A Reformed
Semi-Monthly
Magazine


                                                                       In This Issue:
                  Meditation  - Herman Hoeksema
                        Risen, Indeed! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314

                  Editorial - Prof. David  J.  Engelsma
                        A Defense of the Gospel of Grace
                        Against ECT (5) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317
                  Day of Shadows  - Homer C. Hoeksema
                        The Prediluvian Period (5)
                        A Significant Genealogy-Chronology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319
                  Contending for the Faith - Rev. Bernard Woudenberg
                        A Friendship That Ended with Anger
                        and Disappointment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .324
                  Ministering to the Saints -  Rev.  Doug/as  J.  Kuiper
                        The History of the Diaconate (2)
                        Its Deformation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327
                  Search the Scriptures  - Rev. Mitchell C. Dick
                        Called to the Cross *...................,...................................................... 330
                  Come, Lord Jesus  - Rev. Cornelius Hanko
                        Signs of the Times (5)
                        Believers Shall Be Persecuted ,...................................................... 332
                  Report of Classis  West - Rev. Steven R. Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334
                  News From Our Churches - Mr. Benjamin Wigger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335





April 15, 1999


                                                           Risen, Indeed!

                                           Saying,  The Lord is risen indeed, and katk appeared to Simon.
                                                                                                                                Luke  24:34



                                                                  the cross unto His entering into                              peared to Simon.1 What a blessed
      Indeed!                                                     glory, and finally becoming known                             termination of a day full of anxious
      The Lord is risen indeed!                                   to them in the breaking of the                                doubts! For such it had been, in-
      This emphatic declaration of                                bread as the very Lord they were                              deed.
the fact of the resurrection, an ex-                              discussing. But even before the                                        From early dawn Jerusalem had
pression of unbounded joy, was                                    two travelers could give expression                           been filled with strange rumors.
pressed from the hearts of the dis-                               to their joy, the eleven, but with-                           The watch had left the sepulcher of
ciples on the evening of the resur-                               out Thomas, met them and poured                               the Lord. Rumor had it that they
rection day.                                                      out the great joy of their hearts in                          had fled because of strange happen-
      The two travelers who had de-                               the exultant greeting: The Lord is                            ings at the grave early that morn-
parted for  Emmaus  that afternoon                                risen indeed!                                                 ing, the appearance of an angel, an
forgot their weariness and returned                                     In this  indeed  they expressed                         earthquake. Then the rumor had
to Jerusalem to impart to the anx-                                that all their anxiety and wonder-                            also been contradicted, and the
ious and wondering disciples the                                  ment, all their astonishment and                              story was being spread that the dis-
joy that had been born in their own                               worry, had been swallowed up in                               ciples had stolen the body of Jesus
hearts when a stranger joined them                                the certainty of the resurrection.                            while the soldiers slept!
in the way, wonderfully explain-                                        Risen indeed! The words point                                    Women had returned from the
ing the Scriptures to them, point-                                back to a day of perplexity. All                              sepulcher, whither they had gone
ing out especially the necessity of                               day, from earliest morning, their                             very early in the morning to per-
                                                                  hearts had been filled with an anx-                           form a last service of love upon the
                                                                  ious  perhaps.  Now the possibility                           blessed body of their Lord, and had
                                                                  had become reality, the doubt had                             reported strange things. They had
Herman Hoeksema was the                                           been changed into certainty. The
                                            first editor of                                                                     spoken of an empty grave, of the
the  Standard Bearer.  This Meditation is                         Lord is risen  indeed.  There is no                           appearance of angels who had as-
a reprint  from the April 15, 1929 issue of                       more room for argument, for anx-                              sured them that the Lord had risen
the  Standard Bearer.                                             ious discussing, for He hath ap-                              from the dead. To the disciples


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314/Sandard  Bearer/April 15,1999


their report had seemed an idle                      the way, their hearts were set  a-      come into the world, like unto His
tale. For "Him they saw not," and                    burning. They constrained Him to        brethren in all things, sin excepted.
as long as He had  not- been  ~seen,                 abide with them as they reached         With a body like unto the body of
the empty grave could only be re-                    the place of their destination, urg-    His brethren He had descended
garded as circumstantial evidence.                   ing that the day was far spent.         into the grave, weak and mortal,
    All these matters the disciples                  And He had allowed Himself to be        corruptible and inglorious, of the
had discussed as the eleven were                     persuaded.                              dust and earthy. In the form of a
gathered together with others                            Then it happened. For  He           servant He had humbled Himself
throughout that day. A conclusion                    brake the bread as they sat at meat,    even unto death and the agonies
was not reached. Even in the late                    He  blessed it and gave it to them.     of hell. But in that form of a ser-
afternoon their hearts were as per-                  Their eyes were opened. They saw        vant, in that likeness of sinful flesh,
plexed as ever.                                      Him!  And as they were looking on       He did not return when He arose
    A s   t w o   o f   t h e m   l e f t   f o r    Him with a mixture of amazement         from the dead. Though, indeed,
Emmaus  they still continued the                     and joy, He vanished out of their       His resurrection-body was no new
discussion without reaching a sat-                   sight. It was but for a moment.         creation; though in it He could
isfactory solution of the problem                    But they had seen Him. There            show the marks of identity with the
that occupied their minds.  Fora                     could be no doubt, for their burn-      body that was nailed to the cross,
problem it was to them. Jesus of                     ing hearts corroborated the vision      yet it was no more weak but strong,
Nazareth was a prophet of God,                       of their eyes.                          no more corruptible but incorrupt-
mighty in word and deed. Yet, the                        Though the day is far spent and     ible, no more in dishonor but in
rulers of the people had con-                        they are weary, they must return        glory, no more mortal but immor-
demned Him to death and cruci-                       and impart their joy to the dis-        tal. The resurrection of the Lord is
fied Him. This it was that they                      ciples.                                 the swallowing up of death! The
failed to grasp. As yet, they could                      But also among the disciples        Lord is risen indeed!
not see the logic of the cross. They                 there is joy. The shadows of doubt           But even so all is not said.
failed to see the necessity of the                   have been lifted from their hearts           For they would learn, as they
cross. They had fixed their hope                     and minds. The Lord hath ap-            were taught by the Spirit who
on Him as the One who should re-                     peared to Simon. As the weary so-       leadeth into all the truth, that the
deem Israel. But why should the                      journers from  Emmaus approach          resurrection of the Lord was not
Redeemer of Israel have to be con-                   the place where the disciples are       even a return to the state of man
demned and die so shamefully?                        gathered together, they are met         as he was before he fell in para-
They turned the problem over and                     with the exultant shout:                dise the first. The risen Lord is
over. They considered it from ev-                        The Lord is risen indeed!           not simply like unto the  unfallen
ery possible angle. They found no                                                            Adam. For the first man, Adam,
solution.     Then, again, they dis-                            +++  444  444                was of the earth earthy, but the sec-
cussed the fact that it was now the                                                          ond man is the Lord from heaven.
third day, the fact of the empty                         He is risen!                        Even as the work of redemption
grave, the report of the women,                          What a joy is expressed in that     does not aim at simple restoration
substantiated by some of the dis-                    one brief sentence!                     of what was marred and destroyed
ciples, the vision of the angels                         Joy for the disciples even on       by sin in Paradise, so the resurrec-
which said that He was alive. But                    that night of the resurrection-day,     tion of the Lord is not a return to
Him  they had not seen.                              though they did not fully grasp the     man's original state. It is an ad-
    Then the Stranger had joined                     implication of their own testimony.     vance to higher glory than Adam
them and had inquired about the                          Joy that would expand and           ever possessed.
subject of their anxious discussion.                 grow and become fuller, richer,              Still more may be said. For the
They had unburdened their hearts                     deeper when the Spirit of the risen     glory of the risen Lord is not to be
and mind before Him, though they                     and glorified Lord would be             compared even to the glory the
expressed their amazement that                       poured forth into their hearts and      f i r s t   m a n   A d a m   m i g h t   h a v e
one could be such a lone stranger                    would reveal unto them in ever          reached had he never listened to
in Jerusalem that he did not know                    greater abundance of spiritual          the temptation of the murderer
the only subject of interest. He had                 riches the profound significance of     from the beginning. Where would
rebuked them, exposed their unbe-                    the resurrection of the Lord.           be the justification for the deep and
lief, expounded to them the Scrip-                       They would then understand          awful way of sin and suffering God
tures, shown them the necessity of                   that His resurrection was not a re-     chose to lead His children to ever-
the cross of Christ and the folly of                 turn to them, but an issuing forth      lasting glory, the way of the cross
their reasoning. As He opened the                    into a glory hitherto unknown. In       of the Son of God, if the same glory
Scriptures and talked with them in                   the likeness of sinful flesh He had     might have been reached without

                                                                                                      April  15,1999/Standard   Bearer/3 75


all that darkness? The resurrection      then they would understand. For,              We are justified and have peace
of the Lord transcends in glory all      oh, it was the Lord, the Christ, the      with God!
that ever was or might have been         Head of His brethren that was now             For the Lord is risen!
had the Lord from heaven not             risen. He had risen from the death
come down to unite Himself with          He had voluntarily suffered in their                +++  +++  +++
the flesh and blood of the children.     stead and on their behalf. They,
    The glory of the risen Lord is       these brethren, had sinned and vio-           Risen indeed!
not earthy but heavenly. He arises       lated God's covenant. Children of             The disciples now attested the
from the grave clothed with the          wrath and condemnation they were          fact, for they had seen Him! He
glory of the image of the heavenly,      by nature, under the punishment           had appeared to the sojourners of
in body and soul, the image of the       of death. Forfeited, had they, ev-        Emmaus. He had appeared unto
Son, reflected in the human nature       ery right to life and favor with God.     Simon!
in highest possible degree of per-       But from before the foundation of             Greatly did they rejoice in the
fection.                                 the world, God had anointed the           mere realization that He whom
    The Lord is risen indeed. He         Lord Christ to be Head over His           they loved had risen. The certainty
did not return, but went on into         brethren, that He might take their        of the thing they had seen now
the glory of God's perfected work.       place, that their guilt might be          filled their hearts with exultation.
    What unspeakable joy!                reckoned unto Him, that He might          For somehow the fact of the cross
                                         bear their sin in His own body on         had spelled defeat to them and vic-
       +++  +++  +++                     the tree.                                 tory to the enemy; the resurrection
                                                 Thus He had come according        announced the judgment of the
    The Lord is risen!                   to that counsel of the Most High.         world, their own and their Lord's
    Now the disciples rejoiced,          Thus, as the Head of His brethren,        victory.
though they did not fathom the           inseparably connected with them,              But presently they would see
depth of their own joy.                  He had assumed the form of a ser-         Him no more, yet believe in Him
    Soon they would understand,          vant, though He was Lord of all.          whom they saw not. For the power
not only the glory of His resurrec-      And thus, with the sin and death          of His resurrection they would
tion itself, but also the power of       of His brethren upon Him, He had          taste in their own hearts and lives.
that resurrection in its significance    descended into the lowest parts of        The consciousness of that power of
for them, for all the brethren, for      the earth, struggling and battling        the risen Lord in their hearts would
the church of God!                       with the powers of darkness to            unite itself with their present at-
    Then their joy would be full,        overcome them before the face of          testation of the fact of the resur-
as they would realize that His res-      God and in the way of His justice         rection and corroborate it.
urrection is their own. They would       and truth.                                    For the risen Lord would as-
be taught by the Spirit of the risen             Into the deepest depth of that    cend unto His Father and their Fa-
Lord to see the ground and the rea-      death had He descended, till He           ther.
son of His resurrection and to re-       had announced: It is finished!                He would pass through the
joice in their justification through             From that death He arose, He      highest heavens as the victor over
His blood; they would be given to        ascended out of the depth of hell         death and hell, leading captivity
state the beginning of that resur-       into the glory of His resurrection,       captive, enriched with heavenly
rection in their own hearts and to       with the image of the heavenly            gifts of grace and eternal life to be-
rejoice in heavenly things; they         upon Him and the glory of eternal         stow upon His brethren. He would
would know the power of that res-        life radiating from Him.                  bestow on them the gift of the Holy
urrection as it urged them to seek               The Lord is risen! So the dis-    Spirit, and through that Spirit He
the things that are above, not the       ciples now shouted in boundless           would return again unto them, to
things that are below; and in that       joy.                                      dwell with them, in them, and in
power they would look forward to                 Soon they would add: The          the entire church which the Father
the realization of the blessed hope      Lord was raised! Raised by the Fa-        had given Him. And living in them
in His day.                              ther in answer to the announce-           He would realize in their hearts
    All, all would then be plain be-     ment from Golgotha: It is finished!       His own resurrection-life, the life
fore the eye of their faith.                     And that answer could come        that is from above, the new and
    In the light of His resurrection     only if He had actually borne away        heavenly life, thus making them
they would then glance back at the       our sin and satisfied the justice of      spiritual citizens of the New Jerusa-
cross and behold it in all the power     the Most High!                            lem.
of its saving grace. Even now they               He is risen! He was raised!           Then they would taste the
did not  fuIIy understand that ac-       Raised by the power of the Father!        power of that resurrection, the fact
cursed tree and its necessity. But       Raised for our justification!             of which they now attested,  be-

316/SandardBearer/iIpr615,1999


cause they saw Him and He had                 mony as to the fact, partaking with        the resurrection of the Lord, unto
appeared unto Simon. Instead of               them of the power of the resurrec-         a lively hope.
merely declaring the fact of the res-         tion-life in their own hearts.                 Forward we look to the full re-
urrection because their eyes had                  And so our Easter joy becomes          alization of what took place when
beheld the Risen One, they would              an overflowing cup. For the res-           the Lord arose from death and the
witness of the power of the resur-            urrection of the Lord quickens             grave, to the day when the salva-
rection because their souls had               within us a lively hope.                   tion that is about to be revealed in
tasted it and the Lord had risen in               A little while we must carry the       the last time shall be perfected.
their own hearts.                             joy of the resurrection in the midst           For it we long, for we carry the
    The Lord is risen indeed! For             of a world full of imperfection and        beginning of it in our very soul.
He has arisen in our hearts!                  suffering, a world that knows nei-             Of its realization we are sure,
    Thus may the church of the liv-           ther Him nor the power of His res-         because the Lord is risen!
ing Lord victoriously shout with              urrection. Strangers and pilgrims              Oh, blessed joy!
the disciples, accepting their testi-         we are called to be.                           Risen indeed!  Cl
                                                  But we are born again, through





A Defense of the Gospel of Grace
                                              Against ECT
                                                           (5)
T                                                 Both the evangelicals and the          the ripping apart of the blessed
      he fatal compromise of the              Roman Catholics who are involved           body of Christ, just as Rome has
      g o s p e l   o f    g r a c e   b y    in ECT know that the importance            always charged.
      Evangelicals  and Catholics             of justification for the faith, or gos-        To a man, the Reformers in-
Together  (ECT) is easily demon-              pel, is such that there must be            sisted that the Reformation was not
strated. For their cooperation in             agreement between evangelicals             about abuses, whether of immoral-
the culture wars, their working to-           and Roman Catholics on justifica-          ity on the part of the clergy or of
gether in evangelism, and their re-           tion. Accordingly, the section that        tyranny on the part of popes. Such
alizing of the unity of Christ's              immediately follows, after a short         was the Reformers' regard for the
church, ECT needs agreement of                paragraph stating agreement on the         unity of the church that they freely
evangelicals and Roman Catholics              Lordship of Jesus, declares that           acknowledged that the Reforma-
in the faith. Therefore  "Evangel-            evangelicals and Roman Catholics           tion could not be justified on the
icals  & Catholics Together: The              are one in their belief of justifica-      basis of correcting abuses and im-
Christian Mission in the Third Mil-           tion: "We affirm together that we          proving morals. The Reformation,
lennium," the document that first             are justified by grace through faith       they maintained, was about the
identified ECT to the world and               because of Christ."                        gospel, particularly the doctrine of
described its mission, confesses the              These few words are  church-           justification-heart of the gospel.
oneness of evangelicals and Roman             and world-shaking.                             The Reformation was schism!
Catholics in the Christian faith it-              If the declaration is correct, the         For, "we affirm together that
self. The last line of the opening            16th century Reformation of the            we are justified by grace through
section, "Introduction," reads:               church was a mistake, indeed, the          faith because of Christ."
"The mission that we embrace to-              most gigantic mistake made in at               The entire history of Protestant-
gether is the necessary consequence           least the last 1,000 years of church       ism in general since the Reforma-
of the faith that we affirm to-               history. But it was far worse than         tion, as of every Protestant church
gether."                                      a huge blunder. It was gross sin:          in particular, has been vain, an  ex-

                                                                                                A p r i l   75,1999/StandardBearer/317


ercise in futility. All the develop-      would be that Rome has changed             gelical in ECT, openly admits that
ment of distinctive Protestant the-       its doctrine of justification since the    the statement on justification is de-
ology, all the work, all the struggle,    time and formulations of the Coun-         liberate compromise. In his con-
all the sacrifice, all the suffering,     cil of Trent.                              tribution to the book that defends
all the martyrdom has been for                I challenge ECT to "affirm to-         the original ECT document, Packer
nothing. Write "VANITY!" by all           gether" that the Roman Catholic            writes:
means in capital letters, at the be-      Church has changed her doctrine
ginning and  the.end of the  church-      of justification since Trent.                Neither evangelicals nor Roman
history book of Protestantism.                In fact, ECT's affirmation of the        Catholics can stipulate that things
    For, "we affirm together that         fundamental oneness of  present-             they believe, which the other side
we are justified by grace through         day evangelicals and Roman Cath-             does not believe, be made foun-
faith because of Christ."                 olics as regards justification is            dational to partnership at this
    It is now the solemn duty of                                                       point;  so  ECT  lets go Protestant pre-
                                          merely that: a description of the            cision on the doctrine  of  justification
all evangelical churches to confess       agreement of present-day  evangel-           . . .       ("Crosscurrents     among
to God and the pope the sin of their      icals and Rome. It does not de-              Evangelicals," in  Evangelicals  B
separation from Rome and to seek          scribe any agreement between the             Catholics Together: Toward a Com-
admission into the Roman Catho-           Roman Catholic doctrine of justifi-          mon Mission,  ed. Charles Colson
lic Church. They must do so at            cation and the Reformation's doc-            and Richard John Neuhaus, Word,
once. The sin of schism is griev-         trine of justification. ECT's affir-         1995, p. 167; emphasis added;
ous. It is damning. Evangelicals          mation is evangelical compromise             hereafter, TCM).
must not continue in it for a mo-         of the Reformation's doctrine of
ment. Let all evangelical churches        justification.                                        This is bad enough. Sacrific-
in all the world hold a special               What is missing from ECT's af-         ing "Protestant precision" on justi-
synod, or general assembly, or con-       firmation?                                 fication is the same as sacrificing
ference as soon as possible. Let              Only the word that makes all           Athanasian precision on the Trin-
them authorize a delegation of            the difference between the truth of        ity, or Chalcedonian precision on
leaders, including Billy Graham,          the Reformation and the false doc-         the person and natures of Christ,
Charles Colson, and James I.              trine of Rome!                             or Dordtian precision on total de-
Packer, to present their confession           Only the word that makes all           pravity. It is to let go the gospel,
and supplication to the Vicar of          the difference between the one,            Christ, and God.
Christ in Rome.                           only, true gospel of grace and the                    But Packer, leading represen-
    And then, we all troop back.          false gospel of salvation by man's         tative of the evangelicals, goes fur-
Back to a gospel of Christ and            will, works, and worth!                    ther. He denies the fundamental
Mary, of grace and free will, of            Only the word "only"!                    importance of the doctrine of justi-
faith and works. Back to uncer-               ECT's affirmation, grounding           fication by faith alone as the heart
tainty about final salvation. Back        the whole enterprise in the gospel,        of the gospel of grace. He con-
to certainty of hellish agonies at        says,  `I... we are justified by grace     fronts the criticism that points out
death in purgatory. Back to par-          through faith because of Christ."          that the doctrine of justification by
ticipation in the sacrificing of Jesus        The confession of the Reforma-         faith alone and the doctrine of jus-
Christ again every day. Back to           tion was, and is: "We are justified        tification by faith and works "ex-
the worship of a piece of bread.          by grace only through faith only be-       press two different gospels, one of
Back to the confessional and its sat-     cause of Christ  uy1Zy."  This posi-       which is not a true gospel." Packer
isfactions. Back to the authority of      tive confession necessarily in-            responds that "evangelicalism
church and tradition above that of        cluded, and includes, the negative,        seeks to lead people into salvation,
Holy Scripture. Back to an ungra-         "We reject as false doctrine the           and what brings them salvation is
cious god of salvation by works of        teaching that justification is by          not any theory about faith and jus-
the law.                                  grace and  merit  through faith and        tification, but trusting Jesus him-
    With our little ones.                 works  because of Christ  and the sin-     self as Lord, Master, and divine
    For, "we affirm together that         ner himself."                              Savior"  (TCM,  p. 168).
we are justified by grace through             ECT's affirmation is a compro-                    Of course, it is true that "what
faith because of Christ."                 mise, not by Rome but by the               brings . . . salvation is . . . trusting
    Only one factor would mitigate        evangelicals. As a compromise, it          Jesus himself as Lord, Master, and
somewhat these necessary implica-         approves the Roman Catholic her-           divine Savior," except that Packer
tions for Protestant churches of          esy. The effect is the repudiation         should say, "trusting Jesus himself
ECT's affirmation of evangelical          of the Reformation doctrine of jus-        only." Exactly this is the impor-
and Roman Catholic oneness in the         tification.                                tance, indeed the necessity, of, not
gospel-truth of justification. This           James I. Packer, leading evan-         a certain  "theory"  about faith and

31@?Standard  Bearer/April 15,1999


justification, but God's own  truth         and contend for the pure truth of              Colson wrote: "Many have been
about faith and justification.              justification by faith alone. As we            arrested, but I doubt that they've
     Proclamation of the  gospel-           desire men's salvation, we will un-            sat around in those bleak jail cells
truth that sinners are justified by         compromisingly condemn and                     debating the Council of Trent" (The
grace only through faith only be-           curse the false doctrine of justifi-           Body, Word, 1992, p. 107).
cause of Christ  only is the means          cation by faith and works.                         To which the response might
by which the Holy Spirit causes                 Packer is defending ECT by ad-             be, "Would these Protestants in
elect men and women to trust in             vocating doctrinal indifference (at            bleak jails debate with Jewish  anti-
Jesus Christ only and thus receive          which one who has read his intro-              abortionists the council of the
salvation.                                  duction to his and Johnston's trans-           Sanhedrin that condemned Jesus?"
     On the other hand, proclama-           lation of Luther's  The Bondage  of the            ECT is evangelical compromise
tion of the lie that sinners are jus-       Will  is astonished). This doctrinal           with the Roman heresy on justifi-
tified by grace  and merit  through         indifference characterizes the other           cation.
faith and  works  because of Christ         evangelicals  i n   E C T   a s   w e l l .        Thus ECT fatally compromises
and the sinner himself  causes sinners      Charles Colson expressed it in his             the Reformation and biblical gos-
to trust in Jesus  and man,  whether        book on the church, which was in-              pel of grace.
Mary, some saint, or oneself. All           fluential in creating ECT. Com-                    It is a commentary on our age
those who trust in someone or               menting on the fact that coopera-              that the question must yet be an-
something in addition to Jesus              tion in opposing abortion has got              swered, "Does it matter? Is it seri-
Christ will be eternally damned.            Roman Catholic priests and Prot-               ous? Is it intolerable?"
     As we desire men's salvation,          estant lay people jailed together,                                                     - DJE
we will uncompromisingly confess                                                                                    (to be concluded)





                                      The Prediluvian Period (5)
                                                      Chapter III
       A Significant Genealogy-Chronology

I                                           if you will, we are compelled to               consummation of the Flood along
     t is well at this point in our dis-    face the question of the revelatory            two  lines. The positive line of that
     cussion, after the history of Cain     significance of this data. Why, for            history is represented in the gen-
     and Abel, that we give our at-         example, does the Bible furnish us             erations of Adam-via-Seth, and for
tention to the genealogical and             with a partial record of the line of           this reason it is this genealogy and
chronological data of the  predi-           Cain, taking us exactly to the point           its chronology which is recorded in
luvian period furnished us by               of Lamech and his family? Why                  "the book of the generations of
Scripture. This is necessary if only        do the Scriptures trace the line of            Adam" in Genesis 5. But all the
for the reason that Scripture itself        Seth-Noah in full? Why, too, does              rest of the history of that era must
furnishes this data, so that we are         the Word of God furnish us with                also be understood only in the light
compelled to face the question of           all the data concerning the birth              of the history of that positive line;
its meaning and significance. Or,           and death of the generations of                in  fact,~in  the deepest sense the rest
                                            Adam-via-Seth?                                 of the history  is  the history of that
                                                Part of the answer to these                line, belongs to it, is of significance
                                            questions lies, certainly, in the fact         only in relation to it. The data
The late Homer Hoeksema was professor       that from the point of the conflict            which Scripture furnishes, both ge-
of Dogmatics and Old Testament in the       of Cain and Abel forward, there is             nealogical and chronological, as
Protestant Reformed Seminary.               a history which moves toward the               well as all the other factual data in

                                                                                                      April  15,1999/Standard   Bearer/3  19


Genesis  4:16 to Genesis 6, must              In-the second place, there is the         With respect to all of this data
serve to place that history in its        detailed data of Genesis 5 and Gen-       we maintain that it must be ac-
proper light and proper perspec-          esis  7~6. Concerning this data we        cepted literally, so that the Scrip-
tive. (It is interesting in this con-     may note the following:                   tures do indeed present us with a
nection to study the relation be-             1. It consistently follows the        genealogy which is at the same
tween the "toledoth" of Genesis  2:4      formula, "N. lived x number of            time a chronology. We may men-
and of Genesis  5:1, and to note the      years and begat N.; and N. lived          tion in passing that the Samaritan
apparent overlapping between              after he begat N. y number of             Text presents a chronology which
them.)                                    years, and begat sons and daugh-          is much shorter, totaling only 1,307
                                          ters. And all the days of N. were z       years, and the Septuagint presents
The Data                                  number of years; and he died."            one which is much longer, totaling
    The data which Scripture fur-         This means, therefore, that in this       2,242 years. We hold with the He-
nishes is found, first of all, in Gen-    genealogy we have an unbroken             brew Text, however, for two rea-
esis  4:17-22. In this passage the        chain from Adam to Noah, a chain          sons:
line of Adam-via-Cain is traced to        which is accompanied by an exact              1. There is no textual evi-
the eighth generation:                    chronology which totals 1,656             dence against the Hebrew Text.
    l.Adam                                years.                                        2. The deviations presented
    2. Cain                                   2. The son mentioned in each          by the other texts can be readily
    3. Enoch                              instance is not necessarily the first-    explained as attempts to emend the
    4. Irad                               born. We know that Seth was not           record as presented in the Hebrew
    5. Mehujael                           the firstborn of Adam. Cain and           Text, i.e., either as deliberate at-
    6.Methusael                           Abel both preceded him; and obvi-         tempts to shorten the lifespan of
    7. Lamech                             ously others preceded him (among          some or as deliberate attempts to
    8.  Jabal, Jubal, Tubal-Cain;         whom was Cain's wife). But  one           lengthen the lifespan and the total
          Naamah.                         son is mentioned, the significant         number of years.
    Concerning these generations          son, the son in whom the line is              There have been various objec-
we may note:                              continued all the way to Noah. It         tions raised against the literal ac-
         1. That no chronology accom-     is by this son that the chronology        ceptance of this genealogy-chronol-
panies this brief genealogy, as in        is dated in each case.                    ogy.        We may consider them
the case of Adam-via-Seth. It is              3. In order to have the full          briefly.
perfectly reasonable, however, to         picture, we must bear in mind that            1. The objection is brought
assume that these generations gen-        in the case of each generation it is      that the great longevity pictured in
erally parallel the generations of        specifically mentioned that after         the passage is altogether unrealis-
Seth.                                     the named son was born, there             tic and impossible. Our reply is
    2. That the genealogy of Cain         were sons and daughters born.             that this is a rationalistic objection,
is not carried beyond the eighth          How many we are not told. But             not based on Scripture itself.
generation. This is not only to be        the fact is significant. We certainly         2. It has been objected that
connected with the fact that, for the     do not get the picture, either with       Scripture itself more than once pre-
purposes of Old Testament history,        respect to the line of Seth or with       sents a genealogy in which some
it was the eighth generation which        respect to that of Cain, that the         generations are skipped, so that, for
was especially significant; but it        population of the earth was lim-          example, the line may run via a
also points us to the fact that the       ited to those who are named and           grandson instead of a son. To this
line of Cain has no continuation; it      their offspring. The contrary is          we reply:
perishes.  If we look at the fact that    true.                                                 a. When this is the case,
it is parallel to that of Methuselah          4. Finally, we may mention            there is scriptural evidence of it.
in the generations of Seth  - and         the fact that in this data we get the     If this is to be maintained with re-
Methuselah lived up to the year of        picture not only of a chronological       spect to Genesis 5, the evidence
the Flood  - then it is not at all        genealogy, but also of one in which       will have to be produced from
impossible that this eighth genera-       the generations were characterized        Scripture.
tion would have been the (first)          by tremendous longevity. The one                      b. Besides, in this case
generation of Cain's line which ac-       exception to this longevity in the        Scripture itself presents a geneal-
tually did perish in the Flood.           line of Seth is, of course, Enoch,        ogy which is accompanied by chro-
Moreover, it is not at all impossible     who was translated at the age of          nological data. How, in this light,
that this is the generation of the        365 years. Again, we may legiti-          are generations to be interpolated?
time "when men began to multi-            mately assume that the same lon-              3. It has been objected that
ply on the face of the earth" (Gen.       gevity generally characterized the        the Scriptures are not interested in
6:l).                                     generations of Cain.                      chronology and that therefore it is

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not legitimate, but biblicistic, to       Significance                               to the eighth generation only, and
discover a chronology in this and             A study of the data of this ge-        there it is dropped. It has no con-
similar passages. To this we re-          nealogy-chronology brings out              tinuity, but perishes in the Flood.
ply, in the first place, that we fully    sharply the several characteristics        In fact, it is not at all impossible,
grant this argument if by it is           of the prediluvian period which we         in view of the chronology of the
meant that the Scriptures are not         mentioned in our introduction to           period, that that very eighth gen-
interested in the mere passage of         this period. There we mentioned            eration was one which perished in
time as such, as a succession of          especially the following in this con-      the Deluge. But Seth's line pro-
days and months and years, or is          nection:                                   ceeds to Noah and his sons  - to
not interested in mere dating. Nor            1. The sharp division into two         Noah, the righteous, who finds
are the Scriptures interested in          distinct lines, viz., that of the seed     grace in the eyes of the Lord, who
merely satisfying our curiosity as        of the woman and that of the seed          also walks with God, and who be-
to the length of human history or         of the serpent.                            comes heir of the world.
the antiquity of the world. But no            2. The fact that already in this           But there are several details
historian, sacred or profane, is in-      period the Lord very plainly estab-        and historical factors brought out
terested in this naked question.          lishes His covenant organically in         by a careful study of this geneal-
    In the second place, we must          the line of continued generations.         ogy-chronology (and its counter-
remember that there are deeper is-            3. The fact that this period is        part in the genealogy of Cain)
sues involved here, issues which          characterized by rapid develop-            which shed light on the character-
concern one's view of history as          ment and speedy degeneration and           istics mentioned above. When we
well as one's view of science in re-      decline along the line of the descen-      take note of these factors, the his-
lation to the Scriptures and one's        dants of Cain. (It should be noted         tory of this period assumes a
view of the entire creation  versus       in this connection that the view of        greater degree of reality, becomes
the evolution question.                   history which posits a restraint of        more realistic and concrete, as well
    In the third place, one is con-       sin in this period by a "common            as more readily understandable, so
fronted by the simple fact that the       grace" and which even cites the            that its spiritual characteristics
Scriptures present this data. It is       words of Genesis  6:3  as  scriptural      come to stand in sharp relief.
right there. Moreover, similar data       proof is totally unrealistic and con-          In the first place, a study of the
is presented in the Scriptures with       trary to fact. There never was a           chronology will make clear the fact
respect to other periods of history.      period which gave less historical          that in this period, when there was
We may ask: what is the student           evidence of such a restraint. This         as yet no written record of God's
of Holy Scripture going to do with        period is frequently mentioned in          revelation, there was a very strong
such data  - ignore it, in order to       the New Testament as an example            and trustworthy line of  oral tradi-
accept alleged data from other            to the contrary.)                          tion.  True, there is abundant evi-
sources, or accept it at face value?          To these we may add the fact           dence that God made known His
    In the fourth place, as we will       that it is very plain by way of com-       Word to His people directly dur-
point out later, this chronology is       parison that the line of the human         ing this period; and there were men
not a mere recounting of the pas-         race, positively speaking, i.e., of re-    like  Enoch,  a prophet, and Noah, a
sage of a certain amount of time,         deemed, elect humanity - the new           preacher of righteousness, through
but is of very great significance.        humanity in Christ  - is continued         whom God spoke His Word. But
    4.Finally,  it is objected that       in the generations of Seth. In "the        there was no written Word by
there is evidence from science            book of the generations of Adam"           means of which God's revelation
which contradicts the scriptural          there follows in Genesis 5 an ac-          might be transmitted from genera-
data, both as to the time of the ori-     count of the line of Seth only.  There     tion to generation. But the histori-
gin of the universe and as to the         is a beautiful and comforting truth        cal situation was such that an oral
antiquity of the human race. We           implied here, namely, that that line       tradition sufficiently strong to take
shall not enter into all this alleged     of Seth constitutes  the  race. Not in     the place of the written Word of
evidence in detail. Our position is       the mighty and rich and famous             God was possible.
that the testimony of the Scriptures      line of Cain-Lamech is that race               Consider the fact that for all the
must stand as the only authorita-         represented, but in the line of Seth.      generations up to and including
tive testimony, that so-called out-       The line of Cain and the ungodly,          Lamech, the father of Noah, a di-
side evidence can neither contra-         great as they may seem to be in            rect, firsthand tradition from Adam
dict it nor even "interpret" it, but      this world, are the branches which         was possible. For Lamech, who
that rather the outside evidence          are cut off from the tree of the hu-       was born in the year 874 after cre-
must be tested and interpreted by         man race. Also in the respective           ation, was a contemporary of
the Scriptures.                           genealogies this is evident. Cain's        Adam for some 56 years before
                                          genealogy, in Genesis 4, is carried        Adam died.

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    This means that Noah, the heir      poraries of all the generations of        indeed becomes an astounding fact
of the new world, could receive the     the Sethites from Enoch to the time       when we consider the longevity of
tradition of the history of Paradise    of the Flood.                             the patriarchs before the Flood and
and the fall and the protevangel            In the third place, a study of        the large numbers of the popula-
secondhand, i.e., with only one link    the data presented by Scripture           tion in the line of Seth as well as
between him and Adam. Com-              will reveal that there must have          the line of Cain. As we have indi-
paratively, this would mean that in     been a tremendous "population ex-         cated, there must have been a mul-
the new dispensation the tradition      plosion" during this period, both         titude of men in both lines. In fact,
of Christ would have reached into       in the line of Cain and in the line       under normal circumstances there
Reformation times secondhand;           of Seth. In this connection, there        must have been a veritable multi-
and, considering that Noah lived        is the factor of the longevity of         tude of the children of Seth living
to the age of 950 years, it would       mankind during this period  -             when the Flood came and de-
mean that the tradition of Christ       something that is almost inconceiv-       stroyed the first world. Seth was
could reach us in the twentieth cen-    able in its ramifications and impor-      born in the year 130 after creation.
tury only thirdhand!                    tance to us, who live but 70 or 80        When he was one hundred five
    If, in addition to this, we as-     years. Consider the fact that it was      years old, Enos was born to him.
sume, as we certainly may, that         the usual thing for men to live           And after the birth of Enos, Seth
there must have been a very  close-     more than 900 years! Then, too,           lived another eight hundred seven
knit community of the people of         there is the factor that the repro-       years, during which time sons and
God in those times, then we can         ductive capacity of mankind must          daughters were born unto him. At
readily understand that this oral       have been extremely great. In each        the age of nine hundred twelve, or
tradition was very strong and that      case, in Genesis 5, after the birth       in the year 1,042, he died. It is easy
it was quite capable of taking the      of the named son is recorded, it is       to see that under normal circum-
place of a written record.              mentioned that N. "begat sons and         stances there must have been chil-
    Considering also that not only      daughters." How many sons and             dren Seth who were still living at
Noah, but also Shem was a link be-      daughters we are not told. But it         the time of the Flood and who per-
tween the prediluvian and the           does not require a great imagina-         ished in the Flood. The same ap-
postdiluvian world, this same oral      tion, when this fact is combined          plies to the patriarchs after Seth.
tradition assumes great importance      with the fact of the race's longev-           When you consider that all
with respect to the period between      ity, to conceive of a tremendously        these men begat sons and daugh-
the Flood and the patriarchs, and,      fast-growing population, so that by       ters, who in turn had their children
in fact, between the Flood and          the time of the Flood there could         and children's children (and then
Moses.                                  easily have been a population of          remember that a 900-year life span
    Similarly, we may note that         millions.                                 was ordinary during that age), then
there was but one link between              If each human pair, beginning         it is not difficult to see that there
Enoch, who was a prophet, and           with Adam and Eve, produced               must have been many thousands,
Noah, in whose time Enoch's             only 3 couples, the seventh genera-       and even possibly millions, of the
prophecy was fulfilled.                 tion alone would number more              children of Seth still living at the
    In the second place, a study of     than 2,100, and the population            time of the Flood, some of them
the comparative chronology of the       more than 3,500; the eighth would         even of the second and third gen-
Sethites and the Cainites reveals       number  6,500+, and the population        erations. Yet there were but eight
some interesting and significant        lO,OOO+;  but the ninth would             souls saved in the ark. Is this not
parallels. It reveals that Lamech       mount to  18,000%,  with a popula-        an astounding picture? And does
and his wicked family must have         tion of  28,000+; while the tenth         this not also lend new emphasis to
been contemporaries, for example,       would jump to  55,000+,  with a           the fact that the days of Noah were
of Enoch. This surely helps to ex-      population of  84,000+. And these         typical of the days preceding the
plain the fact that Enoch must have     are extremely conservative projec-        return of the Son of Man? In that
lived in a time of rapidly increas-     tions. (For some interesting notes        first world there were only a few
ing wickedness, as is plain from his    on this subject, see the appendix at      who were righteous when the Lord
prophecy in Jude, 14 and 15. It         the conclusion of this chapter.)          came for judgment in the Flood; at
would also serve to explain that             Now all this is of great signifi-    the coming of the Son of Man we
Enoch was translated in a time of       cance and sheds light on several          must expect a similar situation.
increasing conflict and persecution,    aspects of the course of history dur-         In the second place, it is these
as is suggested by the Scriptures.      ing this period.                          very natural factors of longevity
This fact also implies that the             First of all, it sets in sharp re-    and rapid increase of population
Lamech-family and its contempo-         lief the fact that few, that is, eight    which contributed to and made
raries and offspring were  contem-      souls were saved in the ark. This         possible the creation of that  spiri-

3ZZfitandard Bearer/April  75,7999


tual development and that ultimate       hand with the organic development         literal sense of the word. This, in
situation in which the Flood's judg-     of the race. In the first world the       turn, would bring about a situation
ment was wrought and in which a          factors were present to produce a         when the amalgamation of the line
very small remnant was saved.            very rapid organic development of         of Seth and the line of Cain would
    The reduction of the remnant         the race, and, therefore, of sin. The     become both possible and attrac-
of the faithful people of God to a       tremendous longevity of the vari-         tive. And it would also bring about
very small number, the apostasy in       ous generations resulted in each          a situation in which it would rap-
the generations of Seth, the amal-       generation's having an opportunity        idly become true that the earth was
gamation of the line of Seth with        of centuries to develop. Add to           literally filled with iniquity and
that of the Cainites in large num-       this the large degree of overlapping      violence. If you add up all these
bers, the rapid growth of wicked-        of generations, which made it pos-        factors, it is not at all difficult to
ness to the point that the measure       sible for various generations to co-      imagine that the situation was cre-
of iniquity was filled and that          operate in development and for            ated in which there was increas-
world could not go on any longer,        the various generations to profit         ingly sharp conflict between the
the "filling" of the earth with vio-     from one another and to reap the          faithful children of God and the
lence  - all of these do not merely      fruits of one another's develop-          ungodly, and in which the faithful
"happen," nor do they or can they        ment. Then you have the ideal             were increasingly persecuted and
come about in a situation where          situation for a rapid development         deprived of a place in the earth.
there is a relatively small popula-      in natural life, and, along with it,          Taking all these factors into
tion and a relatively small degree       the rapid development and bring-          consideration, therefore, we can
of natural development of the race.      ing to manifestation of the fruits        come to a better understanding of
No, there are certain natural fac-       of iniquity.                              that ultimate situation at the time
tors which must be present to cre-           If you add to all this the fact       of the Flood, when the measure of
ate such a situation. These very         that it was Cain's race rather than       iniquity was filled and when a rem-
natural factors were indeed present      the generations of Seth who were          nant of only eight souls was saved
in such a combination that this situ-    endowed with those gifts and tal-         through water.
ation could came about in the short      ents, that genial power of inven-
span of 1,656 years.                     tion and production by which man                        Appendix
    For one thing, the natural fac-      subdues the earth, makes the pow-             The following is quoted from
tors were present to bring about         ers and resources of creation his         The Genesis Flood, by John C.
precisely such a tremendous              servants, and wrests from nature          Whitcomb, Jr. and Henry M. Morris
growth of population and such a          the means to enlarge and enrich           (Philadelphia: Presbyterian and
fast development of culture and          human life from a natural point of        Reformed,  1967), pp. 25ff.
civilization and such a manifold         view, the picture becomes com-
development and variety in the hu-       plete. Bear in mind that this is the          The record in Genesis 5 clearly
man race itself as were necessary        picture which the Scriptures              implies that men had large fami-
to bring about a rapid and full de-      present. It is Cain's genius which        lies in those days. Although in
velopment of sin. Such a develop-        conceives of building the first city,     most cases only one son is named
ment of sin is impossible until there    and which calls it after the name         in each family (apparently for the
is a certain degree of natural de-       of his son,  Enoch., It is in the line    purpose of tracing the line of de-
velopment. Even numerically, it          of Cain that you  finds the giants of     scent from Adam to Noah), it is
requires more than a few men to          that era's civilization  - men like       also said that each "begat sons and
bring to expression all the "poten-      the three sons of Lamech. In the          daughters," so that each family
tial" of sin. It requires, too, a de-    line of Cain, in other words, an un-      must have had at  least  four chil-
velopment of so-called culture and       usual degree of natural power of          dren, and probably many more.
a development of and refinement          mind and body displayed itself and        Furthermore, the age of the fathers
of civilization and its products in      rapidly developed.                        at the birth of each of the  named
order to bring about the situation           These same natural factors            sons ranged from 65 years (in the
and the means for the full devel-        would bring about the situation de-       case of Mahalaleel and Enoch) to
opment of sin.                           scribed in the beginning of Genesis       500 years (in Noah's case). Conse-
    The sin of Adam is a root sin.       6. They would explain the fact that       quently the Bible implies that: (1)
That root sin does not bear its full     "men began to multiply in the             men typically lived for hundreds
and manifold fruit immediately, for      earth."    It is easy to see, for ex-     of years, (2) their procreative pow-
the simple reason that the natural       ample, that it was at the time of         ers persisted over hundreds of
factors to make this possible are not    the generations of the sons of            years also, and (3) through the
present immediately. The organic         Lamech that the situation was ripe        combined effects of long lives and
development of sin goes hand in          for a "population explosion" in the       large families, mankind was  rap-

                                                                                          April  15,1999/Standard   Bearer/323


idly "filling the earth"  (Gen.  1128;      average figure of ninety years per           this time, only one previous gen-
6~1,  11).                                  generation, which seems far higher           eration was still living, the total
     All things considered, it is cer-      than was probably actually the               population of the earth would have
tainly very conservative to estimate        case, one can calculate that there           been over 1,030 million! And we
that each family had, say, six chil-        were some eighteen generations in            believe that anyone would agree
dren, and that each new generation          the 1,656 years from Adam to the             that these calculations are ex-
required ninety years on the aver-          Flood.                                       tremely conservative, assuming
age. That is, assume the first fam-             The total number of people in            only that the biblical statements are
ily (Adam and Eve) had six chil-            the nth generation can be calcu-             true.
dren; the three families that could         lated on this basis as equal to 2(3P.
be established from these had six           Thus, at the end of the first gen-               Note: The above is quoted only
children each; and the nine fami-           eration  (ti equals one), the number         to show the possibilities. In a situ-
lies resulting from these each had          in the family was  2(3), or 6. At the        ation as described above, the au-
six children, and  so. on. Actually,        end of two generations, it was 2 x           thors note further, the rate of popu-
each probably had far more than             3 x 3, or 18. Finally, at the end of         lation growth is 1.5% annually,
six children, but this figure will al-      17 generations, the number was 258           while today a rate of 2% or even
low for those who did not marry,            million and, at the end of 18 gen-           3% is not unusual in so-called un-
who died prematurely, etc. At an            erations, it was 774 million! If, at         derdeveloped countries.  Cl





       A Friendship That Ended with Anger
                                      and Disappointment

                                              write something about my series                Let me speak for myself in an-
                                              of articles concerning the Brief Dec-        swer to this. From certain sides,
     Make no friendship with an an-           laration.  All right.                        they  try to create the impression
gry man; and with a furious man thou            If he had dealt extensively with           that the undersigned is a kind of
shalt not go.                                 them, or had announced that he               prelate in the church who just
                         Proverbs  22~24      would, we would probably have                sticks to his own point, who gets
                                                                                           angry when contradicted, and
S                                             continued and given an overview
       childer  was clearly angry. He         of his answer with a response                only wants to have things his own
                                                                                           way. Such nonsense makes me
       had received Hoeksema's first          from our side.
                                                But what appears now?                      angry. I prefer to say clearly that
       response to the extended se-             This is what happened: col-                I think it is a venomous attack
ries of articles he had been writing          league Hoeksema says, "several               when they say: "K.S. gets angry
about our  Declaration  of  Principles,       points of Schilder's  articies  are not      when they don't share his opin-
and he didn't like it. He said:               to the point," which means that              ion, and he does not want to hear
                                              they do not touch the point in ques-         people say that it is not binding."
     The fact that I now provision-           tion.
   ally stop finds its reason in an ar-         I am not at  all angry about             Here was a side of Klaas Schilder
   ticle from the  Standard Bearer  of        this.... But in this case I feel like      we had not seen before. He could
   February 15, 1951, which I re-             saying, "All right, if that is what        be very short with those who did
   ceived by airmail. In this article         you think, I had better stop."             not agree with him. This came out
   colleague Hoeksema begins to                                                          more as this last, or what he called
                                            He denied  it; but clearly it was so.        his "Provisional Closing Remarks,"
                                            He was angry, and we discover                brought his exchange if not his
                                            that it apparently was not that              friendship with Herman Hoeksema
Rev. Woudenberg is a minister emeritus      much out of character for him, as            to an end.
in the Protestant Reformed Churches.        he  went on to point out:

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        In a way this has to be surpris-          appeared. Still, it was something;              did I get on that ship? Was I put
ing.                                              and what Schilder wrote in De                   there with a beautiful, philosophi-
        For months Schilder had been              Reformatie  was followed with a                 cal,  dogmatic, orthodox statement
writing; and, as renowned as he                   great deal of interest by all who               that salvation is only for the elect,
was for his scholarship, what he                  could read the Dutch language,                  because: a) . . . . b) . . . . c) . . . . d) . . .,
                                                                                                  and so on?  Or  am I placed on
wrote did not demonstrate that.                   and especially so, one can imag-                this ship with a promise, an admo-
First written, it would appear, as a              ine, by Rev. Hoeksema himself. It               nition, a threat, a stipulation here,
series of articles in  De Reformntie              was his intention to wait until the             and a  stipulation  there? How do I
(The  Reform  tion),  the theological             series was finished, and the think-             sail?
weekly paper of which he had been                 ing of Dr. Schilder was clearly laid
editor for years, his articles repre-             out, before he gave answer. But               To Schilder, no doubt, this may
sented themselves as a critique of                Schilder's articles were often brief          well have made good sense; but for
the Protestant Reformed  Brief Dec-               - one consisting of no more than              those reading his writing, it was
laration of Principles  drawn up at               two brief sentences  - written as             certainly difficult to comprehend.
our synod the preceding spring,                   though off-the-cuff with whatever             And it came from one who accused
seemingly with the purpose of pre-                fleeting thoughts happened to                 others of obscure writing.
venting the final adoption of the                 strike Schilder's mind. Still, there               That was only the start. As
Declaration  the following year.                  was always that sense of anticipa-            Schilder went on, he spent consid-
They had this value, that they con-               tion that in the end something of             erable effort eliciting quotations
stituted Schilder's first effort to ad-           substance would come.                         from famous supralapsarian theo-
dress the differences which had al-                   If there was a first, primary ap-         logians of the past who made use
ways been there between  Hoek-                    proach Schilder took, it was in criti-        of the word "condition" in what
sema and himself, the Protestant                  cism of the  Dedaration's composi-            they wrote, anticipating  appirently
Reformed and the Liberated                        tion. It was so poorly written, he            that Hoeksema, being a  supra-
churches.                                         claimed, as to be unworthy of offi-           lapsarian himself, would be im-
        In 1939, during Schilder's first          cial adoption  - while, ironically,           pressed and drop his objections to
visit to America, Hoeksema had                    his own criticisms were often so              the use of that term in the present
developed a deep affection for                    obscure that even today one can               controversy with them.
Schilder. Here at last was a com-                 hardly follow what he was trying                   Meanwhile, through the whole
petent theologian willing to take                 to say, as, for example, when he              of his series there ran a persistent,
him seriously, and to work with                   wrote:                                        misconstrued presumption as to
him in developing theological                                                                   what the  Declaration  of  Principles
thought as friends. But the Sec-                      To receive a dogmatic statement           was all about. In actuality it had
ond World War came and stopped                      is not sufficient  for me. I don't          been set forth as a simple and wel-
that, forcing him to wait until it                  want a statement but an address.            come opportunity to answer the
was ended. At that point  Hoek-                     Therefore the big question is:  whaf        questions of those immigrants who
sema sought to take up where they                   do we receive at our bapfistn?              were thinking of joining our
left off, and with that in mind in-                   There we are. How can we sail
                                                    the Pacific (I quote Twissus, some-         churches as to whether we had a
vited Schilder again to the States  -               what mischievously)? No, of                 specific view of the covenant which
at which time his own sudden ill-                   course, you don't read that in              could be expected to be heard from
ness intervened and prevented any                   Twissus. He tells the Arminians             our pulpits, and under which our
meaningful discussion between the                   (in Corv. 257a) that they with their        members are expected to live in ac-
two of them from taking place. At                   doctrine  of a foreseen faith as            cord with Article 31 of the Church
his departure, however, and in                      ground for election, can as easily          Order; and it consisted in the end
large part at the insistence of Rev.                philosophize as they can organize           of nothing more than a pointing
Ophoff, Schilder promised to ad-                    a  sailing trip on a calm sea, a mare       out of the confessional principles
dress the matter of our differences                 pacificum.     A pacific sea is of
                                                    course not the Pacific Ocean. Still,        which are to be recognized and ob-
when he got home. But that did                      we have to cross all the oceans of          served. Schilder, however, persists
not happen until, at the late date                  time . . . till later; until the horizon    throughout his articles in consid-
of 1950, the  Declaration  of  Principles           is reached and we arrive at that            ering it as a new creed, and a test
appeared on the scene.                              gate on which God has written:              of those who might join our
        This  Declaration of  PrincipZes,   of     salus  (which Twissus called the             churches.
course, was the occasion; and by                    terminus;  salus  means eternal sal-             But more serious than all this
that time relationships had become                  vation at the end of the track).            was Schilder's persistent avoidance
severely strained, to the point                    Whatever our course of life is, the          of grappling forthrightly with the
where the possibility of a calm and                 Pacific or the Atlantic Ocean, the
                                                    all decisive question remains how           doctrinal problems that divided us.
friendly discussion had all but dis-                                                            Only superficially were they

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touched on, and often condescend-            were meant to be preliminary, but           and practical, as he went on to say:
ingly, as though there is something          clearly a sense of satisfaction on
wrong about taking doctrinal con-            Hoeksema's part. At last, and even              The point in question is only
siderations seriously. Yet it was            though belatedly, there was the be-           this: may you dare to  break  a
something, and it seemingly raised           ginning of a discussion which he              church apart  for a dogmatic for-
                                                                                           mula of Schilder which Hoeksema
for Hoeksema the hope that seri-             had sought after for so many years,           can attack, or one of Hoeksema
ous discussion of our differences            as he said:                                   which Schilder can attack, while
might still come to pass.                                                                  indeed both in good conscience
    So finally, in February of 1951,             0, how sorry I am, that all these         subscribe to the Three Forms of
Hoeksema decided he could wait                 things were not discussed between           Unity....
no longer. Schilder's thoughts                 us as deputies for correspondence,            For me the point was this . . . take
were developing so slowly, and he              rather  than to confer, behind our          now, just once, as an example, one
                                               back, with the Revs.  DeJong  and
had gone on so long, that readers                                                          of the deputies for contact with
                                               Kok, who were not authorized,
were beginning to ask if any re-                                                           Churches abroad, who has objec-
                                               neither, judging from the letter of         tions against making the Brief Dec-
sponse to them was going to be                 Prof. Holwerda, capable to speak            laration  binding and has made it
given, while some were even sug-               for our churches! The Lord will-            very clear that he could not possi-
gesting that, if Hoeksema would                ing, we are coming next summer,             bly be convinced to promise not
not, they would try to respond to              if the world situation permits. We          to teach or to propagate anything
what Schilder was writing them-                have reservations on the boat for           which does not totally agree with
selves. At that point Hoeksema de-             the twenty-fourth of June and plan          the  Brief Declaration.  He would
cided to break with his intent to              to remain in the Netherlands till           also refuse to promise this if he
                                               the beginning of September, that
wait, and lay out at least some                                                            would perhaps move to America.
                                               is, if they still want to see us, and
starting approach to the most sig-                                                         This is the fine point: would he  -
                                               if they still desire correspondence         seeing this refusal - be accepted
nificant things that Schilder had              in spite of our doctrinal differences.      as a member of a Protestant Re-
brought up.                                    Otherwise, they better let us               formed Church.... Could he be-
    Bypassing Schilder's repeated              know, and we will cancel our                come member, yes or no? . . . Only
disparagements, Hoeksema simply                reservations.                               take the  bare fact  that one of us
and graciously remarked, "Much of                                                          would not subscribe to the  Brief
what Dr. Schilder wrote is not to            Hoeksema had always believed                  Declaration  (arguments don't
the point, and we, therefore, can            that matters of faith and conviction          count) or in any case would refuse
safely eliminate it from our discus-         are best dealt with openly and with           to promise not to work against the
sion" - taking note of the fact that         mutual concern between Chris-                 Brief Declaration. Can they become
                                                                                           members in full right, yes or no?
this included his remarks about              tians, and not avoided and covered            That and that only is the point.
supralapsarianism, Heyns, and                up as had been done with him in                  If you say, "No" . . . all right,
Schilder's quotations from the past          1924, and with Schilder in 1944.              then we are finished.
- after which he went on to focus                When, however, these remarks
on those few points with which our           came to Schilder's attention, hav-          This was Schilder's concern. He
differences were actually con-               ing been sent to him by special air-        was interested in getting his own
cerned.       First, he pointed to           mail, the result was to arouse              people into the Protestant Re-
Schilder's criticism of the  Declarn-        Schilder's notorious sense of anger.        formed Churches who would be
tion  for stating, "election . . . is the    Evidently quite oblivious to how            free to challenge the teachings of
sole  muse and fountain  of all our sal-     condescending his own attitude to-          Hoeksema and introduce their Lib-
vation." It had been Schilder's con-         ward Hoeksema and the Protestant            erated views in their stead. Al-
tention that election is actually the        Reformed Churches had been, he              though supposedly he had ac-
ground  of our salvation and not its         was infuriated when Hoeksema                 cepted his ejection from the Re-
cuuse   or  fountain.  But Hoeksema          told him that some of the things he         formed Churches in the Nether-
pointed out that what the  Declara-          had written were not going to be             lands because of doctrinal prin-
 tion  said was taken directly from          taken seriously, as we noted above.          ciple, when it came to his relation-
 the Canons of Dordt, holding                     Still, when it came down to it,         ship to us, that was not his con-
 creedal  authority in all Reformed           it would appear that there was              cern. And least of all was he inter-
 churches.      And then he turned            more here than just a personal af-          ested in understanding and evalu-
 briefly to Schilder's treatment of           front. Schilder was not happy with          ating the teachings of Hoeksema on
 the term "condition," pointing out           the direction in which Hoeksema             these points to see if they were cor-
 that he had failed to give one of its        was going  - that is, toward a doc-         rect. His interest was in finding a
 definitions, and precisely that one          trinal exchange of thought. He              base in America upon which his
 which our differences were about.            wasn't interested in that; for his          churches could be established, and
     His remarks were brief, and              concern was far more immediate

 326/Standard  Bearer/April 15,1999


from which his views could be                that he had known this all along,            which it was to be determined
propagated. And, if that was not             and accordingly allowed that this            what is truly Reformed; and for
to be allowed, his interest in us was        expression might be used in this             that reason the  Declaration of  Prin-
finished.                                    way, while in fact he had_ been very         cipIes  had been written so carefully
        There was one thing more.            insistent that a statement such as           in terms of what the confessions
Hardly had Hoeksema sent off his             that was not "theoretically precise,         said. But now Schilder was ready
response to Schilder than he re-             accurate, scholarly terminology."            to declare that not what was writ-
ceived an issue of  De Reformatie,           He had in effect denied the accu-            ten, but what he thought, was what
written actually some time before            racy of what the Canons said. But            the confessions actually meant.
(the boats carrying mail traveled            then he went even further than               And with that Hoeksema knew,
slowly in those days), with an ar-           that, claiming that although "it says        well before Schilder's angry reac-
ticle on the very thing he had just          fountain  or spring  Cfons),  if you want    tion to his article was written, that
written about, that the  Declaration's       a more precise distinction, it means         their relationship was for all prac-
expression, "election is the cause           something different than  cnmse." If         tical purposes done. As he rue-
and fountain of our salvation," was          there had been one thing that had            fully concluded, "Instead of admit-
actually taken directly from the             always drawn Hoeksema and                    ting that he erred, and that he
Canons of Dordt. If there was ever           Schilder together, it had been their         never thought of the confessions,
a situation which called for an ac-          mutual respect for the confessions           he makes things worse by depriv-
knowledgment of error  and-an                in a day when so many dealt with             ing the terms of the confession of
apology, it was this; but not for            them only lightly and were even              all objective meaning. A danger-
Schilder. Instead he boldly claimed          casting them aside. These they had           ous business."  Cl
                                             agreed were the standards by





                                 The History of the Diaconate (2)
                                   Its Deformation

I                                            that the deacon was viewed as in-            be equal to presbyters (also known
        n previous articles we set forth     ferior to both elder and pastor  -           at first as bishops; we would call
     two main principles governing           or, as it came to be, to both priest         them elders). The office of deacon
     our view of the diaconate. First,       and bishop.       Furthermore, the           and of presbyter, from the time of
we argued that a scriptural view             church assigned to the deacons               their institution by the apostles un-
of the office of deacon places it on         many responsibilities entirely un-           til the end of the first century, were
a par with the offices of pastor and         related to the care of the poor,             considered to be the two funda-
elder. Second, by examining the              while giving this important work             mental offices in the congregation.
institution of the diaconate, we saw         to others. A third way in which              Early in the second century the
that the fundamental work of the             the church deformed the diaconate            church fathers, beginning with
deacon is to care for the poor of            was by modifying the qualifica-              Ignatius, began distinguishing
the church.                                  tions for the office which Scripture         more clearly between the offices.
        Although the church abided by        gives in I Timothy 3.                        The office of bishop and of presby-
these principles for a time, she                 The office of deacon, by the             ter were now viewed as two dis-
gradually abandoned both. By the             time of the Great Reformation,               tinct offices, with that of bishop
Middle Ages, the church's govern-            stood in need of its own reforma-            corresponding somewhat to that of
ment had become hierarchical, so             tion.                                        pastor in our churches. Each
                                                 Let us examine these three ar-           church had one bishop who ruled
                                             eas of deformation in more detail.           the church in connection with the
                                                              *****
Rev.  Kuiper is pastor  of the Protestant                                                 presbyters (elders). Some scholars
Reformed Church of Byron Center, Micki-          Until the fourth century, dea-           believe that Ignatius planted the
gan.                                         cons were generally considered to            seeds of decline in the office of dea-

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con, by teaching that the bishops                      andria, Constantinople, Antioch,         fices came a change in the duties
represented Christ, the elders rep-                    and Jerusalem) were considered           ascribed to the office of deacon.
resented the apostles, and the dea-                    patriarchs, and the patriarch of                  For several hundred years af-
cons were the servants of the bish-                    Rome was on his way to becoming          ter its institution, the diaconate
ops.' However, in other letters                        the most important of the patri-         continued to care for the poor.
Ignatius spoke of the deacons as                       archs.                                   That this was still considered to be
representing Christ, indicating that                       Accompanying this change in          their duty in the second century is
he did not intend to view the of-                      structure was a redefining of the        evident from writings of the church
fice of deacon as inferior to the oth-                 roles and duties of the various          fathers, who repeatedly called the
ers-2                                                  officebearers. With the growth of        deacons to be responsible stewards
     Two interesting developments                      the church, the bishop could not         of the money they collected.
took place in the third century.                       possibly continue to be the pastor       DeJong speaks of the work of the
First, the church added many other                     of all the people in his city, so he     diaconate in the early third cen-
offices to the three spoken of in                      became the administrative head of        tury, as he gleans it from the  Book
Scripture. One of these new offices                    the church in that city, while the       of  Clement.
was that of subdeacon. Because the                     presbyters became the heads of the
seven deacons in the church at                         various congregations within the                Because of the unusual situation
Rome were so busy, the city was                        city. The presbyters also took on               created  by persecution and the
divided into seven regions, with                       more liturgical functions, and soon             large number of poor in the
one deacon over each region and                        came to function as priests, whose       churches the diaconate required
several subdeacons appointed to                        work was to preside at the offer-               all the time and energies of its in-
                                                                                                       cumbents.... To their care were al-
assist him.          (Interestingly, the               ing of the Eucharist. The deacons               lotted all the sick and the strang-
church did not think she could add                     were viewed as the New Testament                ers; likewise were they to aid the
to the number of deacons, because                      counterpart of the Levites, whose               widows and act as fathers to the
the apostles had appointed seven                       duties were largely to assist the               orphans. Of all their labors they
deacons in the church in Jerusalem;                    priests. The office of deacon was               were to render an account to the
however, she had no problem add-                       therefore considered inferior to the            congregation. Nor were they to
ing to the number of offices in the                    priesthood in the New Testament                 wait until the poor solicited their
church.) This proliferation of of-                     church.                                         help,  but as worthy representa-
fices certainly paved the way for                          While in the first centuries the            tives of their office they were  to
                                                                                                       go through the city seeking every-
the hierarchy which would develop                      office of deacon was viewed  asp  a             where to help the sick and suffer-
later. Second, of the seven deacons                    permanent, lifelong office, it now              ing and to provide the poor with
one came to be viewed as an arch-                      came to be viewed as temporary, a               the necessities of  life.3
deacon, who served as the bishop's                     stepping stone to that of the priest-
personal assistant, and was often                      hood.      Sometime between the                   By the fourth century the bish-
the bishop's successor. In these  de-                  fourth and eighth centuries, the         ops had taken ultimate responsi-
velopm~ents we can see more seeds                      church councils decided that the         bility for the care of the poor,
of inequality in the offices. Still,                   minimum age for deacons should           though the deacons assisted them.
the deacon was considered to be a                      be 25, and for presbyters (priests),     At the time of Constantine  (321),
very important person in the                           30. A person could be an "assis-         the deacons were responsible, un-
church. If there was any clear in-                     tant priest" for five years as a dea-    der the bishop's supervision, for all
equality among the offices at this                     con, then "graduate" to the priest-      the -finances and property of the
time, it was that the diaconate was                    hood. The church considered this         church  - for the church had be-
viewed as more prestigious an of-                      "graduation" to be the good degree       come heir of great estates and sums
fice than that of presbyter.                           of which I Timothy  3:13 speaks:         of money. From these funds the
     In the fourth century the de-                     "For they that have used the office      poor were cared for. Eventually,
cline of the office became more no-                    of a deacon well purchase to them-       however, this work was completely
ticeable. One factor which contrib-                    selves a good degree. . .."              taken from the deacons. By 692 a
uted to this decline was the large                         By the eighth century, any           church council distinguished  be-
g r o w t h   o f   t h e   c h u r c h   a f t e r    seeds of disparity in the offices had
Constantine legalized Christianity                     become fully grown plants. The           1. Peter Y. DeJong,  The Ministry  of
in 313. This large growth resulted                     office of deacon, though still an im-    Mercy for Today  (Grand Rapids, MI:
in changes in the structure of the                     portant office in the church, was        Baker Book House,  1952), page 46.
church, which changes took the                         assumed to be inferior to that of        -2.        James Monroe Barnett,  The
form of a hierarchy with the bishop                    priest and bishop.                       Diaconate: A Full and Equal Order  (Val-
at the top. By 451 the bishops of                                      w-x**                    ley Forge, Pennsylvania: Trinity Press
                                                                                                International,  1995), pages 51-52.
the five major cities (Rome,  Alex-                        With this disparity in the of-       3. P. Y. DeJong,  op. cit.,  page 47.
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tween the work of the seven men           They served as ushers, and "pre-                         were changed in the fourth and
spoken of in Acts 6, whose work           vented whispering, sleeping, and                         fifth centuries. At first, although
was clearly the care of the poor,         disruption."4 This is but a partial                      it was permitted a deacon to be
and the work of the deacons of the        list of their liturgical responsibili-                   married, it was forbidden him to
church. The care of the poor now          ties.                                                    marry if he were single at his ordi-
fell to the monasteries and religious           Second, they served in many                        nation, unless at that time he had
orders. In addition, voluntary pov-       ways as the bishop's assistants  -                       requested of the bishop the right
erty was encouraged and consid-           both pastorally and administra-                          to marry.       Furthermore, if a
ered meritorious.                         tively. They could teach the  cat-                       deacon's wife were to die, he was
    What, then, did the deacons           echumens, read a homily from the                         not allowed to remarry. Later, dea-
do? What other responsibilities           fathers if the bishop were not                           cons who were married were ex-
were assigned to them, which took         present (similar to our practice of                      pected to refrain from sexual rela-
them away from their most impor-          reading sermons when a pastor is                         tions. That this restriction could
tant work?                                not present). They were charged                          not be realistically enforced was
    First, they were assigned many        with being his messenger, with rep-                      seen when on occasion a deacon's
liturgical responsibilities  - respon-    resenting him and voting in his                          wife would bear a child. To en-
sibilities in the area of worship.        place at church councils. They                           force this restriction, it was later
Early in the second century, they         were to mingle with the people of                        expected of deacons and their
were allowed to assist the bishops        the church, so that they could try                       wives that they separate at the time
at the Lord's table.       After the      to determine who was about to sin,                       of the husband's ordination and
bishop had given thanks, the dea-         and to see who were sick, bringing                       both remain unmarried.
cons were to distribute the bread         these people to the attention of the                         Thus the office degenerated
and wine to those present, and            bishop and the church, so that the                       also in this way, that the church
bring those elements to those who         bishop could rebuke the sinners                          imposed unnecessary, even wrong,
were not present. As time went            and the people could care for the                        restrictions on the men who held
on, they were also charged with           sick. As the church grew and the                         office. At the same time, she lost
caring for the altar, and bringing        bishops became busier, the deacons                       sight of the one great requirement
the bread and wine (which the             were the ones to whom the people                         for the deacons, that of compassion
people brought as an offering) to         were to come with their needs, so                        for those in distress.
the altar. By the middle of the           that the bishop would not be both-                                         *4*X-*
third century they were to ensure         ered.                                                        Such was the sad deformation
that, before the Eucharist was of-              The deacons were busy men,                         of the diaconate. As DeJong says,
fered, the catechumens were dis-          indeed, but they were not busy in                        "Thus the church by the end of this
missed. They were then to ask the         the care of the poor. The office had                     period had completely transformed
congregation whether any of them          lost its only legitimate function.                       the  ~office  of the deacons and
had anything against his brother or                              ****x                             robbed it of its rightful place in the
sister, so that the sacrament might            It stands to reason that, if the                    New Testament  congregations."5
be administered rightly. Later they       idea of the office changed, and the                      The diaconate was in need of ref-
were even allowed to administer           w o r k   a s s i g n e d   t o   t h e   o f f i c e    ormation.
the Eucharist when a bishop could         changed, also the qualifications for                         This history reminds  .us to be
not be present, but with his per-         the office would have to be modi-                        on our guard against the very real
mission. This latter task, however,       fied. This did not however begin                         dangers of viewing the diaconate
was taken from them in 314.               immediately. Early in the second                         as inferior to the office of pastor or
    In other areas of liturgical duty,    century, the church father Polycarp                      elder, of emphasizing other aspects
the deacons were assigned in the          set forth in a letter to the                             of the work than that of caring for
fourth century to announce the            Philippians the requirements for                         the poor, and of thinking that the
next part of worship (the people          the office of deacon. They are very                      qualifications set forth in Scripture
did not have bulletins on which the       similar to those given us in I Timo-                     need some updating.  Q
order of worship was printed), and        thy 3. Later in that century, the
to read the Gospel and Epistle les-       diaconate was open only to those
sons for the day. They were per-          who were proved, exemplary in
mitted to baptize if the bishop was       character, and brought up a family                       4.  Jeannine  E. Olson, One  Ministry,
absent and had given them permis-         with children, this latter assuming,                     Many Roles: Deacons and Deaconesses
sion. If the bishop was present,          of course, that the deacon was mar-                      through the Centuries (St. Louis, MO:
they were to assist him. They were        ried.                                                    Concordia Publishing House,  19921,
entrusted with keeping the entire              Especially the qualifications re-                   page 33.
service and congregation in order.        garding the deacon's family life                         5. P. Y. DeJong, op. cit., page 50.

                                                                                                          April  15,7999/Standard   Bearer/329


                               Called to the Cross
                                                  John 19:17-30

                                             Called to be with God and live.          Following Jesus.
One day, Matthew, Mark, and Luke             How? By  God,  of course!                Giving to His back
     confirm,                                Who calls things that were not to        A burden
Simon, a man of Cyrene,                          be.                                  We could not bear.
Came from the country                        How?                                     Casting crowns now
To Jerusalem.                                Hearing Christ crucified preached.       Before the Crucified King
Suddenly, soldiers!                          Not as many who hear                     Of our salvation.
They compel Simon to bear the                And cast cross and Christ                Compelled (by love!)
     cross                                   In their teeth.                          To bear our cross
The Savior will soon hang on and             But we                                   He gives (so  light!).
     die on.                                 By grace of cross                                             *
Simon . . . from the country.                Called!                                  Called now
Called to the city of God. By  God.          So one day                               To ponder anew
Soiled man. Soil heart.  Prepared            Out of Adam's country                    That Way,
    soil?                                    To Jerusalem,                            Of our
His way . . . intersecting  via dolorosa!    To the Way,                              Way,
Compelled to bear the cross!                 To the Hill                              That Death of our
Follows Jesus.                               Compelled,                               Death,
Christian?                                   Now willing,                             That Life,
                     *                       Feeling in soul                          The Life of our
Others . . .                                 More  than flesh feels wood,..           Life,
Daughters of Jerusalem, weeping              Christ the power of God, and             That Hope
    for the wrong Person.                    The wisdom of God!                       (on this way of grief!)
Two thieves, hanging, sheep and              To us                                    Of the better country,
     goat.                                   The called!                              New Jerusalem!
Those that pass by, reviling.                                     *                   Christian!
Crucifiers, parting garments, cast-
     ing lots for the coat.
Some, wondering if  Elias will save
    Him.
Prophecies fulfilling, knowing God
     will save Him.
Darkness killing the Son...
Many called to the crucifixion of            1. The gospel accounts                   side Jerusalem>? Any significance
     the Christ.                                 What do the other gospel nar-        in the name of the place: Calvary,
One day. That good Friday.                   ratives say of the crucifixion of        Golgotha?
                     *                       Jesus  (Matt.  27:32-49;  Mark 15:20-
We too.  The  called.                        37; Luke 23:26-46)?                          What do you think: Was the
Called from sin and out of death.                                                     Simon who bore the cross of Jesus
                                             2.  0i1 the way to the Calvary           converted (compare Mark  15:21
                                                 What is the significance of the      with Rom.  16:13, Acts  11:20;  13:1)?
                                             place to which Jesus was brought
Rev. Dick is pastor of Grace Protestant      to be crucified (cf. Heb.  13:11-13:         Those daughters of Jerusalem
Reformed Church in Standale, Michigan.       "without the camp," that is, out-        who followed Jesus on His way to

330/Standard  Bearer/April 15,1999


be crucified (Luke  23:27ff.):  Who         6. The parting of the garments,          work and gospel of the cross.
were they? Why does Jesus tell              vv.  23,24
them not to weep for Him but for                The soldiers who crucified                Doctrines and Reformed termi-
themselves and their children?              Jesus, seeking to gain the whole         nology: Atonement. Reconciliation.
What is the interpretation of the           world, or at least their rightful        Redemption. Propitiation. Substi-
puzzling statement, "For if they do         share of it, and while losing their      tution.         Satisfaction of justice.
these things in a green tree, what          very souls, divided Jesus' garments      Love.       Limited scope. Infinite
shall be done in the dry" (Luke             amongst themselves. Then they            value. Other?
23:31)?                                     cast lots for Jesus' coat. What
                                            Scripture did this fulfill? What was     11. Cross in creation?
3.  Death by crucifixion                    the significance of this seemingly            Is there revelation of the gos-
    Why did the Romans crucify              insignificant event?                     pel of the cross in creation?
certain criminals? Why did they
crucify Jesus?                              7. The revilers                               Do all have to be called to the
                                                Many people came by the cross        cross and know about and believe
    What is the significance of the         as people might go to the main           in Jesus crucified for sin in order
crucifixion according to the coun-          event at a circus. They do not,          to be saved? Proof?
sel of God (cf. Gal.  3:10-13;  Deut.       however, come to admire His act,
21:23).                                     or to applaud His courage. In-           12. Perspective (John  20:31)
                                            stead, they come to revile, to mock,          What does the crucifixion re-
4. Between two malefactors, v.18            to challenge. What do they say?          veal of God's holiness? Of sin's
    Using the various accounts,             Why?                                     sinfulness? Of Jesus' identity as
comment on the attitudes and be-                                                     God and as Man? Of Jesus' suffer-
havior of the two thieves crucified         8. The darkness                          ing? Of love?
with Jesus.                                     After three hours on the cross,
                                            at about noon, there was a dark-              How do most people react to
    May we infer from Jesus'                ness over all the earth (cf. Luke        the cross of Christ today?
promise to the one thief that the           23:44, 45). What sermon does the
souls of all God's people go to             darkness preach?                         What is it to take up our cross and
glory immediately after the death                                                    follow  Jesus(cf.  Matt.  16:24)?
of the body? May we infer that              9. The Seven Cross Words
the state of the elect soul immedi-             From the different gospel nar-            How do we, as Christians and
ately after death is  consciotrs  glory?    ratives, be able to list in order the    Christian churches, show that we
Give proof.       What does Jesus'          seven different sayings Jesus ut-        are witnesses of the glory and sav-
promise to the dying thief tell us          tered while He was on the cross.         ing power of the cross (I Cor.
of how  one is saved?                       Consider and discuss the meaning         1:21ff.; Gal.  6:14)?
                                            of these last words of the Savior.
    If a person born  Andy  baptized
and raised in the church puts off           10. The significance of the cross                              *
repenting and believing on Jesus                The Bible teaches everywhere         Believe.
until his deathbed can he expect            that the cross of Jesus Christ is the    Students of the Word.
mercy?                                      salvation of the church. Consider        Soldiers of the cross.
                                            and discuss the following:               Ponder.
    What is the irony of the fact                                                    Word of the cross!
that Jesus was crucified "in the                Ten Old Testament and ten            Holy grace.
midst" of these two thieves?                New Testament passages which             Thrice holy God of grace
                                            speak of the cross.                      In Jesus Christ and cross
5. The title, v.19                                                                   Revealed!
    Pilate put a "title" on Jesus'              Creedal  statements of the sig-      And you . . .
cross, saying in Hebrew, Greek,             nificance of the cross (cf. Heidel-      Called..  .!
and Latin: "Jesus of Nazareth, Ring         berg Catechism: LD 15, 16; Belgic        To the cross!
of the Jews." According to Mat-             Confession, Art. 21; Canons of           From the cross!
thew  27:37 this "title" was also           Dordt, Head IIA, Arts. 3, 4;             Into the world!
Jesus' accusation. What was the             Westminster Confession, Chapter 8,       Onward to heaven!
meaning of all this, and why did            Arts. 4-6).                              Christian!  0
the Jews protest?
                                                Errors which contradict the

                                                                                              April  15,1999/Standard   Bearer/33  1


                                                   Signs of the limes (5)
                 Believers Shall Be Persecuted
                                                   which is more precious than gold,           then, in perils in the city, . . . in per-
                                                   is tried as by fire. Persecution has        ils among false brethren"  (II Cor.
      Then shall they deliver you up to            characterized this present dispen-          11:24-26).
be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye           sation and will greatly increase in               It was also soon after Pentecost
shall be hated  of  all nations  for  tny          frequency and intensity as the end          that the first martyr gave his life
name's sake. And then shall many be                approaches.                                 f o r   t h e   c a u s e   o f   t h e   g o s p e l .
offended, and shall betray one another,                Jesus states, "They will deliver        Stephen was stoned even while he
and shall hate one another.                        you up to be afflicted." The word           testified that he was bearing the re-
                       Matthew  24:9, 10           for afflicted means "to be pressed."        proach of his Lord. His final state-
J                                                  It reminds us of a serpent that             ments were similar to the words
     esus had spoken of signs of His                tightens its coil about a victim un-       spoken by Jesus from the cross.
     coming in the church, in the                   til it has gradually crushed him to        Soon after the death of Stephen,
world, and in nature. He had spo-                   death.                                     James the brother of John was also
ken of false Christs, of wars and                       Little did the disciples realize       killed. And it was  Herod's  inten-
rumors of war, of famines, pesti-                   how soon this warning would be-            tion to kill Peter also, but an angel
lences, and earthquakes in divers                   come a reality in their own lives.         delivered Peter from prison on the
places. These are the foreshadow-                   Shortly after Jesus ascended to            very eve of the intended execution.
ing of Christ's return, the travail                 heaven, when Peter and John were           Some time later both Paul and Pe-
or birth pangs that serve to bring                  in the temple witnessing of the res-       ter gave up their lives for the cause
forth the new creation.                             urrected Christ, the chief priest and      of Christ.
      Many of these are obvious                     Sadducees laid hands on them and                 Since that time, history is re-
signs of judgment. They plainly                     put them in hold. The next day             plete with accounts of the suffer-
show that this present dispensation                 they were released, but not with-          ings of the martyrs, some of whom
is not "a period of grace" in the                   out being warned that they should          wasted away in prison, while oth-
sense that God postpones judgment                   no more speak of Jesus as the              ers were burned at the stake,
until Christ returns. God does not                  Christ.                                    hanged on the gallows, or killed
love sinners as sinners, nor does                       It was only a short time later         with the sword. Many had to flee
He show His favor to them, but He                   that all the apostles were cast into       for their lives, go into hiding, and
is angry with the wicked every day.                 prison by the enraged sect of the          thus offer up their lives for the
He visits sin with His righteous                    Sadducees for preaching and per-           truth they cherished.
judgments, which are God's just                     forming miracles in the name of                  We speak of the heroes of faith
condemnation of the wicked, but                     Jesus. Even the fact that an angel         of the old dispensation, but another
which in the meantime serve as                      delivered them from the prison did         list could well be drawn up of the
chastisement and blessing for His                   not deter these enemies from warn-         witnesses of faith in more recent
people.                                             ing them to speak no more in that          times. The truth of God's sover-
       That does not mean that the                  name.                                      eignty has always been challenged
members of God's church do not                          Wherever Paul went on his              and denied. God's double predes-
suffer in the midst of these judg-                  missionary journeys he was met             tination, sovereign providence, a
ments. Jesus warns His disciples                    with opposition, often from his            unilateral and unconditional cov-
and us that there will be persecu-                  own people, the Jews. He informs           enant, and particular grace meet
tions, defections, and deceptions.                  us: "Of the Jews five times re-            opposition wherever these truths
That occurred already in the old                    ceived I forty stripes save one.           are proclaimed. All emphasis is
dispensation, as is evident from                    Thrice was I beaten with rods, once        placed upon a loving God, while
H e b r e w s   11:35-38.   O u r   f a i t h ,     was I stoned . . . . In journeyings of-    God's justice is denied. Even eter-
                                                    ten, in perils of waters, in perils of     nal punishment in hell is being de-
Rev. Hanko is a minister emeritus in the            robbers, in perils by mine own             nied. Ultimately the conclusion of
Protestant Reformed Churches.                       countrymen, in perils by the hea-          a universal salvation must be

332/Standard  Bearer/April 15.7999


reached. Even unbelievers have al-        branded narrow minded, bigoted,                Our Lord warns us: "Think not
ways liked to speak of a bright and       and quaint, and even rejected. Man         that I am come to send peace on
pleasant future for those who have        receives the emphasis rather than          earth: I came not to send peace,
departed from this life.                  God. Anyone who maintains the              but a sword. For I am come to set
          +++  +++  +++                   truth of the Word of God must ex-          a man at variance against his fa-
                                          pect that he will be a pariah, an
    Jesus added: "And ye shall be                                                    ther, and the daughter against her
                                          outcast in the modern church
hated of all nations for my name's                                                   mother, and the daughter-in-law
sake."                                    world.                                     against her mother-in-law. And a
    The real cause for the hatred                   +++  +++  +++                    man's foes shall be they of his own
of the nations against the true               It is exactly for that reason that     household" (Matt.  10:34-36).
church is the name of Jesus. That         "then shall many be offended, and              As you know, that is exactly
name represents Christ's person,          shall betray one another, and shall        what happened to the Jews and
just as we are always associated          hate one another."                         even to many Christians in the
with our own names. If anyone                 Paul writes in II Timothy 3:1-         Netherlands during World War II.
mentions your name he is either           5: "This know also, that in the last       Friends and neighbors, and some-
speaking about you or to you. The         days perilous times shall come. For        times members of the family,
same applies to the Jesus of the          men shall be lovers of their own           would cooperate with the Nazis
Scriptures. But this name also rep-       selves, covetous, boasters, proud,         and betray their relatives and
resents all that He stands for. Ev-       blasphemers, disobedient to par-           neighbors. This resulted in con-
eryone, with the exception of the         ents, unthankful, unholy, without          stant harassment and persecutions
true believer, rejects all that Jesus     natural affection, trucebreakers,          of various sorts, but also in people
teaches, that is, the message of the      false accusers, incontinent, fierce,       being sent to a concentration camp,
gospel, the Scripture in its entirety.    despisers of those who are good,           or even killed. The atrocities of
    Paul accused the dissenters in        traitors, heady, highminded, lovers        that war demonstrate to us what
Galatia of following another gos-         of pleasure more than lovers of            we as true believers can expect, es-
pel which is not another. Many            God; having a form of godliness,           pecially in the last days.
profess to believe in and preach          but denying the power thereof:                 Thereby the church will be pu-
Jesus, but, under the pretense of         from such turn away."                      rified. Beyond a shadow of doubt
preaching Jesus, the only name un-            It is not all Israel that is called    no one will want to experience
der heaven whereby we can be              Israel. The term "Christianity" is         such fiery trials unless it be for his
saved, they preach and profess a          a very large umbrella that covers a        strong conviction of love for the
false Jesus. The truth of the Scrip-      host of people. Many profess to            truth. Jesus asks: "When the Son
tures is always under attack, and         be Christians, disciples of Jesus, but     of man  cometh,  will He find faith
those who maintain it are hated           deny Him in their confession and           on the earth?"
and despised for the simple reason        walk. Many belong to a certain                 As cross bearers after Christ we
that the God and the Jesus of the         church and engage in its activities        bear His reproach outside the
Scriptures are hated and rejected.        with various ulterior motives. As          camp. Therefore we are called to
    Paul warns Timothy: "Now              long as their "faith" is not chal-         be strong in our conviction, patient
the Spirit speaketh expressly, that       lenged, they feel perfectly at home        in tribulation. Peter speaks of the
in the latter times some shall de-        and are perfectly content there.           incorruptible and undefiled inher-
part from the faith, giving heed to           But when their faith is put to a       itance that is laid away for us in
seducing spirits, and doctrines of        test, they are offended. The word          heaven and adds: "Wherein ye
devils; speaking lies in hypocrisy;       literally means "to be trapped."           greatly rejoice, though now for a
having their conscience seared with       They are in a bind, and they prove         season, if need be, ye are in heavi-
a hot iron" (I Tim. 4:1,2).               that their faith is a mere pretense        ness through manifold temptations:
    Jesus also warns us: "If the          rather than conviction. Money,             that the trial of your faith, being
world hate you, ye know that it           goods, position, honor, family, and        much more precious than of gold
hated me before it hated you. If          friends are preferred instead of the       that perisheth, though it be tried
ye were of the world, the world           Christ. Sometimes a boy or girl            with fire, might be found unto
would love his own: but because           friend may gain the preference.            praise and honor and glory at the
ye are not of the world, but I have       Often it is a lack of courage to           appearing of Jesus Christ"  (II Pet.
chosen you out of the world, there-       stand up for the truth and bear the        1:6, 7). Then God shall wipe away
fore the world hateth you" (John          sacrifice that is involved.                all tears from our eyes.
15:18, 19).                                   These nominal Christians fre-              In the sermon on the mount,
    Anyone who maintains the sov-         quently become the strongest op-           Jesus teaches us: "Blessed are ye,
ereignty of God in our day is             ponents of the truth.                      when men shall revile you, and
                                                                                     persecute you, and shall say all

                                                                                            April  15,1999/Standard   Bearer/333


manner of evil against you falsely,          fore you" (Matt.  5:11, 12).                            "He that overcometh shall  in-
for my sake. Rejoice, and be  ex-                    Sincere hope is perseverance.               herit all things; and I will be his
ceeding  glad: for great is your  re-        That hope maketh not ashamed, for                   God, and he shall be my son" (Rev.
ward in heaven: for so persecuted            the love of God is spread abroad                    21:7). The Lord stands at the door!
they the prophets which were  be-            in our hearts by His Spirit.                                                            cl



                                             ties from  Classis East, gave ap-                   classis. The third matter which
                          March  3,1999      proval to this request. South                       classis  treated in closed session in-
              at Redlands, California        Holland's council is to oversee the                 volved a protest which  classis  re-
                                             organization.                                       jected as illegal because of the im-
The March meeting of Classis                         Classis also gave approval to               proper involvement of an outside
    West was held at Hope Protes-            Rev. Gise  VanBaren's  emeritation                  party in the case. A man claiming
tant Reformed Church in Redlands,            request and forwarded his request                   to be the "advocate" of another was
California on March 3.                       to synod for its approval. After                    found to be improperly involved
    An officebearers' conference             nearly 43 years of faithful labors                  in the case, having no right to the
was held the day before.              The    in the ministry of the Word and                     confidential material of the case. In
theme of the conference was "The             sacraments in the Protestant Re-                    connection with this matter,  classis
Doctrines of Sovereign Predestina-           formed Churches, Rev. VanBaren                      determined that "Article 31 of the
tion." Not only was the conference           will retire from the active ministry                Church Order gives a brother the
attended by the delegates of classis,        at the end of August, the Lord will-                right to personally protest a deci-
but by several members of our                ing.                                                sion. It does not give another
Redlands  congregation and numer-                    Loveland Protestant Reformed                brother the right to protest for
ous visitors. Rev. Richard Moore             Church brought a supplemental re-                   him." In addition,  classis  upheld
gave the keynote address, the                port to  classis, informing the del-                that which has long been recog-
theme of which was "Predestina-              egates that it had just received a                  nized in Reformed church govern-
tion: The Heart of the Gospel."              letter from Rev. Jon Smith, which                   ment, namely, that if a man finds
Several pastors also presented pa-           informed them that he had not re-                   himself incapable of protesting his
pers on the general theme of the             ceived any of several letters that                  own case, and desires an advocate
conference. There was healthy dis-           had been sent him by Loveland                       or "mond" (Dutch for "mouth") to
cussion throughout the day, with             since last September.  Classis de-                  help him present his case, he must
many visitors participating freely.          cided to continue Loveland's man-                   request that of his consistory. "The
    Tuesday night the  Redlands              date as given by  Classis West last                 church itself (whether consistory or
congregation hosted an evening of            September, that they work with                      major assembly) must make a de-
fellowship at the church: Rev.               Rev. Smith toward the removal of                    cision to recognize, appoint or au-
Moore, who is preparing to move              all offenses committed in his de-                   thorize a `mond,' and such a re-
to the mission field in Ghana,               parture from our churches several                   quest for a  `mondl must originate
spoke for a brief time Tuesday               years ago, and to determine to                      either with the appellant or by sug-
night concerning that calling and            what extent he seeks to be recon-                   gestion of the church."
his preparations for those labors,           ciled to the PRC.                                       Among other business con-
also seeking the support and                         Classis dealt with three matters            ducted,  classis  approved subsidy
prayers of the churches for that             in closed session. The first was a                  requests from four congregations
work.                                        protest against a decision taken by                 and forwarded them to synod.
    Rev. Richard Smit chaired the            classis last September in an ongo-                  Classical appointments were
meeting of  classis  on Wednesday.           ing discipline case. The protest                    granted to Hull PRC as follows:
    Classis West had a full agenda.          was rejected, and the decision of                   Pastors Key (March 21 and  28),
    The agenda included a request            t h e   p r e v i o u s   classis  u p h e l d .    Houck (April 18 and 25), Bekkering
from South Holland Protestant Re-            Classis also rejected an appeal                     (May 2 and 9>, denHartog (June 20
formed Church that  classis approve          which was illegally brought to                      and  27), R. Miersma (July 11 and
the organization of a new daugh-             classis, not having fulfilled the re-               18), Joostens (August 22 and  29),
ter congregation in northwest In-            quirements of Article 30' of the                    and Smit (September 12 and  19).
diana. Making the request were               Church Order. The appellant, who                        Annual elections were also
31 signatories from South Holland            claimed a grievance against his                     held. Elected as delegates to synod
PRC, representing 25 families con-           con&story, did not notify his                       1999  were  Ministers:  Primi:   W.
sisting of 102 souls.  Classis West,         consistory of the grievance before                  Bekkering, A.  denHartog,  C. Haak,
together with the  synodical   depu-         attempting to bring the matter to                   R. Smit, G. VanBaren;  Secundi:  A.

334/Standard  Bearer/April 75.7999


Brummel, M.  DeVries,  S. Houck, D.                          soender  (Lynden).                                 other three-year term as stated
Kleyn, R. Miersma.  Elders:  Primi:                               Among other elections: Rev. A.                clerk.
A l   B r u m m e l   ( E d g e r t o n ) ,   H e n r y      Brummel was elected to a  three-                          Classis  West accepted the  invi-
H o e k s t r a   ( H u l l ) ,   J a c k   L e n t i n g    year term as a  synodieal  deputy                  tation  o f   S o u t h   H o l l a n d   P R C   t o
(South Holland), James Regnerus                              f r o m   Classis   ~-West.   R e v s .   d e n    host the next meeting of  classis  on
(Doon),  Chuck  VanMeeteren   (Red-                          Hartog and Haak were elected as                    September  1,1999.  The March 2000
l a n d s ) ;   S e c u n d i :   J i m   A n d r i n g a    church visitors, with Revs.  Bek-                  meeting is scheduled to be hosted
(Hull), Melvin  DeBoer  (South  Hol-                         kering and Houck as alternates.                    by Bethel PRC.
land), John Mantel  (Doon),  Menno                           Rev. S. Key was reappointed to  an-                                           Rev. Steven Key,
P o o r t e n g a   ( P e a c e ) ,   B i l l  Roetci-                                                                                       Stated Clerk  0




                                                             in Randolph. Prof. D. Engelsma spoke               Congregation Activities
Evangelism Activities                                        on "The Return of Christ and  Y2K."
T                                                                                                                      ast "Church News" have in-
        he Evangelism Committee of                                The Byron Center, MI PRC hosted               Pcluded updates on the building
        the South Holland, IL PRC re-                        two classes for their community and                progress of Bethel PRC in Roselle, IL.
cently asked their congregation for                          congregation on the  topic_of "Infant              With each issue you may have noticed
some help. It seems they want to pro-                        Baptism."      Their pastor, Rev. Doug             a progression towards completion.
vide complimentary  Standard Bearer                          Kuiper, led the first class February 11,           Well, now we are happy and thankful
subscriptions for offices, waiting                           followed by another on February 25                 to report that, in God's great good-
rooms, libraries, etc. where the maga-                       with Prof. H. Hanko leading.                       ness, Bethel has been granted an oc-
zine can be displayed and read by                                                                               cupancy permit for their new church
waiting patients or customers. Any                           Young Adults' Activities                           building. Plans called for the congre-
congregation member who works in                                                                                gation to hold their first service in
or knows of such an office or waiting                        The week of March 7 the Young
                                                                  Adults of the Loveland, CO PRC                their own sanctuary on Sunday, March
room that would be willing to display                        again served as the host society for               21.
the periodical was asked to contact the                      what has become an annual Young                           It is indeed the Lord's faithfulness
committee.                                                   Adults' Retreat. This year's retreat               to them that they are now able to leave
        Rev. C. Haak, pastor of the Bethel                   took an in-depth look at Revelation 2:4            the Holiday Inn, where they wor-
PRC in Roselle, IL, recently was heard                       under the theme, "Our First Love."                 shiped for the last four years, and
on Family Radio, WSCH 9.19 FM in                             Loveland's pastor, Rev. G.  VanBaren,              gather together as the body of Christ
Chicago, IL, speaking three times each                       spoke first, giving an explanation of              in faith, hope, and love in their own
day for a week for a program entitled,                       that verse. He was followed by Prof.               sanctuary. Dedication of their church
"The Pastor's Study." He spoke on                            H. Hanko, who spoke on "Losing Our                 building was planned for April 9.
the subject, "Biblical Priorities."                          First Love." As in past years, the re-                    We also give thanks for the con-
        A March bulletin from the First                      treat was held at the Covenant Heights             tinued growth of our many churches,
PRC in Holland, MI included news                             Convention Center in the Rockies, in               Especially now we are thinking of the
that their Evangelism Society had just                       the shadow of Long`s Peak, part of                 South Holland, IL PRC. Their contin-
received several hundred copies of a                         Rocky Mountain National Park.                      ued growth enables them to have a
Spanish translation of the RFPA book                              In addition to the two speeches,              hand in another daughter congrega-
Whosoever Will, by Herman Hoeksema.                          the young adults also took part in dis-            tion being born. There are still some
The Spanish title is Todo   El Que Quira.                    cussion groups on role models, and in              details that the steering committee for
The book was translated by Emilio                            two debates, one on the subject of birth           the new congregation is working on,
Monjo, pastor of the Presbyterian Re-                        control and the other on speaking in               including finding a suitable place to
formed Church in Seville, Spain. This                        tongues.                                           worship and securing pulpit supply.
is the 2nd edition, the first having been                         Also included were physical ac-               South Holland's council will soon
published in 1989. These copies were                         tivities such as, snow-shoeing, volley-            present nominations for officebearers
sent as a gift, and First plans to pro-                      ball, bowling, and climbing Twin Sis-              for the new congregation, to be drawn
mote this new addition to their Span-                        ters' Mountain.          It appears that           from the 24 families and 4 individu-
ish literature.                                              Loveland has hit upon a successful re-             als who signed on to be part of this
        Friday, March 19, the Evangelism                     treat for our denomination's young                 new church. As they move closer to
Committee of the Randolph, WI PRC                            adults. This year nearly 60 attended,              organization we will provide addi-
sponsored a lecture at the Second CRC                        some of them for their second or third             tional information to keep you up-
                                                             time. In fact, one individual attend-              dated on the progress of the efforts to
                                                             ing for the first time this year told me           establish a PRC in northwest Indiana.
                                                             that he plans to go back next year even
Mr. Wigger is an elder in the Protestant                     if the dates do not correspond with                Mission Activities
Reformed Church  of  Hudsonville, Michi-                     his spring break. Loveland must be                 Rev. R. Moore, our recently in-
gan.                                                         doing something right.                                    stalled missionary to Ghana,

                                                                                                                          April  15,1999/Standard   Bearer/335

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


preached his farewell sermon to his
congregation of nearly 14 years in
Hull, IA, on March 7. He chose for                                                                      The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance
his text that afternoon Deuteronomy                                                                and of my cup: thou mainfainesf my lot. The
31:7, 8, under the theme, "God Goes                                                                lines are fallen  unto me in pleasant places; yea I
Before Us." Then about two weeks                                                                   have a goodly heritage.
later, as indicated above, on March 19,                                                                                                  Psalm 165, 6
he  w-as  installed as missionary. I am
sure our readers will agree when we                               Thankful to God for the guidance and goodness He has given to our churches over the
add, may the Lord bless Rev. Moore                           past 75 years, the Protestant Reformed Churches are celebrating their 75* Anniversary, with
and his wife as they prepare to leave                        a celebration to be held, D.V., at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan from June 19-
and serve as our missionary to Ghana.                        23, 2000. The campus of Calvin College has been reserved for this family event where most
                                                             of our  activities will take place, including our lodging. Everyone is cordially invited to attend
                                                             this wonderful event.
                                                                  The theme for the 751h Anniversary Celebration is "Living Out of Our Heritage" and is
      "Our Lord has written the prom-                        based on the above verses. There are three speeches scheduled during the week, on
ise of the resurrection not in book                          Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday evenings. Rev. Jason Kortering will speak on "A Beau-
alone, but in every leaf in springtime."                     tiful Heritage," Prof. David Engelsma on "A Present Necessity," and Rev. Carl Haak on "A
                      - Martin Luther  0                     Sure Light For the Future." There are many activities planned for each of the days. We
                                                             anticipate a typical day at the celebration to consist of the following:

                                                                                                                       l:OO-4:30         Different activities each
                                                                  8:30 - 9:30         Breakfast                   day, including: Family Fun Day, Field Day,
                                                                  lO:OO-II:30         Children's Bible School     Tours of Historical Protestant Reformed
         WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                                              Adult discussion and sectionals,        Churches, visiting local museums and plan-
      On April 19, 1999, our parents,                        including information on various missionary          etariums, sports activities, and many more
     DOWIE and DELIA VanDer SCHAAF,                          fields and activities of the Protestant  Re-         unstructured activities and free time.
will celebrate their 50" wedding anniversary.                formed Churches                                           5:00-6:00         Dinner
In gratitude to God for His faithfulness shown                    11:30-l :oo         Lunch                            7:00-9:oo         Speeches, Discussion,
us in the blessing of a covenant home, we                                                                         Fellowship Time
thank our parents for years of godly instruc-                     We appreciate your continued support for this event. In the upcoming months you will
tion in word and in deed, and pray that our                  be receiving additional information on the celebration regarding costs, how to arrange your
heavenly Father will continue to uphold them                 reservations, and other pertinent matters. We will also be conducting a finance drive with
and keep them ever in His care, for "Lo, I                   the intention of lowering the registration cost of the celebration so that it will be affordable to
am with you alway,  even unto the end of                     everyone.
the world" (Matthew 28:20).                                       The event is being planned so that it will be enjoyable for al! ages, and in such a way
$     Peter and Dorothy VanDer Schaaf                        that there is something for everyone, by having many different types of activities planned
        Eric and Jessica VanDyke, Aaron Spencer              throughout the week. We anticipate a large turnout for this family event, and we look
        Delia, Katie, Dowie, Audrey, Sara, Susan,            forward to a time of fellowship with family and fellow believers. Mark your calendars now to
                                        and Thomas           spend June 19-23, in the year 2000, at this celebration of fhanksgiving  to God!
                                                                                                                                     The Promotion Committee
*     Gary and Karen VanDer Schaaf
        Joel, Alex, Glen, and Anna                                               NOTICE!!                                      TEACHER NEEDED
                                 Hudsonville,  Michigan         Bethel PRC is now worshiping in their                  Hope Christian School of Redlands, CA
                                                           own church sanctuary. Address:                         is in need of a teacher for the intermediate
                  NOTICE!!!                                                  115 Prat Blvd.                       grades (3 & 4) for the 1999-2000 school year.
      Classis  East will meet in regular ses-                              Roselle,  IL 60172                     The grade assignment, however, is flexible,
sion on Wednesday, May 12, 1999 at                                    Phone: (630) 307-9402                       with the possibility instead for an elementary
Grace Protestant Reformed Church. Ma-                           See our web page for directions:                  position (grades 1  & 2). Interested persons
terial to be treated at this session must                  www.mcs.net/-bethelprc.  Services:  9:30 AM            are encouraged to send an application to Hope
be in the hands of the stated clerk by April               and 5 PM. Visitors please take note! We                Christian School, Attn: Ed Karsemeyer, 1309
15, 1999.                                                  rejoice in this gift which our faithful covenant       E. Brockton Ave., Redlands, CA 92374. You
                               Jon J. Huisken,             Father has given us. "LORD, I have loved the           may also phone school,  (909-793-4584)  Bill
                                      Stated Clerk         habitation of thy house, and the place where           Feenstra  (909-793-3597)  or Mike Gritters
                                                           thine honour dwelleth" (Psalm 26:8).                   (909-793-4439).

33QStandard  Bearer/April 15,7999


