          The
     STANDARD

e          A REFORMED SEMI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE





       . ..exercise of the intellect is essential to
     spiritual listening. And without it there will
     never be any true listening to the Word.... It
     is either a putting forth of the necessary in-
     tellectual effort to understand what the
     Scriptures are saying, to understand what
     the minister is preaching about, to under-
     stand what God is saying; or it is not really
     listening to the preaching at all because of
     mere intellectual and mental laziness.
     See "My Sheep Hear My Voice'" - page 175


                                        Volume  LVIII, No. 8, January 15, 1982  -


170                                                                    THE STANDARD BEARER




                                                                                                                       THE STANDARD BEARER
                                     CONTENTS                                                                                  ISSN 036%4692
                                                                                                      Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July, and August.
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       Meditation-                                                                          Editor-in-Chief:  Prof. Homer C. Hoeksema
          Ascended on High. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .170            Department Editors:  Rev. Wayne Bekkering, Rev. Wilbur  Bruinsma, Rev.  Arie
                                                                                           denHartog,  Prof. Robert D. Decker, Rev. David J. Engelsma, Rev. Richard
       Editorial-                                                                           Flikkema, Rev. Cornelius Hanko, Prof. Herman  Hando,  Rev.  JohnA.  Heys, Mr.
                                                                                            Calvin Kalsbeek, Rev. Kenneth Koole,  .Rev. Jay Kortering, Rev. George C.
          Still Non-Functional . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ; . . . . . . . . . 173          Lubbers, Rev. Rodney Miersma, Rev.  Marinus  Schipper, Rev. James Slopsema,
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MEDITA.TION

                                                       Ascended on High
                                                                                Rev. C. Hanko

                        Ques. 46. How dost thou understand these words, "He ascended into heaven"?
                        Ans. That Christ, in sight of His disciples, was taken up from earth into heaven; and that
                    He continues there for our interest, until He comes again to judge the quick and the dead.
                        Ques. 49. Of  what advantage to us is Christ's ascension into heaven?
                        Ans. First, that He is our advocate in the presence of His Father in heaven; secondly, that
                    we have our flesh in heaven as a sure pledge that He, as the Head, will also take up to HimselL
                    us, His members; thirdly, that He sends us His Spirit as an earnest, by whose power we "seek
                    the things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God, and not things on
                    earth. "                                                                                   Heid. Catechism, Lord's Day 19. *

       This is Anno Domini, the year of our Lord, 1982.                                       ing of the dawn, heralding a new day, the  begin-
       By the providence of our God our calendar dates                                        ning of the new dispensation.
back to the time of Jesus' birth. That was the break-                                             Events followed rapidly one upon another after


                                          THE STANDARD BEARER                                              171



the birth of the Savior. He was born in abject pov-      pecially Psalm 110. It is never difficult to find
erty in Bethlehem, dwelled and labored among us          PsaZter  numbers for the Ascension Day services.
for some thirty years, and ended His earthly min-        What always impresses us is the description of this
istry with His atoning death on the cross. There-        momentous event in Daniel 7: 13, 14, where the tri-
upon our Lord arose from the dead and ascended to        umphant Savior is described as making His march
heaven. After His resurrection He had tarried only       of triumph accompanied by the entire angel host
long enough to reveal to us in His resurrection body     through the heavens to be presented before the
the wonder of His victory over death. Nine times         throne of the Eternal God, where He receives
He appeared to His disciples, showing them new           power and dominion over all the works of God's
aspects of His resurrection body, only to disappear      hands. The ascension of Christ not only concludes
from sight as suddenly as He had appeared to them.       His earthly ministry, but is the occasion for His
  The last appearance was the most wonderful of          coronation in heaven. It brings the clock of history
all. Jesus met the eleven, likely in Jerusalem, and      to the eleventh hour. It introduces the "millen-
led them to the mount of Olives, conversing with         nium" of Revelation 20. It brings about the Day of
them along the way. There on the mount, after            the Lord, the end of the ages, the last hour. The
answering a few more questions, Jesus extended           next great event that still awaits us is the return of
His hands over them as evidence of His continued         our Lord with the same kind of cloud.
blessing upon them. As He blessed them He began            In harmony with its experiential approach, our
to ascend before their wondering gaze. At that mo-       Catechism emphasizes the advantage of Christ's as-
ment a cloud appeared, which enveloped Him, so           cension for us. We are reminded that Christ is now
that they saw Him no more.                               our Advocate before the Father. Moreover, He has
  Scripture describes this event by saying that a        taken our flesh into heaven as a pledge that we will
"cloud received Him out of their sight" (Acts  1:9).     be united with Him in glory. And, finally, we are
As children we were disappointed that this cloud         reminded that He sends His Spirit as an Earnest in
"just happened" to be there at that time, prevent-       our hearts, drawing us unto Him, so that we seek
ing the disciples from following their Lord's ascent     the things above.
until He faded away as a dim speck in the azure            Our Advocate stands before the Father.
blue. Now we know better. We understand that               The apostle John writes, "My little children,
this cloud was a part of the wonder of the ascen-        these things write I unto you, that ye sin not, and if
sion. God brought that cloud at that moment, a           any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father,
small distance above the heads of the disciples, that    Jesus Christ the righteous: and He is the propitia-
they might see Jesus enter into the cloud. This was      tion for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for
not an ordinary cloud lazily drifting through the        the sins of the whole world" (I John 2:1, 2). We are
skies, but it was a cloud of glory that symbolized       reminded how sorely we need one who represents
heaven itself. It was like the cloud that led Israel     us before the throne of grace, not. with an occa-
through the Red Sea and went before them in the          sional plea on our behalf, but as one who stands in
desert until they reached the promised land. It was      Gods presence interceding for us night `and day.
like the cloud that hovered over the ark of the cove-    We are wretched, miserable sinners, who bring
nant in the Most Holy Place, symbolizing God's           upon ourselves God's holy wrath every moment.
presence among His people. A similar cloud               Even our best works are sinful. Our prayers are for
appeared on the mount of transfiguration, when           the most part an abomination in God's ears. We
Moses and Elijah talked with Jesus and a voice           deserve only to be banished from His presence into
from the cloud spoke to the disciples. Here on the       everlasting condemnation. Our Advocate must be,
mount of the ascension God causes this cloud of          can be no other than Jesus Christ, the Righteous,
glory to appear and to envelop Jesus as a sign of His    Who died for us and lives to intercede for us.
entering into heaven. This is the interpretation of
the angels who stood with the disciples and said,          This means, first of all,  that,God  no longer sees
"Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into          us as we are in ourselves, but sees us in Christ,
heaven? This same Jesus which is taken up from           clothed from head to foot in the righteousness of
you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye      the Lamb for sinners slain. He regards us as sons
have seen Him go into heaven" (Acts 1: 11).              and daughters, heirs of salvation, worthy of eternal
                                                         covenant fellowship with Him.
  The Old Testament stresses the importance of
this event as  weil  as the New. I think of Psalm 8,       Besides that, Christ intercedes for us. He prays
Psalm  24:7-10,  Psalm  45:7, Psalm  68:18, and  es-     that we may be taken up with Him to share His
                                                         glory before the throne of God forever (John 17:24).
*For the entire Lord's Day see your Psalter or           Included in that main prayer are many individual
Hymn Book.                                               petitions for material and spiritual blessings accord-


172                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



ing to our personal needs. Christ prays for and re-            and with Him all power in heaven and on earth.
ceives the Spirit to dwell in us. By His Spirit Christ         What stronger proof could we have that "though
bestows upon us the gifts of grace whereby we are              after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my
made ready to appear without spot or wrinkle                   flesh shall I see God" (Job 19:26)?
among the assembly of the elect in life eternal.                 We share in the blessings of Christ's ascension
Meanwhile He holds us by His hand, guides us                   even now. Our Book of Instruction reminds us that
daily by His counsel, and afterward takes us into              Christ "sends us His Spirit as an earnest, by Whose
His glory. Christ does still more. He arouses us by            power we `seek the things which are above, where
His Spirit to worship in prayer and supplication,              Christ sitteth on the right hand of God, and not the
with thanksgiving, before the face of the Father. He           things on earth.' "
takes all of our prayers and presents them before
the throne of grace. Even though we pray in                      God provides us with a double guarantee of all
Christ's Name more out of force of habit than in               the riches of our eternal salvation. He places Christ
real need, our Lord takes this very seriously, so that         in heaven, and He sends the Spirit of Christ into our
no prayer arises from our lips which is not purified           hearts. Through His Spirit Christ fulfills His
from all its imperfections and presented before the       promise to us, "I will not leave you comfortless (as
face of God with the plea that God hear us purely              orphans); I will come to you." Christ came to dwell
on the basis of His meritorious work of the cross. It          in us on Pentecost. Now we gratefully confess with
is for Christ's sake, and for His sake alone, that God    the apostle Paul, "I am crucified with Christ: never-
answers our prayers in a way far above our fondest        theless I live: yet not I, but Christ lives in me" (Gal.
imagination.                                              2:20).
  Our Flesh in Heaven.                                           The Spirit of Christ is an Earnest, an advance on
                                                               the full salvation that awaits us in heaven. He
  The benefits of Christ's ascension seem to have              dwells in us to abide in us forever. He quickens us
no end. Our Catechism adds, "We have our flesh in         with the life of Christ. He transforms us from
heaven as a sure pledge that He, as the Head, will             children of Satan to sons and daughters of the living
also take to Himself, us, His members."                        God, restored in His likeness. We are united to
  Christ is our Head, we are the members of His           Christ by the bond of living faith. By the power of
body. Upon that fact our fathers lay the emphasis         that faith we experience sorrow for sin, repentance,
here. As our Head Christ merited the right to enter       forgiveness, justification, sanctification, preserva-
heaven. As our Head He brought our flesh into             tion, joy, peace, yes, all the riches of grace in Christ
heaven. When we with our first parents were ban-          Jesus.
ished from paradise we were cast out from the pre-               We are aliens in this present world, with our citi-
sence of God. Christ had to merit the right for us to          zenship in heaven. We are strangers on the earth,
be brought back into God's fellowship and favor.          wending our pilgrimage to the city that has founda-
Thus when our Savior had finished His atoning             tions, our Home in heaven.
work of the cross the veil of the temple was rent
from the top to the bottom, signifying that Christ               Oh, to be there, where  we'shall never more sin,
had opened the way into heavenly fellowship with          where sorrow and death are unknown, where all
God for us!                                               tears are washed away!
  As our Head Christ did even more than that. The                Ah, to be with Christ is a joy unspeakable that is
Son of God came into the weakness of our flesh,                full of glory! To behold His face in righteousness
tabernacled among us, died, and was raised in our              and to be able to devote our soul and body every
flesh, transforming it into a resurrection body that           moment of endless life to the praise of the glory of
was fit for heaven. The presence of Christ in                  our God!
heaven today is our guarantee that we will be                    That will be glory, glory for me!
where He is in a resurrection body.                       I                                                           I
  How could we ever express it more beautifully                  The Standard Bearer
and more emphatically than Paul expresses it in
Ephesians  2:4-6? We marvel at each word as we                       makes a'thoughtful
read, "But God, Who is rich in mercy, for the great
love wherewith He loves us, even when we were
dead in sins, hath quickened us together with                          gift for the sick
Christ, (by grace are ye saved), and hath raised us
up together, and  made us to sit together in heav-
enly places in Christ Jesus"!  Already we sit with                           and shut-in.
Christ at the right hand of God, possessing in Him


                                                       THE STANDARD BEARER                                                          173



EDITORIAL                                       ~ .


                                    Still Non-Functional
                                                        Prof. H. C. Hoeksema



  In an editorial in our November 15, 1981 issue I                       distinguish between the two. In the October editorial I
criticized the Editor of  The Banner  for editorially                    said that we surrendered this point of view with final-
decreeing that articles 27-29 of the Belgic  C.onfes-                    ity when we adopted the word "denomination."
sion are non-functional in the Christian Reformed                      From these lines it is plain that Editor  Kuyven-
Church. Literally he wrote: "And the kind of think-                  haven is maintaining his claim that "the kind of
ing about the church that is recorded in the Belgic                  thinking about the church that is recorded in the
Confession is no longer functional in the Christian                  Belgic Confession is no longer functional in the
Reformed Church." I-suggested that this was con-                     Christian Reformed Church."
trary to the Formula of Subscription as well as con-                   For my part, I do not believe that the Belgic Con-
trary to the adopted gravamen procedure of Editor                    fession means that the true church is and can be
Kuyvenhoven's denomination.                                          represented in only one church denomination or
  As it turned out, Editor Kuyvenhoven met with                      communion of churches; nor does it mean that the
criticism from within his own denomination also.                     false church is and can be represented in only one
And in The Banner of December 7, 1981 the Editor                     church denomination or communion of churches.
takes cognizance of this criticism that he "did not                  Nor do I believe that the Belgic Confession pre-
do justice to the Belgic Confession" and states: "I                  cludes the idea that there may be various`degrees of
will try to say more clearly what I had in mind."                    purity and various manifestations of the true.
  Now frankly, my impression is that Editor  Kuy-                    church. Nor does the Belgic Confession compel one
venhoven stated things rather clearly, and even                      to believe that a given church, or communion of
bluntly, in his first editprial on this subject. And my              churches, in the midst of the world becomes com-
impression is, too, that in his editorial of December                pletely and totally false all at once. Also in this re-
7 the Editor is not hi& usual clear and forthright self.             spect there are degrees.
He does not address himself directly to my criti-                      For the rest, regardless of what may be the atti-
cism; nor, in my opinion, does he clearly answer                     tude toward Article 29 in the Chiistian Reformed
his critics in "Voices." Nevertheless, it seems plain                Church,  ,we of the Protestant Reformed Churches
to me that the Rev. Kuyvenhoven has not retreated                    subscribe without reservation to the teachings of
from the position for which I criticized him, name-                  Article 29. Nor do I hesitate to say that the Protes-
ly, of writing off  the Belgic Confession without                    tant Reformed Churches represent the true church
benefit of gravamen and contrary to the Formula of                   in the sense that they are the purest manifestation
Subscription. If that is not his position, let him                   of the body of Christ, the church, when they are
plainly state this and let him retract his original                  judged according to the standard of the three marks
statement. Then we will at least have clarity.                       mentioned in Article 29.
  In the first place, the Rev. Kuyvenhoven goes to                     Twice more the Rev. Kuyvenhoven confirms,the
the heart of the matter in the first part of his edi-                fact that he still holds Articles 27-29 of the Belgic
torial when, he writes as follows:                                   Confession to be non-functional.
     The Reformers and the Belgic Confession know two                  First of all, referring to the use of the word "de-
   churches, one true and one false. They  also,  know               nomination" and its introduction into the Revised
   some sects, but these have no right to the name                   Church Order of the CRC,  Edit& Kuyvenhoven
   "c11urc11."                                                       writes:
     Can one know the difference between, the true                         This is what I meant when I said that the views of
   church and the false church? Yes: "These two                          the Reformers and the thought patterns of the Confes-
   Churches are easily known `and distinguished from                     sion are no longer ours. If Christian Reformed people
   each other" (Art. 29).                                                thought and spoke in confessional terms, they would
     Today nobody thinks in terms of two churches  -                     call Billy Graham a preacher without fixed charge and
   real, down-on-earth churches-of which one is true                     the Protestant     Reformed Church [should be:
   and the other false, and nobody would say it is easy to               Churches, HCH) a sect. But we don't do that.

                                                                                                                                           I


174                                                THE STANDARD BEARER



  Now without commenting on the advisability of               ven has already in effect declared the Belgic Con-
the change in the Church Order to which the Editor            fession invalid: it is non-functional in his denomi-
refers, I must say in general that I do not share his         nation. How, then, can a new confession about the
aversion for the word "denomination." He calls it             church ever express the same truths as does our
"a bad word-as bad as the word `layman.' " I find             present confession? In the second place, it is exactly
it a rather innocent word, as well as necessary.              the nature of confessions that they give expression
After all, it only means "a group of churches of the          to principles of truth. But principles do not change,
same name." Thus, the Christian Reformed                      but are applicable to all changing and changeable
Church is a denomination; the Protestant Reformed             situations. Why then would a new confession be
Churches are a denomination; the Orthodox Pres-               necessary? In the third place, Editor Kuyvenhoven
byterian Church is a denomination. What is wrong              exaggerates the difference between the situation in
with this? To be sure, as soon as that word "de-              the time of Guido De Bres and the situation of our
nomination" is given a specific identity, it also be-         own day. It is true, of course, that since the time of
comes incumbent upon the Reformed believer to                 the Reformation denominations, all claiming to rep-
apply the test of the marks of the true church and to         resent the church,. have multiplied vastly and that
make a judgment accordingly. The problem, it                  there are many more than at  the time of the Re-
seems to me, does not lie in the word "denomina-              formers and the time when our confessions were
tion" but in the failure to adhere to Article 29 of the       written. But we must not imagine that in Reforma-
Belgic Confession. Meanwhile, it is plain again               tion times the situation was as simple as Editor
from the paragraph just quoted that Editor Kuyven-            Kuyvenhoven pictures it to be. For one thing, there
hoven maintains that the Belgic Confession, 27-29,            were not only the churches of the Calvin Reforma-
is neither functional nor functioning in his denomi-          tion and the Church of Rome. There were also the
nation.                                                       Lutherans and the Zwinglians. And while there
  Incidentally, the Editor is quite welcome to call           were indeed significant differences between the
our Protestant Reformed Churches a sect-on one                latter and the churches of Geneva, the Calvinists,
condition, namely, that he can prove  it by applying          nevertheless these three recognized one another,
the test of the marks mentioned in Article 29. At the         had contact with one another, and certainly did not
same time, I would seriously urge him to apply that           exclude one another from the true church, while
same test to his own denomination and to take                 they were at the same time united in their condem-
earnest cognizance of the test-results.                       nation of Rome. For another, we must remember
                                                              that there soon appeared differences in the family
  Once more the Editor takes the same position,               of the Reformed churches. These differences were,
principally, when he suggests that the confession             of course, partly national and geographical. But in
should be rewritten:                                          the nature of the case there were also differences as
       We meet these evangelicals  with a confession about    to the confessions which the various churches
   a true church that is to be known by three marks: true     eventually adopted. There were even serious differ-
   gospel preaching, right administration of the sacra-       ences as to the form of church government in some
   ments, and faithful exercise of Christian discipline.      of  the churches. Now it is true that today the
   These marks are important, also today. But they are        number of these differences and the number of
   very formal signs of the true church. Article 29 also      denominations is vastly multiplied; but that is only
   gives the marks of true Christians. These are recited      a difference of degree, and it is a process of multi-
   less frequently among us.                                  p l i c a t i o n   w h i c h ,   i n   f a c t ,   b e g a n   w i t h   t h e
       If the Reformed churches would take their confes-      Reformation itself.
   sion seriously, they would now say in their own               We must, therefore, insist on applying the princi-
   words what they believe concerning the church of
   Christ. Such a new confession would not  ilavalidatc       ples of our Belgic Confession to today's situation.
   the Belgic Confession, but it would articulate the same    There is no need of change, let alone the fact that
   faith in a situation that was unimaginable at the time     Reformed churches in general would today not be
   of Guido De Bres.                                          spiritually and doctrinally strong enough to write a
                                                              sound confession about the true and the false
  Notice, first of all, that the Rev. Kuyvenhoven             church.
wants the confession of the church rewritten; he
wants a new confession. And he claims that such a                Finally, I am perturbed about Editor Kuyvenho-
new confession would not invalidate the Belgic                ven's view of the marks of the church. True, he
Confession, but would simply "articulate the same             says they are important. But he calls them "very
faith in a situation" that is different from that in          formal signs of the true church." The contrary is
which the Reformers lived and in which our con-               true. These marks are not mere formal signs. They
fessions were composed. But this is impossible for            are essential.
three reasons. In the first place, Editor Kuyvenho-              Why?


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 175



  The reason why these are the marks is connected           there is the voice of the Good Shepherd; there the
with the very nature of the church. The church is           sheep hear His voice; there they follow Him; there
built upon the foundation of the apostles and pro-          He gives them eternal life! This we must never for-
phets, of which Jesus Christ is the chief corner-           get!
stone. There simply is no other foundation possible           For remember: the church needs Christ! It is
-not for the true church! If the church is to be            only in living connection with Christ, the Christ of
built, it must be built on that foundation. And who-        the Scriptures, that the church  is  the church, and
ever proclaims anything else than the pure doctrine         that the members possess the life of Christ. And the
of the gospel is not building  upon  that foundation;       only contact which we have with Christ as long as
he builds  on  another foundation, and he builds a          we are in this present world is through  His  Word
mere human institution. It pleases Christ to call           (not man's word), through  His  sacraments, and
and to build His church through the preaching of            through His government and discipline. Where
the Word. Men may raise all kinds of objections             these are missing, Christ is missing. Where they are
against preaching and against sermons-as they do            corrupted and to the extent that they are corrupted,
nowadays. They may devise various glamorous                 there the members are being separated from
substitutes for the preaching of the pure doctrine of       contact with Christ their Head, and there the
the gospel. Or they may corrupt and adulterate that         church must either repent or perish!
pure doctrine of the gospel. The fact remains that it
pleases Christ to gather His church through the               This is the life-and-death seriousness of this en-
preaching of His own Word. You can never change             tire question of the marks of the true church!
that! Where the Word is preached, there is Christ;

MYSHEEPHEAR MY VOICE


                                    Letter to Tim.othy


                                     January 15, 1981       "Messiah," and of well worked-out and excellent-
Dear Timothy,                                               ly-delivered discourse on "Luther's View of Scrip-
                                                            ture." But it is not the same as listening to a ser-
   In connection with our whole discussion about            mon.
the importance of our proper attitude towards the
preaching of the Word, we were discussing, in our              The difference lies in the fact that a sermon is
last letter, what is involved in listening to a sermon.     authoritative proclamation, by an ambassador of
You will recall that I concluded that last letter with      Christ, of the truth of the gospel. Things happen
the remark that listening had to be, above all, spiri-      during the preaching of a sermon which do not
tual. It is to this matter which I want to turn in this     happen under other circumstances. Christ is speak-
letter..                                                    ing-though it be through the preacher. The Spirit
                                                            is working-though always in connection with the
   It is not easy to listen to a sermon spiritually. One    preaching itself. Sinners are being brought to repen-
listens to a sermon differently from the way one lis-       tance. The cross of Christ is applying its healing
tens to a symphony program, a choral program, or            balm to wounded spirits and broken hearts. The
even a lecture on "Luther's View of Scripture."             Church of Jesus Christ is being gathered, defended,
One listens to a symphony play Beethoven's "Fifth           and preserved-to use the expression of our Heidel-
Symphony" to enjoy fine music. He can appreciate            berg Catechism in Q.  & A. 54. Mysterious things,
the skill of the composer and the ability of the or-        wonderful things, heavenly things are happening,
chestra playing the piece; he can even be moved by          which take place only when the gospel is being
the music and capture  some  of the "ideas" in the          preached in Church on the Lord's Day. The mini-
mind of the composer when the piece was being               ster stands in awe of this as he engages in his task.
written. If he listens intently and knowledgeably,
he can be thrilled by the intricacies of the music.            But it is because of all this that listening to a ser-
But that is not yet the same as listening to a sermon.      mon is a spiritual exercise.
The same is true of a stirring rendition of Handel's           What does this mean? I mean, what does this


176                                           THE STANDARD BEARER



mean from the viewpoint of our responsibility as            or necessity; it is rather the "must" of willing and
hearers? How does one listen to a sermon in a way           joyful obedience. The child of God wants to hear
that is pleasing to God, in a way that makes his lis-       God speak to him because God's voice is filled with
tening an act of worship, in a way which is for his         the "good news" of salvation. But that conscious
edification and salvation?                                  submission must be there.
   There are a number of things which can and                 It is so easy to try to impose our word upon Scrip-
must be said about this.                                    ture, to try to make Scripture say what we would
   Listening is always, first of all, concentrated ef-      like to have it say, to listen to what interests us and
fort to undevstund  what is being said. The Word of         tune out when we are no longer interested. It is so
God, if it is to have its power over us and in  OUI         easy to be haughty and arrogant over against the
lives, must pass through our minds and under-               Word and forget that the greatest and least of all
standing. This seems axiomatic, but it is often for-        God's people stand on a common level before the
gotten in our day. Preaching is often considered            great and mighty Word of our God.
successful when it is an emotional experience. Re-            This submission to the Word must express itself
vivalists and  Pentecostals are experts at making           in personal listening-where the determinative
worship services emotional experiences. But that is         word is "personal."
about all they are too. This is not the viewpoint of
Scripture. Scripture, when preached, has its power            This is how the Spirit works, you see. The Word,
when it is given to us through the preaching as a           after all, comes objectively. The Word speaks of
                                                            Christ's atoning sacrifice, by which He paid for all
certain body of intellectual data which conveys             the sins of the elect and earned for them salvation.
truth. Our Heidelberg Catechism speaks of faith as          But the objective Word preached does not mention
being a certain knowledge. It says that faith is  not       the personal and family names of the people of
only a certain knowledge; but it is at least that.
And, as a matter of fact, it cannot be anything else,       God. The objective Word preached does not say:
such as confidence, unless it is first of all a certain     Christ earned salvation for John Van Donlterhuis.
knowledge. Nor must it be forgotten that the mean-          Yet that Word is made personal-by the subjective
                                                            operation of the Holy Spirit. That objective Word
ing of the word "certain" here is not: "a certain
kind of" knowledge; the meaning is: "a definite             preached is so applied by the Holy Spirit to the
and sure" knowledge.                                        hearts of the elect that John Van Donkerhuis hears
                                                            that Word and, because the truth is impressed upon
  This is probably partly the trouble nowadays. A           his consciousness, says: "Christ died for me!
generation brought up on the pablum and pap of              Wonder of wonders! Thanks be to God."
TV has never learned to exercise its God-given in-
tellect. To learn and know and understand the truth           That is why spiritual listening is always personal
is beyond the intellectual capacity of this genera-         listening. This too is very hard to do. We like to sit
tion; or, at least, if not beyond the intellectual capa-    in Church and speculate about who the minister
city, it requires a mental effort which is too much         has in mind with this reprimand. We like to think
for the average listener. To think is too hard when         to ourselves: "I wonder how so-and-so is reacting to
one has been spoon-fed a!1 one's life.                      all this." We like to take a quick look around the
                                                            auditorium to see whether Mr.                    is in
  But, however that may be, exercise of the intel-          Church because he really ought to hear what the
lect is essential to spiritual listening. And without it    minister is saying. We don't hear the Word that
there will never be any true listening to the Word.         way. The only question which each child of God
We might just as well face it. It is either a putting       faces in Church on the Lord's Day is: What does
forth of the necessary intellectual effort to under-        God's Word have to say to  me?,There is no other
stand what the Scriptures are saying, to understand         question of importance. Only  !hen will  we heal
what the minister is preaching about, to understand         Christ speak to us, objectively through  the"Word
what God is saying; or it is not really listening to the    and subjectively through the  .Spirit's efficacious
preaching at all because of mere intellectual and           work in our hearts.
mental laziness.                                              This spiritual listening must always de present
  But, of course, listening must be more than intel-        no matter what the minister is talking about. Per-
lectual understanding of what is being said. It must        haps the minister is explaining the truth of the in-
always be a listening which is an act of submission         carnation. Now it is usually true that the minister
to the Word of God. The child of God, while sitting         will spend some time in his sermon explaining to
in Church, must listen in the awareness that God            the congregation what benefit there is in this truth
through Christ is speaking to him and that he must          for the people of God. Especially if he is preaching
submit to the Word which is being spoken. This              on the Heidelberg Catechism, this will be the case.
"must" is never the "must" of unwilling coercion            But it really need not be always the case. It is quite


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                                  177



possible that he never gets around to this question           our sins and not be reminded of our wickedness or
of personal benefit. Does that mean that there is no          of our calling to forsake these sins.
blessing in such a sermon? Far from the truth is                We have a thousand skillful ways to dodge the
such an idea. The reaction of the child of God to             sharp sword of the Word. Sometimes the minister
such a sermon is: What a beautiful truth of God's             can even see some of these reactions from the pul-
Word is the truth of the incarnation. How great               pit. He is preaching against a current evil in the
God is in all His works and ways. What glorious               congregation and he can see many in the congrega-
things God does for His people. Or, in other words,           tion shift their position and get a look on their face
the believer is moved to praise and adoration be-             which clearly means to say: "Oh, brother. Here we
cause of the greatness and beauty of God's truth.             go again. I wonder how long he's going to be on this
  This is usually the case when preaching takes on            hobby horse of his this time."
the form of instruction. It need not always be  such            Spiritual listening submits to the Word no matter
a purely personal matter as: what benefit is there in         what. It is a listening which lets the Word do its
this for me? In a way, that is purely selfish. Have           work. No matter how much it hurts, one submits.
we no other concern in the preaching than: What's
in it for me? Have we become so selfish that we                 And then spiritual listening is doing. James
cannot appreciate anything but what has some im-              warns sharply against hearers of the Word who are
mediate and tangible value?                                   not doers. And doing is always first of all repen-
                                                              tance: sorrow for sin and turning to God for forgive-
  Nevertheless, instruction, as instruction, for its          ness. Then it is the earnest resolve by grace to do
own sake, has benefit, for to know God in Jesus               what is right in God's sight.
Christ is to have life eternal (John 17:3).                      But I must bring this letter to a close.
  We listen personally to be instructed in the truth.            Let me  co~uAude   therefore by urging upon you
  We also must listen personally and spiritually              the need for being a good listener to the Word. We
when the Word of God admonishes and corrects                  do not have many good listeners in Church these
us.  This is also very difficult to do. It is difficult to    days. They are hard to find. But our soul's salvation
do because we all have our pet sins which we do               is at stake.
not want to forsake; and, worse yet, we all have sin
which is dear to us and which we do not want ex-                 May God bless our Churches with good
posed. And so when Scripture comes with its ad-               preachers; but may He also bless us with godly lis-
monitions it sometimes hits raw nerves and opens              teners.
wounds. It hits us where it hurts. It  chastizes,  cor-                                   Fraternally in Christ,
rects, prods, and hurts. Then to submit is most dif-                                      H. Hanko
ficult because we want to remain comfortably in

THE LORD GAVE THE WORD


                              Missionary Methods (9)
                                                 Prof. Robert D. Decker



   Several months ago we began a study of the                 and development of the mission churches. Nevius
book,  The Planting And Development  Of  Mission-             advocated that there be no paid native clergy. In
ary Churches, by  Dti. John L. Nevius. Dissatis-              addition the principles of self-reliance and indepen-
fied with the mission methods of his day (late                dence ought to be applied from the very beginning.
1800s) Nevius proposed a new method which has
come to be known as the "Nevius method or plan."                 The obvious question becomes, how ought the
The old plan depended largely on paid native                  missionary to deal with the new converts? Nevius
preachers and evangelists and sought to foster and            points to the importance of this question when he
stimulate the growth and development of the native            writes: "The reception of first converts in any
mission by pouring money into the work. It is the             mission is an epoch fruitful of consequences for
contention of Nevius that this is contrary to Scrip-          good or evil. The course pursued at this time will
ture; and because it is that it hinders the growth            establish precedents, and in a great measure fix


178                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



policy and determine the character of the Church            unpaid agents is of such importance as to deserve
of the future. How then shall .these  first converts be     very careful attention." In our opinion the Chinese
dealt with? To this weighty question the Scriptures         are not unique in this tendency to "follow a fixed
furnish us some ready answers" (p. 19). To support          routine, and to be governed by precedents" (p. 21).
his contention that there ought to be no paid native        This would be true in any mission situation. People
preachers but that the converts ought to remain in          are pretty mudh the same in this respect. What was
their occupations Nevius calls attention to I Corin-        true of the Chinese on the mainland around the
thians  720, 24: "Let every man abide in the same           turn of the century is true of mission work in any
calling wherein he was called...Brethren, let every         part of the world today. In support of his position
man, wherein he is called, therein abide with               that the hiring of new converts to be paid preachers
God." This Apostolic injunction was ordained for            would be to set a bad precedent, Nevius points to
all the churches (verse 17). These verses teach             the striking example of the Apostle Paul who pur-
"most emphatically that Christianity should not             posed to preach the Gospel  "wit,hout  charge." The
disturb the social relations of its adherents, but re-      Apostle writes to the Thessalonians: "For your-
quires them to be content with their lot, and to il-        selves know how ye ought to follow us: for we be-
lustrate the Gospel in the spheres of life in which         haved not ourselves disorderly among you; Neither
they are called" (p. 19). In making evangelists and         did we eat any man's bread for nought; but
preachers out of new converts, missionaries are             wrought with labor and travail night and day, that
literally, though unconsciously, opposing a divine          we might not be chargeable to any of you; Not be-
purpose, Nevius charges. Furthermore he writes:             cause we have not power, but to make ourselves an
"Such a course directly tends to unsettle the minds         ensample unto you to follow us. For even when we
of new converts and excites the very feelings of            were with you, this we commanded you, that if any
restlessness and discontent which this command              would not work, neither should he eat. For we hear
seems specially designed to prevent" (p. 19).               that there are some which walk among you disor-
  It should be understood that Nevius is not object-        derly, working not at all, but are busybodies. Now
ing to the use of  sonze paid native preachers and          them that are such we command and exhort by our
evangelists. What he advocates is that these be kept        Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work,
to a minimum. Still more, they must not be novices,         and eat their own bread" (II Thess. 3:7-12). Ap-
i.e., very recently converted. These are untried.           parently there  .were  some in the Church who,
Scripture itself speaks with unmistakable clarity to        because of their mistaken notions of the immediate
this point: "Not a novice, lest being lifted up with        return of Christ, refused to work. These were busy-
pride he fall into the condemnation of the devil" (I        bodies interfering with the affairs of others and
Timothy 3:6). The Apostle further instructed Timo-          spreading false rumors concerning the coming of
thy: "Lay hands suddenly on no man, neither be              the Day of the Lord. These people appealed to the
partaker of other men's sins: keep thyself pure" (I         Church for their material needs. The Apostle ad-
Timothy  5:22). We do well to listen to this experi-        monished them to get to work. They must eat their
enced missionary at this point. "By one rash and            own bread, the fruit of their own work. In this re-
unauthorized step we may inflict an irreparable             spect the Apostle left them the example. He himself
injury on the person in whom we are so much in-             worked with his own hands while he preached the
terested, and destroy all hopes of his future useful-       gospel lest he be a burden to the Church. The Apos-
ness." How true this is! The proper way is to allow         tle did that not because he lacked the right to sup-
the new Christians to remain in their callings and          port, but to be an example to the saints (cf. vs. 9;
witness to the faith by word of mouth and by the            "power" is better translated "right"). William Hen-
godly example of their lives. If in the course of time      dricksen, in his Commentary on I Thessalonians
it becomes evident that the Lord calls some to the          2:9, offers a good summary of the Apostle's position
ministry they can be properly trained and called by         on this whole matter: "( 1) Titus 1:ll: He definitely
the churches.                                               does not want to give any occasion for being placed
                                                            in a class with `vain talkers' who are interested in
  Turning to the subject of the importance of pre-          `filthy lucre.' (2) I Cor. 9:6-15: He nevertheless em-
cedents, Nevius observes: "The Chinese are                  phatically asserts the right to receive remuneration
remarkable for their tendency to follow a fixed             from the church for performing spiritual work, and
routine, and to be governed by precedents. If the           to receive it even from the converts themselves (see
first convert is soon employed, those who follow            especially verse 11). Nevertheless, as far as the
will expect to be also. If the first station is supplied    latter group is concerned (the converts), he  has
with a chapel, succeeding ones will require the             decided not to make use of that right (see  verse
same, and so on indefinitely. As a matter of prece-         15). (3) Acts  20:33: He will now be able to say, `I
dent, the question as to whether the Gospel shall be        coveted no man's silver, gold, or apparel.' (4) II
first introduced by the instrumentality of paid or          Cor.  11:8: He does at times take `wages' from


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 179



already established churches, while he is working           present Christianity in the concrete. They are
in a new field. (5) Phil.  4:10-20: He accepts gifts        `cities set on a hil,' 'epistles known and read of all
from an already established church (Philippi). (6)          men.' When stations multiply after this type they
Acts  20:34, 35; I Thess.  2:9 and II Thess.  3:8: Most     strike root into the soil. There is life and aggressive-
of all, he provides for his own needs (and even for         ness in them." This, no one can deny, is sound,
the needs of others) by laboring with his own               Biblical mission methodology. Because it is
hands. (7) Acts 18:3: He is a tent-maker by trade. (8)      patterned after the methods of the Apostles this
I Cor.  6:12;  8:9, 13;  9:12;  10:23: The principle on     method is applicable to any field of mission labor.
which he insists again and again (applying it to              This leaves one question: "Why do not mission-
various questions) is this: All things are lawful, but      aries themselves work with their own hands and
not all things are helpful: there are a good many           set the same example that Paul did?" (p. 23). Nevius
things which I have a right to do, but that does not        argues that if the circumstances were the same,
mean that I should therefore do them! The real              most missionaries would do so gladly. Paul was a
question is always: `What course of action will be          Roman citizen in the Roman Empire. He labored in
most useful in promoting the work of the kingdom            his native land. He was a master of both Hebrew
and glory of God?' (9) II Cor. 11:7: Even so, in spite      and Greek, ttie languages in which he preached and
of this carefully worked out plan with respect to           taught. Missionaries today often must undertake
work and wages, he does not escape criticism. If he         the difficult task of learning a foreign language
takes money, or if his enemies suspect that he does,        before they can even begin to work. Besides, for a
they are ready to charge him with selfishness,              foreigner (and such is the missionary) to be in com-
greed; if he does not, they accuse him of making a          petition with natives in the work force is not only
show of his humility. (10) I Cor.  4:12; Eph.  4:28; I      impractical but also harmful to the cause of the
Thess. 2:9; II Thess. 3:8, 10: He (and the Holy Spirit      Gospel.
through him!) dignifies labor, and proclaims the
great principle: `If any man will not work neither             To the objection that to depend on so much
let him eat." (emphasis, Hendricksen's)                     voluntary, unpaid labor of native Christians is to re-
                                                            quire a much greater amount of zeal and devotion
  Precisely for these reasons Nevius believes "it           than is found among members of the sending
best, at least in the first stages of mission work, for     church Nevius replies: "If this is true, so much the
the native evangelist to follow Paul's example. Take        worse for Christians at home" (p. 25). This is not
a man laboring on the plane of his ordinary life as         true. There is a whole host of voluntary, unpaid
an earnest Christian and make him a paid agent,             workers in God's Church. Think of the countless
and you deprive him of half his influence" (p. 22).         hours elders and deacons spend in the work of the
Let the missionary do the preaching, let the new            Church. There are Sunday School teachers,
converts abide in their callings at least in the initial    organists and choir directors, and committee
stages of the work. "What we want," Nevius con-             members. There are godly widows and mothers in
tinues "are examples of men illustrating Christiani-        Israel who visit the sick and care for the elderly.
ty during six days of secular work, as well as by one       This is as it should be. This is as it should be in the
day of Sabbath observance. Such men and women               mission churches as well.

ALLAROUND US
Rev. G. Van Baren



             Of "Sacred Cows" and "Sour Milk"

   I make no claims of being a scientist. Though I          about the truthfulness of Scripture  - when all the
regularly remind catechumens and the congrega-               "scientific" evidence seems to point to evolution -
tion of the errors of the "scientific" theory of evolu-     and a long age of the earth and universe.
tion, and point them to the Scriptural truth of                The worldly scientist insists on a certain rule of
creationism, I do so not on the basis of "science"           "uniformitarianism." He insists that all things ever
but of faith - whereby I believe without doubt that          existed even as they do now today. He is convinced
the worlds were framed by the Word of God.                  that, on the basis of what he discovers now, he can
   Yet a Christian might be inclined to wonder              posit what must  have been true  ip the past.


     180                                                      THE STANDARD BEARER



     Obviously, he refuses to take into account the                           be analyzed. The evolutionists reveal their crass dis-
     Scriptural presentation of an instantaneous crea-                        honesty in failing to publish or admit the problems
     tion; of a fall of man into sin  - and its resultant                     created by the discovery that the concentration of
     curse upon the earth; of a universal flood which                         Thorium 230 in the moon rocks indicates by their own
     must have radically altered the face of this earth.                      clocks that the moon could not be older than 100,000
     Still, I'm not a scientist. I feel myself lost before the                years, which for evolution's requirements is barely a
     avalanche of "scientific facts" quoted to prove                          tick of the watch. They had expected some 50 feet of
     evolution.                                                               space ash on the moon to account for their billions of
                                                                              years. You know it turned out to be half an inch when
        But recently I read a brief article in the Herald of                  you saw those footprints around the landing module.
     the Covenant  which points out several things appar-                       .  ..If you visit Glen Rose, Texas, you can find human
     ently contradictory to the idea of evolution. I  am                      footprints preserved in stone along with dinosaur
     not in a position to prove or disprove them. At the                      tracks in the Paluxy River bed. An honest scientist
     least, however, the material is interesting. The                         would be happy for this correction to his chart of
I    writer of the article, Hugh Powlison, points out                         history, but the textbooks still teach our children that
     several "proofs" for a young earth - one not much                        dinosaurs disappeared  70,000,OOO  years before man
     older than 6,000 years. What do you think of the                         appeared. By the way, can you explain how to make a
     "proof"?                                                                 fossil out of a FOOTPRINT? They say it took a lot of
                                                                              time, and how long do YOUR footprints stay around?
              . ..One of the finest clocks available to our observa-            If you visit Carlsbad Caverns, the guide will explain
            tion is our own solar system. The sun is its main-                to you in all seriousness that those stalactites and
            spring, and it is unwinding at a rate of 4 million tons           stalagmites took 100,000 years to reach their present
            PER SECOND or about 8 miles off its diameter per                  size. He fails to tell you that inside one stalactite a
            year. With a diameter of 865,000 miles, its useful                complete bat was found encased. It had not rotted or
            future life is less than 100,000 years. Looking back-            been eaten by predators. This does not seem to bother
            ward in time to see how big it was at the `beginning',           the evolutionist.
            we run into deep trouble if we are looking for eons.                In Pennsylvania a spoon was found inside a block of
              Any astronomer can tell you that if you know the               soft coal. A finished spoon speaks of a civilization far
            mass of the sun, the mass of the earth, the distance             beyond the cave man style, yet this spoon was fab-
            between them and the velocity of the earth, you can               ricated BEFORE the coal bed was formed. Do you
            calculate the orbital equilibrium. Any significant               know when the books say the Devonian, Carbonifer-
            changes in any of these parameters, and the earth                ous  & Permian ages were? With evidence like that,
            either goes out into space or is sucked into the gravi-          you should feel sorry for the evolutionist....
            tational field of the sun, just as Skylab did to the earth
            after 7 short years. All the planets, asteroids and             The above makes for interesting reading. I am
            satellites are displaying a symphony of motion as they        not in a position to verify the statements made. Yet
            obey these exact parameters. Now if the sun is losing         after all is said and done, we need not "prove" the
            so much weight per second, and the earth is adding            creation fact by science, but we believe by faith
            14,000,OOO tons of meteorites and space ash to its            (Heb. 11). Many things can not be "proved."  Yet
            weight per year, it is conceivable that it could still be
            within the tolerances after 6,000 years, but to talk of       the faith of the Christian holds to the testimony of
            4.5 BILLION years is to confess that blind chance             the Word of God. And, after all, it is far less diffi-
            would have been kinder to Skylab than all their               cult to understand creation as Scripture presents
            careful planning.                                             this than it is to believe that what we see and what
              The sacred cow kicked over the whole bucket when            we are, came to be by blind chance. But unbelief
            the Apollo space missions brought back moon rocks to          will not agree.


                                                             Evangelisrn

       The  R.E.S. News Exchange,  Dec. 8, 1981, quotes
     from a Dutch paper indicating the changing atti-                          An exchange of ideas in Central Weehblad reveals
     tudes towards evangelism. More importantly, there                       that not everyone in the Reformed Churches in the
                                                                             Netherlands (GKN) thinks alike of what is meant by
     is a changed definition of proper evangelism. The                       evangelism. The Rev. J.B.J. Jonkers of the Center for
     changed definition governs not only churches in                         Evangelism here highlighted the change in conception
     the Netherlands, but also those throughout the                          that has occurred in the churches by juxtaposing two
     world. It is time for the faithful in Christ to return                  synodical  declarations, one in 1923, the other in 1973.
     to the old and proper paths.                                            The 1923 statement said: "The aim of evangelism is to


                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER                                                        181



   call those who are estranged from God's Word and the          lived, suffered, died and rose again remain the same?
   service of the Lord back to the Lord, and thus also to        Runia was not opposed to speaking of participating in
   the church of the Lord." Fifty years later the Church's       the liberating work of the Lord. But one can never
   Board of Evangelism described evangelism as: "the             really participate in that liberating work without first
   communicative mode of existence and activity by               having a part in the Lord himself....
   which church (members], as sharers in Jesus' mission,
   invite people to participate in the liberating work of       Notice especially the first paragraph above and
   the Lord."                                                 the statement: to "invite people to participate in the
                                                              liberating work of the Lord." It is that kind of state-
     Jonkers points out that more than a formal change        ment that is heard increasingly in connection with
   has occurred, for a "material" shift has taken place.
   The synod of 1973 held that the gospel cannot always       the calling of the church. This usually does not
   and in all situations be articulated in the same system    mean that there is that liberation from sin and
   of concepts. "In the bringing of the gospel the normal     death through the work of Christ. Rather, the
   and clear call to conversion may definitely not be         calling of the church is said to be to liberate the
   absent." Jonkers concluded that the aim of                 oppressed from the oppressors: to liberate women
   evangelism itself is susceptible to change. This means,    from the oppression of men; to liberate the poor
   of course, that before doing evangelism one should         from the oppression of the rich; to liberate the
   determine what one wishes to accomplish with it. In        black from the oppression of the white. This
   his opinion, this makes evangelism more difficult but      emphasis is also the mark, I am convinced, of the
   also more true to life.                                    anti-Christian  church. That seeks "liberation" not
     Reacting to Jonkers, Prof. Klaas Runia questioned        in the cross of Jesus Christ, but in the efforts and
   whether the fact that life constantly changes requires     strivings of men. Be aware of this emphasis of a
   a change in the aim of evangelism. Doesn't the essen-      "liberation" theology which rejects the theology of
   tial message of Jesus Christ and the salvation of the      the cross.
   Kingdom which He announced and for which He



           Difficulties of Westminster Seminary

  Most of us have heard of Westminster Seminary                   difficult step for reasons of expediency rather than
in Philadelphia. It is an independent, rather con-                principle.
servative, seminary, independent of any denomina-                   "The board makes no judgment," said the state-
tion though always closely allied with the Orthodox               ment, "whether Mr. Shepherd's views as such con-
Presbyterian Church. Some of its professors are                   tradict or contravene any element in the system of
former Christian Reformed men, including the                      doctrine taught by the Westminster Standards."
well-known Dr. C. Van Til. In past years there has                  Instead, the board observed that for a variety of
been a controversy surrounding the teachings of                   reasons "too many people in the seminary community
one of its professors, Mr. Shepherd. The contro-                  and constituency and the larger Christian public have
versy centers in Mr. Shepherd's view of justifica-                come to judge that Mr. Shepherd's teaching appears to
tion by faith and the relationship this has to works.             them to  contr-adict  or contravene, either directly or
The details of the controversy I have not carefully               impliedly, some elements in that system of doctrine
analyzed. From reports, they appear to be confus-                 taught by the Standards."
ing. But the result has been the dismissal of Mr.                   With obvious hurt, the Westminster board blamed
Shepherd from the teaching staff of the seminary. A               "its own indiscretions" for the fact that such judg-
report is presented in the  Presbyterian Journal  of              ments had been made. It also blamed "the indiscre-
Dec. 9,  1981:                                                    tions and at times one-sided allegations of others,"
                                                                  "the deep inherent problems in the structure and the
     Pressed to the wall by a complex controversy which           particular formulations of Mr. Shepherd's views,"
   it called "unresolvable," the board of Westminster             and "Mr. Shepherd's manner of criticizing opponents
   Theological Seminary here has dismissed systematic             as non-Reformed rather than primarily incorporating
   theology professor Norman Shepherd from its faculty            their concerns more thoroughly into his own position
   effective January 1.                                           in response."
     Grounds for the dismissal were stated by the board             The board said the "controversy over Mr. Shepherd
   to be "the best interests of the seminary."                    has reached such dimensions and such tangled com-
     In a public statement remarkable for its candor, the         plexity that it appears unresolvable...."
   Westminster board all but conceded that it took the              . ..Beyond the personal issue, however, continue to


182                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER



       lurk the implications for the denominational con-               One could well follow future developments in
       stituencies which Westminster Seminary serves. Al-            this trouble. Not all of the board or the majority of
       though Westminster is commonly perceived as an                the faculty of the seminary were happy about the
       institution of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church               "resolution" of the controversy. Whether Shepherd
       (OPC) it is in fact not only independent, but is con-         is correct or not, surely on a doctrinal matter the
       trolled by a board denominated now by members of
       the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) rather               board of that seminary ought to have taken a stand.
       than from the OPC....                                         As the situation presently exists, the problem likely
                                                                     remains, though Shepherd is dismissed.

BIBLESTUDYGUIDE


                    Galatians - Our Libertv in Christ
                                                                                 L
                                                          Rev. J Korteving



  The Epistle to the Galatians is the strongest                      first missionary journey.
polemic against the attempt of the Judaizers to                        Other references to the Galatians by Paul and
impose on the New `Testament church the                              Luke are not decisive on this point. In the letter
ceremonial aspects of the Old Testament law. At                      here  (12  and  3:l) only the name Galatians is used
stake was much more than the circumcision of the                     and there is no clue beyond that. In I Corinthians
Gentiles. The epistle dealt with the question of the                 16:l Paul speaks of the "churches of Galatia" who
law, whether one is justified by faith in Christ Jesus               were asked to contribute for the poor in Jerusalem.
alone or is righteous in the keeping of the ceremon-                 In the context, Macedonia, Achaia, and Asia are
ial law. The gospel of this epistle expresses the                    referred to as provinces. One would think that in
antithesis between bondage under the law and                         such a context, Galatia would also be referred to as
liberty in Jesus Christ.                                             a province. In Acts 16:6 Paul mentions his going to
THE GALATIANS                                                        the region of Phrygia and Galatia, a territory west
  In the epistle itself, Paul addresses the recipients               of Asia and Mysia which the Holy Spirit forbade
as "the churches of Galatia" (12). That designation                  them to enter. In Acts 1823 we read of the "region
seems simple in itself; but the attempts to identify                 of Galatia and Phrygia," the reverse order of Acts
these churches have produced two different                           16:6, which in turn must refer to the same region
answers. Some Bible scholars insist that they are                    known as Galatia. These broad references are to the
churches in Northern Galatia, others in Southern                     entire region. One cannot be sure if it was north or
Galatia. Connected with the position taken on this                   south or both.
question is also the attempt to date the writing of                    The debate as to which group is intended in this
the letter. The determination as to which group                      letter has a long history among Bible scholars and is
Paul addressed in this letter has bearing on the date                well documented. We are impressed with the argu-
of the epistle in this way: if he had in mind only the               ments of Wm. Hendriksen in  Bible  Szlwey, which
southern group, he probably wrote it spon after the                  arguments we summarize.
first missionary journey; if he included the
northern group, he probably wrote it after the                         1. The bdok of Acts does not indicate that Paul
second or even third journey.                                        ever founded any church in Northern Galatia. It
                                                                     does refer to churches in Southern Galatia  - e.g.,
  The name Galatia is derived from the Gauls, a                      Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe (Acts  13:14).
people of Celtic origin that invaded north central                   On the second missionary journey Paul visited
Asia Minor and settled in three centers, Ancyra,                     some of these churches a second time (Acts 16: 1).
Pessinus, and Tavium about three centuries before
Christ. This territory became a Roman province                         2. It would seem that Paul hurried from the
known as Galatia about 25 B.C. It included a north-                  marsh lowlands of Perga and went to Galatia for his
ern part which was originally inhabited by the                       health (Gal. 4: 13). The climate of Southern Galatia
Gauls, and a southern part which included Antioch                    was more conducive for this purpose.
of Pisidia, Iconium, Derbe, and Lystra. Paul visited                   3. In Galatians  25 it is clear that the churches
these cities and established churches there on his                   addressed were established before the Jerusalem


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                             183



conference. The text refers to the Jerusalem con-        sometime after the great conference in Jerusalem
ference at which time the issue of circumcising the      (Acts 15).
Gentiles was considered and decided.                       In addition to this, we must try to identify the
  4. In Lystra, Paul circumcised Timothy, whose          two Jerusalem visits that Paul mentions in  Gala-
mother was a Jewess and father a Greek (Acts 16:3).      tians  1:18 and 2:lff. In the former passage,  Gala-
The charge that Paul was inconsistent (Gal.  5:ll)       tians  1:18, we learn' that Paul went to Jerusalem
must have come from the Judaizers of the Lystra-         three years after his conversion and visited with
Derbe region. They observed Paul's act and               Peter. This seems to refer to the same visit recorded
accused him of not preaching what he practiced.          in Acts  9:26 where we learn that the saints in
This assumes that the readers of this epistle were       Jerusalem were afraid  of.Paul, so Barnabas had to
from that region.                                        calm their fear.
  5. In Acts 20:4 we find a list of names of respon-       Then in Galatians 2:lff we have the reference to
sible men who were to carry the money collected at       the second visit which was fourteen years after the
Antioch for the Jerusalem poor. Included in that list    first. In trying to identify this visit, we learn from
are Gaius and Timothy, men from the sourthern            Acts that, in addition to the visit mentioned in Acts
region; but none on the list are from the northern       9:16, Paul also went to Jerusalem with the money
region.                                                  for the poor (Acts  11:31), and for the great council
  6. The epistle refers to Barnabas (2: 1, 9, 13).       to settle the question of the law and the Gentiles
Only the southern churches would have known              (Acts 15). The problem is this, should we identify
him, since he went with Paul on the first mission-       the visit mentioned in Galatians 2 with the visit of
ary journey and separated after that.                    Paul carrying the money for the poor, or with the
                                                         visit of Paul to the Jerusalem conference.
AUTHOR AND DATE                                          ; After much discussion in trying to piece together
  We can state without any need of argument or           a chronology of the life of the Apostle Paul, Bible
proof that the Apostle Paul is the author of this        students differ as to which position to take. If the
epistle. As was his custom, he identified himself at     view that the Galatians 2 visit is to be identified
the opening of the letter, "Paul, an apostle (not of     with the Acts  11:30 one, then the date for the
men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ and God         writing of the letter to the Galatians could be as
the Father who raised Him from the dead), and all        early as A.D. 48, which would place it prior to the
the brethren which are with me" (l:l, 2). Though         Jerusalem conference. The difficulty with this view
his apostolic authority was questioned by some of        is that, in the context of Galatians 2, Paul makes
the Gentiles in Galatia and Paul had to deal with        reference to the successful labor among the
that in the letter, no conservative Bible student        Gentiles  (2:2). Such reference would be impossible
questions whether Paul wrote this epistle or not.        if the visit was for bringing the money for the poor,
  In light of our observations made so far, we take      for that took place prior to any of his missionary
the position that Paul wrote to the churches of the      journeys. We favor the position that Galatians  2:l
south region of Galatia which were already estab-        refers to the time when Paul attended the great
lished on the first missionary journey. This would       council. We could ask, if that be so, why Paul did
allow for the early dating of the letter.                not make much of this decision in his letter. Would
  This still does not solve the problem of dating.       not the authority of that decision have been con-
Even though it allows for early dating, we still need    vincing? Luke in Acts 15, makes much of this,
                                                         implying that it decided once for all this issue that
to try to determine how early. In consulting com-        was dividing the churches. Paul, however, is con-
mentaries and Bible study manuals, we find a
disparity for the date of writing  - anywhere            cerned with the attack upon his apostolic office by
                                                         the heretics in Galatia. In addition, he intended to
between A.D. 48 - A.D. 57.                               dispel their attack by showing from the gospel itself
  The problem in dating this letter is connected         that the circumcising of the Gentiles was a denial of
with the  chronology,presented  in it. In Galatians      the liberty in Christ. This is not to say that no refer-
4:13 Paul referred to the fact that he had preached      ence is made to the conference at all (see Gal. 2:2-
the gospel to the Galatians "at the first." This         51.
implies that he preached to them twice, Some                    Our conclusion is that evidence points to Paul's
suggest that it refers to the two times he preached      having.written  the letter to the Galatians while at
to them on the first missionary journey (once on the     Corinth during his second missionary journey. The
way out and then on the way back). Others say this       approximate date was the year A.D. 53.
refers to the first missionary journey and then on
the second journey. This seems to us more plaus-         OCCASION FOR THE EPISTLE
ible and would therefore place the date of the letter           Paul had preached to the Galatians that a person


184                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



became a child of God and a true son of Abraham                When Paul heard that this lie was being  pro-
by faith in Christ alone. There was no need for any         moted in Galatia, and that his missionary work was
observance of ceremonial laws. This was the liberty         being undermined, he was angry. Righteous  in-
of the Gospel of Christ. The Christians in Galatia          dignation led him to write this fiery letter to expose
rejoiced in this word.                                      this serious error which some in the church began
  The Judaizers, however, influenced the church             to follow. We must keep in mind that Paul's wrath
of Galatia. They insisted that it was not as Paul           was not a personal retort against those who  at-
preached. They maintained that it was necessary             tacked him personally. True, they attacked his
for the converted Gentiles to become Jews first of          apostolic office, they questioned whether he should
all, that is to be circumcised and brought under the        be an apostle, they accused him of making it too
restrictions of the Old Testament laws of Moses             easy for the Gentiles to become Christians. I
such as eating of meats, observing holy days, etc.          suppose they said that as a missionary he was com-
Then, if one did that, one could.partake  of salvation      promising on the gospel just to get results. This
in Jesus Christ. They did not deny outright the             angered Paul, to be sure, for he was a faithful mis-
necessity of Christ; rather they placed human laws          sionary of the Word. His anger, however, was
as requisites for believing in Christ. Here we see          directed against the lie and those who would prop-
the basic doctrine of justification by faith once           agate it. The sharpness of this letter is proof that
again attacked. Is Christ's perfect work the ground         the Apostle Paul determined to expose this error for
for justification, or must we still keep the law for        the sake of the truth. Nothing must take away the
righteousness?                                              glorious liberty that the believer has in Christ Jesus.

GUESTARTICLE


                  Examining Church Membership
                                                 Rev. J. Slopsema


  It is generally recognized that the church today          under the auspices of private organizations and
as an institution is on the decline. Strange as this        evangelistic associations. In harmony with this,
may seem, this decline goes hand in hand with               neither do they generally emphasize the impor-
what is being heralded as a spiritual awakening in          tance of church membership to those whom they
our land. There is a spiritual movement in our land         claim as converts. Church membership simply is
that goes under the name "Neo-Evangelicalism" or            not all that important. The important thing is that
' `New-Evangelicalism." This movement is associ-            you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
ated with such names as Billy Graham, Oral                  But such a relationship can exist apart from the
Roberts, Bill Bright, Mark Hatfield, and many               organization of the church. And so church member-
others. Through their organizations and crusades            ship is simply not all that important. In fact some-
we are told that thousands upon thousands have              times church membership is viewed as being detri-
been brought to Jesus Christ.                               mental to one's personal relationship to Jesus
  This movement is not above criticism. Thus, for           Christ.
example, the gospel of these neo-evangelicals is              It is my purpose in this article to show the impor-
often only a "thumb-nail" gospel. The gospel they           tance of the institution of the church in salvation.
proclaim is at best only shallow and superficial.           In a future article I wish to demonstrate not only
More often it is riddled with all kinds of false doc-       that church membership is important, but also that
trines so that their gospel is what Paul in Galatians       it is important that we be members of a particular
1 calls a gospel which is no gospel. But perhaps the        kind of church.
most serious weakness, which is the root of all that
is wrong with the neo-evangelicalism of our day, is           Very early in the history of the Christian church,
its attitude concerning the institution of the church.      the church as an institution was considered to be
It is simply a fact that many of the big-name evan-         the mother of God's people. Thus, for example, the
gelists of our day work apart from the institution of       early church fathers emphasized that you can not
the church. They are supported by and operate               have God as your Father unless you have the


                                              THE STANDARD, BEARER                                              185



church as your mother. John Calvin, the great                   We ought to add at this point that no church can
Reformer of Geneva, takes up this same idea in his            claim exclusive right to the title "Mother of God's
writings. He does this for example in his lizstitrltes  of    people." No one church can make the claim that
the Christian Religion. Writing on the institution of         you must belong to her organization or you can not
the church, Calvin cites the church fathers as we             be saved. There have been churches in the past
have above. In his commentary on Ephesians,  .ex-             who have made that claim. The Roman Catholic
plaining chapter 4 verse  13,  Calvin writes, "The            church still makes that claim for herself. Yet this is
church is the common mother of all the godly,                 a false claim. The other side of the picture however
which bears, nourishes and brings up children to              must also be presented. To claim the title "Mother
God."                                                         of God's people" a church must be faithful to the
  And this is Scriptural. In Galatians  4:26 the              ministries God has given to her. Just because an
Apostle Paul speaks of the Jerusalem which is                 organization goes by the name "church" and goes
above. This is a figurative term to denote the                through the rituals of a church organization does
church of the new dispensation from the view-                 not qualify it to be called the mother of God's
point of her heavenly origin. Of this "Jerusalem"             people.
Paul says, "But Jerusalem which is above is free,
which is the mother of us all."                                 The ministries God has committed to the church
                                                              and which are indispensable for the faith and salva-
  That the church is the mother of God's people               tion of God's people are three. In the first place
means that God brings His people to salvation and             there is the preaching of the gospel. The preaching
preserves them in that salvation only through the,            of late has fallen on hard times. It is being despised
ministries of the church. Apart from the church               and done away with. We are told that there are
institute there is no salvation possible. Three things        much more effective ways today to present the
must be understood in this connection. First, salva-          gospel. And so the preaching is more and more
tion is by faith alone. This is the teaching of Scrip-        being replaced by dialogue, music, drama, films,
ture throughout. This, for example, is the teaching           etc. That however is not the viewpoint of the Bible.
of the Scripture in Ephesians  2:8, 9: "For by grace          According to the Scriptures it is especially through
are ye saved  through faith;  and that not of your-           the preaching that God works faith in the hearts of
selves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any         His people. According to the Scriptures preaching is
man should boast." Faith is essential to salvation            indispensable to faith and salvation. Thus, for
because faith is our spiritual connection to Jesus            example, Paul in I Corinthians 1 speaks repeatedly
Christ in Whom are all the blessings of salvation.            of the foolishness of preaching. The idea there is
Hence, it is by faith alone that we are justified; by         not that the preaching is foolishness. Rather, that is
faith we receive the adoption of sons; by faith we            what the citizens of Corinth considered the preach-
are forgiven; by faith we are renewed and spiritual-          ing of the gospel to be  - foolishness. But in verse
ly strengthened so as to live a new and holy life.            21 of that chapter we read, "it pleased God by the
  The second thing we must understand is that this            foolishness of preaching to save them that believe."
faith is a gift of God. The fallen, natural man does          Likewise in Romans  1:16 the Apostle Paul by
not possess the ability to believe on Jesus Christ            divine inspiration tells the church of Rome, "For I
unto salvation. That is something lost in the fall. If        am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ (in light of
man will believe in Jesus Christ, that faith must be          the preceding verse this means the preaching of the
given to him of God and must be sustained in him              gospel): for it is the power of God unto salvation."
by God. Certainly this is the teaching of Scripture           Finally, in this same epistle, chapter 10 verses 13
in Philippians  1:29, "For unto you it is given in the        and 14, we read, "For whosoever shall call upon
behalf of Christ, not only to believe on Him, but             the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall
also to suffer for His sake." To believe on Jesus             they call on Him in Whom they have not believed?
Christ is something given to us. It is a gift of God.         and how shall they believe in Him of Whom they
                                                              have not heard? and how shall they hear without a
  In the third place, however, we must understand             preacher?" Notice that we have here a chain. The
that God works and maintains faith in the hearts              subject is salvation. To possess that salvation it is
and lives of His people in and through the minis-             necessary to call on the name of the Lord Jesus
tries of the church institute. Apart from the insti-          Christ. To call on the name of the Lord, however, is
tution of the church God does not work faith. The             is necessary to believe in-Him. To believe on Christ
ministries of the church are indispensable for faith          it is necessary to hear Him (thus we read literally in
and salvation. In that sense the church is the                the original). And to hear Christ  .so that we may
mother of us all. God used the church to bring forth          believe on Him unto salvation it is necessary that
His people to salvation so that He may receive them           there be.a preacher and preaching. This is the plain
as true sons and daughters in His house.                      teaching of this passage. And who is it that


186                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



preaches? It is the calling of the church as an insti-     calling to maintain the Word of God in the church,
tution to preach. And the church preaches through          to see to it that the members of the church both in
the office of the minister.                                confession and walk conform to the Word. Those
  The second ministry God has given to the church          who do not conform to the Word of God but go
is the administration of the sacraments. Christ has        astray are to be admonished and rebuked by the
instituted two sacraments: baptism and the Lord's          elders. Should those who stray persist in their sin,
Supper. These sacraments are essentially pictures.         then eventually they are to be cast out by the
In the preaching, the gospel of salvation in Jesus         elders. This is Christian discipline. And this
Christ is proclaimed. In the sacraments this same          discipline is necessary in the church. It is necessary
salvation is'pictured.  Thus, for example, in baptism      not only to cleanse the church of those who do not
the washing away of sins in the blood of Christ is         really belong. It is necessary also for the true
pictured in the sprinkling of water. In the Lord's         believer in Jesus Christ. He needs the watchful eye
Supper the suffering and death of Christ on the            of the elder and the admonition of the elder from
cross where He allowed His body to be broken and           God's Word when he goes astray. In this way God
His blood to be shed is depicted in the breaking of        brings him to repentance and keeps him faithful
bread and the pouring out of wine. And when these          even to the end. The flock is easily scattered when
sacraments are properly administered by the                there is no supervision; God's people are soon led
church, God uses them to strengthen and confirm            astray when there is no Christian discipline.
the faith of His people. Thus, the sacraments along          And so the child of God needs the church.
with and in subordination to the preaching serve to        Through the preaching, sacraments, and discipline
maintain the faith of God's people unto salvation.         of the church, God brings him to faith and salvation
  Finally there is the exercise of Christian dis-          in Jesus Christ and maintains him in that faith and
cipline. By Christian discipline we mean the proper        salvation. Without the church he perishes. Let us
supervision of the life of the members of the church       therefore not despise the church as an institution.
by the ruling body of the church. According to             She is our mother, even as God is our Father. The
Scripture, God has ordained rulers in the church,          church as an institution must be very precious to
which the Scriptures sometimes call and which we           us. Let us cling to her and pray for her.
call elders. They are those who are entrusted by                                                (to be continued)
God with the supervision of the church. It is their

THE DAY  OF SHAD0 WS


       .:- ---.Faltering Faith and Manifold Mercy
                                               Rev. John A. Heys



  Although man does not live by bread alone, man          the priority in our lives, and then do so in the
does live by bread. His earthly life, and body of         assurance that God will add to us the bread that we
flesh depend upon bread for continued existence.          need to seek that kingdom. The kingdom is the end
For did not the same Jesus, Who told Satan that           that we seek. Bread is a means that we seek and
man does not live by bread alone, also teach us to        pray for in order to have the life and strength to
pray, "Give us this day our daily bread"? Indeed          seek that kingdom. The unbeliever seeks bread for
man is constantly faced with the bread question.          bread's sake and so that he may seek the world and
That very prayer teaches us that every day this           its lusts,
question is there. Be he believer or unbeliever,             This does not rule out two undeniable truths. We
young or old, white or black, bond or free, man           must be industrious and take care that there is
faces every day the question, "What shall we eat,         bread. We must make use of the means which God
and what shall we drink?"                                 provides for the obtaining of our daily bread. But
  There are, however, different ways to ask that          we must not worry about it. For if we are anxious
question. Jesus tells us not to ask that question in      about it we reveal that we are not making the
such a way that bread becomes an end in itself. No,       seeking of God's kingdom the priority in our lives,
we are to seek the kingdom of God first, that is, as      and that our heart is not right for seeking that king-


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                               187



dom; and also that we are not seeking bread only as        going, and would have gone  ,because of the, great
a means but as an end in itself. And the second            need. had their father only allowed them to take
truth is that the believer still has his old nature and    Benjamin along. The bread question did  .finally
that therefore in the day of the Antichrist he will be     cause Jacob to yield.
under great temptation to take the mark of the               Once again Jacob's flesh rules him, so that he
beast in order to be able to buy and sell for his          cries out, (after resorting to his old tricks by
bread's sake, and his earthly life's sake. That is why     instructing his sons to take a  .present  of balm,
even today men will defend themselves while                honey, spices, murrh, nuts, and almonds to gain the
walking contrary to the rule of that kingdom of God        favour of this  "man" in Egypt), "If I am -bereaved
which is found in II Corinthians 6, so that they are       of my children, I am bereaved." And when the nine
unequally yoked with unbelievers in worldly, re-           sons had come home without Simeon he had said in
bellious, fifth-commandment-defying unions that            regard to taking Benjamin along the next time, "If
are only concerned with bread and have no interest         mischief befall him by the way in which ye go, then
at all in seeking the kingdom of God. And they try         shall ye bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to
to defend themselves by asking, "I have a  God-            the grave."
given calling to provide food for my family, do I
not?" They also brush aside the rule of the King-            It is true that in the sentence in which he said,
dom in Romans 13 where we are told by God Him-             "If I am bereaved of my children, I am bereaved,"
self to "be subject unto the higher powers. For            he first expressed his prayer, "And God Almighty
there is no power but of God; the powers that be           give you mercy before the man that he may send
are ordained of God. Whosoever resisteth the               away your other brother, and Benjamin." For he
power, resisteth the ordinance of God; and they            was a believer, and he did have faith in God as the
that resist shall receive damnation to themselves."        Almighty. Yet there is a point here we must not
And that employers are powers is plain from I Peter        overlook.
218, "Servants, be subject to your masters with all          Our Reformed fathers expressed it so correctly
fear; not only to the gentle, but also to the              when in the Heidelberg Catechism in Lord's Day
froward." And masters are power, or, as a clearer          XXIV they answer the question, "But why cannot
translation would have it, authorities. Those who          our good works be the whole, or part of our righ-
seek the kingdom of God - which is a realm where           teousness before God?" in this manner: "Because,
all consciously and willingly seek God's glory, and        that the righteousness, which can be approved of
is therefore called the kingdom of God, the king-          before the tribunal of God, must be absolutely
dom where God is all in all the lives of all who are       perfect, and in all respects conformable to the
in it - will do nothing against the laws of His king-      divine law; and also that our best works in this life
dom. The new life in them will let go the job and          are all imperfect and defiled with sin." And in
means of obtaining bread rather than break a law of        Lord's Day XLIV, and in answer to the question,
that kingdom. He seeks the kingdom FIRST. Bread            "But can those who are converted to God perfectly
comes in the way of seeking that kingdom.                  keep His commandments?" our fathers stated,
  Now Jacob, the believer, was no exception to this        "No; but even the holiest men, while in this life,
matter of facing the bread question. And ultimately        have only a small beginning of this obedience; yet
this became the reason why he allowed his sons to          so, that with a sincere resolution they begin to live,
take Benjamin along with them to Egypt. With               not only according to some, but all the command-
Jacob it was not a case of being willing to have his       ments of God." And all this is but an explanation of
sons prove to this "man" in Egypt (who he did not          and re-emphasis upon what God said Himself
know was Joseph) that they were true men and not           through Paul in Romans  7:18-21, "For I know that
spies and to redeem Simeon. It was a matter of             in me [that is in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing;
sending the sons with Benjamin, or starve to death,        for to will is present with me; but how to perform
and so lose all his children and his own life. We          that which is good I find not.... I find then a law,
read at the very outset of Genesis 43, "And the            that, when I would do good, evil is present with
famine was sore in the land." That land was the            me."
land of Canaan where Jacob and his sons dwelt.               In that light we can understand Jacob, the be-
And Judah in Genesis  43:lO states, "For except we         liever's, cry of, "If I am bereaved of my children, I
had lingered, surely now we had returned this              am bereaved." How radically it differs from Job's,
second time." And Jacob answers, "If it must be so         "The Lord gave, the Lord hath taken away; blessed
now, do this...." Although the "it must be" is in          be the name of the Lord." How different it is from
italics, because it does not appear in the Hebrew          the psalmist's confident speech in Psalm  !03:17,
text, the word "lingered" speaks of a delay, which         "But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to
when coupled with the fact of a sore famine in the         everlasting on those that fear Him." Jacob had
land shows that the sons felt deeply the need of           called God "God Almighty," but no sooner had he


188                                           THE STANDARD BEARER



called Him that than his faith gave way to his flesh        face more rough speech and perhaps imprison-
and he spoke words of fatalism. He should have              ment. They feared that the money in their sacks
spoken thus, "And God Almighty give you mercy               was purposely put there so that "he may seek
before the man, that he may send away your other            occasion against us, and fall on us, and take us for
brother and Benjamin; and if not, so that I am              bondmen, and our asses" (Genesis 43:18). It was no
bereaved of my children, it is not because this ever-       pleasure trip on which they were going. They were
lasting mercy of God has been interrupted and is no         like a man going to the dentist to have a tooth
longer upon me." He should have told his sons that          drilled or pulled: a "necessary evil" because they
he would grieve if he is bereaved of his children,          needed food, and an ordeal that they loathed. Then,
but he would still bless God and trust His promises.        too, in the back of their minds was the fact that
  Now that Jacob watched his sons with Benjamin             they believed that God had given them all this
until they were out of sight, that his thoughts were        distress because of what they did to Joseph. Fear
with them every day until they returned, and that           was in their hearts. The future looked bleak. And
he prayed daily for their safe return with Simeon           they had an awesome responsibility over against
was not at all out of place or a lack of faith. And, if     Benjamin and his safe return to his father.
we may anticipate a moment, the truth set forth in             In light of all this, Jacob should have streng-
this whole account, including the safe return of all        thened their faith with the Word of God and
the sons and with the truth concerning Joseph, so           pointed them more directly to this God Almighty
beautifully and powerfully underscores what Paul            and HIS mercy. What is the mercy of man toward
wrote in Ephesians  320,  "Now unto Him that is             us, if God is not merciful? What a way for these
able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we           sons to leave their grieving father, namely, hearing
ask or think, according to the power that worketh           him say "If I am bereaved of my children, I am
in us." Jacob prayed for the safe return of his             bereaved." Those were the last words they heard
eleven sons, and he did not ask or think of asking          from him before they left.
for the return of Joseph. But God restored to him              Surely here he was not manifesting himself as
this son whom he thought to be dead. How could              Israel, the Prince of God. And it is only because
he ask or think of asking that he might yet see             that mercy of God is from everlasting to everlasting
Joseph on this earth? He got much more than he              upon those whom He chose in Christ that after
asked for, or thought of asking for. All these things       such outbursts of fatalism such as, "All these things
were not against him but working for him. God Al-           are against me" and "If I am bereaved of my
mighty not only gave his sons mercy before Joseph;          children, I am bereaved," that Jacob still receives
but, what is more, God's own mercy was on Jacob             more than he could ask or think. Because our God
and his sons. Although the cross of Christ was far          is unchangeable and His Son is ever faithful, all our
yet in'the future.as far as the history of this world is    unfaithfulness and failure to live by faith cannot
concerned, He is the "Lamb slain from before the            bring His mercy to an end. As Jeremiah stated it so
foundation of the world" in God's counsel. And on           beautifully in Lamentations  3:22, 23, "It is of the
that basis Jacob and his sons are dealt with in             Lord's mercy that we are not consumed, because
tender mercy by God.                                        His compassions fail not. They are new every
  Now apart from the fact that Jacob's faith                morning; great i.s Thy faithfulness."
wavered so that he spoke words of fatalism, there is          Well may we with the psalmist sing:
another element so sadly lacking here. Jacob not                    "Thy mercy and Thy truth, 0 Lord,
only set a bad example before his sons. He also                     Transcend the Lofty sky;
failed in his duty as a covenant father. These sons                 Thy judgments are a mighty deep,
were by no means eager to go back to Egypt and                      And as the mountains high." Psalm 36:5

QUESTION  BOX

                             Our Natural Depravity
                                                   Rev. C. Hanho

  We received the following question: "Is a re-             often arise within the church: on the one hand, the
generated person still depraved?"                           error of perfectionism, and on the other hand, the
  Your question reminds me of two errors that               error of antinomism.


                                             THE STANDARD  BEAdER                                                189



  The perfectionist argues that we are. new                   This is the plain teaching of Scripture in many
creatures in Christ; old things are passed away,            passages, such as Psalm  19:13, Romans 6:l.Z14,
and, along with these old things, also our depravity.       Galatians  5:16, 17.  In.Galatians   5:16 Paul makes a
He appeals to such passages of Scripture as I John          contrast between "walking in the Spirit" and "ful-
3:9: "Whosoever is born of God doth not commit              filling the lusts of the flesh." This is the tension in
sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot           the life of the believer, the constant warfare
sin, because he is born of God." The perfectionist          between the old man of sin and the new man of
will also refer to saints like Job, of whom it is           Christ. The lusts of the flesh refer to every carnal,
written that he was a man, "perfect and upright,            wicked inclination and desire, all the sinful
and one who feared God and eschewed evil." The              cravings of our nature, whereby we transgress, not
Pentecostals seem to lean in that direction when            some, but all of the commandments of God, and are
they speak of beipg baptized by the Holy Spirit,            not able to keep one of them (Lord's Day 23). This
enabling them to live sinless lives. These perfec-          is our covetousness, the root of all our sins. Those
tionists stress, of course, an outward perfection of        lusts are summed up in the verses 19-21 as every
"touch not, taste not, and handle not."                     conceivable sin that can be committed, not only by
  On the other hand, there are the antinomians              the unregenerate, but also by the regenerate.
who stress that we are by nature depraved sinners             Over against these "lusts of the flesh" stands our
who cannot keep God's law. They remind you that             walking in the Spirit. The new man in Christ has
Christ has fulfilled the law for us. In Him is all our      learned to love God, and therefore to hate sin. He is
righteousness, so that we can add nothing to that           afraid to offend his God. He opposes sin, because
nor detract from it. Nor must we try with our good          sin is contrary to God's holiness and contrary to his
works to add to the righteousness of Christ. Some           desire to live according to all the commandments of
will, therefore, object to admonitions in the preach-       God. When he sins he experiences bitter pangs of
ing, since we cannot fulfill them anyway. In                conscience, a deep sense of shame and guilt, so that
extreme cases the antinomian will condone sin               he daily humbles himself before God with the con-
with the attitude, "Let us, then, sin, that grace may       fession of sin and a plea for forgiveness. An integral
abound."                                                    part of his prayer life is the petition, "Forgive us
  Now I  am sure that you have neither of these             our debts, as we forgive our debtors," as well as the
errors in mind. Your question centers about the             crying need, "Lead us not into temptation, but
extent of Christ's work of regeneration in us. When         deliver us from evil." Sin is still so much a part of
we speak of the renewal of the he&, does this also          us. We do not improve with age, even though that
include the renewal of our nature?                          may be the dream that lives in the soul of every
                                                            young Christian. As far as our depravity is con-
  To that I must answer, that it is my conviction,          cerned, a child is like a young sapling, an elderly
that the renewal of the heart does not include the          person like an old, gnarled tree. Young people may
renewal of our nature. It is true that the heart is the     give vent to their evil lusts, but their nature is not as
spiritual ethical center of our life, for from the heart    experienced in the ways of sin as is an older
are the issues of life. Paul teaches us: "Therefore if      person's. The difference is that a child of God
any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old             becomes ever more aware of his own weaknesses
things are passed away; behold, all things are              and character sins, so that he prays ever more
become new." This is true even to the extent that           fervently: "0 wretched man that I am, who shall
there is a new man in Christ within us that wills the       deliver me from the body of this death?" He roots
good (Romans 7). This is evidently what our fathers         himself ever deeper into Christ, relies no more on
had in mind in Canons III, IV, XI, where they state,        his firm resolutions or hopes for improvement, but
"But by the efficacy of the same regenerating               seeks all his salvation only in his Savior. Sin is still
Spirit, (God through His Word) pervades the inmost          like an angry, snarling dog within him, that tugs at
recesses of man; He opens the closed, and softens           the leash and must constantly be kept in control by
the hardened heart, and circumcises that which              the grace of God operating in the new life within
was uncircumcised, infuses new qualities into the           him and the power of the Holy Spirit.
will, which though heretofore dead, He quickens;
from being evil, disobedient and refractory, He               Therefore our Catechism asks the question in
renders it good, obedient, and pliable; actuates and        Lord's Day  2, question 5, "Canst thou keep all
strengthens it, that like a good tree, it may bring         these things (all the demands of God's law) perfect-
forth the fruits of good actions." Nevertheless, that       ly?" It is a matter of keeping God's law in love to
does not renew our nature. Our sinful inclinations,         God perfectly, or not at all. And the answer is
our character weaknesses do not change. We do not           given, "In no wise!" That is strong language. But
become better people. The old man of sin is still           the reason that is given is even more emphatic:
present, sin still wars in our members.                     "For I am prone by nature to hate God and my


190                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



neighbor." By nature I hate God. By nature I am so         sin' ' ; my only hope of salvation is my Savior, Who
self-centered, so selfish `that I hate God in wicked       died for me and intercedes every moment for me in
pride. I hate those closest to me, so that even my         heaven, and the powerful operation of the Holy
natural affections, sociability, kindness, and all else    Spirit constantly causing grace to abound, so that
is still hatred against God, rooted in sin. The reason     sin no longer can have dominion over me. "I Thank
for that can only be ascribed to the proneness, the        God through Jesus Christ our Lord!" (Romans
evil inclinations of my nature. "I am evil, born in        725).



                                          Book Reviews

PARABLES OF OUR LORD,  by William Arnot;                   to one's library for this reason. It will not serve the
Kregel Publications, 1981; 532 pages, $10.95. (Re-         purpose of an only commentary on John, but it will
viewed by Prof. H. Hanko)                                  be valuable to use alongside of another commen-
  `This book is part of Kregel's efforts to reprint        tary to give a slightly different slant on the text and
valuable works from the past. It is a book written         to lead one's thoughts in many different directions
by a Free Church of Scotland minister who lived in         as he ponders the text.
the Nineteenth Century. It is an interesting and             The commentary is not very Reformed at crucial
valuable addition to one's library and can be read         passages and has to be read with discretion and dis-
either to come to a clearer. understanding of the          cernment. But it has the advantage of including the
parables or for good and (on the whole) sound devo-        more technical material at the end of each section
t i o n a l   r e a d i n g .                              so that it can be used by ministers and laity alike.
   The author does not present the purpose of para-          We quote a section to give the flavor of the com-
bles correctly and is not always as Reformed and           mentary. The quotation is on John 10:26.
Calvinistic as one would like. Nor does he always             NOT OF MY SHEEP. See on verse 2. -The phrase
clearly see the difference between what is essential          synonymous with not my believing disciples. -Ye do
in a parable and what is only part of the story with-         not recognize ME in MY word and work, and not
out any particular spiritual significance. But he             knowing ME ye do not subordinate yourselves to ME
does shed some new light on the parables and gives            and trust in MY guidance. On the contrary ye desire a
perspectives to these beautiful teachings of the              Messiah, that he may be the tool of your passions.
Lord which make the book interesting and worth-               Lange.-They longed for a king with a splendid vic-
while. There is no doubt about it that there is far           torious army to redeem them from Rome. -They did
more content for the most part to "old" books than            not know that this same Good Shepherd now calling
to what is written in our day. One does well to               them, was also a KING, Whom the armies of heaven
build up one's library with old books.                        rejoice to obey. Heb. 1:6.-That  His throne, unlike the
                                                              tottering, tumbling one of Caesar, was an everlasting
                                                              throne. -These Jews did not want a Saviour dying to
GOSPEL OF JOHN,  Expository and Homiletical,                  atone for their sin. -Like modern "Liberals," they
by W. H. Van Doren; Kregel Publications, 1981;                did not believe their sins needed any atonement. . . .
1436 pages, $24.95. (Reviewed by Prof. H. Hanko)              -They are not His sheep: -1. Who hear not the voice
   W. H. Van Doren was a Nineteenth Century                   of the Good Shepherd. 2. Who know it not when they
preacher whose major work on John has been re-                hear it. 3. Who are not known by Him. 4. Who follow
printed by Kregel.                                            strangers. . . .
   This is a commentary of a different sort. Instead
of the usual exposition of a passage, this commen-         CHRISTIAN POETRY,  compiled by Pat Alex-
tary takes a phrase, a clause, or a word or two and        ander, Wm. B. Eerdmans Pub. Co., Grand Rapids,
gives a number of rather unrelated and disconnec-          Mich., 1981; 125 pp. $10.95. (Reviewed by
ted thoughts and reflections upon it. Sometimes            Gertrude Hoeksema)
other commentators are quoted. Sometimes the                 In the first paragraph of the introduction to her
thoughts are homiletical; then again expository;           book, Pat Alexander tells us: "This book is a
then  .reflective and meditative. It all adds up to a      `taster', an appetizer. It is designed as an introduc-
very different, but in many respects very nice com-        tion to the rich heritage of Christian poetry in the
mentary. It is an interesting and valuable addition        English language over a period of 1300 years."


                                                        THE STANDARD BEARER                                                                      191



   Included in this compilation are poems by                                    It is the content of the poems themselves, not the
Caedmon from the late seventh century to works                               Christian standing or theology of the poets, which has
by contemporary Christian poets. Some poets are                              determined the selection. Since many of the poets are
represented by only one poem and others by                                   long,-dead, this seems the only practical basis of
several selections. The format of the book is lovely.                        choice. Poets are in any case by nature individualists,
                                                                             expressing their own unique insights. Sometimes the
The poems, most of them short, are attractively                              depth of faith expressed in the poems is surprising in
placed and accompanied by tasteful and appropri-                             the light of what we  knovli  of the poet otherwise.
ate illustrations.                                                          Most of the poetry is devout, Biblically sound,
   Many classic works of well-known poets are                            and inspiring. Some poems are generally "Chris-
included, such as John Donne's "On Death,"                               tian," that is, in the Christian tradition. However,
George Herbert's "Redemption," John Milton's                             other poems fall outside the sphere of the Christian
"On His Blindness," as well as several selections                        faith, as,  for example, in William  Cullen Bryant's
by Gerard Manley Hopkins and T.S. Eliot. The                             "To a Waterfowl," where we read:
book also gives us samples of lesser known and                                "There is a Power whose care
even obscure or anonymous poets.                                                Teaches thy way along that pathless coast.. . ."
   Arranged chronologically according to the dates                       By the Power he meant God, but his God was the
of the poets' lives, the poems are introduced by                         god of the Unitarian, not ours. The discerning
brief paragraphs about the poets' backgrounds and                        reader will judge which poems fall into the
lives. I liked that feature, for it helped me better                     periphery of Christian writing and which echo a
understand the poetry. What standards did the                            sound Biblical note.
compiler use for  chposing  the poems? She says in                          I would highly recommend the book as an
her introduction:                                                        excellent addition to one's library or as a gift for
                                                                         anyone of any age.
                         Take time to read and study
                                 The Standard Bearer
                   WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                                                               NOTICE!!
  On January 25, 1982, our parents, REV. AND MRS.  GISE VAN                Classis West of the Protestant Reformed Churches will meet in
BAREN, will celebrate, the Lord willing, their 25th wedding              Randolph, Wisconsin on Wednesday, March 3, 1982, at  8:30 A.M.,
anniversary.                                                             the Lord willing. Material for the Agenda must be in the hands of the
                                                                         Stated Clerk thirty days before  Classis convenes. Delegates in need
  We, their children and grandchild, are thankful to our heavenly        of lodging or transportation from the airport should inform the Clerk
Father for giving us God-fearing parents who have brought us up in       of the Randolph Consistory of their need.
the fear of the Lord. We pray that God will bless them and keep them
in the years to come.                                                                                       Rev. David Engelsma, Stated Clerk

   "But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon
them that fear Him, and His righteousness unto children's children."                   RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
(Psalm  103:17)
                                                                           The Ruth Society of the Hope Protestant Reformed Church,
                                        John and Valerie Van  Baren      Walker, Michigan, expresses its Christian sympathy to Mrs. Henry
                                           Jennifer                      Velth,ouse  in the death of her husband, HENRY J. VELTHOUSE, who
                                        Carolyn Van  Baren               passed away on Christmas Day, 1981.
                                        Gerald Van  Baren
                                        Marilyn Van  Baren                  "And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall
                                        Denise Van  Baren                be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be
                                        Daniel Van  Baren                any more pain; for the former things are passed away." (Rev.  21:4)
                                        Philip Van  Baren                                                             Rev. Richard Flikkems, Pres.
                                        Rachel Van  Baren                                                             Eileen Terpstra, Sec'y.




                               News From Our Churches

   A Holland, Michigan bulletin gives us more  in-                       Elder Ed Van Ginkel of  Doon will leave for  Singa-
formation concerning the planned organization in                         pore in January for the organization of the group
Singapore: "Rev. James Slopsema of  Edgerton  and                        with which Rev. den Hartog is laboring into a


  THE STANDARD BEARER
        P.O. Box 6064
Grand Rapids,  Michigafi 49506





192                                           THE' STANDARD BEARER


church. We can rejoice in this evidence of God's           wonder what we believe. They may be your rela-
covenant faithfulness as He continues to gather His        tives, neighbors, people with whom you work.
c h u r c h . "                                            Take as many as you can distribute." By the way,
  That same bulletin informs us that "Rev. W.              the exact title of this publication'+ "The Faith and
Bruinsma has declined the call extended to him by          Practice of the Protestant Refoumed Churches in
our sister church in Redlands."                            America." Those of our readers who do not have
                                                           direct access to this useful little pamphlet should be
   Of late, pulpit supply for our Redlands, Cali-          able to obtain a copy by sending to our business
fornia congregation has been in the able hands of          manager, Mr. Vander Wal. (See the masthead of
some of our "retired" ministers. The following             this magazine for the correct address.)
bulletin announcements give the particulars: The                         * * * * * * * * * * * *
Southwest Church of Grand Rapids, Michigan Nov-
ember 29 bulletin reports: "Rev. and Mrs. Veldman            A December 13 bulletin informed the South
will be flying to Redlands, California, on December        Holland, Illinois congregation that: "The sacrament
3. Rev. Veldman will be preaching in our .Redlands         of baptism will be administered to the child of Rev.
church for an undetermined length of time. We              and Mrs. Ron Van  Overloop  on December 27th in
wish them God's traveling mercies and blessings            Birmingham under the supervision of Elders
while they are absent from us." The Redlands, Cali-        Poortenga and Van  Baren." We who are in the
fornia December 6 bulletin announced: "We thank            established congregation  - especially the larger
our Heavenly Father for safely bringing Rev. and           ones  - find the administration of the sacrament of
Mrs. Veldman into our midst. They are scheduled            baptism to be a regular occurrence. However, this
to labor in our midst until the first part of March, if    was the first baptism in our Birmingham mission
needed. May God bless their stay in Redlands."             and was something special for the group who
The  .Holland,  Michigan December 13 bulletin              gathers there from week to week. A visit to
states: "We welcome Rev. and Mrs. Heys back into           Birmingham by the undersigned over the Christ-
our midst after several months labor in Redlands."         mas weekend also produced some other informa-
It appears that the stay of Rev. and Mrs. Heys in          tion worthy of the  Standard  Bearer news, I think:
their home in Holland will be short-lived, however.        First, Rev. Van  Overloop  is now broadcasting on a
A conversation with Rev. Lubbers revealed that he          different radio station, namely'- or should we say,
and his wife and Rev. and Mrs. Heys planned, the           "letterly," WQEZ. The broadcast time is  9:30 on
Lord willing, to leave for Jamaica on January 13 for       Sunday mornings. Secondly, they have changed the
a stay of  approximatelyc  two months. We take this        site for their evening worship services to the Baptist
opportunity too, to pass on the request of Rev.            Deaf Church located at 419 11th St. in Midfield,
Lubbers that we remember them before the throne            Alabama. This church is much closer to Pastor Van
of our Heavenly Father.                                    Overloop's home in Hueytown than the union hall
  While we are on the subject of our emeriti               where they continue to hold their morning
ministers, we also report that Rev.  C: Hanko is           services. I might add that there is one drawback to
currently in the middle of an extended stay in             holding services in `the Baptist Deaf Church and
Bradenton, Florida on behalf of our First Church in        that is that no piano is available to assist them in
Grand Rapids which continues its church extension          their group singing. To offset this the Van
work in that area.                                         Overloops record on cassette tape the songs that
                   * * * * * * * * * * * *                 will be sung and play them back at the appropriate
                                                           times during the worship services. Thirdly, the Van
  Concerning a recent Mission Committee publica-           Overloops have a new address: 6875 Sunny Dell.
tion, a Loveland, Colorado bulletin reads: "There          No, they have not moved! They are just among the
are copies of a small leaflet in the bulletin rack         unsuspecting victims of a new house-numbering
containing a brief description of the beliefs and          system that has taken place in the area of their
practices of the Protestant Reformed Churches.             residence.
These are intended for distribution to people who                                                            CK


