                                              The
                      SB"d"d
                                                        earer
A Reformed
Semi-Monthly
Magazine


                                                                                           In This Issue:
                      Meditation  - Rev. Cornelius Hanko
                                  The Prince of Peace . . . ..*............................................*...................... 146
                      Editorial - Prof. David J.  Engelsma
                                  The Coming of Christ and  Y2K . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
                      Letters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .    151
                      Ministering to the Saints  -  Prof. Robert D. Decker
                                  Visiting the Sick . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .152
                      Day of Shadows  - Homer Hoeksema
                                  The Conflict of Cain and Abel (2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
                      Marking Zion's Bulwarks  - Prof. Herman C. Hanko
                                  Apollinaris and the Doctrine of Christ (1) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
                      Guest Article  - Rev. Douglas Kuiper
                                  Judging: The Christian's Duty (1)
                                  The Prevailing View of Tolerance . . . . . . . ..*......................................... 160
                      Contribution  - Martin  Swart
                                  The Relation of the Deacons to the Consistory (1) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
                      Come, Lord Jesus  - Rev. Cornelius Hanko
                                  Signs of the Times (1)
                                  When Shall These Things Be? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
                      News From Our Churches  - Mr. Benjamin Wigger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167





Vol.  75,  No. 7
January   1,  1999


                                         The Prince of Peace

                                                   For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the
                                            government  shall be upon his shoulders: and his name shall be called
                                            Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the
                                            Prince of Peace.
                                                                                                                               Isaiah  9~6.

                                                                  Him it was said, "Thou shalt call                         enemies of God and died under His
Unto us a child is born.                                          his name Jesus, for he shall save                         curse, God came to reconcile us
       Amazing wonder! The prophet                                his people from their sins." The                          unto Himself and to bring us into a
Isaiah sees, as it were, the virgin                               Prince of Peace. My Jesus, my                             most intimate covenant fellowship
Mary, who in utter amazement                                      Lord!                                                     with Him. He is the God of the
asks the visiting angel, "How shall                                                                                         impossible. He brought salvation.
these things be?" The angel an-                                               +++  +++  +++                                          God said, I will put enmity be-
swers her with the simple and                                                                                               tween thee, Satan-Deceiver, and the
deeply profound words, "The Holy                                         Unto us a Son is given.                            woman, between thy seed and her
Ghost shall come upon thee, and                                          We can trace His genealogy all                     seed.            Her Seed will bruise thy
the power of the Highest shall                                    the way back to the dawn of his-                          head, even as thou wilt bruise His
overshadow thee: therefore also                                   tory. God has eternally prepared                          heel. He is God's gift, not to hu-
that holy thing which shall be born                               our Mediator, our Savior and Lord.                        manity, but to God's people, His
of thee shall be called the Son of                                He is Adam's son, out of the loins                        elect of all the ages.
God." How clear, yet how pro-                                     of Abraham, from the tribe of                                      He is the Christ, prepared from
found!                                                            Judah, of then seed of David, Mary's                      all eternity, promised throughout
       He is the Son of God, yet He is                            child.                                                    the entire dispensation of shadows,
also Son of Man, completely divine,                                      The moment we fell, through                        hoped for by all the early saints.
yet also completely human. Of                                     the transgression of our first par-                       He appeared many times during the
                                                                  ents, God came to us. No, we did                          old dispensation as the Angel  of Je-
                                                                  not come to Him. He came to us.                           hovah  representing God's cause
                                                                  Though we had willfully rebelled                          among His people. He entered into
Rev. Hanko is a minister emeritus in the                          against our Maker, transgressed                           this world of enmity and warfare,
Protestant Reformed Churches.                                     His covenant, and broke the bond                          of sin and death, to fight the battle
                                                                  of fellowship, so that we became                          of the Lord and to overcome all the


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746/Standard  Bearer/January 1.7999


powers of darkness as the mighty                 names whereby we may know Him                             He spoke with divine author-
Conqueror.                                       and speak to Him and of Him,                          ity as He daily taught the people.
                                                 there is no name that can possibly                    He brought separation among
        444  444  444                            express all the fullness of the infi-                 them. Many listened to Him, heard
                                                 nite God. This Prince of God is                       His teachings, and turned their
    Mighty Prince. The govern-                   none other than the Most High God                     backs to Him, preferring the bread
ment shall be upon His shoulders.                H i m s e l f ,   w h o   d w e l l s   i n   .the    that perishes to the Bread of eter-
    He wears no distinguishing                   unsearchable light of His own                         nal life. He raised the ire of scribes
uniform, has no epaulets on His                  glory, far beyond all that is crea-                   and Pharisees, chief priests and rul-
shoulders or stars and bars on His               ture.                                                 ers, for they feared losing their
sleeves. He does not ride a mighty                    That fully qualifies Him to be                   power and were determined to kill
steed with dangling sword or sa-                 Wonderful Counselor. He is Wis-                       Him. But, on the other hand, He
ber. Nor does He gather about                    dom, possessing a wisdom far be-                      drew to Himself sinners who
Himself a large, well-trained army.              yond all that sages know. He can                      washed His feet with their tears
    Even as He entered this world                say: "The Lord God hath given me                      and humbly confessed: "Thou art
in all the weakness of sinful flesh,             the tongue of the learned, that I                     the Christ, the Son of the living
He  was  always the lowly, obedient              should know how to speak a word                       God." For all whom the Father
Servant, authorized from all eter-               in season to him who is weary" (Is.                   gives to Him do come to Him, and
nity to carry out the counsel and                50:4). He says: "Come unto me,                        He in no wise casts them out.
will of our Almighty God. He                     all ye that labor and are heavy                           He surrendered Himself into
came in all the weakness of sinful               laden, and I will give you rest.                      the hands of sinful men to be
flesh, like unto the brethren, to do             Take my yoke upon you, and learn                      judged by the highest authorities
the Father's will. He is the Seed of             of me; for I am meek and lowly in                     of the church and of the world.
the Woman, appointed to crush the                heart: and ye shall find rest for                     They all brought condemnation
head of Satan, to destroy all the                your souls"  (Matt.  11:28, 29). Or                   upon themselves, for they all ad-
powers of darkness, and to bring                 again, "I counsel thee to buy of me                   mitted that He was innocent of any
His people to eternal glory with the             gold tried in the fire, that thou                     crime, a Lamb without spot of
Father in heaven.                                mayest be rich; and white raiment,                    blemish, yet condemned Him for
                                                 that thou mayest be clothed, and                      insisting that He was the Christ
         444  444  444                           that the shame of thy nakedness do                    sent of God, the King of kings and
                                                 not appear; and anoint thine eyes                     Lord of lords. Even in that, they
    He is well qualified for the task            with eyesalve, that thou mayest                       served a divine purpose, for He
entrusted to Him. He is completely               see" (Rev.  3:18).                                    gave Himself to be crucified and
fitted as no other to assault all the                 He is also Mighty God. He                        thus to bring the sacrifice for sin
powers of darkness, to conquer and               could say: "The Lord possessed me                     for all those given Him of the Fa-
destroy them, to deliver us from                 in the beginning of his way, before                   ther.      The good Shepherd laid
the bondage of sin and death and                 his works of old. I was set up from                   down His life for His sheep, arose
bring us into the glorious liberty               everlasting, from the beginning, or                   from the dead as the mighty Con-
of the sons of God in Father's house             ever the earth was.              . ..When he          queror over sin and death and is
with its many mansions.                          prepared the heavens I was there;                     exalted as Lord of glory in the
    His exalted names designate                  when he set a compass upon the                        highest heavens.
His qualifications. Who was ever                 face of the depth: . . . when he ap-                      The Lord unto His Christ hath
given more majestic names than                   pointed the foundations of the                                   said,
He? His name is above all other                  earth: then I was by him, as one                               Sit Thou at My right hand
names, for He is Wonderful Coun-                 brought up with him: and I was                            Until I make Thy enemies
selor, Mighty God, and Everlasting               daily his delight, rejoicing always                            Submit to Thy command.
Father.      Each of these names                 before him"  (Prov.  8:22-30).                            A scepter prospered by the
evinces the truth that He is the very                 When this mighty God taber-                                 Lord
Son of God, the revelation of the                nacled among us He healed the                                  Thy mighty hand shall wield;
Father, b o r n   o f   t h e   v i r g i n ,    sick; He caused the blind to see,                         From Zion Thou shalt rule the
Immanuel, God with us!                           the deaf to hear, and the lame to                                world,
     He is Wonderful Counselor. In               walk; lepers were cleansed and                                 And all Thy foes shall yield.
times past, as the Angel of Jeho-                dead were raised. Even the winds
vah, He had said:           "Why askest          and the waves obeyed Him, caus-                                 444          444          444
thou after my name, seeing it is se-             ing Peter to cry out: "Depart from
cret (Wonderful)?" (Jud.  13:14).                me; for I am a sinful man, 0 Lord"                        He is also Everlasting Father.
Even though He has given us many                 (Luke 5:4).                                           Literally we read: Father of  eter-

                                                                                                                January 1,1999/Standard Bearer/l47


nity. He is indeed the eternal God.           He is the Prince of Peace.                               He is Shiloh. He breaks into
We may wonder for a moment that               As very God and very man He                         our sin-hardened hearts by His
the Son of God, who rests in the         is fully qualified to accomplish the                     Spirit, powerfully renews us with
bosom of the Father, the First Per-      work entrusted to Him from eter-                         His glorified life, banishes sin,
son, should also be called Father.       nity. No one but God could per-                          takes dominion, and creates in our
Is there not a contradiction here?       form that task. The very God                             hearts the peace that passes all un-
Yet, upon second thought, we re-         against whom we so grievously                            derstanding, the beginning of heav-
alize that the triune God is one         sinned, whom we have offended,                           enly joy and blessedness.
God. When we pray, we pray to            d e n i e d ,   a n d   c a s t   o u t   o f   o u r         He reigns forever over His
all three persons and address them       thoughts and life, is the very God                       people as Shepherd-King. I shall
all three as "Our Father who art in      who loves us with an eternal love                        not want. He maketh me to lie
heaven."      May we never forget,       so great that the Father was will-                       d o w n   i n   g r e e n   p a s t u r e s .   H e
Christ is fully, completely, eter-       ing to sacrifice His Son, and the                        leadeth me beside the still waters.
nally God.                               Son was willing to give His life, in                     He restoreth my soul. He leadeth
    He is Head of His church. All        order to deliver us from the bond-                       me in the paths of righteousness
things were made by Him and for          age of sin and bring us into His                         for His name's sake....                  Surely
Him. He is our Advocate before           life and fellowship.                                     goodness and mercy shall follow
the Father, who through Him be-               He is the mighty Conqueror.                         me all the days of my life: and I
stows on us every spiritual bless-       The Christ of God took on all the                        shall dwell in the house of the Lord
ing for time and eternity. In Him        weakness of sinful flesh, placed                         forever.
we are rightful heirs of salvation,      Himself under the burden of God's                             Now the King in Thy strength
renewed by His Spirit in His like-       wrath against our sins, fought                                       shall be joyful, 0 Lord,
ness, and changed from children of       against Satan even unto the depths                               Thy salvation shall make
darkness into sons and daughters         of hell, crushed his head under His                                  Him rejoice;
of the living God, to dwell  ins His     mighty heel, overcame hell and sin,                           For the wish of His heart thou
presence, to reflect His glory, and      death and the grave, and trium-                                      didst freely accord,
to tell His praises.                     phantly entered into glory to re-                                The request of His suppliant
                                         ceive a name above all names. All                                    voice.  0
        444  444  444                    power was entrusted to Him in
                                         heaven and on earth.





     The Coming of Christ and YZK

                                         Himself in the bliss of the marriage                     o n   N e w   Y e a r ' s   D a y ,   t h e y
T                                        of the perfected covenant of grace.
     he new year dawns bright with                                                                strengthen and express this hope.
                                         He will liberate the groaning cre-
     p r o m i s e .                                                                              The sermon arouses, deepens, and
                                         ation from the bondage of corrup-
     The promise is the coming of                                                                 focuses this hope. The prayers and
                                         tion.
Jesus Christ in the body. He will                                                                 the singing of the Psalms voice it,
                                               The hope of the church is this
deliver His beleaguered saints from                                                               so that it wings its way to God in
                                         coming of her Savior and Lord.
their enemies. He will raise from                                                                 heaven. The fellowship of the con-
                                         Titus  2:13 calls it "that blessed
the dead into immortal life all who                                                               gregation in "one hope" (Eph.  4:4)
                                         hope." The church's prayer on the
fell asleep in Him. He will pub-                                                                  binds the members ever more
                                         first day of the new year is the fer-
licly vindicate in the final judgment                                                             closely together.
                                         vent petition, "Come, Lord Jesus."
those who confessed His name in          When the Protestant Reformed
this Christ-denying world. He will                                                                Two Signs That Christ's Coming
                                         Churches, following the wise direc-
take His bride, the elect church, to                                                              Is Near
                                         tion of Dordt, gather for worship                              T h a t   t h e   n e w   y e a r   d a w n s

748/Standard  Bearer/January 1,1999


bright with the promise of Jesus'        selves as divinely sovereign in ful-                       means only of the last two digits,
coming is not to be understood as        fillment of Psalm 2, Daniel  7,. II                        e.g., 99. On January 1, 2000 these
though Jesus might return in 1999.       Thessalonians  2:$, and the book of                        computers, unable to determine the
His coming is near, but it is not        Revelation. They deify themselves                          new century, will fail to perform
imminent. In the language of II          on behalf of Man. They deny God's                          the functions for which they were
Thessalonians  2:2, the day of Christ    authority over life and death, re-                         desig-ned.  Because so much de-
is not "at hand." Christ cannot          ject His will for the ordering of the                      pends on computers, there is the
come at any time. He must come           family, and even disannul that                             possibility, we are told, of serious
in God's appointed time. What the        most basic of all laws in creation:                        disruption of society. There may
day, hour, month, or year may be,        the difference between male and                            be a shutdown of electricity and
no man knows, can know, or may           female. The state approves the                             the cutting off of the supply of wa-
know.    But there are two great         murder of the unborn and aged                              ter; a halt to transportation, includ-
events that precede the coming ac-       (soon the handicapped, and then                            ing the moving of food; the closing
cording to II Thessalonians  2:3.        the Christians), promotes feminism,                        of the banks; and an interruption
They are objective, clear, certain       and legalizes homosexuality. Thus                          of basic services of government.
signs to the believer of the near-       the state lays claim to deity.                             Some shrilly predict the collapse of
ness of the coming of Christ. One             This will intensify in 1999.                          the economy, the breakdown of all
takes place in the realm of the                To be sure, we will see these                        order, and the disintegration of
churches and the other, in the           heart-shrinking developments as                            civilization worldwide.
sphere of the nations. These events      serving the coming of Jesus Christ.                            Certain bread-eating prophets
are the apostasy of the churches         The Lion of the tribe of Judah, the                        of disaster reproach the church for
and the revelation of the Antichrist.    Root of David, has prevailed to                            not preaching this impending ca-
    Already the falling away of the      open the book of the counsel of the                        lamity and for not admonishing her
churches from the truth of Holy          Almighty God, and to loose its                             members to take drastic action.
Scripture is advanced. Rome is           seals (Rev.  5:5) These develop-                           There are also those who are quick
hardened in her doctrine of salva-       ments too are the carrying out by                          to relate the predicted evils of  Y2K
tion by man. Modernistic  Protes-        our Lord Christ of the all-compre-                         to the year 2000 as though this year
tantism doubts the whole of divine       hensive plan of God that has one,                          of the new millennium has some
revelation in Holy Scripture. Many       urgent goal: the coming of Jesus                           special significance for the end of
churches that call themselves            Christ. By means of apostasy and                           the world.
"evangelical" are avowedly com-          the Antichrist, Jesus Christ comes
mitted to a gospel that the apostle      quickly. For this reason the church                        Postmillennial "World-flight"!
condemns as the false gospel of sal-     is not afraid. We look through the                             It is intriguing that a leading
vation by man's will in Romans           apostasy and the man of sin to the                         postmillennial Christian  Recon-
9:16 : "It is not of him that willeth    coming of Jesus Christ.                                    structionist is beside himself re-
. . . ." Many Reformed and Presby-             But we will see these events in                      garding  Y2K. Gary North forecasts
terian churches are fatally compro-      such a way that we must contend                            the direst calamity: the collapse of
mised by the same lie in the popu-       w i t h   t h e m   i n   f i e r c e ,   p a i n f u l    civilization worldwide. He calls
lar teaching that the gospel ex-         struggle and in such a way that we                         for the most bizarre behavior: all
presses a love of God in Jesus           suffer because of them. The way                            Christians should give up their
Christ for every human, a sincere        for the church, as for every mem-                          jobs, sell their homes, and move to
desire (will) of God to save every       ber, is amidst the faithlessness and                       some remote and desolate spot in
human, and a gracious attempt to         through the tribulation. There will                        the South. At once! There they
realize this desire.     Still other     be no "rapture" out. Preparation                           are to dig a well, store up huge
churches are swept away from             is called for, therefore, and watch-                       quantities of food, and wait out the
sound doctrine and Christ onto the       fulness . . . and courage.                                 upheaval. He himself has done so.
wild seas of mysticism by the gale-                                                                     Amazing!
force winds of the charismatic           A Computer "Bug"                                               The very thing for which he has
movement.                                      It is a shame that Christians                        so sorely taxed Reformed  amillen-
    We will see still more and           largely ignore these important                             nialism for, lo, these many years!
greater departure in 1999.               signs of the end, but become                                   The evil for which he berated
    Already the mystery of iniquity      alarmed about  "Y2K."                                      @Protestant Reformed Churches
that will bring to power "that                 Y2K is jargon for the "year                          in his newsletter hardly a year ago!
Wicked (One)" (II Thess.  2:8) is        2000."       It refers specifically to a                       The foolishness of the Protes-
working with great and obvious ef-       problem, or "bug," in many com-                            tant Reformed Churches that he
fect. The nations oppose the sov-        puters.         Computers were pro-                        ridiculed as only he can in his lat-
ereignty of God and exalt them-          grammed to recognize the year by                           est book (for some 16 pages; see

                                                                                                          Januafy  1,1999/Standard  Bearer/l49


Gary North,  Sanctions and  Domin-          government billions of dollars.              the end of the world. The year
ion: An Economic  Commenfary  on            This alone is a hardship for the             2000 means nothing for the  end-
Numbers, ICE, 1997)!                        consumer and citizen, who pays               no more than 1999 or 2001.               _
    World-flight!                           the bill. One who remembers that                 If  Y2K should, in fact, result in
    But now,  postmillennial  Chris-        people were ready to kill each               severe social distress in North
tian Reconstruction world-flight!           other at the gas pumps when gas              America , it will be another  well-
    This madness is not a personal          was scarce a few years ago has no            deserved judgment on these  god-
quirk of this bright and learned            difficulty believing that even  tem-         less nations, like the present  judg-
man. It is the natural outworking           porary interruption of goods and             ments of wicked rulers, the  vio-
of his postmillennial eschatology,          services might trigger social  disor-        lence of young people raised  with-
the natural fruit of his doctrine of        der.                                         out the Word of God and often in
the last things. North sees the  sup-               A Christian should take  what-       broken homes, and AIDS.  `-God's
posed (and in his case hoped for)           ever precaution he judges to be              people suffer these judgments
catastrophe of  Y2K as the  fulfill-        wise. He should listen, however,             along with the ungodly. But  for
ment finally (in the year  2000!) of        to the civil authorities, not to  indi-      us the judgments are chastisements
the ardent dream of postmillennial          viduals who have neither  compe-             that discipline and that quicken our
Christian Reconstruction. Ungodly           tence nor authority in the matter.           hope in the coming of Christ. They
civilization will be destroyed by           If the civil authorities recommend           are not punishment, as they are for
God, so that from their hideaways           storing up water for several days'           the world. Therefore, we can bear
in Georgia and Arkansas North               use, I suppose that the sensible             them patiently.
and the other Christian Reconstruc-         Christian, like the sensible  unbe-              Whatever the effect of  Y2K
tionists who survive can rebuild            liever, would store up some water.           may be, it will not be the overthrow
civilization according to the  bibli-               Fleeing to the hinterlands is not    of the gathering kingdom of the
cal, and especially Old Testament,          an option for us. Apart from the             beast and the opportunity for
blueprint.                                  fact that the Reformed believer              postmillennial Christian  Recon-
    Despite their doctrinal  differ-        may not abandon his God-given                structionists to erect a carnal  king-
ences, both of the main millennial          station and duties (least of all             dom of Christ.
fantasies-pre and post-tend to              merely because someone with an                   We have the apostle's clear,
the same foolish behavior: aban-            utterly mistaken eschatology  be-            sure word for it: "Let no man  de-
donment of one's everyday, earthly          gins to cry that the sky is falling),        ceive you by any means: for that
calling in order to wait for the            there is no Protestant Reformed              day (of Christ) shall not come,  ex-
"end," often in some isolated  ref-         Church or good Christian school in           cept there come a falling away first,
uge. The cure is conversion to              those hinterlands.                           and that man of sin be revealed,
solid, sober, Reformed, biblical                    The church has nothing to say        the son of perdition" (II Thess. 2:3).
amillennial eschatology.                    about it. It is not part of the  gos-            The attention of the church
                                            pel of Scripture.  Y2K is an earthly         must be directed to the great  apos-
Distraction                                 matter, like the forecast of a  hurri-       tasy and the appearance of the An-
    Whether  Y2K will cause  hard-          cane, the prediction of an epidemic          tichrist and, thus, to the coming of
ships, who can say?                         of flu, or speculation about the fall-       Christ.
    Fixing the problem with the             ing of the stock market.                          Y2K is a distraction. Cl
computers is costing business and                   Y2K is of no special  signifi-                                         - DJE
                                            cance for the coming of Christ and

         Seek Ye First
                           Our Father tells us: Seek ye first                    But love of money, love of fun,
                           The kingdom of our God.                               Of fame, of lust, of pride,
                           The deeds that bear eternal fruit,                    Will taint the works our own hands do
                           Those righteous and unflawed,                         Unless in Christ we hide.
                           Are those proceeding from true faith  -            ~~ So let us pray for needed grace
                           God's glory is their aim.                             To flee desires of earth;
                           His children who seek first His will                  Wholeheartedly to seek His face
                           Shall not be put to shame.                            And show His glory forth.

                                                                                                                Thelma  Westra


150/StandardBearer/Januaryl,  1999


                                                          latter are the many statues of saints                    done in the past certainly has
                                                          and Mary along highways and in                           worked, and we have more than
                                                          public places. As a  l4-year  old boy                    adequate church buildings in the
W Surprise at the Kuyper                                  on a bicycle trip from our village                       denomination.
Issue                                                     near Rotterdam to Maastricht in                                  Finally, and most important, I
Having subscribed to- the Stan- Limburg with two friends, I was believe that putting items such as
     d a r d   B e a r e r   s i n c e   1 9 7 2 ,   I    surprised to see all the statues in                      that suggested by Mr. Miedema on
thought myself to be somewhat fa-                         what was considered a Protestant                         the budget is not wise. The bud-
miliar with your line of thought.                         country. Somehow one Mary and                            get should include only those items
Therefore, to find Dr. Abraham                            one saint became dislodged and                           that are immediately related to the
Kuyper as the focal point of the                          went to the bottom of a drainage                         operation of the congregation.
special, Reformation issue was a                          ditch.                                                   Members are asked to pay their
surprise.       It seems to me that                            As a direct result of Kuyper's                      budget first and then to live off
Kuyper's contribution to the cause                        alliance with the Roman Catholics,                       what remains. Churches that in-
of the Reformation was more nega-                         Holland above the Rhine became a                         clude items such as church picnics,
tive than positive, at least in the                       Roman mission field. Roman                               choirs, or even support for young
Netherlands.                                              Catholic churches, monasteries,                          people's conventions, place an un-
    Besides his doctrinal errors,                         abbies, schools, etc. were built or                      necessary burden on those families
particularly common grace and                             bought with the help of the gov-                         that are struggling to meet the bud-
presupposed regeneration (the first                       ernment. Also, the appointment of                        get. These other worthy causes
error being worse), he was quoted                         Roman Catholic government offi-                          should be part of free-will giving
as saying, "They and we have the                          cials, especially mayors of cities                       as the Lord has blessed us. The
same root of faith," in order to jus-                     and towns in predominately Prot-                         only alternative is that members
tify his partnership with the papal                       estant areas, was a grief. (The ap-                      use the budget as a free-will offer-
forces.                                                   pointment of mayors is done in                           ing.
    The outcome of this was that                          Holland by the Crown in consulta-                                Besides, it can be questioned
many sincere Reformed Christians                          tion with and by recommendation                          whether fancy, million-dollar
quit the Anti-Revolutionary Party                         of the government.) The opposite                         churches are really necessary. This
and joined the newly formed Po-                           was not done in Roman provinces.                         is the reason many churches sepa-
litical Reformed Party  (de  Staat-                                                    C. VanOosterom              rate the building fund from the
kundig Gereformeerde  Partij),  whose                                     Chilliwack, BC, Canada                   budget. It's not wrong to build
leader was Rev. G.H. Kersten. This                                                                                 fancy churches, but we should not
party subscribed to Article 36 of the                                                                              overburden already struggling
Belgic Confession, unaltered. Later                                                                                families who have high tuition and
on, two other parties appeared: the                                                                                cost of living.         We should put
G.V.P.  of Dr. K. Schilder's church                                                                                buildings in the "free-will giving
and the evangelistic R.P.F. As a                                                                                   as the Lord blesses us" category.
result, the  K.V.P.  (the Catholic                        4 Budgeting for Church                                                             John  VanBaren,
People's Party) became the biggest                        Buildings                                                                          Grandville, MI
one and dominated. Eventually,
the  K.V.P.  dropped the Anti-Revo-                       You solicited comments on the
                                                                article in the November  1,1998
lutionary Party in favor of the So-                       S t a n d a r d   B e a r e r   b y   M r .   P e t e
cialists.                                                 Miedema on "The High Cost of
    To understand the sad influ-                          Building Churches." I would like
ence of the coalition government of                       to express my thoughts.
Kuyper, one must realize that Hol-                             First, I do not want to tell any
land proper, the area of the Neth-                        individual church how much
erlands north of the great rivers                         money to spend, but I do feel that
Rhine and  Maas,  has historically                        the high cost often results from the
been Protestant, while those living                       type of building chosen. It is a
south of the rivers in the provinces                      matter of choice by the congrega-
of Brabant and Limburg have been                          tion.
Roman Catholic. Evidences of the                               Second, the way things were

                                                                                                                             January 1,7999/Standard Bearer/l51


                                       Visiting the Sick
                                                    treatment at the Cleveland Clinic.       in sickness is spiritual. The spiri-
I                                                   But beyond this sort of advice the       tual need transcends both the
     t needs to be acknowledged at                  elder must not go. The elder must        physical and the psychological and
     the outset that it is impossible               not get involved in the diagnosis        is, for this reason, far more impor-
     to anticipate the many and vari-               and treatment of the illnesses of        tant than either.
ous questions, circumstances, and                   God's people.                                Positively, let the elder remem-
problems an elder will be involved                      The elder is always the servant      ber, and those whom he shepherds
with in his ministry to the sick.                   of Christ. He is called by the Chief     too for that matter, that he is a ser-
There is no way an article or two                   Shepherd, Christ, to shepherd the        vant and, therefore, a representa-
such as this one can prepare an el-                 flock of God. This means, among          tive of Jesus Christ, the Great, the
der for all of these. All that one                  other things, that the elder minis-      Good, the Chief Shepherd of the
can hope to accomplish is to set                    ters to the sick in their spiritual      sheep. Christ calls the elder to the
down certain basic biblical prin-                   need.                                    office and Christ qualifies him with
ciples, trusting that the Lord will                     Because the elder is the servant     the necessary gifts of grace to do
give His servants grace to put these                of the Chief Shepherd, he must not       the work of shepherding the sheep.
principles into practice when the                   assume the role of a psychological       To Christ the elder will give an ac-
time is there and as the circum-                    counselor with the sick. The elder's     count of the care he bestowed on
stances present themselves. After                   calling as Christ's servant is not to    Christ's sheep (Heb.  13:17). This
all, our heavenly Father must work                  provide psycho-therapy for the           means that the elder must always
by His Word and Holy Spirit                         anxious and/or depressed among           bring the Word of God to the sick
through the elders to supply the                    the congregation. There is, obvi-        and "pray over" them (James  5:14).
need of the sick among His saints                   ously, a close connection between        More than anything else, more than
or that need will not be met.                       the physical, the psychological, and     physical healing and restoration,
     It is not the elder's calling to               the spiritual dimensions of a per-       this is what the sick need. In one
give medical advice. It can rather                  son. Clinical depression can be an       word, they need to be saved from
easily happen that an elder will do                 effect of some illnesses. Post-op-       sin and death through the cross and
this, or at least be tempted to do                  erative depression occurs rather         resurrection of Jesus.      It is the
this. The elder (especially the min-                commonly, especially following           Word of God and the "prayer of
ister) in the course of his work                    major surgery. Some women suf-           faith" which alone can save the sick
meets all kinds of diseases. Soon                   fer rather severe depression follow-     (James  5:14-15).
he learns to recognize symptoms.                    ing the births of their children.            The need of the sick is not first
He becomes familiar with the                        This is called post-partum depres-       of all physical, nor is it psychologi-
"treatments and medications of                      sion. There are medications avail-       cal. The need of the sick is always
choice" for various conditions and                  able today which can in most of          fundamentally spiritual. This is the
diseases. But he must leave the                     these cases alleviate the symptoms       point of the oft-disputed and mis-
medical aspects to the person's                     and help the child of God get            interpreted passage to which we
doctors. This does not mean the                     through these depressions. The           just referred, James  5:13-15.*  The
elder may give no advice whatso-                    point we are trying to make is that      passage reads, "Is any among you
ever. He may, e.g., advise a per-                   the elder must recognize the fact        afflicted? Let him pray. Is any
son to get a second opinion. He                     that a person's condition may not        merry? Let him sing psalms. Is any
may advise a person with life                       in every instance be rooted in a         sick among you? Let him call for
threatening heart disease to seek                   specific  -sin. Anxiety/depression,      the elders of the church; and let
                                                    e.g., may not be due to a lack of        them pray over him, anointing him
                                                    faith, but due to a physical condi-      with oil in the name of the Lord:
Prof.                                               tion.
          Decker is professor  of Practical The-                                             And the prayer of faith shall save
ology in the Protestant Reformed Semi-                  But, in any case, the elder must     the sick, and the Lord shall raise
nary.                                               remember that the real, root need        him up; and if he have committed

152/SandardBearer/Jmuary  I, 1999


sins, they shall be forgiven him."        by means of Holy Scripture, point         ing the "chastening of the Lord"
Scripture, in this passage, teaches       the sick to Jesus, who "heals our         (Heb. 12). This has a good effect
that one must pray when he is af-         diseases" because He "forgives our        on the Christian. He learns to pon-
flicted and sing psalms when he is        iniquities"  (P.s. 103, Is. 53).          der his own sins and sinful nature
merry. When one is sick he is to              That sickness is the fruit of sin     and to confess with the psalmist,
call the elders of the church and         is true not only in some general          "It is good for me that I have been
let them pray over him. The point         sense, but also in specific instances.    afflicted that I might learn thy stat-
is that sometimes a child of God is       Suffering, sickness is connected          utes"  (I%.  119:71). This causes the
unable to pray on account of his          with particular sins. This is obvi-       Christian to appreciate the good-
sickness. When this happens he            ous in several instances. Sexual          ness and faithfulness of God. The
must call for the elders of the           promiscuity, adultery, fornication        awareness of the relation between
church so that they may pray over         often result in venereal and other        his sickness and his sins leads him
him. "And the prayer of faith shall       sexually transmitted diseases. Ho-        to confess, "I know, 0 Lord, that
save the sick." This does not mean        mosexual and lesbian behavior             thy judgments are right, and that
that the prayer of faith will heal        very often results in AIDS. Ha-           thou in faithfulness hast afflicted
the sick of his illness. It means that    bitual drunkenness results in brain       me" (Ps.  119:75). This awareness
through the means of the prayer of        damage or cirrhosis of the liver.         also causes the Christian to trust
faith the Lord will save the sick         These illnesses are not merely the        the more in God and to ask the
from his sin and death. That this         natural results of the sins, God          Lord, "Let, I pray thee, thy merci-
is true is evident from the rest of       sends them upon the sinner in His         ful kindness be for my comfort, ac-
the passage, which speaks of the          righteous judgment.                       cording to thy word unto thy ser-
Lord's raising him up and forgiv-             What is true of these sicknesses      vant" (Ps.  119:76).
ing his sins.                             is true of all the sickness a child           In specific instances the answer
    That the need of the sick is fun-     of God experiences. Always the ill-       to the question, ought the elder try
damentally spiritual is also evident      nesses of God's children are di-          to determine the sin and point it
from the fact that Scripture con-         rectly connected not only with sin        out to the sick, is sometimes affir-
nects sickness with sin, the fall, and    in general, but with one's own sins.      mative. There are instances where
the curse of God. When the Lord           God's chastisement always fits the        the connection between the sick-
God told Adam that he might not           sin. This is precisely why there is       ness and the sin must be pointed
eat of the tree of the knowledge of       suffering and sickness in the lives       out. The habitual drunkard who
good and evil, He said, "for in the       of the children of God. God sends         is suffering from cirrhosis of the
day that thou eatest thereof thou         these chastisements in His love in        liver needs not only medical atten-
shalt surely die" (Gen.  2:17).  Adam     order to sanctify his children (Heb.      tion, he needs to repent of his sin
and Eve disobeyed the Lord's com-         12:5-11). Were God's children al-         or he will perish!
mand and ate of that tree, and they       ready perfectly free from sin in this         Beyond these instances, how-
died (Gen.  3:16-19).  Sickness be-       life, there would be no need for          ever, the elder ought not go. He
longs to the dying!     Death is the      their suffering. Part of the glory        ought not attempt to tell a parish-
punishment of God on account of           God's children shall experience in        ioner that he is sick because he has
man's sin (Rom.  6:23). Sickness is       the new heaven and earth is that          committed a certain sin or because
the fruit of sin.                         "God shall wipe away all tears            he has a certain sinful weakness of
    It is true that the Christian has     from their eyes; and there shall be       character. This is a matter best left
the victory over sin and its fruits,      no more death, neither sorrow, nor        between the sick person and the
also sickness and death, on account       crying, neither shall there be any        Lord. God by means of His Word
of the cross and resurrection of          more pain; for the former things          and Holy Spirit must do the judg-
Christ. But as long as he is still on     are passed away" (Rev.  21:4).            ing.       If the sick person asks
this earth the Christian's victory is     When the child of God finally puts        whether his sickness is on account
in principle. He still has to battle      off the old man in death, all the         of a specific sin, give the question
what Scripture calls "the flesh" or       effects of sin are also put off.          back to him. If he confesses to a
"the old man of sin" (Rom.  7:5,              This leaves us with the ques-         specific sin, the elder can then deal
Eph.  4:22). Inasmuch as he still         tion, ought the elder try to deter-       pastorally with him.  Cl
needs to put off the old man, the         mine the sin or sins and point them
Christian is also subject to sickness     out to the sick parishioner? In gen-
and death. The child of God still         eral terms the answer must be af-         * There is a detailed, excellent exegeti-
shares in "the sufferings of this         firmative. It is perfectly proper to      cal study of this passage, by Prof.
present time" (Rom.  8:18).               lay down the connection between           Herman Hanko, in the Protestant Re-
    The elder must visit the sick in      our sins and sicknesses from the          formed Theological Journal,  volumes VIII
the awareness of all this. He must,       point of view of the sicknesses be-       and IX.

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                                         The Prediluvian Period
         From the Protevangel to the Flood
                                      The Conflict of Cain and Abel (2)


                                                     idea of  consecration.  Man cannot           1. They both brought offer-
The Offerings
A                                                    give anything to the Lord in the         ings to Jehovah.
         s to these offerings, we no-                sense of offering Him something              2. Cain brought an offering of
         tice, in the first place, that              which He does not possess. God           the fruit of the ground; Abel
         this is the first time that the             is the Lord, the sovereign propri-       brought an offering of the firstlings
offering is mentioned in Scripture.                  etor of heaven and earth and all         of the flock.
But in this connection we remark:                    that they contain, including man             3. Abel offered by faith  (Heb.
    1. The mere fact that this is                    himself. The cattle on a thousand        11:4), and Cain, in unbelief.
the first mention does not mean                      hills are Gods. How then can man             4. Abel offered a more excel-
that this was the very first occa-                   give anything to the Lord? But the       lent sacrifice than did Cain, which
sion at which offerings were                         offering is symbolic of the conse-       can, in the light of Scripture, only
brought to the Lord. In fact, this is                cration of one's self in love to God.    refer to an absolute, not a relative,
most unlikely and inconceivable.                     Any other offerings are an abomi-        difference.
    2 .   U n d o u b t e d l y   t h e   L o r d    nation to Him. "The sacrifice of             5. The Lord had respect unto
Himself taught His people to bring                   the wicked is an abomination to the      Abel  and his offering,  not to Cain
offerings, both by the example                       Lord, but the prayer of the upright      and his offering.
which He gave in shedding the                        is his delight"  (Prov.  15:8).              It is obvious that there was a
blood of an animal in order to pro-                      In the sacrifice, therefore, we      fundamental difference between
vide coverings for the nakedness                     must see the beginning and the           the two offerings. That difference,
of Adam and Eve at the time of                       principle of what later constituted      moreover, was not only a subjec-
the fall and by direct instruction.                  the sanctuary. The altar was al-         tive difference, that is, a difference
Adam and Eve must have been the                      ways an indispensable item in that       in the offerers and in the attitude
first to bring such offerings, and                   sanctuary and its service. It was        in which they brought their offer-
their sons must have learned from                    the only way by which commun-            ings. It was also an objective dif-
them.                                                ion and fellowship with God were         ference, that is, a difference in the
    3. The fact that here the bring-                 possible. In and through the sacri-      offerings themselves.
ing of offerings is first mentioned                  fice the offerer approached God,             According to some, the differ-
is only because of the "selective"                   consecrating himself in love to God      ence between these offerings lay
character of sacred history and be-                  and seeking to enter into and to         only in the inward attitude of heart
cause of the fact that in connection                 taste His covenant fellowship. It        in which Cain and Abel sacrificed.
with the conflict of Cain  and~~Abe1                 is only in this light, too, that we      Abel's offering had its spiritual
it was necessary to relate this.                     must consider the element of atone-      root in the love of God and was
    The idea of the offering is that                 ment and blood in the sacrifice.         brought in faith. Cain's offering
of a  gift  to the Lord. This is ac-                 Consecration to God in love and          was not rooted in the love of God
cording to the original word used.                   the fellowship of God are impos-         and was brought in unbelief.
Hence, the offering represents the                   sible for the sinner, except by way      While this is true in itself, and is
                                                     of atonement, the blotting out of        also of fundamental importance, it
                                                     the guilt of sin, and reconciliation.    is not the whole truth. On this ba-
                                                         Now Scripture records the fol-
The late Homer Hoeksema was professor                                                         sis, it is only incidental that Abel
of Dogmatics and Old Testament in the                lowing data concerning the offer-        brought of the firstlings-of the flock
Protestant Reformed Seminary.                        ings of Cain and Abel.                   and Cain of the fruit of the!ground,

154/Standard  Bearer/Januafyl, 1999


the nature of their offerings being      t h a t   e n m i t y   a n d   u n b e l i e f   h e    this connection, with emphasis
only a natural consequence of the        brought his offering to Jehovah.                         upon the former: the Lord had re-
nature of their respective occupa-       "Without faith it is impossible to                       spect unto Abel only because of
tions. But this cannot stand the test    please God."                                             and through his offering.
of the Scriptures, which certainly            But this unbelief also became                           To Cain and his offering, on the
point to a difference, an objective      manifest in the nature of his offer-                     contrary, the Lord did not have re-
difference, in the sacrifices them-      ing. Cain acted as if, on the basis                      spect. The Lord was displeased  -
selves. Besides, this objective dif-     of his own works and gifts, he                           and again, not only with the offer-
ference in the nature of the sacri-      could be pleasing to God. He knew                        ing but also with the offerer. The
fices stands in close connection         neither God spiritually nor his own                      offering of Cain was an abomina-
with the faith or unbelief in which      sin. Hence, in unbelief, he offered                      tion to the Lord. Thus, the Lord
those sacrifices were brought.           of the fruit of the ground, claiming                     did not receive, but rejected, Cain
    The "more excellent" sacrifice       for it, as a work on his part, meri-                     through his offering.
of Abel arose from the spiritual         torious value and a self-righteous-                          Not only did the Lord assume
principle of faith and of the love       ness on the basis of which God the                       a certain attitude toward Abel and
of God in Abel's heart. For this         Lord would be obliged to accept                          Cain respectively, but this was also
love would lead him to a con-            him. Cain's offering is that of the                      revealed. Abel received testimony
sciousness of sin, and it would pro-     self-righteous man of the world,                         that he was righteous. He was jus-
duce in him confession of sin and        who imagines that God ought to                           tified. He had the forgiveness of
arouse in him the desire for recon-      be pleased when he offers unto                           sins. He had the testimony of that
ciliation. His sacrifice was a con-      Him some of his possessions. It                          eternal righteousness which im-
fession before the Lord, "If I am to     was a denial of the need for the                         plies that the sinner, wholly guilty
enter into Thy communion, I must         remission of sins through shed                           in himself, worthy of condemna-
first die!" Such was Abel's sacri-       blood.                                                   tion, daily sinning and daily in-
fice in distinction from Cain's. It           There was, therefore, a radical                     creasing his debt of guilt before
was a bloody sacrifice. It was a         spiritual difference between Cain                        God, is declared perfectly innocent,
confession on his part that without      and Abel, a difference which is to                       declared worthy of the favor of
the shedding of blood there is no        be traced to and which is a mani-                        God, worthy to be received of God,
remission of sins, and without the       festation of that which the Lord an-                     the heir of everlasting life.
remission of sins it is impossible       nounced in the protevangel. It is                            The Lord maintained and ful-
to enter into the covenant fellow-       the difference between sin and                           filled His promise! For we must
ship of the righteous and holy God.      grace, between light and darkness,                       remember that this was not a righ-
    This is not to say that there was    between faith and unbelief, be-                          teousness because of or on the
value in the blood of an animal as       tween reprobate and elect. This                          ground of Abel's faith. Nor was it
such. This is not true, and it could     radical spiritual difference comes                       a righteousness on the ground of
not have been true before Abel's         to its full manifestation in the se-                     his offering as such. That offering
consciousness. But by faith he in        quel to these offerings and its cli-                     of Abel typified the blood of Christ,
and through his offering clung to        max in Cain's murder of Abel.                            the only ground of genuine righ-
the promise of the seed that would                                                                teousness before God. The faith of
overcome the serpent and crush his       The Testimony Which They                                 Abel was a faith which was the
head in final victory. Thus, in obe-     Received                                                 means, the God-given means,
dience of faith he followed that               The narrative of Genesis 4 con-                    whereby he clung to that unseen
form of offering clearly taught by       tinues by informing us, in verses                        and hoped for blood of Christ as
God Himself when He made Adam            4, 5: "And the Lord had respect                          the realization of God's promise.
and Eve coats of skins, covering         unto (literally: looked to, viewed)                      Abel, therefore, was righteous by
their nakedness through blood.           Abel and to his offering: But unto                       the power of the promise.
    Cain, as well as Abel, brought       Cain and to his offering he had not                          Moreover, he received  testi-
an offering to Jehovah. Bear in          respect." The words of Hebrews                           mony of this fact, testimony that the
mind that Cain is not to be com-         11:4, that Abel "obtained witness                        Lord had respect unto him and to
pared to the heathen of a later date,    that he was righteous, God testify-                      his offering, testimony that he was
who bowed before man and beast           ing with respect to his gifts," form                     righteous, God testifying with re-
and creeping things. No, but he          an inspired commentary on the                            spect to his gifts. Not only was
surely is the man who knew God           words of Genesis 4.                                      Abel objectively righteous, but he
and refused to glorify Him as God.             The Lord was well-pleased                          also had the assurance of this righ-
Certainly, Cain did not fear the         with Abel and his offering. We                           teousness. He received that assur-
Lord. He had no faith. He was            must notice that the text mentions                       ance from God Himself.
filled with enmity against God. In       both the offerer and the offering in                         This also implies that Cain had

                                                                                                        January 1,1999,6tandard Bearer/l55


the very opposite testimony. He                      testimony of God which would also             The thrust of these words is
had the testimony that the Lord did                  leave absolutely no doubt either          plain. Sin crouches like a wild
not have respect unto him and his                    with Abel or with Cain as to the          beast at the door, in order to make
offering, that his  own works were                   status of each before God. Besides,       thee its prey, Cain. To thee is sin's
wicked, and that in his wickedness                   in Cain's case there was added the        desire. If thou doest well, thou
he could not be the object of God's                  plain testimony of Abel's believing       shalt rule over him and be righ-
favor, but only the proper object                    and godly conversation. For do not        teous; but if not, he shall surely
of His wrath.                                        forget that there was such a testi-       swallow thee up. Thus the pur-
     There have been various con-                    mony of Abel: he stood for the            pose of this Word of God to Cain
jectures as to how this testimony                    cause of God and over against the         is certainly very clear. The Lord
was conveyed. The text tells us of                   wicked Cain, and he condemned             says in effect: "Why art thou an-
the  fact,  but it does not go into de-              the works of the latter. It was this      gry, Cain? Certainly, thou  canst
tail as to the manner. We do, how-                   testimony, in fact, which kindled         not be angry because I, the Lord,
ever, have the statement of He-                      Cain's murderous anger against his        am unjust. For he that doeth well
brews 11 that God testified of                       brother. For do not we read in I          is accepted with Me. This is an
Abel's gifts. Some have suggested                    John 3 that Cain slew his brother         eternal principle of My justice.
that this became manifest in the                     because his own works were evil           Thou oughtest not to be angry with
smoke of Abel's offering ascending                   and his brother's were righteous?         Me, but with thyself. The guilt in
and the smoke of Cain's offering                     And does this not clearly imply           this matter is thine, and thine an-
descending.          Others have sug-                that Cain apprehended the testi-          ger is foolishly wicked."
gested that the offering of Abel was                 mony of Abel and his works?                   Or, as the Rev. G.M. Ophoff
consumed, while the offering of                          Thus, in both cases  - that of        comments in this connection: "Thy
Cain was not consumed.                               Abel and that of Cain  - there was        wrath, Cain, is unreasonable,
     It is much better to understand,                the divine testimony: in Cain's           groundless, and uncalled for. For
however, that this testimony came                    case convicting him of sin, and in        thou art angry with me, but thou
from God very objectively and                        Abel's case assuring him of righ-         shouldest be angry with thyself
clearly and directly. God spoke.                     teousness.                                and praise my wrath. For thou
He did so not by some vague sign                                                               doest not well. Thou tramplest the
or symbol, but He actually spoke                     Cain's Murderous Anger                    blood of my sacrifice and despisest
His Word, testifying to the righ-                        The reaction of Cain was that         the riches of my goodness and for-
teousness of Abel and his accep-                     of anger, in verses 5, 6. He was          bearance and longsuffering, and
t a n c e   w i t h   G o d   a n d   t o   t h e    morose. He was filled with bitter-        thou  hatest thy righteous brother.
unrighteousness of Cain and his re-                  ness, as is manifest from his fallen      Turn from thy evil way. Repent,
jection by God. This is the regular                  countenance. His anger, however,          and thou shalt be accepted of me.
way of God's dealings: the objec-                    was wicked: it was not anger with         If thou repentest not, thou shalt
tive testimony of His Word. Only                     himself, as it should have been.          come to grief, and the responsibil-
at that time that Word of God came                   No, instead of being angry because        ity of the doom that awaits thee
by direct speech. This is clearly                    of the wickedness of his own heart,       will be wholly thine. Be admon-
suggested by Hebrews 11, and it is                   he is filled with bitterness about the    ished. If thou restrain not thy
in full harmony with the context                     Lord's righteous dealings. His            wicked impulses, they will become
in Genesis 4. For immediately fol-                   heart was hardened. He was an-            mighty in thee, and in thy un-
lowing the statement that God had                    gry at the Lord! This was the deep-       bridled wrath thou wilt go from
respect unto Abel and his offering,                  est nature of Cain's anger. It was        bad to worse and be driven by my
but not to Cain and his offering,                    not first of all anger against his        curse into everlasting desolation.
there is the statement that the Lord                 brother Abel, but it was enmity           But the responsibility for thy doom
did indeed speak directly to Cain                    against God.                              shall be wholly thine. For thou
concerning the latter's anger. Why,                      Over against that anger of Cain       shalt remain the subject, the ruler
then, should it be considered un-                    the Lord maintains Himself and            and director of thy vile impulses."
likely that this testimony concern-                  His justice, and He rebukes Cain.             But Cain gave no heed. He
ing their offerings came by the                      He does so not in His love, but in        went on in his ungodly anger. He
same direct speech of God? On the                    His wrath, for Cain must be left          was hardened. The same anger
contrary, this was the most likely                   without excuse.      "If thou doest       with which he was filled toward
manner, especially in that age                       well, shalt thou not be accepted?         God also filled him toward his
when there were no Scriptures and                    and if thou doest not well, sin lieth     brother Abel, the seed of the
when God frequently spoke in this                    at the door. And unto thee shall          woman, whose works in contrast
direct fashion.                                      be his desire, and thou shalt rule        with those of Cain were righteous.
     Moreover, it was such a direct                  over him."                                    The narrative does not indicate

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how much later it was when the                          against his brother. Thus Cain kills          Outwardly, Cain has the vic-
events of verse 8 took place. It                        his brother, causing the earth to         tory in that battle, and Abel goes
could not have been long:                     for       drink Abel's blood as the first mar-      down to defeat. But by faith Abel
Cain's anger burned within him.                         tyr in the cause~of God in the midst      is nevertheless the victor. He is
We read that "Cain talked with                          of the world.                             the victor because God takes the
Abel his brother." It may be as-                            Thus the conflict of the two          part of His people. He is their cov-
sumed that in this conversation                         seeds comes to early and sharp            enant Friend, His blessing is upon
Abel revealed himself as a righ-                        manifestation.    For we must re-         His people, the seed of the woman,
teous child of God, and Cain's un-                      member that the murder of Abel            and His face is against the enemies
godliness came to expression.                           was not mere murder or fratricide.        of His people. Abel is the victor,
When Cain's darkness is reproved                        The message of the Word of God            too, because, though he was slain,
and made manifest by the light, bit-                    does not deal with mere murders.          he was slain into glory. Here, by
ter resentment and thoughts of re-                        The Scriptures reveal to us the         the way, begins the history of
venge begin to arise in his soul.                       history of God's kingdom and cov-         heaven as far as saved humanity is
God, however, Cain cannot reach,                        enant in the midst of the world. It       concerned! Victorious is Abel, in
but Abel represents the cause of                        tells us of the battle of the ages,       the third place, because his blood
God. Upon Abel the wicked Cain                          the battle between the seed of the        cries to God from the ground. That
wreaks his vengeance. He is stron-                      serpent and the seed of the woman,        cry is a cry for divine vengeance
ger than Abel as far as brute                           the battle of the righteous and of        and justice. It is a cry that is surely
strength is concerned. Besides,                         the wicked. In Cain and Abel and          heard  - heard throughout the
brute strength could be no proper                       their history we have the first battle    ages, and heard finally in the day
weapon for the righteous Abel                           in that warfare of the centuries.         of our Lord Jesus Christ. Kl




                                 Apollinaris and the
                           Doctrine of Christ (1)

                                                        Constantinople in the year 381.           Christ as One who was born just
Introduction
A                                                       From that time it has been con-           as we are; who ate, drank, grew,
         f t e r   a   l o n g   a n d   b i t t e r    fessed by the church of Christ in         walked the roads of Palestine,
         struggle in the early Chris-                   every age, even though, through-          talked with many; who did the
         tian church over the her-                      out the centuries, others have risen      same things we do. How could
esy of Arianism, the truth of the                       who have denied it.                       that be, when He was very really
absolute divinity of our Lord Jesus                         But these decisions did not           God?
Christ had been established. This                       mean that the controversies over              Further, the church also em-
truth had been established and in-                      the truth of Christ were at an end.       phatically agreed that the divine
corporated into a creed of the                          It is true the church had declared        nature could not suffer. And yet
church by the Council of  Nicea                         that it was the teaching of Scrip-        our Lord, who was God, suffered.
which met, under the auspices of                        ture that our Lord Jesus Christ was       How was that possible?
the emperor Constantine the Great,                      divine, very God of very God. But             But the questions did not end
in the year 325. The doctrine had                       nothing had been said about the           here. Perhaps more importantly,
been reaffirmed by the Council of                       fact that He was also like us in all      all knew that only God can save us
                                                        things, except for our sin.               from our sins, and salvation by the
                                                            There were specific questions         power of the One who was truly
                                                        which the church was forced to            God was obviously sound doctrine.
                                                        face. How was our Lord like us?           But the church had also a clear un-
Prof. Hanko is professor of  Church His-                It could hardly be denied that the
fory and New Testament in fhe  Profes-                                                            derstanding of what our Heidel-
fanf Reformtd  Seminary.                                Scriptures describe the life of           berg Catechism later set down as

                                                                                                          January  1,1999/Standard  Bearer/l57


truth: He who saves us from our          God," and applied a term to her          be found in these controversies
sins must be truly man, for "God         which gave her that honor. The           over the doctrine of Christ.
will not punish any other creature       term was a Greek term,  theotokos,           Let me state that truth now.
for the sin which man has commit-        which literally means, "mother of        The truth which the church con-
ted" (Lord's Day 5).                     God." While it is not now the time       fessed concerning the Lord Jesus
    It was, of course, easy to an-       to go into the term and its proper       Christ since the time of Chalcedon
swer these questions by simply           or improper use, the fact is that        is this: Our Lord Jesus Christ
saying that our Lord Jesus Christ        that term was to cause almost con-       united in His one person, the per-
was both God and man, which, in          stant grief in the church for over       son of the Son of God, both the di-
itself, is true. But the fact remains    100 years. Monks had a way of            vine nature and the human nature.
that such a statement could not be       doing that.                              He was, therefore, personally, the
satisfactory, for one must still find        But the term  theotokos  added       eternal Son of God, the second per-
some answers to the burning ques-        confusion to an already confusing        son  `of the holy Trinity. He united
tion: How could one be both God          situation. If Mary was the "mother       in His one person the whole of the
and man at the same time? And,           of God," was she also the "mother        divine nature, so that he was in-
in what way was Christ God and           of a man," the man Jesus? If so,         deed, as Nicea confessed, very God
in what way was He a man?                how could she be the mother of           of very God, and a complete hu-
    The questions were many and          both at the same time?                   man nature, so that He.was like us
difficult, and the church did not            All these questions came down        in all respects, except for our sin.
immediately see how they could be        to one great question: How could             Now, before that truth was
answered.                                our Lord Jesus Christ be at the          confessed and set down in  creedal
    Other questions arose as well,       same time both God and man?              form by the Council of Chalcedon
questions which had to do chiefly            These were the questions that        in 451, this solution was preceded
with the worship of the church.          triggered the great Christological       by every possible heresy which one
We can mention a few of them             controversies of the fourth and fifth    could imagine. One taught that the
here. One such question was: How         centuries, and were finally settled      humanity of Christ was not real,
was Christ present in the Lord's         by the creed of Chalcedon.               but had only ghost-like character-
Supper? Was He present as divine             This article on Apollinaris is       istics (some  Gnostics,  whom we
or was He present as a human?            only one chapter in the long and         discussed earlier). Another said
When the saints partook of the           involved story.        Nor does this     that Christ had one person, a di-
Lord's Supper, did they partake of       chapter bring us to the final answer     vine person, and had only one na-
Christ's divinity, and/or of His hu-     of the church. It is the story of one    ture, a kind of mixture of divine
manity?                                  man's solution to the problem, and       and human. He was a sort of  God-
    Another question involved the        the story of the church's rejection      man. Another said that Christ pos-
worship of Christ. If Christ is di-      of that solution as an answer in-        sessed two natures, a divine nature
vine, and He is, surely we must          sufficient and inadequate to do jus-     and a human nature, but that this
worship Him. But if He is human,         tice to all that Scripture says con-     was possible only because Christ
may we nevertheless worship Him,         cerning our Savior.                      also was two persons, a divine per-
for it is wrong to worship a man.                                                 son and a human person.
    By this time in history, many        God's Greater Wisdom                         Interestingly, it was not all that
monks were present in the church.            I must mention one other as-         long ago that I heard a radio min-
They had a special knack for com-        pect of the controversy which I          ister teach this latter error. He was
plicating things. Especially the         want to talk about in this article.      trying to explain how Christ could
monks in Egypt, where the whole          It is really an aspect, not just of      be tempted. He solemnly assured
idea of asceticism arose in the first    this controversy, but of all the con-    his listeners that the temptations of
place, developed a rather elaborate      troversies which followed. It has        Christ were real only because
doctrine of Mary. Perhaps because        to do with what strikes me as an         Christ could have fallen into sin.
they themselves had taken vows of        amazing display of God's wisdom.         But then he rightly considered the
celibacy, much attention was given           In an earlier article, written       question how it was possible for
to Mary, the mother of the Lord,         quite long ago, I mentioned the fact     God to sin. His answer was that,
and many great and wonderful             that while heresy in the church was      while it was not possible for God
things were said of her. In fact,        certainly to be explained as Satan's     to sin, Christ was also a man, and
the whole Romish doctrine of             way of destroying the truth and the      therefore, as a man, could sin.
Mariology really arose among the         church which needed the truth to             But more of this later. I do not
monks in Egypt.                          survive, God used heresy to goad         want to run ahead of my story.
    In their veneration of Mary,         the church to develop the truth. A       Now I am interested only in show-
they exalted her as "the mother of       striking demonstration of this is to     ing that every possible denial of the

158/Standard  Bearer/January 1,1999


truth was considered by the church               many years in various writing                            and son were men of exceptional
before the truth itself was finally              projects of one sort or another.                         ability.
discovered and set down in a con-                They were both Christians, and                               But both had one flaw: they
f e s s i o n .                                  Apollinaris the Elder served as                          were deeply involved in the read-
    When I was still teaching Cat-               presbyter (elder) in the church for                      ing and study of pagan philosophy;
echism classes in "The Essentials                many years.                                              they both loved pagan learning;
of Reformed Doctrine" and came                        Apollinaris the Younger re-                         and they both gave themselves too
to that lesson in the "Essentials"               ceived a classical education and                         much to it. About this time, both
book which deals with the person                 went on to teach rhetoric in the city                    were very closely associated with
and natures of Christ, I would first             of Laodicea. In that city was a                          and became friends of some pagan
lead the young people through a                  church, the bishop (minister) of                         philosophers in the city who were
brief history of these controversies             which was Theodotus.                                     Sophists. As a result they were ex-
before teaching them the biblical                     Now that in itself was interest-                    communicated by their church; but
doctrine concerning Christ. It                   ing. You will recall that around                         they repented of their sin and, af-
helped them to understand some-                  the end of the first century, when                       ter confession, were received back
thing of the great mystery of God                the apostle John was banished to                         into the fellowship of the church.
become flesh.                                    the island of Patmos, a church al-                           They never, however, shook
    What I am saying is this. God                ready existed in that city. Laodicea                     free from their love of pagan cul-
led the church to consider every                 was one of the seven churches of                         ture, and in the course of the years,
possible mistaken idea concerning                Asia Minor to which our Lord                             they collaborated in the writing of
the relation between the two na-                 wrote letters, which letters are re-                     a great deal of secular prose and
tures of Christ before guiding the               corded in Revelation 2 and 3.                            poetry. Their gifts of writing were
church by His Spirit into the truth.             These seven churches were all in                         so great that they gained something
Only by considering what is wrong                the western part of Asia Minor, in                       of an international reputation
could the church finally see what                the province called Asia. It is quite                    among scholars and authors.
is right.                                        probable that they were all orga-                            Eventually Apollinaris the El-
    This is a wisdom of God to help              nized while Paul was working in                          der died and Apollinaris the
us poor mortals who are so hard                  Ephesus, when laborers in the gos-                       Younger became bishop (minister)
of hearing and dull of understand_               pel went out into all the area to                        of the church in Laodicea. It was
ing that we find it almost impos-                bring the gospel. Laodicea was                           about 346 that Apollinaris the
sible to know the great mysteries                most likely one of those churches.                       Younger met and became a lifelong
of the works of almighty God.                         Over the space of less than 50                      friend of the great Athanasius, the
                                                 years that church had become all                         powerful defender of Nicean ortho-
The Life of Apollinaris                          but apostate and, in His letter to                       doxy who suffered so much be-
    It is almost embarrassing to                 them, the Lord threatened to spew                        cause of the truth. From that time
write about the lives of these early             them out of His mouth. But here,                         on, Apollinaris joined forces with
men. If one is expecting an inter-               300 years later, a church was in that                    Athanasius and was himself an in-
esting and exciting biography one                city. It may have been that the                          fluential defender of the truth of
is bound to be disappointed, be-                 church of Laodicea repented of its                       the divinity of our Lord Jesus
cause so little is known that one                sin in obedience to the command                          Christ.
has difficulty filling one page with             of the Lord and thus continued to                             But he was by no means one
the actual facts of their life.                  exist as a church; or it may be, and                     who stood in the shadow of the
    But history has provided us                  this is more likely, that the faithful                   great Athanasius; he acquired a su-
with a few interesting details of the            in this apostate church heard and                        perb reputation by his own accom-
life of Apollinaris, the man of                  obeyed the call of Christ, who was                       plishments. We can mention only
whom we write.                                   standing at the door of the church                       a few here.
    H e   w a s   b o r n   s o m e w h e r e    knocking and calling His faithful                            H e   w a s   a   g i f t e d   H e b r e w
around 310. He was 15 years old                  out. After leaving a church which                        scholar, mastered that language,
when the great Council of  Nicea                 had become the false church, the                         and became a skilled exegete who
was held. His father must have                   faithful reorganized the church;                         put the books from Genesis to I
named him after himself, because                 and that was the one which is men-                       Samuel into poetry and drama. His
the father is known as Apollinaris               t i o n e d   h e r e   i n   o u r   s t o r y   o f    exegetical abilities shone brightly
the Elder, and the one in whom we                Apollinaris.                                             in the firmament of the church, for
are interested was called  Apol-                      Apollinaris the Younger also                        he was known everywhere as a so-
linaris  the.Younger.                            became a presbyter (elder) in the                        ber and sensible expounder of the
    They were apparently very                    church of Laodicea, which would                          Word of God who avoided that
close and in fact collaborated for               seem to indicate that both father                        dreadful allegorizing which was so

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characteristic of so many preach-              of all time-although, sad to say,         various erroneous views of Christ's
ers in his day. He was famous as               almost none of his works have sur-        person and natures, those who at-
a theologian, and some claimed                 vived the destructive forces of           tacked his views, and synods
that his theological abilities were            time. He was a wise and respected         which condemned his views,
greater than those of Athanasius               minister in the church where God          rarely, if ever, mentioned him per-
himself. He was a prolific writer              had placed him.                           sonally and by name.
and penned some thirty books                       For all these accomplishments             But he became a heretic in spite
which defended the Christian faith             and more, he was held in high es-         of all these accomplishments. And
against various heresies. He was               teem by friend and foe alike. And,        that is sad.
one of the great theological writers           in fact, when he began to teach                           . . . to be continued.  U




                        Judging: The Christian's Duty (1)
              The Prevailing View of Tolerance

T                                              are Reformed in their heritage.           not!" This shift seems logical. If
          olerance is the buzzword of          Heresy is no longer denounced,            God loves me and every other per-
         the day. We are told that we          and heretics are no longer disci-         son, then He finds no fault with
         must tolerate the ideas,              plined. The foundational teaching         us, our actions, or our ideas. And
words, and actions of each and ev-             of Christianity  - that Jesus Christ,     if He finds no fault with us, we
ery segment of society. We may                 the Son of God who came in the            should find no fault with each
not pass judgment on the charac-               flesh, is our only and complete Sav-      other. However, the logic fails. It
ter of other people, but must ac-              ior  - is denied. We are told to          proceeds from a wrong premise,
cept them the way they are. What               tolerate the religious thinking of        that God loves every man, and
our elected officials do in their pri-         non-Christians, because every reli-       from a wrong assumption, that a
vate lives must not influence our              gion has an element of truth to it,       God who loves a person ignores or
view of their qualifications for pub-          and because salvation is not exclu-       tolerates that person's sins. Thus
lic office. We must accept the                 sively for Christians. We must also       the conclusion is also wrong. In
lifestyle of homosexuals as (viable!)          tolerate in our churches the sinful       actuality, the shift of most-quoted
alternatives to ours. We must ca-              actions of others. It is not our busi-    Bible text indicates the increasing
ter to the whims and wishes of the             ness if an unmarried couple lives         godlessness of our society. In the
feminists. We must not speak of                together! It is none of our busi-         past, God received the emphasis,
God, lest we anger the atheists.               ness if a member of our congrega-         even though God was wrongly un-
        This attitude of tolerance is          tion practices homosexuality! We          derstood. Now the emphasis falls
found even in the church world to-             must not judge them.                      on man, to the point that in certain
day. Many people, claiming to be                   Considering this sad state of af-     situations we must be careful not
Christian, will be quick to remind             fairs in the church world today, it       to mention God's name! Man is
us of Jesus' words that we must                is not surprising to learn that the       god, free to construct his own ideas
not judge  (Matt.  7:l) and that we            most frequently quoted text of            of morality. And man's basic foun-
may not cast a stone because we                Scripture is no longer John 3:16, but     dation for morality is his thinking:
are no better than the other person            Matthew  7:1, as I recently heard         "I am good. You are good. Let us
( J o h n .   8:7).    This attitude has       from a radio speaker. In the past         agree not to find any bad in any-
wreaked havoc in the Christian                 we were reminded: "For God so             one."
church, including churches which               loved the world...." This verse,              There is one group of people,
                                               wrongly interpreted as teaching the       however, on whom society permits
                                               lie of Arminianism that God loves         us to pass judgment, and toward
                                               every person, was meant to com-           whom we may be intolerant: those
Rev.  Kuiper  is pastor  of  fhe Profestant    fort every person who believed it.        who judge this modern morality as
Reformed Church  of  Byron  Center,Michi-      "God loves me! All is well with           wrong, and do not tolerate it! In
gan.                                           me." Today we are told: "Judge            this latter group true Christians

160fitandard  Bearer/January I,1999


must find themselves, and the true        must not condemn those who fa-           Rather, we ought to approve the
church of Jesus Christ must find          vor and practice abortion, for we        teachings of Judaism, Mormonism,
herself. We must judge the pre-           do not understand the hardships          Buddhism, and other religions;
vailing view of tolerance as wrong,       which the pregnant woman en-             present them as viable alternatives
for it is not scriptural. Scripture is    dures and will endure if she has         to the Christian faith; and encour-
the only basis for our morality.          her baby. We must not condemn            age members of our churches to in-
    In these articles we will exam-       homosexuality, for God created ho-       corporate into their lives whatever
ine in more detail the prevailing         mosexuals in His image, and their        good is found in these teachings.
view of tolerance in the light of         sexual orientation is a part of that         Second, this affects our mission
Scripture. Our conclusion will be         creation. Besides, homosexuals are       work. Our mission work should
that this view is dangerous, god-         as capable as heterosexuals of           consist not of calling others to faith
less, and unscriptural.      We will      keeping God's law of love by be-         and repentance, but of helping the
then examine in some detail the           ing faithful to their partners. We       poor, the sick, and others who need
Scripture passages which are most         must not condemn those whose             physical and economic help. We
pertinent to the issue.  From these       theological, social, or political        should also be more ambitious in
passages, we will see that to judge       views differ from ours, for God          developing contacts with other re-
is the Christian's calling from God.      gives to each of us a mind, and          ligions, finding the good aspects of
Although God places some restric-         each of us individually is free to       their teachings and practices, and
tions on how we judge and show            use that mind as he wishes. Be-          incorporating them into our own
intolerance, He does not forbid in-       sides, the fact that the  bible has      teachings and practices.
tolerance.                                been interpreted many different              Third, we must not discipline
                *****                     ways by many different people,           those whom we believe to be liv-
    This view which prevails today        churches, and denominations indi-        ing in sin or teaching that which is
can be further explained both from        cates that there is no one correct       contrary to our understanding of
a negative and a positive view-           view of the Bible and its teachings.     the fundamental truths of Scrip-
point.                                        Stated positively, this prevail-     ture. Rather, remembering that we
    Negatively, the view is that our      ing view is that we must tolerate        all sin, we must allow church mem-
attitude toward the ideas or actions      those who differ from us in think-       bers who are living in sin to re-
of others must never be one of in-        ing and practice. Such tolerance         main members in good standing,
tolerance. An attitude of intoler-        would indicate love, compassion,         partaking freely of the Lord's table.
ance is wrong for several reasons,        and understanding for others. In         We  ought even to find some good
we are told. First, it manifests ha-      addition to tolerating these people,     in their actions, and recommend
tred; thus it is morally wrong. God       we ought to  approve  their views        that other members follow the
Himself condemns intolerance by           and practices as legitimate. Per-        good example which this `member
forbidding us to judge  (Matt.  7:l)      haps our views and practices will        has set in some way. A person who
and by commanding us to love one          still differ from the next person's,     emulates Jesus most closely will
another. Tolerance is one expres-         but not because ours are inherently      view the other person as a brother,
sion of love. Second, this attitude       right and the next person's are in-      remind him that he is a good per-
reveals arrogance on our part for         herently wrong, for all people, re-      son, encourage that person in his
thinking that we are better than the      gardless of their views and prac-        sin, and remind him that God is
other person, that our view is the        tices, are good people.                  pleased.
only right view, and that our way                         x-4***                                    ***4x
of doing things is the only right             This view of tolerance has spe-          What accounts for this view?
way. This arrogant thinking de-           cific implications for the church of         Certainly the natural depravity
nies the inherent goodness of ev-         Christ. First, we must not preach        of man is one explanation. Man
ery person, each of whom is cre-          an exclusive gospel of salvation         by nature is able to do and think
ated in God's image (according to         through Christ alone. We must not        only that which is evil. This view
the proponents of tolerance). An          view the teachings of other reli-        is another instance of man's  disre-
attitude of intolerance is wrong,         gions  - Judaism, Mormonism,             gard  forthe Word of God, and for
thirdly, because by it we judge a         Buddhism, and all others  - as in-       God Himself. God's Word tells
person without trying to under-           herently wrong. We may not tell          man that he is a slave to sin by
stand him or what causes him to           the Jew, the Mormon, or the Bud-         nature. Man, however, claims to
act or to think the way he does.          dhist that he must repent of his sins    be free, and insists on manifesting
    Because this attitude of intol-       against the first four command-          that freedom by doing what he
erance is wrong, we must not dem-         ments of God's law, and come to          wants to do. The pregnant woman
onstrate such by speaking against         the knowledge of the true God who        insists on her freedom to choose to
the ideas or practices of others. We      has revealed Himself in Christ.          live her own life, by aborting her

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child. The man insists on his free-         firmly on the doctrine of the             is right! Intolerance is wrong!"
dom by choosing to love other men.          apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ           That this is really what man
    However, this explanation does          Himself being the chief corner-           has done is evident when one con-
not sufficiently explain why the            stone, as God calls her to be. Thus       siders that society itself, not the
church world at large has adopted           another attribute, that of  apostolic-    Word of God, decides in what situ-
this view. Explaining this is the           ity, is lost. Failing to be holy and      ations tolerance is right, and in
fact that the church has, as a gen-         apostolic, she has no right to call       what situations some intolerance is
eral rule, conformed herself to the         herself church, for she is no differ-     permissible. The Word of God
world in every area of life, failing        ent from the world.                       clearly forbids murder, in the sixth
to live antithetically.' Underlying             The danger of this view, then,        commandment: "Thou shalt not
this failure is the fact that the           is the same as the danger of poi-         kill" (Ex.  20:13). But society, while
church has lost her consciousness           son. Poison may look harmless,            condemning the murder of a  two-
of God's holiness. Her great mes-           and even palatable, but it is eaten       year-old child or forty-year-old
sage has been the love of God, but          to one's own destruction. The             adult, will tolerate the killing of
she has divorced His love from His          world's ideas and practices are a         unborn babies and, in many in-
holiness. If the church can once            poison which might appear attrac-         stances, the killing of the terminally
more understand what it means               tive to some, but when the church         ill who desire a dignified death.
that God is holy, she will under-           tolerates and approves them, she          The Word of God clearly forbids
stand the need to separate herself          does so to her own destruction.           adultery and all sexual perversions,
from the world's ideas and prac-            This destruction is not simply a          declaring that .sex is permissible
tices, to denounce sin as sin, and          matter of the church failing to be        only between a husband and a
to preach that the loving God, Je-          distinct from the world in this life,     wife. This it does in the seventh
hovah, hates sin and punishes sin-          but is also an everlasting destruc-       commandment, "Thou shalt not
ners on account of their sin.               tion. The God who judges righ-            commit adultery" (Ex.  20:14),  as
                  *x+*4                     teously will judge those who im-          well as in other passages (cf. I Cor.
    Christians must evaluate this           penitently teach false doctrine and       5:1-5 and Heb.  13:4).  But society,
view as being dangerous, godless,           who live in immorality without re-        while intolerant of child pornogra-
and unscriptural.                           penting. Taking warning from this,        phy and molestation, nevertheless
    The view is dangerous because           the church must not conform her-          permits adultery and fornication of
it leads to further accommodation           self to the world, but be trans-          all sorts, and cries out for tolerance
of the church with the world, in            formed  (Ram.  12:2)!                     on the issue of homosexuality.
violation of her calling. God calls             Our second evaluation of this         When it comes to the question
the church to live antithetically,          view of tolerance is that, for all its    "What is truth?" society attempts
that is, to live in opposition to sin       apparent godliness, it is in fact god-
and the world and in devotion to            less. The various appeals to Scrip-       `Francis A. Schaeffer's book The  Greuf
Jehovah. The church lives anti-             ture and to the attribute of God's        Evangelical Disaster  (Westchester, IL:
thetically, not by pretending that          love in defense of this view might        Crossway Books, 1984) develops the
sin is good, but by declaring sin to        make it appear to be godly. There         thesis that the church in the twentieth
be sin, and by disciplining those           is mention of a god - one who ap-         century has conformed herself to the
                                                                                      world. This thesis is stated on page
who impenitently continue to live           proves of tolerance and who cares         37: "Here is the great evangelical di-
a sinful life. She lives antithetically     for those who are the victims of in-      saster  - the failure of the evangelical
also by preaching the truth of God,         tolerance, hatred, bigotry, and           world to stand for truth as truth.
pointing out the lie of Satan which         mean  spiritedness.2  There is also       There is only one word for this  -
opposes the truth, and disciplining         mention of a heaven  - the place          namely  accommodation:  the evangelical
those in her midst who knowingly            where victims of such intolerance         church has accommodated to the
and impenitently promote the lie.           are brought when their "persecu-          world spirit of the age."
    Failing to live antithetically, the     tion" has ended in death.
church is in danger of becoming the            Despite this apparent godli-           *This was also the theme of a number
                                                                                      of letters in the "Public Pulse" section
world, and of no longer being the           ness, the view is godless in that it      of the Grand Rapids Press. God loved
church of God.             By living and    rejects Jehovah as the God whose          the homosexual teacher, and by death
thinking like the world, she shows          Word is the standard for doctrine         (the teacher died in December of `96
that she is not fundamentally dif-          and life. That we must tolerate,          or January of  `97) brought him to a
ferent from the world, as God calls         approve, and embrace the ideas            better place where he was free from
her to be. Thus her attribute of            and practices of others is not God`s      persecution, one writer said. Another
holiness is lost. By teaching that          Word, but man's! Man has set him-         writer applied Romans  8:18 to the
which is contrary to Scripture, she         self up as the judge of right and         teacher, and prayed that he might rest
shows that she is not grounded              wrong. And man says: "Tolerance           in peace.

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to give its own definition, ignoring         the record of the thinking of soci-                    The fact is, however, that many
Jesus Christ and the Scriptures as           ety in the past. In the Bible, a text                  people interpret these passages
the Truth.                                   can be found here and there to                         wrongly.       The passages do not
     These inconsistencies reveal            show that society in the past has                      teach what those who use them to
that man has dismissed Jehovah               also apparently condemned intol-                       promote this view of tolerance say
God and His Word as the standard             erance.                                                they teach!
of right and wrong. Men do not                    This leads us to our third and                        We must examine these and
want God telling them what to do!            fundamental evaluation of this                         other pertinent passages of Scrip-
Man will be the judge of right and           view: it is unscriptural. Perhaps                      ture to show that, rather than com-
wrong. Any appeal to Scripture to            you can hear some asking: "What                        manding tolerance of the ideas and
support the prevailing view of tol-          d o   y o u   m e a n ,   u n s c r i p t u r a l ?    practices of all others, Scripture
erance does not proceed from a               Haven't you looked at Matthew                          forbids such and requires us to
view of Scripture as God's Word,             7:1, John  8:11, and John  13:34?"                     judge. This we will do in our next
but from a view of Scripture being                                                                  article. Cl



          The Relation of the Deacons
                              to the Consistory (1)

T                                            there is an apparent conflict be-                      us a detailed pattern for church or-
        he question concerning the           tween the Netherland Confession                        ganization. Hence, it has little to
        relation of the deacons to the       and the Church Order. Article 30                       say, directly, about the office of
        consistory is one of the most        of the Confession definitely in-                       deacon, and, especially, about the
debated questions in connection              cludes        t h e   d e a c o n s   i n   t h e      relation of the deacons to the other
with the office of deacon. Various           consistory, while the Church Order                     officebearers.    According to the
answers have been given to that              seems to exclude them. Besides,                        oldest and most generally accepted
question. According to some, the             there is the seemingly conflicting                     view, we have the origin of the of-
deacons belong to the consistory,            position of the Church Order itself.                   fice of deacon recorded in the sixth
and the consistory, therefore, is            The Church Order, on the one                           chapter of the book of Acts. Al-
composed of the ministers, the el-           hand, seems to exclude the deacons                     though this is most likely correct,
ders, and the deacons. Others                from the consistory, while, on the                     the fact remains that this opinion
would exclude the deacons from               other hand, it permits that the dea-                   is a conclusion that is based largely
the consistory and make of them a            cons be added to the consistory                        upon what we read elsewhere in
separate body, though standing un-           when the number of elders is small,                    Scripture. Because Scripture else-
der the supervision of the  con-             and even demands this when the                         where speaks of deacons in distinc-
sistory. Finally, there is the ten-          number of elders is less than three.                   tion from bishops, it is concluded
dency to separate the deacons from           Even more confusing, the Church                        that the origin of this office is to
the consistory completely, so that           Order really includes the deacons                      be found in Acts 6. It is for that
they become independent of any               in the consistory again when it re-                    reason that by no means all share
consistorial control.                        quires that much of the affairs of                     this opinion. According to some,
     To this it must be added that           the congregation shall be dis-                         Acts 6 speaks of no ecclesiastical
                                             charged at combined meetings, or                       office at all. The appointment of
                                             what is usually called, the general                    these seven men was simply a tem-
                                             consistory.                                            porary measure, due to the pecu-
    Martin Swart was an elder  for  many          The question arises, how must                     liar circumstances at the time. Oth-
years in the First Protestant Reformed       all the confusion and difference of                    ers are of the opinion that because
Church  of  Grand Rapids, MI.                                                                       of the complaints that certain wid-
     This article was originally an essay    opinion be explained? Then we
that Mr. Swart presented to the Men's        must bear in mind, first of all, that                  ows were being neglected these
Society  of  First Church.                   the New Testament does not give                        men were merely appointed to look

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after the widows and no more. Still         tinguishes between ruling elders          means the same in all Reformed
others hold that the appointment            and teaching elders without sepa-         churches. Calvin himself, on the
included both the office of elder           rating them.                              basis of Romans  12:8,  made distinc-
and that of deacon, seeing that at             Turning now to the history of          tion between two kinds of deacons,
least two of the men appointed also         the offices, we find that there has       the one for the ingathering and dis-
labored in the Word.                        always been, and still is, much con-      tribution of the gifts for the poor,
    Several other things must be            fusion with respect to the question       the other to render aid to the sick
taken into consideration. In the            concerning the relation of the dea-       and the infirm.
first place, we must not overlook           cons to the other officebearers.              In the Church of Hesse  (15261,
the fact that the appointment of            There are many different, and even        and also in the Church of Basil
these men concerned only the con-           conflicting, opinions with respect        (15291,  it was established that each
gregation at Jerusalem. In how far          to this question. Lightfoot, in his       pastor should have at least three
all three offices were immediately          study on "The Early Church and            deacons to assist him in the care of
instituted in all the congregations         the Ministry in the Early Centu-          the poor. In these churches, there-
is an open question. But in the             ries," sums up the situation by say-      fore, the deacons were merely as-
light of what we read in Titus  1:5,        ing that in the last decades of the       signed to the task of assisting the
it is safe to conclude that the of-         first century each congregation had       pastors in the care of the poor.
fices were only gradually instituted        for its officebearers a body of el-           The French Reformed churches
in all the churches. Calvin is of           ders and a body of deacons, but           followed the pattern of Calvin, ex-
the opinion that they were insti-           whether they were separated into          cept that they recognized only one
tuted only as the need arose. In            two colleges, or formed one, must         class of deacons. These deacons
the second place, as already men-           remain unknown. But however               administered the gifts for the re-
tioned, at least two of the men ap-         this may be, that there was some          lief of the poor, but under the su-
pointed for the office of deacon            relation between the two offices          pervision of the consistories. So
also labored in the Word. They,             would almost seem certain. Oth-           strong were the French churches
therefore, functioned in both of-           erwise you cannot explain the his-        for cooperation between the offices,
fices. In the third place, it is evi-       tory through which the office of          that, whenever possible, the pas-
dent from Acts  11:30 that some             deacon passed.                            tor was to meet with the deacons,
time after the appointment of the               How else, for example, is it to       especially at the time when finan-
deacons the gifts for the poor were         be explained that already in the          cial reports are given. The deacons
still sent to elders. Calvin explains       post-apostolic age, although the of-      also belonged to the consistories
this by saying that these deacons           fice was recognized as a distinct of-     and, as deacons, were delegated to
were appointed in such a way that           fice, the deacons, nevertheless, per-     the synod of Clairac  (1560). To re-
they nevertheless stood under the           formed their labors under the su-         move all possibility of suspicion,
elders, in order that they should           pervision of the bishops, to whom         the elders were charged with the
do nothing without their consent.           they had to give account and to           distribution of the gifts for the
    Finally, it is also evident that,       whom they were responsible. Al-           poor, but the deacons visited these
with the appointment of deacons,            ready in the second century the           homes weekly, not only to inquire
the apostles did not mean to cast           deacons were regarded as assis-           if there was need, but also to make
the care of the poor entirely off           tants to the bishops and were as-         sure that the poor received the
their own shoulders. At least the           signed to the double task of caring       gifts. The  Walloon congregations,
apostle Paul continued to take an           for the poor and of assisting in the      organized in the southern Nether-
active part in this work. He not            public worship. By the third cen-         lands, followed the pattern estab-
only ordered collections to be              tury the care of the poor was en-         lished by the French Reformed
taken, but he also instructed the           tirely under the control of the bish-     churches.
churches as to how and when they            ops, and the office of deacon dis-            In the Dutch Reformed refugee
should be taken, and how they               appeared as a distinct office and         church in London, under the lead-
should be sent. He even takes an            remained dead until the Reforma-          ership of John  a  Lasco,  the deacons
active part in the distribution of the      tion. Now it is rather difficult to       were restricted to caring for the
same (cf. I Cor.  16:1-4; II Cor. 9:3-      explain this history unless we may        poor and were not part of the
5; Acts  24:17; Rom.  15:25-28). From       assume that there was a relation-         consistory. Yet even here an ex-
all this it is evident that the fact        ship between the offices which was        ception was made, and in unusual
that Scripture speaks of the office         gradually corrupted.                      circumstances they were added to
of deacon as a distinct office does             Calvin restored the office of         the consistory. Besides, once in six
not yet mean that this office has           deacon to its rightful place as a dis-    weeks the deacons met with the el-
nothing in common with the other            tinct office.     But the degree in       ders and the ministers, to render
offices. After all, Scripture also  dis-    which it was restored was by no           an exhaustive report of their  activi-

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ties. They also helped the elders           were        not      a d m i t t e d   t o   t h e       ders is three or less.
collect funds for the support of the        consistory. In still others the dea-                         This same synod of Dordt
ministers.                                  cons refused to meet with the                            (1574) decided that the alms were
     The first regular synod of the         consistory. Three years later, there-                    to be collected and distributed by
Reformed churches of the Nether-            fore, the synod of Dordt  (1574), be-                    the deacons personally. But it de-
lands,  Emden 1571, considered the          ing questioned in regard to this                         cided at the same time that the dea-
deacons as belonging to the                 matter, declared: that the mean-                         cons were to render periodic re-
consistory. But there seems to have         ing was that the ministers and the                       ports to the consistory, whose ad-
been some difference of opinion re-         elders shall meet by themselves                          vice they must seek in all weighty
garding this decision. The ques-            and the deacons by themselves.                           matters.    The above-mentioned
tion seemingly arose whether the            But in places where there are only                       synod even declared it to be proper
synod had meant that all three of-          a few elders, the deacons shall be                       for the ministers to ask the deacons
fices must meet in one gathering,           p e r m i t t e d   t o   b e   p a r t   o f   t h e    as well as the elders to visit the
or whether the deacons might, or            consistory and, having been called                       sick and comfort them with the
perhaps should, constitute a sepa-          into the consistory, they shall be                       Word, since this was in harmony
rate gathering. In  most of the             obliged to come. The churches in                         with their office. A similar defini-
churches the elders and the dea-            the Netherlands (1905) decided                           tion of the task of the deacons was
cons met separately. In some                that they must be reckoned with                          given by the synod of Dordt (1578).
churches the deacons definitely             the consistory, if the number of el-                                     . . . to be continued 0




                            Signs of the limes (1)
       When Shall These Things Be?

                         Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and his disciples came to him
                     fey  to show him the buildings  of  the temple. And Jesus said unto them, See ye
                     not all these things? Verily I say unto you, There shall not be  left here one
                     stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down. And as he sat upon the
                     mount  of  Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when
                     shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end
                     of the world?
                                                                                                     Matthew  24:1-3

I                                           pocrisy.        He had charged them,                     Father, yet the wicked rulers had
     t was Tuesday evening of the           saying: "Ye generation of vipers,                        done their utmost to prevent Him.
     passion week when Jesus was            how can ye escape the damnation                          Therefore, shaking, as it were, their
     leaving Jerusalem with His             of hell?" His concluding indict-                         dust from His feet, He declared:
twelve disciples, who were filled           ment still rang in the ears of His                       "Behold, your house shall be left
with anxiety and perplexity. Jesus          disciples: "0 Jerusalem, Jerusalem,                      to you desolate. For I say unto you,
had spoken to chief priests, rulers,        thou that killest the prophets, and                      Ye shall not see me henceforth, till
and others who were gathered in             stonest them which are sent unto                         ye shall say, Blessed is he that
the temple. His message had been            thee, how often would I have gath-                       cometh  in the name of the Lord"
powerful and bore a note of abso-           ered thy children together, even as                      (Matt. 23:38, 39).
lute finality. The Lord had pro-            a hen gathereth her chickens un-                             While leaving the holy city the
nounced His woes upon the scribes           der her wings, and ye would not!"                        disciples looked back upon the city,
and Pharisees, exposing their  hy-          (Matt.  23:37).                                          and more particularly upon the
                                                 Even as a hen gathers her own                       beautiful temple with all its build-
Rev. Hanko is a minister emeritus in the    chicks to herself, Jesus had gath-                       ings which  Herod had built and
Protestant Reformed Churches.               ered those given unto Him of the                         which now stood out boldly in the

                                                                                                           January  1,1999/Standard  Bearer/l65


light of the setting sun. If Jerusa-    place. Their first question was:         ised, saying, Yet once more I shake
lem would be destroyed and its in-      When shall these things be?              n o t   t h e   e a r t h   o n l y ,   b u t   a l s o
habitants killed, would God no                 These were crucial times. Old     heaven."
longer dwell among His people?          things would soon pass away. In                We should bear in mind that
Would this be the end of the ages?      a sense, all would become new.           as the prophets of old stood on the
But how about Christ's kingdom?         The dispensation of types and            mountaintops of revelation and be-
    Without further explanation         shadows was drawing to an end.           held the future that was revealed
Jesus assures them that not one         All the prophecies and signs that        to them, they saw the entire pan-
stone would be left upon another,       spoke in the old dispensation of the     orama of the new dispensation as
but all would be destroyed. God's       coming of the Son of Man were be-        one great future event. We can best
judgment rested upon its wicked         ing realized. Israel as a nation         understand this by picturing before
inhabitants. Israel as a chosen na-     would no longer hold any typical         our minds a large mountain range
tion would cease to exist.              significance. In fact, the nation it-    looming into view in the distance
    When the entire party had ar-       self would perish under the righ-        before us. Our first impression is
rived at the Mount of Olives, where     teous judgment of God after they         that the distant peaks are all close
they likely intended to spend the       had openly and deliberately re-          together, almost in one line. Only
night, four of the disciples, An-       jected Jesus as the Christ, the Son      when we arrive at the mountains
drew, Peter, James, and John, ap-       of the living God. The presence of       and begin to travel through them
proached Jesus privately to ask         God would no longer be symbol-           do we realize that those various
Him in deep concern: "Tell us,          ized by the Most Holy Place in the       peaks are separated by large dis-
when shall these things be? and         temple, for the temple would be          tances. Only by traveling many
what shall be the sign of thy com-      destroyed.                               miles do we pass through the en-
ing, and of the end of the world?"             The new dispensation was          tire mountain range.
    These were pertinent questions      about to dawn. Christ's death and              We now stand between the first
that burned in the souls of these       resurrection would introduce a           and second coming of the Lord.
men. In their minds they associ-        new era. The church would no             For us He came once burdened
ated the destruction of the temple      longer be bound within the narrow        with our guilt and sin, in order to
with the end of the world, for God      confines of Israel as a nation but       bear it away. He is coming again
certainly would not forsake His         would become universal.         God      in all His glory to make all things
chosen people, His heritage and         would gather His church from all         new. Thus we can even distinguish
portion forever. But that only          nations, tribes, and tongues, even       between various comings of the
raises other questions: How about       unto the ends of the earth and the       Son of Man throughout this dispen-
Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusa-     islands of the sea. God would no         sation. There was, first of all, His
lem just two days earlier? The dis-     longer dwell in a temple made by         coming on the day of Pentecost,
ciples were still expecting an          man, but would come to dwell in          when the Holy Spirit was sent into
earthly kingdom, deliverance from       the hearts of His people by the          the church (John  14:28). There is
the power of Rome, and the glori-       Spirit of the exalted Christ. All        also a coming for each of His saints.
ous restoration of the throne of        God's promises spoken by the             The Lord Himself tells us that He
David. Even after the Lord's res-       prophets of old would be realized.       is now preparing a place for us and
urrection they asked Jesus: "Lord,      God's counsel would be accom-            that when that place is ready, "I
wilt thou at this time restore again    plished at the consummation of the       will come again, and receive you
the kingdom to Israel?"                 ages, the end of the world, "For         unto myself; that where I am, there
    Now they must know, when            thus saith the Lord of hosts; Yet        ye may be also" (John  14:3). More-
will Jerusalem be destroyed? What       once, it is a little while and I will    over there is a continuous coming
signs will point them to the glori-     shake the heavens, and the earth,        of Christ throughout this present
ous appearance of the Son of Man        and the sea, and the dry land; and       dispensation, since our Lord is car-
when He comes into His kingdom?         I will shake all nations, and the de-    rying out the counsel of God unto
And when will all things be accom-      sire of all nations shall come: and      the culmination of the ages (Rev.
plished, when will be the  culmina-;    I will fill this house with glory,       22:12). And there is His final ar-
tion of the ages or the end of the      saith the Lord of hosts" (Hag.  2:6,     rival at the end of the ages (Matt.
world? Important questions  m-          7).                                      24:30).
deed!                                          In a sense, this was fulfilled          The disciples were still strug-
    It is very obvious that the dis-    when Christ died, arose, ascended,       gling with the problem. "What
ciples were troubled, even per-         and poured forth His Spirit in the       shall be the sign of thy coming, and
plexed. They realized that Jesus        church. Yet Hebrews  12:26, 27 in-       of the end of the world?" Literally
would soon be leaving them. Tre-        forms us: "Whose voice then shook        we read: What shall be the sign of
mendous changes would take              the earth: but now he has prom-          Thy coming, or Thy presence, and

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of the culmination of the ages?                          would elapse before the end of the         pared for glory will Christ return.
        The question comes down to                       ages. In fact, Paul writes to the              No man knows the day or the
this:      How will we know when                         church at Thessalonica: "Now we            hour. Attempts have been made
Christ will establish His kingdom?                       beseech you . . . that ye  benot soon      to determine it, dates have even
And how is that related to the end                       shaken in mind, or be troubled, nei-       been set, but all speculation is a
of time when God's eternal coun-                         ther by spirit, nor by word, nor by        bold defiance of the holy Scrip-
sel is realized and His plan for the                     letter as from us, as that the day of      tures. The end is determined by
salvation of His people is accom-                        Christ is at hand." And then he            God and will come in His own
plished?                                                 goes on to warn them that there            time. Scripture reminds us: "But,
        Actually, the rest of this chap-                 must first be a falling away and           beloved, be not ignorant of this one
ter and also the next chapter serve                      the man of sin must be revealed,           thing, that one day is with the Lord
as answer to those questions. Jesus                      that is, the Antichrist must come          as a thousand years, and a thou-
gives the disciples and us various                       (II Thess. 2:1-12). Peter also assures     sand years as one day" (II Pet. 3:8).
signs of His coming and of the end                       the churches in his second epistle             But there are definite signs that
of the ages.                                             that "the Lord is  not.slack concern-      point us to the culmination of the
        The question is just as pertinent                ing his promise, as some men count         ages and the return of Christ.
today as it was when it was first                        slackness; but is long suffering to        These we hope to discuss, the Lord
asked: When shall these things be?                       us-ward, not  .willing  that any           willing, as the account is given to
The disciples certainly did not ex-                      should perish, but that all should         us in the  24th chapter of Matthew's
pect that two thousand years                             come to repentance! (II Pet.  3:9).        account of the gospel.  D
                                                         Only when all the elect are pre-



                                                         the Emerald Isle. They visited our           resent our Committee of Contact
Mission Activities
T                                                        churches' missionary there, Rev. R.          with other Churches. The unique-
        he Foreign Mission Committee                     Hanko, and his family, and the               ness of this proposed relation is
        of our churches met in late No-                  Covenant PRC in Northern Ireland.            that Covenant PRC is not a de-
vember at the Hull, Iowa PRC.                            Since Pastor Gritters can say it so          nomination but a single congrega-
Most of the business that morning                                                                     tion. They have no  classis  or
                                                         much better than I, I include a few
centered in the report of the re-                                                                     synod. Without them there is no
                                                         of those highlights here for you as          possibility of protest or appeal
cently completed trip of Pastors A.                      well.                                        from them so they seek that right
den Hartog and R. Smit to the Phil-                                                                   through our churches. Synod will
ippines. However, the committee                              The congregation had- arranged           finally decide all these matters,
also reported that they had just re-                       that we stay in the homes of four          but we made good progress and
cently heard from the Secretary of                         different families of the congrega-        have a good hope that we will be
the Christian Council of Ghana,                            tion (the Hankos, Clarkes, Reids,          able to relate in a profitable way
t h a t   t h e y   w i l l   c o n s i d e r   o u r      a n d   McAuleys).    In addition,         to this new and little but quite ma-
churches' inquiries and requests                           many members of the church                 ture congregation.
with respect to sponsorship by the                         wanted to have us over for a meal             The next meeting with the
                                                           during our stay. The result was            consistory was for church visita-
end of November. We should hear                            not only that I gained a good part         tion. We are glad to be able to
from them soon. In anticipation of                         of a stone in  weight(no  word on          report a rich peace and unity in
this, our FMC planned to spend                             Rev.  Koole),  but also had interest-      their congregation in large part
some time on the subject of Ghana                          ing and profitable fellowship with         due to the diligent and faithful la-
at a special meeting after receiving                       the saints there.                          bors of the officebearers. The
that material.                                               Our consistory (Hudsonville)             consistory reports their great love
        Rev. B. Gritters, pastor of the                    and the Domestic Mission Com-              for our missionary among them.
Hudsonville, MI PRC, reported to                           mittee had given us a specific,            R e v .   H a n k o   c o n t i n u e s   t o   b e
his congregation, by way of their                          written mandate with regard to             greatly appreciated for his faith-
monthly newsletter, "A Closer                              the oversight of our missionary,           ful labors of love for the gospel of
                                                           his family, and work. Part of it           our Lord Jesus. Since I first vis-
Look," about his and Rev.  K*                              was to conduct "church visitation"         ited in the early  90's, the group
Koole's recently completed trip to                         with the consistory there. But the         has doubled in size. There were
                                                           most important part of our work            over 60 people at each of the ser-
                                                           was to discuss with the consistory         vices we attended.
Mr. Wigger is an elder in the Protestant                   the possibility of "sister-church re-         We also conducted family visi-
Reformed Church of Hudsonville, Micki-                     lations" with them. Rev. Koole's           tation with Pastor Hanko and his
gun.                                                       place in our delegation was to rep-        family on behalf of Hudsonville's

                                                                                                            January  1,1999/Standard  Bearer/l67


 Scarer                                                                                                                        PERIODICAL
                                                                                                                               Postage Paid at
   P.O. Box 603                                                                                                                Gram&i//e,
  Grandville,   M I   49468-0603                                                                                               Michigan


  consistory. The Lord gives fruit       Minister Activities                                           chewy. The Lord willing he will  be-
  to their work, which is a good en-
  couragement to them. Their chil-       Rev. R. VanOverloop, pastor of gin a gradual resumption of his la-
                                                the G e o r g e t o w n   P R C   i n                  bors this week, starting with  lead-
  dren are well adjusted and happy       Hudsonville, MI, sustained injuries                           ing Bible studies, adding catechism
  in their work and studies.             from a bad fall in mid-November                               teaching, and finally preaching,
    Pastor Gritters goes on to say       while working at their new church                             perhaps towards the end of Decem-
that "if we learned anything, we         construction site. He fell about 18                           ber.
learned of Covenant's great love         feet, breaking ribs, his jaw, and
for the truth of the Reformed faith      bones in his face near his eye. He                                          y-ood~or              Ihouflht
and for its messenger, Pastor            submitted to surgery later that                                       "If the church maintains her
Hanko."                                  week. He continues to recover, but                            separation from the world, she will
                                         at the time of this writing (early                            always be despised. If she ever  be-
Sister Church Activities                 December) he still suffers from                               comes popular, it will be sign of
In looking over recent bulletins double vision and a misaligned compromise."
  sent from the First Evangelical        jaw, which makes it difficult to                                             - Reuel G. Lemmons  Et
Reformed Church of Singapore, we
found a reference to a first in the
history of that congregation. On
Sunday, August 30, one of their                      WEDDING  ANNIVERSARY
members made confession of faith.               On January 6, 1999, our parents and                              THIRTY YEARS IN MINISTRY
Nothing very unusual about that,         grandparents,                                                              REV. RICHARD MOORE
unless you consider that this was                   JAKE and JEANNE JABAAY,                                    Rev. Richard Moore recently commemo-
the first time in that church's short    will celebrate their 401h  wedding anniversary.               rated thirty years in the ministry in the Protes-
                                                                                                       tant Reformed Churches. Rev. Moore has
history that one who was baptized               We, their children, would like to thank
                                         them for all the years of Christian love and                  served the congregations of Isabel, SD; Doon,
as an infant in their church made        godly instruction they've given us. They have                 IA; Edmonton, AB; and for the last 13" years
public confession of faith when          led us by their faithful example. We pray that                in Hull, IA. We are thankful to God for his
reaching the "age of discretion."        God will continue to bless them and keep them                 faithful labors in our midst. "Feed the flock of
We pause and add our thanks for          in His care.                                                  God which is among you, taking oversight
that evidence of the work of God's              "For this God is our God forever and ever:             thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for
grace with their children.               he will be our guide even unto death" (Psalm                  filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; Neither as
                                         48:14).                                                       being lords over God's heritage, but being ex-
Congregation Activities                  1      Berend and Janine Meelker                              amples to the flock. And when the chief Shep-
In a follow-up to a recent council                  Chad, Brent, Deanna, Andrew                        herd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of,
                                         8      Jim and Laurie Jabaay                                  glory that fadeth not away" (I Peter 52-4).
  survey, the council of the South                  David, Michael, Matthew, Katie                                                   Council, Hull PRC
Holland, IL PRC decided that there       St:    Rick and Jill Elzinga
was enough interest regarding a                     Megan, Kristen, Kelsey, Jenni                                RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
possible daughter church among           * Jason Jabaay                                                        The Martha Society of the Protestant Re-
their members. South Holland de-                                               Redlands. California    formed Church of  Doon,  IA express their Chris-
cided to arrange a meeting to                                                                          tian sympathy to fellow member Mary Ann
which all those interested would be                            NOTICE!                                 Aardema in the death of her mother-in-law,
invited. The date and details of                Remember, the committee needs pictures                                  TRACY AARDEMA,
that meeting were to be announced        relating to the the PRC denomination for the                  and her brother-in-law,
                                         75* year anniversary of the PRC to be cel-                                  STANLEY AARDEMA.
later.                                   ebrated in the year 2000, the Lord willing.                           May she and her family find comfort in
    Following the evening service               Please send the pictures to:                           the  words of Romans  8:28, "And we know that
on Sunday, November 22, the Cho-                            Mr. Ken Elzinga                            all things work together for good to them that
ral Society of the South Holland,                           4465 100th St.                             love God, to them that are called according to
IL PRC presented a concert for the                     Byron Center, Ml 49315                          his purpose."
spiritual enjoyment of their congre-            Remember to include your name and ad-                                               Rev. R. Smit, Pres.
gation.                                  dress on the back of each picture so they can                                    Gert VanDenTop,  Vice-Secy.
                                         be returned to you promptly.
16&Standard Bearer/January I,1999


