      VOLUME  ,-Ix                                        NOVEUBER  i, 1962 - GRAND  RAPIDS, MICHIGAN                                              NUMBER 3

                                                                                                     This last statement is in agreement with the Lord Jesus

                                                                                                who said : For without Me you can do nothing ! John 15 :Sb.

                                                                                                     It is rather clear in the text which we chose for our little

                                                                                                meditation : God's people are prepared by God ; delivered by

                              T R A N S L A T E D                                               Him; ti-anslated  by God; and redeemed by Him. The list is
                                                                                                rather complete !
         "G,iz&g  t h a n k s   zlnto  t h e   F a t h e r ,   zuhich hatlrz  made  us
           *wet to be fiartakel-s  of the i~mheuitance  of the saints im                             And God's people should know this.

           light: z&o hat/z delivered ZLS  from the power of daT.k-                                  Our Father in heaven has so often told us in both the
           ness, and  loath  translated us into the Kimgdow  of His                             Old and the New Testament : Salvation is of the Lord !
           d e a r   S o n :   in ruhonz  zve   h a v e   redewptiort  tlwwugh His

           blood, even the  forgiveness of sins." Col. 1 :12-14                                      But many foolish people continue to contradict this speech

                                                                                                of God and say: No, Lord! But man's conversion is Thy
      Throughout all the ages there has been a question asked
                                                                                                pre-requisite for entering the Kingdom of Thy dear Son!
and answered in the Church of God. And that question is:

How does a man enter into the Kingdom of God's dear Son?                                             But let us look at the text.

      Many there be who say : by his own power !                                                     God made us wheet  to be partakers of some .good  thing.

      Others say: Man enters the Kingdom of God by his own                                           What does that strange expression mean?

power, but aided by God.                                                                             It is an expression of old English. No one speaks like

      Some years ago, we also were troubled by that question                                    that anymore. It means something like the verb: to be

and answer.                                                                                     adapted.

      Here is the answer which most of                       gave to the funda-                      The Holy Ghost used this verb twice in the New Testa-
                                                      us 
mental question: The conversion of man is the pre-requisite                                     ment: here in my text and also in II Cor. 3 :6. And you

to entering the Kingdom of heaven.                                                              ought to read &hat verse. The verb that is used also appears

                                                                                                in our text and is translated: p)Lacle  `US PpLeet,  is translated
r.    This answer is as wicked as it is foolish.                                          `2
                                                                                                lthere:  q@i,ade  zts ah2e.
      The above text will tell you the story.
                                                                                                     In `Dutch, therefore, we read that God has prefiared  us,
      Here is God's answer to the question : We are translated                                  and in other translations in the Dutch Bible we read that
from the power tif darkness into the Kingdom of His dear                                        God has capacita.tsd  us to be heirs of the inheritance of the
Son !                                                                                           saints in light.

      What a beautiful answer ! And so convincing ! I am sure                                     In French we read that God has ,a yendzzs  capables,  mean-
that it even convinces the hearts of those that left us? You                                    ing that he made us capable to be inheritors of the wonders
know, we cannot do anything against the truth, but for the                                      in Christ.
truth !
                                                                                                     If; German we read: "Vater,  der uns tiichtig gemacht
      I assure you that you will see and hear many strange                                      hat," meaning that the Father has made us fit, able and
things in the day of Judgment when God will turn tihe hearts                                    c3pable  to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in
of all men inside out.                                                                          light.
                                   + * *         *                                                   Is it plain to you now ? Is it not wonderful ? God makes

It is a simple matter of the truth that dad does all                                            us able to be partakers of the inheritance!

t$ings!  And that we do nothing.                                                                     I `would ask: where is the pre-requssite?
                                                                                                                               . .


50                                           T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R


       That little prefix PRE- is an insult to the Almighty !                    How shall I aptly write about that translation ?

       It is rather plain too. Christian is not ready to be a                    What is that translation?

partaker of the heavenly bounties. Shall I tell you in Biblical                  It certainly is the heart of the controversy. How much
terms how God finds him? His name is "darkness," and                         talk there was about the ENTERING INTO THE KING-
                                                                       c)
that name makes us shudder.                                                  DOM.

       It means that we all are dirty, filthy and ugly, and are                  Well, the THEOLOGICAL answer from God Himself'
not fit to be heirs of God in Christ.                                        is this : God takes you up and carries you into that King-

      In order to be "saints in light" God has to work and He                dom !

has to be doing a wondrous work.              -'                                 You wake up (and that is conversion) and you see the

      What does it mean that we are saints ?                                 light of the blessed Kingdom! And you begin to cry: Woe

                                                                             is me, for I am a man of unclean lips ! And the angels hear
      It means two things. God must separate us from evil
                                                                             your crying, and they translate it into heavenly language,
and filth, and He must make us dedicated to the highest
                                                                             and they begin to be merry, and they sing. For Jesus  says
good, and that is God.
                                                                             that there shall be joy in heaven over one sinner that repents
      And that is the wonder of what the Bible calls REGEN-                  more than over ninety-nine who need not conversion.
ERATION !
                                                                                 When you cry because of your sinful estate, they sing
                            * * * *                                          about you in heaven. And they sing because they recognize

                                                                             that wonderful act of God who translated you, who carried
      That wonder is reiterated in the following sentences.
                                                                             you in heavenly, `spiritual, glorious beauty. You find your-
      Attend to this: "Who hath delivered us from the power                  self in the Church, and you say: Depart from me, ,O God,
of darkness" !                                                               for I am a sinful man ! (Shades of Peter the Apostle !)

      The battle cry of our &.&es  was this : "Man's conver-                     Do you know how the Holland theologians translated
sion is the pre-requisite of God to man"`!                                   the ,Greek  word that in the English Bible reads tya&&ed?

      But the Bible says in unspeakably comfortable words:                   This: overgebracht.  And that means: God took you up in

I, God, deliver you from the power of darkness !                             His loving artis, and set you down among the saints in

                                                                             light, making you a saint.
      It is the power of darkness which holds every man,
woman and child captive from his birth. And makes                               Is it a wonder that these happy beings are described in.
                                                                 US
willing slaves of the devil.                                                 my text as "Giving thanks to the Father"?

      How in the world shall a mere wicked and filthy creature

convert himself while he is in these terrible bonds ? Allow

me to give you a description of that terrible estate and I                      But there is more.

will do it in the words of Isaiah: "But we are all.as  an un-                   A questibn  keeps pressing us.
clean thing and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags;
                                                                                And here is the question : 0 God of eternal miradles, how
and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the
wind, have taken us away. And there is none that calleth                     couldest  Thou take me up and translate me into the King-
upon Thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of                      dom of Thy dear Son so that I find my walk among the
                                                                             saints of light?
Thee: for Thou hast hid Thy face from us, and hast con-

sumed us, because of our iniquities." Isa. 64 :6, 7.                            God will give you your answer.

      But there is more.                                                        The text `states : "In Whom (and that `is the dear Son)

      Listen to this: "and hath translated us into the Kingdom               we have redemption through His blood."

of His dear Son"!                                                               There is your answer. Study that answer. Let it be

      What incomparable beauty !                                             branded in your soul all through your life. It will keep
                                                                             you humble and meek.
      `Do you see the picture, the true picture now, beloved
reader ?                                                                        Allow me to explain it.

                                                                                He has redeemed  you through His 
      Here you are, swept away by the power of darkness,                                                             blood.

rushing headlong into destruction, sinning, sinning, sinning                    What is the meaning of redemption?

all your dreadful days, helpin,m one another to become more                     It is this : you are in prison, and God put you there.
ugly and filthy and dirty, and no man anywhere to take pity.                 And you stay there until you have paid the last farthing  of

      Until the Father comes and translates you into the king-               your guilt. And that takes a very long time. Of course, I

dom of His dear Son !                                                        speak as a fool. I said there that it takes a very long tiime.


                                                T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                                                                                                                                                51


I can find no other words. When I think of eternal death
                                                                                                   T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
and damnation I always think of a long length of time,
                                                                                  Semi-monthly, esept  monthly during June, July  and August
stretched out from year to year, from age to age, to un-                           Pubj.ished  by the REFOKMED  FREE PUBLISHING ASSOCLQION
counted billions of years, of light years, if you please. The                                                  Editor - REV. HERMAN HOEKSEMA

clock in hell says always : ever, forever, as the pendulum                        Communications relative to contents should be addressed to
                                                                                  Rev. H. Hoeksema, 1139 Franklin St., S. E., Grand Rapids 7,
swings.                                                                           ,Mich.  Contributions will be limited to 300 words and must be
                                                                                                                     neatly written or typewritten.
   You are in prison.                                                             All church news items should be addressed to Mr. J. M. Faber,
                                                                                                    1123 Cooper, S. E., Grand Rapids 7, Mich.
   And you are a willing slave in prison. When someone
                                                                                   Announcements and Obituaries with the $2.00 fee included
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                                                                                                Mr. James Dykstra, 1326 W. Butler Ave., S. E.
kill you if           attempt to get him out. Christ came close to
              you                                                                                                            Grand Rapids 7, Michigan
such prisoners, and they took Him and crucified Him for                              RENF,WAL:  Unless a dei?nite  request for discontinuance is
                                                                                  received it is assumed that the subscriber wishes the subscrip-
His attempts. Listen to Jesus cdinplaining  : They Gave Me                          tion to continue without the formality of a renewal order.
hatred for My love!                                                                                            Subscription price: $5.00 per year

                                                                                         Second Class postage paid at Grand Rapids, Michigan
    Until God comes, and He carries the KEY. It is the

blood of Jesus. He turns the Key objectively, and that is

the Cross. He turns the Key subjectively, and that is the                                                                          C O N T E N T S

Holy Spirit of regeneration and conversion, and you are                     M E D I T A T I O N -
                                                                                      Translated                       _.          ._.
carried out of the prison of death.                                                                                                                . ._. . . . . . . ..____.  ..___  _... .._ _.. ..____.._  49
                                                                                                 Rev. G. Vos
    And you are free.           You are translated, redeemed, de-
                                                                            EDITORIALS-
livered.                                                                              That Phenomenal Billy Graham . . . ____..  . ..__. . . ..__......_...  52
                                                                                      Election and Reprobation According to Barth ___.....___......___..,.  53
    And your sins are forgiven.
                                                                                                  Rev. H. Hoeksema

    Is it any wonder that all those happy beings give thanks                OUR DOCTRINE-
unto the Father?                                                                      Of Justification                         .__ __. . . . . . .._.  . . . . . . . . . . . . ..__......__.  . . .._....  .._  54
                                                                                      Of Sanctification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .55
    Who of you wants to keep on talking the nonsense that                                        Rev. H. Hoeksema
man's conversion is the pre-requisite for entering the King-                A CLOUD OF kbNEX%ES-
dom of heaven ?                                                                       Balaam and Balak                                    . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  I..,.  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

    God forgive you if you should be so foolish.                                                 Rev. B. Woudenberg

                                                                    G.Y.    FROM HOLY WRIT -

                                                                                      Exposition of I Timothy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

                                                                                                  Rev. G. Lubbers
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          ,
                                                                            I
                             IN MEMORIAM                                         N HIS FEAR-
                                                                                      A Word to Covenant Youth (3) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
   Our Society desires to express its deepest Christian sympathy to                              Rev. J. A. Heys
our fellow-member, Richard Van Baren  in the loss of his father,
                                                                            CONTENDING FOR THE FAITH-
                           JOHN VAN BAREN                                             The Church and the Sacraments . . . . . . . . . . . . . l................................  63

                                                                                                  Rev. H.' Veldman                                                                                                                                                             .'
who passed away last Monday, October 15, aged 53 years.
                                                                            THE 
   May the God of all comfort console his heart, and the hearts                     VOICE OF OUR  FATHERS -
                                                                                      The Belgic Confession . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
of the bereaved family with His marvellous  consolation, and may                                 Rev. H. C. Hoeksema
they all look for the resurrection of the saints, when all our tears

shall be wiped away.                                                        D E C E N C Y  AND ORDER-
                                     The Hudsonville Men's Society                    Ecclesiastical Censure                                        . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
                                     Rev. Gerrit  Vos, President                                 Rev. G. Vanden  Berg
                                     Rhine Lubbers, Secretary
                                                                            ,%.LLhOUNDUS-
                                                                                      Non-Cooperation                                .___.....__....,......................................................                                                           69
                      RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                          Our Unique World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
   The Consistory of the Hope Prot.  Ref. Church expresses its                        Another Bible Translation ._..  _._ _. __.___...  ..____  _..... ..70
sincere sympathy to our fellow office-bearer, Mr. Richard Newhouse,                              Rev. H. Hanko

in the death of his brother,                                                CONTRIBUTIONS-
                                                                                      Does the Cross Beg or Conauer, Mr. Martin? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
                        MICHAEL NIEUWENHUIS                                                      Mr. Vernon Grieser - .
                                                                                      Report of the Western Ladies' League _....._____.........................  71
who passed away October 1, 1962, in Kollum, Netherlands.                                          Mrs. S. Aardema, Reporter
   May the King of the church comfort and sustain in this hour

                                                                            NEWS  FROM 0x1~ CHURCHES __....___._.__.._..............................................                                                                                             .72
of sorrow.
                                                                                                  Mr. J. M. Faber
                                           Rev. H. Hauko,  President

                                           D. Meulenberg, Clerk


52                                         T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R


                                                                          in prison, and tried to kill him. This certainly is not the case
II           E D I T O R I A L S                                          with Billy Graham.
I'                                                                   I        The question is : how must this be explained ? How come

                                                                          that he has such large audiences, crowds of from ten thou-
            That Phenomenal Billy Graham
                                                                          sand to fifty thousand ? How must it be explained that this
      When I speak of the "phenomenal" Billy Graham, I use                "evangelist" is so popular ?
the term in the sense of unusual, extraordinary or even                       I can think of two or three reasons.
famous.
                                                                              The first is that before Billy Graham goes anywhere "to
      This may certainly be said of "evangelist" Graham. What-            preach the gospel" or to conduct a "crusade," the field is
ever anyone may think of him, Billy is certainly a very                   prepared for him by several ministers as well as laymen,
unusual figure in our modern world. He is also famous for                 weeks and even months in advance. Without this prepara-
I dare to say that he is virtually known over the whole world.            tion, Billy probably would have no audience to speak of. In
Thousands upon thousands come to hear him preach. The                     fact, Billy will not go anywhere to preach without this .
latest report has it that in Brazil he spoke to an audience of            thorough preparation of the field. Weeks before his evan-
fifty thousand. Although this may be somewhat exagger-                    gelistic campaign in Chicago, I received letters requesting
ated, I can very well believe that is it approximately the                that I would also help to prepare the field and to pray with
truth. Moreover, according to reports, hundreds upon                      my congregation for the "success" of the crusade in Chicago.
hundre'ds are converted under his preaching. When the so-                 I did nothing of the kind, of course. Personally, I do not
called altar call is made many hundreds come forward and                  believe in such an utterly mechanical and false preparation
express their willingness to accept Christ.                               in order to gather large crowds of hearers for the preaching

      This is surely extraordinary.                                       of the gospel. But the Chicago crusade certainly was a big

      This cannot even be said of the apostles, or even of Christ         `isuccess."    The field was thoroughly prepared, weeks and
Himself.                                                                  even several months before Billy arrived. From a letter I
                                                                          received through the courtesy of brother John M. Faber I
      Very often when Christ preached the very opposite was               quote the following :
true.
                                                                              "In about ten of the 1s nights McCormick place was
      Take, for instance, the passage in John 6. Jesus had just           filled to its 35,000 capacity, with the lowest attendance being
fed the multitude with five loaves of bread and two small                 about 18,000. This did not surprise the B.G. (Billy Graham)
fishes. The multitude became very enthusiastic and wanted                 team, because they were confident of that several months
to make Jesus king. But Jesus \?ithdrew  Himself. Then in                 ago. Not only does the Chicago area have a huge `evan-
the night the disciples crossed over to the other side of the             gelical' constituency, but the BG team stated that they made
sea. A great storm arose and the disciples were afraid. But               for the Chicago Crusade the most extensive preparations
Jesus, walking on the sea, approached them and entered into               ever made for one of their campaigns. Then too, the team
the ship and "immediately they were at the land whither                   announced that delegations came literally from all over the
they went."                                                               country : Florida, Texas, New York, California, Minnesota,
      The following day the multitude found Jesus on the other            to mention a few. Billy said that a trainload was present
side of the sea and they asked Him how arid when He came.                 from Minneapolis for the final Soldiers' Field service. Rock-
there. Jesus did not answer them directly but instead said                ford, Illinois, sent down 3,000 on three different nights.
unto them: "Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles,                  When the `evangelical' constituency is added to the large out-
but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled." Then              of-town delegations and to the modernist constituency, the

there ensued that remarkable conversation between Jesus                   crowds are self-explanatory."

and the Jews, the chief subject of: which was "the bread of                  This, then, is the first explanation of the large crowds that
life." In the course.,of  the conversation it first appeared that         gather around Billy Graham.
they, too, desired the bread of life, but soon it became evident
that this was not the case. Especially when Jesus said: "I                    The second element of this explanation is that Billy
am the bread of life" and told them that they believed not                Graham caters to the modernist.

and said to them: "All that the Father giveth me shall come                   This information I gathered from a booklet written by

to me ; and him that cometh  to me I will in no wise cast out,"           Dr. Bryce  B. Augsburger, entitled, "Shall We Co-operate

they began to change radically and they forsook Him.                      with Graham Campaign ?" given to me by the same brother

      The same is true of the apostles and their preaching. A             mentioned before.

man like Paul certainly was not popular. Thousands upon                       Writes Dr. Augsburger : "Walter Smyth of the Billy

thousands did not enthusiastically follow him, as is the case             Graham team was asked: `Would Billy Graham come to

with Billy Graham. Instead they persecuted him, put him                   Chicago at the invitation of the fundamentalists alone? Mr.


                                           T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                   53


Smyth's  answer  was an immediate and categorical `NO!                for any man to believe, but that it was not impossible and

Billy Graham will. not come to a city unless every group is           that man could do it. He did not say that faith is a gift of
asked to participate and sponsor the crusade.' It is for this         God as it is emphasized in Eph. 2 :S-10 : "For by grace are

reason that the fundamentalists have not sponsored the cru-           ye saved through faith ; and that not of yourselves : it is
sade. It was not because they did not want to, but because            the gift of God : not of works, lest any man should boast. For
Billy Graham would not come on such a basis by his own                we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good

decision.                                                             works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk
                                                                      in them." And this is the teaching of all Scripture.
   "The structure then, though technically and in a sense
organically differenf,  is actually and for all practical purposes       This, to my mind is the chief reason why Billy Graham
one and the same.       Though the Chicago Federation of              is so popular.                                            H.H.

Churches has not officially invited Graham to come and in

that sense he did not come at their invitation, yet these same

liberal and apostate denominations, churches and pastors,             Election and Reprobation According to Barth
have been invited to co-operate. Having adopted the prin-

ciple of co-operation with liberals in order to sponsor the              Barth's conception of predestination and especially of

evangelistic endeavor, Dr. Graham has found it necessary to           reprobation is not only confusing, since he calls reprobation

adopt a number of other u&riptural  principles and prac-              that which Reformed people mean by total depravity, but is

tices. Having sought and accepted the co-operation of the             also thoroughly Arminian.         This is very evident from the

liberals, he has felt that he must include them and the mem-          definition which we quoted in our last article, as well as from

bers of their churches on executive committees, on sponsoring         all the rest which he writes on the subject of predestination.

committees, as counseliors,  as choir members, and as ushers.            And this stands to reason. For if there is no reproba-
He must distribute the referral cards of the inquirers to             tion, if Christ is tha reprobate, and if He bore reprobation
all the churches which have co-operated in the crusade,               on the cross and removed it forever and for all men; and if,
whether those churches are liberal or conservative, and he            moreover, we can still speak of election, as Barth does, then
must carefully avoid the identification and denouncing of lib-        it surely must follow that, as far as God is concerned, all
erals, modernists, false prophets and ungodly. men. Such a            men are elect. I say that Barth still speaks of election, but
course cannot be other than ruinous."                                 he really has no right to do so. For if there is no reproba-

   And the author concludes this part of the pamphlet by              tion then there is no election either. Election means that God

remarking : "I would not want an apostate counsellor to               chose, not all men, but only some to eternal life and glory.

deal with an unsaved friend I had brought, nor to direct him          This Barth does not want. Hence, to speak, nevertheless, of

into a liberal church. Nor could the counsellor encourage             election is either sheer nonsense, or it means that God from

the counsellee to, attend a church that takes a strong stand          all eternity foresaw who would believe in Christ or rather

on the Word."                                                         who would want to be elect.

   All this is undoubtedly true.                                         And this is, indeed, clearly expressed in the definition

                                                                      which we quoted in our last article.
   But I have another and far more important reason that,
to my mind, is the explanation of Billy Graham's popularity,             Man, every man, according to Barth, is as such repro-
It is this: Billy does not preach the truth!                          bated by IGod. This already is in itself nonsense, provided

                                                                      we assume the Reformed view of reprobation. For if, ac-
   Oh, I do not say that he preaches no truth at all. But he
                                                                      cording to the Reformed conception, all men are reprobates,
never preaches tlzc truth, he never proclaims the whole coun-
                                                                      then all men are lost forever.
sel of God. And in my opinion this is more pernicious than
if he preached no truth at all.                                          But this Barth does not want. Hence, according to the
                                                                      same definition which we quoted, Barth writes that to be
   I know what I am talking about, for I have heard Billy             reprobate can only be man's own free ch?Zce, the choice of
speak over the radio rather often. He preaches an Arminian            the ungodly : "Aber dieser Mensch zu sein, kann nur des
gospel and that is no gospel. He preaches a gospel for all            gottlosen Menschen  eigene Wahl sein."  Again I say that,
men, a free-will gospel and that is not the gospel of God ; it        if we understand the truth of reprobation in the Reformed
is not the gospel which Christ preached. It is not the gospel         sense of the word, this, too, is sheer nonsense. But, of
which the apostles preached.                                          course, Barth substitutes his own view of reprobation fur the

   The last time I heard Billy Graham preach over the radio,          Reformed conception. That view is that Christ, by His death

he spoke on the well-known text of John 3 :lG. It is, of              and resurrection, removed all reprobation. There is no more

course, impossible for me to quote him literally. But one             reprobation. Hence, if any man wills to be a reprobate, this

element of his sermon I very distinctly remember. When he             can only be his own choice.

came to "he that believeth"  he said that it was very difficult                                                                 H.H.


 54                                           T H E   STANp&.RD  B E A R E R


                                                                           the saints receive. And even this is freely bestowed upon

         O U R   D O C T R I N E                                         i them by God.
                                                                               It ought to be evident, on the basis of Dr. Kuyper's theory,

                                                                           that this reward is not based upon the merits of Christ, on

                            C                                              His atoning death. Christ certainly merited eternal life, and
                                 HAPTER IV
                                                                           He merited that for all the elect, without exception. But this
                      OF JUSTIFICATION                                     extra glory and enjoyment of eternal life that is the privilege
                             (Continued)                                   of some is not included in the merits of Christ. God bestows

                                                                           it freely upon those whom He appointed for this extra gift
       From all these passages of Scripture- and there are
                                                                           of grace. Dr. Kuyper uses an illustration of a parent who, of
many more - we learn the following : 1) In the day of the
                                                                           course, expects obedience and willing service from all his
Lord God will reward every man according to his works, and
                                                                           children out of love, but who sometimes promises them a
that, too, by a righteous judgment over the good and over
                                                                           special reward to encourage them or to honor their love and
the evil. 2) This reward for the righteous is in principle
                                                                           their devotion.
eternal life : nothing less than the eternal, glorious inheritance                            So God promises an extra reward of grace
                                                                           to those that serve Him faithfully in the world, and especially
that is reserved in heaven for us. 3) We learn that there
                                                                          to those that must suffer for righteousness' sake.
will be gradations in the reward of glory. Not all the saints
in glory will be alike. They shall not occupy the same place.                 We cannot agree with this interpretation of the reward
All the saints will be completely filled with blessing ; but one           of grace.
has a greater capacity for blessing and glory than another,                   Our main objection is that this explanation of the reward
and will receive accordingly. And also these gradations in                 of grace puts the latter outside of the death and obedience
glory will be according to each man's work and his suffering               of Christ. This is evidently impossible. All that we ever
for Christ's sake in the world. 4) The hope of the reward                 have, all that we will ever receive in eternal glory certainly
may indeed encourage us and spur us on to greater faithful-                flows from the sacrifice of Christ as its meritorious cause.
ness, especially as we must suffer for righteousness' sake in              Apart from the obedience and death of Christ we have noth-
the midst of an inimical and hostile world.                               ing. For only in and through that death our sins are forgiven.
       The question, however, still arises and must be explained :         Only in and through that death can we be, and are we,
how must we understand all this ? Is not, after all, the Roman            righteous before God. The righteousness of Christ is imputed
Catholic view as to the meritoriousness of our good works                 to the believers. And only those that receive this righteous-
strongly supported by Scripture? Are we after a.11 saved by               ness of Christ by a true faith receive all the benefits of Christ
our own righteousness, at least in part?                                  and all the gifts of grace. They only receive the eternal glory,
       Dr. A. Kuyper offers a peculiar explanation of this re-            even that particular glory which is bestowed on each of the

ward of grace. He does so in his explanation of the Heidel-               saints in heaven personally and in distinction from others.

berg Catechism, "E Voto," II, pp. 377, ff. First of all,                      Besides, Dr. Kuyper postulates a mechanical and entirely

according to him, the reward of grace does not include the                arbitrary division and separation between eternal life a's such

blessing of eternal life itself. He emphasizes that eternal life          and the different degrees of glory which, according to Kuyper,

is merited by Christ's atoning death, by His active and pas-              some of the saints enjoy. We maintain, however, that these

sive obedience, that is given to all the elect, and that prin-            different degrees of glory are not something extra, outside

cipally it is for all the saints. He writes (`I translate) : "In this     of and apart from eternal life, something that is added to it;

connection we must from the start postulate a difference be-              but they simply constitute the full measure of glory which

tween eternal life itself and a particular honor or enjoyment             each individual. saint receives and of which he is capable.

in this eternal life. Without this distinction we cannot ad-              For the same reason we cannot agree that the reward `of

vance one step in the right direction here. For if it is estab-           grace is something that is bestowed only upon some partic-

lished that Christ gained eternal life for all His redeemed,              ular elect, while the great multitude of the saints in glory do

and that yet certain redeemed receive a certain reward of                 not enjoy it, but simply have eternal life. The Bible certainly

grace in addition to this, then it ought to be clear that this            does not make any such distinction. All the saints without

reward of grace cannot be the same as eternal life. For this              distinction, from the least to the greatest, undoubtedly per-

eternal life is received by all; this reward of grace, however,           form a certain measure of good works. And all will receive

is only for those that have a claim to it. Eternal  life is essen-        the reward of grace according to their works.

tially the same for all, but the reward of grace is for each                  This means too, of course, that Kuyper's theory does not

one, personally, different. Eternal life also a child that is             explain those passages of Scripture that tell us that the

taken away in infancy- receives, when it is elect; but the                reward will be according to works. It is the plain teaching of
reward of grace a child like that never receives." The reward             Scripture that the reward will be according to each man's

of grace, therefore, according to this quotation, is not for all          work, and that too, in the communion of all the saints that
the saints, but only for certain, particular, redeemed children           are in glory. In fact, this includes all men, whether they re-

of God. It is a certain e#ra reward of glory that some of                 ceive the reward of grace or whether they are damned to


                                             THE  S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                       55


eternal destruction. But as far as the reward of grace is con-       enjoy the freedom with which Christ liberates              All this
                                                                                                                         US. 

cerned, this cannot refer to the fact, as Kuyper  has it, that       is grace. All this is the free grace of God in Jesus Christ our
they receive an extra gift, and extra enjoyment of glory, while      Lord.

it does not refer to the multitude of saints that only have             Now, as Christ on the basis of His atoning death and

eternal life and nothing else. Lastly it is plainly in contradic-    obedience has the right to deliver us, so He actually also

tion to those passages of Holy Writ that teach that eternal          delivers us,    liberates us from the power and the do-
life itself is a reward of grace. Thus the Lord said in answer       minion of sin and death, and translates                   into the
                                                                                                                        US 

to the question of Peter as to what the disciples should receive,    state and condition of free sons of God, who principally

who had forsaken everything: "Verily I say unto you, That            delight in and do His will. Rom. 8 :2 : "For the law of the

ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son          Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law

of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye shall also sit       of sin and death." By I-Iis  Spirit Christ Himself dwells in
upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And        us, regenerates us, and gives us new life. He calls us by His

every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or     Spirit into the fellowship of His everlasting covenant. And

father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's     even as He justifies us, so He also sanctifies us, causes US
sake, shall receive an hundred fold, and shall inherit everlast-     to hate all sin and to flee from it, and to have principal de-

ing life." Matt. 19 :2S, 29. To the church of Smyrna the Lord        light in all good works. Cf. II Cor. 5 :17; Eph. 4:2-G;  Eph.

promises : "Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee        2 33. From this it is plain that all our good works are fruits

a crown of life." Rev. 2:lO. The meaning of these words is           which Christ bears in us and through us. Without Him we
evidently that those that are faithful unto death will receive       are nothing, and without Him we can do nothing. As He

not an extra gift and extra reward, but eternal life as a crown      Himself declares in John 15 :4, 5 : "Abide in me, and I in

of victory.                                                          you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it

   We shall therefore have to look for a solution of this            abide in the vine ; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I
reward of grace in a different direction.                            am the vine, ye are the branches : he that abideth  in me, and
                                                                     I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without
   And then we must proceed from the evident truth of
                                                                     me ye can do nothing." Besides, our good works are the gift
Scripture that all that ever shall be given to us of eternal
                                                                     of God to us, that in the deepest sense flow from God's
life and glory is merited for us by the death and obedience
                                                                     eternal counsel of predestination, from His eternal good
of our Lord Jesus Christ. He alone merited glory and eternal
                                                                     pleasure. For we read in Ephesians 2 :lO: "For we are his
life. For as the Son of God in human flesh He humbled
                                                                     workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works,
Himself deeply. In the form of God He never thought it
                                                                     which God hath before ordained that we should walk in
robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no repu-
                                                                     them."
tation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was
                                                                        Thus, then, we would explain the reward of grace. It is
made in the likeness of men. And being found in fashion
                                                                     all of grace from beginning to end. It is of grace that Christ
as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto
                                                                     died for us and merited eternal righteousness for us. It is of
death, even the death of the cross. Cf. Phil. 2 :6-S.  By this
                                                                     grace that by His death He also merited for us the privilege
humiliation and sacrifice on bhe cross, by this complete emp-
                                                                     of performing good works. It is of grace that we are in-
tying of Himself, He alone merited the reward of glory. This
                                                                     grafted into Him by a true faith, and that we are sanctified
is according to Phil. 2 :9-11 : "Wherefore God also hath
                                                                     unto good works. Good works, therefore, are the fruit of
highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above
                                                                     Christ's dwelling in us, fruits which God ordained for us
every name : That at the name of Jesus every knee should
                                                                     from before the foundation of the world and in which we are
bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things
                                                                     privileged to walk. In the way of good works we must enter
under the earth ; And that every tongue should confess that
                                                                     into glory. But it is all through grace. We never merit any-
Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." This
                                                                     thing. And the end must always be : "Let him that glorieth,
glory, of course, He merited not only for Himself, but for
                                                                     glory in the Lord."
all whom the Father hath given Him. The grace of the per-                                                       , Y.

fect righteousness of Christ, even the forgiveness of sins, is

fundamental. Without the imputed righteousness of Christ                                      CHAPTER V
we have no right to anything at all. Without it we have no
                                                                                      OF SANCTIFICATION
right to be delivered from the dominion of sin, no right to

dwell as free sons in Father's house, no right to the delight           We now approach a new subject in our discussion of the

of serving Him and to walk in all good works. For without            way of salvation. And the subject is sanctification.

righteousness, even without the righteousness of Christ im-             Sanctification we may define as that work of God where-

puted to us, we are nothing but legal slaves of sin and of           by He delivers the justified and regenerated sinner from the

the devil. But in the perfect obedience of Christ we have the        defilement and dominion of sin as a spiritual, ethical power,

right to be delivered from this awful slavery of sin and to          renews him according to the image of Christ, and enables


56                                         T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R


him to walk in all good works, which God has prepared for             God before His face. And the right to eternal life must be

him.                                                                  fulfilled in the granting of that life itself, that consists in this,

                                                                      that we know the oniy true God and Jesus Christ Whom He
      Sanctification follows logi,cally  upon justification. The
                                                                      has sent. Sanctification, therefore, must necessarily follow
two carmot be separated although they may certainly be
                                                                      justification. But this close and inseparable connection is
distinguished. This distinction is, indeed, very necessary ;
                                                                      also true in the subjective sense of the word. For the elect
the separation of the two is, however, very precarious for
                                                                      is justified by faith. Without a living and saving faith, that
faith and life. Justification is a judicial idea, and consists in
                                                                      justification of the sinner in the subjective sense of the word
a judicial act of God which is realized objectively in the death
                                                                      is -inconceivable. Although, therefore, justification according
and resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord, by which the elect
                                                                      to its idea certainly precedes sanctification, and the former is
are righteous before God through faith. Sanctification, how-
                                                                      the ground of the latter, and although this relation is also
ever, is a spiritual, ethical act, also proceeding from sovereign
                                                                      experienced in the consciousness of faith, fact is, nevertheless,
grace, operating in us out of Christ, Who not only is raised
                                                                      that the child of God is already regenerated, and therefore is
from the dead, but Who also is at the right hand of God,
                                                                      sanctified in principle, before he even longs for the forgive-
Who also has received the Spirit, and has become the quick-
                                                                      ness of sins and the righteousness of Christ. The natural man
ening Spirit,. and through that Spirit has returned to His
                                                                      does not hunger and thirst after righteousness, does not
own to abide in them forever. Justification, we may say, is
                                                                      come to a true, spiritual knowledge of sin and to sorrow after
the ground for sanctification.    By nature we not only lie in
                                                                      God, does not seek the kingdom of God and His righteous-
the midst of death, but we are also legally bound in the power
                                                                      ness, and never will seek refuge in the blood of Christ. Hence,
of sin and corruption. We have no right to be delivered from
                                                                      it is evident that also in the subjective sense of the word
the power of sin. The judicial ground for such deliverance
                                                                      justification is inseparable from sanctification. He who
must first of all be established in the death and perfect obe-
                                                                      through faith prays for forgiveness through that same faith
dience of Christ. Only on the basis of that judicial ground
                                                                      also prays for deliverance from the dominion and defilement
can the Spirit of Christ deliver us from the law of sin and
                                                                      of sin.
death. It is of the greatest significance that this order never                  He who through faith embraces the adoption unto
                                                                      children longs through that same faith for the complete, spirit-
be reversed, or that justification not be replaced by sanctifica-
tion. We are not justified because we are holy, but we are            ual, ethical realization of that sonship.  He who through faith
sanctified because we are justified. Besides, justification is        is assured of his right to eternal life can never rest before he
not a process, but a complete act of ,God,  a perfect change of       has become a complete partaker of that eternal life. Hence,
our state. Sanctification, however, although it is complete in        one that has no need of sanctification has never been justified
Christ and is also given us in principle in regeneration, does        by a true faith.
not dominate the believer completely in this present life. It             Scripture very frequently speaks, in one way or another,
follows a process of continued mortification of the old man           of this grace of sanctification. Sanctification is necessary, in the
and quickening of the new man.                                        deepest sense of the word, because God is holy, and we must
                                                                      be holy and walk in sanctification of life. "Be ye holy, for I
      Although, however, these distinctions are very important,       the Lord your God am holy." This is the constant refrain
it is no less important to understand that sanctification and         of Holy Writ. Thus, for instance, we read in Leviticus
justification can never be separated. This follows already            11:44,  45 : "For I am the Lord your God: ye shall therefore
from the very nature of justification itself. Justification is        sanctify yourselves and ye shall be holy ; for I am holy :
a translation out of the state of sin into the state of righteous-    neither shall ye defile yourselves with any manner of creep-
ness. It is not deliverance from the condition of sin. But            ing thing that creepeth upon the earth. For I am the Lord
although state and condition must be distinguished, they              that bringeth you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your
nevertheless can never be separated in the spiritual, ethical         God: ye shall therefore be holy, for I am holy." The same
sense of the word. The transition by a judicial jud,gment  of         is found in Leviticus 19:2,  where the Lord spake  through
God from the state.of  guilt must necessarily be followed by a        Moses unto the people of Israel: "Speak unto all the con-
translation out of our sinfui condition into that of holiness.        gregation of the children of Israel, and say unto them, Ye
The end must be that the condition corresponds perfectly to           shall be holy: for I the Lord your God am holy." Again, in
the state. Justification in its main elements is that act of          the same book of Scripture, 20 :7 : "Sanctify yourselves there-
God whereby we receive the remission of sins, the adoption            fore, and be ye holy: for I am the Lord your God." The same
unto children, and the right to eternal life. But it lies in the      is true of the New Testament. In I Peter 1:15,  16 we read:
nature of the case that this cannot be the end. Forgiveness           "But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in
of sins would not have its final purpose in deliverance from          all manner of conversation ; Because it is written, Be ye holy;
sin and perfect obedience of love, would prove vain and fruit-        for I am holy." And although the word "holy" is not used
less. The adoption unto children, if it is to be realized and         in Matthew 5 :48, it means the same thing: "Be ye there-
experientially enjoyed by the believer, must have its fruit in        fore perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect." God

the spiritual, ethical sonship  of God and a walk as children of      is the Holy One.                                              H.H.


                                                T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                        57


             _____....~~~                                                       top overlooking the camp of Israel. There Balaam began

I~LQUQ OF W.ITNESSES  11 putting his plan into action. He commanded seven altars to
                                                                                be built and seven oxen and seven rams prepared for sacri-

                                                                                fice. He knew that Jehovah was pleased with sacrifices and

                                                                                that seven was a favorite, covenant number. When all was
                      Balsam  and Balak                                         ready, he and Balak brought the sacrifice of an ox and a

                                                                                ram to each altar. His hope was to induce Jehovah to be
         And he took 21.)  1~s pamble,  and  mid, Balak the king
                                                                                favorably disposed to Moab by this sacrifice of its king.
     of Moab hat12  brought  me from Amm,  -out  of the mow-

     tains  o f   the east, saying, Come, case me Jacob, and                       While the sacrifices were yet burning, Balaam said to
     c o m e   d e f y   Israel.                                                Balak, "Stand by thy burnt offering, and I will go : per-

         How shall   I   close, W~ZOI~I~   G o d   bath   w o t   cwsed?  or    adventure the LORD will come to meet me: and whatsoever

     hozv  shall I defy, zwhow the LORD bath  not defi&d?                       he sheweth me I will tell thee." Balsam  felt rather safe that

                                                      Numbers 23 :7, 8          in the presence of these sacrifices God would say something

                                                                                favorable or at worse nothing at all. Slowly he went higher

   Balaam arrived in the land of Moab firmly determined in                      up the peak to wait for God to speak. Soon God did come,

one way or another to bring a curse upon Israel. He knew                        and immediately Balaam set forth his cause, "I have prepared

it would not be easy. God had said to him before he left                        seven altars, and I have offered upon every altar a bullock

Aram,    "Thou shalt not curse the people: for they are                         and a ram."

blessed." And he knew that as a prophet he was powerless
                                                                                   Meanwhile Balak and the princes of Moab who had come
to say one word different from what God had placed in his
                                                                                with him were waiting for Balaam's return in eager anticipa-
mouth. He remembered only too well the angel of judgment
                                                                                tion. They had seen how carefully he worked and had, no
with a sword in his hand which had appeared first to his ass
                                                                                doubt but that it would be rewarded. Attentively they
and then to him as though to warn him that, if he changed
                                                                                listened when at last Balaam did return and spoke.
the word of SGod  in one bit, it would be to his own destruc-

tion. Still he was determined. Balak had offered him a                             "Balak the king of Moab hath brought me from Aram,

great reward and he wanted it very badly. And he was quite                                from the mountains of the east, saying,

sure that he could get it, not by perverting the word of God,                       Come, curse me Jacob,
but by convincing God that Moab ought to be blessed and                                   and come, defy Israel.
Israel cursed.                                                                      How shall I curse, whom God hath not cursed?

   Balak, of course, had no idea of the difficulties that con-                            or how shall I defy, whom the LORD hath not defied ?

fronted Balaam. He was sure that Balaam was able to bless                            For from the top of the rocks I see him,
or curse whomever he chose. When at first Balaam had re-                                  and from the hills I behold him:
fused to come, he thought it was only because he was holding                        Lo, the people shall dwell alone,
out for higher pay. In fact, it rather irritated him just to                              and shall not be reckoned among the nations.
think that anyone might consider him unwilling to pay what                          Who can count the dust of Jacob,
his services were worth. But now Balaam was come, and                                     and the number of the fourth part of Israel ?
he hurried to the border city to meet him. Still he could not
                                                                                    Let me die the death of the righteous,
help but chide him for his hesitation. "Did I not earnestly
                                                                                          and let my last end be like his !"
send unto thee to call thee? wherefore camest thou not unto

me ? am I not able indeed to promote thee to honor?"                               Astonishment was written-`all over the faces of Balak and

   Balsam  immediately detected the confidence which Balak                      his princes. They might well have burst forth in anger were
had in him, and it bothered him. He was afraid that Balak                       it not for fear which they had for Balaam and his strange
would expect too much, too soon, and too easily. Carefully                      power.      Still the dismay could not be hidden. Balak cried
he tried to warn him : "Lo, I am come unto thee ; have I                        out, "What hast thou done-  unto me ? I took thee to curse
now any power at all to say any thing? the word that God                        mine enemies, and, behold, thou hast blessed them alto-
putteth in my mouth, that shall I speak."                                       gether."

   But Balak was not to be daunted. Eagerly he rushed                              To this Balaam had only one answer. He was himself
Balaam to Iiirjath-Huzoth near the camp of Israel. Once                         deeply disappointed. Lamely he said, "Must I not take heed
they were there, and unbeknown to Balaam, he offered a                          to speak that which the LORD hath put in my mouth?'

sacrifice of joy to his god. This did not fit with the plans                       The cold grip of fear was laying hold again upon Balak's
of Balaam, but he did not know until the sacrificial meat                       heart. Now more than ever he felt the need for a curse to
was brought to him to eat.                                                      be pronounced upon the nation of Israel. Possibly, he thought,

   Early the next morning they went together to a mountain                      Balaam was too much impressed by the size of the nation


5s                                             T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                 -.


and the orderliness of Israel's camp. Turning again to                  This time they went to the top of mount. Peor, and again

Balaam he said, "Come, I pray thee, with me unto another            they built seven altars and offered a bullock and a ram upon

place, from whence thou mayest see them: thou shalt see but         each. But Balsam's  confidence was waning, and he was al-

the utmost part of them, and shall not see them all : aid  curse    most beginning to hope that God would not come to speak

me them from thence."                                               to him. As though to discourage the Lord from speaking,

      Together they went to the field of Zophim at the top of       this time he set his face toward the wilderness instead of
the mount of Pisgah. From there they could see only part            toward the mountain peaks.     But once more God came and
of Israel's camp, and at that the outer part where the un-          Balaam returned to Balak in a state of prophetic ecstasy.

organized mixed multitude dwelt which had so often been a               "Balsam  the son of Beor  said,
snare to Israel's moral life. There once again they built seven            and the man whose eyes are open hath said:
altars and offered a bullock and a ram upon each. Then                       He hath said, which heard the words of God,
Balsam  said to Balak, "Stand here by thy burnt offering,                       which saw the vision of the Almighty,
while I meet the LORD yonder."                                                  falling into a trance, but having his eyes open:
      When he returned Balak was waiting even more anxious-              How goodly are thy tents, 0 Jacob,
ly than before, but without the former confidence. Before him              and thy tabernacles, 0 Israel!
Balsam  stood in prophetic ecstasy and spoke:                                 as the valleys are they spread forth,

      "Rise up, Balak, and hear;                                             as gardens by the river's side,

         hearken unto me, thou son of Zippor :                               as the trees of lign  aloes which the LORD hath

       God is not a man, that he should lie ;                                                                                 planted,
         neither the son of man, that he should repent:                      and as cedar trees beside the waters.

       hath he said, and shall he not do it?                            He shall pour the water out of his buckets,
         or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good ?                and his seed shall be in many waters,
                                                                             and his king shall be higher than Agag,
       Behold, I have received commandment to bless:
                                                                                and his kingdom shall be exalted.
         and he hath blessed ; and I cannot reverse it.
                                                                         God brought him forth out of Egypt;
       He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob,
                                                                           he hath as it were the strength of an unicorn :
         neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel :
                                                                        he shall eat up the nations his enemies,
       The LORD his God is with him,
                                                                           and shall break their bones,
         and the shout of a king is am.ong  them.
                                                                             and pierce them through with his arrows.
       God brought them out of Egypt;
                                                                        He couched, he lay down as a lion,
         he hath as it were the strength of an unicorn.
                                                                           and as a great lion : who shall stir him up?
       Surely there is no enchantment against Jacob,
                                                                        Blessed is .he that blesseth thee,
         neither is there any divination against Israel:
                                                                           and cursed is he that curseth thee."
       according to this time it shall be said of Jacob

         and of Israel, What hath God wrought!                         It was all more than Balak could take. To him it seemed

       Behold, the people shall rise up as a'great  lion,           to be nothing short of treachery, and his anger could restrain
         and lift himself as a young lion :                         itself no longer. Hitting his hands together in rage, he cried
                                                                    out at the top of his voice, `? called thee to curse mine ene-
       he shall not lie down until he eat of the prey,
                                                                    mies, and, behold, thou hast altogether blessed them these
         and drink the blood of the slain."
                                                                    three times. Therefore now flee thou to thy place: I thought

      A stunned silence hung heavy over the group of Moabitish      to promote thee unto great honor; but, lo, the LORD hath

nobles gathered there to listen, broken only by the anguished       kept thee back from honour." Sarcasm dripped from his

cry of Balak the king. "Neither curse them at all, nor bless        voice, for he was quite convinced that the fault was more

them at ail."          .                                            Balaam's than the Lord's.

      For this Balaam had only one answer, "Told not I thee,           Balaam knew better. He was as disappointed as Balak

saying, All that the LORD speaketh, that I m.ust do ?"              was, for there was nothing he desired more than to curse

      Both Balaam and Balak were on the verge of complete           Israel and so gain the honor that Balak offered. But God

despair.    Their present state was much worse than the first,      prevented him from doing what he wanted. All that he

and well they might have wished that .they  had never started       could do was to repeat again what he said so often before,

on this course. But now they could hardly refrain from going        "Spake I not also to thy messengers which thou sentest unto

on. In desperation Balak suggested once again to Balaam,            me, Saying, If Balak would give me his house full of silver

"Come, I pray thee, I will bring thee unto another place ;          and gold, I cannot go beyond the commandment of the

peradventure it will please God that thou mayest curse me           LORD, to do either good or bad of mine own mind; but

them from thence."                                                  what the LORD saith, that will I speak?"                    B.W.


                                                     T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                           59


                                                                                      hand: and in their heart and conscience they must be con-

          F R O M   HQLY  W R I T                                                     victed and be called to repentance. And when they repent
                                                                                      of their sin and confess it, and have a hearty resolution to

                                                                                      no lohger'walk  in the same, then they must be assured from

                                                                                      the Word that with the Lord there is forgiveness that He
                    Exposition of I Timothy
                                                                                      may be feared. They must be brought to the positive fear of

                          (I Timothy 5:19-31)                                         the LORD. Then and then only will evil be put out of the

                                                                                      house of God. And, if they do not repent, they must be
                                       b.
                                                                                      placed outside of the kingdom of heaven-till they show

    There is still an important and implicit element in this                          signs and evidence of repentance. Such is the rule in God's

passage under discussion which calls for a few remarks of an                          Kingdom according to the command of Christ.

explanatory nature.                                                                       However, Paul adds another element here. He says that
    It is the conviction of the undersigned that the content                          such conviction of "sin" must be done "before all." There
of verse 20 is most intimately connected with what the                                are some interpreters who would limit the "before all" to the
apostle writes in verse 19, and that we do well to observe                            rest of the office-bearers. However, it seems that "before
this connection rather minutely. We read in verse 20 the                              all" must refer to the entire congregation, the entire house of
following : "The-m  tlmt An   r e p r o v e   i n   t h e   sight  o f   a.ll, tht    God. And what Timothy must do "before all" is not simply
the rest also may  be in feag,."                                                      an announcement to all that certain office-bearers have sinned.
    To state. very briefly and concisely the relationship and                         The actual conviction of the sin itself must be before all. All
difference between verses 19 and 20, attend to the following:                         must witness what the sin is of which the office-bearers are
    1. In verse 19 the apostle gives a directive as to the                            accused as well as the actual convktioti of sin. This is not
          p+ocedz&re  in ascertaining the guilt of one who is ac-
proper                                                                                to make a public spectacle of sinners, but it is intended to
cused formally of a definite sin wk;ich  he perpetrates or has                        put sin outside of the congregation, to purify the holy place
perpetrated in connection with his office as a presbyter, or                          of God.
elder.                                                                                    A good and pertinent instance of such refutation and con-
    2.    In verse 20 the apostle gives a directive or mandate to                     viction of sin we have recorded in Galatians 2 :11 and 14
Timothy concerning what must be done to and with thosk                                where we read: "But when Cephas came to Antioch, I re-
who are found guilty of sin in the office through such a proce-                       sisted him to the face, because he stood condemned," and,
dure.                                                                                 "But when I saw that they walked not uprightly according to
    These two matters are most intimately connected and are                           the truth of the Gospel, I said unto Cephas before &evtcall,  If
both to be performed before the face of the Lord without                              thou being a Jew, livest as do the Gentiles, and not as do
prejudice or personal preference. The most awful and solemn                           the Jews, how compellest thou the Gentiles to live as do the
warning of Paul has reference to both of these matters -the
                                                                                      J ews ?"    Here Paul refutes Peter before all who were at
warning contained in the words : "I charge thee in the sight                          Antioch in the congregation. Of course, Paul did not publish
of God and Christ Jesus, and the elect angels, that thou                              this in every street and corner of the land, at that time.
observe these things without prejudice, doing nothing by                              Howbeit, the principle at stake then is at stake here in the
partiality."                                                                          Galatian churches, and this evil must be put out of the
    When the apostle speaks of those "that sin" he employs                            church, root and branch, once-for-all. All must therefore
the present participle, plural number. In the investigation                           know.
of the matter before two or three witnesses, it was established
                                                                                         Thus Timothy too must refute those office-bearers who
upon good grounds that either an office-bearer or office-bear-
                                                                                      sin in teaching or in administration of discipline before all
ers walked in sin. They missed the mark of their calling as
                                                                                      the church.
office-bearers. They were not men who ruled well. They did
                                                                                         The purpose ?
not rightly divide the Word, nor did they admonish the flock
and walk as examples to the flock. It was not simply some                                 It is that "the rest" may have fear. For, mark you well,
petty grievances of a few notorious and chronic fault-finders ;                       Paul is here not speaking of the conduct of everyday walk
it was indeed "sin" of which they are guilty.                                         of the saints among each other. Surely love believeth a!1
    And now what must be done ?                                                       things, endureth all things, and hopeth all things. I Cor. 13 :f.
    Shall they be cast into prison, or some fine be imposed                           And, be it conceded royally, that hatred stirreth up strifes,
upon them ? Not at all. Such is not the rule ,in the church                           and that love covereth a multitude of sins. Prov. 10 :12, I
of Christ where righteousness and mercy have kissed each                              Peter 4 :S. It should, however, be evident to the most super-
other in Christ. On the contrary, they must be shown the                              ficial reader that Scripture in I Peter 4:s speaks of personal
sinfulness of their sin. They must be convicted. They must                            sins. But even so it remaineth true that love will then not
be shown. their conduct, on the one hand, and the righteous                           assume a hands-off attitude, but will seek to save a soul from
requirement of Christ in the house of God, on the other                               death by means of conversion, and ths cover a multitude of


6 0                                          T H E   S T A N D A R D   BEARER


sins. But, as was said, Paul is here speaking of public sins           Gor. S:l and 10 we read: "Now concerning things sacrificed
of office-bearers. And these sins have become and are hublic.          to ~idols:  we know that we all lznve  knowledge." It is an
And such must be reproved before all "the rest." These                 abiding possession and not a momentary, fleeting impression.
must be reproved, of course, before all the "rest" of the              Or take I Cor. 13 :2: "And if I Fyave the gift of prophecy."
office-bearers, but no less before all the rest of the house of        Here the gift of prophecy is an abiding charismata (gift)
God.                                                                   that enables one to know the mysteries of God. Other ex-

       The purpose is that all the rest may "have fear."               amples of this same construction and the resultant sense can

       Let us notice, first of all, that "fear" is the end Paul has    be found in Acts 14:9:  Phil. 3 :4, Rev. 12:12,  James 3 :14,
in mind with this public reproof of sinners. Certainly this            John 9 :41 and John 15 :22. In all of these cases where we
is not a slavish fear that is intended, but a godly fear. It is        find this construction of "have"' it is the permanent attitude,
 _
the fear of the Lord which is the principle of wisdom. So              gift, fruit which is expressed.
easily at such a time when office-bearers are reproved the                 In the matter here in this passage Paul, therefore, desires
masses are stirred up to rebellious action and conduct. Think          that those sinning be reproved publicly that there may be a
of carnal and wicked man picketing the Governor's mansion              permanent fruit of fear in the congregation. It is, therefore,
when he refuses to annul the death-sentence imposed by the             far more spiritual and wholesome to learn the lesson of fear,
courts upon a convicted murderer. Such is the flesh of the             lest we walk in the same sin, than to speculate about the
child of God in the church. Now what is decreed in the house           hypothetical possibility of reinstating an office-bearer who
of God by Christ Jesus and in the presence of the elect angels         has once been found guilty of sin in office! What calloused
should incite fear. All must be convicted in their hearts,                  we be when God speaks so loudly about His hatred for
                                                                       souls 

along with the ones reproved, that sinful conduct may not              sin when we fail to see the divine purpose and pedagogy of
be in the house of God. Of this fear Scripture speaks often.           God in the public reproval of dl who sin !
Thus we read in Psalm 33 :S: "Let all the earth fear the                   For, we would here repeat what we touched upon in our
LORD; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of             former essay on these verses: this must all be performed
him," or in verse 18 of the same Psalm': "Behold, the eye              without prejudice or favor for persons involved. It must be
of the  LORD is upon them that fear him, upon them that                performed in the consciousness that the church is the house
hope in his lovingkindness."       Or, again, in Psalm 52 6, 7:        of God, that Christ, the SHEKINAH  of God is there, and
"The righteous shall see it and fear, and shall laugh at him,          that we had better put the shoes from our feet in the presence
saying, Lo, this is the man that made not God his. strength,           of Christ's majesty and kingship. And we ought to note that
but trusted in the abundance of his riches, and strengthened           either all reproof of office-bearers is because of prejudice and
himself in his wickedness. And finally, Psalm 64:9  : "And             respect of persons, or it is the holy zeal of Christ for the
all men shall fear; and they shall declare the work of God,            purity of the house of God. A few cliches  to the effect that
and shall wisely consider of his doing."                               we are not in a perfect church, or that history shows `that
                                                                       sin and "personalities always enter in" do not save the day,
       Forsooth, when we fear at the majesty of men being con-
                                                                       nor do they gender godly fear.
victed in the church because of sin it should make us fear,
                                                                           Small wonder that Paul's very next words to Timothy
and to declare that such is not the work of man, but the
                                                                       are : "I charge you in the sight of God, and Christ Jesus,
work of ,God and consider wisely of His doing!
                                                                       and the elect angels, that you observe these things without
       For - and this is quite important - Paul does not merely        prejudice, doing nothing by partiality."
speak of a wzowzenta.q  fear, which men and women must                     With such holy thunder in our ears we do well to examine
be brought to receive by discipline in the church upon office-         our work in God's house lest we be found to be faithless
bearers, stewards in the house of God, but he speaks of an             stewards ; we do well to review our vows which we as office-
abiding fear, a rather permanent attitude toward God, His              bearers and as members of God's church uttered before His
Word, His ordinances in the church, and toward all who                 face and all the holy angels !                            G.L.
champion the cause of God in His church in Christ's Name.

That Paul has this permanent fear in mind is evident from              ERRATUM :

the Greek text. The Greek "that they might have fear" is                   Somehow a rather serious error slipped- into my for~mer  -

not the same as the simple "that they might fear."                     essay, Oct. 15, 1962 issue, page 23, 19 lines from bottom bf

       Permit me to call attention to a few clear illustrations        page, column 1, where we read: "Says Jesus: `where twq

from the New Testament Scriptures which demonstrate the                or three have been gathered (by men) there am I in the

pemmzent  possession expressed in the phrase "have fear"               midst of them'." What is placed in brackets should read (by

(Greek: pkobon eclzo&&).  Thus we read in Rev. 17:9:                   Me) .     For where two or three aw gatZzmed they have not

"Here is the mind that htk wisdom." It is the mind which               simply assembled themselves, nor have wlen gathered them,
is so endued with wisdom that it can interpret the meaning             but Christ, the Son of God, has gathered them. Because He

of the symbolism in which the unfolding of the counsel of              is in their midst He gathers them.

God is couched respecting the nations of the world. Or in I                                                                      G.L.


                                             T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                        61



                                                                           And just because you are youths will not minimize that
 1           I        N            I-IDS FE,4R                         judgment. With God sin is sin. Although Moses served
                                                                       faithfully in God's house for forty long and trying years, he

                                                                       was barred from leading Israel into Canaan because of one

                  A Word to Covenant Youth                             sin which he committed when tempted under tremendous
                                                                       pressure. His many years of faithful service made no differ-

                                   (3)                                 ence whatsoever.        He sinned! And your youth, your com-

                                                                       parative newness upon this earth will not keep you from
      "God will bring thee into judgment."
                                                                       appearing in judgment for the works you commit in the days
      Thus Solomon wrote to his son and through him to all
                                                                       of youth. The psalmist says in Psalm 25 :7, "Remember not
our covenant youth. Our young people as they grow LZP like
                                                                       the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions: according to
to be considered the equal of father and mother. And phys-
                                                                       thy mercy remember thou me for thy goodness sake, 0
ically and intellectually they often are. But for that reason
                                                                       Lord." The psalmist is aware of the fact that God sees the
our young people ought to consider also that even as God
                                                                       sins of youth and does remember them. We do well to listen
shall bring all adults into judgment, so He most assuredly
                                                                       and remember what is revealed to us in God's Word. For
shall also bring them into judgment.
                                                                       all these things God WILL bring                  into judgment, young
      It is not a question of hurting the feelings of your parents.                                              us 
                                                                       and old, rich and poor, bond and free, small and great. Thus
It is not a question of invoking their wrath for a time. You
                                                                       we read in Revelation also in chapter 20:12  and II Corin-
may bring tears to their eyes by your actions. You may even
                                                                       thians 5 :lO. We must ALL appear. This we cannot change.
bring them to their grave through the grief and shame that
                                                                       Remember, Youth, you must also appear there with all your
you bring to them. Jacob complained to his wicked sons
                                                                       works.
that they would bring down his gray hairs with sorrow to
the grave, if anything should befall Benjamin. He was still               And remember that God is far more furious than your
in grief and sorrow because of what he thought had happened            parents can ever be. Maybe you think that your parents get
to Joseph. When I say that it is not a question of doing these         exceedingly angry. Maybe they do. But they cannot get
things, I do not mean that these are minor things and that             more angry and be more provoked with sin than God is. He
they can be done without giving any concern to them. These             is a jealous God Who is intolerant. He will allow no single
are terrible things. One who has no compassion for his                 sin to be performed. He is furious against all evil. He slew
father's and mother's tears, when'they warn against an evil            Uzzah who touched the ark when it shook on the cart that
way, is not only cruel and exceedingly sinful before God, but          David had brought to bring the ark to Jerusalem. Without
such an one lacks natural love, has not the capacity for natural       mercy He slew Ananias and Sapphira who injured no one
love. Such an one is only capable of a certain sensuous,               but lied to the Holy Ghost. Yea, He drove Adam and Eve
carnal attraction.    Going one's own headstrong way of sin            out of Paradise when they  ate a piece of forbidden fruit. Your
when parents plead and weep because of the hardness of their           parents have let          "get away" with many an act of sin.
                                                                                            you 

children is not honoring father and mother. These are                  Sometimes they are too weary to punish and too busy to re-
serious matters. But the most serious part of it all is that           prove and rebuke. Do not ascribe such weakness to God. He
such are not simply being judged by their parents. God will            never slumbers nor sleeps. He is never weary. He never
bring such into judgment. And His judgment will be thor-               misses anything that            do. And He will not "get over it" in
                                                                                                    you 

ough.                                                                  a week or two. Solomon is correct when he states that "for
      God gives us parents and God gives us office bearers in          ALL these things God will bring              into judgment."
                                                                                                                you 

the church to judge our walk. He gives them to warn, re-                  And that means also that the sentence must be everlasting
buke, exhort and even to punish when we go astray. But                 torment in hell. He has one punishment for sin: hell and its
all this is preliminary to His own judgment at the end of              torments. The adult sinner goes there. The young man or
time. Whether parents and office bearers warn or not, this             young woman who walks in evil lands there. Even infants,
judgment is coming. Young People, remember that before                 whose sins are not blotted out by the blood of the cross, will
you go your own way. Consider what corn& in the future                 be cast into that lake of fire. God makes no distinction. There
as well as the deceiving joy that dangles before your eyes             will be degrees of torment, even as there are degrees of glory.
for the moment. Remind one another of this coming judg-                But all the wicked go into that place of agony and woe be-
ment.    Do not assist one another in evil, but exhort one             cause of their sins.

another in the way of righteousness. Be not a conniver with               Although there is forgiveness for youth as well as adult,

the evil. Give them no moral or financial support. Instead             that forgiveness can be known and enjoyed only in the way

make it very clear to your companions that advise evil that            of fleeing from that sin. Paul certainly says in Romans 8:l

they will no longer be your companions when they go that               that there is now no condemnation to them that are in Christ

way. Be sure that they also know and remember.that  for all            Jesus. Indeed, but please read the whole verse so that you
these things God will bring them into judgment.                        may learn who it is that is in Christ Jesus. Paul writes,


GZ                                         T H E   S T A N D A R D   BEARE;R


"There is therefore npw  no condemnation to them which are            Gad that was in Solomon. And they have natural, parental

in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the          love for you. In that love they have provided for all your

Spirit." A man - whether he be young or old -who says                 physical, material needs all these years. Do not question

that he is in Christ Jesus but walks in the flesh deceives            their love when they forbid you to fellowship with the world

himself; and such an one IS in condemnation. And so, Cov-             and want to know what kind of young men and young women

enant Youth, you as well as your pardnts  must walk in the            you are dating. Even the parents of the world are interested

light to enjoy the light. There is forgiveness. Those who             in these things. And your parents have much more than

forsake their wicked way and unrighteous thoughts and re-             natural parental love. They have the love of God in their

turn unto the Lord will find that "He will abundantly par-            hearts, the love of His Church and of His truth. They love

don." Isaiah 55 6 and 7. And that is the only way to cheer            YOU as members of that Church ; and they desire to see

your hearts. Solomon tells you to cheer your heart, but he            you love that Church and truth. Just remember that wlien

explains what he means by telling you that you must put               you question their love for you because they want to know

evil away from your flesh. Holding on to evil will only bring         who your friends are, where you go and where you seek en-                -

grief to your heart and fear and terror of God's judgment.            tertainment, we can question YOUR love to them when you

I cannot, and no man in truth can tell you that you have no           do not want them to know and have the answers to their

reason to fear when you walk in the way of your flesh. 1              questions! What are you hiding? And is that hiding an act

can bring you no true cheer, nor can any man. I have to               of love to them ? Is it an act of love to God?

say, and any man who wishes to speak the truth of God's                   Remember this also that, with the covenant training that
Word will have to say to the sinner who enjoys his sin: The           you have had, your stripes will be double, if           turn away
                                                                                                                          you 
judgment will be one to everlasting perdition. Unless in              from the truth and the path of righteousness. Jesus told the
youth and childhood you walk in God's ways, your childhood            Jewish cities of Capernaum, Chorazin and Bethsaida that it
and youth are vanity. They get you nowhere. You will                  would be more tolerable in the day of judgment for Sodom
return to the dust from whence you came without any ad-               and Gomorrah and for Tyre and Sidon, cities of the wicked
vancement. Yea, still worse, your latter end will be far worse        nations. These cities in Canaan had heard the word. They
than your beginning. And Jesus can correctly state that it            had seen Jesus' mighty miracles. They had been brought
would have been better for such that they had never been
                                                                      up in the truth from infanc.y.  And now they rejected Him
bOSll.                                                                of Whom the law and the prophets had spoken. It will be

      Listen then to your parents, though you are physically          far better for those who never had this training than those

and intellectually their equal. Solomon writes here as a              who had it and despised it and turned from it. Listen then,

covenant parent. He does not write as a worldly philosopher           Covenant Youth! Remember your Creator! And know that

whose views will be challenged and altered by the next gen-           God will bring you into judgment.

eration of philosophers. He writes as a covenant parent in                Rejoice then, 0 young man and young woman. But be
whom is the Spirit of God. Yea, he writes as one inspired             sure that it is a rejoicing that does not end in everlasting
by that Spirit of God to pen down infallibly the truth as it          tears. Walk in the way of thine heart, but be sure that it is
is in Christ. He looked carefully into the matter. He searched        the way of a sanctified heart. And put away sorrow from out
it from beginning to end. He was a wise man to begin with ;           of thy heart. But be sure that you are not sowing future
and he learned much by his search. Listen to him and listen           sorrow that knows no end.
to your parents as well.                                                  This is the conclusion of it all: Fear God and keep His

      Let me ask a personal question. Young People, Covenant          commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. Only the

Youth in God's Church, do you pray for your parents ? Do              fool says that God shall not bring us into judgment. Be wise

you thank God for having given you to believing parents ? If          and walk in His fear. That is the way unto everlasting and

you do in all .sincerity,  it will be impossible for you to disre-    true rejoicing. May God give you THAT joy.

gard their' admonitions and pleadings. Indeed, they are also                                                                       J.A.H.

sinful. One of the rudest awakenings a child can have, as he

grows up, is to find that father and mother also are sinners.

In the tender ages of childhood it seems as though father and                                RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY

mother cannot sin. Sinning it would seem is for children and              On October 8, 1962, it pleased our Heavenly Fader to take to
the world. But fathers and mothers in the church are saints           Himself

in the eyes of their children. It comes as quite a shock when                                 MR. JOHN VAN BAREN

children begin to see that their parents are not spiritually          our fellow member and Vice President.

perfect. But let no young man or young woman use that as                 The South Holland Protestant Reformed Men's Society expresses
an excuse for a sinful walk. Once again, you do not appear            its sympathy to his family and the bereaved relatives. "I will say of
                                                                      the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in Him will
in judgment before them but before God.                               I trust." Ps. 91:2.
                                                                                                           Rev. J. A. Heys, President
      They have sins but they also have the same Spirit of                                                 Mr. E. Buiter, Secretary


                                           T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                     63
  _.........~ .~~                                                       church has once departed, in principle, from the truth, that
II Contending For The Faith                                             church, in time, will certainly drift farther and farther from
                                                                    II the truth. This is certainly verified in the history of the
                                                                        church throughout the ages. And to belong to such a church,

                                                                       not being in agreement with the errors it teaches, simply
          The Church and the Sacraments                                 means that one has become a party to the force of corruption

                                                                       and of the lie which ultimately will destroy that church. And,
          THE TIME OF THE REFORMATION
                                                                       in the second place, the question to which church I must be-

                VIEWS ON THE CHURCH                                     long can be answered very simply: I must belong to that

                                                                       church where, if possible, I can be free to testify to the truth
                THE PROTESTANT VIEW                                    as I believe it to be according to the Word of God. I do

                                                                       not mean to suggest that it is simple, easy to leave one's
    Fourthly, and finally, what does all this mean ? We had
                                                                       church to join another. It should always be difficult to leave
concluded our preceding article with the observation that,
                                                                       one's mother church which one has learned to love and
according to our Confessions, the true church is gathered by
                                                                       cherish. And we may also make the remark that when a
the Son of God, and that He does this by His Spirit and
                                                                       person finds it easy to leave a certain church, he will also
Word. So, how does this affect our conception of the distinc-
                                                                       find it easy to leave the new church of his choice. But it
tion between the true and the false church? This simply
                                                                       should not be too difficult for anyone to know his calling, to
means that the true church must be wherever the people of
                                                                       know what he is called to do when a church, in principle,
God are. And this means that wherever the people of God are,
                                                                       has departed from the truth. When a certain church teaches
the Word of God is preached and the voice of our Lord Jesus
                                                                       heresies, and makes it impossible for me to voice my protest
Christ is heard. This lies in the very nature of the case.
                                                                       against them, I'have no other choice but to join, if possible,
"My sheep hear My voice," we hear Jesus say in John 10.
                                                                       a church where I can testify to the truth of God as it is in
And the voice of Jesus is surely not heard by these sheep
                                                                       Christ Jesus. That is my solemn calling and obligation.
except through the gospel.      It is surely inconceivable for

any church to have sheep in it who do not hear the voice of
                                                                                    VIEWS ON THE SACRAMENTS
their Shepherd. And they hear the voice of their Shepherd

through the TVord,  and this does not merely mean the writ-                         THE ROMAN CATHOLIC VIEW
ten Word, the Bible, but the preaching of that Word, the
                                                                            We will first of all quote from the Radio Replies of the
preaching of the gospel.
                                                                       Fathers Rumble and Carty, Volume I, Questions 795-799.
Does this, then, mean that all churches are therefore
                                                                           795. Does not the Catholic Church teach that grace is
equally pure? Of course not! Article 29 of our Confession
                                                                       usually given through the Sacraments ?
of Faith also holds before us the marks of the false church.

Are these marks of the false church found equally in all                   Grace is given directly in answer to prayer, but many

churches with the exception of only one church ? Is one                very necessary graces are normally to be obtained only

church pure and are all the other churches equally and wholly          through the Sacraments instituted by Christ (what Rome

false? Indeed not! Even as there are degrees of purity, so             means when it speaks of "normally" we will see later -

there are also degrees of falseness. It is true that the true          H.V.).

and false churches can easily be known and distinguished                   796. What is a Sacrament?
from each other. But this certainly does not mean that this
                                                                           A visible rite or ceremony which signifies and confers
pure church, this one pure institute and organism, must
                                                                       grace.    Thus Baptism is a visible rite. The pouring of the
therefore be limited to one denomination. The marks of the
                                                                       water on the forehead signifies the cleansing of the soul by
false church can easily be known and distinguished, also when
                                                                       the grace which the action bestows.
they begin to characterize a certain church and denomination.
Concerning this there can be no doubt among us. Does this                  797. I trust in Christ and have no need of sacramental
mean, then, that it makes no difference to what church a               rites.

person belongs ? Is it true that unless we characterize ail                It is presumption to trust in Christ, yet to despise means

churches, except one, as false churches, we have no reason             established by Him and declared by Him to be necessary.

why we should not belong to them ? The undersigned has                 The Christ in whom you trust certainly believed in such

been told that, unless we declare all these churches to be false       ceremonies. He anointed the blind man's eyes with saliva

churches, we have no right whatever to separate ourselves              and earth, and He `instituted the various Sacraments of the

from them. Does this hold ? Of course not ! For, in the                Church. If you study Scripture closely you will notice that

first place, although we refused to characterize a church as           the visible is again and again employed in the work of in-

tlze false church, this does not at all mean that that church          visible sanctification.. Your denial of sacramental and visible

has not, in principle, departed from the truth. And when a             rites is opposed to the whole tenor of Scripture almost from


     64                                         T H E   S T A N D A R D   BIEARER

I
     beginning to end. (Of course, Protestantism does not deny,        in the Old Dispensation. there were only two rites or sacra-

     we understand, that Scripture speaks of sacramental rites.        ments : circumcision and the Passover. So, Rome, of course,

     It surely maintains the sacramental rites of Baptism and the      must reject the contention that the sacraments in the New

     Lord's Supper. - H.V.)                                            Dispensation are essentially the same as in the Old Dispensa-

           798. Who made the Sacraments ?                              tion. Rome does this in this canon.

           Since there is no proportion between the visible action        Canon IV. - "If any one saith, that the sacraments of

     and the giving of interior grace of a supernatural character,     the New Law are not necessary unto salvation, but super-

     it is evident that God. alone could institute a Sacrament. It     fluous ; and that, without them, or without the desire thereof,
     calls for His infinite power. Jesus Christ, therefore, at once    men obtain of God, through faith alone, the grace of justifica-

     God and man, instituted the Sacraments.                           tion ; though all (the sacraments) are not indeed necessary

           799. Why have         seven Sacraments, since Christ did    for every individual: let him be anathema." In this canon
                              you 
     not institute seven ?                                             Rome rejects the Protestant position that justification is
                                                                       through faith alone. Notice, too, that Rome, in this canon,
           There are seven Sacraments, precisely because Christ did
                                                                       sets forth its doctrine that the sacraments are necessary unto
     institute seven. Had He not done so, there would not be
                                                                       salvation, and that the grace of God is not bestowed without
     seven. The Catholic Church emphatically denies that she
                                                                       them or without the desire for them. We must understand
     has the power to institute a Sacrament. Far from instituting
                                                                       that Rome concedes that people may die without having re-
     Sacraments, she has never even claimed the power to do so.
                                                                       ceived the sacraments. The Scriptural example of the mur-
     From the very beginning Christians have always had seven,
                                                                       derer upon the cross who repented while in his death agony
     receiving them from the Apostles, who received them from
                                                                       certainly proves that children of God may die without having
     Christ. Protestants were deprived of several of these Sacra-
     ments  at the time of the Reformation. In the Church of Eng-      received the sacraments. It is for this reason that Rome,
     land, however, many are returning to the doctrine of seven        wholly arbitrarily, declares that the grace of God is also be-
     Sacraments as instituted by Christ, though of course, their       stowed upon His people if and when they have the desire
     return to the doctrine cannot .make  all the Sacraments valid     for the sacraments, and, according to Rome, this must have
     for them. (Notice, please, that it is stated `in this answer      been the case with respect to the murderer upon the cross.
     that Christians received the seven sacraments from the               Canon VI. - "If any one saith, that the sacraments of
     Apostles and that the Apostles received them from Christ.         the New Law do not contain the grace which they signify ;
     They cannot very well say that Christ instituted all seven        or, that they do not confer that grace on those who do not
     sacraments while He was on earth, inasmuch as the Scrip-          place an obstacle thereunto ; as though they were merely
     tures only mention two sacraments as set forth by Christ,         outward signs of grace or justice received through faith, and
     Baptism and the Lord's Supper.. So Roman Catholicism tells        certain marks of the Christian profession, whereby believers
     us that the other five sacraments were given to us through        are distinguished amongst men from unbelievers: let him be
     the apostles. However, for this assertion there is not the        anathema."      In this canon Rome expresses the heart of its
     slightest proof in the Word of God. - H.V.)                       conception of the meaning of the sacrament. Rome here de-
                                                                       clares that the sacraments contain the grace which they sig-
           The Canons and Do,gmatic  Decrees of the Romish Coun-
                                                                       nify, that the grace of God is inseparably connected with the
     cil of Trent, A. D., 1563, have also expressed themselves on
                                                                       outward sign of the sacrament. This is the distinctive doc-
     this matter of the Sacraments, in its Seventh Session, March
                                                                       trine of Rome on the sacraments, that the sacraments contain
     3, 1547, and that as follows :
                                                                       the grace which they signify, and that such grace is conveyed
           Canon I. - "If any one saith, that the sacraments of the    through the external operation. Rome here denies that the
     New Law were not all instituted by Jesus Christ, our Lord ;       sacraments are merely outward signs of grace or justice re-
     or, that they are more, or less,' than seven, to wit, Baptism,    ceived through faith. Rome insists that the grace of God is
     Confirmation, the Eucharist, Penance, Extreme Unction,            inseparably connected with the outward sign, as e.g., the
     Order and Matrimony ; or even.that  any one of these is not       regenerating grace is inseparably connected with the water
     truly and properly a sacrament : let him be anathema." In this    in baptism.                                              H.V.
     canon the Romish Church declares that there are seven sacra-

     ments, all instituted by Christ.

           Canon II. - "If any one saith, that these said sacra-

     ments of the New Law do not differ from the sacraments of                  Salvation is from God alone,
     the Old Law, save that the ceremonies are different, and                   Whom as their covert saints have known
     different the outward rites: let him be anathema." We un-                        When by sore troubles tried ;
     derstand, of course, that when Rome speaks in these canons
     of the New and Old Law, it refers to the Old and New Dis-                  The Lord Who helped in troubles past
     pensation. In this canon Rome must find something to sup-                  Will save them to the very last,

     port its contention that there are seven sacraments. Fact is,                    For they in Him confide.


                                            T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                     65


                                                                     to assume the clear-cut and concise and unequivocal position

                                                                     of our Confession with respect to the Scriptures. The Con-
         The Voice of Our Fathers                                    fession, according to some, is outdated, anachronous, old-

                                                                     fashioned. It was good enough and necessary enough for an-
                 The Belgic  Confession                              other age; but in our modern times we. must not build on it
                          ARTJCLE  VII                               any more. And a confession that insists on the sole sufficiency
                           (continued )                              of Holy Scripture is itself considered insufficient. In the
The  Battle For This  Truth  (continued)                             second place, hand in hand with this open questioning of the
   What we have written concerning the Roman Catholic                truth concerning Scripture goes a certain "scientism,"  which,
Church's denial of the sufficiency of Scripture and of the           while it perhaps does lip-service to the Scriptures, neverthe-
sole authority of Scripture represents the position of Rome          less is so committed to the principle that one's interpretation of
even today. We must make no mistake on that score. Rome              the Scriptures must be adjusted to one's science and scientific
has not changed. In fact, it may be said that this is the error      findings that it is in reality a denial of the sufficiency  of Holy
that lies at the basis of all of Rome's errors. And if the           Scripture. Thus, if it is supposedly demonstrated that Scrip-
Roman Catholic Church would ever retreat from its present            ture is historically inaccurate, and that, for example, the
position and return to the truth of the sole sufficiency of Holy     historical reality of Adam does not fit in with the position of
Scripture, the whole present structure of Roman Catholicism          secular history or of science so-called, then our explanation
would topple and fall. Nor must we be deceived on this score         of the Scriptural account must be changed. And if there is
by the fact that Rome apparently is wooing Protestantism             conflict between the theories of science as to the age and
at the present time, inviting several large Protestant denomi-       origin of the world and the very simple and plain account
nations to send representatives, observers, to the so-called         of creation in the book of Genesis, then our "interpretation"
Ecumenical Council that is presently meeting in St. Peter's          of the book of Genesis must be changecl. But we should un-
Basilica. Rome has not changed its position, and it will not         derstand very clearly that this is not a question of interpreta-
change its position. But it invites Protestantism to change          tion and of change of interpretation, but a denial of the suf-
its position, and to stand where Rome stands.                        ficiency of Holy Scripture and an elevating of science to a
   But the basic conflict between Rome and the churches of           position of sufficiency above the Scriptures, an elevating of
the Reformation still continues. And as long as Rome OC-             the opinions and writings of men to a position of equal value
cupies  the position that it does in regard to the authority and     to, and even greater value than, the truth of God. And let
the sufficiency of the Scriptures, there can be no communion         me remind you that this is becoming a very common occur-
between Rome and those of the Reformation, even as all               rence in the Reformed community today, sad as it may be.
agreement between the temple of God and an idol is essen-            In fact, I fear, in that connection, that it. is later than we
tially impossible.    And it is not Protestantism, but a cari-       think, and that there are some who are at ease in Zion, and
cature of Protestantism - a Protestantism that is no longer          who stand in serious danger of losing what they have by
willing to stand where the churches of the Reformation stood,        default. In the third place, we must remember that in the
a Protestant& that has in many cases openly and blatantly            light of this seventh article of our Confession, it is this truth
denied the sufficiency of the Scriptures and in all cases es-        of the sole sufficiency of Scripture that is basically at stake
sentially denied it-that can at all seek the fellowship of           in every doctrinal conflict and every conflict of interpretation
Rome or even begin to conceive of eventual reunion with              that the church has ever experienced. At some point in every
Rome.                                                                such conflict the question is confronted: what do the Scrip-
   And this brings us to the point that while our basic con-         tures teach ? What is the truth of God according to the Scrip-
flict with Rome is still there, -is stili very real, and has not     tures ? And as surely as those Scriptures are perfect and com-
changed whatsoever, nevertheless the front line of the actual        plete, and as surely as those Scriptures, therefore, admit of
battle for this truth lies within the ranks of so-called Proi-       only one meaning, so surely in every such conflict somewhere
estantism itself. Moreover, it becomes increasingly evident          there is a refusal to bow before the authority and sole suf-
that along that front line of the battle the heat of the battle      ficiency of Holy Scripture, somewhere there is an elevating
with respect to this most basic Reformed truth is to be found        of the opinion and word of man-whether that be by the
within the Reformed community, and not merely in Prot-               great multitude, by councils, by decrees and statutes, or by
estantism generally. In other words, the battle of the Re-           individual men -to a position of equal value with the truth
formed churches and of Reformed believers is not merely the          of God. The Reformation principle of the priesthood of be-
general battle of so-called fundamentalism versus modernism,
                                                                     lievers and the so-called right of private interpretation has
but it is a battle against the enemy within the gates ! This is
                                                                     been subverted, in our age of tolerance, into the belief that
evident from the fact that more and more the truth of the
authority and the sufficiency and the infallibility of the Scrip-    everyone has the right to his own opinion and that one inter-
tures is openly called in question, and that there are those         pretation of Scripture is as valid as another. The church no

who do not hesitate to criticize the Scriptures and who refuse       longer takes seriously this doctrine of the sufficiency of the


66                                         T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R


Scriptures. That sufficiency is altogether subverted by a prac-       t.ures teach -is complete; That is, nothing can be added, and
tical denial of the truth that the sufficient Scriptures teach        nothing need be added : there is no lack. The canon is closed,
perspicuously only one way of salvation, one truth, and that          and it is closed because there is neither need nor room for
they have therefore only one true meaning.                            further revelation. Thirdly, we may notice in this connection
      Hence, the calling of the church and of the individual          that the article emphasizes that there is absolutely no limita-
believer is ever to maintain the fmldamental  principle of faith      tion to this perfection and completeness of the Scriptures.
expressed in this article, to judge all things in the light of the    The doctrine thereof is most perfect and complete <in.  $1
Scriptures, to discern carefully according to the standard of         u-espects.  This is the answer of our Confession also to those
the Scriptures, to believe and to hold fast only that which is        who would maintain that Scripture is to be considered in-
taught by the Scriptures, to try the spirits whether they are         fallible only with respect to the faith and morals of the Chris-
of God, and, in the light of the Scriptures, to reject all that       tian in a limited sense.    There are such. They attempt to
is not of God.                                                        limit the scope of the infallibility and the sufficiency and the
                                                                      authority of the Scriptures.    They maintain that Scripture
Most Perfect And Complete I.y1  All  Respects                         does not intend at all to speak on everything of which it
      As far as the contents of this article are concerned, we        speaks authoritatively. They come with the rather well-
may notice that it makes several statements concerning the            known apology: "After all, Scripture is not a history book,
Scriptures which set forth from a positive point of view not          or a geography text, or a science book. In the Bible we have
only the doctrine of the sufficiency of Holy Scripture, but at        the gospel of our salvation. And the authority and sufficiency
the same time the truth of the infallibility of Scripture. We         of Scripture is limited to our religious and our moral life. It
may note, incidentally, that these two belong together: they          is binding as far as the doctrine of salvation is concerned.
go hand in hand. If Scripture were not infallible, it could           And it is absolutely infallible and sufficient as regards its
not be sufficient; and if Scripture were fallible, it would           moral precepts. But it must not be considered infallible and
necessarily also be insufficient. This is a rather self-evident       sufficient when it makes pronouncements on all these other
truth, but it nevertheless bears emphasizing. A Scripture             subjects. We need not `therefore regard Scripture as
which would contain even one error, either an error of omis-          being historically accurate. Nor must we consider it author-
sion? a`lack,  or an error of commission, an inaccuracy, would        itative with respect to our scientific views." Such is the posi-
necessarily be to that extent insufficient as a norm of faith         tion of some. But our Confession is without any limitation
and life. It would be lacking, would not be complete. Be-             here. The doctrine, teaching, of Scripture is "most perfect
lievers, therefore, should remember that one of the inevitable        and complete in all respects." In no respect whatsoever does
consequences of denying the infallibility of the Scriptures is        it lack. In no respect does it err. In no respect can it be im-
the denial of the sufficiency of the Scriptures, and that the         proved upon or corrected. Our Reformed faith, according to
denial of the infallibility of the Scriptures makes it impos-         the Confession, is very clear and concise in this regard. And
sible to make the confession set forth in this seventh article.       those who would place these strictures upon the sufficiency
This we should see clearly. All these truths concerning the           and the authority and the infallibility of the Scriptures place
Scriptures belong together. You cannot do violence to the             themselves thereby outside of the Reformed faith.
one without at the same time attacking the other.                         We may note, in the first place, that the objection cited
      And now let     notice what our Confession says.
                   us                                                 above is rather naive. It is, after all, self-evident that the
      First of all, the Confession characterizes the contents of      Bible is not a textbook on history and on science and geog-
the Scriptures as being perfect and complete. This you find           raphy, or what have you.     This is exactly not the question.
in the following statement of this article: "For, since it is         And those who bring this argument make a very foolish and
forbidden, to add unto or take away anything from the word            naive attempt to reduce the orthodox doctrine of the infal-
of God, it doth thereby evidently appear, that the doctrine           libility and sufficiency of the Scriptures to an absurdity. But
thereof is most perfect and complete in all respects." We un-         their argument is itself absurd. Scripture is not a textbook of
derstand, of course, that when the article here speaks of "the        any kind. It is not even a textbook in the limited field of
doctrine thereof," it does not use the term do&ne  in the             religion and morals or of dogmatics. It is the Word of God
narrower sense, as referring to the various dogmas of theol-          written. It is the written record of God's revelation as the
ogy, but rather in the broader sense of teachings. The lidoc-         God of our salvation in Christ. But this does not change the
trine thereof" is all that the Scripture teaches concerning           fact that Scripture makes pronouncements not only concern-
anything whatsoever.      The expression covers the whole of          ing doctrinal matters, not only concerning our religious and
 Scripture's contents. And with respect to these teachings of         our moral life in the limited sense, but also on historical mat-
the Scriptures, the Confession maintains, first of all, that          ters, also on matters that concern geography and natural
Holy Scripture is perfect, that is, negatively, without error.        science, etc. And the point is that when Scripture does so, it
There is no improvement that can be made. There is no cor-            must be maintained that the teaching of Scripture is most
rection that need be made. Secondly, the article also main-           perfect and complete also in these respects, and that Scrip-
tains that the doctrine of the Scrintures  -all that the Scrin-                             (Continued on page 68)


                                              T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                  67


                                                                            It must be established at the very outset that this power

 11  D E C E N C Y   a n d   O R D E R   11 is given to the church by divine, not human, authorization.
                                                                        If this cannot be made plain from the Word of God there
 s-                                                                     is no point in discussing this subject any further. Since the

                    Ecclesiastical Censure                              matter is very important we are going to quote rather ex-

       "As Christian discipline is of a spiritual nature, and           tensively from Scripture and that, too, in order that we
 exempts no one from civil trial or punishment by the author-           may warn against the foolish notion of many who seem to
ities, so also besides civil punishment there is need of ec-           think that they can escape the results of Christian discipline
 clesiastical censures, to reconcile' the sinner with the church       by going to another church when this power is imposed upon
and his neighbor and to remove the offense out of the church           their sinful and disobedient walk. If the censure of the
of Christ."                                  -Article 71, D.K.O.       church were the exercise of man's power by which he seeks
       "The Lord Jesus Christ hath instituted Church Discipline,       to put the undesirables out of an organization which he
in order to remove scandals, and prevent their unhappy                 forms, this would admittedly be true. Then one could run
effects; and no church can, without the faithful and spiritual         away from it with impunity and find peace in another or-
                                                                       ganization of similar kind. However, this is not the
application of it,, hope for His countenance and blessing."
                                               -RR.  P. Testimony      case. Discipline is the power which God has placed in
                                                                       His church and no one can escape Him by seeking refuge
       "The impartial and prudent exercise of Church Discipline
                                                                       in a church that refuses to exercise its God-given prerogative
is useful for vindicating the honor of Jesus Christ, maintain-
                                                                       and condones the walk of sin. God is not mocked. When
ing the dignity of His ordinances, preserving the purity of the
                                                                       God, through His church, admonishes us cohcerning  our
church, averting the judgments of God, and for the benefit
                                                                       disobedience and calls us to repentance, He does not mean
of the offender himself, that by the administration of this
                                                                       that we are to run away where we do not hear that admo-
ordinance of Christ, through grace,, he may be humbled and
                                                                       nition and can continue unmolested in our disobedience but
recovered."                                   -R. P. Testimony
                                                                       rather that we turn to Him in repentance and tremble at
       "Experience shows that the neglect of discipline is speed-
                                                                       His Word.
ily followed by corruption of worship, of doctrine and of
government."                         -R. P. Book of Discipline             Ecclesiastical censure then is the power of God vested in
       "Open communion logically leads to open church mem-             the church for the purpose of the correction and salvation of
bership, and a church membership open to all, without refer-           His people. This necessitates that the impenitent be severed
ence to the qualifications required in Scripture, or without           from the church.

exalnination  on the part of the church as to the existence of             Already in the Old Testament may be found many in-

these qualifications in those who unite with it, is virtually          junctions regarding the removal of sinners from the congrega-

an identification of the church with the world, and, without           tion. Exodus 20 :22 states : "He  that sacrificeth unto any god,

protest from Scripturally constituted bodies, would finally            save unto the Lord only, he shall be utterly destroyed."

result in its actual extinction." -Augustus Hopkins Strong             Leviticus 24:13, 14 declares: "And the Lord spake unto

       The above quotations are taken from a current issue of          Moses, saying, bring forth him that hath cursed without the
Blue Bamer Faith n.$zd  Life,  a magazine published by the             camp ; and let all that heard him lay their hands upon his
Board of Publication of the Synod of the Reformed Pres-                head, and let all the congregation stone him."
byterian Church of North America. They deal with the im-                   In the New Testament the punishment that is to be in-
portant subject of ecclesiastical censures, that spiritual power       flicted by the church is of a spiritual, rather than physical
Christ has vested in His church and by which good order is             nature. Concerning this there are many important passages.

maintained and those who refuse to walk in the ways of the                In I Corinthians 5 the apostle Paul prescribes excom-

Lord are properly punished with excommunication from the               munication regarding the grievous sinner in the church. "In

church.                                                                the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered

       It is this subject that is treated extensively in the fourth    together, and my spirit, with the power of the Lord Jesus

and final division of our Church Order. In eleven articles             Christ, to deliver such an one unto Satan for the destrucfion
the various facets of this subject are explained, such as, the         of the Aesh,  that the spirit may be saved in the day of the

purpose, the procedure and the causes of Christian  discipline.        Lord Jesus . . . Purge out therefore the old leaven" (vss.

It is, of course, quite impossible to offer a prescription for         4, 5, 7).

every conceivable case of church discipline in a book such as              The church of Pergamos in Revelation 2 :14 is rebuked

our Church Order. Neither is this necessary. Sufficient it is          because it failed to exercise this power. The Lord says to

to set forth the fundamental principles, and by these each con-        her : "I have a few things against thee, because thou hast

sistory must be guided in wielding this tremendous power by            there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught

which the doors of the Kingdom of heaven are opened and                Balac to cast a stumblingblock before the chiIdren  of Israel,

shut.                                                                  to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication.


68                                            T H E   S T A N D A R D   ` B E A R E R


So hast thou also themethat  hold the doctrine of the Nicola-                "In the meantime we believe, though it is useful and

itans, which thing I hate. Repent . . ."                                beneficial, that those, who are rulers of the church, institute

       Other passages exhort the church to cease to have  fellow-       and establish certain ordinances among themselves for main-

ship with such as have forsaken the ways of the Lord. Oh,               taining the body of the church ; yet they ought studiously to

that's not easy. They may be close friends or even of our               take care, that they do not depart from those things which

kin but the Word of the Lord does not give consideration to             Christ, our only Master, hath instituted. And therefore, we

such things. It is concerned only with truth and righteous-             reject all human inventions, and all laws which man would

ness. Hence: "A man that is an heretic after the first and              introduce into the worship of God, thereby to bind and com-

second admonition reject; knowing that he that is such is               pel the conscience in any manner whatever. Therefore we

subverted, and sinneth, being condemned of himself" (Titus              admit only of that which tends to nourish and preserve con-

3 90 j . And again, "Now we command you, brethren, in the               cord, and unity, and to keep all men in obedience to God.

name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves              For this purpose, ex-communication or church discipline is

from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after               requisite, with the several circumstances belonging to it, ac-

the tradition which he received of us" (II Thess. 3 :6). John,          cording to the Word of God."

the apostle of love, writes : "If there come any unto you, and              Finally, our Heidelberg Catechism also speaks of this

bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house,               power which Christ has given to His church. In Lord's Day

neither bid him God speed: For he that biddeth him God                  30 a question is asked whether those who, by confession and

speed is partaker of his evil deeds" (II John 10).                      life, declare themselves to be unbelieving and ungodly, may

       In all of this we are not to overlook those important pas-       be admitted to the Lord's Supper. To this question this

sages in `Matthew 16 and 18 where the Lord Himself either               answer is given : "No ; for by this, the covenant of God would

directly or indirectly enjoins discipline ; especially these words      be profaned, and His wrath kindled against the whole con-

to Peter and through Peter to all the apostles who are the              gregation ; therefore, it is the duty of the Christian church,

representatives of the New Testament church. This latter is             according to the appointment of Christ and His apostles, to

evident from John 20:23.         "And I will give unto thee the         exclude such persons, by the keys of the kingdom of heaven,

keys of the kingdom of heaven ; and whatsoever thou shalt               till they show amendment of life."

bind on earth shall be bound in heaven ; and whatsoever thou                Such is the power of Christ in His church. No church

shalt loose on earth shail be loosed in heaven" (Matt. 16 :19).         can be without this power and remain the church. Neither

      On the basis of all this our Church Order correctly as-           can any church profess to have this power and lay it aside

serts that in the church there is an "ecclesiiastical  censure          without suffering many harmful effects. Next time, D.V.,  we

(which is of a spiritual nature) to reconcile the sinner with           will continue on this subject of ecclesiastical censures.

the church and his neighbor and to remove the offense out of                                                                           G.v.d.K

the church of Christ."

      Our Confessions attest to the same truth and when we

make confession of our faith before God and the church we                                THE VOICE OF OUR FATHERS
solemnly promise, among other things, that we will submit
                                                                                              (Continued from page 66)
ourselves to this censure if we should become remiss in our             ture confronts you with its claim of sufficiency and authority
doctrine or life.                                                       that is no less than divine. When, therefore, the Reformed

      In Article 30 of the Confession of Faith it is said : "We be,-    believer goes about constructing a dogmatics and writing a

lieve that this true church must be governed by that spiritual          dogmatics textbook, he must bow before the pronouncements

policy which our Lord hath taught us in his Word ; namely,              of Scripture continually.       And when a Reformed believer
that there must be ministers or pastors to preach the Word              writes a history text or a science text, or whatever it may be,

of God, and to administer the sacraments ; also elders and              he too must take into account throughout the pronounce-

deacons, who, together with the pastors, form the council               ments of the inerrant  and authoritative Scriptures in as far

of the Church ; that by these means the true religion may be            as they have anything to say in that particular field of study.

preserved, and the true doctrine everywhere propagated, like-                                                                          H.C.H.
wise transgressors punished and restrained by spiritual

means : also that the poor and distressed may be relieved and

comforted, according to their necessities. By these means                                 RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY

everything will be carried on in the church with good order                The Hudsonville  Prot. Ref. choral  Society would like to express
and decency, when faithful men are chosen, according to the             its sympathy to one of its members, Mr. Richard Van Baren,  in the
                                                                        recent death of his father,
rule prescribed by St. Paul in his Epistle to Timothy."
                                                                                             MR. JOHN VAN BAREN
      That these office bearers in the church must exercise this           "`And we know that all things work together for good to them
power with great carefulness is made plain in the thirty-               that love God." Romans 8:28.
                                                                                                        Mr. Gordon Van Overloop, President
second article of the same Belgic Confession :                                                          Mrs. Jay Lubbers, Secretary


                                              T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                              69


                                                                                and sovereign grace and exalt the dignity of man, so-called, I

                                                                                hate and abhor.
    A L L   A R O U N D   U S                                                Well said!



NON-COOPERATION                                                          OUR UNIQUE WORLD

   When voices all around us clamor for Church union, for                    Under this title, an article appears in a recent issue of

cooperation and tolerance, and especially when this clamor               Christimity  Toda,y,  The purpose of this article is to demon-

ignores sound doctrine and reduces the truth to meaningless              strate that "so many essential conditions are necessary for

pulp, it is refreshing to hear in the midst of the clamor a              life to exist on our earth that it is mathematically impossible

voice raised in dissent.                                                 that all of them could exist in proper relationship by chance

                                                                         on any one earth at one time. Therefore, there must be in
   Such a voice is a small brochure written by Rev. L. R.
                                                                         nature some form of intelligent direction. If this be true,
Shelton, and entitled " `Cooperation' An Apology." It is
                                                                         then there must be a purpose . . ."
brief enough to quote in full.

                                                                             The author no doubt is arguing for the existence of God
         The cry is often made from the pulpit "Let's be loyal to
     our church."    One young preacher said the other day that he       by means of the teleological argument, that the beautiful
     never preached a sermon in which he didn't stress church            design in creation necessarily points to the existence of God.
     loyalty. There is also the cry from religious gatherings            His article is very beautiful and interesting. It is spoiled only
     cIamoring  for loyalty and the cooperation of one church with       by the fact that he obviously maintains. that, although God IS
     another, or loyalty to your association, or convention, or your
                                                                         the intelligent Director of all things, nevertheless the world
     conference. In some quarters yet there is preached the in-
     dependence of the local church whiIe  at the same time dicta-       was still formed by evolutionary processes - our solar system
     torship is practised.                                               of which our earth is one planet was created when pieces flew

         I am constantly accused by individuals that I will not cq-      off a huge sun that raced through space billions of years ago
     operate.                                                            and collided with another body or came near enough to an-
         If by cooperation these people mean that I ought to.  unite     other body to pull off these large chunks that became the
     with those who deny the Deity of my God and Savior, whom            planets.
     I have proved again and again in my very soul that He is the

     mighty God, the everlasting Father, and the Prince of Peace;            But if one reads some of these striking facts of creation
     if by cooperation they mean that I ought to meet and unite          to see the marvelous handiwork of a sovereign Creator, the
     occasionally with people who can testify and say without a          article is worth its while. Items:
     bIush that eIection  is a damnabIe  doctrine and that they hate

     it in their hearts; if they mean by cooperation that I Imite                    (The earth's) speed in its orbit around the  sun is extremely

     and fellowship with those who hate the doctrine of imputed                constant. Its rotation on its axis is determined so accurately

     righteousness by calIing  it imputed nonsense and a doctrine              that a variation of a second in a century would upset astronom-

     that ought to be abhorred and spurned by all, which is the                ical calculations.

     very garment and covering that hides all my shame, the very                     Had the bulk of the  earth been greater or less, or had its
     robe that adorns my naked soul and has at al1 times been the              speed been different, it would have been farther from or
     joy and rejoicing of my heart, and which I have found to be               nearer to the sun, and this different  condition would have
     so many times the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness           profoundly affected life of all kinds, including man. So pro-
     -then I am not cooperative.                                               foundly indeed, that had this earth varied in either respect to

        If by cooperation they mean that I ought to unite with                 any marked degree, life as we know it could not have existed.

     people who can say and testify that we may be a child of                  Of all the planets the earth is, so far as we now know, the only

     God one day and a child of the devil the next day; if by                  one whose relation to the sun makes our sort of life possible.

     cooperation they mean that I ought to unite with people who                     The earth rotates on its axis 24 hours or at the rate of

     say that Christ died and atoned for the sins of Esau as well              about 1,000 miles an hour. Suppose it turned at the rate of

     as of Jacob, for Cain as well as for Abel, for Judas as well              100 miles an hour. Wh-1  not? Our days and nights would

     as for Peter, and that there are thousands in Hell for whom               then be ten times as long as now. The hot sun of summer

     Christ died; if they mean by cooperation that I ought to unite            would then burn up our vegetation each long day and every
     with, and call those brethren who profess to believe in the               sprout would freeze in such a night. The sun, the source of
     doctrines of *grace,  and who call themselves Calvinists, yet             all life, has a surface `temperature of 12,000 degrees Fahren-

     can declare at times that those blessed doctrines, which are              heit. and our earth is just far enough away so that this "eternal

     so precious and glorious to my soul, are non-essential things;            fire" warms up just enough and not too much . . . If the

     (that is, if I understand their meaning aright)  they view them           temperature on earth had changed so much as 50 degrees on

     as useless things, and that it is of no consequence whatever              the average for a single year, all vegetation would be dead

     whether we receive or believe these doctrines or not, provided            and man with it, roasted or frozen. The earth travels around

    we do but unite with all sorts and pray for all, be candid                 the sun at the rate of 18 miles a second. If the rate of

     (sincere) and mild, and esteem all as partakers of grace -               revolution had been, say,        siu miles or forty miles each

    I confess from my heart, if all this be cooperation, 1 am non-            second, we would be too far from or too close to the sun for

    cooperative; and instead of being grieved for my part, or want            our form of life to exist.

     of it, I glory in it. I want to go on record as saying I feel no                Stars vary in size, as we all know. One is so large that if
     ill will toward anyone, but their principles that debase free            it were our sun, the orbit of the earth would be millions of


70                                                                      T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R


           miles inside: its surface. Stars vary in radiation . . . If OUT                                             -The Hebrew word "nephesh" which is translated

           sun gave off only one-half of its present radiation, we would                                          c`soul"  i n   o u r   King  J a m e s   V e r s i o n ,   i s   n o w   r e n d e r e d   " t h e
           freeze, and if it gave half as much more, we would have been                                           man himself" on the grounds that the Hebrews had no con-
           reduced to dust long ago . . . Sot our sun is about right for                                                                                                   "
                                                                                                                  ception of man's soul.
  .        our life among millions of others which are not.

                We seldom realize that all life is confined to the space                                               - In Genesis 1, where the King James Version speaks of

          between the snow of the mountain tops and the heat of the                                               the Spirit of God that brooded upon the face of the waters,
           earth's interior. This narrow stratum as compared with the                                             this translation speaks of a primeval wind that swept over the
           diameter of the earth is but one half the thickness of one leaf                                        water - another bald concession to evolutionism.
           of a thousand-page book. The history of all creatures is

           written on this tissue-thin surface. If all the air was liquefied                                           It is true, of course, that anyone who translates the Bible
           it would cover the earth to a depth of 35 feet or L part in                                            must be objective in his work. He must not try to impose his
           600,000 of the distance to the earth's center, a close adjust-                                         own doctrinal beliefs upon the text. He must let the Bible
          ment!
                                                                                                                  speak and he must bow before that Word. But it is also true
                If our moon was;  say 50,000 miles away instead of its
                                                                                                                  that men who translate Holy Writ cannot remain entirely
          present respectable distance, our tides would be so enormous
           that twice a day all the lowland of all the continents would                                           objective. They cannot make themselves a mere translating

          be submerged by a rush of water so enormous that even the                                               machine and shake off their own beliefs and what they are.
          mountains would soon be eroded away, and probably no con-                                               They are inescapably affected by what they confess to be the
          tinent could have risen from the depths fast enough to exist                                            truth of the Word of God. Because of this latter fact, it is
           today. The earth would crack with the turmoil and. the tides
           in the air would create daily hurricanes.                                                              essential that one who translates the Bible be a true believer
                                                                                                                  and one who confesses the truth of Scripture purely.
       R e a l i z i n g   a l l   t h e s e   t h i n g s ,   h o w   m u c h   m o r e   d o   n o t   t h e
                                                                                                                       It follows then that an orthodox Jew has no right to
words of Genesis 1 come to mean: "And God saw all that
                                                                                                                  translate Scripture and no spiritual qualifications for his
he had made ; and, behold, it was very good." That this earth
                                                                                                                  task even though he may be a remarkable scholar and rec-
is, by the power and wisdom of God, perfectly adapted in
                                                                                                                  ognized authority of the Hebrew language. He does not
every detail to man's life here staggers the imagination.
                                                                                                                  believe in Christ and rejects the entire New Testament. One
Surely the believing and humble child of God cannot help but
                                                                                                                  may argue that this does not disqualify him to translate the
cry out, "0 Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all
                                                                                                                  Old Testament; but also the Old Testament is the revelation
the earth !"
                                                                                                                  of God in Christ.

                                                                                                                                        The New is i,n the Old concealed;

ANOTHER, BIBLE TRANSLATION                                                                                                              The Old is in the New revealed.

       It is difficult if not impossible to keep track of and be-                                                     Anyone who rejects Christ is automatically disqualified to
come thoroughly acquainted with all the many new transla-                                                         be a translator of the Bible.
tions of the Bible which have appeared in recent years. Now                                                                                                                                        H. Hanko
another translation has come off the press. This is the work

of the Jewish Publication Society of America. After eight

years of labor the five books of Moses are ready for publica-

tion ; those involved in the work speak of another twelve                                                                                  RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
years to complete the rest of the Old Testament. The N&v
                                                                                                                      The Ladies' Society of the South Holland Protestant Reformed
Testament will not, of course, be included in this Jewish                                                         Church expresses heartfelt sympathy to one of its members, Mrs.
Bible. The best Jewish and Hebrew scholars have applied                                                           John Van Baren,  in the sudden loss of her husband,
themselves to this project; but many will surely be dissatis-                                                                                  MR. JOHN VAN BAREN
fied with the translation. Items:
                                                                                                                      "For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were
       -All "Thee? and "Thou?  have been eliminated in                                                            dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made $th

favor of "you."                                                                                                   hands, eternal in the heavens." II Corinthians 5:l.

                                                                                                                                                              Rev. John Heys, President
       - Genesis 1 :l, in an obvious concession to evolutionistic                                                                                             Mrs. Gertrude Vroom, Secretary
theories now reads: "When God began to create the heaven

and the earth . . ."

       -The children of Israel are said to have crossed the Sea                                                                       I am evil, born in sin ;
of Reeds rather than the Red Sea.                                                                                                    Thou desirest truth within.

       -The third commandment is changed to condemn per-                                                                             Thou alone my Saviour art,

jury rather than profanity: "You shall not swear falsely by                                                                          Teach Thy wisdom to my heart;

the name of the Lord your God ; for the Lord will not clear                                                                          Make me pure, Thy grace bestow,

one who swears falsely by His name."                                                                                                  Wash me whiter than the snow.


                                          T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                  71


                                                                  treasurer's report. During the singing of numbers 101 and

                                                                  161 an qffering was taken for the Protestant Reformed Ac-

                                                                  tion totaling $28.80. Our president then introduced OUT
                                                                  speaker, Rev. ,Kortering,  who spoke on the topic taken from

 Does The Cross Beg Or Conquer, Mr. Martin?                       I Timothy 6. "But godliness with contentment is great gain.
                                                                  For we brought nothing into this world, it is certain we can
   Every Sunday millions recite the Apostles' Creed, "I           carry nothing out, and having food and raiment let us be
believe in God the Father Almighty . . .," and so forth. But      therewith content."
are all honest when they say, "I believe in an almighty God"?         Contentment for us'min a world that is discontent. The
   Such a thought crossed my mind as I listened to Mr.            world does not know contentment. For they seek self-gain
Walter R. Martin on his radio program, .Dateline  Eternity,       and financial success. The Christian also seeks material gain.
WFUR, Sunday, Sept. 16, 5 :00-S :30 P. M. Does Mr. Mar-           But what a marvelous wonder : we are godly and that differs
tin believe in an almighty God ?                                  us from the world. For godliness with contentment is great

   His broadcast was divided into two sections : 1) Ques-         gain. True contentment is rooted in godliness and manifests

tion and answer period ; 2) a sermonette. The listener's          itself in the world and produces great gain.. These are the

question was, "Did Christ die only for Christians ?'              words Paul speaks, through the Spirit, to Timothy and to

   There are two viewpoints, answered Mr. Martin : 1)             us the living church. Paul warned Timothy there were many
Christ died only for the elect; Zj Christ died for the whole      in this world who supposedly preached the gospel but they
world. The second is the viewpoint of the Bible, says Mr.         knew not the truth in Jesus Christ. The secular's first
Martin. John 12 :47 teaches us that Christ died for the           thought is for self and pride, and God is not in their thoughts.
sins of the world.                                                They are satisfied in themselves. Godliness is the very op-
                                                                  posite. It reaches beyond this world, centered in God and
   However, if Mr. Martin is right, then, of course, Christ
                                                                  not self. It means God is our God, the covenant God. He
purposed to save all sinners; His desire and wish was that
                                                                  governs all things. Our joy is to do His will. True content-
all would be saved. Silice  the Father sent Him into the world
                                                                  ment is the product of a spiritual mind. We grow in this
for that purpose, that would be the will of the Father too.
                                                                  contentment. The Christian mother can say we are satisfied
So here we have Jesus Christ, second Person of the holy
                                                                  with the material things which God gives us for a purpose.
Trinity, attempting desperately to save the world, but stand-
                                                                  For we must use these things not for self, but for Him to
ing helplessly by while uncounted millions perish.
                                                                  bring forth the praise of His Name and to God's glory. It
   Perhaps Mr. Martin should propose a new creed -                is blessed to be a content wife and mother. A woman is often
something like this : "I believe in man, powerful, able to        concerned about beautiful clothes and nice things in the
defeat God's purpose, and in a limited God, dependent upon        home., Contentment is not in a complaining woman, whether
the creature for accomplishing the desire of His heart . . .,"    she has little or much. She is satisfied with what the Lord
and so forth.                                                     has given her. We must be humble before the Lord, whether
   Such a creed would be more consistent with his question        rich or poor. He measures it out. Living contentment pro-
and answer period.                                                duces gain ; the greatest gain in this world is a content wife
 . But aside from that, would Mr. Martin please tell me           and mother. Gain is beautiful before God and that we long
what Christ meant when He said, "I pray for them, I pray          for most. We are spiritual, not secular. We can live with
not for the wol-16  but for them which thou hast given me, for    a soul that is quiet and content. Don't worry about the
they are thine." John 17:9.  How do you account for the fact      future. God knows and cares. Being rich toward God we
that Christ refuses to pray for those He wishes to save?          have quietness and contentment. For we brought nothing

   1'11 be listening, Walter.                                     into this world and it is certain we can carry nothing out.

                                 Vernon Graeser                      After the lecture the Doon ladies favored us with a

                                 133!/"  Diamond, S. E.           musical number.

                                 Grand Rapids 6, Michigan            Rev. Woudenberg answered three questions sent by our

                                                                  Societies, Explain II Kings 5 :8. Did Naaman do right in

                                                                  asking God to pardon him for bowing down in the house of

                                                                  Rimmon? And how is it possible to repent yourself, and be
     Report of the Western Ladies' League                         converted as written in Acts 3 :19?  And finally what must

                                                                  we say of the N.F.O. in accordance with Scripture?
   The Western Ladies' League met at Edgerton, Minn.,
on October 12, 1962. The meeting was opened by our pres-             The ladies from Hull also favored us with a musical
ident, Mrs. Kortering.  Nos. 295 and 277 were sung. Our           number. Psalter No. 187 was sung and Rev. Woudenberg
president opened with prayer. First Timothy 6 was read.           closed our meeting with prayer.
Mrs. Ver Hey read the minutes and Mrs. Klein gave the                                            Mrs. S. Aardema, Reporter


                                                                   offerings in the society meetings instead of asking for con-

                                                                   tributions of canned fruit and linens.
    NEWSFROMOURCHURCHES
             "All  the saints salute thee . . J' PHIL.                  The Western Ladies' League was scheduled to meet in
                                                           491
                                                                   Edgerton  Runal's  Hall, Oct. 12. Rev. Kortering, of Hull, was

                                                                   the speaker, his topic:                  "Contentment Linked With #God-

                                            Oct.                   liness."      The speaker based his discourse on the Scripture
                                                  20, 1962
                                                                   recorded in I Tim. 6 :6-8. After recess Rev. B. Woudenberg

   Rev. M. Schipper,  pastor of Southwest's Church since           answered questions.

1954, has accepted a call to the Southeast Church in Grand              The Adult Bible Class of Lynden has again resumed
Rapids.                                                            their meetings with a continuation of the study of the Book

                                                                   of Genesis.          So far they have covered 25 chapters in their
   Southwest's consistory has named a trio which includes
                                                                   weekly discussions, producing over 200 single spaced pages of
the Revs. C. Hanko, J. A. Heys and G. Vanden  Berg.
                                                                   lesson material. From their bulletin we gather that they, are

   The Senior Young People's Society of First Church has           striving to show themselves "approved of God, workmen who

changed the time of their meetings from Tuesday evening to         need not to be ashamed, handling aright the Word of Truth."
Sunday afternoon. This change has resulted in an increase          II Tim. 2:15.

of membership and a better attendance record. Another                   Yo,u  have e+wienced in your practka~l  life that "where
change, which is shared by ail our Y. P. societies, is the sub-
                                                                   n o   w o o d   ,is,  there   t h e   ,fire goetlz  osut";  b u t ,   h a v e   y o u   e x p e r -
ject material which is found in the first Book of the Bible
                                                                   ienced in yozw  ethical life fimt "where no talebewer  is, there
instead of the last. This latter change, it is reported, met
                                                                   the stvife ceaseth"?  Prov. 26 :20.
with instant approval and proves to be very rewarding as it
deals. with `Jbeginnings"    which are according to God's in-           The Christian High students in Lynden heard a chapel
spired Word instead of the "origins" of Science, so called.        talk, Oct. 11, on one of Calvin's great themes : "`God uses the
                                                                   agency of the wicked, including their minds, to do His will,
   The Lord-willing, Rev. Lubbers, Missionary of the Prot.         yet without the least stain to His perfect purity." The
Ref. Churches in America, will be the radio minister for           speaker was our Rev. Harbach, and the basis for his talk was

our Reformed Witness Hour during November. Rev. Lub-               a portion of a prayer recorded in Acts 4~27, 25.

bers has recorded four sermons under the general theme,
                                                                        Rev. H. Hoeksema's adult Bible class has finished the
"The Sabbath of God."        On Sunday, Nov. 4, the listeners
                                                                   discussion of the first three chapters of Genesis and is about
will hear the first of these messages, "The Sabbath of God."
                                                                   to study the Form for the Administration of the Lord's
The next Lord's Day (Nov. ll), our Home Missionary will
                                                                   Supper this season.
speak on the subject of "The Mosaic Sabbath of the Old

Testament." This will be followed with a sermon concerning              Rev. C. Hanko is currently preaching a series of Sunday
"The New Testament Sabbath Observance." The concluding             evening sermons on "World Powers." Having considered

broadcast (Nov. 25) of this series will explain "The Sabbath       Enoch,  son of Cain, N&rod's  mighty Babel, and Pharaoh as

of Christ's Parousia," proclaiming "the Gospel tidings of. the     a display of God's power, Rev. Hanko spent one evening

hope of the Eternal Sabbath in a new Heaven and new earth          examining God's verdict concerning Moab (His washpot),

where God will be All in All." Our readers are reminded of         Edom and Philistia, all. of them having been placed in anti-

the new mailing address when writing for printed copies of         thetical relation to God's people. This series will undoubtedly

the radio sermons : The Reformed Witness Hour, P.O. Box            end with the reign of the Anti-Christ when the antithesis will

1230, Grand Rapids 1, Mich.                                        be clearly drawn when one has, or has not the Mark of the

                                                                   Beast displayed for all to see.
   The Eastern Ladies' League met in Hudsonville Church

Thursday, Oct. 18. Rev. J. A. Heys was the speaker, his sub-            Society leaders and secretaries : We would welcome news

ject, "The Number of Man." Rev. Heys' schedule for that            regarding your after recess programs. In the communion of
                                                                                                                 . -
day was quite crowded for he conducted a funeral service in        saints we share troubles and burdens, let us also share our

his own church in South Holland, Ill. in the afternoon, and        ideas which can serve our mutual edification.

had to be in Hudsonville at 8 p. m. Immediately after his
                                                                        May we have the grace to display the spirit that abode in
speech he returned to South Holland and prepared to travel
                                                                   Peter and John (Acts 4:29), that when the world "threat-
to Loveland for a Classical appointment on Sunday.
                                                                   ens" we will not pray that they may cease, but that we may
   Hudsonville's bulletin announced an innovation in the
                                                                   have boldness to witness for the truth.
matter of their societies' annual gift to the Holland Home

and Pine Rest Hospital. This year they will receive cash                . . . . see you in church.                                                         J.M.F.


