              The
     STANDARD
          BEARER
               A REFORMED SEMI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE                                          Y





     .  .  . It is very sad when there are those in the

     church of Jesus Christ who suffer from lone-
     liness and isolation. The whole church bears
     the responsibility and shame for this. We
     must always be watchful in the church for
     those who need to be befriended and encour-
     aged.
              See  ' ' Christian Fellowship'  ' - page 45




c                                                  Volume  LXI,  No. 2, October 15, 1984  -


26                                                                       THE STANDARD BEARER




                                                                                                                           THE STANDARD BEARER
                                     CONTENTS                                                                                      ISSN 03624692
                                                                                                        Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July, and August.
                                                                                                        Published b the Reformed Free Publishing Association, Inc.
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                                                                                            Editor-in-Chief:  Prof. Homer C. Hoeksema
          Free From Condemnation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26                    Deparhnent Editors; Rev. Ronald Cammenga, Rev. Arie den Hartog, Prof. Robert
      Editorial  -                                                                          D. Decker, Rev. Cornelius Hanko, Prof. Herman C. Hanko, Rev. Ronald Hanko,
                                                                                            Mr. David Harbach, Rev. John A. Heys, Rev. J. Kortering, Rev. George C.
          Correction, Please, C&on!  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  .29                 Lubbers, Rev. Thomas C. Miersma, Rev.  Marinus  Schipper, Rev. James  Slopse-
                                                                                            ma, Rev. Gise J. Van Baren, Rev. Herman Veldman.
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L
MEDITATION


                                        Free From Condemnation
                                                                                Rev. H. Veldman



                       "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not
                   after  the flesh, but  after  the Spirit."                                                                                       Romans  8:l


      No condemnation in Christ Jesus  - how  won-                                             stood temporally, but logically  - now, at this  mo-
derful!                                                                                        ment of the apostle's epistle and reasoning. The
      There is therefore  now  no condemnation in                                              word "therefore" means that what now follows is a
Christ Jesus. These words, "therefore" and "now,"                                              conclusion, a result of something, a logical  conclu-
indicate the meaning of this Scripture in the light of                                         sion.
its context. The word "now" must not be  under-                                                    According to some, we must connect this text


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 27



with the entire preceding part of the epistle, man's             No condemnation  - how fundamental!
hopeless sin and guilt and his redemption by grace               God alone is the living God. He is the Potentate
through Christ Jesus. And, in a certain sense, one            of potentates, the Judge of all the earth. In His hand
cannot object to this interpretation Analyzing this           He carries the entire universe; His is all the power
text, one will discover that he must refer to all this.       and the glory; He alone rules and exercises absolute
Others seek the connection in the conclusion of               dominion. He alone is God and there is none
chapter 7. We would maintain this latter interpreta-          besides Him.
tion. First, we would maintain the old exegetical
rule: do not go too far upstream; remain as close to             Hence, this judgment of God is fundamental
the text as possible. Secondly, there is no reason to         because it is absolute and final. There is no appeal
look beyond verse 25 of chapter 7: "I thank God               from His verdict because there is no judge either
through Jesus Christ our Lord." And he begins this            next to Him or above Him. Neither is there any
song of victory in verse 1, the ground of this vic-           power to oppose or annul His judgment. His judg-
tory. And so the connection is plain. In Romans               ment stands and it can never be frustrated or
7:25 the apostle had spoken of victory. Of this vic-          changed. What the Lord therefore declares of you
tory he now sings in Romans 8. And the ground of              and of me is final; it determines our lot, even
this victory is expressed in verse 1.                         forever, as is also stated in Romans  8:33-34:  "Who
                                                              shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is
  What a wonderful Scripture this is! In Romans               God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth?"
7:X-17  the apostle gives expression to the fearful                              * * * * *
struggle of the Christian: the evil he hates he does
and the good which he would he practices not. That               The negative language of the text must not
we now have the victory over this fearful power of            escape us. We read: "There is therefore now no
sin is only.because  of Jesus Christ, our Lord, as we         condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus."
also read in this particular word of God.                     We do not read here, positively, of justification but,
                    * * *  `*  *                              negatively, of condemnation. Why does the apostle
                                                              express himself thus? This emphasizes the amazing
  The apostle expresses himself negatively here: no           character of our salvation. Imagine: no condemna-
condemnation; He does this for the sake of em-                tion!
phasis. .             _      .,      ,.                          How amazing!
  Condemnation is a legal idea. It means, first of
all, that we.  are judged by the Judge of all the earth,         Amazing, first of all, because of what we are. Are
the living God. .The  Lord alone may judge because            we not conceived and born dead in sins and tres-
He is alone the Judge of alI  the earth, the Potentate        passes? Is it not true of us, according to Romans
of potentates. And He .alone  can judge because He            8:15-17,  that we do the evil we hate, and practice
is God  - He alone can read  ,and  know the hearts            not the good we would? We do only the evil and
and minds of men. And when He judges He never                 never the good! How, then, can the Lord judge con-
caters to man, never perverts the judgment; He                cerning us that He sees no evil in us? We ourselves
always judges righteously, and only therefore in the          are aware of this evil. And the Lord does not see it,
light of Himself and man's relation and attitude              the Judge of all the earth? Secondly, is not the Lord
toward Him. Secondly; the.word  means that we are             the righteous Judge of all the earth? His judgment is
judged guilty. The Lord judges us to be in conflict           surely always just and true. He is not a man who
with His law. A robber or murderer may be sorry               perverts judgment. Is it, then, not an amazing thing
that he violated the law, but he is never sorry for           that, judging us, He declares of us that He sees no
God's sake. He is sorry only for his own sake. This           sin in us, when we ourselves see so much of it, and
is the sorrow of the world (II Cor. 7:                        He certainly sees so much more? Thirdly, how
                                           i0). God judges
only in the light of Himself. And it means, thirdly.          amazing is this judgment because God is always ex-
and finally, that the Lord also enforces this .verdict        ecuting us! Is it not true that we die every day and
of guilt. A worldly judge ma.y  declare a.person guil-        all the day long? And, remember: the Lord is doing
ty and then pervert justice. `Rut God  always'en-             this! We are not dying accidentally. We die every
forces His judgment and executes it, immediately              day because His hand rests upon us. How, then,
- the Lord never postpones or delays it. '                    can God say that we do not deserve death, are en-
                                                              titled to everlasting life and glory, while at the same
  The opposite of condemnation; positively, is                time causing us to die all the day long?
justification. Justification is that official decree  .or
verdict of the Judge of all the earth, declaring us to:                          * * * * *
be in perfect harmony with His law, that He sees'                However transcending all human understanding,
no guilt in us and declaring us to be heirs of ever-          this justification of God's people is real. Christ
lasting life and glory.                                       Jesus is the Head of His people. He is this Head


28                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



judicially. This means that He represents us, repre-       that there is no condemnation to them who walk
sents us in death and in life. As such He is respon-       not after the flesh but after the Spirit. How impossi-
sible for all our sins and trespasses, and His merits      ble this would be! How contrary to all the teachings
belong to us, even as Adam was the representative          of Holy Writ! How Scriptural is the truth that we
head of the whole human race and his sin was im-           are righteous before God not because of our works
puted and charged to us. This Christ is also our           but by grace. Indeed, by grace we are saved,
Head organically. And this means that He is the            through faith, and not of works lest any man should
Head and we are His body. In Him is all our life and       boast. No condemnation for us because we walk
salvation and we live out of Him. He is the Vine           not after the flesh but after the Spirit? If this were
and we are the branches who live out of the Vine.          true then surely our many sins would condemn us!
      Indeed, this is the basis for our "no condemna-      Then our sins would surely rise up against us and
tion." The apostle is emphasizing this. We read            demand of the Judge of all the earth our condemna-
here: "There is therefore now no condemnation to           tion. On the other hand, however, our justification
them that are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after          rests only upon and in Christ.
the flesh but after the Spirit." And we feel instinc-        What, then, does this expression mean? First, on-
tively that the expression, in Christ Jesus, gives us      ly God's people for whom Christ died and rose
the reason, the ground for this amazing truth. Only        again will (in principle) walk not after the flesh but
as in Christ Jesus we are justified by and before          after the Spirit. Indeed, this, we understand, does
God. This is eternally true: in God's eternal counsel,     not apply to every sinner, that Christ died for every
we are His body, covered by His blood and clothed          man, and that every man can by his own free will
with His righteousness, so that it is actually true        decide to walk not after the flesh but after the
that God sees no guilt in us because there is none.        Spirit. This expression simply designates those of
Then, this is true upon the cross of Calvary. Christ       whom it is true that there is no condemnation. Rut
is our Head and we were in Him. He suffered and            this emphasizes, then, how we experience this
died for our sins and paid our debt; when He died          blessed, incomprehensible truth, how this blessed
we died and when He was buried we were buried.             assurance is consciously known by me, only in the
This is clearly held before us in Romans 6:3-4. In         measure that we walk not after the flesh but after
His suffering and death our old man of sin was con-        the Spirit. We are righteous only in Christ Jesus and
demned so that it may never again reign over us. In-       therefore experience this blessedness only as we
deed, we glory in the cross of Christ, provided that       walk in Christ Jesus.
we do not destroy that cross by presenting it in a           Our sins rise up against us day by day.
universal, head for head, sense of the word. And,
thirdly, this is true now in principle and presently         The evil we hate we do and the good we would
in perfection forever. 0, it is true now only in prin-     we practice not.
ciple. We are perfect now, but only as we are                In Christ Jesus there is no condemnation.
united with Christ and live out of Him. What is              Let us glory, then, only in the cross of Jesus
born of God cannot sin, it is holy; but only that is       Christ, our Lord.
holy and perfect that is born of God. Presently,
however, this earthly house of our tabernacle will
be dissolved, this old man of sin will be destroyed
forever, and as God has known us eternally, we
shall appear in the new heavens and upon the new              The Standard Bearer
earth. Then the righteous in Christ will shine forth
in all their glory and perfection, even as God has              makes a thoughtful
sovereignly known us in Christ Jesus from before
the foundation of the world.                                             gift for the
                    * * * * *
      No condemnation to them which are in Christ                   sick or shut-in.
Jesus, who walk not after the flesh but after the
Spirit.                                                                        Give the
      This does not mean, cannot mean that our con-
duct as not after the flesh but after the Spirit is the           Standard Bearer.
ground of our justification. Indeed, this word of
God does not say this. We do not read that there is
no condemnation for us because we walk not after
the flesh but after the Spirit. We do read, however,


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                                        29



EDITORIAL


                      Correction, Please, CZarion!
                                              Prof. H.C. Hoeksema




  CZarion   is the magazine of the Liberated in            pended too much on the book  Inheritance Preserved,
Canada, officially known as the Canadian Re-               by the Rev. W.W.J. Van Oene.
formed Churches. In the past it has sometimes mis-           The first distortion appears when Kalamazoo
represented the position of our Protestant Re-             1924 is referred to. The distortion is twofold. In the
formed Churches, even as the magazine of the               preaching Dr. Abraham Kuyper's theory of pre-
Liberated in the Netherlands, De  Reformatie,   has        sumptive regeneration is discussed at length; and
done so, especially with respect to our covenant           this is important. But then Mr. Pouwelse simply
view. But I have seldom seen such a distorted and          continues: "The theory of Dr. A. Kuyper crept in
confused picture of our history and our doctrinal          also in the Christian Reformed Churches in
position as appeared in  Clarion  in the August 10         America. In 1924, the Synod of Kalamazoo made a
issue from the pen of the Rev. W. Pouwelse. As I           statement, consisting of three points. They are
read it, I thought to myself, "Any similarity be-          therefore oftentimes called the `Three Points of Kal-
tween this and the Protestant Reformed Churches            amazoo.' " And while later reference is made to
is strictly coincidental." While I have little hope, in    "common grace," this statement in its context
the light of past experience, that my request will be      leaves the impression that Kalamazoo 1924 is
heeded, I nevertheless want to set the record              related to Kuyper's presumptive regeneration,
straight and to request lCZarion   to make correction,     something with which it had nothing whatsoever to
preferably by taking over this editorial.                  do. What is worse, however, is the fact that in
  Editor Pouwelse is writing about the Liberation          citing the Three Points no reference whatsoever is
which took place in the Reformed Churches of the           made to "het puntje van het Eerste Punt" (the real
Netherlands (GKN) in 1944, a movement in which             point of the First Point), namely, the general, well-
the late Dr. K. Schilder played a leading part. This       meant offer of grace and salvation. And this has
year marks the 40th Anniversary of that event. And         everything to do with the difference between the
quite naturally the Liberated churches in the              Protestant Reformed and the Liberated. This is
Netherlands and the Canadian Reformed Churches             true, in the first place, because the spiritual father
on this side of the Atlantic are paying attention to       of the doctrine of the general offer was none other
this anniversary. In this connection Mr. Pouwelse          than Prof. W. Heyns, the man who also defined the
writes on "Backgrounds of the Liberation," an arti-        covenant in terms of a general, conditional prom-
cle in which he attempts to trace American and             ise. It is true, in the second place, because this
Canadian backgrounds as well as Dutch back-                Prof. Heyns was the very American theologian who
grounds. That there were such backgrounds is an            was quoted in support of the Liberated covenant
undeniable fact; they arose out of the contact be-         view on the front page of one of the first issues of
tween our churches and the Liberated in Canada             De  Refomzatie  to reach us after World War II.
(prior to the formation of their denomination), and          This leads to the next distortion:
especially out of the history and stance of our chur-
ches since 1924. It should not be overlooked, how-              However, in 1950 the Protestant Reformed Church-
ever, that as far as the Canadian Liberated were              es changed their direction, and again the influence
concerned, the "signals" were called from the                 of the theory of Dr. A. Kuyper crept in. This time not
                                                              in the first place with respect to his "common grace"
Netherlands by such leading lights as the late Dr.            concept but now more specifically his doctrine about
Schilder and the late Prof. B. Holwerda and others.           "presumptive regeneration."
  So much by way of introduction.                               In 1950 the Protestant Reformed Churches drew up
  If the Rev. Pouwelse wants to write about "back-            the so-called "Declaration of Principles."
grounds," however, he should go to the primary               Here you have a fundamental distortion. I get the
sources for this information. I am afraid he has de-       impression that the Rev. Pouwelse has never read


30                                                      THE STANDARD BEARER



the Declaration of Principles, but simply depends                  ches are violently opposed to any idea of a promise
on the distortion of the Declaration in the Rev. Van               for all and a conditional promise.
Oene's  Inheritance Preserved.  For anyone who reads                 Then follows another distortion: the old accusa-
the Declaration and who knows anything at all                      tion of presupposed regeneration:
about Protestant Reformed history will recognize
immediately that the Declaration of Principles does                          According to these points the sacrament of baptism
not represent a change of direction. On the con-                       does not sign and seal the covenant of God and His in-
                                                                       dubitable promises. The real covenant was only for
trary, it just exactly represents a holding to our                     the elect and people could not do anything else than
original direction. That original direction involved                   "presume" and "hope" that the child to be baptized
the denial of the general, conditional offer of salva-                 belonged to the elect.
tion  - fundamentally the same as the general, con-                  And a little later the writer adds: "In this way the
ditional promise of the covenant (both are  Heyn-                  Canadian Reformed Churches were born. There
Sian).  That original direction is maintained in the               was no choice. The Protestant Reformed Churches
Declaration of Principles. In fact, in its very open-              had gone back to the doctrine of Dr. Kuyper and
ing paragraphs the Declaration  proceeds  from our                 had officially accepted the theory of the `presump-
(original) repudiation of the Three Points of Com-                 tive regeneration."'
mon Grace. This is simply an undeniable fact. If the
Rev. Pouwelse does not possess our Declaration of                    Now here is a marvelous thing!
Principles, he may write me, and I will send him a                   According to the Rev. Pouwelse the Protestant
copy, so that he can see for himself.                              Reformed Churches in adopting the Declaration of
      This leads in turn to the worst distortion of the            Principles adopted the Kuyperian theory of pre-
entire article, again evidently partly due to the fact             sumptive regeneration.
that Mr. Pouwelse depends on the Rev. Van Oene's                     And yet what does that very Declaration say?
book. This is what he writes:                                      And now I quote it from pp. 125, 126 of our Church
         Again we quote a summary of this "Declaration of          Order:
       Principles" from the Rev. Van Oene's book.                  "III. Seeing then that this is the clear teaching of
         "1. The Protestant Reformed Churches reject the           our confession,
       errors of the Three Points of Kalamazoo and maintain        A. We repudiate:
       that the grace of God is only for the elect."                1. The teaching:
         "2. They teach that the promise of God is uncondi-            a. That the promise of the covenant is condi-
       tionally only for the elect."                                   tional and for all that are baptized.
         "3. They reject the doctrine that the promise of the          b. That we may presuppose that all the chil-
       covenant is for all who were baptized."                         dren that are baptized are regenerated, for we
                                                                       know on the basis of Scripture, as well as in the
         What was the meaning of this "Declaration?" At
       the one hand they rejected the theory of "common                light of all history and experience, that the con-
       grace." But at the same time they introduced in points          trary is true."
       two and three a theory of two kinds of "covenants."           I can only conclude that the Rev. Pouwelse had
       One for the elect and one for "all who are baptized."       never yet read the Declaration of Principles. But
       They introduced two types of promises. Some "un-            then he should not presume to tell his readers what
       conditionally" only for the elect and some other (ap-       that Declaration teaches. That is not responsible
       parently conditionally] for "all baptized."                 journalism, and it is not honest.
      I stand amazed! Two kinds of covenants? Two                    The final distortion is a distortion of historical
types of promises? An unconditional promise for                    fact. The Rev. Pouwelse writes:
the elect only and a conditional promise for all who
are baptized? What sort of nonsense is that? And                         In 1951 the "Declaration of Principles" caused a
how does the Rev. Pouwelse "deduce" this even                          conflict in the Protestant Reformed Churches and the
from the very distorted and partial presentation of                   Canadian Reformed Churches were established. What
the Declaration of Principles by the Rev. Van                         was left from the Protestant Reformed Churches went
                                                                     back to the Christian Reformed Churches in 1960.
Oene? Again: I stand amazed! Flabbergasted! I have
been teaching Protestant Reformed dogmatics for a                    Mirabile  dictu!
good many years, but I never heard this notion                       The only conclusion one can draw from this
before. And I lived through and participated in the                paragraph is that because of the conflict about the
entire history of the Declaration of Principles, have              Declaration the Liberated immigrants left us and
-read and discussed and defended that document                     joined in the formation of the Canadian Reformed
many times; but I never found the slightest hint of                Churches. Thereupon all that was left of the PRC
these ideas in it. The Protestant Reformed Chur-                   joined the Christian Reformed Church. Ergo: from


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                                  31



1960 forward there were no more Protestant Re-              ment with the Liberated in Canada and the Nether-
formed Churches.                                            lands.
  But the facts are these:                                  6. For some mysterious reason, however, they did
1. There was indeed a conflict about the Declara-           not join forces with those who are now the Cana-
tion of Principles from 1951 to 1953.                       dian Reformed; but they melted away into the
                                                            Christian Reformed Church.
2. It was not the Declaration as such, however,
that occasioned the split in our denomination               7. The Protestant Reformed Churches continued to
                                                            exist, to maintain their historic position, and to the
3. Rather, the Rev. H. De Wolf (and some of the             best of my knowledge are alive and well today.,
elders of First Church) were disciplined on account
of De Wolf's heretical statements. They then com-             Mr. Pouwelse states near the end of his article,
mitted schism rather than submit to discipline.             "History can teach us a lesson . . . . "
4. Thereupon many throughout the denomination                  Indeed it can!
took sides with De Wolf and likewise committed                But first make certain it is history, not distortion.
schism.                                                        Otherwise you will surely learn wrong lessons!
5. This De Wolf group was doctrinally in agree-




             The Standard Bearer and Polemics
                                               Prof Robert D. Decker

                                       Text of an address delivered at the
                                 Annual Reformed Free Publishing Association
                                          meeting September 20, 1984.



  Through the years the  Standard   Beaver has had          Polemics." Ought we change the emphasis of our
more than its share of negative criticism. This has         magazine? Are the criticisms valid?
come mainly from outside of Protestant Reformed
circles. It has come from those who are opposed to            Polemics is the refuting of error. It involves con-
us and our distinctively Reformed position. These           troversy. Polemics is the exposing of error in doc-
people just plain hate us and the cause we repre-           trine or in practice. It is refuting those errors.
sent, and so they criticise both us and our paper.          Polemics is the refutation of error by means of
This criticism is often harsh and bitter. I have            Scripture and the Confessions of the church.
heard, for example, the Standard Bearer  called The         Polemics is never  mere  controversy. It is never
Slander Bearer. If these people do not criticise us         arguing for the sake of argument nor is it a matter
they ignore our paper and have nothing to do with           of mere logical debate. Certainly Polemics is not
us. I am not all that concerned about this.                playing games nor engaging in mental exercises.
                                                            Positively, Polemics is the exposing of error in the
  What does concern me and it ought to concern             light of Scripture and the Confessions. In Polemics
you is the criticism I hear from our own people.           we refute error by showing precisely how it con-
Some of us are quite vocal and openly critical of our      flicts with Scripture as expressed in our Reformed
magazine. Some refuse to read parts of it and a few         Creeds. Polemics is really an exercise of faith, faith
refuse to read it at all. The main criticism appears to     in God in Christ as revealed in Holy Scripture.
be that the Standard Bearer is far too negative. Why
must we always be pointing out error? Why must                Polemics is for the sake of the truth and glory of
we always be harping about heresy? And more                 God. The church never engages in Polemics merely
especially why must we be concentrating our atten-          in a negative way. Error must be exposed and
tion on the errors of others, especially the Christian      refuted in the light of God's Word. Gods people
Reformed Church. This is more than ample reason             must know why this or that doctrine and practice is
to consider the subject: "The  Standard Bearer  and         in conflict with Scripture. But they must know this


32                                             THE STANDARD BEARER



in order that they may know and grow in the                  large measure was the task of the prophets of the
knowledge of the truth. Polemics is necessary for            Old Testament. They were called to make known
the defense and maintenance of the truth.                    the will of God to God's people. They spoke of the
      The truth is reality over against error or the lie.    promise and they directed the faith and hope of
God is The Truth. God in all of His perfection, God          God's people to the coming Christ. They instructed
the Creator and Sustainer of the universe, God the           God's people in the truth of God's Word. Always
Sovereign Lord of heaven and earth, God our                  the prophets proclaimed the truth over against the
Father for Jesus sake, God is The Truth, the reality         lie. They warned the people of their sins and back-
over against the lie. God is the God of all truth.           sliding, of their idolatry and apostasy. The prophets
Christ is The Truth. Christ as the revelation of the         spoke of the impending judgments of God on ac-
God of our salvation, the only begotten Son of the           count of their sins. More often than not they were
Father, is full of grace and truth. This is why Jesus        severely persecuted for this. Think for example of
said: "I am the way, the truth and the light."Christ         Jeremiah in the dungeon or Elijah under the juniper
is the perfect revelation of the truth over against the      tree.
lie. The truth is found in Jesus and nowhere else.              The same is true of the ministry of Jesus. Jesus
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth Who was               engaged in Polemics. Contrary to popular thinking
poured out into the church by the exalted Christ.            about Jesus, He in the sharpest of terms de-
The Holy Spirit comforts, guides, preserves us by            nounced, exposed, and refuted error in doctrine
leading us into all the truth. The truth is revealed in      and life. Jesus taught the disciples and the people
Holy Scripture. Inspired by the Holy Spirit the in-          the truth to be sure. But Jesus did that over against
fallible Word of God reveals the truth of God in             the lie. Jesus had no time for the self-righteous-
Christ. That truth in Scripture is summed and set            ness, work-righteousness doctrine of the Pharisees.
forth in our Confessions, the three Forms of Unity.          He never hesitated to show the error and evil of this
And we confess: "as taught here in this Christian            false doctrine from the Scriptures. A large percen-
Church," in the Protestant Reformed Churches by              tage of His recorded sermons are directed against
God's grace. That truth must be defended and                 false teachers and their heresies. Entire sermons of
maintained over against the lie. Error in doctrine or        Jesus are devoted to this, such as the one recorded
life must be exposed and refuted in order that the           in Matthew 23.
truth may flourish. This is precisely the way our               The same is true of the Apostles. They never tire
Confessions were born. They were formulated over             of calling the people of God to the task. We must
against heresy. And it is in this way that the church        fight the good fight of faith by putting on the whole
grows in its knowledge of the truth.                         armor of God. We must avoid vain and profane
      The deepest reason for Polemics, therefore, is the     babblings and follow after the truth. We must reject
glory of God. Error is always an attack against God.         false doctrines and heresies and flee from the very
God's Name, God's glory are inseparably con-                 appearance of evil. The whole of Jude and two
nected with the truth. God is the God of all truth.          thirds of II Peter are polemical. II Peter 2 warns of
When the truth is attacked or denied, God is attack-         the certain coming of the false teachers into the
ed or denied. This is the deepest issue at stake in          church. These false teachers work privily. They are
Polemics. All error is a denial of God in all of His         never out in the open. They bring into the church
sovereignity, might, and glory. Deny Genesis 1 and           damnable heresies, and many follow their perni-
you deny the Creator God. Deny the first Adam                cious ways by reason of whom the way of truth is
and you deny the last Adam. That is true of all of           evil spoken of. The false teachers are compared to
Scripture. What is more, false doctrine always leads         Balaam, the false prophet who was rebuked for his
to ungodly living, a transgressing of God's law. II          error by his dumb ass. They are compared to dogs
Peter 2:lff makes plain that the damnable heresies           who return to their own vomit and to washed sows
of the false teachers lead to pernicious ways of the         who return to the mire. II Peter 3 warns of the scof-
false teachers and their followers. For this reason          fers who denied the coming of the Lord Jesus
we must refute the lie wherever and whenever it              Christ. The church is admonished to grow in the
appears. In this way the truth is defended and               grace and knowledge of Christ lest she fall from her
maintained. In this way we grow in the knowledge             steadfastness and be led away with the error of the
of the truth. In this way God's Name is praised and          wicked.
we live a new, godly life. This, in brief, is what              For this reason too, both the Church Order and
Polemics is all about.                                       the Ordination Forms and the Formula of Subscrip-
      Ought the  Standard Bearer  to be engaged in           tion make clear that Professors, ministers, and
Polemics? To answer this question we must notice             elders must expound and defend the truth over
that Scripture calls the church to this task. This in        against all heresies repugnant thereto. This belongs


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 33



to the calling of office bearers. If they fail to do this,    must do it so that the church's understanding of the
they are unfaithful, false teachers.                          truth increases. We must fight the good fight of
   Yes,  the  Standard  Bearer ought to engage in             faith also by means of the pages of the  Standard
Polemics. This was the reason historically for the            Bearer.  We must not allow negative criticism to
existance  of Reformed Free Publishing Association.           deter us.
Our Protestant Reformed fathers needed the free-                The issue is crucial. A professor from another
dom to expose the error of Common Grace. All                  Seminary lamented recently: "We have a genera-
through the years the Stundurd  Bearer has faithfully         tion of theological illiterates." Let us pray that that
and vigorously defended the faith against heresy.             never be said of us or our children. Let us be faith-
This must continue. This must not be done merely              ful and courageous in the defense of the faith. Let
in a negative fashion. Errors must be exposed and             us be faithful lest it be said of us: "God's people are
refuted and we must not hesitate to do that. But we           destroyed for lack of knowledge." Let us be faithful
must do it in the way of the positive development             lest we become the means by which the Name of
of the truth. We must do it so that our readers grow          God is blasphemed.
in the grace and knowledge of God in Christ. We

MY  SHEEF  HEAR MY VOICE


                               Our Order of Worship
                                                     Prof H. Hunko



   In our discussion of singing in congregational             the doxology expresses also the tone of the entire
worship, we have yet to discuss the doxologies                worship service, for worship is, above all, praise.
which are a common part of the worship service.               And at the very outset the congregation expresses
   While there is no specific injunction in Scripture         why it has come together. It calls upon the whole
to include such doxologies in the worship service, it         church, upon God's entire creation, and upon the
is clear that such songs of praise are often found in         saints and angels in heaven to join with her in prais-
Scripture both in the  (Old Testament and in the              ing God. In the second place, our churches have
New. Not only are many of the Psalms and songs                not always begun the worship with such a dox-
recorded in the Old Testament specific songs of               ology. This practice is of comparatively recent
praise, but there are similar passages in the New             origin. I remember the time, when I was younger,
Testament, such as Romans 11:33-36,   16:27, II Cor-          that very few, if any, of our congregations began
inthians  1:3,  Ephesians  1:3ff., I Timothy  1:17, and       with a doxology. There is no rule here, and the peo-
several which can be found in the book of Revela-             ple of God have freedom in this matter. Yet it
tion.                                                         seems to me entirely appropriate to do so, although,
                                                              if a choice had to be made between a doxology at
   Most of our congregations begin the worship ser-           the beginning or the end of the worship, the most
vice with the doxology, "Praise God From Whom                 appropriate place would be at the end.
All Blessings Flow." There are just two remarks
which can be made in connection with this prac-                 A variety of doxologies is used at the end of the
tice. The first is that, while this doxology is not a         worship service. The most common are the two
direct  versification  of Scripture, it nevertheless is a     doxologies found in our  PsuIter,  Nos. 196  & 197,
very appropriate song with which to begin the wor-            both  versifications  of a part of Psalm 72. It has,
ship. It is a confession on the part of the congrega-         however, become increasingly common to end the
tion that all the blessings which the church receives         worship service with a different song, "May the
come only from God. There is a kind of expectation            Grace of Christ Our Savior . . . ." Sometimes this is
in this doxology, therefore; for even the blessings           sung to the tune of "What a Friend We Have in
which the congregation needs to worship can come              Jesus . . .  ," and sometimes it is sung to a Psalter
from God alone, and the church confesses this. But            tune. This cannot really be considered a doxology.


34                                           THE STANDARD BEARER



It is rather a prayer imploring Gods blessing upon         sovereign power within us by which we are able to
the congregation as it leaves the sanctuary. Person-       say, "Thy face Lord will we seek." This divine
ally, I am not very much in favor of the use of this       order ought to be preserved in the worship service.
song. There are especially two reasons for this. It        God speaks first, always, in the work of salvation.
seems to me eminently appropriate to end the wor-          Our speech is the response to His voice. The dox-
ship with a song of praise. The congregation has           ology ought also to express this. God says, "Be-
just heard proclaimed the glorious truth of the            loved in our Lord Jesus Christ." God speaks
gospel of Jesus Christ. It has heard of the salvation      through the benediction: "Grace, mercy, and peace
by grace, of the great love and mercy of God Who           be unto you, from God our Father and the Lord
has delivered His saints from the power of sin and         Jesus Christ, through the operation of the Holy
death, and of the great inheritance which God has          Spirit.  '  ' The congregation hears the voice of
prepared for those who love Him. What then could           Jehovah God, receives this Word of God by faith,
be more appropriate than that the congregation lift        and responds in praise: "Praise God from Whom all
up its voice in praise to God Who alone is worthy of       blessings flow."
all praise? It is the really proper way to end the wor-      There is also a question of order at the end of the
ship. But the song, "May the Grace of Christ Our           worship. Some of our congregations have adopted
Savior . .  .`I is also somewhat redundant. It is re-      the order of ending the worship service with the
dundant because the congregation has opportunity           benediction and the doxology - in that order. They
in its congregational prayers to beseech God's             have done this in order to make it possible for the
blessing upon His people, God's grace, love, and           minister to move to the rear of the auditorium so
favor. It has opportunity then to seek from God the        that he will be in a position to greet the members of
blessedness of the communion of saints. To do so           the congregation and any visitors who are present
again at the conclusion of the service is repetitious.     at the worship. But this is a practical consideration
This same repetition is evident from the fact that         which tends to spoil the proper order of worship.
this song expresses essentially the same thing as the      The worship service ought to end with the benedic-
final benediction. While different benedictions are        tion, not the doxology. There is here too a beautiful
used, the most common is: "The grace of our Lord           divine order which we ought not hastily to aban-
Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of       don. The congregation is ready to depart from the
the Holy Spirit abide with you. Amen." It is clear         presence of God to return to her life and calling in
that this is very similar to the words of this song:       the world. The Sabbath is like an oasis in the
       May the grace of Christ our Savior                  wilderness of this present life. We sing with the
         And the Father's boundless love,                  Psalmist, after all, "We wander in a desert land,
       With the Holy Spirit's favor                        where all the streams are dry." In this desert land
         Rest upon us from above.                          we cannot survive spiritually. And so the Lord our
       Thus may we abide in union                          gracious God provides for us the oasis of the Sab-
         With each other and the Lord,                     bath where we may escape the heat of the desert,
       And possess in sweet communion                      the barrenness of this present life, and rest under
         Joys which earth cannot afford.                   the shadow of the wings of our God. In this oasis,
      There is one more remark we shall make con-          Jehovah gives us the true spiritual bread which is
cerning these doxologies, and that has to do with          Christ Jesus our Lord, and calls us to drink the liv-
the time they are sung.                                    ing waters of His Spirit, the cooling streams of the
When the doxology, "Praise God from Whom all               blessings of His salvation. Refreshed and streng-
blessings flow . . ." is sung at the beginning of the      thened, we are now able to proceed on our
worship service, it seems better to have it follow         pilgrim's journey for another week, until once
upon the votum and benediction. While here too             again, we stagger, exhausted, into the rest of
there are no hard and fast rules, it nevertheless re-      another Sabbath. Leaving Gods house on this Sab-
mains a fact that it is more in keeping with our doc-      bath, there is no better way to depart than to hear
trine to preserve this order. I refer to the fact that     ringing in our ears the voice of our God Who com-
we believe in the truth of sovereign grace. And, as        mands His blessing upon us as we leave, a blessing
applied to the worship service, this means that our        which He assures us will be ours until we meet
speech to God is always a response to God's speech         again in His house. There is an appropriateness
to us. God says, according to Psalm  2723,  "Seek ye       about ending the service with a benediction which
My face"; and our hearts respond, "Thy face Lord           cannot be gainsaid. The order then is natural and
will we seek." The order here is important. It is not      entirely proper. We end our worship with a dox-
only the order of command and obedience to that            ology,
command; it is also the divine order of sovereign              Blest be the Lord, our fathers' God
grace. God's word, "Seek ye My face," is the                         Eternal King of kings,


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 35



   Who only is omnipotent,                                 Israel, that they bring me an offering: of every man
         Performing wondrous things.                       that giveth it willingly with his heart ye shall take
   Blest be His great and glorious Name                    my offering. And this is the offering which ye shall
         Forevermore, Amen,                                take of them; gold, and silver, and brass . . . . And
   And let His glory fill the earth                        let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell
         From shore to shore. Amen.                        among them. According to all that I shew thee,
Then follows Gods Word of benediction, and the             after the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern
people of God depart.                                      of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye
                    * * * * *                              make it" (Exodus  25:1-9). You recall how the peo-
                                                           ple gave willingly and in great abundance:  "And
  This brings us to the matter of offerings. We will       they (the wise men who were responsible for the
have time only to begin our discussion of this ele-        construction of the tabernacle) spake unto Moses,
ment in the worship services in this issue of The
Standard Bearer.                                           saying, The people bring much more than enough
                                                           for the service of the work, which the Lord com-
  That offerings were an essential part of the wor-        manded to make. And Moses gave commandment,
ship in both the Old and the New Testament chur-           and they caused it to be proclaimed throughout the
ches is clear from all of Scripture.                       camp, saying, Let neither man nor woman make
  There are churches who do not agree with this,           any more work for the offering of the sanctuary. So
apparently. There are some churches who take no            the people were restrained from bringing. For the
offerings during the worship service, but send out a       stuff they had was sufficient for all the work to
committee to all the members of the congregation           make it, and too much" (Exodus  36:5-7).
once or twice a year to exact from them a pledge for         There were also certain laws given by God which
the amount they intend to give for the coming year         provided for the support of the priests and Levites
or half-year. The people who have pledged can              who ministered in the sanctuary so that they could
make their promised payments in any way they               devote their time to this service. When, in later
choose. There are other churches who put a box             years, the temple was in need of repairs and money
somewhere in the church building into which the            had to be gathered to finance these repairs, a chest
people can drop their money. It is also not uncom-         was made with a hole bored in the top into which
mon for some churches to take collections only for         the people could put their gifts. We read of this in II
the Benevolent Fund during the worship, while              Kings  22:3-9  and II Chronicles  24:8-14.  This prac-
money for other causes is collected in various other       tice was apparently continued in the days of Jesus
ways.                                                      (Mark  12:41-44).
  But Scripture makes clear that offerings belong            There are also a few texts in the New Testament
to the worship.                                            which indicate that offerings were to be a part of
  In the Old Testament, at the time when the               the worship service. But we must wait with a fur-
tabernacle was built, we read: "And the Lord spake         ther discussion of this matter until our next article.
unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of

THE DAY OF SHADOWS


                           Unmistakable Unbelief
                                                Rev. John A. Heys




  As the saying goes, "An apple does not fall far          go; and when he is old, he will not depart from it"
from the  tree.<'  You can, therefore, find the tree       (Proverbs  22:6). The behavior of a young man will
without travelling a great distance and without put-       reveal how his parents did or did not bring him up
ting forth a great deal of effort. Or, to use the words    from childhood. The qualifying words "did or did
of Scripture and apply them, as Scripture does, to         not" is due to the fact that the parents may have
man, "Train up a child in the way that he should           been very faithful in striving to train the child in


36                                             THE STANDARD BEARER



the fear of God's name, and may have set a very                Godly sorrow worketh repentance, we are told in
good example, but the child not having been born             II Corinthians  7:lO. Not one word, or the slightest
again was not and could not be trained to walk in            suggestion of such sorrow do you find anywhere in
God's ways and by faith, and was trained by the              the whole book of Esther. Sorrow? Yes, deep sor-
world round about him. He still, when old, walked            row. Sorrow over sin? No, not even over the sins of
in the way he was trained, but it was not in the way         other people. It is easier to hate the sins of others
his faithful parents strove to direct his feet.              and to love your own, than to hate your own sins
      It comes as no surprise then to find, as we did,       and actually be miserable over them. Did you ever
Esther having a shameful, unvarnished fatalistic             lose any sleep lately because of your sins? You did
outlook when peril stared her in the face. Her               about other matters in your life. You cried because
failure to use God's name, to show any trust in              of the loss of a loved one through the cold hand of
Him, and her failure to ask the Jews to pray to Him          death. But did you ever weep so deeply and were
for her as she, as it were, takes her life in her hands,     you troubled so much about sins you committed?
and performs a deed that is fraught with peril, is all       Indeed, there is much room in our lives as well for
due to the training that Mordecai gave her. He was           spiritual sensitivity!
not her blood-father, but he, as her uncle, did bring          But consider once, that all the misery in the
her up from childhood in the ways of unbelief and            world is here because of the entrance of sin. God's
sin.                                                         curse is on the earth. And all the sorrows in the
      That this is the case is evident from the fact that    world should bring us at once to the throne of
he approaches her in his deep sorrow without the             grace. In all our woes we ought to think of God,
slightest manifestation of faith in God. He showed           Who alone can and will deliver His people from it
deep sorrow. He went for help. But he did not turn           all so fully that He will wipe away all tears from our
to the living God, or suggest to Esther that she do          eyes, and give us an everlasting song to sing. But
so. He spoke to her in a way void of all faith in God.       does misery and fear do that? Do we at once look to
And she responded in a way that was not even                 the everlasting hills from whence  cometh all our
faintly tinged with the color of faith. The apple fell       help? Or is it a much delayed afterthought? Such
right under the tree. In the way she was trained             was not even the case with Mordecai and Esther.
from her early days in infancy she walked.                   And they differed so greatly from men of faith
   Now it is quite understandable that Mordecai              whose trust in God is displayed upon the pages of
would feel so bad and wear sackcloth and ashes.              Holy Writ.
Not only did he face certain death, as far as he               This is the way in which a child of God faces his
could see as an unbeliever, but the whole nation             perils. Hezekiah in II Chronicles  32:7 and 8
was slated for death and extinction. The Jews were           declares, "Be strong and courageous, be not afraid
marked as a people about to be wiped off the face of         nor dismayed for the King of Assyria, nor for all the
this earth. Why, even the apostle Paul could write           multitudes that are with him: for there be more
in Romans 9:  l-3  that he had great heaviness and con-      with us than with him. With him is the arm of
tinual sorrow in his heart for his brethren, his             flesh, but with us is the Lord our God, to help us
kinsmen according to the flesh, and that he could            and to fight our battles." Where do you find even a
wish himself accursed from Christ for their sake.            faint suggestion of such a faith in Mordecai? He
And especially since this destruction of the Jews            speaks of another place from whence help will
came because of his refusal to keep the king's com-          come, but not of another Person. And he had such
mand to recognize and show respect to  hishght-              an opportunity to speak to his daughter of that
hand man, Mordecai had reason to be in deep sor-             divine Person and to seek to strengthen her faith in
row.                                                         Him.
   But the tragedy of it all, and that which again             Or, to defend Mordecai, you might explain that
shows that he had no faith and spiritual life, is that       place as heaven where God dwells, and say that he
he shows no sorrow for sin! And therefore it is not          speaks figuratively, and mentions heaven for Him
difficult to understand that Esther likewise shows           Who dwells in heaven. Let us assume that he
no sorrow for sin, or even recognizes the fact that          means from heaven comes our help and not from
God just might be sending this sword of  Haman               the earth or anyone on the earth. Even then note
and the king as punishment upon the sin of the               that he tells his daughter on earth to defend her and
Jews, and particularly the sins of despising the             his people; and if that does not work, then heaven
promised land, of refusing to go back there and join         will have to help. What kind of faith is that? We
those who rebuilt the temple and Jerusalem, and in-          will try it without heaven's help; and if we fail we
stead staying there so they could enjoy the lust of          will as a last resort turn to the God in heaven
the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.      Whom we have deliberately ignored. And then he


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                                37



said, "Who knoweth whether thou art come to the             means that God provides. We may not be careless
kingdom for such a time as this?" Once again God            and act as though He is not a God of means. He
is ignored. He does not say, "`Who knoweth                  feeds us with bread and by means of it nourishes
whether God has brought thee to this kingdom for            and keeps us alive. Hezekiah was ordered to lay a
such a time as this." He knows only too well that,          lump of figs on his boil for his recovery from his ill-
as far as they are concerned, she came to the               ness. But it must be with the prayer that God will
kingdom for the satisfaction of their flesh. He             use the means which we employ. As stated before,
reveals that as far as their intent was concerned she       we must go first to God. He must use the means, or
did not seek that position and power for the sake of        the results will not be what we seek. Did Mordecai
God's church in the Old Testament dispensation.             do that? Had he gone home and prayed before seek-
Had they done so, he would have said, "Esther,              ing Esther's help, and not made an open show with
remember you came to the kingdom that God's                 sackcloth and ashes, and with howling in the
people might be helped. Do not now fail to do the           streets, where no one could actually help him, we
kind of work for which we sought and obtained this          would have a different picture and some hope for a
position." God is not in all their thoughts, He is not      little faith. Had we simply read, without the name
in any of them; and their speech reveals it very            of God being used, that he went home to pray and
clearly.                                                    then sought Esther's help, we could not be so em-
  We want, the Lord willing, to come back to that           phatic about his utter lack of any trust in God. But
later, but even after God does give them that               as it now stands, we read something into Scripture
deliverance there is not one word of thanks to Him!         that God did not put there, if we are going to defend
Daniel said to the king, after being brought up out         either Esther or Mordecai as believing children of
of the lion's den, "My God hath sent His angel, and         God. By their fruits ye shall know them, Jesus said.
hath shut the lion's mouths, and they have not hurt         God led the author of this book, whoever he may
me" (Daniel  6:X!). But what we read in Esther 928          be,.to set forth this incident in such a way that we
is that the Jews  - with Mordecai now their                 would see that there is not one spark of faith in God
representative sitting at the king's right hand,            in either one of these two main characters. What is
elevated above all the other rulers, and this with          here is unmistakable unbelief.
tremendous power and opportunity to direct the                Any why does God use unbelievers like this for
Jews in all their affairs  - appointed a time of the        the good of His church? He certainly does not need
year, "And that these days should be remembered             them. He could have saved His people without one
and kept throughout every generation, every fami-           man's help. He did that in Egypt. He sent ten terri-
ly, every province, and every city . . . ."  Then strik-    ble plagues upon the enemy without the mind and
ingly enough we read, "Then Esther the queen . . .          ingenuity of a single man. What is more, He spared
and Mordecai the Jew wrote with all authority to            the Israelites of the last seven plagues. He could
confirm this second letter." And what was in the            have done that here. He could have decimated the
letter? In Esther  922  we read, "That they should          enemy here by terrible plagues. He did not need
make them days of feasting and joy, and of sending          another nation of men to come and take over and
portions one to another, and gifts to the poor."            make new rules which would not call for the death
Where do you read, "And thanks unto the Lord our            of all the Jews. He could have instilled such fear in
God?" Verse 18 says that they made it a day of              the hearts of the king and his servants that would
feasting and of gladness. Verse 19 says in addition,        cause them to change the law of the Medes and the
"And a good day, and of sending portions one to             Persians that otherwise "altereth not." That is not
another." What God did is ignored, because it is not        too hard for Him.
looked upon as His work. Faith  sees.Him. Unbelief            But, in the first place, it sovereignly pleased Him
looks the other way, speaks of evolution, luck  -           to do it this way for the glory of His own name. He
and sad to say so many of us do that too  - or,             had promised the Messiah in the line of Abraham
because man cannot get away from the truth that             and David. And He will in the future get Him honor
there is a God." For the invisible things of Him are        by the praise of those who see His mighty hand and
clearly seen by the things that are made, even His          loving faithfulness. And yet there is more to be
eternal power and Godhead; so that they are with-           said. He uses unbelievers that you and I (and all His
out excuse" (Romans  1:20).  They will speak of a           elect children in these last days) may have written
Ring Providence, or even Mother Nature, and cater           and preserved for us and our children His way of
to those who today so wickedly say that God, al-            using the chaff to serve the wheat. He shows us
though He uses the masculine pronoun and article,           that, although it does not always look that way, He
is feminine!                                                is working all things together for our good. This
  Even his going to Esther for help was an act of           book is here to cheer us and to assure us in the
unbelief. Indeed we must make use of all the                dreadful days ahead that He has perfect control


38                                             THE STANDARD BEARER



over all creation; and the very enemies who seek              unwillingly, as in this book  - the church of God's
our destruction serve  - be it unconsciously and              l o v e .
FROM HOLY WRIT


      Believing All the Prophetic Scriptures (XV)
                                                    Rev. G. Lubbers




        "The Church-Age" In Premillennialism                  denied by dispensationalism of every hue and col-
      It is important that a few words be written in this     or.
series on the positive teaching of the prophetic                     There is a certain logic of error in the denial that
Scriptures concerning the  church  of Jesus Christ. In        all the elect are the church of all ages, past, present,
doing so we are defending the faith of the Fathers;           and future. The true confession concerning the ho-
we are contending for the faith once delivered to             ly Catholic Church stands as a bulwark of defense
the saints (Jude 3).                                          against the teaching of the Premillennially con-
      The church is the pillar and ground of the truth;       ceived "rapture"; particularly against those who
we are, therefore, set for a defense of the Gospel.           call themselves Pre-Tribulationist confessors of the
The sword of the Spirit we are called to wield in             "rapture", that is, those who argue for the "rap-
Christ's Name. Our weapons are not fleshly but                ture" to take place before the great "Tribulation"
they are spiritual, in order to bring every thought           of the seven years, holding the position that the rap-
unto the obedience of Christ (II Cor.  10:4).                 tured saints will not need to pass through that tribu-
                                                              lation.
      It is imperative that in this study our hearing be
mingled with faith, as well as our writing and read-            This is somewhat of a shibboleth with  Pre-Tribu-
ing.                                                          lationists in contrast with the Post-Tribulation  Pre-
                                                              millennialists.
      We are engaged in defending an Article of our
undoubted Christian Faith: I beZieve  an holy cathoZic          Be this all as it may, the fact is that the Confes-
church! And this is inclusive of the article, "The            sion concerning the Holy Catholic Church is sacri-
communion of saints." And we must, we repeat it               ficed on the altar of a rapture theory, an  unBiblica1
knowingly, we must be good workmen toward                     teaching concerning a Jewish Millennium.
God, rightly dividing the word of truth; we must                This we hope to show conclusively in this study.
not be put to shame by the Lord Who is the God of               It is the contention (!) of dispensationalism that
truth by Whom we swear.                                       the  concept  church, as confessed in all churches,
      Admittedly, the truth of the Scripture concerning       must give way for the view and the structures of
the church, Biblical and Reformed Ecclesiology,               Premillennial thought. According to this latter view
stands in the focal-point of this study concerning            there is no "church" in the Old Testament Dispen-
the so-called church-age of Premillennialism. John            sation. In the Old Testament we find only the
F. Walvoord in his  The  Raptwe  Question admits this         "kingdom of Israel," that is, of the "Jews," while in
explicitly. He writes a chapter on "The Promise Of            the New Testament we are dealing with a certain
His Coming" in which he treats such questions                 church in a church-age, which is somehow simply a
as the doctrine of the "Tribulation." He also treats          period of time, when the kingdom must wait to be
the "doctrine of the church" in relation to the               given to the Jewish nation, and the promises to
"Rapture Question."                                          them as proclaimed by the prophets to be fulfilled
      The definition "that the church is an all-inclusive    to them.
term that is synonym with the term  elect  and                  Those who speak of a "church" within a church-
saints"  premillennialism rejects. The confessional          age deny the Catholicity of the church, that is, they
truth that the "saints of the past, present and future       deny that "the Son of God gathers a church elect
ages are included in the church" is categorically            unto everlasting life" from the beginning of the

                                                                                                                          -


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                                39



world to the end of time!                                 guish the linguistic usage of ecclesia. Never do they
  After a period of two years of study and exegesis       translate  ecclesia by any other term than  church! In
I am profoundly convinced that the teaching of Pre-       contrast with this, the aforesaid Interlinear transla-
millennialism is to be denominated as being heresy!       tion never uses the word church but only assembly!
It is false teaching. It is a leaven which eats as a        In this madness there is method!
canker into the fabric of the structural truths of          This is a denial of an Article of our Christian
Scriptural teaching, and it is not really conducive to    Faith.
godliness, but genders many word-battles. But edi-
fication is not achieved.                                   It is a repudiation of what we so beautifully con-
                                                          fess with all the saints of the ages, and which  ihe
  Furthermore, we are convinced, and we intend            Heidelberg Catechism so clearly and succinctly
to show this from good, sound exegesis, that a mere       states in the following words:
study of the etymology of terms such as the                 "Ques. What believest thou concerning the
Hebrew  QahaZ   (assembly = congregation) and             `holy catholic church' of Christ?
other related Hebrew verbs and nouns is not                 "Answer: That the Son of God from the begin-
decisive for the implication of their meaning. And        ning to the end of world, gathers, defends and
the translation of the Hebrew noun with the Greek         preserves to himself by His Spirit and word, out of
ecdesiu too needs some careful study of this term in      the whole human race, a church chosen to everlast-
its immediate and broader contexts in Scripture.          ing life, agreeing in true faith; and of which I am
What we need is solid exegesis and interpretation         and always shall remain a living member." (Ques-
of the Scriptures in the light of Scripture, and we       tion and Answer 54)
must be certain that our teaching is according to the
sound words of the evangelical doctrine, the pat-           Of what should this be a warning to us? Are we
tern of sound words to which we have been                 here dealing merely with a quibbling about words,
delivered (Rom. 6: 17). The Greek in Romans  6:17         some shadow-boxing and fencing?
requires that we translate not as does the KJV              Not at all!
"delivered to us," but "to which we have been de-           It as a matter of the greatest importance, both
livered." This is correct in the Holland Version, as      theologically and spiritually. It is the question of
well as other English translations. The great cove-       our glad assurance that we are not merely members
nant word of God is and was, "I am the Lord thy           of some local assembly of a given group of people,
God," and also "ye are My people." Such is the            but whether we are living members of those  in-
framework of all the words of God to Israel in the        grafted into Christ as the true Vine, the planting of
Old Testament as well as in the New Testament.            the heavenly husbandman, our Father in heaven
  It is interesting to notice the studied way in          (John  15:1-15),  and whether we are abiding in Him
which the term  ecdesia  in both the Old and New          and bear much fruit to the glory of God's everlast-
Testament is made to signify merely an "assem-            ing and sovereign grace.
bly." That the church is the "body" of Christ is             Hence, we insist that also this truth of the
then not mentioned at all. Even in Ephesians  1:22,       "Church of Christ" is  necessary  for a Christian to
23 the term  ecdesia is translated simply by the term     believe as an integral part of the revealed promise
"assembly." We shall come back to this later and          of God to the fathers and which was fulfilled by the
show exegetically that this is selling the term  ec-      resurrection of Jesus Christ for us the children of
cZesiu   short of the meaning which Paul had in mind      these fathers (Acts 13:32, 33). The very truth of the
in this grand section of the Epistle to the Ephesians.    Gospel is at stake. The Locus of Ecclesiology is not a
A year ago I purchased an "Interlinear  Greek-            mere appendage of the body of Christian truth. It is
English New Testament" with  Lexica and Syno-             the building which Christ builds upon the chief cor-
nyms, authored by G.R. Berry. I have received             nerstone. In truth, the doctrine of the church is the
great benefit from the use of this book; however, I       very "rock of offense"' for Premillennialism in all of
am not deceived by the Dispensational flavor and          its Dispensational ramifications.
bias of the book as to the translation of certain key-
words. There is an avowed purpose to render the              Those who deny the "church" in the Old Testa-
Greek ecclesia by the English term "assembly." The        ment deny the one "promise" of God fulfilled in
KJV translates this noun some 112 times by                Christ. Consequently they also deny that there is
"church" and 3 times it is rendered "assembly."           but one Gospel of God, as this is defined in Ques-
These latter times are used in Acts  19:32, 39, 41 of     tion 19 of the Heidelberg Catechism. (Read from
the gathering, the mob against Paul in Ephesus, and       your own  PsaZter  until you have memorized it!)
of the legal town counsel. This shows that the West-         Which are the four elements pointed out by our
minster and Anglican fathers knew now to distin-          Reformed fathers? They are the following:


40                                              THE STANDARD BEARER



      a. First of all revealed by God Himself in  para-       political, spiritual, Israelitish, universal, over
dise (Gen. 3:15).                                             which God's Son, David's heir, shall be king for
      b. Afterwards published by the patriarchs and           one thousand years, the manifestation of the  righ-
prophets (Gen.  2217,  18;  28:14;  Rom.  1:2;  John          teousness of God in human affairs."
4:46).                                                          Of this gospel Scofield posits two different teach-
      c. Represented by sacrifices and other  cere-           ings, preachings.
monies of the law (Heb.  10:7, 8).                              The first is during the time of John the Baptist,
      d. Lastly, fulfilled by God's only begotten Son         Jesus, the Apostles. This preaching ended when the
(Rom.  10:4; Heb.  13:8).                                     Jews rejected their King. And this means that the
                                                              gospel of the kingdom of heaven is not being
      It is Scofield who rather speaks of "four fawns"  of    preached at all during the entire time which is  er-
the Gospel in the pattern of Dispensation-error. At-          roneously called the "church-age."
tend to the following which may be found verbatim
in notes under Revelation  14:6, page 1343 of the               The second time of preaching of this "kingdom"
Scofieldian "Bible."                                          is after the church-age has ended, and, therefore,
                                                              during the time of the "seven years." It will be im-
      As might be expected Scofield, first of all, singles    mediately before the coming of the King of glory to
out what he calls the  gospeZ   of  the  Kingdom. And  ac-    establish His earthly reign with natural Israel, in
cording to Scofield this "gospel" is the "good news           which establishment the saints of the church-age
that God purposes to set up on earth, in fulfilment           shall not share.
of the Davidic Covenant (II Sam. 7:16ff) a kingdom                                              (will be continued)

TAKING HEED TO THE DOCTRINE


                 Preservation and Perseverance (5)
                                                    Rev. H. Veldman




      In our preceding article we presented the  Armi-        the Arminians are not difficult to refute, and that it
nian grounds for their conception that we are                 is somewhat strange for these remonstrants to
preserved because we persevere. In the Arminian               quote such passages from Holy Writ as they quote
scheme of things MAN is always first. Salvation is            in the Fifth Point of their Remonstrance and then
either of God or of man; it is dependent upon God             say in the Fifth Point that it must still be deter-
and determined by God or it is dependent upon                 mined from Scripture whether one who once had
man and determined by man. It is either condition-            life in Christ can fall away into sin and destruction.
al or unconditional and sovereign. A third possibil-          One thing is sure: how uncertain they may be con-
ity is inconceivable. And we also noted that Armi-            cerning the perseverance of the saints, they surely
nianism, Pelagianism, Roman Catholicism, pagan-               reject the position of the Word of God that nothing
ism all have this in common: the work of man is               can ever separate us from the love of God which is
elevated to that position of prominence whereby he            in Christ Jesus, our Lord. However, be all this as it
controls and determines his own salvation. "Saved             may, the grounds of the Arminians are surely easily
by works," is the slogan of every religion which is           refuted.
not anchored in the unchangeable sovereignty of                 First, in connection with the Scriptural examples
the alone living God. To be sure, these heresies will         of those who have become unfaithful, the word of
tell you that all salvation is solely by the grace of         God as recorded in I John  2:19 surely applies, and
God, but it is the will of the sinner which deter-            we quote: "They went out from us, but they were
mines when and how long this grace of God will                not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no
operate in that sinner.                                       doubt have continued with us: but they went out,
      Now we concluded our preceding article with             that they might be made manifest that they were
the observation that these arguments or grounds of            not of us." This passage speaks for itself.


r                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                              41
  Secondly, in connection with the passage of              He might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Hebrews  6:4-S  we may say the following.  On the          Moreover, whom He did predestinate,. them He
one hand, to be "renewed again unto repentance"            also called: and whom He called, them He also
does not mean that they had been renewed unto              justified: and whom He justified, them He also
repentance in the past, but it does mean that they         glorified." That God, according to Romans  8:29,
had been renewed according to their confession.            foreknew His own does not mean, we understand,
On the other hand, that they tasted the good word          that He  foreknew them as the Arminians would
of God, etc., must not be understood in the spiritual      have us believe, a divine foreknowledge based
sense of the word, but naturally and intellectually.       upon foreseen faith. This would be in direct con-
And this is verified in the verses 7-8 which speak of      flict with what we read in Ephesians  1:4,  that God
herbs and thorns and briers  - hence, these people         chose us, not because we were holy, but in order
who fall away are thorns and briers, not herbs, and        that we should be holy. This divine foreknowledge
thorns and briers never were herbs.                        is a knowledge of divine love, which is sovereign
  Thirdly, the Arminians quote John  15:1-4, and           and therefore always precedes His people in the
we quote: "I am the true vine and My Father is the         Lord's eternal will and counsel. And, in connection
husbandman. Every branch in Me that beareth not            with this decree of election, our preservation is
fruit He taketh away: and  every branch that               sure, on the one hand, because God's counsel shall
beareth fruit, He purgeth it, that it may bring forth      stand, as we read in Isaiah  46:lO:  "Declaring the
more fruit. Now ye are clean through the word              end from the beginning, and from ancient times the
which I have spoken unto you. Abide in Me, and I           things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel
in you. As the branch cannot bear of itself, except it     shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure." And, on
abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide         the other hand, our preservation is sure, as rooted
in Me." These branches that are in Christ, do not          in divine election, because we read in Hebrews
bear fruit, and are taken away, must not be under-         6:17: "Wherein God, willing more abundantly to
stood as being in Christ personally, spiritually, and      shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of
individually. This is impossible in the light of Scrip-    His counsel, confirmed it by an oath." Notice, we
ture which teaches us that Christ abides in us for-        read here that God's counsel is immutable. And
ever. But these branches were in Christ organically.       now, to show more abundantly this immutability of
This means that they were in Christ in their genera-       His counsel, the Lord confirms it by an oath. The
tions. Hence, they were in this organism whereof           Lord, shall we say, will take no chances. He will
Christ is the true vine in-past generations. And that      not extend to men an offer which would imply that
they will be taken away means that they will be            the salvation of a sinner depends upon his will. He
removed from this organism.                                confirms it by an oath, will assume full responsibil-
                                                           ity for the salvation of His elect own.
  Finally, as far as the Scriptural admonitions are
concerned, the Christian warrier is assured before           Secondly, this preservation is rooted in particular
the battle that he will win, and the runner is             atonement. We read in John  6:39: "And this is the
assured before the race that he will gain the prize.       Father's will which hath sent Me, that of all which
Does this mean that the  warrior,is assured that he        He hath given Me, I should lose nothing, but
will win without fighting and the runner is assured        should raise it up again at the last day." Mind you,
of the prize without running? This, we understand,         this is the Father's will, the Father's mandate. Did
is unadulterated nonsense.                                 the Father mandate the Christ to save the whole
                                                           world, head for head, every soul? Indeed not! He
  Over against this Arminian view we now present           commissioned the Christ to lose nothing of all
the Reformed and Scriptural view. In the first place,      which He had given Him. And in John  lo:15  we
this presentation of the people of God is rooted in        read: "As the Father knoweth Me, even so know I
divine election. We read in Ephesians 1:3-5: "Bless-       the Father: and I lay down My life for the sheep."
ed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,         And if you inquire into the identity of these sheep,
Who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in        then the Saviour declares later in this tenth chapter
heavenly places in Christ; According as He hath            of John that they are those who have been given
chosen us in Him before the foundation of the              Him by the Father. And, mind you, these sheep
world, that we should be holy and without blame            shall be preserved. Of this there cannot possibly be
before Him in love: Having predestinated us unto           any doubt. According to John  6:37  they shall come
the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself,       unto Christ. We read: "All that the Father giveth
according to the good pleasure of His will." And in        Me shall come to Me; and him that cometh to Me I
Romans  8:29-30  we have the well-known passage:           will in no wise cast out.' Moreover, they shall never
"For whom He did foreknow, He also did predes-             perish; and this we read in John  10:28: "And I give
tinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that       unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish,


42                                             THE STANDARD BEARER



neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand."              men verily swear by the greater; and an oath for
And finally, Jesus will raise them up at the last day,         confirmation is to them an end of all strife.
according to John 6:40: "And this is the will of Him           Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew un-
that sent Me, that everyone which seeth the Son,               to the heirs of promise the immutability of His
and believeth on Him, may have everlasting life:               counsel, confirmed it by an oath: That by two im-
and I will raise him up at the last day." This same            mutable things, in which it was impossible for God
thought is also expressed in John 6:44. Indeed, how            to lie, we might have a strong consolation who have
certain is the preservation of Christ's sheep!                 fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before
      Thirdly, this preservation of the saints is assured      us." What are these two immutable things? Ob-
because the Holy Spirit will abide with them                   viously, one of them is God's counsel. The text
forever. Does it not strike our readers how simple             speaks of the immutability of Gods counsel. The
and clear these passages are in the Word of our                other immutable thing is God's oath-bound prom-
God? We read this in John  14:16: "And I will pray             ise, God cannot lie. That is impossible. He is the
the Father and He shall give you another Comforter             God of eternal, unchangeable truth. God, because
that He may abide with you forever." This                      He would shew more abundantly the  unchange-
"another" Comforter is the Holy Spirit, the third              ableness of His counsel, confirms it by an oath,
Person of the divine Trinity, but then as the Spirit          takes no "chances," will take upon Himself the
of Christ. This implies that there is another Com-             salvation of His own, swears by Himself to save all
forter besides the Holy Spirit. This other Comforter          His own, His sheep, the heirs of the promise, even
is our Lord Jesus Christ. He represents us in heaven          unto the very end. What a mighty Scripture this is!
before the throne of God. He prays and intercedes             And the Lord does this that we might have a strong
for us before the Father. The Holy Spirit is our              consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold
Comforter in our hearts. He intercedes and prays              upon the hope set before us. The child of God now
for us with groanings, sighs that cannot be uttered,          takes his position between these two immutable
according to Romans  826-27.  Our Intercessor in              things. He looks, on the one hand, to Gods un-
heaven, the Lord Jesus Christ, is familiar with these         changeable counsel, and, on the other hand, he sets
prayers, these sighs of the Holy Spirit within us,            his eye upon the Lord's oath-bound promise. And
and conveys them to His Father. And the Father,               he knows that his preservation is sure. Then we
the Triune God, knowing (approvingly) the mind of             also read in Hebrews  13:20-21:  "Now the God of
the Spirit, hearkens to these prayers of the Holy             peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord
Spirit and of the Lord Jesus Christ because,                  Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the
although we know not what to pray for as we                   blood of the everlasting covenant, Make you
ought, the Spirit is acquainted with all our weak-            perfect in every good work to do His will, working
nesses and infirmities, and He knows what is good             in you that which is well-pleasing in His sight,
for us and what we need. This Spirit, we read, will           through Jesus Christ to Whom be glory for ever and
abide with us forever. Of this there cannot possibly          ever. Amen." What a mighty word of consolation
be any doubt.                                                 also this Word of God is! To God be all the glory for
                                                              ever and ever. And the inspired writer concludes
  Fourthly, the preservation of the saints is sure            this Scripture with the solemn Amen, which means
because God's covenant is firm and sure, and it is            that thus it shall be. Of this there cannot possibly
confirmed with an oath. Beautifully this is set forth         be any doubt.
by the inspired writer in Hebrews  6:16-18: "For

FAITH OF OUR FATHERS


                                     The Nicene Creed
                                                 Rev. James Slopsema

                                                   Article 8 (cont'd)


  We have already learned that originally this 8th            believe in the Holy Ghost." In 381 the Council of
article of the Nicene Creed was very short. In 325            Constantinople added to this article so that it read,
the Council of  Nicea simply confessed, "And I                 "And I believe in the Holy Ghost, Who is Lord and


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER,                                                 43



Giver of life, Who proceedeth from the Father,              His eternal Son Who bears His image.
Who with the Father and the Son together is  wor-             The third person of the Godhead, however, is not
shipped and glorified, Who spake by the prophets."          another Son. There is only one Son in the Godhead.
All that was added by Constantinople was designed           The third person of the Godhead is the Spirit. As
to establish the true divinity of the Holy Spirit.          the name "Spirit" indicates, He is the One Whom
Finally, one more addition was made by the Synod            the Father "breathes forth." Hence, the Scriptures
of Toledo in 589. This addition was the famous              speak of the fact that the Spirit "proceeds" from the
"filioque" clause, which is Latin for "and the Son."        Father. And this the early church confessed also in
This was inserted by the Latin or western church            this article of the Nicene Creed to distinguish the
after the phrase "who proceedeth from the                   Spirit from the Father and the Son, Who with the
Father," so that the church confessed a double pro-         Father and the Son is truly God.
cession of the Spirit from the Father and the Son.            In summary, the church confessed at the Council
  Having already discussed the confession of the            of Constantinople that the Son is generated ek (out
early church that the Holy Spirit is the Lord and           of) the Father whereas the Holy Spirit proceeds ek
Giver of life, we now turn our attention to the proc-       (out of) the Father. But because both are ek (out of)
lamation of the Council of Constantinople that the          the Father, they both are truly God with the Father.
Holy Spirit "proceeded from the Father."                      In 589 the Synod of Toledo added another phrase
  This particular expression is taken from John             to this part of the church's confession. This is the
15:26, where Jesus instructs His disciples, "But            ' `filioque" clause which means "and the Son."
when the Comforter is come, whom I will send un-            Through this addition, which was accepted only by
to you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth,           the western or Latin branch of the church, the
which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify          church confessed that the Holy Spirit proceeds
of Me."                                                     from the Father and the Son.
  It's rather significant that the early church did           That the Spirit proceeds from the Son as well as
not give an exact quote of the expression found in          the Father is certainly Biblical. The procession of
John  15:26. In the original Greek of this passage we       the Spirit as such is mentioned only once in the
read that the Spirit proceeds paru  (from the side or       Scriptures. This is in John  15:26, to which we called
vicinity of) the Father. In the Nicene Creed we read        attention above: "But when the Comforter is come,
that the Holy Spirit proceeds  ek  (from, or out of) the    Whom I (i.e., Jesus) will send unto you from the
Father. Now the meaning in both instances is                Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth
essentially the same. However, the early church             from the Father, He will testify of Me." Now it cer-
fathers changed the para of John  15:26 to ek in their      tainly must be granted that the Holy Spirit in this
confession to emphasize that the Holy Spirit is God         passage is said to proceed from the Father with no
just as truly as is the Son.                                mention being made of the Son. However, even in
  In Article 2 of this same creed the church con-           this passage there is indication that the Spirit pro-
fessed that Jesus Christ is "very God of  (ek - from,       ceeds also from the Son. For it is Jesus Christ, as the
out of) very God." The meaning of that expression           Son of God, Who will send the Holy Spirit from the
is that Jesus is truly God. As God He finds His             Father to the church. Besides, in Romans  89  the  '
source in One Who also is truly God. The "very              Holy Spirit is mentioned in one breath as the Spirit
God" in Whom the Son finds His source is, of                of God and the Spirit of Christ: "But ye are not in
course, God the Father. And the point of this ex-           the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of
pression is that the Son is out of the Father in such a     God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the
way that He is truly God with the Father.                   Spirit of Christ, he is none of His." And in Galatians
  Now to emphasize that the Holy Spirit is also tru-        4: 16 the Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of God's Son:
ly God with the Father and the Son, the Council of          "And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the
Constantinople confessed that the Spirit also is  ek        Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba,
(out of) the Father. Even as the Son is ek (out of) the     Father." All this certainly indicates that the Spirit
Father and thus truly God, so also is the Holy Spirit.      also proceeds from the Son as well as the Father.
   However, it is not sufficient to leave the matter          This additional thought that the Spirit proceeds
here. For the Son and the Spirit are not ek (out of)        also from the Son is quite significant. Its signifi-
the Father in the same sense.                               cance is to be found in the fact that it contradicts
  The Son is  ek  (out of) the Father by reason of eter-    any idea of subordination within the Godhead.
nal generation. Eternally the first person of the             The early church fathers who gathered at the
Godhead generates the second person so that the             Council of Constantinople in 381 were exclusively
first person is the Father and the second person is         from the eastern or Greek branch of the church.


  44                                              THE STANDARD  BEARER



  And it becomes clear from some of their writings                In harmony with this equality in the Godhead,
  that they definitely maintained a subordination               the Latin church, due by and large to the efforts of
  within the Godhead. They taught that the Father is            Augustine, also acknowledged a double procession
  higher in rank and importance than the Son and the            of the Spirit. The significance of this is obvious. The
  Spirit. And the Son, in turn, is also higher than the         Spirit proceeds not just from the Father but also
  Spirit.                                                       from the Son. The Father is not the sole source or
        The formulation of the Council of Constantino-          fountain of the Godhead. For the Father and the
  ple by these same men tended also to promote this             Son together are the source of the Spirit. They both
  subordination idea. For Constantinople in this 8th            are active in the breathing forth of the third person
  article of the Nicene Creed confessed only that the           of the Godhead. This definitely tends to rule out all
  Spirit proceeds from the Father. This suggested that          ideas of subordination, at least on the part of the
  the Father is the sole source of the Godhead. The             Son and the Father. It speaks rather of equality, an
  Son is generated from the Father and the Spirit pro-          equality that can not be limited to the Father and
  ceeds from the Father. All things in the Godhead              the Son, but must also extend to the Holy Spirit.
  find their source therefore in the Father. And so               To this double procession of the Spirit from the
  room is certainly left for the idea that the Father is        Father and the Son the Latin church gave expres-
  in some way superior to the Son and the Spirit.               sion in the Synod of Toledo in 589 by adding the
        In all fairness, to  .the fathers of Constantinople,    famous "filioque" clause to this 8th article.
  however, it must also be remembered that it was                 The eastern or Greek branch of the church,
  not their intent to deny the procession of the Spirit         which today is known as the Greek or Eastern Or-
  from the Son. This will become evident if we bear             thodox Church, never accepted this addition. Even
  in mind especially two things. In the first place, the        today she denies the double procession of the
  primary intent of the fathers of Constantinople in            Spirit. She clings to the formulation of the Nicene
  formulating this particular article as they did was to        Creed as set forth by the Council of Constantinople,
  oppose the error of the Arians and the  Macedo-               confessing only that the Spirit proceeds from the
  nians, followers of Macedonius, who were  Semi-               Father. And in harmony with that she has persisted
  Arians. Both the Arians and the Macedonians main-             down through the ages to maintain a certain subor-
  tained that the Holy Spirit was merely a creature,            dination within the Godhead among the three per-
  created by the Son. Over against this error the               sons of the trinity. The fruit of this has been sad.
  fathers of Constantinople sought to establish that            Whenever the church departs from the truth of
  the Spirit proceeds directly from the Father, even            Scripture, that departure works as a leaven to
  as the Son is begotten directly from the Father, and          destroy the church. And this is what happened
  thus is truly God with the Son. To emphasize this,            with the eastern, Greek branch of the church.
  they confessed the procession of the Spirit from the          Clinging to the error of subordination in the God-
  Father without even mentioning procession from                head, she soon died spiritually and is dead even to-
  the Son. In the second place, it must also be born in         d a y .
  mind that whereas some of the eastern or Greek                  The western or Latin branch of the church,
" church fathers did specifically repudiate the pro-            however, having embraced the truth of the equality
  cession of the Spirit from the Son, many did not. In          within the Godhead continued to flourish. It is true
  fact, some definitely maintained a double proces-             that the Latin church, known to us as the Roman
  sion of the Spirit from the Father and the Son.               Catholic Church, died a horrible death due to other
        In the western or Latin branch of the church,           errors that eventually crept in. Nevertheless, the
  however, a different spirit prevailed. All ideas of           church of Christ revived through the Protestant
  subordination within the Godhead were repud-                  Reformation of the 16th century and continues to
  iated. The Latin church clearly saw the equality of           live today. And she continues to live on the basis of
  the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit within the God-              the all-important truth that God is triune, three per-
  head. Not one is above the other in rank or impor-            sons in one being, and that these three are co-
  tance; all three are equal, for all partake equally of        eternal, co-essential, and thus co-equal.
  the divine nature.

                  The Standard Bearer makes a thoughtful
                                gift for the sick and shut-in.


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 45



IN HIS FEAR:


                                 Christian Fellowship
                                            Pastor Arie den Hartog



  Friendliness is a virtue that should be manifest        ship with the people of the world in their wicked-
by the grace of God in our lives as Christians.           ness. It will be natural for the Christian if he lives
Christians should be known above all others as peo-       godly that the world will hate him. There are no ex-
ple who are warm and friendly. In this also we            ceptions to that. The Christian does not go to the
must reflect the blessed glories of our God. We           world's parties and dances and movies. He feels en-
know our God to be a covenant God, a truth that is        tirely out of place there. The things that are done
very dear to us. As Reformed Christians we know           there'are abhorrent to him. The Christian does not
that the covenant of God is the wonderful personal        walk in the counsel of the ungodly nor stand in the
relationship of friendship that God has with His          way of sinners nor sit in the seat of the scornful.
people. The Lord the covenant God takes His peo-          For his delight is in the law of the Lord and in that
ple into His own life and fellowship and commu-           law he meditates day and night.
nion. This is more than an abstract doctrine for the        True Christian friendship is not unprincipled
Christian. It is a wonderful, blessed reality which       and compromising. There are of course those who
we experience through the Word and Spirit of God          would be the friends of all men. They will go to
as we live in daily communion with our God. As            great lengths to be the friends of all, even to the
Christians we must seek to reflect in a creaturely        point of compromising the truth of Christ Jesus and
way the beautiful reality of God's friendship to          partaking of the evil practices of ungodly men. This
others. It is disgraceful and dishonoring to God          is Christ-denying friendship. The Bible teaches us
when Christians show themselves to be unfriendly,         that we are not to have company with those who
rude, and even obnoxious to their neighbors.              obey not the truth and those who walk disorderly.
  Christian friendship is rooted in Christ Jesus.           Friends can have a great influence upon each
That means that Christian friends have fellowship         other. Or perhaps we should say friends will inevi-
and communion together in the love and truth of           tably have a great influence upon each other. This is
Christ Jesus. In that love they have a fervent per-       perhaps more true for young people but it is also
sonal concern one for another. They know each             true for mature adults, perhaps more than we
other's problems and trials and difficulties and real-    realize. The old adage that a man is known by the
ly care about them. Christian friends help each           company he keeps has a lot of truth to it. Worldly
other in their needs and struggles, they seek to pro-     and evil friends surely will have an evil influence
mote each other's welfare as Christians. Christian        upon our lives. When we are found in their com-
friends have a common love for the truth. They ad-        pany there will be great temptation and pressure to
monish and exhort each other in that truth. They          compromise, at first perhaps in small ways but
walk together according to that truth. Christian          finally even in major things. Good Christian friends
friends seek to walk together in sanctification and       on the other hand have a sanctifying influence
holiness. They are radically different from the  so-      upon each other. They are a great support and en-
called friends of the world who are partners in           couragement to each other as far as the truth and
wickedness. Christian friends delight in each             sanctification is concerned. Solomon states: "Iron
other's company and fellowship. In this they bring        sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the counte-
great blessing to each other.                             nance of his friend" (Proverbs  27:17).  Thank the
  There is according to the Bible an evil friendship.     Lord for the good influence of friends upon our life.
The friendship of the world is enmity with God.           Thank the Lord for their encouragement and sup-
The Christian may not find his friends among the          port in our life. True friends can exhort and admon-
world. There is something seriously wrong with the        ish one another in love without fear of offending. In
Christian who is constantly found in the company          this manner they can bring correction and change
of the ungodly. The Christian may not have fellow-        in our life. How needful it is for all of us constantly


46                                             THE STANDARD BEARER



to be corrected and changed.                                 gospel. Many churches expend great efforts to
      Friendship can serve a wonderful purpose in the        distribute tracts and handbills and to advertise pro-
church of Jesus Christ. The church should be a               grams of the church. Often this is done in com-
warm communion of friendship. The world should               mendable zeal and love for the Lord. But sometimes
stand amazed at our church when they behold how              this is just too impersonal to be very effective. Dr.
we love one another. In the world men are imper-             J.I. Packer in his book  Evangelism and the Sovereignty
sonal, careless, and unconcerned about each other.           of God makes some very worthwhile comments.
How sad when the members of the church are that                     And the remind us, second, that personal evange-
way to each other. Though a city may be populated                lism needs normally to be founded on friendship. You
with millions, many of those millions are often                  are not usually justified in choosing the subject of con-
miserably lonely and destitute. Christian friendship             versation with another till you have already begun to
must first of all be evident among the members of                give yourself to him in friendship and established a
the church. Otherwise, of course, showing such                   relationship with him in which he feels that you re-
friendship to outsiders will be evident of hypocrisy.            spect him, and are interested in him, and are treating
                                                              - him as a human being, and not just as some kind of
It is very sad when there are those in the church of             `case.' With some people you may establish such a  re-
Jesus Christ who suffer from loneliness and isola-               lationship in five minutes, whereas with others it may
tion. The whole church bears the responsibility and              take months. But the principle remains the same. The
shame for this. We must always be watchful in the                right to talk intimately to another person about the
church for those who might need to be befriended                 Lord Jesus Christ has to be earned, and you earn it
and encouraged. The homes of the members of the                  by convincing him that you are his friend, and really
church should be centers of Christian hospitality                care about him. And therefore the indiscriminate but-
for other members of our church. Some of the                     tonholing, the intrusive barging in to the privacy of
members of the church enjoy rich and wonderful                   other people's souls, the thick-skinned insistence on
blessings of the Lord in their homes. Others may                 expounding the things of God to reluctant strangers
not have such great blessings. We must always be                 who are longing to get away  - these modes of be-
                                                                 havior, in which strong and loquacious personalities
ready to share of the rich abundance which the                   have sometimes indulged in the name of personal
Lord has given to us with others.                                evangelism, should be written off as a travesty of
      The church must also be the place where                    personal evangelism. Impersonal evangelism would
strangers can  find the blessedness of Christian                be a better name for them! In fact rudeness of this
friendship. It must not be an exclusive society                  sort dishonours God; moreover, it creates resentment,
where things such as tradition and national origin               and prejudices people against Christ whose professed
are a hindrance to outsiders coming in. We need to               followers act so objectionably. The truth is that real
                                                                 personal evangelism is very costly, just because it de-
work very hard at making our church a place                      mands of us a really personal relationship with the
where outsiders feel welcome, a place where they                 other man. We have to give ourselves in honest
receive genuine Christian love. No, this alone will              friendship to people, if ever our relationship with
never make the church of Jesus Christ. No amount                 them is to reach the point at which we are justified in
of friendliness and concern will make up for a void              choosing to talk to them about Christ, and can speak
in the preaching of the truth of Christ Jesus. Love              to them about their own spiritual needs without being
and the truth are always inseparably related. True               either discourteous or offensive. If you wish to do per-
Christian fellowship and friendship is not possible              sonal evangelism, then  - and I hope you do; you
where there is the darkness of sin and apostasy.                 ought to - pray for the gift of friendship. A genuine
Nevertheless,, the wonderful truth that we possess               friendliness is in any case a prime mark of the man
as a church must be shared in meekness and love                  who is learning to love his neighbor as himself.
with the stranger that may come into our midst.                We must learn to show ourselves as genuine
The Lord is pleased to add unto His church when              Christian friends to our neighbors, to our working
such a spirit reigns among her members. How                  colleagues and to our relatives outside of our
much can be done to make visitors to our church              church. On this basis we can invite and exhort
feel welcome in our midst!                                   them to come to the house of the Lord with us to
                                                             hear of the wonderful truth which the Lord has
      Christian friendship can also be the basis for per-    given to our church.
sonal evangelism. Again, never will the church be
gathered by friendship alone. It is gathered only              The writer of the book of Hebrews begins the
through the power of the preaching of the gospel.            thirteenth chapter with the beautiful and signifi-
True Christian friendship is the fruit of the gospel         cant exhortation: "Let brotherly love continue. Be
of Christ Jesus in the lives of His saints. God is           not forgetful to entertain strangers; for thereby
pleased to use the virtues and good works of His             some have entertained angels unawares" (Hebrews
saints to bring others under. the hearing of the             13:l   & 2).


r THE STANDARD BEARER                                                                                          47
      Christian friendship is central to what according    naked and ye clothed me: I was in prison, and ye
 to the Lord Jesus shall be found in the truly             came unto me . . . . Verily I say unto you, in as
 righteous children of God in the day of judgment.         much as ye have done it unto one of the least of
 The righteous children of God are described as            these my brethren, ye have done it unto me" (Mat-
 those concerning whom Jesus says, "I was an               thew  25:35,  36, 40). These are called the blessed of
 hungered and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty and ye        the Father who shall inherit the kingdom of heaven
 gave me drink, I was a stranger and ye took me in,        prepared for them.


                                         Book Review

 ST1J DIES IN PAUL'S EPISTLES, by Frederic L.                In this book, the author gives an historical  in-
 Godet; Kregel Publications, 1984; 345 pp., $11.95.        troduction to each epistle of Paul and places it
 (Reviewed by Prof. H. Hanko) .                            within the work of the apostle and within the cir-
                                                           cumstances under which each epistle was written.
      Godet, well-known especially for his commen-         The author has included, not a detailed exposition
 taries on Romans and I Corinthians, also wrote a          of the text, but a general survey of the contents of
 book which serves as an excellent introduction to         the epistles. Although Godet does not enter in
 the epistles of Paul. Kregel has recently reprinted       detail into the question of the authorship of
 this book and we are grateful to Kregel for this,         Hebrews, he apparently assumes that it was Paul
 since the book has been available only in old and         and includes a section on this book.
 used editions.
      Godet lived from  1812-1900  and did his work          We highly recommend this book to our readers.
 mostly in Switzerland, where he was an influential        It will be a great help in understanding Paul's
 evangelical scholar and a firm defender of the or-        epistles and will be of assistance to ministers as a
 thodox faith. His commentaries have been used  ex-        book on "Introduction" to this section of the New
                                                           Testament.
 tensively since their writing  and-  have proved
 helpful and worthwhile.



                 Remember a friend or relative with the
                             gift of  the Standard Bearer.
                        Give the Standard Bearer today.

 L



                              Report of Classis West
                                               September  19,1984


      Classis West of the Protestant Reformed  Chur-       Classis for the first time and signed the Formula of       "
 ches met in  Doon, Iowa on September 5, 6, 1984.          Subscription. Rev. R. Cammenga, president-of the .  (a*         a
 Nine ministers and fifteen elders represented the         previous  Classis, opened the meeting of  Classis, by r
 churches of the West. Elders R. Brands (Loveland),        speaking to the delegates from Luke  14:7-11:  ". . .
 J. Lenting (South Holland), H. Molenkamp  (Edmon-         For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased;
 ton), and R. Streyle  (Doon)  were delegated to           and he that humbleth himself'shall be exalted."

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





48                                                         THE STANDARD BEARER

      Classis heard from its Board of Trustees that                           Classis gave classical appointments to Loveland
Classis has now come into possession of the bulk of                        and Lynden according to the following schedule:
a sizable inheritance willed to Classis by a member                        Loveland: Sept. 9, 16  - Bekkering; Sept. 30, Oct. 7,
of one of the churches in the West.  Classis ap-                            14 - Kamps; Oct. 28, Nov. 4, 11 - Koole; Nov. 18,25,
pointed the Council of South Holland as a commit-                          Dec. 2  - Moore; [Dec. 16, 23, 30  - seminarian or
tee of  Classis to advise  Classis on the use of this gift.                emeritus minister]; Jan. 13, 20,27  - Kuiper; Feb. 10,
The Council is to consider suggestions concerning                           17,24   - Smith; March 10,  17,24   - Miersma. Lynden:
the use of the estate already made by many of the                           [Sept. 30 - Nov. 4 - C. Hanko]; Nov. 18.25, Dec. 2 -
Consistories.                                                              Miersma; [Dec. 16, 23, 30  - seminarian or emeritus
      Having taken note of the organization of the new                     minister]; Jan. 13, 20, 27  - Slopsema; Feb. 10, 17  -
church in Grandville, MI,  Classis instructed its                          Engelsma; March 10, 17, 24  - Lanting.
Stated Clerk to welcome our new sister into the                               Most of Classis' time was taken up in judging on
family of churches.                                                        two appeals against a Consistory in closed session.
      Rev. M. Kamps was chosen church visitor to                              ,Classis  will meet next, the Lord willing, in  Ran-
replace Rev. J. Kortering, who has accepted a call                         dolph, WI on March 6, 1985.
into Classis East.                                                                                Rev. David Engelsma, Stated Clerk
                                                                                                                                  Classis West

                                         &port  of Classis  East
                                                               September  12,1984

      Classis East met in regular session on September                     and the following schedule was adopted:
12, 1984 at the Holland Protestant Reformed                                September 23  -  R. Miersma; September 30  - J.
Church. Each church was represented by two dele-                           Kortering; October 7 - M. Joostens; October 14 - C.
gates. Present also were the delegates  ad examina                         Haak; October 21  - B. Gritters; November 4  - R.
from  Classis West. Rev. M. De Vries chaired this                          Flikkema; November 11  - M. De Vries; November
meeting of Classis.                                                        18  - B. Woudenberg; December 2  - G. Van  Baren;
      Certainly the highlight of the meeting was the ex-                   December 9  - J. Kortering; December 16  - M.
amination of Pastor-elect Kenneth Hanko who had                            Joostens; December 30  - C. Haak; January 6  - B.
accepted the call to work as home missionary in the                        Gritters; January 13  - R. Flikkema.
Bluebell, Pennsylvania area. His examination was                              Expenses of the  Classis amounted to $1356.77.
approved, and by the time of this publication he                           ,  Classis will meet next on January 9, 1985 at
will have been ordained in the Covenant Protestant                         Southeast Church.
Reformed Church in Wyckoff, New Jersey.                                                                           Respectfully submitted,
      The other main item of business was the treat-                                                           Jon Huisken, Stated Clerk
ment of a protest submitted by a consistory against
a decision taken by the May 9th  Classis.  Classis
reiterated the advice given by the May  Classis.                                         RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
      Faith Church requested classical appointments                          The Congregation and the Council of the Hope Protestant Re-
                                                                           formed Church, Walker, Michigan, extends its Christian sympathy to
              RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                       our brother office bearer, Elder Peter Knott and his family, in the loss
                                                                           of his brother, MR. ARTHUR KNOTT, on September 20, 1984. May
   The Consistory and the congregation of the Byron Center Protes-         they experience the grace of God in the time of their sorrow.
tant Reformed Church, Byron Center, Michigan, expresses their sym-
pathy to our Elder, Mr. Thomas Knott, the wife, and the family of MR.
ARTHUR KNOTT, whom the Lord took to Himself on September 20,                             RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
1984.                                                                        The congregation and the Council of the Hope Protestant Re-
                                                                           formed Church, Walker, Michigan, extends its Christian sympathy to
   "The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon Him, to all that call    our brother office bearer, Elder Peter Zandstra and his family, in the
upon Him in truth." (Psalm 145:  18).                                      loss- of their grand daughter, PATRICIA ZANDSTRA, aged 3%
Rev. B. Gritters, Pres.                                                    months, on September 25, 1984. May they experience the grace of
S,id  Meidema, Clerk                                                       God in the time of their sorrow.


