                         /                                                       tandard
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                   .          .



A   R E F O R M E D   SEMI;MONTHLY  M A G A Z I N E





            Meditation  - Mary-Rabboni"


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

                                                                                                           `.
            Dayj or Periods'.


            l%e I.C.C.C.





                                                                                       Volume  XLII/ Number 13  / April 1, 1966


  290                                                                                                     THE STANDARD BEARER

                                                             C O N T E N T S
Meditation  -                                                                                                                                   , T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
       "Mary  - Rabboni". . . . ..*........................................ 290
               Rev. J. Kortering                                                                                                          Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July and August
Editorial Note . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ...292               Published by the Reformed Free Publishing Association
               Prof. H. C. Hoeksema                                                                                                                        Editor-- Prof. H. C. Hoeksema
Editorial -
       The Nature of the Atonement: Limited or General? .293                                                                              Communications relative to contents should be addressed to
               Prof. H. C. Hoeksema                                                                                                       Prof. H. C. Hoeksema, 1842 Plymouth Terrace, S.E., Grand
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Contending For The Faith -                                                                                                                All church news items should be addressed toMr.  J. M. Faber,
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              Rev. G. Lubbers
Examining Ecumenicalism  -
       I.C.C.C.  (1) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308          When you hear anyone laughing or jeering at a limit-
              Rev. G. Van Baren                                                                                                           ed atonement, you may tell him this: General atone--
Book Reviews -
       The Cross In The New Testament                                                                                                     ment is like a great wide bridge with only half an
       Commentary On The Epistle To The Hebrews                                                                                           arch; it does not go across the stream, it only pro-
       Principals Of Conduct . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311                        fesses to go half-way; it does not secure the salvation
               Prof. H. C. Hoeksema                                                                                                       of anybody.
News From Our Churches -                                                                                                                                                                 - C .H. Spurgeon
              Mr. J. M. Faber . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ...312


                      MEDITATION-


                                                                                            "Mary  - `Rabboni"

                                                                                                                 by Rev. J. Kortering

                                                           ftJesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself and saith unto Him,
                                                  Rabboni; which is to say, Master."'                                                                     John  20:16


          "Mary stood without at the sepulchre weeping".                                                                                  possible, they came laden with spices and linen. Hope-
          Hot tears flowed from the caverns of her wretched.                                                                              fully this act of love would be a sweet balm for their
  soul.                                                                                                                                   bleeding hearts.
          It had been a long night.                                                                                                             Alas, even this was denied them!
          Very early, while it was yet dark, Mary and the                                                                                       The group of women traversed the familiar path.
  other women plodded their way to the sepulchre. Love                                                                                    As they approached the tomb the haze of dawn illumi-
  brought them there.                                  Wicked men with cruel nails had                                                    nated the garden. Already from some distance they
  pierced Jesus' hands and feet. His side had been torn                                                                                   noticed that the stone was rolled away from the entrance
  by a sword.                           By contrast, these women intended to                                                              to the tomb. At this point Mary Magdalene, relying
  anoint His bruised body for burial. The Sabbath had                                                                                     upon womanly intuition, drew an immediate conclusion,
  prevented them from coming earlier. Now, as soon as                                                                                     "They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre,


                                                   THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 291

  and we know not where they have laid him." With             that flowed from Calvary. She beheld the anguish and
  this shocking evidence emblazoned upon her weary            suffering of the Son of God in our flesh. She, too,
  brain, Mary reversed her steps and raced back to            stood silently through the three hours of darkness.
  Jerusalem to tell  -the disciples. Peter and John re-       She heard Him speak, though she could not understand,
  sponded to her plea to come to the tomb and investigate.    for as yet the mystery of godliness pas ,not revealed.
- -B-efore-long  Mary returned to the tomb, alone.            She watched as Joseph and Nicodenius took down His
      Mary- wept! Nothing seemed to comfort her. Not          body. She marked the place where they laid Him, not
  even the presence of the angels aroused her from her        taking the pains to discern whether His body was pre-
  stupefied sorrow.       "Woman, why  weepest  thou?"        pared for burial. Slowly they trudged into Jerusalem
  There could be only one answer, "They have taken            to wait for the Sabbath.
  away the Lord."                                                    Now she was back. . .and He was gone!
      Till Jesus came and called her by name 1                       Someone had stolen His body. What an agonizing
      Mary!                                                   thought.
      The floodgates of her soul were opened. With out-              The tears flowed.
  stretched arms she ran to embrace Him; her only cry                Jesus knows our every sorrow, andHecares. Of all
  was, "Rabboni".                                             His disciples and followers, Jesus appeared first to
      What a joy it is to meet the living Lord.               Mary.       Some were perplexed over the empty tomb,
      Mary had become closely attached to Jesus. Even         some believed, some doubted, but only one wept, that
  though it is quite impossible for us to construct the       was Mary. Jesus came first to her.            .
  story of her life, we do learn from Scripture that Jesus           "Woman, why weepest thou? Whom. seekest thou?"
  had cast out of her seven devils. This alone speaks                What a powerful question when asked by the living
  volumes concerning the deliverance Jesus had brought        Lord ! It must have been that here, too, Mary's eyes
  her. The life of every person possessed of devils, was      were  holden that she imagined that Jesus was the
  marked by misery in one of its deepest forms. We            gardener. She looked at Jesus but did not know Him.
  have such accounts in the Bible. The devils would           What the eye could not now see, nevertheless was true.
  cause young or old to be cast into the fire, would throw    Mary stood in the presence of Jesus who arose from
  them down on the ground and foam would come from            the dead.       Long ago Christ has prayed through the
  their contorted mouths; sometimes they would follow         mouth of David, "Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell,
  people and bellow out insulting cries. Others who           .neither wilt thou suffer thy holy one to see corruption."
  were demon possessed dwelt unclothed by the deserted        Now He had given His back to the smiters, and His
  tombs and would haunt passers-by. Jesus had cast            tongue had held its peace before the mockers. He was
  seven devils out of Mary.                                   brought as a lamb to the slaughter for He had given
      When Mary had experienced this deliverance by the       His body to be nailed to the cross. He had prayed,
  hand of Jesus, nothing could separate her from Him.         "Father forgive them for they know not what they do".
  Repeatedly we read how Mary the mother of Jesus,            He knew that He would enter into the darkness of hell,
  Mary the mother of James and Joses, Salome, and             for in Gethsemane the very thought flushed. from His
  Joanna along with others, followed Jesus about and          body bloody sweat. He suffered the just wrath of God
  ministered unto Him.         Mary Magdalene was part of     against the sins of His own. It was the only way for
  that faithful band. Her affinity to Christ however, was     Him to enter into glory. On that day He walked willing-
  not merely in the fact that Jesus had delivered her         ly.
  from the clutch of the devil, but she emphatically            He died in victory. As the Son of God in our flesh,
  loved to drink of the water of life freely by which one     death had no power over Him except He willingly gave
  never thirsts again. The tie of faith bound her to her      Himself to death. As soon as He knew that His work
  Lord.                                                       of redemption was finished, He called upon death to
      This bond of faith carried her through all the dark     claim Him and so to bring His body to the grave in order
  hours of the cross. She must have heard early Friday        that also there He might remove the curse forever.
  morning that Jesus had been taken bound into Caiaphas'      That curse had to be removed from every sphere of
  house. It may well be that thedisciples told the women      our existence. Christ bore the wrath of God so that we
  after "the Shepherd was taken and the sheep were            might never have to suffer an ounce of wrath. He was
  scattered".    Along with the faithful band that loved      condemned so that we might be acquitted. He gave His
  Him, Mary too had been troubled with the happenings         body to be bruised in order that we might be healed
  of the day.     She saw how Jesus was beaten by the         from all our diseases. He descended into hell so that
  soldiers. She witnessed the perversion of justice as        we might pass through death unscathed. He went into
  the leaders of the Jews aroused the people to cry for       the tomb in order that the chains of the grave might
  the release of Barabbas rather than Jesus. She saw          be snapped and the way opened for our bodies to pass
  the hypocrisy of Pilate as he washed his hands. She         from death into life.
  followed Jesus as He walked the via doEorosa  from the             As our Lord He prepared this way for us. Jesus
  Praetorium to Golgotha. She heard Him say, "Daughters       arose!
  of Jerusalem, weep not for me, weep for yourselves                 Early in the first day of the week, while the keepers
  and for your children". The hammer blows echoed             slept, while the tomb was sealed, Jesus went through
  within the chambers of her mind; she could never for-       the grave. His body was changed, for it was sown in
  get them. Standing a little way off, she saw the blood      corruption, but raised in incorruption. It was sown.


 292                                                     THESTANDARDBEARER

 a ,natural body, but' raised a spiritual body. It was                      You understand what I mean. How often have you
 sown in weakness, but raised in power. To show this                     in the midst of life forgotten or failed to believe that
 to all who cared, the angels came down from heaven                      Jesus is truly alive and rules. over our. lives? Mary
 and rolled away the stone. The chamber of death was                     forgot the resurrection1
 opened for spectators. There one angel sat at the head,                    That is easy to do. When you carried a loved one
 one at the feet where -Jesus had lain. Between them                     to the grave, you wept, but did you weep as those who
 rested the evidence that Jesus has arisen from the                      have no hope?        So you are in the hospital,.are you
 dead, the grave clothes still wound as it were around                   rebelling? Your son is gone to battle, are you writhing
 a body, but empty.               Jesus had gone from physical           in fearful pain and sleepless nights? As a child of God
 death unto physical life. In His resurrected body, He                   you are concerned for the welfare of the church, do. you
 was now ready for, His place of glory in the Kingdom                    resign the future in fearful dismay?
 of .Heaven.                                                                If you do, you are weeping outside the tomb. You
        Jesus did not return to this life, He went beyond                don't see the living Lord!
 the grave to the place of life everlasting. He arose in                    He calls you by name right now. Do you hear Him?
 a body prepared for heaven.                                             He who. is Lord. over death,. has conquered the devil
        This Mary had to see and learn.                                  and all his hosts. He has satisfied the righteous, de-
        The living Lord said to her, "Woman, why weepest                 mands of our God and has received all power to dwell
 t h o u ? " Supposing Him to' be the gardener, M:ary                    in us now and overrule our lives. He calls us into the
 answered, "Sir, if thou hast borne Him hence, tell me                   consciousness of this covenant life.
 where thou hast laid him, and I iyill take him away."                      Don't make the mistake Mary did. You hear him
        Jesus .had a, simple answer, "Mary".                             call your name? Don't imagine He calls you to a com-
        That call penetrated through her dulled ears, through            fortable life here; listen, "Take up thycross  and follow
 her troubled mind. and pierced her heart. That`yoice                    me". Don't imagine that the. living Lord calls to bring
 she now could .easily~ identify, .that was the.voice of                 peace here, "I came not tobringpeace, but the sword".
 Jesus !                                                                 Don't imagine you will become rich in the things of
        I can only imagine .that fhat call ,was one of loving            this world, "It is harder for a rich man to enter into
 rebuke. Did Jesus shout out in sharpcriticism, "Mary!"                  the kingdom of heaven than for a camel to go through
 No, He loved.her.  Did He say, ."Mary" sarcastically?                   the eye of a needle." Don't imagine that He promises
 No, He loved her. Was His poice.rent in anger.? No,                     you untainted bliss and prosperous days all your life,
 He loved her.             Jesus calls .firm and yet tenderly,           "Many are the afflictions of the righteous, butthe Lord
 "Mary!"                                                                 delivereth them out of them all";
        On hearing her name, Mary suddenly turned to                        Remember, He arose!
 Jesus and would openly embrace Him. Oh! her Lord
 was back again. What a wonderful miracle had taken                         He is the Lord and Master over all things now, not
 place, He was dead, but now He is alive. "Now again                     to establish a kingdom in this sphere of life. No, He
 I can dwell with Him, I can lovingly attend to His                      ar.ose beyond the pale of death, to ascend unto our
 needs". Mary with one sweeping embrace ran `up to                       Father in heaven and there to establish Father's house
 Jesus. "Rabboni", that is, "My master"..                                of many mansions. As our Lord, He directs all things
        But, wait.                                                       to bring us to that glory of life everlasting.
        "Touch me not for I am not yet ascended unto my                     Ye troubled ones, ye sorrowing ones bowing along-
 Father and your Father and to my .God and your God."                    side Mary before the empty tomb. Our Lord is alive.
        You see, Mary had carnal thoughts, she had much                  Listen, He calls you by name1
 to learn. She imagined Jesus had come back! to this                       What better. response can we make, "Rabboni".
 earth, she had to learn that He had gone on to the other                   My Lord ! My Master!
 side of death, He must needs ascend into, heaven and                       Say that and we have an inner peace, no matter what
 there be embraced by His own.                                           the outward circumstances may be.
        Are you standing outside, the tomb, weeping?. ,,                    For Jesus is Lord!. He lives I,

.  "                                                                                                                           .
         :i              . .                               ~..~DIT~R~L   N O T E :             :         :                          -
                                                                                                              . .
               In this. issue. our faithful news editor, Mr.  J: M.             But Mr. Faber cannot present these pictures unless
        Faber, presents the second in a series of pictures of               he receives them.
        our churches.       Doon's.  is, of course, not a  new church           Hence, who is next? Loveland? Lynden?  .Hope?
        building; in fact, it may very well be the oldest  build-           Redlands?.  ., . . . . .?
        ing in the'denomination. If'memory serves me correct-                   Incidentally, our news editor  headsthe  one depart-
        ly, it was the home of a Baptist congregation before it             ment in our magazine that is strictly dependent on others '
        became the  .Doon Protestant Reformed Church. But                   for its material. He can hardly  manufaciure  church
        our news editor is attempting to acquaint the readers               netis; And his continual problem is that the  news is
        with our various churches by way of pictures.                       not sent to him very regularly.  ,Pastors  or clerks,
               This. all began, however, with a plan to present             please cooperate,!. Send the news regularly; and send
        pictures of the various new church buildings in the                ' a picture of your church together with some pertinent
        denomination.                                                      information.                                      H.C.H.


                                                THE STAND&D BEARER                                                 293





                                                                                                 n





   This is the Protestant Reformed Church of Doon,              Edgerton and Hull, Doon is active in The Reformed
Iowa. The village of Doon is tucked in the northwest            Action Society which publishes and mails The Reformed
corner of the state, 20 miles from the South Dakota             Witness Pamphlet to the extent of 3,000 a month. The
border on the west, and 20 miles from that of Minne-            highlight of this year for the congregation of Doon is
sota on the north.           The church was organized with      the 1966 Synod which is scheduled to meet in their
eleven families in 1926, and today numbers some 26              church. The Consistory and Catering Committee are
families comprising 121 souls. Doon and Hull, their             busy (excitedly) making plans for this event, and are
neighbor 10 miles distant, maintain a Prot. Ref.                quite confident that the bare trees in the picture will
School Society and hope to have their own Christian             have leafed out, and the snow will have melted away,
Grammar School soon, to be built on property already            so that the delegates to Synod may expect a warm
purchased in  Doon.          In another joint venture, with     welcome in June.                                J.M.F:


   EDITORIAL-

                       The Nature of the Atonement-
                                Limited or Gekal?
                                                .by Prof. H.  C.  Hoeksema
                       `.
THE  C'ONFESSIONS  ON SUBSTIT UTIO&  (continued)                the Catechism. proceeds on the assumption that the
(Note: In the last issue I began to discuss the second          necessity of such a substitute has been established
main element in the nature of the atonement, namely,            (Lord's Day V). Hence, in- Question and Answer 16,
that it is vicarious. At present the aim is to show that        in treating the question why the mediator must be very
this element of substitution is the current -teaching of        man and also perfectly righteous, the Catechism lays
our confessions  .)                                             down the principle that only man can substitute-for man
                                                                and speaks of the inability of one who is himself a
   In Lord's Day VI the Heidelberg Catechism continues          sinner satisfying  "for  others." The same idea is in-
to discuss the requirements of the mediator-substitute.         directly taught in the seventeenth answer in the ex-
And while it does not directly concern itself with the          pression "and  might obtain  for,  and restore to us,
truth of substitution, yet it should be noted that also here    righteousness and life."


294                                            THE STANDARD BEARER

   There are many such references in the Heidelberg            ness before God. . . ." And, mark well, this does not
Catechism in a similar vein, which either directly teach       become true by faith, but it is received and applied
or presuppose the doctrine of substitution as established      "to myself" by faith. This must always be remembered.
in Lord's Day V. True faith, according to Question and         .Christ is in the objective sense of the word the sub-
Answer 21, has as one of its elements an assured con-          stitute, before God, for those for whom He died. This
fidence "that not only to others, but to me also, re-          fact as such has nothing to do with our faith. Subjec-
mission of sin, everlasting righteousness and salvaT           tively, of course, it is received and applied by faith;
tion, are freely given of God, merely of grace, onZy  for      but the very possibility of this personal appropriation
the sake  of  Christ's  merit+"    Lord's Day XII speaks       and application lies in the objective fact of Christ's
of Christ as "our only High Priest, who by the one             being our substitute. He is not our substitute because
sacrifice of his body, has redeemedus. . . ." In speak-        we acknowledge Him and accept Him as such, but we
ing of the profit of Christ's holy conception and nativity,    can and do acknowledge Him and receive His benefits
the Catechism emphasizes that as our Mediator, He              by faith only because He was our substitute nineteen
"with His innocence and per-f& holiness, covers in the         hundred years ago at the cross.
sight of God, my sins. . ."(Qu. and Ans. 36) In explain-          As might, be expected, this truth finds repeated
ing the confession "He suffered" the Catechism in-             expression `in the Catechism's exposition of the sacra-
structs us that Christ "sustained in body and soul, the        ments.
wrath of God against the sins of all mankind;" and in             In discussing the meaning and significance of the
this same connection speaks of "the .only propitiatory         sacraments in general, the Catechism already main-
sacrifice" whereby He redeemed our body and soul from          tains the truth of the vicarious character of Christ's
everlasting damnation and obtained for.us the favor of         atonement twice. In Question and Answer 66 this truth
God, righteousness and eternal life. (Lord's Day XV)           is taught indirectly when we are instructed that through
Again, in Question and Answer 39, in discussing the            the sacraments God more fully declares and seals to us
meaning of the crucifixion, the Catechism instructs us         the promise of the gospel, namely, "that he grants us
"that he took on him the curse which lay upon me;              freely the remission of sin, and life eternal, for the
for the death of the cross was accursed of God."               sake  of  that  one sacrifice  of  Christ, accomplished on
Question and Answer 40 speaks not only of satisfaction,        the cross." But this truth is directly taught in Ques-
but of satisfaction "for OUT sins," through the death of       tion and Answer 67, which reads as follows:
the Son of God. Question and Answer 42 also proceeds                 Q. 67. Are both word and sacraments, then ordained
from this truth of substitution: "Since then Christ died          and appointed for this end, that they may direct our
for us, why must we also die?" And, in answer, it is              faith to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross, as
very plain that this death of Christ was so fully sub-            the only ground of our salvation?
stitutionary that "Our death is not a satisfaction for              A. Yes, indeed: for the Holy Ghost teaches us in the
our sins. . .  ." This could never be, except on the              gospel, and assures us by the sacraments, that the
basis that Christ satisfied  in  ow stead,  vicariously.          whole of our salvation depends upon that one sacrifice
The hope of Christ's return to judge the quick and the            of Christ which he offered for us on the cross.
dead is of this comfort:. "That. . . . .I look for thevery        Let  me remind you again that this "for us" can
same person,  who before offered himself for  my  sake,        never be understood in any other way than in the sense
to the tribunal of God, and has removed all curse  from        of objective substitution. It indeed means "for our ben-
me, to come as judge from heaven. . . . ." (Question           efit," but it can mean this only because it means "in
and Answer 52) The faith of the forgiveness of sins is         our stead" or "as our substitute." This must be
"That God,  for  the sake  of  ,Christ's satisfaction, will    maintained in the light of Lord's Day V, where we are
no more remember my sins. . F . . . `but will gracious-        first taught that we must make -satisfaction either by
ly impute to me the righteousness of Christ. . . . ."          ourselves or by another, and then taught that we can-
(Question and Answer 56)                                       not make satisfaction by ourselves and therefore need
   In the chapter on justification by faith (Lord's Day        another, the Mediator-substitute.
XXIII) the truth of substitution and'of cbmplete,satis-           In harmony with the above, the Catechism in its ex-
faction through substitution is very plainly spelled out       ,planation of the sacrament of baptism speaks of "the
in the following language: ". . . . .God, without any          remission of sins, freely, for the sake of Christ's
merit of mine' but only of mere grace, grants and              blood, which he shed for us by his sacrifice upon the
imputes to me, the perfect satisfaction, righteousness         cross." (Question and Answer 70) Likewise, in the
and holiness of Christ; even so, as if I never had had,        Catechism's discussion of the sacrament of the Lord's
nor committed any sin: yea, as if I had fully accom-           Supper we find similar expressions which point to,this
plished all that obedience which Christ has accom-             truth of substitution. One of the promises connected
plished for me. . . ." Christ, therefore, is so com-           with the Lord's Supper is: "that his body was offered
pletely our substitute that it is just as if we had our-       and broken on the cross for me, and his blood shed for
selves accomplished what He accomplished in our                me' . . . . . ." (Qu. and' A. 75) Andin the seventy-ninth
stead.    This. is the plain teaching of Question and          answer we find this expression: "and that all his suf-
Answer 60. This same truth of substitution is at the           ferings and obedience are as certainly ours, as if we
basis of the following expression in Question and              had in our own persons suffered and made satisfaction
Answer 61: `I. . . .but because only the satisfaction,         for our sins to God."
righteousness, and holiness of Christ, is myrighteous-            Finally, we may point to the fact that, according to


                                                   THE STANDARD BEARER                                                       295

the Catechism, this truth of substitution lies at the             expressions in the Form for the Administration of the
basis of the prayer for forgiveness in the fifth petition         Lord's Supper which point to this same element of the
of the Lord's Prayer (cf. Question and Answer 126):               vicariousness of the atonement. Already in the first
". . . .be pleased for the sake of Christ's blood, not to         part of self-examination the Form speaks as follows:
impute to us poor sinners, our transgressions, nor that           "considering that the wrath of God against sin is so
depravity, which always cleaves to us." This is plainly           great, that (rather than it should go unpunished) he
an appeal to the vicarious atonement of Christ, there-            hath punished the same in his beloved Son Jesus Christ,
fore.                                                             with the bitter and shameful death of the cross." Do
   When we turn to the Belgic Confession, we find the             `not forget that this clearly implies substitution: for the
same truth expressed. This is true of Article XX, which           clear implication here is that God, so to speak, had the
speaks of the fact that God "sent his Son to assume that          choice, instead of punishing sin in us, either to let it *
nature, in which the disobedience was committed, to               go unpunished or to punish it in His beloved Son. The
make satisfaction in the same, and to bear the punish-            former (letting it go unpunished) was impossible for
ment of sin by his most bitter passion and death," and            His justice' sake; the latter (punishing it in His Son)
then speaks of the fact that God manifested His justice           means that Jesus Christ took our place under the wrath
against His Son, "when he laid our iniquities upon him."          of God.
And Article XXI, which speaks of Christ's satisfaction                This same truth is implied in the second part of
as our only High Priest is full of references to the fact         true self-examination, which speaks of the believer's
that this satisfaction was made by way of substitution:           faith "that all his sins are forgiven him only for the
         We believe that Jesus Christ is ordained with an         sake of the passion and death of Jesus Christ, and that
   oath to be an everlasting High Priest, after the order         the perfect righteousness of Christ is imputed and
   of Melchisedec; and that he hath presented himself in          freely given him as his own, yea, so perfectly, as if he
   our behalf before the Father, to appease his wrath by          had satisfied in his own person for all his sins, and
   his full satisfaction, by offering himself on the tree of      fulfilled  all righteousness." We must certainly not
   the cross, and pouring out his precious blood to purge         imagine that this is just an empty expression used to
   away our sins; as the prophets had foretold. For it is         emphasize very strongly the perfectness of the impu-
   written: He was wounded for our transgressions, he             tation of righteousness. Then it could only constitute
   was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our
   peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed.        preposterous injustice.         This imputation that is so
   He was brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and num-            perfect that it is as if I had satisfied in my own person
   bered with the transgressors. . . .and suffered, the just      for all my sins takes place in full harmony with the
   for the unjust, as well in his body as in his soul, feeling    strict justice of God, which means that Christ took my
   the terrible punishment which our sins had merited;            place under the wrath of God.
   insomuch that his sweat became like unto drops of blood           Thirdly, this element of vicariousness is directly
   falling on the ground. He called out, My God, my God,          taught in the first paragraph concerning the meaning of
   why hast thou forsaken me:? and hath suffered all this         the Lord's Supper:
   for the remission of our sins. . . . . . .
   The Canons of Dordrecht' very explicitly teach this                   First.    That we are confidently persuaded in our
vicarious nature of the atonement in Article 2:                      hearts, that our Lord Jesus Christ (according to the
         Since therefore we are unable to make that satis-           promises made to our forefathers in the Old  Testa-
   faction in our own persons, or to deliver ourselves             ment) was sent of the Father into the world; that he
   from the wrath of God, he hath been pleased in his in-             assumed our flesh and blood; that  he bore for us  the
   finite  mercy~  to give his only begotten Son, for our            wrath of God (under which we should have perished
   surety, who was made sin, and became a curse for us.              everlastingly) from the beginning of his incarnation,
   and in our stead, that he might make satisfaction to              to the end of his life upon earth; that he hath fulfilled,
   divine justice on our behalf.                                     for  us, all obedience to the divine law, and righteous-
                                                                     ness; especially, when the weight of our sins and the
   `One could not very well be more explicit than this.              wrath of God pressed out of him the bloody sweat in
Notice that the Canons are not satisfied withthe phrase              the garden, where he was bound that we might be freed
"for us" and the phrase "on our behalf." They em-                    from our sins; that  he afterwards suffered innumerable
phasize that "for us" means "in our stead" and that                   reproaches, that we might never be confounded; that he
"on our behalf" can only be possible on the basis of                 `was innocently condemned to death, that we -might be
this "in our stead." This explicitness of the Canons                 acquitted  at the judgment-seat of God; yea, that  he
was necessitated by the deviousness of the Arminians.                suffered his blessed body to `be nailed on the cross  -
They had `to be "pinned down," so to speak, to a doc-                that  he. might fix thereon the handwriting of our sins;
                                                                     and hath also taken upon himself the curse due to us. .
trine of the atonement which included very plainly the               . . . . . . . (italics mine, H.C.H.)
elements. of satisfaction and substitution, so that it
might become pl.ain that they really denied the Scrip-               In all of the italicized expressions above the truth
tural doctrine of atonement and so that it might be               of substitution is clearly taught.
clear' that `they had no place in the Reformed com-                  Hence, the conclusion, as far as our confessions
munion.      Here, therefore, we have one of the most             are concerned, is this, that the truth of substitution,
precise expressions of the element of substitution to             like that of satisfaction, is the current teaching of all
be found in our Reformed confessions.                             our Reformed confessions. In fact, it is inseparable
   Finally, I must call your attention to the repeated            from the doctrine of satisfaction.


296                                           THE STANDARD BEARER

A CLOUD OF  WITNESSES-

              JONATHAN'S SECOND VICTORY
                                                bj Rev. B. Woudenberg
                          And Jonathan said to the ydung man that @are his armour,, Come,
                       and let us go over unto the garrison  of  these  ,uncircumcised:  it  may
                       be  that the LORD will work  for  us:  for  there is no restraint to the
                       LORD to save by many or by  few.
                                                                                      I  Famuel-14:6
   To Saul, it had come to seem terribly important that        men remained faithful any longer behind him. But yet
he with his forces should begin to move against the            it seemed to help. Now he knew he could do nothing.
garrison of the Philistines which were encamped at                 The fact of the matter was that the makings of a
Michmash.     Time was of essential importance; not            king just were not Saul's possession. He could dream,
another moment of it could be wasted; it had become            he always had, of how someday he would sally forth at
an obsession with him. For seven days Saul had waited          the head of a large army to, lead them valiantly into
for Samuel to come and sacrifice for him at Gilgal as          battle until everyone acclaimed his greatness. Dreams
he had promised to do; and they had been wasted days           came easy for him. And he could act `too,..he  could act
in fact. Saul had not used them to exercise and drill          by impulse as he had done at Jabesh, and he could act
his men in preparation for battle. He had not gone to          from a position of overwhelming strength; but, when it
walk among his men with words of encouragement and             came down to difficult situations which took careful
assurance.    All through those, seven days he had sat         planning and courage to see through, then action was
silently- by himself, deep in gloomy thought, inwardly         impossible for him. Careful planning was beyond him,
paralyzed with fear. And the results were to be seen           and unfavorable odds paralyzed him. Wisdom, discre-
all around him. The morale of his men was broken;'             tion, and courage, the true making of a king, Saul just
their hearts were tasting the bitter pangs of fright also.     did not have. And yet, that in itself need not have
To find hiding places among rocks and bushes was their         mattered had he possessed the one thing more im-
only concern; desertion was running rampant; few               portant than anything else in Israel-faith in Jehovah
doubted but that the situation was hopeless. And yet           Israel's God; but that he didn't have either. He had
Saul couldn't come to believe that; after allhe was king       not had it before he had become king, not even the
and it couldn't end this way, in utter disaster. Gradu-        pretense of it. Now he did have the pretense. Through
ally, day after day, his mind had begun to set itself upon     his anointing and ordination by Samuel, Saul for the
that sacrifice which Samuel was going to offer as hold-        first time had committed himself to religion  - at least,
ing the critical key to his situation. More and more he        that is, he had come to look upon the worship of Jehovah
had come to think and feel and fully expect that at the        as a sort of magical rite which he could go through so
moment that sacrifice was offered something would              as to insure his success in the royal office; but true
happen. to break the power of the Philistines and sud-         faith, that spiritual act of clinging in complete trust to
denly their army would begin to melt away before him           the mercy of Jehovah, that he did not have. And so at
as the Ammonites had at Jabesh. Oh, how he remem-              Gibeah, Saul found himself helpless. Days again went
bered that day at Jabesh; and why couldn't it happen           past while the Philistines did what they pleased in the
again for him here with the Philistines? It just had tol       land; but Saul:made not one move against them. All he
Early on that seventh day, he was up waiting for               could feel was hopeless             fear destroying his every
Samuel; and when Samuel wasn't right there, he felt            i n c e n t i v e .
bitterly disappointed. When noon came and still Samuel             Once again, it was. Jonathan that brought this stale-
had not appeared, it seemed little short of treachery.         mate to its conclusion. Jonathan was different from
Didn't Samuel realize the criticalness of the situation.       his father. He possessed that one thing which Saul so
Obsessed as he was; Saul could wait no longer. He              sorely lacked -faith; he believed with all of his heart
determined,  to. sacrifice himself, and he did so without      in the greatness and mercy of Israel's God. Beyond
delay: Then Samuel had come, he warned Saul of the             that, we have no indication to think that his abilities
fatal consequences of this his impulsive action, and he        were any great deal more than those of his father.
left.` Now Saul was free to go ahead with his battle;          Surely he did not possess those abilities of leadership
nothing hindered him any longer.        But what was he        which his friend David later evinced. But that didn't
going to do, his few men against. that mass of the             really matter. The faith of Jonathan was sufficient to
Philistines. He still had not the least idea. He needed        cause his life to glow unto this day as an example of a
time, time to think, time to find some plan of action.         man who lived by the power of faith. When the Scrip-
And so, so as not to appear completely inactive, he            tures said to him, "One man of you shall chase a
decided to number his troops. It was perhaps the most          thousand: for the LORD your God, he it is that fighteth
foolish thing he could have done under the circumstances.      for you, as he hath promised you," (Joshua 23:lO) he
Now reality stared him in the face: pnly six hundred           believed it, and accordingly he took action. Without a


                                               THESTANDARDBEARER                                                   297

 word of explanation to anyone, not even to his father,       ful and troubled inside, they would tell him that he must
 he called his armour-bearer to him and said, "Come,          come up and fight them amid their established fortifi-
 and let us go over unto the garrisonof those uncircum-       cations.
 cised: it may be that the LORD will work for us: for                As it was, Jonathan's hopes were not very far from
 there is no restraint to the LORD to save by many or         reality. The Philistines were, not so sure and confi-
 by few." We can only conclude that this armor-bearer         dent as Saul ,and his men might have expected. They
 of Jonathan was of equal spiritual caliber with his          had long ago learned that victory against the children
 master. He made no objection to Jonathan's plan, ap-         of Israel -was not something that could be taken for
 parently so utterly foolish, but silently the two- men       granted no matter what odds might appear to be in
 stole out of the camp together. They had decided to          their favor, After all, how often had not Samson all
 place their lives in the hand of the Lord, and from          by himself left their greatest forces inshamefuldefeat.
 this decision they now would not waver.                      And could they forget that battle at Mizpeh where they
    The camp of the Philistines was to be found some          were turned back by nothing more than a storm while
 miles away from the place where the remnant of Saul's        the Israelites never as much as raised a sword. And
 army was gathered. It was on a hill which went under         now, just a short time ago, one of their well-disciplined
 the name of Michmash and could actually be seen by           garrisons had been completely' destroyed by' Jonathan
 the men of Saul in spite of the distance between them.,      and his band of motley men. They never knew, some
 The land was hilly and covered with thick forest ex-         times they could sally forth into Israel without a bit of
 cept for those places where rough, rocky crags jutted        opposition, while at other times they would be struck
 out from among the trees. Between the two armies;            down in inglorious defeat as though by a bolt from
 there was a deep valley that had to be crossed over.         heaven.      There were forces at work there in Israel
    For Jonathan and his armor-bearer to cross through        which they just did not understand.        And now they
 this valley without being observed was not difficult be-     could feel that uncertainty creeping up within them
 cause of the cover of trees. In fact, being as few as        again, that foreboding that things were not going to be
 they were, they might well have come almost to the           going their way.
 very edge of the Philistines' camp without exposing            Thus when the watch of the Philistines saw Jonathan
 themselves. But the plan of Jonathan was at the same         and his armor-bearer climbing up over the rock oppo-
 time both far more daring and far more clever than           site them, a nervous fear suddenly took hold of them.
 this. Jutting out from this hill of Michmash were two        If there were two that dared to expose themselves so
 rocky pillars reaching out far above the trees and at-       boldly against the horizon, it must be that the forest
 tached to the hillside by narrow, rocky ridges. So           below them was teaming with troops. Their challenge
 spectacular were these two pillars that they had even        to Jonathan, "Come up to us, and we will show you a
 been given names, Bozes and Seneh respectively. Upon         thing,' ' was meant to have the sound of scorn, but in
 the one of these rocky pillars, the Philistines had evi-     actuality it only exposed their uncertainty. To Jonathan
 dently placed a watch to look out for the approach of        it was as a voice from heaven urging him on. Quickly,
 Israel's army, while Jonathan's plan was to approach         he and his armor-bearer advanced along their rocky
 the camp of the Philistines by passing over the other.       crag toward the camp of the Philistines, while the
 The advantage of this was that they would be exposing        watchmen of the Philistines cried out their frightened
 themselves to the Philistines watchmen on the other          alarm.       From the camp of the Philistines anxious
 rock while close enough to talk to them but far enough       soldiers poured forth to meet the forces of Israel on
 away to be safe from their weapons.                          the hillside below Jonathan's rocky crag, while a few
    What Jonathan wanted very badly was to know the           of the most daring advanced gingerly out on the ridge
 reaction of the Philistines to his presence before he        to me'et Jonathan and his armor-bearer. The ridge
 actually advanced into their camp.         This was for a    was narrow and only one could approach them at a
 double reason. First, in accord with the faith in which      time; but one by one they came and were quickly
 he was proceeding, he had asked the Lord to mold the         handled.      Jonathan grasping them would throw them
 reply of the Philistines to the discovery of his presence    down, and his armor-bearer administering the death
 in such a way that it would form a sign for him as to        blow would roll them from the ridge into the trees
 whether or not he should proceed. If the Philistines         below them where the rest of the Philistines were
 upon seeing him should urge him to come up to them           futilely hunting for the rest of the men of Israel. For
 to do battle, he should do so, confident of the Lord's       them it was as a nightmare, hunt as they might they
 blessing; but if they threatened to come down to fight       could not find an enemy while down through the trees
 with him, he should desist. Behind this, there was, in       from the ridge above the bodies of their comrades
 the second place, an understanding of the working of         came rolling, until all of twenty of their bodies lay
 God. From the day.of Moses on, the method by which           before them. It drove them to the point of hot frenzy
 Jehovah weakened Israel's enemies was to strike fear         until at last they began to strike out at every figure
 deeply into their hearts, and the challenge the Philis-      they met crawling through the bushes. Soon the whole
tines gave to him. would reflect whether this was now         hillside of Michmash was a churning mass of humanity,
 happening. If the Philistines were confident and self-       Philistine against Philistine, destroying themselves in
 assured, `they would be eager for battle and upon seeing     the blindness of hot rage, and fear and anger. Israel's
 him would offer to come down and do battle where he          God had heard the prayer of Jonathan and had answered
 stood. On the other hand, however, if they were fear-        it.


298                                              THE  STANDARD  BEARER


  CONTENDING FOR THE FAITH


                  THE  DOCTRINE  OF  CREATION
                                          Days  or  Periods

                                                    by Rev. H. Veldman

   Concluding our discussion of the question whether          thought, that maketh the morning darkness, and treadeth
the "days" of Genesis 1 are periods or days of twenty         upon the high places of the earth, The Lord, The God
four hours, we wish to ask the. question: "What does          of hosts, is his name." What a far cry this is from
the Scripture reveal to us concerning this work of God?"      the evolutionistic or concordistic conception of the
And we may certainly say that `the Word of God does, not      origin of the world1
leave us in the dark in regard to this truth.                     Secondly, there are the passages which point to God's
   In our preceding article we already called attention       exaltation above the works of His hands as the great
to the fourth commandment. And because this com-              and infinite God. We read in Ps.  90:2: "Before the
mandment is incorporated in the Heidelberg Cate-              mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst
chism, one of our confessions, the significance of this       formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting
should be apparent. This means that our confessions           to everlasting, thou art God." In Ps.  102:25-27 we
maintain the truth that the days of creation are ordinary     read: "Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth:
of twenty-four hours. And to this we may add that our         and the heavens are the work of thy hands. They shall
confessions nowhere speak any other language. This            perish, but thou shalt endure: yea, all of them shall
means that the concordistic theory may not be taught          wax old like a garment; as a vesture shalt thou change
in any Christian school. Fact is, teachers, as well as        them, and they shall be changed: But thou art the same,
ministers of the gospel, are bound to the Reformed            and thy years shall have no end." And in Acts 17:24-25
confessions. And they have no right to teach anything         we read: "God that made the world and all things
that militates against these confessions. The proper          therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven- and earth,
procedure to which they are committed is clear. Let           dwelleth not in temples made with hands; Neither is
them voice their objections to the proper authorities,        worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed
but they certainly have no right to militate against the      anything, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and
confessions publicly in their classes.                        all things. ' '
   Now we again ask the question: "What do the Scrip-             Thirdly, we may refer to passages that speak of
tures reveal to us concerning this truth?" And then we        the wisdom of God in the workof creation. Is. 40:12-14
observe, in the first place, that there are passages in       reads as follows: "Who hath measured the waters in
the Word of God which speak to us of God% omnipotence         the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the
in the work of creation. We read in Isaiah 40:26-28:          span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a meas-
"Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created       ure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills
these things, that bringeth out their.host  by number: he     in a balance? Who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord,
calleth them all by.names by the greatness of his might,      or being his counsellor hath taught him? With whom
for. that he is strong in power; not one faileth. Why         took he counsel,' and who instructed him, and taught
sayest thou, 0 Jacob, and speakest, 0 Israel, My way          him in the path of judgment, and taught him knowledge,
is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over          and  shewed him the way of understanding?" What a
from my God?       Hast thou not known? hast thou not         majestic. passage this is, extolling the greatness of
heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator        our God! Compare with this the conception that thou-
of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither' is weary?    sands and millions of jrears were required in the form-
There is no searching of his understanding." What a           ing of the heavens and the earth and all the things that
majestic utterance! What a far cry from the theory of         are therein1  And what shall we say of this passage,
evolutionism, or ,of theistic evolution, which would have     Jer.  10:12-16: "He hath made the earth by his power,
us believe that the Lord did create the "original lump",      he hath established-the world by his wisdom, and hath
but that, for the rest, creation developed of itself.         stretched out the heavens by his discretion. When he
Here  we read that the Lord calls them all by names by        uttereth his voice, there is a multitude of waters in the
the greatness of His might, and that it is He Who brings      heavens, and he causeth the vapours to ascend from
out their host by number. And in- Amos 4:13 attention         the ends of the earth; he maketh lightnings with rain,
is also directed to this Divine. omnipotence, and we          and bringeth forth the wind out of his treasures. Every
read: "For, lo, he that formeth the mountains, and            man is brutish in his knowledge; every founder is con-
createth the wind, and declareth unto man what is his         founded by the graven image: for his molten image is


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                                  299

falsehood, and there ,is no breath in them. They are           the heavens and the earth, and that which cometh out
vanity, and the work of errors: in the time of their           of the earth. How sublime and majesticis the language
visitation they shall perish. The portion of Jacob is          of the Word of God! Isaiah also mentions this truth in
not like them: for he is the former of all things; and         chapter 45. This chapter begins with an introductory
Israel is the rod of his inheritance: The Lord of hosts        reference to Cyrus, the emperor of Persia, who be-
is his name." Of significance is also the passage of           lieved in dualism, a god of evil and a god of good.
John l:l-3, and we quote: "In the beginning was the            Centuries before his appearance, he is told that he is
Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was              the Lord's anointed, and he is also told, in verse 7,
God.    The same was in the beginning with God. All            that it is the Lord who forms the light and creates the
things were made by him; and without him was not               darkness, Who makes peace and creates evil. And in
anything made that was made." It is true that, accord-         verse 18 of this chapter we read: "For, thus saith the
ing to verse 14 of this chapter, this Word is our Lord         Lord that created the heavens; God Himself that formed
Jesus Christ. But this only emphasizes that our Lord           the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created
Jesus Christ is none other than the eternal Son of God.        it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the
And the text declares emphatically that all things were        Lord; and there is none else."
made by Him, and that without Him was not anything                Familiar, of course, is Scripture's reference to
made that was made. So, all things owe their existence         this Divine work of creation in Ps.  33:6-9: "By the
to the almighty Creator of the heavens and the earth.          word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the
   Fourthly, God's sovereignty and purpose in creation         host of them by the breath of His mouth. He gathereth
are also held before us in the inspired Word of God.           the waters of the sea together as an heap: he layeth up
Isaiah speaks of this in Is. 43:7: "Even every one that        the depth in storehouses. Let all the earth fear the
is called by my name: for I have created him for my            Lord: let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe
glory, I'have formed him, yea, I have made him." And           of him. For, he spake, anditwas done; he commanded,
in verse 15 we read: "I am the Lord, your Holy One,            and it stood fast." This does not sound like the con-
the creator of Israel, your King." And in Romans 1:25          cordistic theory, does it, that the days of Genesis 1
the apostle Paul declares: "Who changed the truth of           were periods extending over thousands and thousands
God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature         of years? Here the creation of all things is ascribed
more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen."         to the word of the Lord and the breath of His mouth.
   Beautiful is this passage from the Word of God,                This same presentation of the Lord's almighty and
Cal.  1:15-17: "Who is the image of the invisible God,         creative power is also held before us in the New
the firstborn of every creature: For by him were all           Testament. Turning to the New Testament, the apostle
things created, that are in heaven, and that are in            Paul declares in Col.  l:16: "For by him were all
the earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones,     things created, that are in heaven, and that are in the
or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things         earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or
were created by him, and for him: And he is before all         dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things
things, and by him all things consist."                        were created by him, and for him." In Hebrews 11:3
   In addition to the Scriptural passages already quoted,      we read: "Through faith we understand that the worlds
many more passages can be quoted. How majestic is              were framed by -the word of God, so that things which
this passage, Nehemiah 9:6:~ "Thou,' even thou, art            are seen were not made of things which do appear."
Lord alone; thou hast made heaven, the heaven of               Is it any wonder that the wicked world, devoid of faith,
heavens with all their host, the earth, and all things         does not understand this tremendous and sublime truth
that are therein, the seas, and all that is therein, and       of the Word of God? It is only through faith that one
thou preservest them all; and the host of heaven wor-          understands that the worlds were framed by the word
shippeth thee." What a passage this is 1 God is the            of the Lord! But, having faith, and therefore united
Lord alone; He made heaven and the heavenof  heavens,          with the living Creator of the heavens and the earth,
and all their host; He made the earth, and all things          one must hold -to the truth of the Word of God, that the
that are in the earth; He also preserveth them all.            Lord is the almighty Creator of -the heavens and the
Surely, nothing is left here to the creature; God alone        earth. And in Rev. 4:ll and lo:6 we read: "Thou art
is the Creator and the Sustainer of the Universe and           worthy, 0 Lord, to receive glory and honour and
all the things that are in that universe. What a far cry       power; for thou hast created all things, and for thy
this .is from the modern evolutionistic or concordistic        pleasure they are and were created. . . . .And sware
theory of the origin of the world I And what a far cry from    by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created
this text is the space-crazed man of our modern day            heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth,
and age, as he proudly speaks of the .Great Society            and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the
which he hopes to accomplish and realize!                      things which are therein, that there should be time no
   Of the Divine Creator of the heavens and the earth,         longer."
the prophet, Isaiah, speaks in Is. 42:5: "Thus saith              What, now, is the conclusion which wemayand must
God the Lord, he that created the heavens, and stretched       draw from Scripture's account of creation, in Genesis
them out; he that spread forth the earth, and that which       1 and throughout the Word of the Lord? Surely this: if
cometh, out of it; he that giveth bread unto the people        the concordistic theory of periods be correct, Scrip-
upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein." Please         ture is in error. The Word of God does not teach the
note that we read here that it is the Lord that created        theory that the days of Genesis 1 extended over thou-


300                                           THE STANDARD BEARER

sands and millions of years. One cannot harmonize            and what is error? And, if we have no infallible Word
the concordistic theory with the language of the Word        of God, we have nothing. Only the Word of the Lord is
of God. But, if Scripture be in error, then we have no       a lamp before our feet and a light upon our path. How-
infallible Word of God. And if the Word of God be in         ever, thanks be to God that the Scriptures are the in-
error in its account of creation, it may be in error         fallible Word of God. That Word is surely-a lamp be-
throughout,      Who, then, will determine what is truth     fore our feet and a light upon our path.



       IN' HIS FEAR-


           '  ~TRANQUIIJTY~ IN THE VALLEY
                                                                                       '





                                                  by Rev.  J. A. Heys

   To be `declared to be in good health is for -a short      be fourscore years' yet. is their strength labour and
span of time encouYaging and as a rule considered to         sorrow; for. it is soon cut off, and we fly away." Psalm
be good news.                                                90: 10.     For, indeed, we are in the valley where the
   We say "for a short span of time" because ulcers          shadow of death is cast. We see that shadow every day.
develop with .an undesirable speed. Heart attacks fell       We cannot fail to know that death is near because of
men who were pronounced only a few days ago to be            that shadow.       We are, not on the mountain top where
in perfect health. Cardiograms indicate that no heart        the sunlight strikes us in all its beauty and with the
attack has taken place in the past but are no indication     force of its light. We are not on the plain where the
that one will not occur in the very near future. They        sun high in the heavens warms us and we can bask in
reveal that at the moment the heart is performing its        its sunlight. We are in the valley, and the sun is behind
work in a regular manner, but give no promise for the        the mountain peak of our sin and guilt before God.
future. Cancer often grows with phenomenal speed and                Our sins rise up against us prevailing day by day.
makes itself known in such a sudden and terrifying           A huge mass of evil is betweenus and our God. To that
way. We can be healthy today and feel in good spirits,       mass the whole human race is adding every moment of
only to be felled tomorrow with a little invisible virus     every day1 And the wages of sin is deathl.  0, we are
that had been lurking in our bodies unknown and un-          still alive.      We are born into this world and have
noticed while we felt good and expected no incapaci-         physical, natural life for a brief span of years. We
tating distress.     AS the world says it, "Here today.      eat and drink and are somewhat merry. We plan and
Gone tomorrow".                                              hope and build and dream. And, it seems sometimes
   Clinics have their  .value. Periodic examinations         as though we have built for eternity and that our :dreams
are not to.be dismissed as worthless. X-ray and blood        are coming true. Although a new deal had to be re-
`tests are not just so much foolishness. Our bodies          placed with a new frontier, we are ready to speak of a
are a precious possession; and it is our calling to take     great society and dare to dream that somehow, some-
as good care- of them as we possibly can. Medicines          way we can get rid of that' miserable shadow without
and remedies are `not to be rejected as mere carnal,         removing the mountain, But every morning that we
material, worldly matters. Hezekiah was- advised by          awaken, there it is, because the mountain is still there.
no one less than God's prophet to take` a cluster of figs    And no human effort can remove that mountain. Liter-
and place it upon -his' boil. Jesus condemned no one         :ally with our huge earth-moving equipment we. seem to
who came crying for relief from physical miseries            be' able to remove mountains,,but  this mountain of the
and afflictions. .Jesus .called  not one of them carnal      load of our guilt and sin we can only build higher and
and worldly-minded. The psaImi,st declares, "Precious        higher without any hope of removing one pebble from
in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints."        it.     It reaches up to the very heavens, and therefore
Psalm 116:15.                                                the sun is never seen above it. Since man was driven
   And yet, our whole life is spent in the valley where      out of paradise the human race has not seen that sun
the shadow of death is cast. David tells us that in his      but only the shadow of death. And `it may very well be
shepherd's Psalm. "Yea, though I walk through the            called Death Valley, for all born in it also die in it.
valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no-evil: for             It makes little difference then, whether one is told
Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort         that one has ulcers or not, a bad heart or a normal
me." If, therefore, it is not one distress that we ex-       heart, hardening of the arteries or not, a good set of
perience, it is another. "The days of our years are          lungs and-kidneys or diseased organs. We say "little
threescore and ten; and if by reason of strength they        difference" because there is a difference but it lasts


                                                     THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 301

  for such a little while before the death represented by           resurrection and ascension.      He raised the human
    that shadow is upon us. We may seem to have escaped             nature to, a level never achieved or enjoyed by man
    its clutches for the moment only to be overwhelmed              before that moment. He is with us today still as one
    by it from an entirely unexpected quarter.                      of us, even though He has personally attained to higher
         What shall we say of all these things?                     glory in the human nature than we enjoy at the moment.
         Shall we take a gloomy and pessimistic attitude?           And He is with His entire host of saints who have been
    Shall we become careless and even wreckless, since              called home .out of the valley into the joys of heaven.
   we cannot escape this enemy anyway? Shall we live in             Some have been lifted up out of Death Valley to dwell
   fear and terror counting our days in some morbid                 in the mansion of glory where the Light always shines
    despair and hopeless anxiety? Shall we go to the one            and untold and indescribable bliss reigns.
    extreme and eat, drink and be merry to get out of this             By His Spirit -He is with us who still walk- through
   life as much as we can yet; or shall we sit down and             the valley. And by this Spirit He encourages us, blesses
    wait for that death in some gloomy satisfaction that it         us, guides us and keeps us in the faith. "Lo, I am with
    is coming soon?                                                 you even unto the end, of the world" (Matthew 28:20)
         Neither one. Not as children of God. Both of these         are the words of this merciful High priest the day He
    are wicked.        All of these are carnal and acts of un-      left our valley to ascend to themountainof God's glory.
b e l i e f .     We shall fear; but it shall be the fear of the    And He is with us even unto the end of the world in that
    Lord and not the fear of death. Listen to the Psalmist,         Spirit Whom He received to send forthuntoHis  Church.
    Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of             But He is also with us every step of our earthly
    death, I will fear no evil. . . ." Surelythen he does not       way in that He is not again&us. His thoughts towards
    fear that death. He is not afraid that death is going to        us are thoughts of peace. He does not purpose to des-
    rob him of all that which is precious and valuable. He          troy us but to lift us up out of that valley and to bring
    is not even afraid that death will take life away from          us into- the glory He enjoys. The evil which we still.
    him.         He finds comfort in the valley and tranquility     experience is sent by Him as a good that works for us
    for his soul. Pain, agony, woe and distress may come            a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. It
    over his body. Yea, these things aregoing to be his lot         is evil in that it hurts our flesh. It is evil in that it
    sooner or later. That shadow will not let him forget            brings pain and. tears, yea even that very death itself
    that1 But his soul is tranquil. His thoughts are undis-         which the shadow in the valley predicts and portrays.
    turbed. By faith he sees the light and is sure of dwell-        But it is a good in His hand. It is as the evil-tasting
    ing forever in the light. For he adds, ". . .for Thou           medicine and painful bit of surgery that work for our
    art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me."            good health and strength. He is  with us when He sends
    He speaks of comfort. He reveals a tranquil soul while          these evils to use them for our good.
    yet in the valley where the shadow of death is cast.               The whole world situation, the whole set-up in the
         In His fear, we fear no evil.                              world today, would look and does look so different
         It makes a world of difference whether we fear God         through the eyes of faith. That mountain range of sin
    or whether we do not fear Him. It makes all the differ-         that causes the shadow of war, brutality, vjplence  and
    ence between fear of evil and tranquility of soul, peace        death across the face of the whole earth today looks so
    of mind, and confidence that we shall one day be in the         different when it is viewed in His fear. Living in Death
    light. It makes all the difference in the world because         Valley they threaten to fake away all of our joy and
    that man who fears. the Lord has been made to be dif-           `peace. There simply is no hope. Since man was placed
    ferent by the Lord Whom he fears. The believer has              in that valley when he was cast out of paradise, we
    been made by God to be of a different world, to be born         simply have not seen the Sun; and all our efforts to
    with a life from above, to be a peculiar people, a              get rid of that shadow and to get out of the valley have
    stranger among those who know only the valley, and              ended in utter failure. Show me aman who has escaped
    from this valley enter into the abyss1  God is with the         death! And though we hear men boast of extending life
    man who fears Him.            God is IN the man who fears       and of his "hope" of conquering it entirely by his
    Him. David's confidence in Death Valley is that God             science and ingenuity, we will continue to killourselves
    is with him in covenant fellowship and communion.               on our highways; thieves and violent men will still go
         He is with us today in our human nature. He came-          around killing. Yea, in the midst of man's seeming9
    to be. one of us. For thirty-three and a half years He          greatest achievements in "extending" life and  :of
    tabernacled among us in our flesh. With our guilt He            rescuing from the brink of death, the shadow of utter
    went to the cross, and for us He went into hell and the         destruction of all life upon the face of this earth makes
    grave. He arose for our justification andnow is seated          that shadow of' death ,so much more real and pushes
    at God's right hand in OUT  behalf. And He is there also        back that much farther any hope `of escape. No, we
    in our glorified human nature. He is still the Son.of           shall not get out of the valley or escape the death it
    Man. "In all things it behooved Him to be made like             predicts;    After all a shadow is caused by a reality.
    unto His brethren, that He might be a merciful and              And death and the curse of God upon the human race
    faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make       and upon this entire world is an unchangeable as well
    reconciliation for the sins of the people." Hebrews             as undeniable reality.    You will have to remove the
    2:17.        But it also behooves Him still to be one of us     reality in order to get rid of the shadow.
    and to be at God's right hand in our glorified human               Only in His fear can we and do we see over the
    nature.         He did not leave the human race at His          mountain and out of the valley to the Light and a king-


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER

dom of life and joy. For the Sun is there. The very        heavens at God's right hand, far above that mountain
fact that there is a shadow not only means that there      of sin, exalted above that last enemy, which is death.
is the reality of death that casts this shadow, but it     And as we at night see the moon in all its brilliance
also means that there is The Sun oil the other side of     high above us shining with the light, of the sun which is
that reality of death! In fear of death men would like     behind the horizon, so in His fear we see Christ with
to get rid of that Sun. But they never shall. Instead      us reflecting the light of God's mercy and love in His
He shall destroy them with that death. But in His fear     precious covenant promises. And our souls are tran-
we see Him .as being with us with those thoughts of        quil. Peace like a river floods our souls. All is well.
peace, and we know His promise of life and joy on the      We know the Light is there. We know He is there for
other side of the mountain. You see, Christ is exalted     us. Look at the moon tonight in reassurance that the
to God's right hand, high above us and above that death    sun is still with us. Look in His fear to the Son of God
into which He went for us. And as the psalmist states,     at God's right hand and be tranquil in, the knowledge
"As the heaven is high above the earth, so great is His    that God is with us in His love, mercy and grace. We
mercy toward them that fear Him" Psalm 103:ll. By          will fear no evil. We will see the evil as that which
faith - that is in His fear -we see Him high up in the     works for our good.


   TRYING THE SPIRITS-


                            DISPENSATIONALISM

                                               by Rev. R. C. Harbach

   The most popular, but not the only, form of Pre-        millennial, but not every Premillennialist is dispen-
millennialism is known as Dispensationalism. It is a       s ational.
pseudo-hermeneutical system which claims to be the            C. I. Scofield, who popularized Dispensationalism
only correct method of interpreting the Scriptures. Its    with his "Scofield Reference Bible," defines a dispen-
motto is, "Rightly dividing the Word of truth." In the     sation as "a period of time during which man is tested
Englishrspeaking world its origin may be traced back       in respect of obedience to some specific revelation of
bne hundred and thirty-five years to the Plymouth          the will of God." Similarly, the Funk and Wagnalls
Brethren. It is called Brethrenism, Darbyism (after        New Standard Dictionary defines a dispensation as
J. N. Darby) and, in this country, Scofieldianism.         "the period during which a particular revelation of
   Because of the extremes of this system, we ought        God's mind and will has been directly operative on
to distinguish between Premillennialism and Dispensa-      mankind." Further, Scofield has seven dispensations
tionalism. For the former is a rather moderate, though     which divide all time, from the creation to the new
erroneous, theory of Christ's Ye&urn.  The latter is a     heaven and new earth. First, there is the Dispensation
bizarre interpretative arrangement which not only          of Innocence, then Conscience, Human Government,
segregates, but trichotomizes the contknts of Scripture    Promise, Law, Grace and Kingdom.. There is no ob-
i&o sections, labelling them."exclusivelyfor the Jews,"    jection to this definition df a dispensation, nor to the
or "for the Gentiles," or "for the churchof God." We       dividing of history info seven periods, nor to the fact
might call it partitioning dispensational-ism. The more    that each of these periods is marked off by a particular
reasonable Historical Premillennarians hold  rhat there    development of the divine purpose and revelation. But
will be one final advent of Christ, at which He will       although Scofield speaks of the dispensations as  re-
judge and overthrdw  th& Beast, the False `Prophet and     vealihg the'"increasing purpose" of God, he does not
apostate Christendom, then set up His .one thousand        make clear what that purpose is. It would appear,
year reign, after which occurs the resurrection and        however, that it is an earthly kingdom-purpose.
judgment' of the wicked dead, followed by the ushering        Dispensationalists need make no appeal for their
in of eternity. But the more extreme Dispensatidnal-       contentions to the word translated dispensation in the
ists really have three final advents of Christ: one at     Bible.        For there it does not mean a period of time.
the Rapture when He (it may be at any moment) comes        In Luke 16:2,3,4, where the word first appears, it is
into our atmosphere to take up the church; another         rendered stewardship, which has nothing to do with an
about seGen years later in the Revelation of Christ,       era.      In I Cor. 9:17, Paul wrote, "a dispensation is
who then actually comes to earth to reign; and then        committed unto me," which cannot mean that an age
another after the millennium for the final judgment.       had been entrusted to him, but that a duty had been
Therefore Premillennialism and Dispensationalism are       directed to him.. He reminds that "ye have heard of
not synonymous terms. Every Dispensationalist is pre-      the dispensation of the .grace  of God which is given


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                                   303

me" (Eph.  3:2) and that "I am made a minister, ac-            pensational error lies not in holding that there are
cording to the dispensation of God" (Col. 1:25), which         dispensations of time in sacred history. The church
has reference not to a segment of history, but to the          has never denied that. The error lies in the fact that
administration of the apostolic office. Then the words         the Church is made a mere parenthesis' in God's
"that in the dispensation of the fulness of times,'can-        `scheme of things, which temporarily obstructs and
not designate the name for the "last of the ordered            hinders the main thrust of His purpose.           If there
ages.,, It simply means that the administration of the         were any parenthesis at all in history, which we deny,
fulness of times is headed up in Christ. The King              it would not embrace the Church, but Israel, as Herman
James Version in these places wrongly employs the              Bavinck neatly points out. From Creation to Abraham,
word  dispensation,  for actually that word never appears      "redemption had a universal" emphasis. But with him
in Scripture. The word is stewardship, administration          and especially through the Mosaic dispensation, "a
(literally, economy) and signifies not an era, but the         parenthesis set in, which came to an end in Christ. Then
administration of the covenant and all things as given         redemptive history resumed the universal character
by divine commission. The covenant has always been             which it had at the beginning."' (Quoted in Prophecy
the same, but the dispensation (administration) of the         and the Church, 0.  T. Allis, p. 298). Dr. Abraham
covenant has changed. Therefore it is wrong to speak           Kuyper also had held the idea of this Israel-parenthesis,
of this Christian era as "the dispensation (age) of            rather than the Church-parenthesis.       He saw three
grace,,' wrong because misleading, seeing that every           dispensations, the first extending from Adam to Abra-
dispensation (administration) of the covenant was in           ham, being for the most part one of "common grace."
pure grace.                                                    The second, from Abraham to Christ, was the paren-
   It is also faulty to speak of a dispensation "as a          thetical dispensation, and predominantly one of par-
new test of the natural man," as though God in history         ticular grace. The third, from Christ to the end, is a
deals primarily not with His covenant people, but with         kind of mixture of special grace and "common grace"
the unregenerate. Each separate dispensation reveals           shown to man. But although Kuyper's view does save
man's state of sin, his responsibility for it and his          the Church from the Nirvana of a hiatus, it neverthe-
inevitable failure. It all begins with man and ends with       less makes the Cross of Christ not the center of the
man.    Scripture reveals the dispensations of history         whole scheme of redemption, but an emergency meas-
severally beginning with man's misery, continuing with         ure. For, according to Kuyper, the main line that God
his deliverance and ending with his gratitude I                took in the first dispensation was creational. The
   Some of the partitions this system makes in Scrip-          permanent, prevailing entity of the dispensations is
ture are called parentheses. There is a parenthesis            the ordinance of Creation. In it, God administered His
between the first two verses in Genesis, chapter one.          covenant, largely, according to "common grace." Then
This parenthetic age saw the universe in acatastrophic         followed the temporary interruption of the second and
state, brought about by a supernatural c at a c 1 y s m i c    parenthetical dispensation, in which, generally, He ad-
change involving the fall of angels. The earth, then,          ministered the covenant according to special grace.
for an unknown, indefinitely long period was chaotically       But this makes the dispensation of pure grace nothing
waste and desolate. Then there is the "church paren-           more than an interlude.      Also it implies that God's
thesis," which intervenes between Pentecost and the            original creational purposes proved a failure, so that
Rapture. History, from the time of Abraham at least,           He took emergency measures in Christ, His Cross and
always moves along the line of the Jews. But with the          the Church. The Cross is made an afterthought. To
baptism of the Spirit, a parenthetical period sets in,         introduce into biblical history parentheses, postpone-
bringing "a wholly new thing - `the church, which is           ments or emergencies is to lose sight of the true de-
his (Christ's) body' ". This church interim had the            velopment of the promise, which happens to be the
effect of disanulling ancient Israel. But at the end of        main thread woven throughout aI Scripture and all
this church age there will follow "the regathering of          history.    There is nothing wrong' in speaking of an
Israel," after which the  `,glorious Davidic, earthly          Adamic, an Abrahamic or a Christian dispensation.
world empire of the Jews will be restored to them.             But it is wrong to imply, as Kuyper does, that neither
This idea is guilty of creating another parenthesis,           the saints of the Adamic nor of the Abrahamic era
namely, the interval of seven years between the rapture        were' looking for the heavenly city, nor for Christ as _
and the revelation of Christ coming to the earth. For          Redeemer, but were instead anticipating the restora-
in that period the nation of the Jews is to be regathered      tion of the Adamic paradise. We see no parentheses
and restored. They had the kingdom once, but lost it           in history.    For history is the revelation and the
in the captivities. Then just before the church-paren-         realization of God's counsel in the midst of the world
thesis set in, the. kingdom once more was offered to           for the sake of the Church. This being so, God through
them, but they rejected it. So the kingdom-age w,as            all time moves steadily, directly; progressively and
"postponed" to the closing era of the world. That              aggressively toward the final accomplishment of His
short seven year period is hardly more than a paren-           ultimate goal, which is to dwell eternally with His
thesis, for God's clock ticks only on kingdom time, not        people in the New Jerusalem. God's counsel never
on church time. So because of all. these rather dis-           deviates, is never side-tracked nor postponed.
anulling intervals in the chronology of Dispensational-           Dispensationalism has yet another gap which ap-
ism, we might call it "gap theory" dispensationalism.          pears right in the middle of the verse in Isa. 61:2.
   This brings us to the crux of the matter. For dis-          Between the comma and the conjunction (!) there is the


    304                                            THE STANDARD BEARER

    chasm of the ages extending from the first advent to           text, "to comfort all that mourn," which exactly char-
    the second `advent. Jesus, when He read the passage            acterizes the New Testament dispensation, as does also
    to the Nazareth synagogue, stopped at the comma.               the expression "the day of vengeance" (the words Jesus
    The reason is said to be .that although prophecy was           omitted). For the latter was fulfilled inMatt. 11:21,23;
    fulfilled to "the acceptable year of the Lord," that           23:13-38; 24:2 and 22:7. So Dispensationalists depart
    "the day of vengeance" was still future, awaiting the          from the central line of the Counsel of God. Neither
    day of judgment. This puts two fundamentally different         the Scriptures, the Reformed standards nor thecalvin-
    dispensations in this text, the word "and" in the middle       istic churches support the flimsy, fanciful fantasies of
    of it up to now covering a period of over nineteen.            these exegetical manipulators..
    centuries! But this is to ignore the remainder of the


                 THE CHURCH A7 WORSHIPy
                                             "0  worship.the   Lord in the beauty  of  holiness."
                                                                                                     Psalm  96:9a


                                THE  COMMUNION  PRAYER

                                                    by Rev.  G.  Vanden Berg

       Having considered the matter of self-examination as.        It is exactly in this spiritual attitude that we must come
   it is, the indispensable, spiritual preparation for par-        to the table, for hearts thus disposed God will not reject.
   ticipation in the Lord's Supper and having seriously            We must realize our emptiness and seek GOD, the  ful-
   pondered the purpose or end unto which this means of            ness of all in all. We mustknow our sin and wretched-
   grace has been instituted in the church, namely, to             ness, and believing that Christ has obliterated our guilt
   commemorate the death of our Lord as the only ground            we turn to Him for righteousness. We must fully realize
    and foundation of our salvation, the church is readied         our utter inability to acquire any of the true benefits of
   for the solemn act of prayer.                                   life, and in the consciousness of our dependence on Him
       The prayer before communion is necessitated by              we make our supplications and needs known. To make
   the fact that "God will give His grace and Holy Spirit          us fully aware of this the prayer of the communion form
   to those only, who with sincere desires continually ask         is prefixed by the following statement: "That we may
   : them of Him and are thankful for them." (Heidelberg           obtain all this, let us humble ourselves before God, and
   Catechism, Q. 116) The church desires and is seeking            with true faith implore His grace." Humble, dependent,
   the spiritual benefits of the table of the Lord in the          seeking, hungering and thirsty children shall surely be
   consciousness that these benefits are not. physically           fed-at His table.
   affixed to or inherent in the natural elements of the               One more thing must be said before we enter into
   Supper.       Her. .desire is not for bread but for grace.      consideration of the communion prayer proper. What
   Grace is not in things, but is imparted by the .Holy            we have thus far written must not be construed as
   Spirit .through the appointed means. The means, there-          though the Almighty God and Father of our Lord Jesus
   fore; must not only be used, but the use of them must           Christ must wait to dispense the blessings `of His
   also be proper. The, physical act of eating the bread           grace until we are ready and see fit to pray to Him for
   and drinking the wine of, the Lord's Supper. does not           them.        Although it is certainly through prayer and
   guarantee the reception of the benefits of grace signified      through our humbly and sincerely seeking these bless-
   in the .sacrament. There must be an activity of faith           ings that God dispenses them, yet the relation is never
   reaching out with fervent, ionging for the spiritual            such that He is dependent upon us but it is just the
_. benefits of Christ's atonement. That faith leads us to          opposite.       We are always dependent upon Him. The
   the throne of grace where-asking it shall be given unto         fact, therefore, is that our being in a proper, spiritual
   us, seeking we. shall find and knowing it-shall be opened       disposition in which we are able to pray is already the
   unto`us, (Matthew 7:8)                                          fruit of His grace in us. We love Him because He first
     It must' also then be evident to us that the mere             loved us. We seek Him because He has drawn us. We
   outward formality of a prayer before communion is not           hunger and thirst for the blessings of His communion.
. . adequate.     The ritual of prayer is not the same as          because He has made us alive in Christ and created by
   prayer. Prayer, our Heidelberg Catechism instructs              His grace these hunger pangs in our hearts.. And all
   us, is "that we from the heart pray to the one true             this accentuates the truth that the blessings of salva-
   God only. . . . .and that we rightly and thoroughly know        tion signified in the Supper of the Lord are not for one
   our. need and misery, so that we may humble ourselves           and all without distinction; they are not for all who par-
   in the presence of His divine majesty". (Lord'sDay  45)         take of the external elements of the sacrament either,


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                         - 1305
but these spiritual blessings are for those and those         of communion with God and labors militantly against
only who are spiritually disposed to seek God in truth        His Cause. The core of these petitions then is that we
with all their heart.      They pray1 They alone pray!        ask for grace whereby we may faithfully persevere
They .pray because they are spiritually disposed and          with all patience and longsuffering, "looking for that
their prayers are heard and through-them God imparts          blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great
the benefits of His grace.                                    God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; Who gave Himself
   The prayer of the communion form may be divided            for us, that -He might redeem us from all iniquity, and
into three parts. Following the address, "0 most              purify. unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good
merciful God and Father", the first part of the prayer        works." (Titus 2:13, 14)
is devoted to a series of petitions in which the blessings        These two series of petitions may never be separated
of the communion table are sought. Oh, what a high            or divorced from one another. We are inclined to do
spirituality is requisite to make this prayer. It may         that.    We are quite willing to receive the benefits of
not be read by the minister as a matter of. fo?-m. Then       the Lord's table as long as these do not interfere with
it is quite meaningless. Each petition uttered must be        our own carnal "pursuit of life and happiness", and
the expression of the heart and the sincere desire and        then it is not very long after we have been to the
longing of each one who prays. Praying is a most              communion table that we reveal our unwillingness to
serious, spiritual activity and in the exercise of it we      sacrifice for the cause of God and our .reluctance to
may not be hypocritical. We may not pretend to ask            give ourselves in wholehearted dedication to the service
for those things we do not in reality desire. Our most        of the body of Christ, His church. But this can never
merciful God and Father to whom we direct our prayer          be. Without a cross there is no crown. ,Through much
knows our heart and the secretswithin and hypocritical'       tribulation. we enter into the Kingdom of God. If the
prayers are an abomination to Him. Do we then sin-            world hated'christ, (and it certainly did) they will hate
cerely mean what we say when we give expression in            those that are of Christ, and that hatred will come to
our prayer before communion to these requests?                manifestation as soon as we begin to live the life of
   1) That God through the Holy Ghost in this supper          communion with Him and with the body of His people.
may work in our hearts.                                       Communion with God is not something we can pray for
   2) That we may more and more give ourselves up             and receive only around the communion table. It must
unto Christ.                                                  be a perpetual experience, a living reality day by day,
   3) That our hearts may be fed with His body and            and it is experienced through fighting the battle of faith
blood, yea, with Himself as the true heavenly bread.          and wrestling constantly with our own flesh, the godless
   4) That- He may live in us, and we in Him, that thus       world and its prince, Satan.
we, may be partakers of God's eternal covenant.                We observe further the high spiritual tone of this
   5) That we may be assured that God is our gracious         prayer.     Nowhere in it do we ask for earthly things
Father, forgiving our sin, providing us with all things       except perhaps in the one phrase: "providing us with
necessary for soul and body.       .                          all things necessary, as well for the body as the soul".
   6) That we may have grace to bear the cross cheer-         But even here it must be observed that it is, not a pe-
fully and to confess Christ.                                  tition for these things, but the prayer is a-request for
   7) That in all our tribulations we may look up and         grace' that "we may not doubt that our gracious Father
put our trust and expectation in our Lord Jesus Christ,       will provide these necessities." And then we must not
resting alone in His promise.                                 ask that He will assure us that He will give us an abun-
   It is' not our purpose now to discuss each of these        dant life in the great society of this world so that we
petitions, although this could easily be done and it          may wallow in luxury but our prayer is and must al-
certainly is necessary. that each one of us who come to       ways remain a prayerfor assurance that our  necessities
the table of the Lord give careful ponderance to each         will be provided. That is the only assurance we can
request before we utter it. We want to make some              ever have. God will take care of us as long as He needs
general observations on this part of the prayer as a          us to serve His cause in this world, and then He will take
whole.    Then we notice that the petitions are of two        us out of this world. And that is all we need. He does
kinds.    First of all there are those that ask for the       not assure us that He will provide for us until we have
impartation of spiritual gifts. We desire to receive          realized our own ambitions, attained our own goals,
the benefits of Christ's redemptive work. We ask that         etc. Of course not, because where we have ambitions
God will work in our hearts, feeding and nourishing us,       and goals apart from Him they are carnaland unworthy
forgiving our sins, providing our needs and taking us         of attainment. Our sole purpose in life must be HIM,
into the intimate fellowship of His covenant. Now it          and when that is the case, we may be assured that He
follows that when this is done this work of God will not      will provide what is necessary in order that in body
leave us unaffected and, therefore, the second series         and soul we may attain that goal. When this is our
of petitions deal with those needs that arise as a result     striving we will "no longer live in our sins, but,He in
of the impartation of these gifts. When God works in          us, and we in Him, and thus truly be made partakers of
us by His grace He sets us apart as His peculiar people       the new and everlasting covenant of grace.
and we must then give ourselves more and more to                  This part' of the prayer is followed by a recitation
Christ. Doing this it is unavoidable that we shall also       of the -prayer which the Lord taught us to pray and
bear the reproach of His cross and be made to suffer          which is commonly called "The Lord's Prayer". This
manifold tribulations in this present world that is out       is not to be construed as a supplemental addition to


306                                              THE STANDARD BEARER

our prayer. This it could never be, for the prayer of           "Strengthen us also by this Holy Supper in the catholic
our Lord is a perfect and complete entity by itself.            undoubted Christian faith."     Although the historical
Rather, by its insertion here is expressed that it is           origin of this confession or creed is uncertain, our
our desire to be the disciples of the Lord and through          Heidelberg Catechism makes the significant observa-
His grace we endeavor also in our prayers to be in              tion that this creed gives expression to "the articles
conformity with His will. We pray as He taught us to            of our Christian faith". Thus, by incorporating this
pray. We pray now at the communion table in harmony             into our prayer, we make confession of ourfaith  before
with the underlying principle of His prayer, which is           God and declare that in this faith we come to His table
that we must seek the heavenly and spiritual. This is           in the unity of the church of all the ages, and as it is
the motivation of our prayer throughout as we ask for           extended throughout the whole world. We are ONE
the benefits of His table.                                      body with ONE head, Christ Jesus, and in the com-
       The. prayer is then concluded with the so-called         munion of that body we receive the blessings of ever-
` `Apostolic Confession" preceeded  by the petition:            lasting life.



  FROM HOLY WRIT-


              Our Brother's Burden and Our Own
                                                      Gala tians 6:1-5

                                                    by Rev. G. Lubbers

THE GREAT SELF-DECEPTION  (Chapter  6:3)                        use it". It is a fact, too, that often the great and able
   The law of Christ must be fulfilled in the church.           man is a humble man.         For that is true greatness.
Except our righteousness exceeds the righteousness of           How could a creature be great and not humbly bow be-
the Pharisees and Scribes we shall not enter into the           fore God's throne?~  The great man walks before God.
Kingdom of heaven. For Christ did not come to destroy           And it is such who are "spiritual" in the congregation
the law and the prophets, but he came to fulfill them.          who are great. This may mean that there are times
When we shall be perfect as our Father in heaven is             when it would be wise "to set them to judge who are
perfect--then shall also the law of Christ be com-              least esteemed in the church,`. (I Cor. 6:4b) These at
pletely and perfectly fulfilled by us I                         least are not hampered in their judgment by imaginary
   It is a horrible thing to be deceived by others, and         greatness.
such as deceive us are not blessed in our memory.                   As to the case in point here "to think.to be some-
Deception is the very work of the Devil himself. But            thing when one is nothing", it must be said that Paul
words can' hardly describe the pity of any one who              is referring contextually to a would-be mender of
deceives himself. Pride cometh before the fall. What            souls, and to one who, in so doing, has never learned
a pity it is to try to restore a brother overtaken in a         tenderly to bear the burden of the brother. He is such
fault, and then to find that in God's estimation and            who' does not fulfill the law of Christ. Meekness of
judgment your "report card" reads: zero, nothing!               wisdom is lacking in all that he does. Such are as a
   You and I cannot very easily read this third verse           would-be nurse who makes two bruises while attempt-
of Galatians 6 without being required to ask the ques-          ing to bind up one wound.
tion: is Paul speaking of me too? For Paul says "if                 Whom does anyone fool and deceive when he thus
any&e thinketh to be something, being nothing." This            thinks himself to be something when he is nothing?
is therefore a judgment which allows for no exceptions              He  deceives himself!
to the rule. It is the rule by which high and low, men              Such a man leads his own mind astray. This is a
of erudition and the unlearned, rich and poor, of low           deception which is quite universal. To be delivered
degree and high degree are all judged by the Judge of           from this deception a man must really be delivered
heaven and earth. God makes no exceptions to His rule.          from a great plight. It is a humiliating experience to
And that sobering truth is here implied in this sentence        come to one's self thus and to look one's self squarely
of Paul. This makes us all to place our hand in our             in the eye and to say to yourself; man, you are de-
bosom !                                                         ceiving your own mind! You are not insane but you are
   You will ask: how can a man thus think himself to            deluded and drunk with the wine of your own self-
be something? Do you ask? Is it not true that, gener-           exalted pride and overweening self-importance. YOU
ally speaking, it is true that the less a man is the more       are not spiritually sober and, therefore, you are not in
he often thinks himself to be.             The Dutch have a     a condition to go to a brother overtaken in a fault to
proverb "when you make nothing something you cannot             restore him1 You are nothing, a mere zero1


                                               THE  STXNDARD  BEARER                                                307

   Thus speaks Paul when he says: for if any man                  It is far better to mind our own duty than to look at
think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he          our neighbor's faults. Do not think of your worth and
deceiveth himself!                                             talents as compared with theirs, but see to it that you
                                                               own work is right. The question for each of us is not,
A GROUND OF BOASTING IN ONE'S OWN WORK
(Chapter 6:4)                                                  what do others fail to do, but what am.1 myself really
                                                               doing.     What will my life's work amount to, when
   God judges a man according to his works. Christ,            measured by what God expects of me? For not my
standing between the seven candle-sticks, says: I know         neighbor's faults, but my own honest work shall be the
thy works I And by the works a man must judge himself.         ground of my satisfaction.
He must, in so doing, not look merely at the outward              "This was Paul's `glorying' in the face of the
deed. He must also look at his inward motives of the           slanders by which he was incessantly pursued. It lay
heart.                                                         in the testimony of his conscience. He lived under the
   Writes Paul "But let every man prove his own                severest self-scrutiny. He knew himself as the man
work". He must see whether it can stand the test of            only can who `knows the fear of the Lord', who places
the touch-stone of God.       It is so hard for us, poor       himself every day before the dread tribunal of Jesus
sinners, to do this in a becoming manner. We are               Christ. . . .He `knows nothing, against himself'. But
very fickle and arbitrary.       This is especially true       this boast makes him humble. `By the grace of God'
when we must try our  own  work, our own deeds,                he is enabled to `have his conversation in the world in
judgments, commitments; when we must test our own              holiness and sincerity coming from God'. If he had
attempts at restoring the brother overtaken in a fault.        seemed to claim any credit for himself he at once
The most difficult person to be truly honest and frank         corrects the thought: `yet not I', he says, `but God's
with is one's self. Such great honesty Jesus portrays          grace that was with me. I have my glorying in Christ
in the parable of the Prodigal son, of whom Jesus said         Jesus in the things pertaining to God, in that which
"and when he came to himself, he said. . . ." (Luke            Christ hath wrought in me' (I Cor. 15:lO; Rom. 15:16-
15:17)                                                         19)" G.G. Findlay,  Epistle to the Galatians.
   This prodigal son did not have the difficulty of the           Thus the boasting in one's own work is not a boast-
Pharisee which Jesus portrays in another parable.              ing in the flesh but must needs be a glorying in the
This Pharisee did not measure and adjudge of himself           Lord in the fruit of a sanctifiedwalk. It is the blessed-
in the light of the perfect law of liberty, but he compared    ness of those who "so do" as Jesus taught them1 This
himself with those whom he considered far worse than           should be the constant striving in our lives in the
himself.    We are told by Paul here that we must not          midst of the brethren! Thus only will we be truly be
adjudge of our own work by comparing it with the faults        bearing our brother's burden by bearing our own
of our neighbor.      Then we have only a ground for           burden, and fulfilling the law of Christ.
boasting in ourselves and our great accomplishments,
because we have done so much better than he, or at             THE LORD'S RIGHTEOUS JUDGMENT OF OUR  WORK
least not as badly as he has. That seems to be, with-          (Chapter 65)
out doubt, the sense of the phrase "andnot in another".           Each of us has his own peculiar burden from the
We must so walk and conduct ourselves and so judge             Lord.      This burden is likened to the burden upon a
ourselves that our work can stand the text of God's            donkey.     It must be borne, carried. Ministers have
work on the basis of its own intrinsic value and worth.        their duties in distinction from elders; elders have
And when we have done all these things we are still            their duties in distinction-from deacons. Angels have
unprofitable servants.     We have only done what we           their duties in distinction from man. Every man and
ought to do.                                                   angel has therefore his own burden, which fits no one


308                                          iHE  STANDARD BEARER

else. This burden, so to speak, belongs with the man         to enter into the struggles of a weaker brother. They
in his place in the church.                                  can appreciate his unsuccessful resistance to tempta-
       Presently there comes the day of judgment. Then       tion; they can discern where and how he failed, and how
shall each have to give account of what he has done          much of genuine sorrow there is in his remorse. From
with his talents and opportunities+ The man with one         the fulness of their own experience they can interpret
talent as well. as the man with five shall be judged.        a possibility of better things in what excites contempt
For we all must be made manifest before the judgment         in those who judge by appearance and by conventional
seat of Christ.                                              rules. He who has learned faithfully `to consider him-
   In that great day of judgment God will not judge in       self' and meekly to `bear his own burden,' is most fit
a comparative way. He will not ask whether we have           to do the work of Christ, and to shepherd his tempted
done better than our neighbor has performed. He will         and straying sheep. Strict with ourselves, we shall
give an absolute judgment. Therefore our comparing           grow wise and gentle in our care for others."
ourselves with others does not profit. God will search          And again we quote from Findlay, "In the Christian
out what really is. And according to that he will re-        conscience the sense of personal and that of social
ward. And that will be thus with each one personally         responsibility serve each to stimulate the other. Duty
and without any exception to the rule. (Rom. 2:6-11)         and sympathy, love and law are fused into one. For
   This      all has meaning for us now when we must         Christ is all in all; and these two hemispheres of life
restore the erring, bear with the weak, aid the poor,        unite in Him."
care for the sick, and comfort the dying. It is as so            Brethren, let us walk in this meekness of wisdom,
beautifully stated by Findlay "After all, it is the men      says Paul.
who have the highest standards for themselves that as            Presently, there comes a day, when the "good and
a rule are most considerate in their estimate of others.     faithful" servant shall hear from Christ's lips: enter
The holiest are the most pitiful. They know best how         into the joy of thy Lord.



  EXAMINING  ECUMENICALISM-


                                                 I.  c. c.  c!.

                                                 by Rev. G. Van  Baren

   For the time being, I intend to allow the matter of       Sixth Plenary Congress of the I.C.C.C. to meet at Gen-
the Vatican Council to rest. I still intend to present       eva, Switzerland on August S-11, 1965. The letter
the ideas of the last decrees promulgated. at the last       reads as follows:
session, but until the present time I have not received
a complete copy of these.                                       Dear  Brethren:
   There are various "international" councils of                   Enclosed you will find a copy of the official Call,
churches,. in -addition to the well-known World Council         which also constitutes an invitation to attend the Sixth
of Churches. None are as large as this latter, yet they         Plenary Congress of the International Council of
                                                                Christian Churches. We would be pleased to have ob-
are worthy of our consideration. The question which             servers, visitors, or any who may be led to do so, at-
we also face as churches is the measure of cooperation          tend this congress and partake of the blessings of the
which is possible between our churches and others               congress fellowship and to observe the I.C.C.C. in
which apparently maintain many of the cardinal truths           action.
of Scripture.      Our Synod faced this concretely .last           With the applications for membership which the
summer when it had to act on an invitation from the             Council  has received and which are now being proc-
I.C.C.C.                                                        essed, the Council will have over 100 denominations
   The International Council of Christian Churches is           in its constituent membership. We ask your prayers
an organization, headed by the well-known Dr. Carl              for this meeting of the brethren.
McIntire, purporting to be composed of "Bible believ-                                         Sincerely yours,
                                                                                              Carl  McIntire, President
ing" churches. It numbers in its membership some
100 denominations, most of these rather small com-              Our Synod made short work of this bit of business.
pared to the goliaths belonging to the W.C.C.                Without any careful study of the organization, for which
                                                             there was not time, Synod declined the invitation.
SYNOD RECEIVES AN INVITATION                                 Briefly, Synod decided:
   We, as one of the "Bible believing" denominations             Synod decides not to accept the invitation to the Sixth
of our land received an invitation (evidently also sent          Plenary Congress of the I.C.C.C.
to all "Bible-believing" denominations) to attend the            Grounds :


                                                  THE  STANDARn BEARER                                                    309

    (1) One third of the churches membership in t&                "When the I.C.C.C. was established in Amsterdam
        I..C.C.C. comes from ,the Holiness churches.           in 1948, the organizers- believed that they had adopted
    (2) Many of the other member denominations are             the `least common denominator' upon which any Bible-
        outside the pale of Calvinistic Protestantism.         believing Council could be built.
                                                                  "The Council has very limited functions which are
THE I. C. C. C REPLIES                                         clearly defined in its constitution. It is not a Church,
   Because it had been my intent to discuss this or-           nor does it pretend to do the work of a Church. There
ganization in these columns, I wrote some time ago to          is no celebration of the Lord's Supper, as is common
the president of the I.C.C.C. (Carl McIntire) in order         in WCC meetings.. The ,Council, as such, does not hold
to find out what his reaction was to this decision of our      any evangelistic meetings, nor does it do the work of
Synod.. To introduce this discussion of I.C.C.C. I would       mission societies. It is to hold up the banner of the
like to present a copy of the letter of reply.                 truth of the infallible Word of God in an age of apostasy
-. "Your letter to Dr. McIntire of Sept. 27,`1965 has          and denial of the Faith.
been received. He has asked me to thank you for your              "We trust. that-this is helpful. to you.
interest and for the questions you have raised, He had                      "Yours in His, Service,.Margaret Harden."
expected to answer you personally before now,.but his
many duties have prevented his doing so.                       HISTORY OF THE I.C.C.C.
   "Under separate cover we are sending you informa-              The I.C.C.C. was formed first upon a call issued
tion concerning the 1.C .C .C. The Sixth Plenary Congress      by the American Council of Christian Churches which
Book, which sells for $3.00, -in newsbook  size, gives a       met in Detroit, Michigan on October 18, 1947. They
good survey of `the history, purpose and work of the           declared: "The time has come in the providence of
I.C.C.C.                                                       our gracious God when a council of Christian churches
   "We do not have a list of our constituent bodies            to bear testimony to `the faith once delivered unto the
available for distribution. It is not true that `one third     saints,' and to represent Bible-believing churches
of the churches with membership in the I.C.C.C. comes          throughout the world should be established."
from the Holiness churches,' but it is true that many of          Shortly after, on August il-19, 1948, the I.C.C.C.
the other member denominations are outside the pale            was formed in the city of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
01 Calvin&tic Protestantism.                                   when various denominations met in the English Re-
   "The Bible Presbyterian Church is Calvinistic, as           formed Church (the same church in which the Pilgrim
is the General Association of Regular Baptist Churches.        Fathers worshipped while they were in the Netherlands).
The St. Thomas Evangelical Church in India with its            At this gathering there were 150 participants repre-
30,000 members is Calvinistic, and Bishop Adjuoga of           senting 39 denominations from 26 different nations.
Kenya leads a fundamental Anglican group of some               The theme  .of that first "Congress" was: "The Christ
6O,OO(J members.       Other Presbyterian and Baptist          of the Scriptures."
groups throughout the world are also Calvinistic. I do            It was at this first `meeting that a doctrinal state-
not believe that we have ever made a survey of Calvin-         ment for this international body was drawn up:
istic groups within the I.C.C.C.                                       The doctrinal statement was first drafted by repre-
   "The. basis for our Christian co-operation is the              sentatives' of various denominational bodies.' It was.
Bible. awhile Dr. McIntire and others of us are Presby-           then discussed in the plenary session in amost gracious
terian through and through in our denominations, we               brotherly spirit. It was then returned togroups  repre-
also concede that Methodists and other non-Calvinistic            senting five languages for translation -- English, French,
bodies are truly "born again'.`and therefore within the           Dutch, German and Chinese. Suggestions and altera-
scope of a Council of Churches. When one considers                tions were considered and decided upon by each lan-
the basis of membership of the NCC/WCC, theNational               guage group.     Then a committee brought to the full
Association of Evangelicals and the World Evangelical             plenary session the completed document, which was
                                                                  discussed.
Alliance, one also sees the need for the International                 Never was there a deliberative assembly where
Council of Christian Churches built upon the Bible as             there was a finer or more gracious spirit and manner.
the inerrant  and`infallible Word of God. The testimony           All, had complete understanding that we were united in
of this Council is needed today more than ever before.            what we believed and were desirous of stating our be;


                          ._        We hold that Christ, when He died, had an object in
                                view, and that object will, most assuredly and beyond
                                a doubt,. be accomplished. We measure the design of
                                Christ's death by the effect of it. If anyone asks us:.
                                What did Christ design to do by His death? we answer
                                that question by asking him another: What has Christ
                                done? or: What will `Christ do by His death? For we
                                declare that the measure of the effect of Christ's love
                                is the measure of the design of it.
                                                                         -: C.H. Spurgeon


310                                                   THESTANDARDBEARER

       liefs in a way that would be easily translatable into the    was held in Rio-Petropolis, Brazil in August of 1958.
       various languages and which would protect the testi-         This had 500 participants and 62 denominations repre-
       mony from the subtle shades of modernistic interpre-         sented.      The fifth congress was held in Amsterdam
       tation of the hour.                                          again on August of 1962. There were 700 participants
          To see the doctrinal statement worked out in this         and 83 denominations present. At the last congress in
       manner with such fellowship of love and labor was in-
       deed a blessing and all who participated thanked God,        Geneva last August, 111 denominations were represent-
       for the privilege. The doctrinal statement was unani-        ed. The theme was: "Jesus Christ, the Way, the Truth,
       mously approved, and men stood and praised God from          and the Life." It was to this last congress that our
       whom all blessings flow. All the other matters of the        churches were also invited to send observers or
       congress were worked out in a similar way. (from:            participants.
       6th Plenary Congress, page 33)                                  The above history is intentionally brief. The Council :
                                                                    is composed of denominations from around the world.
       There have been a total of six "congresses" held             And apparently these denominations are those which
of the I.C.C.C. The second congress met in August of                subscribe to the basic doctrines of Scripture.
1950 in Geneva Switzerland and had 450 participants                    Next time, D.V., I hope to consider the constitution
from 42 denominations. In August of 1954 the third                  of this organization. For from this can be determined
congress met in Philadelphia with 1,500 participants                precisely what is the basis for the I.C.C.C. and what
and 54 denominations represented. The fourth congress               its professed goals are.





                 RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                          ATTENTION OFFICE BEARERS
The Board of the Hope Protestant Reformed Christian                 There will be an Office Bearers Conference, D.V.,
School expresses its sympathy to our fellow member                  April 5, at 8:00 P.M., to be held at Southwest Protestant
Arnold Haveman in the loss of his mother                            Reformed Church. All present and former office bearers
                     MRS. CARL HAVEMAN                              are invited to attend.
"The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the                 Our speaker, Rev. G. Van Baren, will answer the
everlasting arms". Duet. 33:27.                                     question, "In how far may a deacon officiate as an
                                    D. Meulenberg, President        elder in a small congregation?"
                                    D. Lotterman, Secretary
                                                                                  RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
                         ANNOUNCEMENT                               The congregation of the First Protestant Reformed
The League of Men's Societies will hold theirmember-                Church of Holland herewith expresses its sincere
ship meeting, D.V. April 18, 1966 at 8 o'clock in the               sympathy with deacon M. Haveman and family in the
First Protestant Reformed Church. Rev. G. VanBaren                  recent passing of his Mother:
will speak. Topic: "The Second Coming of Christ."                                    MRS. CARL HAVEMAN
                                H. Dykstra, Sec'y                   May the God of all grace comfort the hearts of the
                                                                    bereaved.
                         ANNOUNCEMENT                                                               per Consistory
                                                                                                        Rev. G. Lanting, Pres.
Those who desire to order one of the pictures of the                                                    B. Windemuller, Clerk
late Rev. H. Hoeksema should do so promptly. Be
sure to include your name and address, your $2.00, and
your choice of picture No. 1 or No. 2. Send your order                                  ANNOUNCEMENT
to:
                Mr. James Dykstra,                                     Classis East of the Protestant Reformed Churches
                1326 W. Butler Ave., S.E.                           will meet, D.V., on Wednesday, April 6, 1966, at 9:00
                Grand Rapids, Michigan 49507                        A.M. at the Southwest Protestant Reformed Church.
                                                                    Consistories will consider this an official announce-
                                                                    ment in the appointment of their delegates.
                  EASTERN LADIES LEAGUE                                                                Rev. M. Schipper,  S.C.
Our Spring meeting will be held, D.V., on Thursday
evening, April 14, at 8:00 p.m. at the Hope Protestant                 The doctrine of redemption is one of the most im-
Reformed Church. Rev. G. Van Barenwillspeak on the                  portant doctrines of the system of faith. A mistake on
topic, "The Sigens of the Times, based on Revelations."             this point will inevitably lead to a mistake through the
       We extend an invitation to all our ladies to meet            entire system of our belief.
with us for an evening of Christian  fellowship.                                                              - C.H. Spurgeon


                                                 THE  STANDAR?  BEARER                                                           311




                                                         The Cross In The New Testament

           BOOK REVIEWS-                                 Commentary On The Epistle To The Hebrews

                                                         Principles Of Conduct



THE CROSS IN THE NEW TESTA-                  as lacking importance. It is not in any      commentary can be of assistance. My
MENT, by Leon Morris; Wm. B. Eerd-           way meritorious and this truth must          general criticism is that the interpreta-
mans Publishing Company; 454 pp.;            not be obscured. It is not the cause of      tion is not sufficiently specific and
$6.95.                                       salvation, but it is the means of re-        detailed.     This is especially true of
                                             ceiving salvation." All this is very         those crucial passages where  oneoften
  The author of this large volume takes      well said. But then the author explains      desires some very specific help and
the reader on an extended trip through       this "response". further and adds:           analysis of the text. Commentaries,
the entire New Testament to examine          "Paul thinks, of God as having done in       however, are often disappointing when
with him the teaching found in each          Christ all that is necessary for dealing     it comes to such crucial passages.
book concerning the cross of Christ.         effectively with man's sin.     But man         This book, however, as well as the
He begins with Matthew and examines          must receive the proffered salvation,        entire series may well be purchased by
each author individually until he ar-        else he will not have it." This position     anyone desiring a worthwhile set of
rives at John's Revelation to inquire        in turn leads the author to, among other     commentaries on the New Testament.
of each one what he has to teach on this     things, a universal atonement and a          Incidentally, this entire set is written
central subject.                             very weak treatment of predestination.       in popular style; references to the
   With clarity of style and consider-          Secondly (and now in the opinion of       Greek and to any data of technical
able completeness the author points to       this reviewer), the author would have        nature are kept in the footnotes. This
the teaching of the New Testament as         added immeasurably to the value of the       makes these books more valuable to
a whole, but also to the individual          book by synthesizing the teachings of        the general readership.             H.C.H.
contributions of each author. Hemakes        the New Testament and developing
extensive use of footnotes in which he       them in this synthetic manner. Treat-        PRINCIPLES OF CONDUCT,  - John
examines at no little length the findings    ing the Bible book by book (while ob-        Murray; Wm. B. Eerdmans Publ. Co.,
of many different students of Scripture,     viously the deliberate purpose of the        Grand Rapids, Michigan. 272 pages,
concurring with some of them, rejecting      author) lends itself to a disjointed dis-    $2.25 (paperback)
others.    The book is filled with inter-    cussion.
esting and occasionally beautiful in-           Thirdly (also in the opinion of un-           The author is Professor of Syste-
sights, rather, sound exegesis in many       dersigned) it is impossible to discuss       matic Theology at Westminster Theo-
instances and a sturdy defense of the        the cross in the New Testament with-         logical Seminary. The ten chapters of
substitutionary nature of the atonement.     out also discussing such important           this book were expanded from a series
   For all these reasons, it is well         subjects as the relation between elec-       of lectures delivered in 195.5.
worth reading and studying. It can be        tion and the cross, particular atone-            There are not many books devoted
a worthwhile aid for both ministers          ment, the relation between the cross         specifically to the study known as
and laymen.                                  and the resurrection of Christ and the       Ethics.      That is the general subject of
   There are several weaknesses in           relation between the cross and Christ's      this book. It does not claim to be a
the book however. The first and most         glorification.    Scripture itself estab-    complete treatment; it is rather a
serious is the "double track" approach       lishes these relationships.                  treatment of certain important aspects
to the work of salvation so common                                     Prof. H. Hanko     of Christian conduct.
with  evangelical.%  While there is ade-                                                      Without stating my agreement with
quate and Reformed emphasis on the           COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO                 all that Professor Murray has written
totally depraved character of man and        THE HEBREWS,  - F. F. Bruce; Wm.             here, I can certainly recommend this
the sovereignty of god, there is also        B. Eerdmans Publ. Co., Grand Rapids,         book. There is thorough treatment of
the strong Arm in i an undercurrent          Mich. 447 pages, $6.00                       the subjects dealt with; there is a very
which spoils so many books nowadays.                                                      serious attempt at careful exegesis; in
One brief quotation will demonstrate            This is another in Eerdmans'              general, this is scholarly work. As an
this. "The emphasis in Paul's writings       series, "The New International Com-          example, I point to the author's treat-
is always on what God has done for           mentary on the New Testament," begun         ment of I Corinthians 7, an always
man's salvation, not on any human effort     under the late Dr. Ned B. Stonehouse         difficult passage, in his chapter on
whatever.      The cross is the means        as general editor.     Dr. Bruce is not      "The Marriage Ordinance."            I am
whereby sin is put away. Over and over       only the author of this book but is          always disappointed, however, when a
again Paul stresses the priority of the      also the new general editor.                 work of this caliber is published in
divine, and with it man's total inability       As far as commentaries go, I think        paperback form.        I realize this is a
to (do) anything at all to bring about       Dr. Bruce has done a creditable work         reprint; but I think that even as a
salvation. Nevertheless, and though its      with an epistle which is not by any          reprint it deserves better than a paper-
place must be understood carefully,          `means easy to interpret. For general        back treatment.
Paul does not think of man's response        help in the study of Hebrews this                                                H.C.H.


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3i2                                                      ,;THE   SZ4NDARD  BEARER


                              ,I
                                       ..      ...  tkws  FRO'M'OUR   C~~URCHES-
                   :r                               .March .15, 1966    and, The Proper Scriptural Interpretation. The Pro-
       Rev.' D. Engelsma, of Loveland, Cola';, declined the             fessor postulated the real issue to be, Creation versus
call from Edgerton, Minn.                                               Evolution; that Evolution is not a mere theory, but an
       Hudsonville's congregation was also disappointed                 entire philosophy of the world; that it should be beneath
March 13 when it was announced that Rev. J.A. Heys                      the dignity of a believer to enter into debate with an
of South Holland, Ill. declined their call.                             Evolutionist, whose evolution is a monstrosity of sin.
                                    *  9 *                              The speaker affirmed that the question is not: what
       According to the custom in our churches, all our                 the scientist thinks, what this or that theologian thinks,
ministers' are preaching a series of Lenten sermons.                    what this or that church teaches, what the early church
Rev. C. Hanko, of Redlands, is treating the passion                     fathers maintained, what. the Confessions say about it
and death of our Savior from the viewpoint: "Scrip-                     (for they are.also subject to the authority of the Scrip-
ture Fulfilled"; .while Rev, D. Engelsma, of Loveland,                  tures); but that the only Court of Appeal is the Bible.
chose ,for his point of view the "Battling King".                       The Professor concluded with the statement that the
                         /          *  *  *                             whole question is a matter of Exegesis, and that the
       South Holland's `consistory has appointed a com-                 exegesis of Holy Writ is an exact science, unbiased
mittee to arrange for the dedication of their new church                except by faith-to believe,  `#In the beginning God....".
edifice in the near future. This year `also.marks  the                  It was certainly heartwarming to us to see such a
40th anniversary of the organization of their congrega-                 large group of people, including Baptists, Reformed,
tion. The souvenir booklet to commemorate this  anni-                   Christian Reformed, and Protestant Reformed, who
vers,ary is expected to contain a pictorial history of                  would come out for a lecture of this type. Truly, we
the life of the congregation with pictures of former                    may: rejoice that God "has reserved seven thousand
meeting places, consistories, etc. We can soon expect                   who have not bowed the knee" to the Baa1 of Evolution!
to publish a picture of their new church in the'series                  The next, and last of the series, will be held`March  31
that has been started in our Standard Bearer.                           in First Church's auditorium. The subject: "Genesis'
                                     *  * *                             and Science".,
       Jamaican News: Results from the correspondence                                                   * * *
course undertaken by the Jamaican ministers have                           Doon's Consistory and Congregation are anticipating
already been noted in the hearing of a taped sermon                     their June guests with eagerness, and possibly with
by Rev. Frame preaching the truth `embodied in the                      some trepidation. Doon will be host to the 1966 Synod
Five Points of Calvinism. Rev. Frame, himself, ex-                      -of the Prot. Ref. Churches of America. Their March
pressed his thanks under a Feb. 24th dateline as                        6th bulletin already asked for housing for the delegates.
follows: "I am very glad for this course of instruction.                They are evidently proponents. of the old adage, "a task
I have :learned to' know the,truth. I am delighted very                 well begun is a task weil done".
much .in these truths, and I shall teach them to all the                                                * * *
brethrenof  the Protestant Reformed Churches here in                       Oak .Lawn,s Men's Society is announcing a public
Jamaica;". Rev. Heys, instructor of the course, `at-                    lecture they are sponsoring to be held March 25. Prof.
tributes the production of .this  ,work, to a great degree,             H. Hanko will speak on, "Our Calling with Respect to
to the help he receives in the typing, mimeographing,                   Ecumenism".                _
and taping of his material-by Mrs. R. Meyer, Dale                                                       * * *
Kuiper  and.Henry VanderWal  of Grand Rapids.                              Rev. G. Lanting, of Holland, Mich. was scheduled to
                                    .***                                lecture in Edgerton, Minn. on Feb. 28. His topic, "The
`. The second in the series bf lectures sponsored by                    Place of Confessions in the Church Today."
our Mission Committee was held in First Church                                                          * * *
March 3.' Prof. H??. Hoeksema spoke to a full house                        The Denver Adult Bible Class, of' Loveland's con-
when `he: lectured on, "The Creation Record -- Literal,                 gregation, has decided to merge with the class that
or. .vot?*`. -Rev. M. Schipper,  chairman of the lecture                meets in Loveland Thursday evenings.          Loveland's
series, was vindicated as a prophet, having predicted                   Young People sponsored an ice-skating outing (weather
"a packed-house if weather conditions are favorable".                   permitting) for Feb. 28. They especially invited all
Special music' was furnished by the Adams St. School                    the people of the congregation "who can skate or like
Choir; under the direction of Mr. Roland Petersen.                      to' learn to skate" to join them. That was a brave
The choir sang three numbers after an opening reci-                     challenge !
tative of, "Let the words of my mouth, and the medi-                                                    * * *
tation of .my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, 0 Lord                    Reformed Witness Hour schedule, with Prof. H.C.
my strength and'my redeemer." Mrs. C. Lubbers very                      Hoeksema at the microphone: Apr. 3 -- "The Suffering
capably fi.lled her task at the console of the pipe organ.              Servant and the Father's Will"; Apr. 10 - "The Risen
The speaker divided his lecture into three parts: The                   Lord and the `Must' of God's Counsel".
Issue at Stake, Various Interpretations of the Record,                     . . . . see you in church                       J.M.F.


