Ma&wine

                                                                                      In This Issue:
              Meditation  - Rev. Cornelius Hanko
                         A Call to Worship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338

              Editorial  - Prof. David J. Engelsma
                         A Defense of the Gospel of Grace
                                Against ECT (6) - Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340

              Marking the Bulwarks of Zion  - Prof. Herman C. Hanko
                          Pelagius and Celestius:
                                Enemies of the Doctrines of Grace (1) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343
              When Thou  Sittest in Thine House  - Rev. Wilbur  Bruinsma
                         The Covenant of Marriage
                         2. Courtship Within the Covenant (cont.) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345

              That They May Teach Them to Their Children  - Herman Hoeksema
                         The Duty of the Christian Mother
                                in the Training of Adolescent Youth (1) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I............................ 347

              Church and State  - Mr. James Lanting
                          Christian Political Activists Concede Defeat in the
                                Cultural War - Advocate New Strategy
                                of Separation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350

              A Word Fitly Spoken  - Rev. Dale H. Kuiper
                          Poverty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352

              Come, Lord Jesus  - Rev. Cornelius Hanko
                          Signs of the Times (6)
                                False Prophets Arise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353

              Ministering to the Saints  - Prof. Robert D. Decker
                          Comforting the Bereaved . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35.5

              Book Reviews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357

              News From Our Churches - Mr. Benjamin Wigger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 358




May 1,1999


                                                      A Call to Worship

                                            0 come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the Lord our
                                            maker.
                                                                                                                                  Psalm  95:6

                                                                  He saw all that He had made and                                        Even more than that, we are
       Let us worship our Maker.                                  it was very good, exactly accord-                             recreated, renewed by a second
       The Lord, great and greatly to                             ing to His eternal plan. The angels                           birth with a life from above. We
be praised. He is the only true and                               worship before Him saying, "Holy,                             are born again, not of flesh and
living God, besides  whom  there is                               holy, holy, Lord God Almighty,                                blood, but by the Spirit of Christ
and can be no other. He is a great                                heaven and earth are filled with                              and by the Word that liveth and
God and a great King above all                                    thy glory."                                                   abideth forever. The life of the res-
gods.                                                                    You and I, His creatures, are                          urrected Lord is implanted in us,
       Idol gods are the work of men's                            "fearfully and wonderfully made."                             making us new creatures who be-
hands, set up before the face of the                              In God's appointed time we are                                long to our faithful Savior Jesus
living God. Our God is in the                                     given our birth and our being from                            Christ. Within us is the beginning
heavens, far beyond all that is crea-                             the parents appointed for us from                             of the joy and peace of eternal life.
ture.                                                             all eternity. The Lord formed and                             Adam and Eve knew God as the
       He is our Maker. In the begin-                             s h a p e d   u s   a s                   individuals.        Creator of all that exists. We know
ning God created the heavens and                                  Throughout all the generations of                             Him as our Creator, but also as our
the earth and all that they contain.                              mankind there are no two persons                              Re-creator, who makes all things
He spoke and it was; He com-                                      alike in appearance or in charac-                             new. How wondrous are His do-
manded and it stood forth. In six                                 ter. We receive our own specific                              ings and His ways past finding out!
days the Almighty brought forth a                                 place in the midst of our family                                       The same God who made the
perfect creation by the Word of His                               and all other relationships, each                             universe also upholds, controls, and
mouth and the power of His Spirit.                                one of us serving his own purpose                             governs all that exists. Summer and
                                                                  in carrying out the counsel of God                            winter, springtime and harvest are
                                                                  every moment of his existence here                            all in His hand. He causes the sun
                                                                  on earth. "0 Lord, how manifold                               to rise each morning, carries it
                                                                  are thy works! In wisdom hast                                 through the skies, and causes it to
Rev. Hanko is a minister emeritus in the                          thou made them all: the earth is                              set in the evening. Every drop of
Protestant Reformed Churches.                                     full of thy riches"  (Ps.  105:24).                           rain falls where He directs it. He


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prepares food for man and beast,          Ruler of our lives. All that befalls      timacy of the family life in the
even the common sparrow is un-            us in this vale of tears comes to us      home, the quiet time for medita-
der His care. He also sends storms        from Him who withholds no good            tion, reading, studying the Scrip-
and disasters according to His wise       thing from those  who. fear Him.          tures, and prayer. Our real home
and eternal purpose. He carries           There are events in life that we re-      is in heaven and our real life is still
out His counsel through the               gard as sad tragedies, which, as          to come. This life is but a prepara-
thoughts, words, and deeds of His         some would say, God did not will          tion, a mere foretaste at best. 0
chosen people, but no less through        and could not prevent. We might           that we could keep our goals
every act and deed of Satan and           even be tempted to cry out with           straight and worship the Lord in
wicked men. "For the Lord hath            the patriarch Jacob: "All these           the beauty of holiness.
made all things for himself: yea,         things are against me!" Yet Paul              What about our values? Where
even the wicked for the day of evil"      assures us: "If God be for us, who        is our real treasure, here on earth
(Prov.  16:4).                            can be against us? . . . Nay, but in      or in heaven? When we stand be-
    Yet every one of us remains re-       all these things we are more than         fore the throne of God on the day
sponsible for every moment of our         conquerors through him that loved         of judgment we will not be asked
life here upon earth. In the great        us" (Rom.  8:31, 37). It is exactly       whether we were prominent and
Day of days we will stand before          the comfort of the saints that their      successful in business, whether we
the Judge of heaven and earth to          unchangeable God keeps covenant.          made a name for ourselves among
carry away the deeds of the body,         He is the same yesterday, today,          men, whether we gave our children
whether they be good or evil. The         and forever. Let us bow in wor-           the luxuries of this present time.
righteous in Christ Jesus will shine      ship before the Lord our Maker.           But we will be asked: "What did
as the sun, while the wicked are              A bit of soul-searching at this       you do with the talents that were
condemned to everlasting desola-          point is not out of place.                entrusted to you? Did you strive
tion. How unsearchable are His                We are dependent creatures,           to use those talents to My glory
judgments and His ways past find-         yet we often fail to realize how de-      personally? As parent? As child
ing out. For of Him, and through          pendent we are. Our inclination is        of God? As member of My church?
Him, and unto Him are all things          to compare the universe to huge           As part of the communion of
forever and ever! 0 that men              machinery that has been set in mo-        saints?" Will Jesus say: "I was an
would praise the Lord for His             tion and now runs by its own              hungered and you gave Me meat;
goodness, for all His mighty works!       power. We say: "It rains," "it is         I was thirsty and you gave Me
    All creation, and every creature      cold," "the sun shines," giving little    drink; I was a stranger and you
in particular, proclaims the glory        thought to the fact that God up-          took Me in, naked, and you clothed
of its Maker. Day unto day utters         holds and governs all things. We          Me; I was sick, and you visited Me;
speech, and night unto night shows        often live and act as if we can take      I was in prison and you came unto
knowledge. Throughout the hours           care of and provide for ourselves         Me"? Do we thank and praise Him
of the night the heavensdeclare  t-h-e    - except when an emergency                for the privilege of serving Him?
immensity, the majesty, the wis-          arises and God must be called in.             We are stewards of God in His
dom of God, and also much more.           The fact is that we can neither see       creation. We cannot lay a finger
Where there is no interference of         nor hear, nor move a muscle, with-        on one thing that we can call our
city lights we can see the canopy         out the sustaining power of our           own  - not our body, husband or
of the heavens with all its splen-        God. We say, "I need Thee every           wife, son or daughter, house or
dor, each star hanging like a lamp        hour," while the reality is, "I need      hard-earned money, automobile or
in the sky, seemingly near enough         Thee every second of  -my exist-          stocks. They are all the means that
for us to reach out and touch it.         ence."    Apart from God's omni-          God has entrusted to us to serve
We see the countless number of            present power we could not even           Him. We are accountable to Him
stars, the planets, the constellations    exist.                                    for what we have done with the
as the great wonders of the heav-             We are pilgrims and strangers         talents He gave to us. At very best
ens. In the daytime we see right          on the earth. Yet we so readily for-      we are unprofitable stewards who
in our own front and back yard            get. We are so busy striving for          have done nothing more than our
God's mighty works, in the grass,         the bread that perishes that we           duty. We earn no stars in our
in the trees, in the flowers, and in      hardly find time to care for our          crown. The glory is all the Lord's,
the birds. All nature joins in sing-      spiritual welfare. Especially in          even as in heaven we shall live
ing its Maker's praise. Let us bow        these affluent times, with all our        solely unto Him and worship Him
down in worship and adoration!            modern conveniences, we are               with our whole being forever.
    This sovereign Lord is our God        busier than ever. Our life becomes            Are you and I happy, thankful
and Father in Christ Jesus, whom          one grand rush toward  - what?            children of God? A thankful Chris-
we acknowledge as the supreme             We sorely need to return to the in-       tian is a joyful person. Scripture

                                                                                             May 1,1999/Standard Bearer/339


tells us: "Rejoice in the Lord!"         us from above from day to day,           from the Psalter: "In sweet com-
And then for emphasis it adds,           even from moment to moment. 0            munion, Lord, with Thee I con-
"Again I say, Rejoice!" Are we           that men would thank the Lord for        stantly abide; My hand Thou
happy with what we have, that is,        His goodness, and all His mighty         holdest in Thy own to keep me
with what God has given us? I re-        w o r k s !                              near Thy side." And also: "Whom
member seeing a slovenly dressed             One of the most blessed of           have I, Lord, in heaven but Thee,
man in New York who was going            God's gifts is the gift of prayer. We    to Whom my thoughts aspire?
from one trash can to another to         can approach God at any time and         And, having Thee, on earth is
search for something to eat. He          under any circumstance. We need          nought that I can yet desire."
came upon a partially eaten ham-         no appointment weeks in advance,             But that means humbling our-
burger, took out the meat and ate        no appointment at all. We need           selves before the Lord our Maker.
it, and threw the rest back. The         no telephone, nor any other instru-      Jesus says:     "Except ye be con-
thought keeps recurring to me: Ex-       ment, for the line is always open        verted, and become as little chil-
cept for the grace of God, that          between God and us. When we call         dren, ye shall not enter into the
could be I. Why did God deter-           upon Him we hear no busy-buzz,           kingdom of heaven" (Matt.  l&3).
mine that I be born of Christian         no voice directing us to press this      The apostle John calls us his "little
parents, who brought me up in a          or that number, for God's ear is al-     children." In comparison with the
Christian home, in the church, and       ways attentive to all our needs. We      infinite God we are smaller, more
in a Christian school? Why should        never call on Him too often or too       helpless, and more dependent than
I have been privileged to confess        long. Although one would think           a wee babe in its mother's arms.
Christ as my Savior and Lord in          that He would grow weary of all              To know and confess that is es-
the midst of the communion of            our petty, if not wrong and fool-        sential, if our lives are to be lives
saints, and have a place among           ish, requests, He is patient with us.    of prayer, if we are to pray with-
them all the days of my life? And        He listens, hears, and understands,      out ceasing, offering unto God the
really, when we count our bless-         as only our heavenly Father can          sacrifice of our hearts and lips. As
ings one by one, we do have so           understand. For as an earthly fa-        the fathers expressed it: "Man is
much, so very much. And we de-           ther has compassion upon his chil-       nothing, God is all in all." He is
serve nothing. In fact, we daily for-    dren, so the Lord has compassion         worthy of all the praise and adora-
feit all those blessings by our sins.    on those who fear Him.                   tion of our lives. That is the eter-
The God of all grace bestows all             The best moments of our lives,       nal blessedness of heavenly perfec-
these blessings upon us, and much        in fact the closest we come to           tion! "0 come, let us worship and
more. For our spiritual life, with       heaven in this life, are the times       bow down, let us kneel before the
all its benefits, comes freely unto      we spend on our knees in humble          Lord our Maker!"  0
                                         worship and prayer. As we sing



A Defense of the Gospel of Grace
                                         Against EC1
                                                        (6)
                                                (Conclusion)

The preceding editorials have together with Roman Catholics that cation by faith and works. They
       demonstrated that  Evangel-       "we are justified by grace through       compromise for the sake of the cul-
       icals and Catholics Together      faith because of Christ,"  deliber-      ture wars, for the sake of  evange-
(ECT) is evangelical compromise of       ately omitting the word "only," the      lism, and for the sake of church
the biblical and Reformation  doc-       evangelicals  compromise with the        unity. But they compromise the
trine of justification. By affirming     Roman Catholic doctrine of  justifi-     truth of justification.

340/Standard  Bearer/Mayl,  1999


      How serious is this?                                 between Protestants and Roman             ing with Rome on justification. Is
      A Reformed criticism of ECT                          Catholics at Regensburg in 1541.          it not that contemporary  evangeli-
would condemn a number of evils.                           Prominent men from both churches          calism embraces the doctrine of the
                                                           participated. Bucer, Melanchthon,         free-will of man? Agreeing with
Where is the Church in ECT?                                and Pistorius represented the Prot-       Rome in this basic teaching, is not
      For one thing, ECT is an effort                      estant churches. Calvin was there         contemporary evangelicalism, in
to realize church unity without the                        as a friend of Bucer. Gropper, Eck,       fact, essentially one with Rome in
involvement of any church. Where                           and Cardinal Contarini were               their gospel? Affirmation together
i s   t h e   c h u r c h - t h e   i n s t i t u t e d    Rome's delegates. Cultural pres-          of the doctrine of justification
church-in this ecumenical en-                              sure was exerted on the conference        merely acknowledges and spells
deavor? Where is the body of                               in the personal presence of the em-       out this essential oneness.
Christ in all this ecumenical wheel-                       peror, who needed church unity for            Richard John Neuhaus, the
ing-and-dealing ? What authority                           his own, earthly, political ends.         Lutheran-become-Roman Catholic
do the negotiators in ECT have for                             Bucer and Melanchthon, the            and a main player in ECT, points
their activities and decisions? Who                        evangelical heavyweights at the           out this very thing. Neuhaus is de-
supervises their work? What wis-                           conference, would have sold out           fending  ECT's affirmation of justi-
dom and power do they draw on                              the Reformation by their compro-          fication to various evangelicals
for this extraordinarily difficult                         mise with Roman heresies. They            who are loud in their criticism that
and significant work? What makes                           agreed to a statement on justifica-       the affirmation does not confess
their decisions and documents                              tion that failed to affirm justifica-     "justification by faith alone." He
binding?                                                   tion by faith alone; approved a dec-      reminds these evangelicals that
      The evangelicals are strictly on                     laration stating that the church is       "the great majority of evangelicals
their own, as mere individuals. No                         the authoritative interpreter of          in America and the world do not
evangelical church sponsors ECT.                           Scripture; produced a draft article       believe" what the Reformation
Neither is the Roman Catholic                              that taught transubstantiation; and       taught about sovereign grace and
Church involved, although we may                           acknowledged that the adoration of        expressed in the phrase, "justifica-
be sure that she watches the go-                           Christ in the bread of the Lord's         tion by faith alone." On the con-
ings-on with great interest. Colson                        Supper need not be rejected as a          trary, "Wesleyan, Arminian, Holi-
is  not the church. Packer is not                          matter of principle.       Only the       ness, Pentecostal, and other evan-
the church. Neuhaus is not the                             pope's insistence on still more Prot-     gelical traditions are much closer
church.          Colson, Packer, and                       estant concessions and the adamant        to the Catholic understanding . .."
Neuhaus in a room together are not                         opposition of Luther wrecked the          ("The Catholic Difference," in
the church. They are all free-lanc-                        enterprise and saved the Reforma-         Evangelicals   & Catholics Together:
ers who have taken it upon them-                           tion.                                     Toward A Common Mission,  ed.
selves to do the church's business                             Regensburg is a warning to the        Charles Colson and Richard John
and to speak in the name of the                            true church in all ages that false, if    Neuhaus, Word, 1995, p.  199).
church. They  are  running in the                          well-meaning, ecumenicity is as               The same point was made in a
work of church unity, but Christ                           great a danger to the gospel, and,        recent issue of the Roman Catholic
has not sent them.                                         therefore, to the church, as is her-      magazine, New  Oxford Review,  al-
                                                           esy. The truth which has been won         though the subject was not a de-
The Tactics of Diplomacy                                   by dint of struggle, sacrifice, suf-      fense of ECT but a defense of Rome
      Another evil is that ECT tries                       fering, and blood on the battlefield      against the shrill attacks upon her
to achieve church unity by the tac-                        can be lost at the conference table       by certain American fundamental-
tic of playing with words, crafting                        by nice, smiling, ecclesiastical dip-     ists. With reference to one of these
misleading phrases, and adopting                           lomats. In one day!                       critics of  ~the Roman Catholic
deceptive documents that paper                                 No genuine church unity will          Church, the author correctly ob-
over real, substantial, and abiding                        ever be realized in the way of ig-        serves that he-the critic-is "zeal-
divisions. The ecumenical method                           noring or manipulating doctrine.          ous in defending the Protestant
of the men of ECT is not that of                           This is not the way of the Spirit of      Reformation but does not realize
frankly facing up to doctrinal dif-                        truth.                                    that his own emphasis on `decid-
ferences and then honestly debat-                                                                    ing for Christ' inescapably implies
ing these issues, in order to arrive                       The Real Oneness of Rome and              the possibility of co-operating with
at oneness that consists of real                           Modern Evangelicalism                     the grace of justification-a possi-
agreement in the truth of the Word                             In addition, ECT virtually begs       bility the Reformers constantly con-
of God.                                                    true evangelicals to investigate          demned but upon which the Catho-
      In this respect, ECT resembles                       what it is that opens up contempo-        lic Church insists" (New  Oxford Re-
the notable ecumenical conference                          rary evangelicalism to compromis-         view,  Jan. 1999, p. 33).

                                                                                                               May 1,1999/?Standard Bearer/341


     Rome has made it her official         Betrayal of the Gospel of Grace              who enters the judgment trusting
confession that the doctrine of free-              Although ECT can, and should,        even in part for his righteousness
will is basic to her teaching on jus-      be criticized in several respects, it        in his own work, or in the work of
tification. Canon IX of "The Can-          is the purpose of this series of edi-        any other than Jesus alone, will be
ons and Decrees of the Council of          torials to expose ECT as a betrayal          condemned.
Trent" on justification reads:             of the gospel of grace simply by                 Salvation is at stake here!
                                           virtue of its compromise of the              Have the  evangelicals  in ECT for-
  If any one saith, that by faith alone    truth of justification by faith alone.       gotten Luther's verdict upon every
  the impious is justified, in such                How serious  ECT's compro-           one who  practices  Rome's doctrine
  wise as to mean, that nothing else       mise of justification by faith alone         of justification? The  32"d of the 95
  is required to co-operate in order       is, the book of Galatians shows. It
  to the obtaining the grace of Justi-                                                  theses was, "Those who believe
  fication,  and fhaf if is nof in any     condemns the corruption of the               that they can be certain of their sal-
  way necessary, fhaf he be prepared       truth of justification. But, as has          vation because they have indul-
  and disposed by fhe movement  of  his    been demonstrated in a previous              gence letters will be eternally
  own will:  let him be anathema           editorial, the Galatian heresy was           damned, together with their teach-
  (emphasis added).                        the very same as the Roman doc-              ers."
                                           trine of justification with which                All Roman Catholics are prop-
     Calvin saw clearly that the           ECT compromises.                             erly, and necessarily, the objects of
heart of the Roman heresy of justi-                The condemnation is devastat-        evangelism.
fication by faith and works is the         ing.                                             For the true church, the impor-
lie of free-will:                                  Galatians 1:6-9 calls the Roman      tance of maintaining justification
                                           doctrine approved by ECT "an-                by faith alone is, as Luther put it,
  The Papists . . . can by no means        other gospel," and curses those              that this is "the article of a stand-
  allow that the righteousness of          who teach it.                                ing or a falling church." To teach
  faith is gratuitous, for from the be-            Galatians  5:2-4 declares that to    it is to teach the gospel of grace,
  ginning this figment about free-
  will has been resorted to-"if men        add any work to the work of Christ           and this is the mark of a true
  of themselves come to God, then          for a sinner's righteousness, as the         church, the infallible sign of the
  they are not freely justified."          Roman doctrine approved by ECT               presence of Jesus Christ Himself.
  They, then, as I have said, imag-        does, is to forfeit the profit of Jesus      Denial or corruption of justification
  ine a partial righteousness, they        Christ altogether; is to become              by faith alone is to teach salvation
  suppose the deficiency to be made        debtor to do the whole law; and is           by the will and work of man, and
  up by satisfactions, they have also,     td fall completely from grace.               this is the infallible mark of the
  as they say, their devotions, that               Galatians  2:21 charges that the     false church, which has abandoned
  is, their own contrived modes of         Roman Catholic denial of justifica-          Christ.
  worship. Thus it comes, that they
  ever persuade themselves that the        tion by faith alone, which denial                For God, the importance of
  righteousness of man, at least in        ECT approves and affirms, makes              maintaining justification by faith
  part, is made up by himself or by        the death of Christ vain.                    alone is that by the preaching, be-
  works (commentary on Hab. 2:4).                                                       lief, and confession of this doctrine
                                           Standing Up Against Peter and                God is glorified in His marvelous
    Every church that maintains            an Angel from Heaven                         grace. In this doctrine, with its re-
free-will, though its evangelical                  The gravity of compromising          lated truths, particularly the truth
credentials be never so impressive,        the gospel-truth of justification, as        of the bondage of the will, God is
is one with Rome in the doctrine           is done by ECT, indicates the im-            God. The gracious God justifies the
of justification. It comes as no sur-      portance of our maintaining the              ungodly-only the ungodly-on the
prise that this church in one way          doctrine of justification by faith           basis of His own work of mercy
or another expresses approval of           alone, without compromise. Main-             and justice in the cross of Jesus
ECT. Such an evangelical church            taining this doctrine is of essential        Christ-only the cross of Jesus
can indeed cooperate with Rome in          importance for the penitent sinner,          Christ.
evangelism: both offer to sinners          for the true church, and for God.                On the other hand, to teach jus-
a salvation dependent upon the                     For every penitent sinner, the       tification by man's own works,
sinner's own will, choice, or accep-       importance of justification by faith         even in part, is blasphemy. This is
tance, and both thus grant to sin-         alone is that confessed in Article           the worst blasphemy, for it denies
ners a righteousness made up, in           23 of the Belgic Confession of Faith:        God His Godhead  in salvation  and
part, of the sinner's own fine ef-         "(it) gives us confidence in ap-             makes man his own god  in salva-
forts.                                     proaching to God, freeing the con-           tion.  Luther was right: "It is . . .
                                           science of fear, terror, and dread."         as blasphemous to say that a man
                                           On the other hand, every human               is his own god, creator, or producer

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as it is blasphemous to say that he          and whatever will not abide, fall        alone may be yielded.
is justified by his own works."              to ruin."                                  ~~~ On the contrary, as Luther also
    Elect, penitent sinners  must  be            Although North American cul-         exhorted, since justification by faith
comforted; the true church  must             ture develops into the kingdom of        alone is "the principal doctrine of
stand; God  must  be glorified.              the beast, although the evangeliz-       Christianity . . . if you see this
    Therefore, we take our stand             ing of the lost seemingly suffers,       threatened or endangered, do not
with Luther: "Of this article (that          and although the church of Christ        be afraid to stand up against Peter
is, justification by faith alone-DJE)        gives the appearance of hopeless         or an angel from heaven."
nothing may be yielded or con-               division-matters which deeply                 Here, we stand up. Cl
ceded, though heaven and earth               trouble us also-nothing of the gos-                                                  - DJE
                                             pel-truth of justification by faith




                           Pelagiws and Celestius:
  Enemies of the Doctrines of Grace (1)

                                             Nestorianism (which we discussed         heresies really were errors in the
                                             in out last article) and decisions       doctrine of man. Pelagius denied
Introduction
W                                            about Pelagianism, the heresy            original sin and the corruption of
           ith the adoption of the           against which Augustine fought  -        the human nature. But, quite ob-
           Creed of  Chalcedon the           and which is the subject on which        viously, this denial affected also
           Trinitarian and  Christo-         we now write.                            the doctrine of salvation. If man is
logical controversies were, to all in-           This relation between the con-       not a sinner, totally depraved, he
tents and purposes, brought to an            troversies over the doctrine of          does not need Christ to save him.
end. Many different controversies            Christ and the doctrines of man          He can save himself.                  These two
continued to perplex the church,             and his salvation is important. In       doctrines had to be treated to-
especially in the East; but they             fact, the church could not very well     gether.
were vain and useless, mostly due            deal properly with the doctrine of             The second point is that the
to philosophical speculations of             salvation without settling the doc-      c h u r c h ,   p r i o r   t o   t h e   t i m e   o f
men who were out to promote their            trine of Christ. The truth of salva-     Pelagius and Augustine, had really
own private agendas more than to             tion is based on the truth of Christ.    not understood very well either the
learn the truth of Christ.  Chal-            To get soteriology straight, one         doctrine of man or the doctrine of
cedon established for the church of          must         understan~d    correctly    salvation. In a way this is under-
the new dispensation the doctrine            Christology. We cannot save our-         standable, because the church had
of the person and natures of Christ.         selves. Only God can save us. But        had no opportunity to examine
    The controversies which next             salvation comes through Christ.          these questions, for the defense of
plagued the church were over en-             Hence, Christ must be God  - in          the truth concerning Christ occu-
tirely different doctrines: the doc-         the ringing words of  Nicea: "very       pied all their time. But serious er-
trines of man and of salvation (an-          God of very God."                        rors were present, although they
thropology and soteriology). The                 The doctrine of Christ was           were primarily to be found in the
two overlapped a bit, in fact. The           settled. The church could now turn       East.
council of Ephesus in 431, for ex-           to the doctrine of salvation in                In general, the church as a
ample, made decisions about                  Christ.                                  whole surely understood that man
                                                 A couple of other matters must       is a sinner and needs salvation.
                                             be treated by way of introduction.       The church also understood that
                                             The first is that the doctrine of man    Christ had come into the world to
Prof.  Hanko is professor of  Church His-
tory and New Testament in the Protes-        and the doctrines of grace are also      save His people from their sins.
tant Reformed Seminary.                      related to each other. The Pelagian      These truths were too clear and too

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frequently mentioned in Scripture          exercise himself to do the good. He       logians that they already struggled
to doubt them. But when it came            could make choices that would             with the difference between origi-
down to specifics, errors kept crop-       bring the rewards promised or the         nal guilt and original pollution.
ping up. The chief of these errors         punishment justly given. As one           Augustine taught both.                   The
was the doctrine of the freedom of         church father put it: "All men are        church, which in large measure re-
the human will to choose between           of the same nature, able both to          pudiated Augustine's teaching, lost
good and evil.                             hold fast and to do what is good,         the doctrine of original guilt. It
    The question of human free-            and, on the other hand, having also       was not recovered for 1000 years,
dom was the pivotal point on               the power to cast it from them and        that is, until the time of the Refor-
which the whole Pelagian contro-           not to do it."                            mation.
versy turned. How striking that                I suppose that I can plead the            But considering all these
people will never learn the lessons        importance of the subject we are          things, we can understand how the
of history. Still today most of the        discussing to justify the length of       Pelagian controversy took place.
church world clings tenaciously to         this introduction, but one more           And, understanding that, we can
the doctrine of human freedom. It          point needs to be made in connec-         appreciate the towering contribu-
is the downfall of salvation by            tion with what I have just said. Al-      tion of Augustine, whom I consider
grace.                                     though what I have now to say was         to be the greatest of all the church
    From a certain point of view it        especially true in the Western            fathers.
is not surprising that the church          church (Italy, Spain, France, North
held to the doctrine of the freedom        Africa, where Latin was the main          Pelagius and Celestius
of the will. The theologians who           language  - in distinction from the       W e   s h a l l   h a v e   t o   d i s c u s s
considered the matter at all               Eastern church of Greece, Asia Mi-        Pelagius and Celestius together, for
thought this doctrine was quite im-        nor, Palestine, Egypt, where Greek        their lives were intertwined, espe-
portant to defend Scripture against        was mainly spoken), many did be-          cially in the controversies which
other errors. The church had to do         lieve in the doctrine of original sin,    they stirred up.
battle with paganism, and pagan-           although it was not clearly under-            Little is known about the early
ism held strongly to the idea that         stood.                                    life of either of them  - as little is
Fate irresistibly controlled the lives         Two other doctrines of the            known of their end. Most likely
of men, so that they were helpless         Christian faith seemed to many            Pelagius was born in England (or
pawns in Fate's hands. The pagan-          theologians in the West to make a         Ireland) around 350. He became a
ism of Augustine's time even held          doctrine of original sin necessary.       monk and spent most of his early
to the idea that Fate controlled the       I doubt whether any of our read-          years in a monastery. Celestius
lives of the gods.                         ers could guess what those two            was probably born in Scotland, but
    In addition to such pagan              doctrines were, partly because only       nothing other is known of him un-
thought, heresies had appeared in          one of the two is true.                   til he appeared in Rome.
the church which taught that sin               The true doctrine is the doc-             The two became the closest of
was inevitable. I refer to Gnosti-         trine of the virgin birth of Christ.      friends, although Celestius was a
cism and Manichaeism. Both her-            The theologians in the West argued        disciple of Pelagius and had
esies taught that matter itself is sin-    correctly that the necessity of           learned his heresies at Pelagius'
ful. And, because man is com-              Christ being born of a virgin must        feet. Celestius was, theologically,
posed, at least in part, of matter,        lie in the fact that only in this way     the superior one. He was the theo-
man is sinful by virtue of his cre-        could He who was sinless be pre-          logian of Pelagianism. He set forth
ation.    The body is inherently           served from sin.                          and developed the doctrines which
wicked. Over against this awful                The wrong doctrine to which           became known as Pelagianism. I
doctrine the church thought it nec-        appeal was made was the doctrine          doubt whether Pelagius was ca-
essary to teach that man has a free        of baptism. I have mentioned be-          pable of doing that. One writer
will, and that sin is not inevitable       fore in these articles that the church    dismisses Pelagius with the off-
but the result of human choice.            taught that baptism washed away           hand remark: "To a great degree,
    Besides, the church pointed to         sin committed prior to baptism. If        he lacked an interest in doctrine."
the fact that the Bible itself speaks      the Bible commanded infants to be             Pelagius was a very learned
of choice. And, in connection with         baptized, and baptism washed              man if one considers the breadth
choices we have to make, the Bible         away sin, infants were sinful. How        of his education. But he was shal-
speaks of rewards and punish-              could infants be sinful? Only by          low and superficial in thought and
ments  - rewards for good choices          original sin. That is, all infants        in feeling. As a monk, he gave
and punishments for bad choices.           shared in the sin of Adam.                himself over to ascetic practices (al-
So, obviously, man could resist                So advanced was the concep-           though one of his contemporaries
temptation when it came. He could          tion of some of the Western theo-         spoke of him as somewhat chubby),

344/Standard  Bearer/Mayl, 1999


but he lived a moral life. He never         struggles with sin which character-                      Pelagius wrote a one-volume
married and, while not disapprov-           ize the life of a saint. He fought                   work on the epistles of Paul, and
ing of marriage, considered it to be        no inner battles, struggled with no                  in this book he set down his views,
a concession of sorts to the flesh.         temptations, knew not a holiness                     such as they were. But he de-
No moral fault was ever charged             which comes from denying oneself,                    pended on Celestius to be his
against him. But he seemed to               taking up one's cross, and follow-                   spokesman. This Celestius could
have had no understanding of the            ing Christ. Outward morality was                     do. He was the theologian of the
difference  - how shall I put it?  -        all. A morally upright life was a                    two. He could set down the views
the difference between morality             breeze. But to gain the holiness of                  which Pelagius himself never un-
and holiness. He was blameless in           Christ through the deep way of sin                   derstood sufficiently well to ex-
conduct, but coldly and dispassion-         - of that he had no conception.                      plain.
ately so. He had no sense of the                                                                                . . . to be continued Cl





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

                                            churches that may differ from us                     understand the difficulty that this
Dating in the Church  - 2
T                                           doctrinally. We did find, however,                   presents to covenant parents and
       he safest place for young            that there are some serious con-                     children alike.
       people to date is within the         cerns which must be resolved be-                         Remember, however, we made
       confines of their own church         fore we marry someone of a differ-                   the statement that the  safest  place
or denomination. Who can deny               ent religious background. The saf-                   to look is in one's own denomina-
that? When looking for a book, we           est place to search for a life's mate,               tion of churches. We did not say it
search in a bookstore.          When        therefore, is within the same                        is the only place to look. That has
searching for a loaf of bread, we           c h u r c h   o r   d e n o m i n a t i o n   o f    already been established. But there
look in a store that sells groceries.       churches of which we are members.                    is something more that should be
When looking for a life's mate, we               I can anticipate the objection                  considered by parents who are
look in the sphere of our own de-           that will be leveled against such a                  called by God to live and raise chil-
nomination. That is where we will           statement. "This guy is living with                  dren in a place where the church
find believers, and that is where           his head in the clouds! He must                      is small and isolated. Parents
we will find people of like faith           have lived in Grand Rapids, Michi-                   ought, whenever it is feasible, to
with us.                                    gan his whole life and never got-                    encourage their sons and daugh-
    We have already concluded in            ten out into the real world! There                   ters to attend functions of their de-
the last article that it is not a sin to    may be a large nucleus of people                     nomination which promote fellow-
date someone outside the sphere of          with the same faith  (PRC) as he in                  ship with others of like faith. I re-
one's own denomination. God's               that area, but it is not like that ev-               alize that this is not always pos-
covenant and church are not lim-            erywhere. My children and I come                     sible to do. Neither do I wish to
ited to one denomination of                 from a small, isolated church in                     oversimplify a difficult dilemma.
churches. God has His people in             which there are very few young                       But parents themselves, with their
                                            men and women, and most of these                     children, ought to exert themselves
                                            are relatives. To limit dating to the                to maintain contact with as many
                                            sphere of our own church is sim-                     others of like faith as possible.
Rev. Bruinsma is pastor of Kalamazoo        ply not realistic." This is a serious                    The objection that there are few
Protestant Reformed        Church in        and legitimate concern. Neither                      or no people of like faith available
Kalamazoo, Michigan.                        may it be ignored. We certainly                      for dating where we live does not

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change the fact that the safest place     someone with whom we are going            his exploits with women? Does he
to find a life's mate is in the sphere    to spend a lifetime, for better or        enjoy the sinful pleasures of this
of one's own denomination of              for worse. Do not we desire a hus-        world? Does he like his drinking
churches. This is true no matter          band on whom we can rely entirely         and enjoy the theater? Does the
what denomination it is to which          from a spiritual point of view? Do        horrendous, godless music of this
we belong. If I am convinced that         not we want a wife whom we can            wicked world blast from the win-
my church teaches the truth and           trust in the home with our children       dows of his car? Does he use foul
that I want a wife or husband who         when we are away at work? Well,           language, even going so far as to
agrees with me in that truth, then I      that means we must always be se-          use God's name in vain? Is that
look in my own church. It is simple       lective, even when looking for a          the kind of guy we want to marry
wisdom. It is a matter of common          husband or wife in the church!            and settle down with for our en-
sense. Those who do otherwise in              That raises some practical, con-      tire life? If so, we are fools. Okay,
the long run only hurt themselves.        crete questions. How do I know,           so maybe he is guilty of only a
    But that is not the end of the        how can I be sure, that the one I         couple of the things mentioned.
matter. There is another principle        marry is a child of God who will          Still, is that the one we want to
of Scripture that enters in at this       share with me a lifetime of joy and       marry? Obviously, his works show
point. We read in Romans 9:6-8,           happiness?     I have had young           that he is not serious about a sanc-
"For they are not all Israel, which       people come and ask me that ques-         tified, godly walk. "By their fruits
are of Israel.. . . They which are the    tion because they see the trend of        ye shall know them."
children of the flesh, these are not      the church world today toward di-             Likewise, we are able to dis-
the children of God: but the chil-        vorce. It frightens them! How can         cern the heart of a young woman
dren of the promise are counted for       they be sure? The answer is found         whose works are sinful.          She
the seed." Not every member of a          in this: only by determining that         dresses in a wanton manner and
church institute, even if that insti-     the one we marry is a believer! We        flirts with every guy that will cast
tute is pure in doctrine, is a believ-    may not simply assume this. We            his eye her way. She too enjoys
ing child of God. There are those         have to probe the heart of that per-      her drinking and party life. She is
who are born in the church, or who        son to find what is in him or her.        seldom home, but always on the
join it from the outside, who are             This may begin already before         fly with her friends. She also uses
not elect. The decree of election         one decides to date a particular          the language of this world and en-
and reprobation cuts through the          person. Jesus gives some practical        joys its sinful music along with its
heart of the church. There are tares      advice in this regard in Matthew          dance and theater. Is that the type
in the wheat field. Sometimes             7:15-20. In these verses He warns         of young woman that a godly
there can be many tares, depend-          us specifically against false proph-      young man will look for to spend
ing on the spiritual condition of the     ets. But certainly we can apply this      a lifetime in marriage? Is that the
denomination. Just as it is rash to       Word of God to include also all           kind of woman who will keep
assume that every child born into         those in the church who make the          house for me and teach my chil-
the church is an elect, so also is it     claim of being believers but are not.     dren spiritually? I would be a fool
rash to assume when looking for a         Jesus warns us: "Ye shall know            to date someone like that! Unless,
husband or wife in the church that        them by their fruits.       Do men        of course, I am just as sinful as she
everyone in it is an elect.               gather grapes of thorns, or figs of       is! Like seeks like, I guess! But
    There are those who will tes-         thistles? Even so every good tree         those who seek this kind of young
tify that this was the simple as-         bringeth forth good fruit: but a          person for a date do so only be-
sumption they made when they              corrupt tree bringeth forth evil          cause they enjoy recreational dat-
courted. After they married, how-         fruit.... Wherefore by their fruits       ing. They most often do not take
ever, they found out that such an         ye shall know them."                      dating seriously!
assumption was a mistake! When                Before you ask a young woman              But the objection may again be
looking for a wife or a husband,          out or give consent to a young man,       raised by some parents:        "The
the believer must be careful even         look first at the way he or she lives.    church does not have members
in his own churches  - no matter          You can know them by their works.         who do these things. What hor-
how doctrinally faithful those            Do they live a godly life  - or a         rible accusations you raise against
churches may be! I do not dispar-         sinful, rebellious life? Surely, if we    young people of the church!"
age dating within the sphere of the       live with them in the confines of         Those parents who raise such ac-
church and covenant when I say            the same church and covenant we           cusations had better open their
this. That is certainly where it be-      know what kind of persons they            eyes! Surely not all the young men
longs! But we must realize the se-        are! Everyone has a reputation. Is        and women of the church are this
riousness of finding the proper           that young man who has asked me           way. I am not even saying that
mate. Our husband or wife is              out one who boasts to his peers of        the majority of the young people

346/StandardBearer/Mayl,  1999


are this way. I certainly pray not!              reational! It is serious work!           a good time. But even when a guy
But every denomination has young                     It is important for covenant         and his girl are having a nice time
men and women of this nature.                    young men and women to be able           with each other, they can talk about
And these are not the kind that one              to talk with one another about their     their spiritual lives. They should.
who is seriously looking for a hus-              spiritual life. Again, this ought to     They must. This may not be ig-
band or wife wants. Young people                 begin before they start dating each      nored. Even in the midst of the
who live carnally may indeed re-                 other. But certainly it is a require-    good times a person's faith should
pent of such sin and turn from it.               ment immediately after they begin        be evident.
But so long as they live in this man-            dating. When spiritual struggles             When we discover such faith
ner we ought not even desire to                  and goals in life are discussed it       in a person, then we can be certain
date them. They are not the type                 will soon become evident to one          that if we are led by God to marry
of person with whom the believer                 who is himself a believer whether        that person, God will indeed bless
wishes to be united for a lifetime.              that person whom they date is also       that union. When we date follow-
      The matter of proper discern-              truly a believer. That does not          ing the principles of Scripture, God
ment in dating, however, gets even               mean they must talk only about the       will lead us to a mate who will give
more complicated than this. There                doctrines  and- practices of the         us a lifetime of happiness and joy.
are also young men and women of                  church, but they must share with         God does not give us His Word in
the church who do lead good out-                 each other their conviction that         order to restrict us or to keep us
ward lives, whose moral life seems               they are sinners saved by grace and      from having a good time. On the
exemplary  - but who are not nec-                that solely in the blood of Jesus        contrary, God gives us the guide-
essarily truly believers. They sim-              Christ. This is in the heart of the      lines of His Word in order that by
ply are not of a rebellious nature               true believer. This faith will soon      following that Word we discover
at that point in their life. Yet, they           enough be detected in their con-         the true joy that can be found in
are not motivated by any real con-               versation.                               marriage.
viction. How do we know that we                      Again, I am not saying that ev-          May God give us hearts to fol-
are not dating a person of this sort?            ery date must involve a discussion       low His Word, that we might
Again, do you see how  serious~   a              of some heavy spiritual subject. A       search for a life's mate in the way
matter dating is? Courtship in the               young couple may go out and have         God chooses for us. This will lead
sphere of the covenant is not rec-                                                        to a solid, lasting relationship. 0




                        The Duty of the Christian Mother
              in the Training of Adolescent Youth (1)"

T                                                tion of children in general is not       But the topic is still more specific
        he subject that has been as              an easy task. But the subject I am       and becomes concerned with a still
        signed to me is not a new                to speak on is much more specific        more difficult task. It concerns the
        one, but I think it is a very            than that, because it speaks of the      education of adolescent children,
important one. The subject con-                  duty of the Christian to educate his     which is perhaps the most difficult
cerns the education of our children,             children.     That makes the task        age for the training which they
and that is always important. It is              much more difficult already, even        must receive. Finally, my subject
recognized by all, that the  educa-              if we take Christian in as wide a        is still more limited and still more
                                                 sense as possible, because that          definite, because I am not to speak
                                                 means that one has to accomplish         on the calling of the Christian, or
Herman Hoeksema was the first editor  of         a task in opposition to practically
the Standard Bearer.                                                                      even of the calling or duty of a
x.    This is  the  transcripf   of  a speech    all the influences that are exerted      Christian parent, but more specifi-
given by Herman Hoeksema at a Ladies'            upon his children from without  -        cally on the calling of the Chris-
League Meeting in  Hudsonville,  MI on           especially, of course, from the          tian  mother  in the education, in the
April 29,1943.                                   world in which they must move.           training, of her adolescent children,

                                                                                                   May  1,1999/Standard Bearer/347


and therefore particularly in the             in the first place physically. It is      possible. Therefore, in childhood
home.                                         very plain at that age of our boys        we should store away into our
    Now, bearing these limitations            and girls that they are making a          children's minds as much as pos-
in mind, I think I can best make              transition. You can tell that by, for     sible the truths of the Word of God,
my remarks by trying to answer es-            instance, the fact that they begin        whether or not they understand it.
pecially three questions.           First:    to grow very fast - girls somewhat        Children do not have to under-
What is characteristic, specifically          earlier than boys, but boys keep on       stand immediately what they com-
characteristic, of adolescent chil-           a little longer. You will also notice     mit to memory, for when they are
dren? That there is something pe-             that their growth is somewhat dis-        13 and 14 they begin to reflect.
culiar, something specifically dis-           proportionate; that is, they don't        They no longer take for granted,
tinct, about that age is not only             know what to do with their long           as they did in childhood, that all
true, but is presupposed in the sub-          legs and their long arms, and they,       that they hear and are taught is
ject assigned to me. In thesecond             especially the girls, think their         true. Not only that, but they do
place, and in connection with-that            noses are a little bit too long. That     not simply absorb it, they want to
first question, I shall try to answer         is simply characteristic of that age,     understand it. They ask "why?"
this question: What peculiar prob-            the age when they are between, let        They begin to seek an explanation
lems and difficulties are presented           us say, a napkin and a tablecloth,        at that age. That is characteristic
to the Christian mother by the age            as the Dutch expresses it. Belong-        of that age.
of adolescence with a view to the             ing to this transition, and much                   In the third place, there is at
training of her children? Also that           more serious, is the fact that at that    that age an opportunity to declare
is presupposed in the subject given           age they awaken to sex conscious-         one's independence, more or less,
me. And finally, there will be the            ness.    In adolescence, children         depending somewhat on the nature
answer to this question: What                 make a very important change. A           of the training in childhood. Nev-
should be the peculiar, specific at-          certain new, and to them often            ertheless, whether it is when they
titude that should characterize the           strange physical life begins to de-       go to high school, or whether it is
efforts of a Christian mother with            velop, a life with which they were        when, somewhat later, they earn a
a view to the training of adoles-             not acquainted before, and ought          little money, they begin to feel that
cent children?                                not to have been. In connection           they should have more indepen-
    When I speak of the age of ado-           with that physical development of         dence. They like to shake off the
lescent children tonight, I will limit        the early adolescent youth, there is      yoke of the governor. They feel
myself to what is often called the            also a psychological change.              that, largely due to that abundant
age of early adolescence. In a gen-               Adolescence is, in the second         life.
eral way the age of adolescence is            place, the age of spring. The                      In the fourth place, psychologi-
considered to be the period be-               springtime of life, and therefore the     cally that period is characterized
tween the beginning of what is                age of looking forward, the age of        by instability.        They have not
called the age of puberty, up to              idealism, the age of dreams. The          reached the stability of manhood.
manhood or womanhood. Let us                  burdens and difficulties and prob-        They have not taken a stand. They
say, generally speaking, from about           lems of life, adolescents do not see.     can be easily led, though they don't
13 to 21. That is in a broad sense            In fact, at that age they often see       think so. They are subject to many
the age of adolescence. But you               them less than when they were             influences, probably without their
can distinguish and divide that age           children. It is, therefore, the age       knowing it. In close connection
into the period of early adolescence          of hope. Unbounded hope, very             with that, I may say that in many
and later adolescence, and I am go-           often, whether it is real or not, it      respects adolescence is the age of
ing to limit myself to that former            makes no difference to them, but          choice, the age in which choices
period in order to adhere as closely          that is characteristic of this age.       must be made, both from a natural
as possible to the subject  - the             There is a life within them that is       point of view and a spiritual point
training of adolescent children  -            exuberant and abundant, and they          of view. In that age we choose our
so that I am thinking now of the              don't know what to do with it. In         friends, our life friends. It is espe-
period between the ages of, say, 13           connection with that, it is also the      cially in that age that we choose,
and about 17 or 18.                           age of reflection. In distinction         by God's grace, to confess His
    Now, what is characteristic of            from the age of childhood, adoles-        name and to take a stand with re-
that period of life? The general              cents begin to reflect, to think.         gard to the things of the kingdom
characteristic of that period is that             In the period of childhood, they      of God.
it is an age of transition  - transi-         were receptive, and they took for                  Remember that. An age of
tion from childhood to manhood                granted what was taught to them.          hope and idealism. An age of an
and womanhood. That is true from              The Lord has so arranged the de-          abundant life. An age in which one
a threefold point of view. It is true         velopment of the child that that is       begins to reflect, to think. An age

34Sfitahdard  Bearer/Mayl,  1999


in which one begins to feel that he      There is in adolescence a change          dancing when he works for fifteen
is ready to declare his indepen-         in attitude over against external au-     hours a day! I used to sit at the
dence. An age in which he is nev-        thority, which the mother particu-        table in the sitting room and try to
ertheless unstable and easily            larly, as well as  any~teacher,  ought    light my pipe, and before I had it
moved to and fro and is subject to       to understand in dealing with chil-       lit I fell asleep.
many influences. An age of choice.       dren of that age. One cannot teach            Not today! The early adoles-
The age for taking a stand, perhaps,     John, when he has been Johnny, as         cent youth are in school. They are
for the stability of manhood both        if he were still Johnny. That is all.     in school until they are seventeen,
in a natural and a spiritual sense.      There is something natural in that        and in school they don't find suffi-
That is the age of which I am            which requires attention.                 cient outlet for their physical life.
speaking, and that is characteristic         In the second- place, in close        The result is that, especially in our
of that period of transition.            connection with the former and be-        day and in our country, there is a
    Now, the second question I will      cause of the strong development of        tendency in our youth in the age
address: What are the peculiar dif-      life, there is a tendency on the part     of early adolescence to seek plea-
ficulties and problems that present      of the adolescent youth to act as if      sure as the outlet of their life. They
themselves to the teacher and            he knows it all, and especially to        want fun; they want something to
trainer of adolescent youth, par-        act as if he knows it much better         do. Take that life in connection
ticularly, of course, to the Chris-      than his parents. That is often the       with the fact that they are full of
tian parent, and more specifically       case when the child goes to high          joy. I am not talking about wrong
to the Christian mother? That            school and begins to read, to solve       amusements that are characteristic
training requires special methods        problems, and to come in contact          of the problems of life. It is not a
and special attention. For there are     with all kinds of solutions to all        question of whether you can root
problems in adolescence that re-         kinds of problems. He is then in-         it out. The question is how you
quire specific solutions, and that do    clined to think that he knows             can deal with it. It is a problem.
not present themselves in child-         things much better than the old fo-           These inner problems are ag-
hood. I will mention a few of them.      gies, he is intolerant over against       gravated by circumstances without,
    In the first place, at this age      his parents' old notions, and he is       especially in our day. There is in
there is a danger on the part of the     somewhat ashamed of them, for he          our land and in our age usually a
adolescent youth to disregard and        knows much better. That  is  an-          strong  neglect and disregard of and
deny authority. He is apt to shake       other problem.                            for authority. The world does not
off the shackles. And you can no             Now, I say again, there is            know what authority means. And
longer simply take him or her by         something natural in that. You            the children at that age, if they get
the hand or guide him and direct         must not simply assume that these         into the world, find all kinds of
him by the word of your mouth.           things are characteristic of an evil      support for the wrong conception
There is something natural in that.      child. I am not talking about evil,       of their relation to parent and
I am not condemning this. I am           only about characteristics of that        teacher and to those whom God has
merely speaking of what is charac-       age. And it is not a question of          placed over them, so that this ten-
teristic of the problems in that pe-     whether you can explain it. It can-       dency that is in them to deny the
riod. In the development of the          not be explained. You must know           authority that has been upon them
adolescent youth, there is some-         how to  deal  with it. You cannot         as a child is in danger of becoming
thing natural about his desire to        prevent this any more than you can        an evil tendency. The same is true
shake off the shackles of authority      prevent physical-growth. You              especially with the tendency to ex-
that were upon him when he was           must understand that.                     press their life, to seek pleasure.
a child. That is even true in the            There is in the third place, still    There are in the world all kinds of
spiritual sense. The apostle Paul        from within, the problem that these       ways, ready-made for them, in
speaks of the childhood of the           adolescent children try to find an        which they can express that life.
church in the old dispensation           outlet for their exuberant life, es-          I am not thinking merely of the
when it was placed under a gover-        pecially if they go to school and         movies and the theater and the
nor and was guarded by the law.          do not have to work hard and long         dances and all these things, but I
But when the child is grown up           days. When I was an adolescent            am thinking just as well of certain
and has passed the age of child-         youth of fifteen years old, I had to      kinds of companionships, friend-
hood, it becomes characteristic of       work from four in the morning un-         ships, literature, radio, the automo-
that child to want to get away from      til seven at night in the blacksmith      bile, and the urge to leave home
that kind of authority. There is a       shop, winter and summer. Then             and go out and not be seen and to
danger here if the parent does not       the problem of the theater and            go far and not come home until
understand that change. This is          movies and dancing wasn't very            late, to seek pleasure. That is char-
one of the dangers from within.          great. One does not feel much like        acteristic of our day. Now put that

                                                                                             May 1,1999/Standard Bearer/349


adolescent youth  - one who, re-               doesn't, he ought to  - may I do              companions, adolescents, who are
member, is unstable, hasn't made               this or that; may I go here or there?         in the nature of the case easily
up his mind, likes to shake off the            You are then going to have practi-            moved and inclined to seek that
shackles, thinks he knows it all  -            cal problems in your home which               very life, will find all kinds of op-
put him in the middle and next to              are not  ~always  easy to solve. You          portunity to express themselves in
all these kinds of means and plea-             have to distinguish.                          evil ways.
sures of the world and you have a                  So there is, from without espe-             What to do about it. That is
real problem. If your child comes              cially, the danger of falling into            my last question....
home he will ask you  - if he                  wrong hands. Especially under the                            . . . to be continued.  0
                                               influences of worldly and corrupt





         Christian Political Activists Concede Defeat
         in the Cultural War-Advocate New Strategy
                                                 of Separation

                                               demic community. It threatens to con-         nent organizers of the "religious
      or several decades, cultural con-
F                                              trol literally every aspect of our lives.     right" in American politics have
      servatives' strategy has been to             I believe that we probably have lost      shocked their followers (and de-
      elect conservatives to govern-           the culture  zuar. That doesn't mean          tractors) by admitting that their
ment offices and then rely on their help       the war is not going to continue, and         conservative political activism of
to retake society`s institutions.  I was       that if isn`t going to be fought on other     the past two decades has resulted
an architect of that strategy.. . .            fronts. But in terms  of  society in gen-     in a dismal failure. They are now
     In terms  of  the culture war, this       eral, we have lost. That is why, even         advising their supporters to aban-
strategy has failed. In truth,  I think        zoohen  we win in politics, our victories     don the political fray and "sepa-
we are caught up in  a  cultural col-          fail to translate into the kind  of  poli-    rate" themselves, "bypassing the
lapse  of  historic proportions, a collapse    tics we believe are important.                institutions that are controlled by
so great it simply overwhelms politics.            Therefore, what seems  fo me a le-        the enemy."
That's why I am in the process  of  re-        gitimate strategy for us to follow is to          Paul Weyrich, the primary ar-
thinking what it is that we, who still         look at ways to sepnrate ourselves from       chitect of Rev. Gerry Falwell's
believe in our traditional, Western,           the institutions  that  have been  cap-       Moral Majority in the  198Os, re-
Judeo-Christian  culture, can and              tured by the ideology  of  Political Cor-     cently stunned supporters of his
should do under the circumstances.             rectness, or by other enemies  of  our        conservative think-tank Free Con-
     The United States is becoming an          traditional culture.                          gress Foundation, by declaring in
ideologica2  state. The ideology  of Po-                                Paul Weyrich,        an open letter, published partially
litical Correctness, zohich openly calls            President of the Free Congress           in the Washington Post, that the re-
for the destruction  of  our  traditional                   Research and Education           ligious right must now acknowl-
culture, has so gripped the body poli-             Foundation, February  16,1999.            edge defeat in the cultural war, and
tic,  has  so gripped  our  institutions,                                                    rethink its strategy in the future
that it is even affecting the Church.          A Historic Change                             (see quote above).
It has completely taken over the  aca-             A momentous and historic                     Two other leading figures in
                                               paradigm shift is rapidly occurring           Falwell's Moral Majority are like-
                                               within the camp of Christian po-              wise now recommending that con-
                                               litical activists as we approach the          servative Christians abandon poli-
                                               end of the twentieth century. In
M                                                                                            tics, which they claim is usually a
  Y.  Lanfing, a member  of  South Holland
Protestant Reformed Church, is a practic-      the past few months, several evan-            temptation that diverts Christians
ing attorney.                                  gelical political leaders and  promi-         from a higher calling. Syndicated

350/Standard  Bearer/biayl,  1999


columnist Cal Thomas, a prominent                  ute money to specific political          two decades has been essentially
spokesman for the religious right,                 causes and campaigns.                    ineffective in combating the demise
and Rev. Ed Dobson, a former                           But if the religious right in re-    of our culture, what should be the
Falwell aid and now a Michigan                     cent years enjoyed some remark-          new strategy? Weyrich writes:
pastor, in their newly released                    able election victories on the na-
book Blinded By Might,  declare that               tional and local levels, why are              So what is to be done? Con-
the political activism of the Moral                Weyrich and others conceding de-           tinuing with a strategy that has
Majority was a misguided idea.                     feat? Weyrich writes:  `I... we got        failed is folly and guarantees de-
"Religious conservatives," they                    our people elected; but that did not       feat. Instead of attempting to use
write, "no matter how well orga-                   result in the adoption of our              politics to retake existing institu-
                                                                                              tions, my proposal is that we cul-
nized, can't save America."  Dob-                  agenda." Essentially Weyrich de-           tural conservatives build new in-
s o n   a n d   T h o m a s   a l s o   e c h o    clares that conservatives won some         stitutions for ourselves: schools,
Weyrich's dismal conclusion that                   political battles but lost the war  -      universities, media, entertainment,
religious conservatives are an im-                 the cultural war raging in all the         everything  - a complete separate
potent minority. They contend that                 institutions of society which have         parallel structure. In every respect
last November's elections "demon-                  fallen to the ideological enemy,           but politics, we should, in effect,
strated the problematic, even de-                  whom he identifies as Political Cor-       build a new nation among the ru-
clining power of the religious                     rectness or "Cultural Marxism."            ins of the old.
right."                                            For Thomas and Dobson the signal
     Weyrich similarly writes in his               for the demise of the religious right         Weyrich implores his followers
open letter to supporters: "I no                   was the dismal results of last           to "tune out" and "drop out" of
longer believe that there is a moral               November's elections; for Weyrich        America's culture so that "we and
majority; if there were, Bill Clinton              the telling blow was Congress' fail-     our children are not infected."
would have been driven out of of-                  ure to impeach Clinton.                  What we need, says Weyrich, is
fice months ago." Weyrich at-                                                               "some sort of quarantine," so that
tributes the loss of the culture war               The Victorious Ideological Enemy         we can live "godly, righteous, and
not only to the "lack of political                     Weyrich identifies the victori-      sober lives."
will on the part of Republicans,"                  ous enemy as the ideology of Po-              In their book  Blinded By Might,
but because the "United States is                  litical Correctness or "Cultural         Cal Thomas and Rev. Ed Dobson
becoming a state totally dominated                 Marsixm," an "alien ideology bit-        also advocate the withdrawal of
by an alien ideology, an ideology                  terly hostile to Western culture."       American churches and people of
bitterly hostile to Western culture."              The proponents of abortion, radi-        faith from the fray of politics and
                                                   cal feminism, homosexuality, and         the cultural conflict. The book tar-
The Demise of the                                  pornography have seemingly               gets-Pat Robertson's Christian Coa-
Religious Right                                    gained control of our society's in-      lition, the successor to the Moral
     The recent appeal to conserva-                stitutions.    Even worse, writes        Majority, and also is critical of Dr.
tive Christians by Weyrich, Tho-                   Weyrich, if conservatives attempt        James Dobson  - no relation to Ed
                                                                                            -
mas, and Dobson for a complete                     to talk about the "truth" regarding           of Focus on the Family, for his
disengagement from the political                   these subjects, they are branded as      increasing activism in the right
arena is astonishing. Although the                 " `sexist,' `homophobic,'  `insensi-     wing of the Republican Party. The
Moral Majority was dissolved by                    tive,' or `judgmental."' Weyrich         authors praise James Dobson for
design several years ago, Christian                opines that what Americans would         his contributions to strengthening
conservatives, now led by Pat                      have found "absolutely intoler-          the American family, but fear that
Robertson's Christian Coalition,                   able" only a few years ago, a ma-        his politics will "derail and dilute
had accomplished some significant                  jority now embraces and celebrates.      the good he is doing."
political victories in recent years,               This frightening ideology, contends           These recent publications by
particularly the ostensible "take-                 Weyrich, is now ruling the schools       Weyrich, Thomas, and Ed Dobson
over" of the Republican party in                   and universities, and is "pumped         are causing substantial confusion
1994, and the election of many                     daily into every living room in          and diverse reactions in the evan-
Christians to local government                     America with a television set." It       gelical church community. Because
posts, including public school                     is rapidly becoming the "official        these developments in the area of
boards. For the last twenty years,                 ideology of the state."                  church and state are significant, in
these Christian political leaders                                                           a following article this writer will
have encouraged churches and                       The New Strategy of                      continue to review the controversy
para-church organizations to orga-                 Disengagement                            and offer some comments from our
nize voter registration drives, dis-                   But if organized political action    Reformed perspective.  0
tribute voter guides, and contrib-                 by the religious right over the past

                                                                                                      May 1,1999/Standard Bearer/351


                                                Poverty
   Holy Scripture uses the words poverty and 9). "Having food and raiment let us betherewith
             poor in two senses. First, these words refer      content" (I Tim.  6:8).
             to those who do not have a sufficient amount          The Scriptures also use the words poverty and
  of natural, earthly things to exist; they lack food,         poor in the spiritual sense. All mankind has impov-
   clothing, and other necessary items so that they can-       erished itself by its willful sin of disobedience
  not fulfill their callings. If we ask the question, Why      through Adam in the Garden. Although God had
  is this so? the ultimate reason is given in I Samuel         created man in His own likeness and image, man
  2:7, "The Lord maketh poor, and maketh rich: he              was not impressed with his high estate. He will-
  bringeth low, and lifteth up."                               fully cast away the riches of God's image and be-
       As the Lord exercises His sovereignty in regard         came wretchedly poor apart from God. We are poor
  to the distribution of earthly things, He has two pur-       sinners, possessing nothing of any value in ourselves.
  poses in mind. The lack of earthly things brings His         "This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and
  children very close to Him and works trust in their          saved him out of all his troubles"  (Ps.  34:6). "Bow
  heavenly Father. And secondly, the presence of the           down thine ear, 0 Lord, hear me: for I am poor and
  poor with us gives the saints opportunity to give            needy. Preserve my soul" (Ps.  86:1,2).
  unto them in love.                                               We are given a striking picture of our spiritual
       In the Old Testament the Israelites were to re-         poverty in the parable of the lost son (Luke 15).
  member the poor at harvest time, "Not wholly reap-           Keeping in mind that the three parables of this chap-
  ing the corners of the field, neither gathering up the       ter form Jesus' answer to the Pharisees who thought
  gleanings . . . neither gathering every grape of the         they were righteous in themselves, we see that the
  vineyard. They shall leave them for the poor and             wayward son is not some especially sinful member
  stranger"  (Lev.  1~9:9,   10). The godly Boaz kept this     of the church but is a picture of every child of God.
  precept faithfully (Ruth  2:15, 16). The virtuous            Leaving God, we "waste our substance in riotous
  woman "stretcheth out her hand to the poor; yea,             living" (Luke  15:13). We did this not only with our
  she reacheth forth her hands to the needy"  (Prov.           original sin in Adam, but we do this repeatedly
  31:20).                                                      throughout our lives. Were it not for the love of
       Jesus reminds us of the tender concern God has          God that follows us even when we go astray, to bring
  for the poor by saying, "Ye have the poor with you           us to repentance and return us to our Father's house,
  always..." (Mark  14:7).  If we find that not to be          our squandering of God's good gifts would bring us
  true, we are not looking hard enough, or we are              to the final poverty of hell. If anyone thinks this is
  looking in the wrong places. Because the poor are            too harsh a judgment on the poverty of our sinful
  always with us, proper Sabbath observance includes           natures, hear the warning of Revelation  3:17, "Be-
  the taking of benevolence offerings (I Cor.  16:1, 2;        cause thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with
  L.D. 38). One of the motives the workman has in              goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not
  his heart as he goes off to his job is "that he may          that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and
  have to give to him that needeth" (Eph.  4:28).              blind, and naked...." And hear the good counsel of
       No one sets out in life to be poor. No one  ought       Jesus in Revelation  3:18, "I counsel thee to buy of
  to set out to be rich! "They that would be rich fall         me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich;
  into temptation and a snare . . . for the love of money      and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and
  is the root of all evil"  (I Tim.  6:9,  10). Poverty and    that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and
  riches both present us with temptations. "Give me            anoint thine eyes with  eyesalve  that thou mayest
  neither poverty nor riches: feed me with food con-           see." These riches of salvation are of grace, free to
  venient for me: Lest I be full and deny thee, and            them that believe, to be found only in Christ.
  say, Who is the Lord? or lest I be poor, and steal,              Poor, needy, miserable, wretched sinners are
  and take the name of my God in vain" (Prov.  30~8,           made rich beyond calculation by the love of God in
                                                               Jesus Christ. "For ye know the grace of our Lord
                                                               Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your
  Rev. Kuiper is pastor  of  Southeast Protestant Reformed     sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty
  Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan.                            might be rich" (II Cor.  8:9). 0


352fitandard   Bearer/Mayl,  1999


                                                Signs of the Times (6)
                            False Prophets Arise

                                             day of judgment the question will         pecially in the history of Job. God
    And many false  prophets shall           be:     "What thinkest thou of the        calls Satan's attention to Job as a
arise, and  shaIl deceive many. And          Christ?"                                  man who is upright and eschews
because iniquity shall abound, the love             Satan opposes God and His          evil. God also gives him power to
of  many shall wax cold.                     Christ, and seeks to wipe out God's       deprive Job of all his property and
                        Matthew  24:ll       name and God's cause from the             his children. Later God gives him
G                                            face of the earth. His name Satan         power to afflict Job with painful,
         od eternally appoints the           designates him as the enemy of            ugly sores, so that even his wife
         Son to be the Christ, the           God, and his name Devil tells us          turns against him, but the devil
         great Servant of Jehovah,           that he is the liar, the deceiver even    may not take his life from him. The
the great Prophet who reveals the            from the dawn of history. As a            -Lor-d proves thereby that He is sov-
Father through the preaching of the          fallen angel who with his follow-         ereign Lord and ultimately turns
Word. John speaks of Him in Rev-             ers rebelled against God and was          all Job's affliction into a blessing.
elation  6:2 as a white horse and its        cast out of heaven, he had the au-        The Deceiver is the instrument in
rider who go forth conquering and            dacity to oppose God by tempting          God's hand even when he works
to conquer. He is given a crown,             our first parents to eat of the for-      through false prophets, seeking to
for He already has attained the vic-         bidden tree, whereby death came           destroy God's cause and church.
tory and is exalted at the right             upon them and upon the whole hu-          God uses his evil attempts for the
hand of the Father. He has a bow             man race. The promised Christ, by         welfare and purification of His
in His right hand whereby He pen-            His death on the cross, crushed           church.
etrates into the hearts of all who           Satan's head and condemned him                 The apostle Peter warns us
hear the gospel.                             unto everlasting damnation.               that, even as there were false
    In this new dispensation the             Therefore, knowing he has but a           prophets in the old dispensation,
Word of God is preached through-             little while, he works tenaciously        so there will also "be false teach-
out the world. The good Shepherd             during this present dispensation to       ers among you, who privily bring
knows His sheep. He calls them               attempt to destroy God's church.          in damnable heresies, even deny-
by name and they come to Him and                    We should bear in mind that        ing the Lord that bought them" (II
become one flock with one Shep-              the devil and his host have great         Pet.  2:l).
herd.     And that Word that is              power to deceive, but they are not             These false teachers arise out
preached throughout the world for            almighty. God alone is almighty           of the church. As we look back on
all to hear never returns void. It is        in power, and the devil is always         the history of the last two millen-
a two-edged sword that cuts and              subject to and dependent upon the         niums we can only be amazed that
divides asunder. For those who do            will of God. Not, as it has some-         the church always stood firm in the
not believe, it is a savor of death          times been presented, that the devil      truth for only a little while. Soon
unto death, and for the believer it          cowers before God and reluctantly         heresies appeared, and the militant
is a savor of life unto life. That           crawls out to perform his evil            church was forced into a reforma-
determines all of history. In the            deeds. Nor, on the other hand, is         tion. This has continued even unto
                                             the battle of the ages a struggle be-     our present day.
                                             tween God and the devil, in which              The devil comes as an angel of
                                             God ultimately wins out by defeat-        light. That is what makes heretics
                                             ing the powers of darkness. God           so deceptive. Paul speaks of cor-
Rev. Hunko  is a minister emeritus in the    is sovereign Lord over all, also over     rupting the Scriptures, which is
Protestant Reformed Churches.                the devil. This becomes evident es-       done so surreptitiously that the  er-

                                                                                                      May  I, 1999/Standard  Bearer/353


ror comes creeping in almost un-          vant of Jehovah, nor as a prayer          "bring upon themselves swift de-
awares. With cunning deceit, false        for pardon (although the word for         struction." (Do not fail to read II
teachers deny the God and the             "forgive" is always used in that          Peter, chapter  1.)
Christ of the Scriptures, making          sense in Scripture), but rather as a          Jesus warns us that "many
themselves guilty of damnable her-        plea for postponement of God's            shall be deceived."
esies and leading astray the sheep        justice.    Thus they change the              The consequences of error be-
of God's fold.                            meaning of the passage to a gen-          come evident in the life of the con-
    Error always creeps in by a           eral, well-meant offer of salvation       gregation. The church of Ephesus,
questioning of the infallible Word        that is proclaimed to all men with        as mentioned in Revelation 2, lost
of God. The devil comes with the          the desire to save all.                   her first love, her love for sound
age-old question: "Yea, hath God              Thereby the doctrine of par-          doctrine. Gradually she weakens
said?" Soon the very inerrancy and        ticular grace is also denied. A per-      and becomes more apostate until
infallibility of the Bible are under      son is saved only on the condition        she can be compared only to the
attack, as is evident already from        that he himself is willing to accept      complacent church of Laodicea, of
the denial that Genesis 1 actually        the proffered salvation. It has been      which the Lord says: "I know thy
speaks of six days of twenty-four         said that salvation is like a huge        works, that thou art neither cold
hours.                                    arch, upon the one side we read:          nor hot: I would thou wert cold or
    Soon God's sovereignty is chal-       "Whosoever will may come," and            hot. So then because thou art luke-
lenged. False teachers first ignore       on the opposite side is written:          warm, and neither cold nor hot, I
and then deny outright the doctrine       "Saved by grace." Although they           will spue thee out of my mouth"
of predestination, attacking first        speak of salvation by grace alone,        (Rev.  3:15,16).
the truth of reprobation, then of         they actually stress in an increas-           Worldlimindedness results,
sovereignly free election. Soon the       ing measure a salvation by works,         movies and dances are considered
truth of God's particular love and        as if we can merit our place in           good entertainment, women are al-
grace for His people in Christ is         heaven.                                   lowed to hold office in the church,
denied. The truth of the promise              From this must necessarily fol-       divorce and remarriage are con-
of the gospel is changed into a           low that the perseverance of the          doned, and labor unions are de-
well-meant offer of salvation to all      saints depends upon us, so that           fended. Authority and obedience
mankind. The truth of God's jus-          there is the possibility that even the    in the home and in many other
tice is ignored.                          elect might fall away.                    spheres of life grow lax or are vir-
    From these fundamental errors             Gradually the Arminian error          tually absent.
follows quite readily a denial of the     of free will takes over in the  apos-         Especially in our day, because
total depravity of all the descen-        tatizing church. The emphasis in          of a total lack of interest in the
dants of Adam and Eve. Readily            the preaching is no longer on God,        truth of Scripture and because of a
these false teachers teach that God       but on  man. Modernism replaces           clamor for world conformity, de-
bestows grace on the reprobate            the truth of Scripture. It is as if       nominational walls are crumbling.
wicked, whereby they are gra-             God is in heaven for our sakes,           An appeal is made to the words of
ciously given good gifts from God         ready and willing to come to our          Jesus concerning His disciples:
and their hearts are improved, so         aid in time of need  - while the          "That they all may be one." Just
that they can do much that is good        truth is that we exist only for God's     as the world round about us strives
in the sight of God, whereby great        sake. God is not our servant, but         for unity, so also the apostatizing
progress and development results          we are called to be stewards in           church seeks an outward bond of
in the world. A bridge is built be-       God's house.                              unity. Completely ignored, if not
tween the church and the world,               It cannot escape us that heresy       denied, is the fact that the real
and the antithesis is denied. God's       in the church, and all the evils that     unity of the true church is a spiri-
justice and His wrath upon the            follow, come from those who re-           tual unity in Christ Jesus. The
house of the wicked are ignored,          ject the gospel. This is also God's       church is Christ's body, the elect
and thus also blatantly denied.           righteous judgment on those who           of all ages, the temple of God
    The next step readily follows.        reject and deny the Christ. In  Ro-       which is built upon the foundation
Since God loves all men, there must       mans  1:18 Paul speaks of the wrath       of the apostles and the prophets,
be a general atonement. They              of God revealed from heaven upon          that is, upon the Word of God
readily conclude that Christ died         all those who suppress the truth in       (Heidelberg Catechism, Q. 54).
for all mankind. Reference is made        unrighteousness. God gives them               God's church is one, a univer-
to the first cross-word, "Father, for-    over to their sin to commit all the       sal, holy church consisting of  the,
give them, for they know not what         evil desires of the sinful heart. The     true believers and their spiritual
they do." This is not regarded as         apostle Peter adds to this that those     seed. This church is gathered, de-
the highpriestly prayer of the  Ser-      who bring in damnable heresies            fended, and preserved by the Son

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of God out of every race, nation,              while God and His Christ are cast          ful, bitter experience. Families are
tribe, and people. Christ knows                out. The true church will be more          torn apart, friendships are broken,
His sheep, He calls them by name               and more hated and despised, even          those who formerly worshiped to-
through the ministry of the Word               persecuted for righteousness' sake.        gether are now in animosity.
and His Spirit, and they come to                   The Lord calls us to come out          Wounds are inflicted that never
Him. In Him they are one flock                 from among them. Even as He has            fully heal. Yet our calling remains:
with one Shepherd.                             called for reformations in the past,       Be thou faithful unto death! Hold
     Virtually all churches in our             so He requires of the faithful to          that which thou hast, that no man
day strive for a universal church              separate from among them that de-          take thy crown.1 The Lord is com-
that exalts man and brotherly love,            part from the truth. This is a pain-       ing! Cl




                Comforting the Bereaved

I                                              cope well with the loss of their dear      firmities (Heb.  4:15), so must His
     n the previous article we re-             ones often endure a great struggle.        servants, the elders, be touched
     marked that the elders must not           I recall one such widow in the             with the feelings of God's sorrow-
     ignore the needs of the loved             churches who gave every indica-            ing children.
ones of the dying. They need to be             tion of bearing up well with the                   Still more, let the elders listen
prepared for the reality of the                loss of her husband. This  dear-           to the bereaved with much patience.
death of their loved one as much               saint said to me, and this was at          Some of God's people struggle with
as or more than the dying person               least ten years after the Lord took        their loss for a long time. With
himself.                                       her husband, "I cry a little every         some it takes months, even years,
     If this be true, and it is, cer-          day." Another, this one a widower,         before a certain measure of recov-
tainly the elder must not ignore the           gave expression to his loneliness          ery is attained. So the elders must
bereaved. They need the comfort                with this statement, "the walls            be patient. And they must con-
of the Word of God.           They, the        don't talk." God's bereaved people         tinue to bring the Word of God in
ones left behind when the Lord                 need the comfort of the gospel!            the confidence that God's Word
takes a loved one to glory, experi-                The needs may vary a bit.              will be of comfort to the sorrow-
ence the loss of that loved one. The           Some are shocked,  benumbed  by            ing.      God Himself says of His
earthly relationship has been vio-             the sudden death of a loved one.           Word, "it shall not return unto me
lently and finally and forever bro-            Others are bitter and even angry           void, but it shall accomplish that
ken by "the last enemy"  ( I Cor.              with the Lord. Still others are            which I please, and it shall pros-
15:26). A wife loses her husband,              withdrawn and depressed. Some              per in the thing whereto I sent it"
a husband loses his wife. The                  are so overcome with grief that it         (Is.  55:ll).
widow or widower now "goes                     is impossible for them to function                 Let the elders listen to the be-
down life's pathway alone"! Par-               normally in their life's calling. Let      reaved in the  Zove of  Christ.  The
ents lose a dear child, or children            the elder carefully  Zisfen  to the be-    motive must be to edify the sor-
are left by parents or grandparents.           reaved so as to determine his/her          rowing by bringing them the com-
Or one's beloved friend is taken by            needs. Let the elder listen sympa-         fort of the gospel. That comfort is
death.                                         thetically  to the bereaved. In a real     grounded in the atoning work of
     Let no one be mistaken, cer-              sense the elder cannot effectively         Jesus on the cross, and that com-
tainly not the elders of Christ's              bring God's Word of comfort un-            fort is sealed by the victory of
church, these losses are not easy to           less he "feels with" those who are         Jesus' resurrection from the dead!
bear. Even those who appear to                 grieving. Elders must not perform          Our sins are forgiven for Jesus'
                                               the duties of their office perfunc-        sake. In the risen Jesus we have
                                               torily. Certainly they must not do         been raised to newness of life.
Prof. Decker is professor of Practical The-    this with the bereaved. Just as            Jesus by His death destroyed "him
ology in the Protestant Reformed Semi-         Jesus, our merciful High Priest, is        that had the power of death, that
nary.                                          touched with the feelings of our in-       is, the devil; And delivered them

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who through fear of death were all        us is in the last analysis the            ship of the communion of the
their lifetime subject to bondage"        believer's comfort in his  jher sor-      saints. This is a huge void in their
(Heb.  2:14-15). Because Jesus did        rows.                                     lives. The regular worship of the
this, "Our death is not a satisfac-           One caution is in order at this       Lord is what they so sorely miss.
tion for our sins, but only an abol-      point. The elders must never ne-          The elders, therefore, ought to visit
ishing of sin, and a passage into         glect the grieving saints after the       them often. These ought to be vis-
eternal life" (Heidelberg Cat-            funeral. A week or so after the fu-       ited once per week if at all pos-
echism, L. D. 16).                        neral is when the reality and the         sible. Often it's a good practice for
    Herein lies the comfort for           finality of the death of a loved one      the elder to bring a summary of
God's grieving children. When we          really hit hard.    The busyness of       what was preached in one of the
die, we are forever freed from the        making funeral arrangements, re-          previous Sunday's sermons. In this
bondage of sin. And when Jesus            ceiving comfort from the visits of        way the shut-ins are given a steady
returns at the end of the ages our        loved ones and friends, and the           and varied diet of the Word of
bodies will be raised and reunited        taking care of other details-all this     God. We might add that these vis-
with our souls. In those trans-           is over! Suddenly the widow or            its often prove to be very pleasant,
formed, resurrected bodies we will        widower feels the full weight of the      rewarding, and enriching for the
enjoy, together with all the saints       loss. She or he becomes extremely         elders. They often come away from
of God perfect fellowship with God        lonely. This is when the elders are       a call on the shut-ins feeling more
through our Lord Jesus Christ.            needed most. Call on the bereaved.        blessed than the one they visited!
Thus the earthly relationships need       Continue to call on the bereaved              The same is true when the el-
to be broken in order that they may       for as long as it is necessary. Pray      ders minister to the elderly. Be-
be restored in a new, heavenly re-        with them and bring them the gos-         cause of the frequency of the visits
lationship in the glory of the new        pel of their only comfort in life and     the elders often develop close
creation. In this way the elders          in death.                                 friendship with the elderly. Not
must bring the comfort of the gos-            The elders are also called upon       only so but also, simply because of
pel to the bereaved in the congre-        to care for the chronically ill, the      their many years of experience in
gation.                                   elderly, and the shut-ins of the con-     the church and in the "good fight
     Having made this point, how-         gregation. This too requires care-        of faith," the older members of the
ever, it is often necessary to stress     ful, diligent preparation. In these       church can be good teachers for the
one great truth of the gospel to the      instances the elder finds himself         elders. The aged saints are often
bereaved,  viz.,  that God's way with     visiting the same person weekly or,       the elders' wisest and best critics
us is always good. We may not, in         perhaps, bi-monthly. The visits           as well. This being the case, the
fact often we do not, understand          must not be repetitive. So the el-        elders do well to listen to these
God's way with us. Whether we             der must take care in preparing to        older members. By listening the
understand it or not, God's way           bring the Word of God on these            elders not only learn from the aged
with us is always good. It's a way        visits, lest he repeat the same truths    members, but they also learn the
which prepares us for glory. This         over and over again.                      specific needs of these saints. Thus
is God's Word through the prophet,            Those chronically ill or suffer-      the elders are enabled to bring a
"For my thoughts are not your             ing from debilitating, lengthy ill-       passage of Scripture appropriate to
thoughts, neither are your ways my        ness can sometimes become very            the specific need. Some need en-
ways, saith the Lord. For as the          discouraged and even dissatisfied         couragement, others need comfort,.
heavens are higher than the earth,        with God's way with them. Let the         A few become somewhat disillu-
so are my ways higher than your           elders with sympathetic under-            sioned with the church and even
ways, and my thoughts than your           standing and patience bring en-           embittered. These need the admo-
thoughts."  Us.  55:9,  10). In his or    couraging words to them from the          nition of God's Word. They must
her grief, often the believer has to      Scriptures. Sometimes, too, these         learn to be content in their old age.
be satisfied with this Word. To us,       folk find it very difficult, and in           All in all, most elders will tes-
God's way can seem so wrong. A            some instances impossible, to pray.       tify to the fact that visiting and car-
mother or a father is taken from a        While the elders must always in-          ing for the shut-ins and elderly of
family of young children. A child         clude prayer when they visit the          the church is one of the most en-
or teenager is taken. In these in-        sick and bereaved, it is especially       joyable and blessed aspects of their
stances we just do not understand         necessary to bring the prayer of          task as overseers of Jesus' precious
why God does this. But we do be-          faith to the chronically ill (cf. Jam.    flock.
lieve that God's way is good! The         5:13-15).                                     The next article, D. V., will deal
fact that God in His infinite love            Shut-ins need the care of the         with the elders' calling with regard
for us in Jesus and in His wonder-        elders too. They are cut off from         to the widows in God's church. Cl
ful wisdom knows what is best for         the means of grace and the fellow-

356/Standard  Bearer/Mayl,  1999


                                           ried young man), and more. The            kind of commentary on this impor-
                                           cases are true to life. The author is     tant section of the Heidelberg Cat-
                                           obviously a pastor who has heard          echism. In a "general introduc-
Ethical Dilemmas in Church Lead-           the dreaded telephone at 2:00 in the      tion" to  A Firm Foundation,  Lyle D.
ership:    Case Studies in Biblical        morning and who has struggled             Bierma, translator and editor of the
Decision Making,  by Michael R.            with such cases, to do what is right      book, contends that Olevianus had
Milco. Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel,           before God, good for the people in-       a greater hand in writing the
1997. 192 pages. $10.99 (paper).           volved, and best for the church. He       Heidelberg Catechism than recent
[Reviewed by the editor.1                  brings out the complexity of the          scholarship supposes. This would
                                           cases, as well as the pressures on        make  A Firm  Fourzdafion  the first
    The weaknesses of the book             the pastor. Usually his advice to         commentary on a large section of
leap out at the Reformed reader.           the pastor is sound. On occasion          the Heidelberg Catechism by one
There is no clear recognition that         he even recommends discipline.            who helped to draw up this Cat-
the sole standard of Christian eth-            Michael  R. Milco is Pastor of        echism. Olevianus wrote  A Firm
ics is the law of God whose end            Families and Small Groups at              Foundation in 1567.
(goal) is Jesus Christ. Whatever           Moody Memorial Church in Chi-                 This is the first publication of
does the Christian pastor have to          cago.                                     Olevianus' book in English. In his
do with Kant's categorical impera-             The Rev. Milco could help him-        foreword, Richard A.  Muller  notes
tive? The main use of Scripture            self greatly in guiding pastors if he     that this volume is "the first trans-
consists of finding an example in          would work with the distinction           lation and, indeed, the first mod-
some character or event that bears         between private and public sins.          ern edition (to my knowledge) of
some similarity to the person or in-       This is the distinction taught by         any work of Olevianus" (p. x).
cident that is under consideration.        Jesus in Matthew  18:15ff. It is the          Included in the "general intro-
The author is guilty of the preva-         distinction that is basic to that sec-    duction" are a brief account of the
lent error of supposing that a             tion of the Reformed Church Or-           life and work of Olevianus, a help-
Christian is called to forgive one         der of Dordt that deals with the          ful analysis of the relationship of
who has sinned against her, even           church discipline, Articles 71-80. If     A Firm Foundation  to the Heidel-
though the sinner is not repentant         a sin is, and can be kept, private,       berg Catechism, and a description
(see pp. 100-103, concerning forgiv-       as is the case in the book with the       of the theological significance of  A
ing a rapist). `In addition, it may        fornication of two teenagers, a pas-      Firm Foundation.
well be questioned whether the             tor will not report the sin to the            Bierma points to the signifi-
method of case studies is the effec-       consistory.  w                            cance of the work as an early de-
tive way of treating the subject.                                                    velopment of covenant theology.
                                                                                     The covenant of grace unifies
  Out of (my) experiences I felt the                                                 Olevianus' explanation of the
  need for the development of case                                                   Apostles' Creed.             S i n c e   t h e
  studies in pastoral ethics.... My
  purpose in writing is not to ar-                                                   Apostles' Creed is the summary of
  ticulate a particular biblical           A Firm Foundation: An Aid to In-          the whole of the Christian faith, it
  ethic.... My aim is to assist church     terpreting the Heidelberg Cat-            is evident that for Olevianus the
  leaders in the decision-making           echism,  by Caspar Olevianus. Tr.         truth of the covenant is central to
  process that affects the body of         and ed. Lyle D.  Bierma.       Grand      all the doctrines of Scripture.
  Christ (p. 15).                          Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1995.
                                           Pp. xlii + 132. $17.99 (paper). (Re-        FF  (A  Firm  Foundation-DJE)
    Nevertheless, the book has its         viewed by the editor)                       marks the beginning of the first
value for the Reformed pastor. The                                                     effort in the history of Reformed
subject is the difficult decisions that        A Firm Foundation  is Caspar            theology to employ the covenant
pastors must make concerning the           Olevianus' commentary, in ques-             idea as a unifying theological
right handling of various sins in the                                                  principle over a lifetime of theo-
                                           tion and answer form, on the                logical reflection and writing  (p.
congregation: sexual abuse of chil-        Apostles' Creed. Because  Olevi-            xxix).
dren; homosexuality, with its con-         anus in this catechetical commen-
sequences of AIDS; theft of church         tary followed closely the Heidel-             In this connection Bierman calls
funds; the pregnancy of the unmar-         berg Catechism's treatment of the         attention to "the close relationship
ried young woman (by the unmar-            Apostles' Creed, the work is also a

                                                                                                 May  1,1999/Standard Bearer/357


between covenant and predestina-                   defense of, and grand treatment of        Christ without being a true be-
tion" in Olevianus. For Olevianus                  providence; his teaching of eternal       liever.
                                                   justification ("their sins have been
 the covenant of grace "flows out                  pardoned from eternity"-p. 9); his          176 Q. But what if the Evil One
 of the fountain" of God's gracious                assertion that the reigning Christ          were to say, "This all applies only
 election in Christ. Covenant and                  always keeps His church "under              to believers, but your faith is much
 election are different links in the               the cross and all sorts of enemy            too weak"?
 same "golden chain" of salvation                                                              A. I would respond to that by
                                                   zealotry to curb the remaining sin
  described         i n   R o m a n s   B....                                                  saying that whoever desires from
 Olevianus integrates covenant and                 in them" (p.  81); and his insistence,      the heart to believe is in fact a be-
 election in such a way that the                   oft repeated, that salvation is "un-        liever. Christ says in Matthew  5:6,
 former, by its very definition as                 conditional."                              "Blessed are they who hunger and
 reconciliation with God through                       Ministers who preach the                thirst after righteousness, for they
 justification and renewal, is                     Heidelberg Catechism will want to           shall be filled."
  viewed as part of the unfolding                  read this work in preparation for
  of God's decree of predestination                preaching on the Lord's Days ex-              Ultimately the assurance of the
  (p. xxx).                                        plaining the Apostles' Creed. Re-         believer is certainty of his own per-
                                                   formed believers will benefit from        sonal election:
        Bierma  himself argues that this           the instruction in the faith by this
characteristic of early Reformed                   excellent and authoritative teacher.        Whoever, then, is a believer is also
theology refutes the theory of some                    Especially edifying and of the          elect, for the Scriptures testify that
contemporary theologians that                      greatest importance is Olevianus'           each and every true believer has
"early Reformed covenant theology                                                              been elected from eternity unto
                                                   teaching on the assurance of salva-
. . . (was) an attempt to mollify a                                                            eternal life (I Pet. 1:2; Rom. 8:28,
                                                   tion in the face of the devil's temp-
rigid double predestinarianism in                                                              30; Eph.  l:ll, 13). Therefore,
                                                   tations of believers to doubt (pp.          when you are in the throes of de-
Calvinist orthodoxy in the late six-               112-124). It is evident that for the        spair about whether you are elect,
teenth and early seventeenth cen-                  Reformers assurance is an integral,         you must not let your thoughts try
turies" (p. xxx). The close relation-              essential element of faith itself.          to scale the heights of God's de-
ship between election and covenant                 Further, it is evident that it is Re-       cree. You must rather hold on to
in Olevianus, pointed out by                       formed to comfort even the weak-            the Word, which promises that all
Bierma, also refutes those today                   est believer with the certainty that        believers have been elected by
who mightily exert themselves vir-                                                             grace unto eternal life, and that
                                                   he possesses genuine, saving faith.
tually to sever covenant from elec-                                                            those who hunger and thirst after
                                                   To work at instilling doubt con-
tion.         A c c o r d i n g   t o   Bierma,                                                righteousness are believers....
                                                   cerning the reality of faith with per-      And if we have faith, then we are
Olevianus taught that "God's gra-                  nicious questions, "Is your `feeling'       also elect, for faith is given to none
cious covenant (is) with the elect"                genuine? Have you had a remark-             but God's elect (Rom. 8) (p. 122).
(p. xxix).                                         able experience? When you scru-
        The centrality of the covenant             tinize your faith, are you sure that           The book is the first in an im-
for Olevianus did not mean that                    it is real?" is for a church or a min-    portant series of works on Refor-
covenant swallows up all else. The                 ister to ally itself or himself with      mation and post-Reformation or-
exposition of the twelve articles of               the Evil One; indeed, it is to give       thodoxy published by Baker. The
faith is a careful, rich explanation               itself or himself to the Evil One as      series is entitled, "Texts and Stud-
of all that is necessary for a Chris-              his willing agent. No less destruc-       ies in Reformation  & Post-Reforma-
tian to believe. Particularly inter-               tive to assurance is the false doc-       tion Protestant Thought." The gen-
esting are Olevianus' emphasis on,                 trine that one can have a desire for      eral editor is Richard A. Muller. 0





                                                   Minister Activities                       Congregational Activities
                                                   Rev. Carl Haak, pastor of the                  he council of the South  Hol-
                                                                                             T
                                                        Bethel PRC in Roselle, IL, has            land, IL PRC has scheduled the
                                                   declined the call he had been  con-       organizational meeting of the
Mr. Wigger  is an elder in fhe~Prof~sfanf
Reformed Church of  Hudsonville, Michi-            sidering  to serve as the next under-     Northwest Indiana congregation
gun.                                               shepherd of the Hull, IA PRC.             for the evening of May 5, D.V.

358/Standard  Bearer/Mayl,  1999


    The congregation of the Hope                  Hudsonville, MI also continues to         crowds indicate success, then Hope
PRC in Walker, MI met recently                    work towards completion of their          enjoyed a successful evening. I
and approved proposals from their                 new church home. Latest updates           know some who skated in the
council to remodel their church                   on their building progress indicate       hockey game and who certainly did
basement, and to provide some                     that construction continues to move       enjoy themselves-though not the
new furnishings for it as well. It is             forward. Drywall work continues           score.
anticipated that the work will be-                to be done. Electricians have fin-
gin in May and should be com-                     ished hanging lights in the audito-       Mission Activities
pleted by the end of the summer.                  rium and narthex, and exterior
    Unless we have gone through                   brick work has begun.                     In case you missed the March 14th
                                                                                              letter from Rev. Ron Hanko, our
it, we can only imagine the  work                     The Hull, IA PRC met recently         missionary to Northern Ireland, he
that has to be done when a congre-                and decided to approve the offer          writes in part that the bid of the
gation moves into a new church                    that had been made to buy their           Covenant PRC in Northern Ireland
home. It has to be an exciting time               parsonage. This sale was possible         on the property in Ballymena was
for those involved in the move.                   because this spring Hull began con-       accepted, subject to planning per-
Our Bethel PRC, now in Roselle,                   struction on a new parsonage. Lat-        mission. They are now in the pro-
IL, has been doing just that these                est reports indicate that the project     cess of scheduling a congregational
past months. Church buildings                     is proceeding in good order, with         meeting to approve the bid and the
don't just finish themselves. Many                construction running ahead of             borrowing of the money to ay for
details have to be worked out.                    schedule.                                                                     P
                                                                                            it. The property is about of an
Much care has to be put into clean-                                                         acre in size, large enough for a
ing and furnishing the church. The                School Activities                         building and parking. The diffi-
church has to be decorated, pulpit                                                          culty, however, is that Covenant
furniture set up, organ and piano                 The Midwest PR Secondary Edu-
                                                     cation Society in Iowa met in          will have to put a building on the
installed, and countless items                    March and passed a proposal to            property, and that may take quite
moved from the old place of wor-                  have their board investigate the          some time, even if planning per-
ship.                                             possibility of starting a high school     mission is obtained.
     But I don't think we have to                 utilizing the two existing school              Our churches' missionary to
feel sorry for Bethel. We can prob-               properties.                               Pittsburgh, Rev. Jaikishin Mahtani,
ably assume that, after waiting as                    The Hope Foundation of the            continues to improve from his de-
long as they have, they are enjoy-                Hope PR Christian School in               pression and is preaching once
ing every minute of it. After all,                Walker, MI sponsored their third          each Lord's Day.
what better motivation for doing                  annual ice skating party on March
all this than the love of the Lord                20 at the Walker Ice and Fitness                      Food-For  I?iou.ht
which they share.                                 Arena. Plans called for a junior               "If you have to tell your chil-
    Their new address is 115 Pratt                hockey game for grades 9-12 first,        dren that you love them, then you
Blvd, Roselle, IL 60172.              Phone       followed by two hours of open             certainly do not."
number is  (630)  307-9402.                       skating, and concluding with a                                    - Anonymous  Cl
     T h e   G e o r g e t o w n   P R C   i n    men's hockey game.           If large




         RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                     RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                        RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
    The council and congregation of First             The council and congregation          The council and congregation of South-
PRC, Grand Rapids, express Christian              of Southeast PRC wish to express          west Protestant Reformed Church extend
sympathy to Mr. and Mrs. Bill Booth in            their sympathy to John and Elaine         their heartfelt Christian sympathy to Mr.
the passing away of Bill's sister,                Flikkema, with their children, in the     and Mrs. Dick Kuiper and family in the
                FLORENCE.                         passing away of Elaine's brother,         death of her father,
     "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that          JOHN VAN SOLKEMA.                              MR. HENRY (BUD) ZWAK.
heareth my word, and believeth on him                 "And ye shall be hated of all         May the grieving family find strength in
that sent me, hath everlasting life, and          men for my name's sake: but he            the promise of God that  `I... all things work
shall not come into condemnation; but is          that endureth to the end shall be         together for good to them that love God,
passed from death unto life" (John  5:24).        saved" (Matthew  10:22).                  to them who are the called according to
                   Rev. J. Slopsema, Pres.                       Rev. Dale Kuiper, Pres.    his purpose" (Romans  8:28).
                        Ron DeVries,  Clerk                           Ed Hekstra, Clerk                    Rev. Ron Cammenga, Pres.
                                                                                                                    Darrel Huisken, Clerk

                                                                                                        May 1,1999/Standard Bearer/359


     Fe
Standard
 Barer                                                                                                                                PERlODltX4L
                                                                                                                                      Postage Paid at
   P.O. Box 603                                                                                                                       Grandville,
   Grandville, MI 49468-0603                                                                                                          Michigan


                                                        RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                     RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
                                                           The Men's Society of Hope                                  The Ladies' Aid of Hudsonville
          CALL TO SYNOD!!                              PRC in  Redlands express their                             PRC express their sympathy to our
     Synod 1998 appointed First                        heartfelt Christian sympathy to Bill                       sister member,  Freda Zwak, in the
Protestant Reformed Church, Hol-                       Feenstra, Donald Feenstra, and                             death of her husband,
land, Michigan the calling church                      John Feenstra and their families in                                 HENRY (BUD) ZWAK.
for the 1999 synod.                                    the death of their sister, and to                              As we have just studied, each
     The consistory hereby notifies                    Everett VanVoorthuysen and his                             of us can with confidence "lift up
our churches that the 1999 synod                       family in the death of his  sister-in-                     my soul. 0 my God I trust in thee"
o f   t h e   P r o t e s t a n t   R e f o r m e d    law,                                                       (Psalm  25:lb,  2a). Recalling this,
Churches in America will convene,                        MRS. MARGE ARMSTRONG.                                    we know we are in God's merciful
the Lord willing, on Tuesday, June                             We pray that they may find                         care and He will be our guide and
8, 1999 at 9:00 a.m. in the First                      comfort in God's precious Word,                            protector.
Protestant Reformed Church, Hol-                       "Verily, verily, I say unto you, he                                            Truett Hugg, Pres.
land, Ml.                                              that heareth my word, and believeth                                          Donna Boven, Sec'y.
     The pre-synodical service will                    on him that sent me, hath everlast-
be held on Monday evening, June                        ing life, and shall not come into
7, at  7:30 p.m. Rev. G.  VanBaren,                    condemnation; but is passed from
president of the 1998 synod, will                      death unto life" (John  524).                                               NOTICE!!
preach the sermon.  Synodical  del-                            Rev. Arie  denHartog, President                             The Evangelism Committee
egates are requested to meet with                         Earl L. Grothman, Jr., Secretary                          of Southwest Protestant Re-
the consistory before the service.                                                                                 formed Church invites you to
      Delegates in need of lodging                                 TEACHERS NEEED                                   their
should          c o n t a c t   M r .      John                H o p e   C h r i s t i a n   S c h o o l   o f        1999 Summer Seminar
VanUffelen, 860  PawPaw  Dr., Hol-                     Redlands, CA is in need of a
land, Ml. Phone: (616) 396-8498.                       teacher for the intermediate grades                                       on the theme
                                Consistory of          (3  & 4) for the 1999-2000 school
                  First PRC, Holland, Ml               year. The grade assignment, how-                              "The Biblical Way through the
                John  VanUffelen,  Clerk.              ever, is flexible, with the possibility                                  Millennial Maze"
                                                       instead for an elementary position
                                                       (grades  1  & 2). Interested persons                         Session Topics
                                                       are encouraged to send an appli-                             1 Premillennialism
   RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                              cation to Hope Christian School,                             w Postmillennialism
      The Mary Martha Society of                       Attn:        Ed Karsemeyer, 1309 E.                          n  Dispensationalism
Hope PRC in  Redlands  express                         Brockton Ave., Redlands, CA                                  n  Amillennialism
their sincere Christian sympathy to                    92374. You may also phone school
Audrey VanVoorthuysen and fam-                         (909-793-4584), Bill Feenstra  (909-                         Session Leaders
ily in the loss of her sister, and to                  793-3597),  or Mike Gritters  (909-                          + Rev. Ron Cammenga
Beverly Feenstra, Janice Feenstra,                     793-4439).                                                   + Prof. Russ Dykstra
and Shirley Feenstra and families
in the loss of their sister-in-law,                            Hope Protestant Reformed                                             Dates:
   MRS. MARGE ARMSTRONG.                               Christian School is in need of a                                          July 21 & 28,
      May they find comfort in the                     Protestant Reformed music/band                                            August 4 & 11
words of Psalm 23:6,  "Surely good-                    instructor for the 2000-2001 school
ness and mercy shall follow me all                     year. For information, please di-                            All sessions to start at 7:00  P.M.
the days of my life: and I will dwell                  rect inquiries to Mike Lotterman,                            at:
in the house of the Lord for ever."                    1382 Su-Lew, Walker, Michigan                                            Southwest PRC
      Rev. Arie  denHartog, President                  49544 (616) 453-4106 or the ad-                                        4875 lvanrest Ave.
           Cindy Grothman, Secretary                   ministrator, Ron Koole, (616) 453-                                    Grandville, Ml 49418
                                                       971 7.
366/Standard   Bearer/Mayl, 7999


