A Reformed
Semi-Monthly
Magazine

                                                                                  In This Issue:
                  Meditation  - Rev. Rodney G. Miersma
                             Elijah At Cherith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266
                  Editorial  - Prof. David  J.  Engelsma
                             A Defense of the Gospel of Grace
                             against ECT (3) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268
                  Letters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .270
                  All Around Us - Rev. Gise VanBaren . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270
                  That They May Teach Them To Their Children  - Miss Agatha Lubbers
                             Establishing Schools to Provide
                             Reformed Covenant Education (3) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272
                  Search the Scriptures  - Rev. Mitchell C. Dick
                             The Trial of Truth, Democrats,  &
                             Grand Old Pharisees (1) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276
                  Taking Heed to the Doctrine  -  Rev. Steven R. Key
                             Confessing Our Lord (3) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278
                  Ministering to the Saints  -  Rev. Doug/as J.  Kuiper
                             The History of the Diaconate (1)
                             Its Institution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281
                  Come, Lord Jesus  - Rev. Cornelius Hanko
                             Signs of the Times (4)
                             Signs of Christ's Coming in Nature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284
                  Book Reviews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286
                  News From Our Churches - Mr. Benjamin Wigger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287




March 15, 1999


                                                     Elijah At Cherith

                                                  And  the word  of  the  LORD  came unto him saying, Get thee hence,
                                           and turn thee eastward, and hide thyself by the brook Cherith, that is
                                           before Jordan. And it shall be, that thou shalt drink  of  the brook; and  I
                                           have commanded the ravens to feed thee there. So he went and did
                                           according unto the word  of  the  LORD:  for  he went and dwelt by the
                                           brook Cherith, that is before Jordan. And the ravens brought him bread
                                           and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening; and he
                                           drank of the brook. And it came to pass after a while, that the brook
                                           dried  up, because there had been no  r&n in  the land.
                                                                                                                                I Kings  17:2-7


S                                                                 killed and persecuted, so that the                              Elijah was sent away. Was it for his
         everal  issues ago we were in-                           faithful minority in the land were                              own protection, seeing that Jezebel
         troduced to Elijah when he                               too afraid to identify themselves as                            was killing God's prophets? No,
         made his appearance before                               belonging to the party of God.                                  Elijah was not afraid of her. He was
King Ahab. He had come to the                                           Upon this scene arrives Elijah,                           a bold man, as evidenced by his
king's court to deliver the mighty                                sent by God to announce judgment                                coming in the first place to deliver
and powerful word of God, a word                                  and to assure the faithful that God                             this awful message of judgment. He
that was tremendously important                                   forever remains the Sovereign One.                              would much rather stay and
and which would have far-reach-                                   Therefore there would be no rain                                preach, since then he could apply
ing consequences. Israel had be-                                  or dew but according to the word                                the Word of God under just the
come wicked, for under Ahab and                                   of Elijah. Having spoken that word,                             right conditions. As he was preach-
his wicked wife Jezebel the wor-                                  Elijah disappears. God sends him                                ing he could point to the brazen
ship of  Baa1 had been introduced.                                to Cherith, a small brook which led                             heavens and the parched earth and
The prophets of God were being                                    to the river Jordan. Elijah as an in-                           thus call the people to repentance.
                                                                  strument of God must disappear in                                        But such it was not to be. He
                                                                  order that the Word of God may                                  had done what the Lord wanted
Rev. Miersma is pastor                                            run its course. God must receive                                him to do; now he must leave the
                                      of Immanuel  Prot-
estant Reformed Church  of  Lacombe,                              the glory, not Elijah.                                          scene to God. At the brook he
Alberta, Canada.                                                         One may speculate as to why                              would receive no report concerning


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266/Standard  Bearer/March 15,1999


Ahab or the people, but he would          All these things and the equivalent                        was only at Cherith that the ravens
be able to see that the Word of God       for his time were entirely foreign                         would feed Elijah. If he would have
was being fulfilled. Indeed, the          to Elijah.                                                 gone west toward the sea instead
heavens were as brass, and after a             However, we do not have to                            of east toward the Jordan he would
while the brook dried up. Elijah          feel sorry for Elijah. Oh, no! In fact,                    not have been fed. Not everywhere,
and we have to know that the ser-         he had more than all these things,                         only there.
vant as such is not important, for        for he received morning and                                    So we must go to Cherith to be
the battle was between God and            evening food with the favor of                             fed by the hand of God. There we
Baal, not between Ahab and Elijah.        God. What does it profit a man if                          will not find the pleasures and trea-
God left the field to  Baa1  to let it    he gain the whole world and lose                           sures of this world and of the flesh.
become evident what  Baa1  could          his own soul? What benefit is it to                        There we cannot fill our barns for
do. Elijah had to leave Ahab with-        the man who can fill his barns and                         years to come and exhort our soul
out any possibility of the rain-pro-      tell his soul that it has much goods                       to eat, drink, and be merry. But we
ducing word.  Baa1  would be left         for many years, when that very                             will receive our portion, no more
alone with the people. Let them           night the living God will separate                         and no less, every morning and ev-
look to  Baa1  and see what he can        him from that hoard?                                       ery evening. After every meal we
do for them.                                   What we have here in God's                            must look at the brazen heavens
    God must receive the glory.           caring for Elijah is a wonder of                           and trust that the Lord will come
When the servant has performed            grace. That can be seen simply by                          again and again and again. Do not
his calling, he need not worry            looking at the ravens. Do you                              be afraid. No, He has commanded
about the rest. His calling is to         know what a raven is? A big black                          that we be fed there. Before we go,
bring the Word of the Lord. When          bird which is more at home eating                          our provisions are ready. Certainly
that is done, the rest is left up to      dead and rotting flesh than bread                          there is no need even to think
Jehovah. So the servant must be           and fresh meat. One often observes                         about yoking ourselves unequally
kept humble, for which reason he          ravens on the road eating dead ani-                        with unbelievers.
is sent from the limelight into           mals that have been run over by
oblivion. God did the same thing          cars or trucks. This kind of bird                              Be ye not unequally yoked with
with John the Baptist and the             was now going to bring Elijah                                unbelievers: for what fellowship
apostle Paul. This does not hinder        good, clean, fresh food. Amazing!                            hath righteousness with unrigh-
the cause of God, but shows that               This was a miracle which                                teousness? and what communion
He alone has the power to execute         serves as a special sign to God's                            hath light with darkness? And
                                                                                                       what concord hath Christ with
His Word.                                 people. It was, first of all, a sign to                      Belial? or what part hath he that
    At the brook Cherith Elijah           Elijah. It told him not only that God                        believeth with an infidel? And
would be in the care of God. Here         was preserving him but that He                               what agreement hath the temple
he would receive the necessary            would also take care of His people                           of God with idols? for ye are the
rest. While Elijah was here, God          in Israel. This testimony came twice                         temple of the living God; as God
would provide for all his needs.          a day in the form of the ravens.                             hath said, I will dwell in them,
Under almost unbelievable condi-          God would not destroy the righ-                              and walk in them; and  I will be
tions he would lack nothing. For          teous with the ungodly. So he                                their God, and they shall be my
his drink he had the brook, and for       learned with childlike confidence                            people. Wherefore come out from
                                                                                                       among them, and be ye separate,
his food he would look to the             that God would provide.                                      saith the Lord, and touch not the
ravens, which the Lord had com-                 We as God's people also learn                          unclean thing; and I will receive
manded to bring him bread and             from this sign. God preserves us                             you. II Corinthians  6:14-17
flesh. We are not told all the cir-       by the wonder of grace in a most
cumstances of his stay at the brook,      wonderful way through Jesus                                    In God's way, therefore, in the
but we can be sure that he had only       Christ. As God delivered Elijah in                         way of obedience, is His blessing.
the bare necessities. He had no new       the midst of a land of wrath, so He                        In God's way one experiences the
car, nor several sets of new clothes.     will deliver  all His people.                              kindness, love, and fellowship of
There was no colored television at-             There is more. Both Elijah and                       the covenant God. You will not be
tached to a satellite and VCR, nor        we must know not only that God                             afraid to lose your name, job, repu-
a computer so that he could spend         does care for us, but that He will                         tation, and honor in the world, for
much time surfing the Internet:           do so only in His way. That way is                         at Cherith you will receive bread
Certainly he had no soft bed upon         t h e   w a y   o f   o b e d i e n c e .   E l i j a h    with God's blessing. If you go the
which he could rest his weary             obeyed the command of God to go                            other way, the world will give you
bones. Many if not most of these          to Cherith. He did not have to fear,                       more bread than you can eat. Did
things we no longer count as luxu-        f o r   G o d   hnd  c o m m a n d e d   t h e             not Satan offer Christ the whole
ries, but as necessities in our life.     ravens. This was already done. It                          world? Just remember that this is

                                                                                                           March  15,1999/Standard  Bearer/267


the bread of wrath. It contains no        has sent the Bread of Life. Just as       you and I must go to Cherith. This
nourishment, provides no  protec-         there is only one Cherith, so there       is the way of obedience. Only in
tion, and fails utterly to make you       is only one Christ. He has provided       this way do we share God's  bless-
strong for the day of battle. It is as    for all our needs unto-eternity. You      ings. For as the Captain of our  sal-
empty as the wind, and they that          will not find Christ in the courts of     vation He sovereignly directs all
consume it shall perish.                  Ahab, for He is long departed. No,        things for the good of His own that
      God has provided for us. He                                                   are sheltered at the brook. 0





            A Defense of the Gospel of
                             Grace against ECT
                                                      (3)

                                          Christ. If he does add a work of          own works that are added to the
J                                         his own to the work of Christ for         work of Christ for him. Third, a
     ustification by faith alone, as      him, he is not justified.                 man is not justified by his own
     briefly described in the  preced-                                              works that he performs by the
mg editorial, is the heart of the gos-    The Galatian Heresy                       power of the Spirit of Christ within
pel of grace. This is compromised,            This is the explicit warning of       him, which works are then added
and thus effectively denied, by the       the book of Galatians. The error          to the work of Christ for him.
movement, "Evangelicals   a n d           of the Galatians was not that they            The wickedness of the  Gala-
Catholics Together"  (ECT).               rejected faith in Jesus Christ as the     tians was that they were trusting
      In order to understand what         way to be justified. Rather, they         mainly in Jesus Christ and His
this compromise is, as well as the        added a work of their own to faith        cross and partly in something they
seriousness of it, we must remind         in Jesus Christ as the way to be          themselves did.
ourselves of the error warned             righteous with God. The work that
against in the book of Romans and         they added was circumcision. The          Rome's Doctrine of Justification
especially in the book of Galatians.      error, therefore, that the apostle ex-        Exactly this was the Roman
                                          posed and condemned was that of           Catholic error concerning justifica-
The Error of Works-Righteousness          teaching and practicing justifica-        tion at the Reformation, and exactly
in Romans                                 tion by faith  and works.  To put it      this is the error of the Roman
      Romans 3 and 4 warn against         differently, it was the error of add-     Catholic Church still today.
the sinner's working in order to be       ing a work of their own to the work           Rome has never denied that a
righteous. All our working and all        of Christ for them as making up           sinner is justified by God's grace
our own works are excluded from           their righteousness with God.             through faith on the basis of
the only righteousness that is ac-            When the apostle declares in          Christ's work. On the contrary,
ceptable with God. Romans  4:5            Galatians  2:16 that a man is justi-      Rome has always affirmed this.
warns that if a man works to be           fied by the faith of Christ "and not      The Roman Catholic theologian
justified, he will not be justified:      by the works of the law," the mean-       Avery  Dulles is deceptive and mis-
"To him that worketh not . . . his        ing is three-fold. First, a man is        leading, therefore, when, in de-
faith is counted for righteousness."      not justified by his own works of         fending ECT, he encourages Prot-
Clearly implied is that for righ-         obeying any part of the law of God,       estants to "put to rest any suspi-
teousness one may not add any of          whether moral or ceremonial. Sec-         cions that Catholics consider it pos-
his own works to his faith in Jesus       ond, a man is not justified by his        sible to be justified by good works

266/Standard  Bearer/blarch 15,1999


without grace and faith" ("The                acknowledgment that the righ-                Related Roman Doctrine and Life
Unity for Which We Hope," in                  teousness of justification consists of          V i t a l l y   i m p o r t a n t   R o m a n
Evlingelicals  ?3 Catholics Together:         "the  merits of the Passion of our           Catholic teachings and practices
Toward a Common Mission,  ed.                 Lord Jesus Christ (which) are com-           depend upon and express Rome's
Charles Colsan and Richard John               municated" to us. But not only of            teaching of justification. One is
Neuhaus [Word, 19951,  p. 138).               these merits, the article is quick to        that every sinner can and must
         No knowledgeable Protestant          add. The righteousness of justifi-           "merit," or earn, justification  and
ever had such suspicions. Protes-             cation consists also of "the charity         final salvation. He earns justifica-
tants do not suppose that Roman               of God (that) is poured forth, by            tion and salvation by his own good
Catholics think it possible to be jus-        the Holy Spirit, in the hearts of            exercise of his alleged free-will, by
tified by works without grace and             those that are justified, and is in-         his prayers, and by his other good
faith. We are well aware that Rome            herent therein."                             works. He does this, in particular,
teaches that sinners are justified by             According to the Roman creed,            every time he "goes to confession"
grace and faith-and  the sinner's             righteousness with God in the mat-           and receives from the priest his
own good works, This is the error             ter of justification is, in part, our        prescribed "satisfactions."
of Rome. Just this! The adding of             own love for God and the neigh-                  Another related teaching is that
works to faith and grace for righ-            bor, including the works which we            the Roman Catholic Church can
teousness with God.                           do to express this "charity," or             help guilty sinners merit justifica-
         Rome has always taught that a        love. Therefore, this article on jus-        tion and salvation by means of in-
man's own works are necessary for             tification in the Roman Catholic             dulgences, which again are earned,
justification in addition to the faith        creed finds it appropriate, indeed           or even paid for in cold cash, by
in Christ by which Christ's works             necessary, to admonish us to "hear           the sinner. These indulgences rep-
for him become his own. Roman                 that word of Christ: If thou wilt            resent the meritorious works of
teaching is that justification begins         enter into life, keep the command-           Mary and other saints that are now
with a sinner's cooperating with              ments"     (Sixth Session, Chap. 7).         applied to the account of the sin-
God's grace by his alleged free-              The way to be righteous with God             ner who earns them.
will. God responds by infusing His            is, in part, our keeping the com-                A third teaching is that every
grace into the sinner, so that he can         mandments.                                   ordinary Roman Catholic must
do good works. Then, partly on                    Justification is by the law-in           make a certain payment for his
the basis of Christ's work and                part.                                        own sins by suffering the torments
partly on the basis of the sinner's               Workers are justified.                   of purgatory after his death. Thus
own good works, the sinner is for-                                                         he himself finally accomplishes his
given and rewarded with eternal               The Curse of Rome                            justification and salvation. Rome
life.                                         Against Believers                            herself makes perfectly plain that
         According to Rome, justifica-            Holding the doctrine of justifi-         purgatory with its huge impact
tion is by faith  and by works. A             cation by faith and works, Rome              upon the lives of all the Roman
sinner's righteousness with God is            curses, and  must  curse, with the           faithful in so many ways is only
partly the obedience of Jesus Christ          solemn, damning curse of the                 the  implication of her doctrine of
and partly his own obedience. For             "anathema" those who confess and             justification. In that Sixth Session
righteousness and  salvation, there-          proclaim justification by faith              devoted to the "Decree on Justifi-
fore, the sinner trusts in Jesus              alone, that is, every genuine Prot-          cation," the Council of Trent in-
Christ  and in himself.                       estant.                                      cluded Canon 30:
         This doctrine of justification by
faith and works Rome has con-                   If any one saith, that men are jus-          If any one saith, that, after the
fessed in her creed, The Canons                 tified, either by the sole imputa-           grace of Justification has been re-
and Decrees of the Council of                   tion of the justice of Christ, or by         ceived, to every penitent sinner
Trent.                                          the sole remission of sins, to the           the guilt is remitted, and the debt
                                                exclusion of the grace and the               of eternal punishment is blotted
                                                charity which is poured forth in             out in such wise that there re-
  Justification . . . is not remission of                                                    mains not any debt of temporal
  sins merely, but also the sanctifi-           their hearts by the  Holy Ghost,
                                                and is inherent in them; or even             punishment to be discharged ei-
  cation and renewal of the inward
  man, through the voluntary recep-             that the grace, whereby we are jus-          ther in this world, or in the next
                                                tified, is only the favor of God:            in Purgatory, before the entrance
   tion of the grace, and of the gifts,
  whereby man of unjust becomes                 let him be anathema (Canons and              to the kingdom of heaven can be
                                                Decrees of the Council                       opened [to him]: let him be anath-
  just, and of an enemy a friend.                                             of Trent,
                                                Sixth Session, Canon  11).                   ema.

         The article continues with the                                                        The Roman doctrine of  justifi-

                                                                                                 March 7 5,1999/standard  Bearer/269


cation is essentially the Galatian                      With this heresy, ECT,  particu-     biblical and Reformation truth of
heresy. It is the Galatian heresy in                 larly its evangelical membership,       justification by faith alone. 0
a bald, developed form. But it is                    has compromised. By doing so,                                           - DJE
the Galatian heresy.                                 ECT has fatally compromised the                                    (to be cont.)





The Church Fulfills Israel                           Antichrist has already been ful-        both pre and  postmill is the denial
                                                     filled by the destruction of the        that the church is the fulfillment of
         Your defense of the amillennial             Jerusalem temple in AD 70 and the       0-T. Israel. From this denial, ev-
position was great!  (Standard                       Roman emperor Nero.                     erything starts getting distorted.
Bearer,  Jan. 15,  1995-Dec. 15, 1996)                  Now, how about a similar se-             May Christ's love continue
It certainly focused on the errors                   ries of articles on dispensational      through your work to edify His
of the  postmill eschatology. I did                  premill.  To me the fundamental         people.  Cl
not realize that they believed that                  and potentially dangerous error of                                Bob McDaniel
the persecution  offthe  church by                                                                                         Sealy, TX





                                                        Leaders in the Catholic and           God and receive the Holy Spirit,
                                                      Lutheran religions were hosts to        who renews our hearts while
I A Matter of Semantics?
A                                                     a prayer service in Park Ridge           equipping and calling us to good
         n increasing number of articles              Sunday to highlight an emerging         works."
          have been appearing both in                 consensus between the two faiths          What exactly does that mean?
the secular and the religious press                   over a nearly 500-year-old argu-        Some people who attended Sun-
which comment on growing trends                       ment.                                   day morning's prayer service and
toward unity of the major church                        The split centered on the ques-       dialogue, including one Catholic
                                                      tion of whether the route to            priest, said they did not under-
bodies. Is that not a further indi-                   heaven is through "good works"          stand but they were encouraged
cation that just as the world at large                or faith in God.                        the two sides were talking.
is growing increasingly to be a                         "The Lutheran criticism of              Does the Catholic Church still
"one world" and global society,                       Catholics was: `You were always         think good works have an effect
even so the churches have increas-                    working your way into heaven,' "        on one's chances of salvation? "It
ingly been drawn together-if not                      said Hugh George Anderson, pre-         depends what you mean by `ef-
in organic unity, nevertheless into                   siding  brshop of the 5.2  million-     fect,'  " George responded with a
unity of purpose and intent? It is                    member Evangelical Lutheran             smile.
strange indeed how the leaders of                     Church in America. "The Catho-            Catholics might believe the
                                                                                              good works have 
denominations can gloss over dif-                     lics say [of Lutherans], you're not                         an effect on their
                                                      doing a thing-you're just sitting       relationship with God while
ferences and minimize the impor-                      there."                                 Lutherans might believe that their
tance of doctrinal issues.                              Cardinal Francis George, leader       relationship with God leads them
         The  Chicago  Tribune,  February             of Chicago's 2.3 million Catholics,     to do good works, George said.
1, 1999, reports one such event in                    joined Anderson for the service at        The document, called the "Joint
an article titled "2 faiths find com-                 St. Luke's Lutheran Church.             Declaration on the Doctrine of Jus-
m o n   g r o u n d "   ( s u b - h e a d i n g :       After 10 years of meetings be-        tification," has been approved by
"Catholics meet with Lutherans").                     tween Lutheran ministers and            the Church of Sweden, the largest
                                                      Catholic priests, the two sides         Lutheran denomination in the
                                                      have chosen carefully parsed lan-       world, and was set to be approved
                                                      guage both can agree on, which is       by the No. 2, the ELCA, and the
                                                      expected to be signed by top lead-      Catholic Church last summer-un-
                                                      ers of both faiths later this year:     til the Vatican expressed some
                                                        "Together we confess: By grace        last-minute concerns.
                                                      alone, in faith in Christ's saving        George took the unusual step
Rev. VanBaren  is pastor of the Protestant            work and not because of any merit       Sunday of apologizing for the de-
Reformed Church  of  Loveland, Colo-                  on our part, we are accepted by         lay.
rado.

27OjStandard Bearer/March 15,1999


     "The Holy See's timing was a                           agreement on a way presenting a          odist Episcopal  Zion Church, the
  source of embarrassment to the                            unified Christian voice on issues        Christian Methodist Episcopal
  ELCA, and I regret that deeply,"                          on which they agree.                     Church and the United Methodist
  George said.                                                At the conclusion of a five-day        Church are part of a joint study
     Anderson threw George a  hot-                          plenary meeting Sunday (January          commission looking at  ways to
  potato question at one point, in-                         24), the Consultation on Church          build relations between the four
  quiring why Pope John Paul II ap-                         Union decided on a new  name-            bodies.
  peared to be resurrecting the prac-                       Churches Uniting in Christ-and             -The Christian Church (Dis-
  tice of granting "indulgences," an                        proposed their member churches           ciples of Christ) and the United
  old practice of granting people                           work especially hard on combat-          Church of Christ are in "full com-
  time off of purgatory in exchange                         ting racism.                             munion," which means they rec-
  for doing good deeds on Earth....                            "From the moment of inaugu-           ognize each other's ministries and
     . ..George said a 3- or 4-year-old                     ration, the life of these churches       sacraments.
  girl playing in the mud is told to                        is visibly intertwined as never be-        -The Christian Church (Dis-
  wash up before coming in to greet                         fore," says the final text of the        ciples of Christ) also has an ongo-
  her grandmother-even though                               adopted plan. "Their relationship,       ing international dialogue with
  her grandmother would welcome                             with God's help, will not be one         the Roman Catholic Church.
  her dirty or clean, George said. In                       of friendly coexistence and consul-        -The Episcopal Church is seek-
  the same way, even though a sin                           tation but of binding community          ing full communion with the
  may be forgiven, the effects of sin                       that actively embodies the love of       Evangelical Lutheran Church in
  must be cleansed before one en-                           Christ which ties them to one an-        America and is participating in an
  ters heaven, George said.. . .                            other."                                  ongoing Anglican-Roman Catho-
     . . . "We are reading from the                           The 16-page report expresses           lic dialogue.
  same map and we will, one day,                            the hope all nine bodies can take          -Some ministers of the Inter-
  in God's providence, walk to-                             part in a liturgical celebration and     national Council of Community
  gether," Anderson said.                                   public declaration in 2002 of their      Churches are also affiliated with
     Members of the congregation                            new relationship during the Week         the United Church of Christ and
  gave Anderson and George a                                of Prayer for Christian Unity,           the Christian Church (Disciples of
  standing ovation after the dia-                           which occurs in January.                 Christ).
  logue.                                                       "This is really substantive com-        - T h e   P r e s b y t e r i a n   C h u r c h
     As they were sitting down,                             mitment to say that starting in           (U.S.A.) is involved in dialogues
  P h y l l i s   Bertram,   a   L u t h e r a n ,          January 2002 our life together will      with the Roman Catholic Church
  t u r n e d   t o   h e r   f r i e n d ,   G e r r i     not be the same," said the Rev.          and with Orthodox churches. It
  Posphala, a Catholic, and whis-                           Michael Kinnamon, chairman of            also is in full communion with the
  pered, "semantics."                 "Urn-hm,"             the committee that drafted the           Evangelical Lutheran Church in
  Posphala responded.. . .                                  plenary's report, and a professor        America, the Reformed Church in
                                                            at the Lexington Theological Semi-       America and the United Church
     So the Reformation was only a                          nary in Lexington, Ky. "These            of Christ.
matter  of semantics? One wonders                           nine remain distinguishable                -The United Methodist Church
if this is simply not a "page" taken                        churches but from January of 2002,       has a formal dialogue with the Ro-
from the political arena of today.                          they cannot consider who they are        man Catholic Church.
                                                            apart from the others...."                 -All nine denominations that
("It depends how one defines                                                                         are member groups of COCU are
`sex,"' or "It depends on how one                              The same paper quotes another         also affiliated with the National
defines `is.'  ">                                          Religion News Service  article:           Council of Churches, a national
     This drive towards unity is evi-                                                                ecumenical group with 35-member
dent also on other fronts. The  Re-                            Delegates from nine mainline          denominations.
ligious News Service,  as quoted in                         Protestant denominations will
Christian  News, February 1, 1999,                          meet in St. Louis January 20-24 to         It behooves one to read again
states,                                                     continue discussions about Chris-       the passage of Revelation  13-es-
                                                            tian unity as part of the Consulta-     pecially  verses 11-18 which speak
     Leaders of nine of the nation's                        tion on Church Union. This dis-         of the beast which arises out of the
  prominent mainline Protestant re-                         cussion, which began formally in        earth. Are we not seeing that beast
  ligious bodies have forged a pro-                          1962, is just one of many interde-     arise even today?
  posal aimed at establishing greater                       nominational dialogues that are
  church unity beginning by the                             continuing across the country and
  year 2002.                                                beyond. Here are some examples          W Mission to the Heathen
     For almost four decades, the                           of other relations between de-          The churches have the urgent
  groups have struggled to find                             nominations participating in                call of Christ to preach the gos-
  ways to work together - first hold-                       cocu.                                   pel to the ends of the earth. There
  ing out the hope of organic merger                           -The African Methodist Epis-         are many who have never heard
  but, in recent years, reaching                            copal Church, the African Meth-         the gospel. Many have worshiped

                                                                                                          March  15,1999/Standard Bearer/271


idols all of their lives. So the call         the church's old name,  Denver Fel-            days of sunshine. But we say
comes to preach the gospel and                lowship,  in favor of the  Peak,  to bet-      God's the greatest adventure of
teach-baptizing those that believe.           ter suggest the seeking of spiri-              them all."
     But sometimes we think that              tual heights. It also better reflects
the heathen are far removed from              Denver, which is notorious for be-               A p a r t   f r o m   t h e   f a c t   t h a t
                                              ing the sixth-most unchurched city
us. There are still some who call                                                          churches, including that one men-
                                              in America. (Portland and Seattle
our country a "Christian" country.                                                         tioned in the article, seek to use all
                                              rank No. 1.)
Nothing can be farther from the                                                            kinds of devices and gimmicks to
                                                "Less than 10 percent of people
truth. In an interesting report ap-           in Denver attend church," says               "attract" that 90% of unbelievers,
pearing in a Denver newspaper, the            Wilkerson. "In New York, money               it is nevertheless striking, if the re-
reporter stated this about a local            was the idol that kept people                port is accurate, that in this U.S.
church in the city-and speaks of              away.     Here, it's the spirit of           city only 10% attend church. How
the spiritual condition there:  ~~            adventurism.      The real competi-          many "heathen" countries, far
                                              tion isn't other churches but 300            afield, have less than that who
     .  ..Recently.  the pastors dropped                                                   claim to serve God?              Cl





              Establishing Schools to Provide
          Reformed Covenant Education (3)

                                            the 1920s and 1930s that preceded              thought the Protestant Reformed
I                                           the organization and development               Christian schools came into exist-
     n two preceding articles (Nov.         of the PR Christian schools. Many              ence because parents were cantan-
     15, 1998 and Feb. 15, 1999) I          teachers like myself in the late               kerous and simply organized PR
     have reviewed important early          1940s and early  195Os,  when our              schools because of some trouble in
writings about Christian education          Michigan schools were just begin-              or dissatisfaction with other
and Christian schools. These ar-            ning, were teaching 30-40 students,            schools. Research into the early ar-
ticles by Herman Hoeksema and               most often in multi-grade settings.            ticles would have resulted in a bet-
George M. Ophoff in the earliest            During my first year in teaching               ter understanding of the way in
years of the publication of the Stan-       (1951-52)  at Hope Protestant Re-              which parents became concerned
dard Bearer  influenced and helped          formed Christian School I taught               about creating good Christian
in the eventual development and             33 students in grades 3-5. This                schools.
formation of the Protestant Re-             gave little time for research like I               Many who are currently par-
formed Christian schools.                   am doing to write this series of ar-           ents and teachers of children at-
     When I began my teaching ca-           ticles.                                        tending our  PR schools are also not
reer in the Protestant Reformed                  Familiarity with the articles             aware of the early discussions and
Christian schools in the early  1950s`      about Christian schools and Chris-             articles published in the  Standard
I was not aware of the discussions          tian education in the  Standard                Bearer.  For some the issues and
and articles about the Christian            Bearer  would have been helpful to             controversies during these earliest
schools and Christian education in          the teachers, but daily preparation            years in our churches may seem to
                                            in order to teach each day and sur-            be of minimal significance as they
                                            vive in the classroom was more im-             carry out their responsibilities in
                                            portant. Research into the early               the training of the covenant chil-
                                            writings would have eradicated                 dren and the maintenance of the
Miss Lubbers is a  member  of  the First    some of the wrong thinking that                Christian schools God has pro-
Protestant Reformed Church in  Grand        existed.        Many undoubtedly               vided.
Rapids, Michigan.

272pandard  Bearer/March 15,7999


    In the current series of articles       that the Christian School is neces-       Ophoff wrote three articles in the
I am contending that significant ar-        sary for Christian education.             Standard Bearer,  Volume 3, Nov. 1,
ticles were written in the early is-        Among the causes of this decline          15, and Dec. 1,1926. The same con-
sues of the Standard Bearer that            in  interest our people evince in the     cern for the schools and Christian
forged the theological and ideologi-        cause of Christian instruction, the
                                            speaker enumerated the following.         education was the cause for
cal background  - the  raison d'etre        1.     The attempt to introduce reli-     Herman Hoeksema's series of
or justification for the existence and      gious education in public schools,        eleven articles in the  Standard
development of the Protestant Re-           which would seem to make the              Bearer,  Volume 8, Nov. 15, 1931
formed Christian school move-               separate Christian School super-          through August  1,1932.
ment. This writer believes that the         fluous and only cause unnecessary             Ophoff and Hoeksema re-
articles written seventy years ago          expense.                                  viewed and critiqued the pamphlet
by the early leaders of the Protes-         2.     A tendency in the churches to      Basic Principles  of  Christian Schools
tant Reformed Churches were                 place all emphasis on missions at         of  America  published July 1925 by
God's means that served to con-             the expense of Christian education
                                            at home.                                  the National Union of Christian
vince and convict the members of            3.     An inferiority complex in the      Schools  (NUCS) now Christian
the PRC that the development of             hearts and minds of many of our           Schools International  (CSI). These
PR Christian schools was a neces-           people caused by the superiority          were the principles that had been
sity and calling of parents and             in equipment and buildings of the         espoused and recommended by
grandparents.                               public schools.                           Professor C. Bouma in his speech
                                            4.     A failure to realize the great-    of August 1926 (cf.  SB, Nov.  15,
                                            ness of the threatening danger of         1998).
       +++  +++  +++                        modernism.                                    Ophoff and Hoeksema con-
                                            5.     A growing desire to conform        tended that these principles are not
    In a series of editorials in the        to the world in the realm of edu-
                                            cation.     (Cf. SB, November 15,         true to the Calvinism found in John
Standard Bearer  (SB) running from          1931.)                                    Calvin's  Institutes  of  the Christian
November 15, 1931 to August 1,                                                        ReIigion  but that they are influ-
1932, Herman Hoeksema subjected                   Even a cursory review of the        enced and determined by the
the existing Christian school move-       issues identified by R.B. Kuiper af-        wrong theories prevailing in the
ment to a thorough examination            fecting Christian schools near the          Christian Reformed Church and
and judged it to be a "failure." The      beginning of the twentieth century          adopted by the CRC synod in 1924.
occasion for this series of eleven        will indicate that many of these are            Ophoff writes that Dr. C.
editorials, entitled "The Christian       issues that continue to hamper the          Bouma's Calvinism "is a bigger, a
School Movement Why a Failure?"           cause of Christian education at the         more inclusive, and a differently
was a lecture presented by the            end of the twentieth century.               articulated thing than the particu-
well-known R.B. Kuiper, president                 Also the fundamental theologi-      lar standards (i.e., creeds and con-
of Calvin College. In this speech         cal and ideological issues have not         fessions, AL) of any denomination"
for a meeting of the Michigan             changed. George M. Ophoff and               (SB, Nov.  1,1926,   Vol. 3, p. 66).
Christian Teachers Institute, held        Herman ~Hoeksema argued in ar-                  Hoeksema wrote: "This decla-
in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Kuiper         ticles on the school issue that the         ration is specific only in the sense
stated that the Christian schools         parentally controlled Christian             that it embodies all the errors of
were facing moral and financial cri-      schools that had been established           the Three Points of 1924. It stands
sis. That the schools were in a fi-       in the nineteenth and early twenti-         very specifically on the platform of
nancial crisis is understandable in       eth centuries by members of the             the Christian Reformed Church.. . .
view of the time of the speech  -         CRC were heading in the same                It certainly excludes the possibility
August 1931. Financial support for        wrong direction that the CRC had            of any Protestant Reformed man's
the Christian schools in the 1930s        taken in 1924. They contended that          signing it" (cf.  SB,  April 15, 1932,
was affected no doubt by the Great        the fundamental principles that             Vol. 8, pp. 318-319).
Depression of the 1930s. However,         gave direction to the schools estab-            This article will initiate the re-
it was the "moral crisis" that most       lished by members of the CRC                view of the critiques by Herman
interested Herman ~Hoeksema. For          were erroneous and heterodox. As            Hoeksema and George M. Ophoff
this reason Hoeksema quoted R.B.          a result the schools would not be           of the "Basic Principles of Chris-
Kuiper as follows:                        distinctively Reformed, and there-          tian Schools of America" adopted
                                          fore in this sense they were a "fail-       and published by NUCS in 1925.
    . . . The moral  peril threatening    ure."                                       In this way we intend to continue
  the  Christian School movement                  Out of deep concern for the         to establish our contention that one
  consisted in the fact that our                                                      must know the writings and con-
 people are losing the conviction         Christian schools George M.                 troversies of the past to understand

                                                                                                March  15,1999/standard   Bearer/273


the thinking, the theology, and the                          Hoeksema also indicated that                       tionnaire that he had sent to  lead-
ideology that influenced the form-                       he was not a lone voice in claim-                      ing~men in the teaching profession.
ing and establishment of the  PRC                        ing that there is something funda-                     Answers to many of the questions
school societies and schools.                            mentally wrong with the move-                          indicated a weakness in the
    In the first article in this series                  ment of our Christian education                        schools. Hoeksema includes eight
(Nov.  15,1998)   I spoke of the ear-                    and its development. Although                          of the answers to these questions.
liest school that was established by                     Hoeksema did not believe that R.B.                     Although it is impossible to repro-
members of the PRC  - the First                          Kuiper pointed out the underlying                      duce all the responses received to
Reformed Christian School of                             cause of "failures" in the Chris-                      questions in the Kuiper question-
Redlands, California. It is worthy                       tian school movement, he ex-                           naire quoted by Hoeksema, the an-
of note that the First Reformed                          pressed agreement with some of                         swers all indicated that serious ef-
Christian School was established                         the concerns of R.B. Kuiper in his                     fort would be required to assure
when the articles under consider-                        speech of August 1931.                                 the future distinctive character of
ation were written. This was more                                                                               the Christian schools. Following
than a decade before the PR schools                          When Kuiper, therefore, pointed                    are three answers that are repre-
were established in Grand Rapids                           to the danger of mistaking a reli-                   sentative (SB, Jan.  1,1932).
or other communities. Worthy of                            gious education for a Christian
note too is the fact that this school                      education, he certainly was right.                       We are today facing the sad fact
                                                           Religious education in the public
was established under the leader-                                                                                 that a great proportion of our
                                                           schools I consider more danger-
ship of the late Rev. Gerrit Vos, a                                                                               people, and among them a large
                                                           ous still than the intentional
student of H. Hoeksema and G.M.                                                                                   number of the graduates of our
                                                           avoidance of all mention of reli-                      Christian schools, exhibit a notice-
Ophoff. Parents and grandparents                           gion as far as this is possible.                       able lack of interest, not to speak
who had left the CRC and orga-                               He (Kuiper, AL) was right, too,                      of enthusiasm for Christian in-
nized the PRC of  Redlands  be-                            when he emphasized that our                            struction.
lieved that a school based on truly                        Christian schools must be distinc-                       A good many of our teachers
Reformed and scriptural principles                         tive. We must not be satisfied                         don't know the real difference be-
must be established for the instruc-                       with a little biblical instruction                     tween a Public school and a Chris-
                                                           added to the curriculum, which in
tion of their children and grand-                                                                                 tian school. Many of our teachers
                                                           other respects is entirely like the
children.                                                                                                         cannot apply the Christian prin-
                                                           instruction given in the public
     I will have more to say about                                                                                ciples as they should, i.e., perme-
                                                           schools; but the principles of the                     ate all instruction with Christian
the First Reformed Christian School                        Word of God must permeate all                          principles.     Too many of our
and the development of our PRC                             the instruction and the school life.                   teachers do not grow in the right
schools in future articles.                                Naturally, it is true that this dis-                   direction.     If they take courses
                                                           tinctiveness of Christian education                    they get them at the wrong place.
          +++  +++  +++                                    will appear more emphatically in                       All extension work is full of
                                                           some branches than in others.                          Dewey's,       Thorndike's         and
                                                           There is, in this respect, a great
     We have indicated that the                                                                                   Kilpatrick's principles.
                                                           difference between mathematics
"Basic Principles" critiqued by H.                                                                                  The majority of our teachers
                                                           on the one hand, and history and                       have not sufficiently grasped Cal-
Hoeksema and G.M. Ophoff were                              general science on the other. But                      vinism as a world and life view.
adopted and published by the                               it remains true, nevertheless, that                    For them religion is too much a
NUCS in July 1925.                                         the whole of education must be                         thing apart. They do not see its
     At the outset of his third ar-                        based on and permeated by the                          basic significance for all knowl-
ticles in the series, "The Christian                       principles of the Word of God (SB,                     edge imparted in school.
School Movement Why a Failure,"                            Dec. 15, 1931).
H. Hoeksema wrote that he was not                                                                                   Before going on to the review
aiming at the destruction of the                              He also referred to a speech by                   of the critique of the "Basic Prin-
C h r i s t i a n   s c h o o l   b u t   a t   i t s    Dr. Herman Kuiper given at the                         ciples" w e   s h o u l d   n o t e   t h a t
upbuilding. "I would consider it a                       Educational Convention of the Na-                      Hoeksema expressed his basic love
day of great calamity when people                        tional Union of Christian Schools                      for Christian education. He wrote:
would forsake the principles that                        at Holland, MI the previous year,                      "Do not imagine that I write these
all our education, primary and sec-                      August 26, 27, 1930. The subject                       things to induce our people to send
ondary, must be positively Chris-                        of Dr. H. Kuiper's speech was                          their children to the public school.
tian." He stated that his critique                       "How Should We Seek to Guaran-                         My eyes are open to the good ele-
"was not directed at any particu-                        tee for the Future the Distinctive                     ments there undoubtedly are in the
lar school but that he was dealing                       C h a r a c t e r   o f   O u r   C h r i s t i a n    instruction that is offered in the
with the Christian School move-                          Schools?"          In this speech the                  Christian schools even as they are.
ment in general"  (SB,  Jan.  1,1932).                   speaker cited the results of a ques-                   I rather would warn our people,

274btandard  Bearer/March  75,1999


that they should not abandon the          to which orthodox Christian                  Recreator (John 1).
principle of Christian instruction,       school communities are commit-                 P. In determining the Course
neither remove them from the              ted:                                         of Study to be offered, in prepar-
Christian school even as it is to-          A. The Bible is  the-  Book of             ing the lesson material, in giving
day."                                     books. By  virtue of its divine or-          the daily instruction, the above
                                          ganic inspiration (II Pet. 1:21)  it is      purpose shall be consciously
    He also writes: "I have  .great       unique among all books. The                  present as the all-embracing ob-
respect and am very thankful for          Bible is not only the infallible rule        jective. To accomplish this great
the heroic efforts of some Christian      of faith and conduct, but also the           task, the teacher must have the
school teachers to base their in-         infallible guide of truth and righ-          fear of God in his heart and the
struction on the Word of God              teousness. All school administra-            determination to live it out in his
throughout. But it depends almost         tion, instruction, and discipline            profession; and he must utilize to
entirely on the efforts of the indi-      should be motivated by biblical              the full whatever light God's Spe-
vidual teachers, whether their in-        principles.                                  cial Revelation sheds upon the
struction shall be distinctive or           B. God is triune (Matt.  3:16,             various realms of human knowl-
                                          17). He is the Creator of all that           edge. (Cf. SB, Nov. 1, 1926, and
not.... Although, therefore, I am         is, the Sustainer of all that exists,        Jan. 1, 1932).
always ready to express my appre-         and the ultimate end of all things
ciation for the efforts of individual     (Rom.  11:36). God who is tran-                    444   444   444
teachers in this direction, the fact      scendent (Is. 40) and immanent
remains, that there is something          (Ps. 139) is the absolute loving               Concerning these "Specific
fundamentally wrong with the sys-         Sovereign over  ally (Dan.  4:31);         Principles" Herman Hoeksema
tem as such" (SB,  Dec.  15,1931).        men should seek to do His will
                                          on earth as it is done in heaven.          wrote that he did not know who
                                                                                     the original authors were. He did
          444  +++  444                     C. Man is a fallen creature
                                          (Gen. 3). Though depraved man              not care because his purpose in this
                                          is nevertheless an image bearer of         analysis and critique was not to
Review of the Basic Principles of         God (Eph.  2:5), and through re-           fight persons. He was interested
Christian Schools of America              straining grace he is able to do           in the cause of Christian instruc-
    George M. Ophoff and Herman           civil  good (Rom.  214). Though            tion. He asserted that the platform
Hoeksema individually reviewed            lost in sin, man can be saved              of "Principles" was unfit to serve
and critiqued the six "Specific Prin-     through faith in Christ (John  3:16);      as the basis of Christian education.
ciples" that were written and pub-        and through restoring grace, in            He concluded that "on such a ba-
lished in 1925 to give direction to       principle, is able to do spiritual         sis our Christian school must tot-
Christian schools of America. Pro-        good (I John  3:9).
                                            D. The world is steeped in sin.          ter into ruins."
fessor C. Bouma in his speech to          All aspects of life, individual and            Hoeksema continues as fol-
the Convention of 1926 recom-             family, social and political, indus-       lows: "Partly it is altogether too
mended these "Principles." The            trial and economic, even the ani-          vague and colorless. Partly it is
"Principles" received his recom-          mal world, nature, and things in-          erroneous characterized by omis-
mendation because he pronounced           animate, show the mars and scars,          sion of the most vital elements.
them to be consistent with the new        the subversions and perversions of         Partly it enunciates principles that
Calvinism that he recommended             sin (Rom.  8:22). The virtue, or-          are modernistic rather than  Calvin-
and believed needed development.          der, and beauty which is still             istic"  (SB,  Jan. 1, 1932).
    We begin our review of these          present in the world is a manifes-
                                          tation of God's goodness (Matt.                Concerning these "Principles"
"Basic Principles" as both Ophoff         5:45).                                     G.M. Ophoff wrote: "The above
and Hoeksema do by quoting the              E. The all embracing objective           formulation is, to a degree, very
six "Specific Principles" written         of the school is to promote the            specific, and reflects the doctrinal
and adopted by NUCS in 1925. I            glory of our covenant God: (a) by          distinctiveness of certain creeds
suggest that you refer to the first       seeking in humble dependence               also. Principle (a) is the embodi-
article in the series (Nov. 15, 1998)     upon God-to equip the pupil for            ment of certain tenets of the Re-
to compare the "Specific Prin-            his supreme task, namely, to real-         formed faith. Also principle  (b),
ciples" proposed and written by           ize himself as God's image-bearer          and to a degree principle  cc>. Prin-
Herman Hoeksema with those                (II Tim.  3:17);  and  (b) by seeking
                                          in the same dependence upon God            ciple  (c), (d),  (e), and  (f) are expres-
quoted here from the NUCS docu-           to reconstitute the sin-perverted          sive of the doctrinal distinctiveness
ment.                                     world by realizing God's King-             and of certain elements present in
                                          dom in all spheres and phases of           the creed of Pelagius and the creed
         SPECIFIC PRINCIPLES              life (Matt.  6:33). This is possible       of Dr. A. Kuyper.  That is to say,
    The following is an attempt to        at least in principle through              among the elements constituting the
  interpret the more specific  reli-      Christ, who is not only the Cre-           above interpretation  of  religious prin-
  gious  principles basic to education    ator (as the Logos) but also the           ciples are also found the theory of com-
                                                                                            March 15,1999/5tandard Bearer/275


mon grace, the doctrine of the free yiZE           What do you think? Can you              (Review of the analysis and cri-
of  man, etc.  (underscoring, AL)"          begin to see that the Protestant  Re-    tique of "Specific Principles" to be
(SB, Nov.  1,1926).                         formed Christian schools are a  ne-      continued.)  Q
                                            cessity?




              The Trial of Truth, Democrats,
                       & Grand Old Pharisees (I)
                          (John 18:12-l 4, 19-40; John 19:1-l 6)


                                            it can be known, and the worth of        words about him. But truth him-
W                                           it.                                      self was silent, except for this. He
           e enter now into a study                For some, even many, wanted       said once (and that was enough):
           of the trial of Jesus of         the vindication of a President           "I am truth." And they found him
           Nazareth, the truth of           rather than the truth, the justifica-    guilty.       Liar Clinton acquitted.
God.                                        tion and protection of a certain         Truth guilty.            Truth tried, and
    Note well: we will be studying          life-style rather than the whole         found guilty of pretending to be
the trial of the Wonderful Jesus            truth, and to please the people back     (absolutely) what it cannot be since
Christ. Not the trial of William            home, rather than nothing but the        all is relative; found guilty of
Jefferson Clinton.                          truth.                                   threatening the economy; found
    I  hope  this relieves you. The                So they put another person on     guilty of sneaking and seeking to
trial of the President, concluded           trial, the person who is usually just    fetter the freedom to engage in pri-
now, has tried us all.                      witness at these things-Truth.           vate things no matter what they are
    But there is much to learn com-                Brutal trial-did you see it?      so long as they are legal almost;
paring the trial even of a president-       Especially nasty when Truth him-         found guilty of attempting to tyr-
scoundrel, and the trial of the Ring-       self was being cross-examined.           a n n i z e   a   d e m o c r a t i c   p e o p l e .
Savior.                                     "Truth," accused Attorney Pilate II,     Guilty. On all counts. Of very high
    About the trial of the President.       Jr.: "What are you? I'll tell you        crimes and no low ones.
    No one in his right mind would          what you are! You are nothing but             And sentenced to die. No
or could deny that the trial of             opinion. You are subject to inter-       doubt. They will not let Truth get
President Clinton was a trial con-          pretation. Your is is another man's      away with being Truth! It must
cerning truth. Those in their left          is not. I charge you with lying."        not be allowed even to languish in
mind would.        But they are mis-        "And," Counselor Good Economy            any cell in any jail, think-tank, or
taken. The trial of the impeached           leveled, "Even if you are some-          church. "No Truth! It must not
President was not about adultery,           thing, Truth, you are not much, and      be! It has dragged us too long from
nor about Republicans getting back          nothing compared to the economic         the back of its car, taken us out of
for Bork, Iran-Contra, or even              state of the union." "Further,"          the bar and tied us to a post and
Woodstock. It was about truth,              Prosecutor Pollster shouted, "You        beaten us and left us for dead too
and truthfulness.                           are certainly not the will of the        often, discriminated right and left
    But more: it was a trial of truth       American people." "Besides,"             and for too long against old men,
itself-the existence of it, whether         Lawyer Lustful-Lifestyle-is-Legal        homosexuals, blacks, whites, poli-
                                            lampooned, "You give me and all          ticians, lovers, and friends."
                                            the rest of us cramps."                       Sentenced to die in a white
                                                   Yes, they tore at him! Some       house. Sentenced to die in every
Rev. Dick is pastor of Grace Protestant     came to his defense, and offered         house of society. Truth: February,
Reformed Church in Standale, Michigan.      republican and constitutional            1999, the year of our Lie. The year

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Lie told liars to be fruitful and mul-      ness and Righteousness lit up in               in this trial declares the Truth, un-
tiply and subdue the earth. The             His punishment of the lie and liars            der oath: that He is the Son and
year of the creation "higher up" of         human and angelic. Truth will                  Christ of God.
an acceptable, tolerable class of           have Holiness- and Love glorified                  And the trial itself is just this:
little white house lies so that truth       in the salvation of some and  Holy-            Jesus as the Truth  of  God  is on trial.
would die and lie would live lower          Truth-Love come down to atone                  The Jews say He is a lie. Pilate, in
down and all around. Let there be           and to forgive and to make liars               his infamous question "What is
lies in the military. Let there be          partakers of Truth and truthful in             truth?", represents the world with-
business lies. Let there be Billy and       life.                                          out religion which wants to doubt
cookie jar lies. Now there is  this                  This is Jesus! This truth, this       the existence, the knowability, and
sacred Precedent. Let nothing else          God-Truth is Jesus! He is who God              the worth of truth. And the people
be sacred. Halleliejah. Praise to the       is. He is what God says. He does               lied to to lie, shout crucify...the
god Lie.                                    what God does. He is the revela-               Truth.
         *****         **rc**    *4***      tion of the God of truth, of the God               Truth. Discerned by no law,
    What a trial! And we could              who is, and who is Good. He is                 religious or civil, and uncovered
certainly go on. We might more              the consummate and embodied                    not by one star or a thousand law-
than mention how this trial and             revelation of that God, for to see             yers, but by the Spirit of  truth-
condemnation of truth at the trial          Him is to see the Father, and to               real truth,  was on trial  then,  when
of William Jefferson Clinton was a          believe in Him is to be on the Way             Jesus was tried. And man's being
trial also of all those, the politicians    to the Father (John 14). He is the             true and truthful and therefore true
and the polled, who pleaded for             God-Word-Truth true to Himself                 morality was at stake  then.
their Barabbas and cried for truth          and to His purpose and promise,                    What was done recently in the
to be crucified.                            for Jesus the Christ comes us God,             Senate Court, therefore, compared
    But there is another trial we           exactly according to God's counsel             to what was done in Jerusalem,
must be going to, and we  want  to          and Word to save and never to for-             was peanuts. These past weary
ponder. It is the trial of the Lord         sake. Truth is Jesus-God with                  months constitutional truth has
Jesus. There is the trial of trials.        us-just as He determined, just as              been parleyed about and compro-
There is the precedent of prece-            He has said.                                   mised. Long ago in Jerusalem  theo-
dents. There were the kangaroo                       Truth, and  truthful,  faithful to    logical,  God-Truth was condemned
courts of kangaroo courts. There            God-this is Jesus us  man,  and ser-           and crucified. These past months
was a trial some 1970 years ago in          vant of Jehovah. He comes who is               morals were mentioned as some-
Jerusalem which can tell us what            God and Truth to be truthful, and              thing which just might be impor-
just went on in Washington, and             to do the will of the Father. He               tant for a civil leader to have. Long
just what has gone on to make this          comes to see all, to do all in the             ago true morality among men,
mess possible, and just what will           light of God and for the purpose               though constitutions be written and
go on from now.                             of glorifying the Father. He comes,            many laws made, was forfeited and
    For there with Jesus-was the            truthful Son, and will in human                rendered impossible. For then the
trial not of truth, but of  the  Truth.     heart and with human will and in               Absolute was absolutely, com-
Jesus! He is the Truth! He is the           human soul be faithful to the heart            pletely rejected.
truth of the God of truth. He is            and will and soul of God.                          In fact, Jesus' trial was the de-
the truth, the whole truth, and                      This Truth, God in human              cisive trial,  the  trial of history, the
nothing but the truth!                      flesh, God of truth, Word of truth,            trial of the Truth. It is  because  of
    What is truth? Truth is  what           Act of truth, Fulfillment of truth             Jesus' trial that there was this trial
is.  Truth is a  who  is.  It is the God    and grace, and true truthfulness,  is          of truth in the United States Sen-
who is. It is reality-eternal and           known. It is known in the inspired             ate. It is  because  men rejected Truth
abiding. And not just a  being,  but        Bible. It is known by the Spirit of            then that men, even in all their
a  moral being  is this God-Truth. It       truth, Spirit of God, Spirit of Christ.        laws and concern for decency and
is Truth who is Love, Truth who is                   It is known throughout the            good order have cared all along (not
Trinity-Love, Truth who is Per-             Bible, and in the Bible's record of            just now!) far less for truth than
sonal, Fellowship Truth, Righteous,         the trial of Jesus itself, written             for expediency, far less for true vir-
Holy, Good Truth. This God who              down not by skilled and speedy                 tue than for what the culture of a
is Truth is pleased to reveal  Him:         court stenographers, but by graced,            certain day calls good and accept-
self outside of Himself. He will            Spirit-moved,  and  called men, in Mat-        able.
have Truth shine in a creation He           thew, Mark, Luke, and John. Jesus                         **xc+*    x-x-***    ***rc*
makes and next to untruth which             Himself declares in His trial that
He does not. He will have  Holi-            He came to bear witness to the                     One thing we need to remem-
                                            truth (John  l&37).  Jesus Himself             ber as we pore over the sacred

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                  c


documents of the Christ trial. At             time ago we voted "away with                                 Tremble. The Truth, the Whole
the trial of Jesus, and when its ver-         H i m . "                                                Truth, and nothing but the Truth.
dict was in, men more than demo-                   Sometimes tremble. Right now                        Crucified. We were there. We
crats and turncoat republicans                when you think about that really                         are even inclined to go back there
were tried. Men as men were tried.            important trial. Right now when                          and do it all over again. Crucify.
And the whole world was found                 the papers have stopped chatting                         Truth. So...help us God!
guilty.                                       and the lurid details of a certain                           Trembling.     And...believing!
    You too. And I. We were there             trial are forgotten. Right now                           And  rejoicing!  Bible study must be
when they crucified our Lord. And             when we shake our heads at those                         that way, too. Or we deny the gos-
not neutral. Guilty. It is that bad.          b a d   m e n   a n d   t h e i r   p o l i t i c a l    pel truth. For truth is: He is de-
Sin is. Lying is. Has been since              maneuverings. Right now when as                          nied, that we might never be  de-
sin. We do not want God, nor any              always the Bible alone remains to                        med. Truth is: at the trial He is
revelation of God. We all, obvi-              tell the Truth as it is in  Jesus...and                  going forward to save liars. And
ously foolish and stubborn don-               about ourselves.                                         He has saved them. And keeps
keys, grand old respectably reli-                  Trembling. That is how we                           them. You liar. And me liar.
gious Pharisees, or dignified skep-           must go into learning the Truth of                       Saved. For Truth's sake.
tics have cast our vote with Adam.            this trial of the Savior.                                    Hallelujah! All praise to the
And one thousand to zero a long                                                                        Lord God of Truth!  0





                 Confessing Our Lord (3)

                                              actions in the sanctuary and in the                      and in your spirit, which are
                                              narthex of the church on the Lord's                      God's."
A Perfect Lordship                            Day, as well as in your home and                             And when we say, "Jesus is
    Christ's is a perfect lordship.           workplace every day and every                            Lord," we imply that with all our
    He owns us completely. He                 hour are His. Do you confess that?                       heart and mind and soul we for-
alone is our Lord and we are His                   Jesus our Lord rules over us                        sake the world, crucify our old na-
property. Is that your confession?            not by force, but by the impelling                       ture, and walk a new and holy life.
When we are partakers of His                  power of His love. His is a rule of                          That has several implications
death and resurrection, we are the            grace. When Christ is our Lord,                          for our lives as the people of God.
property of Christ. He owns you               His mind is our mind, His will is
completely. You are His with body             our will, His Word is our delight.                       A Powerful Application
and soul, with your husband or                And He alone is the One who de-                              Immediately we recognize that
wife and children, with brothers              termines not only what we shall do                       the gospel of salvation in Christ
and sisters in the Lord, with all             and say, but also what we shall                          Jesus is at the same time a gospel
your life and possessions. All be-            think and feel and desire and by                         of obedience. Repeatedly Scripture
longs to Christ! He owns us.                  what motives we shall be gov-                            sets obedience before us as one of
    Do you acknowledge that lord-             erned.                                                   the ways  in- which we may be as-
ship of Christ over you? Your                      The sight of our eyes, the                          sured of our eternal life.
heart is His, your thoughts and de-           speech of our mouth, the hearing                             "And hereby we do know that
sires, intentions and motives. Your           of our ears, the actions of our                          we know him, if we keep his com-
                                              bodily members, all belong to the                        mandments. He that saith, I know
                                              Lord. That is the emphasis of the                        him, and keepeth not his com-
                                              apostle Paul in I Corinthians  6:20,                     mandments, is a liar, and the truth
                                              "For ye are bought with a price:
Rev. Key is pastor  of  the Protestant Re-                                                             is not in him. But  whoso  keepeth
formed Church of Randolph, Wisconsin.         therefore glorify God in your body,                      his word, in him verily is the love

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of God perfected: hereby know we         private religion. To go your own          cipline that is exercised in the
that we are in him" (I John 2:3-5).      way, doing your own thing, think-         school.
    So the Lord Himself also said        ing what you please, doing what-                   And our confession that He is
in John  14:21, "He that hath my         ever you please when you please,          our Lord implies that we gladly
commandments, and keepeth them,          is not acceptable to Jehovah God.         and willingly acknowledge His
he it is that loveth me." It ought       He calls us to confess  our  Lord,        lordship, and that it is our earnest
to be obvious that Jesus was not         comprehending the beautiful unity         desire and endeavor to obey His
teaching a works-salvation. He           of the people of God and the glory        precepts and to seek out His will
was setting forth the inevitable con-    of His handiwork.                         in every aspect of our life.
sequences of the life of His Spirit          Though we are all different,                   Whenever the truth of Christ's
in His own. The fruit of regenera-       also in terms of education, job, so-      lordship is set aside, we make an
tion and faith is found in obedi-        cial status, and even race and na-        abstraction of that which is meant
ence and willing subjection to the       tionality, "There is one body, and        to be inseparable from our lives as
lordship of our Savior.                  one spirit," writes the apostle in        Christians.
    Secondly, in the confession of       Ephesians  4:4:     "even as ye are         How does our Christian faith
Christ our Lord there is a recogni-      called in one hope of your calling;       apply during the day? Sometimes
tion of fellowship with His body,        One Lord, one faith, one baptism,         I think we and our children fail to
the church. Scripture repeatedly         one God and Father of all, who is         recognize the answer to that ques-
refers to our Savior as Jesus Christ     above all, and through all, and in        tion. The lordship of Christ is a
our  Lord.                               you all."                                 perfect lordship, all-embracing and
    When we confess Christ our               You cannot walk your own              applicable to every aspect of our
Lord, we seek to manifest the unity      way, and confess the Lord Christ.         life.
of the church and the communion          He commands you to submit your-
of saints, doing so according to His     self unto Him and to take your            Our Responsible Lord
will and in obedience to His holy        place among His people. To con-                    But there is one more very
Word. We seek that unity, not            fess the Son of God as Lord is to         beautiful element of Christ's lord-
merely by taking care of those who       take your place as an active mem-         ship over us. That Jesus is Lord
are sick or in evident need, not         ber of His body.                          also means that He is responsible
merely by comforting the sorrow-             But there is still more.              for us.
ing, not merely by showing up in             That lordship of our Redeemer                  That is not to deny our calling,
church with God's people, but also       over us is all-comprehensive! It          not at all. But what it means is
by laboring to edify one another,        embraces us in our marriages and          that our Lord keeps us and loves
and even by seeking out those who        in our families, at home and in the       us, defends us and leads us on to
are walking in sin. The difficult        workplace, at church and in the           the final victory. When we stumble
labors of Christian discipline be-       school, with all our life and all our     and fall, this Almighty Lord, our
long to the confession of Christ's       possessions.       Christ has domin-      Redeemer, stands before God and
lordship over us!                        ion over all our relationships in this    says, "I am responsible. I have
    There is far too much individu-      world. He calls us to fellowship          purchased him, I have purchased
alism among those who confess            only with His people, and not with        her, with my precious blood."
"our Lord" when they recite the          those who do not confess His lord-                 For time and eternity Christ is
Apostles' Creed. We dare say that        ship over them.                           our Lord, responsible for us before
what is often meant is really  "my           The lordship of Christ is one         God. Having made us His own
Lord." There are many who cher-          of the principal reasons for Chris-       possession, He assumed responsi-
ish their own private brand of reli-     tian education. That is one reason        bility for us before God. And He
gion and insist on going their own       why the Protestant Reformed               alone is able to bear that responsi-
way.    Many such people even            Churches emphasize the impor-             bility. Under His lordship there is
avoid contact with the people of         tance of providing Protestant Re-         complete freedom from fear  - fear
God, withdrawing themselves from         formed Christian schools in which         of judgment, fear of death, fear of
the fellowship of the saints and liv-    our children can be taught. Our           hell. "There is therefore now no
ing a life of separation from the        Christian faith is no mere theory.        condemnation to them that are in
body of Christ. But when one care-       The lordship of Christ is not some-       Christ Jesus, who walk not after the
fully examines that walk of life,        thing reserved for Sunday, or re-         flesh, but after the Spirit" (Rom.
what he really finds is the confes-      served for a Bible class. That lord-      8:l).
sion, "I am Lord!"                       ship of Christ must be recognized                  That is the lordship of Christ.
    Let us well understand this          in every realm of life, and in every      Do you confess that Jesus is Lord?
confession.                              subject that is taught, in the pro-       Do you endeavor to know His will
    The Bible does not tolerate a        grams that are put on and the dis-        and to obey no other word than His

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in every aspect of your life, no mat-      rection is not merely a matter of          suaded, though one rose from the
ter what may be the cost?                  the senses, of hearing and seeing,         dead."
    That perfect lordship of Christ        but of  faith  and the enlightening            To receive the Word of God, to
was confessed by Thomas as re-             work of the Holy Spirit. Only              receive the teachings of the Scrip-
corded in John  20:28. Thomas con-         when the Lord came into their              tures, to receive Christ in the
fessed Christ as his Lord and his          hearts by the power of His Holy            preaching of the Word, is more
God.                                       Spirit, and made them partakers of         blessed than to see Him as the dis-
    That confession was the result         the resurrection, did they see the         ciples saw Him that day.
of God's work of grace, no ques-           wonder of the resurrection and did             Thomas and the apostles had
tion about it.                             they see their Lord, who is Christ.        to become partakers of the resur-
    But when you read John 20, no-             You who believe, and in whom           rection by the outpouring of the
tice what the Lord said to him im-         the risen and exalted Christ now           Holy Spirit in order to experience
mediately after Thomas made his            lives by the power of His Holy             this greater blessing. Then they
confession. "Jesus saith unto him,         Spirit, know Him as Lord. And              could see the blessedness of
Thomas, because thou hast seen             when you know Him as Lord, you             Christ's lordship. We, too, must
me, thou hast believed: blessed are        know that you are justified.               receive by faith the blessedness of
they that have not seen, and yet               Thomas, by merely touching             Christ's lordship over us. Unless
have believed." The meaning is             Jesus, could not feel that he was          that blessedness is ours, the joy of
not that Thomas was not blessed,           justified. That is a matter of faith.      the resurrection cannot be ours.
because he had seen his Lord and           It is more blessed to believe.                 "No man can say that Jesus is
God. But Jesus would emphasize                 How blessed are you? Christ's          the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost"
that there is a greater blessedness        resurrection is our life. But you          (I Cor.  12:3). When, therefore, you
than the blessedness experienced           could never perceive that merely           confess, "My Lord and my God,"
by Thomas and the other apostles           by looking at Him. In fact, else-          as did Thomas, you also magnify
at that particular moment.                 where in the parable of the rich           the name of God. For you bear evi-
    That greater blessedness is that       man and Lazarus, Jesus said of the         dence of the work of the Spirit, the
which belongs to you,  and-  all- be-      rich  man's  unbelieving brothers:         power of God's grace, and the hope
lievers throughout all the genera-         "If they hear not Moses and the            of life everlasting.  0
tions which arose after Jesus spoke        prophets, neither will they be  per-
those words.
    That is a wonderful application
for us. Perhaps there are Thomases
among us. I am sure that at some
point or other in everyone's life,                                     Passing Through
there is a Thomas in his heart. That                                         Isaiah 43 : l-5
is, we want to see. We sometimes
view our Christian faith as miss-                          When thou passest through the waters
ing something. "How do I know                                  And thy heart is troubled so;
that this Christianity isn't just a big
joke? How do I know that I in-                             Fear thou not, for I am with thee,
deed have a Friend that is closer                              They shall never overflow.
than a brother, when I can't even
see that Friend?" We want to see.                          When thou walkest through the fire
    Wouldn't it have been nice, if                             Then no flame shall hinder thee;
we had seen the risen Lord on that                         For I am the Lord, thy Savior,
resurrection day? Yes.                                         Thou art precious unto me.
    But Jesus says, what you have
now is far more blessed! Why? Be-                          Through the fire and the waters
cause faith based on the senses is                             Step up step and day by day:
necessarily limited to the senses.
The disciples saw the risen Lord;                          Fear thou not, for I am with thee  -
but they did not yet see the truth                             I will lead thee all the way.
and beauty of the resurrection.
They saw the fact that Jesus had                                                                Annetta Jansen
risen; but they did not yet under-                                                              Dorr, Michigan
stand the significance of that event.
And why not? Because the  resur-

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                                  The History of the Diaconate  (1)
                                       Its Institution

                                             ing. At His ascension, Christ had        or 31. However, our purpose is not
A                                            commanded the disciples "that            so much to find an exact date of
            historical survey of the of-     they should not depart from Jerusa-      the institution, as it is to show that
           fice of the diaconate will        lem, but wait for the promise of         this took place very soon after Pen-
           demonstrate that the funda-       the Father" (Acts  1:4). This prom-      tecost.
mental work of the deacon is to              ise was fulfilled on Pentecost (the            This is significant, because it
care for the church's poor and that          birthday of the church in the new        shows us that the office of deacon
the proper functioning of the of-            dispensation) when the Holy Spirit       is as old as the New  Testame,nt
fice has been neglected since its in-        was poured out upon the disciples        church, and therefore is an essen-
stitution. Demonstrating this will           in Jerusalem (Acts 2).                   tial office in the church institute.
set the stage for a more thorough                Scripture does not tell us  spe-     In case anyone argues, on the
discussion of the nature and work            cifically when the office was insti-     grounds that the church did not
of the office. In this article we be-        tuted. We are simply told, "in those     have deacons immediately, that the
gin such a survey by examining the           days" (Acts  6:l). These were the        office is not necessary in the insti-
institution of the office in the early       days following Pentecost, the days       tuted church, our response is that
New Testament church.                        in which the apostles continued to       the problems which arose in the
                   *****                     preach the gospel in Jerusalem, the      church before the office was insti-
        The diaconate as we know it          days in which the church grew rap-       tuted were God's way of demon-
today was instituted in the church           idly and began to live communally,       strating to the church that she needs
in Jerusalem, not long after Pente-          the days in which the Pharisees and      deacons. The Lord often works this
cost, according to Acts 6:1-6. The           Sadducees  began to persecute the        way  - showing us our need of
place and the time of this institu-          church and the apostles for their        something, then providing us that
tion are significant.                        faith.    All of this was before         which we need.2
        As to the place, remember that       Stephen's stoning and Paul's con-              It is also noteworthy that the
the true church of the old dispen-           version. We know that Christ was         office was instituted before the
sation, since David's time, had cen-         crucified, and that the Holy Spirit      church spread from Jerusalem to
tered its worship in Jerusalem,              was poured out, around AD 30.            Antioch, Asia Minor, and Europe.
where the temple was.              With      Scholars date the stoning of             God gave the pattern for church in-
Christ's death the Old Testament             Stephen, one of the first deacons,       stitutions to the first church insti-
worship ceremonies were abol-                at roughly 32 or  33.' So the pe-        tute, so that others might follow
ished, and the church of the new             riod of time between Pentecost and       her example. That later congrega-
dispensation was free to worship             Stephen's death, during which the        tions  did  follow this example is evi-
anywhere, so long as she  wor-               office of deacon could have been         d e n t   f r o m   t h e   l e t t e r   t o   t h e
shi ed in spirit and in truth (John          instituted, is at most three years.      Philippians and the first letter to
4:2%). Nevertheless, though she no           We are inclined to date the institu-     Timothy, written around 61 and 62
longer  needed  to worship in Jerusa-        tion of the diaconate earlier rather     respectively: Paul includes the dea-
lem, she did so at first, because            than later during these three years,     c o n s   i n   h i s   a d d r e s s   t o   t h e
there the believers were gathered            because before Stephen was killed,
and were accustomed to  worship-             enough time had to elapse for him        `Cf. H. Wayne House,  Chronological
                                             to begin doing his miracles and to       and Background Charts of the New Tes-
                                             incur the wrath of the leaders of        tamenf,  (Grand Rapids:  Academic
Rev.  Kuiper  is pastor of the Protestant    the Jews. So we will date the in-        Books,  19811,  page 127.
Reformed Church  of  Byron Center,  Mi&i-    stitution of the office at roughly 30    2John Calvin emphasizes this point in
gun.                                                                                  his commentary on Acts 6:1, which see.

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Philippians  (1:l) and tells Timothy       A third opinion is that this re-      vide a record of the institution of
what qualifications the deacons         fers to the practice of distributing     the office of deacon. They point
must have (I Tim.  3%13).               to those in need from the common         out that the word "deacon" is not
                 ***44                  fund of the church. To this com-         used in this passage; that the quali-
    The narrative of Scripture          mon fund Luke refers in Acts  2:44,      fications which the apostles pre-
which speaks of the institution of      45 and Acts  4:32, 34, 35. In the        scribed for these seven men (that
the diaconate also demonstrates         former passage we read: "And all         they be "full of the Holy Ghost and
why we need deacons: we need            that believed were together, and         wisdom," v. 3) are quite different
deacons to care for the poor of the     had all things common; And sold          from the qualifications which Paul
church.                                 their possessions and goods, and         clearly prescribes for deacons in I
    The problem in the early            parted them to all men, as every         Timothy 3; that Philip and Stephen
church was that allegations arose       man had need." The latter passage        performed work other than that
that the Grecian widows were ne-        indicates that the money which           which is required of deacons, spe-
glected in the daily ministration.      was received from the sale of these      cifically the work of evangelism
These Grecians were Greek-speak-        possessions was brought to the           and doing miracles (Acts  6:8ff.,
ing Jews who had been raised in         apostles, who distributed the            8:26ff.);  and that Acts  11:30 says
western parts of the Roman Em-          money.5                                  that the  elders  (not deacons) of the
pire, and had since returned to             This last opinion is the prefer-     church in  Judea received the be-
Jerusalem. They are contrasted          able explanation, I believe. It cer-     nevolence money which the church
with the Hebrew-speaking Jews           tainly is a natural explanation,         in Antioch sent. Other theories are
who had been raised in the eastern      bearing in mind that Luke has spo-       therefore suggested regarding what
part of the Roman Empire. Al-           ken already of the communal situ-        position these seven men held.
though Scripture doesn't specifi-       ation in the early church. This ex-      Some say that this was a tempo-
cally say that these allegations        planation also does justice to the       rary, extraordinary position, not re-
were true, and although the alle-       role of the apostles in the ministra-    ally an office, which was estab-
gations were not brought in a           tions: Acts 4 tells us that they dis-    lished simply to deal with this
brotherly, loving way (they came        tributed out of this common fund,        problem, and which soon disap-
to light through grumbling and          and Acts  6:2 indicates that it was      peared in the early church. Others
complaining), yet we read that the      the apostles who were in charge of       say that this was the institution of
apostles' response was to see to it     this daily ministration. The first       the office of elder. Still others say
that the Grecian widows were            opinion is weak, because it does         that this was a temporary office
cared for.                              not account for the apostles doing       which later gave way to the office
    There are different opinions re-    all of the ministering. The wealthy      of deacon.6
garding what this "daily minister-      could have served the poor, for the
ing," which occasioned this mur-        wealthy brought the food. Or, in
muring, was.                            light of Acts  2:46, which indicates
    One opinion is-that the refer-      that such feasts were held in pri-       3This  i s   t h e   o p i n i o n   o f   H e r m a n
ence was to the love feasts which       vate homes, the owner of the house       Hoeksema, as he expresses it in his
were common in the early New            might have served.                       syllabus New  Testament History,  pub-
Testament church. These love                Whatever the case may be, the        lished in 1978 by the Theological
feasts were gatherings of the mem-      church had poor who were in need         School of the Protestant Reformed
                                                                                 Churches, in Grandville, MI. See page
bers of the church for a meal, to       of care. For the apostles to super-      69.
which the wealthy would bring the       vise all of the care was inadequate      4Cf. William Heyns,  Handbook  for  El-
food, sharing with the poor. This       for two reasons: first, because of       ders and  Deacons (Grand Rapids: Wm.
was a practical expression of the       the allegations which arose, and         B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.,  19281,
unity of the church and of the com-     second, because the apostles had         page 293.
munion of the saints. According         better things to do, having been         5F.F.  Bruce,  The Book  of  Acts,  revised
to this explanation, the problem        called to the ministry of the Word       e d i t i o n   ( G r a n d   R a p i d s :   Wm,  B .
was that those who provided the         and to prayer. The remedy which          Eerdmans Publishing Company,  19881,
food were causing the Hebrew            the apostles proposed was that           page 120. This volume is part of the
                                                                                 series "The New International Com-
widows to be cared for better than      other men be chosen to do the work       mentary on the New Testament."
the Grecian  widows.3                   of caring for the poor. Thus the         6For  more elaboration on these ideas
    Another opinion is that the ref-    office of deacon was instituted in       and their support, cf. Hoeksema,  Ibid,
erence is to the leftovers from the     the New Testament church.                pp. 69-70; Heyns,  Ibid,  p. 294; and Pe-
daily administration of the Lord's                      +****                    ter Y.  DeJong,   The Ministry  of  Mercy
Supper, which leftovers were dis-           There are some who argue that        for Today  (Grand Rapids: Baker Book
tributed to the  poor.4                 Acts 6:1-6 does not, in fact, pro-       House,  1952),, pp. 29-30.

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    We believe that Acts 6:1-6 is the     preach.                                    was a solemn one, consisting of
record of the institution of the of-           Lastly, that the elders of Jerusa-    prayers and the laying on of hands
fice of deacon.                           lem received the gift of money             (v. 6). Although the custom of the
    First, that the position which        from Antioch cannot be used to ar-         PRC is not to perform the actual
these men held was actually that          gue conclusively that these seven          ceremony of the laying on of hands
of an office in the church is evident     were elders; nor does it necessar-         when installing deacons, we do jus-
from the fact that the apostles laid      ily mean that by this time the of-         tice to that which the ceremony sig-
their hands on them (v. 6). Doing         fice of deacon had ceased function-        nified when the minister says to
this on behalf of the church, the         ing in Jerusalem.7 Exactly why the         (really prays on behalf of) the
apostles thus indicated that the          elders received this money instead         newly installed elders and deacons:
church consecrated these men to           of the deacons we do not know.             "The Almighty God and Father re-
God for His work. Doing this on                We agree with P.Y.  DeJong            plenish you all with His grace, that
behalf of God, in the authority of        that, "On the basis of the plain           ye may faithfully and fruitfully dis-
their apostolic office, they indicated    statement that they [the seven,            charge your respective  offices."g
that God had chosen these men,            DJKI were specifically charged                 The instruction of this passage
and would give them the spiritual         with caring for the physical needs         regarding the qualification of the
blessings which they needed to do         of the poor we may legitimately            deacons is obvious. The Lord will-
the work. The significance of this        conclude that Acts 6 records the           ing, we will consider their qualifi-
laying on of hands is the same as         beginning of the  diaconal   minis-        cations in a future article. For now
that of the Old Testament practice        try.`r8                                    we note that these were "seven
of anointing a priest with oil.                             x-4*4*                   men?  _(vl 3) - males, and plural in
    Second, we see no real conflict            We conclude by observing              number. It is certainly best if there
between the qualifications which          some practical points of instruction       are several men in the office of dea-
the apostles prescribe and those          which Acts 6:1-6 gives us regard-          con in any given congregation, al-
which Paul prescribes. Paul cer-          ing the office of deacon. To some          though of course the size of the
tainly spells out in more detail          of these we will return later, in          congregation will be a factor in de-
what the qualifications for deacons       more detail.                               termining how many men should
are, but if one meets all the quali-           Note first that the church was        be in the office.
fications listed in I Timothy 3:8-13,     given the opportunity to choose                But the one point which Acts 6
he surely is a man full of the Holy       these men. So it is fitting today          makes clear, and which we wish to
Ghost and wisdom.                         that the members of the church             stress, is the fact that the work of
    Third, that the word "deacon"         have an opportunity to suggest to          the deacons is that of caring for the
is not used is not a problem, be-         the church council the names of            poor. Also to this subject we will
cause the passage makes clear what        men whom they consider emi-                return in a future article, the Lord
the  work  of these men must be.          nently qualified for the office of         willing; but that this is the work of
They must "serve tables." Inter-          deacon. This is in keeping with Ar-        the office explains its necessity in
estingly, the Greek verb translated       ticle 22 of our Church Order:  `I...       the church. The church needs dea-
"serve" is  diakoneo,  and is related     every church shall be at liberty, ac-      cons, because the church has poor
to the Greek noun for deacon,             cording to its circumstances, to           for whom she must care. Cl
diakonos.   This latter word indicates    give the members an opportunity
that the deacon is one who serves.        to direct attention to suitable per-
In addition, the work of these men        sons...."     And it is fitting that,      7Herman  Hoeksema is of this lat-
was to serve the poor, which work         when possible, the council present         ter opinion; Ibid., p. 76.
is fundamental to the office of dea-      to the congregation the names of           sDeJong, Lot. cit., p. 30.
con as we know it. Clearly, the           twice as many men as are needed            vCf. our "Form of Ordination of El-
work was not that of ruling, which        for the office, so that the congrega-      ders and Deacons."
is the work of the elders. Nor was        tion can choose its deacons from
it the work of preaching, which           this list (also in keeping with Ar-
was the work of the apostles (Acts        ticle 22).
6:4).                                          We are also hereby instructed
    Fourth, we can explain the            regarding the installation of dea-
evangelistic work of Philip and           cons. First, such installation must
Stephen more naturally by saying          take place by the officebearers. So,
that they were called to the office       although the congregation chose
of evangelist as well as deacon.          the men for the office, the apostles
Acts  826 shows that Philip was           ordained them into their office.
specifically called and sent to           Second, the installation ceremony

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                                             Signs of the limes (4)
        Signs of Christ's Coming in Nature

                                             there are countries where famines       or the more recent epidemic of in-
     And there shall be famines, and         rage, where men, women, and chil-       fluenza during World War I.
pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers      dren, who do not have the proper                When an epidemic of these
places. All these are the beginning  of      food nor enough to survive, starve      sorts strikes there is no prevention
sorrows.                                     to death.                               or cure to be found. Very few es-
                        Matthew  24%             We talk of being hungry, but        cape it, many are critically ill, and
                                             we with our full larders do not         a large number die. During that
    And when he had opened the third         know the empty feeling, the nau-        epidemic in 1918, both churches
seal,  I heard the third beast say, Come     sea and pain that grip the stomach      and schools were closed for weeks,
and see. And I beheld, and  IO a black       and bowels in excruciating agony.       no group larger than seven people
horse; and he that sat on him had a          We have not experienced the des-        might meet together, ministers vis-
pair  of  balances in his hand. And I        peration of parents who are unable      ited the sick by speaking to them
heard a voice in the midst  of  the four     to obtain food for themselves and       through the window, even when
beasts say, A measure  of wheat for a        their children, the mournful crying     that involved climbing a ladder to
penny, and three measures  of  barley        of little ones with pale, hollow        reach them on the second floor.
for a penny; and see  thou hurt not the      faces and emaciated, bony frames.       Funerals, which were a daily oc-
oil and the wine.                            We are not acquainted with times        currence since sometimes a whole
                      Revelation  6:5,  6    in which bleating sheep cry for pas-    family was wiped out, were  heId
0                                            ture, animals with bloated bodies       in the front yard of the home, with
            bviously the message is          roam about scouring the waste           only the immediate family attend-
            that there will always be        lands for food, with the cry of the     ing.
            poverty in the world. Es-        dying being heard on every hand                 In a broader sense, all sick-
pecially toward the end, the poor            and the skeletons of the starved ly-    nesses and diseases can be in-
become poorer while the rich grow            ing in low valleys.                     cluded. It is true that through the
richer. Besides false Christs in the             We have some idea of what           means of modern medicine many
church and wars in the world,                real famine means when we read          of the common infectious diseases
Scripture now mentions signs of              of the days of Elijah, when even        are brought under control. Some
Christ's coming in nature: famines,          the king was looking for grass for      of them which took so many lives,
pestilences, and earthquakes.                his animals, and Elijah was fed         like tuberculosis, small pox, or
    Jesus speaks of famines. In our          with the widow and her son with         diphtheria, are hardly heard of
affluent times it is hardly possible         enough meal and oil for one day         anymore.       But instead of those,
for us to imagine the plight of those        at a time. We see a clearer picture     such ailments as cancer prove to
who suffer from famine. We know              when we read in Scripture that in       be very common in our day. And
of crop failures, food shortages, re-        the time of the famine in Jerusa-       then there are the social diseases,
cessions in the economy, and pos-            lem a mother ate her son to satisfy     among which the most common is
sibly  aIso depressions. We have             her craving hunger.                     the widespread epidemic of the
even heard of concentration camps               Jesus also speaks of pestilences.    HIV infection.
and the gnawing hunger that was              We are reminded of Psalm 91,                    Ever since the fall of man in
suffered there. But famines are for-         which speaks of "the pestilence         Paradise, maladies have always
eign to us today. Yet even now               that walketh in darkness." In the       been present in the world and in
                                             narrowest sense this refers to any      an ever increasing measure. The
                                             widespread and fatal infectious         gospel accounts of the ministry of
Rev. Hanko is a minister emeritus in fhe     malady, such as the black plague        Jesus refer to many who were sick,
Profesfanf Reformed Churches.                that killed thousands in the past,      lame, blind, or deaf. In fact, we

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are often surprised at the number       earthquakes in divers places, and         of war, and the famines, pesti-
of people who came to Jesus, and        famines, and pestilences," but            lences, and earthquakes which the
later to the apostles to be healed.     adds: "and fearful sights and great       Lord has mentioned. These signs
But the fact still remains that, in     signs shall there be from heaven"         in the church, in the world, and in
spite of all modern medicines and       (Luke  21:ll).                            nature are referred to here as pre-
cures, the number and intensity of          All three signs, famines, pesti-      cursory signs, that is, they are the
diseases continue to increase. Hos-     lences, and earthquakes, are visi-        harbingers or warnings of the ap-
pitals and rest homes are always        tations of God because of sin. In         proaching end of the ages.
full; pain, suffering, the breaking     times past they were often referred               The word "sorrows" might bet-
down of this earthly tabernacle         to as "acts of God," as if the daily      ter be translated as "travail" or
continue unceasingly. No man es-        events like the rising and the set-       "birth pangs." They are like the
capes it. We are always aware of        ting of the sun were not in God's         experience of a mother who gives
death as the grim reaper, for it is     providence.       Unbelief no longer      birth to her child. They are ex-
appointed unto all men to die and       reckons with God. The unbeliever          tremely painful, an agonizing ex-
afterward is the judgment.              prefers to speak of natural phe-          perience, but at the same time God
    Jesus also mentions earth-          nomena, or freaks of nature, and          is carrying out His counsel in
quakes. Those of you who have           will try to explain all events from       bringing forth a new creation in
experienced the power of the Al-        natural causes.                           which righteousness dwells.
mighty that shakes the very foun-           Even in Jesus' day, when the                  Paul states: "For the earnest
dations of the earth can best un-       voice spoke from heaven saying: "I        expectation of the creature waiteth
derstand the helpless feeling of to-    have both glorified it (God's name),      for the manifestation of the sons of
tal lack of stability. The psalmist     and will glorify it again," some of       God. For the creature was made
speaks of the mountains trembling       the people said with a shrug of           subject to vanity, not willingly, but
and shaking, dancing like a calf, or    their shoulders, "It thundered."          by reason of him who hath sub-
skipping like a young unicorn.          Unbelief deliberately ignores these       jected the same in hope, Because
Scripture also speaks of the moun-      signs.                                    the creature itself also shall be de-
tains melting before the power of           That attitude grows far worse         livered from the bondage of cor-
God. There are those who live in        as the end approaches. We read in         ruption into the glorious liberty of
the mountains who have actually         Revelation  16:11, "And (they) blas-      the children of God" (Rom. 8:19-
witnessed this.                         phemed the God of heaven because          22).
    When the earth totters and          of their pain and their sores, and                We can lift up our heads in
rocks on its foundation, much de-       repented not of their deeds."             blessed hope, for our salvation is
struction of property is wrought,           Earthquakes are mentioned in          drawing nigh. We who live by
but also many human lives are           the Old Testament. It is quite sig-       faith and not by sight recognize the
taken. Only recently we read of         nificant that they occurred also          fact that in most recent times we
an earthquake that brought land-        when Jesus died and at the time of        have experienced many disasters
slides which engulfed many homes        His resurrection. When Jesus died,        throughout the country: severe
and took hundreds of lives. Un-         God was pronouncing His condem-           earthquakes and forest fires in Cali-
told damage and misery result           nation not only on the Jewish na-         fornia, forest fires in Florida, floods
from an earthquake which can            tion, but also upon the inhabitants       in the southern states and in Ken-
strike at any moment, most unex-        of the whole world, for we all stand      tucky and North Dakota, and heat
pectedly, and bring with it many        guilty in the rejection of the Christ.    with drought in Texas that breaks
destructive after shocks.               Yet the earthquake at the time of         all records. There is virtually no
    Along with the famines, pesti-      the resurrection not only assures us      state in the Union that has not ex-
lences, and earthquakes we can          of the final destruction of this          perienced some form of disaster,
well mention such disasters as tor-     present world, but also of the fact       leaving destruction and causing the
nadoes, hurricanes, forest fires,       that God makes all things new. At         loss of human lives.
floods, heat, and drought that are      the resurrection of Christ a new                  We need not be unduly dis-
reported again and again in the         day dawns for the saints in Christ        turbed, for we look in growing an-
daily papers and in the newscasts.      Jesus. This is the beginning of the       ticipation for the coming of our
There can be no doubt about it that     "fullness of time," the "last days,"      Lord. His footsteps are daily more
all these visitations are on the in-    the "day of the Lord," the "days of       clearly heard. His voice sounds
crease as the end approaches. We        the coming of the Lord."                  through all the works of God's
can certainly expect more, not less,        All these are the beginning of        hand:       "Behold, I come, even
in spite of man's ingenuity to try      sorrows.                                  speedily!"
to prevent them.                            "All these" refers back to the                Our prayer should be: Come,
    Luke not only speaks of "great      false Christs, the wars and rumors        Lord Jesus, yea, come quickly. 0

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                                            the Gospel's origination, and the                    Gospel of John. The book is en-
                                            like. Opinions," says Ridderbos,                     hanced by detailed, extensive
                                            "on all these questions are widely                   name, subject, and Scripture text
The Gospel  of  John: A Theological         divergent and come to us in a body                   indices.
Commentary,  by Herman Ridderbos            of literature almost impossible to
(translated by John Vriend). Grand                                                                   At the same time, there are
Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Pub-        survey, consisting as it does in a                   very serious weaknesses in this
lishing Company, 1997. Pp. xiii-721.        vast multitude of separate studies                   work. The author denies the doc-
$42.00. (paper). [Reviewed by Prof.         and monograph" (pp. xiii-xiv).                       trine of predestination. Comment-
Robert D. Decker.]                              T h e   q u e s t i o n ,   m a i n t a i n s    ing on John  10:25-26 he writes,
                                            Ridderbos, on which the Gospel fo-
H                                                                                                "here again . . . commentators often
     erman Ridderbos, now re-               cuses is, "Who is Jesus?" "The                       refer to `Johannine  predestina-
      tired, taught New Testament           Evangelist," writes Ridderbos,                       tionism.' Undoubtedly the refer-
for many years at the Theological           "views the real miracle of the com-                  ence here is to the deepest grounds
School of the Reformed Churches             ing and work of Jesus, the Christ,                   of faith and unbelief. `My sheep,'
of the Netherlands in Kampen                as the incarnation of the Word or,                   after all, are those whom `the Fa-
(GKN). Throughout his long ca-              as he states in a no less pivotal pro-               ther has given me' (cf. vs. 29;
reer he wrote many books, among             nouncement, as the descent of the                    6:37ff.,  etc.). The text speaks of a
which are the excellent Commen-             S o n   o f   m a n   (3:14)"  ( p .   1 3 ) .       predetermined situation, but it is
tary on Matthew in the  Korte               "Hence," the author continues, "to                   rooted not in a divine decree but
Verklaring Der Heilige  Shrift  se-         have `beheld' the revelation of that                 in `belonging to' and living out of
ries and  Paul: An Outline  of  His         glory in the flesh and to witness to                 a spiritual field of dynamics other
Theology.                                   him who thus dwelled among us                        than that in which Jesus' sheep
    As the book's title indicates,          forms the foundation and content                     are.... It is not the case, however,
Ridderbos purposed to write a               of the Fourth Gospel" (p. 13). "Ac-                  and here lies the permanent mean-
theological commentary on the               cordingly, this glory is nowhere de-                 ing of this confrontation, that the
Fourth Gospel. His purpose was              picted more visibly and audibly                      situation is closed from God's side,
to make clear from the exposition           than in John, as is evident particu-                 as if Jesus has been sent by the Fa-
of this Gospel what its  message  is.       larly  from the emphasis placed                      ther merely to note that fact and to
What particular truth does John             there on the irrefutability and re-                  proclaim it as immutable" (p. 369).
contribute to the doctrine of Holy          ality of Jesus' miracles  (9:18-34;                  That the author denies predestina-
Scripture. Does Ridderbos succeed           11:38-42;   20:27; also  2:9;  4:15ff.)"             tion is evident as well from his
in this? We think so, but with some         (pp. 13-14).                                         comments on chapter  12:39-40,
reservations.                                    The language used by the au-                    "Unbelief is not thereby blamed on
    Because he aimed to focus on            thor in the introduction does not                    God in a predestinarian sense, but
the message, a n d   b e c a u s e   h e    sound as if Ridderbos believes the                   is rather described as a punishment
wanted to write for as wide an au-          doctrine of plenary, verbal, infal-                  from God: he abandons unbeliev-
dience as possible, the author does         lible inspiration, even though he                    ing people to themselves, thus con-
not offer a treatment of all the "pre-      concludes the introduction with                      firming them in their evil, blind-
liminary questions that have been           this statement: "The point at issue                  ing their eyes and hardening their
raised with regard to the origin of         is always what Jesus said and did                    hearts, as a result of which what-
the Fourth Gospel, such as                  in his self-disclosure on earth, but                 ever God gives them to see and
    * whether it was originally a           it is transmitted in its lasting va-                 hear can no longer lead to salva-
single composition,                         lidity with the independence of an                   tion, that is, to repentance and
    * the issue of the independence         apostle who was authorized to                        healing" (pp. 444,445).
(or otherwise) of the sources and           speak by Jesus and endowed with                          This reviewer cannot determine
the way they were handled by the            the promise of the Spirit" (p. 16).                  from Ridderbos' comments on
Evangelist,                                 The reader will have to decide this                  chapter 20 whether he believes that
    * this Gospel's relationship to         question for himself.                                Jesus arose from the dead.
the Synoptic Gospels,                            There is much to be said for                        Finally, in conclusion, my col-
    + whether we have the mate-             this work. It is scholarly. The au-                  league, the Rev. Herman Hanko,
rial in the Gospel in the original          thor interacts with the scholars and                 who taught New Testament at the
form and order (which is doubted            commentators in extensive notes on                   Protestant Reformed Seminary for
by many scholars),                          nearly every page. He obviously                      over thirty years and who has read
    * the `phases' in the history of        knows "what's out there" on the                      much of Ridderbos' writings and

286/Standard  Bearer/March IS,1999


who has written an extensive re-            Christian schools says some good             to His covenant, as well as of the
view of Ridderbos' book, Paul:  An          things about covenant and baptism,           power and veracity of the covenant
Outlivre  of  His Theology,  commented      especially infant baptism. It vig-           promise.
to me recently, "Herman Ridderbos           orously contends for the unity of                In connection with his affirma-
has changed. The contemporary               the covenant in the Old and New              tion of a promise to all the chil-
Ridderbos is not the Ridderbos of           Testaments, as for the related in-           dren, the author insists that the
Korte Verklaring." Korte Verklaring         clusion of children in the covenant          promise "requires" faith. Never
Der HeiEige S&rift is a series of com-      in the present dispensation. The             does he acknowledge that the
mentaries on all the books of the           author points out that in saving the         promise also, and first of all,  in-
Bible written by Dutch professors           children of believers God remem-             cludes the benefit of faith, and then
and ministers in the 1930s. H.R.            bers "His own creation ordinances.           gives  it. That is, to whomever God
Ridderbos contributed a two-vol-            In them He had given seed, fam-              makes the covenant promise He
ume commentary on Matthew in                ily, generations, and nations their          promises to give faith, and then He
this fine series.  n                        placeN  (p. 103).                            keeps His promise.
                                                But it comes out clearly that the            The spate of books urging the
                                            covenant-conception promoted                 peculiar covenant doctrine set forth
A Sign  of  Faithfulness:  Covenant         here holds that the covenant is with         here must raise the question with
b  B a p t i s m ,   by H. Westerink.       all the physical children alike, rep-        Reformed Christians, "Where in
Neerlandia, AB, Canada: Inherit-            robate as well as elect. God prom-           this covenant-conception is the sov-
ance Publications, 1997. 128 pages.         ises salvation to all alike, evidently       ereignty of God in salvation that is
Can.  $9.95/US$8.90  (paper). [Re-          with the same attitude of love to            clearly and sharply confessed by
viewed by the editor.]                      all. In view of the perishing of             the Canons of Dordt?" Or does not
                                            some, this doctrine of the covenant          the gospel of salvation confessed
        This translation of an earlier      is destructive of God's faithfulness         in the Canons apply to the children
Dutch work by a teacher in the                                                           of believers?  17




                                            Hanko spoke on "The Dominant                 from Psalm  25:4 under the theme,
                                            Signs of Our Times," followed by             "Jehovah's      Covenant        Made
                                            Rev. C. Terpstra speaking on "Pre-           Known."
Evangklism  Activities                      paring for the New Millennium                    The Evangelism Committee of
We begin this issue of the and the End of the Age." Time the Grace PRC in Standale, MI was
          "News" with a heartfelt           was given after each speech for              able to spend a night in mid-Janu-
thank-you, first to the Evangelism          questions, and this too proved to            ary manning a booth at Grand Val-
Committee of the First PRC in Hol-          add a very practical touch to the            ley State University to promote
land, MI for serving as host for a          conference.    Today there are so            their evangelism work there. You
very timely and worthwhile con-             many different predictions about             may remember that part of that
ference on the millennium, entitled         what will happen at the end of this          work involves sponsorship of the
"Biblical Sanity Amid Millennial            millennium. This opportunity to              group "Christianity on Campus,"
Madness," and second to the three           spend time with God's Word,                  which meets throughout the school
men who so capably presented the            therefore,     truly    s e r v e d   t o    year to discuss subjects related to
biblical aspects of that theme. Prof.       strengthen those who attended.               young Christians of college age.
D. Engelsma spoke Friday night,             Opportunity was also given to or-            Part of Grace's work also involves
February 5, to an overflow crowd            der all three speeches on cassette,          giving guidance and counsel to stu-
on "The Proper Perspective of the           and at this time there are over 90           dents at GVSU. The hope is that
New Testament Age and the Re-               orders already in to First's Evan-           by God's grace some might be led
turn of Jesus Christ." This fine            gelism Committee.                            through this to visit Grace Church
speech was followed the next                    With the approval of his                 and possibly come to a deeper ap-
morning by two more: Prof. H.               consistory, Rev. S. Key, pastor of           preciation of the Reformed faith.
                                            the Randolph, WI I'RC, brought the               The Evangelism Committee of
                                            Word of God Sunday evening, Feb-             the Bethel PRC in Itasca, IL recently
                                            ruary 14, to the members of the              informed their congregation that
Mr. Wigger is an elder in the Protestant    Grace United Reformed Church in              their church's web page continues
Reformed Church of Hudsonville, Michi-      Waupun, WI. Pastor Key preached              to draw questions from many  dif-
gan.                      L

                                                                                               March 15,1999/StandardBearer/287

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


ferent contacts. Plans are now un-                 preaching duties for four to six                      berry Dr., Pittsburgh, PA 15235 or
derway to up-date this page to in-                 weeks.          The Domestic Mission                  jaimahtani@msn.com.
clude audio Reformed Witness                       Committee and the calling church,
Hour sermons.                                      Southwest PRC in Grandville, MI,                      Minister Activities
                                                   have made arrangements for the                        Thecongregation of the Hull, IA
Mission Activities                                 care of the mission group during                            PRC will have a congregational
Since his acceptance of our this time and have prepared a meeting on March 2, D.V., to call a
    churches' call to serve as mis-                schedule for how Rev. Mahtani, the                    pastor from a trio of the Revs. B.
sionary to Ghana, Rev. R. Moore                    Lord willing, will resume his la-                     Gritters (Hudsonville, MI), C. Haak
and his wife have been busy mak-                   bors. Besides remembering the                         (Itasca, IL), and S. Key (Randolph,
ing plans for the tremendous un-                   needs of the Mahtanis and the                         WI).
dertaking we as churches are about                 group in Pittsburgh in prayer, you                                    FoodFor  Giought
to begin. Rev. Moore estimates that                might also consider dropping them                           "As soon as God puts his chil-
it will take at least three months to              a note of encouragement. Pastor                       dren into the furnace of affliction,
make the arrangements necessary                    Mahtani's address is, 216  Thorn-                     he will be with them in it."
to move to Ghana. Rev. Moore                                                                                             - C.H. Spurgeon              IX
planned to preach his farewell ser-
mon as pastor of the Hull, IA PRC
on March 7, D.V.                                                                                                 RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
    Also with regard to Ghana, we                                                                              The council and congregation of South-
pass along a note from the Foreign                            TEACHERSNEEDED                             east PRC would like to express their Christian
Mission Committee that they are                         Hope Christian School of Redlands,               sympathy to Christine  Batts in the death of
once again looking for individuals                 CA is in need of a teacher for the inter-             her brother,
or couples interested in assisting                 mediate grades (3 & 4) for the 1999-2000                               NEAL FABER.
our missionary in Ghana. The FMC                   school year. The grade assignment, how-                     "Oh how great is thy goodness, which
is requesting that these individu-                 ever, is flexible, with the possibility instead       thou hast laid up for them that fear thee; which
als or couples be willing to spend                 for an elementary position (grades 1 & 2).            thou  hast wrought for them that trust in thee
at least six months, but preferably                Interested persons are encouraged to                  before the sons of men!" (Psalm  31:19).
at least a year, on the field assist-              send an application to Hope Christian                                      Rev. Dale Kuiper, Pres.
ing our missionary. Much of the                    School, Attn: Ed Karsemeyer, 1309 E.                                              Ed Hekstra, Clerk
work would be to assist in the prac-               Brockton Ave., Redlands, CA 92374. You
tical aspects of the work which are                may also phone school  (909-793-4584),                        RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
not directly ecclesiastical. Such                  Bill Feenstra  (909-793-3597),  or Mike                     The Martha Society of the  Doon PRC ex-
                                                                                                         presses its sincere sympathy to its fellow mem-
work as attending to the housing,                  Gritters (909-793-4439).                              ber  Gert Burgers, in the sudden death of her
transportation, and physical as-                                                                         grandson,
pects of the worship and living fa-                     The Hull Protestant Reformed School                        DANIEL HECKATHRON.
cilities. Expenses for these volun-                of Hull, IA will add to its staff a 6'h/7fi grad~e         ~~ May she and her family be comforted by
teers would be paid by way of col-                 teacher for the 1999-2000 school year.                His Word and Spirit. "The Lord thy God, he it
lections in our churches and per-                  Interested persons are encouraged to con-             is that doth go with thee. He will not fail thee
sonal donations. If you are inter-                 tact Mr. Pete Brummel, Principal, 218 Sec-            nor forsake thee" (Deuteronomy 31:6).
ested, you are encouraged to con-                  ond St., Hull,  IA 51239 (712) 439-2490                                         Rev. R. Smit, Pres.
tact Rev. R. Smit, secretary of the                or (712) 439-1308 or Mr. Brian Kroese,                                Gert VanDenTop,  Vice-Secy.
FMC, with any questions you may                    301 Second St., Hull, IA 51239 (712) 439-
have.                                              1699.
     As many of our readers know,                                                                 NOTICE!!
Rev. J. Mahtani, home missionary                        All standing and special committees of the synod of the Protestant Reformed Churches, as
in Pittsburgh, PA, has been suffer-                well as individuals who wish to address synod 1999, are hereby notified that all material for this
i n g   f r o m   d e p r e s s i o n .  Pastor    year's synod should be in the hands of the stated clerk no later than April 1. Please send
Mahtani has been relieved of his                   material to:
                                                                       Mr. Don Doezema, 4949 lvanrest Ave., Grandville, Ml 49418

ZSS/Standard  Bearer/March 15,1999


