CLASSIS REPORT  September 15, 1973 For church news in a nutshell, we’ve lifted the following paragraph from the September 9 bulletin of First Church: 

HEBREWS 11:30

(80 – 250 A.D.) THE SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST The church of God and of our Lord Jesus Christ, during its New Testament infancy, probably looked upon the second advent or coming of Christ as near at hand. We must not misunderstand the expression, “during its New Testament infancy.” This expression does not refer to the infancy of the church as during the early years of the New Dispensation. We must bear in mind that the church of God has been in existence throughout all the ages, from the beginning of time.

Yes, Noah and his family were saved by water.  We usually think of them being saved from the waters of the flood and by the ark.  Now this is certainly true. While all the other inhabitants of the earth were swept out of the land of the living by those waters of the flood, Noah and his family were saved from such a calamity. And the means which God used to save them while He was destroying the rest of the human race was the ark. We have no argument with those who would state the facts that way. 

We discovered in our previous article that it is difficult to define the scope of Christian liberty. We recognize that there is an area of our Christian calling in which the individual Christian must determine for himself whether a thing is good or bad. One Christian may decide it is bad for him, while another Christian may deem it proper. Since it is not clearly defined, it gives rise for debate and sometimes severe judgment of fellow Christians. On the one hand, a Christian may become overly cautious. We quote from John Calvin’s Institutes, Book III, Chapter 19, page 134,

We have been much preoccupied by shortages in our land lately whether these have been contrived or real shortages, they have been affecting our land and our lives. We are even inclined to complain: against the government; against farmers; against the middleman. Such complaint or dissatisfaction is rather strange — since we still have food in such abundance that it almost literally “comes out of our ears.” Much is still thrown away after meals are fished. We have such variety yet that kings of old could hardly equal.

(Editor’s note: The following address was delivered at the convocation of the Theological School of the Protestant Reformed Churches, held this year at the Southeast Protestant Reformed Church of Grand Rapids on Sept. 5, 1973.)

It is that time of the year again when our children have returned to school. This is an important time of the year for covenant parents because the sending of their covenant children to covenant schools is part of the fulfillment of the vows which they made at the time when they presented their children for baptism.

If you took note of the cover of this issue of ourStandard Bearer when it arrived in your mail, you will already have noticed that there must be something special afoot with our magazine. And indeed there is! Perhaps you have already discovered the nature of this special occasion. For if you inspected the new symbol displayed on the cover, and looked carefully at the reproduction of the very first masthead ever used to identify our magazine, you will have discovered, too, that the occasion is the beginning of our fiftieth year of publication. 

{Editor’s Note: The meditation in this issue is a reprint of the very first meditation ever to appear in the Standard Bearer, from Volume I, Number 1, page 1. It is from the pen of one of the original editors, Rev. Herman Hoeksema We place this meditation instead of the regular one from the pen of Rev. M. Schipper in observance of the beginning of our fiftieth year of publication. } “The Lord is good to all. . . but all the wicked will He destroy. “