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A   R E F O R M E D   S E M I - M O N T H L Y   MAGAZCNE




IN  THIS  ISSUE:

      Meditation: Resisting Unto Blood


      Editorial: The Nature of the Atonement: limited or General?                        -

      Barth's Doctrine of Scripture

      Israel's Rejection of Jehovah





                                        Volume  XLII/ Number 4  / Novem  bev 15, 1965


74                                                                                                                   THE STANDARD BEARER


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                                                    MEDITATION-


                                                                                 Resisting Unto Blood

                                                                                                                             by Rev.  M.  Schippev


                                                             "Ye have not yet  ye&ted unto blood, striving  against sin."
                                                                                                                                                           I  Hebrews  12:4

       An old legend comes to mind when we consider the                                                                                   and which he also expresses the question: "Lord;
implications of the text inscribed above which is pre-                                                                                    whither goest thou?" And Jesus replied: "Whither  I
served in the book  e?titled "Quo Vadis."  .The-title.is                                                                                  go,, thou  canst not follow me now;  .but thou shalt follow
the question: "Whither goest thou?",  a. quest-ion which                                                                                 me afterwards.`?  -To  : this Peter- replies in apparent
Peter-asked of Jesus  in John  13:36.  In-verse  33.0$   thie                                                                             exasperation: "Why  carmotr.1   .follqw  Thee now`?  I will
chapter, the Lord  had said, to His  dis-ciples  that He                                                                                  lay  dqwn my life for Thy sake." And Jesus replies. to
was about to leave them, and where He-would  gp they                                                                                      this  wjth the, warning that Peter instead of following,
could not come. This statement raised  iti -Peter's soul                                                                                  w i l l   d e n y   his  L p r d .   -,:  :           :        `._


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                                                   THESTANDARDBEARER                                                      75


         Now the legend declares that Peter asked this             that the Apostle Paul calls to our attention in Romans
     question of the Lord again one day many years later           7:14ff, where he says: "For we know that the law is
     as he was fleeing from Rome and certaindeath. As the          spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. For that
     story goes, he was walking swiftly south on the Appian        which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not;
     Way, when suddenly the Lord, Who was going in the             but what I hate that do I . . . For I know that in me
     very opposite direction, met him. It is said that Peter       (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing; for to
     recognized Him and asks: "Lord, whither goest Thou?"          will is present with me; but how to perform that
     To this the Lord is said to have replied: "I go to Rome       which is good I find not. For the good that I would, I
     to be crucified." Hearing this, Peter is said to have         do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do . . . I
     been converted from his cowardice. He turns himself           find then a law, that when I would do good, evil is
     about and follows to Rome where, the legend has it, he        present with me." It is the knowledge of this spiritual
     met his death by crucifixion.                                 battle that causes the apostle to conclude this passage
         The moral of the legend consists undoubtedly in           with the apparently despairing out-cry:  "0 wretched
     this, that even the strongest disciple of Jesus is liable     man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of
     to flinch when the real hour of testing comes. Espe-          this death?"
     cially is this true if the test requires that we lay down        The other form of antagonism against which the
     our lives for the cause of Christ in our fight against        Christian has  to. struggle comes to him from without.
     sin. Really, the moral simmers down to this: Not, Quo         The devil and the corrupt world constitute the opposi-
     Vadis to Jesus, but, Jesus' Quo Vadis to us. We do not        tion with which daily he has to deal. Very really each
     ask Jesus: Whither goest Thou? but, Jesus asks us that        day he has to meet the onslaughts of the evil one, and
     question!                                                     the temptations and judgments of a sinful world. Then,
         Resisting unto blood, that is the ultimate require-       too, he has to cope with the actual sin of the world.
     ment that is laid upon every disciple of Christ  I            Society, he finds, is not organized on Christian prin-
         In the battle against sin, we, like the Hebrew            ciples . And the Christian is often called upon to stand
     Christians, are liable to become wearied and faint in         in the midst of the world as a dynamiter of the world's
     our minds!                                                    social structure  I
         Therefore the writer of this Epistle exhorts to              It is this latter form of opposition that receives
     consider Him that endured such contradiction of sin-          the emphasis in the text: "Resisting, striving against
     ners against Himself; Who, for the joy that was set           sin," sin, namely, as it is embodied in the scheme of
     before Him endured the cross, despised the shame,             this world. When the Christian who is principled by
     and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.       the Spirit of Christ reveals himself in the midst of an
     And he prods them on with the reminder: "Ye have not          evil social order, he immediately becomes marked for
     yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin."               persecution, opposition.     Light and darkness cannot
         So far you must be ready to go, if that is necessary!     agree, Christ and Belial have no concord. When these
         Resisting unto blood  I                                   two principles of light and darkness come into contact,
         Striving against sin  I                                   there needs must be opposition, antagonism, and re-
         Resistance presupposes that there is some opposi-         sistance I
     tion, some antagonist overagainst which one takes his            The actual resistance of which the text speaks in-
     stand with the purpose to withstand or oppose it. The         cludes two things. By it is understood first of all that
     figure is that of a wrestler or a pugilist, who grapples      the one resisting places himself in opposition to an-
     or fights in the ring. The Christian is, as it were, in       other. As the soldier on the battle-field is ordered to
     the ring and- he not only faces an antagonist, but he         his position in the line, or the sailor to his  battle-
     grapples with him. The Christian's life is one of effort,     station; as the pugilist or wrestler in the ring plants
     endurance and antagonism. 0, it is very well to sing          his feet, keeps his guard, fastens his eyes on his op-
     of green pastures, and walking by still waters. But           ponent, so the Christian is to takk his stand over against
     there is also another side to the reality of life, namely,    sin.
     that of toil, pain, and resistance. It is given unto us          In the second place, and closely related to the first,
     not only to believe on Christ, but also to suffer with        the text presents the added notion of struggling, i.e.,
     Him I                                                         the actual meeting of the opposition. The word that is
         The great antagonist and opponent of the Christian        translated "struggling" in our English version, comes
     is sin!                                                       from a word which often is properly transliterated by
         This antagonist approaches us principally in two          the term "agonizing." To agonize is to struggle with
     forms I                                                       pain, with great emotion. The soldier  inbattle not only
         First of all, this horrible monster attacks us from       resists his opponent by setting up the opposition, but he
     within I     Every Christian who is truly spiritual and       comes into direct combat, he struggles and agonizes
     who really knows himself will confess, I am sure, that        with his opponent. The real soldier is not the uniformed
     his worst enemy is his own sinful self. As another  be:       man who sits behind a desk in Washington with a pencil
     fore he has said, "My worst enemy I carry under my            behind his ear. He is the one who comes back from
     own waistcoat." Daily the Christian has to' struggle          the front bleeding and torn, exhausted in the struggle.
     with his evil lusts and passions. Always he .is con-          So, too, the Christian has the calling not only to face
     fronted with his own faults and vices of his flesh that       sin, but to grapple with it, and in the course of the
     war against the Spirit within him. It is this struggle        struggle to agonize!


  76                                                       THESTANDARDBEARER


         Unto blood I                                                     of the Hebrew Christian, that not all are prepared to
         That is the extent or extremity of the struggle as               make this tremendous sacrifice for the sake of the
  described in the words of our text!                                     truth! We must remember that the opposition never
                                                                          really changes, though it may appear in different
        The meaning is not that the Christian is to shed                  forms.       Sin never ceases to be sin, and the wicked
  the blood of his opponent, for sin has no blood. Though                 world not only continues to be wicked, but it develops
  it is true that the sin of the world is embodied in the                 in sin.      And the Scriptures prophesy that toward the
  flesh and blood of the wicked; nowhere in Scripture,                    end of this age ungodliness will increase until it cul-
  least of all in our text, do we read of our battle as                   minates in the man of sin. Sin, you see, is most em-
  being against flesh and blood.                    Nay, rather, it is    phatically not restrained. The philosophy that sin is
  against the spiritual powers of darkness. And in this                   restrained by a certain general or common grace of
  battle it may be necessary that the Christian lose his                  God is both contrary to Scripture and experience.
  own blood, i.e., his life.                                              That God in His providence sometimes restrains the
         Ye have not yet resisted unto this extremity!                    sinner from fulfilling his evil plans, no one will deny.
         Evidently there is here contrast in life and  experi-            But sin is never restrained!
 ence of the readers of this Epistle with those who are
  mentioned in Chapter 11 and the first part of Chapter                      We submit that though our present age may appear
  12.      In Chapter 11 a long list is given of the heroes of            in the garb of so-called Christianity, being quite
  faith, those veterans in the battle against sin, some of                civilized, it is still the same old wicked world that
  whom were stoned, sawn asunder, burned, and died in                     always kills the prophets, crucified the Lord Jesus,
  the midst of the battle.         Perhaps even the Hebrew                and has no room for those who persistently profess
  Christians knew of some, who had sealed their faith                     that they are Jesus' disciples in the true sense of that
 ,with their lives. Had they not heard of Stephen who                     term I
  was stoned, and of James who was killed with the                           But how is it that Christians in general, and you
  sword?        And does not the writer in the verses im-                 and I in particular, are not shedding our blood today?
  mediately. preceding our text point to the greatest                        This question may perhaps be answered, as we al-
  Agonizer . of them all?         Indeed, Jesus, the Author               ready suggested, by the fact that the opposition appears
 .,and,  :Finisher of our faith,  is,described in His capacity            in the form of the lamb. Then I would warn you that
.of' the. Prince of Sufferers for righteousness sake!                     he is much more dangerous than when he appears as
   Like- this long list of heroes, like Jesus; Who ago-                   the lion!
nized unto death, fighting against sin, ye have not                          But this question may also be answered by the fact
 `done!  ;)  ;                                                            that we are shrinking back from our calling to resist!
         And- `this must imply either one of two things:                  Today, the Christians are few and far between who are
  either the `struggle of the Hebrew Christians did not                   willing to take a stand overagainst the system of this
  as  yet- demand that they go to the limit of laying down                world! Today, it is for many the bread question, not,
their lives;. or there was something radically wrong                      "Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?"
  with these Christians  I And naturally, what applies to                    Nay, my brethren, we are called to resist! And let
  them also- applies to Christians of any age, and there-                 it clearly be understood that this resistance is to be
  fore also to` us I                                                      first of all within you and me. Let no one go out to
         Now we  .know  that not all the children of God are              fight the sin of the world who has not first struggled
  required to seal their faith with their blood. This is                  and in principle overcome the sin within him. Then,
 ~due," no doubt, to the fact that the world and Satan do                 and only then, shall we go forth to meet the antagonist
  not always- use the severest means of persecution.                      in the world. No small antagonist stands ever before
 Not always does the Devil appear like a roaring lion.                    us. Fight him alone we can not! But in and with Jesus,
  Sometimes. he comes in the cloak of a lamb. Not al-                     the Captain of our salvation we can. Nay, more, in
 ways does he challenge the faith of God's people with                    Jesus we already are more than conquerors  I For He
 the sword. of persecution. Not all the faithful are re-                  has overcome!        In His death and resurrection, the
 quired to go to the stake because of their testimony.                    world, sin and Satan, are already vanquished! By
 For this the Christian may be thankful indeed!                           faith in Him we also have the victory!
         On the other hand, though it is'true that not all are               Quo Vadis I
 required to resist unto blood, it is also true, as it was                   Whither doest thou?


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                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER





                EDITORIALS-


                         The Nature of the Atonement
                                        Limited or General?

                                                  by Prof.  H. C. Hoeksema


        We have seen that  `Dr. James Daane very bluntly         in its sufficiency, its divine desire, and its availability.
     denies that the atonement is limited in its nature. He      Statements of this kind are, to say the least,  "eye-
     denies that our Reformed creeds teach a doctrine of         openers" wherever there is any Reformed feeling left.
     limited atonement. He claims that the term "limited         I dare say that this is true in Christian Reformed as
     atonement" is not  a~ proper term to designate the          well as Protestant Reformed circles. I would even
     truth that the atonement does not save all men, and he      hazard the guess that among those who more or less
     even makes an attempted appeal to Canons II, 6 and 8        agree with Prof. Dekker there were those who gulped
     to substantiate this claim.        Moreover, the doctor     a bit when they read his first article, if for no other
     assumes the offensive, and asserts that it is Prof.         reason than that it was so very candid. Since the ap-
     Dekker's opponents, and not Dekker, who are skirting        pearance of Dekker's first article, however, page
     the heretical on the matter of the nature of the atone-     after page has been written, both in favor of and against
     ment.                                                       Dekker's position.        The result is that gradually the
        These claims of Daane we shall now examine care-         issues have tended to be obscured somewhat through
     fully and at length. We are interested especially, of       the very complexity of all the writings. Not a little
     course, in the question whether Daane's views can           have Dr. Daane's writings contributed to this obscur-
     stand the test of Scripture and the confessions. We         ing of the issues. Let it be added that the ever-present
     are interested in the question: is the atonement in its     necessity of maintaining the First Point of 1924 has
     very nature limited, according to Scripture and the         not made matters more simple in Christian Reformed
     confessions?      But we are also interested in other       quarters.
     questions.      There is the matter of the historical
     background of this doctrine; I refer to the history of         However, let us remind ourselves that the issue is
     the Arminian controversy, including the Arminian            after all very simple.
     articles, and including also the deliberations whichpre-       It is this:  Is the atonement by the death of  Chvist
     ceded the actual writing of the  Canons. We are, of         limited, that is,  fov the elect alone?  OY is it unlimited,
     course, also interested in the question of  method  on      general,  that is,  fov all men and  every  man?
     which Dr. Daane has laid so much emphasis in this              If anyone, Dr. Daane included, wants to phrase the
     connection.     He has attacked the method which would      question so that it speaks of the atonement "in its
     reason back from the results of the atonement to the        very nature," or, "in its design," that is perfectly all
     nature of the atonement, which claims that if the           right. It really adds nothing of value to the question.
     results are limited, then the atonement itself must be      Moreover, if the terminology  particular. . .  .general,
     limited, while if the nature of the atonement is a re-      rather than  limited. . . . .unlimited,  is used, that is
     demptive love for all men, then the result must be          also good.    The simple fact is that everyone knows,
     that all men are finally saved.                             even though the precise term  limited atonement,  does
.       All these matters we must consider.                      not occur in our confessions, that what is commonly
     CLARIFYING THE ISSUE                                        called the doctrine of limited atonement is the doctrine
                                                                 that Christ died and atoned only for the elect, not for
        Sometimes a lengthy discussion such as has arisen        all men.
     in connection with the "Dekker Case" tends to obscure          Nor does it really add anything to the question to
     issues.    Everyone, I am sure, who has any Reformed        add the words "in its very nature."
     sensitivity was immediately shocked by the assertion           For, in the first place, it stands to reason that
     of Prof. Dekker that it is legitimate to say to every       when we speak of the atonement in relation to its
man, "Christ died for you," as well as by his further            beneficiaries, we must per se speak of the  nature of
     explanation that the atonement is general (not limited)     that atonement.


78                                                   THE STANDARD BEARER


       But above all, in the second place, we are not               do you reject, without any  reservation,  the above
merely speaking in the abstract of  atonement,  or of               article?
an atonement,  but of  the atonement.  That is, we are                  Any Reformed man should be able to say "yes" to
speaking of a very definite, concrete, accomplished                 the question: do you, without any yesevvation, declare
fact, the fact that some nineteen hundred years ago, on             that the above article is  Yepugnant  to the  trme and  com-
the hill of Golgotha, God through our Lord Jesus Christ             plete  doctrine   of  salvation?           _
atoned, that God was in Christ reconciling the world                    Any Reformed officebearer should be able to give
unto Himself, not imputing our trespasses unto us.                  an unqualified "yes" to this question:  ave you disposed
And the simple question is:  what was that act' of  God,            to  rejinte and contradict the above  article  and to  exert
that fact?  What actually took place on Golgotha, ac-               yourself to keep the  church  free  from such an  ewor?
cording to Scripture's own testimony and according to                   My own answer to all three questions is an unquali-
our creeds?                                                         fied  "yes."
      This, then, is the very simple question to which we               Although I cannot understand, in the light of all that
must address ourselves and which we must not lose                   they have written, how Prof. Dekker and Dr. Daane
from view in the entire discussion that has grown up                could possibly give an affirmative answer to these
round about Prof. Dekker's original claim.                          questions, let them speak for themselves. I believe it
                                                                    would be for their own benefit if they would answer
EMPHASIZING THE NEGATIVE                                            w i t h   a   "yes"  o r   a   "n o . "         It would clear the air.
       It is frequently of benefit in clarifying issues and         Furthermore, I believe that the Christian Reformed
clarifying one's doctrinal position to emphasize the                Church, under the Formula of Subscription, shouldlong
negative, that is, to state what one does  not  believe,            ago have confronted them with these questions.
what he Yejects.                                                        Then we would at least know where everyone stands.
      This method has much to commend it. Not only is it                These same questions might be asked with respect
generally true that every "yes" has its "no" implied;               to the Rejection of Errors of The Second Head of Doc-
but the history of dogma shows us very plainly that                 trine of the Canons.           Specifically, those  same three
the confession of the truth has frequently, if not al-              questions should be confronted with respect to the Re-
ways, been formulated over against some heresy                      jections of `Errors of Canons II, Article 1, which reads:
about a commonly held doctrine which necessitated                           (The `Synod rejects the errors of those:) Who teach:
such a formulation.          Thus it was in the fourth and              That God the Father has ordained his Son to the death
fifth centuries, for example, with the doctrine of the                  of the cross without a certain and definite decree to
Trinity and the doctrine of the natures of Christ: the                  save an), so that the necessity, profitableness and
rise of heresy compelled the church to formulate these                  worth of what Christ merited by his death might have
doctrines confessionally. Thus it has been with all the                 existed,  i and might remain in all its parts complete,
great Reformation creeds. And thus it was with the                      perfect and intact, even if the merited redemption had
Canons of Dordvecht.         Besides, it clears away a good             never  in/fact been applied to any person. For this doc-
deal of rubbish, so to speak, if a man tells us plainly                 trine tends to the despising of the wisdom of the Father
                                                                        and of the merits of Jesus Christ, and is contrary to
and unequivocally what he rejects.                                      Scripture.     For thus saith our Savior: "I lay down my
      Now it is `a simple fact of history that the Second               life for  jthe sheep, and I know them," John  10:15,27.
Head of Doctrine was formulated by the Synod of                         And the! prophet Isaiah saith concerning the Savior:
Dordrecht in 1618-`19 over against the Arminian heresy                  "When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin,
of general, or unlimited, atonement, specifically over                  he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and
against the Second  Article  of  the Remonstrance.                      the pleasure of Jehovah shall prosper in his hand,"
       A clearer understanding of the issues, therefore,                Is.  53:lO. Finally, this contradicts the article of faith
would certainly result from a statement of what men                     according to which we believe the catholic Christian
like Dr. Daane, Prof. Dekker, and others do                             church.  '
                                                    not believe,
a statement of what they Yeject.                                       Do Daane, Dekker, and, those who agree with them
      The Second Article of the Remonstrance reads as               agree, without any reservation, with this article  .of
follows:                                                            the Rejection'?        Again' I say that I cannot understand
                                                                    how it is possible' for them to do so. But they surely
          That, agreeably thereto, Jesus Christ, the Saviour        ought to declare themselves; and the Christian Re-
      of the world, died for all men and for every man,  SO         formed Church is duty bound to inquire about this under
      that he has obtained for them all, by his death on the        the Formula of Subscription.
      cross, reconciliation and the forgiveness of sins; yet
      that no one actually enjoys this forgiveness of sins ex-          Article; 5 of the Rejection of Errors of Canons II is
      cept the believer, according to the word of the Gospel        also very plainly at issue,-+  the light of what Dr. Daane
      of John  3:16: "God so loved the world that he gave his       has said about Christ dying for the original sin of
      only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him            every `man.        How can Dr. Daane subscribe to this
      should not perish, but have everlasting life." And in  I.     language 1 `Take note of it:
      the First Epistle of John  2:2: "And he is the propitia-
      tion for our sins;  .and not for. ours only, but also for              (The Synod rejects the errors of those:) Who teach:
      the sins of the whole world."                                      That all men have been accepted unto the state of rec-
                                                                         onciliation and unto the @ace  of the covenant, SO that
      Any Reformed man should be- able to. answer with a               . no one is .wor.thy  of condemnation on account of original
simple, unqualified, wholehearted  "yes.`! this  .question:             sin;,,and   tbatno  one shall  be.condemned  because of it, .


                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER                                                             79


    but that all are free from the guilt of original sin. For    vided one has a clear understanding of the  natawe of
    this opinion is repugnant to Scripture which teaches         the atonement as an objective accomplishment of God
   that we are by nature children of wrath.. Eph. 2:3.           in Christ that took place at Calvary. And I believe
    (italics added)                                              that this method places one in good theological com-
    Again, Article 6 of the same Rejection of Errors is          pany. It is in harmony with the Reformed tradition.
pertinent, in the light of the fact that Prof. Dekker               I wish to call attention to the latter fact only, for
makes a distinction between the availability of the atone-       the time being.
ment for all and the efficacy of the atonement for the              First of all, I submit that the method which Daane
elect only. This article makes essentially the same              so heartily disapproves is at bottom the method fol-
distinction when it speaks of the difference between             lowed by the Synod of Dordrecht in Canons II, Rejection
merit and appropriation (or application), and ascribes           of Errors, Article 1, quoted above. The fathers draw
this distinction to the Arminians. Our fathers use no            a logical consequence here from the Arminian doctrine
uncertain language in rejecting this error:                      of an indefinite, general, unlimited atonement. They
       (The Synod rejects the errors of those:) Who use          do this when they say: "so that the necessity, profit-
    the difference between meriting and appropriating, to        ableness and worth of what Christ merited by his death
    the end that they may instill into the minds of the im-      might have existed, and might remain in all its parts
   prudent and inexperienced this teaching that God, as          complete, perfect and intact, even if the merited re-
    far as he is concerned, has been minded of applying to       demption had never in fact been applied to any person."
    all equally the benefits gained by the death of Christ;      Let Daane analyze this statement once, and he will
   but that, while some obtain thepardonof sin and eternal       discover that the fathers by putting this consequence
    life, and others do not, this difference depends on their    on the Arminian doctrine are following the same method
    own free will, which joins itself to the grace that is
    offered without exception, and that it is not dependent      that he criticizes. They destroy the doctrine of general
    on the special gift of mercy, which powerfully works         atonement by showing that it leads to an illegitimate,
    in them, that they rather than others should appropriate     and, in  fact, inconceivable consequence1 The critics
    unto themselves this grace.       For these, while they      of Dekker and Daane have done the same thing. This
 feign that they present this distinction, in a sound            is also the plain meaning of the statement of our
    sense, seek to instill into, the people the destructive      fathers in this article that "this doctrine tends to the
    poison of the Pelagian errors.                               depising of the wisdom of the Father and of the merits
   Again, I do not understand how the position of Dekker         of Jesus Christ." Why? This illegitimate consequence
and Daane allows for an unqualified subscription to an           tends to make the Father look foolish because in that
article like the above.                                          case God designed an atonement that would be in part
   But it would clear the atmosphere if they expressed           wasted! And it tends to make themerits of Christ (this
unqualified agreement and manifested a disposition to            is the nature of the atonement: MERITI) despicable be-
oppose such errors. As matters stand now, there is no            cause those merits would be exposed as not objectively
one who can understand how their views can be                    and in reality having merited anything at all.
harmonized with the above rejections. And the burden                In the second place, I want to point out that this
of proof is on them, for they introduced new ideas and           method was literally followed by none other than the
attacked the supposedly commonly held view of the                Netherlands Professors in their opinion about the
Christian Reformed Church.                                       Arminian doctrine of atonement.               They write as
                                                                 follows, and I translate from the Acts of the Synod of
AS TO METHOD                                                     Dordrecht (Opinion of the Netherlands professors):
   Dr. Daane has attempted to make a big. point of the                     For those for whom Christ powerfully (krachtiglijk)
matter of method throughout his articles. Specifically,             died, He died in the place of them as their Surety
as I pointed out in my October 15 editorial, he has                 (Borg);  that is, He thus died for them that He freed
criticized the method of those who want to reason from             them from the guilt of-death. But He has not died in
results to cause, from the limited result that only the             the place of the reprobate, as their Surety, that is, He
elect are saved to the limited nature of the cause,                 has not thus died for them that He freed them from the
namely, the atonement. Daane claims this method is                  guilt of death. . . .The second part of this proof is
not valid.                                                          certain. For otherwise they could not be justly punished
                                                                    by God, since God cannot punish a sin twice, once in
   Now I would point out, first of all, that this is by no          Christ, and again in those who go lost, of whom He
means the only method of proving what is called limit-              demands their debt to the uttermost farthing. . . . ."
ed atonement. I maintain that the proper method, first
of all, is to prove the doctrine of limited atonement by            The meaning of this is plain beyond a shadow of a
the use of Scripture and the confessions, by quoting             doubt.     The Netherlands professors reasoned that un-
Scripture and exegeting Scripture and by showing that            limited (general) atonement necessarily means un-
this exegetical proof is also the clear line of our con-         limited salvation. If Christ died for all men, including
fessions.      This I intend to do in the course of this         the reprobate, then all men, including the reprobate,
discussion.                                                      must necessarily be saved. Therefore, Christ did not
                                                                 die for all men because all men are not saved. On the
   But the method which Daane so heartily disapproves            contrary, the reprobate are punished for their sin,
is nevertheless one of the proper methods. I believe             which means that Christ `did not atone for them, that is,
it is legitimate, that it is compelling in its logic,  pro-      did not bear the-punishment of their sin.


80                                              THE STANDARD BEARER


      Hence, it ought to be clear at least that when Dr.        tion to salvation. And included in that realization of the
Daane so severely criticizes this method, he is  de-            divine purpose (a sure and sovereign realization) is
parting from the Reformed tradition in his theological          not only salvation, but also the way of salvation, to
method.       Personally, I prefer to be in the company of      which belongs the atonement of Christ. Hence, begin
the Netherlands professors.                                     with the denial of sovereign predestination, begin with
      But we may also ask the question: why, inReformed         a love of God for all men, and you must needs follow
theology, is this method correct? Is this a matter of           through with a denial of particular (limited) atonement.
mere human logic? Does it have no real basis in the                 This is Daane's fundamental error. He criticizes
truth?                                                          others for reasoning from result to cause. He ought to
      The answer ought to be plain as soon as one  con-         criticize himself for failing to reason, Scripturally
siders the nature of those results from which Danne             and confessionally, from purpose to realization of
does not want to reason backward. Those results are             purpose  1
expressive of a purpose, the divine purpose of election.            I suggest that the doctor ought to climb down from
In the deepest sense, the reasoning of this method is           his ivory tower of theological speculation and ought to
not from results to cause, from salvation toatonement;          ascend the watch-tower of revelation. Then he might
but it is a reasoning from purpose to result, from elec-        produce some Reformed theology.



             A CLOUD OF WITNESSES


                            Israel's Rejection of Jehovah

                                                 by Rev. B. Woudenbevg


                           Then all the  elders  of  Israel gathered themselves together, and
                       came to Samuel unto Ramah,
                           And said unto him, Behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy
                       ways: now make us a king to judge us like all the nations. . .
                           And the LORD said unto Samuel,  Hearken unto the voice  of  the peo-
                       ple in all that they say unto thee:  for  they have not  Yejected  thee, but
                       they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them.
                                                                                 I Samuel  8:4, 5, 7




      Of the greater portion of Samuel's life, of the days      take up the record of Samuel's life as he was approach-
of his greatest strength and influence, of the major            ing old age. The burden of years was beginning to tell
part of his work we know very little. We remember               on him. It was not as though he had now become in any
Samuel mostly for those events, spectacular in them  -          way decrepit or incapable of performing his work.
selves, which marked the beginning and end of his               There were still many years of faithful labor in Samuel
labors in the church of God.         They are the events        before he would finally be permitted to lie down in his
which are recorded for us because they have the                 final rest. It was just that  someof the vitality, some of
greater significance for the continuing history of the          the enthusiasm, some of the eagerness which had
people of God.     But between those beginning and clos-        characterized his younger years was beginning to wane.
ing events, we must remember, there were many years             More and more he was inclined to seek the quiet
in which Samuel served faithfully, traveling his circuits       peace of home over the duties that carried him out
throughout Israel, instructing and judging the people in        upon the way. Rather frequently he found it convenient
the law of the Lord. Those were the quiet years, but            to delegate duties to his two sons for them to perform
they were also the most effective years. Gradually              in his stead.    It was a perfectly natural thing. As a
under Samuel's patient labors, the spiritual life of            person grows older, he naturally seeks a more relaxed
Israel which had reached an all time low in the early           and leisurely pace of living. This he found in his home
days of Samson and Eli began to rise again and the              at Ramah.
people began to draw closer to their God.                          It was a delegation of elders from the people that
      After an extended period. of silence, the Scriptures      suddenly one day brought him to the realization that


                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER                                                   81


all was not yet right in Israel. They had a request to           and its pleasure. They had even gone so far as to take
make of Samuel and curtly, without sympathy, they                bribes in their duties to the perversion of justice. He
expressed it.        "Behold," they said, "Thou art old,         had told them that he knew; he had rebuked them often;
and thy sons walk not in thy ways: now make us a king            but somehow he had never found the strength to take
to judge us like all the nations." There were barbs,             from them the duties of this office. They were his
a sting in those words and they cut deeply into Samuel's         children, and he had never been able to give up the
sensitive feelings. It must have taken all of the will           hope that the next time they would listen to him and
power Samuel could muster not to reveal the hurt which           become a credit to their father. But now the time of
that request made upon his feelings until after he had           reckoning was come. The people were through with
dismissed them with the promise that he would bring              him too. They wanted a king, and they threw the sins
the matter before the Lord in prayer.            But once the    of his sons in his face as the reason. No wonder he
door was closed and the men were gone, it came, the              had been unable to answer. The truth of the accusation
anguish and dismay of his soul pouring forth before              and the guilt cut Samuel deep, to the very quick.
the Lord as the contents of a bitter fountain. Samuel                But still there was more to that request than just
knew what those words meant. The people weren't                  this.      Samuel  knew it; their request, so brief, still
satisfied with him any longer. They didn't want him              reflected it.
any longer to be their judge. They wanted another, one              It was not as though the desire of the people for a
to be their king. They were politely telling him that            king was so terrible in itself. Any serious student of
as far as they were concerned he was through.                    the law and of the Scriptures knew that the day was
    The first reason which the elders had given for              sure to come when Israel would have a king. Already
their request, the one that he was now old, was only             Jacob had said of Judah in his final blessing, "The
partially true.        It was true enough that he was no         sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver
young man any more, he was well advanced toward old              from between his feet, until Shiloh come," and the
age.      But their implication was that he was now so ad-       royal implication was clear.          Even more frankly,
vanced that he could no longer perform his labors                Moses had said to the people before he died, "When
properly, and that was far from so. Maybe he had slowed          thou art come unto the land which the LORD thy God
down somewhat and stayed closer to home than formerly,           giveth thee, and shall possess it, and shalt dwell
but only after he had taken care that the needs of the           therein, and shall say, I will set a king over me, like
people were provided for. Moreover, if special needs             as all the nations that are about me; thou shalt in any
should arise, the strength of his body was still there           wise set him king over thee, whom the LORD thy God
and could be expected to be for a good many years.               shall choose. . .  ," and from there Moses went on to
His eyes were not dim, his mind was far from senile,             give several commandments about such a king. The
his legs could carry him along on the way with the               teaching was plain. A student of God's word knew that
best of the young men. No, the plea of his age was only          the day was going to come when Israel would have a
an excuse, there was more under the request of these             king.      But such an understanding of the word of God,
elders than that.                                                and a desire for the fulfillment of the promises of God -
    In fact, they had said what it was: that was what            was not the motivation behind this request of the
hurt. There was only too much truth in the accusation            elders.
they laid before Samuel that his sons did not walk in his            The greatest truth in this request of the elders
ways; and he was one who should have known so much               was in the last few words of what they asked. They
better. After all he knew so well what had happened to           said, "Make us a king to judge us  like all the nations,"
the labors of Eli through his children, he had seen the          and those last few words told the whole story. That
sin which Hophni and Phinehas had committed, he had              was what hurt Samuel more than anything else. He
seen the failure of Eli in correcting them, and he was           had spent his life telling them that they could not, they
in fact the one through whom  God, had reprimanded               should not try to be like the heathen nations about
Eli with a special revelation. Now the same thing                them.        They were a different people, the chosen
had happened to him.            It was true, perhaps, that he    nation of the living God.        Their joy was not in the
had not been as completely negligent as Eli; neither             things the heathen sought. Their goal was not to have
had the sins of his sons, Joel and Abiah, been as                the things the heathen had. Their strength was not to
many and serious as those of Hophni and Phinehas;                be in the earthly weapons in which the heathen trusted.
but the similarity was there just the same. It all had           They belonged to God, and their life was to be found
c o m e   s o     naturally.     Joel and Abiah were his         in Him. They would have all of these things, strength,
children,        they had grown up in his house, they            joy, and prosperity, only through trusting in Him. But
had been thoroughly              instructed by him in the        this the people would not believe.
word of God, they had lived for years before his ex-                It was true, on the whole, that the days of the judges
ample.       When finally they had come of age and the           had not been pleasant for the children of Israel. They
press of duty had become heavy, it had seemed the                had been overrun by many enemies, they had experienced.
most natural thing to delegate some of the duties of             famine, they had suffered much. What Samuel tried to
his office into their hands. Oh, he had known. The               show them, as had all the judges before him, was that
rumors had come back to them that his sons had not               the reason  fork this was only one thing  - their lack of
been able to resist the temptations of the office. They          faith in the living God. but it was this that they would
had been unable to resist the temptations of this world          never really believe  - at least, not for long.      They


82                                             THE STANDARD BEARER


would always come back claiming again that if they                 throne of God's covenant people; and he was now al-
could have the things the heathen had, if they could               ready born.       But the people were impatient. They
have the same weapons, if they could have the same                 could not wait for the time of the Lord, and anyway
friendships and alliances, if they could have the same             they really wanted a king of an entirely different sort.
gods, then everything would be all right. And now they             There must be first for them a lesson.
had a new one, now they wanted a king, convinced that                  Thus it was that Samuel called the people to him
this, rather than the way of faith, would make them                once again. He told them exactly what God would do -
mighty and strong.                                                 He would give them a king exactly as they wanted.
      It was for this reason that Samuel wept when he              Even more, Samuel told them what the king would be
came that night to the Lord in prayer. He felt that                like.      He said, "This will be the manner of the king
he had failed in his duty, in the instruction of the               that shall reign over you; He will take your sons and
people, in directing them in the better life. But the              appoint them for himself, for his chariots and to be
answer of God told him differently.         It was not his         his horsemen. . . And he will take your daughters to
fault, it was the People's. He assured Samuel, "They               be confectionaries, and to be cooks. . . And he will
have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me,                 take your fields. . . And he will take the tenth of your
that I should not reign over them." It was not the                 seed. . . And he will take your menservants, and your
failure of Samuel. It was the same old sin which had               maidservants. . . He will take the tenth of your sheep:
plagued that nation from its beginning and would con-              and ye shall be his servants. And ye shall cry out in
tinue to do so until its end.                                      that day because of your king which ye shall have chosen
      But to this sin God had an answer. It was very               you; and the LORD will not hear you in that day."
simple - give them what they want. He said to Samuel,                  But the people were adamant. Theywouldnot listen.
"Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they             They were convinced, as so many generations before
say unto thee."                                                    and after them, that they knew better than the way of
                                                                   the Lord. They answered, "Nay; but we will have a
      Actually, had the people waited for the time of the          king over us; that we also may be like all the nations;
Lord, it would not have been very long anyway before               and that your king may judge us, and go out before us,
the people would have received a king.          David had          and fight our battles." The miseries of Israel were
been appointed by God from eternity to sit upon the                only those which they brought upon themselves.



                       IN HIS  FEAR-

                          The Beginning of Wisdom
                                                              3
                                                  by Rev. J. A. Heys


      The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.             teacher or educator who does not speak the language
      And- that it is the beginning means that here you            of faith, who -is not himself a believer, who does not
must start in obtaining wisdom. Paraphrased with the               seek to train in that faith, cannot serve the wisdom of
use of the New Testament equivalent of the fear of the             your child and only trains him to be a bigger fool.
Lord it means that all wisdom begins with faith in                 Fools come in all kinds of sizes; and that  cannotb  e
God.      He who does not believe in God is a fool and             denied1      Folly begins with a denial of God, with lack
nothing less. than. a fool.      He has .not even begun.to         of faith in. him, with ignorance of Him and ruling Him
obtain wisdom in his soul. You will have to give him               out of all the works of His hands. But there are de-
that faith in God - and no man can do that :- or else he           grees of folly to which all this leads men. Adam was
remains nothing but a fool. That is why.the psalmist               ,a fool when he ate of the forbidden fruit and chose
states, "The fool  bath said in. his heart, There is no            means to plunge himself. and the human race to the
God.      They are corrupt, they have done abominable              worst  p.ossible  end for man.. But  Oman today has. in-
works, there is none that doeth good."  ,Psalm  14:l.              creased--in his folly and will increase until the days of
Note, once again, that those who do not fear God will              the. man of sin, the -son of perdition who. will sit inthe
dare to rebel against him.                                         temple and shew himself  .there as God.. II Thessalonians
      But the same element of truth must be noted here             2:4. Then -the folly  &man will have reached its apex;
in regard to the instruction of  ..our  :children.  The            and then the folly of  man,-will  also be made-plain to


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                                     83


the whole human race as the unbelievers are cast into        crop.    Jesus speaks of the fool who has a nice home
the lake of torment.                                         with comfort and convenience for himself and his
   Faith is not wisdom, but faith is essential to wis-       family as the good he seeks and then builds upon the
dom.      And the fear of the Lord--which is faith in        sand in a area where torrential rains are known by
Him-is the beginning of wisdom in the sense that it          him to sweep through the valley. The wise man, how-
is the principle of wisdom. Wisdom has its source in         ever, puts confidence and trust in the rock that cannot
the fear of the Lord so that if the fear of the Lord is      be swept away by the floods  and.fixes  his house firmly
not in a man's soul, no wisdom can be found there.           to that rock.    Both men may have the same goal in
Wisdom is that which flows forth and out of the fear of      mind, but the  `one shows wisdom by choosing the
the Lord. Faith produces wisdom, and even as a tree          proper means and putting his natural trust in that
without buds will never bring forth leaves or fruit, so      which is naturally strong and immovable. The other
the man without faith will never have wisdom. The            puts his trust in that which is not trustworthy, and
fear of the Lord is the foundation on which all wisdom       fixes his hopes to that which is hopeless. Truly faith
rests.      Take a man's faith in God away, deprive him      is an essential of wisdom even as far as "natural
of his fear of the Lord and you have robbed him of his       wisdom" is concerned.
wisdom. That is why Satan, the Big Deceiver is also             And as essential as the proper means employed
the Big Thief1       He made a fool of man exactly by        along and in the best way are, thereis also the element
robbing him of his fear of the Lord through the lie in       of the highest good to consider.         A man to be wise
paradise. Man, deceived into believing that God is not       must select means and instrument that can serve the
what He is, and so being robbed of his faith in God as       attaining of his goal. He must use them properly and
He is, became fool enough to try to be God's equal.          know how to use them to achieve the end which he has
And all today are born as such fools. Man from the           in mind.     But unless he has the ability to choose a
moment of his birth rebels against God and seeks to          good goal towards which to work he is yet a fool: in
dethrone Him. Today, with all his exploits and con-          fact his use of means and method is in his folly a
quests in outer space, reaching beyond the planet on         waste of time and energy.         It is, as Solomon in his
which God placed him, he looks so very wise to the           wisdom declares, "Vanity of Vanities, all is vanity."
men of his age and seems destined to greater wisdom;         All is vanity exactly because the natural man is a fool
but as we look back upon the generations past and are        and works hard with all the earthly creatures to seek
amused at their stupidity and point out their folly, the     a worthless and hopeless goal. He will never become
Church of God in the new Jerusalem will look back and        like unto God. He never will attain to true peace, joy
see the folly of the greatest of man's achievements in       and happiness apart from the cross of Christ. He
the antichristian kingdom. The ungodly shall see this,       never will conquer sin, death and hell by all his ex-
and they shall lament over Babylon and its complete          ploits and achievement, by his research and inventions,
ruin. They will then understand how in utter folly they      by his universities and educational systems. Natural
built their house on the sand. They built a beautiful        man is simply wasting his  time1 Nay, worse than that,
superstructure --from the view point of the flesh of         natural man is simply digging himself deeper into hell1
man  - upon a paper foundation. For they did not build       He is adding reason upon reason for his utter and
in the fear of the Lord and were not guided by faith in      everlasting desolation in the lake of  fire1  He has good
Him.                                                         means -the whole of God's creation  - and a rational  -
   Faith, or the fear of the Lord, is an essential ele-      moral nature according to which he can think, reason
ment of wisdom. There is more to wisdom than faith,          choose and plan. But all his choice and planning avails
but take faith away and you take man's wisdom away.          nothing and is just so much foolishness, because he is
When God gives His elect faith, He gives them the. prin-     not and cannot seek the only good and the highest
ciple, the basis and foundation, the indispensable ele-      good.    He can choose only to satisfy his flesh and to
ment of-their wisdom. As we wrote before, wisdom is          seek to exalt himself above God. He may be skilled
the ability to use knowledge  aright.  It is the power to    and' use his talents and possessions with what men
choose the best means along the best way to reach the        call wisdom, but when he uses all these to oppose God,
highest good.      But that means that you have to know      to go contrary to God's command and in an attempt to
and believe that which actually is the highest good and      set up and strengthen the kingdom of darkness, he is a
by faith to see the means and the way as that which          fool, for he only adds to his guilt and insures himself
will serve the reaching of this goal.                        a deeper place in hell.
   Leaving aside for the moment true, spiritual wis-            Indeed, he has glimmerings of natural light left' to
dom and saving faith in God in Christ, it is true even       him, and in that sense we can probably speak of natural
as far as natural wisdom-to use the term for the             wisdom, but note that our forefathers said of this
present and to bring out the point  - and faith in men       natural light in Canons III, IV. Article 4, "But so far
and creatures is concerned, it `is so very true that one     is this light of nature from being sufficient to bring
will not choose the means that he does not trust, nor        him to a saving knowledge of God, and to true conver-
employ them in the way that he is convinced will not         sion, that he  is incapable  of  using it  aright   even  in
succeed.      In this "natural wisdom" -which actually is    things  natwal and  civil. (Underscoring is ours) Nay
folly  - a man will not choose an acid, dry desert soil      further, this light, such as it is, man in various ways
in a hot, treeless waste to plant his seed, when the         renders wholly polluted, and holds it in unrighteous-
goal or good he has in mind is food and an abundant          ness, by doing which he becomes inexcusable before


8        4                                      THE STANDARD BEARER


God."'         Plainly our forefathers knew nothing of and     can see that the creature is made for the sake of the
condemned the idea of a grace of God, or benefit of            Creator.      The Divine Potter makes of the clay that
the cross of Christ whereby the reprobate natural              which will serve His purpose.
man could do that which  is pleasing in God's sight.              The fool never takes this into account. Creation
even in things "natural and civil." The Reformed               exists for him, so he thinks.          History is his great
faith has said and still says today that the natural man       adventure and is explained apart from the God Who
is a FOOL and in his follyperforms no civic  righteous-        with His hand moves all the creatures and fulfills
ness.         Righteousness is that which is right in GOD's    His own counsel. The earth is filled with resources
sight and not simply that which looks good to man.             and creatures that man can press into the service of
We only deceive ourselves and talk foolishly when the          his flesh.     He has not the fear of the Lord. He does
highest good, or for that matter true good, for us is          not see the God Who created, sustains and gives these
nothing more than that which satisfies the fleshof  man,       excellent gifts. And all that which this man does with
serves that flesh and is not an act of love to God.            these possessions is wrought in folly. For he seeks
     Unless our goal is the glory of God, all that which       them and uses them for the wrong goal. He has not
we do in utter folly.          That is the highest good -to    the glory of God in mind.      And he has it not in mind,
glorify God - and that is the only good. Whatever fails        because he has it not in his heart.
to glorify Him, whatever serves any other purpose is              Void of that faith in God, not believing it to be his
evil. For that purpose we weremade. For that purpose           calling to use it all in God's service and to His glory,
we receive rain and sunshine, life and health. For that        he acts foolishly and lives in a world of vanity. It is
purpose the earth turns on its axis, the sun gives its         a vicious circle.      Man comes out of the dust of the
light, the rivers run into the sea, the sea gives up its       ground, serves that dust of the ground and returns to
moisture to the clouds and they in turn pour it down           that dust of the ground. The wise man also comes out
upon the land for food and drink. No creature exists           of the dust, makes use of that dust but through mind
for itself.       And certainly man, made in the image of      and heart, with tongue and soul he lifts these creatures
God does not exist for himself but for the God in              of the dust in praise and adoration to God. He seeks
Whose image he was created.              We can quote text     and expresses the glory of God in and through them.
after text for this basic truth but three will suffice.        His works ascend up to God on high. His life is not
"Thou art worthy, 0 Lord, to receive glory and honour          emptiness but fullness, and he lays up for himself
and power; for Thou hast created all things, and for           treasure in heaven. He is  nofool. In the wisdom which
Thy pleasure they are and were created." Revelation            God gave him he sees all as God's, chooses the way of
4:ll.         This is a general statement of all created       God's precepts with these creatures and directs his
creatures and objects. More specifically with a view           life to the glory of God. He is a wise man. And he is
to the Church, which shall through the work of salva-          the kind of man who ought to teach your children.
tion attain to this highest good, we read in Isaiah               You choose the wrong means to prepare your chil-
-43:21, "This people have I formed for myself; they            dren to fulfill their life's calling and obligation when
shall show forth my praise." The same truth in the             you send them to those who will direct them to build
New Testament we find in I Peter  2:9, "But ye are a           their house on the sand and ignore the Creator while
chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation,         they use His creatures.          B e   wise1    See the goal1
a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises       Choose the right means, and employ them correctly
of him who hath called you out of darkness into his            that the man of God may be throughly furnished unto
marvellous light." It follows, of course, and the wise         every good work.




                        TRYING THE SPIRITS-


                                            ASTROLOGY

                                                 by Rev. R. C. Havbach


     The writer in early childhood spent many asummer          alone, visiting the auctions, the gadget demonstrations,
on the East coast at the seashore of Atlantic City, N.J.,      and, among the many other intriguing sights, the free
where daytimes were spent on the beach, bathing in the         lectures.     It was at the latter dubious place we were
surf, reveling in glorious sunshine and embibing the           first introduced to astrology. Being Presbyterians, we
delicious, invigorating salt air. Evenings, when in our        soon learned that this was one of thedevil's methods of
teens, we were permitted to "walk the boardwalk"               fishing for fools and baiting the ignorant. For astrology


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                                       85


was then presented as God's plan, having a basis in          Despite the Talmud, he declared it idolatry, "a disease,
the book of Genesis, and expressive of the wisdom of         not a science, a tree under the shadow of which all
God latent in the universe. By the universe the as-          sorts of superstitions thrive, and which must be up-
trologer meant the great universal soul of all souls.        rooted in order to give way to the . . . tree of life."
Later, it became apparent that the point of view of          (Jew.  Ency., II, 245). To the most enlightened Jews,
astrology is thoroughly anthropocentric.       Its basic     even the salutation "Maze1  Tobhl" (Good Luck!) is
symbol, heathen in origin, was the triangle and the          but a remnant of the discarded belief. Romanism, too,
square, which together represent the human figure.           has been infected with this disease, as certain Popes
Thus astrology has a theosophical connection with            took up astrology, such as, e.g., Popes Leo X and Paul
Nebuchadnezzar's image and the symbology of Masonry.         III.      Jonathan Swift in his "Prediction for the Year
   In connection with this basic symbol, the original        1708, by Isaac Bickerstaff, Esq." gave the death-blow
scheme of the horoscope was worked out from the figure       to English astrology.       General Albricht von  Wallen-
of a square. The cube was  theideal geometrical figure       stein, warrior of the Thirty Years' War, believed
and, as in the Kabbala, Masonry and Theosophy, was           absolutely in astrology. Napoleon did in part. Shakes-
the accepted symbol of the world as a whole. The             peare writes in  King  Lear,  IV, 3, "The stars above us
Star of David is said, to come from this square of the       govern our conditions." In our time, Adolf Hitler was
horoscope. Within the square are two other and con-          sold on astrology.
secutively smaller ones, which, with a few developing                Modern astrology dates from 1822. Near the end of
lines soon fill the square with twelve triangles, the        the century Theosophy adopted astrology in England.
"houses" of the Zodiac.     Two of these triangles are       Rosicrucianism with its ancient Masonry adopted it in
taken, the one pointing N., representing fire (and air)      America.        It is a system of Babylonian superstition
and the one pointing S., representing water (and earth).     and Greek philosophy clothed in the terms of modern
Then the one triangle is superimposed upon the other,        psychology.       It is the point of view of Hastings' Ency-
thus forming the well-known Star of David. In alchemy        clopedia of Religion and Ethics that astrology supposed
this symbol was the representation for fire-water, or        the influence of the planets upon the fortunes of men
alcoholic liquors.    In the symbology of Kabbalism,         and nations, but that this "is now regarded by all sober
however, the figure signified the letters in the name        minds as an extravagance of the human intellect, as
Jehovah. The four E-W points of the star represent           something that the race has finally left behind." (Vol.
the letters Yodh, He, Vav, He (Yahveh or Jehovah).           12, 53). In another place we read,  `*AS a serious and
Thus the Jews departed from the spirit of the second         systematic world-view claiming the allegiance of many
commandment, from the biblical condemnation of as-           of the best intellects in every  rankof  society, astrology
trology (Ex.  22:18; Isa.  47:13, 14; Jer.  10:2 and Dt.     is dead."  (Ency.  Brit.) Science and scholarship have
18:lO) and so from the scriptural doctrine of divine         dethroned astrology. When a rusty, bent pin will do to
providence.                                                  puncture a bubble blown by the spirit of error, the Lord
   Astrology is one of the most ancient forms of             does not go to such length as to blast out with a thunder-
superstition, being found among the Egyptians,  Chal-        bolt of His wrath. The above claims to the death of
deans, the Hindus (their Adepts and spiritist mediums),      astrology may be to an extent true.          But it still re-
and among the Chinese. Later the Jews, but especially        mains that the world is filled with this superstition.
the Mohammedans became addicted to it. The noted             Tons of astrology literature, the daily newspapers,
astronomer Kepler thought he had something in as-            the almanacs, manuals, magazines and the ubiquitous
trology.    He believed that his astronomical discover-      paper-backs feed the naively curious and the wishful
ies furnished the key to  .all events of history. He felt    dreamers.        We agree with Hastings' that astrology is
that astronomy had raised astrology to the apex of a         not only a by-way to superstition, but is, in fact, one
perfect and independent science.       But if anything,      of the main sources of superstition (ibid.,  p. 57).
astronomy gives the death-blow to the claims of as-                  Under some astrological forecasts we came across
trology, so astronomers today will be quick to tell us.      the following prophecy of note. "The fee for. .  .$5.00
Caesar Augustus believed in astrology and protected          . . .includes  the privilege of asking any one question
it. Cicero protested it vigorously but in vain. In the       . . .We do not answer questions with the $1.00 readings
Christian period, Constantine threatened the astrologers     . . .Remittance  may be made by check, P.O. of Express
with death. Augustine fought it. So did Calvin. Both         M.O., or currency may be enclosed, which will be
the Catholic Encyclopedia and the Encyclopedia  Brit-        found perfectly safe."        The latter is so certain, I
tanica say that Melancthon accepted astrology. Goethe        would imagine, because it is all settled and determined
thought it worthy because it could commend itself to         in the horoscope of the post office1 Otherwise, better
great minds1 But one of the most satanic of philoso-         not send cash through the mails1
phies, "Ye shall be as God," also commends itself to                 At the back of Seward's cloth-bound book onpopular
the world's greatest minds. Man has for so long be-          astrology one will find what company it keeps in its
lieved that Big Lie that now he believes, "Ye shall  be      catalog of works on palmistry, star-worship,  spirit-
God." But to go on: the spread of  astrology.was  fur-       mediumship, sorcery, black magic, infernal necro-
thered by Jewish scholars in their expositions of the        mancy, seership, hypnotism, mind reading, mind power,
Kabbala and the Talmud. However, the Jewish scholar          mental magic, crystal-gazing, fortune telling in cards,
Maimonides opposed it energetically. He found it for-        the human aura, memory training and attainment of
bidden by  Lev;  19:26, "Ye shall not observe times."        perpetual youth I


86                                                   THE STANDARD BEARER


      Astrologers in searching for biblical support appeal        or misery depends on the decrees and presages of the
to Isa.  13:lO; Jer.  31:36; Ezek.  32:7; Joel  2:lO; Lk.          stars, and not on the will of God, the consequence is
21:25-28,  which but teach that the stars, constellations,        that their fear is withdrawn from Him, whom alone they
sun and moon shall fail, that the very heavens and the            ought to regard, and is placed on stars and comets.
earth shall be shaken, which will be, in part, the way            Whoever, then, desires to avoid this infidelity, let him
God will punish the world for its evil (Isa.  13:11, 13).         constantly remember, that in the creatures there is no
These astral bodies shall pass away, but the seed which            erratic power, or -action, or motion; but that they are
the Lord hath blessed, the holy nation of God's elect              so governed by the secret counsel of God, that nothing
shall remain. It may be true that "this grand science              can happen but what is subject to His knowledge, and
(sic) will live and flourish  until  (ital., RCH) time shall      decreed by His will" (Calvin,  Institutes,  I, XVI, III).
be merged into Eternity." (The Zodiac and Its Mys-                Matthew Henry called astrologers "all cheats, and their
teries, Seward, 1917, p. 212). But with the doom of the            art a sham." Astrologers do not view the heavens as
very atomic elements of all heaven and earth, astrology            revealing Jehovah's eternal power and Godhead, but as
is doomed. Yet the Word of God shall not pass away.                a means of giving them a "dominion in the earth" (Job
It liveth and abideth forever.        Astrology states a           38:33).    They are blind to the Word of God in nature,
"great and fundamental truth-that there can be                     deny the Word of God incarnate, and pervert the Word
nothing accidental or supernatural in the operation of             of God in Scripture. Matthew Henry also said that "By
nature's (God is ruled out. RCH) laws" (ibid.). The                our law, consulting, covenanting with, invocating, or
natural order is not the providential working of the               employing, any evil spirit, to any intent whatsoever,
sovereign, personal, triune God as Jesus said (Jn. 5:17),          and exercising any enchantment, charm or sorcery,
but rather is directly traceable to intra-cosmic causes.          whereby hurt shall be done to any person whatsoever,
                                                                   is made felony, without benefit of clergy; also pretend-
      The following is what the Calvinistic churches have          ing to tell where goods lost or stolen may be found, or
to say in condemnation of astrology. "The prophet                 the like, is an iniquity punishable by the judge, and the
forbids the children of God to fear the stars and signs            second  offence with death.       The justice of our law
of heaven (Jer.  10:2)  as is the custom of unbelievers.          herein is supported by the law of God recorded here."
He certainly condemns not every kind of fear. But                  (At Ex.  22:18).    Henry lived in a more masculine age.
when infidels transfer the government of the world                 But the Law of God knows no sentimental tolerance for
from God to the stars, pretending that their happiness            these star-gazers and their monthly prognosticators.


THE LORD GAVE THE WORD . . .
                                    (Psalm 68:ll)


            Particular Love,
                               Particular Atonement,
                                                                                  and  Missions
                                                        by Rev. C.  Hank0

GOD IS LOVE/                                                      That love is abiding, can only be broken by death, for
      The Bible tells us so. And it also adds that love is        such love is of God. How beautifully that is expressed
the bond of perfectness. Col.  3:14. Since love has its           in the genuine love between husband and wife, who
source in the heart, it is the ethical bond that unites           love one another in the Lord.
two persons in the sphere of truth, righteousness,                    Since true love can exist only in the sphere of
justice, holiness, and devotion.       Love is the power          moral perfection, there is no love in darkness. Dark-
that draws two persons together in truth, in righteous-           ness, in the ethical sense of falsehood, deceit, hatred,
ness, and in holiness. It knits them together in perfect          bitterness,    unfaithfulness,    and selfishness, always
harmony, trust, and friendship, so that they experience           disrupts the bond of perfectness. Therefore the be-
complete unity and fellowship. Love seeks its perfect             lieving husband and wife must always meet at the cross
object, longs for it, yearns for its companionship, and           of Christ, finding their unity in the blood of the cross,
delights in the joy, peace, and sublime blessedness               forgiving one another, even as in Christ each is for-
that they experience together.       You have, no doubt,          given.      That which passes for love in the sphere of
heard the expression: "I love you, not merely for                 darkness is nothing but a wicked corruption, a carnal
what you are, but for what I am in your presence."                caricature of the genuine article. It is actually hatred,


                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER                                                   87


selfishness.    For the wicked love those who love them.         Christ is the Good Shepherd Who loves and cares for
They walk in darkness, for they hate God and the                 His sheep. In fact, one of the basic truths of Scripture
neighbor. They are interested in the neighbor only in            is the intimate fellowship of God's covenant, whereby
as far as the neighbor serves their own interests. "In           God unites Himself to His people, and His people to
this the children of God are manifest, and the children          Himself in everlasting blessedness.          God says to
of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not           Abraham, and in him to all his spiritual seed, to all
of God, neither he that loveth not his brother." I John          true believers, "I will establish my covenant between
3:lO.                                                            me and thee and thy seed after thee in their genera-
GOD LOVES HIMSELF                                                tions for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto
   This follows from the very fact that He is God, the           thee, and to thy seed after thee." Gen.  17:7 Therefore
fulness of infinite perfections. God loves His holiness,         when all things are accomplished, John in vision sees
His justice, His truth, and His grace. In them His soul          "the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God
delights.     In them is all His blessedness. This love          out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her
finds expression within God's own Being; for God is one          husband." Rev.  21:2.      And he hears a great voice out
in Being and three in Persons. The Father loves the              of heaven, saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is
Son, and gives expression to that love by saying in              with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall
every conceivable manner: "Thou art My Son, this                 be his people, alzd God,Himself shall be with them, and
day have I begotten Thee." The Son loves the Father,             be their God." vs. 3.
and turns His face to the Father to delight in His per-          THIS LOVE IS AL WAYS PARTICULAR
fections, in order that they may radiate upon His                   God loves His people in Christ, but He hates all the
countenance, and He may show forth the glory of God              workers of iniquity.       Psalm  5:5.    Since God loves
as the Word, the revelation of the Father. Father and            holiness, that very love turns in hatred against un-
Son love the Spirit, even as the Spirit seeks them in            holiness and sin.        Since He is righteous, He burns
love, always delving into the infinite depths of God's           with righteous indignation against all wickedness.
glorious virtues, that through Him the Word may give             Since He loves Himself as the sole Good, He banishes
expression to the exalted NAME of the Most High,                 from His presence all that is in conflict with His Holy
writing that NAME upon all God's handiwork, now and              Name.      God is a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of
unto all eternity, that God may be all in all.                   the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth
GOD LOVES THE CHRIST                                             generation of them that hate Him. No one has ever
   Since love is the bond of perfectness in God, it also         dared to deny that God hates the devil. And yet also
follows that God  ,loves the Christ. God loves Him be-           the devil is one of God's creatures, who was created
cause in the eternal counsel Christ "is the image of the         as a holy angel. If God hates the devil and his host,
invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: for by           does He not hate those who are branded in Scripture
him were all things created, that are  in. heaven, and           as the very seed of the serpent, ageneration of vipers?
that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they           Nor can we distinguish between the deed and the per-
be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers:          son, as if God hates the sin but loves the sinner. For
all things were created by him, and  for him:  and he is         the deed can never be separated from the depravity of
before all things, and by him all things consist." Col.          the one who commits the sin, nor can the guilt be
1:15-17.     Or to express it in the majestic language of        reckoned to anyone but the guilty party. Therefore
Hebrews  l:l-6, "God who at sundry times and in                  God does not banish sin to hell, but the sinner. The
divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by            Word of God never hesitates, therefore, to declare
the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by          that God's very soul hates the wicked and him that
His Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by           loveth violence. Psalm  11:s. "Jacob have I loved, and
whom also he made the worlds; who being the bright-              Esau have I hated." Romans  9:13. See also verses 17
ness of his glory, and the express image of his person,          and 18.
and upholding all things by the word of his power,                  Anyone who proclaims the glorious Gospel of God's
when he had by himself purged our sins sat down on               eternal, sovereign love to His people in Christ can and
the right hand of the Majesty on high, being made so             must declare the whole counsel of God, even as Scrip-
much better than the angels, as he hath by .inheritance          ture always does.
obtained a more excellent name than they."                       PARTICULAR LOVE AND PARTICULAR ATONEMENT
   Those two passages of Scripture so profoundly and                Now this may seem to be an unduly long approach
so beautifully declare to us the love of God that each           to our present subject of particular atonement. Yet
word deservesto be underscored. But the point I want             the love of God and the atonement of the cross are
to  .make is this, that Christ is the perfect object of the      most intimately related. Also Prof. Dekker speaks of
love of God. In Christ God revealsthat bond of perfect-          both  --in- one breath when  ,he wants to declare on the
ness that is so uniquely His, for God  is love.                  mission- field to all men promiscuously, "God loves
GOD LOVES HIS-PEOPLE  IN CIilRIST                                you, Christ died' for you.,' If, as Prof. Dekker and
.' Scripture uses the figure of the -Bridegroom and              others maintain, God loves all men, it must necessarily
His Bride  to describe the exclusive and intimate bond           follow -that Christ- died for all men. A universal love
of  :  love. that -exists between- God and His people in         and- a universal atonement go hand in hand. There can
Christ.      Christ is also called the  .-Head,: while His       be no doubt about that. While, on the-other hand, if we
people are the  _ members of His Body.             And again,    maintain with Scripture and our Confessions that God's


88                                                THE STANDARD BEARER


love is a particular and distinctive love to His people                     "Love without limit!      Can an unlimited love be
in Christ, then it must also follow that the atonement               limited in its scope?          Can an unrestricted love be
of the cross is particular in all its aspects.                       restricted in those whom it loves? Can the infinite
      God reveals His love to us in the cross of Jesus               love of the incarnation have as its object only a part of
Christ as nowhere else. There the love of God shines                 mankind? Hardly. Neither does the Bible teach this.
forth in all its radiant brilliance of divine majesty.               Rather we are told, "God so loved the world that he
                                                                     gave." Whether taken as the cosmos or as the human
There the full power of that love is revealed in con-                race, "world" in this passage clearly covers all men.
suming wrath and redeeming mercy. God never loved                    By no strain of exegesis can God's redemptive love
His Son more, if I may say so, than at the moment                    be confined to any special group. Neither the language
when the Son brought the sacrifice for sin in His own                of this verse nor the broadest context of Scripture
body. And yet there God's love burned in consuming                   will allow any other interpretation but that God loves
wrath against our sins.       God so loved us, that He               all men.
spared not His only begotten Son, but gave Him unto
the accursed death of hell for our sins. Rather would                And yet Prof. Delker wants to distinguish between
God commit His Son to the torments of hell than that             love that is "redemptive" and love that is "redeem-
His people should perish. God paid the price of His own          ing". He writes:
blood in the death of His Son, Jesus Christ, to pay the
ransom price for our sins.        Greater love than that                    "There are, therefore, three senses in which we
there simply is not, according to the Gospel. Love                  may legitimately speak of the atonement as being uni-
and atonement are inseparably one.                                  versal in design, i.e., the sufficiency, and availability
      Now Prof. Dekker likes to speak of but one love of            of salvation for alI men and the divine desire  that all
God.     And he is so very right. He also likes to speak            will receive it. The only point at which Scripture and
of one grace of God. And again, he is absolutely right.             the Reformed confessions point to a limited design in
                                                                    the atonement is at the point of efficacy. Only there
God's love and grace are always one in God. They                    can a doctrine of limited atonement be formulated-which
have their source in the heart of God. They are per-                does not do clear violence to Biblical teachingconcern-
fections of His glorious Being. They have their meri-               ing the universal love of God." Reformed Journal,
torious basis in the cross. They find their expression              December 1962.
by the work of the Holy Spirit of Christ in our hearts.
They are the power of God that draws us from death                  Is Dekker talking about a divine love that is
into life, from darkness of banishment of sin into the           thwarted by some?
glorious liberty of the sons of God. God's love is                  Are there instances where God loves in vain? Or
saving, even as God's grace is saving.            Dekker is      is the Almighty capable of loving with a love that does
right about that.                                                not exert all its power to draw to Himself and to save?
      But Dekker wants to maintain that God's love is            Did Christ die in vain?
unlimited in its scope, that it is universal, to all man-           By what right, on the basis of Scripture, can we
kind. He wrote in the Reformed Journal of December,              distinguish between one and the same love that saves
1962,                                                            and does not save?



                       ALL AROUND US-


                                 The Vatican Council

                                                     by P"Jof.  H. Hanko


THE VATICAN COUNCIL                                              tion is intended to implement a former decision of the
      The Roman Catholic Church has already passed               council which called for an increased share of the
some important resolutions in what is generally agreed          government of the Church to be given to the lower
to be the last session of the Second Vatican Council.            echelons of clergy. The avowed purpose of many was
      The session began with a speech by the pope in             to try, if possible, to curtail the power of the Roman
which he expressed his intention of establishing what            Curia which is composed mostly of Italians, is con-
he called a "Synod of Bishops" which will be called              servative and traditional in matters of church policy,
together from time to time to discuss problems aris-             has tremendous power within the Romish hierarchy,
ing within the Church and serve the pope with advice             and which is cordially hated by a vast segment of the
on these problems. The establishment of this  drganiza-          liberal wing of the church.             But this hatred is due


                                              THESTANDARDBEARER                                                      89


mostly to the fact that the Curia is always attempting        it that it came to a vote when the conservatives made
to block the reforms that are so dear to the hearts of        one last effort to sidetrack the matter), nevertheless
the liberals.     This new  .Synod of Bishops will not be     he does retain the right to alter the language as much
allowed to detract however from the power of the pope.        as he sees fit. Thus there is still fear that the language
He intends to retain the right to choose 15% of the mem-      will be watered down and made so ambiguous that the
bers; and he alone will determine when the Synod meets        conservatives win out after all and the tradition-en-
and what it discusses.                                        crusted Curia gets its way in the end. What the pope
    As far as the decisions of the Council thus far are       actually intends to do has not been made public.
concerned, the most important decision has to do with            The seond decision of importance dealt with the
' the "schema" on Christian liberty. This deals with          Council's statement on non-Christian religions.
1 an issue that has burned in the Roman Church for cen-          While this schema dealt with such religions as
turies.     The Church has always taken the position that     Hinduism, Buddhism, Mohammedanism, atheism, etc.,
the Roman Catholic Church is the only legitimate and          the real bone of contention was a statement in the doc-
 God-ordained denomination, that there is no salvation        ument which partially absolved the Jews from blame
outside of it, and that therefore it is the only church       for crucifying Christ.        There was a great deal of
which has a right of existence in the world. In bygone        politics involved in this one. On the one side is the
years this policy was carried out by means of severe          lingering charge made against the Romish Church
persecutions of, e.g., Waldensians, individual heretics       which claims that it is  anti-Semitic.  This charge was
 and Protestants after the time of the Reformation. This      recently made by some when the claim was made that
policy of persecution has continued even in the present       the Roman Church did not do enough to help the Jews
day in such countries as Spain andcolumbia.  And from         who were being persecuted by Hitler when it was with-
this policy came also the efforts of the Romish Church        in the power of the church to do much to alleviate the
to establish itself in various countries in which it had      suffering.      The statement of the council therefore was
 a majority of the population as the established religion.    intended to put this charge to rest once and for all.
    But in recent years this policy has been the object       And, naturally, the Jews themselves were heartily in
of criticism by liberals within the Church. The liberals      favor of this. But on the other side stood the Arabs
contend that every man has the right todecide  for him-       many of whom belong to the Romish Church. And
self what his religion shall be.        Hence there was       these Arabs hate the nation of Israeli with passionate
throughout the sessions of the council intense agitation      hatred.       Any statement made which in any way would
for adopting some schema to spell out this position as        speak kindly of the Jews was anathema to the Arabs
being the official position of the Church. Last year          and would be interpreted as pro-Israel and anti-Arab.
the council was about ready to vote its approval of           The whole issue revolved around the question whether
such a policy when the pope himself intervened to             the Council should take a stand against the charge that
prevent a vote. The result was that last year's ses-          the Jews were responsible for Christ's crucifixion.
 sion ended on a very sour note. Once again this year         The teaching of Scripture was scarcely considered in
the schema dealing with this subject came up for dis-         the matter; it was primarily a question of ecclesias-
cussion and debate.        By a vote of' 1997 to 224 the      tical politics.
 schema carried.       The result is that the Church has         The schema finally adopted stated that not only the
changed her position on this' crucial issue and re-           Jews but also the whole world was responsible for
pudiated her position of the past. (Although it is in-        Christ's death. This was less than theliberals wanted;
teresting to note that there has been no condemnation         it was a disappointment to the Jews; and it did not
made by the council of the actions of the Romish past,        satisfy the Arabs either.         In other words, it was a
 and no apology made or confession of sin for the blood       compromise satisfying no one but not deeply antago-
of God's people that was shed.) The Church now rec-           nistic to any.       The pope still has the final word on
ognizes the right of every one to believe what he             this matter, too.
chooses.     It affirms the right to religious liberty be-       Although the changes made in the schema on Chris-
cause this liberty is based on both divine revelation         tian Liberty were perhaps the most important changes
 and the very dignity of the human nature of man. It          in the position of the Church, it is still evident that
 asserts that no one at all can be forced to act against      while the church speaks of reform and adaptation to
his conscience, that the state must protect this human        the needs of people in the 20th century, Rome is only
right, and that governments can neither impose anyre-         interested in putting on a new suit of clothes tailored
ligion on an individual nor prevent him from joining or       in 20th century fashions while it remains the same
leaving any religious group. This includes every re-          kind of a Church it has always been throughout the
ligion be it Hinduism or atheism.                             centuries since the Reformation. It is therefore, still
    The liberals were elated for many had made a              the enemy of the Church of Christ, the new clothes and
favorable vote on this one issue the deciding factor in       the nice smile notwithstanding.
whether. this was to be a successful council which                                       *  *  * *
would truly reform the church or a wretched failure.              A couple of other items of interest in this connec-
    However, the decision of the council is not yet the       tion.
last word  .on the schema. It must still go to the pope.          We reported in these columns a short time ago that
And while he cannot refuse to accept the schema itself        there was agitation among some liberal theologians
(and indeed will not since he took a hand in seeing to        for a change in the doctrine of transubstantiation. It


90                                             THE STANDARD BEARER


appears as if this agitation hit a raw nerve in the            is no possibility of peace in this world until that de-
church, for the pope decided to issue an encyclical            pravity is taken away; that this is accomplished only
concerning the matter.        In this encyclical the pope      through the blood of atonement; and that consequently
made it clear that he had no intention of stifling re-         the peace of the cross is the peace of a heavenly king-
search or squashing free investigation in matters of           dom which shall be given graciously by God only to
the faith. But he nevertheless considered these new            God's elect. Can you imagine such a speech before the
opinions to involve the Church in grave dangers. He            U.N.? But this is all there is to say.
warned all that the doctrine of the church was still              To sum up the work of the Vatican Council: there
emphatically that in the mass, the bread and wine are          have been five schemata adopted by the Council before
miraculously transformed into the body and blood of            this last session.     They are "Constitution on The
Christ even though they appear unchanged to  the~par-          Church", "Constitution on Liturgy", "Decree on Ecu-
ticipants. This doctrine may not be touched.                   menism", "Decree on Mass Communications", and
      It is well known by this time that the pope's visit      "Decree on Oriental Rite Churches".             Apart from
to this country has attracted worldwide attention. We          the two discussed above, the following are still to be
are not interested in discussing the whole matter any          discussed:
more than it was discussed by the news media. In                  --The Church In The Modern World; this is a kind
fact, the newspapers, radio and television covered the         of a catch all which discusses such questions as in-
whole visit so thoroughly that it was even somewhat            ternational relations, culture, politics, economics,
indecent.                                                      family life, birth control.
      What particularly is of importance is that the              - Missionary Activity; Brought up by Paul himself
pope's plea for peace before the United Nations was            at last year's session, it received a thorough over-
so completely secular. In all the speech this man who          hauling.
claims to speak for Christ and represent Christ upon              -- The Priest's Life and Ministry.
earth never mentioned Christ's Word or His cross                  --Divine Revelation; dealing with the relation of
and scarcely mentioned the name of God. His entire             Scripture and tradition.         This is an important one,
plea for peace on earth was a plea to which any man            voted on in principle last year, but still subject to
could subscribe  - as the atheistic Russians were quick        further debate and amendment.
to point out when they spoke of the pontiff's speech as           -The Lay Apostolate; dealing with the laymen's
` `helpful' ' . The pope became then, not the spokesman        role in the Church.
of Christ but the spokesman of the secular world which            - On Religious; discussing mainly vows and orders.
denies Christ and strives to attain peace here on earth           - Priestly Formation - Statement on seminary life.
apart from the blood of the cross.                                - Christian Education; General list of principles
      It is well to remind ourselves at this point that the    on parochial education in the Romish Church.
pope had only one calling before the United Nations:              -The Pastoral Function of Bishops; Important
that was to inform this body that the cause of war was         schema discussing the relation of the bishops to the
the utter depravity of man's human nature; that there          church bureaucracy in Rome.




             HEEDING THE DOCTRINE- "Take heed . . . unto the doctrine .  .: .  I' I Tim.  4:16


                            Barth's Doctrine of Scripture

                 .                               by Rev. D. J. Engelsma

      In  The Wovd of  God and the Word of  Man, Barth re-     Reformed Churches."). The Bible is accidental and
marks on the so-called "formal principle" of the Ref-          contingent, even profane, that is, secular, worldly. It
ormation, the principle of the sole authority of the           is these things, with all they imply, because the Bible
Bible, and, in one statement, shows his deep disagree-         is thoroughly human.           Barth loves to speak of "the
ment with the historic, Reformed estimation of Scrip-          humanity of Scripture," most forcefully when opposing
ture: The Reformers "had the courage to allow so               the historic, Reformed dogma of an inspired, infallible
accidental, contingent, and human a thing as the Bible         Scripture.    We have seen that Barth utterly repudiates
to become a serious witness of the revelation of God,          the "orthodox" doctrine of an infallible,  inerrant
to allow a book which was in itself profane to become          Scripture.    We must now note with what Barth would
Holy  Scripture" (in the chapter entitled, "Task of the        replace that doctrine in the mind and confession of


                                                THESTANDARDBEARER                                                                             91


the Reformed Churches.                                             and capable and actually guilty of error in their spoken
   The Bible is a fallible book, full of errors of every           and written word"  (CD,I,2,p.529). Over against the
kind.(l) In our day, the introduction into a church of             doctrine of an  inerrant Scripture, Barth becomes ex-
the denial of an infallible Bible inevitably takes the             tremely bold: "To the bold postulate, that if their
form of an arbitrary distinction between that which is             word is to be  .the Word of God they (the prophets and
"central" and that which is "peripheral" in the Bible.             apostles -- D.E.) must be  inerrant in every word, we
That which is "central," including Scripture's teach-              appose the even bolder assertion, that. .  .they can be
ings on the great facts of redemption and on the be-               at fault in any word, and have been at fault in every
liever's walk, is said to be infallible. That which is             word. .  ." (CD,I,2,p.530). All of the words of the Bible
"peripheral," including Scripture's "incidental" his-              are fallible, human words and, therefore, we must
torical, geographical and scientific facts, is fallible.           acknowledge the Bible's "historical and scientific in-
This distinction between "central-infallible" and "per-            accuracies," its "theological contradictions," and
ipheral-fallible" is supposed to permit the Church to              "the uncertainty of (its) tradition" (CD,  1,2,p.531).
recognize and admit the "obvious" discrepancies and                    A concrete instance of the Bible's fallibility is the
mistakes in the Bible, while, at the same time, safe-              presence in Scripture of saga and legend. This pertains,
guarding all the doctrinal and ethical passages from               of course, to the Bible stories. Although these stories
suspicion of error and attack. Drawing false security              present themselves as actual history, as the literal
from this distinction, men have allowed, perhaps                   account of the way things happened, in fact most, if
grudgingly, within the Church the teaching of a fallible           not all of the stories are a mixture of history and
Bible, who otherwise were inclined to resist the en-               saga.       "Saga" is the "share of the narrator or narra-
trance into the Church of any and all forms of the view            t o r s   i n   t h e   s t o r y   n a r r a t e d "  (CD,I,l,p.376).   A n d
that Scripture contains errors. They console themselves            "`legend" is "the depiction in saga form of a concrete
with the notion that the "important" parts of Scripture            individual personality" (CD,III,l,p.81).  That is, saga
are safe. In reality, they have taken the Trojan horse             and legend are the embellishments of an event or
into their city.    For the fact is that the distinction is        personality by the story-teller, namely, the human
sheer human invention, not only without basis in                   writer of the Bible story. Usually, the Bible stories
Scripture but, in fact, a contradiction of Scripture's             are the combination of history, that is, actual fact,
testimony concerning its own essence.                 That "all    and saga, that is, the imagination of the story-teller.
Scripture is God-breathed" (II Tim.  3:16) means, at               But there is one story, at least, that is "pure saga."
the very least, that "Scripture" is not a conglomera-              That story is the Biblical account of creation. Genesis
tion of books and texts but a single, unified entity.              1 and 2 are "divinatory and poetical. .  .saga"  (CD,III,
There is such a unity as "all Scripture." And the                  l,p.82).      This means that some human or humans
essential oneness of all these books and texts is their            guessed how this present, visible world began ("divi-
common "God-breathedness," their inspiration, and,                 nation") and, then, poetically articulated this guess.
therefore, also, their fallibility or infallibility. The           Barth will not deny, concerning the Biblical account of
point here is merely that Scripture demands, on the                creation, "that there are myths, and perhaps in part
matter of inspiration and the intimately related matter            fairy tales, in the materials of which they are con-
of infallibility, that all its parts be regarded in the            structed"  (CD,III,l,p.84).(3)
same way. If the inspired historical parts are fallible,               The Canon of Scripture itself may not be regarded
the inspired doctrinal parts are fallible also. Thus,              by us with certainty. The Reformed Churches have
the distinction between "central-infallible" and "per-             confessed, through the years, that the sixty-six books
ipheral-fallible," no matter how unwitting and sincere             of the Old and New Testaments are canonical Scrip-
the defenders of it may be, will not and cannot stand.             ture, the divinely inspired rule and authority for the
Eventually, the concept of fallibility will be applied to          Church. None of these books may be challenged and
the entire Scripture, also the doctrinal and ethical               no writings may be added.                     The Canon is closed,
parts.(2)                                                          absolutely.        Having listed the sixty-six books of the
   Common as this distinction is in introducing into               Bible, the Belgic Confession states: "We receive all
the Church the idea of a `fallible Bible, it is not at all         these books, and these only, as holy and canonical. . ."
the approach of Barth. The Bible is indeed a fallible,             (Art.V).      With an appeal to Luther and Calvin, Barth
erring book but the fallibiiity holds for every part of            dissents.       "With a view to the future," we must say
the Bible. Scripture errs in its historical, geographi-            that "the Canon is not closed absolutely, but only very
cal, chronological, and scientific material but, as well,          relatively"  (CD,I,2,p.476). We must allow for the
fallibility "extends to its religious or theological con-          possibility that there lies buried "in the sands of
tent." "There are obvious overlappings and contra-                 Egypt"- a book which the Church must and will confess
dictions -- e.g.,  -between the Law and the prophets, be-          to belong to the Canon, perhaps, Paul's missing letter
tween John and the Synoptists, between Paul and James"             to the-  Laodicaeans.  (cf.  Co1.4:16 and  .CD,I,2,p.478).
.(CD,I,2,p.509). The so-called secondary authors `-`speak          Possibly, the Church will even have to declare that
as faliible, erring men like- ourselves':  (CD,I,2?p.507).         one of the sixty-six books now accepted- does not belong
"The prophets and apostles as such, even in their of-              in the Canon: "We cannot rule out a consideration of
fice, even in their function as witnesses, even in the             the -possibility -of an open a&ration in. its (the -Canon's
act of -writing down their-witness, were real, historical          --I%)  constitution, either a narrowing as in the 16th
men as -we,. are, and. therefore : sinful in -their. action,
    :          _                     _.       ,~.          -_      &%$ky~~)  o r ,   a n   kxtension~'  (CD,I,2,p.478).


92                                                    THE STANDARD BEARER


       All of this is necessary, Barth insists, if the Re-                 as the practical equivalent of "containing errors" or
formed Churches are going to give due honor to the                         "erring."
Word of God and the wholly gracious character of                              (2) The Reformed confessions know nothing of this
God's revelation of Himself to us. This is the only                        division of the Bible into parts, one central part that is
way, in the matter of Scripture, of saying "No" to our                     reliable and another peripheral part that is untrust-
                                                                           worthy.
natural arrogance and "Yes" to Jesus Christ,                                            On the contrary, the Heidelberg  Catchism
                                                                    the    states that "True faith is . . . a certain knowledge,
Word of God.                                                               whereby I hold for truth all that God has revealed to
       FOOTNOTES                                                           us in his word" (Lord's Day VII, Q. 21) and the Belgic
          (1) Literally, the word  fallible   only means "liable           Confession puts into the mouth of the Reformed Chris-
       to error" or "capable of a mistake." Thus, someone                  tians: "We receive all these books . . . believing with-
       might press the distinction between a "fallible" Bible              out any doubt, all things containedin them. . ." (Art. V).
       and an actually "erring" Bible, as if he could teach a                 (3) Klaas Runia mentions that Barth, lecturing in
       "fallible" Bible without committing himself, at the                 Holland, was asked whether the serpent of Genesis 3
       same time, to an "erring" Bible. Now and then, Barth                really spoke. Barth replied that he could not take the
       plays with this distinction and rather speaks of the                Genesis account as historical "for a speaking serpent
       "vulnerability of the Bible" and its "capacity for                  --well, I cannot imagine that any more than anybody
       errors" than of the concrete errors of the biblical                 else."      Those who defend this account as literal
      authors  (CD,I,Z,pp.508,509).  This is an impossible                 history, Barth refers to with typical, if sarcastic  ~
       distinction at best and a deceptive one at worst. For               levity as "friends of the speaking serpent." (cf. K.
       consider: if someone means by a "fallible but  iner-                Rwnia, Karl Barth's Doctvine  of Holy Scripture,       pp.
       rant" Bible that the Bible might have contained errors              100,101)
       but that God, when He authored it through the prophets                 (4) Barth maintains that the Churches of the Ref-
       and apostles,  actually  kept it free from all mistakes,            ormation excluded from the Canon, in the 16th century,
       he is saying nothing else than that the Bible as God                those books which we now consider to be apocryphal
       gave it to men was from the outset without an error                 but which the Church for a thousand years before the
       and, therefore, also without any capacity for error.                Reformation had received as canonical. He probably
       Only if the Bible actually errs does it also have a                 refers to the fact that the Councils of Hippo (393) and
       capacity to err.    Barth, in all his distinguishing, does          Carthage  (397), which declared on the New Testament
       not mean to teach a bare capacity of the Bible to err               Canon, included in the Canon of Scripture, such books
       but an erring Bible. Throughout, we will use "fallible"             as Judith and the Maccabees.


          CONTENDING FOR THE FAITH-


                      THE DOCTRINE OF CREATION
                                                Calvin - Hodge

                                                          by Rev.  H.  Veldman


                              CAL VIN                                      as it is briefly related by Moses, and afterwards more
       Having discussed in several chapters, in Vol. I,                    copiously illustrated by holy men, particularly by Basil
Chapter XIV, on his Institutes of the  ChristianReligion,                  and Ambrose.       Then we shall learn that God, by the
the creation of angels, Calvin then resumes his dis-                       power of his Word and Spirit, created out of nothing the
cussion of the creation of the world. In this discussion,                  heaven and the earth, that from them he produced all
he is very brief.          Later, in chapter XV, he discusses              things, animate and inanimate; distinguished by an ad-
at length the creation of man.            Having discussed the             mirable gradation the innumerable variety of things;
                                                                           to every species gave its proper nature, assigned its
creation of the angels, Calvin writes:                                     offices, and appointed its places and stations; andsince
          Yet let us not disdain to receive a pious delight from           all things are subject to corruption, has, nevertheless,
       the works of God, which every where present them-                   provided for the preservation of every species till the
       selves to view in this very beautiful theatre of the                last day; that he therefore nourishes some by methods
       world. For this, as I have elsewhere observed, though               concealed from us, from time to time infusing, as it
       not the principal, is yet, in the order of nature, the              were, new vigour into them; that on some he has con-
      first lesson of faith, to remember that, whithersoever               ferred the power of propagation, in order that the whole
      we turn our eyes, all the things which we behold are                 species may not be extinct at their death; that he has
      the works of God; and at the same time to consider,                  thus wonderfully adorned heaven and earth with the ut-
       with pious meditation, for what end God created them.               most possible abundance, variety, and beauty, like a
       Therefore to apprehend, by a true faith, what it is for             large and splendid mansion, most exquisitely and
       our benefit to know concerning God, we must first of                copiously furnished; lastly, that, by creating man, and
       all understand the history of the creation of the world,            distinguishing him with such splendid beauty, and with


                                                    THESTANDARDBEARER                                                             93


   such numerous and great privileges, he has exhibited             is unanswerable.     The data for the solution of the
   in him a most excellent specimen of all his works.               problem do not lie within the sphere either of experi-
   But since it is not my design to treat at large of the           ence or of reason. All human theories on this subject
   creation of the world, let it suffice to have again              are nothing more than conjectures more or less in-
   dropped these few hints by the way.      For it is better,       genious.
   as I have just advised the reader, to seek for fuller               Apart from the pantheistic doctrine which makes
   information on this subject from Moses, and others               the universe the existence form, or, as Goethe calls it,
   who `have faithfully and diligently recorded the history         "das lebendige Kleid" (the living garment) of God, the
   of the world.                                                    most prevalent views on this subject are, First, those
   In these words, the noted reformer of Genevastates               theories which exclude mind from the causative origin
                                                                    of the world; Secondly, those which admit of mind, but
plainly that the Lord created the heavens and the earth             only as connected with matter; and Thirdly, the Scrip-
out of nothing, and we are reminded by these words of               tural doctrine which assumes the existence of an infinite
what we read in Art. XII of our Confession of Faith.                extramundane mind to whose power and will the exis-
   Continuing his treatment of God's work of the crea-              tence of all things out of God is to be referred.
tion of the world, Calvin, leaving no doubt as to the                  It is a self-evident truth that existence cannot spring
length of time in which the Lord made the universe,                 spontaneously from non-existence. In this sense ex
writes:                                                             nihilo nihil fit is an universally admitted axiom. Those,
                                                                    therefore, who deny the existence of an extramundane
       There remains the other point, which approaches              mind, are forced to admit that as the universe now, it
   more nearly to faith; that, while we observe how God             must have always been. But as it is in a state of per-
   has appointed all things for our benefit and safety, and         petual change it has not always beenas it now is. There
   at the same time perceive his power and grace in our-            was a primordial state out of which the present order
   selves, and the great benefits which he has conferred            of things has arisen. The question is, How?
   on us, we may thence excite ourselves to confide in
   him, to invoke him, to praise him, and to love him.              Then, calling attention to the purely Physical Theory,
   Now, as I have just before suggested, God himself has         Hodge writes as follows:
   demonstrated, by the very order of creation, that he
   made all things for the sake of man. For it was not                 According to the first hypothesis just mentioned
   without reason that he distributed the making of the             (the theory which excludes mind from the causative
   world into six days; though it would have been no more           origin of the world-H.V.), the primordial condition of
   difficult for him to complete the whole work, in all its         the universe was that of universally diffused matter in
   parts, at once, in a single moment, than to arrive at            a highly attenuated state. This matter has the proper-
   its completion by  such progressive advances.                    ties, or forces, which it now everywhere exhibits; and
                                                                    under the operation of these forces and in accordance
   Calvin certainly believes that the Lord created the              with the laws of heat, motion, etc., not only the great
heavens and the earth and all that is therein, in six days,         cosmical  bodies were formed and arranged themselves
and he certainly means days as we know them.                        in their present harmonious relations, but also all the
                                                                    organisms, vegetable and animal, on this globe and
   Writing on the creation of man, although  hedoes  not            elsewhere, were fashioned and sustained. Every man
treat the account in Genesis in any detail, Calvin                  knows enough of physical laws to be able to predict with
writes:                                                             certainty that on a cold day in the open air the moisture
       We shall afterwards, in the proper place, see how            of his breath will be condensed; so, according to Pro-
   far men are fallen from that purity which was bestowed           fessor Huxley, on this hypothesis, with adequate knowl-
   upon Adam. And first let it be understood, that, by his          edge of those laws, it would have been easy from the
   being made of earth and clay, a restraint was laid upon          beginning to predict, not only the mechanism of the
   pride; since nothing is more absurd than for creatures           heavens, but the fauna and flora of our globe in all the
   to glory in their excellence, who not only inhabit a             states and stages of its existence. . .
   cottage of clay, but who are themselves composed                 And then Hodge  calls attention to the Nebular hy-
   partly of dust and ashes.                                     pothesis, which would explain our world purely from
   There is surely nothing in this quotation to cause            the physical point of view.       Assuming that the matter
us to wonder whether Calvin was addicted to the evolu-           composing our entire solar system once existed in the
tionistic theory of the creation of man.                         condition of a single nebulous mass, gradually this single
                                                                 mass broke up into several satellites, thereby con-
                          HODGE                                  stituting our various planets, without the intervention
   On the doctrine of creation in Vol. I of his Syste-           of mind.
matic Theology, Hodge, discussing Different Theories                Then Hodge  calls attention to those theories which
concerning the Origin of the Universe, writes as                 assume Intelligence in Nature itself, and he writes:
follows:                                                               The obvious impossibility of blind causes acting
      The question concerning the origin of the universe            intelligently, as of necessary causes being elective in
   has forced itself on the minds of men in all ages. That          their operation, has led many who deny the existence
   the mutable cannot be eternal, would seem to be self-            of an extramundane Mind to hold, that life and intelli-
   evident. As everything within the sphere of human ob-            gence pertain to matter itself in some at least of its
   servation is constantly changing, men have been con-             combinations.    A plant lives. There is something in
   strained to believe that the world as it now is had a            the seed which secures its development, each after its
   beginning. But if it began to be, whence did it come?            kind.    There is, therefore, something in the plant,
   Without the light of a divine revelation, this question          which according to this theory is not external to the


94                                                   THE STANDARD BEARER


      plant itself, which does the work of mind. That is, it          and body in man in our present stageof being. The ad-
      selects or chooses from the earth and air the elements          vocates of this doctrine, therefore, instead of speaking
      needed for its support and growth. It moulds these              of nature as the organizing force, speak of the  soul  of
      elements into organic forms, intended to answer a               the world: the anima mundi, etc.
      purpose, and adapted with wonderful skill to accomplish
      a given object. With regard to this principle of life,          Concerning these theories, the purely physical and
      this vital force, it is to be remarked that it is in the     that which admits of mind but only as connected with
      plant; that it is never manifested, never acts, except in    matter, Hodge declares:
      union with the matter of which the plant is composed;                   (1) That they leave the origin of things unaccounted
      when the plant dies, its vitality is extinguished. It           for.      Whence came the matter, which the theory in one
      ceases to exist in the same sense in which light ceases         form assumes? Whence came its physical properties,
      when darkness takes place.                                      to which all organization is referred? And as to the
         What is true of the vegetable, is no less true of the        other doctrine, it may be asked, Whencecame the liv-
      animal world. Every animal starts in an almost im-              ing germs of plants and animals?            To assume that
      perceptible germ. But germ has something in it which            matter in a state of chaos is eternal; or that there has
      determines with certainty the genus, species, and               been an endless succession of living germs; or that
      variety of the animal. It fashions all his organs; pre-         there has been an eternal succession of cycles in the
      pares the eye for the light yet to be seen; the ear for         history of the universe, chaos unfolding itself into
      sounds yet to be heard; the lungs for  ,air yet to be           cosmos, during immeasurable ages, are all assump-
      breathed. Nothing more wonderful than this is fur-              tions which shock the reason, and must of necessity
      nished by the universe in any of its phenomena.                 be destitute of proof. (2) These theories are atheistic.
         If, therefore, vegetable and animal work all these           They deny the existence of a personal Being to whom we
      wonders, what need have we to assume an extramundane            stand in the relation of creatures and children. The
      mind to account for any of the phenomena of the uni-            existence of such a Being is an innate, intuitive truth.
      verse? All that is necessary is, that nature should act         It cannot be permanently disbelieved. And, therefore,
      just as we see that the vital principledoes act in plants       any theory which denies the existence of God must be
      and animals.    This is Hylozoism; the doctrine that            not only false but short-lived.
      matter is imbued with a principle of life.
         Another form of this theory is more dualistic. It            Wicked man invents these theories because  hehates
      admits the existence of mind and matter as distinct          the living God and refuses to acknowledge Him as the
      substances, but always existing in combination, as soul      Creator of the world.


                                     Forbes' New House of Worship





      The above is a snap-shot  of the new  church at              their steeples, but it is becoming prevalent among
Forbes, N.D. The building was recently moved from                  Protestant churches as well to claim their members
the neighboring vicinity of Ashley, N.D., and placed in            to be sheltered under the symbol of the Cross on
the new location in the center of the town of Forbes.              which their Savior paid the bitter price for their sins.
It is rectangular in shape, 24 by 40 feet in size. The                Congratulations, Forbes1 May you prosper under
interior has been newly decorated and is equipped with             the preaching of the Word as it reveals to you the whole
acoustical tile ceiling. It has twenty lo-foot pews plus           counsel of God in regard to His chosen people. May
two smaller ones which provide Forbes with room for                your new church truly be a "house of God.," wherein
growth and expansion.           The Lord has provided this         the pure doctrine of the gospel is preached; in which
needed church property for the congregation of Forbes              the  pure administration of the sacraments as insti-
at the cost of about  $2,500.00.  For miles around one             tuted by Christ is maintained; and where- church
can see the cross firmly affixed atop the high steeple.            discipline is exercised in punishing of sin according
For many years it has seemed to be the sole prerogative            to the Scriptures. God bless you in that way.
of the Roman Catholic churches to have a cross on                                                                      J. M. Faber


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                                       95


BOOK  REVIEWS-                        A History of Christian Missions  by Rev. H.  Hanko

A HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS, by Stephen                   value to those interested in this subject.
Neill. (Vol. VI in "The PelicanHistory  of the Church").         While it is almost a "must" for anyone making a
Published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.              study of missions, if the reader expects a discussion
622 pages. $7.50.                                             of the theology of missions, he will be disappointed.
                                                              The book is strictly history. And, inasmuch as the
   The author of this book is thoroughly acquainted with      author is not interested in any theological implications
his subject, having spent some time as missionary in          of the mission calling of the church,  hedoes  no  evalua-
South India, 20 years as a wandering evangelist,  lec-        tion of mission work either. All of it, carried on by no
turer to educated Hindus and Muslims, theological             matter what denomination, meets with approval. The
teacher and finally Bishop of Tinnevelly. He was also         author is strongly in favor of ecumenical mission
a member of the Joint Committee which brought into            movements of today, particularly the mission arm of
being the Church of South India.                              the World Council of Churches.
   The book covers the whole field of the history of             There is a valuable discussion of the problem of
Christian Missions from the beginning of the New              establishing indigenous churches in former lands and
Testament Church till 1963 when the book was  com-            an excellent bibliography of considerable value to the
pleted.     It contains a thorough and interesting  des-      student who wishes to pursue the matter further. The
cription of the progress of missions and is of great          book is highly recommended to our readers.

                                              by  Pvof. H. C. Hoeksema

                The Epistles of John                          Basic Introduction to the New Testament

"The Epistles of John" (Tyndale Bible Commentaries),          "Basic Introduction To The New Testament," 179 pp.
N.T. Series, Vol. 19. 230 pp. Price: $3.00. Wm. B.            (Paperback) Price $1.45. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publ.
Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand Rapids, Mich.                  Co., Grand Rapids, Mich.

   This series of commentaries is advertised as "A               This little book is intended to be a popular intro-
concise,    workable tool for laymen, teachers and            duction to the New Testament, not a technical work in
ministers." My general comment on all the volumes             N.T. Isagogics. Its avowed purpose is "an attempt to
of this series which I have seen thus far is two-fold:        introduce the New Testament, its authors and their
1) The aim of the series is too broad. For a commen-          writings, to the man in the pew" and to "encourage
tary to be a tool useful to laymen and at the same time       Christian people to read the New Testament for them-
to be a tool useful to ministers is a goal rather             selves." The author faces the fact that this is a day
difficult of attainment in my opinion. Laymen desire          when "The practice of daily Bible reading, whether
a less technical tool; and ministers desire a more            by individual  .Christians or in family prayers, is be-
technical tool. 2) The striving after conciseness in a        coming rare."       And he intends this book to be an
work of this kind too often results in a lack of thorough-    incentive to Bible reading, not a substitute. Frankly, I
ness and depth. This is also true of this work on the         fail to see how a work of this kind can serve as such
Epistles of John. As is well-known, the simplicity of         an incentive. The best incentive for Bible reading for
the language in John cloaks a riches and depth of             Christian people, it seems to me, is the Bible itself!
meaning which are not always easy to probe thoroughly.        If the Scriptures themselves hold no attraction, how
It stands to reason that to cover all three of the            will a human word about those rich Scriptures serve
Epistles of John in the space of 230 pages will almost        as an incentive?
nec.essarily result in a balance that favors brevity             Nor can I agree with the content and basic approach
rather than thoroughness.      This, in my opinion, is        of this work. It is obviously Arminian, for example,
the chief shortcoming of this little commentary.              in regard to regeneration. This is evident from page
   Nevertheless, Mr. Stott` does- a creditable job within     20, where the author writes: "It (the new birth) is a
the limits described above. His commentary is more            deep, inward, revolutionary change of heart effected
thorough than some others in this same series. Not            by the Holy Spirit. Without it a man cannot even `see'
only is there a serious attempt at exegesis in these          the Kingdom, let alone `enter' it (John  3:3, 5). But how
pages;  abut,  i and this is sometimes- one- of the chief     can this change come about? On what human conditions
benefits of a very brief commentary,  - there  ,is fre-       will.`the  Holy Spirit  effect  it?"  (emphasis added) And
quently an insight furnished into some of the problems        the author goes on to spell out these supposedly human
of interpretation and into various`views on -the meaning      conditions for the new birth -as being -repentance, faith,
of. certain passages and terms. For these reasons I           self-surrender.  :  -  ' .
would recommend the book to those who are looking                For' one.  tihd is looking for a good, solid; Reformed
for something brief. This recommendation, of course;          addition to.his library,. this is not the book to buy.. This~
does not imply. agreement with-all that is written.           is notto say,-of  course;that there-is nothing .of value `in
                                                              the  book;   `(  .,  -_  :  _ .  :  i  :            _      .


96                                             THE STANDARD BEARER


                       NEWS FROM OUR CHURCHES-                   ("All the saints salute tytee . . T Phil. 4:21)

                                       November 1, 1965         Did you know -that Rev. Veldman made a hurried
      Rev. B. Woudenberg, of Edgerton, Minn., has re-        train trip from Lynden to Grand Rapids and arrived at
ceived a call from Forbes, N.D.                              the Civic Auditorium ten minutes before program time
      Rev. Woudenberg has accepted the call which he had     to take his place (which he did not know he was to occupy)
received from Lynden, Wash.                                  on the platform as scheduled on the printed programs?
                            * * *                            and,  that many of the stalwart members of our Oak
      Rev. Robert Decker was installed into office in        Lawn and South Holland churches also drove the three
Doon, Iowa, Friday evening, Oct. 1.           Prof. H.C.     hundred mile round trip to attend the Rally?
Hoeksema preached the sermon, which was based on                                                * * *
2 Cor.  2:14-17.      Rev. J. Kortering read the Form for       Redlands' Ladies Aid Society is re-discovering the
Installation.       Rev. Decker preached his inaugural       Book of Revelation, examining the 16th chapter at
sermons on the following Sunday; the morning sermon          present, in their Bible Study. The after recess activity
was on Romans  1:16,17 and the afternoon's was on            centers around the history of our churches.                     Other
Romans  5:l. The congregational reception for their          news in their bulletins included a renovation of the
new minister was scheduled for the ne xt Friday              lawn by the men of the congregation called out en masse
evening. And so we have a new worker in the vineyard         by the building committee. Some saddening news also
of the Lord.
        x                                                    reached us from that California outpost: Mrs. C.,Hanko
                        * *  *                               suffered a double fracture of her left arm in a recent
      And now a look at "the other side of the coin". It     fall. Rev. Hanko wrote, "God teaches us that we must
has pleased the King of His Church to counter-balance        wait upon Him, committing all our way to Him, and
the above news. Rev. G. Vos has requested  Hudson-           trust Him to provide for us in every contingency of
ville's consistory for emeritation due to failing health.    life. `0, we of little faith!' "
Rev. Vos has consented to occupy the area pulpits                                               *  * *
whenever health permits, his first such assignment              The Young People of Hull sponsored a Reformation
was in First Church while Rev. Van  Baren was in             Day Rally scheduled to be held in Hull Oct. 31. Rev.
Hudsonville on Classical appointment  Nov; 1. Rev.           B. Woudenberg, of Edgerton, was to be the speaker.
Vos preached his farewell sermon Sunday, Oct. 24.            An offering was taken for the Scholarship Fund of the
                            a * *                            Beaco.n Lights.
      The long awaited  - and much planned for -- Refor-                                        * *  *
mation Day Rally held in the Civic Auditorium in                The Northwest Iowa P.R. School Society sponsored
Grand Rapids belongs to history. Averylarge audience         a public lecture by Prof. H.C. Hoeksema to be held in
(the place seats  S,OOO!) were pin-dropping-attentive        Hull Sept. 29. His topic, "Reformed Christian Instruc-
as the Prof. H.C. Hoeksema, spokesman for all our            tion -- In the Fear of the Lord". The Board requested
churches, witnessed to the fact that the "faith of our       Rev. Kortering to write a series of newsletters which
fathers" is "living still" in the pulpits of the Prot.       stress the need for such.                   In the first of these Rev.
Ref. Churches. He spoke on "Our Reformed Heritage,"          Kortering discussed the fact of our children being
exhorting all sons and daughters of the Reformation          comprehended in the Covenant of God and that the in-
to return to the truth as epitomizedunder the T-U-L-I-P      struction the parents provide for their children must
of Calvinism. The chairman of the evening, Rev. M.           be  covenantal.
Schipper,  led in opening devotions, and welcomed our                                           * * *
guests, members of other denominations, to share                Monday evening, Oct. 18, the League of  Me&
with us something of the rich inheritance God had            Societies sponsored a public lecture in Hope Church.
given us.        Music was furnished by a massed choir       The speaker, Prof. H.C. Hoeksema; his topic, "Our
under the direction of Mr. Roland Petersen, with Mrs.        Mission Activities". This lecture may have sparked
C. Lubbers accompanying. Mrs. Lubbers also rendered          the enthusiasm that was evidenced at the Rally and
the Prelude and the Postlude. Rev. H. Veldman led the        talked about ever since. To quote our Rev. Vos: "It
huge gathering in closing prayer, after which the audi-      is the beginning of a new era. We have among us his
ence stood and sang the Doxology.                            (Rev. H. Hoeksema's) son; and with him is a worthy
      The work of the Mission Committee, of the broader      companion, Prof. Herman Hanko. And we have a band
committee consisting of members of each of the area          of young and devoted men who love to preach the truth
churches, of the  120-voice  choir with its director and     he loved, preached, taught, and suffered for. But what
accompanist, of the 40 or more ushers and usherettes         is more: We have  Godl"
assisted by several deacons; and of the gifts of all our                                       * * *
people to foot the cost; and especially the speech of our       "Praise ye the Lord. Praise God in his sanctuary:
Seminary professor, all added up to a worthwhile             praise him in the firmament of his power. . . . .Let
project that served as a Protestant Reformed witness         every thing that hath breath praise the Lord. Praise
to the churches in Michigan's "Jerusalem".  We  thank        ye the Lord." Psalm 150.
Thee; Lord,  for  this privilege!                               . . . see you in church.                                   J.M.F.


