           The
     STANDARD
          BEARH?  .:
T          A REFORMED SEMI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE
                   SPECIAL ISSUE
                               on the
         Doctrine of Holy Scripture
       This is the third, and final, theme issue of
     the current volume-year. It is, we hope, an
     interesting, though not exhaustive, treat-
     ment of various aspects of the doctrine of
     Holy Scripture. We have tried, however, not
     to limit this issue to the doctrine as such, but
     also to include some contributions of a more
     practical nature. A special word of thanks is
     due to a guest writer in this issue, the Rev.
     Kenneth Hanko, missionary-pastor in  Nor-
     ristown, Pennsylvania.

                                               Vol.  LXII, No. 19, August  1, 1986  -


                                                                      THE  STANDARD  BEARER




                                    CONTENTS                                                                         THE STANDARD BEARER
                                                                                                                            ISSN 0362-4692
                                                                                                  Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July, and August.
       Meditation  -                                                                              Published by the Reformed Free Publishing Association, Inc.
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          The More Sure Prophetic Word . . . . . .                              .434     Editor-in-Chief:  Prof. Homer C. Hoeksema
                                                                                         Deparhnent  Editors: Rev. Ronald Cammenga,  Rev. Arie den Hartog, Prof. Robert
       Editor's Notes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .     .  .     .437     D. Decker, Rev. Barry Gritters, Rev. Cornelius Hanko, Prof. Herman C. Hanko,
                                                                                         Rev. Ronald Hanko, Mr. David Harbach, Rev. John A. Heys, Rev. J.  Kortering,
       Holy Scripture: Inspired and Infallible. . .                    .  .     1437     Rev. George C. Lubbers, Rev. Thomas C. Miersma, Rev. James Slopsema, Rev.
                                                                                         Gise J. Van  Baren, Rev. Herman  Veldman.
       The New Hermeneutics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .              .  .     .440     Editorial Ofice:  Prof. H.C. Hoeksema
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MEDITATION


                            The More Sure Prophetic Word

                       We have ulso a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto
                   a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts.
                  Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the
                  prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were
                   moved by the Holy Ghost.                           -II Peter  1:19-21


       Take heed to it!                                                                   and find the way in and through the darkness with-
       Ye do well to do so: for it is like a light shining in                             out that light of the prophetic word?
a dark place. And how will you ever know the way                                              The purpose of this Word is evidently a practical


                                             THE     STANDARD     BEARER                                       435



and spiritual one. Though this is one of the  so-          apostle has been writing in the context: "For we
called classic passages concerning the doctrine of         have not followed cunningly devised fables, when
inspiration and infallibility, the apostle is not here     we made known unto you the power and coming of
developing a "dogmatics" of inspiration. And               our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his
though, indeed, there is rich instruction here con-        majesty," (vs. 16).
cerning the prophetic Word and its source and                The power and the coming!
manner of coming, bear in mind that the purpose of
the apostle is expressed in the words,  ". . . where-        He is coming again with power and great glory!
unto ye do well that ye take heed."                        And always prophecy looks forward ultimately to
                                                           that coming. It is His final coming. It is the coming
  "Until the day dawn, and the  daystar  arise in          when He shall finally and fully deliver us from all
your hearts!" Then, when all prophecy shall have           sin and suffering and death, from all pain and suf-
been fulfilled, and when the darkness is gone              fering and sorrow, from all that is of the earth
forever, and when the everlasting day shall have           earthy, into the glory of His everlasting kingdom in
dawned, and we shall see face to face, then we shall       the  new heavens and the new earth. And He is
no longer need the "more sure word of prophecy."           powerful to achieve that coming! His power is ir-
  But until then, take heed!                               resistible. Nothing can prevent Him from coming
         * *  * * * * * * * *                              again. For all power has been given unto Him in
  There is one "more sure" prophetic word!                 heaven and on earth! And He wields that power
                                                           always with a view to His coming. He opens the
  Not merely to the prophecy of the old dispensa-          seals! He causes the sounding of the trumpets! He
tion does the apostle refer. Nor merely the proph-         brings about the pouring out of the vials! He is com-
ecy of the new dispensation is meant. Nor to               ing! Quickly! Surely!
some specific prophecy of one of the prophets or
apostles is reference made. Prophecy is one whole.           Ultimately it is always of this power and coming
While there are many words of prophecy, many               of the Lord Jesus that the prophetic word speaks.
specific prophecies about many and various aspects         Of His power to overcome death, and of His
of the gospel of promise,  there is essentially but one    ultimate coming to deliver us from death's power it
prophetic word. It' begins in the protevangel of           spoke already when it promised that He would
Genesis  3:15, "I will  put enmity between thee and        crush the head of the serpent. And in all the proph-
the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it           ecies of the old dispensation the focus is on that
shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his           power and coming. For did not the prophets search
heel." It continues throughout the entire old dis-         diligently "what, or what manner of time the Spirit
pensation in the direct revelation given to patri-         of Christ which was in them did signify, when it
archs and prophets, in types and shadows, in               testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and
dreams and visions, in the history of the old cove-        the GLORIES that should follow?" And was not
nant, in priest and altar and sacrifice, in Davidic        that prophetic word partially and centrally fulfilled
king and kingdom, in bondage and captivity and             in the first coming of our Lord? And did not He
deliverance and victory and inheritance. It reaches        testify personally, even at the time of His trial
its central fulfillment at the first coming of our Lord    before the Sanhedrin, of His being seated at the
Jesus Christ, in His suffering and death and resur-        right hand of power and coming in the clouds of
rection, and in His exaltation at the right hand of        heaven? And do not the apostles continue to hold
the Father in heavenly glory and majesty. Yet it           before us that same prophetic word concerning His
does not cease then, but points beyond; and even in        power and coming, but now as those who were
the new dispensation it continues to speak and to          "eyewitnesses of his majesty"? And does not this
point forward, till in the Book of Revelation it           united testimony of His power and coming hold
comes to a close.                                          before us an unspeakably beautiful hope: the hope
                                                           of complete deliverance from all sin and imperfec-
  One word there is. Though it consists of many            tion, of participation in the divine nature and eter-
individual prophecies, it constitutes one word of          nal life and glory, the hope of a new heavens and
prophecy.                                                  new earth in which righteousness shall dwell?
  What, in brief, is the content df that one word of         And is not that the light, the only light, the light
prophecy?                                                  that radiates from the face of Jesus Christ, that
  What does it say?                                        shines in all the darkness of this present time?
  Why is it a light shining in a dark place?                 A more sure word!
  The prophetic word speaks  always  of the  power           Not that the prophetic word was not and is not
and cowring  of OUY Lord Jesus Christ! About this the      always sure, as though sometimes it left room for


436                                         THE  STANDARD   BEARER



doubt: for always that prophetic word was sure.           they call men to follow their light. But prophecy is
But the prophets of old saw from afar; they saw in        not a matter of private interpretation. The light of
visions and types and shadows. And their word was         prophecy shines from without, from above. The
sure, so that they could always say, "Thus saith the      prophetic word is the Word of God Himself, testi-
Lord!" But now that prophetic word is even more           fying through.the Spirit by the means and agency of
sure: for as the apostle emphasizes in the preceding      holy men, who thus became witnesses of the light.
context, he and the other apostles were "eyewit-             The prophets, all of them, gave an interpreta-
nesses of his majesty" when they were with the            tion of things. They interpreted the future. They
Lord Jesus in the holy mount and when they heard          gave an explanation of the things which are in the
the voice from heaven. And as such eyewitnesses           light of the things which are to come. They spoke
they testify of His power and coming. Surer than          and wrote of the sufferings of Christ and the glories
sure, therefore; is the word of prophecy through          which follow.
them.
         *  *  *  *  *,  *  *  *  *  *                       But their prophecies were not a matter of private
                                                          interpretation. Whatever interpretation of things
  Can we depend on it?                                    they gave in their prophecies was not an invention
  If we listen to that word of prophecy and let our       of their own minds, did not come about by their
life be guided by that beaconlight which shines, as       own will. The will of the prophets had nothing to
it were, from yonder shore, will we not be de-            do as such with the origin and the content of their
ceived? Will that glory be there? Or shall we find        prophecies. They did not offer their private opin-
that the light deceived us, and that the city which       ions of things. They did not present humanly con-
hath foundations is not there?                            ceived views and offer humanly conceived solu-
  Is the "more sure word of prophecy" cunningly           tions of problems.
devised fables - as the false teachers in Peter's day        On the contrary, they were holy men of God  -
called it and as many even today say? Are the Scrip-      men who were themselves saints, who looked for
tures after all but a word of human invention? That       the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, they
would be terrible, would it not? For the sake of that     were designed and chosen to be such precisely in
which the prophetic word holds before us, after all,      order that they might be the instruments of revela-
the people of God forsake the world and suffer            tion. And they were moved by the Holy Spirit. The
many things. They forsake all and follow Him Who          Holy Spirit, as the Spirit of Christ, controlled their
is the Light of the world.                                minds and their wills. The Holy Spirit enlightened
                                                          their minds and revealed things concerning the
  But prophecy came not in old time by the will of        power and coming of the Lord to them. The Holy
man. Men, too, kindle lights. But if prophecy came        Spirit moved them to speak (and write) and guided
by the will of man, it could have no value. It could      them in speaking and writing, so that what they
not show the way out of the darkness. It could not        spoke and what they wrote constituted the Word of
be reliable. For all the light that is in men is dark-    God. Scripture is not of men. It is not partly of men
ness. Not the light of cunningly devised fables, not      and partly of God. It is the very Word of God!
the light of philosophy, not the light of learned
scientists or of enlightened humanists is this pro-                 * * * * * * * * * *
phetic word.                                                 Fix your eye of faith and hope on that guiding
  No, this light shines from without. It is from          light!
above. It is from God, the God of our salvation,             Heed it! Contemplate it! Study it! Discern it!
through our Lord Jesus Christ, and by His Spirit.         Trust it! Follow it! Soon the  daystar  shall arise in
The light of men cannot be trusted. They deny the         your hearts! Then we shall see face to face, and
one light that shines from prophecy, and instead          know even as we are known!                      HCH


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                                            THE  STANDARD  BEARER                                              437



                                       Editor's Notes


  Index. If you are planning to reserve a copy of the     Journey. It  is published bi-monthly at a price of
new index which covers the first 58 volumes of the        $12.00 per year. I would classify it as coming from
Stan&& Bearer, make work of it immediately. The           the conservative wing of the OPC. The address is:
deadline, I have been informed by the committee,          1021 Federal St., Lynchburg, Virginia 24504.
is August 31! There will be no extra copies printed;                * * * * * * * * * *
hence, if you want a copy, you must write in
promptly! No final decision can be made on cost at          My lead article for this special issue, you will
this time; the committee's estimate is $25 to $30 per     notice, is a big longer than normal. This was occa-
copy. Send your reservation to our Business Office.       sioned by the fact that a promised guest article did
         * * * * * * * * * *                              not materialize. To make up somewhat for this
                                                          lack, I took the opportunity to expand on some of
  New Magazine. If you  .are interested in a              the key elements of my assigned subject.
magazine emanating from Orthodox Presbyterian                       * * * * * * * * * *
circles, let me recommend a new publication,




      Holy Scripture: Inspired and Infallible


  There is probably no single doctrine of the Chris-        The two truths of inspiration and infallibility
tian faith that has, especially during the past two       belong together, and they are absolutes. The Scrip-
centuries, been attacked more frequently than and         tures are either inspired, i.e., from God, and that,
in as many ways as the doctrine of Holy Scripture,        too, in their entirety; or they are not the Word of
particularly in the twin aspects of inspiration and       God at all. There is no middle ground. The same is
infallibility. This is not the place to enumerate and     true of infallibility. It is true that some have tried
to describe all these attacks; but a study of modern      sometimes to distinguish between infallibility and
and recent church history would surely confirm            inerrancy, so that the former term somehow leaves
this claim.                                               room for error in Scripture, while the latter leaves
  From a certain point of view this seems strange         no room for error. But this is a myth. Actually the
and inexplicable: for does not a church deny its          term  infuZZibiZi!y  is the stronger of the two: for it
very right of existence and, so to speak, cut its own     denotes that both the work of inspiration itself and
throat and commit ecclesiastical suicide when it          the product of that inspiration are not capable ofer-
denies Holy Scripture and its authority? How fool-        YOP. And this, too, is an absolute: either Scripture is
ish, then, not to guard this foundation-truth and to      infallible, or it is not. There is no middle ground.
maintain it zealously! Yet, from another point of         We must remember, too, that this is true in actual
view this phenomenon need not surprise us. For as         practice, in life. Once this truth of infallible inspira-
surely as the doctrine of Holy Scripture constitutes      tion is in the least compromised, the Scriptures and
the foundation of the entire structure of the truth,      their divine authority are lost; and there is no end
so surely we should expect that the devil and his         to the flood of heresies and errors which inundate a
allies will attack at this point - not because this is    church. Finally the Scriptures are reduced to a
the weak point in that temple of the truth, but           merely human book: a religious book, a good book,
because it is foundational. If they can move the          a book containing many truths and much wisdom.
church or the individual child of God from that           But withal a human book, no more divine than any
foundation, they win the battle!                          other writing. Herein lies the importance of this


438                                         THE  STANDARD   BEARER



truth of inspiration and infallibility as set forth so    prehend it we can and do by a faith which is His
clearly in our Netherlands Confession of Faith, Ar-       own gift to us; but comprehend it we cannot.
ticles 3-7, as they follow the self-authenticating          In the second place, wonderful this Word of God
testimony of Scripture throughout, but especially in      is when we consider how it was produced in time.
the classic passages of II Timothy  3:16, 17 ("All        Many prophecies of Scripture there are, but one
scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is prof-    prophetic Word, speaking centrally always of the
itable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for     same thing, the power and coming of our Lord
instruction in righteousness: That the man of God         Jesus Christ. Many different human instruments
may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good         the Holy Spirit employed, some of them altogether
works.") and II Peter 1:20, 21 ("Knowing this first,      unknown. The Scriptures were written over a
that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private       period of more than 1500 years; yet they constitute
interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old          the one Word of God. They were written in dif-
time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake        ferent countries and in diverse circumstances  - in
as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.")                   the desert of Sinai, in Canaan, in Babylon, in Persia,
  At the same time we must remember that there            in Greece, in Rome, in Asia Minor. They were writ-
are other ways of denying the infallibility of Scrip-     ten by well-educated men and by simple Galileans,
ture than that of directly denying infallibility. For     written by prophets and priests and kings, by choir
one thing, there are devious and erroneous                leaders, by shepherds, by herdsmen, by fishermen.
methods of interpretation (for example, the  so-          They were written while guiding flocks, in prisons,
called new hermeneutics) which have as their              in palaces, in courts of great world-rulers. They
result the denial of the infallible inspiration of        were often written by men who had no knowledge
Scripture. But there is an even more common               of one another, and who were unaware of what the
method of denial. To refuse to be guided by Scrip-        other was writing. They were written by men who
ture in our walk or to deny or twist or contradict        were apparently unaware at the moment that they
the plain teaching of Scripture in our doctrine, and      were working `on one large book. They were writ-
thus to do lip-service to the authority of the infal-     ten about various subjects. In all the production of
libly inspired Scriptures but to deny that authority      the Scriptures there was as little outward and
in actual practice  - this also is a denial of the in-    mechanical unity as is imaginable. And yet there is
fallibly inspired Scriptures.                             the most beautiful inner harmony in them con-
  Let us consider a few aspects of this truth, there-     ceivable; and there is perfect unity. Indeed their
fore.                                                     perfection can be explained only by the wonder of
                                                          divine inspiration.
Scripture A Wonder
  We must never forget that Scripture is a wonder,        Organically Inspired
a wonder of grace. The Word of God was produced             If we would maintain that Scripture is infallibly
by a wonderful act of God, whereby He, through            inspired, are we not shut up to a view of inspiration
His Holy Spirit, breathed forth His Word into and         which is essentially mechanical? Are we not shut
through human instruments.                                up to a view which makes of the human writers
                                                          nothing more than stocks and blocks? Must we not
  In the first place, is not this something wonderful     conclude that the Holy Spirit used the human
when considered all by itself? Think of it! God,          writers as less than mere stenographers or amanu-
Who is really God, matchless in all His infinite          enses? Did He not use them as machines, as pens,
perfections, reveals Himself and makes known His          as typewriters, as tape-recorders or dictating
own divine Word to us. Consider it! The infinite          machines?
and eternal Jehovah reveals His Word concerning
Himself, His virtues and perfections, His Being and         By no means! From this point of view, it is
Persons, His counsel and works, His purpose and           simply a self-evident fact that the Holy Spirit did
His salvation, His Son Jesus Christ and His power         not evade, or bypass, and did not suppress the per-
and coming through the instrumentality of mere,           sonal, individual, rational, moral human natures of
finite, imperfect men. The Almighty reveals His           the sacred writers. But I would emphasize, too, that
eternal truth in finite, limited, human, earthly          we must not be misled into thinking that there is a
language, so that we, His.people, may know Him,           disjunction between this fact and the truth of
Whom to know is life eternal. From among all the          divine inspiration. Certainly, in respect to their in-
writings of men we may single out the Bible and           dividuality, their personal characteristics, their
say and believe of it, "This is the very Word of          style of writing, their time, their characteristics,
God!" What an unspeakable wonder! What a                  and also with regard to the precise manner of ex-
mystery! To know this truth of divine inspiration is      pression and the words which they employed and
possible by faith; but to fathom it is impossible. Ap-    the sentences which they penned, the sacred


                                           THE  STANDARD   BEARER                                            439



writers were not suppressed. These elements shine         growth of God's revelation to His people; and the
forth from every page of Koly Scripture. They can-        Bible comes into existence historically.
not, and they must not, and they need not be ig-             Moreover, it comes into existence through the
nored. To ignore them is to miss something of the         operation of the Spirit of Christ working in special
very wonder and beauty of the Scriptures and the          organs of the body, both in the old and new dispen-
marvel of divine inspiration. In addition, it is plain    sations. Also these organs of inspiration  - Moses
from these phenomena that the sacred writers re-          and the prophets, David, Asaph, Matthew and
mained the rational, moral subjects of their              Luke, Mark and John, Paul and Peter, James and
writings. To deny this would be to detruct from the       Jude  - are ordained for this purpose from before
wonder of inspiration.                                    the foundation of the world. And as they are or-
  But only too often organic inspiration is               dained from eternity, so in time they are called and
presented in such a way that it merely means that         prepared to serve as instruments of inspiration, the
the Holy Spirit sought out and found men who were         writers of Holy Scripture. And let it be stressed:
suitable for His purpose, and that then He simply         they are ordained and prepared not merely as holy
used these men with all their individual character-       men, not merely as regenerated and sanctified
istics, traits, and circumstances, just as He found       saints, but as  organs of inspiration.  They are or-
them, be it then that He was selective in  how  He        dained, and prepared as such organs not merely in
used them and in protecting them and preserving           general, but in every minute detail of their person-
them against error. And this, then - along with the       alities, their traits of character, their language and
entire theory that Scripture is the product of two        style, their circumstances and place in history,
factors, a divine and a human factor - is presented       their personal experiences  - in every detail of all
as the whole theory of organic inspiration. This,         these aspects which must at all enter into their
however, is not organic, but, after all, very, very       functioning as organs of inspiration and writers of
mechanical.                                               the Word of God. It is every evident that this ex-
  We must remember, however, that even as the             tends even to the facts of the sins and the deep falls,
people of God themselves, so is the Bible the             as well as to all other facets of these organs of in-
wonder-work of Gods grace, designed to be a light         spiration. It is often pointed out that David would
for His people in the world. It is designed to be a       never have written Psalm 23, had he not been the
light upon their path and a lamp unto their feet in       shepherd of his father's flock; and he was from
the midst of the darkness of this present time. And       eternity ordained to be that shepherd, in order that
even as the Lord conceived of the whole of His peo-       he might serve as the instrument of revelation and
ple as an organism in Christ from before the foun-        inspiration in Psalm 23. But do not forget that this
dation of the world, so He conceived of the fulness       also pertains to the fact of David's sin with
of His Word as an organic whole. Hence, even as           Bathsheba and Uriah. It also pertains to his stub-
Christ is the Head and the fulness of the body, the       born walking in sin for a long time, as well as to his
church, so He is the very heart and center of the         conversion from that sin. Otherwise he would
revelation we possess in the written Word. This           never have been able to pen Psalm 32 or Psalm 51.
fact, that Scripture is an organism  - not a mere           Hence, we must not conceive of these organs of
compilation of books, not a mere anthology  - ex-         inspiration as a merely human framework of fabric
plains, by the way, why it is true that the people of     upon which the Holy Spirit works the texture of
God had - and could say that they had - the Word          His revealed Word. We must not conceive of in-
of God, even long before the canon of Scripture was       spiration thus, that in the marketplace of humanity
complete and closed. Adam and Eve had the Word            the Holy Spirit  discovers  men, even children of God,
of God, principally and organically entire, when          holy men, whom He then finds suitable for His pur-
they had only the protevangel. The children of            poses and whom He then uses for the production of
Israel had the Word of God when they had only the         Scriptures. On the contrary, they are ordained and
Law of Moses. The Psalmist of Psalm 119 can speak         prepared, are themselves the wonder-work of
repeatedly of the Word of God which he possessed          God's grace, with their talents and individual
and knew and loved, so that he could pen an entire        characteristics,    their circumstances and ex-
Psalm about it  - many centuries before the Scrip-        periences, their battles and struggles, their suffer-
tures were completed. Why? This could never be            ings and persecutions, in order that each in his own
true if Scripture were a mechanical whole: then one       place and in his own manner might serve to write
could only have said that he had a part of the Word       infallibly the Word of God. And then these organs
of God. The reason lies in the fact that Scripture is     of inspiration, thus ordained and prepared, are in-
an organic whole, with Christ at the heart of it.         fallibly guided  .to write the Word of God as it is
Hence, even as the organism of the church has a           revealed to them. Only thus can we somewhat
history and grows organically, so there is an organic     understand  that'amid all the diversity from an  ex-


440                                          THE  STANDARD   BEARER



ternal point of view, there is the most complete har-      them and preparing them, both naturally and
mony and organic unity, but also perfection of ex-         spiritually, for their divinely ordained task.
pression and communication of God's revelation,              4) Thus also the same Spirit inspired, moved, il-
in Holy Scripture.                                         lumined, guided, and actually caused these human
  Summarizing, then, we would distinguish the              instruments, thus ordained and prepared and
following elements in the truth of organic inspira-        called, to speak and to write infallibly God's own
tion:                                                      Word.
   1) Just as God conceived sovereignly and from             We may conclude this discussion by pointing out
eternity of His people as an organism in Christ, so        briefly that the hey to the understanding of organic
He conceived in His eternal counsel of the whole of        inspiration is that grand and fundamental principle
Scripture as an organism, the written revelation of        of the absolute sovereignty of the God of our salva-
Himself, with Christ as the heart and center of that       tion. God is sovereign and free, both in His counsel
entire revelation. Moreover, as God conceived of           and in the execution of that counsel. God is in-
Scripture eternally, so He Himself brought it,             dependent. Man is dependent in his very existence,
sovereignly, into being in time.                           even when that existence is a rational, moral ex-
  2) God from eternity and sovereignly conceived           istence. This is true also with respect to inspiration,
of and determined upon special organs of Christ's          as is very evident from the above description.
body, organs of inspiration, and ordained all the          Unless we are willing to proceed from the prin-
details of their personality, character, talents,          ciples of God's sovereignty and of His eternal
education, mode of thinking, style of writing, per-        counsel and His sovereign realization of His own
sonal experiences, and historical experiences in           counsel as a  working  principle, we shall never be
such a way that they were from eternity prepared           able to understand properly any of the works of
to be fit instruments of divine inspiration, each in       God's grace, including the wonder-work of Holy
his own place in the organism of Scripture, and to         Scripture. Unless we are willing to understand that
the end that Scripture might be brought into being         all that belongs to the production of Holy Scripture,
as the perfect, flawless Word of God written. And          including the human writers themselves, is sub-
again, as He ordained them in eternity, so He real-        sumed under the embrace of the absolutely
ized them in time.                                         sovereign will and activity of the Most High, we
                                                           shall never be able to maintain the truth that Holy
  3) Thus, the Holy Spirit, and that, too, as the          Scripture is the Word of God.                     HCH
Spirit of Christ, called these divinely ordained
organs of inspiration into existence in time, forming





                           The New Hermeneutics
                                                 Herman C. Hanko





  The word "Hermeneutics" refers simply to "the            trolled the church was the one very obvious prin-
principles of interpreting Scripture." Throughout          ciple: "Scripture is the inspired Word of God."
the history of the church of our Lord Jesus Christ,        Never in all the history of the church was this'prin-
various principles of interpretation have been             ciple denied. It controlled all the church's work in
almost subconsciously used by the church as the            Biblical studies. It was actually only after the time
people of God turned to God's Word to understand           of the Reformation that "Hermeneutics" became a
its meaning. The most basic principle that  con-           separate branch of theology and various principles
                                                           were set down governing Scripture's interpretation.
Herman C.  Hanho is professor in the Church History and    But even when Hermeneutics was developed as a
New Testament departments at the Protestant Reformed       separate theological science, the controlling truth
Seminary.                                                  that Scripture is God's Word determined all the


                                            THE  STANDARD  BEARER                                             441



other principles which were now consciously               could make use of reason to investigate various
developed.                                                philosophical problems. When their philosophy
  But in the 18th and 19th centuries, Biblical inter-     came into conflict with their faith, this did not over-
pretation took a radically different turn and the so-     ly trouble them. The two domains were separate
called New Hermeneutics was introduced into the           and distinct from each other and there was no need
thinking of the church. It refers to a radically new      to .harmonize the two.
and different way of interpreting Scripture, a way           But obviously this could not continue. This
which the church had never followed before in all         distinction was a false one and it was not very long
her history. This New Hermeneutics took such a            before reason was the controlling principle in all a
hold on the church that it controls almost all            man's thinking. The result was that the principles
Biblical interpretation up to the present and has         of reason were more and more applied to
found its way into almost all Reformed and                theological questions as well as philosophical mat-
evangelical circles. But its effects have been            ters.
uniformly disastrous for Biblical interpretation.            Now rationalism, which exalts man's reason, is a
  While the methods which proponents of the New           terrible sin. It is a terrible sin because it chooses to
Hermeneutics have followed are complicated and            ignore the fact that man, because of the fall, has
devious, difficult to understand and hard to put in-      become totally depraved and his reason blinded by
to practice, nevertheless, God's people should            sin so that "the natural man receiveth not the
know something about this innovation because it           things of the Spirit of God" (I Cor.  214). In de-
has serious consequences for the life of the church.      fiance of this, rationalism insists that man's reason
We need cite  only one example of this to demon-          is capable of discovering truth by its own powers.
strate its truth. We all know that the question of        Rationalism is therefore a great sin because it sets
women in office is a question which continues to          up man's reason as the final arbiter of truth and ex-
trouble many conservative and Reformed chur-              alts sinful man as one who can, without the work of
ches, and many such churches have now begun to            the Holy Spirit in salvation, know what is truth.
introduce into the institutional life of the church         Rationalism soon was applied to Biblical studies
women elders and deacons, and even women                  and the Bible was scrutinized from this rationalistic
ministers. Everyone who is involved in this ques-         viewpoint. This produced the New Hermeneutics.
tion, whether he is for women officebearers or
against women officebearers, admits that the ques-           It is important to understand this because all the
tion is one of Hermeneutics; i.e., whether the New        New Hermeneutics has its origin in such sinful ra-
Hermeneutics is a valid method of Biblical interpre-      tionalism. It is man's effort to impose his powers of
tation or not. The Scriptures themselves are clear        reason on Scripture and to make Scripture fit his
on the question of women officebearers, if taken in       sinful and proud attempts to discover truth.
their literal sense. Even defenders of women office-        When rationalism was applied to Scripture it im-
bearers admit that. The question is: does the Bible       mediately began to concentrate on the "human"
mean what it says? and, is what the Bible says a          aspect of Scripture. That is, it looked at Scripture
controlling principle for the life of the church to-      from the viewpoint of the men who wrote the
day?                                                      Scriptures and not from the viewpoint of God, Who
                                                          alone is Scripture's Author. It is not surprising that
  It would be beyond the scope of this article to         this should happen, because rationalism had no
trace in detail the New Hermeneutics back to its          room for the miraculous. Anything miraculous was
roots.  NeverthelesS,  it is interesting and important    automatically ruled out of consideration, because a
to understand that the New Hermeneutics has its           miracle could not be explained rationalistically. So
roots in modern rationalism. It was not too long          Scripture had to be explained as a human book; and
after the Reformation when rationalistic                  the question was: how did the Scriptures come into
philosophy began to appear in Europe. In a reaction       existence? What is the explanation for this book
to the synthesizing philosophy of the  pre-               called the Bible? How can we understand its origin?
Reformation Scholastics, who attempted to forge
philosophy and theology into one system, ra-                 In the 18th and 19th centuries various answers
tionalistic philosophers made a distinction between       were given to these questions. While we shall have
philosophy and theology. Theology, so they said,          to be brief and shall have to over-simplify the com-
was the domain of faith; philosophy was the do-           plicated views which were set forth, it is interesting
main of reason. These early philosophers tried to         to note some of the more important answers which
remain orthodox iri their beliefs and continued, in-      were given. Some said that the Bible was nothing
sofar as that was possible, to be loyal to the church;    else but a record of the religious experiences of
but they insisted that apart from their faith they        very ancient peoples, something like the old stories


442                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



of pagan gods and godesses. Ancient people                their own skills and literary abilities were pre-
preserved their beliefs and experiences in writing,       served. The trouble was that all the emphasis fell
and the Bible is the resuit.                              upon the human authors, while the divine Author
   Others, following this notion more or less,            was all but ignored.
pointed out that ancient people were often ac-              Already in the years preceding the common
customed to expressing their faith and beliefs in         grace controversy of 1924, which was the year of
mythical form. Hence, the Bible is full of many           the origin of our Protestant Reformed Churches,
myths and one has to determine what in the Bible is       Dr. Jannsen applied these principles to the miracles
myth and what is actual historical fact. The story of     of Scripture and, strikingly, appealed to common
the creation of the world, of the flood which             grace in justification of his position. He pointed out
covered the whole earth, of the miracles of Jesus -       that common grace taught that the ungodly were
these are all efforts on the part of the church to ex-    capable of doing good in the sight of God, and that,
press what she believed by means of myths. And if         therefore, the work of these rationalists could be
one is to understand the Bible correctly, one must        considered the fruit of common grace and could be
recognize what is myth and what is not.                   put to good use by the church in her study of Scrip-
  Under the influence of Karl Barth, a somewhat           ture.
new tack was taken. Barth emphasized that God is            In the October 18, 1985 issue of  Christianity To-
always speaking, speaking in history and the events       day a symposium appeared of conservative
of history, confronting man with His Word at every        evangelical scholars in which these principles, par-
step of man's way and insisting on a response. To         ticularly those of redaction criticism, were
this Word of God man always does respond, as he           specifically defended; and it is noteworthy that
did in the past. The Scriptures are the record of the     every one of the participants in this symposium
response of the church in ancient times to God's          spoke at length of the human authors, and only
Word; but still today the church is called upon to        very rarely, and that in passing, mentioned the
respond to that ever present and insistent Word           divine  author&p of the Bible.
which man confronts.                                        What has happened in our century, therefore, is
  As these ideas became more developed and more           nothing but a refinement of these old rationalistic
sophisticated, a system of interpreting Scripture         positions. From the beginning of our century to
was developed  w-hich was called "literary-histori-       about the First World War, so-called source
cal" interpretation. Again the emphasis was placed        criticism held sway. The idea was to determine
on the fact that the Bible is composed of documents       what sources the human authors used in writing
which were written by men and they had to be in-          their documents. From World War I to World War
terpreted as literary and historical documents. The       II Form Criticism was the fad. This method at-
Scriptures had to be explained as literature, written     tempted to determine the form which the authors
in particular historical times, and thus reflecting       of Scripture used, i.e., what type of literary form
the beliefs, world views, presuppositions, mistaken       they used to express their beliefs. At present, redac-
notions, customs and mores of the times in which          tion criticism is in vogue, a method which em-
the authors lived. The type of literature they were       phasizes that the books of the Bible were edited
(whether poetry, essay, prophecy, argument,               documents which various authors produced from
teaching models, etc.) had to be determined in            other sources, but changed in order to accomplish
order to understand them, and the whole culture of        the purpose for which they were writing.
the historical period in which the authors lived had        We cannot go into the details of all these views
to be thoroughly discovered before Scripture could        and lead our readers through the labyrinths of com-
itself become clear.                                      plicated thought which these men walk, but it is
  All these ideas were taken over by the church in        important that we understand three things about
greater or lesser degree. Of course, the trouble was      them: 1) they all have their roots in rationalism; 2)
that the church was also committed to the doctrine        they all emphasize the human element in the Scrip-
of inspiration and did not want, as such, to abandon      tures almost to the exclusion of the divine; 3) they
that position lest the Bible become a purely human        make the Bible a book which can no longer be
book. And so attempts were made to marry these            understood by the child of God who is in no posi-
views with the doctrine of inspiration. In doing so,      tion to know all these complicated processes.
it was pointed out that, after all, God used men to         What the New Hermeneutics has done, there-
write the Scriptures. And He did not use men as           fore, is to make, more or less, the Bible a human
mere stenographers, but used them in such a way           book and take away from it its divine origin. Just
that their own  personaliti'es  and beliefs, their own    one example  .of this can be cited from the article
cultural presuppositions and methods of writing,          referred to above. One of the members of the sym-


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                               443



posium is quoted as saying: "The undeniable fact is           Ultimately all methods of the New Hermeneutics
that the canon has multiple gospels. It does not pro-      are rooted in pride. Man knows better than God
vide a single gospel. So to be faithful to the canon as    how to interpret the Scriptures. Man knows better
we have it, one is driven to try to ascertain why          than God what the Scriptures mean and how they
Matthew, Mark, and Luke tell the story of Jesus            must be interpreted. Thus the issue is what it has
with different emphases." Now to one who holds to          always been: rationalism vs. faith, unbelief vs. a
the inspiration of Scripture, the answer is very sim-      childlike obedience to God.
ple. He does not need redaction criticism to deter-          We do not deny that God used men to write the
mine this; he knows that the explanation for this is       Scriptures; and in using them He preserved their
simply that the Holy Spirit, Who inspired Matthew,         character and personality, their abilities and gifts.
Mark, and Luke to write, caused them to write in           But it remains a fact that "holy men of God spake
the way they did.                                          as they were moved by the Holy Ghost" (II Peter
   Other articles in this issue will deal with the         1:21).  This is Scripture's answer to those who say
truth of inspiration and set forth what Scripture          that Scripture is of  private interpretation  (II Peter
itself teaches. And so we conclude this article with       1:20); i.e., that Scripture expresses the private inter-
a  few observations.                                       pretation of those who wrote it. Not so, says Scrip-
   The love of even conservative men for methods           ture, but holy men of God wrote as they were
of higher criticism is born out of a desire to be          moved (as a ship is carried along by the wind) by
"scholarly." The article in  Christiunity Today,  re-      the Holy Spirit.
ferred to earlier, repeatedly speaks of this. We must        Scripture is a miracle itself, a wonder of grace.
be scholars. We must be able to get our materials          And the child of God bows before that Scripture as
published in scholarly Journals. We must have a            Gods very Word. Every child of God does. He does
voice in scholarly circles. This is nothing but sinful     not need the complicated and involved theories of
pride. If such is scholarship, God save us from            men to understand the Scriptures. He hears God
scholarship.                                               speak and bows before that Word.




            The Clarity of God's Word and the
                                    Believing Reader
                                                Thomas  C. Miersmu





  When we as children of God take up God's Word            apostles and prophets, by holy men of God who
to read and study it, we do so by faith. God has           were moved by His Spirit, so also that Word comes
given us His Word for this one purpose, that we            to us in the form `of human speech and language.
might understand it, that is, that it might be to us,      Though it be therefore the very revelation of God
both as believers and as churches, the only rule of        Himself, it is nevertheless clear to us. It addresses
faith and life. That Word of God is clear and readily      us in terms which we can understand, was given us
understood by the child of God.                            and ministered to us by men whose very
  As Reformed people we confess the truth of the           characters, circumstances, and experiences in life
clarity or perspicuity of Holy Scripture. This con-        were shaped in the sovereign providence of God for
fession has two parts to it. By it we confess first of     the very purpose of giving us His infallible Word.
all that as God spake to us by His servants, the           The Scriptures are therefore, in the objective sense
                                                           of the Word, clear and understandable. They are
Thomas C. Miersma is pastor of the Protestant Reformed     not a dark book of obscure utterances.
Church of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.                         That which is true objectively is also true of that


444                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



Word of God as it is read and studied by the                  It is from such a philosophy that much of
believer, subjectively appropriated by him and             modern so-called Biblical scholarship proceeds. It
made his own. This second element is vital. The            is a scholarship which would take the Bible out of
Scriptures are clear in themselves so that even the        the hands of God's people to place it into the hands
unbeliever is left without excuse when confronted          of an elite core of so-called scholars. It is the denial
by them. Yet he does not truly understand God's            of the clarity of God's Word which leads to the
Word, for the truths it contains are spiritual and         multiplication of simplified and condensed ver-
can only be understood and appropriated spiritual-         sions or translations of the Bible, so-called, which
ly, by faith. God confers this ability to understand       are intended to present God's Word to what are
spiritual things upon us by His Spirit, when He            regarded as the illiterate and ignorant masses. The
works in us saving faith. He continues to work this        denial of the clarity of God's Word also lies hidden
blessing in us by His Spirit in the way of prayer and      behind such attacks upon God's Word as the argu-
meditation upon His Word. It is thus that the apos-        ment that the Scriptures are culturally conditioned
tle John speaks in his first epistle, I John 2:20, "But    and the other heresies of our age which would
ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye               reduce the Scriptures to the ancient records of a dis-
know all things". The Scriptures are clear, and they       tant people and their religious experience. These
are clear to the believer because he is anointed to        leave us with the impression that if we are not
the office of believer.                                    learned in such fields of study as archaeology and
  This truth of the clarity of God's Word means for        cultural history and anthropology, we cannot
us as children of God that we may take up God's            understand God's Word but are really perpetually
Word to read, study, and understand it because we          misunderstanding what we read, unable without
know that it is God Who teaches us. In His Word,           such learned assistance truly to grasp the meaning
God also teaches us sound principles of interpreta-        of what we read in the Scriptures, as if the clarity of
tion and is in fact His own interpreter. This does         Scripture were confined to a select few who can
not mean that the Scriptures do not require study.         read it. This is nothing but a warmed-over version
We must not confuse the clarity of God's Word              of the philosophy of Rome.
with that which can be understood without effort,            This same implicit denial of the clarity of God's
or with what might be called easy reading. The             Word is found too in the use or misuse of Scripture
Scriptures are clear and understandable, and can be        by the cults, and some of the bizarre interpretations
read and understood by us as children of God. But          of prophecy found among so-called fundamentalist
they are not on the level of a beginning reader,           circles, which disregard the plain meaning and con-
though even a very young reader can begin to read          texts of passages and the self-evident symbolic
and understand them according to the measure of            character of visions and revelations. These, while
his understanding. God requires of us that we not          professing Scripture's clarity loudly and making the
simply read His word, but that we study it and             claim that they take it literally, in actual practice
prayerfully meditate upon it. It is also through such      and interpretation deny it, in fact make a mockery
study that that which is more difficult to under-          of it. For they take a cut-and-paste approach to
stand in God's Word becomes clearer, and we grow           Scripture, wrenching passages out of their proper
in our understanding. But in all such study we have        context and ignoring their plain meaning in their
the assurance of God that His Word is clear and            context. They do so that they might piece together a
given to be understood. Moreover we have His own           jigsaw puzzle of unrelated and misunderstood texts
promise that He will aid and guide us.                     to propound their strange theories and doctrines.
  This priniciple of the clarity of God's Word is one      The very nature of these theories and this approach
which it is essential that we maintain in the times        to Scripture makes Scripture obscure and its inter-
in which we live. It was one of the principal issues       pretation dependent upon the leaders of the cult or
between the Reformers and Rome in the days of the          the latest celebrity's book. So often this approach
Reformation. Rome maintained that the Bible stood          comes with the appearance of simplicity, or of be-
beyond the understanding of the ordinary members           ing Bible-based rather than modernistic, but it is in
of the church and maintained that the anointing of         fact nothing more than trading upon the mere
the Spirit, by which God's Word might be                   sound of the words or an expression of Scripture
understood, was limited to the clergy. Against this        without paying any attention to what it means in
false view of Rome the reformers stood upon the            the place in which it is found. It also is a denial of
testimony of the Word of God itself and maintained         Scripture's basic clarity.
its clarity. That clarity is still under attack and the      As children of God confronted by these many
philosophy of Rome under different guise is                voices round about us, we may well become dis-
flourishing in our day, and making inroads into the        couraged and begin to wonder if anyone can really
post-Protestant Christian church.                          understand God's Word. We may well begin to feel


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 445



as if we must take the attitude, you have your "opin-       so, He anoints us with His Spirit. Possessing His
ion" and I have mine, and we may even begin to              promise, we understand that our doubts about our
walk in doubt as to whether we have understood              ability to understand God's Word arise not out of
God's Word or whether it is even possible that we           faith, but out of the assault which our old adver-
can or should understand it. Such an attitude of            sary, the devil, makes upon our faith, that by
doubt, if it fixes itself in our minds, will effectively    means of doubt and uncertainty he might keep us
destroy the very foundations of our own study of            from God's Word. The cure for such doubt is to
God's Word. For how shall I know that what I find           take up God's promise and the clear Word of God,
there is truly what God says to me? What then               and read, study, and prayerfully meditate upon it,
would be the point of studying God's Word?                  making it our own. For we know that God will by
   The answer to these doubts Scripture also sets           His grace and Spirit make His Word plain to us. We
before us. God indeed tells us that there shall be          must ever in humility and meekness also recognize
those who are ever learning and never able to come          that in our study of His Word our own sin and im-
to a knowledge of the truth, and that exactly               perfection intrudes. We have not yet perfect knowl-
because they have not faith. The Word of God also           edge or understanding and are therefore utterly
warns' us of false prophets, false teachers, and of         dependent upon the Lord to teach us. This He has
wolves who seek to enter the sheepfold of Christ,           promised to do, and that which He gives unto us to
both in the guise of sheep and shepherds, who seek          know and understand is true. By the study of His
to destroy the church. Over against these warnings,         Word He purposes that we shall grow in all
God has set His promise to guide us as His people           knowledge, wisdom, and understanding. He that
and as the church of Christ into all truth. He has          calls us therefore to take up His Word will also be
given us His Word for one reason only  - that we            faithful to make it plain.
might understand it; and in order that we might do





                   The Rule for the Christian Life
                                               Ronald L. Cummenga





  There is one rule for the Christian life. That rule           ought we to consider custom, or the great
is Holy Scripture. Scripture alone is the standard              multitude, or antiquity, or succession of
for the faith and practice of the people of God. The            times and persons, or  counciIs, decrees or
Psalmist expresses this in Psalm  119:105, "Thy                 statutes, as of equal value with the truth of
word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my                God, for the truth is above all; for all men
path." Our Belgic Confession of Faith, in Article               are of themselves liars, and more vain than
VII, the title of which article is "The Sufficiency Of         vanity itself. Therefore. we reject with all
The Holy Scriptures To Be The Only Rule Of                      our hearts, whatsoever doth not agree with
Faith," states:                                                this infallible rule . . . .
      We believe that those Holy Scriptures ful-              The sole authority of the Scriptures was a funda-
   ly contain the will of God, and that whatso-             mental principle of the Protestant Reformation.
   ever man ought to believe, unto salvation, is            Through the Reformation the sole authority of
   sufficiently taught therein . . . . Neither do           Scripture over the faith and life of the church was
   we  .consider  of equal value any writing of             asserted.
   men, however holy these men may have
   been, with those divine Scriptures, nor                    The authority of Scripture was maintained by the
                                                            Reformers, first of all, over against the Roman
Ronald L. Cammenga is pastor of the Protestant Reformed     Catholic Church. Rome denied the sole authority of
Church of Loveland, Colorado.                               Scripture, and taught instead two sources of


446                                           THE STANDARD BEARER



authority in the church: Scripture and tradition.           God. And why should it be if it's not the Word of
For Rome, not only did the Word of Christ written           God!
(Scripture) have authority, but also the Word of               In the second place, the authority of Scripture
Christ unwritten (tradition). These unwritten tradi-        rests on the truth of the completeness of Scripture.
tions, Rome teaches, are the teachings of Christ that       Scripture can be the authority for our faith and life
He gave orally to His apostles, and which the               because all that we need to know for our faith and
apostles in turn have handed down to the church             life is contained in Holy Scripture. The Reformers
through the popes and bishops. The Council of               maintained the sufficiency of Scripture. All that is
Trent anathematized all those who did not receive           necessary for the believer to know, both as regards
and venerate church tradition as of equal authority         doctrine and morals, is contained in Holy Scripture.
with the Old and New Testament.                             According to II Timothy 3: 17, the Scriptures are all
   What is sometimes overlooked is that the                 that are necessary "that the man of God may be
Reformers' position on the sole authority of the Bi-        perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works."
ble was a position that they took not only over             There simply is no need for anything alongside of
against the pope and the Roman Catholic Church.             and in addition to Holy Scripture.
Besides Rome there were also the mystics and the               In the third place, the authority of Scripture pre-
Anabaptists, the movement sometimes referred to
as the "Radical Reformation," which also denied             supposes the perspicuity or clarity of Scripture. By
the exclusive authority of Holy Scripture.                  the perspicuity of Scripture we mean that Scrip-
                                                            ture is clear and can be understood by the in-
   Like their spiritual descendants today, these            dividual believer. Rome maintains that the Scrip-
recognized the Bible as only one authority and              tures are not easily understood, deep, dark, and
guide for the Christian life. Alongside of and above        mysterious. No individual believer can understand
the Bible they exalted experience and feeling. Their        the Bible, but only the priests, bishops, councils,
motto was: "Away with the letter that killeth, in           and ultimately an infallible pope. Over against
favor of the Spirit that giveth life."                      Rome, the Reformers taught the perspicuity of
  To these spiritualists Luther responded                   Scripture. Paul reminds Timothy in II Timothy 3:15
(remember now that Scripture portrays the Holy              that already as a child he had known and under-
Spirit as a dove): "Unless you cite Scripture, I do         stood the Holy Scriptures. The perspicuity of Scrip-
not care if you have swallowed the Holy Spirit,             ture stands closely connected to its authority, for
feathers and all." For Luther the Word and the              only if the people of God can understand the Bible
Spirit belonged together in an inseparable union.           can it serve as the rule for their faith and life.
The Anabaptists and mystics wanted the Spirit                 In many ways the authority of the Bible is set
without the Word. Luther's position was that the            aside and challenged today. Certainly Rome's posi-
Holy Spirit never works independent of or apart             tion regarding the Bible's authority has not
from the Word. Christians ought not to hanker after         changed. Rome continues to deny the sole authori-
new signs and special revelations and experiences.          ty of Scripture and proudly to exalt herself, her
The Spirit's function is to evoke from the Word of          traditions, and her pope above the authority of the
God what is already there.                                  Word of God.
  Over against both Rome and the mystics, the                 The sin of which Rome is guilty, is characteristic
Reformers' position was  Sob  Scripizua,   "Only the        also of the sects and cults. In fact this is one of the
Scriptures."                                                outstanding features of the cults, that they exalt
  The truth of the sole authority of Scri$ure rests         some other authority alongside of the authority of
upon the other fundamental truths concerning Ho-            Holy Scripture. Whether that's the Book ofMormon,
ly Scripture. First of all,  `only if the Bible is the      The Koran, the writings of a Charles Taze Russell or
Word of God, can it "also be the standard for our           an Ellen G. White, or The Divine Principle makes no
faith and life. Only if the Bible is the Word of God        difference, these sects deny the authority of the Bi-
does it have the RIGHT to be the authority for our          ble.
faith and life. The authority of Scripture is the             The whole Pentecostal movement is a funda-
authority of God Himself, the only real authority           mental denial of the sole authority of the Word of
that there is in the world. The authority of the Bible      God. The Pentecostal exaltation of feeling and ex-
presupposes very clearly the infallible, Divine in-         perience above the revealed Word make these, and
spiration of the Bible. This is the seriousness today       not the Word itself, the authority for the Christian
of the attack on the inspiration of Scripture, as well      life. The inroads that this movement has made in
as the practical result .of this attack, that the           Reformed and Presbyterian churches is an indica-
authority of Scripture is set aside. It is no longer the    tion of just how far these churches have departed
standard, then, for the faith and life of the people of     from their Reformation heritage.


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                                    447



   More and more in the churches today there is the             If the Bible is to be the authority for our faith and
denial of Scripture's authority by the elevation of           life, we must know the Bible. Only as we know the
the so-called discoveries of science, the teachings of        Bible will we be able to turn to the Bible as the stan-
modern humanistic philosophy, and the theories of             dard for what we believe and how we live. This is
modern psychology and psychiatry above the clear              our great struggle! Our great struggle, thank God, is
teaching of the Bible. The results have been                  not with papal tradition or the temptation to allow
devastating: creation has been thrown out the win-            The Book ofMormon a place of authority in our lives
dow; sin becomes merely sickness or the remnants.             alongside of the Bible. But the great struggle for all
of man's animal ancestry; man's mind and man's                of us is the struggle against our own apathy and in-
ingenuity are heralded as being able to overcome              difference toward the Word of God and the study
every obstacle and solve every problem, if only               of that Word of God. From one point of view that
man will think positively (no real need of the grace          loss of the Word in the Middle Ages can be traced to
of God).                                                      the people themselves, their own apathy and indif-
  Society at large puts extreme pressure on the               ference. In fact the loss of the Word can rightly be
churches today to discard the authority of the Bi-            viewed as God's judgment on that apathy.  In  his
ble. The tragedy is that the churches in many in-             TabZe Talks, Luther says this:
stances have caved in to this pressure. Worldliness                    Truly, I am less afraid of the pope and his
is rampant. More and more it comes to it that not                tyrants, than I am of our own ingratitude
the authority of the Word of God, but the will of the            towards the Word of God; `tis this will place
majority of the people will dictate the faith and life           the pope in his saddle again. But, first, I
of the members of the church. And since the ma-                  hope the day of judgment will come.
jority of the people want dancing, there will now be            Do we read the Word of God? Do we study and
dancing; since the majority of the people want                discuss the Word of God in our families and in the
women in office, there will be women in office;               societies of the church? Do we eagerly hear and
since the majority regard homosexuality as a legiti-          believingly receive the instruction of the preaching
mate alternative life-style, there will be homo-              of the Word on the Lord's Day? These things are of
sexuals in the church.                                        the utmost importance if Scripture is to be the
  Although the authority of Holy Scripture is                 authority in our lives.
denied in various ways, when it comes down to it                We echo Luther's sentiments expressed in
there are only two choices as regards this matter of          another place:
authority. Either the authority of God will be the
rule for our faith and life, or the authority and will                 No greater mischief can happen to a
of man. These are the two alternatives. Every in-                Christian people, than to have God's Word
stance of denying the authority of the Word of God               taken from them, or falsified, so that they
is only another instance of promoting the authority              no longer have it pure and clear. God grant
of man, whether that be man's writings, man's                    that we and our descendants be not
traditions, man's feelings, man's discoveries, or                witnesses of such a calamity.
man's philosophies.





             Scripture and the Covenant Home
                                                    Cornelius Hunko




  Upon entering a covenant home one often sees a             used as much as it is in evidence. The Bible should
Bible lying on the living room table. This is certain-       have a central place in our homes. No item should
ly to be commended, particularly if the Bible is             be considered more important than that. No duty
                                                             should be considered greater than the function of
Cornelius Hanko is a minister emeritus in the Protestant     the father in carrying out his prophetic, priestly of-
Reformed Churches.                                           fice in the family.


448                                           THE STANDARD BEARER



  Moses instructed Israel, saying, "These words             Christ, who is the "Way, the Truth, and the Life."
which I command thee this  day,>hall be in thine            He is the Bread of life. He is the Water of life. He is
heart: and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy        the Resurrection and the Life. He is the Light that
children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in       leads us into the eternal day.
thine house, and when thou walkest by the way,                Moreover, we must be receptive to the Word.
and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up           Maintaining that God speaks to us through His
(Deut. 6:6, 7). If that was the calling of the father in    Word and by His Spirit in our hearts, we must be
the old dispensation, that is certainly no less true        prepared to receive His Word. This means that we
today.                                                      must have a definite time of day, a quiet surround-
  Jesus told the Jews of His day, "Search the Scrip-        ings, and take time to do as they did in Ezra and
tures, . . . they are they that testify of me" (John        Nehemiah's day, "So they read in the book of the
5:39).                                                      law of God distinctly, and guve the proper sense, and
                                                            caused them to understand the reading" (Neh. 8:8).
  This is not some good advice that we may accept
or reject as we see fit. This is not an admonition            Our purpose must be to be enlightened in the
that would be very profitable for us to heed, if we         truth and doctrines of God's Word, to be strength-
had the time and the opportunity. This is God               ened in the faith, and to grow spiritually, to live
speaking to us! His Word never returns void! It is          lives to the glory of our God. "But we all, with open
only when we take heed to His word that we can              face beholding as in a glass (the Mirror of the Word)
say, "The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing         the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same im-
the heart: the commandment of the Lord is pure,             age from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord'
enlightening the eyes . . . . More to be desired are        (II Cor. 3:18). Our lives are so much richer than the
they than gold, yea, than much fine gold, sweeter           lives of the saints of the old dispensation. They had
than honey and the honeycomb. Moreover, by                  God's promises, but were still waiting for the ful-
them is thy servant warned: and in keeping of them          fillment of those promises. They were like children,
is great reward" (Psalm  19:8, 10, 11). Or again,           who were taught by pictures, types and shadows,
"Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto          signs and wonders, accompanied by the voice of
my path" (Psalm 119: 105). This applies to children         the prophets. Their whole life was a picture of the
and young adults, as well as to mature believers.           spiritual realities still to come, when the Savior
"Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way?             would be born. We have come to the fulfillment of
by taking heed thereto according to thy word"               the promises, come, as it were, to maturity, so that
(Psalm 119:9).                                              God now deals with us as spiritual adults. We must
                                                            always bear that in mind when we study the Old
  This applies, first of all, to us personally. There is    Testament; the New is the fulfillment of the Old.
nothing so essential to our daily lives as children of      Only then can we understand that the prophets
God as our daily devotions. The daily newspaper             spoke a language that harmonized with their times,
can better pass unread, our best meal can better be         looking forward to the day when the wolf and the
left untouched, than that we neglect our private            lamb will dwell together in heavenly perfection,
devotions. We can well appreciate the fact that we          and a little child shall lead them (Isaiah  11:6).
have our Sunday worship services to attend, that
we have opportunity to study the Scriptures in our            Finally, God's Word is its own interpreter, so
societies or groups, that we have our daily devo-           that Scripture must be compared with Scripture.
tions with our families, that we help our smaller           Therefore it is important to have handy a good Con-
children with their Bible lessons, but none of these        cordance, a Bible Atlas, and a good Bible Dic-
takes the place of our  personal, daily devotions.          tionary.
Never may we offer the excuse that we are too                 There are many valuable methods of Bible study.
busy. Rather, as Luther must have said at one time,         One may study the Bible, as it were, with a
the busier we are the greater is our need for daily         telescope, to search out God's glorious revelation of
devotions.                                                  Himself in His dear Son Jesus Christ, as the God of
  Certain principles must always be kept in mind.           our salvation. Or one may study the Bible, as it
                                                            were, through a microscope, to draw out golden
  First, the Bible is the infallibly inspired, inerrant,    nuggets from the gold mine of God's Word.
and authoritative Word of .God. It is even verbally
inspired. When man speaks, man may criticize; but             We can study one particular Book of the Bible.
when God speaks we must be attentively silent,              This is recommended especially when we study the
with the prayer on our lips, "Speak, Lord, for thy          prophecies, the epistles, or the Book of Revelation.
servant heareth."                                           We should read the entire Book repeatedly, in
                                                            order to grasp the main thought, and then we
   Scripture is God speaking to us through Jesus            should study each part in more detail.


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                             449



   We can also study the Scriptures by dealing with        these devotions. The suggestions made for personal
concepts. Some Bibles have marginal references             devotions apply also here. Some families follow the
which direct us from one passage to another, which         practice of reading through the entire Bible, and
deal with the same subject. Reference Bibles often         then starting over again. Some alternate between
give a list of subjects in alphabetical order and          the Old and the New Testament, particularly when
show where in the Scriptures this subject is treated.      devotions are held more than once a day. I have
We may be interested in a concept like affliction,         often questioned the wisdom of reading genealogies
righteousness, or marriage; the subject index can          or all the Mosaic laws, especially with children pres-
prove to be a big help in our study. Studying words        ent, unless we make an attempt to explain and
can be both interesting and profitable. For example,       understand them. It is also more profitable to read a     '
the word for "knowing" in Scripture has a far              short passage and discuss it, rather than force the
broader meaning, both in the Old and New Testa-            small children to sit quietly through the reading of a
ment, than a mere intellectual knowing. Often is in-       long passage.
cluded the idea of fellowship, intimacy, choice, ap-         Historical passages are always of special interest
proval, or blessing. See Genesis  4:l;  1819; Psalm        to children. Even when reading those passages
1:6; Romans  8:29, 30; etc.                                children should be given opportunity to ask and to
  It is a good practice to copy a certain passage, pin     answer questions. Words and events that seem
it up on a bulletin board, or carry it with you, to        perfectly clear to us often leave a wrong impression
refer to it whenever the opportunity offers, as it un-     on children. In many instances a Bible Atlas and Bi-
folds to you new depths of truth, new riches, new          ble Dictionary can prove very helpful. When
comfort. Still better, memorize favorite passages or       reading about the kings of Israel and Judah we do
chapters to have them at your finger tips whenever         well to make a list of the various, kings, comparing
you need them.                                             the time of their reign, including the prophets who
  Lists of names, genealogies, and the Mosaic laws         lived at any given time. Still better, make a chart
can be very interesting and instructive, if we take        that includes the kings of Israel and Judah, the time
the time and effort to study them, comparing one           of their reign, and the contemporary prophets.
,passage  of Scripture with another. Thus, for exam-         In some homes a Bible Story Book is read to help
ple, compare Jesus' cleansing of the leper with the        the very small children to understand the historical
laws of Moses, or compare Deuteronomy 7:2, 3 and           parts of the Bible. This is a very good practice,
22:lO with II Corinthians  6:14-l&                         especially when mother is home with the little
  Besides our personal devotions, we should never          ones; but this must never be done at the expense'of
neglect our daily family devotions. This is a must in      reading the Bible. At an early age children should
every Christian home, beneficial for every member          become acquainted with the unique style of the
of the family mutually and individually. Since the         Authorized or King James version of the Bible.
spiritual bond is stronger than any other, the             They absorb much more than they understand,
reading and study of God's Word knits the family           which proves beneficial to them for the rest of their
together in the strongest manner possible. Ideally         lives. Children should be encouraged to memorize
family devotions should be held with the family            various passages of the Scriptures. Teenagers and
present three times a day. My father always in-            young people should have their private devotions at
sisted on two times, breakfast and dinner; you             a set time every day. We should live as if the time
know what that meant for getting up in the morn-           may soon come that the Bible is taken from us, and
ing. In many instances our rushing existence               we will have to depend on our memories for our
hardly makes it possible for our entire family to be       spiritual food.
together once a day. Yet this should be a require-           Much more can and should be said about this all
ment for which every single member of the family           important subject. Let each seek out various
strives all day. That can very well be the best time       methods of making the reading of Gods Word an
of the day for the whole family.                           interesting and integral part of our lives, drinking
  Among us the common practice is to hold devo-            from the living waters of the Fountain of life. Let us
tions at the end of the meal, while the family is still    always bear in mind that, "All Scripture is given by
gathered about the table. I have been in homes             inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine,
where the family gathered in the living room once          for reproof, for correction, for instruction in
or twice a way, where the father led the devotions         righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect,
by discussing a portion of Scripture, on Sunday in         thoroughly furnished unto all good works" (II Tim.
connection with the Catechism sermon or the text           3:16, 17).
of the minister.                                             Soli Deo Gloria!
  Various methods can be utilized in carrying out


 450                                              THE STANDARD BEARER


               The Survey Method of Bible Study
                                                       Kenneth Hank0





   Rev. Tom Miersma in his regular column in The               name Hezekiah. It is possible, though not certain,
Standard  Beaver has been treating carefully the sub-          that Zephaniah was a great-great-grandson of King
ject assigned to me for this special issue. In order to        Hezekiah.  1s this significant? The first verse also
 avoid repetition I am going to 1) recommend that              tells you that Zephaniah prophesied in the days of
you read carefully his articles on this subject (there         Josiah king of Judah. For a proper understanding of
 is much valuable material in them), and 2) take a             this book you ought therefore to have a good grasp
different viewpoint. He has set forth the principles           of the history of Josiah as recorded in II Kings and
which must apply in the study of a particular                  II Chronicles. In fact you ought to take these two
passage. I will try to set forth a broader application         accounts of Josiah's history and put all the different
of these principles to particular books.                       events together in as near a chronological order as
   Before I begin I want to bring to your attention            possible. Try to get an understanding of the people
two books which I have found heIpfu1  in this sort of          and of the peculiar circumstances in which and to
study:  Jensen's Survey  of  the Old Testament  and            which Zephaniah spoke. Note also that Jeremiah
Jensen's Survey  of  the New Testament.  They were             prophesied during the reign of Josiah. Were there
written by Irving Jensen and published by Moody                any other prophets at this time?
Press. The author is a premillenialist so you will                Now this will not always be as easy as it is in
want to use the books with discretion especially in             Zephaniah. Look up, for example, Nahum,
the area of prophecy, but you will find in them also           Malachi, Hebrews, or (for that matter) II Chronicles
much that is helpful.                                           itself. What period of history II Chronicles covers is
   The purpose of these books, and also the purpose            abundantly clear, but it is not so clear who wrote it
of this article, is to help you understand the struc-           and for whom. In situations of this sort it is prob-
ture, purpose, and main thought of a particular                 ably best to get some help from other reliable
book of the Bible. The purpose is not to lead you,             sources. There are frequently clues to date and set-
first of all, into a detailed study of all the passages        ting in the book which it would be difficult for you
found in the book. Rather it is to prepare you for a           to pick up on your own.
detailed study by giving to you a broad understand-               The next step is to turn to the book itself.
ing of the whole book, a perspective which will                Remember that your purpose is not, first of all, a
keep you on the right track as you do a more de-               detailed understanding of every passage. You are
tailed study of individual passages. This is the sort          aiming, at this early stage of your study, for a
of study which Rev. Kortering has been doing in his            knowledge of the structure, purpose, and theme of
column, "Bible Study Guide." You will find it                  the book. In fact your goal in this part of the study
helpful in more detailed examination of almost any             will be to arrive at a detailed outline of the con-
portion of Scripture..                                         tents, a brief statement (one sentence or phrase!) of
   After you have chosen the particular book you               the theme, and a brief summary of the purpose or
want to study, the first thing to do is to gather              purposes for which the book was written.
together as much information as the Bible itself
gives you about the author, date, and historical cir-             It is extremely important in this sort of study that
cumstances of the people for whom the book was                 you read the book, not just once but several times,
first written. To illustrate this and the points which         and in whatever different translations you have at
follow let me refer you to the prophecy of                     hand. You ought to read it through in one sitting if
Zephaniah. The first verse of the book tells you that          possible, and you ought, each time you read it, to
Zephaniah was the son of Cushi, the son of                     have a different and very specific goal in mind. For
Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hizkiah.              example you could read it the first time simply with
You should look up all these names in your concor-             a view to a general acquaintance with its contents.
dance. You ought to discover at least that the name            The second time through you might want to look
Hizkiah is, in the Hebrew, exactly the same as the             for words and phrases which are repeated relative-
                                                               ly frequently (these will give you clues to the main
Kenneth  Hanho, a  missionau)n  of the Protestant Reformed     subject of the book). The third time through you
Churches, is currently laboring in Bluebell, Pennsylvania.     could pay close attention to paragraph markings


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                              451



and chapter breaks (though these may be  inac-              There may be  some` difficult points which you
curate since they were put in by the translators).        are not able to resolve. It may be, for example, that
During this reading, or another, you might want to        in a section of several verses you discern a  transi-
start marking what you perceive to be major and           tion in the thought, but are not able to say exactly
minor breaks in the thought. The number of times          where the transition takes place. Leave such points
you read the book will probably vary with the dif-        for your later more detailed study.
ficulty and length of the book which you have               Having done this detailed outline you ought to be
chosen. What specific purpose you have in mind            able to discern some of the main subjects of the
with each reading will probably vary according to         book. Write them down, and ask yourself why
your personality and the study habits you have            these subjects have come up. For example ask why
already acquired. There are no cut-and-dried rules        Zephaniah speaks of judgment against Judah. From
for method of Bible study. You must develop your          what you read in the first chapter and from your
own, and vary them according to circumstances             knowledge of the history the answer is plain. Now
and material. But remember that in your                   ask yourself why Zephaniah pronounces judgment
preliminary survey study your goal is always to           on the heathen nations. This is not so easy, but
know the structure, theme, and purpose of the             careful examination of the four judgments pro-
book.                                                     nounced will show you that these four nations
  Secondly you ought also to have paper and pen           were enemies of Judah, and that God pronounced
handy so that you can record your observations,           judgment against them in order to assure His  peo-
thoughts, and questions. Use a looseleaf notebook         ple that He would save them from their enemies.
and try to keep your notes fairly orderly. Have one       Then if you examine the connection between
page with the heading "Author" and all the  infor-        verses l-7 and 8ff. of chapter 3 you will see that
mation  you can find about him. Have another              Jehovah intends to accomplish the salvation of His
headed "Date and Historical Setting," another             people through judgment.
listing key words and phrases, and striking                 When you have a carefully worked out outline of
features, perhaps several for the gradual  develop-       the book, when you understand what are the main
ment of your detailed outline, more for notes on          subjects dealt with, and when you understand to
each chapter and on particular verses in them, and        some degree the flow of the thought, you ought to
so on. Also make some notes and markings in your          be able to make at least a tentative statement of the
Bible to guide you in further readings.                   theme. Make this as concise and simple as possible.
  In a first reading of Zephaniah you would prob-         From what was said above we could state the
ably notice that the dominant subject is judgment.        theme of Zephaniah this way: Jehovah will save His
A more careful reading would show you that the            people through judgments which destroy the
book falls into three basic parts. Chapter one  em-       wicked both among and around them.
phasizes judgment on Judah, Chapter 2 (vv. 4-15)            You will not find every book  `as easy as
pronounces judgment on various heathen nations,           Zephaniah. In fact it may be that several readings of
and Chapter 3, after another pronouncement of             a book will bring you no closer to understanding its
judgment, contains promises of salvation. Now you         structure than you were at the beginning. Don't
have a basic outline to record in your notes. Use         give up in frustration. Persevere and, if
Roman numerals and give to each of these three            perseverance fails, go to your other books for help,
sections a heading.                                       but remember always that the Lord will give you
  We ought not to stop there, because within these        understanding if you seek it diligently from Him.
major divisions there are some minor ones which             One more thing. Before you begin a more  de-
are not difficult to discern. More careful study will     tailed study of the book following the rules outlined
lead you to add subdivisions and divisions of sub-        by Rev. Miersma you ought to ask yourself how the
divisions to your outline, so that you may end up         major subjects and theme of the book apply to your
with several outlines, each of which is more  de-         life. Begin even now to hear the Word of God to
tailed than the one preceding it. Continue to work        you in this particular part of the Scriptures.
on this outline until you are satisfied that it covers
adequately the contents of the book.

                       Take the time to read and study
                                 the Standard Bearer.


452                                             THE STANDARD BEARER


                                      P.A.P.A. and A.P.E.
                                                    Gise J. Van Baren





   The title catch your attention? It has to do with           presented on TV. There seems to be no time for
attendance at societies within the church where the            society, then.
Word of God is studied. Many Reformed churches                   And, we must face it, there is not a great desire to
have discarded the societies within their churches             sit down with the Word of God in order to search
because of lack of interest. Some have substituted             out its meaning. Few today spend the hours our
mid-week meetings for the whole family  - but                  forefathers did in studying the Word of God. One
these are not always well attended either. Within              can become easily satisfied with the barest
our own churches there is evidence of problems as              knowledge of Scripture. The old warning of Scrip-
well. Many do not attend societies  - some for                 ture applies also today, "My people are destroyed
legitimate reasons, but others for no good reason at           for lack of knowledge" (Hosea  4:6).
all. Often, those who belong to societies, do not
regularly attend. Have societies "seen their day"?               There is, too, a desire to restrict spiritual ac-
Are they, perhaps, a relic of the horse-and-buggy              tivities to Sunday. Not only do we need some
time, inappropriate for our modern, fast-moving                societies on Sunday, but choral societies and other
society? Will the time soon come that we will also             special church activities often are scheduled for
have to state: "Cancelled due to lack of interest"?            that one day. Nor is this always wrong. It does ap-
  The title of this article was borrowed from an old           pear, however,. that the rest of the week is reserved
Beacon Lights' article which appeared years ago                for other than such activities - there is no time for
when I was still a teen-ager  - and that is LONG               society, and hardly time for catechism classes, dur-
ago, as my children would tell me. I don't recall the          ing the week.
issue in which it appeared, nor the author. The title            But are there not legitimate complaints raised
of that article was given then to impress upon the             against society attendance? There is, first, the ob-
readers the problem of poor attendance at society              jection that one spends many hours at hard work
meetings. The writer took the letters he observed              through the day. At night, one is simply too tired to
being placed in the secretary's attendance record.             go out again to meet in society to study the Word of
As each name was read, she would place a P (pres-              God. It is a question of physical limitations.
ent) or A (absent); or there was an A, a P, and an E            But other complaints are lodged, some partly
(excused). So it was: PAPA or APE. A little math               valid. It is claimed that hardly anyone comes
shows that this represents either 50% attendance or            prepared to discuss the Scripture passage in society.
33% attendance  - in either case, a very poor                  Without proper study, the discussion lags; interest
record. So there were problems many years ago                  wanes. Does the complainer himself adequately
already.                                                       study? Likely not, but that is because few others do
   Society membership and attendance has not im-               either.
proved since that time. One might identify reasons               There comes too the problem of speed in cover-
for this. We do live in a very busy, secular, society.         ing a passage of Scripture. Some would study an en-
Sports occupy the attention of many. Basketball                tire book, as Revelation perhaps, in a single season.
and football are avidly followed. Many, many                   Others would drag this out over a period of five or
hours are spent in practicing and playing games in             ten years. So some will not attend because the
grade schools and high schools. Fans eagerly follow            society appears to plod along in its study while
the fortunes of their team. There is little time left          others refuse to attend because there is not a slow,
for study for society, or for attending a society that         careful analysis of the text.
meets during the week.                                           Then there is  ,the problem of those few who do
   But there are so many other things to do in this            speak `in society. A limited number appear to do all
age. There are many activities offered to the public:          the speaking. Some object to this, while others
entertainment parks, restaurants for many meals                might object that so many people in society never
eaten out of the homes, or there are the programs              say a word. There are problems too with the leaders
Gise J. Van Baren  is pastor of the Protestant Reformed        of societies. Some give too great and detailed an ex-
Church of  Hudsonville,  Michigan.                             planation of their own; others seem to give hardly


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                             453



any explanation at all.                                     What can a person do in preparation for society?
  There are complaints about the book of the Bible        First, begin each personal preparation with prayer
to be studied. It is too hard - or too easy; too doc-     to God. Christ promised that the Spirit of truth
trinal or too practical.                                  would lead into all truth. Let us ask His guidance as
                                                          we begin each study. Secondly, read the passage
  Others attend discussion groups on Sunday eve-          carefully a number of times. Allow the words of
ning. These groups, however, fine though they may         Scripture to sink into our consciousness. Too often
be, do not study books of the Bible. They are not,        we superficially read Scripture. Let this preparation
and were never meant to be, substitutes for society.      be something deeper.
  Did I include your excuse for not attending socie-        Thirdly, consider how the passage fits in with the
ty? If I have missed it, would you please add it to       whole of the book. An outline of that Bible book
the list?                                                 would prove helpful (and outlines are often pro-
  Though some complaints may be legitimate, that          vided by study-Bibles). Note the context. How does
question each must ask is: "What have I done to           the passage follow out of the context? Next, study
promote good discussion within the society? Have I        the important words and concepts of the passage.
put into it all that I could? Have I done my share?       Are there other passages in Scripture which use the
Did I prepare myself as I ought?" Those who put in-       same words? (A concordance will help to find
to the society all that they can, are also the ones       them.) What do the words mean in the other
who find society enjoyable and profitable.                passages? Does this help to understand the word or
                                                          concept in the passage studied? Finally, one or
  Are societies outdated, or can they still serve a       more commentaries might provide useful guidance.
useful purpose? I am convinced that societies serve       Commentaries are not'the "final word" concerning
two useful functions in the church. First: these en-      the meaning of a passage. They can, however, pro-
courage a careful study of the Word of God. There         vide useful guidance and give valuable thoughts on
ought to be time for such study of the Word for           the passage.
each of us. If we are too busy for that, we are in-
deed TOO busy. Society provides the opportunity             Together with the above, one ought to take notes.
to study a passage of Scripture in greater detail. We     These notes would include various points which
have our family devotions but these do not usually        need emphasis in the passage. Notes would include
involve detailed study of a passage of Scripture.         our own thoughts and ideas concerning the mean-
One needs the opportunity to compare Scripture            ing of this Word. Jot down questions which come to
with Scripture. One ought to reflect on the thoughts      mind. Note what one point you would like to speak
of others concerning a passage of Scripture. There        on.
must be the opportunity to consider how a passage           Is all this too much preparation? You do not have
of Scripture applies to one's own life and walk.          the time required to prepare thus? Then I would
Societies can function as means to accomplish             ask: how much time do you put into reading  the
those ends. No doubt one can find fault with              newspaper? Your favorite magazine? In watching
societies; they are not perfect. But if we demand         programs on TV? Would it be unfair to put in just
perfection, then let each begin with himself. The         halfthat time each week into the study of Scripture?
means are there within the society to assist each in        Then, there is the participation in society dis-
a better understanding of the Word of God.                cussions. Many profess their inability to do this.
  Secondly, societies can promote the communion           Perhaps a few can not participate for good reason.
of the saints. We are, after all, one not because we      Speaking up in society ought to be no different than
all support the Detroit Tigers, or because we are all     conversing on other important (or unimportant)
farmers, but because we together confess the truths       subjects. So, you are afraid that what you might say
of the Word of God. It is this oneness which we ex-       would prove to be wrong? The preacher himself is
press each Sunday under the preaching of the              not always right. Noted commentaries do not all
Word. It is this oneness which we can express as          present the same explanations of a passage. Some
we gather together to discuss the truths of Scrip-        are contradictory. What makes you think that you
ture. Within `the society there can be seen the unity     ought to speak only if you are right? Are you ex-
of saints. There is revealed the spiritual life of the    pected to attain perfection before you can speak?
saints as they reflect together on that which is most       Let each practice in order to participate properly.
precious to them. There they seek with unity the          Ask at least one question at each meeting. It does
kingdom of heaven and its oneness. When we have           not have to be profound. It does not have to be the
these opportunities to promote such fellowship, we        expression of great wisdom. Just ask the question.
ought to take full advantage of this. This ought to be    Resolve, further, to make one comment at least at
a bit of a foretaste of the fellowship in heaven.         each meeting. Again, it need not be profound nor


454                                            THE STANDARD BEARER



even right. Add your contribution to the discussion.      meal, needs to be digested and assimilated.
It will liven the discussion and you yourself will          Often it has been said: One gets out of society
find it more interesting.                                 what he puts into it. As the new society season soon
  Finally, return home from society and allow             begins, let each consider his own responsibility to
some time for reflection and thought. Use the             participate for the profit of the membership of the
discussion in society as occasion for further discus-     church  - and for his own benefit.
sion at home. A good society discussion, like a good





                                           Book Review


CHRISTIAN  ENGLAhD   from the 18th Century                because the book becomes so preoccupied with the
to the First World War, by David L. Edwards (Vol.)        trees that it loses sight of the forest; i.e., it concen-
III); Wm.  B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1985; 378          trates so on details of the history that it misses the
pp., $8.95 (paper). (Reviewed by Prof. H. Hanko)          broad scope of events and the sweeping currents of
  It is probably best to quote from the blurb to give     the times. I presume this is one of the problems
our readers some idea of the contents of this book.       which any historian faces, and a happy balance can
                                                          never really be achieved. So we highly recommend
         Recognizing the impact of Christianity on        the book  as:a valuable supplement to other books
       the lives and imaginations of the English,         on the history of Christian England.
       Edwards focuses more on people, literature,
       architecture, art, and prayer than on ecclesi-       I say that it is a valuable supplement for another
       astical administration or theological con-         reason. The book is really written for those who
       troversy. The result is a lively and readable      already know quite a bit about this history, for
       account  accesible (sic) to general readers        many things are assumed as general knowledge -
       and students.                                      something which may be true in England itself
                                                          (although I doubt it), but which is certainly not true
         In this third and final volume of the            in this land. I hope any Christian Schools where
       series, Edwards takes up the story in the          Church History is taught will purchase the book.
       18th century and tells of the Evangelical and      And it is a good addition to any home library,
       Catholic revivals which helped to make the         especially if reading in the home includes books on
       Victorian Age as religious as it was. His por-     the history of the church of Christ.
       trait of the Victorian Age shows that "for all
       its faults it was an age full of courage and         The book is marred by typographical mistakes,
       creativity, one of the peaks of Christian          on the order of the misspelling in the quote above.
       civilization." The book concludes with a
       discussion of the controversies between
       English Christians in the early years of the
 20th century and the decline of conven-                      The Standard Bearer
       tional Christianity which the sudden out-
       break of the First World W-ar partly caused
       and partly revealed.                                  makes a  thoughtfil
  The analysis of the book.in the first paragraph of
the quote is accurate; but this is both its strength                     gift for the
and weakness. It is the strength of the book
because we have here a history which has in it a                  sick and shut-in.
great deal of material and detail which cannot easi-
ly be found in other histories of the Church of
England. But this is also the weakness of the book


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                                455



                        News From Our Churches
                                                      David Harbach



                                                      July 14, 1986


  Rev. K. Hanko comments that the annual lec-                  are ready to return to their homeland, they did state
tures they held were edifying, and that it was good            in a letter to Grandville Church, Michigan, "We
also to visit with Rev. Engelsma and Rev. and Mrs.             will miss you. Do write to us at this address: 12-10,
Miersma. They had several visitors again. Rev.                 River Valley Close, Singapore 0923. Better still,
Hanko is presently working on beginning a class for            visit us there someday. Till we meet again, fare-
instruction about the office of elder. He writes,              well." We already miss them and pray that God
"This will have a two-fold purpose: it will be used            will continue to send his covenant blessings to
by God, we hope, to discover and make use of the               them in Singapore.
spiritual gifts which He has given to our people,                 South Holland's Evangelism News has many let-
and it will help all of us in our understanding of the         ters from people who receive their literature. From
doctrine of the church and our relation to it . . . .          Oakdale,  California: "We are informed we can
The work progresses and our hope for organization              order tape recordings of the messages of the Con-
in the relatively near future grows. We ask that you           ference on Marriage . . . There is much need for
will continue to support us as you have `in the                help along this line." From Grants Pass, Oregon:
past."                                                         "A friend showed me a copy of (your) booklet, `A
  Rev. R. Van  Overloop  comments that back in                 Defense of Calvinism as the Gospel.' If you can
May he administered the sacrament of the Lord's                spare some copies, I have a number of preachers
Supper, under the supervision of South Holland's               and laymen I could share them with."
Consistory to fourteen confessing adults of the fel-             Byron Center Church, Michigan, will hold their
lowship in the Northwest mission. This was a rare              Camp Day August 7 and 8. Rev. Van Over-loop and
thing for the mission field and was possible because           another minister will speak on the importance of
most of the people in the fellowship were members              personal evangelism and corporate evangelism.
of South Holland Church before it was declared a
mission field.                                                    Now for the latest in church building. Loveland
                                                               Church, Colorado, is especially grateful for the op-
  Rev. W. Bruinsma remarks that in April, Water-               portunity to have gathered for worship in their new
works Church held a Sunday School program.                     church building during the summer. In the summer
Many people attended and many were amazed that                 they hold their evening service at 7:00 P.M. Cove-
the children knew just what to do and say. "This, I            nant Church, Wyckoff, New Jersey, needs approx-
believe, is a fruit because we witnessed by this pro-          imately  $30,000.00 to complete their church. The
gram that our church is interested in covenant                 city regulations are such that they can not use their
children. I have yet to see any other denomination             building until it is completely finished. First
in Jamaica who pays any attention at all to children.          Church, Grand Rapids, Michigan, has finished the
This is the outgrowth of the believers baptism error           lower level and expects to have their new organ in-
so prevalent on the island. We in a concrete way               stalled and working by mid-September. Pieces of
demonstrated to the Waterworks community that                  their chancel furniture, the pulpit, communion
the Reformed faith views children differently than             table, baptismal font, and chairs were made by Mr.
what they are used to." Rev. Bruinsma has revised              Bill Hofman. Kalamazoo Church, Michigan, plans
the twenty-five lessons of Old Testament Stories for           to or has already put up a new steeple for an ap-
Beginners to make it more simple for use on the                proximate cost of  $2,000.00.
field. He has also prepared a series of worksheets
on the minister, elders, and deacons to assist in his
teaching the officebearers of Lacovia.                                      Take the time to
  Mr. and Mrs. Mahtani and their two sons are
gradually heading west to California where they                           read and study the
will leave for Singapore in August. Although they                          Standard Bearer!
David Harbach is a teacher at Adams St. Prot. Ref.
Christian School, Grand Rapids, Michigan.


  THE STANDARD BEARER                                                                                                           SECOND CLASS
           P . O .   B o x   6 0 6 4                                                                                          POSTAGE PAID AT
Grand Rapids, Michigan 49506                                                                                               GRAND RAPIDS, MICH.





456                                                                    THE  STANDARD BEARER

                                        NOTICE!!!                                                    ANNIVERSARY IN MINISTRY
   Classis West of the Protestant Reformed Churches will meet in                         August 1986, the Lord `willing, will mark 45 years that the Lord
Houston, Texas on Wednesday, September 3, 1986, at  8:30 A.M.,                         has sustained our father, REV. JOHN A. HEYS, in the service of the
the Lord willing. Delegates in need of lodging or of transportation from               Protestant Reformed Churches. We Thank God that His covenant
the airport should inform the Clerk of the Houston Consistory.                         blessings have been with our father and our prayer is that God will
                                                                                       use him (and our mother as his "help") for years to come.
                                             Rev. David Engelsma, Stated Clerk
                                             Classis  West                               "I will sing of the mercies of the Lord for ever: with my mouth will I
                                                                                       make known thy faithfulness to all generations." (Psalm  89:l)
                                        NOTICE!!!                                                                           Burton and Ardess Van Prooyen
   Classis East will meet in regular session on Wednesday, Septem-                                                          John and Sandra Heys
ber 10, at the Kalamazoo Protestant Reformed Church. Material to be                                                         Sidney and Joyce Niemeyer
treated in this session must be in the hands of the Stated Clerk at
least three weeks prior to the convening of this session.Jon Huisken
                                                                       Stated Clerk                  RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
                      WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                                                 The Consistory of the Loveland Protestant Reformed Church, on
                                                                                       behalf of the congregation, expresses sympathy to the family of
   On August 18, 1986, the Lord willing, our parents, PROF. AND                        MRS. CLARA SERR, whom the Lord took to Himself on July 7, 1986.
MRS. ROBERT DECKER, will celebrate their 25th wedding anni-                            May your assurance be that  ". . . all things work together for good to
versary. We, their children, give thanks to our heavenly Father for the                them that love God, to them who are the called according to His pur-
Christian love and guidance they have given us. May our covenant                       pose." (Romans  8:28)
God continue to bless and keep them in the coming years.                                                                          Rev. Ron Cammenga, Pres.
   "The Lord shall bless thee out of Zion: and thou shalt see the good                                                            Frank Van  Baren,  Clerk
of Jerusalem all the days of thy life. Yea, thou shalt see thy children's
children, and peace upon Israel." (Psalm  128:5,  6)
Deborah               Daniel            Timothy       Jonathan                                       RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
                                                                                         The Men's Society of Southwest Protestant Reformed Church ex-
                      WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                                              presses sympathy to Mr. Robert Hoving and family in the death of his
   On August 20, 1986, our parents and grandparents, REV. AND                          mother, MRS. L. HOVING.
MRS. JOHN A. HEYS, will celebrate their 45 years of marriage. We                         "For this God is our God forever and ever; he will be our guide even
rejoice with them and also thank our Heavenly Father for the years                     unto death." (Psalm 48:  14)
they have shared and for the constant love and covenant instruction                                                               Phillip Lotterman, Pres.
and guidance they have given us. Our prayer for them is that they                                                                 Bill De Kraker, Vice Sec'y.
may continue to experience the blessings of our faithful God in the
years that He may give them.

   "For the Lord is good: His mercy is everlasting. And His truth en-                                RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
dures to all generations." (Psalm  100:5)
                                                                                          The Priscilla Society of the First Protestant Reformed Church
their grateful children and grandchildren,                                             (Grand Rapids) expresses its sincere sympathy to our fellow member,
   Burton and Ardess Van Prooyen                      Sidney and Joyce Niemeyer        Miss Dorothy Baar and her family, in the death of her father, MR.
       Duane, Debra                                      Laura, Heather, Eric          HENRY BAAR. May our Lord comfort the family through His Word.
   John and Sandra Heys
       John, Lorinda, Sonja, Trisha                                                       "For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them
                                                                                       also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him."  (I Thess. 4:  14)
                       WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                                                                                        Mrs. Charles Kregel, Pres.
   We rejoice in the Lord with our parents, MR. AND MRS. JOHN                                                                     Mrs. William Corson, Sec'y.
FEENSTRA, as they celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary on
August 24, 1986.                                                                                     RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
   We thank our God for the years they have shared and for the ex-
ample and covenant home they have provided. Our prayer is that the                        The Ladies Aid Society of First Church, Grand Rapids,  Mich., ex-
Lord will continue to bless and keep them in His care.                                 presses its Christian sympathy to Mrs. Lena Baar and family, in the
                                                                                       loss of their husband, father and grandfather, MR. HENRY BAAR.
   "Live joyfully with the wife whom thou  lovest  all the days of thy
vanity." (Ecclesiastes  9:9a)                                                             "The Lord redeemeth the soul of His servants: and none of them
                                                                                       that trust in Him shall be desolate." (Psalm  34:22)
Kenneth and Glenyce Feenstra                       Cynthia Feenstra
   Tena and Stacy                                  Lori Feenstra                                                              Mrs. G. Bylsma, Pres.
Linda Feenstra                                                      Redlands, Cal.                                            Mrs. S. De Young, Vice Sec'y.


