                                                                                                      .--.                                                                                                                      `I  I




                   VOLUME   XXIX  _.                                              SEPTEMBER                    1,             -1953        -                GRAND      RAPIDS,      MICH;              '     NU~~~R      Z-J
                                            3. `. .                                                                                        David is accused. There is a case pending against
            + I~~~~~~~~lloll~e~~~~~~~,~~~~-,~~,~,,~~                              I-,-  (I-,,-  ,,, ,-,,-,.)
                         M  E  D  I  T.  A  T  1  0  N                                                                 `.,               1:.                l':"'
                                                                                                                                           And he brings the case to the hirhest Jud.Pe.  his
            *~*1OlI~IMII.I~.IHll.ll.~l~~~~,,~~~~~,~`
                                                                               ,~,,~,,~,,.~~,~,,~`
                                                                                                                     ,~,,~`
                                                                                                                               ,,.
                                                                                                                               i      God. Neither  is he afraid of  tippeaiing.   befo&  &at
                                                                      AttecL;d                  1              _              ,great                  tribuizal.                             .
                                                                                                                                                                       He appends hlg grounds for coming:
                                                                                                                                      foi-  1:have  walked in my integrity. What does -that
                                                                                                                                                                                                  -
                              "Judge  me,  .O  Lord; for  -1  -h&e- walked  in mine                                                   -mean?                It certainly. does not mean that David was
                           integrity:  `1 `have -trusted also -in .the Lord; th&e-                                                    sinless.              Such. is `not the meaning of the -term. No,
                           fore I shall not-slide. Examine  me,-.0  -Lord, and
                           prove me; try my  r&ins  and  my- heart." etc.'                                                            &t it  stress&  the fact that David wds a  harmless
                                                       ,                            _. . APsalm  26- m&. To be a man of ir&grity is the- very contrast
      -            Now that is -a foolish. thing .to:.da..' Whatever or                                                               of being a hypocrite. It stresses `the fact that David
           whomeveti  you  m&y  attack,  never attack  .innocen&.                                                                     was without  .guile in this case, whatever it may have
           You lose  befor&ytiu.start;   -Whatever   y& do to  $i&ue been: - He had -walked  -in the hone&y,. the purity and
            returns upon -your -head a -million -times .over; Because                                                                 the  +ghteoustiess of his  regenerated heart; `Such
            virtue is God-,                 ~  -'  .- --  -..  ._                                             .          :            `people are harnil&s  and it.% folly-to `attack theti.'
                   Yet  stich  -was  ,the-  c&e with:  .David:  David  F&S.                                                                l$t her& is the point: the -main' thr&,t of -his life
            i n n o c e n t ;   s t i l l   h e   ivas  $ttacked.  :And  this  a'ttacke'rs
                                                                                                                                      w-as virtue, goodness,,  upright&s;,   @is heart  was
            lost their: case. You  hanndt really: harni virtue;  `.                                                                   pure,- Matt. 5 2%
                   We do nbt know the historical ba+$ro'ui~d~~of  this.
            gem. It may have been th.& time when  David--h&d  .to                                                                                                           I%**%,
            flee- from the  -Iface  `of, Absaloin,  his  -.son. It  .would                                                                       7
            fit this case admirably.: Note 
            fit this case admirably.: Note tEthe  verses,:4 and  10.. And David-knew all this. He was a-ware of the fact
            The former verse 
            The former verse  would
                                        would  then paint to 
                                                        then paint to  uus :the miser:                                                that'liis ene,mies-had no case against him; How could
            able hypocritestlat
            able hypocritestlat fbllo%ed.Absa
                                                                            '            - -
                                                 fbllo%ed.Absalom.  -They aie then                                                    they have? He had trusted in SGod. That means that
            the 
            the  dissemb!ers;'
                     dissemb!ers;  `
                                     ' And in the later
                                       `                                            verse
                                        And in the later verse we have a David had giv.en himself wholly ill `God's safekeeping.
            w~ord
            w~ord  pictul"
                      pictul e
                           "e of the princes and -ru~lp= nf 1
                                   of the princes and -rulers of the bnd $hb                                                          To'trust is to repose on spmetine.  -4s it is stated so
            fell 
            fell  away
                     away from
                           from   .David
                                      D&id  and for 
                                                   and for  `brmes
                                                                          `                I
                                                                           bribes- followed Ab-  ,&,i  in  .=dtch  prayers : "zich laten zakken en zinken
            salom.
            salom. Moreover, then we 
                        Moreover, then we c8n
                                                                       also- 
                                                            c8n                  underi
                                                                        also- under&and David's                                       op de Rots der eeuwen die,vap geen wankelen weet't.
            expressions 
            ekpressions  iti
                              in  this psalm  I  -.                                _"
                                    this psalm regarding  tBe.  hqL!se  .of.  cod.                                                                    ~.
            See verses- 6-8. He 1ongs.j
            See verses- 6-8. He  longs,for. God's house.                                                              -~c                1 Sur@y, when that -is your life, you -may alsd say
                But we dannbt 
                But we dannbt `be 
                                        `be labsolutely
                                                   IttbsGlutiCly   isilre. bf that histor-                                            with .David : "therefore `I sl&ll `not slide".. How could
            i&l
            ir.sl.   b a c k g r
                     hnrkammmrl o
                                    ' u n d ;                                                                                       you.  Sliding  where  dbeti not  mer.&y mean : I shall be
                The  .psalm  itself is clear.  mArd  the  theme  runs                                                                 sinless.  Jeut  ,it means that I shall be  free from the
            through  ,~the  whple song.  D$vid. is  ilinoce&, but  -is                                                                great transgression. Tt means: I shall iiot slide ferom
            accused by.  the. eyil  and, godless that  sre  ma&id  a-off the Rock, that ,is, my &&
      r o u n d   h&n. But `he  trusts  in  God-  and-.  l&ws that                                                                         Thereupon I&&id, comes- in all the uprightness of
            he  :will. be  v&tdj$ated.                           -                                                                    his  lieart to. God with the  `requ&t to  Cake trial of
               In  tliie:ver$. first words: of  the  psalni  we  .h&ve also him. And note.that  hi! does not mention his apparent
            the theme: Plead .my cause, -0: Lord! For that  @Ithe  .- conduct,  ,k;is  &xtw+  behaviour...  He  .does not  say :
            &aning 02 the one. cry : Judge -me, o Lord ! __                                                              .~           0- God, prove wha,t I hccve done! No, he asks God to
1                         .~                            .                                .                               .'-
                                                                                                               1
                                                            .                                                                                                   _-.


                                                                            --.
            458                                    `I' H E S T.:A 3 ? A R-D B E-A R E R
                                                   >
            inakti trial, of his. inward ma6. `And. hq. doe% s6. in ask-              Yes, we must certainly love our enemies. That is
\           ing  for."a- threefold t,+ial. . !I%$, JIY touch, .,tri%+i$y           a text f.rom Jesus' lips. And I agree that you must
            smell,  ahd trial by  4$&2 -For  sue11  are  the:prim&ry try and save the wicked with whom y13u come in con-
            meanings `of th&$e ih$ee:veFbi,  +thoug% it must be'ad-           tact.  IOf course, you are a walking Evangel. Many
            tiitted that -they are  o&ei?..tised  interch.&ige$blG.  It            there are who were drawn to God by means of your
            will suffice I~Q note that . Dairid, in* usi.$ th&e three              Christian &lk.
            terms, means to run the entire gauntlet of the&ying                       But always remember this: you, will never be a
            and proving and examining. eyes of ,God.           "<                  light unto- the Gentiles by becoming a boon compan-
                   Surely, no hypocrite dares to  pray thus  %foie                 ion with the wicked. When I wonder' about such ques-
            G o d .                                                                tions is when I notice that the people that question
                   The reins ar,e the deepest core of the emotions and me thus live on a very friendly footing with the wprld.
            the heart is the ethical center of man. There man                      They seem never to be bothered by the vile way of the
            lives in the deepest sense of the word.                                world. We do not know the heart, but it seems to us
                   And of that heart and these reins David says that               that they are of a kind.
            they have been-always under the controlling and beaut-                    And such conduct is damned.
            ifying influence of !God's lovingkindness and His truth.
            For that is the meaning of to WC&. You begin your
            walk in the heart. From it are the issues- of  1if.e.
            And if our life is in the trut.h of God's Word, we are
             safe.  ,Oh yes, we  will' be  -sinners, but here is the                  Ah, beloved, does it not set your heart on fire when
            difference: such an one wills goodness and gercy all                   you listen to David?
           the, day long. And wherever- he departs -from such                         He `certainly has solved his social problem.
            conduct it is in spite of that heart-life of goodness and                 I have not sat with vain persons. A vain person is
            purity. `T,hat which he `does  .in snch a case he allows               one who never utters anything but vanity, wind, noth-
            -`not. Rom. `7 :15. Throughout it all he finds that in                 inBless. Delitzsch tells.  9s that the idea is : unreal
            -his heart and reins he loves the law of God. -,                       men, not real men. And who does not know them?
                   Moreover, David can prove his case by his out-                     Yes, you must try and draw them. But have
           v&d conduct. He states this in various parallel phras-                  you ever  consid.ered  that you -may be able to draw
            es. But  *they all come down to this: Thou knowest                     them by shaming them, by showing that you detest
            Lord that I have walked in my, integrity, because I                    vanity, by lea7,  lng them and keeping yourself aloof
             hate the company of the godless.                        1             from all "nothingness", vanity? Note that David does
     -.                                                                            not say: I have not talked to vain persons, but I have
                                     *  *  *  *                                    not sat with them. That means that he `eever volun-
                                                                                   tarily -would seek out their company and sit down at
                   Powerful testimony. Anyone can investigate  that.               ease with them. You- sit in order to .enjoy yourself.
             The`life of *God's own are as an open book. The whole                    I will not go in. with dissemblers. That is worse.
             world may see it that we -love the company..of  ,God's                A dissembler is a hypocrite. They are of all men the
             people and that we.do our best to bade as little to do                most miserable. They look one way and they are an
             with the wicked  as.possible.  Oh, I  know it: we can-                other.  They carry a mask. They are just as worth-
             not wholly cut ourselves off from intercoclrse with the               less and wicked as the vain persons, but they mask
             nien of Belial. We must buy from  ~them and sell to                   all their fi1t.h ,behind a niask.
             them;  we work with them sometimes at the- same                           David would not go- in with them, would not be
             bench. But as- soon as possible ; ,as soon as we can *jointly  respon&ble  with them for  tiny kind of work
           separate ourselves from them, we do so. We hate or  endeavour.
             t h e i r   cqngregations.                                              I have hated the congregation of evildoers. Yes,
                   David denominates them  `by four words: vain they are the men who are not satisfied to do evil &owe.
             persons, dissemblers, evil doers and wicked.                          No, they seek one another out and band themselves
                   I hear a question : Must we ndt love our enemies ?              together. And then evil is on the increase.
             Must we not try and save them? IQust we not let our                      Ah, the congregation of evildoers is more evil than
             light shine unto them if  haply God will use us to                    a mere evil person. In such iatherings  evil is on the
            `snatch them fro:m- the brink of eternal death?                        increase.
            -Yes, I have  .often  heard these questions. Some-                         Instead of all that, David has washed his hands.
             times they are put to us Inca way and in an atmos-                       And that was necessary. David also is a sinner
            . ihere that makes  us wgnder,                                         from his youth,


        !lYo wash the hands is  innocency  is symbolic  lan-
.wge.                                                                                       .THE STANDARD BEARER
        Innocency  is ,God. He is all virtue. And that vir-
tue is manifested, proclaimed, revealed. And David                                Semi-monthly, except monthly during July and August
had  Feen it. Arid David had wrestled all his life to                      Published by the  REFORI~ED  FREE   PUBLISHING   ASSOCIATION
                                                                                        Box 124, Station C, Grand Rapids 6, Michigan
wash himself i.n that virtue of God.                                                        Editor  -  REV.  `HERMAN:  HOEKSEMA
        Wh& you want to read Psalm 26 in New Testa-                   Communications relative to contents should be addressed to Rev. H.
ment times you will say: I have washed myself in the                  I-ioeksetna, 1139 Franklin St.,  ~S.E. Grand Rapids 7, Michigan.
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        Such we hear from David: That I may publish
with the' voice of thanksgiving and tell all Thy won-
drous works.
       there is one urge above all in David and all those
like him: They want to go home. And Home is where
     God dwells with His people.
        Some people you cannot drag to church, it seem;.                                                                                                                                             .y.:
                                                                                                                                                                                         .     .     _

Very often they leave their--place  empty, and the con-* ,-`1-`1-`1-~1-11-~1-~~-,~-"-"-,~-~-~~-~~-~~-~,-~-,~-~-,,-"-
     sistory wonders.                                                                                         C O N T E N T S
        Something wrong: they do not want to go to heav-- MEDITATION-
     en; that is, to God.                                                  Innocence Attacked . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..*................ 457
        But Davi.d has. an horror of the place where all                           Rev. G. Vos
     people will be gathered who hated -God and w&d not         EDITORIALS-
be gathered in His hotie. And that place is hell. ,01?                     H o w   t h e   G u a r d i a n   D e f e n d s   H e r e s y . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .                 460
     God, says David, do not gather my life with sinners.                          Rev. H. Hoeksema
       No, beloved, if you hate the congregation of the         OUR   DOCTRINE-
wicked here, you certainly do not fit in hell.                             The Triple Knowledge                        . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .           464
        Da.vid  has- gathered courage in this prayer. The                          Rev. H. Hoeksema
     end is ca1.m.;"                                            THE  DW  OF  SHADOWS-
                                                                           The Later Prophets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .                            467
        He will continue to walk in the uprightness of his                                                                                                          .
                                                                                   Rev. G. M. Ophoff
heart. `God tried him and exonerated him in this case           FROM   HOLY  WRIT-
that was pending.                                                          Exposition of I Peter 1: 13                         . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .           469
        David may have had his enemies around him even                     R e v .   G .   L u b b e r s
     after the uttering of this prayer; they may have con-      IN
                                                                -.  H$ FEAR-
     tinued their insinuations and accusations.                            Afraid of the Gospel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . * . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 471
        Never fear,  .D,avid. He is eecouraging. his soul.                         Rev. J. A. Heys
     The time will come that he is publicly exonerated.         THB   VOICE  OF  OUR  FATHERS-
                                                                           The Canons of Dordrecht . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 473
        In the meantime, as fap as his inmost soul is con-                         Rev. H. C. Hoeksema
     cerned: he walks in an even place. That is, he walks       CONTENDING  FOR  THE  FAITH-
     on the way of truth and sincerity ,of heart, thqse won-               The Church and the Sacraments . . . . . . . . . ,-. s':. . . . . . . . . . , . : 475
     derful- gifts of grace.                                                       R e v .   H .   Veldman                                                    .,
        And he found the purpose of all flesh :  he. will       DECENCY  AND   ORDER-                                                                                                                . . :
bless the Lord: -                                                          T h e   L a w f u l   C a l l i n g . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. .,, . . .            477
        Do not ask what that means ; you know it. It is                            R e v .   G .   Vanden  B e r g
that we may tell God hoti inexpressibly wonderful He            ALL   AROUND   Us-
                                                                           First Protestant Reformed Church Splits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 479
hi.                                                                                Rev. M.  Schipper
      Incidentally:  that- is heaven in our souls.
*                                            4.       vos.


  460                                     T $J B s T:A N j) A E-.D,- j+% AR E R
                             --_~-                   ..             -
                                                                  ?-preach, saying; `Had Rev. De Wolf said, I  prgach
  1          E  D  1  T  (j  R.I[  A  L-$  .`.  f etc,.it  would have been the truth,' "
                                                                         Now, i never w;ote-this. What 1. did write in my
  . 
  ..IQl-tYtl-ll-.-,-,-,,-`-`,-~-`,-,,-`,-~,-`,-,-~-,-~,-~,.:~
  5                                                               protest was the following:
                                                                    "It is God that promises. The Rev.  .De Wolf did
           How' the Guardian-Defends  He-my. _                    not say: `I preach to every one of you that, if you be-
                                                                  lieve, you shall be saved." This  mighd  pass, even
        At this juncture it seems  ad&&le7:.dnd,  indeed,         though it woulcl not be the whole truth.' But it is God
  necessary to interrupt my exposition  of'th& heresy             that promises salvation to every one in the auclience."
  preached by the Rev. De Wolf in order to`call the.~at-          (I  now made  the. underscoring in this paragraph).
tention of  Our readers to the second  issue of a  -pap&r                ,Again, I wrote:
  that calls itself the "Reformed Guardian" and which                    "`God promises to eivery one of you. Who are the
  is purported to .be~ pulblitihed in the interest of truth       "every one of you"? All in the audience, of course:
  and justice.                                                    strangers as well as members, righteous ancl wickecl,
        The paper,  holwever, is neither Reformed nor a           believers and- unbelievers, elect and reprobate. Again,
  guardian of truth and justice.          _                       the Rev. De ,Wolf did not say : `To every one of you
        It is not l&formed as is immediately evident from         I preach the gospel,' but: `To every one of. you Cod
  the fact that it is published with the avowed intent to         promises salvation." This is worse than a general
  defend heresies which are expressly condemned by                well-meaning offer of salvation."
  our churches.                                                          This I wrote in the context of th& paragraph from
        That it is not published in the defense of truth an@      which Petter quotes.         And in the paragraph itself
  justice :but rather to deceive our people will be evident       I   w r o t e   a s   f o l l o w s :
  to all who read. the two testimonies by two eye-and- -                 "But perhaps, you say: `there was a conditional
  ear witnesses that were published by the cdnsistnry of          clause attached to this promise : if you believe ; hence,
  the First Protestant Reformed ,Church of Grand Rap- after all,. he preached that the promise is only for be-
 `ids,  Micb.  And'it will become further evident from            lieveTs.' This I deny. I say once again: if the Rev.
  the present article in which I discuss the contents             De Wolf had said: `I preach to every- one of you that,
  of the second issue of this so-called Reformed (Guard-          if you believe, you shall be saved,' he would have
  ian of truth. and justice.                                      preached truth, though not  the  trut.h. Or if he  hacl
        First of all, I want to call attention to a letter by     said : "God promises to every one of you that believes
 the Rev. A. Petter. This letter was first sent to the            etex=nal life,' he would have preached the truth.. But
 con&story of which undersigned is one of the chair-              he preached something radically different. He  clid
 men, and is now published in the "Reformed Guard-                not preach as we always maintained, and as I defencl-
  ian."                                                           ccl in my pamphlet "Calvin, Berkhof,-and H. J. &uip-
        First of all, I want to call the reader's attention to    pr'  ancl from which the Rev. De Wolf erroneously
the corrupt  way in which Petter (the  .`Guardian of lrluotes  to sustain his own heresy, the truth of a gen-
 truth and justice). quotes undersigned. He quotes me             eral preach&g of a particular promise, but he preachecl
a s '  havini  written:                                           that  God promises to every one, head for head and
        "If the  Rev. De Wolf said  `I  preach (Underscor-        soul for soul, if they believe. What does this mean?
 ing A. P.) to every one of you that if you believe you           This :
 shall be saved' he would have spoken the truth. . . .                   " (1)  IGod, on His part, is willing to save every
 But he preached something~  entirely different. God on           one. It is He that promises to all. The promise is as
 His part is willing to save e+ery one . . . . But whether        general as possible.
 the promise is realized -depe&~ on an act 0% nian.                      " (2) But whether. this promise is to be realizecl
  God is willing, if% man is willing." p.- 6.                     depends on an act in the part of man. God is willin@,
        When I first read this quotation I felt like passing      if man is willing."
 it up. It might have been a m&e slip of the pen on                      All this the Rev. Petter reacl.
 the ,part  of the Rev. Petter. But -on page 10 he once                  I%e read that it  migkt   pa,ss if the Rev. De Wolf
 more makes the same quotation. It' was, therefore                had preached "I preach", etc. but that it woz~lcl  n.ot
 no mere slip of the~pen,  but a deliberate falsification of      be the whole truth. He read that, in that case it would
 what I actually  wrote.  There  he writes:                       be truth, but not the truth. He. read all the rest.
        "In connection with this, I must also make a `re-           Yet he puts in quotation marks that I wrote: "Had
 mark about the distinction emphasized by- the Rev.               the Rev. .De Wolf said, -I preach,.:etc.  it woulcl have
 Hoeksema, between the expression, God promises and               beefi` the truth."


                                       T H E   ST-ANDAtiD   .B$AR-ER                                                 4 6 1
                                                                                            ____--
    Twice he quotes me thus.                                  en to the  sanie sentence, which we quoted  l&t, he
    This I consider intentional and deliberate falsifi-       quotes :
cation of my statements. In other words: Petter is                " `always again going out of the woYld and enter-
dishonest.                                                    ing into the kingdoni.of heaven.' "
    Much worse is his quot.ation from one of my medi-            In the next paragkaph of quotations Petter follows
tations in the Standard ,?3ea?*ey,  a quotation that is sup- the same method :
posed to prove that I also taught once upon a time that           " `Entering as children. Another  way. of enter-
our act of conversion is a prerequisite to enter into the     ing into the kingdom of heaven is not conceivable. Ev-
kingdom of heaven.               -_                           en the gate whereby we enter admits no one .but him
    In two paragraphs he strings together a list of whg! has humbled himself as a child.' (For that gate
separate quotations from my meditation, which even            is the righteousness of God in the blood of our Lord
then `cannot possibly prove what Petter, in this crook-       Jesus Christ. The ground demand oft the kingdom of
ed way, declares that they do prove: that our act of          heaven is righteousness. Without righteousness which
conversion is a prerequisite to enter into the kingdom        is valid before the Most High, a righteousness, which
of heaven, or even that our act of conversion is a pre-       exceeds that of the Pharisees and Scribes, no one en-
requisite for our daily entering into that kingdom. ters into that kingdom. But we come out of the world
In order to make clear to our  read,ers  how Petter           and lie ifi the midst of death, guilty and miserable,
quotes  I will, put in parentheses that which Petter          children of wrath as also the others. The gate of God's
failed to quote and leave his ,qtiotations outside of the     righteousness is opened only through the blood of Him
parentheses. Then we &btdn the following (I trans-            in whom God was reconciling the world unto Himself,              -
late from the Dutch, which Petter also did, a fact            not imputing their trespasses  unto them.)            ` F q r
which he failed to mention) :                                 through that gate he alone can enter by faith, &nd by .,
    ("And  for that reason it is  necessa.ry that we go       faith everything that is of ourselves is  laid  ,a.?ide.'  ;.
into that kingdom.                                            (All your own righteousness, all your. own work, your,
    (`IGo into in such wise that we go  out  of  the          name, your honor, your imaginary greatness,  you?
"world."                                                      fancied nobility, your piety,' all remains behind. For
    (`EGO out and go in with all our heart and all our        through the gate of the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ
powers.                                                       only the contrite and broken of heart, who is nothing
    ("Go out and go in once, when it comes with us to         else anymore than- sinner before cG.od)  `who sees and
a principal breach with the kingdom of this world and         c!.cFnowledgces  `no other possibility- than that of grace
to a being translated into the kingdom of God's dear          , , , he that humbles himself. . .and has become as a
8on ; buti&o)- :a zcontinual, entering, a daily entering' little child.' "
 . . . (as long %s;%-i this our flesh, we are in the world        Talk about Quoting someone out of context!
and  not"of'the   world. A constant fleeing  from- the            But all this is supposed to prove, according to Pet-
"WOlW')  ; `a constant seeking and choosing and find-
ing (Petter : to find ; incorrect) of the kingdom of          ter, that we have "prerequisites unto entering the
heaven.' ([Going out and going in) `with our thinking kingdom."
and willing, with our desires and longings; with our              Now in the first place, either Petter utterly failed
head and heart. and hand ; ! . . . (that we may speak to understand my meditatiop, .or he wilfully distorts
and act as children of the Kingdom, and witness in            its m.eaning.
word and work against the "world" that lieth in evil.'            And in the second place,.-it is also evident that, like
    ("For while the kingdom of heaven is not of this          De Wolf, he does .not understand the-relation betweea
world, we are indeed of this world !)                         our conversion and entering the kingdom of heaven.
    Here follows a-rather long paragraph which the                As to the first, in.my whole meditation I emplia-
Rev. Petter omitted entirely, and which I will not            size very strongly that our act of conversion is not a
quote. Thereupon, still stringing his list of quota-          prel+equisite to enter the kingdom of heaven, but that
tions still in the same paragraph, he continues :             only the-grace of God, the. grace of regeneration and
    " `From that kingdom of darkness we must go out           conversion both;causes us to enter in. In one of the
deliberately and consciously,.by a choice of heart. In        paragraphs which Petter convenient.ly  omits I write :
order to enter into the kingdom of heaven where God           "And this translation we make only if we bebonze, not.
iS Xl in all . . . .' "                                       make ourselves, as little children." And  ia-  aliother               ,
  `- Here the ,Rev. Petter skips a whole column of the        part of my meditation I write: "Tremendous change!
Standard Bearer, and then, still stringing his quota-         If you do not change. . . Or, as the ol5ginal word cer-
tions as if it `all belongs to the same paragraph and ev-     tainly can be translated, and also is translated in our


462                                    T H E   STaNDARD  .BtiAl%ER
-                                                                                     _       ___-   -.
English Bible : if you are not converted !- What- d rad- tent, ti loving purpose, a desire to bless. ,Atid so they.
ical change and conversion it is whereby we become identify it with the great qath-bound promise of sal-
as little children . . .  .Wonder  of God's mercy ! For vation.for  Abraham and his seed;" And without any
this and nothing less it is when this spiritual convers-       proof, or  evefi any attempt to gainsay our conten-
ion of the big sinner to the little child takes place.. No     tion, which, by the. way, we still mtiintaiii,  he express-
man is capable of this. This change the natural man es the apodictical judgment that this- is. "purely arbi-
can never effect, will not undergo, and he cannot will t r a r y . "  !'
it. 0, to be sure,  map converts himself!  .When God               Thereupon he turns to. Webster's Dictionary, which
calls him, and when he hears the Word of  the Al-              he finds very  instruct'ive in regard to the promise.
mighty, then he changes himself ~arid becomes like a           From the  dictionasy   he quotes as  `a  ,definition of  the
little child. But -not before the irresisthble  Spirit of promise : "One's pledge to .another to do or not td clo
`God in. Christ Jesus poured life into his soul and re-        something specified ; narrowly -a declaration which
generated him by almighty grace, can he ever do this;          gives to a person to whom it is.made,  a right to `ex-.
He cannot do this before the efficacious Word of God           pect or to claim them performatice  or for-bearance  of a
pierced this resurrected soul, enlightening, opening           specified act." And again, without any proof, in a
his ears and eyes, terrifying, heartdbreaking : I, I am        pureljr apddictical judgment Petter  claims that "in
the Lord, and there is no god besides me: the great-           this definition there is no suggestion of an attitude of
est, the only great,, and the. eternally glorious ; there-     any  kitid,. and hence not of love  01' favor or bene-
fore tu& and become like ,a little child. Then, and on- volence." We  claim; of course, that .even a promise
ly then, follows the act of condersion  ! Not on&,  .but by one m& to another cek;tainly  presupposes a certain
always again ! And always. in the same order ! `First attitude of friendship or benevolence and faithfulness.
the Lord, His Word, His  Spirit;  His grace  ; and as
fruit our act of conversion !"                                     Further Petter quotes from Webster's Dictionary
       It will be evident to all that can read that this is    a definition of the oath-bound promise ,Gbd made to
Reformed, that our act of conversion is never .a pre- Abraham. Webster defines this  p?omise  as follows:
requisite to enter the kingdom of God, whether prin-           "The oath which God made to. Abraham that his des-
cipally or repeatedly, but that the only prerequisite          cendants should be .n@tiplied . . . .po&ess the land of
is the grace of IGod in Christ Jesus our Lord.                 their en:emies  . .~ .be a source of blessing to all nations.
       And it will also be evident to .anyone that is will-    The last is inteppreted  by New Testament writers~ to
ing to understand, that Petter. utterly distorts my be fulfilled in Christ."                   '
meaning as it was +ery clearly expressed in my medi-            And then, alter-petter  quotes still- another defini-
tation.                                                        tion, he makes the remark: "These distinctions which
                                                               Webster makes are very instructive for our purpose.
                                                               For-they show us that the ready identification of the
                     -::                                       expression `God promises' with the Promise, (the oath-
                                                               bound promise to. Abraham and his seed) is wholly
       T-he above may serve as an example of "the truth        unjustified."                                          i
and justice" of what is called the Reformed Guardian,            Now, in the first place, we deem it very unbiblical
as well as of the unscrupulousness of the way in               and superficial to try to prove anything in nrelatioti  to
which Petter handles the material of my writings.              the promise of God from Webster's Dictionary only,
       But there is something~more important in this sec- rather than .go to Scripture. It might be necessary,
ond issue of the Reformed Guardian, to which I wish            indeed, to turns to the dictionary for a definition of the
to call your attention. I refer to Petter's arbitrary term "condition", for that term is not found in all
distinction between promise- and promises. He tries            Scripture. But the term as well-- as the idea of the
to make this distinction in order. to defend and to jus- promise is used so abundantly in Holy Writ that we
tify De Wolf's statement to his audience on April 15,          dertainly do not have to turn.to Webster's Dictionary
1951: `+God promises everyone of you that, if you be-          to arrive at a Biblical concept of promise. Secondly,
lieve, you shall be saved."                                    I must remark that all this has certainly nothing to
       In this connection Petter's argument runs as fol-       do with the statement which the Rev. De Wolf .made ,
lows.,                                                  ::     C6riceining  the promise in the sermon he preached on
       First he reflects on the fact that we, the Rev. `Op-    April 15, 1951. For in that statement he certainly
hoff and myself, wlz0 protested against the seirmons of        r&krred,fo the promise ~of salvation, and to nothing
the Rev. De Wolf, proceed, from the assumption "that           else. And finally, I eniphatically and iztterly deny that
the idea of the promise always implies..a  gracious in-        in &ripture the promise of God. ever sttinds unrelated-


                                                                             .I<
                                          $gE        s'iiAN-fABjb            g-.eAgER
                                                                                                                          4Bi:


  to the promise of Christ, to the promise made to Ab-              preted, in  ord&r to  prove  what  1  maintained   above,
  raham atid.his seed, .and to the promise- of salvation.           that Petter's exposition of promise and promises is
     Pette?  attempts to show us that in many cases in              utterly superficial, unbibliCa1,  and untrue.
  Scripture the promises of <Go@ have nothihg  to do with              Le: us look at the text in I Kings 9:4-9. There
  the prom&e of- Christ and salvation. He does so in                we read: "Ancl if thou wilt walk before me, as David
  the following paragraph : .                                       thy  father walked, in integrity of heart, and in up-
      "That #God -promises in many other ~senses is abun-           rightness, to do according to all that I have command-
 ~dantly evident from the Bible.  For~example, we  cer-             ed thee, a&d wilt keep my statutes and my judgmen$s;
tainly cannot object to saying that God promised to                 Then I will establish the throne of thy kingdom upon
  -Solomon. (I Kings- 9 :4-9) and to Jeroboam that he               Israel ,for ever, as I promised David thy father;' say-
  would give. them a- specific .part iti the kingdom of             in& There shall not fail thee a man upon the throne
  Israel if they woulg walk in his -w.ays (I Kings 11.:             of Israel. But if ye shall a,t all turn from following
  30-39) or again that- God- promised the Israelites that           me, ye or your children, and will not keep my com-
  if they would be wiliing and obedient they would eat mandments and my statutes which I have set before
  the good of the land (Isa. 1:18) or once more that if you, but go and serve other godsj and worship them ;
  they would bring the ,designated  tithes .into' the tem-          Then will I chit off Israel out of the land which I have
  ple their barns would be filled to bursting (Mal. 3 :lO)          given them ; and this house, which 1 have hallowed for
  or again, it certainly- would be follji to object if anyone       my name, will I cast out of my sight; and Israel shall
_ w&$d say that Christ pro?ised  the disciples that they            be a proverb. and a byword among all people: And at
  would find a donkey and foal tied +eady for their .UW             this  house; which is  high,  every  one that  pass&  by
  Mk.. 11~3) or that they would find on the street a good it shall be astounded, and shall hiss; and they shall say,
man of the house where they would celebrate the                     Why hath the Lord done. thus unto `this land, and to
  Lou'd's  passover  (Mk. 13 : 10) or once more who ;could -this. house? And they shall answer, Because they
  possibly  object at- the saying that ,God promised  Paul . forsook  the' Lord their God, who brought forth their
  that all the lives of the `men With him -on the R,ome .fathers out  of the land of Egypt, and have tak,en hold
  bound ship would be saved f,or him, or even that God upon  other  gbds, and have `worshipped them,  ancl
  promised~  them their safety qnly `if they r6mained on            served them: therefore hath the LoYd  brought upon
  the ship (-A&s 2'7 :24, 31). SO we can speak of: a prom- them all .this evil."
  ige to -Ahab of life (I Kgs; 21:39) and to Jehu.of do-                ~  -           (To be continued)
  minion (II Kgs.  10:30)  ."                                                                                         H.H.
      From all  these-.illustrations  or passages of  Holy             --
  Writ Petter draws the cc&elusion  that God's promises
  are not always related to. the pfomise of salvation.,
  and moreover, that the prdmises that are put in & con-                            - - - - - - ~
  ditional form declare nothing about the attitude of
  ,God,  w h e t h e r   f a v o r a b l e   o r   unfairorable.
      Now, I have seldom read anything m&e superfic-                   The elect were betrothed to Christ from everlast-
  ially void of any-exegesis;. and therefore, more  un-~ ing, in the covenant ~of the grace; they are actually
  b i b l i c a l .         ~ .                       ;             `married to Him, and join hands with Him, in conver-
   .. ~Petter  does ndt exegete, although exegesis is-im-           sion.; ,but they are not taken home to the Bridegroom's
  plied in his statements. And it is exact!y  bee&& of, house until death dismisses them frdm the body.
  his  lack of exegesis that he grossly errs in  -regard to
  th,e p;romi&  :of -*God. &rtainly,  I did not teach Petter           All God's children are- still.born. They come spir-
  when he attended our -school .,thus -to -deal with. Holy          itually dliad into the tiorld. t And dead they continue
  Writ. I always~  taught: him and showed him by ex-                till they arc bori again of the Holy `Ghost.
  ample that any passage of Scripture-must be exegeted
  not only hy -itself, but inrits context; and not- only in            All the promises of man to man, ought to be con-
  its context iti the narrower -sense,. but as such a_p%            ditional. It is only for God to make absolute prom-
 sage stands related to  the whole  qf  Ecripture  as an            ises ; for He alone is unchangeable Andy.  omnipotent.
  organism. It- is, however,. very evident that .I, taught
  Petter nothing.  :                                                   We should be in a bad con$ition  indeed, if our sal-
    -`I will not go into all. the illustrations:and  passages       vation was suspended on conditions of our own per-
  which Petter here quotes, but just refer-to one or two            forming.
  of-. them,, and explain them as they ought to be ifiter;                                                  - F r o m   Toplady


            464                                        PHI3  STANDART:  BEilRER
                                                                                    .     .
                                                                  :.          ~.               delberg Catechism employs the term here, it is applied
            .~.,HIHIII,-,,II,-,,-,,-`
                                     ,-~,-,-,,-,,-,,-,,-,,-,,-,-,,~i,-~-,.~                    only to: the believer in Jesus Christ our Lord. This is
                  1 O U R   DOCTRHNE   i'
            0                                                                                  also evident. from the answer. The question is cer-
                                                                                               tainly not whether anyone may-or is capable of swear-
                                                                                               ing an oath, but whether it is possible to swear an
                       THE TRIPLE KNOWLEDGE.                                                   oath to the glory of God. `And this is possible only in
                                                                                               the truly "religious" sense of the word from the re-
      .'           AN EXPOSITION 0% THE HEIDELBERG-  CATECHISM                                 generated heart, in the fear of God, and from the mo-
                           PART  III  -  OF  THANKFULNESS                                      tive of a living faith.
                                                           _                                       An oath, therefore, for the Christian, for the be-
                                    LORD%  DAY 37                                              liever in Jesus Christ, is a profoundly spiritual and
                                                                                               covenant act. An oath is a declaration on the part of
                               _           1.                            _                     him that swears it that he stands before the face of
                      . The Place of-The Oath in the Kingdom                                   God, that he stands `consciously in the presence of the
                                                                                               living God, and that too as His friend, as being of
                   The question is not at all whether anyone, whether                          His party, and as representing Him in the midst of a
            the natural man, can swear an oath, or whether the                                 world that lieth in darkness, and that thus standing
            natural man can place someone under oath. It is true,                              in the presence and before the face of his covenant
            of course, that this is frequently done because the law                            Friend,, he- calls upon Him to witness that he speaks
            of the land demands it. An ungodly and unbelieving the truth. Such is the character of an oath. This
      magistrate, therefore, is frequently required to  .put                                   it is to swear religiously by the name of  <God. All
            somelone  under oath, although he does not know and that is beyond this is profanity indeed.
            believe in the name of God as He has revealed Him-                                     Now the question is: is this. possible, or is it al-
       -self in Christ Jesus our Lord. And one who takes                                       ways profane thus to call upon the living `God as the
            the witness stand swears, an oath, although he                                     witness of the truth of our testimony?
            is not conscious of the  seriou.sness  of performing                                   There have always been those,, like the Anabap-
      _ such an act, except in as  fared as. perjury is  pun-                                  tists and the Mennonites and the Quakers, that claim
      ishable by law. But this is not the question here,
--                                                                                             that to swear an oath is per se sinful. But outside of
       ' in the thirty-seventh Lord's: Day of' the IIeidelberg                                 these sects the Christian church generally held that to.
            Catechism. The Catechism is not treating the law of                                swear an oat,h is quite proper,, provided it is done in
            God as an external code,  ou'tward  compliance with                                the fear of God  :and to His glory, and that this is
            which is sufficient for anyone in the eyes of the Most                             based upon the Word of God. This stand is even
            High, but as the,law of perfect liberty, written in-the                            maintained in some*  of the Reformed confessions. Not
            regenerated heart of the believer, and performed by                                only in the Heidelberg Catechism, but also in some
            him in the love of <God. Obedience to the precepts of                              of the other confe.ssions  the propriety and Scriptural-
            the God of our salvation is for the *believer a covenant ness of the oath is positively asserted. The Lutheran
            act, profoundly spiritual. .The Triune God has sover-                              confession, the Formula of Concord, condemns, in .Art.
            eignly and by mere grace in Christ Jesus our Lord,,                                12, the Anabaptists, which teach:
            and through the Spirit of Christ, received him into His                                "I. That the office of the magistrate is not, under
            everlasting `*covenant of friendship., And not as a                                the New Testament, a condition of life that pleases
            condition which man must fulfll in order to be receiv-                             IGod.
            ed or to remain. in that covenant of ,God, but as the
       fruit of the realization of that covenant with him as                                       "IL That a Christian man cannot discharge the
            ti rational and moral creature, the beli.ever, loves the                           office of a magistrate with a safe and quiet conscience.
            Lord his God, cleaves to Him,~and  trusts in Him bith                                  "III. T,hat a Christian man cannot with a safe con-
            his whole heart and mind and                                                       science administer and execute the office of a magis-
                                                  `soul and strength.                          trate, if matters so require, against. the wicked, nor
                   It is in this light that the Heidelberg Catechism                           subjects implore for their defense that power which
            discusses the oath.                                                                the magistrate has received of God.
                   That this is -indeed the viewpoint `i`s evident already                         "IV. That a Christian man cannot with a safe
       from the first question of Lord's Day 37: "May we                                       conscience take an oath, nor swear obedience and fi-
            then,  .swear  religiously  .by the name of God?`? The                             delity to his .prince or magistrate."
            term religiously may be somewhat in bad taste in our                                   The Thirty-nine. Articles of the Church of  En:-
       _ time, because it is so often generally. applied. `Any-                                land, in its final chapter, Article 39, speaks "Of a
            body is religious. But in the sense in which the Hei-                              Christian Man's Oath" as follows-:


                                         I'HE  S-T-ANDAR.D  B E A R E R                                             465
                             -_----_-                 -                                    -_-___-
     (`As we confess that vain and rash swearing is           tain curcumstances,  demanded by the law. Thus, for
 - forbidden Christian men by our Lord Jesus Christ,           instance, we read in Ex. 22 : 10, 11-z "If a man deliver
  and James his apostle, so we.judge, that ,Christian re- u&o his neighbor an ass, or an ox, or a sheep, or any
  ligion doth not prohibit, but that man may swear ,beast, to keep ; and it die,--or  be hurt, or driven away,
  when the magistrate requireth, .in a cause of faith ancl no man seeing it: Then shall an oath of the Lord be
charity, so it be -done according to the prophet's teach- between them both, that he hath not put his <hand un-
  ing, in justice, judgment, and truth."                      to his neighbor's goods ; and the owner of it shall ac-
     And in the Second Helvetic Confession, in chapter        cept thereof, and he shall not make it good." -Thus
  30, which  speaks of "The Magistracy," we read:             also in Numbers 5, in the-case of a woman that is SLIS-
     "We condemn the Anabaptists, who, .as they deny          pected of adultery by her jealous husband, we read
  !hxt a Christian~man  should bear the office of a magi      that the priest shall put her under oath: "And the
  strate,  deny also that any man can justly be put to        priest shall charge her by an oath, and say unto the
 .death  by the magistrate, or that the magistrate may woman, If no man have lain with thee, and if thou
  make war, or that oaths should be administered by hast not gone aside to uncleanness with another in-
 `the magistrate, and such like things."                      stead of thy husband, be thou free from this bitter
     Those who refuse- to take an oath or to impose an        water that causeth the curse: But if .thou hast gone
  oath upon a.nother proceed from the assumption that         aside to another instead of thy husband, and if thou .
  the oath is `per se sinful. This question, therefore,       be defiled, and somle man have lain with thee beside
  must be answered first of all. If it is true that the thine husband: Then the priest shall charge the wo- -
  oath in itself is contrary to the will of IGod, then, of    man with an. oath of cursing, and the priest shall say
  course, it is absurd to ask whether we may swear re- .unto the woman, The Lord make thee a'curse and an
  ligiously by the. name of IGod. Those who take this oath among thy people, when. the Lord doth make thy
  stand, appeal, of course, to the passages of Scripture thigh to rot, and thy belly to swell ; -And this water
 we already quoted above, namely, Matt. 5 :33-37 and          that causeth the curse shall go into thy bowels, to
  Jas. 5  :12. If this position is correct, then it is im-    make thy. .belly to swell, and thy thigh to rot : And
 possible to swear religiously by the name of God un- the woman shall say, Amen, Amen." Abraham caus-
 der any circumstances, even before the magistrates.          ed his servant to `swear: -"And Abraham said to his
 There often appears to be a notion thatthe  oath as          elder servant of his house, that ruled over all that he
 such is sinful, but that nevertheless `the magistrates had, Put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh; And
 may demand an oath of us, and that inn that case we          I will make thee swear by the Lord, the *God of hea-
 may comply with the demand. But this is evidently vcn, and the God of the earth, that thou shalt not take
 an error. If it is per se sin to swear an oath, the de-      a-wife unto my son of the daughters of the Canaanites
 mand of the magistrate leannot  possibly .make it goo'd.     among whom I dwell." Gen 24: 2, 3. And again;
     The question therefore is: does Scripture teach "And if the woman will not be willing to follow thee,
 that to swear an oath is per se sinful?                      then thou shalt be clear from this my oath: only bring
     This question must surely be answered in the nega- not my son thither again. And  the servant put his
 tive. -First of all, it may be pointed out that accord..     hand under -the thigh of Abraham his master, and
 ing to Scripture God Himself swears an oath. This sware to him concerning that matter." Gen. 24:8, 9.
 is the case, for instance, in Ezekiel.33 :`ll: "Say un- Nor is this true only of the saints of the. old dispensa-
 to them,' As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no plea-     tion, as the Anabaptists allege. For also in the new
 sure in: the death of the wicked; but that the wicked        dispensation we read frequently of the oath that is
turn from his way and live:  -turn ye, turn ye from           sworn "religiously by the name of ,God." SChrist Him-
 your evil ways  ;  .for  .why will ye die,  `0 house of      self .was put.under  oath by the high priest in the night
 Israel !" And in Hebrews 6 :13-17 : "For when God in which He was betrayed ;-nor did He refuse to swear
 made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by the .oath  that was demanded of Him. Thus we read
 no greater, he sware by himself, Saying, surely bles- in Matt.' 26 :63, 64: "But Jesus held his peace. And
 sing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply the high priest answered and said unto him, I ad-
 thee. And so, after he had patiently endured, he ob-         jure thee by the living God, that thou tell us whether
 tained the promise.    For men veriiy swear by the t,hou be the Christ, the Son of God. Jesus saith unto
 greater : and an oath for confirmation `is to them an him, -Thou hast said : nevertheless I say unto you,
 end of all strife. Wherein God, willing more abund- Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the
 antly to shew unto the heirs of promise'the immuta- right hand of power, and coming in the *clouds of hea-
-bility of his counsel,. confirmed it.by an oath." More- ven." Even the term, "Verily, verily," with which the
 over, an oath in the old dispensation was, under cer- Lord so frequently intr.oduces  important parts of His
                                                              .
                                                              ..-


   466
   -           -                          I'HE  S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R `
                            --Y----  -
   speech, in reality assumes the character. of $n....oath.
                                                      / .,        $o$d thereby-; which those who were in the habit of
   Moreover, we lyead repeatedly that -the aptistlti .Paul        using these indirect forms of swearing, such as swear- -
   does not hesitate to swear an oath, -even 012 occasions . ing by the -temple, ,by the altar, by heaven, etc., ex-
   wh@n it -is difficult to see tlie immedi&e  and grave ne-      cutied these oaths, as if they did not profane the name
   cessity of it. Thus we read in Roman%  1:9-: "For ,Gocl        of ,God when they swore in this way, in as much as
   is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit ;in the gos-        they did not expr&sly mention -the name of God; and
   pel of his Son, that without ceasing I m&e mention             did not suppose that they had perjured themselves, if
   of you always in my prayers." To call God as our they violated the oath which they had taken in this
-~ witness is tantamount to swearing an oath. Again,              indirect  folrm. Christ, now, in  then passage referred
TV in I$otians 9 : 1, 2 the apostle writes : "I say the truth. to, shows that men swear also by the name of God,
   in Christ; I lie not, .my conscience also bearing me wit- when heaven and earth are named;  becau,se  there is
   ness iri the Holy ;C+ho&, That I have great hetiviness         no creature, nor any part of the world, upon which
  .and continual sorrow- in my heart." There is certain- .God has not Stamped some mark of His glory. And
   ly no  differetick  between this form of speech  .and when anyone s,wears  by heaven and earth in the sight
   swearing an oath. A very solemn oath is also expres- -and hearing of his Maker, the `religious character of
   sed in the foliowing words of II Corinthians 11:31:            the oath which he -takes is not in the creatures by
   "The God and Father of our Lord  Jesus Christ, which           whom he. swearsj but. God Himself alone is ,called up-
   is blessed for everti,ore,  kn,oweth.that  I lie not." .The    on to witness what is said, by the mention of those
   same is true of Phil. 1:8 : "For God is tiy record, how things which are the signs of His glory."
   greatly  I' long after your all in the- bowels bf Jesus                                                           - H . H .
C h r i s t . " All these passages prove without  a: shadow
   of doubt that it certainly is not per se sinful'to swear                     - -
  an oath, whether before the iiiagistrates or otherwise.                              - - - m
   And how *co&d  it be? Why should it be sinful~ for a
   ,believe?, ~fi special occasions, to declare that he stands
   before the face of #God and calls Him to witness of the           Some people-hear  the gospel, as a butterfly settles
   truth of his testimony?       &iw could it possibly be         upofi  % flower; without  being at all the better for it.
   wrong for the Believer in Jesus Christ to express that Others hear-the gospel, as a bee settles upon a flower;
   he is filled with a deep sense of the presence of God's they enjoy its fragrance, they imbibe its honey, and
   majesty, and- that he rejoices .bef,ore His face that-he -return (home richly laden with .its sweets. And some
   may give testimony `to the truth?                              hear the gospel as a spider visits a flower : they would,
          Btit, -you gay, does not the Word of God emphati-       if possible, extract poison from the Rose of Sharon.
   cally forbid any form of swearing in. the words  of the                                                           -Toplady
 -  Saviour Himself, also quoted by James:  "Swear not
( at all?"                                                                                   4-4  4  4
        .Usually these words have been interpreted to mean
   that Scripture here has reference only to  <rash and              Wrap up ever so good a flint, in silk or satin, and
   unnecessary and hypocritical oaths.        Thus Ursinus,       not a spark of its latent fire will appear. But bruise
   in his "Commentary on the Heidelbepg.  Catechism," it with a ha.mmer,  or strike it with a steel, the dor-
   explains these  .words as follows: "But  that these            mant sparks will show themselves.-In prosperity,
   declarations do-not forbid all oaths, but only such as         the graces of a saint too often lie hid. In `adversity,
   are rash and unnecessary;. is evident both..fr.om a com-       they shine forth with light and heat like  & flint in
   parison  of other passages of the Old and New Testa-           collision with a steel.
   ments, and especially from the design of Christ, .who                                                             -Toplady
   in the first passage referred- to,, removing the corrup-
   tions thrown  arbund the law, and giving its true                                         *     *     e.     *
   sense, and at the same time removing. the hypocrisy
   of the Pharisees, teaches that-the. third commandment           i Inward. holiness, and eternal glory, are the crown
   of the Decalogue does' not- only condemn perjury, but with which. (God adorns and dignifies his elect. But
   also  ~such  oaths  was are unnecessary and  rash  ;  and      they are not the cause of election. A kjng is not made
   among these not  bnly such as are  .direct,.  in which         a king, by the royal robes he wears, and by the crown
   there. is an express mention of the name of God, but           that  encircles his  brow: but he  therefou:e wears his
   also -such as are indirect, in which, when creatures robes, and puts on his crown because he is a king.
   iire named, the name of %od is dissembled -and upder-                                                             -Tolpady


                                            T,ke        STAflsARh           BeAR,gk                                   46'i
  _-._.       ._    :  -.  _.
                                                                  and wrote with a view to the spiritual needs and con-
  1 THE DAY .(H? SiMD~WS-' `- 1 ditipps;, of $he. church of their day. But in doing sb
  I                                                               they  proddeed  a universal Gospel-or rather Chris%
                                                                  did so through them-thus a Gospel, a glad tiding of
                                                                  .salvation for the church of all ages. These needs and
                       J-he-  .La+l-  Prophets                    condi&ons must be known, if the discourses of the pro-
         The <undersigned  intends for a while-to discontinue phets are' to be' rightly understood.
 his expositions of the second book of Samuel. with                  The Lord, created the prophets orientals. He en-
                                                                  dowed them with a lively imagination and with a lik-
  which he has been occupied in these articles -and take
  up the treatment of the  four  great  atid the twelve           ing.for type and sym.bol. They come fiat with reason-
 minor -prophets.          However what will now;. be, appea?-    ed. truth as does the Apostle Paul in his epistles for
ing. under this rubric, "The Days of Shadows", is not             example but they hang before us pictures of the reali-
  to be regarded as a commentary in the accepted sense            ties of the Gospel.
                                                                  Peculiar to the prophets of the Old Covenant is
  of this term. The $ur$ose  is rather to give the thread         that by their mouth Christ usually speaks to us in the
  of the `argument of the prophet and to supply brief
  explanati&s. as frequently as this may be  necess+ry first person. "Thus saith the Lord," is an expression
                                                                  with which their discourses. abound, followed by, I
  fo? the understanding of the argiment.              1..         the Lord wilj do so. and so. Unbelievi<g.m.en say.that
         A wo?d  on tliese  discourses as a &hole.                what this .shows_ is that the prophets put their words
         The discourses of the prophets of the' Old Testa-        in Christ's mouth. But we  knov  better. It is Christ
  ment Bible is Gospel, good news. Ipdeed there is cer-           that ,puts His word in..the  mouth and heart of the pro-
  tainly 2s much- reason to. speak- of &he *Gospel  accord-                              _
                                                                  phets.
i in& to Isaiah and Amos for example as there is rea-                Ecstacy  was characteristic of several of the pro-
  son to speak ,of the Gospel according -to Matthew or            phets,  but not all of them. Their literary style bor-
  Paul or Peter. Fbr the theme of th'e Neti Testament             ders on poetry. It is dignified and elevated.
  Scriptures is the very theme of the prophets of the                The events that they foretell, though widely apart
  Old Testament Bible. Alid this theme .is the redemp-            in time, crow,d up close behind each oiher and often
  tion of the Cli&ch of-the elect -by the triune Jehovah ..flow together. Almost imperceptibly do the. prophets
  through Christ in His' Spirit. Hence, in their totality         in their discourses glide from the event that is typical
  the ,Ol,d  Testament prophets dealt in their prohecies          to the corresponding heavenly reality. But often the
  With every  element  of truth, redemptive  3act :-sin           transition ,is abrupt..
  a.nd. grace, Cl&t,  His  inctirnation, atonement, resur-           Iti studying the discourses of the prophets, we per-
  rection  from the dead, ascension i&o heaven, exalta-           ceive that the Lord by their mouth declares that He
  tion at the right hand of' God, His reign in the midst          had done with His people and will cast them away
 of His  enemi.es, His  headship over all things in the           from Him on account of their sins and make a com-
  church,-- the new heavens and the new earth, the                plete end of them, and on the other hand that He loves
  Church i? glory.                                                His people and in His love forgives them and will save
        But  there is  B difference.                              them unto Himself.
        -The- Old Testament Scriptures. set. forth the good          <One example : Hosea 1:6 : "And the Lord said unto
things. of the  ,Gospel  by promise, On the  other hand, him  (Hosea),  Call her  name Loruhamah  ; for I will
  the New Testament Scriptures are then Scriptures of             no more have mercy- upon the house of Israel, but I
  the promise fulfilled. When Christy cried out' on the           will utterly take them away."
  cross, "It is finished," it was finished- indeed. Re-              Yet at verse 10 we read: "Yet the riumber of tile
  demption was an accomplished-fact in that very mo-              children of Israel shall be as the sand  of. the sea,
  .ment. And so Chr"ist arose from the -grave and was which cannot be measured or nuinbered."
  exalted to the highest heavens with His :church des-               `It raises the question whether the Lord is now re-
  tined to appear with Him in glory. at His coming. The           solved to destroy  .His people utterly qnd then again,
  promise.  is fulfilled indeed. :Qld things have' passed         undergoing a change of heart, is decided to save them;
  away an,d all things ,hage .become  new.                   _    yet never really knowing just what to-do with them:
        Characteristic of. tile prophecies .of the Old Testa-     This certainly cannot be, to be. sure. The solution is
  ment prophets  .is that  they were progressively  ful-          this : There are two Israels: the Is?ael according to
  filled. What this means~ will become <clear when we the election, and the Israel according to reprobation.
  have these prophecies. under our .eye.!              .          .The former-he will save, though by themselves apart
       ~The prophets `were `pastors in,  Israel. They  `dpake     from Christ's grace.they are no better than the.others,


  468                                                  T#.E  S T A N D A R D   BEAR&R

  The latter He will destroy, the primary reason besing                      salem captured. This was the power to overcome and
                                                                                                                           -
  His sovereign reprobation and the secondary:. reason                       sup&cede Assyria.
their sins; which He wills to set before Him just                            Is&h
  because He wills. Thus the promises, though -address-                         His prophetic labors began l72 years before the
  ed to the wh&natibn, are only for the elect; and the                       exile of Judah and 36 years before the fall of Samaria.
  messages of doom, though likewise addressed to the                            The kings of Judah during whose reigns he pro-
 `whole nation, are only for the Israel according to re-                     phesied w,ere Uzzia,h,  Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah. .
  p r o b a t i o n .                                                        The Pro&tic Lkscouyse of. Isaiah
      ,Thus if in dealing with the discourses of the pro-                       It divides -into six parts or sections.
  phets we- refuse to work with election and-{ieproba-                       I. The three:fold introduction.
  +-ion. we can do nothing with them except misinterpret                        a) The first introduction, Chapter 1.
  them.                                                           `.            ,b) The second introduction, Chapter 2-5. *
                                                                                c) The third introduction, Chapter 6.
             The Four Major and the Twelve Minor Prophets                    II. The prophecies occasioned by King Ahaz' (of Ju-
         Pre-exilic Prophets                     Contemporary Prophets          dah) ,distrust of the Lord in connection with the
 Joel          875-865 B.C. 10 yos                                              seige of Jerusalem by Rezin of Syria and Pekah,
 -~0l&          825-784 B.C. 59 yrs       A m o s
.- Amos         795-785  BC:. 10 yrs  Tonah  _          -                       King of the Israel of the ten tribes, Chap. 8-12:6.
 Hosea         785-725 B.C.~60  yrs       Isaiah, Micah  and,IObadiah  `.
 Isaiah        758-697 B.C. 39 yrs        Hosea,  Micah and  Obradiah        III. Prophecies against individual nations of Israel
 Micah         745-700 B.C. 50 yrs        Hosea;Isaiah and Oabadiah             and Judah's limited world, IChaptcrs 13-23.
  Obadiah       742-726 B.C; 16 yrs Hosea,  Isaiah and Micah
 Jeremiah 627-586 B.C. 41 yfs             Zephaniah, Nahum, Habakkuk         - These nations are the follow.ing :
                                        and Ezekiel  -.                         1. The first prophecy against Babylon, Chapter
 Ze&maah  \;:621  B.C; 5 yrs              Jeremiah -and. Nahum
                                          Jeremiah iand Zephaniah               13-14 :23.
 Habakkuk 608-600 B.C. 6 yrs -. Jeremiah                                      .2. Prophecy against Assyria, Chap.  14:24-27.             '
             Exilic Prophets                                                    3. Against Philistia, Chapter 14 :28-32.
  Ezekiel       592-570 ELC;  22 yrs      Jeremiah                              4. Against Moab, .Chap. 15, 16.
  Daniel                                                                        5. A.gainst and for.Damascus,  Ephraim, Chap. 17.
      Post-Exilic Prophets                                                      6. Ethiopia in .the present and' the past, Chap. 18.
 Hasgai         520 B.C.                  Zechariah                             7. Egypt in the present and the past, ,Chap. 19,. 20.
 Zec?;ariah  520-475 gg. 45 yrs           Haggai
 Malacbai 433 . .                                                               8. The second prophecy against Babylon and pro-
                                                                                phecies against Edom, Arabia, Jerusalem and the
      From the above arrangement we learn the follow-                           chamberlain Shebna, Chapters 21, 22.
  ing: 150 years intervened between the beginning of                            9. Prophecy against and for Tyre, Chapter 23.
  the prophetic ~labors of the first of these prophets-                        10. Culmination of these 9 discourses in prophecy
  Joel-and the fall of  Samaria and the dispersion of                           predictive-.of  the end of all th@gs,`Chap. 24-27.
the ten tribes, and 289 years between the beginning                          IV. Israel and Assyria in the time'of Hezekiah, Chap.
  of the labors of this prophet and the destruction of                         28-33.
  Jerusalem and the exile of  Judah.. After the fall of                      V. Judgments on all nations and on the reprobated
 Samaria  the kingdom of Judah continued for 136                                Edom as typifying the  whole  ; Israel's salvation
 more years.                                /                                   and return to God's country, Chapter 34, 35.
      Jonah was a contemporary of Amos ; Hosea of Isa-                       VI. Historical section.    Jerusalem. beseiged by the
  iah, Micah, and Obadiah ; Jeremiah of Zephaniah, Na-                          Assyrians and delivered. Hezekiah's sickness and
 hum, Habbakuk, Ezekiel ; Haggai of Zechariah. The                              restoration and his reception ?&the envoys from
 last of these prophets was Malachi.                                            Babylon, the new and rising power to supercede
      The three heathen kingdoms or powers that SLIC-                           Assyria, Chapter 36-39.
  cessively menaced Judah during those 289 years                             VII. Prophecies that imply Judah's exile to Babylon
 (from Joel to the exile of Judah) were, a) Syria with                          and promising complete salvation to begin with
  Damascus as its Capital. b) Assyria with Nineveh                              Judah's redemption from the Babylonian exile and
  as its capital. city. By this power Syria was over-                           concluding with the creation of the New Heavens
  come and absorbed.  `One of its kings was  Tiglath-                           and the New Earth, Chap. 40-66.  `.L
  pilezar.. He conquered  ,Damascus;  Sargon, another.                          L,et us now trace the thread of the argument of
  of its kings, captured Samaria in 722. c) Babylonia                        this prophecy.
  or jChal,dea  with Babylonia as its capital ,city..  -The                   The Threefold introduction, Chap. l-6.
  founder, of this kingdom was Nabopolezer 625.-605.                            a. The first introdu.ction,  Chap. 1.
  Its last king w,as Nebuchadnezzar. By-him was Jeru-                           This first chapter is an introduction to the whole


                                           `3


                                          T  Ii  e    -ST  A  N  D  A  R  6  -'  B.`
                                                                                   E.-&  *  R                                      469
                          - -.-                                                                        - -
 prophecy, to the entire collection of prophecies- that
 form the prophecy of Isaiah. This is evident from                    i                                                                   i
.. the first verse that reads, "The vision of Isaiah the              I7       FROM HOLY WRIT  1:
 son of -Amos, which he saw concerning Judah and Jer-
usalem, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham,  A.haz and Heze-
 .kiah, kings of Judah." The prophet goes on to describe                                .&gios&l  of I  Petlm  1:13
                                                                              -
 the mournful present. Judah is a sinful nation, a
 people laden with iniquity, -Accordingly their cities                      In our former article on I Peter 1:13 we noticed
 are burned and their country is devastated by stran-                that the Apostle exhorts the pilgrim strangers ,unto
 gers. The daughter of Zion-Jerusalem-alone is left                  hoping perfectly for the grace to be brought unto us
 as a cottage in a vineyard. All around her is desola-               in the revelation of Jesus Christ, that is, in the day
 tion. .But the Lord has left Him a remnant. Except                  when Christ shall be revealed fully to be the Son' `of
 for this remnant they would be hike Sodom and Go-                   `God in power and glory. Then shall the dead be called
 mor.rah, utterly destroyed, ver. 2-9.                               forth from the grave ; they. who have. clone- evil shall
                                                                     go forth unto the resurrection of damnation, and they
     But  there is a means  oft escape out of the present
 misery, not outward ceremonies that were an  abomi-                 who have believed and hoped in the mercies of God
 -nation to the Lord, seeing that their hands were full              in -Christ Jesus shall go forth unto the ,resurrection
 of blood, but genuine fruits of repentance. This is the             of life and immortality. Our bodies shall be  manil
 right way, and if followed,' t-hey `shall find pardon and           festly redeemed from the graves's corruption., death
 the good of the land they shall again eat. But if they              shallbe fully swallowed up of life, and it shall"be  for-
 refuse and rebel, they shall be consumed by the sword,              ever. evident that all the labors of God's people `in the
 ver. 10-20.                                                         midst of this world were indeed not vain in thelord!
                                                                                                                       ;           .(.
     But if ,God's sinful people are to be saved, He must                   All the eyes of God's people should be riveted i,n
 do it,.-which He also promises. First the prophet looks             hope upon the grace that is ,brought unto us in that
 back to what the people formerly were.. They were a                 day. Such were the eyes of- the prophets whoi prophe-
 city full of judgment in which'lodged righteousness.                sied of the sufferings to come upon Chris$ and. of the
 Then he says, Look at what they are now: a profli-                  glory to follow. And this very salvation' is. such in
gate nation in which injustice- and unrighteousness                  nature and intent that it is all in readmes,s:to be re-
 hold.sway. But the Lord will turn His hand upon His                 vealed,in  that day. Wherefore our hoping forit*must
 people in a twofold way. Through judgment- he will                  not be imperfect, incomplete, but it must be wholly
 purge away the dross, that is, destroy the transgres-               perfect in intensity and nature, and. thus be a hoping
 sors and the sinners. IOn the other hand, He will re- -even to the very end. We must hope ,perfectly,  in the
 store to His people good judges and counsellors. And                very `power in which we are. kept by faith unto, that
 they will be called the city of righteousness and the               day.                                                    I            `-
 faithful city. So-  will- Zion be redeemed' with judg-                     There are still a few elements in .the text that call
 ment that finally will be made to concentrate itself on             for our attention.
  Christ the head- of the body of, the elect, .and her con-                 In the first place there is the peculiar construction
 verts with righteousness. The reference is in the final             in the original .Greek which we must notice. We ,refer
 instance to the suffering and death of Christ upon the              to the phrase "the grace being brought unto you in
 ,cross. The converts are the spiritual seed, the 7000               the revelation of Jesus Christ." There are those who
 always present in the church. Ver., 21-31.                          would see in this sentence construction the expression
     b. The second introduction, Chap. 2-5.                          of the fact that this bringing in -of the final grace is
                                                 -G. M.  O&off a continued process. The present grace of regenera-
                    -:: :--                                          tion, calbng, justification,- sanctification is such that
                                                                     it culminates in the final grace, so it is asserted. This
 _  "IGet grace-get faith-get an interest in Christ," is true in itself; it is a very Scriptural thought. We
 say the  Arminians.  When, in truth, grace-is not of                prefer, however, to explain the use of the present pas:
 man's getting, but of God's giving; nor is faith of                 sive, present participle as expressing the viewpoint
 man's aamisition, but of ,God's  operation.                         of the living hope of the Christian. In this hope we
                                                                     are already saved and possess this final grace. It is
     A  mans. free-will cannot cure him even of the being brought to us. We live now as if we were in
 toothache, or of a sore finger; and yet he madly thinks             that day. Always in hope our heart reaches out for
 it is in its power to cure his *soul.                               the final glory now while we are spiritual strangers
                                          -From  Toplady             and pilgrims. And we say: it is being brought. to us


                                                                                       B



     .440                                  T$te       `STANDARD                 BgARtifi.
                                                                                            --         _
                   --                                               --
     in the revelation of Jesus ,Christ,  in His.. final. glory.     notice,- that Peter d'oes not speak here of the loins of
     It is ready to be revealed and  in- hope  we-.:see it th&`%&rt,,  or the loins of the "soul',. He speaks of
     brought to US, even as we are kept unto that .day by            the loins of the mind. That we call attention to this
     the almighty and saving power of `God.                          distinction between "heart", "soul", and "mind"
        Such is the viewpoint and the aspiration of hope!            should not seem strange. For Jesus  .enumerates  all
         And in this hoping we are to  be- perfect; nothing of these in Matt. 22:3'7 where we read "Thou shalt
     may be lacking in it.                                           love the Lord, thy God with all thy heart, with all thy
         This brings us to the second observation concern-           Sour, with all thy  yifid". Now Certainly this is an
     ing this text.                                                 important and an instructive passage, shedding a good
        -Let it be clearly understood that the perfection            deal of light on the question of having our mind's
     here spoken of is in no wise the perfection of- works loins  girt up*
     of law that we perform. It is, on the contrary, simply              Now it is surely true that just as we believe with
     the. perfection of the living hope in the -entire scope         the- heart so. also we hope with the heart. `And it is
of our lives unto which we have been born again                      equally true, that we also hope with all of our "SOLES"
     through the power of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.          waiting f,or the salvation of our "SOL&". Yet, heart,
     The- text speaks of the perfection of the hope of right-        soul and mind are not to be identified, but are clearly
     eousness whi'ch is ours in the blood of Christ, as He           to be distinguished. When we see the difference and
a was delivered for our offenses -and raised for our relationship of these Iconcepts it will aid us in under-
     justification. In this hope all old things have indeed          standing why the "mind". must be girt up!
     passed away ; we no more live in ourselves, but what               ,Our heart  is the spiritual-center of our being con-
     we  .now live we live by the faith of the Son of God trolling both soul- and mind. In our hearts we either
     who loved us and gave His soul a ransom for our sins,.          hate or love God; God sheds His love abroad in our
     In this hope our longing hearts look for this same              hearts. From the heart are the issues  <of life. Here
     Lord Jesus`Christ to return in the last ,day to finish          we are to- love IGod with all of the heart. And this
     the work. of our justification finally'and publicly, and- means that in Christ Jesus- we are to hope in God
     to glorify us with His own glory.,                              with all of ,ouy hearts. iOnly thus can there be perfect
        As to the idea of the term "perfectly" we should' hope in God when we do so with all our hearts, having
notice that perfection is  here~ akin to  m~aturity, that ~the law of  ,G.od  written in our hearts.
     which has reached the limits of the possibility and                Then, too, we must love SGod with all our soul. In
-development of anything. Thus, the plant of wheat                   our soul we have our pains and disappointments, as
     can go no farther than' the -harvest. When the har- well as our joys. And our whole soul must be lifted
     vest has. come. that is the end, the teZ+, `the perfection      up to God; Him alone we are to extol with our whole
     of the season. An apple may. be free from sickness,             soul. In grief and sorrow, in perplexity and trials,
blight and ,rottenness  and yet not .be perfect in deve-             always our soul is to overflow with thankful and
     lopment.~  And so we might go on. But the point that            hopeful trust.
`we would make-is iclear. A perf,ectly  hoping isliving -               10ur  mir& is the penetrating insight and  know-
     exclusively for the things above, is a ,complete and an         ledge of the will of God. Our serving the Lord'in hope
     exclusive setting of hour aff e&ions on the things above,       is a question also .of the ~~~~hci. To be sure this "mind"
the things. that are heavenly. While we are strangers -. 1,
                                                                     *Q more than bare abstract intellect; and it is also
     and'pilgrims here. below we must set all our affections         more than the bare power of natural analysis. and syn-
     on the Jerusalem above, As a holy .nation, a royal peop-        thesis, the ability to discern~natural  things in a natural
le, a peculiar treasure unto the Lord in all the earth, we way. The mind here is that of the spiritual man who
are to walk the footsteps of the faith of Abraham, has the mind of `Christ, since he is illumined by the
who saw the day of Christ and rejoiced.                              Spirit of  ,Grace and revelation. It is the mind that
        The requisite of such a perfectly hoping upon ~the           is able to see and perceive the Kingdom of heaven ;'
grace' of,Ghrist:.is  that we "have the loins of our mind            the mind of him who is born out of God f.rom incor-
girt, up,`and be sober."                                             ruptible Seed by the Word of God that liveth and
        The figure of the "loins girt up" is taken fbrom the         abideth forever. Such is the mind in Scripture. It
dress of. the oriental.. Their clothing is such that it              is never to be separated from heart Andy soul. For  Ij
hangs long about their bodies and that shall they this mind is a matter of the entire man with all his
walk they must gird their clothing LIP so that they may              thoughts and ,longings. And this mind is thus in both
`be able' to `walk and be in readin&s.  They must be the regene?ated  and'the unregenerated. In the latter
ready for action. This figure of the loins ,girt- UP is              this mind is darkened because of the perversity.of  the
here applied by Peter to the "mind". It is wo@hyz of hear-t+ < It is ,ethical blmdness ; it is the blindness of

-


                                                >     .L.     3         ,f,      1.: ,;      ..,                               I





                                        T H E   S T . A N D A R D   B E A R E R

- stubborn unbelief. connected with .the -evil heart and
  soul the mind is in every reprobate. Wherefore we say
  that he is of a reprobate mind ! But also the mind `-i's         I.,  -!--.I  .liJ  H  ]I[  S  F  E  A  R
  inseparably connected with soul and -heart.         In our
  text the enlightened m/incl is rooted in the regenerated
  h e a r t .                                                                               Afraid of the Gospel
      Peter is ,here speaking of the mind of .the regen-
  erated.                                                              Oh, No!
      He admonishes the reborn church to walk in her                   How could one ever be afraid of the gospel?
  rebirth, to walk according to the Spirit and not `ac-                Why should we ever be afraid. of it? '
  cording to the flesh. In this case walking according                 Even Webster tells us that the word gospel means
  to the Spirit is the walking in perfect `hope. For only good news, glad tidings.
  he who has th:e hope of everlasting life in ,God will                How right he is, for the word used by the Scrip-
  walk -in the purity of God's commandments. Where-
  fore we read in I John 3 :3 "And everyone having this- tures and translated in our english .by .the word gos-
  hope in Him quvz$es himself as he is pure". The ad-              pel literally means good news, glad tidings.
  monition here to the Churches is rooted in what they                 That a man is afraid to open the envelope contain-
  have been made in the regeneration-in Christ ;' stand-           ing a telegram, that he has inward fright when the
  ing in the "status quo" in Christ we are to walk in this         telephone rings in the wee hours ,of the night is to
  newness of life, saved in hope!                                  be understood. These things often bring evil tidings,
                                                                   sad news. But the gospel is glad tidings. Why shquld
       Now, we must gird up the -loins of that new mind            we be afraid of.it?              L                    :
  in Christ!                                                           Bid not the angel declare to the shepherds in the
       Someone may say: but man cannot gird up the                 fields of Ephrata that their fear. was out of place.?
  loins.of his mind. He is dead in trespasses and sins!            Fear not, he said, for I bring you the gospel. That
  I say: hush up ! * You are speaking beside the point             is literally what he said.
  and are beclouding the issue! The point here is that                 What is that good news ? It is this that .unto us
  the regen?@ra%;ecl  church must gird np the loins of her         is born a Saviour. It is this that la11 our sins were
  mind. And-she can do all things through iChrist who              blotted out by  .His blood on Calvary's brow. It is
  strengthens her ! IOh, it is true: by nature.the  church this that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.
  cannot do this: But the people of God are principally            It is this that He arose the third day for our justifi-
  not "by nature" anymore, but have been .`made alive              cation, ascended to the right hand of (God, received the
  with Christ and set with Him in heavenly places. Spirit and is working in and through all things to
  Hence, we joy in .God with joy unspeakable .and full2 prepare the way for His own glorious return when He
  ,of glory. And this joy of the hope of salvation must            shall glorify all those given Him by the Father and
become a full cup each day in hope.                                gathered by Him out of every nation, tongue and tribe.
       Again someone may object and say: #God's people             It is this that no matter how unfaithful we may be,
  do hope and therefore must not be told "what they ;God will never let His faithfulness fail. It is this `that
  must do".      I answer : the former is true, but the            we are saved by grace and not by works. It- is this
  latter may be- very fallacious, though not. necessarily.         that nothing, not even the sins we shall yet commit
  The-truth is that in my text the Apostle is really speak-        in the future can separate us from- the love of God in
  ing of an abounding more and more in hope. All the               Christ. It is this that the .God of :our salvation is an
  longing, joyful. expectation ,of the soul must be upon           unchangeable, almighty and eternal  .God. It is this
  this hope. This hope his -not always, perfect ; fact is          that Gad is for us and nothing, absolutely nothing and
  that it often is very imperfect. Then the Lord Him-              no one can be against us;
  self revives us to hope in Him by the exhor-tations  and             Afraid of such a wonderful message?
 precepts of the preaching of the Gospel, efficaciously                Afraid that it is not true?
  working the grace of hope in our `hearts by `this *Gas-
  pei. And then we do hope and hope more perfectly ;                 Oh, No!
  yet, we do this because God works this hope in: our                  Not one of us is afraid that this is not true.
  hearts by calling attention in  an..efficacious way, to              ,Or are we?
  what He has done for us in Christ and what w&have                    There are those who are afraid, actually afraid of
  become unto Him in Christ Jesus, our Lord.            "          t h a t   g o s p e l !
                               -.             G. Lubbers               You say, Impossible ! ?


 472                                  l?HE  S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
                                  .-_-.                                                   __I_
     Wait a .moment.  Listen to this!            .. i           still continued to find a certain morbid joy in remain-
     Are you afraid to preach that gospel? Are you              ing in `the first chapter of the Heidelberg Catechism,
 afraid to have it preached to the Church of the Liv-           which instructs us in the misery of man, and refused
 ing God?- Are you afraid to have it preached and               to go on to the second chapter which holds before our
 taught to your children?                                       eyes that. gospel, those good tidings of which the an-
        There are people who are exactly afraid of the          gel sang to the shepherds at the Saviour's birth. IOr
 gospel in that sense. And they are not a mere hand- if- they did continue into this second chapter, they
 ful of people who have left no mark upon the pages             still <could not get rid of the fear that if they said no
 of the history of the Church  of. God in this world. more,. men would become awfully careless and indif-
 They are legion.                                              ferent about serving the Living God.
 I , The Apostle Paul. was troubled by them in his                That is why the -fathers ,of our beloved Heidelberg
 day.. They opposed the gospel when he preached it. Catechism also ask in question 64, "But doth not this
 They ridiculed such a gospel and said that `by it you         doctr,ine make men careless and profane-?" And they
 encourage man to walk in sin. The only logical con-           can hardly wait to shout -out the answer, "By no
 "elusion ,of such a' gospel, they said, is that we. should    means:- for it is impossible that those, who are im-
 continue in sin that grace may abound. Paul, they planted into Christ by a true faith, should not ,bring
 said, that doctrine will only give us a good reason for       forth fruits of thankfulness." Afraid of the gospel?
 sinning against God. It will never make better men            Some are. But rest assured that to preach it with
 and women out of us. And Paul did not dig out of              all your power and convictions, to preach it in all its
 his own soul, that evil slur upon the gospel of free          purity and strength will not make one believer care:
 grace and complete salvation through the meritorious          less and profane. A regenerated child of ,God may for
 work of Christ alone. In'his wide experiences he had a time  -live a careless and indifferent life. But  yoy
 often met with such a reaction to the gospel which            do wrong if you ascribe it to the preaching of the
 glorifies `God as the God of our salvation.                   gospel. In the measure that he does not hear the gos- .
    Did the Apostle agree that there was a danger in           pel, in, that measure he will be careless and profane.
 preaching that being justified by faith we haves peace        Mtin is by titure careless and profane. He is that way
 with God through our Lord Jesus Christ? Did `he before he ever hears the gospel. And the gospel never
 agree that you have to'be careful when you preach `that       entiourages  him to continue in it. W,hen he is ,careless
 by a free gift, by the grace of  God' and by it alone and profane it is because he is following his old carnal
 we have eternal life? Nay,  .he gives the answer of           nature, not because he is f,ollowing.  the truth of the
 faith. H,e is~ not afraid-of that gospel, forhe has the       gospel. And even when regener.ated  children have this
fear of-the Lord. We hope to come back to that pres- fear of preaching the gospel of a full and free salva-
 ently, but iet us state it now that to be afraid to preach tion that fear is due to the fact that they are following
the gospel is- not the fear of the Lortd.    Nor is it by the dictates of their old carnal nat,ures  rather than
any stretch of the imagination, living in His fear. `the truth of the ,gospel. They are allowing their old
We hope to make that plain presently, But let us first         carnal natures to tell them something about the gos-
turn to that marvelous answer of the Apostle. He               pel rather than to let the gospel speak to them. The
says, in effect, be not afraid of such a wonderful             gospel can no more move the new man in Christ to
message. God forbid that we should. Such a doctrine            carelessness and indifference than a telegram to the
`will not encourage the true child of- G.od into contin-       effect that her son is alive and is returning home in
uing .in sin, for thattrue, regenerated child of God is        good health `can move a mother, who had been griev-
dead to sin. That is part~of  the good news of the gos-        ing because of a f,ormer  message stating that her son
pel. That child of God for whom.  ,Christ died and             had been missing in action in bloody Korea,  coulcl
through whose Spirit he has been regenerated is. dead          move such a mother to cursing and resentment at
to sin,  `so that he cannot live any longer there- this .new turn of events. Her grief and love for her
in. Paul has no  -fear at all to preach so glorious a          son  w,ould -not allow that. The regenerated child of
gospel. He is afraid to preach anything else.  ,He' God's grief and sorrow for. his sin and his love for God
knows that to preach anything else is to bring many will not allow him to walk in carelessness and profan-
back to the' thunclerings and earthquakes at Mt. Sin-          ity when he .hears  the gospel ,of free and full salvation
ai and take from him all the good news that a Saviour          in Christ. The God Who-speaks that gospel to him al-
has been born, died, arose and is exalted at God's             so works in him that sorrow and love.
right hand for the taking away of the sins of those               But there is something harder, more painful to
given Him by the Father from all eternity.       -,            write.
    0, but that did not put. an end to this fear. Some           - That'fear of preaching the gospel is in our midst.


                                                 .      .     .     .


           -

                                       T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R   *                                                    473

    It is dangerous, so some among us say, to preach                     we begin to try to defend statements which in our bet-
that gospel without making it c.onditionaZ. You .w.ill                   ter judgment ought not be defended, the tragic result
make men stocks and blocks and take away theirre-                        is that we begin to believe them ourselves and begin
 sponsibility. Ysou will preach a passive doctrine. You                  to be ruled by the lie.
are going to make man careless. You need prerequi-                              Only the pure, unconditional gospel gives joy and
sites. You need conditions to preach a fullyorbed gos-                   peace.
pel. The undersigned has been told personally that                             Be careful, lest you lose the cross!
 the behaviour of some of our young people. is to be                                                                    -J. A. Heys
-ascribed exactly to that fact that we hold. no prerezpii-
sites before them, our pre:aching  is. not conditional.
 It tells them that while they are  yet .sGnners *Christ                                                  :-
 died for us and that ALL our salvation is in Christ
and that ,God is always first in every phase ,of our sal-
`vation, that we never move till `God moves us. That
`doctrine is dangerous, for it makes men careless and
fatalist&  So they say.                     -                                      The Voice' of Our Fathefs  1
                                                                         i
    S t i l l   m o r e .                         -.                     i
                                                                         .,.,-`
                                                                                 -(l-l,-`
                                                                                       ,-0-,,-~,-`
                                                                                                   ,-`
                                                                                                      ,-,,-,,-~,-,,-,-,,-,-`
                                                                                                                          ,~,,-,,-~-,,.~.

    `The occasion of this and the f'ollowing  article(s)
 in th,is department is exactly that a b,rother,  in con-                                    The Cixms of Dordrecht
versing with the undersigned about  conditi.ons. and                               PART I - HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
man's responsibility, expressed this fear of the gos-
pel by statingthat he ,would not dare tell his children                       Chapter  3,The Confessional Status of the Canons
 that -all the" sins ,of -God's  peeople which they shall                _                            (Co&d)
 yet commit in the future are already paid for by the                         Hence, the Canons came into existence alongside
blood .of Christ. He was afraid of that good news of                     our other two standards in a natural way, occasioned
 the gospel. Other remarks w.hich followed indicated                     by an attack -against the. truth contained in those
 that he was afraid that if- he would tell `his- children                standards. And the position which the Canons occupy
~that truth,. then he would no longer be -able to ad-                    as a confession must be considered in this light. Their
 monish them. Then their carelessness and disregard                      confessional authority and rank is, of ,course,  the same,
 of God's laws would increase, and he would be help-                     so that together the three creeds constitute our Three
 less to train them. They would not have the proper                      Forms `of Unity. But as far as their content is con-
 fear of the Lord. Then he could no longer teach them                    cerned, the Three Forms are not at all coordinate.
 that they had a .responsibility before God.                             Rather do the Canons occupy the position of a fur-
    The brother is wrong!. Oh, so wrong ! And he,                        ther explanation and elaboration of truths that were
 no doubt, .d,oes not ,object  to these lines, nor to what               already posited in the Catechism and the Conf,ession.
 follows, the Lord willing in the next  .article.  For                   And this fact is of the utmost importance. It means
 he did display a sincere desire for a  ,clarification  of               that the  HeideZberg  Catechsim  and the  Netherland
 this thing tha't troubled his heart. The theory of con-                 Conf,ession must indeed be maintained, but alwqys in
 ditions confused him. It deceived him. It took away                     the light of nnd in harmony wi,th the further inter-
 from him the cross and- the joy of the gospel.                          pretation given at Dordrecht.  And this means not
    You may say that it is an extreme case? Not at                       merely that when a sermon on election is preached
 all. This is the direction in which all this conditional                or when a. minister is up to Question and Answer 54
 ,theology  is headed and where it will'surely land. And                 of the Catechism that the explanation of Dordrecht is
 the leaders of this conditional theology are going .to                  binding. It implies that whenever any of the matters
 find themselves helpless in trying to stem it and in treated in the Five Heads of Doctrine (and that covers
 trying to. restore the joy of a free and full. salvation                the entire gospel, the whole of the work of salvation)
 in Christ.                                                              is-involved in the preaching, such preaching must take
    You say,  thlat is an exception! The undersigned                     place only and always in the light of the expressions
                                                                         of Dordt. Only then can the name "Reformed" be'just-
.would sincerely like to have it that way, but he knows                  ly claimed.
 of other evidences that some oft our -people have lost
 the joy of the gospel. These he will, if space permits,                 Still more.
 reveal next time. But let it be said that we must all                         Especially since Dordrecht, a Reformed man is not
 bear in mind that,,God  cannot be mocked. And when ,only positive.., If he is at all realistic, he cannot be,


                                         --                                                                                                                   .  .._
 A sound Reformed man,-and the more ,he val&s his                                    e'nemy  be'Arminian  or Barthian, our Cctnons  are very
 Reformed heritage, the. more diligent he will be -in                                pertinent. Armed with the truth of Scripture as con-
 this respect,-a .Reformed  man will also.' be disposed                              tained therein we need fear no foe !
 especially to reject all the errors rejected by-the #Great                             -But methinks,-and history will bear me out on
 Synod. And he -will also be disposed to, refute and                                 this score,-the trouble is, not `that our Canons are out
 contradict those errors, and to exert himself in keeping                            of date, but that Reformed churches in general have
 the church free from them. Mark you well, -he will become so woefully weak that they are no more dis-
 exert himself -to do this ! Allow  me to  ,qnote.  in this                          posed to "teach and faithfully to defend the aforesaid
 connection from the Formula of Subscription:                                        doctrine." Nay, methinks the- trouble is that it has
      "We the undersigned, professors of the  ~Protes-                               become unpopular to. "reject all errors that militate
 tant Reformed Churches, ministers of the Gospel, el-                                against this -doctrine and particularly those which
 ders and- deacons of the Protestant Reformed congre: were condemned by the above mentioned synod," and
 gations of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . of Classis . . . . . . . . . . . . I . . . . do hereby sin-. that it is considered old-fashioned "to ref,ute and con-
-cerely and in good conscience before the Lord, declare                              tradict these, and to exert ourselves in keeping the
 by this, our subscription, that -we heartily believe. and                           Church free from such errors."
 are persuaded that all the articles and points of doc-                                  And let us  .learn from history's lesson. It is as
 trine contained in the mConf.essions  and Catechism of. though God Himself were speaking to us. You must
 the Reformed~Churches  together- with the -expla/ization                            not heed-those who would dissuade you and rob you
 of some points of the  ~afbiesaid  Sddctrine,  rqade'bi the of your Reformed heritage. You must not turn from
 Nation$ Synold -of Doydrecht,  161%`19, ,do fully agnee                             the battle.  .:Grow  not weary and faint. Nor must
 with the Word- of  God:                                                             you be deceived by those who still promulgate Armin-
     "We promise therefore diligently to teach  .and                                 ianism under the name of Reformed truth ! But rath-
 faithfully to defend the aforesaid doctrine,  withput                               er must you bend every effort to know the truth, the
 either direktly &indirectly  contradicting the s,ame, by Reformed truth. You'must arm yourself with it, for
 our public preaching or writing.                   "                                it is the sword of the Spirit! And you must be pre-
  -. "We declare,- moreover, that we .not on&y re$ct all                             pared to battle to the death for it !.-
 errors that militate against this  c&t&e and  pi&c-                                     "Therefore,, brethren, stand fast, and hold the
ularly thos,e which were condemned by the abq&men-                                   traditions which ye have been taught, whether by
 ti'oned synod, but that we are disposed to refute and                               lvord,  Or  by.  eplstle*" II Thess. 2:15.
 iontradict  th&se, and to  eaert  oaMselves  in keeping the                                                                         -H. C. Hoeksema
                                                                                                       ,:,
 Church free  ' from  such  errors . . .  ." (Italics mine,
 H.C.H.)                                                     _                                                 -:-::
  `. From the above it is quite clear what specific pos--
 ition the  c'anops  occupy in a  Ref,ormed church.,  `.It  a                                                                                          * I
                                                                          "-"-: ;
 is evident- to.o, that according to this loath of- office it
 has since 161%`19 -been `,one of the `chief- elements in                                          MEETINiG OF GLASSIS WEST
 the calling of officebearers to maintain the teachings
 of -Dordrecht, and that too, overagainst the Arminian : .Classis  West of the Protestant Reformed Churches
 errors. `-Andy it will, of course, be understood that                               meets in Oskaloosa, Iowa,,Sept.  2, 1953.
 what is binding- by- oath upon the officebearers of the
 church is -in its essence &binding as well upon every
 member of a Reformed church.                                                                                 ANNUAL  ME,ETING
     Nor is this at all ,out~ of date. Ever since Dordrecht
 the chief struggle of the Reformed churches has been                                    The annual meeting of the RFPA will be held
against that -same Arminian ogre. And  thatchurch                                    Thursday, Sept. 24th at the Creston Prot. Ref ,Church,
which failed to maintain in ,their .full force- the -proi                            at 8:00  P.M. Rev. H.  Veldman  will be the speaker.
 nouncements of Dordrecht -soon .f ell victim. to the same .Annual reports will be given by the secretary, treasur-
 enemy which threatened more than three centuries er and business  manager.~  Four board members are
 ago, and lost its distinctive Reformed character. Such                              to be chosen -from the- following: T. Van Eenenaam
has been and-still`is the case both in America and Eur-                              (First)  ; J. King, P.  Vanden  Engel, N. Kunz  (Cres-
.ope: .Still today the battle-of the -ReformeNd- churches                            ton) ; (G. Pipe (Fourth) ; -H. Brands, J. Kalsbeek ((See-
 is against those who would tamper. with then truth of                               ond)- and A. Langerak (Hope). Please reserve this
 sovereign predestination, -the heart .of the church and                             date and plan to attend.
the heart of the gospel. And still today, whether the                                                                         TJHE  B'OARD-R.F.P.A.


                                               *THE  FTANDARD  B E A R E R
                                         .-                                                                                   475
 .:,,-I,e~IQIII,IQ`,-`,-~,-,,-,,-,,-,,-,,-,,-`,-,,-~,-~,-,,-,,-~;-,*~.     ganization  of the churches was very simple. Church-
 1       Cmt&di& For Then Faith c ' -`I es were orga;nized and the office bearers .(the elders
*~`.`~~u`l.,r-cl-~~,,-,,-,,-,,-`,-,,-,,-,,-`,-,,-~-,,-~,-,,-,,.~.          and  d!eacons) were duly elected.    Of this we read
                                                                          in a passage such as Acts 14 :22-23, and I quote: `Con-
            The Cl&h and' the Sacraments                                  firming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them
                                                                          to continue in the faith, and that we must through
                                                                          much tribulation enter into the kingdom of ,God., And
        EARLY  VIEWS  OF  T&E  CHURCH  (Cont'd)                           when they had ordained them -elders in every church,
                                                                          and had prayed with fasting, they commended them
 Bishops and Bishop of Rome-its historical background,                    to the Lord, on whom they believed."
      This is indeed a most interesting subject. We can                       However, this soon changed. The presbyterian
 distinguish, as far as the government. of the Church form`of church government was soon replaced by the
is concerned, between the episcopal and presbyterian                      episcopal form of church government. The rule over
forms of church~ government. Incidentally, we, have                       the church by the elders was soon substituted by the
the presbyterian form of church government. It is                         rule of one of the elders. Terms such as: monarchi-
surely worthy of note that the episcopal form of. cal bishops, diocesan bishops, and metropolitan bish-
church government characterize'd  the life of the church ops, soon became common in the early New Dispensa-
of God until the Reformation.- What do we mean by tional Church. In. the early Church, we will, remem-
these two forms of church government?  T,he pres-                         ber, the- `presbyters; or elders, were all of the..same
byterian form of church `government is characterized                      rank ; the one did not stand higher in authority than
by the rule of or by the elders, the consistory. The                      another. At a very early time, -however, one of the
word  "pres~byterian" or "presbyter" -is derived from elders assumed the lead and was recognized as hav-
the Greek word which-means "elder." The episcopal                         ing authority over the others. -He would be president
form of church government is characterized by the                         of the consistory, lead in worship, and do the preach-
rule over the church by the bishops or bishop.  .We                       ing. We have already, made the observation that-these
probably recognize the word "bishop" in the word elders of the Church are also called "overseers" in
"episcopal." The word  "episcopal":.is derived from the Bible. The word "overseer" is the Greek word
the Greek word  ~"episkopos," and this word means                         `6episcopos,JJ and from it our word "bishop" is de-
"overseer." Also this word appears in  H.oly Writ rived. The title of bishop was given to the overseer
as designating the elders of the church. The apostle,                     who in course of time became the leader of the board
Paul, addressing in Acts 20 the elders of the church                      of presbyters or consistory. So the other presbyters
at Ephesus upon the island -of Miletus where this                         gradually became subordinate to the presbyter who
meeting of the elders with the apostle occurred, calls                    was their overseer or bishop, and this bishop soon
them overseers, using this word, and we quote: "Take ruled over the church of God alone. It is for this
heed therefore unto yourselves and to all the flock over reason that these ruling overseers or `bishops came to
the which the Holy~ Ghost hath made you overseers,                        have all the authority in the church and were there.-
to feed the ,church of God, whioh He hath purchased fore known as: monarchical bishops. We recognize
with His own blood."                                                      the word "monarch', in the word "monarchical" and
      At the outset or beginning of the Church of ,God                    readily understand why these ruling bishops assumed
in the-`New  Dispensation when churches were being or-                    this name.
ganized through the,  labours of the apostles, the organ-                    The rapid development from monarchical to dio-
ization of the churches was very simple. The officers                     cesan bishop, once the  ofice of monarchical bishop
or office bearers of the churches were simply the elders                  had been established, is easily understood. We real-
and the deacons, the elders, of course, being entrust-                    ize, of course, that churches were first established in
ed with the rule over the church. Sometimes these the cities. As long as the various congregations were
elders were simply called "elders" in Holy -Writ, inas-' limited to the cities, the office of monarchical bishop
much as the"older  members were generally elected to                      was not expand-ed. From the ci.ties, however,. Chris-
this office. In other passages of the Bible they are tianity spread among the .heathens, or pagans, into. the
called "presbyters" or overseers, inasmuch as this real-                  country.  lConseq.uently  these Christian communities
ly constituted the essence of their -office or labors in                  thereby developed and expanded from city to district
the-church. They must be overseers over the church                        communities. At first the various members of the
of ,God; have the rule over the people of the Lord. At congregation would attend the church in the city. This,
the outset or beginning of the- Church of. God in .the                    we understand, expanded the authority of the monar-
New Dispensation, we have  already'observed, the or-                      chical bishops. Later these members in the rural
                               ,


 4        7        6                      T H E   STANDAFt?  B E A R E R

 communities would become separate  congregatibtis, ,but thi%ugh the instrumentality of their preaching. More-
 they would continue to recognize the authority of their         over, Antioch had many notable bishops, and it had
 <ity bishop. And thus, we understand, the monarchi-             also become famous because it had become the seat
 -Cal bishop had become a diocesan bishop, a bishop who          of an important theological school. Finally, next to
 exercised authority, not only over a city church, but           Alexander, Antioch was the largest and most impor-
 over a district or diocese as well. He thereby became           tant city in the east. Hence, that the bishop residing
 a diocesan bishop, a bishop whose rule and authority            in Antioch should be recognized as having consider-
-extended 1 over -a district rather than over merely a           able au.thority is easily understandable. The strateg-
 c i t y .                                                       ic location of  bhis city and the fact `that all other
      A third development in this rise of the episcopal          churches looked upward to this church as their moth-
 form o$church government is expressed by the term:              er church must, of course, nqt be minimized.
 metropirlitan  bishop. The word "metropolitan" speaks              A third metropolitan bishop resided in the city of
 for itself. The metropolitan bishops were those bish-           Alexandiia. The church which had been established
 ops in charge of the churches in the large `cities or here had also become fam.ous in its own right. In the
 metropolises.          Ttiese were five  .in number, namely:    first place, it was the second largest city in the Roman
 Jerusalem, Antioch, Alexandria, Constantinople and Empire,' next to Rome. The city bore the name of
 Rome.         We  will not at this -time discuss  the rise that famous conqueror, Alexander the Great. Alex-
 to power of the bishop. of Rome, the development of             ander the aGreat was ,completely  "in love" with Greek
 the papacy: We will have opportunity to do this in' art and learning and Alexandria became the greatest
 a later article. It is not difficult to understand why          seat of learning and culture. In fact, for many cen-
 the bishops of these metropolitari ,communities  became         turies it was far more splendid than Rome itself.
 such great powers in the early Christian Church (the            There, too, a famous theological school flourished, a
 reader will understand that when, I speak of the early          school in which Origin, the greatest scholar of the
 Christian Church I refer to the Church of God, which Church up to that time, had taught. This city, too,
 has existed from the beginning of time, .in the days            occupied a most strategic position and it is not diffi-
 of its New Testament infancy). The development of               cult to understand why the bishop` residing in it
 this episcopal form of church government was princi- should be regarded with considerable veneration and
 pa.lly made when one.elder  assumed authority in a con-         &tee,m.
 sistory over another. The rest* of this story follows
 automatically.  We can certainly understand why the                The last of the great Eastern cities to. which: we
 bishop of the church at Jerusalem should be recog-              would call attention is Constantinople.        `I;his y great
 nized as one of the leading bishops in the early                metropolis certainly could not claim the = antiquity
 Church. Jerusalem was  famous.,$or its historical which the other metropolises coulcl rightfully claim.
 background. That had been the Gl%y of ,God through-             However, it was later to become the seat of the East-
 out the Old Dispensation. There'Christ h&d been cru-            ern Empire. In fact, its name was changed  firoF
 cified, the Spirit had be&n poured out into the Church          Byzantium to Constantinople in honour `of Constan-
 on- Pentecost,. and the Church, of' God as of the New           tine the  :Great whose right to the title: "the first
 Dispensation had had its be$iining. Jerusalem .had              Christian emperor'", may be seriously disputed. This
 been the mother  chti?tih:   l%e,re the  XX~istians had         emperor had changed or removed his residence from
 first been persecuted and there the first church coun-          Rome to Constantinople. And we can easily under-
 cil had been held. The church in .Jerusalem had some-           stand that the very fact that aConstantinople was the
 thing no other church had. It was surely unique reside,nce of the emperor contributed to the high es-
 among all the ,churches.                                        teem in which the bishop of the church there was
                                                                 held.
      Another metropolitan bishop resided in --Anti&h.
 Antioch (in Syria)  was- also famous because of its                We wil!, have occasion to refer to Rome in later ar-
 unique history. This early Christian churtih had been           ticles. ., We simply.,purposed  to trace, briefly, the rise
 the first missionary church. Antioch  had- been the             to p@ey $,the bishops of the early Christian Church.
 place of the labours of. Barnabas who was later, joined         In our following article, the Lord willing, we will at-
 in that city by the apostle, Paul. And from Antioch tempt to explain this rise of the episcopal form of
 they had been sent out by the church on their first             church government already present in the post-aposY,
 inissionary   journejy.      Besides, returning from their tolic period.
 missionary journeys the apostles would always return                                                       T-T.  Veldman
 to the church at Antioch and submit their reports con-
 eerning~ the' tionderful things wl+ch the Lord had done


                                                    .I


                                                  yHE.,      .~~zla~.DABDi.B.~~~~B~B
                                      -      -                                                                                       477
                                                             >
      ~L'~O~O~ll~ll~~l~~~~l~~ll~~~~`~~~~~~~~,~~,,~, ,-I,-,,- (,-l,-,,-(t) to become the pastor of the flock. According to our
                                                                               present method this act of approbating takes place
1.         DECENCY and ORDER  f before the election of the candidate. The consistory
                                                                               submits the entire nomination to the congregation for
                                                                               approval- .and then after two weeks, if there are no
                     TiG  La&l  C;llins                                        lawful, .objections  raised, the. election is held and the
                     >THE  CALLING  OF  A  CANDIDATE              ..  -'-":    one chosen- is%nmediately sent the call.
          The last time we were discussing the fir& part of                        The congregation, however, is not the only body
      the fourth article of  our church order. We wrote                        that approbates the nomination. This is also done by
      about some of `the methods,that  are employed in nomi-                   the Counselor of Classis who, representing the Classis
      nating and calling a minister of the gospel. It was in which the calling church reside&s, serves her with
      observed that our- churches do not follow the letter of                  necessary counsel. This indicates that the matter of
      the church order in this matter. The latter, because                     calling a minister is not only of significance to the
      of historical circumstances, advocates that the candi-                   congregation that is actively engaged in this task but
      date be chosen by the consistory and deacons and then                    it is of great importance to all the churches represen-
      submitted to -the members of the church for spproba-                     ted in the  Classis and Synod. This follows because
      tion. In our churches a nomination of. suitable candi-                   when a candidate is chosen and ordained in the office
dates is made by the consistory and deacons which is                           in a particular church he receives the aight to preach
      then submitted to the congregation for approbation                       the word and to administer the sacraments not only in
      after which the members of the church choose one                         that one church but also in all the churches of the
      from the approved nomination. This method is not                         denomination as he may be requested b.y the consis-
      in violation with the.spirit and principle of our church tory. Furthermore, he will also be delegated to major
      order `which in this matter certainly maintains the                      assemblies and have a voice in deciding matters that
      rights of the congregation, but we .must acknowledge                     pertain to the churches in general. Hence, no candi-
      that it is a departure from the method that is pre- _ date may be chosen (or .placed on nomination) with-
      scribed.    We must  remem,ber,.   -however, that our                    out the approlbation  of the counselor of the Classis or
      church order does not impose certain methods upon                        of  Classis itself.
      the churches but rather its aim is to set forth funda-                       In this conneNction  then we may also note what is
      mental principles of church government and sancti-                       the ,particular function of the counselor. When a con-
      fied conduct. This is very important for as long as                      gregation is without a minister, the Classis, upon the
      these principles are maintained, the method used be-                     req,uest  of the consistory, appoints  anot.her  minister
      comes a matter of secondary importance. Thus we to serve them as counselor or advisor. For economic
      also suggested that our present practice could be still                  and practical reasons the minister of the church which
      further modified and improved by the .addition that                      is geographically nearest the-vacant church isusually
      the congregation also be given a voice in the matter                     appointed although this is not a hard and fast `rule.
      of  :making  the nominations though the deciding                         It is conceivable that in a locality where there are
      choice be left to the consistory. We now will continue                   several churches and the distance. between them is
      our discussion of the other important steps which the                    negligible, anyone of the ministers could'be appointed
      congregation follows in the  proceedure  of  obtaining~ and that Classis (or the Cla~ssical  Committee) would
      a minister.                                                              consider such things as the size and amount of labor
        The fourth article mentions three more elements:                       in each pastorate in making its selection of `a coun-
      "An examination, the approbation, and the public or-                     selor.
      dination." ' A few things may be briefly stated con-                         Th,e counselor's function is purely an advisory one.
      cerning the approbation first of all because this ele-                   In case of difficulty or trouble in the congregation, hr
      ment is no longer required in the method `followed in                    may be of invaluable aid in directing things in the
      our churches.. Approbation is. an act of approving,                      proper way. He may- also be called to meet, if nec-
      sanctioning, commending. In the present connection,                      essary, with theconsistory and precide  over that body
 therefore, it merely means that the members of the                            though he never has a decisive vote there. If the
      calling `church put their stamp of approval upon the                     cons&story is confronted with weighty and  difficull-
      candidate whom their consistory has chosen to become problems, she may consult her advisor for assistance.-
 their minister.          At that time the consistory would                    In the matter of calling a pastor, the counselor must
      simply submit their choice to the congregation and                       see to itthat all things are done according to the pro-
 inform them that after two weeks, unless lawful -ob; per ~ecclesiastical  regulations.. He must approve the
 jections were raised, a-call- would be extended to him nomination. When the election takes place, he must


supervise the composition of the call-letter to which           which they did while retaining the peremptory ex-
he then also affixes his signature. If at all possible, he      amination."
should be prelsent  at the ,congregation!al  meeting where        The practice of examining the candidate twice is
this election takes-place. And `when a call is accepted         observed by our churches  today. Although we can a-
,the counselor  .nsually leads the congregation in the          gree that in most instances this sec,ond examination is
ordination service though not infrequ,ently he is as-           rather superfluous, we hasten to add that there is cer-
sisted by others. He may also be called upon to con-            tainly no harm or wrong in the practice as such. As
.duct funerals, install  officeibearers,  administe.r  the      a precautionary measure and a safeguard to the office
sacraments, etc., although again the.se  labors may be          of the ministry it may, prove ,advantageous that the
performed by others. The vacant congregation must               church continues this, practice. The second examina-
not feel obligated to call on their counselor for every-        tion mlay prove very necessary especially when a long
thing. His chief function is to be of; help to the va-          period of time intervenes between one being declared
cant church in as far .as-they may need and request             a candidate and his receiving and. accepting a call
his advice and asisistance.                                     from the churches.      Surely no candidate sincerely
    When then the church has complied with these ec-            seeking the office of the ministry of the word will ob-
clesiastical stipulations, extended a call to a candidate       ject `to  su,bmitting  to both examinations. Besides,
for the ministry, and received his letter of acceptance,        there is the advantage thlat in the peremptory exami-
she may not as yet proceed with the final step of or-           nation the candidate is subject to anal-ysis by all the
daining him to the ofice. He is required to first be            churches of the Classis as well as the Synoclical  depu-
examined by the Classis. This is called the p,ere?np-           ties whereas in the preparatory examination the sem-
to@ exam&ati.on. It must be remembered that in our              inary pr.ofessors  and the limited de,legation of Synod
churches before one is made a candidate for the min-            do. the questioning. Unless,  ctheref,ore,  very cogent
istry he is required to complete a course of study in           reasons are presented we would notadvocate abolish-
 our seminary and to successfully answer to a thorough          ing this practice.
 examination before the Synod. In view of  this' the               The  ,examination itself consists of many things.
perem.ptory  examination would seem to be quite. un-            The  candidlate is requested to  ,deliver a sermon by
necessary. Rev. Ophoff in his "Church: Right" evalu-            which his ability to handle and preach. the Word is
ates this matter as follows:                                    judged. He is questioned regarding his knowledge of
    "In a communion of churches with a seminary of              Refor.med  Doctrine, The Holy Scriptures, The Con-
 its own and under its sole and strict control, the per-        fessions an,d the Church *Order.  He is called upon to
 emptory examination is superfluous. It is obviously            exhibit his ability to defend the truth overagainst
 unnecessary.    Further, if the synod decides that an          false ,d,octrines  and heresies. Inquiry is also made in-
 aspirant is qualified for the office, a ,ebssis cannot .de-    to .such practical  qualifications for the ministry as his
tide otherwise without militating against Article 31            personal spirituality, his motives for seeking the Ioffice,
 (D.K.0.) , for according to this article whatever a ma-        and his insight into pastoral praotical labors.
jor assembly agrees upon by a majority-of votes shall              Upon completion  ,of his examination the  Classis
be considered settled and binding unless it be proved           proceeds to #deliberate in closed session. Thereupon
to conflict with the Word of God or with the articles           voting by secret ballot regarding his admittance into
of the Church Order. Finally, it must be considered             the ministry takers  place and if the outcome is satis-
 strange that an aspirant should be examined with a             faotory the candidate is given a certificate from the
view to determining his fitness for the  ofice after            Classis declaring that it judges him qualified for the
he has received a call. Examinations for this purpose           ministry of the Word. He is then asked to sign the
 shoul,d prodeed  and not follow the call."                     formula of subscription and the church to which he
    The Rev. Ophoff also explains why the church or- has been called is advised by Classis to proceed with
 der  rrequires  a `double examination in the following         his ordination.
 quotation :                                                       But what happens if the candidate fails? Does this
    "In the beginning.of  the Reformation, the Reform-          melan that all his nreparation  and labor was in vain?
 ed Churches. had the custom of examining the aspir-            Not necessarily so. If the congregation continues to
 ants <but once and this was after he-was  called. The          desire him he is given opportunity at the next Classis
 result was that too many persons unfit for the office          to be re-examined in the branches he appeared unsat-
 were receiving calls, and because this examination was         isfactory. When all is successfully accomplished he
 not conducted with sufficient. thoroughness,  instdled         may be ordained Minister Verbi Deum! This ordina-
 into office. The Beformed fathers thought to remedy            tion, D. V., we will discuss next time.        -'
this evil by `instituting the preparatory examination,                                                   G. Vanden Berg


                                          T H E   STA.NDARD  B E A R E R                                            479
                               -     -
                                                               "God offers salvation to all in the preaching of the
         ALL AROUND US  -1 Gospel." Your Church did not da,re to say, `IGod Pro-
                                                               mises." ~They evidently understood the implications
                                                               of t,his statement, that it is contrary to all Scripture.
                                                                  I have another question: Who is rationalistic;
 Firist~Protesttint  Reformed Chzcrch Splits                   Hoeksema or De Wsolf and van ,Tuinen? Isn't it char-
    In his rubric "Other Churches, in the News", the           acteristic of rationalism that it places reason above
Rev. Peter Van Tuinen gave the reade:rs  of the Bawner         Scripture? Can Rev. Van Tuinen find any passage of
 of July 31 a rather distor.ted and #biased picture .of the    Scripture that in the least sustains the statement
 history that has been made recently in the First Pro-         which De Wolf has made? He cannot. Who is ra-
' testam  Reformed Church of Grand Rapids when he              tionalistic? Rev. Hoeksema or Rev. Van Tuinen?
 wrote under the above. caption.                               Rev. Hoeksema's position is that <God promises salva-
    I do not know- the source of his information, nor          tion to the believer, i.e., the elect. Will Van Tuinen
 do I know w.hether the information was distorted at           disprove this with Scripture and our Reformed ,Con-
 its source, or whether the Rev. Van Tuinen distorted          fessions? He  cannot. Hence Hoeksema's position is
-it. From the concluding paragraph' of his  arti@le  it        not  rationalisti,c,  but the doctrine of the Scriptures.
 would appear that the Reverend had.made up his mind            There are other statements in his article th,at are
 long-ago that the position of the Rev. Hoeksema has           not exactly stated and which leave the impression that
 always been a dangerous one, and ,would ultimately            Rev. Van Tuinen got his information from a wrong
 lead to the split now taking place. And from his re-          source. He writes for example:  "Classis East, em-
 marks in this paragraph. we gather that he ,agrees            bracing the  Churches in the eastern section of the
 with  the Rev. De Wolf and his supporters and ex-             Church, concurred in this judgment (namely that `the
 onerates them whom the  Classis had  ~oharged with            Hoeksema faction insists that "these statements of-
making and supporting- heretical statements.                   De Wolf are unaquivooally heretical";MS.) and ad-
    Let .me quote that last paragraph: "The Rev. Mr.           vised deposition of Mr. De Wolf and of elders who
 Hoeksema's position in this ,dispute seems to exem-           supported him." Now this is not stating the matter
 plify a danger that is. always present in our theologi,       correctly ,and leaves a wrong impression. The fact is
 ,cal thinking; Tjhat. danger is the supposition that our      that the Classis sustained the protestants (Hoeksema
 limited human understanding mw,st be able to resolve and Ophoff) and declared, "In our opinion both state-
 all the mysteries of the revelation of the infinite God,      ments which the protestants `condemn are literally
 witth the resulting notion that all #divine ,truth must -heretical. regardless of what the Rev. De Wolf meant
 be- forced under the limits of human reason. Armin-           by them, regardless of how he explains them, et&'
 ianism, by such rationalisin weakens the .divine inia-           Classis further advised the consistory of First
 tive in&he salvation of the soul. Mr. Hoeksema and            Church to demand that the Rev. De Wolf make a pub-
 his followers, by a similar rationalism; make mean-           lic apology for having made the two statements in
 ingless the human factor in the soul's, salvation."           question and. that the consistory apologize for hav-
    I take it that Rev. Van Tuinen makes his conclu-           ing supported the Rev. De Wolf with respect to the
 sion on the basis of the fact. that Rev. Hoeksema and two statements in question.
 his followe&.are  averse to the two statements of the
 Rev. De Wolf; Mr. Van Tuinen concludes that anyone               And further the Classis advised the consisto:ry  of
 opposing those two statements must of necessity.deny          First Church that in case the Rev. De Wolf should
 "the human factor in the soul's salvation," And this refuse to apologize, the consistory proceed to suspend
 he says is just as bad as the A&-&an rationalism him, and that in case any elder or elders should refuse
 which "weakens the divine iniative in the salvation of        to. apologize for supporting him in these statements
 the soul." T,hey both, the Hoeksema position and`%&           they should be deposed.
 Arminian position, are rationalistic, a product of pure          T'he point I make is that Van Tuinen leaves the
 reason apart from the revelation of Scripture. They           impression that <Classis in a hierarchical way advised
 are both dangerous theological thinking..                     deposition without anything more. While the fact is
    But is this so? I would lil<e to ask-the' Reverend that `Classis advised this only after it advised the con-
 this question : Would- you subs&be.Zo  the statement :        sistory to plead with the Rev. De Wolf and his elders
 "God promises everyone of you ~tl&t if you believe you        with the help of a Classical committee and ask them
 s,hall be saved"? If yen do, you take a much stronger to apologize.
 position than your own Churches dared to take in                 Rev. Van Tuinen also writes "But deposition prov-
 1924 when they said virtually in the First Point:             ed difficult to execute because of the division of opin-


                               .' 480.                                T  H  fi  s  ~-~~A~D~-~-E~AR~*-R--   -  ~~  -  ~-  ~-.  -
                                     -.-i"4.T-:-      ls                                                                                  -         -      -
                               ion in  ,the consistory." "The consequence  ,was that of Classis East, rest on but two statements, and even
                        `the act of deposition was legally  questionable.to   s&h              those..lifted from  their- context;"' The truth  is.  .that
                               a  degre,e   thlat  `the--De  Wolf supporters were  `able  `.to Classis- said it :-made -no difference how. you. explain
                               continue to occupy the. Church's facilities."' The fmacts- them,.  or what you  .mcant -by  tllenl,,,r-they  are per.&
                               are that De Wolf was not deposed but suspended. -- `On:, `heretical. The t.ruth is that-Rev. De Wolf will not ad-
                               Iy the-.:elders  were' deposed -that seupportecl- De `Wolf;     mit they are heretical, `and h.e `insists he can give' them
                               Tlhe: latter's deposition. waits-. the advise. of --Classis. -a good  interpretation.*,
                               This yan `Tuinen ought to know. The; fact  that the.  a               Page 6;.para; 4i"And all their insinuations that
                               De Wolf faction continue to occupy the Church's fae-. -the Rev. De Wolf `in his  preaching `belittled God's
                               ilities was not due to the questionableness of the legal-       counsel `of election and `reprobation. . . . is a wicked
                         ity of, deposition, but to the faettl&t.~the  De Wolf fat- . . `- d
                                                                                               an  wi  LF
                                                                                                        `  
                                                                                                        lf perversion of
                                                                                                               1. .           the`truth on  the. past of the
                               tion ruthlessly took over the Church's facilities, even         pr&stacts,  etc."  Here  are  soke  &t;ements   De  Wolf
                         to the extent as' rumor has it of changing- the locks                 is said to have made at the same time- he made the first
                               on -the- Church to keep the Hoeksema faction out. The .heretical  statement, and -1 have. never. -heard- of him
                               Hoeksema faction was determined from the time of                denying  this:  6`You. have nothing to  .do with election
                               suspension and deposition proceedings not to cause              and reprobation ; your responsibility is to believe. If
                               trouble over the (Church .property,  the whole matter           you will believe, you will *be saved." "Election and
                               could be disposed of in anamicable way .at Classis.             reprobation have nothing to` do with the Gospel."
                                                                                               "Some of .you carry Protestant Reformed on t,he lapel
                                                            -:-:-                              of your coat, you are proud-of  being Prot. Reformed.
                                                                                     :        ,Don't  think you go to heaven because you are Prot. Re-
                          :rhe'Reformed  G u a r d i a n .                                     formed." Surely De Wolf "belittled God's counsel of
                         -_        This is the  name-  of a pamphlet sent to all `sub- election and reprobation,"~  and the Prot. Ref. Church-
                               scribers of  Concor,dia  and* -written by the Revs. H.          es that maintain these doctrines, and the Prot. Ref.
                               De Wolf-.ancl  AA, Cammenga. Because this pamphlet people who live by these doctrines. He should not
                               wassue a masterpiece in the ,art of deception and tell-         deny this.
                               ipg of half-truths, I felt it my duty to inform my own               ~. Page `7, para. 4-"By this illegal action a schism
                               conglregation  in two and a half mimeographed sheets,           of such proportions has been caused, etc." -That has
                               bulletin size, of the abundance of. deliber.ate falsities       to be proved -that there was any illegal action. There
                               it Contained and -gave .them at the "same~  time an. a&
.-                                                                                             was nothing illegal about it. The "s~chism" is the re-
                               euratestatement1of  facts. I do not have space enough `sponsibility of .De Wolf -and his- elders, no one else.
             .                 in this department to give all-the material to the read-              Page 7, para. 5-"It is unnecessary at this time to
                          .ers of the Standard Bearer. But here sare a few ex-                 enter into the doctrinal dispute." Why is it? Is that
                               amples.                                                         not exactly what the `whole t:rouble  is. about? I Strik-
                                   On page 5, paragraph 1 we read: "The Rev. Hub-
      .`-                                                                                      ing it is that De Wolf and his supporters never want to
                               ert De Wolf wassuspended from office. by part of his talk about the issue, but they bring in all kinds of
                          -Consist&y." The truth is that Rev. De Wolf was unrelated matters, such as personalities., illegalities,
                               suspended `by the'legal Consistory of the First Prot.           etc. The same may be said about those who oppose the
                               Ref. Cl-$&h: W,hen .De Wolf'- and his elders failed to          Declaration  of -Principles
                               maint,ain. the advice of- Classis, they were automatical--
                  ly  out. They were condemned; and  therefozre  could                               Page -8, para. l--De]Wolf maintains he made an
             - have no voice. in the suspension or d&position proceed: apology, and he quotes it for  you; The truth is he
                               ings.  IT'  I                                                   apologized for nothing except `that the Revs. Hoek-.
                                IOn page 5, `paragraph 5 we read: "However.  ser-             sema. and Ophoff did not- have wisdom enough to inter-
                               ious the implications of deposition may--be, the Rev.           pret him correctly.For this  hecis sorry. I suppose
                  ..           H'. Hoeksema saw fit to press deposition action against. he would have to say the same thing- about the Classis.
                         his f-ormer  student and' ~associ.ate .,pastor, ~ete.".~  --Not       "I'm sorry Classis, but you do not. se-em to be able to
                                                                                              :I
                               the Revr Hoeksema but his Consistory did -this. The -understand that when I made:  tho.se  two statements
                               attempt is made here to blacken the name of Rev.               I was teaching Prot. Ref. doctrine." Bah !
                               Hpeksema. It is :deplorable how the De Wolf faction,                  I tol,d my congregation much *more than this. I'm
             _`                and this goes for.others.in'our  Churches, has-slandered
 .\                                                                                           sorry there -is no more space now.-- If you would like
                          this man and his colleague, G. M. Ophoff. :  .I . .                 a copy of that which I gave to. my Churoh, send me
                               -~. Page 6, para. 2`Tt- is said : `!A11 suspensionand de- your name and -address, Glad to ~oblige.
                        -- positionproeeedings,  according to the very `testimony                                                         =M.  Schipper


