A Reformed
Semi-Monthly
Magazine


                                                                                           In This Issue:
                      Meditation - Rev. Rodney G. Miersma
                                  Elijah's Testimony Against Ahab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170

                      Editorials  - Prof. David J.  Engelsma
                                  ECT in the Pitiless Light of the
                                        1998 Bull on Indulgences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .173
                                  Rome's Inpenitence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
                      Letters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .    176
                      Go Ye Into All the World - Rev. Jason L. Korfering
                                  Buying Missions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .176
                      Guest Article  - Rev. Douglas J. Kuiper
                                  Judging: The Christian's Duty (2)
                                  An Examination of Pertinent Scripture Passages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
                      All Around Us - Rev. Gise VanBaren . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
                      Contribution  -  Marfin Swat-t
                                  The Relation of the Deacons to the Consistory (2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
                      That They May Teach Them to Their Children  - Prof. Russell J. Dyksfra
                                  The Great Value of Reformed, Christian Education (2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
                      Search the Scriptures  -  Rev. Mitchell C. Dick
                                  Jesus in the Garden and the Sea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
                      News From Our Churches - Mr. Benjamin Wigger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191





V o l . 75, No.  8
January l&l999


   Elijah's Testimony Against Ahab

                                                  And Elijah the Tishbite, who was  of  the inhabitants  of  Gilead, said
                                           unto Ahab, As the LORD God of  israel liveth, before whom I stand, there
                                           shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.
                                                                                                                            I Kings 17~1

                                                                  was also faced with much wicked-                          pointed hats appeared this no non-
A                                                                 ness. On the throne was King                              sense prophet of the Lord. Indeed,
               s we stand in the first                            Ahab, who along with his wife                             a wild, bold man amongst a cul-
               month of a new year we                             Jezebel had introduced the worship                        tured people.
               tend to look ahead and try                         of Baal. In the darkness of idola-                                 It was during the darkest pe-
to anticipate somewhat what lies                                  try the true prophets of God were                         riod of Israel's history that Elijah
in store for us in the future. We                                 being slain. In this darkness Elijah,                     made his appearance. The kingdom
know what we have just experi-                                    like a lightning flash in a  storm-                       of Israel was the kingdom of the
enced in the previous year. We                                    darkened sky, appears unto Ahab.                          ten tribes who had separated from
saw the world around us become                                    He whose name means "My God                               the kingdom of Judah and the
increasingly more wicked, its cup                                 is Jehovah" was grieved that Israel                       house of David. Jeroboam, their
of iniquity filling up ever so                                    had turned from Jehovah to Baal.                          leader and first king, had erected
quickly. Looking ahead we know                                          Even his appearance directed                        golden calves through which the
that it will not get any better. Man                              one to the true God. His upper gar-                       people were to worship Jehovah.
in his sin will only sin more. Ever                               ment was of black camel's hair, and                       From that point on, it was a rapid
more quickly all the laws which                                   about his loins he wore a leathern                        descent, for all the kings of Israel
were based on biblical principles                                 girdle. His apparel spoke of pov-                         departed not from "the sins of
will be replaced by those which                                   erty, a renunciation of the world, a                      Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which
will please the heart of man.                                     mourning and almost stern judg-                           made Israel to sin." Of Ahab we
       Elijah, God's prophet to Israel,                           ment. What a contrast to his sur-                         read, "And Ahab the son of Omri
                                                                  roundings as he came down the                             did evil in the sight of the  LORD
                                                                  streets of  Samaria  to King Ahab.                        above all that were before him,"
                                                                  The terraced streets of the city                          and "Ahab did more to provoke the
Rev. Miersma is pastor of Immanuel Prof-                          spoke of luxury. Over against the                         LORD  God of Israel to anger than
e&ant  Reformed  Church of  Lacombe,                              effeminate, decrepit priests of  Baa1                     all the kings of Israel that were be-
Alberfa, Canada.                                                  in their white linen clothes and                          fore him" (I Kings  16:30,33).


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    To make matters worse, Ahab           your personal witness to the truth        mayest eat and be  fuI1.  Take heed
had gone to the heathen king of           of what you are about to say. That        to yourselves, that your heart be
Tyre and Sidon, Ethbaal, to ask for       is why perjury is such a serious of-      not deceived, and ye turn aside,
the hand of his wicked daughter           fense, punishable by law. How             and serve other gods, and worship
Jezebel that she might be his wife.       many people today have the fear           them; And then the  LORD'S  wrath
A more wicked wife he could not           of God in their hearts when they          be kindled against you, and he shut
have found. If there were evil            swear an oath?                            up the heaven, that there be no
deeds to be done, she would be the            Ahab heard on that day both           rain, and that the land yield not
one to introduce them. Thus,  Baa1        an emphatic and an antithetical an-       her fruit; and lest ye perish quickly
worship was not only introduced           nouncement. He heard a sermon             from off the good land which the
in Israel, but it was enforced as the     that was, in a few short words, a         LORD  giveth you." We find this
state religion. In order to root out      strong confession, a powerful pro-        same warning a little later, in
of Israel the worship of God, she         test and condemnation of the pow-         Deuteronomy  28:23, 24: "And thy
ordered that the prophets of the          ers of darkness. Elijah's God is Je-      heaven that is over thy head shall
LORD be killed.                           hovah, the I AM.  Baa1 is not God.        be brass, and the earth that is un-
    At her table in Samaria  she fed      Moreover, Jehovah is the God of           der thee shall be iron. The  LORD
four hundred fifty prophets of  Baa1      Israel, a relation which has its          shall make the rain of thy land
and four hundred more at her sum-         source and eternal ground in God's        powder and dust: from heaven
mer palace in Jezreel.  Baa1  was         free and sovereign election.  Baa1        shall it come down upon thee, un-
supposed to be the cause and              can never be Israel's God, despite        til thou be destroyed."
sustainer of life, the god of all gen-    the efforts of a wicked king and a             This was the law of the Lord
erative and reproductive powers in        cruel queen to enthrone him as lord       for His people Israel. They had
nature. A temple and altar had            over God's heritage.                      sinned; they had turned to another
been built for him in the capital city        This Jehovah, the God of Israel,      god, Baal. Now this same Jehovah
of  Samaria. Apostasy was now             is the living God. He acts; He sees       would reveal His power and bring
complete; the powers of darkness          and hears; He knows and speaks;           to nought the powers of darkness
were in control of every phase of         He is mighty in all His works. On         as represented in Baal. Just as
life. A darker picture one cannot         the other hand,  Baa1  is dead  -         Elijah had said, this would be "ac-
imagine.                                  nothing but a dumb idol. Jehovah          cording to my word." Ahab and
    Into the midst of this horrible       has life within Himself, and all life     the people had to know that the
darkness, there appears Elijah with       has its source in him. Baal, who          shut heavens, and the drought and
his sharp, short, crisp message.          claimed these powers, is nothing          the cracked earth that would soon
Truly it was a flash of light in the      but an impostor and a usurper.            follow, could not be attributed to
midst of utter darkness.                  Fearlessly Elijah, in a short staccato    any natural phenomenon. They
    All of Israel as a nation stood       speech, declared to Ahab that he          would not be able to say that the
before Baal, but here was a man           stood as the servant of this living       drought was due to certain atmo-
who by his own confession stood           God, Jehovah.                             spheric conditions, or to the un-
before Jehovah. As we mentioned,              Elijah's message was short and        usual position of the stars, or to an
even his name was a clear confes-         to the point: "there shall not be         EI  Nin"o. Nor would they be able
sion and a loud protest.  My God is       dew nor rain these years, but ac-         attribute it to the displeasure and
Jehovah, over against  Baa1  and all      cording to my word." This mes-            wrath of Baal. No, everyone would
the forces of darkness. The name          sage, although bold and blunt, was        know that the terrible drought was
pictures this prophet of God as           entirely in harmony with the word         of the Lord. It was His chastising
standing before God in opposition         of God as recorded in Deuter-             them for their sin.
to the wickedness of his day.             onomy  11:13-17:  "And it shall                Furthermore, the Lord wanted
    He swears an oath: "As the            come to pass, if ye shall hearken         Ahab and the people to know that
LORD  God of Israel liveth." An           diligently unto my commandments           His judgment upon them  was  con-
oath, of course, is not to be taken       which I command you this day, to          nected with the servant of Jehovah,
lightly. To swear by Jehovah indi-        love the  LORD  your God, and to          Elijah, with the word of him that
cates that one stands in His pres-        serve him with all your heart and         standeth before God. Elijah must
ence and speaks before His face.          with all your soul, That I will give      b r i n g   t h e   a n n o u n c e m e n t   o f
It further indicates that one calls       you the rain of your land in his          Jehovah's judgment to the king. He
upon Jehovah as witness to the            due season, the first rain and the        shall have the power to shut and
truth of one's words. That is a se-       latter rain, that thou mayest gather      to open the heavens. It was ex-
rious matter, to call upon the God        in thy corn, and thy wine, and            actly for this that Elijah had
of heaven and earth, the God of           thine oil. And I will send grass in       prayed. Concerning the prayer  ~of
truth, the God that cannot lie, as        thy fields for thy cattle, that thou      the righteous, we read in James

                                                                                          January 15,1999/Standard Bearer/l 71


517, 18:  "Elias was a man subject                 day? Elijah, as the servant of God,      is Elijah, a lonely, solitary figure.
to like passions as we are, and he                 stood before Him. We must do             Does this make him afraid? Does
prayed earnestly that it might not                 likewise. The Lord has established       this stop him from coming to the
rain: and it rained not on the earth               His covenant with us, that beauti-       king with this message of terrible
by the space of three years and six                ful relationship of friendship and       judgment? Would not King Ahab
months. And he prayed again, and                   fellowship. We are servants of the       erupt in anger when confronted
the heaven gave rain, and the earth                Lord while at the same time His          with his sin, when told that the ter-
brought forth her fruit." Indeed,                  friends, friend-servants. That           rible drought would occur because
his soul had been sorely grieved at                means that we are to be conscious of his departure from Jehovah? It
the sight of Israel's apostasy and                 of standing before His face, con-        matters not to Elijah if Ahab is an-
the reign of the wicked in the land                scious of being the objects of His       gry. He is afraid neither of the king
of the covenant. Thus, in harmony                  grace. As such we will taste His         nor of all his host behind him.
with the law of God he prayed ear-                 goodness.                                Elijah knows that he has the vic-
nestly that it might not rain. And                     We began by saying that the          tory because he stands before Je-
his prayer was heard.                              world is becoming more and more          hovah.
     The Lord had a definite pur-                  corrupt, that we face a future that          We must take that same stand.
pose in mind when He sent His ser-                 will see this only get worse. As         We are called to be lights in the
vant with this testimony. There                    God's children we must speak and         midst of darkness. This will not
was a question that had to be de-                  act, fight and suffer. However, we       be easy. Constantly we will be
cided in the minds of Israel. It is a              will receive all the power and au-       brought face to face with the ques-
question that is often raised in the               thority to do so from Him who is         tion of whom we shall choose?
minds of those in the power of in-                 the Almighty. When we act and            Will it be God or mammon? If we
iquity: Who  isGod? Ahab, Jezebel,                 speak we will do so in His name          choose for God, will we not incur
and apostatizing Israel answered:                  and in His behalf. That was the          the wrath of all those who have
Baa1  is God. It is  Baa1  who is the              secret of Elijah's power. Really, he     chosen for darkness? Yes, that will
cause of life; it is  Baa1  who gives              had assumed a dangerous and ap-          happen. The forces of darkness
rain and fertility, crops and pros-                parently impossible stand. On the        hated the Lord Jesus and nailed
perity. Therefore, the heavens and                 one hand, there is Baal, who was         him to the cross. They hated him;
the earth must bear witness that Je-               worshiped as God by thousands in         they will hate those that belong to
hovah is God, and that He alone is                 Israel. If these thousands consisted     him. However, instead of that be-
Lord over all. There will be no                    merely of the ordinary people, that      ing a liability, that is our comfort,
rain. That is a terrible judgment.                 would be one thing, but  Baa1  has       that we belong to our faithful Sav-
No rain means no crops. No crops                   control of the sword power, the          ior Jesus Christ. He stands before
means no food. No food means                       government as it resided in Ahab         God eternally. He has already won
hunger and starvation for both man                 the king. The mighty and the noble       the victory for us. Our strength is
and beast. Witness Ahab later on                   are all in the camp of this idol-god,    in him. Let us go forward in that
as he and his servant Obadiah                      Baal.                                    confidence. walking boldly as  chil-
search the length and the breadth                      Then on the other hand there         dren of the'light.  6
of the land for a little bit of grass
so that what animals they had left
would not die. Or Elijah when he
w a s   s e n t   t o   t h e   w i d o w   a t
Zarephath. She was gathering two                                                How Long, Lord?
sticks that she might take the little
bit of oil and meal that was left
and bake a cake for herself and her                  How long, 0 Lord, before the day       O'Lord, I long for that great day
son. Then there would be no more;                           When Thou wilt call me home?        When sin will be no more;
they would soon die. This drought                    When sadness will be over              And we will dwell forever
from the Lord would be absolute.                            And heartaches will be gone?        On heaven's golden shore.
There would not even be any dew.
One would expect that at least a                     How long, 0 Lord, before the day       "Even so, come, Lord Jesus"
morning dew would give refresh-                             When trials will be past:                          (Rev. 22:2Ob).
ment to some degree, but there                       When all our toil is ended
would not even be that little bit.                          And we are safe at last?                          Annetta Jansen
     Where do we fit into this pic-
ture? What is the significance of
this account for the church of  to-

172btandard  Bearer/Jammy  15,1999


          ECT in the Pitiless Light of the
              1998 Bull on Indulgences

                                          as  Christianity Today,  the movement    pope. The Roman Church, there-
I                                         threatens to attract and carry away      fore, distributes the benefits of
     n the last half-dozen or ten         multitudes of evangelicals.              these works as and to whom she
     years, leading evangelicals, in-                                              pleases.
     cluding  J. I. Packer and Charles    The Pope's Bull on Indulgences               Deliverance from the temporal
Colson, have been cooperating with            On November 29, 1998, ECT            punishment of sins by means of in-
prominent Roman Catholics, in-            was exposed in the pitiless light of     dulgences applies not only to
cluding Avery Dulles and Richard          an official document issued by the       people on earth but also "after
John Neuhaus, to unite  evangel-          pope of Rome. On that day the            death in the state called Purga-
icals and Roman Catholics. They           Roman idol published a bull en-          tory." As the official attachment
call the project "Evangelicals and        titled  "Incarnationis Mysterium"        to the bull bluntly puts it, "The Ju-
Catholics Together"  (ECT). The           ("The Mystery of the Incarnation").      bilee indulgence also can be ap-
document that announced the               In connection with the year 2000,        plied in suffrage to the souls of the
movement of union, and described          which Rome with characteristic le-       deceased."
it, was published in March, 1994          galism and arrogance has declared            This official attachment indi-
as "Evangelicals  & Catholics To-         "The Great Jubilee Year," the pope       cates the "Conditions of Gaining
gether: The Christian Mission in          calls for an "abundant use of the        the Jubilee Indulgence." These
the Third Millennium."                    gift of indulgence."                     "conditions" are, in fact, the works
     The stated purpose of the                The papal bull is a public, full,    that the people must do to merit
union-movement is threefold:  "co-        emphatic, and unembarrassed in-          deliverance from the "temporal
belligerency" in a war against the        sistence on the Roman Catholic the-      punishment" of the sins of them-
depraving of Western culture; co-         ology and practice of indulgences.       selves and of their dead friends
operation in evangelism; and the              "The Mystery of the Incarna-         and relatives. The bullish appen-
uniting of the church.                    tion" declares that indulgences are      dix calls them "the prescribed
     To convince evangelicals (Prot-      "one of the constitutive elements        works." They include: a pilgrim-
estants who still profess the gos-        of the Jubilee" of the year 2000. In-    age to certain Roman Catholic
pel) that such union with Roman           dulgences are a "precious gift" to       church buildings; a visit to a needy
Catholics is right, the evangelical       the people of God. They are noth-        person; abstinence for a day from
leaders declare that evangelicals         ing less than "an expression of the      smoking, alcohol, food, or sex
and Roman Catholics are one in the        `total gift of the mercy of God."'       (when Rome is in the mood, salva-
faith. Because justification is fun-      An indulgence "frees one from            tion comes cheap); giving money
damental to the faith, the evangeli-      what is called the `temporal pun-        to the poor; donating money to
cal leaders affirm that evangelicals      ishment' of sin." Indulgences draw       worthy religious causes (read: the
and Roman Catholics are agreed-in         on a vast treasury of meritorious        Roman Catholic Church and her
the great doctrine of justification by    good works performed by certain          agencies); and volunteering for
faith.                                    saints, especially Mary. These are       some service of the community.
     With the endorsement of many         their good works that exceeded               All of these works must be ac-
other influential Protestants, in-        God's demand upon them. The              companied by prayers for the Ro-
cluding Bill Bright,  OS Guinness,        bull speaks of "a surfeit of love, of    man pope ("prayer for the inten-
Nathan Hatch, Richard MOUW,               suffering borne well, of purity and      tions of the Roman Pontiff") and
Mark Noll, and Pat Robertson, and         truth." Christ has given this trea-      "prayers to the blessed Virgin
with the enthusiastic support of          sury of meritorious works to the         Mary."
such powerful evangelical agencies        Roman Catholic Church, that is, the

                                                                                       January 15,1999/Standard Bearer/l 73


Rome's Official Teaching                        Since the people in purgatory           giveness of sins is by faith.
on Indulgences                             are presently suffering the "tempo-               Indulgences deny the funda-
     To the informed Christian,            ral punishments" of their sins in            mental gospel-truth of justification.
there is nothing surprising about          order to pay the temporal debts                   Denying justification, indul-
any of this. It is all official, bind-     they owe to God, their suffering             gences deny the cross of Jesus
ing, everlasting Roman Catholic            can be shortened if the living will          Christ as perfect and complete sat-
doctrine, laid down by the Council         only earn or purchase indulgences            isfaction for sin.
of Trent in the  16th century, main-       for them.                                         Indulgences deny every sinner
tained by Vatican II in this century,                                                   any comfort: no sinner can be sure
and expounded by the 1994 "Cat-              There is a Purgatory, and . . . the        of eternal life; every sinner faces
echism of the Catholic Church."              souls there detained are helped by         the terrifying prospect of purga-
     On Roman teaching, indul-               the suffrages of the faithful.. . . Let    tory.
gences are the Roman Catholic                the bishops take care that the suf-             Indulgences deny God: that
Church's forgiveness to a sinner of          frages of the faithful who are liv-        god who is not alone glorious in
the "temporal punishments" of his            ing, to wit, the sacrifices of
                                             masses, prayers, alms, and other           the forgiveness of sinners out of
sins. Christ has suffered the eter-          works of piety, which have been            mere grace by faith alone on the
nal punishment. The sinner  l$m-             wont to be performed by the faith-         basis solely of the obedience of
self must pay God the temporal               ful for the other faithful departed,       Jesus Christ is an idol.
debt of his sins, usually in purga-          be piously and devoutly per-
tory.                                        formed, in accordance with the in-         A Bewitched Evangelicalism
                                             stitutes of the Church; and that                It is not at all the purpose of
  An indulgence is a remission be-           whatsoever is due on their behalf,         this analysis of the recent papal
  fore God of the temporal punish-           from the endowments of testators,
  ment due to sins whose guilt has           or in other way, be discharged....         bull on indulgences to convince
  already been forgiven, which the           ("The Canons and Decrees of the            Rome, even if it should fall into the
  faithful Christian who is duly dis-        Council of Trent," Twenty-Fifth            hands of Roman clergy. Long ago,
  posed gains under certain pre-             Session, `Decree Concerning Pur-           Calvin prefaced his critique of the
  scribed conditions through the ac-         gatory").                                  decisions of the Council of Trent
  tion of the Church which, as the                                                      with the observation that he was
  minister of redemption, dispenses          Through indulgences the faithful           not so foolish as to attempt to re-
  and applies with authority the             can obtain the remission of tem-           call Rome to a sound mind. For,
  treasury of the satisfactions of           poral punishment resulting from            as Cato had said, the belly has no
  Christ and the saints (Catechism of        sin for themselves and also for the        ears. In addition, Rome is hard-
  the  Catholic Church, Libreria             souls in Purgatory (Catechism, par.
  Editrice Vaticana, 1994, par. 1471).       1498).                                     ened with "blind ambition."
                                                                                        Rather, Calvin's purpose was to
     Rome forgives the sinner this         Rejection of the Gospel                      "let the godly see how abominable
"temporal punishment" by draw-             of the Reformation                           the impiety of those men is" ("Acts
ing on the treasury of merits of the           Proclaiming the Roman Catho-             of the Council of Trent with the
saints, especially Mary, and apply-        lic theology and practice of indul-          Antidote," in  Tracts and Treatises,
ing part of the treasury to the            gences, the papal bull is a public,          vol. 3, Eerdmans, 1958, p. 18).
sinner's account.                          full, emphatic, and unembarrassed                 In light of the pope's bull on
                                           repudiation of the Reformation's             indulgences, will the evangelicals
  An indulgence is obtained through        biblical gospel of justification by          now see that Rome's siren-song of
  the Church who, by virtue of the         faith alone.                                 the unity of the church has be-
  power of binding and loosing                 Luther! Thou should'st be liv-           witched them?
  granted her by Christ Jesus, inter-      ing at this hour: Evangelicalism                 Rome and, therefore, all Roman
  venes in favor of individual Chris-      hath need of thee; it is a fen of stag-      Catholics hold the theology of in-
  tians and opens for them the trea-                                                    dulgences, repudiating the gospel
  sury of the merits of Christ and         nant waters.                                 of justification by faith alone. So
  the saints to obtain from the Fa-            Indulgences deny that God's
  ther of mercies the remission of         forgiveness by the gospel removes            much is this the case that the pope
  the temporal punishments due for         all the sinner's guilt and shame and         is willing to rub the noses of the
  their sins  (Cafechism, par. 1478).      imputes to him a perfect righteous-          evangelicals of ECT in Roman
                                           ness as his standing before God.             Catholic indulgences, even as the
    But the sinner must himself                Indulgences deny that deliver-           evangelicals are defending their
earn this forgiveness. He earns it         ance from the punishment of sin is           carefully crafted agreement on jus-
either by  doing some good work            gracious-the free gift of God                tification.
or by giving money to the Roman            through Jesus Christ.                            The very abomination that oc-
Catholic Church.                               Indulgences deny that the  for-          casioned the Reformation, as every
174/StandardBearer/Jan/January  15,1999


Protestant schoolboy knows, the                          It exposes the agreement of the      deliberately or ignorantly: back to
Great Tetzel at Rome promotes                        evangelicals and Roman Catholics         the "Babylonian Captivity," back to
publicly, worldwide, by a bull.                      on the faith, particularly justifica-    the church of the gospel of indul-
    The light shed on ECT by the                     tion, as a damnable sellout of the       gences, back to the false church.
bull is pitiless.                                    Reformation, that is, of the gospel          May the God of all pity use the
    I t   e x p o s e s   E C T   a s   t h o s e    of grace, whether deliberately or        bull to bring the evangelical par-
evangelicals' total, inglorious ca-                  ignorantly.                              ticipants in ECT to repentance and
pitulation, whether deliberately or                      It exposes ECT as apostasy of        to warn off all true Protestants who
ignorantly, to unchanged, unchang-                   evangelical Protestants, whether         may be tempted by ECT.
ing, and unchangeable Rome.                                                                                                          - DJE


                              Rome's Impenitence

                                                     Church, including, perhaps, those        Protestant churches will be taken
0                                                    whom he will charge with respon-         in. Not so the true church. She
         ne other element of the pa-                 sibility for the Inquisition.            refuses to accept Rome's confes-
         pal bull, "The Mystery of                       The Roman Catholic Church            sion. It is not genuine. It is not
         the  Incarnation," referred                 herself, as church, has not sinned.      confession of  Rome's  sins.
to above demands comment. This                       She has nothing to confess. But in           T h e   t r u e   c h u r c h   c h a r g e s
is the suggested repentance on the                   the person of her head, the pope,        Rome-not her "sons and daugh-
part of Rome for past sins, particu-                 she will confess the sins of some of     ters," but the Roman Catholic
larly her tortures and murders of                    her  children, or members.               Church herself-with gross, public
"heretics" by the Inquisition.                           The pope makes such a confes-        sins in the present time, as in the
    The newspapers have been re-                     sion in his recent bull.                 past:
porting the possibility that the                                                              1. by her theology of salvation by
pope  will confess this and others                     We too, sons and daughters of the      man's own will and works, she is
of Rome's past sins. For some rea-                     Church, have sinned and have           an enemy of the gospel of grace;
son it is significant that this con-                   hindered the Bride of Christ (that     2. by her fictitious doctrine of the
fession will coincide with the year                    is, the Roman Catholic Church-         papacy, she opposes the  headship
2000.                                                  DJE) from shining forth in all her     of Jesus Christ;
    No doubt, when (as will be                         beauty.                                3. by her innumerable cruelties
supposed) the pope does this, the                      As the Successor of Peter, I ask       towards countless men, women,
world will be impressed by the hu-                     that in this year of mercy the         and children for no other reason
mility of the pope and his church.                     Church, strong in the holiness         than their confession of the pure
V e r y   likely, many Protestant                      which she receives from her Lord,      Word of God (the Dutch Reformed
churches will also be taken in and                     should kneel before God and im-        and the French Huguenots come
will immediately fall to confessing                    plore forgiveness for the past and     immediately to mind), she is guilty
the sins of Protestantism, which for                   present sins of her sons and daugh-    of persecuting the church of Christ.
some of them will include the Ref-                     ters (emphasis added-DJE).             Her hands are red with the blood
ormation itself.                                                                              of the martyrs.
    Rome is not  thinking of con-                        Rome remains impenitent.                 For these heinous, mortal sins,
fessing any sins of the Roman                            Mother is blameless; some of         Rome must repent. She must re-
Catholic Church. The pope will not                   her children misbehaved.                 pent  us the Roman Catholic Church.
confess past iniquities of the Ro-                       This confession is deceitful and     She must repent on  behalf of herself.
man Catholic Church. He has                          base. Blame the sons and daugh-              And then, since true repentance
never indicated that confession of                   ters? When they acted in Rome's          involves breaking with the sins, she
the sins of the Roman Catholic                       name? When they carried out her          must cease being Rome.
Church is possible.                                  orders, did her will, and expressed          She does not. She will not. She
    What the pope intends to do is                   her nature?                              cannot.
to confess past sins of certain of                       But this is crafty Rome to the           Rome remains impenitent.  0
the members of the Roman Catholic                    end of the day.                                                                 - DJE
                                                         The world and many of the
                                                                                                       January 15,1999/5tandard  Bearer/l 75


                                           were interfering with God's pre-           and family planning, I do believe
W Birth Control                            rogative. So, what about birth con-        that what was written reflects the
    Allow me some comments on              trol?  Onan sinned because he bla-         emphasis we have in our churches.
the prohibition of birth control           tantly disobeyed God. Is birth con-        I learned these things growing up
mentioned by Rev. Dale Kuiper in           trol not one of the "all things" that      in our churches, and I certainly was
his article on "arrows" in the Oc-         Paul allows in I Corinthians  6:12?        confirmed in this teaching as I
tober  1,1998  Standard Bearer  which      Are we to be like the Roman Catho-         worked in the Word of God as a
I believe reflects the teaching of the     lics, who virtually force women            pastor for over thirty years.
Protestant Reformed Churches.              who may neither be fit or finan-           2. Members of the Protestant Re-
    Of course abortion is sin and          cially able to care for a large fam-       formed Churches do not despise
murder because God speaks of               ily, to have one.7  It reminds me of       the advances of modern medicine.
people in the womb. Of course the          the Pharisees whom Jesus con-              Nor do we blindly use every medi-
issues of life and death ultimately        demned for lading people with              cation or device that comes along.
belong to God. But is outlawing            heavy burdens that neither they            A distinction should be made be-
birth control not akin to despising        nor the people could bear.                 tween those medicines which pre-
modern medicine and every other                               (Dr.) Julian Kennedy    vent disease, relieve pain, and aid
advancement of human discovery?                        Bournemouth, England           healing on the one hand, and those
Parents of children denied medical                                                    which allow man to manipulate
attention are rightly prosecuted.          RESPONSE:                                  things not in his province, on the
Muslims in Pakistan where mater-               First of all, we refer you to our      other.
nal mortality is very high appeal          response to another letter in a pre-       3. If people marry for the sake of
to fate. Surely, medicines, the car,       vious issue of the  Standard Bearer,       the covenant, and raise families for
computers, and even weapons are            where a defense of our article in          the sake of the covenant; if they
morally neutral and in most cases          the light of the covenant appears.         take upon themselves the yoke of
a boon, though all are open to             We believe this will answer some           Jesus and learn of Him; then they
abuse. "Be fruitful" is the only           of the concerns expressed in your          find that His yoke is easy and His
command the human race has                 letter dated November  21,1998.            burden is light (Matt.  11:29-30).  I
obeyed! But are we not given do-               We remark as follows to your           have found that to be true in my
minion over the creation? Pres-            specific concerns:                         life. And I deny the charge or im-
ently, we can save life by medical         1. Although the Protestant Re-             plication of Phariseeism.  Q
means. No one would say that we            formed Churches do not have an                             -Rev. D.H. Kuiper
                                           official position on birth control



                                   Buying Missions
B                                          over the money. In such a process          western ecclesiastical culture,
       uying missions is a common          the conscience is soothed and one's        where it is fashionable to do mis-
       practice in the church world        holy obligation to do mission work         sion  work. It is born in a milieu
       today. It is done by local          is satisfied. Little attention is paid     where doing mission work is
congregations as well as by indi-          to the consequences. The mission           looked upon as a fourth mark of
viduals. One simply shops the              field suffers desperately, and             the faithful church. Precious little
smorgasbord of available opportu-          Christ's name is often blasphemed          regard may be paid to the three
nities, makes a decision, and forks        in the process.                            marks given to us in our Belgic
                                               We must be sure we are not             Confession, There we have set forth
                                           guilty of buying missions.                 the biblical norm of orthodoxy:
                                                                                      biblical preaching, biblical admin-
Rev. Kortering is a Protestant Reformed    The Temptation to Buy a Mission            istration of sacraments, and bibli-
minister-on-loan to Singapore.                 The temptation arises in the           cal Christian discipline. It is sad

176/Standard  Bearer/January 15,1999


how little attention is paid to any       work done from such a perspective        than raise funds and pay expenses.
of these marks. Why then consider         is strewn all over this part of the         Mission work must be done by
adding a fourth? Fact is, if we hold      world. We encounter it both in           the local instituted church. The au-
to the first mark correctly, we know      South Asia and Southeast Asia.           thority which Christ gives the
that faithful, biblical preaching in-     Here is a church group getting           church to preach the gospel is
cludes mission work. Such preach-         their monthly check from an              vested in the local congregation.
ing is not to be done only in the         American church. Here is an indi-        Our Reformed system of church
established church. Preaching is          vidual struggling in his mission         government recognizes this when
the mark of the faithful church also      work, and he is getting his monthly      all missionaries. of the Protestant
when she preaches the gospel to           check from an individual or two in       Reformed Churches are called and
all the world as Christ has in-           America. We ask, who is super-           sent out by a local church. The lo-
structed her to do.                       vising this work, to whom are you        cal churches designate some of
    When we say mission work is           accountable? And the answer is           their authority to the broader as-
"fashionable," we do not deny that        that they write a letter occasion-       sembly in order to work together
it is the duty of the church to do        ally to the ones who send the            on missions. Out of this mutual
such work. Rather, it is fashionable      money and keep them informed of          concern, a mission committee
in the sense that the church does         the progress. Once in awhile the         serves the churches in common.
not look upon missions as hard            person or church may send a pas-         This committee works with the lo-
work, requiring sweat and tears,          tor or delegation to have a look,        cal calling church to govern the
done upon the wings of prayer.            but even this does not help. It          work which is to be done. I am
Rather, she is only interested in pa-     makes matters worse. By this time        thankful to God that as churches
rading before others how much             the local people are well aware that     we take this responsibility seri-
mission work she is doing, she likes      the church is receiving money from       ously. We are careful how we
to brag about how large a percent-        "overseas" and are more than ea-         make decisions regarding any par-
age of the annual church budget is        ger to show an interest in its en-       ticular mission field. There are
spent on missions. Such churches          deavors.    The presence of some         careful checks and balances in
prepare slick portfolios to display       "westerner" who will lead a ser-         place to make certain that the work
the missionaries' work; they detail       vice or conduct a seminar lends tre-     is done according to the Word of
how they engage the national lead-        mendous prestige to the local ef-        God. This may make doing mis-
ers; and there will be a statistics'      fort and lifts the standing of the       sion work tedious at times, and
report of how successful they are,        pastor. Note with me, the empha-         seemingly slow things down, yet it
how many souls are won for Jesus,         sis is on carnal, earthly things, not    eliminates the evil of authoritarian
and how many more locals were             the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.     dictatorship (which is highly effi-
added to the church in the foreign        If the church is engaged in buying       cient, but woefully subject to
land. I say, if this is the emphasis      missions, more than likely she is        abuse) on the one hand, and demo-
on missions, then there exists a real     not really doing mission work.           cratic individualism on the other
temptation to buy missions.                   Repeatedly in our travels this       (equally pragmatic and woefully
    Even well-intentioned indi-           comes home to us when the local          capricious).
viduals can fall into this trap.          church wants us, too, to buy them.           By contrast, a church that sim-
Sometimes they encounter such             How difficult this is for us. We         ply buys a mission shops around
needs in their personal travel.           see all their poverty. They usually      for a mission field. Usually con-
Other times they may feel frus-           have great ideas on what they            tact is made with a para-church or-
trated by their own church's lack         could do to serve our Lord if only       ganization which can list many op-
of mission zeal and take it upon          they had more money. They can            portunities. All the church has to
themselves to do mission work             look at us with pleading eyes.           do is adopt a mission field, which
alone. Since material needs are evi-      How tempting it is just to send          means that it either furnishes the
dent, the easiest thing is to meet        them a check each month to meet          missionary or takes responsibility
these needs with a monthly check.         personal as well as mission needs.       for one already in the field, prays
Such a person is guilty of buying         But we then would be guilty of           for him, supports him, takes an
missions.                                 buying a mission.                        oversight over him-but does it in
    That may sound judgmental,                                                     the context of combined mission ef-
but the fact remains that mission         Three Levels of Buying                   forts. Depending on the arrange-
work done from such a perspective         a Mission Field                          ment and willingness of the local
is fraught with danger. And that              The first level consists in this,    church to be involved, this arrange-
danger is not just theoretical, else I    that the local congregation which        ment does tempt the local church
might just leave it alone. It is prac-    is entrusted with the care of the        to be satisfied simply to maintain
tical.    The wreckage of mission         mission field does nothing more          cursory contact with the  mission-

                                                                                       January  75,7999/Standard Bearer/l 77


ary, pay the expenses, and display         cious little time is even available      given in the book  Missions and
his work as their own. How fre-            to do the Lord's work. All of this       Money,  by Jonathan J. Bonk. The
quently missions become nothing            makes inefficiency and inadequacy        point I want to make is this: sim-
more than paying bills and bask-           inevitable, How much better to           ply paying money, even to local
ing in the public relations advan-         train and pay the locals to do the       workers, is not doing mission work.
tage of being a "mission-minded            work among their own people and          It is buying missions.
church"! Such a church does not            race!                                         The third level of buying mis-
actually do missions, it simply buys           This reasoning, however,             sions is by sending money to the
a mission. In the measure that that        quickly leads to a pitfall: just pay     local church in the field and per-
church either cannot or refuses to         the expenses of the national pas-        mitting them to make use of it as
take full responsibility for making        tors and let them do mission work.       they see fit. Details of this method
the decisions and nurturing the            How easy! They are far more              are developed in the booklet en-
missionary and his work, in that           equipped to do the work. They            titled "Funding Third-World Mis-
measure it is guilty of buying mis-        know the language, can handle the        sions, the pursuit of true Christian
sions.                                     hazards of travel, have bodies           partnership," by Luis Bush.
    The second level of buying mis-        which have developed enough an-               Using this method, the church
sions is that the local church which       tibodies to throw off bacterial and      which is responsible for maintain-
is responsible for doing mission           viral infections. They have better       ing the mission field includes in its
work does it by paying the monthly         rapport with the locals. They can        work the financial support of the
expenses of the nationals (local pas-      use contextualization in a good          local churches in the field by send-
tor or evangelists in the foreign          sense and relate the gospel of           ing to their central office a monthly
land).                                     Christ in the context of local false     check which they are required to
    This appears to be a very plau-        religions. Besides all this, they can    d i s t r i b u t e   a m o n g   t h e i r   o w n
sible and frugal way of doing mis-         live so cheaply. If we pay them          churches as they decide the need.
sion work. We quickly learn that           only US$15.00  a month they can do       I do not place this method in the
western missionaries have serious          more than survive, they can func-        same category as the first two. I
handicaps in third-world countries.        tion very well. What western mis-        believe there is a real place and
First, being western they carry cul-       sionary can do anything like this?       need for doing such things. But
tural baggage which does not help          So the solution is simple. Train the     what it requires is a mature mis-
but hinders their being accepted.          local pastor and pay his fee and         sion field which can handle money
Second, they carry a tag on them           we buy another mission.                  on its own. This approach is being
which indicates wealth. Everyone               The problem lies here, in the        used by the Evangelical Reformed
knows they have money, certainly           payment of a monthly fee. What a         Churches in Singapore in their
a whole lot more than the locals.          headache this produces. Often the        work in Myanmar. We have dis-
My wife and I have discovered,             consequences are horrendous. We          covered that if we take this ap-
too, that the locals in third-world        make such a worker dependent on          proach in a field which is  not  well-
countries know westerners have a           foreign money. Just by virtue of         developed and does not have in
generous spirit as well. There are         the fact that he receives foreign        place the necessary structure for
times when locals will approach            funds his standing rises and com-        church government, with the
my wife and me and bypass ev-              plicates his work among the              checks and balances it provides,
eryone else.      We are pegged as         people. If he is foreign educated        this method brings about many of
"softies." Third, it is very difficult     (that is, in a country other than his    the same problems as the second
if not impossible for a western mis-       own), the problem is accentuated         level.
sionary and family to live any-            because his standing has greatly in-          For a church to do mission
where near the level of the locals.        creased, he claims to have more          work just by sending a check to the
If they try, they will encounter dis-      knowledge, and he must have more         field and letting them manage it for
eases, hardships, and psychologi-          privileges because of his training.      themselves is also wrong. Thank-
cal difficulties which almost inevi-       Other factors enter the picture of       fully the ERCS is not simply send-
tably will drive them from the             course, and circumstances may            ing money this way, but actually
field. History of missions shows           vary from place to place, but the        works hard at bringing the gospel
that western missionaries have             problems are real and have been          and requiring accountability as
great difficulty in living like the lo-    well documented in missions' ar-         Christ requires.
cals on their level, but almost al-        ticles.  Evangelical Missions Quar-
ways had to take with them bundles         terly,  April 1998, for example, has     Solving Money Problems
of material goods which they               a case study in an article entitled,     in Missions
needed to survive. Finally, so much        "When the Mission Pays the Pas-               I am hardly so foolish as to
time is spent on survival that  pre-       tor." More detailed treatment is         imagine that I can propose  solu-

17s/standard  Bearer/January 15,1999


tions to such a persistent and per-      has to say. If the church desires to     the means to help themselves.
vasive problem in the few lines I        send such a one out of their midst,          Finally, there is much need for
have remaining in this article. Yet      the congregation will have to aban-      diaconal work. It is also biblical
there are certain things we do well      don their own attitude toward            that the poor must be attended.
to consider that may help us work        wealth or the church will never          This is true for the individual
toward solutions.                        produce a missionary who has such        Christian as well as for institutions
    First, the preaching of the gos-     a spirit. Furthermore, we must not       which minister to the orphans and
pel must always have the empha-          imagine that it is our duty to el-       aged. We are just beginning to give
sis in missions. Money matters           evate the economic level of those        training to the local churches in the
must arise out of this activity. If      who become Christians. The bot-          work of deacons and how they are
we lose this priority, mission com-      tom line is we have to come to           to function. Already we handle re-
mittee meetings will be nothing          terms with poverty.                      quests for the poor, especially
more than solving money prob-                Herein  1ie.s the temptation to      medical, through the deacons in
lems. In initial stages the preach-      buy a mission, we think we can           Myanmar and in Singapore. They
ing may involve western mission-         stay rich and still help the poor in     give us a list of needs which they
aries, but the goal must be that the     missions.                                judge important, and the deacons
locals are trained to preach the gos-        Thirdly, it is amazing how           in Singapore consider this and pro-
pel. This work must be done, or          much good mission work "poor na-         vide the deacons in Myanmar with
missions is not being done. Hence,       tionals" can do in the midst of their    the funds. This is in an infant state
the training of local pastors and        poverty. Jobs are very scarce, and       and being developed through prac-
missionaries must be given prior-        the few that are available pay only      tice, but it too is an important way
ity. The chief role of the western       enough to earn food to keep alive.       to meet financial needs in the mis-
church today is in the area of theo-     It may be that full-time pastors will    sion field.
logical training. No one can do that     be able to bring the Word more ef-           Doing these things, we con-
better than mature churches who          fectively with minimal financial         clude that we are not simply buy-
have the benefit of theological de-      support. The biblical principle is       ing a mission. God has given to  US
velopment and mission experience.        that he who brings the Word lives        mission work and the potential of
The locals can bring the Word to         from the Word. Where will they get       many fields, more than we can
their own people in their own land       support if they do not get some for-     handle for the present. They all
better than anyone else.                 eign money? The key is to help           have one thing in common, they
    Second, we must come to grips        the people of the congregation so        suffer lack of basic needs: food,
with our perception of money and         that they can support their pastor.      medicine, clothing, medical treat-
wealth in connection with missions.      This is biblical. When we first dis-     ment, and such like. The pastor
If western churches are going to         cussed this subject in the Joint Mis-    has to work in order to earn even
continue in mission work, they will      sion Committee we focused on             the little he can, which still is not
have to revamp their entire attitude     helping the pastors so that they         adequate for his family. He learns
toward money. All of us are living       could earn a little on the side, fol-    to live with poverty. But by the
on too high a financial level. If the    lowing the tent-making idea. Yet,        combination of self-help programs
church is going to send out mis-         when Brother  Armand  of the Phil-       and diaconal mercy, we trust that
sionaries to third-world countries,      ippines helped us, he taught us          God will use us to enable the saints
such missionaries will have to take      that if we help the people to raise      in Myanmar and elsewhere to do
far more seriously what it means         pigs or chickens, or to grow mush-       the work Christ has called them to
to become poor for the gospel's          rooms, or teach the ladies to do         do, to preach the gospel and serve
sake. We must not imagine that           hand-work, they would in turn            Him. Under His blessing and the
Christianity and wealth go to-           have money to pay the pastor and         presence of the Holy Spirit, they
gether. I had to re-think my con-        the pastor would not be elevated         seek to save lost souls in the midst
cept of gospel and poverty, and I        above them financially. This we call     of their poverty.
concluded that God does not in-          a self-help program, which we are            I trust this article will force ev-
tend for everyone to become richer       now seeking to implement. Our            ery reader to ask, "Am I willing to
or rich through the gospel. We           Projects Committee is arranging for      become poor for the sake of the
must accept poverty as a way of          more trips to Myanmar, and they          gospel." If so, there ought to be
life which God ordains. Any mis-         are working closely with the dea-        plenty of missionaries and funds
sionary among the poor will have         cons and Joint Mission Committee.        to support them.
to be willing to become materially       We have made a decision that on a            Then we will not go out to buy
poor for his hearers' sake or he         projected quarterly basis, we will       missions. We will, by the grace of
might as well stay home. If not,         decrease the monthly payments to         God, actually do mission work.
his life-style will contradict all he    the churches as we provide them          May God be praised in this. Cl

                                                                                       Jimmy  15,7999/Standard Bearer/l 79


                      Judging: The Christian's Duty (2)
                   An Examination of Pertinent
                                   Scripture Passages

I                                         truth, and His Word is truth (John        will proceed on the basis of these
     n the previous article we exam-      17:17). Therefore, we may be sure         principles.    Because the word
     ined the prevalent view that we      that we will not find in Scripture        "judge" and its related noun and
     are not to pass judgment on the      some texts which, properly under-         verb forms are used many times in
ideas and practices of others but         stood, condone intolerance and            Scripture, we will not attempt to
are to tolerate and approve their         others which condemn intolerance;         examine every text in which they
ideas and practices. That this view       rather, we will find the one, con-        are found. Rather, we will focus
is present even in the church is due      sistent truth regarding this matter.      on the main passages which are
to the fact that the church has lost      Furthermore, because God makes            used to support the idea of toler-
her consciousness of God's holi-          His truth  cZearZy  known, we expect      ance, and we will briefly explain a
ness. We evaluated this view as           that Scripture will state that truth      few passages which clearly require
dangerous, godless, and unscrip-          clearly.                                  that the child of God discern be-
tural.                                        A second fundamental prin-            tween right and wrong.
     In this article we will examine      ciple is that Scripture interprets
the Scripture passages which are          Scripture. This means that when               Of those passages which are
pertinent to the issue, in order to       we examine Scripture to see what          used to support the idea of toler-
understand that God requires judg-        it teaches about an issue, we must        ance, Matthew  7~1 is perhaps the
ment of us, and to see from God's         examine  all  pertinent passages. If      most often quoted. The text reads:
Word  how  we must, and must not,         in doing so we find some verses           "Judge not, that ye be not judged."
judge.                                    which  appear  to contradict others,      It is clear that Jesus here forbids
                  +****                   we must first come to an under-           judging. The question, however,
     It will be helpful at the outset     standing of the easier verse, and         is whether Jesus forbids  all  judg-
to set forth a few principles which       then we will be able to explain the       ing, or only a  certain kind  of judg-
must guide us in our interpretation       more difficult verse in its light.        ing. Verse one by itself does not
of Scripture. Knowing and apply-              Third, we must remember that,         give us an answer to this question.
ing these principles should prevent       in order to understand a text of          Those who quote only verse one to
us from coming to a wrong under-          Scripture correctly, we must con-         condemn intolerance ignore the
standing of Scripture's teachings on      sider it in the light of its context.     context, verses 2-5, and thus as-
this issue.                               A part of Scripture-whether a             sume that the verse forbids all
     That the Bible is the Word of        whole verse, several verses, or part      judging and intolerance. However,
God is the most fundamental prin-         of a verse-cannot legitimately be         one who reads verses 2-5 sees that
ciple.  AZZ  Scripture is the Word of     used to support one's ideas or ac-        Jesus does not forbid all judging,
God, according to II Timothy  3:16.       tions if the text is not explained in     but only  hypocritical  judging. The
This means that we will find in the       light of its context. The context will    text in its context (Matthew 7:1-5)
Bible no contradictions, but only         often qualify the teaching of the         reads as follows:
the truth, for Jehovah is the God of      text, by indicating more specifically
                                          in what situations  a command ap-          Judge not, that ye be not judged.
                                          plies, or  how  a command is to be         For with what judgment ye judge,
                                          carried out.                               ye shall be judged: and with what
                                                                                     measure ye mete, it shall be mea-
Rev. Kuiper is pastor  of  the Protes-        Our examination of the various         sured to you again. And why
tant Reformed Church  of  Byron Cen-      Scripture passages which relate to         beholdest thou the mote that is in
ter, Michigan.                            the topic of judging and tolerance         thy brother's eye, but considerest

180/?3tandard Bea~er/January 15,7999


  not the beam that is in thine own       out the beam out of thine own eye,"        sage Jesus gives the woman: Jesus
  eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy        Jesus says, "then shalt thou see           would Himself be condemned for
  brother, Let me pull the mote out       clearly to cast out the mote out of        her! He would bear her punish-
  of thine eye; and, behold, a beam
  is in thine own eye? Thou hypo-         thy brother's eye" (vs. 5). Jesus          ment, that she might go free!
  crite, first cast out the beam out      commands genuine, not  hypocritical,           Jesus' answer to the Pharisees
  of thine own eye; and then shalt        intolerance of sin which the brother       exposes their hypocritical judgment
  thou see clearly to cast out the        commits.                                   in the matter. (Their primary pur-
  mote out of thy brother's eye.              John  8:7 and 11 are also impor-       pose, of course, had nothing to do
                                          tant. The context is the story of          with the woman; it was to trap
    Jesus tells the Jews in verse one     the woman who was caught in the            Jesus in His own words. Yet Jesus
not to judge. In verse 2 He gives         very act of adultery and was               knew that the Pharisees prided
the reason why they must not              brought to Jesus by the scribes and        themselves in their self-righteous-
judge: the standard which they use        Pharisees. In verse 7, Jesus says to       ness, and responded in light of this
to judge others will be the very          the scribes and Pharisees: "He that        fact.) The Pharisees, Jesus reminds
same standard which others use to         is without sin among you, let him          them, were also guilty of sin, and
judge them. They must not ignore          first cast a stone at her." In verse       specifically of adultery, whether in
their own sins while condemning           11 He speaks to the woman: "Nei-           the act or in the heart. Because
the same sins in others. To do this       ther do I condemn thee: go, and            they also were not free from sin,
is to judge with a double standard,       sin no more." The advocates of tol-        they were as worthy of death as
to judge hypocritically. "Is it not       erance use these words to argue            she was. So, by wondering what
hypocritical to condemn the               that one should not condemn oth-           judgment she ought to have re-
brother for a little fault, or even to    ers, because he is no better than          ceived, they revealed their own hy-
try to help him overcome this fault,      they.                                      pocrisy and wrong motivation.
when you yourself are guilty of a             Although we will explain what              John  8:7 and 11 teach us how
great fault?" This is the question        it means to judge in more detail           to deal with others who sin. Verse
Jesus was putting before the              later, understand for now that             11 teaches us that we must desire
people.                                   when one judges, he gives a ver-           the sinner's repentance; verse 7
    Notice that the sin of the two        dict: guilty or innocent. After one        teaches us that we must not do so
sinners (the person and his brother)      is judged, he is sentenced: the            hypocritically, with wrong motives,
is the same in two respects. First,       guilty person is condemned (sen-           or in an improper manner. The
it is the same in nature: in both         tenced to punishment) and the in-          passage does not mean, however,
instances a piece of wood was in a        nocent is set free. The point is that      that we must never hold each other
person's eye. Second, it is the same      judging and condemning are two             accountable for our sins (that is,
in that both were currently sinning:      distinct actions, related but not          judge sin to be sin).
the piece of wood was in their eye        identical.                                     One more passage which is fre-
at the moment. The difference be-             Bearing this in mind, notice           quently quoted is the one in which
tween the two faults is only one of       that Jesus did in fact judge this          we are commanded to love one an-
size: one is small, the other great.      woman, but He did not condemn              other. Actually, many passages in
For one whose sin is great to con-        her. By telling her, "Go, and sin          Scripture give this command. John
demn one whose sin  is  small, yet        no more," Jesus indicates that she         13:34 is one of them. There we
being the same sin, is hypocritical       did  sin. In itself, the Pharisees' ac-    read: "A new commandment I give
(cf. v. 5). In other words, a woman       cusation was correct, and Jesus            unto you, That ye love one another;
who is aborting an eight-month fe-        judged sin to be sin. This shows           as I have loved you, that ye also
tus is in no position to rebuke a         intolerance  of the sinful action! Fol-    love one another."
man who kills a bank teller, and          lowing Jesus' example, we must tell            What is love, and what does
the homosexual is in no position          sinners to show evidence of genu-          love involve? Love is a bond of
to criticize unfaithfulness in a het-     ine repentance by no longer com-           friendship, which manifests itself
erosexual marriage!                       mitting sin.                               in seeking the good of the other
    Matthew  7:1, taken in its con-           While Jesus did judge the              person. This might mean seeking
text, does not forbid all judging         woman, He did not condemn her.             the other person's bodily good: if
and intolerance, but only hypocriti-      She could go free; she would not           he is hungry, thirsty, cold, or na-
cal judging and intolerance. In fact,     be put to death. The gospel for            ked, we must take care of that
it does requires of us that, after re-    penitent sinners is: "There is there-      person's physical needs. It could
penting of our own sins, we con-          fore now no condemnation to them           also involve seeking the person's
demn the brother's sin as sin, and        which are in Christ Jesus, who             spiritual good. If he or she is walk-
help him turn from it. "First cast        walk not after the flesh, but after        ing in a way that is contrary to
                                          the Spirit" (Rom.  8:l). This mes-         God's law and thus displeasing to

                                                                                         January 15,1999fitandard  Bearer/l9 1


the Lord, we must seek to turn that      context!), now says that each and         is a bold judgment on his part.
person from his or her sinful way,       every man who condemns these              Second, in verses 9-13, Paul re-
in love for that person.                 sins, while doing the  same  things       minds the saints of their duty to
     In John  13:34, Jesus does not      himself, is inexcusable. We can ex-       judge people that are within the
command everyone to love. The            pect God's judgment upon us, if we        church, as to whether or not they
command comes to His  disciples-         live in the same sins which we con-       are obeying the law of God. Those
the twelve men whom Jesus spe-           demn in others! Paul's point is also      who claim to be Christians and are
cially chose to follow Him during        to warn against hypocritical judg-        members of the church, but who
His earthly ministry. The com-           ing-a warning which we all need.          are also judged to be impenitently
mand did not even come to  all  of       However, the text does not forbid         disobedient to any commandment
the twelve, but only to eleven of        us to judge rightly!                      of God's law (cf. vv. 9-10, which is
them. One of them, Judas Iscariot,                       *****                     not an exhaustive list) must be ex-
who would later betray Jesus in his          Other passages of Scripture           cluded from the church's fellow-
hatred for Jesus, was not present.       positively command us to judge.           ship. Paul, under the inspiration
That the eleven disciples were the       One passage which clearly does so         of the Spirit, tells the church not to
ones to whom Jesus spoke is sig-         is John  7~24. This is set in the con-    tolerate impenitent sinners.
nificant.    As Jesus loved these        text of Jesus' discussion with the               Other passages also indicate
eleven, they must love each other!       Jews who question His doctrine,           that it is our responsibility to judge.
The command does not mean that           and have accused Him of having a          Jesus asks the people in Luke 12:57,
all men must love all men; rather,       devil (John  7:20) and of breaking        "Yea, and why even of yourselves
it means that in the church (repre-      the Sabbath day by healing a man          judge ye not what is right?" Jesus
sented by the eleven disciples), the     on the Sabbath (John  5:1-16).  ,To       rebukes the scribes and Pharisees
saints must love each other as Jesus     them He says: "Judge not accord-          in Matthew  23:23 and Luke  11:23,
loved the church, giving Himself         ing to the appearance, but judge          saying: "ye pay tithe of mint and
for it.                                  righteous judgment." By saying            anise and  cummin,  and have omit-
     Such love does not rule out in-     "Judge not," Jesus does not mean          ted the weightier matters of the
tolerance of wrong ideas or actions      to forbid judging as such, but to         law, judgment, mercy, and faith;
on the part of fellow saints. True       forbid a certain manner of judging,       these ought ye to have done, and
love seeks the salvation of the fel-     as the positive part of this verse        not to leave the other undone." It
low saint. Thus true love seeks to       makes clear. We may judge, but            was their duty, according to the
turn the saint from his or her sins      when we do so we must judge righ-         law, to judge-but they had failed
(James  5:20).                           teously.                                  in this duty. Paul prayed that the
     Another passage which, al-              Outward, superficial judg-            love of the Philippians would
though apparently not used by ad-        ment-that is, judging simply on           "abound yet more and more in
vocates of tolerance, might seem to      the basis of what  appears  to be the     knowledge and in all judgment"
support their position is Romans         case, without knowing all the             (Phil.  1:9). He tells the Corinthians,
2:1-3, which reads:                      facts-is rash, unfair, undiscerning       "I speak as to wise men; judge ye
                                         judgment which is contrary to the         what I say" (I Cor. 10:15).
  Therefore thou art inexcusable, 0      ninth commandment of God's law.                              *****
  man, whosoever thou art  that          God hates such judging. Righteous                Some passages of Scripture
  judgest: for wherein thou judgest      judgment is carried out using the         seem to forbid judging, while oth-
  another, thou condemnest thyself;
  for thou that judgest doest the        law of God as the standard by             ers clearly require it. Studying the
  same things.  But we are sure that     which to discern whether what ap-         contexts of those which seem to for-
  the  judgment of God is according      pears to be the case actually is the      bid judging, we find that judging
  to truth against them which com-       c a s e .                                 itself is not actually forbidden, but
  mit such things. And thinkest              I Corinthians 5 is an important       a wrong kind of judging. God
  thou this, 0 man, that judgest         chapter as regards the positive           hates hypocritical judging! But
  them which do such things, and         duty of judging. First, in verse 3,       God loves righteous judgment on
  doest the same, that thou shalt es-    Paul states under the inspiration of      the part of His children. That He
  cape the judgment of God?              the Spirit that he has passed judg-       loves it is clear from the fact that
                                         ment on a member of the church            He commands it, and has given His
     The "man" whom Paul ad-             in Corinth who was living in the          law as a standard by which to do
dresses must be understood to be         sin of fornication. His judgment          it.
every man and any man. Paul,             was "to deliver such an one unto                 It is, therefore, the Christian's
having explained in the last part        Satan for the destruction of the          duty to judge. This duty will be
of chapter 1 the sins to which the       flesh, that the spirit may be saved       set forth positively in the next ar-
world gives itself over (note the        in the day of the Lord Jesus." This       ticle. Cl

782/Standard  Bearer/January  15,7999


                                                         ($1.70) each-designed to draw             ners and bring them to the proper
                                                         impulse buyers. The publisher             preaching of the Word and the
n      The Authorized King James                         added striking black-and-white            cross of Christ. Surely, however,
Bible-Introduced by...the devil??
W                                                        cover art and arranged the text in        it will be used to testify to the un-
          ell, not quite. Obviously,                     prose, modernizing the format of          believer of judgment and punish-
          however, Satan himself is be-                  the verses. But what really sets          ment to come. These will be con-
hind the deception. In his attempt                       the Pocket Canons apart are the           demned not only by God's testi-
to remove the Word from the                              prefaces, penned by a wide range          mony in creation, but now also by
hands of the child of God, he se,eks                     of thinkers and celebrities-Aus-
                                                         tralian rock star Nick Cave on            the very Word they read-though
to create doubt and question about                       Mark,  feminist writer Doris              read in mockery and scorn.
that Word. He has done so by the                         Lessing on  Ecclesiastes,  and athe-
introduction of a multitude of                           ist and evolutionist Steven Rose          n  Another Reminder
translations and paraphrases of the                      on  Genesis. Revelation.  is intro-       of the Times?
Bible. Now, he has made an addi-                         duced by British bad-boy author
tional attempt to make of the Word                       Will Self, whose exploits include         An article in the Denver Post,
                                                                                                        November  28,1998,  struck my
a   l a u g h i n g - s t o c k   a m o n g   t h e      getting caught snorting heroin on         attention again. It is a reminder
people-and hopefully with the                            a  campaign trip for former Prime
                                                         Minister John Major last year. Self       that the visions of John in  Xevela-
Christian.                                               describes Revelation as a "sick text"     tion  are coming to pass. The seven
       Business Week,  November 23,                      that appeals to nut cases. It's the       seals now appear to be superseded
1998, reports:                                           best-seller of the series. Even           by the seven trumpets.         The ar-
                                                         more controversial are novelist           ticle had this by-line:      "A disas-
       The latest buzz in British book                   Louis de Bernieres' views on Job.         trous year.        Storms, floods,
     circles is an ancient text with all                 The author of British best-seller         droughts and fires worldwide
     the trappings of a modern best-                     Captain  Corelli's Mandolin,  a dark
     seller. Although copies have been                                                             caused a record damage in 1998.
                                                         comedy, refers to God as a "sar-
     in bookstores just one month, the                   castic megalomaniac" and a                The total for this year so far ex-
     publication has already garnered                    "frivolous trickster."                    ceeds estimates of all damage for
     much press attention and the                                                                  the 1980s." The article itself states:
     threat of a blasphemy charge.                           The article concludes:
     And it's coming to U.S. bookstores                                                                Violent weather has cost the
     this spring.                                          Twelve more books are sched-              world a record $89 billion this
       The surprise hit? The Autho-                      uled for release next year. So far,         year, more money than was lost
     rized King James Version of the                     the biggest name among the pref-            from weather-related disasters in
     Bible. Pocket-size editions of the                  ace writers is Bono, lead singer of         all of the  198Os,  and researchers
     Bible's individual books, intro-                    musical group U2. The Irish rock            in a study released Friday blame
     duced by celebrity writers, to be                   star, better known for packing sta-         human meddling for much of it.
     exact.                                              diums than pondering the nature               Preliminary estimates by the
       . ..Canongate's (the British  pub-                of God, will give his interpreta-           Worldwatch Institute and Munich
     lisher-GVB) flash of insight was                    tion of  The Book  of  Psalms.  Can         Re, the world's largest reinsurer,
     to take the 400-year-old transla-                   Oprah on  Lamentations  be far be-          put total losses from storms,
     tion and package it in secular mar-                 hind?                                       floods, droughts and fires for the
     keting garb-from snazzy promo-                                                                  first 11 months of the year 48 per-
     tional displays to arresting cover                                                              cent higher than the previous  one-
     art and high-profile media                            The article hardly requires ad-           year record of more than $60 bil-
     events-usually reserved for nov-                  ditional comment. The combina-                lion in 1996.
     els. Canongate broke the Bible                    tion, as presented in the article,              This year's damage also was far
     into its 66 books and produced 12                 represents an attempt to link the             ahead of the $55 billion in losses
     of them in slim paperbacks. In                    Word of God with the word of                  for the entire decade of the 1980s.
     Britain, where they were launched                 man-or worse, the testimony of                Even when adjusted for inflation,
     on Oct. 1, they cost just one pound               the  devil through men. It is de-             the 1980s losses, at $82.7 billion,
                                                       signed not only to gender financial           still fall short of the first  11
                                                       gain, but to create doubt and mock-           months of this year.
                                                       ery. Yet one wonders even then, if              In addition to the material
Rev. VanBaren  is pastor                                                                             losses, the disasters have killed an
                             of the Protestant         perhaps God would not use some-               estimated 32,000 people and dis-
Reformed  Church  of  Loveland, Colo-                  thing like this to testify to elect sin-
rado.                                                                                                placed 300 million - more than the

                                                                                                        January 15,1999/StandardBearer/l83


 population of the United States  -                   seen. They could be more than 12                      somehow be favored by some-
 according to the report.                             billion times 6 trillion miles                        thing. By some First Cause, "to
      The study is based on estimates                 away....                                              which," said Aquinas, "everyone
 from Worldwatch, an environmen-                        Sometime-perhaps half a bil-                        gives the name of God."
 tal research group, and Munich                       lion years-after that explosion                          . ..What stance should humanity
 Re, the Frankfort, Germany-based                     (the "Big  Bang"-GVB),  the first                     take toward a poignantly welcom-
 re-insurer, which writes policies                    stars formed and light returned.                      ing universe? One of gratitude for
 that protect insurance companies                     Abraham Loeb, a theoretical astro-                    life, which begins to look less like
 from the risk of massive claims                      physicist, says, "Suddenly, the                       a chemical fluke and more like
 that might put them out of busi-                     universe lit up like a Christmas                      what one Nobel biologist calls "an
 ness.                                                tree." How? That is an interest-                      almost obligatory outcome," given
      The report says a combination                   ing question. Why? That is a  re-                     the conditions caused by the First
 of deforestation and climate                         aZZy  interesting question.                           Cause....
 change has caused this year's most                     O n e   t h a t   i n t e r e s t s   G r e g g        . ..Science increasingly validates
 severe disasters, among them Hur-                    Easterbrook in his fascinating, el-                    a heartfelt-and  rational-"Eu-
 ricane Mitch, the flooding of                        egant new book, "Beside Still Wa-                     reka!" in response to the (literally)
 C h i n a ' s   Y a n g t z e   R i v e r   a n d    ters: Searching for Meaning in an                      cosmic surprise of life. As play-
 Bangladesh's most extensive flood                    Age of Doubt"....                                     wright Tom Stoppard puts it, "The
 of the century.                                        In the late 1920s astronomy es-                      idea of God is slightly more plau-
       "More and more, there's a hu-                  tablished that numerous galaxies                      sible  than the alternative proposi-
 man fingerprint in natural disas-                    near ours are racing away from                         tion that, given enough time, some
  ters in that we're making them                      us and each other at millions of                       green       slime    could    write
  more frequent and more intense                      miles per hour. This, and the fact                     Shakespeare's sonnets." To say no
 and we're also . . . making them                     that the universe is bathed in ra-                   more (but this is saying a lot),
  more destructive," said Seth                        diation, suggested that matter and                     what  is  is staggeringly implau-
  Dunn, research associate and cli-                   motion originated rather as Gen-                       sible, and that is theologically sug-
  mate change expert at the insti-                    esis suggests,  ex  nihilo,  out of noth-              gestive.
  tute.                                               ing, in a stupendous explosion of
                                                      light and energy.                                        All this again shows the truth
       One wonders: is it the "human                    For extravagant implausibility,                    of Romans  1:18-25. Yet it is re-
fingerprint" or also, and especially,                 writes Easterbrook, nothing in the-                  markable that, apart from reference
the "finger of God"?                                  ology can hold a candle to what                      to the long age of the universe, etc.,
                                                      science says about the Big Bang.
                                                      From a pinpoint of compressed                        there can be a recognition that all
H The Gospel from Science?
I                                                     potential-"a microscopic, trans-                     things did not simply "evolve" and
     t is remarkable that in these end-               parent, empty point in primordial                    develop into their present state just
     times, when atheism and evolu-                   space-time"-it sent a cosmos hur-                    by chance-but that there must
tionism appear to be the prevalent                    tling outward at an unimaginable                     have been divine direction. True
views of the age, there come views                    speed. The forces loosed  were-                      faith, of course, not only recognizes
which point out the impossibility                     are-remarkably (miraculously?)                       that there must have been a "First
of both. An interesting article by                    balanced:                                            Cause" which determined all
George  F. Will in  Newsweek, No-                       If the Big Bang had been slightly                  things, but also that the Bible
vember  9,1998,  presents a case for                  less violent, the expansion of the
                                                      universe would have been less                        clearly and inerrantly reveals what
a "First Cause."                                      rapid, and would soon (in a few                      God did and both how and why.
                                                      million years, or a few minutes-                                                                0
       Soon the American Civil Liber-                 in any case, soon) have collapsed
     ties  Union, or People for the                   back on itself. If the explosion had
     American Way, or some similar                    been slightly more violent, the
     faction of litigious secularism will             universe might have dispersed                                      REMINDER
     file suit against NASA, charging                 into a soup too thin to aggregate
     the Hubble Space Telescope un-                                                                                   Remember,            the
                                                      into stars. The odds against us
     constitutionally gives comfort to                were-this is just the right  word-                       committee for the  7!Yh
     the religiously inclined.               For      astronomical. The ratio of matter
     people so inclined, science, espe-                                                                        Anniversary booklet
                                                      and energy to the volume of space
     cially cosmology, is augmenting,                 at the Big Bang must have been                           needs your pictures by
     not subverting, the sense of awe                 within about one quadrillionth of
     that undergirds religious yearn-                 1 percent of ideal.                                      the end of January!
     ings. Hubble recently sent back                    This good news-that is the                             See January 1 issue for
     to Earth-to this strangely lush                  meaning of "gospel"-from sci-
     speck in one of perhaps 50 billion               ence suggests, Easterbrook says,                         address.
     galaxies-infrared images of the                  "a buoyant view of our being."
     faintest, most distant galaxies ever             Life is so improbable it must

184/3tandard  Bearer/Jammy15,1999


                      The Relation of the Deacons
                                     to the Consistory (2)
                                                     ders, and deacons."' To substanti-             As far as the Church Order is
           nother  consideration in this
A                                                    ate the above, Monsma refers to Dr.       concerned, it seems to take a rather
           matter of the proper rela-                K. Dyk (De Eenheid der  An&en;  En-       conflicting position with respect to
           tion of the deacons to the                glish tr.:  The Unity of the Offices).    the question concerning the rela-
consistory is the seeming difference                     With respect to the question          t i o n   o f   t h e   d e a c o n s   t o   t h e
b e t w e e n   A r t i c l e   3 0   o f   t h e    concerning the conflict between the       consistory. On the one hand it
Netherland Confession and the                        Confession and the Church Order,          seems to exclude the deacons from
Church Order. The Confession                         Monsma states that it is the posi-        the consistory, but on the other
definitely includes the deacons in                   tion of the Revision Committee that       hand it includes them again. By
the consistory, while the Church                     "our Creeds should have priority          the frequent use of the expression,
Order seems to exclude them. This                    over our Church Order.             The    "the Consistcry and the deacons,"
raises the question: if there really                 Creeds state fundamental prin-            the Church Ora `r seems to exclude
is conflict between the Confession                   ciples; the Church Order is a body        the deacons from the consistory.
and the Church Order, which of the                   of rules based on the Word of God         But on the other hand, by permit-
two should have priority? To this                    and the Creeds, but it is in many         ting that the deacons be added
question Dr. K. Dyk answers: the                     instances a set of practical provi-       when the consistory is small, and
Confession. In like manner does                      sions according to which the              even demanding this when the
Prof. Martin Monsma. Speaking                        churches have agreed to rule them-        number of elders is three or less,
for the committee for Church Or-                     selves." The Church Order Revi-           the Church Order evidently in-
der revision, Prof. Monsma writes:                   sion Committee, therefore, fol-           c l u d e s   t h e   d e a c o n s   i n   t h e
"It is worthy to note that Guido                     lowed the Confession in the pro-          consistory again. What is more, the
deBr&s,  the primary author of our                   posed revision. Article 28 of the         Church Order nowhere states what
Belgic Confession, in many in-                       Revised Church Order, which is to         constitutes a large consistory. That
stances modeled our Confession af-                   replace Article 37 of the present         is simply left to the judgment of
ter the French Reformed Confes-                      Church Order, reads as follows:           each local consistory. If we con-
sion, which French Reformed Con-                     "In all Churches there shall be a         sider that, in comparison with
fession was drafted with the help                    consistory composed of the minis-         some  of the churches in the Neth-
of Calvin himself. He sent three of                  ters of the Word, the elders and the      erlands, we really have no large
his colleagues with a draft to the                   deacons.... In the interest of effi-      consistories here, not even in the
assembly of French Reformed                          ciency separate meetings may be           Christian Reformed Churches, then
Churches which was to write the                      held by elders and by the deacons.        it is evident that the Church Order
French Confession. This French                       However, in churches in which the         leaves it pretty well up to the local
Confession has the following: `We                    number of officebearers is five or        consistory whether or not they
believe that the true Church of                      less, no such separate meetings           want to include the deacons in the
Christ is to be ruled according to                   shall be held."                           consistory.
the mode of government which our                         It is also significant to note, in          Besides, according to the Rev.
Lord Jesus Christ has instituted,                    this connection, that although the        P.Y. DeJong (The Ministry of Mercy),
namely that there are pastor,  el-                   Confession antedates the Church           this provision of adding the dea-
                                                     Order by some 56 years and the            cons to the consistory was univer-
                                                     fathers of Dordt certainly were ac-       sally carried out, since most of the
                                                     quainted with Article 30 of the           congregations began with a small
Martin Swart was an elder  for  many years
in the First Protestant                              Confession, yet no attempt was            number of officebearers. It was
                            Reformed  Church
of  Grand Rapids, MI. This article was               made then, or since, to alter the ar-     only as the congregations grew that
originally an essay that Mr. Swart pre-              ticle. This certainly would have          the need for separate meetings of
sented to the Men's Society  of  First               been done if they considered it con-      the deacons was felt. Yet even in
Church.                                              trary to Scripture.                       those congregations where such

                                                                                                      January  15,1999/Standard  Bearer/l85


separate meetings of the deacons                   is so recognized by  classis. In other        t h e   d e a c o n s   a r e   p a r t   o f   t h e
were inaugurated, no move was                      words, when deacons are delegated             consistory they should be consid-
made for separate meetings of the                  to  classis  they serve in the capac-         ered to be full-fledged consistory
elders, and consistorial work was                  ity of assistant-elder. Now this              members. They have a voice and
still done in the presence and with                would be impossible, unless they              vote in all matters which pertain
cooperation of the deacons. It is                  serve in the consistory in that same          to the government of the church,
only comparatively recent that sev-                capacity.                                     even as the elders under these cir-
eral consistories of larger congre-                    In the fourth place, that the             cumstances have a voice and vote
gations excluded the deacons from                  deacons, w h e n   a d d e d   t o   t h e    in all matters regarding the
the consistory, at least in as far as              consistory, merely serve in an ad-            church's work of mercy. To deny
the Church Order permits this.                     visory capacity is certainly not the          the deacons a right to vote in cases
     It has been argued that when                  opinion of some of the leading au-            of discipline, for instance, would
the  deac~ons  were added to the                   thorities on church government.               be contrary to the Church Order
consistory, they only served in an                 Voetius, one of the foremost au-              and the duties which have been im-
advisory capacity.            But this is          thorities, is of the opinion that             posed on them by local arrange-
hardly in harmony with the facts.                  there is a scriptural basis for plac-         ment.
For, in the first place, that certainly            ing the deacons in the consistory,                 Undoubtedly others could be
would be in conflict with the pur-                 in Philippians  1:l. The Rev. Gispen          mentioned. So, for example, Dr.
pose of the Church Order. The                      claims that when the deacons are              K. Dyk (De Eenheid der  Ambfen)  ab-
purpose of the Church Order in                     added to the consistory they usu-             solutely rejects the line of demar-
a d d i n g   t h e   d e a c o n s   t o  -the    ally serve in an advisory capacity.           cation between the offices and con-
consistory undoubtedly is to avoid                 Yet the very fact that he states that         siders it contrary to Scripture. Dr.
putting the power of government                    this is "usually" the case implies            Dyk even suggests that the fathers
in the hands of a few, and so check                that this was by no means always              differentiated between the  con-
the tendency toward hierarchy                      the case. Prof. W. Heyns, proceed-            sistory and the deacons as often
which is always present in the                     ing from the fact that the offices            and as readily as they did because
church. But if the deacons are                     are one in Christ, maintained that            of the fact that many diaconates
added merely in an advisory ca-                    the deacons should always be in-              were virtually looked upon as civil
pacity, the power remains in the                   cluded in the consistory and that             agencies for the care of the poor.
hands of a few, and the purpose of                 all the affairs of the congregation           (Remember the close connection
the Church Order is defeated.                      should be taken care of in the full           between the civil government and
     But in the second place, even                 consistory. In substantiation of              the Reformed "state" church at the
if it were true that the deacons are               this, he appealed to Article 30 of            time.) But however this may be,
added only in an advisory capac-                   the Confession and the first Synod            that the deacons, when added to
ity, it would make no-essential dif-               of the Reformed Churches in the               the consistory, merely function in
ference. For even though it be in                  Netherlands, the Synod of  Emden              an advisory capacity certainly is
an advisory capacity, they never-                  (1571). The Rev. Knap (De  Kerk)              not the opinion of leading authori-
theless are then busy in the work                  expresses it in a somewhat similar            ties on church government.
that pertains to the elders. The                   way. According to Knap, from the                   To the above we would still
deacons then express judgment in                   fact that the offices are one in              add the opinion of Rev. Ophoff.
matters pertaining to government                   Christ it follows that, although we           According to Rev. Ophoff, "if the
and discipline, and although the fi-               acknowledge the distinction be-               deacons are added to the consistory
nal decision may then be left with                 tween the offices, their deeper one-          they thereby are made elders in ad-
the elders, the deacons neverthe-                  ness must be maintained and                   dition to their being deacons. This
less cooperate and use their influ-                brought to manifestation, and it is           is the only possible view. Other-
ence in reaching that decision.                    exactly in the consistory that they           wise the article (Art. 37) involves
That certainly does not belong to                  unite-.      According to the Rev.            us in a difficulty, namely, how a
the office of deacon as such.                      Jansen, when the deacons are                  deacon can function as an elder."
     In the third place, it often hap-             placed in the consistory they then            With respect to the notion that in
pens in small consistories that a                  serve as assistant elders and decide          matters of discipline the function
deacon is delegated to  classis when               over matters of government and                of the deacons should be limited
the elder is unable to attend. But                 discipline. The elders, in turn, de-          to an advisory capacity, the Rev.
when a deacon is delegated to                      cide on matters pertaining to the             Ophoff writes that "this view is un-
classis he certainly does not func-                deacons.                                      tenable.       For if the deacons are
tion in an advisory  caF~acity,  but is                VanDellen and Monsma, in                  added to the consistory, they have
on a level of absolute equality with               their  Church Order Commenfauy, ex-           decisive vote in all matters and
the ministers and the elders, and                  press themselves as follows: When             likewise the elders. It really means

186/3andard  Bearer/January 15,1999


that the elders, in addition to be-             and small consistories. With re-         tial agreement with Jansen in this.
ing elders, are also deacons and the            spect to large consistories the          Now all these matters belong to the
deacons, in addition to being dea-              Church Order required that sepa-         government of the church, yet in
cons, are also elders."                         rate meetings shall be held of the       all these things the deacons are
    The Rev. G.  VandenBerg  (Stan-             elders and of the deacons, but with      fully on a par with the ministers
dard Bearer,  May 15,  1959)  would             respect to small consistories no         and the elders.
limit the function of the deacons               such separate meetings need, or              Briefly, therefore, the position
in the consistory, in those matters             may, be held. Of course, where no        of the Church Order is as follows.
that belong strictly to the office of           separate meetings are held, there        On the one hand, by using the
the elders, to an advisory capacity.            all the affairs of the congregation      word "consistory" exclusively for
But, as already stated above, essen-            are discharged at the one meeting        the meeting of the ministers and
tially that would make no differ-               of elders and deacons, and the dea-      the elders, the Church Order seems
ence. For even though they func-                cons function as assistant-elders,       to exclude the deacons from the
tion only in an advisory capacity,              and the elders as assistant-deacons.     consistory. But on the other hand
they are, nevertheless, busy in the                 But there is more. Although          by the provision it makes concern-
work that pertains to the office of             the Church Order provides for            ing small consistories and by its
the elders and not to the office of             separate meetings of the elders and      demand that whenever important
the deacons, even though it be in a             of the deacons, it at the same time      matters regarding the offices and
limited sense. If it is proper for              restricts the holding of such sepa-      the like are to be acted upon the
the deacons to function in the work             rate meetings, and requires that         three offices must cooperate and
that pertains to the elders, in a lim-          much of the labor in the midst of        work as one body, the Church Or-
ited capacity, what possible objec-             the congregation shall be con-           der evidently includes the deacons
tion can there be to their function-            ducted in the combined meetings          in the consistory. If, therefore, we
ing in a full capacity?                         of all the offices, even in the larg-    do not want to place the Church
    However, it is evidently not the            est churches. The Church Order           Order in hopeless conflict with it-
intention of the Church Order that              requires that in matters of appoint-     self, we will have to assume that it
the deacons, when added to the                  ment to office, the release of min-      does not mean to exclude the dea-
consistory, should only function in             isters when they desire to accept a      cons from the consistory and, with
an advisory capacity. For, in the               call, the exercise of supervision        the Confessions, recognizes the one
first place, if that were the inten-            over each other as officebearers,        consistory, composed of ministers,
tion, the Church Order undoubt-                 and church visitation, the three of-     elders, and deacons, but simply
edly would have stated as much.                 fices must cooperate and work as         provides for a limited measure of
Yet it does not even suggest such a             one body even in the largest             division of labor in keeping with
limitation. Without any qualifica-              churches. Beside the above-men-          the peculiar duties of the offices.
tion whatsoever, the Church Order               tioned matters, Jansen mentions          The introduction of this  division-
speaks of adding the deacons to the             several other matters as properly        of-labor-plan is a matter which is
consistory. But this is also evident            the business of the combined meet-       left for each church to decide en-
from the distinction which the                  ings.    Bouwman, although not           tirely for itself.  0
Church Order makes between large                nearly as elaborate, is in substan-                             . . . to be continued.




                 The Great Value of Reformed,
                            Christian Education (2)
                                                                                         education lies in its distinctive
                                                          hat makes Christian  edu-
                                                W                                        character. In addition to what has
                                                          cation to be what it is        already been pointed out in the
Prof.  Dykstra is professor  of  Church His-              and to have the great          first segment, we note five main
tory and New Testament in the Protes-           value that it does? The great            characteristics of Christian  educa-
tant Reformed Seminary.                         strength of Reformed, Christian          tion.

                                                                                                  January  15,1999/Standard  Bearer/lb7


Scripture and the confessions                    the school is to discover the Word        standard for rejecting the lie. The
    First of all, Christian education            of God in the different spheres.          devil does not operate only in the
is based on Scripture and the Re-                There is a word of God in math, in        church. He works mightily to cor-
formed confessions. There is a                   history, in art, in law, in business,     rupt the home and the school.
movement        a m o n g   C h r i s t i a n    etc., waiting to be discovered and        Without the Bible and the confes-
schools away from this. It is the                applied.                                  sions, who can say what is right?
movement known as the AACS, the                      According to this view, the           The history teacher avers, "I have
Association for the Advancement                  school's search for the Word of God       studied this. This is God's word
of Christian Scholarship. This                   (or Law) in each sphere does not          which I have drawn out of history,
movement, born in the  195Os,  was               mean that the instructors will find       namely, that the kingdom of Christ
first known as the Association for               principles about science, art, busi-      is of the earth."
Reformed Scientific Scholarship. Its             ness, etc., in the Bible and apply                The science teacher maintains,
headquarters is the -Institute for               the~same to the study of the vari-        "I have studied the material care-
Christian Studies  (KS)  in Toronto.             ous subjects. Rather the goal is to       fully and have learned that the
Adherents are found on the faculty               discover  the Word of God in the          world evolved out of a mass of ma-
of virtually every Christian college             subject area (sphere) by a study of       terial over billions of years. This is
in North America, and Christian                  the subject itself. In this way, the      God's word in the sphere of sci-
schools are widely affected.                     Bible is effectively removed as the       ence."
    The  AACS/ICS  people are dis-               basis of the instruction,                         Who can contradict that? Take
ciples of the Dutch philosopher                      This is exactly what has hap-         the stance that the Bible and the
Herman Dooyeweerd and his                        pened in many Christian schools           confessions are only for the sphere
sphere sovereignty. They sharply                 across Canada and the United              of the church, and there is no stan-
delineate between home, school,                  States. And what if the particular        dard of truth in the classroom. In
and church, insisting that parents               Word  of God that the class discov-       addition, the "clearer and fuller"
run the sphere of the home, but the              ered happened to conflict with the        revelation of the Bible is thrown
teachers must control the sphere of              teaching of the Bible? Objections         out.
the school. This is destructive of               were met with quick dismissal  -                  No, the Bible and the confes-
parental education.                              That  Word of God (the Bible) is for      sions are the essential basis of the
    In turn, they assert that the                matters of  faith,  not for the sphere    Christian school's instruction. All
church is the sphere of faith, and               of  science.  Only when people woke       instruction must be built on this
the confessions are appropriate for              up and realized what was happen-          foundation. All instruction must be
that sphere but not for the school.              ing did some societies change the         evaluated and judged by the same.
Schools must have their own edu-                 school constitution to read that
cational creeds. The result is that              "the basis for instruction is the         Christ-Centered
in many school constitutions, Re-                Bible, that is, the Word of God con-              A second significant character-
formed creeds were removed as the                tained in the Old and New Testa-          istic of the Christian school is that
basis for the instruction.                       ments."                                   all its instruction is Christ-centered.
    Even worse, the proponents of                    Why is it so important to have        Since Christ is the center of the
this movement effectively take the               the Bible and the confessions as the      council of God and the Mediator
Bible out the school by redefining               foundation of the school? First, the      of the covenant, the instruction
the term "Word." They play games                 Bible and the confessions are the         must bear that out. Christ is the
with terms. There are, say they,                 standard of truth.  Thy word is truth,    Creator of the universe. All things
many different  Wovds of God.  There             Jesus said (John  17:17). It is the       were made by Him. All things were
is the Incarnate Word, that is, the              only unchanging standard of truth.        made for Him. He is the Lord of
Word become flesh. There is the                  Secondly, all the creation can be         history. He is controlling all things
spoken word of God (preaching).                  understood only in the light of the       for His triumphant return.
There is the Inscripturated (writ-               Word. The Belgic Confession in Ar-                Christ is the wisdom that chil-
ten) Word, by which they mean the                ticle 2 teaches that the Bible is the     dren are exhorted to "get" (Prov-
Bible. And finally, there is the                 revelation of God that is clearer         erbs  4:7).
Word of God in the creation.                     and fuller than God's revelation in          -He is the Word. This has obvi-
    These different  Words  may be               the creation. The confessions set         ous implications for teaching En-
used only in their proper spheres,               forth the same truth in a system-         glish and literature. Christ is the
it is claimed. For instance, the                 atic way by summarizing the whole         same yesterday, today, and tomor-
Inscripturated Word is important                 of the Bible's teaching in particu-       row, and thus is the reason why
for matters of faith. However, the               lar areas.                                2+3 = 5 every day of the year.
Word in the creation is the proper                   Remove the Bible and the con-                 He is Life. He not only gives
study of the school. The calling of              fessions, and the school has no           spiritual life to His own, He gives

188/3andard  Bearer/January 15,1999


also natural life, and controls both     ered from the curse. Thus the study       tithetical instruction sets forth the
the beating of the heart and the         of the creation involves the cov-         truth over against what is false (the
movement of the individual blood         enant. God created all things with        lie). The term antithesis is a Re-
cells to every part of the body.         an eye to His covenant. The cre-          formed concept, and therefore be-
    Christ, the Son of God, sees all     ation is designed to be the place         gins with God. God is the thesis,
our actions. He condemns the evil        where the covenant would be real-         for God is truth. The believer is
word and the cruel mocking on the        ized in and through the fall of man,      called to live antithetically by say-
playground. He demands love and          the salvation of the elect in the         ing "Yes" to God, and to  all  that is
obedience from covenant children.        cross, and the gathering of the cov-      pleasing to God.
He is also righteousness, sanctifi-      enant people out of the fallen race.          However, there is a corre-
cation, and redemption for them.         In the end, God will save the cre-        sponding "No" in antithetical liv-
    Is there any area of the school      ation through fire and recreation         ing. The covenant people are called
curriculum or the school life where      (II Peter 3).                             to say "No" to all that stands op-
Christ can or may be excluded?                   The Christian schoolteacher       posed to God and to all that God
There is none. This is what makes        must begin his task with a clear un-      hates. God set this calling before
Christian education to be Christian.     derstanding of how each subject           His people from the  beginning-
It is not merely prayer at the ap-       fits into the whole body of the truth     even in the garden of Eden. Part of
propriate times in the school day.       of God, the covenant God. When            God's purpose for the two special
It is not merely having a Bible class    the Christian schoolteacher makes         trees  in. the middle of the garden
in the curriculum. Nor is it the fact    lesson plans, he should face the          was to show Adam that he must
that teachers require students to        question, "How does this knowl-           say "Yes" to the tree of life, and
memorize Bible verses or empha-          edge equip the students to serve          say "No" to the tree of the knowl-
size good morals. What makes the         God as members of His covenant?"          edge of good and evil. That is liv-
school to be Christian is that every             Secondly, the instruction is      ing the antithesis.
aspect of the school's instruction       covenantal in the manner in which             The world in which we live is
and life is truly Christ-centered.       teachers deal with students, That         opposed to God and His Word. The
                                         is to say, the students are viewed        calling of the believer is to live an-
Covenantal Instruction                   as covenant children. They are not        tithetically in the midst of this
    A third characteristic of Chris-     treated as unbelievers, those who         world. This is the reason why com-
tian education is that it is covenan-    need to be regenerated. Rather, the       mon grace is the death of sound
tal in its instruction, that is, cov-    students are considered to be what        Reformed education. It bridges the
enantal both in content and with         the Bible calls them, namely,             gap between the world and the
respect to the manner of instruct-       Jehovah's heritage (Psalm  127:3)         church, between the Thesis (God)
ing and dealing with students.           and God's children (Ezekiel 16:20-        and the opposition (lie), between
    That the content of the instruc-     21).                                      the life-style of the righteous and
tion be covenantal is possible and               Christian schoolteachers thus     that of the ungodly.
necessary because the whole pur-         deal with their students as regen-            If the Christian school will
pose of Christian education is to        erated, believing children. They          equip the covenant child to live an-
equip the child to live in covenant      know assuredly that these children        tithetically, the instruction must be
fellowship with God. All the in-         still have their evil natures. They       antithetical. Such a school will not
struction in the Christian school        are sinners. Christian schoolteach-       merely teach a literal six-day cre-
will be affected because the cov-        ers know that their students will         ation, it will reject evolution. Truly
enant is all encompassing. It de-        sin. They will need the rod and re-       Christian education will not merely
fines the child's relation to God, to    proof.                                    teach the facts of history, it will ex-
the world, and even to the creation.             At the same time, these chil-     pose the vanity (emptiness) of the
The covenant child is a friend of        dren have been redeemed from sin.         philosophies of men and their king-
the living God, even an adopted          They are sanctified by the blood          doms.
child of God. Consequently, he is        and Spirit of Christ. They have               Antithetical, Christian educa-
the enemy of the wicked world.           within them the principle of a new        tion will both develop the taste for
    We should add that the cov-          and holy life. They can and must          good music, and condemn the un-
enant of God includes the whole          be called to a life of thankful obe-      godly rock and country music.
creation. This is plain from Gen-        dience.                                   Such instruction will not merely
esis 9, which records the fact that                                                teach some physical skills in sports,
God established His covenant with        Antithetical                              it will also put sports in the Chris-
Noah and the creation. Romans 8                  A fourth characteristic of Re-    tian perspective. Christian educa-
speaks of the creation groaning          formed education in the Christian         tion condemns the worship of ath-
unto the day when it will be deliv-      school is that it is antithetical. An-    letes and sports. The Christian

                                                                                        January  15,1999/Standard  Bearer/l89


school likewise fights to keep its           keep abreast of these developments                       equipped as the public school. In
own sports program in the proper             if it is properly to train covenant                      most instances, they neither can
perspective with respect to the time         youth. This demands that teachers                        nor need be. At the same time, we
required and the emphasis given.             continue to study and grow.                              must not simply ignore the ad-
    Thus the Christian school de-                 It means also that the Christian                    vances in knowledge and technol-
velops the student's ability to  think       school must provide the teacher                          ogy. In every area where there is
and evaluate. It teaches him to live         with the material needs for pro-                         development or new discoveries
by principle, not by mere laws. It           gressive classroom instruction.                          (though not necessarily with every
warns against the current forms of           Computers, for instance, are a ne-                       new invention) there is a good use,
evil, but also equips him to face            cessity for properly equipping the                       and there is an evil use. The pur-
the unknown future development               covenant child to serve God in                           pose of totally depraved man is for
of evil.                                     today's world. Think of the tremen-                      evil. The covenant child must be
    Reformed, Christian education            dous power unleashed by the com-                         equipped to press the new discov-
is antithetical.                             puter-for good and for evil.                             ery or technology into the service
                                             Churches are using it for printing                       of God, if it is possible to use it at
Progressive                                  publications and for spreading the                       all.
    Finally, Christian education is          truth even on the Internet. Godless                              To accomplish its task, there-
progressive. Man keeps growing in            men'are using the computer to es-                        fore, Christian education must be
his knowledge and technology, de-            tablish communication for the one,                       progressive.
veloping the powers that God has             w o r l d w i d e   k i n g d o m   o f   m a n                  This kind of  education-lie-
imbedded in this creation. Natural           (Antichrist's) and to spread vile                        formed, Christian education-is of
man uses every new discovery to              filth on the same Internet.                              the greatest value. That value we
sin and to develop the kingdom of                 This is not to say that the Chris-                  will examine concretely next time,
man. The Christian school must               t i a n   s c h o o l   m u s t   b e   a s   w e l l    the Lord willing. Cl




             Jesus in the Garden and the Sea
                                                    (John 18:1-l 1)

                                             the garden, it is a glassy sea, sanc-                    weight  of  our sins and the wrath  of
                                             tuary calm. Fit for prayer. And so                       God!
    i think i see Jesus now.                 Jesus prays.                                                     Listen! Look! How does He
    He is with the disciples launch-               But what is this? In the midst                     fare? How does He navigate? He
ing out into a sea. It is the sea            of this peace and quiet-a tempest!                       might check the stars, and alter His
Gethsemane. Some see olive trees,            The disciples, they are sleeping                         course. He might take in the sail.
and maybe a press to make oil of             through it. But at the helm, fully                       He might throw out the cargo. He
olives. But all i see is sea. And            alert, alone tipped to starboard and                     might create another boat, or an-
something pressing the perfect fruit         to port, and alone slammed against                       other sea. He might use that glory
of a virgin womb.              Something     unseen wild waves is Jesus!                              we just know He has to calm this
pressing Jesus, Captain of the skiff.              Tempest! Cyclone! Down un-                         storm.... But no!
So much so, that something will              der! In His soul!                                                Listen! "Father,  if  thou be will-
soon come out of Him....                           Look! Agony. A soul exceed-                        ing, remove this cup from me; never-
    No apparent reason, at first.            ing  sorrotiful,  even unto death.                       theless, not my will, but thine be
For, as the writers, Matthew, Mark,          Great drops of blood falling. The                        done!"  And once again:  "Abba, Fa-
and Luke, record, when the boat              Captain is hit! Something has come                       ther, all things are possible unto thee;
first launches, and they enter into          down upon Him. And it is this,                           take away this cup from me: never-
                                             this wave of something, which is                         theless not what I will, but what thou
                                             pressing the life out of Him. Look                       wilt...."
Rev. Dick is  pastor of Grace  Protestant    more closely. Don't you see?  LIpon                                          *+***
Reformed  Church in  Standale,  Michigan.    Jesus in that sea that night- the                                i think i see Jesus now.

I  SO/Standard  Bearer/January  15,  I999


        Bleeding in the sea. But reso-             There are the disciples, sleep-                stand and  believe  Jesus? In the gar-
lute, courageous, faithful Captain!           ing through one storm, not able to                  den is a sea. The spirit is willing
        He will go to the-cross.              man their posts for a minute, not                   there, but the flesh is weak there!
        And not one of His boat-church        able to watch, to pray as they                      The disciples sleep, stab, and then
will be lost.                                 ought.  When they awake,  and face                  slink away. Post-cross. Post-Pen-
        They are weak.                        the contrary sea, they still are not                tecost. Now a twenty-first century
        But He is strong!                     aware how the boat is to sail in the                Post-modern, Post-Christian sea. Is
                    a+****                    storm.                                              that the church I see-sleeping, not
        i think i see Jesus now.                   "Lord, shall we smite with the                 discerning?  Doing  swimmingly (as
        Another tempest! Another rag-         sword?"  some ask (Luke  22:49).                    the news reports, and as efforts to
ing now  contrary  sea. And  sea-             And  WHACK!  There is  Peter, seek-                 improve society suggest), and yet
monsters!        Or are they pirates?         ing to behead for Jesus' sake.                      not  sailing  by grace,  preaching  just
And is there not lurking not too                   N O !   J e s u s   s a y s .   N o t   b y    the Word,  relying only on the Spirit
far below the surface of that                 swords. Not by fisticuffs. Not by                   of God? Is that the church I  see-
sea...that old serpent?                       politics, or any such thing. I AM                   with  Rome?  With  the nations? Go-
        It is the sea of nations. Roman       your salvation! I am your Way. I                    ing in the same direction..  .?
secular-world-pirates.              Jewish    am your port. My Word is your                            God!  Where is thy boat? Where
Pharisee-Sadducee-religious-                  cannon. My Spirit will fill your                    is truth, and love  for truth? Where is
world-pirates. This sea, these pi-            sails....                                           faith? Tell us, be with us, guide us I
rates would sweep the Captain                      So do i? Do we see and under-                  Am!
overboard, make slaves of His
crew, and sink His boat. Their
Black Beard leads them and kisses
Him, and thereby betrays Him into
their hands. They would board
ship and take them all. They                  1. Jesus' prayers.                                  5. Truth and Comfort.
would do what waves and mon-                       What do we learn about Jesus                          How are both Jesus' suffering and
sters and pirates do...their will. . . to     from the passionate prayers He makes                sovereignty a comfort to us?
destroy.. . .                                 in the Garden?                                      6. The Christian and swords.
        But wait! The Captain is Cap-                                                                    What is revealed in Gethsemane
tain even over pirates, Lord over             2. Sin in the garden.                               about Jesus' view of Christians using
every sea, and Prince of every                     What is revealed about  sin  in the
                                              garden of Gethsemane (Note: the sin                 swords to advance His cause? Is there
Poseidon!                                     of Judas, of the mob, of the disciples)?            evidence that the church today is
        "Whom  seek  ye?" He inquires.                          _                                 crossing swords or joining swords with
        "Jesus  of  Nazareth,"  they re-      3. Jesus' suffering.                                the wicked? What is the church's true
spond.                                             How does Jesus show His suffer-                instrument of power? How does she
                                                                                                  use this? What kind of kingdom will
        YAm...," He declares.                 ing  in this history? What exactly was              such power establish?
        And at Jesus' Word this devil         He suffering-was this an hour of
storm falls back, is contained, is di-        temptation for Him? Was He bearing                  7. Perspective (John  20:31).
rected to do His will. The crew               God's wrath here-even before Cal-                          What would you say is the  main
                                                                                                  revelation  of Jesus Savior in the Gar-
and the good ship are delivered.              vary? Did the disciples add to His
                                              suffering?                                          den of Gethemane? How is this an
The Captain must go down alone.                                                                   encouragement to your faith? How is
Without the ship.. . .                                                                            this an encouragement to stay in the
                    *****                     4. Sovereignty and divinity.
                                                   How does Jesus show here His                   boat, to stay on course, and to be at
        i see Jesus now. Do i?                sovereign~ty   and  divinity?                       peace in the midst of today's stormy
                                                                                                  s e a s ?   [7



                                              year. Summer seems so far away, yet                 will be here.
Denomination Activities                       I know it will be here before too long.
E                                                                                                        Now is not too early to mark your
     ach January my foreman at work           The same can be said about our                      calendars.        The Publicity  Committee
     reminds me that now is the time          churches' up-coming  75th anniversary               of the PRC  75* celebration would cer-
to make vacation plans for the coming         celebration scheduled for June 19-23,               tainly encourage you to do that. Make
                                              2000.  Now it seems like a long way                 plans now to attend. Enjoy fellow-
Mr. Wigger  is an elder in the Protestant     off, but before we know it, and  prob-              ship with your entire family and with
Reformed Church of Hudsonville, Michi-        ably before all the committees  work-               friends by spending that week on the
gan.                                          ing on it would like, that celebration              campus of Calvin College in Grand

                                                                                                         January 15,7BBB/Standard  Bearer/797

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


Rapids, MI.                                            The Randolph, WI PRC recently       Minister Activities
     Plans I have seen indicate that           approved plans to add air condition-            rom
Revs. J. Kortering and C. Haak, along          ing to their sanctuary and some new         F the November 15th bulletin of
                                                                                               the Hope PRC in Walker, MI we
with Prof. D. Engelsma, have been              replacement windows to their parson-        learned that Samuel Laning, the infant
asked to speak. They will, D.V., de-           age.                                        son of Rev. and Mrs. J. Laning, born
velop the theme, "Living Out Our                       The Building Committee of the       about three months prematurely, con-
Heritage."         Activities are being        First PRC in Grand Rapids, MI re-           tinues to do well. He has been moved
planned from morning until evening             ported recently that they are working       from intensive care to intermediate
each day, and I am sure more infor-            on several projects, one of which is        care. His weight is now above three
mation will become available the               consideration of relocating their par-      pounds.
closer we get to that week in June.            sonage to their church property or to                     Food-For  z-liouglit
                                               property near the church.
Congregation Activities                                                                         "The believer's talents are not to
Y                                                      Our First PRC in Holland, MI re-
     ou may remember that a few is-                                                        be laid out for self but laid out in ser-
                                               cently made two changes in connec-
     sues back we mentioned that the                                                       vice." Cl
                                               tion with their partaking of commun-
Young Adults of the Covenant PRC in            ion. At two points in the prayers
Wyckoff, NJ were testing the waters            given in our "Lord's Supper Form,"
to see if there was enough interest            their members will be asked to join in
from young adults in our denomina-             orally. The first is in the first prayer                         NOTICE
tion to warrant sponsoring a Young             where the Apostles' Creed is recited.            Classis  West of the Protestant Reformed
Adults' Retreat for later this year.           The second is in the closing prayer         Churches will be hosted by the Hope Protes-
Well, apparently there was, since Cov-         where the Lord's Prayer is recited.         tant Reformed Church in Redlands, California
enant has set the week of May 24-27            Two reasons were given for this             on Wednesday, March 3, 1999 at  8:30  A.M.,
for that retreat. So, if you just marked       change. The form itself implies such        the Lord willing. All material for the classical
your calendar for our churches'  75*h          participation, and the united prayer        agenda is to be in the hands of the Stated
anniversary celebration, maybe you             and confession are in harmony with          Clerk thirty days before  Classis  convenes. An
could mark it also for Covenant's re-          the idea of the Lord`s Supper which is      Officebearers' Conference on "The Doctrines
treat this May.                                the fellowship we have one with an-         of Sovereign Predestination" is also being
     At their annual congregational            other in Christ.                            planned for Tuesday, March 2.
meeting in early December, the mem-                                                                          Rev. Steven Key, Stated Clerk
bers of the Hudsonville, MI PRC ap-            Evangelism Activities                               RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
proved a proposal from their council                                                            The council and congregation of First
to add a new line                              Students attending Grand Valley
                      item  to their annual       State University in Allendale, MI        PRC, Grand Rapids, express Christian sym-
budget called "New Building Expan-             were invited to attend a lecture/dis-       pathy to Mr. and Mrs. Dan Baldwin and their
sion Fund."    This fund will have the         cussion about courtship and dating,         children in the passing away of Mary's mother,
broad purpose of being used for any            sponsored in part by the Grace PRC                        MRS. JULIA KORHORN.
new church expansion, daughter or              in Standale, MI and Christianity on              "In my Father's house are many man-
sister, of our denomination. We all            Campus. Rev. W. Bruinsma, pastor of         sions: if it were not so, I would have told you.
realize how expensive new construc-            the Kalamazoo, MI PRC, was the guest        I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go
tion has become, and by establishing           speaker that night, and he spoke on         and prepare a place for you, I will come again,
this fund Hudsonville hopes to be in           the topic appropriately entitled "The       and receive you unto myself; that where I am,
a position to help ease the financial          Courtship of Rev.  & Mrs. Bruinsma."        there ye may be also" (John 14:2, 3).
burden of families called upon to form                 The council of the Peace PRC in                            Rev. J. Slopsema, Pres.
a new congregation.                            Lansing, IL approved an Evangelism                                      Ron  DeVries,  Clerk
     Hudsonville's council also decided        Committee recommendation to begin                               NOTICE!!
that the catechism collections collected       a book ministry similar to the "Re-              All students enrolled in the Protestant
this year will be used for a special           formed Bookshelf" of South Holland,         Reformed Seminary who will be in need of
fund in Singapore called the Emer-             IL PRC.                                     financial assistance for the coming school year
gency Fund. According to Rev. J.                       The Evangelism Committee of the     are asked to contact the Student Aid Commit-
Kortering, our minister-on-loan in             Southwest PRC in Grandville, MI con-        tee secretary, Mr. Larry Meulenberg (453-
Singapore, this fund "is designed for          tinues to send all Heidelberg Cat-          8466). This contact should be made before
meeting the needs which cannot wait            echism preaching tapes to our mission       the next scheduled meeting, February 22,
for formal consideration by the dea-           group in Pittsburgh, PA. Plans called       1999, D.V.
cons and which we encounter in our             for this to continue until they have a                              Student Aid Committee
travels to countries in Southeast Asia."       complete set of all the Lord's Days.                           Larry Meuienberg, Secretary

Y92/Standard  Bearer/January 15,1999


