A Reformed
Semi-Monthly



                                                                                In This Issue:
                 Meditation  - Rev. Cornelius  Hank0
                            No Condemnation in Christ Jesus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .242
                 Editorial  - Prof. David J.  Engelsma
                            A Defense of the Gospel of Grace
                            Against ECT (2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244

                 Letters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . 247
                 Ministering to the Saints  - Prof. Robert  D. Decker
                            Visiting the Sick (3) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248
                 When Thou  Sittest in Thine House  - Mrs.  Mary Beth Lubbers
                            The Reformed Family: Standing Before His Cold . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250

                 In His Fear - Rev. Arie denl-lartog
                             Expecting the Lord's Return . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252
                 Day of Shadows  -  Homer C. Hoeksema
                            The Prediluvian Period (4)
                            The Curse Upon Cain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . 255
                 Marking Zion's Bulwarks  -  Prof. Herman C.  Hank0
                             Nestorius and an Unholy Squabble About Christ (1) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259

                 Come, Lord Jesus  - Rev.  Cornelius  Hanko
                             Wars and Rumors of War . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261
                  News From Our Churches  -  Mr. Benjamin  Wigger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263





March 1, 1999


                No Condemnation in Christ Jesus

                                           There is therefore now no  condemnafion fo them which are in Christ
                                           Jesus, who  waik not  after fhe flesh,  but after fhe Spirit.
                                                                                                                                 Romans  8:l

                                                                         But that is also true of those                          "in [us], that is, in  [our] flesh,
      No condemnation!                                            who are under the preaching of the                             dwelleth no good thing"  (Ram.
      The apostle Paul has shown us                               gospel, who have received God's                                7:18).  We are guilty of sinning even
earlier in this epistle that since the                            covenant, His law, and His prom-                               when we are fully aware that it is
fall of Adam in Paradise the whole                                ises. By nature they also are dead                             wrong. But there are also many
human race is under condemna-                                     in trespasses and sins. For "there                             character sins, which others plainly
tion.                                                             is none righteous, no, not one:                                see but to which we are blind. Be-
      That is true of those who are                               There is none that understandeth,                              sides all that, there are many secret
not under the gospel preaching.                                   there is none that seeketh after                               sins that we commit, which cause
The wrath of God is revealed from                                 God. They are all gone out of the                              us to pray with the psalmist: "Who
heaven against the ungodliness and                                way, they are together become un-                              can understand his errors? cleanse
unrighteousness of all who sup-                                   profitable; there is none that doeth                           thou me from secret faults"  Vs.
press the truth in unrighteousness.                               good, no, not one" (Ram.  3:10-12).                            19:12).
For when they know God as He                                              Therefore we also stand con-                                    All our sins are open and ex-
manifests Himself in all the works                                demned before our own con-                                     posed before the eyes of the sover-
of His hands, they do not glorify                                 sciences.                 We confess with the                  eign Judge who rules over heaven
Him as God but turn to vain idols,                                apostle: "I delight in the law of                              and earth. How offensive our lives
and God gives them over to their                                  God after the inward man: but I                                must be in the sight of the holy
sin until the measure of their iniq-                              see another law in my members,                                 God. Our entire life is written in
uity is full.                                                     warring against the law of my                                  His book:              every desire, every
                                                                  mind, and bringing me into cap-                                thought, every word, every deed,
                                                                  tivity to the law of sin which is in                           even in our relationships to one an-
                                                                  my members" (Rom.  7:22,23).                                   other. Nothing is overlooked, noth-
Rev. Hanko is a minister emeritus in the                                  We continue to become ever                             ing is excluded. There is nothing
Protestant Reformed Churches.                                     more deeply aware of the fact that                             in our lives that is not tainted with



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242/Standard  Bearer/March I, 1999


sin, for even our best works are as        the Son to be the Christ, and as the           For we were in Christ Jesus
filthy rags in the sight of the true       Christ to be the Head and Media-           when He arose, when He ascended
and living God. He judges us not           tor of His people. God has given           to heaven, and we are now in Him
only in this life, but also in the fi-     to Christ this people as members           in glory. From heaven He sends
nal judgment. "For we must all             of His body, as stones of the temple       us His Spirit to arouse in us a deep
appear before the judgment seat of         of which He is the foundation.             awareness of our sin and misery,
Christ; that every one may receive         They are "elect according to the           to create in us true sorrow and re-
the things done in his body, accord-       foreknowledge of God in Christ             pentance. Only in the way of re-
ing to that he hath done, whether          Jesus." He is the Good Shepherd            pentance and forsaking our sin can
it be good or bad" (II Cor.  5:lO).        and they are the sheep of His pas-         we experience that blessed assur-
         Each of us may well cry out:      ture, His very special, peculiar pos-      ance: Thy sins, though ever so
"0 wretched man that I am! who             session.                                   many, are forgiven thee! By grace
shall deliver me from the body of              Even as we are eternally in            thou art justified, righteous in
this death?"                               Christ, so we were in Him when             Christ Jesus. For God sees no sin
         We hang our heads in shame,       He took on our nature in the like-         in Jacob and no transgression in Is-
condemned by our own con-                  ness of sinful flesh. We were in           rael!
sciences. Our whole life, with all         Him during all His earthly sojourn             But more. The wonder of grace
our desires, thoughts, words, and          and ministry, even until He died.          only increases. As the apostle adds
deeds, testifies against us. We are            God laid upon His mighty               in verse 2: "For the law of the
worthy only to be cast out in wrath        shoulders the great burden of the          Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath
to everlasting condemnation in hell        guilt of all our sins. Every single        made me free from the law of sin
fire.                                      sin of all the elect of all ages was       and death." It is by the Spirit of
         Yet, amazing as it may seem,      laid upon Him. He, the Son of              Christ and through that living
even now, as in the great day of           God's love, closest to the heart of        bond of faith in my heart that I am
judgment, the. righteous Judge of          God, took upon Himself that bur-           made one with Him, a member of
heaven and earth writes in bold let-       den of guilt. And He surrendered           His body, a branch in His vine.
ters across the pages of the book          Himself to God to do the Father's          Through faith I realize the  guilt.of
recording our deeds: No condem-            will as the Redeemer of His people.        my sins, for those sins rise up
nation! Not in any sense of the                No wonder that He is called            against me condemning me. I ex-
word. No accusation of anyone or           "the Man of Sorrows" and "the              perience that I am a slave of sin, in
of my own conscience can condemn           Suffering Servant of Jehovah." All         the bondage of my own depravity.
me. The verdict is: You are not            His life, even from the time of His        It is through that same faith that I
guilty! You are righteous! You are         birth, He bore that burden, which          receive the assurance that I belong
worthy of eternal life with Me in          grew heavier every step of the way.        to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ.
My glory!                                  The climax came in the garden of           In Him my sins are forgiven, never
                                           Gethsemane, where He experi-               to be reckoned against me.            Not
            +++  ++i  +++                  enced a foretaste of the agony that        now, not in the day of judgment,
                                           awaited Him and where He sur-              not ever! I can confess from the
         How is that possible!?            rendered Himself in absolute obe-          heart:     "I am righteous in Christ
         The answer lies in the "There-    dience to the Father. In that  self-       Jesus now and forever!"
fore now!"                                 surrender He was unjustly con-                 In that great day of days, when
         The apostle himself had cried     demned, mocked, spit upon, and             the whole world, I included, will
out: "0 wretched man that I am!            beaten. The whole world joined in          stand in judgment, all my life will
who shall deliver me from the body         rejecting Him as the Christ, the Son       appear before my consciousness,
of this death?" And he had added:          of the living God, and thereby cast-       nothing excluded. I will hang my
"I thank God through Jesus Christ,         ing out God.                               head in shame, for every moment
our Lord."                                     But the deepest agony was the          of my existence will testify against
         After clearly pointing out our    total isolation in the utter darkness      me. But Christ, my Justifier, sits
misery, the apostle declares to us         of hell, when He cried out: "My            on the judgment seat, and He will
that blessed gospel truth: "There          God, my God, why hast thou for-            declare me righteous in  Him!
is therefore now no condemnation           saken me?" We now know the an-                 I will be counted worthy of
for those who are in Christ Jesus."        swer, for we carry it in our hearts.       eternal life only in Christ Jesus!
         In Christ Jesus. That is the      We were in Christ! One with Him,               On the one hand, I say: "0
heart of the blessed gospel of sal-        we were redeemed from the bond-            wretched man that I am!" On the
vation. Salvation is by grace alone        age of sin and death and brought           other:. "No devil, no world, no
in Christ Jesus.                           into  th-e glorious liberty of the sons    friend or foe can condemn me!
         God has eternally appointed       of God, worthy of eternal life.            God declares me righteous. I thank

                                                                                                March 1,1999/Standard Bearer/243


God in Jesus Christ, my Lord!"            nature to hate God and our neigh-          in Psalm 51: "Cast me not away
                                          bor.    We ourselves, apart from           from thy presence; and take not thy
        +++  +++  +++                     Christ, are incapable of doing any         Holy Spirit from me. Restore unto
                                          good and are inclined to all evil.         me the joy of thy salvation, and up-
     The earmarks.                            Therefore Satan can and does           hold me with thy free spirit."
     There is no condemnation for         still attack us, the world can and             Yet sin no longer has domin-
those who are in Christ Jesus, who        does tempt and threaten us, our            ion, grace abounds! We can now
walk not after the flesh, but after       sinful nature is drawn to sm. For          walk according to the dictates of
the Spirit.                               example, a drunkard may be de-             the Spirit, who speaks to us
     The same Spirit who justifies        livered from his indulgence, yet all       through the Word. It is that Word
us before our own consciousness           his life he must resist the tempta-        of God, not some internal voice,
is the Spirit who sanctifies us in        tion of falling back into his former       that guides us as the lamp before
Christ. God, who has begun a good         sin. We have our character sins,           our feet and the light upon our
work in us, will also surely finish       our sinful inclinations against            pathway.
it. He preserves us by sanctifying        which we must fight as long as we              And we confess with the sweet
us until we are prepared to enter         live. Except for the grace of God          Singer of old: "By Thy good Spirit
into His rest.                            we not only may but also surely            led from trouble and distress, my
     But that does not mean that this     will become ensnared in sin.               erring feet shall tread the path of
is without a struggle on our part.            When we do sin we lose the             uprightness" (Psalter  #389).
The old man of sin still wars in our      assurance of our justification.                Thanks be to God for His un-
members. We are still prone by            David cries out in bitter anguish          speakable gift! Cl





           A Defense of the Gospel of Grace
                                     Against EC-T (2)

                                              A more serious charge could            very nature is contrary to the law,
                                          not be imagined.                           and, therefore, as one who deserves
I                                             This raises the question, "What        condemnation and the punishment
     n the editorial of February 1,       is  the biblical teaching on justifica-    of eternal death. Yes, and if the
     1999, I described ECT  (Evan-        tion as faithfully confessed by the        sinner is not justified by God the
     gelicals and Catholics Together)     Reformation and by the true church         judge, he  will  be condemned, sen-
as a uniting of evangelicals  and Ro-     today?"                                    tenced, and executed.           "All the
man Catholics for fellowship and                                                     world," says the apostle in Romans
cooperation in the gospel. The pur-       Righteous before God                       3:19, is "guilty before God."
pose of this influential movement             Justification is the act of God            God the judge is righteous. As
is threefold: to fight the "culture       in Jesus Christ by which a sinner          righteous, He will by no means
war"; to evangelize the lost; and         becomes righteous before God the           clear the guilty, but will-and
to realize the oneness of the church.     righteous judge. This act is neces-        must-punish the guilty sinner
Demonstrating from Scripture that         sary for salvation inasmuch as the         with the extreme penalty of eter-
justification is central to the gospel    sinner is guilty before God and in-        nal hell in body and soul, if the sin-
of the glory and grace of God, the        asmuch as God, before whom the             ner is  n@ justified by Him.
editorial charged that ECT compro-        sinner stands, is righteous.                   The sinner's need is his guilt,
mises, and thus loses, the biblical           The sinner is guilty. He stands        and justification, accordingly, is
doctrine of justification as con-         before the divine judge as a trans-        God's change of the sinner's legal
fessed by the Reformation.                gressor of the law, as one whose           position, or standing. Justification

244/Standard  Bearer/March 1,1999


is not a work of God that makes             unto whom God "imputes righ-                 of God. The judge declares, "In-
the sinner a good person, but it is         teousness without works" (v. 6).             nocent!"
a verdict from the bench that de-           Faith was "reckoned . . . for righ-              Although there is nothing like
clares the sinner to be innocent.           teousness" (v. 9). "Counted," "im-           this in earthly justice, there is a
There is a work of God that makes           putes," and "reckoned" are all the           similar act of judgment on God's
the sinner a good person, who be-           same word in the Greek original of           part in declaring all humans guilty.
gins to love God and his neighbor.          the chapter. This word expresses             Romans  5:12ff.  teaches that God
This work always accompanies jus-           that God justifies by crediting the          has imputed the disobedience of
tification. But it is not justification.    sinner, who is himself unrighteous,          Adam to every human unto con-
It is not any part of the act of justi-     with the righteousness of another.           demnation.
fication.                                   There is a legal transfer of righ-
    That this is justification-sim-         teousness to the sinner's account.           By Faith Alone
ply and strictly an act that changes            The whole truth of justification             How  does God impute righ-
the sinner's legal standing-is              stands in this, that righteousness           teousness, and  how  does the guilty
proved from three, plain teachings          is not infused,  or imparfed,   to an im-    sinner thus receive righteousness?
of the Bible. First, justification is       moral man, so that he becomes                How  can the sinner-how can I-
God's salvation of a man or woman           good, but  imputed  to the account           be righteous before God? The an-
precisely with regard to the                of a guilty man, so that he becomes          swer of the gospel and of the Ref-
sinner's guilt. The justification           innocent.                                    ormation is, "by faith! by faith
which the apostle sets forth in  Ro-            In the December 8, 1997 issue            alone!"
mans  3:20ff. corresponds to the            of  Chrisfianify Today,  evangelicals            Faith, which is the knowledge
guilt which he has charged against          involved in ECT published a de-              of God as a gracious Savior and
the whole world in verse 19. As             fense of their original document,            the trust in His promise that He
guilt is one's legal standing before        "Evangelicals   & Catholics To-              will justify everyone who repents
the judge and justice, so justifica-        gether: The Christian Mission in             and believes, is the means, or in-
tion is exactly the change of that          the Third Millennium." This de-              strument, by which the sinner re-
legal standing.                             fense was titled, "ECT: The Gift of          ceives righteousness from God.
    Second, the opposite of justifi-        Salvation." By this defense these                The sinner is justified by faith
cation in Scripture is condemna-            evangelicals attempted to answer             alone.  This is the plain meaning of
tion: "Who shall lay anything to            criticism of their original docu-            the Habakkuk passage  (2:4) picked
the charge of God's elect? It is God        ment. The criticism was that the             up by Paul in Romans  1:17:  "the
that justifieth.    Who is he that          original document failed to confess          just shall live by his faith." To add,
condemneth?" (Rom.  8133,34)  As            justification by faith alone. Al-            "and by his own works," is obvi-
condemnation is not that someone            though the defense wanted to leave           ously to destroy the prophet's great
makes  me  bad,  but pronounces me          the impression that evangelicals             doctrine.
guilfy,  so God's justification is not      and Roman Catholics in ECT do                    This is the apostle's conclusion
that He makes me good, but that             agree that justification is by faith         in Romans  3:28:          "Therefore we
He pronounces me innocent. The              alone, it frankly acknowledged that          conclude that a man is justified by
apostle does not say, "It is God that       there is no agreement on "the lan-           faith, without the deeds of the
justifieth. Who is he that  corrupts        guage of justification as it relates         law." Inasmuch as "the deeds of
me?"                                        to  imputed righteousness"  (emphasis        the law" refer to man's own activ-
    The third conclusive proof that         added). But if there is no agree-            ity of obeying and keeping the law
justification is the change of the          ment on imputation, there is no              of God and inasmuch as this is the
sinner's legal standing is Scrip-           agreement on justification. For jus-         only conceivable additional way of
ture's teaching that God justifies by       tification  is  the imputing of righ-        being justified, the apostle teaches
imputing  righteousness. to the sin-        teousness.                                   that we are justified by faith  alone.
ner. In the act of justification, God           Justification as imputation con-         Luther was right, theologically, ex-
imputes, or reckons, the righteous-         sists of two distinct elements. God          egetically, and linguistically, to
ness of another to the account of           does not impute to the elect sinner          translate the text with the word
the guilty sinner. This imputation,         his own unrighteousness. This is             "alone."
or reckoning, of righteousness is           the forgiveness of sins. The judge               Scripture excludes works and
the justification of the sinner.            renders the verdict, "Not guilty!"           working from justification, that is,
    This is the language of the Bible       The creditor cancels the debt.               all the sinner's own efforts to sat-
in Romans 4. Abraham's faith was                The other element is God's               isfy the justice of God, both by at-
"counted unto him for righteous-            crediting the account of the sinner,         tempting to pay for his sins and by
ness" (v. 3). David in Psalm 32             positively, with a perfect righteous-        attempting to merit righteousness.
spoke of the blessedness of the man         ness that fully satisfies the justice        The apostle makes this  unmistak-

                                                                                                    March  1,1999/Standard  Bearer/245


ably plain in Romans  4:5: "But to                the righteousness that God in grace         with eternal life and magnificent
him that worketh not, but believeth               offers equally to all, a work of the        glory.
on him that justifieth the ungodly,               sinner upon which depend forgive-               The justified sinner needs to
his faith is counted for righteous-               ness and eternal life. Thus, much           know this basis of his justification.
ness."                                            of evangelicalism is in fundamen-           Otherwise, he can never enjoy
        Justification is  by  faith; it is not    tal agreement with Rome in the              peace. There is a basis for justifi-
because  of  faith. Faith is not a new            central matter of justification. Both       cation! This basis is the obedience
work of the sinner that merits righ-              teach that man himself does some-           of Christ!
teousness. Faith is not a condition               thing to earn, or obtain, righteous-            Christ's lifelong obedience and
that the sinner fulfills in order to              ness. For Rome this something is            especially His atoning death, in the
obtain righteousness. The Bible                   working; for  evangelicals, it is be-       stead of all those whom the Father
never says that we are justified  be-             lieving.                                    gave Him as His church in the de-
cause  of faith, or  on account  of faith.            This goes far toward explain-           cree of' election, is the righteous-
It rather says that we are justified              ing ECT.                                    ness of God worked out for guilty
by  or  out  of  faith. All-the Reforma-              What destroys this subtle error,        sinners.
tion creeds are unanimous in re-                  namely, making faith the basis or               Christ's obedience, therefore, is
pudiating the subtle notion that                  cause of righteousness, is Scrip-           reckoned to my account when I be-
faith is a deed of man upon which                 ture's teaching that the sinner is          lieve on Him. Just as my disobe-
justification depends.                            unable of himself to believe. God           dience was imputed to His account
        In his recent examination of or-          must give faith, which then is not          on the cross (not  infused into  Him,
thodox Reformed theology as pre-                  the sinner's contribution, but the          but  imputed  to Him), so His obedi-
sented in the creeds of the Refor-                instrument by which God justifies.          ence is imputed to my account
mation, Jan Rohls observes that the               "By grace ye are saved through              through faith.
contrast between "righteousness of                faith, and that (faith) not of your-            Justification, accordingly, mag-
f a i t h "   a n d "righteousness of             selves, it is the gift of God"  (Eph.       nifies Jesus Christ and His cross.
works" is meaningful "only if faith               2:8).                                       "Being justified freely by His grace
itself is not in turn understood as                   As the act of God  through faith,       through the redemption that is in
a work."          In the Reformation              which by His gift is actually ours,         Christ Jesus"  (Ram.  3:24).
creeds, "faith is not another cause               justification is His verdict  in our            Honoring God's righteousness
on account of which" the sinner is                consciousness;  His crediting our ac-       in Christ alone, faith knows and
justified. "On the contrary, faith                count  in our  souZ;  His forgiveness       trusts in Jesus Christ alone for righ-
is solely the instrument for grasp-               in our experience;  His imputing us         teousness. Faith embraces Jesus
ing Christ's merit"  (Reformed Con-               righteous  so that we are assured  of it    Christ and His. finished, perfect
fessions: Theology from Zurich to Bar-            here and now.  Like the  publican  we       work alone. Faith pleads Christ
men,  Westminster John Knox, pp.                  go up to the house of God, stricken         alone at the seat of judgment.
127, 128).                                        with our guilt, bringing nothing of             Faith renounces all else for
        The Heidelberg Catechism is               self save our sins, crying out, "God,       righteousness!      Self! The good
representative of all the confes-                 be merciful to me, the sinner."             works which we do, in fact, per-
sions, and especially pointed, in its             And like the publican  we go down           form by the Holy Spirit! The
repudiation of the notion that the                to our house justified-righteous            church! Our own denomination!
justification-formula, "by faith                  by divine verdict in the courtroom          The saints! Our believing parents!
alone," means that faith is a merit-              of our own consciousness (Luke              Mary! Even sound doctrine, in-
ing ground or an obtaining cause                  18:9ff.).                                   cluding our confession of justifica-
on the part of the sinner himself.                                                            tion by faith alone!
"Why do you say that you are righ-                                                                "Faith, fl said Luther, "clasps
teous by faith only?  Not that  I am              The Obedience of Christ Alone               Christ as a ring clasps its jewel."
acceptable to God on account  of  the                 That which completes the bib-               This is God's own Word of jus-
worthiness  of my faith  .  ..I' (Question        lical gospel of justification by faith      tification.
61).                                              alone is the basis of God's justify-            This is the biblical heart of the
        To teach this would be the                ing act. This basis is the obedi-           gospel of grace.
same as teaching justification by                 ence of Jesus Christ, and the obe-              This was the truth into which
works.                                            dience of Jesus Christ alone. This          the Spirit of Christ led the church
        However, much of contempo-                explains how God can be just in             of the Reformation.
r a r y , so-called evangelicalism                declaring the ungodly sinner righ-              And this is compromised by
teaches this very thing. Faith is a               teous and, on the. ground of this           ECT.
condition that the sinner must ful-               righteousness; not only not damn-                                           - D J E
fill in order to obtain for himself               ing him, but even blessing him                                       (to be cont.)

24fQStandard  Bearer/March 1, 1999


                                                  obedience for our Lord, or a possi-      yet we shall not only never sin, but
Could Christ Sin?                                 bility that the Lord could sin. IS       we shall be unable ever to sin
In the article "Apollinaris and the there not a third?                                     again. Augustine called this obe-
  Doctrine of Christ (1)"  (Standard                  The two possibilities presented      dience the highest freedom, the non
Bearer,  Jan. 1,  1999), Prof. Hanko              by Mr. Salmon are both manifestly        posse  peccare   (not to be able to sin).
states that it is an error to believe             impossible. A robot-like obedience           We must affirm readily and
that "the temptations of Christ                   is no obedience at all, for it is not    fully that, while most emphatically
were real only because Christ could               willing obedience; and willing obe-      Christ could not sin, yet His temp-
have fallen into sin."                            dience lies at the very heart of the     tations were very real and He was
    My question is this: If Christ                efficacious sacrifice of Christ  - as    indeed tempted in all points as we
in His manhood, in His humanity,                  Mr. Salmon himself suggests.             are tempted. He had to learn obe-
while He was walking around on                        The possibility of Christ sin-       dience. And He had to learn obe-
earth could not have sinned when                  ning is equally unacceptable, for        dience by the things that He suf-
Satan tempted Him, how was His                    sin is always committed by the           fered, which things include temp-
perfect obedience to God the Fa-                  "person/ and Christ is the person        tation. Mr. Salmon's references to
ther worth anything, except that He               of the Son of God, the second per-       Hebrews  2:18 and  4:15 are alto-
was some kind of robot? I believe                 son of the holy Trinity. To affirm       gether to the point. But is there
that Christ was sinless (He did not               that Christ could sin (even if He        not here a mistaken notion? Does
sin) and that He was born without                 never did) is to affirm that God can     the reality of temptation rest upon
a sin-nature like us, but I thought               sin. We may not, of course, say          the possibility of sin? Why should
He was the second Adam and, be-                   that.                                    that be the case? It was possible
ing perfect as Adam was before the                    As I suggested in my article,        for the Lord to be truly tempted as
fall, He too could have fallen. The               some have attempted to avoid the         we are tempted and yet to be un-
fact that He did not sin and fall,                dilemma by saying, as Mr. Salmon         able to sin because without actu-
w h e n   H e Nwas   i n   a l l   p o i n t s    does, that the possibility of Christ     ally sinning and without even pos-
tempted like as we are, yet with-                 sinning rests "in His manhood, in        sessing the ability to sin, one can
out sin" (Heb.  2:18;  4:15), makes               His humanity, while He was walk-         still know and sense the attractive-
His obedience glorious. But if He                 ing around on earth." But, for           ness of the sin presented in the
only obeyed as some sort of hu-                   three reasons, this will not do: 1)      temptation.       To illustrate: Al-
man robot, is not this disgraceful                It suggests that Christ could do         though I have countless tempta-
to His honor?                                     something as a man which He              tions against which I need to battle,
     Does not the Heidelberg Cat-                 could not do as God. That is the         rock music is not, for me, a temp-
echism suggest that Christ  had-  to              intolerable separation of the two        tation. It is ugly, repulsive, with-
be like Adam in Lord's Day 5,                     natures forbidden by  Chalcedon.         out any attractive features. It
Question 15 and in Lord's Day 6,                  All Christ's works He performed          doesn't tempt me. There is no
Question  16?                                     as the one divine-human Mediator.        temptation involved. But other
     I need an explanation that                   2) It opens the door to  Nestor-         temptations to sin are appealing.
makes clear to me what obedience                  ianism because it gives to Christ's      When one knows and sees the at-
is in someone who cannot possibly                 humanity a human person, with            tractiveness of a sinful deed, has
disobey. I do not want to hold a                  the result that Christ is two per-       he already sinned? I do not be-
false doctrine, but I am troubled                 sons: a human person who could           lieve so. Else temptation itself
by a view of Christ's obedience as                sin in His human nature; and the         would inevitably imply sin. One
a robot-like walk.                                divine person of the eternal Son of      can certainly know the appeal of a
                                 Al Salmon        God in His divine nature. 3) It          wicked deed and not succumb to
                        Moorestown, NJ            rests the reality of obedience on the    the temptation and perform the
                                                  possibility of sin. Why should obe-      deed. To understand why a deed
Response:                                         dience imply the possibility of sin?     is attractive is not, in itself, sin. It
                                                  Why does obedience become "ro-           becomes sin when one commits the
The brother, I fear, presents a bot-like" where no possibility of sin deed.
     false dilemma when he sug-                   exists? The answer to these ques-             Although Christ was tempted
gests that the only two possible al-              tions is not clear. The fact is that     all His life long, Hebrews  4:15 re-
ternatives in our explanation of the              in glory we shall be perfectly obe-      fers especially to the temptation of
Lord's temptations are: a robot-like              dient to do the entire will of God,      Christ by Satan in the wilderness.

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When Satan came to Christ in the               Was He immune to shrinking from           sin when we  commit  fornication  -
desert and presented to Christ a               the dreadful task of bearing the          in deed or even in our thoughts.
"short-cut" to His kingdom, which              wrath of His heavenly Father? Was            Our Lord Jesus Christ, Paul
was the way of popular appeal and              He callous to the suffering that          tells us in II Corinthians 5, "knew
the adulation of the multitudes                would be inflicted on Him? Could          no sin." That knowing no sin does
rather than the way of the cross,              He not see clearly that from the          not mean only that Christ did no
Christ saw the horror of the cross             viewpoint of the ease of the road         sin (else Paul would have said
in all its frightening severity  -  a          to His kingdom Satan's proposals          that). It means that sin was totally
horror which later in the garden               were appealing? He was like us in         foreign to Him in such a complete
pressed out of Him His agonizing               all things.                               way. that sin was an impossibility.
prayer. He saw the attractiveness                  But He also saw that the pro-         Yet He became sin  - for us! Imag-
of Satan's proposals. Satan, as it             posals of Satan required submis-          ine such a great wonder as that!
were, said: "There is no need for              sion to Satan. He saw that the way        He who knew no sin  became  sin for
you to go to your throne through               which Satan suggested was the             us. And, because He could be
that dreadful way of suffering and             way of disobedience. He would             tempted in all points as we are
death on the cross. Change these               never again be able to sing Psalm         tempted  - though without sin  -
stones into bread and make the wil-            40: "I come to do thy will, 0 God.        He can be and is a sympathetic
derness a Paradise. All the people             In the volume of the book it is writ-     High Priest. Thank God for Christ!
wiil crown you king (as they                   ten of me." It is not difficult to see        Nevertheless, Mr. Salmon's
wanted to do when later Christ fed             that Christ could truly experience        questions are hard questions which
5,000 men). Show your supernatu-               the tug of temptation. But to know        we cannot fully understand. Their
ral powers and point the people to             the tug of temptation is not to suc-      difficulty rests in the mystery of
the fact, at the same time, that you           cumb to it; and, therefore, it does       God become flesh  - the wonder
fulfill prophecy; jump from a                  not imply sin.                            of the incarnation, the wonder of
temple tower and the angels will                   It is well to remember that the       our salvation.
save you. The crowds will bring                same is true of us. To be able to             The discussion here is an inter-
you in triumph to Jerusalem and                understand, in the circumstances of       esting one, and if Mr. Salmon de-
crown you king." Could not Christ              our life, the appealing attractive-       sires to comment further, he is en-
understand and sense the attrac-               ness of the sin of fornication is not     couraged to do so.
tiveness of the devil's proposal?              necessarily to sin. Such becomes a                          -Prof. Hanko  Cl




                           Visiting the Sick (3)

W                                              make this call either the night be-       read is Psalm 4, especially verse 8
            e continue our discussion          fore the day of the surgery or he         which reads, "I will both lay me
            of the elders' calling to          can visit the person an hour or so        down in peace, and sleep: for thou,
            visit the sick by consid-          before the surgery is scheduled to        Lord, only makest me dwell in
ering how the elders ought to con-             take place. There is something to         safety." One disadvantage of mak-
duct the sick call in specific in-             be said for both of these times.          ing this call an hour or so before
stances. When the elder must call              Both are times of stress and anxi-        the surgery is that often the patient
on a parishioner who is about to               ety for the parishioner. He needs         is under sedation. This makes the
submit to major surgery, he ought              the Word of God. The advantage            call very difficult and, often, even
to visit the person before the sur-            of making the call the night before       impossible. One more comment is
gery takes place. The elder can                the surgery is that the elder has         in order. It usually is not neces-
                                               more time to spend with the pa-           sary that the elder remain with the
                                               rishioner. He should wait until the       family during  ,the surgery itself.
Prof. Decker is professor of Practical The-    visiting hours are over so that there     But he should be readily accessible
ology in the Protestant Reformed Semi-         is a minimum of distractions. A           in the event the family needs him.
nary.                                          particularly appropriate passage to           As a general rule, hospital  pa-

248jStandard  Bearer/March 1,iaaa


tients ought to be called upon once      Word of God, he must also be             Often, and this is true of children
per week. If the patient is criti-       aware of the fact that denial often      too, they know. Undersigned min-
cally  ill, he should be visited more    turns into bitter anger against the      istered to a youngster dying of can-
frequently, daily if necessary. If       Lord. These think that God is be-        cer whose parents could not bring
death appears imminent, the elder        ing terribly -unfair  and- hard on       themselves to tell the little one that
should remain with the patient and       them. They think God ought to let        he was about to die. The last time
famiIy.                                  them live awhiIe longer for the sake     I visited him I read  PsaIm 23, and
    It is extremely important that       of their families and loved ones.        when I got to verse 4, "Yea, though
the elder remember that he occu-         These must be patiently, gently,         I walk through the valley of the
pies the office of Christ, the Good      compassionately, yet firmly ad-          shadow of death, I will fear no evil:
Shepherd of the sheep. The elder         monished to submit to the Lord's         for thou art with me; thy rod and
must maintain the dignity of the         way with them. The elders must           thy staff they comfort me," the boy
office. He must as well display the      bring to these this word of God,         recited it with me. Two days later
love and concern of Christ for the       "For my thoughts are not your            he peacefully fell asleep in Jesus.
sick, And he must lead the sick to       thoughts, neither are your ways my           The elders are to be cautioned,
meet their merciful High Priest,         ways, saith the Lord. For as the         too, not to ignore the needs of the
who is touched with the feeling of       heavens are higher than the earth,       loved ones of the dying. One can
our infirmities, by means of the         so are my ways higher than your          become so concerned with the dy-
Word of God and prayer. In this          ways, and my thoughts than your          ing parishioner that he forgets that
way the sick will "obtain mercy,         thoughts" (Is.  55:8-9).                 his loved ones need to be prepared
and find grace to help in time of            We often do not understand           as well for the reality of the dying
need" (Heb.  4:14-16).                   God's ways, but they are good for        of their loved one. The needs of
    When the parishioner is termi-       us. Always! Not even death can           those about to be left behind by
nally ill, he or she must be pre-        separate us from God's love in           their dying husbands, wives, chil-
pared to meet the Lord through           Christ (Rom.  8:28-39). God's chas-      dren, parents, relatives, or friends
death.      The needs vary among         tening may be grievous, "neverthe-       are often as great or greater than
God's people. Some are strong in         less afterward it yieldeth the peace-    those of the dying person. The el-
faith and possess by God's grace         able fruit of righteousness unto         ders must bring to them also God's
hope as an anchor for their souls.       them which are exercised thereby"        Word of comfort and assurance, of
They are submissive to the Lord's        (Heb.  12:ll). These passages are        instruction and encouragement.
way with them. They are ready,           just a few of the many which can         They too must be submissive to
even eager, to go and be with the        and ought to be brought to the at-       God's way with themselves and
Lord. These ought to be encour-          tention of those who are a~ngry  with    their loved one who is about to die.
aged.                                    the Lord. By the means of His                Allof this brings us to the el-
    Others among God's people are        Word brought by the elders, the          ders' calling to minister to the dy-
afraid to die. These are reticent to     Lord can and does turn the bitterly      ing and those bereaved. No mat-
talk about death. The elder must         angry into the submissive children       ter the circumstances, to one de-
encourage these people to express        of God who trust that God's ways         gree or another death is always a
their fears. He must bring to them       are good for them.                       struggle for the Christian. This is
the assurances of the Word of God.           Though it is much less common        because it is "the last enemy that
The elder must call attention to the     than it used to be, there are those      shall be destroyed" (I Cor.  15:26).
great victory the Lord Jesus ob-         who are not told that their death is     The elders must make use of the
tained over sin, death, and the          imminent. More often than not,           many passages of Holy Scripture
grave by His death on the cross and      this happens when young children         that speak of the victory in Christ
His resurrection from the dead.          are afflicted with terminal illness.     which God's people have over
The fearful ought also to be re-         Parents of these children some-          death. Psalms 73, 77, 90, and 116
minded that God's grace is abun-         times find it extremely difficult to     are lust four of the many Psalms
dantly sufficient for all of their       tell them that they are about to die.    which can be used to comfort the
needs. God, they must be told, will      The elder should do all that he can      dying. Part of Job's response to
give them "dying grace" when they        to convince the family to inform         Bildad is the wonderful confession,
need it.                                 their loved one of his impending         "For I know that my redeemer
    Still others attempt to "act" as     death. This is necessary in order        liveth, and that he shall stand at
if death is not going to happen.         that the person may be prepared          the latter day upon the earth: And
They are in a state of denial These      to die. Why deprive him of the           though after my skin worms de-
must be carefully led by the elder       anticipation of the wonderful glory      stroy this body, yet in my flesh
to face the reality of death. As the     of the fellowship with God in Jesus      shall I see God" (Job  19:25, 26).
elder does this by means of the          into which he is about to be taken?      Who can count the multitude of

                                                                                         Marc/~ 1,1999/Standard  Bearer/Z49


dying Christians who have been                ral; but the things which are not        never to leave or forsake His saints.
comforted by these words of Jesus:            seen are eternal. For we know that       God is present with us and fellow-
"In my Father's house are many                if the earthly house of this taber-      ships with us by means of His
mansions: If it were not so, I would          nacle were dissolved, we have a          Word. For this reason the elders
have told you. I go to prepare a              building of God, an house not            must never give up trying to reach
place for you. And if I go and pre-           made with hands, eternal in the          comatose parishioners. When vis-
pare a place for you, I will come             heavens"  (II Cor.  4:16-5:l).  And,     iting such, the elders ought to read
again, and receive you unto my-               to quote no more, there is the com-      a verse or two. They ought to ex-
self, that where I am, there ye may           mand to John to write, "Blessed are      plain the Word briefly. And the
be also" (John  14:2,  3)? Or, think          the dead which die in the Lord           elders must pray with them. Some-
of the wonderful comfort contained            from henceforth: Yea, saith the          times the comatose parishioner will
in this Scripture: "For which cause           Spirit, that they may rest from their    respond with a squeeze of the
we faint not; but though our out-             labours;  and their works do follow      hand. More often than not, there's
ward man perish, yet the inward               them" (Rev.  14:13).                     no response. Response or no, we
man is renewed day by day. For                    Whatever the elders do, they         believe God can and does speak to
our light affliction, which is but for        must bring the Word of God to            His saints even when we appar-
a moment, worketh for us a far                the dying. Often those about to          ently cannot.
more exceeding and eternal weight             die slip into a coma. This can last          The same passages used to
of glory; While we look not at the            for only an hour or so or it may         comfort the dying can be used to
things which are seen, but at the             last for days, even weeks, and           comfort the bereaved. This, D.V.,
things which are not seen: for the            months. These must be brought the        will be the subject of our next ar-
things which are seen are tempo-              Word too!      God has promised          ticle. Cl





                                              The Reformed Family:
                   Standing Before His Cold
                                              gentle touch, or biting sting, of        spring returns to our climes. Per-
                                              snowflakes on my face and skin. I        haps they are some of the unfortu-
He giveth snow like wool..  ..`I              like the tiny ice prisms blanketing      nates who must shovel snow. Hav-
                          Psalm  147:16       my hair  - a kind of snowflake           ing been blessed with four  able-
I                                             snood. I enjoy a barefoot walk in        bodied sons and an ambitious hus-
     love snow. I love its texture,           the snow, however brief and brisk,       band, I have never had to contend
     its freshness, its coldness, and         just as some people enjoy the ser-       with snow removal. I can imagine
     its symbolism. I love the pris-          endipitous discovery of the Swed-        that wrestling great mounds of
tine whiteness of new-fallen snow,            ish sauna. I love the snow's po-         snow from one side of the drive-
its dazzling brightness chiseling             tential as well as its unpredictabi-     way to the other could change
little dagger points into my eyes,            lity. Will we witness the soft,          one's perspective a little. Whether,
the kind of snow that we experi-              feathery shake of a down pillow?         then, you personally like or dislike
enced last month in the Midwest.              Or, will we survive a wild, howl-        snow, and for whatever reasons, it
And while others button up their              ing, old-fashioned prairie blizzard?     is the very essence of the intrica-
coat collars ever more securely and           I love the irony of lacy snowflakes      cies of God's design in creation.
shield their faces with the warm-             - in accumulation  - shutting                Did you know, for instance":
est of woolen mufflers, I love the            down an entire city for days on          8 That each snowflake  (polycrys-
                                              end. "Who can stand before his             tal) is composed of tens, perhaps
                                              cold?" (Ps.  147~17)                       hundreds, of individual snow
                                                  To many people, however,               crystals?
Mrs. Lubbers is a wife and mother in the      snow is nothing but disagreeable         @ That each snowflake is a sym-
Protestant Reformed Church  of  South Hol-    precipitation, and cold at that; win-      metric, hexagonal, branched,
land, Illinois.                               ter, a season to be endured until          fern-like crystal? And that if you
250/Standard  Bearer/March 1,1999


 are a curious, careful observer of                     more than 90% of the sunlight           in Job 37. "For he saith to the
 snow you can occasionally spot                         that strikes the surface? This is       snow, Be thou on the earth . . . .  N
 a 12-pointed star made up of two                       why many people wear sun-               And then, "By the breath of God
 hexagonal stellar crystals pressed                     glasses in the winter. -                frost is given...." A mere exhaling
 together?                                             0 That snow is  white  because vis-      of God's breath, and our world is
e That a transfer of water  moG                         ible sunlight is white and the          paralyzed in winter's icy grips for
 ecules from droplets to vapor to                       complex structure of snow crys-         months.
 ice crystals is key to the process                     tals reflects sunlight instead of           The psalmist knows of snow,
 of snow formation?                                     absorbing sunlight? (Most natu-         too. David had had ample oppor-
+Z+ That the same snow cloud can                        ral materials absorb sunlight,          tunity to study its purity and its
 produce many different types of                        which gives them their color.)          complete whiteness. In Psalm 51,
 crystals  - stellar, needle, col-                     8 That when the ground has a             when David acknowledges the
 umn- at the same time?                                 thick layer of fresh, fluffy snow,      depth of his depravity, he com-
* That the vast majority of snow-                       sound waves are readily ab-             pares snow to his complete cleans-
 flakes fall at speeds of l-6 feet                      sorbed at the surface of the            ing in Jesus Christ: "Wash me, and
 per second, but that large snow-                       snow? This explains why wak-            I shall be whiter than snow."
 flakes act like parachutes and of-                     ing up and without even looking         Isaiah echoes this property of snow
 ten slow down, while kernel-like                        outside, one senses it has snowed      in chapter 1: "Though your sins
 snow pellets known as graupel                          just from the muffled sounds one        be as scarlet, they shall be as white
 fall much faster?                                       hears.                                 as snow.. . ." How untold many be-
9 That a thick layer of fresh snow                     9 That a cubic foot of snow (12          lievers have found comfort in this
 on your roof can save you money                        inches on a side) may contain           great transformation  - from blood
 on your heating bill?                                   1,728,OOO  individual snowflakes,      red to snow white!
$+ That fresh snow is a good in-                         and that no two are ever, or ever          Again, in Psalm 147, in an irre-
 sulator because of the high per-                        have been, alike?                      pressible splurge of joy, David ex-
 centage of trapped air among the                                                               presses what is versified so grandly
 lattice structure of the accumu-                          But enough of the science of         in Psalter number 402:
 lated snow crystals? Since the                        snow. When the Scriptures speak              He sends His swift command-
 air can barely move, heat trans-                      of snow, it is always through im-              ment,
 fer is greatly reduced.                               agery, by metaphor, and by com-              And snow and ice enfold
* That if 12 inches of snow, con-                      parison.                                     The world, and none are able
 taining one inch of water, and                            In Job 38, the great chapter on          To stand before His cold.
 weighing 5.2 pounds per square                        God's power, sovereignty, and                Again He gives commandment;
 foot, is followed by another                          providence in creation, the Lord             The winds of summer blow,
 storm bringing 25 inches of snow                      asks the rhetorical question: "Hast          The snow and ice are melted,
  and 2 inches of water with a to-                     thou entered into the treasures of           Again the waters flow.
 tal snow load of 15.6 pounds per                      the snow? Or hast thou seen the
  square foot, and that if the area                    treasures of the hail?"      "Out of         If we as Reformed believers
  of your roof is 1,800  square~feet                   whose womb came the ice? And             know this truth about snow, and
  ( w h i c h   i s   t y p i c a l   o f   m a n y    the hoary frost of heaven, who hath      teach  this truth to our children, we
  houses), that there would be                         gendered it?"                            will have learned the most signifi-
 28,080 pounds of snow resting on                          With Job we give the expected        cant phenomena about snow. God
  the roof  - the weight of three                      response that God hath ordered all       speaks the snow. He breathes the
  full-grown elephants?                                of nature. He hath gendered it,          frost and  rim&. The filthiness of
+X+ That sunshine alone is very in-                    and until He returns we can only         our sins has been forever washed
  effective in hastening snowmelt?                     explore, discover, and subdue His        away, and now we appear whiter
  Warm, humid winds work for                           creation in an imperfect and insig-      than new-fallen snow. No clima-
  maximum melt! David, the shep-                       nificant way.                            tologist will learn more, though he
  herd boy, observed this scientific                       For centuries man has delved         studies the structure and proper-
  fact thousands of years ago as he                    into the science of snow. With           ties of the snowflake ever so care-
  sat on the  Judean  hillside tend-                   amazement he explores the com-           fully.  Q
  ing his father's flocks. In Psalm                    plexity of design, the delightful di-
  147  he notes: "He sendeth out                       versity, of each individual snow-
  his word, and melteth them: he                       flake. Who can even begin to com-        + All scientific facts were lifted from
_, causeth his wind to blow, and the                   prehend its intricate makeup, much       The Snow Booklet  by Nolan J.  Doesken
  waters flow."                                        less to command its arrival on the       and Arthur Judson, Colorado Climate
9 That fresh snow can reflect                          earth? That is what Jehovah does         Center,  Fort Collins, CO 80523.

                                                                                                       March 1,1999/StandardBearer/251


           Expecting the Lord's Return

                                            Are we slowly, and perhaps not so                 the earth. She rejoices at the con-
                                            slowly, without realizing it, allow-              version and salvation of God's
S                                           ing our thinking and life-style to
      ome time ago we wrote an ar-                                                            elect. For according to our confes-
                                            be compromised by the ungodly
      ticle  for this department re-                                                          sions the gathering of the full num-
                                            world in which we live? How
      flecting on what our Re-                                                                ber of God's elect is the great pur-
                                            much are we toning down our con-
formed confessions say regarding                                                              pose of history. The saints of God
                                            demnation of the world rather than
the return of the Lord. It was our                                                            give thanks to God when they wit-
                                            understanding the ever more ur-
intention at that time to write a sec-                                                        ness the power of the gospel of
                                            gent need of this condemnation?
ond article on the above named                                                                Christ to gather His church from
                                                The last days will also be days
subject as a follow-up. We believe                                                            the heathen nations of the world.
                                            of great apostasy in what calls it-
that the perspective of the Re-                                                               The church also gives thanks when
formed confessions (especially the          self the church. It will not be a                 the Lord preserves His people in
                                            time of mass revival and world-
Heidelberg Catechism and  the~Bel-                                                            the line of generations according to
                                            wide conversions, as some claim.
gic Confession) on the return of the                                                          the promise of His covenant. She
                                            It will be a time when the true
Lord is hardly ever heard in the                                                              therefore maintains faithful cat-
church world today.                         church will be but a small remnant                echism instruction of covenant chil-
                                            in the world. The last days will be
     The Reformed confessions fo-                                                             dren. When there is renewal and
                                            days of great deception, when the
cus on the truth that Jesus will re-                                                          reformation by the Spirit and truth
                                            lie will be paraded in the church
turn for judgment. This is of                                                                 of God in the church, the church
course also what we confess in the          as though it were the truth of God's              praises the name of her God. On
                                            Word. On the other hand, the truth
Apostles' Creed. The Reformed                                                                 the other hand, the members of the
confessions maintain that Jesus will        will be evil spoken of. Those who                 church do not despair when the
                                            promote the lie will present them-
come to judge this ungodly world.                                                             true church seems ever so small
                                            selves as though they are champi-
This world will continue to in-                                                               over against the millions of this
                                            ons of the Lord and are promoting
crease more and more in ungodli-                                                              world, because they see this as the
ness as the end grows nearer. This          the cause of His kingdom. They                    fulfillments of biblical prophecy.
                                            will boast of their love and benevo-
world will not, as is so often imag-                                                          Though the saints of God grieve
ined, grow better and better and            lence towards all men, their great                over the apostasy of so much of the
                                            h u m a n   s y m p a t h y   a n d   broad-
finally evolve into some kind of                                                              church, they rejoice that God re-
earthly utopia. In fact, one of the         mindedness towards their fellow                   serves unto Himself 7000 who have
                                            man. This broad-mindedness will
great signs of the end of the age is                                                          not bowed the knee to Baal.
abounding wickedness, lawless-              be considered to be the height of                      We are confident that the Lord
                                            virtue. The faithful saints of God
ness, and immorality in this world.                                                           will not forsake the church He has
                                            who strive to live sincerely by
The Reformed Christian denies that                                                                 chosen to be His own. The full
                                            the law of God and for His
the world will become a better                                                                       company of God's elect must
                                            righteousness in the earth,               . . . the
place.  the knows that according to                                                                    and will be gathered. The
                                            and who condemn the                   gathering of
Scripture, it will only get worse                                                                      Lord has so loved this
                                            wicked life-style of the
and worse.                                                                      the  full  number      church that He gave His
                                            world and separate  them-            of  God's elect
     How much are we as Chris-                                                                         own beloved Son for her
                                            selves from it, will be con-
tians sensitive to the reality of the                                              is the great        final salvation. The saints
growing wickedness of this world?           sidered bigots who are                   purpose           of God believe that God
                                            judgmental and unloving.               of  history.       will always preserve His
                                                The faithful church of                               true church in the  world!
                                            Jesus Christ desires to fulfill                        The gates of hell will not  pre:
Rev. denHartog is pastor of Hope Protes-    her Lord's great commission to                    vail against her. Though the true
tanf Reformed Church in Redlands, Cali-     preach the gospel unto the end of                 church is small in the eyes of the
fornia.

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world, though she is despised by           tate Christendom. It is clear from         emies. She does not take justice in
apostate Christendom, she is pre-          Scripture that the Antichrist will         her own hand and become violent
cious in God's sight and He will           arise from a union between the             and disobedient to her Lord. She
make her glorious. The church of           powers of the ungodly world and            endures persecution and ridicule
Jesus Christ shall finally be pre-         the apostate church. This apostate         with patience and leaves vengeance
sented before God in heaven as the         church is portrayed in the book of         and justice to the Lord.
glorious bride of Christ.                  Revelation as the great whore. The               The comfort of true believers
    How blessed it is by grace,            false church in the last day will          and members of the faithful church
then, to be a member of that church        have imposing organizations                       of Jesus Christ is the hope of
and to be a faithful member who            in the world. Today we               .,. the            the return of the Lord. They
loves the Word which the Lord has          would call them  mega-                                  look for the great joy of the
                                                                              hope  of
given to His church. How impor-            churches. The false church       the return              final salvation of their
tant  it is to submit to the discipline    boasts of great numbers.         of  the Lord            souls and the revelation of
and admonition and spiritual care          She claims the authority of     is the mighty            the glory of their Lord.
of that church. The Heidelberg             great antiquity. She makes        incentive              They look for the reward
Catechism teaches us to say with           high claims for herself. She      for holy               the Lord will give His
joy in our hearts that we are and          boasts of doing great things                            faithful saints at His  ap-
                                                                                living.
ever shall be a living member of           for God and for the kingdom                        pearing. They look for the
                                                                                              .
the glorious church of Christ Jesus.       of Christ. She glories in her                    appearance of His church in
    The members of the church are          great earthly strength, the large          glory before the throne of God.
called in the last day to stand fast       numbers of her membership, her                   According to the Belgic Confes-
in the truth. They must maintain           glorious institutions, and the great       sion, the judgment of Christ shall
the truth of God's Word without            influence she has in the world. At         be justly terrible and dreadful to
compromise, the truth in all of its        the same time, she uses her great          the wicked ungodly but most de-
power, beauty, and holiness. The           power to persecute the faithful            sirable and comfortable to the righ-
members of the church are called           church and her members.          She       teous and the elect, because then
to labor for the cause of the king-        looks with contempt on the faith-          shall their full deliverance be per-
dom of Christ in the world.                ful people of God. The apostate            fected, and there they shall receive
    The Lord will come in judg-            church mocks the faithful church,          the fruit of their labor and trouble.
ment on the wicked nations of the          which dares to expose and con-             The saints look for the day when
world which will until the end re-         demn her false doctrines and               they will see the vengeance of the
main ungodly. The ungodly are              worldly glorying.                          Lord revealed on the wicked, who
the enemies of the living God and              The truly Reformed church to-          have most cruelly persecuted and
of His church. There are in the            day keeps watch on the church of           oppressed and tormented them in
world many who are the enemies             Rome, as she has the marks of be-          this world. The so called impreca-
of God. They are always far greater        ing the Antichrist. This all the Re-       tory Psalms sing of the glory of
in number than the saints of God           formers believed. While we do not          God's righteous judgments on the
in the earth. The enemies of God           see the final manifestation in this        wicked and the deliverance of the
reveal themselves in their wicked,         church of Rome, we do continue to          saints through vengeance on their
worldly philosophy of life and in          see signs of her acting like the fi-       enemies.
their brazenly evil conduct before         nal Antichrist. This is not time for             The calling of the saints is to
the Lord. They shall not be able to        reconciliation with her at the ex-         stand in the midst of the faithful
stand before the sovereign judge of        pense of the truth of the gospel, as       church of Jesus Christ to maintain
heaven and earth when He comes             some Protestants today are advo-           the truth and honor and glory of
again. They will be judged for all         cating.                                    the name of the Lord. The faithful
their ungodly deeds which they                 The true church of Jesus Christ        saints look for Him to vindicate His
have done in disregard and defi-           has hope as she confronts her en-          cause when He comes.
ance against God. (See Jude 15.)           emies. As long as she has her eyes               Scripture and our Reformed
    Many of the most serious en-           fixed on the Lord's return, she is         confessions teach that the hope of
emies of God and of His people are         not terrified by her adversaries.          the return of the Lord is the mighty
those in apostate churches. This           She does not become discouraged            incentive for holy living. The saints
was true in the time of the Refor-         by the smallness of her numbers            are called to a life of holiness. Ho-
mation and this is increasingly true       and her seeming insignificance in          liness of life demands separation
in  our  modern day. Most of the           the world. She is not discouraged          from the ungodly world. It re-
persecution of the faithful saints         by the ridicule she experiences            quires that the Christian live abso-
comes not from the heathen world           from apostate Christendom. She             lutely antithetically to this ungodly
but rather from nominal and apos-          does not take vengeance on her en-         world. The great command of

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Scripture is, "Come ye out from                   ing the blatant evil of modern-day                  wicked. They look for the righ-
among them and be ye separate."                   society, while, on the other hand,                  teousness of Christ to cover them
Our day is a day of compromise of                 condoning and speaking with                         in the judgment and to justify them
the truth of God's Word and join-                 amusement about that which is, ac-                  before God. The day of the Lord
ing with the world. Sometimes                     cording to them, less evil. This is                 will be the glorious revelation of
even those who profess to be con-                 one of the issues of the common                     His righteousness.        With the
servative reveal a thinking and life-             grace controversy that has been                     apostle Paul we long to be found
style that involves woeful accom-                 maintained by our Protestant Re-                    in Him, not having our own righ-
modations to the world.                           formed Churches. The question is                    teousness, which is of the law, but
     I was reminded of this recently              whether the antithesis between the                  that which is through the faith of
at a conference I attended. The                   world and the church is absolute                    Jesus Christ. (See Philippians  1:3.)
speakers at this conference were                  or whether we can after all find                        Yet the faithful saints are also
popular conservative leaders pro-                 much that is still good in the world.               encouraged to look for the reward
fessing the Reformed faith. They                  Should we laugh and joke about                      of the Lord. For when the Lord
had some good things to say, but                  things that are abominable to the                   comes again, He will reward His
one thing especially disturbed me.                Lord and imagine that they are                      saints for their faithfulness. He
They were constantly making ref-                   only mildly evil?                                  will give a great reward to those
erence to contemporary movie stars                      The expectation of the Lord's                 who have been persecuted for righ-
and modern Hollywood produc-                      return is the hope of the revelation                teousness' sake. For this reason
tions to illustrate points in their                of the righteousness of God in                     they are exhorted already now to
presentations. It reminded me how                 Christ Jesus. The Heidelberg Cat-                   rejoice with exceeding great joy.
very familiar almost everyone is                  echism states that the comfort of                   But this reward will not be of merit
with the culture of Hollywood and                  the believer is that "the very same                but of grace. This is another beau-
Broadway. How much this culture                   person who offered Himself for my                   tiful and classic statement of the
dominates the thinking of most                     sake to the tribunal of God and has                Heidelberg Catechism about the
Americans, so that even when                      removed all curse from me will                      proper expectation of the Lord's re-
speaking about the truth of God's                  come as judge from heaven." For                    turn in judgment.
Word, illustrations must constantly                this reason the coming of the judg-                    The glory of the final salvation
be made from this culture in at-                   ment is most desirable and com-                    of the saints, the blessedness of
tempts to be relevant to our times.                fortable to the righteous and the                  heaven, is far greater than any
How did this come about, even in                   elect. Modern-day Arminianism                      glory of this world. The faithful
the more conservative church                       and pop psychology have cor-                       saints who often suffer great loss
world, except through hours                             rupted the Christian's expecta-               in this present world, and from
and hours of television view-                                tion of the Lord's return.               whom the wicked sometimes take
ing and frequent atten-                                        T h e   m e m b e r s   o f   t h e    away every ease and comfort in
d a n c e   a t    t h e   m o v i e       How many
                                              today            church are taught to have              this  worlcl, have this hope. They
houses? I wondered, too,                                        great esteem of them-                 will live forever in perfect glory
whether reference to the                   realize the
                                          absoluteness           selves. The Bible rather             and blessedness in the presence of
life-style and speech of                 and radicalness         calls Christians to abhor            their God and Savior. So great is
this culture should be                                            and humble themselves               the glory of this, that eye hath not
the occasion of light-                  of  the antithesis
                                        between the truth         before God and to glory             seen nor ear heard, neither hath it
hearted jest and laugh-                                           and hope only in the                entered into the heart of man to
ter when it is so terribly                and holiness
                                         of  God's Word          righteousness that is                conceive, what God has prepared
wicked before God. How                                           theirs because of the                for those who love Him. The
very few are sensitive                       and the             cross of Christ.  Armin-             proper expectation of the Lord's re-
enough to realize the ter-                 philosophy           ianism encourages pride               turn for the faithful saints requires
rible evil of this culture.               of  the culture       concerning man's own ac-              that they not set their hearts on the
How many today realize                     we live in?         ceptance of Jesus and con-             riches and glory of this world. By
the absoluteness and radical-                                 cerning the great things he             faith we must fix our eyes on the
ness of the antithesis between                            has done for the Lord. The                  unseen world of glory in the new
the truth and holiness of God's                    true Christian looks for nothing but               heavens and new earth. For this
Word and the philosophy of the                     the glory of Christ and the praise                 glorious salvation we must be
culture we live in?                                of His perfect works of salvation.                 ready to forsake all, and to sacri-
     Sometimes even conservatives                       The only hope of the true saints              fice our very life. Q
can bring the church farther down                  of God is the righteousness of the
the road to worldliness. They do                   cross. They look for the righteous-
this by, on the one hand, condemn-                 ness of the Lord's judgment on the

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                                            The Prediluvian  Period (4)
                                                            Chapter  2
                           The Curse Upon Cain

Introduction                                       seed of the woman. This is plain          epoch is concerned. With regard
          nce more it must be empha-
0                                                  from the narrative in Genesis: Cain       to the former, the consummation
          sized that a clear under-                killed Abel as the righteous offerer,     is in the day of our Lord Jesus
          standing of the character of             the friend of God. This  &evident         Christ; with regard to the latter, the
Cain's sin is essential.                           from I John  3:12: he killed Abel         consummation is at the time of
     What took place when Cain                     because his works were righteous,         Noah and the Flood, History,
killed his brother Abel? Was it a                  while his own works were evil.            therefore, must go on. Abel must
mere murder  - homicide, or even                       Now the result of this murder         be replaced by Seth presently, so
fratricide? That would bring the                   was certainly that Abel's soul had        that the seed of the woman is con-
narrative wholly in the sphere of                  glory and victory in heaven. Nev-         tinued. But also the seed of the
the merely natural. It would rule                  ertheless he seemed defeated as far       serpent must continue. Cain must
out the specific scriptural element.               as the earth was concerned. This          be punished in such a way, there-
The Word of God does not deal                      might not be. God maintains His           fore, that this is accomplished. Not
with mere murders. It treats of the                cause, defends His people, and            only so, but the punishment of
history of God's kingdom and  coy-                 gives them complete victory. Thus,        Cain must be of such a kind that
enant  and thus of the battle be-                  not the wicked but the righteous          the purposes of God with respect
t w e e n   t h e   r i g h t e o u s  an-d-the    shall inherit the earth and all           to subsequent history are served,
wicked. This is the battle that cen-               things. This had to become plain          not only in that the conflict is con-
ters in Christ, that is consummated                in the history of Cain and Abel,          tinued but also in that there is de-
at the parousia, in the day of the                 even as it did later in the history       velopment  toward the goal of the
Lord, and in which God takes the                   of Noah and his eight. For this rea-      typical consummation accom-
side of the people of His covenant                 son Cain receives a peculiar pun-         plished in the Flood. Through this
over against the world. Unless we                  ishment. He may not be slain for          very dealing of the Lord with Cain,
keep this in mind, there are many                  his murder of Abel, but he must           the course of the history of the
elements in the narrative of the                   be cursed from the earth as one           world before the Flood is so chan-
events following Cain's murder of                  who is dispossessed as far as             neled that the line of Cain is pre-
his brother which are left unex-                   earthly things are concerned.             served and allowed to become
plained. Why does the earth cry                        We must, however, see this            great in the world, great also in
to the Lord? Why does the pun-                     punishment of Cain not only from          wickedness and in power to perse-
ishment of Cain assume this pecu-                  the viewpoint of this one event, this     cute the seed of the woman. Even
liar form? Why may not Cain be                     one manifestation of conflict, but        the curse upon Cain must serve this
killed, and how are we to think of                 also in its historical perspective, in    purpos~e.
the mark upon him?                                 connection with and as an integral
     Hence, we must keep in mind                   part of the subsequent history. It        The Trial of Cain
that the wicked had killed the righ-               is obvious that at this point in his-         The Lord puts Cain on trial, as
teous; the seed of the serpent had                 tory we stand at the beginning of         it were.
attacked and sought to destroy the                 the conflict, not at the end. It is           This trial begins with a pen-
                                                   obvious that the punishment of            etrating question which Jehovah
                                                   Cain does not represent the  final        puts to Cain: "Where is Abel thy
                                                   outcome of the conflict, either as        brother?"
The  late Homer Hoeksema was professor             far as the whole of history is con-           The Scriptures are silent as to
of  Dogmatics and Old Testament in the                                                       the details of the scene, except that
Protestant Reformed  Seminary.                     cerned or as far as this particular

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it seems rather obvious from the                             exactly what had taken place, and         initial question is put to him.
narrative that the scene was not                             He surely had no need of inquir-              Cain's answer to this question
that of the murder. It seems rather                          ing from Cain as to the where-            breathes defiance: "I know not:
that Cain had slain his brother and                          abouts of Abel. Nor, we must re-          Am I my brother's keeper?"
had gone about his business, and                             member, did the Lord have any                 In the first place, by his answer
the Lord stops him in the way. Per-                          need of finding out the attitude of       he denies the very fact of his sin.
haps this question came to Cain                              Cain: that He knew also. But Cain         This is plain evidence that there
from the Lord as he was busy of-                             must be exposed in the judgment of        was no inkling of sorrow and re-
fering again. We know not. But it                            God; the thoughts of his heart must       pentance in Cain, not even re-
is characteristic of the wicked in                           be revealed. To this end the ques-        morse. The true, contrite heart
history that they sin and rebel                              tion is designed. Will Cain now           never covers up. It acknowledges
against God, kill the righteous, cru-                        answer the Lord truthfully? Will          sin. It is filled with godly sorrow
cify the Christ and reject Him, and                          he confess to having murdered the         over sin and desires to have sin
trample underfoot the blood of                               righteous?                                taken out of the way. But then,
atonement - all in a religious man-                              In this connection, we must           surely, full acknowledgment, first
ner! They continue their offerings,                          bear in mind that it is not the  mere     of all, of the fact of sin is neces-
build their temples and churches,                            sin of Cain as such which invokes         sary. But Cain attempts to deny
labor for charity and missions, and                          the curse pronounced upon him.            and to cover up, and that, too, by
strive, as they claim, for the king-                         This is never the case. David, for        means of a lie. The proper answer
dom of God.               The abominable                     example, also murdered his brother        would have been, of course: "I
wickedness of it all is that they do                         (Uriah),  but there was forgiveness       murdered him." But he denies all
all these things as if they could pos-                       for David, while there is no for-         knowledge.
sibly draw the Lord into commun-                             giveness for Cain. Even at the                In the second place, Cain im-
ion with their evil life and walk.                           cross there was forgiveness, ac-          pudently and brazenly disavows
While we do not know what                                        cording to Jesus' prayer, for         all responsibility. For he adds to
Cain was doing at the mo-                                           them who crucified Him,            his denial the defiant rhetorical
ment, it would be very  char-                       7,  .            and that cross was surely         question, "Am I my brother's
a c t e r i s t i c   o f   h i m   a s   a         It 2s             the murder of the  Righ-         keeper?" By this question he stated
                                               characteristic
wicked man to have been                                                teous by the wicked. But        emphatically that he was not his
offering sacrifice at the                      of  the wicked          there was no forgiveness        brother's keeper. But this was not
very time when the Lord                          in history                for Cain. It was not the    true. It was certainly his responsi-
                                                that they sin
spoke to him. For  re-                                                     mere sin, but the sin       bility to be his brother's keeper just
member that Cain,  mur-                          and rebel                 compounded by  im-          because he occupied the position
                                                against God,
derer though he was,                                                       penitence that invoked      of his brother's  brother.  But this
was not like the heathen;                           kill                   the curse upon Cain.        disavowal of all responsibility was
he was a religious man,                        the righteous,               Suppose, for a moment,     a clear manifestation of the hatred
living in the historical                          crucify                   that Cain had repented     which filled him. Love loves to
sphere of the covenant,                        the Christ and               and confessed his sin      keep the brother. But Cain hated
where God was served.                           reject Him,                before the face of God.     his brother, and in this defiant
      As to the form of the                     and trample                 He surely would have       question he even now defends the
Lord's question, it is  ap-                      underfoot                 been forgiven, Any  sin-    principle of hatred over against
parently an innocent and                         the blood                 ner who repents finds       God. He is even impudent and
very general question. It                      of atonement-               forgiveness with God  -     brazen about it. He acts as though
does not accuse Cain at all                        all in              not because of his  repen-      the Lord's very question is abso-
directly. It suggested no                        a religious           tance, indeed, but in the       lutely no concern of his, as though
guilt and no crime. As                            manner!             way of it. But there was         the very whereabouts of Abel was
such, it leaves the matter                                           no repentance in the heart        no responsibility of his  - all the
strictly to Cain. Yet the  ques-                                  and mind of Cain. He was             while knowing not only that he was
tion was a searching one, and one                            hardened. Cain not only  did  wick-       responsible, but that he had vio-
calculated to leave Cain still more                          edly. He  defended  his sin rather        lated that responsibility by his
without excuse. For it served the                            than repent of it.                        murder.
purpose of exposing the inward  at-                                This had to become manifest,            Thus Cain is exposed as being
titude of Cain's mind and heart  to-                         in order that Cain might be left          inwardly as wicked as was his out-
ward his own sin. The Lord, of                               wholly without excuse and in  or-         ward deed. He is a defender and
course, was in need of no  informa-                          der that God might be justified in        representative of darkness. Far
tion about Abel or about Cain's                              His judgment. To that end Cain is         from being a  penitent  sinner, he is
murder of his brother. He knew                               put on trial; and to that end this        a denier and defender of his sin.

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He  is  as wicked as his deed. He is              It is evident that we have to do       be understood that the ground
exactly the opposite of  one  that is      here with a figure of speech. In              cried unto the Lord with an accus-
truly penitent, one who is ashamed         the literal sense of the word,  life-         ing voice concerning Abel's blood
and humble, one who hates and              less blood does not cry, nor does             and concerning Cain's blood-guilti-
condemns his own sin.                      the earth, or the ground, bear wit-           ness.  The earth, as included in
                                           ness. There is the figure of  per-            God's covenant with His people, is
Cain Convicted                             sonification here. Yet this figure            the Lord's ordained witness. It
    Again the Lord addresses a              of speech has profound  signifi-             bears testimony, substantiating the
question to Cain, "What hast thou           cance; it must not be passed over            accusation and judgment of the
done?" To this question the  state-        as being merely an emphatic or po-            Lord that are implied in His ques-
ment is added, "The voice of thy           etic form of expression. The  mean-           tion. The Lord says to Cain, as it
brother's blood crieth unto me                    ing is that the earth is included      were: "The earth is my ordained
from the ground."                                    in God's covenant with His          witness. That earth has opened her
    The question is not a              When           people, according to the  or-      mouth to receive thy brother's
question for information,           the wicked        dinance of God. Even as            blood; and from the ground the
not,a question to which an           persecute         the creation was brought          voice of his blood cries to me.
                                     and  slay
answer was expected from                               under the curse through           Thou hast slain the righteous.
Cain. But it is a question         the righteous,      man's sin, so the whole           Thou art guilty!"
which points the finger of           then  the         creation is also included in
accusation, divine  accusa-           whole            God's covenant of  friend-        The Sentence
tion and indictment, at              creatioti         ship with His people in               Sentence is therefore pro-
Cain. It is a question de-           cries for        Christ Jesus and shall be re-      nounced upon Cain. He is "cursed
signed to  impress  on him          vengeance.        deemed and glorified with          from the earth which hath opened
the terrible nature of his sin,                      the church in  <he day of the       her mouth to receive" his brother's
and at the same. time to fur-                     Lord Jesus Christ. That earth          blood. Notice, in the first place,
nish the ground for the sentence           is there for the sake of the righ-            that Cain is cursed not by, but  from
which would be passed upon Cain.           teous. It must serve for the bless-           the ground. Secondly, notice that
Cain, the wicked, whose offering           ing of the righteous and the curse            this is explained in the words of
was an abomination to Jehovah,             of the wicked. When the wicked                verse 12: "When thou tillest the
had killed the righteous! The seed         persecute and slay the righteous,             ground, it shall not henceforth
of the serpent had slain the seed of       then the whole creation cries for             yield unto thee her strength; a fu-
the woman! The darkness had                vengeance. This is but one aspect             gitive and a vagabond shalt thou
risen up and quenched the light!           of the groaning of the creation of            be in the earth."
    That the question is indeed one        which we read in Romans  8:19-22:                 This is a specific curse pro-
of accusation is plain from the fact        "For the earnest expectation of the          nounced upon Cain, quite in har-
that the Lord calls the earth to wit-      creature waiteth for the manifesta-           mony with the nature of his sin.
ness to the truth of the accusation:       tion of the sons of God. For the              The ground itself was also cursed
"The voice of thy brother's blood          creature was made subject to van-             after the Fall; yet for Christ's sake
crieth unto me from the ground."           ity, not willingly, but by reason of          and for the sake of the elect in Him,
The earth had received Abel's              him who hath subjected the same               it was also kept and in principle
blood when Cain slew him in the            in hope, because the creature itself          blessed. But now Cain is'cursed
field; and now from the earth that         also shall be delivered from the              from  the ground. The earth itself
blood cries to the Lord for just ven-      bondage of corruption into the glo-           is made to assume an attitude of
geance. Moreover, there is a con-          rious liberty of the children of God.         cursing toward Cain. When Cain
nection here with the nature of the        For we know that the whole cre-               tills the ground, it will not yield
sentence which is passed upon              ation groaneth and travaileth in              its strength to him. This does not
Cain, as is plain from verse 11:           pain together until now."                     mean that Cain will dwell in the
"And now art thou cursed from the                 If, in the light of the Scriptures,    desert. But it implies that wher-
earth, which hath opened her               we would give content to this cry,            ever Cain shall turn, he will be
mouth to receive thy brother's             this voice of blood, from the earth           cursed from the earth. His pres-
blood from thy hand." The sen-              "which opened her mouth to re-               ence, as it were, will cause the
tence is in harmony with the cir-          ceive" Abel's blood, that content is          earth to recoil in horror, so that it
cumstances of the sin: the earth           the same as the cry of the souls un-          will scarcely feed him, and so that
had received Abel's blood, the             der the altar, "How long, 0 Lord,             only with great difficulty will he
blood of the righteous; and from           holy and true, dost thou not judge            be able to derive from the soil the
that earth Cain, the wicked, would         and avenge our blood on them that             means of his support.
be cursed.                                 dwell on the earth?" Thus it must                 In that same sense he will be a

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fugitive and a vagabond. The very             that his punishment is greater than                    lay hands on this God-appointed
earth will cast him out and forsake           he can bear. He is driven out from                     vagabond. Nor must we mistake
him, so that he will have no rest.            the presence of the Lord in Eden.                      the purpose and motive of this
Especially, it seems, in the light of         He is become an accused outcast.                       sign. There was no expression of
Cain's retort and in the light of the         But his punishment, such is his de-                    grace and longsuffering in it. This
fact that he goes forth from the              fiance, shall never be executed, for                   is impossible: grace and the curse
land of Eden, this included two el-           everyone that finds him will kill                      do not go hand in hand. In fact,
ements:                                       him. The sense of Cain's retort,                       this sign had the very opposite mo-
    l.That  he no longer had any              therefore, is that his punishment                      tive: it insured the execution of
place in the land of Eden, where              will fail of execution because it will                 God's sentence upon Cain.
Jehovah revealed His face and                 soon be ended by death at the hand                         Thus, in the first place, Cain
spoke to His people;                          of someone who will kill him. (The                     must serve as a living testimony of
    2.That he would be driven al-             objection of higher criticism that                     the fact that the Lord takes His
ways by the impulse of fear that              this is an impossible piece of his-                    people's part in the conflict be-
everyone finding him would want               tory is foolish. The critics like to                   tween the seed of the woman and
to slay him.       As unrelentingly           point out that the author forgets                      the seed of the serpent. Here is a
chased by this dread, he would                that there were no other people at                     revelation that God and all things
have no settled resting place in the          this time. It should not be over-                      are for His people, and against the
earth. A vain, fugitive, accursed             looked, however:  1) that 130 years                    wicked; that God's people can suf-
life shall Cain lead in the earth.            of history could well have yielded                     fer and be hurt for a little while,
The very earth will spew him out,             3 or 4 generations at this time, and                   but that their enemies must soon
wherever he turns.                            a few thousand people. 2) That this                    perish, while the righteous have the
    Bear in mind, too, that behind            word of Cain also looks to the fu-                     victory.
all this is the Word of God's curse,          ture.)                                                     In the second place, the Lord's
the almighty Word of  God's-wrath                     But the Lord will work out His                 justice upon Cain is so executed
upon Cain, and that, too, in spe-             purpose with Cain. Cain himself                        upon Cain that:
cific judgment of his sin of mur-             must be a sign, a sign of the truth                        1. He is kept alive and be-
dering the righteous. The covenant            that the righteous shall inherit the                   comes the progenitor of an ungodly
God takes the part of His people              earth, while the wicked shall be                       generation.
and takes vengeance upon their en-            disinherited. He must serve as a                           2. He and his generation are
emies.                                        sign and concrete illustration of the                  given a separate place, away from
                                              everlasting punishment of the                          the presence of the Lord in Eden,
The Execution of the Sentence                 wicked, who shall go on forever ex-                    where they can develop in ungod-
    Cain's attitude over against                     isting, yet absolutely disinher-                liness and where the sin of Cain
this sentence is not at all one                         ited. Thus in Cain is realized               can ripen and bear its full fruit.
of repentance. He retorts,                               a theme which occurs often                      In the third place, the very
"My punishment is greater                 Cain            in the Psalms, e.g., Psalms                form of the curse pronounced upon
than I can bear," or,  ac-            must serve           59, 69, 109.                              Cain becomes, under the provi-
cording to another  render-            as a sign                    Hence, the Lord                  dence of God, the occasion for
ing, "Mine iniquity is                and concrete          appoints a mark, a sign,                 Cain and his generations becoming
greater than can be  for-             illustration          upon Cain. There is no                   civilization-builders. It must not
given."    Even the latter               of  the            profit in joining the                    be considered mere coincidence
rendering, though  ques-              everlasting           speculations which have                  that when Cain goes out from the
tionable in itself, cannot            punishment            been made as to the  na-                 presence of the Lord, he goes about
be explained as a  com-              of  the wicked,        t u r e   o f   t h a t   s i g n   -    building a city. This should be
plaint of repentance, or               who shall            w h e t h e r   C a i n   w a s   a      viewed as a consequence of his
even of remorse - not in             go  on  forever        leper, or had a horn, or                 wrestling against the curse pro-
the light of what follows.             existing,           was afflicted with  trem-                 nounced upon him. But even this
He looks at the heavy                yet absolutely        bling, etc. The simple fact               must serve ultimately the divine
                                     disinherited.
punishment imposed on                                     is that the Bible does not                 purpose of the defeat of the seed
him, rather than looking                                 tell us about this, and we                  of the serpent. For as the line of
with sorrow at his sin. This                            do not have to know. The                     Cain becomes great in its worldly
is always characteristic of the                       point is that it was a mark                    achievements, so it also progresses
impenitent.                                         which served to prevent Cain's                   in wickedness, finally filling the
    But even with respect to that             being killed by warning and threat-                    measure of iniquity and becoming
punishment, his attitude is one of            ening everyone of a sevenfold  ven-                    ripe for the destruction of the
rebellion and defiance. He retorts            geance upon the man who might                          Flood.  0

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                           Nestoriws and an Unholy
                        Squabble About Christ (1)

                                               That's what makes it all so sad. It          tween His divinity and His human-
Introduction
C                                              involved the doctrine of the incar-          ity? These were vexing questions.
         ontroversies are frequently           nation of Christ, the truth of Him                 Apollinaris had given an an-
         present in the church of              whom       the    Scriptures         call    swer by which he attempted to an-
         Christ because the church is          Immanuel, God with us. And it                swer both questions. He had con-
called to fight the good fight of              was so violent, so unchristian in            cluded, under the influence of
faith, also in defense of the truth            every sense, so brutal, so ugly, that        Graeco-Roman philosophy, that the
of Scripture. But controversies are            it is difficult even to talk of it.          divine Logos had taken the place
not pleasant, and sometimes they               When I was teaching Church His-              of the human soul in the man Jesus
are very ugly.                                 tory, I found this chapter to be one         Christ. But the church told him,
     It is not surprising that contro-         of the more distasteful.                     flat out, that he was wrong and that
versies are ugly, for they are fought              And yet, the Lord used the con-          he would be branded a heretic if
by men who are sinners, even                   troversy to bring the church nearer          he insisted on his position. He was
within the church of Christ. The               to the truth concerning the union            wrong, so said the great  Athana-
redeeming element is usually that              of the divine and human natures              sius, because Christ had to have a
some who are engaged in it are de-             of our Savior. The result of the             human soul in order to save us in
fenders of the faith and are fight-            controversy was the Chalcedonian             both body and soul. Apollinaris
ing that the truth of God may be               Creed. (It might be a good idea if           would not admit his wrong; he was
preserved. One can overlook a                  you would look it up and read it             branded a heretic.
great deal of individual wrong in              now. It can be found in the back                   But the questions remained.
controversy if it is clear that the            of the Psalter  used in the PRC.)                  The story of Nestorius is the
truth is at stake and that men are                                                          story of two other attempts to an-
fighting valiantly for it.                     The Problem in the Church                    swer the question  - and the story
     But once in a while it happens                You will recall that, in our last        of the final answer which the
that the spectator to a controversy            article, I mentioned the fact that the       church gave.
mutters to himself as he observes              church was having a most difficult
the battle: A plague on both your              time in defining precisely who               The Early Life of Nestorius
houses; and he turns away in dis-              Christ  is: In 325, at the great coun-            Nestorius' life was like a bril-
gust.    Such a controversy took               cil of  Nicea,  the church had em-           liant comet which flashes briefly
place in the fifth century in the              phatically confessed the doctrine of         across the sky and very quickly dis-
Mediterranean world between a                  the Trinity, and that doctrine espe-         appears from view.
heretic by the name of Nestorius               cially as it was connected to the ab-             He was born in Germanicia in
and a man who, although his views              solute divinity of Christ. Christ            t h e   e a r l y   p a r t   o f   t h e   4 0 0 s .
were vindicated at the time, was               Jesus our Savior is, in the memo-            Germanicia is in Syria on the north-
not himself as orthodox as one                 rable words of that creed, "very             east coast of the Mediterranean
would have liked him to be. The                God of very God."                            Sea. Its most important city is
latter's name was Cyril.                           But, although the church                 Antioch, the city from which Paul
    The controversy was over the               readily acknowledged that Christ             the apostle set sail on his mission-
doctrine of our Lord Jesus Christ.             was also a man "like us in all               ary journeys. And so it was to
                                               things, except our sin," no one was          Antioch that Nestorius went for his
                                               prepared to say precisely in what            education. While attending school
                                               way Christ was also a man. And,              and in his early post-graduate
Prof. Hanko is  professoi   of  Church His-
tory and New  Testamen't  in fhe Protes-       granted now that He was indeed a             years, he lived in a cloister hard
tant Reformed Seminary.                        man, what was the relation be-               by the walls of the city. In the

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cloister he learned about and             tinople was the most important            Egypt, that it had entered the de-
learned to love the ascetic life.         man in the Eastern church, the            votional life of the members of the
    Nestorius was a man of con-           equal in the East to the pope, who        church, and it had become a part
siderable ability. He not only            was bishop of Rome. In fact, the          of the liturgical rituals of the
found it relatively easy to master        two tended to squabble a great deal       clergy.
his subjects, but after his schooling     over who was really ruler of                  But there were many who did
he showed a vast theological learn-       whom. Both wanted the top spot.           not like the term, refused to use it,
ing and a sound and practical judg-       The controversy continued till 1043       and sometimes fought vehemently
ment which set him apart from             when the church split between east        against its use in the churches.
many others. These gifts soon             and west. The patriarch of Con-           They complained that it was not
came to the attention of the lead-        stantinople was in a position to in-      biblical, that it did not accurately
ers in the church, and he was or-         fluence all ecclesiastical affairs; he    express Mary's relation to Christ,
dained a presbyter in the church          was able to influence the emperor         and that it was, in fact, a danger-
at Antioch. In that church he prac-       himself and give him counsel and          ous term which could easily leave
ticed a rigid austerity, in keeping       advice on how best to rule in             the impression not only that God
with his love of the ascetic life, and    church and state; he was, under the       Himself was born from the virgin,
he became a fervent and powerful          emperor, the most powerful man            but also that God Himself suffered
preacher, whose oratory attracted         in Asia.                                  and died on the cross. One can
hundreds. He became accustomed                It is some measure of the high        sense the force of these objections.
to preaching to a church crowded          reputation of Nestorius that the              The differences over the use of
with people.                              emperor passed over the leading           theotokos  were also present in
    Such a man soon drew wider            clerics in Constantinople and chose       Constantinople at the time  Nes-
attention to himself, and it was not      Nestorius to be the new patriarch.        torius moved from Antioch to take
long before the emperor took no-          The year was 428. Nestorius could         over this prestigious post.
tice of him. The patriarchate of          not have been much more than 25               S o m e t h i n g   h a p p e n e d   t o
Constantinople fell vacant. The           years old.                                Nestorius when he received this
emperor was responsible for filling                                                 appointment from the emperor. I
the post.                                 Troubles                                  think what happened was some-
    To appreciate fully what hap-             Once again a little background        thing latent in Nestorius' character
pened next, one must understand           information is important to under-        which did not have opportunity to
the importance of Constantinople.         stand events.                             come to expression until he had the
It was a city on the Bosporus (you            As I said at the beginning of         reins of power in his hands. But
can find it on a map under the            this article, the church was em-          from the very day he assumed his
name of Istanbul) which occupied          broiled in controversy over the re-       duties he became a proud and ar-
a strategic position because it was       lation between the human and di-          rogant man who was a religious fa-
the western side of the door that         vine natures of our Lord Jesus            natic of the worst sort. He seemed
separated Asia on the eastern side        Christ. But one complicating ele-         to think that God had appointed
and Europe on the western side.           ment in the controversy was the           him to be patriarch of Constanti-
Constantinople had received its           use of a rather strange term:             nople for no other reason than that
name from Constantine the Great           theotokos.  That term was applied         he might be God's sole avenging
who, when he became ruler of the          to Mary, the mother of Jesus, and         angel against every solitary heresy
Roman Empire, moved the capitol           means, literally, "God-bearer," or,       that appeared on the horizon.
of the empire from Rome to this           less literally, "mother of God."              From day one Nestorius moved
city on the Bosporus. Because it          Mary was  theotokos,  the mother of       with intolerant zeal and bigotry
was so closely associated with the        God.                                      against every little sect that had a
center of political power, the                This term, whatever one may           corner in the teeming mass of
church in Constantinople grew rap-        think of it as an accurate descrip-       people who inhabited the imperial
idly in importance as well, espe-         tion of Mary, had originated among        city. On day five after his inaugu-
cially when the emperors were de-         the monks, especially in Egypt,           ration he ordered burned down a
voted to the task of supporting the       who were already deeply involved          small Arian church in a poor quar-
church and, when possible, ruling         in the worship of Mary. They              ter of the city. I suppose a zeal
it. Constantinople, as a result, be-      thought the term important to pre-        against heresy can be approved,
came the most important church in         serve the divinity of Christ, and         but the methods which Nestorius
the eastern part of the Mediterra-        they made common use of it to ex-         used were harsh and cruel even by
nean world and was rivaled only           press their devotion to Christ and        the standards of his day. Condem-
by Rome itself.                           to Mary. So common had the ex-            nation was not enough. The her-
    The patriarch of  Constan-            pression become, especially in            etics had to be run out of the city

260/StandardBearer/hfarch  1,1999


or destroyed. Their property had             ern church condemned Coelestius                          tion undone. "Consistency, thou
to be confiscated and their voice            and Julian of Eclunum for the her-                       art a jewel."
silenced. Nestorius began to de-             esy of Pelagianism, and when these                           One other "heresy" he could
liver impassioned speeches against           two men fled to Constantinople,                          not abide.        He hated the term
heresy, which roused the people to           Nestorius was the one who was tol-                       theotokos.  The use of that term was,
fury until riots became everyday             erant of their view and supported                        to Nestorius, the greatest of all her-
occurrences in the city and blood            them in their heresy of the free-will                    esies.
began to be spilled.                         of man. He was even willing to                               The stage was set for great
    What makes his frenzy and in-            appeal to the pope on their behalf                       trouble.
ordinate zeal all the more distaste-         in an effort to get their condemna-                          We must save the rest of the
ful is the fact that when the West-                                                                   story till next time. Cl





                 Wars and Rumors of War

                                                 N o t   l o n g   a f t e r   t h e   f l o o d ,    wide. We can plainly see here a
Ye shall hear  of  wars  and  rumors  of     Nimrod the mighty hunter tried to                        forerunner of the Antichrist, whose
wars: see that ye be not troubled:  for      unite the descendants of Shem,                           number is 666.
all these things must come to pass,          Ham, and Japheth into a world em-                            Nebuchadnezzar's kingdom
but the end is not yet.                      pire at Babel. God prevented him                         was, in turn, taken over by the
                           Matthew  24:6     by confusing their language, and                         Macedonian kingdom, and the
E                                            as a result they were scattered over                     Macedonian kingdom was con-
          ver since the fall of our first    the face of the earth. The breach                        quered by the Roman empire.
          parents in Paradise, the           of Babel will not be healed until                        These last four are the beasts that
          world has been at war. The         almost the end of the ages. Al-                          are mentioned in Daniel and in
disobedience of Adam and Eve and             ready today we see efforts toward                        Revelation.
their alliance with Satan by eating          unification in a striving for a uni-                         One more must appear, but in
of the forbidden tree already cre-           versal language, a common market,                        the meantime the devil is bound
ated between the two of them a               same currency, etc., which will ul-                      for a period of a thousand years,
strained relationship which could            timately lead to the kingdom of                          that is, for a time determined by
only be healed by grace.                     Antichrist.                                              God in which he cannot deceive the
    God had put enmity between                   Ever since Nimrod, nations                           nations so that they unite as a
the seed of the serpent and the seed         have risen against nations, wars                         world power.
of the woman, as became evident              and rumors of war have continued                             But that does not mean that the
already when Cain killed his                 unceasingly.         One kingdom was                     world is at peace. Wars and ru-
brother Abel. In rebellion against           swallowed up by a stronger one.                          mors of war continue throughout
God, Cain's descendants perse-               Thus Syria was taken over by                             this present dispensation. There
cuted the church. As a result,               Assyria, Assyria was conquered by                        always was and there always will
about fifteen hundred years later            Nebuchadnezzar,                   and          the       be a struggle for supremacy, for
the first world was ripe for judg-           Babylonian kingdom was estab-                            ruling the world, even until the end
ment and was destroyed by the                lished.                                                  of the ages.
deluge. Only Noah and his family                 It is interesting to note that                           It has been said that World War
were saved by the waters of the              Nebuchadnezzar made an image to                          I was a war to end all wars. A
flood.                                       be worshiped by all the princes of                       League of Nations was formed. A
                                             his kingdom. The dimensions of                           peace palace was built. But it was
Rev. Hanko is a minister emeritus in the     that image equaled the number 66:                        not long before we were engaged
Protestant Reformed Churches,                sixty cubits high and six cubits                         in World War II. The United  Na-

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tions has built a large, costly build-                 property, losses that can never be          That reveals itself among the na-
ing where all the world's problems                     made up.                                    tions in covetousness, greed, pride,
were to be solved. But even that                              This ultimately leads to the fi-     and jealousy. We think, for ex-
has not brought an end to warfare.                     nal battle of Armageddon. It has            ample, of the emperors who were
     Our own nation gained its in-                     been said that history may end              greedy for power and wanted to
dependence through a revolution                        where it began, near the former             be worshiped as if they were gods.
against England. Later we engaged                      garden of Eden. This final battle                   On the other hand, God is car-
in a civil war. We became involved                     results in the coming of our Lord           rying out His counsel also through
in wars with other nations. In the                     with the clouds of heaven.                  wicked men.
meantime, there were always nu-                                                                            It is interesting to note that the
merous wars and struggles going                                  +++  +++  +++                     disciples used one word when they
on all over the world. There was a                                                                 referred to the end of the world,
"cold war," as well as constant                               All these things must come to        while Jesus used another word.
threats of new wars.                                   pass.                                       The word that the disciples used
     We cannot fail to notice that in                         Revelation 6 speaks of the           refers to the conclusion of history,
each war new and more powerful                         Lamb opening the seals, that is,            the cessation of time, while Jesus
weapons of warfare are employed.                       carrying out the counsel of God as          employs a word that means the
The world has gone from the club                       exalted Lord in heaven. Then we             goal, when God's counsel is fully
to the bow and arrow, then to the                      read that the white horse with its          realized and His eternal purpose
sword and the battering ram. In                        rider is sent forth to spread the gos-      is attained.
more recent years guns and air-                        pel to the ends of the earth. Then                  In spite of, even through, the
planes have come into use in war,                      the red horse is sent out to take           efforts of the powers of darkness
trench warfare has become bomb-                        peace from the earth.                       to prevent God's cause from pros-
ings, and bombs have been devel-                              There is a close relationship be-    pering in the world, God gathers
oped into nuclear and biological                       tween the spread of the gospel and          His church. He preserves and de-
weapons whereby untold destruc-                        the opposition it receives in the ap-       fends her over against all the on-
tion can be wrought both upon                          pearance of false Christs and the           slaughts of the wicked.
property and to human lives. It                        continuous warfare throughout this
appears as if the time will come                       dispensation. The false Christs and                    +++  +++  +++
when the nations will be so thor-                      the wars increase; the one in the
oughly prepared to wipe each                           church, the other in the world, un-                 Be on your guard. Let not your
other out that the world may be in                     til the cup of iniquity is full. These      heart be troubled.
a deadlock, not able nor daring to                     both are the ragings of the wicked                  Psalm 2 declares: "Why do the
make the final blow that would end                     against God and His Anointed.               nations rage, and the people imag-
in total disaster. Does this mean                      They are determined to wipe out             ine a vain thing? The kings of the
that also in that sense the world                      God's cause and God's name from             earth set themselves, and the rul-
will come to a stalemate, that the                     the face of the earth. Man must                     ers take counsel together,
battle of Armageddon has no fin-                       triumph over God.                                      a g a i n s t   t h e   L o r d ,   a n d
ish, except by the coming of the                              Therefore Jesus warns                             against his anointed,  say-
Son  of man? We can only surmise.                                                          In spite of,
                                                       us:      Nation shall rise
     We can hardly imagine the ha-                                                        even through,          ing, Let us break their
                                                       against nation, and  king-
tred that is built up, the constant                                                         the efforts          bands asunder, and cast
                                                       dom shall rise against
agony involved, both for those who                                                        of the powers           away their cords from
                                                       kingdom before the end                                     us."
are on the battlefield and for those                   is reached. That end is             of  darkness
who are in the area, even for those                                                         to prevent                    You know what fol-
                                                       not yet, not until all
who are threatened with bombings                                                           God's  cause           lows: "He that sitteth in
                                                       God's counsel is carried                                   the heavens shall laugh:
day and night. Not to mention the                                                       fr;nvT;;g%
                                                       out to the full.                                           the Lord shall have them
rape of women and plunder of                                  There is, on the one
homes during the war. And there                                                            God gathers'           in derision."
                                                       hand, the power of Satan                                           Why? Because God
are the bitter consequences. This                      and his forces. He does all         His church.         has set His king upon the
includes not only loss of valuable                     that he possibly can to bring                          holy  hill.of Zion! All power
property, destroyed cities, but also                   unrest among the nations and                        is given to the exalted Christ
t h e   d e a d ,   t h e   w o u n d e d ,   t h e    to wipe out God's cause from upon           in heaven and on earth. Nothing
maimed, and the paraplegics, as                        the face of the earth. Besides that,        happens apart from God's will. All
well as their families who must suf-                   man by nature is prone to hate God          the evil powers-of darkness must
fer `along with them. Even the vic-                    and his neighbor. He is incapable           serve toward' the coming of the
tor suffers heavy losses of lives and                  of any good and inclined to all evil.       Lord.

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   It is in that confidence that we
pray, Thy kingdom come! Yes, that
includes wars and rumors of war,
even mass destruction, bitter suf-
fering for God's people. It also in-
cludes the rise of the Antichrist,                         A Bedtime Prayer for Young Children
who in a sense is already among
us. But in all these things we are                    Dear Father in heaven, Creator of all,
more than conquerors through Him
who loved us and loves us still!                      I thank Thee for hearing, when Thy children call.
    No, the end is not yet. That is,                  Keep watching above me, all through the dark night,
wars will not bring the kingdom                       That in the bright morning, I wake to Thy light.
of heaven. But Christ is carrying                     Bless father and mother, and those that I love.
out God's counsel until God's pur-                    Send Thy Holy Spirit, to work from above.
pose, His goal, is attained. God's                    Forgive all the sins that this day I have done.
judgments are a mighty deep, and                      I ask in Thy Son's name, the victory He's won.
as the mountains high. But Jesus                                                                                Amen.
assures us: Behold, I come quickly,
even speedily. Not one word shall                                                               Deborah A. Benson
fail of all that God has promised.
        Thus He encourages us: "Be
thou faithful unto death, and I will
give you the crown of life." Cl



                                             were given on satisfying and use-      end the work in San Luis Valley,
Evangelism Activities                        ful ways a Christian can enrich        CO as of April of this year. Rev.
We received the following from each day. Rev. Hanko also spoke Miersma and his family will be
          the Evangelism Committee           on family devotional practices in      moving to Spokane, WA to begin
of the Southwest PRC in  Grand-              other denominations that believers     labors there with the Sovereign
ville, MI and decided it was worth           in the PRC might consider as ben-      Grace Reformed Church.
passing along for your consider-             eficial. To receive this edifying           Loveland's consistory used this
ation. "Did you get behind in your           tape send a $3.00 check made out       announcement as an opportunity
Standard Bearer  reading during late         to Southwest PRC, 4875  Ivanrest       also to urge their congregation to
December/early January and miss              Ave., Grandville, MI 49418."           write the families and individuals
the offer to write for the cassette             Although no date has yet been       of the S.L.V. mission to encourage
recording of a fireside chat given           set, it appears that our Bethel PRC    them to move to the vicinity of one
by Rev. Cornelius Hanko? Before              in Itasca IL  will- be `moving soon    of our churches. Or maybe possi-
a good-sized crowd at the fall               into their new church home. This       bly to move to the Loveland, CO
meeting of the Eastern Men's and             impending move means more work         area, where they would find a new
Ladies' League, September 22,                for their Evangelism Committee.        church home, along with a warm
1998, Rev. Hanko spoke from his              Currently they are discussing plans    welcome from our church there.
long experience with family devo-            for evangelism in the neighborhood          On January 25, the congrega-
tions, particularly after one's chil-        of their new church home. They         tion of the Hull, IA PRC extended
dren have left the home, when a              are also planning on updating the      a call to Rev. R. Moore, their pas-
couple or widower/widow finds                brochure introducing their church      tor, to serve our churches as a mis-
himself or herself alone, with more          and our denomination to outsiders,     sionary to Ghana. Rev. Moore has
time to enjoy devotions each day.            as well as making changes in their     accepted this call.
The subject of how to fill lonely            current yellow  page advertisement.
hours was also covered, and ideas                                                   Congregational Activities
                                             Mission Activities
                                             The consistory of the Loveland, The council of the Southwest
                                                                                         PRC in Grandville, MI has ap-
                                                CO PRC, in consultation with        p r o v e d   t h e   p u b l i c a t i o n   o f   a
Mr. Wigger  is an elder in the Protestant    Missionary T. Miersma and the
Reformed Church  of'  Hudsonville, Michi-                                           monthly newsletter in their congre-
                                             Mission Committee, has decided to
gan.                                                                                 gation,       This newsletter will be

                                                                                                March  1,1999/Standard  Bearer/263


       Fendard
   l33arer                                                                                                                                PERIODICAL
                                                                                                                                          Postage Paid at
    P.O. Box 603                                                                                                                          Grandville,
   Grandville, MI  49468-0603                                                                                                             Michigan


called "The Messenger" and will                             T h e   c o n g r e g a t i o n   o f   t h e          grow and more families may move
include primarily the missionary                      Lynden, WA PRC was recently en-                              there in the future. Also, this area
newsletters, newsletters from the                     couraged to come together for a                              will be a new area of witness for
schools and denominational com-                       night of singing psalms from the                             our churches.
mittees, and other items of general                   PsaZter at the Health Care Center
interest.                                             in Lynden.                                                   Minister Activities
     The extreme cold of the last                           The council of the Byron Cen-
weeks has slowed down the work                        ter, MI PRC recently decided to use                          Rev. A. Spriensma, pastor of the
                                                                                                                        Grandville, MI PRC, under-
being done on the new sanctuary                       this year's catechism collections to                         went two surgeries during the
o f   t h e   G e o r g e t o w n   P R C   i n       purchase a Psalter-number Board                              month of January for a recurring
Hudsonville, MI. However, all the                     for the front of their sanctuary.                            colon condition. Tests showed no
windows have been installed and                             The council of the South Hol-                          malignancy, and after several
temporary doors have been put in.                     land, IL PRC has approved the or-                            weeks of recuperation, Rev.
Carpenters continue to work in the                    ganization of a daughter congrega-                           Spriensma began to take up his la-
narthex area and the masons have                      tion in the Dyer, IN area.  Twenty-                          bors in a limited way by teaching
been able to do some work on the                      four families and three individuals                          a catechism class the first week in
interior walls.                                       signed a petition of the council ex-                         February and preaching one ser-
     Work also continues on the                       pressing interest in beginning a                             vice on February 7.
Bethel PRC in Itasca, IL. The lat-                    new congregation. This request
est word from them indicates that                     will be presented to the March                                             Food-for TEol@it
staining and varnishing is now be-                    meeting of  Classis  West.                                        "The Spirit of Christ is the
ing done. The floor has been in-                            South Holland encouraged this                          spirit of missions, and the nearer
stalled in both bathrooms and the                     organization partly because they                             we get to Him the more intensely
kitchen and some wall-papering                        feel that the Northwest Indiana                              missionary we must become."
was also completed.                                   area is one that will continue to                                                -Henry Martyn  Cl



        RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                 RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
     The council and congregation of South-                 The council and congregation of Southeast
east PRC would like to express their sympa-           PRC express their Christian sympathy to Marcia                           TEACHERSNEEDED
thy to Jane Petersen and her family in the            DeMeester  in the death of her father,                            Hope Christian School of Redlands, CA
death of her husband,                                                    SID NEWHOF.                               is in need of a teacher for the intermediate
             ROLAND PETERSEN.                               "The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit,    grades (3 & 4) for the 1999-2000 school year.
     "Blessed are they that do his command-           that we are the children of God: And if children,            The grade assignment, however, is flexible,
ments, that they may have right to the tree of        then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ;       with the possibility instead for an elementary
life, and may enter in through the gates into         if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be             position (grades 1  8 2). Interested persons
the city" (Revelation 22:14).                         also glorified together" (Romans 8:16, 17).                  are encouraged to send an application to Hope
                                                                                    Rev. Dale Kuiper, Pres.
                         Rev. Dale Kuiper, Pres.                                                                   Christian School, attn: Ed Karsemeyer, 1309
                                                                                    Tim Pipe, Retired Clerk
                                 Ed Hekstra, Clerk                                                                 E. Brockton Ave., Redlands, CA 92374. You
                                                                   EXTENDED DEADLINE!                              may also phone school  (909-793-4584),  Bill
                   NOTICE!1                                                                                        Feenstra  (909-793-3597)  or Mike Gritters
                                                            The  75" anniversary committee still needs pic-
     All standing and special committees of           tures relating to the PRC denomination for the an-           (909-793-4439).
the synod of the Protestant Reformed                  niversary booklet. Pictures pertaining to churches,
Churches, as well as individuals who wish to          schools, ministers, young people's conventions, etc.              Hull Protestant Reformed School will
address synod 1999, are hereby notified that          will be much appreciated! By March 31.                       need a 6'h/7'h grade teacher for the 1999-2000
all material for this year's synod should be in             Please send the pictures to:                           school year. Inquiries or applications should
the hands of the  stated  clerk no later than                            Mr. Ken Elzinga                           be made to Mr. Pete Brummel, principal, 218
April 1. Please send material to:                                        4465 100th St.                            Second St., Hull, IA 51239, (712) 439-2490
              Mr. Don Doezema                                       Byron Center, Ml 49315                         or (712) 439-1308,  or  to Mr. Brian Kroese, 301
                                                           Remember to include your name and address
              4949 lvanrest Ave.                      on the back of each picture so they can be re-               Second St., Hull, IA 51239, (712) 439-1699.
             Grandville, Ml 49418                     turned to you promptly.
264/Standard  Bearer/March 1,1999


