                                                                                  In This Issue:
                   Meditation  - Herman Hoeksema
                             Thou That Destroyest the Temple! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290
                   Editorial  - Prof. David  J.  fngelsma
                              A Defense of the Gospel of Grace
                                   Against ECT (4) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .293
                   Review Article  - Prof. David  J.  Engelsma
                              Can Advocates of Universal Grace
                                    in the Preaching Defend Calvinism? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296
                   Letters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .299
                   Marking the Bulwarks of Zion  - Prof. Herman C. Hanko
                              Nestorius and an Unholy Squabble
                                    About Christ (2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299
                   When Thou Sittest in Thine House - Rev. Wilbur Bruinsma
                              The Covenant of Marriage
                                    2. Courtship Within the Covenant (cont.) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303
                   Search the Scriptures  - Rev. Mitchell C. Dick
                              The Trial of Truth, Democrats,
                                    & Grand Old Pharisees (2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305
                   Decency and Order  - Rev. Ron Cammenga
                              Congregational Singing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308
                   News From Our Churches  - Mr. Benjamin Wigger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310





Vol. 75, No. 13
April 1, 1999


               Thou That Destroyest the Temple!

                                                   And they that passed by reviled him, wagging their heads, and
                                            saying, Thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days,
                                            save thyself.  If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross.
                                                                                                                                Matthew  27:39,40

                                                                  was, in the midst of all his own                                    hours it is all finished. Events fol-
                                                                  suffering and reproach, a prefigu-                                  low one another in rapid succes-
           My words a cause for scorn
              they make,                                          ration. And the Spirit of that Root                                 sion. The way from Gethsemane to
           The lip they curl, the head                            whose shadow he was urged him                                       Calvary is quickly traversed. They
              they shake,                                         from within to bewail His shame                                     take Him and bind Him, though
           And, mocking, bid me trust                             and suffering.                                                      there is no accusation; they try Him
              the Lord                                                   Now, here on Golgotha, the full                              and condemn Him, though there is
           Till He salvation shall afford.                        reality of the implication of the                                   neither indictment nor testimony;
T                                                                 twenty-second psalm is revealed.                                    they deliver Him to the fury of the
            hus, centuries before the                             The Root of David has come. And,                                    mob, of the world, of the soldiers,
            bloody scene on Calvary                               what is more, "His hour" has ar-                                    though there is no guile; they buf-
            was enacted, sang Israel's                            rived. Not until "the hour" could                                   fet Him, spit on Him, smite Him
inspired poet.                                                    the forces of darkness have power                                   with reeds, crown Him with thorns,
       Historical circumstances, no                               over Him. Now He is delivered                                       plow His back with cruel  scourge-
doubt, were such that he was able                                 into the hands of sinners and num-                                  stripes, though He never did evil;
to sing these woeful lines with ap-                               bered with the transgressors.                                       they surrender Him to be crucified
plication to himself. Yet, in prin-                                      The rapidity with which the                                  in the midst of evil-doers, though
ciple, he sang because the Root of                                history of Jesus' suffering is real-                                they found no guilt in Him!
David was in him. Of that Root he                                 ized is a sign of the bitterness of                                          Now He hangs there, a re-
                                                                  the hatred that had so long been                                    proach to the church, to the world,
                                                                  restrained in the bosom of the en-                                  to unnumbered foes, that rejoice in
                                                                  emies. The powers of darkness, the                                  His downfall.
Herman Hoeksema was the first edi-                                fury of hell, all the forces of the                                          A number of people have fol-
tor  of  the  Standard Bearer.  This ar-                          world are let loose upon Him, and                                   lowed from Jerusalem. And gradu-
ticle is a reprint  of  a Meditation from                         they fall upon Him with a fury that                                 ally the curious mob increases in
the March  15,2929  Standard Bearer.                              would tear Him asunder. In a few                                    number, both from those that  re-


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290/Standard  Bearer/April  1,1999


ceived the fast-spreading news of        the judgment of their wicked lead-                     He would rebuilt it, if they would
Jesus' condemnation in Jerusalem         ers without inquiring, and pass by                     destroy it. The declaration was
and from visitors that arrive from       the scene of Messiah's condemna-                       first made after He had cleansed
elsewhere on this main road lead-        tion, of the cross of Jesus, whom                      the house of His Father and driven
ing from the north to the Holy City.     they knew (who did not know                            out the thieves and robbers, and
But there is neither pity nor awe in     Him?) to be one who had traversed                      the leaders, who profited from this
their words as they reveal the           the country, now for three years,                      thievery in Father's house, had de-
thoughts of their hearts in respect      doing good, healing the sick, cur-                     manded a sign of His authority to
to the cross of the Man of Sorrows!      ing the blind and the deaf, the                        do these things. As a sign of His
    Some stay to behold and mock.        maimed and the lame, raising the                       power and right to cleanse the
Others pass by to cast a casual          dead, comforting the sorrowing,                        temple, the Lord had witnessed
glance and jeer! All scoff and taunt     feeding the hungry, and preaching                      that He could and would rebuild
and spit their venom.                    the kingdom of heaven! Indiffer-                       the temple if they destroyed it. His
    And though they know it not,         ent natures, that could pass by the                    words had been perverted and,
they are the full realization of this    death-struggle of the Innocent, of                     thus perverted, had been brought
other lamentation of their own in-       whom no man could recall that                          as a testimony against Him, when
spired singer:                           ever He had done evil, without                         He was tried before the High Priest
                                         calling to account those that com-                     and they found nought wherein to
      Unnumbered foes would do           mitted this murder! Blind follow-                      condemn Him. In this perverted
           me wrong,                     ers of blind leaders, who passed on                    form the testimony had been re-
      They press about me, fierce        into the city of the shadows, while                    peated and picked up by the mob,
           and strong,
      Like beasts of prey their rage     reality was here!                                      and through them by these pass-
           they vent,                        And thousands like them to-                        ersby, who now jeered: Ha! thou
      My courage fails, my strength      day, always, following the leader-                     that destroyest the temple!
           is spent.                     ship of superficial rationalism, pass                      No, not as a destroyer, but as
                                         Calvary with a casual glance. They                     rebuilder of the temple had He an-
       +++  +++  +++                     consider not and know not and                          nounced Himself!
                                         pass on into the shadows, the shad-                        They are, we are, sinful man is
    Ha! Thou that destroyest the         ows of hell!                                           a temple-destroyer. For the temple
temple!                                      But, though they consider not,                     is the house of God, the dwelling
    The biting sarcasm came from         they jeer; and though they pass on                     of God with man, God's covenant
the lips of those who passed by!         without investigation, they judge;                     of friendship. To know Him and
    Who they were and whence             and with a wagging of the head                         to be known by Him, to love Him
they came we know not. Perhaps           they express the only pity they                        and to be loved by Him, to be con-
they were Galileans. Or perhaps          know: the poor fool!                                   secrated to Him in willing service
they were from the dispersion.               And they rail on Him and blas-                     and to be blessed by Him, to enter
More than likely they had come           pheme Him and emphatically sub-                        into His communion and dwell in
from far to celebrate the Old Tes-       scribe to His condemnation as if                       His tent, to walk with Him and to
tament Passover in the Holy City         they knew.                                             talk with Him  - that is the temple
and knew not that for this they              Ha! thou that destroyest the                       of God, of which, after all, the
were just a little too late, seeing      temple!                                                building made with hands, as it
that the end of the law was here             Save thyself! Come down from                       stood in the Holy City of old, was
on Calvary and that the real Pass-       the cross!                                             but a figure and shadow. That real
over was being killed on this                If thou be the Son of God!                         temple we destroy. For we are by
bloody tree.                                                                                    nature covenant-breakers, enemies
    But passersby they were, and                 +++  +++  +++                                  of God, who mind the things of sin
this speaks volumes!                                                                            and death, who depart from the
    Cold-blooded natures, that               T h o u   t h a t   d e s t r o y e s t   t h e    ways of God and follow after the
could pass by the horrible spectacle     temple!                                                Prince of darkness to do his will,
of three fellowmen bleeding to               With this perversion of the                        always destroying the temple, vio-
death and writhing in agony, with-       truth they seek, with their wicked                     lating God's covenant, unwilling
out being nailed to the spot in          leaders, to justify the crucifixion of                 and unable to dwell in His pres-
dread amazement! Superficial na-         the Innocent!                                          ence.
tures, that could behold without             A lie it was in a double sense.                        And so the Lord had said: De-
considering, that could judge with-          For, first, the Lord had never                     stroy ye this temple!
out investigating, that could accept     said, as they imply, that He would                         He would rebuilt it!
                                         destroy the temple. He said that                           Such was the first lie with

                                                                                                         April  1,1999/Standard   Bearer/291


which they attempted to seal His         wicked rulers, were as blind as                        power, but to declare that He has
condemnation.                            they.                                                  none. Their purpose is not to pro-
    Secondly, He had not spoken               They are destroying the temple!                   voke Him to come from the cross,
of the palatial edifice on Mount         And while they destroy it, He is                       but to assert that He cannot. They
Zion, which was but the  shadow-         already rebuilding it!                                 do not appeal to the power of His
temple, but of His body, of Him-              But they know not. And so                         Sonship  that He might save Him-
self, for He was the real temple of      they jeer, like brute fools signing                    self from the accursed tree, but sar-
God. The essence of the temple,          their own destruction.                                 castically they emphasize that He
God dwelling with us, was realized            Ha! thou that destroyest the                      is not the Son of God!
with and in Him. Was He not              temple!                                                        There is argument in their sar-
Immanuel, the Son of God come                 Come down from the cross!                         casm!
into the likeness of sinful flesh?                                                                      He does not come down be-
Were not God and man united in                     +++  +++  +++                                cause He  cannot come down; and
Him as never before, in unity of                                                                because He cannot come down He
divine person? And, as such,                  Come down!                                        is not the Son of God! Thus runs
would He not rebuild the house of             If thou be the Son of God!                        the devilish logic of their bitter jibe!
God that was lying in ruins as far            How terrible a mistake is their                           It is the argument of the blind-
as we were concerned and always          conclusion as they mockingly ex-                       ness of sin!
kept in its state of desolation by       press it!                                                      For being blind to the fact that
our sins and iniquities?                      Perverted as is the judgment                      they are destroying the temple, and
    Was He not rebuilding that           which they cast in His teeth that                      still affirming that He is the de-
temple even then and they did not        He would destroy the temple, so                        stroyer; being willingly ignorant of
know it? Indeed, God was in              erroneous is the conclusion they                       the truth that He is even now re-
Christ reconciling the world unto        sarcastically draw with respect to                     building the temple they destroy,
Himself. Here, on the accursed           Him that is suspended before their                     they cannot possibly conceive of
tree of Calvary, the foundation is       eyes on the accursed tree of Cal-                      another, of a deeper, of a totally
laid for the new and everlasting         vary.                                                  different reason for His clinging to
temple of God, even while they are            Do not mistake their sarcasm!                     the bloody tree than the one they
destroying the old temple in His         When they repeat the words of the                      sarcastically suggest: He cannot
flesh, but they realize neither that     Tempter in the wilderness and on                       come down, He is powerless, be-
they themselves are destroying the       the pinnacle of the temple: "If thou                   cause He is not the Son of God!
old house, nor that He is already        be the Son of God," they mean that                             How terrible is the darkness of
laying the groundwork for the new.       He is not! With the devil it had                       sin!
    Presently He will raise the su-      b e e n   a n   a p p e a l   t o   w h a t   t h e            For change now the viewpoint
perstructure of that glorious and        Tempter knew Jesus is: the Son of                      and consider the truth and behold
eternal house of God!                    God. A bold challenge it had been,                     the reality of things, and the fatal
    For, having laid the foundation      that He might reveal the power of                      fallacy of their sarcastic argument
of righteousness, of the righteous-      His Godhead by choosing the way                        is immediately apparent. Confess
ness of God in His own precious          of disobedience to the Father. And                     that we are the destroyers of the
blood, having fulfilled all obedi-       who can doubt that behind the jeers                    temple of God because of our sins
ence in His awful death, He will         of this furious mob of mockers,                        and transgressions and the deprav-
have license to perfect the temple.      railing at the Man of Sorrows, there                   ity of our wicked nature; that this
From the dead He will be raised,         is still the same Tempter who per-                     temple of God could never be re-
into heaven He will be exalted,          sonally attacked the Servant of Je-                    built but on the foundation of the
with the Spirit He will be filled,       hovah in the wilderness, still taunt-                  perfect righteousness of God; that
and He will raise the temple till it     ing Him to forsake the cross, to                       this foundation of the perfect righ-
will stand in all its beauty of per-     leave the terrible way of obedience                    teousness of God could never be
fection in the everlasting tabernacle    in suffering and come down to                          laid but by such a sacrifice as could
of God with men!                         show His power.7 And who does                          perfectly satisfy the justice of God;
    But the leaders, in whose very       not realize that this jeer was one                     that such a perfectly satisfying and,
ears the words were spoken, were         more dagger-thrust in the heart of                     therefore, atoning sacrifice could
blind because of devilish hatred.        the bleeding Savior, aggravating                       never be offered by you and by me,
Their hearts were hard and their         the burden of His passion? But,                        by men, by angels, by any creature,
eyes were darkened, so that they         though this were the purpose of the                    because our blood would not be
could not see.                           Tempter, his instruments are not                       precious enough; because our
    And the superficial passersby,       conscious of his designs. They do                      death would not be deep enough
who accepted the judgment of their       not intend to make Him reveal His                      to pay for the sin committed

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against the most high majesty of                       bloody tree; that there is another                     which I destroyed! Save not Thy-
God; because our wicked nature                         reason than that which is expressed                    self, but me!
would never be willing to bring the                    in the sarcasm of these superficial                         Nay, rather, you jubilantly re-
perfect sacrifice if it could; and be-                 passersby that restrains Him from                      peat the language of faith: He is
cause we would be swallowed up                         descending now upon His mock-                          the Son of God, and because He is
in eternal death if we were will-                      ers. The reason is infinite, unfath-                   He will not come down!
ing. Then you will also understand                     omable love, the love of God to His                         And because, being the Son of
that none but the Son of God could                     own, the love of the Savior to the                     God, He did not come down but
bring that sacrifice, could shed that                  Father who sent Him and to the                         shed His precious life-blood, He is
blood, could taste that death, could                   people who were given Him.                             the rebuilder of the temple, the
fully satisfy the justice of the Most                       Then you part with the jeering                    foundation of which is in His
High, could lay the foundation for                     passersby!                                             blood!
the everlasting tabernacle of God                           You confess your sin at the foot                       In that temple He made me a
with men!                                              of Calvary's cross and pray: Lord,                     living stone! To the praise of His
     You realize that it is another                    if Thou be the Son of God, do not                      glory!
power than the might of men and                        come down! For only Thy blood                               Lord, Son of God, thanks that
the wicked forces of darkness that                     can atone for my sin! And only in                      Thou didst not come down!
keeps this Man of Sorrows on the                       Thy death can the temple be rebuilt                         Hallelujah!  Q





             A Defense of the Gospel of Grace
                                                 Against EC1 (4)

                                                       doctrine of justification that was                     life. The result is the creation of a
                                                       confessed by the Reformation and                       good, even God-glorifying culture.
E                                                      that is taught by Holy Scripture.                      Believers are thought to share this
        CT unites evangelical Protes-                       The matter of the basis of the                    sin-restraining, culture-forming
        tants and Roman Catholics in                   union         and       c o o p e r a t i o n   o f    grace. "Common grace," therefore,
        the fellowship and work of                     evangelicals and Roman Catholics                       becomes a basis for the union and
Jesus Christ. Such union must have                     in ECT is intriguing. It is so espe-                   cooperation of the godly church
a basis. The basis proposed by ECT                     cially to Christians in the Dutch                      and the ungodly world in exactly
is the oneness of evangelicals and                     Reformed tradition and to Presby-                      the kind of venture launched by
Roman Catholics in the Christian                       terians who are disciples of J.                        ECT.
faith, including the fundamental                       Gresham  Machen.                                            The theory of a culture-form-
truth of justification. Therein lies                        The evangelical leaders in ECT                    ing "common grace" that unites
ECT's fatal compromise of the bib-                     considered making "common                              evangelical Christians and Roman
lical and Reformation doctrine of                      grace" the basis of the union.                         Catholics in the task of fighting a
justification. For Rome's doctrine                     "Common grace" is widely recog-                        culture-war and building a decent,
of justification is heresy-the                         nized among evangelical Protes-                        if not godly, culture originated
Galatian heresy of justification by                    tants as a beneficent influence of                     with the  19'h century Dutch Re-
works (see the editorial in the                        t h e   S p i r i t    o f   G o d   w i t h i n       f o r m e d   t h e o l o g i a n ,   A b r a h a m
March 15, 1999 issue of the Stan-                      unregenerated, ungodly men and                         Kuyper. Kuyper gave popular ex-
dard Bearer). By uniting on the ba-                    women. Although non-saving, it                         pression to his theory in his  well-
s i s   o f   a   c o m m o n   f a i t h ,   t h e    is supposed to preserve the un-                        known  Lectures on Calvinism.  He
evangelicals approve Rome's he-                        godly from total depravity, thus                       rode the union of Roman Catholics
retical doctrine of justification.                     enabling them to do good works                         and Reformed effected by his
Thus the evangelicals surrender the                    in the sphere of everyday, earthly                     theory of "common grace" into the

                                                                                                                         April  1,1999/Standard   Bearer/293


office of prime minister of the                            theologians take up the sword to                             the advancing influence of mod-
Netherlands.                                               do valiant and skillful battle                               ernist doubt, skepticism, and rela-
     The evangelical leaders of ECT                        against the same tendency that we                            tivism.       H e   w a s   J .   G r e s h a m
are well aware of Kuyper and his                           ourselves mean to fight to death,                           Machen,  a professor of theology
"common grace." They are also                              is it not the part of wisdom to ac-                          at Princeton Seminary and one of
well aware that, on the basis of                           cept the valuable help of their elu-                         the foremost champions of the Re-
                                                           cidation?" Kuyper's reinvigorated                            formed tradition of his generation
"common grace," the renowned                               Reformed theology and his devel-                             CKM, p. 39).
Dutchman pleaded for union of Re-                          opment of worldview criticism
formed Christians (the evangelicals                        proved a great influence on later                          Colson then quotes  Machen  from
of his day) and Roman Catholics                            evangelical thinkers, including                            the Presbyterian's  Christianity and
in a cooperative effort very much                          Francis  Schaeffer.  In his own                            Liberalism:
like that envisioned by ECT.                               struggle against modernism in its
     D e f e n d i n g   ECT's union of                    m a n i f e s t a t i o n s   a t   t h a t   t i m e ,      How great is the common heritage
evangelicals and Roman Catholics,                          Kuyper forged a coalition of fel-
                                                           low Calvinists and Dutch Roman                               that unites the Roman Catholic
C h a r l e s   C o l s o n   c a l l s   u p o n          C a t h o l i c s   l e d   b y   Hermanus                   Church, with its maintenance of
A b r a h a m   K u y p e r .   H e   q u o t e s          Schaepman.                 Together, they                    the authority of Scripture and with
Kuyper affirming what today is de-                         helped bring moral and social re-                            its acceptance  of the great early
scribed as "cobelligerency in the                          form to the Netherlands ("The                                creeds, to devout Protestants to-
culture-war."                                              Common Cultural Task: The Cul-                               day! We would not indeed ob-
                                                           ture War from a Protestant Per-                              scure the difference which divides
                                                                                                                        us from Rome. The gulf is indeed
  At the threshold of this century,                        spective," pp.  38,39).                                      profound. But profound as it is,
  the      g r e a t   D u t c h   C a l v i n i s t                                                                    it seems almost trifling compared
  Abraham Kuyper stated the need                              Colson's appeal to Abraham                                to the abyss which stands between
  succinctly: In war against athe-                       Kuyper is effective to silence the                             us and many ministers of our own
  ism and pantheism, he wrote,                           o b j e c t i o n   t o   t h e   u n i o n   o f              church (cited in TCM, pp. 38,39).
  "Rome is not an antagonist, but                        evangelicals and Roman Catholics
  stands on our side, inasmuch as                        in ECT on the part of all those who
  she recognizes and maintains the                                                                                        Nevertheless, Colson and his
  Trinity, the deity of Christ," and                     embrace            Kuyper's              "common             evangelical cohorts  reject  "common
  the other fundamental doctrines.                       grace."             T h o s e   w h o   r e g a r d          grace" as the basis for the union
  When Catholics battle the church's                     Kuyper's  Lecfures on  CaZvinism  as                         and cooperation of ECT. The rea-
  external enemies, Kuyper argued,                       the authoritative guidebook for cul-                         son is not that they oppose the doc-
  Protestants should welcome them                        tural Christian life cannot object to                        trine of "common grace" as such.
  as allies (Christianity Today, Nov.                    the union and cooperation of                                 Rather, they judge that "common
  14, 1994, p. 136).                                     evangelicals and Roman Catholics                             grace" is an inadequate basis for
                                                         in ECT. Indeed, those who are                                such a weighty work as ECT has
     C o l s o n   a p p e a l s   a g a i n   t o       committed to the cooperation of                              in view.       Fighting the demonic
Kuyper in his 1995 defense of ECT,                       believers with avowed  unbelievers                           powers now unleashed in North
in the book  EvangeZicaZs   & Catholics                  in forming a godly culture can                               America and then forming culture
Together: Toward a Common Mis-                           hardly object to cooperation with                            after a godly pattern are a monu-
sion  (Word; hereafter,  TCM).                           Roman Catholics..                                            mental task. For such a titanic
                                                              C o l s o n   a l s o   m a r s h a l s   J .           struggle and heavy labor, "com-
  Our call to cooperation is itself                      Gresham  Machen  against the de-                             mon grace" is far too frail and shal-
  part of our heritage as                                tractors of ECT. This shuts the
  evangelicals. For example, on the                                                                                   low a basis.
  threshold of the twentieth century,                    mouth of many conservative Pres-                                 Explaining why Christians can-
  t h e   n o t e d   D u t c h   C a l v i n i s t ,    byterians. Also  Machen  acknowl-                            not "simply forge political alliances
  Abraham Kuyper, succinctly de-                         edged a certain oneness of Rome                              with Catholics . . . on the basis of
  scribed for European Christians                        and "devout Protestants." Having                             common grace," Colson writes:
  the very situation all Christians                      appealed to Kuyper, Colson con-
  now face in America: "Now, in                          tinues:                                                       ECT calls all orthodox believers to
  this conflict [against liberalism]                                                                                    unite on the great truths of the
  Rome is not an antagonist, but                           A   g e n e r a t i o n   l a t e r ,   h e r e   i n        faith against both secular modern-
  stands on our side, inasmuch as                          America, another great Reformed                              ism and theological liberalism. To
  she recognizes and maintains the                         theologian, and a courageous de-                             see our task as merely forging po-
  Trinity, the Deity of Christ, the                        fender of orthodoxy against mod-                             litical alliances, based on common
  Cross as an atoning sacrifice, the                       ernists within his own Presbyte-                             grace, is to miss the gravity of the
  scriptures as the Word of God,                           rian Church and the cultural elite                           conflict we face and to deprive us
  and the Ten Commandments.                                at large, also advocated a theologi-                         of our best weapon.... Our best
  Therefore, let me ask if Romish                          cal alliance with Catholics against                          weapon is the distinctiveness of

29QSandard  Bearer/April I, 1999


 Christian truth, expressed in unity                   end of the  20th century. Colson has     is, and must be, the gospel.
 by all true believers. The biblical                   insight into what is really happen-          Even if there were such a thing,
 ethic is unique: It does not merely                   ing in North America, indeed in all      such a spiritual power, as "com-
 prescribe a set of rules, it also                     of Western civilization, today. He       mon grace," Christians today must
 p r o m i s e s   t h e   p o w e r   o f   t h e     understands the nature of the fear-      reject it, as David once rejected the
 indwelling Holy Spirit to over-
 come our sin. This is the power                       ful struggle of light and darkness.      armor  of Saul.  It is unsuited for
 that enables Christians to stand                      He knows what power is required          the battle of the  LORD   against
 their ground on the cultural battle-                  for the church of Jesus Christ to        Goliath of Gath.
 ground. In the abortion debate we                     withstand the pressures of our time          Colson, the Baptist, sees this
 have seen how quickly mere po-                        and then victoriously to promote         clearly. He puts our Reformed
 litical allies can flee. Common                       the kingdom of God.                      theologians, still determined to out-
 grace does not keep soldiers in the                       This insight is lacking in those     fit themselves in "common grace"
 trenches  (Ckrisfianify  Today, Nov.                  Reformed theologians who con-            (which has accomplished no vic-
 14, 1994, p.  136).                                   tinue calling us to engage in the        tory, cultural or otherwise, in the
                                                       great battle in our culture on the       past 100 years), to shame.
    Colson makes the same argu-                        basis, and with the power, of "com-          ECT grounds itself, not in
ment in  TCM:                                          mon grace."      Do not these Re-        "common grace" but in the faith.
                                                       formed theologians see, not even             But exactly this constitutes the
 While cooperation on the basis of
 common grace might suffice for                        yet, that the struggle of the church     compromise of the gospel by the
 merely political alliances among                      and believer is with the nearly fully    evangelicals of ECT. For ECT af-
 different religious communions, it                    developed kingdom of the beast?          firms oneness in the faith of
 can not suffice in reestablishing                         Why, even an admitted unbe-          evangelicals and Roman Catholics.
 Christian influence in our increas-                   liever like Robert H. Bork sees this,    More specifically, it affirms one-
 ingly  secular and even increas-                      as his recent, grim  Slouching To-       ness of evangelicals and Roman
 ingly hostile culture. Indeed, the                    wards Gomorrah  (HarperCollins,          Catholics in the doctrine of justifi-
 urgent task before all Christians                     1996)  shows.                            cation.
 today far transcends victories in                         To send us off into this war             It affirms the spiritual oneness
 political campaigns. Our task is
 nothing less than to articulate con-                  armed with, and grounded upon,           of evangelicals with Roman Catho-
 vincingly the biblical  yorldview                     "common grace" is like sending a         lics, whose doctrine of justification
  to a  culture awash in nihilism and                  soldier onto a modern battlefield        is the heresy of righteousness by
 hedonism (p.  37).                                    with a pop-gun.                          the will and works of the sinner.
                                                           We need the invincible steel of          This is fatal compromise of the
    Surely, Colson is right in find-                   the truth of the Word of God,            truth of justification.
ing "common grace" completely in-                      wielded, consciously, in the power           And this is the loss of the gos-
adequate for the task of fighting the                  of the (special) grace of God in         pel of grace. Cl
culture-war and forming a godly                        Jesus Christ. The basis both of the                                            - DJE
culture in North America at the                        warfare and of the constructive                                         (to be cont.)
                                                       work of the people of God today


                 Only by blood could atonement be made
                       To wash foul sins from the soul.
                 No other offering could cover our guilt,                                                    NOTE TO CLERKS/
                       Purify, cleanse, and make whole.                                                        CONSISTORIES
                                                                                                           Please make the following
                 Blood of bulls, goats, and rams would not suffice,                                 change in the clerk of Covenant
                       Though some were offered each day.                                           PRC:
                 God's only Son's precious life-blood was spilt,                                               Mr. Steve Hanko
                       Our many sins on Him lay.                                                            71 Hook Mountain Rd.
                                                                                                             Montville, NJ 07045
                 How can we thank Thee, Lord, for that great gift,                                   Phone: (973) 439-1983 (home)
                       Christ's precious blood freely given;                                                (973) 414-9588 (Fax)
                 We'll praise Thee now and eternally raise                                                  (973) 414-9114 (office
                       To Thee, our glad hymns in heaven.                                             e-mail:  shankol@juno.com

                                                      Standard Bearer,  1929

                                                                                                            April  1,1999/Standard   Bearer/295


              Can Advocates of Universal Grace in the
                            Preaching Defend Calvinism?
                       (or, The Essential Oneness  of Arminianism

                                     and the "Well-Meant  Offer")

                                                      [A Review Article]

The Grace  of God, The Bondage  of the      tion (that is, the God of Romans  9)      "The Meaning of Foreknowledge";
WiII, ed. Thomas R. Schreiner and           is a "potentate like the Muslim           "Does Divine Sovereignty Make a
Bruce A. Ware, vol. 1:  Biblical and        God, who loves most to impose his         Difference in Everyday Life?";
Practical Perspectives on Calvinism;        will."                                    "Prayer and Evangelism under
vol.  2: Historical and Theological Per-                                              God's Sovereignty"; and others.
spectives on Calvinism.  Grand Rap-         Responding to "Goliath's"                     Contributors to the first volume
ids: Baker, 1995.  521~~. $16.99            Challenge                                 include Raymond C. Ortlund, Jr.;
per volume; $29.99 the set (paper).             The review of this work in the        Thomas R. Schreiner; John Piper;
I                                           Standard Bearer  (Dec. 1, 1989, pp.       Jerry Bridges; Edmund P. Clowney;
     n 1989 a number of prominent,          115, 116) concluded, "It will be          and others.
     nominally evangelical theolo-          very interesting to see who among             The second volume addresses
     gians and philosophers pub-            the Reformed and Presbyterians            various theological, philosophical,
lished a vigorous defense of                will have the courage to  take  up        and historical issues in the contro-
Arminianism,  The Grace  of  God, The       the challenge of this `Goliath' and       versy between the theology of
Will of Man: A Case for Arminianism         present the case for Calvinism."          grace and the theology of man's
(ed. Clark H. Pinnock, Grand Rap-           The two companion volumes,  The           own will. These include "Grace,
ids: Zondervan). In defending tra-          Grace of God, The Bondage of the WiZZ,    Election, and Contingent Choice:
ditional Arminianism, the authors           would play David to  The Grace  of        Arminius's Gambit and the Re-
frankly acknowledged that the im-           God,  The Will  of  Man.  As the title    formed Response," by Richard A.
plication of the theology of free-          shows, the two-volume answer              Muller; "Augustine, Luther, Calvin,
will is the rejection of the Chris-         challenges          the    beast of       and Edwards on the Bondage of the
tian God. The God of Arminianism            Arminianism in its lair-the will of       Will," by John H. Gerstner; "John
is always responding to man in his-         man-in agreement with Luther's            Wesley's Contention with Calvin-
tory and is, therefore, always in the       decisive condemnation of the the-         ism: Interactions Then and Now,"
process of becoming. The book ex-           ology of free-will in his  The Bond-      by Thomas J. Nettles; "The Place
pressly rejected God as omnipo-             age of the Will.                          of Effectual Calling and Grace in a
tent,  omniscient, immutable, and               Volume one demonstrates the           Calvinist Soteriology," by Bruce A.
sovereign.                                  foundation of the theology of di-         Ware; "The Love of God: Univer-
     The authors suffered no timid-         vine sovereignty by exegesis of           sal and Particular," by J. I. Packer;
ity in assailing Calvinism. Enthu-          Scripture, as well as showing the         "Does Middle Knowledge Solve the
siastically, they resurrected all the       practical application of this theol-      Problem of Divine Sovereignty?,"
old slanders against Calvinism.             ogy to the life of the church and         by J. A. Crabtree; "God, Freedom,
Editor Clark Pinnock lamented               believer. Included are chapters on        and Evil in Calvinist Thinking," by
"how morally loathsome the doc-             "The Sovereignty of God: Case             John S. Feinberg; and others.
trine of double predestination is."         Studies of the Old Testament"; "Di-           The books are encouraging.
In a chapter, "The Biblical Doctrine        vine Election in the Gospel of            The truth of divine sovereignty still
of Election," William G. Mac                John"; "Does Romans 9 Teach In-           has some defenders. They are in
Donald charged that the God of              dividual Election unto Salvation?";       strategic, sometimes surprising
Calvinism's doctrine of  predestina-        "Are There Two Wills in God?";            places. Raymond C. Ortlund, Jr.,
29&Standard Bearer/Zpri/  1,1999


of Trinity Evangelical Divinity                         salvation on the condition of re-         Riissen, who represents the Re-
School, proves by sound interpre-                       pentance and faith-so that even           formed consensus, Muller charges
tation of several Old Testament                         those who do not ultimately be-           the notion of contradictory wills in
passages that the  Qld Testament                        lieve "may be admonished of their         God with folly.
teaches "the sovereign freedom of                       duty, and may be invited and in-
                                                        cited to faith and conversion" (vol.
God in his dealings with man"  (p.                      2, p. 262).                                Who . . . would be so foolish as to
25). He exposes the Arminian ex-                                                                    attribute such wills to God? Ac-
planation of the passages as a read-                       At the heart of Arminius' doc-           cording to this doctrine God genu-
i n g   i n t o   t h e   p a s s a g e s   o f   a                                                inely wills that which he knows
                                                       trine of salvation lay the error of          will never happen, indeed, what
"wrongheaded" system of biblical                       two contradictory wills in God.              he wills not to bring about (vol. 2,
interpretation.                                        With one will, He wills the salva-           p. 274).
     Thomas R. Schreiner, of Bethel                    tion of all alike. With the other
Theological Seminary, shows by                         will, which has finally taken into             There are legitimate distinc-
careful work with the text itself                      account men's acceptance or rejec-         tions regarding God's will. One is
that Romans 9 teaches election of                      tion of the offered salvation by           that between the will of decree and
individuals to salvation. Schreiner                    their free-will, God wills the sal-        the will of precept. Another is that
is refuting the contemporary exege-                    vation only of some.                       between the hidden will and the
sis that explains Romans 9 as                                                                     revealed will. But these do not in-
merely the choice of Israel as a na-                     From the Reformed perspective,           volve positing two contradictory
tion unto a certain service of God                       there is a far deeper problem in         wills in God.
in history.                                              the Arminian contention that God
     Jerry Bridges, of The Naviga-                       wills the salvation of all people        Unfinished Business for
tors, has a fine little piece in the                     and that the salvation of some re-       Reformed Theology
section of volume one that applies                       lates only to the acceptance or the
                                                         rejection of God's grace. The Re-            Muller's superb analysis of the
Calvinism's confession of God's                          formed of the seventeenth century        issue between Arminian  free-
sovereignty to the life of the saint.                    noted this problem as the unten-         willism and the (Calvinist) gospel
By an observant reading of Isaiah                        able hypothesis of contradictory         of the sovereign will of God con-
5:27, he extends God's absolute                          wills in God: Arminian theology          fronts all would-be defenders of
sovereignty to a shoelace.                               claimed that God antecedently            Reformed theology with a glaring
     Outstanding are the articles in                     wills the salvation of all people        piece of unfinished business. This
volume two by Richard A. Muller,                         but consequently wills not the sal-      is the widespread acceptance
of Calvin Theological Seminary,                          vation of all, but only of some, on      among professedly Calvinistic
and John H. Gerstner, for many                           the grounds of certain conditions
                                                         (vol. 2, p. 273).                        theologians, churches, and organi-
years professor at Pittsburgh Theo-                                                               zations of the theology of the "well-
logical Seminary.                                      Thus, "the Arminian God . . . is ei-       meant offer of the gospel." By this
                                                       ther ineffectual or self-contradic-        is meant, precisely, the teaching of
Arminian Theology Laid Bare                            tory"  (p. 278).                           universal grace in the preaching of
      With impressive scholarship,                         Muller judges, correctly, that         the gospel. Whereas in the decree
Muller establishes that Arminius'                      this theology of Arminius is "the          of election God is gracious only to
doctrine of predestination was that                    basis of much Protestant  soteri-          some, in the gospel He is gracious
of a universal will of salvation de-                   ology" today. But this theology is         to all without exception. On the
pendent upon the (foreseen) free-                      "little more than the recrudescence        theology of the "well-meant offer,"
will of the sinner. It was not a                       of the late medieval semi-l'elagian-       God sincerely desires to save many
moderating of Beza's allegedly                         ism against which the Reformers            whom He does not sincerely desire
scholastic supralapsarianism. Con-                     struggled. It  (sic)  tenets are inimi-    to save in the decree of election.
sistent with conditional predestina-                   cal to the Pauline and Augustinian             How does the theology of the
tion, God's calling by the gospel,                     foundation of Reformed  Protestant-        "well-meant offer" differ from
for Arminius, was the gracious of-                     ism" (vol. 2, p. 277).                     Arminius' theology of a  "preve-
fer of salvation to all alike on the                       In contrast to Arminian theol-         nient grace of God . . . offered to all
condition of faith.                                    ogy, Muller outlines the corre-            and . . . not irresistible" (vol. 2, p.
                                                       sponding doctrine of Reformed the-         261)? How does the theology of
   Faith must intervene between the                    ology. The one electing decree of          the "well-meant offer" with its fun-
   universal love of God for the                                                                  damental, admitted tenet of two
   world and the application or ef-                    God is particular and uncondi-
   fecting of the promise of salvation.                tional. There is no contradictory          contradictory wills in God differ
   All human beings are, therefore,                    will in God for the salvation of all.      from~ the two-wills-doctrine of
   genuinely offered the promise of                    Quoting the Reformed theologian            Arminianism?

                                                                                                                April  1,1999/5tandard   Bearer/297


    Before God on whose behalf all         that "modified Arminianism . . .          love of John  3:16 is God's love of
good theology is done and at the           concurs  .substantially"  with Re-        agapee,  the love that gave the  only-
bar of sound, honest, theological          formed theology. Regardless of the        begotten Son in the incarnation and
scholarship, it is intolerable that        differences, Yarbrough pleads for         cross. The desire of this love-this
Reformed theologians studiously            tolerance of Arminianism in view          love-according to Piper, is the will
avoid this issue by silence or glibly      of the supposedly greater threat to       of God for the salvation of all.
dismiss it with the slogan,  "hyper-       the gospel today from liberal mod-            This is contradiction indeed!
Calvinism!"                                ernisms and postmodernisms (vol.          God gave Christ in incarnation and
                                           1, pp. 60, 61). Arminianism is not        atonement for some only, but God
Gerstner on the Bondage of the             seen, and condemned, as "another          gave Christ in incarnation and
Will in Church History                     gospel, which is not another" (Gal.       atonement for all without excep-
    John H. Gerstner contributes a         1: 6,7).                                  tion.    And this, says Piper, is
learned, informative, historical               The tolerance shown Arminian          Calvinism's understanding of the
chapter on the views of Augustine,         theology in this defense of Calvin-       "offer of salvation to all"  (p. 127).
Luther, Calvin, and Edwards on             ism stands in stark contrast with             J. I. Packer agrees: "God in the
the bondage of the will. All five of       the hatred and contempt displayed         gospel expresses a bona fide wish
these worthies (I include the histo-       toward Calvinism by the defend-           that all may hear, and that all who
rian himself) agree that the will of       ers of Arminianism in Pinnock's           hear may believe and be saved (I
the fallen sinner is enslaved to Sa-       The Grace of God, The Will of Man.        Tim. 2:3-6; cf.  4:9-10)" (vol. 2, p.
tan and sin. They agree also that              A second weakness is the con-         419).
this truth is basic to the gospel of       viction of many of the writers that           The doctrine of a love of God
salvation by grace, as indeed it is.       God loves all humans without ex-          for all in the gospel, with its desire
    Gerstner gets off a memorable          ception and desires to save all. It       on God's part for the salvation of
description of Luther:                     is not evident in a majority of the       all, is Arminianism's teaching of
                                           writers that their zeal for election      universal, resistible grace in the
  Among our four champions of an           outstrips their zeal for the notion       gospel. It is this  as such.  It is this
  enslaved will that only grace can        of a will of God for the salvation        on its very face.  It is also the aban-
  liberate, Luther is clearly the least    of all without exception.                 donment of the sovereignty of God,
  lucid though perhaps the most fer-           Running throughout both vol-          The God of a loving desire to save
  vent. While the others elucidate         umes is the theme of two contra-          everybody is a God of an unful-
  and answer problems raised
  against this central doctrine,           dictory wills in God. This is the         filled, frustrated will. He will be
  Luther swallows them all, God            very teaching that Richard Muller         eternally unhappy, so long as one
  having given him a strong stom-          both charges as false, foolish doc-       of those whom He loves and de-
  ach. Grace is necessary and grace        trine against the Arminians and ex-       sires to be with Him in heaven re-
  is sovereign and  that~ is that (vol.    poses as opposed to the Reformed          mains in hell. This is not the God
  2,  pp. 285,286).                        tradition.                                of the Bible, who does all His plea-
                                               The doctrine of a desire of God       sure.
    In the end, does not every one         for the salvation of all and, there-          The third weakness is the re-
who knows salvation from sin in            fore, the notion of two contradic-        fusal of almost all the writers to
the blood of Christ come down              tory-wills in God are laid down by        confess, defend, and explain rep-
with Luther? "Grace is necessary           the editors as axiomatic already in       robation. Indeed, there is almost
and grace is sovereign and that is         the introduction. "God chooses            complete refusal to  mention  it. One
that"!                                     only some to be saved, and yet            would gather from these books that
                                           there is also a true sense in which       the Reformed tradition, Reformed
Three Weaknesses of the Defense            he desires the salvation of all" (vol.    theologians, and the Reformed
    There are three weaknesses in          1, p. 17).                                creeds know nothing of an eternal
this extended defense of God's sov-            John Piper devotes an entire          decree appointing those not chosen
ereignty in salvation that no review       chapter, the fifth in volume 1, to        in the decree unto eternal perdi-
may ignore. First, there is a pre-         arguing that God has both a will          tion.
vailing sentiment that Arminian-           of election and a will to save all,           Donald J. Westblade does as-
ism, although defective, is yet a          and that this self-contradiction          sert that Scripture teaches repro-
valid form of the gospel. The in-          does not disclose Him as the God          bation, but he is an exception (vol.
troduction presents Calvinist the-         of utter confusion. Piper "affirm(s)      1,  p. 84). J. I. Packer forthrightly
ology as merely "the most satisfy-         with John  3:16 and I Timothy  2:4        eschews the doctrine of reproba-
ing approach . . . to the doctrines of     that God loves the world with a           tion. With appeal to Anglican Ar-
grace" (vol. 1, p. 17).                    deep compassion that desires the          ticle  17,. he recommends "bypass-
     Robert W. Yarbrough concedes          salvation of all men" (p. 130). The       ing debates about reprobation."

298/Standard  Bearer/April  1,1999


What he intends is the virtual  de-                     Deity from an invidious charge                           An election that "bypasses"
nial of reprobation (vol. 2,  p.  417).                 admit the doctrine of election, but              reprobation is not biblical election.
But Calvin taught us that without                       deny that any one is reprobated.. . .            How  can theologians defend the
reprobation there can be no  elec-                      This they do ignorantly and child-               sovereignty of God in salvation
tion:                                                   ishly, since there could be no elec-             against the Arminian assault  with-
                                                        tion without its opposite  reproba-
                                                        tion (Insfifufes,  3.23.1).                      out biblical election?
  The human mind, when it hears                                                                                  This third weakness accounts
  this doctrine  (predestination-                         The Canons  ~of Dordt rightly                  for the other two.
  DJE), cannot restrain its petulance,
  but boils and rages as if aroused                   present reprobation as one decree                          Together, the three weaknesses
  by the sound of a trumpet. Many                     with election  (I/6).                              vitiate the books' defense of  sover-
                                                                                                         e i g n   g r a c e .   Cl
  professing a desire to defend the



                                                        the position that Christ died for                now? choices: heaven, hell, grave;
In Defense of                                           the elect only, which has led them               I and the Bible pick the last);
Universal Salvation                                     to limit the "all" of I Timothy  2:4             3) premillennial view of proph-
     I saw your comments on Jan                         and similar passages to less than                ecy.
Bonda's  book,  The One Purpose of                      all descendants of Adam. Profes-
God: An Answer to the Doctrine  of                      sor Engelsma uses  Bonda's  book                         I am sending you a few pam-
Eternal Punishment,  in a newsletter                    as a warning to compromising                     phlets on alternate views of the
that I regularly receive (see  "Uni-                    Calvinists.       H e   a d m i t s   t h a t
                                                        Bonda's  conclusion (universal sal-              end. Not that you are going to
v e r s a l i s m   i n    t h e   R e f o r m e d      vation) is the only logical one if               change. Do this later. Most (Chris-
Churches" in the August, 1998 is-                       passages like I Timothy  2:4 and                 tian Reformed) ministers reveal
sue of the  Standard Bearer).                           Romans  11:32 refer to everyone                  only after retirement how they in-
     The newsletter is "Saviour of                      without exception.                               terpret Scripture. This is safer.
All Fellowship" (Jan., 1999). About                                                                              I am a retired language teacher,
your review article on  Bonda's                           I am a member of the Chris-                    born in (you can guess) the Neth-
book, the newsletter remarks:                         tian Reformed Church, but differ                   erlands.
                                                      in my theological views. The main                                                Walter Vander Beek
   We were interested in a review of                  differences are:                                                                      Palmyra,  NY
  Jan Bonda's  book, The One Purpose                  1) universal salvation after the                   Response:
   of God (Eerdmans, 1998), by David                  judgments;                                                 Universalism in the Reformed
  J. Engelsma of the Protestant Re-                   2)  soul sleep (where are the six                  churches!
   formed Church.. . . The Protestant                 million holocaust Jewish victims
   Reformed Church tries to maintain                                                                                                           - E d .   0




            Nestorius and an Unholy Squabble
                                                About Christ (2)

                                                                                                         ruthless in his efforts. That is, he
                                                      Introduction                                       was totally impatient with any  her-
                                                      In the last article we left esy except the one against which
                                                           Nestorius in the high office of               Augustine, bishop of Hippo, was
                                                           patriarch of Constantinople.                  fighting, the heresy of Pelagianism.
                                                      He thought it his business, from the               He gave comfort and support to
Prof.  Hanko is professor  of Church His-             very beginning of his rule, to root                two men  who had been condemned
tory and New Testament in the Profes-                 out heresy in whatever form it                     in Western North Africa for  teach-
tant Reformed Seminary.              t,               would take; and he was utterly                     ing the free will of man.
                                                                                                                       April  1,1999/Standard   Bearer/299


    So we may sum up Nestorius            human nature. In what sense was           tively common today. Two in-
as a thoroughly unlikable  office-        Christ "like us in all things"? And       stances of this come to mind.
bearer in the church of Christ. He        how was it possible for Christ to              I recall hearing a radio speaker
was gifted to a considerable extent       be both "very God of very God"            some years ago discussing the
with ability to learn and with wide       and "like us in all things" at the        temptation of Christ. He was
theological knowledge. He was a           same time? Those were the burn-           puzzled by the question how
powerful orator and effective             ing issues. Apollinaris had given         Christ's temptation could be real if
preacher. He was entrusted with           his opinion and had  been~declared        Christ could not sin. He solved the
a position of great responsibility.       heretical. It was now Nestorius'          riddle by saying that Christ could
But, rather than use his gifts in car-    turn.                                     not sin in His divine nature, but
ing for the sheep Christ had placed           Nestorius did not doubt the ab-       He could sin in His human nature.
under him, he saw his sole work           solute divinity of Christ, nor did        As he developed that idea, it be-
to be the rooting out of every idea       he in any sense deny it. He was           came clear that he believed that
which he deemed heresy, and he            also persuaded that Christ was in-        Christ was two persons, a human
did so with vehemence and ruth-           deed fully human, except that             and a divine. The human person
lessness. He became a rather nasty        Christ did not sin. But when he           could sin, but the divine person
man.                                      was asked about the relation be-          could not. The question that came
    I also mentioned, though in           tween Christ's humanity and His           up in my mind was this: Could our
passing, that Nestorius was on a          divinity, he erred badly. He              Lord Jesus Christ, in any sense at
personal crusade to get rid of the        claimed (and this was because of          all, sin? That is preposterous.
term he hated so much:  theotokos.        his opposition to the term  theotokos)         The second instance of  Nes-
The term was applied to Mary, the         that the human and the divine             torianism has to do with the error
mother of the Lord, and meant to          were united in Christ in much the         of the well-meant offer of the gos-
honor her as "the mother of God."         same way as a man and a woman             pel. One theologian, whose writ-
He set about this with a vengeance.       are united in marriage. Husband           ings I have in my file, defended the
    It is not so easy to determine        and wife become "one flesh," an           well-meant offer with the follow-
exactly why Nestorius hated the           expression which defines their            ing line of reasoning. In His hu-
term so much. One reason was that         unity; but they remain distinct and       man nature, Jesus was under the
he was deeply opposed to a "Mary          separate individuals.                     law. The law requires that we love
cult" in the church. The cult was             So the union was a moral  union       all men as our neighbors. In His
to be found chiefly among the             only, not a real union of person.         human nature Jesus loved all men;
monks in their waste desert places,       Nestorius liked to speak of Christ's      although, of course, in His divine
and it was intended to lead to the        human nature as the "temple" in           nature He loved only the elect. He
worship of Mary because of her ex-        which dwelt the divine nature. He         w a s   c o r r e c t l y   c h a r g e d   w i t h
alted position in heaven. Another         refused to accept the idea that           Nestorianism.
reason was, it seems, his pride.          Mary was the mother of God, and
The church was deeply divided             spoke of her as the mother of a man       The Intervention of Cyril
over the use of the term when             only. He used the rather strange               Nestorius' opposition to the
Nestorius came to office, and many        expression: "God passed through           idea of Mary as the mother of God
looked on him as one who could,           Mary's womb"; but Mary was in             aroused fierce opposition to him
with his sound and practical judg-        no sense God's mother.                    and to his views. If you would like
ment, unite the church once again             This error of speaking of the         to have some idea of how strong
by finding common ground be-              union of Christ's two natures as a        Mariolatry was already in the days
tween those who hated the term            moral  union implied (though prob-        of Nestorius then consider a quote
and those who wanted it.                  ably Nestorius never said it in so        from a sermon of one of the bish-
    But the most serious reason for       many words) that Christ had two           ops in Constantinople who did not
the opposition of Nestorius to the        persons: a human person and a di-         agree with Nestorius and who de-
term  theotokos  was his hatred of the    vine person. His divine person was        fended the term  theotokos.
doctrine which the term implied           the person of the Son in the holy
and which became the real issue in        Trinity, but his human person was              [Mary] is the spotless treasure-
the controversy.                          born of Mary. Two persons were              house of virginity; the spiritual
                                          united in Christ, much like two             paradise of the second Adam; the
Nestorius' View of Christ                 persons are united in marriage.             workshop in which the two na-
    While the great council of                                                        tures were annealed together; the
                                              This  .would, of course, never          bridal chamber in which the Word
Nicea  (325) had settled the matter       do. And the church recognized it.           wedded the flesh; the living bush
of the divinity of our Lord, it had           We might mention in passing             of nature, which was unharmed
not said very much about Christ's         that the error of Nestorius is rela-        by the fire of the divine birth; the

3OO@tndard Bearer/April 1,1999


  light cloud which bore him who                           in any case, Cyril took it upon him-     porters of Nestorius. The delegates
  sat between the cherubim; the                            self to correct Nestorius and began      waited fourteen days and then met
  stainless fleece, bathed in the dews                     what became a rather lengthy cor-        in solemn session. Nestorius was
  of heaven, with which the Shep-                          respondence.
  h e r d   c l o t h e d   h i s   s h e e p ;   t h e                      As the correspon-      there, but the wave of opposition
  handmaid and the mother, the                             dence continued, it soon became          to him was so great that he needed
  Virgin and Heaven.                                       violently bitter and brought no so-      police protection. Cyril was also
                                                           lution of any kind. Cyril took the       there with a large number of Mary-
     So violent did the opposition                         opportunity to write to many other       worshiping monks. The synod con-
to Nestorius become that he was                            bishops throughout the church, fill-     demned Nestorius and his views
forced to call a synod in                                  ing them with evil stories about         in this way:                 "The Lord Jesus
Constantinople in 429 which was                            Nestorius and the horror of his her-     Christ, by Nestorius blasphemed,
firmly under his control and which                         esy.                                     has ordained by this most holy
followed his directives. That synod                                Both Nestorius and Cyril ap-     synod that the Nestorius above
declared his views correct and de-                         pealed to the emperor for help, but      named be excluded from the epis-
posed some of the more violent                             Nestorius, friendly to the emperor       copal dignity, and from sacerdotal
members of the  clergy  who op-                            and a frequent visitor to the impe-      fellowship." Because it met with-
posed Nestorius.                                           rial court, gained the emperor's ap-     out a large contingent of late bish-
     But that synod was not by any                         proval. In disgust, Cyril appealed       ops, the synod has gone down in
means the end of the battle. The                           to the pope, who was elated that         history as "The Robbers' Synod."
controversy increasingly involved                          his supreme jurisdiction in the                  No sooner had the synod
the entire Eastern church, espe-                           church was so recognized. The            passed its condemnation than the
cially the church in Alexandria,                           pope called a synod in Rome which        other bishops arrived. But it was
over which Cyril ruled. Alexan-                            decided to excommunicate  Nes-           too late. The synod had spoken.
dria was in Egypt. Egypt, with its                         torius unless he retracted his views     But this did not deter Nestorius'
hot and dry climate, had been the                          within ten days of the receipt of        supporters.             They proceeded to
womb of monasticism, and the ma-                           the synod's decision.                    hold their own synod, at which all
jority of monks were found there.                              I suppose it is necessary to tell    the decisions of the Robbers' Synod
It is not surprising that Mariolatry                       a bit more concerning the ugly con-      were nullified, Cyril excommuni-
was strong there and Mary was re-                          flict. Cyril took it upon himself to     cated, and Nestorius exonerated.
vered as the "mother of God."                              execute the papal decree, and so                 Thus the unhappy controversy
    Cyril was (it cannot be denied)                        he issued, on his own, the bull of       ended in what can only be called a
the defender of orthodoxy in the                           the excommunication of Nestorius.        stalemate.
struggle and the chief opponent of                         This solved nothing. The two spent
Nestorius' heresy. Why he chose                            the next years excommunicating           Subsequent  Events
to put his nose into affairs in                            each other and hurling anathemas                 The rest of the story is quickly
Constantinople is another matter.                          at each other, while both tried in       told. It was finally the emperor
Cyril was, in comparison with                              every way to gain the support of         who tipped the balance against
Nestorius, the greater and more                            the populace.                            Nestorius. For whatever reasons,
profound theologian. He was also                              It all culminated in an ecumeni-      he approved of the decisions of the
a man of lower character. He was                           cal synod held in Ephesus (not too       Robbers' Synod. The pope did the
a vain and haughty man who loved                           far from Constantinople, although        same.       This was a combination
the trappings of his office. But                           on the other side of the Bosporus)       against which opposition was bro-
worse, he believed and put into                            in 431. It was a strange synod. For      ken.
practice the adage: The end justi-                         one thing, the great Augustine had          Nestorius retreated to a clois-
fies the means. He stopped at                              been asked to preside. But he            ter in Antioch, perhaps the same
nothing to defeat Nestorius and                            could not, for God took him to           in which he had lived while in that
considered any method of attack to                         heaven in 430. One wonders what          city. It may very well be that he
be justified by the rightness of his                       would have happened had he been          would have been happy to spend
cause.                                                     there. I suspect that God made it        the rest of his life there. But his
    Other factors were involved in                         impossible for Augustine to come         presence there was not trusted, for
what became a bitter war between                           because the whole controversy was        he had many supporters in the city.
these two. Alexandria was also a                           an unholy mess.                          So he was banished to an oasis in
patriarchate in the eastern church,                           For another thing, a large            the Upper Nile River, far from
and the rivalry between Alexandria                         group of bishops from the eastern        church activities and too isolated
and Constantinople for supremacy                           Mediterranean (Syria and Pales-          to have any influence.
added fuel to the controversy. But,                        tine) were late for one reason or           Here he wrote his autobiogra-
                                                           another. Most of them were sup-          phy, to which he gave the name,

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"Tragedy." Even  in- such isolation      separation of the two natures, the                     hood; truly God and truly man . . .
he was given no peace. One histo-        church there (or, at least, many in                    begotten before all ages of the Fa-
rian writes: "The unhappy  Nes-          it> began to go to another extreme                     ther according to the Godhead,
torius was now dragged from the          and teach a union between the hu-                      and in these latter days, for us and
stillness of his former cloister of      man and the divine natures of                          for our salvation, born of the Vir-
                                                                                              gin Mary, the Mother of God, ac-
Euporpius, before the gates of           Christ which merged the two na-                        cording to the Manhood; one and
Antioch, in which he had enjoyed         tures in such a way that Christ was                    the same Christ, Son, Lord, Only-
four years of repose, from one           neither wholly God nor wholly                          begotten, to be acknowledged in
place of exile to another-first to       man, but some kind of God-man.                         two natures,  inconfusedly, un-
Arabia, then to Egypt- and was           The divine and human so mixed                          changeably, indivisibly,  inseparubZy;
compelled to drink the bitter cup        with each other that one single na-                    the distinction of natures being by
of persecution which he himself, in      ture emerged neither completely                        no means taken away by the
the days of his power, had forced        human nor completely divine.                           union, but rather the property of
upon the heretics."                      Christ was, therefore, one person                      each nature being preserved, and
                                                                                                concurring in one person and one
     He died near to 450, shortly be-    with one nature. That too is her-                      Subsistence, not parted or divided
fore the great synod of Chalcedon.       esy; and I suspect Cyril had a lot                     into two persons, but one and the
He was, obviously, not an old man.       to do with influencing the church                      same Son, and only begotten, God
                                         in Alexandria to go in that direc-                     the Word, the Lord Jesus Christ.. . .
Conclusions and Summary                  tion. So indeed, in some sense we
     We must say three or four           can surely say, "A plague on both                         You will notice that the creed
things about the controversy in          y o u r   h o u s e s . "                            uses the expression "mother of
conclusion.                                  The term theotokos was the bone                  God." It is embedded for all time
     The first must be emphatically      of contention. Can Mary be prop-                     in our  creedal  heritage. So God
stated: Nestorius was wrong, and         erly called, "The mother of God"?                    has ordained.
his refusal to retract his views             Quite frankly I do not care all                       It is, however, interesting that
made him a pernicious heretic. Re-       that much for the term. It has its                   our Confession of Faith (Belgic
gardless of what one may think of        origin in wrong views of Mary; it                    Confession), while mentioning the
how he was treated, sympathy for         is not found in Scripture; and it is                 Apostles' Creed, the Nicene Creed,
him must not obscure his sin of          subject to wrong interpretations.                    and the so-called Athanasian Creed
holding erroneous views. I empha-            Nevertheless, it can be, I think,                (Art.  9>, does not mention the
size this for, throughout history,       interpreted correctly. The person                    Creed of Chalcedon. This is strik-
debate has raged over the question       of the Son of God, the second per-                   ing, and one wonders whether this
whether Nestorius was truly a her-       son of the holy Trinity, united the                  is due to the fact that Guido de
etic or whether he was (and is) con-     human nature which came from                         Bres disliked the term theotokos, es-
demned for views he did not teach.       Mary with the divine nature at the                   pecially because he had just come
Sometimes sympathy can make one          very moment of conception in                         out of Roman Catholicism with its
blind. Let it be clear: he taught a      Mary's womb. The Son of God was                      idolatrous doctrine of Mary.
view of the union between the two        our Lord Jesus Christ from the mo-                        Whatever may be the case, the
natures of Christ which led inevi-       ment of His conception. The Son                      Confession of Faith does incorpo-
tably to the conclusion that Christ      of God in our flesh was indeed in                    rate in it the same teaching as is
possessed also a human person.           Mary's womb. How that was pos-                       found in the Creed of Chalcedon
This is serious and destructive of       sible is the great mystery of God                    (Art.  19>, and the same doctrine
the faith.                               become flesh, Immanuel, God with                     may be found in the Athanasian
     However much we may dislike         us. It is true and the clear teach-                  Creed.
Cyril, and however strongly we           ing of Scripture.                                         What makes us pause in ado-
wish to condemn his tactics, he was          T h e   c o n t r o v e r s y   b e t w e e n    ration and worship is God's won-
right in his opposition to Nestorius.    Nestorius and his supporters, and                    derful ways of providence by
What his own views were is diffi-        Cyril and his supporters  - and all                  means of which He, the sovereign
cult to say. He seemed to be cor-        the struggles which followed  -                      Lord of the church, brought truth
rect for the most part, but the flaw     was finally settled in 451 at the                    o u t   o f   s u c h   a n   u n h o l y   a n d
in his views may have been an            synod of Chalcedon. That synod                       oftentimes wicked battle. And that
over-emphasis on the  union  of the      taught (you can find it in the back                  truth is no less than the truth of
two natures of Christ. I say that        of the  Psalter;  I won't quote the                  our Lord Jesus Christ. Upon the
because, shortly after Cyril died,       whole creed):                                        truth of Chalcedon rests our only
the church in Alexandria itself be-                                                           hope of salvation.  Cl
came heretical. In its fierce oppo-          . . . Christ, the same perfect in
sition to Nestorianism and the             Godhead and also perfect in man-

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                                     The Covenant of Marriage
  2. Courtship Within the Covenant (cont.)

Dating in the Church - 1                  member of a church institute. In         Christ is very different from what
W                                         fact, carried through to its logical     the Bible teaches. Just because one
          hen a person dates, he          end, this attitude will result in the    says he is a Christian, therefore,
          must seriously look for a       cutting off of the covenant in the       does not make him a true follower
          life's mate. That fact has      line of one's generations. Children      of the Christ of the Scriptures.
already been established. Dating          and children's children  will be lost    There are those who zealously fol-
is not in itself a form of recreation.    to the myriads of churches that          low after false doctrines which
It is a serious matter. For that rea-     have turned from the truth and en-       deny the God and Christ of the
son, never may a young person of          tertain the lie.                         Scriptures. They are truly sincere
the covenant date an unbeliever.              To one who takes seriously           in what they believe! In fact, some-
The Bible is clear: "Be ye not un-        what he believes and what is             times their enthusiasm puts us to
equally yoked together with unbe-         taught in the churches of which he       shame! But zeal for a certain cause
lievers." This we established in the      is a member, the question of dat-        or position does not make a per-
last article we wrote concerning          ing outside of his own church is         son a true Christian. The truth is
courtship. Dating someone  who is         difficult to answer. We emphati-         that a person can be sincerely
not a professing believer and who         cally believe that God's church and      wrong! Consider how zealously
shows no interest in God's king-          covenant is not limited to one de-       wrong the Jews were (Rom.  10:2)!
dom is expressly forbidden. The           nomination of churches. Likewise,          That we come in contact with
rule of Scripture is: dating must         we believe that God has His people       all kinds of people that call them-
be carried on within the sphere of        in churches that differ from us doc-     selves Christian is a given. We are
the church and covenant.                  trinally. Believers are not limited      in this world. God has placed us
    But that raises another question      to one denomination of churches.         here to carry on our life. Just  a%
of more immediate concern: may I          If this is true, then certainly it is    we often at work or in our recre-
date a person who is not a mem-           not necessarily wrong for a young        ation meet people who are unbe-
ber of my own church or denomi-           person to date or even marry an-         lievers, so also we meet and speak
nation? May I date a young man            other believer who comes from a          with people who bear the name
or woman who may not believe ex-          denomination or church other than        Christian. And it is not really all
actly the way I do, yet professes         his own.                                 that difficult to discover where a
his or her love for Christ and His            There are a number of serious        person stands spiritually. When
cause in this world? To many this         considerations, however, that one        we converse with others we find
question has an easy answer: "Of          must bear in mind when it comes          out quickly where they stand on
course I may!" Most parents in the        to dating outside the sphere of his      many different issues and doc-
church world today do not have a          own churches.                            trines. If they are filled with zeal
problem with their children mar-              In the first place, there are        over a false Christianity, this will
rying and going to a denomination         many denominations in our world          reveal itself in the topics of their
other than their own. This care-          and society that call themselves         conversation. We also can soon tell
less attitude arises out of a lack of     Christian. Yet, many of these de-        what type of a life-style people live
spiritual conviction and an igno-         nominations and those in them            simply by talking with them. It
rance of what it means to be a            maintain doctrines and practices         they live for the pleasures of this
                                          that are far from the truth ex-          present world, this will become
                                          pressed objectively in the Bible.        clear in what they want to talk
                                          They say they believe in God! They       about.
Rev. Bruinsma is pastor  of ~Kalamazoo    say they believe in Jesus Christ!            The point is that we are able to
Protestant    Reformed    Church in       But  what  they believe of God and       discover this about people before we
Kalamazoo, Michigan.

                                                                                             April  1,1999/Standard   Bearer/303


date them. We need not date them         is to say, "Well, these doctrinal dif-     faith and confession.
to learn what their life and faith       ferences really do not matter to us.           If only covenant young men
consist in. And the rule we ought        We are both believers. That is what        and women would consider all of
to follow is this: we may not date       counts! We will solve these differ-        this before they begin dating out-
for fun (because dating is not rec-      ences later on, after we have fallen       side the church where they are
reational) those who, although           in love or are married." Wrong!            members! Instead, far too many
claiming to be Christian, neverthe-      We must realize that what a per-           view dating as fun  - recreation.
less oppose in their doctrine and        son believes is not simply going to        Nothing serious will develop out
walk of life the God and Christ of       be cast aside, even for the love of        of it. Parents in ignorance permit
the Bible! We will find in the next      another. These are matters of the          it too, with the same thought in
article that this is true within the     heart, after all! We believe them!         mind: "We will let you date him
sphere of one's own denomination         We are  convicted  of them! And            or her as long as you don't get too
too; and if it holds true there, it      though it may seem as if they re-          serious!" How often it happens:
certainly holds true of those out-       ally make little difference when we        suddenly the relationship becomes
side of one's denomination! In the       are in love, they do! And they will!       serious, and the young man and
realm of Christianity, where the         We might close our eyes to them            woman have not even discussed
false church swells in size and the      at first because we are attracted to       their faith with each other. An en-
true church dwindles, we must not        a person, but later on in our rela-        gagement ring appears, and now
assume that we may date just any-        tionship those differences will and        the work begins to change one an-
one who calls himself or herself a       must come out! Do you honestly             other. Sometimes God is gracious
Christian. Rather, we must exer-         think that you can expect anyone           and He brings unity where it is not
cise consciously the command of I        simply to throw away what he be-           deserved. We thank Him for that!
John  4:1, "Beloved, believe not ev-     lieves because you have married            Most often the differences are not
ery spirit, but try the spirits          him? You would not, would you?             resolved. Then what? There are
whether they are of God," before         Why should he, then?                       only three choices: break off the
dating even someone who calls                We might argue that marriage           relationship, go ahead and get mar-
himself a Christian.                     does not really rely on doctrinal          ried anyway and hope for the best,
    This is not, however, the only       agreement. We ask the question             or compromise. Actually, the only
warning that needs to be issued at       the prophet Amos raises: "Can two          right choice is to break off the re-
this point. People are members of        walk together, except they be              lationship, but who is going to do
a particular church or denomina-         agreed?" (Amos  3:3). Marriage is          that when he is in love? A few
tion because they are convinced of       an intimate bond into which two            perhaps. Most do not. They then
the doctrines that are taught there.     people enter. They are united in           enter into a marriage that is des-
Believing children of God take se-       one flesh.  They~must  walk through        tined for contention and strife, or
riously what the Bible teaches  -        life together. What joy and happi-         that is unstable because of compro-
or at least they should! When they       ness when they can do this in per-         mise.
make confession of faith in their        fect agreement with one another!               Does all this mean that it is not
own church, then they vow before         What heartache and pain when               right for one to date outside of his
God and the church that they ac-         doctrinal differences stand in the         denomination of churches? Not at
knowledge the doctrines taught in        way of doing that! The founda-             all! We have already established
their particular church to be the        tion of a happy marriage is spiri-         the fact that God has His people in
true and complete doctrine of sal-       tual agreement. When that is not           other churches too. But all this
vation.    That means that young         there, the marriage is threatened.         does serve to warn us. When a
people who make confession of            It may be true that, because both          young person chooses to date
their faith in another denomination      husband and wife are believers,            someone outside the sphere of his
are committed to the doctrines of        they agree that divorce is wrong.          own churches it is urgent that he
their churches as much as we are         Yet, because their spiritual differ-       speak with that person openly and
to ours. That is the only conclu-        ences stand in the way, they are           freely about her faith  - and that
sion we may reach.                       never really able to attain to the         he do so immediately! All spiri-
    But that in turn means that,         fullest joy that is a part of marriage.    tual differences ought to be solved
though perhaps we may not ques-              Remember, Christian young              before they come to love each other!
tion the sincerity of others, never-     people must not rest content sim-             We understand what that
theless the content of their faith is    ply to get married. Their interest         means, of course. It requires that
different! Each one of them is con-      must lie in establishing a solid, un-      we know what we believe  - be-
victed of doctrines that the other       shakable bond that will give them          fore dating a believer outside of
simply does not believe are true!        a lifetime of happiness in the Lord.       our own denomination. We ought
The natural tendency at this point       To attain this they must be one in         to be mature believers. Parents,

304ptandard  Bearer/April  7.1999


too, ought to exercise their author-        children, while those children are                   Christian profession. And the third
ity in this regard. If our children         still young, in the principles that                  principle is, "Can two walk to-
are not ready to make confession            will guide them when they come                       gether, except they be agreed?"
of faith, do we think that they will        to the age of dating. One principle                  (Amos  3:3). Doctrinal agreement
be capable of making proper spiri-          is, " w h a t   p a r t   h a t h   h e   t h a t    must be found before learning to
tual decisions when it comes to dat-        believeth with an unbeliever (infi-                  love one another. In our next ar-
ing outside the sphere of their own         del)" (II Cor.  6:15). Courtship                     ticle we will add yet another prin-
churches? Wisdom and discretion             within the covenant excludes dat-                    ciple.
are needed to do this. These come           ing those who do not profess to be                        These must be taught by par-
only with spiritual maturity.               Christian. That is one principle.                    ents, but our covenant youth must
    We are beginning to find that           The second is, when dating in the                    also have the wisdom to live ac-
courtship within the sphere of the          sphere of the church at large (or,                   cording to them when they look for
covenant is not a frivolous part of         as we will find, even within one's                   a life's mate. This will determine
life that anyone ought to enter             own denomination), "Try the spir-                    f o r   t h e m   t h e   f u t u r e   j o y   a n d
lightly. Parents must train their           its whether they are of God" (I John                 strength of their marriage. 0
                                            4:l).  Do not be content with mere




              The Trial of Truth, Democrats,
                     & Grand Old Pharisees (2)
                          (John l&l 2-14, 19-40; John 19:1-l 6)

Jesus is seized. Mob hands take And the sinless, pure Son of Jews feared what the Romans
  Him in the dead of the night to           God is taken to the ignoble, ac-                     might say if they caught the Jews
Annas,  father-in-law to Caiaphas           cursed death.. . .                                   murdering a man.
the high priest. Before  Annas there                                                                   Hatred of Jesus. That is an-
                                                        *X-*X-*    x-z+***    **X-X-*
is a preliminary hearing of sorts.                                                               other reason the Jewish leaders
Later, toward the dawn of that Fri-              Did you ever wonder why?                        sought the trial. For a trial and
day, an official meeting of the Jew-             Why did the Jews think to                       conviction would be, they thought,
ish ruling body, the Sanhedrin, is          bring Jesus to trial? Why not kill                   for the public humiliation and
convened. Under oath Jesus af-              Him quietly? Then dump Him in                        shame of Jesus.
firms that He is the Christ the Son         Gehenna's fire, and be done with                           Zeal of God. Paul later would
of God.                                     Him. Surely that would have been                     bear the Jews record that they had
    This affirmation is considered          easier! Why did the Jews see the                     a zeal of God, yet not according to
blasphemy by the Jewish jury. And           need of a trial and of a  form  of le-               knowledge (Rom.  10:2). So it was
Jesus is judged worthy of death.            gality in their seeking to extermi-                  that in the putting of Jesus on trial
He is passed on to the Roman au-            nate this their supreme opponent?                    the Jews thought they were in ac-
thorities for their prosecution.                 Fear of men, to be sure. The                    cord with the will of God, and that
Pilate, then  Herod,  find the Man          Jewish leaders certainly feared the                  they would surely find that Jesus
guilty of no crime. The Jews how-           multitude of people which had                        was a godless law-breaker and
ever-religious leaders and also             gone after Jesus and who thought                     blasphemer. And that God would
frenzied crowd-demand the ex-               that Jesus was everything they ever                  be pleased with their proceedings.
treme penalty, crucifixion.                 wanted in a king. Certainly this                           But other reasons for the trial
                                            multitude would not take kindly                      of Jesus. God reasons. Over and
                                            their Hope being so abruptly re-                     over we read that Jesus is tried, and
Rev. Dick is pastor of Grace Protestant     moved from the scene by some jeal-                   then taken to be crucified, in order
Reformed Church in  Standale,  Michigan.    ous Pharisees. No doubt also the                     that the Scriptures and counsel  of

                                                                                                             April  1,1999/Standard   Bearer/305


r
     God might be fulfilled (cf. Mark           the whole Truth, and nothing but          tated during a certain interview.
     14:49; John  18:32; Acts  2:23). God       the Truth, for He can swear by no         The trial of the Truth, Jesus Christ
     will have Jesus tried. It would not        higher. Here when men accuse              is  the  trial of the ages.
     do  according to  God that Jesus be        Truth of blasphemy. Here when                 But there is another one. At
     pushed off a cliff early in His min-       men say, What is Truth? Here              the end of the ages. The first, the
     istry, or die now without a trial.         when Truth is slapped and spit            primary trial in history and in
     God will have Jesus arraigned for-         upon and whipped and mocked               Jerusalem, was a trial  of  Jesus. This
     mally, publicly before the Jewish          and delivered to be crucified.            last, at the end of history, will be a
     and world courts.                          Here. Then. Let it be known. Sin.         trial  by  Jesus! It is the final judg-
          But why?                                                                        ment trial. It is the trial to come to
          The answer:  for  Truth's sake.                *****    ***x4    ***4+          which Jesus alluded at His trial be-
          For the sake of the truth, first          Another reason for the trial. It      fore Caiaphas when He said:
     of all, of sin. To  reveal  sin for all    is for the sake of the truth of the       "Hereafter shall ye see the Son of
     that it is-that is why Messiah is          Son. Here is my Son, God says.            man sitting on the right hand of
     tried. In the world's finding Mes-         At the trial. Let it be known.            power, and coming in the clouds
     siah guilty, and in its executing              This, this Jesus, is God's pure       of heaven" (Matt.  26:64).
     Him, will be lightning revelation          Son. Sinless, sublime, silent One.            Then . . . what a trial! Then the
     of sin such as never before or since       Holy One  of  God!                        standard will be no constitution, no
     has flashed.                                   Here Truth! All must see,             poll, no party, no traditions of men,
          Want to know what sin is? Be-         though not one could look Him in          but the law of God. And this law
     hold the trial of Jesus of Nazareth        the eye! Here the Redeemer! Here          will also be the prosecutor, the ac-
     leading to the crucifixion of Jesus        the Savior-Adam. Here the One of          cuser, and the witness together.
     by men!                                    which every sacrifice and prophet,        Then all in Adam will be found
          Here is the revelation of the         priest and king were but types and        guilty before God. And  no one,
     truth of sin: men proudly and  reli-       shadows. Here the Preeminent              not any one, will then be able to
     giously  seeking to establish their        One in the counsel of God. Here           deny, distort, mislead, or lie about
     own righteousness, all the while           He by whom and for whom all               it. All will have to admit to the
     proudly and  religiously  condemn-         things were created. Here  Truth of       sin of man and the just judgment
     ing the Lord our righteousness.            God!                                      of God. But this trial, this final trial,
          Here is sin: deniers of God con-          Here!                                 is our hope as believers in the
     demning God's Son for godless-                 Here Love of God! Willing to          Christ. It is our hope as those by
     ness.                                      be accused of men, tried of men,          grace in Christ. For at this last day,
          Here is sin: desperate men            abused by men, condemned by               during this last glorious flash of
     seeking to do away with the                men. Here willing to take such sin        Truth and Justice, the Son will
     Christ-by any means! Here a false          of His own on His own-willing  to         wreak righteous vengeance upon
     witness. There a false witness.            be made  that sin (II Cor.  5:21) that    all His accusers who not once dur-
     Abuse of authority. Bribery. Vio-          we might be made the righteous-           ing eight years of their term or
     lence. You name it. The hooks and          ness of God in Him. Here willing          ninety years of their life stopped
     the crooks came out.                       to be accused of God, tried of God,       their lying mouths. In this trial, at
          Here is sin: men rejecting  all       condemned of God to go to the             this time, every knee will bow and
     of God, aiming at nothing less than        cross of God.          They will say,     confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to
     the death of God.                          "Away!" to the cross. But God will        the glory of God the Father.
          Here is sin: men of the  entire       be saying, "Away now.  And go to              And something else, even more
     world  shouting "Away with Him!"           hell!" "Go now in the place of and        marvelous, will happen.                Awe-
     the Savior of the world! For at the        to save My Own fallen liars, and          some!
     trial of Jesus behold the secular and      adulterers-sinners all." "Go  now             O u r   j u d g m e n t .   H e r e   L a w
     sacred, the high and the hoi polloi        to save those whose party, whose          which might and could have justly
     gathered together to do what sin           culture, whose wealth, whose will,        sought to condemn will be silenced.
     does. Indeed here is what even  the        whose work, whose theology will           For Truth Himself will rise, as it
     best  of the world will do: the cream      never save."                              were, to our defense, as our Advo-
     of the religious and political crop,           Here, I say,  Love  of  God!  And     cate. And He will speak but one
     the Jacks of Jurisprudence, the            Jesus says: "I go."                       Word, present but one exhibit for
     Regnant Religionists say: Away                                                       our vindication. And that will be
     with Jesus!                                         *****    *x+**    **+**          the cross. Hold those hellish aton-
          Here, in sacred halls of men.             So that is the trial. Not the one     ing agonies forth, He will, to
     Here when Truth walks in. Here             that just hopped by. Not the one          twelve jurors ever so carefully cho-
     when Truth swears to Truth, and            upon which sages recently medi-           sen  - to Electing Love, to  Cov-

     306/Standard   Bearer/April  1,199Q


enant Grace, to Mercy, Wisdom,                 Go now from newspaper to              8. The choice of Barabbas
Righteousness, Holiness,  Long-            God's book. Listen to the inter-              What was the sin of the Jews
suffering, Kindness, Pity, Mindful         views Matthew, Mark, Luke, and            requesting to have Barabbas set
of our human frailty, Desirous of          John had long ago with the Christ         free rather than Jesus?
Salvation, and Glory of God.               and the Spirit of God.
    These all, all One, in no time             Read. Listen. Have Truth, and         9. Judas' repentance
deliberating, will rise up declaring:      the whole of Him, ever before your            When Judas saw that Jesus was
No condemnation! And enter thou            minds. Ever your light. Ever for          condemned he repented and went
church into the joy of your Lord!          your holiness. Ever your joy. Ever        out and hanged himself (cf. Matt.
                                           your hope.                                27:  3ff.). What proof is there that
            **X-X-*    *****    **I+*          These are perilous times. The         this repentance was not real?
    Open the Book, friends. Behold         trials of them try our souls. But
by faith this trial of the Truth. Be-      the Truth is, and is coming. Be in        10. Crucifixion today?
lieve it is for your justification now.    the Truth. Know the Truth. Re-                If Jesus were on earth in body
Know it to be for your acquittal in        joice in the truth! Love . . . Truth!     today would people crucify Him,
the end.                                                                             or tolerate Him? Though Jesus is
             For Study, Meditation, 81                                               not here in body, how do sinners
                                                                                     crucify Him still (cf. Acts  9:4; Gal.
                                   Discussion                                        6:14; Phil.  3:lO; Heb. 6:6)?
                                                                                         How is it seen today that
                                                                                     people think they do God service
                                                                                     by their rejection of the Christ and
1. Narrative                               Jesus at His trial (e.g., Jews and Ro-    His truth and the persecution of
    The trial of Jesus is recorded         mans)? How is this seen  today-           His body (Is.  66:5; John  16:12)?
in John  18,19 and also Matthew 26,        people, world, churches, etc. join-
27, Mark  14,15, and Luke 22, 23.          ing together against Jesus and the        11. The Trial in perspective (John
Study the passages so that you are         cause of the Truth?                       2@3j)
able to tell others what happened                                                        What are the divine virtues of
during this trial.                         5. Pilate's sin                           Jesus which shine forth in His be-
                                               What was Pontius Pilate's main        havior in the trial?
2. The reason for the trial of Jesus       sin in delivering Jesus over to be
    We have seen above several             crucified? Pilate tried to wash his           List several things which con-
reasons why God ordained this              hands of the matter, and to blame         tributed to Jesus' suffering in this
trial of His Son. But why did the          the Jews for the condemnation of          whole debacle. The Romans use
Jews themselves seek a trial? Why          the innocent One. List several ex-        the trial of Jesus to mock His al-
did they not just stab Jesus in the        amples in the trial which, however,       leged kingship. They make and
night, or dump him, unceremoni-            show Pilate's guilt?                      crown Him with a crown of thorns,
ously, off a cliff?                                                                  they give Him a reed for a scepter,
                                           6. What is truth?                         and put a purple robe upon Him,
3. The sin of the Jews                         When Pilate asked,  "What  is         all the while saying, "Hail, King of
    List five ways the trial of Jesus      truth?" (John  18:38), just what was      the Jews," and beating Him with
by the Jews was illegal. Why was           he asking Jesus? Does this ques-          their hands (cf. John 19:lff.). But
the sin of the Jews worse than that        tion condemn Pilate or excuse him?        what is truly revealed here of Jesus
of Pilate and friends? In Matthew          Is this question asked today? Or is       the King?
26:25 we read the chilling state-          it rather that sin and unbelief and
ment of the Jewish people: "His            the lie have so developed today               Truth was on trial in the trial
blood be on us, and on our chil-           that people do not even care about        of Jesus. How do we show in our
dren." In other words, the Jews            the question?                             lives  rzozu,  by our focus of faith, by
called a curse down upon them-                                                       our walk, and by our hope, that
selves! In what ways has this curse        7. Pilate's wife's dream                  Truth was found  then  to be True
and judgment of God been ex-                   Pilate's wife warned Pilate to        and Pure, and that the lie and liars
ecuted upon the Jews throughout            have nothing to do with Jesus be-         were condemned, that the Truth at
history?                                   cause she had that day suffered           the same time saved us, and that
                                           many things in a dream because of         the Truth shall come again "to
4. Union of sinners                        this Jesus (cf. Matt. 27:  19). Was       judge the living and the dead"? Cl
    What were different ways that          this dream from God? What is the
people joined together against             significance of this dream?

                                                                                              April  1,1999/Standard   Bearer/307


                   Congregational Singing

                             "In the churches only the 150 Psalms of David, the Ten Command-
                          ments, the Lord's Prayer, the Twelve Articles of Faith, the Songs of
                          Mary, Zacharias, and Simeon, the Morning and Evening Hymns, and
                          the Hymn of Prayer before the sermon shall be sung."
                                                                                 Church Order, Article 69.

                                             Article 69 of the Church Order of                  Reformed churches is to be congre-
                                             the synod of Dordrecht, 1618-19,                   gational singing-the  whole  congre-
Historical Background                        read:                                              gation, including the children and
       he
T earliest Dutch Reformed                                                                       young people.
       synods addressed the matter             In the churches only the 150                         Lusty singing! From the heart!
       of singing in the worship ser-          Psalms of David, the Ten Com-                        In the beginning of their exist-
vices. Already the synod of Wezel,             mandments, the Lord's Prayer, the                ence the Reformed churches op-
1568, decided:                                 Twelve Articles of Faith, the Songs              posed strenuously choirs and solo-
                                               of Mary, Zacharias, and Simeon                   ists in public worship. Instead they
  As for  singing  in the church, the          shall be sung. The song, "0 God,                 insisted on the privilege and duty
  use of the Psalms as rendered by             Who Art Our Father," is left to the
  Peter Datheen shall be maintained            discretion of the churches whether               of the congregation to sing. The
  in all the Dutch churches so that            to use or omit it. All other hymns               congregation was not to be sung
  nothing less fitting and less edi-           shall be banned from the churches,               to, but to sing. At the time of the
  fying is introduced because of the           and where some have already                      Reformation, congregational sing-
  variety of versions.                         been introduced, they shall by the               ing had fallen into decline. For the
                                               most suitable means be excluded.                 most part, polished and practiced
The synod of Dordrecht, 1574, re-                                                               choirs had replaced the singing of
affirmed the decision of Wezel.              Article 69 was revised somewhat                    the gathered people of God. Credit
The Church Order of the synod of             by the synod  of  Utrecht, 1905. The               is given to the well-known Pope
Dordrecht, 1578, included the fol-           hymn "0 God, Who Art Our Fa-                       Gregory the Great (c. 540-604) for
lowing article:                              ther" was referred to as the "Hymn                 introducing this innovation. Calvin
                                             of Prayer before the sermon," and                  was outspoken in his denunciation
  The Psalms of David translated by          " t h e   M o r n i n g   a n d   E v e n i n g    of choirs and led the way for the
  Peter Datheen  shah be sung in the         Hymns" were added. Utrecht's re-                   restoration of congregational sing-
  Christian gatherings of the Neth-          vision was essentially that adopted                ing. It is a sad commentary on the
  erlands churches as has been done          by the Christian Reformed Church
  until now, excluding the hymns                                                                state of Reformed worship today
                                             in 1914 and later by our Protestant
  which are not found in the Bible.                                                             that in many Reformed churches
                                             Reformed Churches.                                 choirs and soloists have again re-
                                                  It ought to be plain that Article
The synod of Middelburg, 1581,                                                                  placed congregational singing.
                                             69 concerns the singing at the offi-
ruled that                                   cial worship services of the congre-               Psalm Singing
                                             gation. The article is not prescrib-
  Only the Psalms of David shall be                                                                 It is plain from Article 69, as
                                             ing what may and may not be sung
  sung in the churches, omitting the                                                            well as from the decisions taken by
  hymns which are not found in the           at the Bible study societies, in the               the early Dutch Reformed synods,
  Scriptures.                                Christian schools, or in the homes                 that the Reformed churches stood
                                             of Reformed believers. The spe-                    for exclusive psalmody. This is still
                                             cific concern is with public wor-                  today the position of the Protestant
                                             ship.
Rev.  Carnmenga  is pastor  of  Southwest                                                       Reformed Churches. This is not
Protestant       Reformed     Church in           Article 69 presupposes that the               merely our tradition; it is our con-
Granclville, Michigan.                       singing at the worship services of                 viction.

308/StandardBearer/Aprif  1.1999


    It is true that Article 69 refers           have since replaced it with more         synod of 1962 (cf. Acts 1962, Ar-
to a few other songs besides the                recently published song books. Be-       ticle 188, p. 34).
"150 Psalms of David" that may be               sides the United Presbyterian                 Not only are there solid bibli-
sung in the worship services. Of                Psalter, other English psalters have     cal arguments in favor of the use
these other songs, only the Lord's              been produced and are being used         of the Psalms in the worship of the
Prayer and the Songs of Mary,                   for worship in other denomina-           New Testament church, but the
Zacharias, and Simeon are avail-                tions, some of them of rather high       church today ought also to be
able in the present psalter used in             quality. It cannot be denied that        mindful of the lessons of history.
the worship services of the Protes-             improvements could be made in                 Lesson  #l. The introduction of
tant Reformed Churches. The men-                our Psalter, both in regards to the      hymns, many of which are doctri-
tion of these other songs that were             lyrics and the melodies of certain       nally superficial or unsound,  man-
in use in the churches at the time              numbers. Perhaps someday a com-          centered, and emotionally appeal-
that the early church orders were               mittee of qualified persons could        ing has been an instrument of Sa-
written cannot be construed as a                be appointed by the synod to pro-        tan to promote false teaching in the
setting aside of the principle of ex-           pose a revision of the Psalter.          church.
clusive psalmody. The rule in the                                                             Lesson  #2. The introduction of
churches is that the Psalms and                 The Nagging Hymn Question                a few hymns leads to many hymns,
only the Psalms are to be sung.                     Although historically the Re-        so many hymns that the Psalms in-
    Psalm singing has a rich his-               formed churches have stood for the       variably are shoved into the back-
tory in the Reformed churches. Al-              principle of exclusive psalmody,         ground.
ready Calvin superintended the                  there have always been those who              This is not to say that there are
production of a psalter for the                 promoted the introduction of             not good hymns. There are. They
church of Geneva. At his request,               hymns into the worship of the            may be sung. They may be sung
a number of Psalms were versified               church. Some of these have been          in our homes, at programs, on our
by Clement  Marot  and Theodore                 more conservative, wanting only          visits with each other, or while we
Beza, and melodies were written by              hymns that are  versifications  of       are driving down the highway in
Louis Bourgeois and Maitre Pierre.              definite portions of Scripture. Oth-     our automobiles. But not in public
Some of the work of these men sur-              ers have promoted the singing of         worship. Here the will of God re-
vives in the psalters used in vari-             hymns generally, irrespective of         quires the singing of the Psalms.
ous Reformed and Presbyterian                   whether or not the hymn is a  ver-            In the interests of good singing
churches still today.                           sification of a passage of Scripture.    in our worship services, the chil-
    One of the earliest psalters                    Prior to the synod of                dren of the church ought to be
used in the Reformed churches of                Dordrecht, 1618-19, the Remon-           taught the songs in the Psalter. We
the Netherlands was that produced               strants advocated the introduction       ought to sing more than we do in
by William of Nijevelt. In 1566 the             of hymns in the worship of the           our homes, perhaps making sing-
Rev. Peter Datheen published his                churches. Article 69 is very much        ing by the family a part of our
psalter. For many years Datheen's               a response to their efforts. In 1807     regular family devotions.                      The
psalter enjoyed great popularity                a committee introduced a collection      C h r i s t i a n   s c h o o l s   s e r v e   t h e
with Dutch Reformed folk. In 1580               of hymns into the worship of the         churches well in this regard, mak-
yet another psalter was published               state Reformed Church of the Neth-       ing use of the Psalter in daily de-
b y   a   c e r t a i n Marnix   o f   S t .    erlands.    At first the singing of      votions, choirs, chapels, and pro-
Aldegonde. Although this new                    these hymns was optional; eventu-        grams. Pastors ought to have the
psalter became accepted in some of              ally it became mandatory. The            children sing a number at the be-
the churches of the Netherlands, it             leaders of the Secession of 1834 (the    ginning of the catechism classes. In
never supplanted the psalter of                 Afscheiding)  objected to these          this way the good tradition of
Datheen.                                        hymns and restored psalm singing.        Psalm singing will continue to
     Although Article 69 does not               The Christian Reformed Church            flourish in the churches.
specify the use of a certain psalter,           synod of 1932 revised Article 69 to
the psalter used in the Protestant              make room for the singing of             Instrumental Accompaniment
Reformed Churches is the 1914 edi-              hymns in that denomination. In                Deliberately Article 69 neither
tion of the United Presbyterian                 the years 1959-1962, our own Prot-       requires nor forbids the use of in-
Psalter. This psalter was the work              estant Reformed Churches consid-         strumental accompaniment in con-
of an interdenominational commit-               ered an overture to revise Article       gregational singing. The reason for
tee that included members of vari-              69 to allow for the singing of a se-     this is that instrumental accompa-
ous Presbyterian and Reformed de-               lect number of hymns. After a            niment is considered an incidental
nominations. Most denominations                 lengthy discussion in the churches,      of worship and therefore a matter
that at one time used the Psalter               this proposal was defeated by the        of liberty.

                                                                                                     April  1,1999/Standard   Bearer/309


        It is well known that John                       accompaniment in the singing of              by organists. Some consistories re-
Calvin, as well as other of the Re-                      the Psalms may be advanced. First,           quire that only numbers from the
formers, opposed the use of instru-                      the word "Psalm" itself refers to a          Psalter be played before and after
ments in worship. Some of the                            musical instrument, a stringed in-           the worship service, as well as dur-
early Dutch Reformed synods                              strument.       Second, the Psalms           ing the offertory. This belongs to
spoke against the use of instru-                         themselves make repeated mention             the discretion of each consistory,
ments. Nevertheless, this did not                        of the worship of God with instru-           taking into account always what
become the accepted position in the                      ments: Psalm  33:2;  57:8;  71:22;  81:2;    best serves the edification of God's
Dutch Reformed Churches, con-                            92:3;  108:2;  144:9;  150:3. Third, not     people.    Although not, strictly
vinced as the churches were that                         only does Scripture refer to the             speaking, a part of the worship ser-
the Scriptures permitted instru-                         worship of God by means of instru-           vice, what is played by an organist
ments as a matter of Christian lib-                      ments  in the Old Testament, but it          prior to the start of the service and
erty.      Especially fond were the                      also refers to instruments in con-           what is played as the congregation
Dutch of the beautiful sounds of                         nection with the worship of the re-          is exiting the sanctuary ought to be
the organ. Singing in the Protes-                        deemed church in glory, as Rev-              conducive to worship.
tant Reformed Churches is gener-                         elation  5:8;  14:2.                             Singing-a necessary and de-
ally accompanied by an organ or a                            Most consistories have adopted           lightful part of the public worship
piano.                                                   guidelines concerning the music              of the church.
        A few arguments in favor of                      played during the worship services               Let it be done according to
permitting the use of instrumental                                                                    God's will and for His glory! Cl




Mission Activities                                       changes will be arranged between             Moore's place on that delegation.
The February 28th bulletin from Rev. Mahtani and Rev. Bruinsma They are making plans to go, the
        the Southwest PRC in Grand-                      or Rev. Cammenga, Southwest's                Lord willing, for a couple of weeks
ville, MI contained an update of                         pastor, once per month until the             in May.
our churches' mission work in                            end of the year to facilitate contin-            Rev. and Mrs. R. Moore are
Pittsburgh, PA.                                          ued recuperation."                           working on their plans to move to
        "As previously reported, Rev.                        Southwest's council, under the           Ghana, West Africa. Quoting from
J. Mahtani (missionary to  Pitts-                        belief that letters from home are            Rev. Moore: "Jan and I have been
burgh)is under the care of a psy-                        important for the morale of a mis-           considering this work for quite
chiatrist and a Christian counselor                      sionary family, also made arrange-           some time, and are now confident
and on their advice has been re-                         ments to assure a steady flow of             that this is the Lord's will for us.
lieved of his duties as missionary                       correspondence from their congre-            We look forward to the labor, but
for 4-6 weeks. The consistory of                         gation to the Mahtanis by drawing            also realize that it will be a diffi-
the Kalamazoo, MI PRC has gra-                           up a schedule for their members              cult, but also a blessed labor. We
ciously consented to Southwest's                         to follow.                                   cherish your prayers for us as we
request that Rev. W. Bruinsma,                               The consistory of the Grand-             labor in Ghana."
Kalamazoo's pastor, spend alter-                         ville, MI PRC has granted the re-
nate weekends (Wednesday to                              quest of our churches' Domestic              Denomination Activities
Monday) in Pittsburgh during the                         Mission Committee to release their           We pass along a note from our
months of February, March, and                           pastor, Rev. A. Spriensma, for 6-8                 young peoples' Scholarship
April to preach, lead all classes,                       weeks to labor in South Wales.               Fund Committee which might in-
and counsel Rev. Mahtani. The                            Rev. Spriensma plans, the Lord               terest you, especially if you are a
mission group will use sermon vid-                       willing, to be gone the last half of         young person considering further-
eos when Rev. Bruinsma is not                            March through April.                         ing your education to become ei-
there until Rev. Mahtani resumes                             Since Rev. R. Moore has ac-              ther a school teacher or pastor in
some of the preaching which will,                        cepted the call to Ghana, he is no           our denomination.
D.V., begin the latter part of March.                    longer able to go with the delega-               The S.F.C. would like to ex-
B e g i n n i n g   i n   M a y ,   p u l p i t   ex-    tion, as originally planned, to the          press its gratitude to our heavenly
                                                         Philippines in early April. Conse-           Father for these past several years.
                                                         quently our churches' Foreign Mis-           By the help of our churches, the
Mr. Wigger  is an eldun  the Protestant                  sion Committee has asked our                 amount made available to our
Reformed Church  of  Hudsonville, Michi-                 Edgerton, MN PRC to release their            young people studying for service
gan.                                                     pastor, Rev. D. Kleyn, to take Rev.          as teachers or pastors has grown

310/Stmdard   Bearer/April  1,7999


from $5000 to $39,500. In 1995 we
gave out $4100 compared to 1998
when we were able to provide
$18,400.
     The Protestant Reformed Psalm
Choir, made up of members from
m a n y   o f   o u r   W e s t   M i c h i g a n
churches, presented two concerts of
praises to God through Psalms this
early spring. The first was on Feb-
ruary 28 at Grandville, MI PRC and                              of Scriptuie, critically exami"nes  the makiage doctrine'of the Reformers,           -
the second, one week later on                        EL ~~ ~~ -aEd cdlls  protestant `Chr$ianity  to reconsidgr  tketeaarhing of the early church.
                                                     _I__-                           _~     ,:I  .         -~-_-.          -    -      m-..*-  II  _L  .,i~I.. . I"..  _. _
March 7 at First PRC in Grand Rap-
ids, MI.
     In connection with the March
m e e t i n g   o f   Classis  W e s t   i n
Redlands, CA, our Hope PRC spon-
sored an officebearers conference
on March 2, the day before  classis.
This conference had as its theme
"The Doctrines of Sovereign Pre-
destination." There was scheduled
a keynote address by Rev. R.
Moore titled "Predestination: The
Heart of the Gospel." There were
six  sectionals led by various min-                                                                                                     .O-916206494                 =----:
                                                                                                                                         239 pages, hardcover
isters and also an evening lecture
by Rev. K. Koole on the subject,
 "The Doctrine of the Covenant as
the Key to a Reformed Understand-
ing of God's Sovereignty."
      Hope's Evangelism Committee
was also busy working to publicize
 this conference in their community
 and other parts of California.

 Congregation Activities
 The Choral Society of the South
      Holland, IL PRC presented a
 program on February 21. Before
 the Choral Society sang, the Zeng
 Family Brass played several selec-
 tions. They also accompanied the
 choir and congregation with some
 of their singing.
      On February 26 and 27 the
 members of the Georgetown PRC
 in Hudsonville, MI were invited to
 Camp Geneva, on the shore of Lake
 Michigan, for a weekend of fun, fel-
 lowship, and spiritual enrichment
 at their annual church conference.
 This year's conference featured
 Rev. C. Haak, pastor of the Bethel
 PRC in Itasca, IL, as speaker. He
 spoke on the subject, "Content-
 ment: An Inside Job." Besides his

                                                                                                                       April  1,1999/Standard   Bearer/3  11


       Fe
Standard
     Bi3arer                                                                                                                                            PERIODICAL
                                                                                                                                                         Postage Paid at
     P.O. Box 603                                                                                                                                        Grandville,
     Grandville, MI  49468-0603                                                                                                                          Michigan


two speeches on the subject,  dis-                              Minister Activities                                                        jh7d-For  lXougtit
cussion groups looked at the theme                                                                                                   "There is a true glory - the glory
from the aspect of contentment in                               The Hull, IA PRC met March 2
                                                                      and voted to extend a call to                        of a duty well done. And there is a
s i n g l e   l i f e ,   m a r r i e d   l i f e ,   a n d     Rev. C. Haak, pastor of the Bethel                         true honor - the honor of the integ-
parenting.                                                      PRC, to serve as their next pastor.                        rity of principle upheld."
                                                                                                                                                      -Robert E. Lee  Cl



                                                                         WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
                TEACHERSNEEDED                                                                                                       RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
                                                                      On March 21, 1999,
      Hope                                                                                                                      The Mary Martha Society of Hope PRC
                Christian School of Redlands, CA                     HUGO and ELIZABETH SCHWARZ                            in  Redlands  express their sincere Christian
is in need of a teacher for the intermediate                    celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary. We              sympathy to fellow members Winnie
grades (3 & 4) for the 1999-2000 school year.                   thank God for the many years He has given                  VanUffelen, Donna Bruinsma, JoAnn Pastoor,
The grade assignment, however, is flexible,                     them together, and for the loving care and                 and Laura VanVoorthuysen  and families in the
with the possibility instead for an elementary                  godly instruction they have given to us. May
position (grades 1  & 2). Interested persons                                                                               loss of their father and grandfather,
                                                                the Lord continue to bless them throughout
are encouraged to send an application to Hope                                                                                            MR. RALPH ROZEMA,
                                                                their lives together.
Christian School, Attn: Ed Karsemeyer, 1309                           "But the mercy of the Lord is from ever-             and in the loss of their brother and uncle,
E. Brockton Ave., Redlands, CA 92374. You                       lasting to everlasting upon them that fear him,                           MR. JOHN ROZEMA.
may also phone school,  (909-793-4584)  Bill                    and his righteousness unto children's children;                 May they be comforted in the words of
Feenstra  (909-793-3597),  or Mike Gritters                     to such as keep his covenant, and to those                 Scripture from II Corinthians 1:3, 4: "Blessed
(909-793-4439).                                                 that remember his commandments to do them."                be God, . . . the Father of mercies, and the
      The Protestant Reformed  Christian                        *     Tom and Marilyn DeVries                              God of all comfort; who comforteth us in all
School  of South Holland,  IL  will be in need                  %     Robert and Phyllis Brands                            our tribulation."
of a 5rh grade homeroom teacher for the 1999-                           14 grandchildren                                                        Rev. Arie denHartog,  President
2000 school year. All interested persons                                2 great-grandchildren                                                        Cindy Grothman, Secretary
should apply to the Protestant Reformed Chris-
tian School, 16511 South Park Ave., South                                                            Loveland, Colorado
                                                                                   NOTICE!!!                                           WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
Holland, IL 60473, or call the school at (708)                        Classis East will meet in regular session                 On March 24, 1999, our parents and
333-9197.                                                       on Wednesday, May 12, 1999 at the Grace                    grandparents,
                                                                Protestant Reformed Church. Material to be                           JOE and GWEN  VanKAMPEN,
            WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                                 treated at this session must be in the hands               celebrated their 50ih wedding anniversary. We
      On April 7, 1999, our parents, grandpar-                  of the stated clerk by April 12, 1999.                     are thankful to our heavenly Father for giving
ents, and great grandparents,                                                    Jon J. Huisken, Stated Clerk              them to one another and to us. We pray that
       MR. and MRS. MELVIN DeBOER,                                                                                         God may continue to bless them in their mar-
will celebrate, D.V., their  50th wedding anni-                                                                            riage in the years to come.
versary.                                                              RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                    "The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant
      We thank our heavenly Father for the                           The council and congregation of                       places; yea, I have a goodly heritage" (Psalm
years that He has given them together. We                       Georgetown PRC express their Christian sym-                16:6).
pray that the Lord will continue to bless them                  pathy to Doug and Shelly Start and their fam-              $    Dan and Mary VanKampen
in their life together. We thank them for their                 ily in the loss of their infant daughter,                             Michael, Andrew
love, support, and Christian upbringing that                                     GRACE START,                              8    Bruce and Cher Jabaay
they have given to us.                                          who was taken to glory before birth. May they                         Dave and Julie Steenwyke
      "One generation shall praise thy works to                 find comfort and peace from God's Word in                                Benjamin, Jordan
another, and shall declare thy mighty works"                    Lamentations 3:22-24: "It is of the Lord's mer-                       Richard, Brian, Lisa
(Psalm  1454).                                                  cies that we are not consumed, because his                 $    Larry and Pat Dutmer
$     Jack and Sheila DeBoer                                    compassions fail not. They are new every                              Jodi, Betsy, Ross
% Jeff DeBoer                                                   morning: great is thy faithfulness. The Lord               *    Steve and Cindy VanKampen
%    Jerrold and Martha Bruinsma                                is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I             %    Joe and Deb VanKampen
            6 Grandchildren                                     hope in him."                                                         Laura, Kane
            2 Great Grandchildren                                                   Rev. R. VanOverloop,  Pres.            %    Mark and Cindy Ophoff
                                           St. John, Indiana                             David M. Ondersma, Clerk                     David, Kristin, Bradley, Daniel
                                                                                                                                                                    Holland, Michigan
312/Standard  Bearer&w9 I, 1999


