fear of the Lord. The school
great danger is that spiritual nur-        fore, an extension of the Christian         is not an adversary to the home,
turing will suffer because the             home. It is not the arm of the              nor the home to the school. Rather,
mother does not have the time to           church. The church uses catechism           the school helps the parents.
do the work of a wife, mother, and         and preaching to teach the lambs                What is the nature of the in-
teacher  and  prepare herself spiri-       of the flock. By these means the            struction in the Christian school
tually for this high and arduous           children are taught the doctrines of        that properly rears covenant chil-
calling. Thus the father must share        the Reformed faith.                         dren? To this we turn our atten-
in this work if children are home              Nor may the school be merely            tion next time by examining the
schooled, and that not merely af-          an arm of the state, to make them           distinctive characteristics of the in-
ter he returns from his work.              literate, able to function as citizens      struction in the Reformed, Chris-
    Secondly, the technical nature         or merely productive members of             tian school.  CI
of the knowledge has advanced to           society.



                                           The Secret
                        of the Lord's Prayer
                                                       (John  17)

M                                              What secrets? Secret of God                 Secrets! Jesus' fare-you-well!
          any secrets! Jesus has           with us in Jesus. Secret of heaven.         Secrets for the life of full joy
          been whispering these to         Secret of the Savior's love. Secret         (15:11), the life of faith  (16:1), the
          His disciples on this            Spirit. Secret of the fruit of the          life of peace in Him  (16:33)....
night before His death-secrets re-         Vine. Secret of tribulation. Secret             Did you hear them-those se-
corded in John 14-16. Secrets, these       of the peace Jesus leaves.                  crets? Have they across the ages
are, of God to men, of Grace to                Secrets which the covenant              and from heaven to earth now by
graced, of Love to lovers, of Friend       God will have  wifh  and  in  those         Christ's Spirit been whispered...to
to friends. These are secrets of the       that fear Him  (Ps.  25:14). Secrets        you?  Sweet  everythings,  these whis-
covenant, of that blessed relation-        which the Mediator of the covenant          pers! Sweet salvation. You just
ship "God with us."                        will, therefore, speak  into  the  heart    must  hear them! They are your life!
                                           of his confidants. Secrets which            How do you fare? Well?
                                           will be for secret knowledge which
Rev. Dick is pastor of Grace Protestant    is  eternal  rife  (John  17:3), and for            +++         +++    +++
Reformed Church in Standale, Michigan.     living.

                                                                                          December  15,1998/StandardBearer/lll


    Now another secret. The John          prayer! What a wonderful theme           no secrets are hid'; and having
17 secret. A secret, a communion          for study and contemplation!             poured out His soul into the ear,
shared not first of all between Jesus     Prayer was the messenger He was          and into the bosom of God, He
and the disciples, but between Son        wont to send on all His errands,         went forth into Gethsemane. May
and Father divine. For, His last          and in this He is an example to us.      God the Spirit be with us and give
discourse to His disciples now            By prayer He held His constant in-       unction and understanding to our
ended, Jesus turns to His heavenly        tercourse with heaven; and we            hearts, while we meditate on His
Father in prayer.                         have no better way of doing so.          most precious prayer."
    The Lord's Prayer!-  Look! Lis-       Prayer was the arrow of Christ's             Let us follow the lead of the
ten! Jesus is praying:  "My  Father       deliverance, and the shield of His       Spirit who wrote John 17 itself.
which art in heaven...!"  Here a se-      help...."                                Into the secrets of the Lord's
cret revealed to us, to be sure. But          To the disciples Jesus "had          Prayer. That there may be disciples
certainly also a sanctuary into           opened His whole heart  to  them.        oft earnestly praying...in the secret
which we cannot go. For in this           He now opens it  for  them to Him        love communion of the covenant of
Lord's high priestly prayer are           before whom `all hearts are open,        grace. You?
these secrets:                            all desires known, and from whom
    Secret of our Lord's humilia-
tion: the sovereign Lord of  glory-
what need has He? How possible
that He bow, that He ask, that He
be  outside  the eternal glory pray-
ing that once again that glory be
restored?                                 1. Jesus' prayer for His                 How were they given to the Son?
    Secret of our Lord's exaltation:      glorification  (vv. l-5).                    How is  Jesus glorified in the
the future glory He shall once                For what is the Son asking           disciples (v.  lo)? How is He glori-
again have, what will it be like for      when He prays that the Father may        fied in us today?
Him? Does Jesus taste this exalta-        glorify Him? Is this too much for            Jesus kept eleven of the dis-
tion, even now (as He prays:  "and        Him to ask? Is it a glory equal to       ciples. But one who was with the
now, 0 Father, glorify thou me...17:5;    the Father's? Search these verses        eleven was lost, even Judas. What
cf.  16:33b)?                             and others for proof. What do the        does Jesus mean by calling Judas
    Secret of predestination and          creeds say about this (cf. the           the "son of perdition" (v.  12)?
particdarify:   why is the Christ Me-     Athanasian Creed and the Creed           Does Judas' falling away mean that
diator and pray-er only of some,          of Chalcedon)?                           there is a possibility of any of
and not of the world  (17:9)? Why             The Son is glorified, and so is      God's people falling away? Ex-
is He priest of us-whose natural          the Father, in the glorification of      plain this in light of Scripture's
sanctuary is the world, who so eas-       the church. What, according to           teaching of the nature of the work
ily and readily make abundant of-         John  17:3, is the glory of the          of God, and the preservation of the
ferings to self?                          church? What does this teach is          saints. Explain this in light of
    Secret of church: she is pre-         the relation between eternal life        Jesus'  prayer  to the Holy Father to
served! How,  m  this present evil        and knowledge?          How can we       keep all those given Him (v. 11).
age?  She is one! How, as the Fa-         grow in this knowledge, and, there-          Jesus utters "these things" of
ther and Son are one (17:21)?             fore, in this eternal life?              His prayer, and of His last dis-
    Secret of Christ's work, Christ's                                              course to the disciples, that the joy
praying in the sanctuary of heaven:       2. Jesus' prayer for His                 of Jesus might be fulfilled in the
for will He not pray similarly, un-       eleven disciples  (vv. 6-19).            disciples (v. 13). How will this joy
til the kingdom come, also in the              What, according to verses 6-8       so occur through the things Jesus
glory and in the bosom of the Fa-         (cf. also vv, 25,26), has Jesus mani-    says? Are Jesus' words  your joy?
ther?                                     fested to the disciples? What is the     Are they more significant in your
                                          fruit of this revelation?                life than the things which make for
         +++  +++  +++                        Some like to say that Jesus is       sorrow and which would work de-
                                          the Savior of all men, or that He at     spair?
    Searcher of the Scriptures!           least wants to be. How does v.9              The Savior will go to the Fa-
How do we dare look into this sanc-       refute such notions?                     ther. The disciples will be left in
tuary of Jesus.7 Let us follow the            Jesus describes the disciples as     the world. They are not left in a
lead of one Marcus Rainsford who          those who are "given" to Him of          monastery, or on a desert island,
wrote his thoughts on John 17:            the Father (cf. w.  2,6,9,24).  When     or in a cave on the side of a moun-
    "The Lord Jesus Christ in             were the disciples given to Jesus?       tain. They are truly  in  the world,

142/Standard  Bearer/December  15,7998


and stlpposed  to be in the world, rub-         What, according to verses 17,         speaks, and for which Jesus prays?
bing shoulders with it. Yet they             19 is the relationship between sanc-     How do we promote true unity: at
are not  of the world, and  aye not to       tification and truth? What are some      home, in our local church, in the
be  of the world. What does this             practical implications of this rela-     denomination, and inter-denomina-
mean-in the world, yet not of the            tionship?                                tionally? Is there any way we can
world? How can we err on either                                                       join with the world-say, to pro-
end-world flight or worldliness?             3. Jesus prays for the disciples         mote the right to life of the unborn?
What is the world's reaction to the          who will in the future believe
disciples in the world? Why does             (vv. 20-26).                             4. Perspective: John  20:31.
Jesus keep the disciples in the                  Jesus prays that the church              This Lord's Prayer!
world (vv.  14-16)?                          may be one. A glorious one, to be            These things written, this
    The eleven disciples are sent            sure! A oneness like unto the unity      prayer recorded, that we might be-
into the world, even as the Son was          of Father and Son! A oneness of          lieve that Jesus is the Christ, the
sent into the world (v. 18). The             glory! Reflect on these things of        Son of God...and have life through
word "sent" implies "commission"             the unity of the church revealed in      His name!
and "calling." The eleven disciples          verses 21-24.                                What of the Christ-Priest,
(apostles or "officially sent ones")             Not long ago in Lacombe,             Prophet, King do we learn in this
were officially charged with a great         Alberta where I was minister, there      prayer of our Lord?
God to represent and great work              was an ecumenical service held at            What do we learn there is more
to do! Just what was their charge            the local CRC. An Anglican min-          to learn of?
and work? What is ours?                      ister preached on John  17:21a:              Holy ground.
     What, according to verse 19, is         "That they all may be one." Other            Believe!
the relationship between Jesus'              local ministers were involved in the         Live!
own sanctification and His people's          service. And I believe a Roman               Let us pray.
sanctification?                              Catholic priest presided. Is this the        Amen.  Cl
                                             kind of oneness of which the Bible



                                             sionary for whom it is being pre-            Progress also continues on the
Congregation Activities
T                                            pared, are interested in such a set      new church            h o m e   o f   t h e
        wo members of the Bethel PRC         of CDs. Anyone interested (fami-         Georgetown PRC in Hudsonville,
        in Itasca, IL are currently          lies, teachers, schools, shut-ins,       MI. All the cement floors have
working on a recording of the en-            missionaries, etc.) are asked to con-    now been poured, and the brick-
tire  PsaIter.     The tunes will be         tact Deborah A. Benson, Box 5173,        layers continue to make good
played in order, with up to four             Elgin, IL 60123 or 847-464-5012 or       progress. Trusses for the fellow-
stanzas repeated and with an in-             dbenson@dis.net.  It is not expected     ship hall and south wing have been
troduction and short ending (piano           that this project will be completed      delivered. They did, however, ex-
or organ only). This large project           until mid 1999.                          perience a setback on November
was undertaken for the assistance                From Bethel we also learn that       10, when very high winds col-
of one of our missionaries. The re-          their deacons recently sent a gift       lapsed a large wall behind the plat-
cording would consist of approxi-            from their Benevolent Fund to help       form area. It is being replaced and
mately 15 CDs and would be avail-            a group of Reformed believers in         should be completed long before
able on CD only. The purpose of              Souenyfalva, Romania, where some         you read this.
the recording is for accompaniment           60 families experienced devastat-            The council of the South Hol-
with singing as it is done in the            ing floods this past summer. The         land, IL PRC recently approved
worship service.       With CD it is         money will be used to repair their       sending letters to all the members
possible to go directly to the song          homes and to buy food through the        of their congregation to determine
desired without fast forward or re-          winter, as many of their gardens         whether there is sufficient interest
verse.                                       and fields were destroyed.               to start another congregation in the
        For planning purposes, those             In church building news from         northwest Indiana area.
two members of Bethel would like             Bethel, we learn from their most
to know if others, besides the  mis-         recent bulletin that their heating       Young People's Activities
                                             system is being installed, their             rom information I was able to
                                             parking lot has been paved, and the
Mr. Wigger is an elder in the Protestant                                              Fobtain, approximately 70 young
Reformed Church  of  Hudsonville,  Michi-    siding for the building was about        adults met for a Post High Retreat
gan.                                         ready to go on.                          on November 13 and 14 in  Benton

                                                                                          December  15,199S~tandard   Bearer/l43

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


Harbor, MI.  Benton  Harbor is lo-                       early October to hear Rev. D.                        ing," was given at Southwest PRC
cated about halfway between Chi-                         Kleyn, pastor at Edgerton, speak.                    in Grandville, MI, with an  invita-
cago, IL and Grand Rapids, MI, so                        Also of interest to many that night                  tion for all interested to come and
young adults from many west                              was the auctioning off of an  an-                    take advantage of the opportunity
Michigan churches, as well as our                        tique piano stool that was in the                    to hear about a timely subject.
three churches in the Chicago area                       school, as well as some old style
and even Randolph, WI, were able                         desks which were taken out of stor-                             yiood For IJiougfit
to attend. Bible discussion cen-                         age for the occasion.                                       "Let us act with humility, cast
tered on the Christian's Attitude                             Rev. M. Dick was the featured                   ourselves at one another's feet, join
Toward Environmentalism.                                 speaker at the annual P.R.  Teach-                   hands with each other and help one
     Not to be outdone, the young                        ers' Institute Convention, hosted                    another. For we battle not pope or
people from First PRC in Holland,                        this year by the staff of Heritage                   emperor, but against the devil, and
MI, Grace PRC in Standale, MI, and                       Christian School in Hudsonville,                     do you imagine that he is asleep?"
Kalamazoo, MI PRC planned a re-                          MI. This very worthwhile speech,                                          -Martin Luther  Q
t r e a t   a t   P i n e   T r a i l   C a m p   i n    entitled "Giving Attention to  Read-
Saugatuck, MI for the same week-
end. Discussion was on "Steward-                                                                                       RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
ship of Money."                                                                                                     The council and congregation of South-
     The Young People's Society of                                                                            east PRC express Christian sympathy to Vivian
the First PRC in Holland, MI                                     RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                       Guadalupe and her family in the passing away
hosted a Y.P. Mass Meeting on                              ~~ The council and congregation of South-          of her brother,
Sunday, November 15. Rev. C.                             east PRC express Christian sympathy to Mrs.                      HECTOR GUADALUPE.
Terpstra, First's pastor, spoke on                       Peter Faber and her husband in the passing                  "But if the Spirit of him that raised up
"A Holy Thanksgiving."                                   away of Nell's sister,                               Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that
                                                                                                              raised up Christ from the dead shall also
     The Young People's Society of                           ~~~~ MRS. MARIE WESTVEER.
                                                            em"Behold,  I show you a mystery; we shall        quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that
t h e   F i r s t   P R C   i n   E d m o n t o n ,      not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. In       dwelleth in you" (Romans  8:ll).
Alberta, Canada recently spon-                           a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the                                  Rev. Dale Kuiper, Pres.
sored a supper for their congrega-                       last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and                                           Tim Pipe, Clerk
tion on October 31. This was fol-                        the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we
lowed by a time of singing songs                         shall be changed" (I Corinthians 1551, 52).                     WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
of the Reformation and good fel-                                                   Rev. Dale Kuiper, Pres.           On December 26, 1998, our parents,
lowship together.                                                                         Tim Pipe, Clerk             MR. and MRS. PAUL HARBACH,
                                                                                                              will celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary.
                                                                                                                     With gratitude to God, we recognize the
School  Activities                                                                                            Christian guidance, instruction, love, and care
     In late September, the bulletin                                     Tape Available                       He has shown to us through our parents. We
of the Bethel PRC in Itasca, IL en-                           The Men's and Ladies' Society at South-         pray that God will continue to use them to
couraged those who were inter-                           west PRC wishes to thank Rev. Cornelius              guide us for years to come. "And thou shalt
ested in the subject of Christian                        Hanko for giving a most inspiring talk on "The       teach them diligently unto thy children, and
education and would like to work                         Spiritual Life of the Family after the Children      shalt talk of them when thou  sittest in thine
toward the goal of a Christian                           Are Grown." Those who were unable to at-             house, and when thou walkest by the way,
school in their area to meet and dis-                    tend this event, which was the featured pro-         and when thou liest down, and when thou
c u s s   C h a p t e r   1   o f   P r o f .   D .      gram at the fall meeting of the Eastern Men's        risest up" (Deuteronomy  6:7).
                                                                                                              1 Carol Harbach
Engelsma's book, "Reformed Edu-                          and Ladies' League on September 22, 1998,
                                                         may order a cassette tape of the talk. Please        #Z     Paul and Barbara Harbach
cation." Mr. Lamm Lubbers, prin-                         send your request and a check or money or-                    grandchildren Drew and Jennifer
cipal of South Holland Protestant                                                                             9      Rick and Lil Harbach
                                                         der for $3.00 made out to "Southwest Evange-
Reformed Christian School, led the                                                                                     grandchildren Melissa Meacham
                                                         lism Committee" to:                                                                 and Jeannie Richter
discussion.                                                    Southwest Evangelism Committee                             great grandchildren Luke, Jacob,
     The PTA of the Free Christian                                       Southwest PRC                                                             and Benjamin
School in Edgerton, MN met in                                          4875 lvanrest Ave.                     @ David Harbach
                                                                      Grandville, Ml 49418                                                      Hudsonville, Michigan

144/Standard   Bearer/December  15,1998


