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                                        -earer


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




IN THIS ISSUE


    Meditation:  ..
      God's Redeemer-Son Sent

    Editorial:
      The Erring Views of Dr. H.M. Kuitert (8)

    Another Suitor In The Wings?
      (see: Examining Ecumenicalism)

    Synod's Authority and the Believer's Conscience
      (see: All Around Us)


                                           Volume XL V/Number S/Dee.  1, 1968


     9        8                                                    THE STANDARD BEARER


I                               CONTENTS:                                                                               THE STANDARD BEARER
     Meditation -                                                                                  Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July and August.
I         God's Redeemer Son Sent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . :. . .98                    .         Published by the Reformed Free Publishing Association, Inc.
                                                                                        Editor-in-Chief: Prof. H. C. Hoeksema
     Editorials -
          Editor's Notes ...........................101                                 Department Editors:  Mr. John M. Faber, Rev. Cornelius Hanko, Prof.
          The Erring Views of Dr. H.M. Kuitert (8)                                             Herman Hanko, Rev. Robert C. Harbach, Rev. John A. Heys, Rev. Jay
                                                                  .......101                   Kortering, Rev. George C. -Lubbers, Rev. Marinus Schipper, Rev. Gise J.
                                                                                               Van Baren, Rev. Herman Veldman, Rev. Bernard Woudenberg
     All Around Us -                                                                    Editorial Office: Prof. H. C. Hoeksema
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     Meditation


                                                G O D 'S   R E D E E M E R - S O N   S E N T

                                                                          Rev. M. Schipper

                                               "But when the fulness  of  time was come, God sent
                                             forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to
                                             redeem them that were under the law, that we might
                                             receive the adoption  of sons.  "
                                                                                                                Galatians 4:4,5

          But when the fulness of time was come!                                         was fully prepared to receive Him! Thus many have and
          Not the time, the moment when the world was                                    still would explain the significance of the fulness of time
     especially prepared for Christ's coming, when the world                             in our text. Never is the world ready to receive Him.


                                                THE STANDARD BEARER                                                     99



Nor was it ready to receive Him when He made His                Though it is true that the birth of Jesus is historic
entrance into the world. Nor may it be said that the          fact, occurring in a definite place and at a dated
church-world was ready for Him when He came.                  moment, this is not the full understanding of the
  When the Son of God came into the flesh the heathen         Scriptures. The Word of God (and this is the thought of
world lay steeped in pagan darkness. And the  church-         our text) presents Jesus as the eternal Son of God. The
world had decayed into moral wickedness so great that         name Son of God denotes the Mediator in His essential
it had no room for Him. In fact, it may be said that as       d e i t y .
far as the world was concerned, the coming of the Son           Before the world was, the Son was! "In the beginning
of God was at the most inopportune time. 0, indeed, it        was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the
cannot be gainfully said that the Jewish nation as a          Word was God. The same was in the beginning with
commonwealth had almost thoroughly disintegrated,             God. " "He was in the world, and the world was made
and that the age of the shadows and types had come to         by Him, and the world knew Him not." He was the Arm
an end - the end when the reality which they foretold         of the Lord, the Agent of creation, the Revealer of God,
would be reached. Nor can  .it be denied that the fact        the Light of the world. Before the fulness of time the
that the Roman government held universal dominion             Son was.
helped to prepare the way for the spread of the gospel          How important this truth is! Deny it and there is no
of the new day. And surely it cannot be slightingly           salvation possible!
passed over that God had prepared a handful of faithful         To speak of the eternity of the Son is no mere, cold
ones who were waiting for the Day-Spring from on high,        theological dogma, no mysterious truth having no
the Sun of Righteousness with healing in His wings. But       bearing on our need. It is so vital that without it there is
this is quite different from saying that the world eagerly    no hope of salvation for us. The conception that has no
awaited His arrival. For a clear picture of the world of      room in it for the pre-existent Son dwelling in the
Christ's day we have only to confer the writings of the       bosom of the Father has only a maimed Christ in
apostle Paul to the Romans. Indeed, the world of that         reference to the need of sinful men. Moreover, without
day is described as totally depraved, and the world of        this truth all Divine revelation is impossible. Then the
the church as thoroughly apostate.                            claim of Jesus that He came from the Father to declare
  Rather, the fulness of time signifies the moment            Him cannot be true. Unless He is the effulgence of His
which was before ordained of the Father. The viewpoint        glory and the express image of His Person, how could
is not at all that of the world into which He came; but       we be sure that the light of His countenance was the
of God, Who sent Him into the world; of God Who               very light of God? And must we then-not scrap the
works according to plan, Who stipulates the exact             expressed creed of our fathers who insisted on it that
moment of time that coincides with His plan when His          the Saviour must not only be a real righteous man, but
Son must make His appearance in the world of darkness,        also very God Who shall mediate for us?
when the development of history, which is nothing               God sent forth His Son!
more than those succession of moments God uses to               This cannot mean merely that He is sent of God, as
realize His eternal purposes, is reached.                     an angel on a mission; or, as we read of the Baptist, that
  That this is in the meaning of the apostle is plain         he was a man sent from God whose name was John. The
from the context. There the apostle is speaking of the        expression cannot refer only to the Son's commission,
time when the church of the shadows was a minor,              though this thought may not be excluded. Rather, the
though an heir. Now the minor cannot enjoy the                text teaches us that He is sent out from God! Paul here
inheritance promised to him so long as he is a minor. He      shows us that Jesus is Divine, that He came out of God.
is then under tutors and governors until the time             This is the significance of the incarnation. The incarna-
appointed by the father. But when the time set by the         tion points not merely to the birth of a Child in
father is reached, then the minor becomes an adult, who       Bethlehem; but it is itself the coming of God into our
is ready to receive that inheritance. The fulness of time,    human nature. The Saviour is come out of very God -
therefore, signifies not merely the moment when the           yea, is very God Himself in the Person of the Son. But
Lord Jesus was born - that was only the beginning of it       there is more.
- but it refers to this entire new dispensation in which        Indeed, the Son was SENT!
the Son of God gives unto the heirs of the promise the          Not merely did God give His Son. Both the gift of the.
full estate of the Father.                                    Son and His being sent are Scriptural truths with
  Then God sent forth His Son!                                different shades of meaning. That God gave His Son
  His pre-existent Redeemer Son!                              stresses the point of His being a precious gift. It
  The life of Jesus does not begin at His birth.              emphasizes the love of God. "For God so loved the
Modernism knows only of Jesus that was born - Who             world that He gave His only begotten Son." While the
had His beginning like all other men in His natural birth.    fact that He is sent of God stresses the fact that He
Who, therefore, was no different than ordinary men.           came with a purpose. He had a definite mission to
Who, therefore, was only man.                                 fulfill. The Father had commissioned Him for a definite


      100                                           THE STANDARD BEARER


      work.                                                         was indeed. Does He not say in David: "Lo, I come: in
        Made of a woman!                                            the volume of the book it is written of me,-1 delight to
        Special attention should be given here to what the          do thy will, 0 my God: yea, thy law is within my
      text omits to say. It does not mention the woman by           heart?" (Ps.  40:7,8). And does not the writer to the
      name or generation, and inform us that she is Mary of         Hebrews show us how this Son of God coming into the
      the house and lineage of David. It does not inform us         world declared: "Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest
      that she was a virgin, though espoused to a man. It does      not, but a body hast thou prepared me: In burnt
      not speak of a man or a husband to whom she was               offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no
      married.                                                      pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the
        This can only mean that the Word of God here wishes         book it is written of me,) to do thy will, 0 God?"
      to underscore the truth of  the' incarnation. In this         (Hebrews 10:5-7). Indeed, He was sent on a mission, a'
      wonder of grace God is the Father Who not only sends          mission He was willing to perform - to keep the law of
      His Son, but He is the One Who gives to the woman the         God perfectly, which we had transgressed.
      seed of conception, while that Word at the same time            To redeem them that were under the law!
      informs us that a real human nature is what He assumed.          For not only must He keep the law perfectly, but He
      Not a specially created human nature; nor a human             must at the same time redeem those under the law!
      nature which He may have taken with Him from heaven;             Redeem, or purchase free those who were under the
      but a nature which is taken out of the woman. Not             law, and therefore under the curse! This can mean
      only, therefore, does the Word of God here reveal that        nothing else than the cross, and the shedding of His
      the Son partakes of and is to be identified with the          life's blood. The price or ransom paid for our redemp-
      Divine nature - Who is sent out of God and is thus God        tion is always said to be Christ Himself through His
      Himself; but the text also shows us the source of His         blood.
      human nature. He is not merely of a woman, but out of            In bondage we were! Not to the devil, as some
      a woman, in body and soul, in a complete human                suppose. But to the curse imposed by God because of
      nature.                                                       our transgression of His law. And a bondage from which
        Made under the law!                                         we could not free ourselves. No price could we bring in
        The law of God!                                             our bondage that could unlock the prison of our
        The law that from Mount Sinai was imposed on Israel         bondage. No blood of bulls and goats could satisfy
      of the old dispensation who were the covenant people          God's justice so as to atone for our guilt. Nor could we
      of God and heirs of the promise of salvation. The law         produce one righteous man who could take our place
      that was imposed upon the promise; which,  ,while it          and sacrifice himself in our stead.
      could not make the promise of none effect, nevertheless          Redeemed we could be only by the blood of God
      made the covenant people to bear the burden of it and         Who assumed our nature and to whom our guilt could
      obligated them to bear the curse of the law if they did       be and was imputed. But how could God lay the curse
      not perfectly perform all that the law dictated. The          on another than the man who committed the transgres-
      responsibility for which curse the people assumed on          sion? Only when that one could truly represent us. And
      another Mount called Ebal.                                    this is what the Son of God, made of a woman, made
        The law, the essence of which Jesus Himself ex-             under the law, could and did so.
      pressed. It is to love the Lord our God with all thy             He assumed our nature and with it our curse! He, too,
      heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with     heard the thunder of God's law, and the terror of it
      all thy strength. And thou shalt love thy neighbor as         vibrated through His whole being, His soul and body. 0,
      thyself. Such is the everlasting obligation of all men. It    He heard it, as none other - from the bottom of hell He
      is the law under which we also are conceived and born.        heard it, until the pronouncement of the curse died out,
*'    It is also the law which we since our first father Adam       and in its place came the Divine pronouncement of His
      have violated and transgressed. And the curse of the law      and our justification.
      has also been imposed on us. For: "Cursed is everyone            Our curse He assumed, and redeemed us from it!
      who continueth not in all things which are written in            That is the mystery of Bethlehem!
      the book of the law to do them." Hence, we are shut up           That is the mystery of the cross!
      in the prison-house of sin and death, bound in the irons         The mysteries which are inseparably bound together.
      of the law and its curse.                                     Bethlehem without Calvary has no significance. What
        Not only was the Son of God made of woman, but              takes place in Bethlehem is finished on the hill of the
      He was made under that law and its curse. Under that          skull.
      law and its curse He descended. Thus He stands on the            That we might receive the adoption of sons! This
      same plane as the children He came to redeem.                 adoption of sons is implied in our justification, whence
        To redeem them that were under the law!                     springs the granting of the rights of children, also the
        While He performed also the requirements of that law        right to the eternal inheritance.
      perfectly. For He must be a real righteous man. This He          The adoption of sons!


                                                THE STANDARD BEARER                                                   101


  You see, God has only one natural Son, the Only               Back of the cross is the eternal counsel of election in
Begotten. Shall He have others, it must be through            which the Father decided to adopt us. We were chosen
adoption. And adoption requires a legal process. Just as      in Christ and given to Him to be redeemed by Him.
it is when a husband and wife desire to adopt children,       Father would have His house filled with children, and
which cannot be done without legal procedure; for the         with Christ the Heir He would make us co-heirs of all
children which are not ours by nature can become ours         that He possesses. And the very essence of that
only by the pronouncement of the court. So it is in the       inheritance is that we might know Him and taste forever
highest sense when we become children of God. By              His blessed fellowship. This is eternal life.
nature we are the children of darkness and children of          That was the reason why He sent forth His Son in the
wrath, whether we belong to the old or the new                fulness of time. That is why He must be born of woman,
dispensation.  As children of Adam, and through his           and born under the law. That is why He redeemed us
transgression, we become alienated from God and have          who were under the law, that all might be legally made
lost all right to His fellowship. We may not abide in His     right for us to enter into His family and be reckoned
house. But through the redemption in Christ, our legal        with as His children, and receive all the rights of
status changes, and with. it also our rights. When God        children.
pronounced us justified through the redeeming blood of          0, wondrous purpose of God!
Christ, our adoption papers were signed with a pen of           0, blessed Redeemer!
blood. But there is more.                                       With Him we shall abide in Father's house forever!



Editorials


                                           EDITOR'S NOTES

   Due to circumstances beyond my control, Rev. Van             The fall issue of the "Protestant Reformed Theo-
Baren's article in the November 1 issue on "The Dutch         logical Journal" should appear by the time you receive
Meet Dixie" was interrupted. We regret any incon-             this issue of the  Standard Beaver.  There is a limited
venience this may have caused. The conclusion of that         amount of room on our mailing list for a few more
article appears in this issue in the department Examining     interested readers. If you are interested, or know of a
Ecumenical&m.                                                 friend who would be interested, write to: Prof. H.
                                                              Hanko, 4665 Ju-le-on Drive, S.W., `Grand Rapids,
                                                              Michigan 49504. Requests will be handled on a  first-
                                                              come first-served basis.
   The "surprise" from the pen of Rev. C. Hanko which                                     * *  8
I promised in a previous issue appears for the first time       Hard-pressed for a gift idea? Here are two worthwhile
in this issue. Every now and then you may expect a            gifts: 1) A year's subscription to the Standard Bearer, at
brief contribution of this kind under the same heading,       $7. 2) A copy of "Reformed Dogmatics," at $14.95.
"Come Ye Apart _ . . And Rest A While." I think you           For the first, write to our Business Office. For the
will enjoy these "Rest Areas."
                             d  *  *                          second, write to: Reformed Free Publishing Association,        .I
                                                              Box 2006, Grand Rapids, Mich. 49501.
                                                                                          *  *  *


                       The Erring Views of Dr. H.M. Kuitert (8)

                                                 Pvof H.C. Hoeksema

An Evaluation of  Kuitertg  Dogmatical Views                  third division of his lecture, in which he spoke of the
   In this section of my evaluation of the ideas set forth    dogmatical implications of his view of Genesis l-3. Since
in Dr. Kuitert's lecture before the Christian Reformed        it is a few months ago that I presented a report of
Ministers' Institute last June I am concerned with the        Kuitert's lecture, I will briefly remind the reader of the


102                                              THE STANDARD BEARER


substance of this section of the professor's speech. For         necessarily a new content to the terms "Christ" and
the details the reader may refer to the September 1              "redemption." And one always has to have a certain
issue, pages 462, 463. Briefly, I reported that the              respect for someone who is open and frank  about,his
following main points were made by Dr. Kuitert:                  views and lets it be known where he stands, even as one
       1) There must be a revamping of all of dogmatics.         is always inclined to despise and distrust the person who
The professor made bold to state that his views involved         is sneaky and less than frank.. For the same  .reason, I
entirely new insights and. far-reaching implications for         would say that in a sense Dr. Kuitert is a less dangerous
dogmatics, a complete re-orientation.                            foe than he might be if he were less open and frank. At
- 2) We must do away with the historical order of                least, thus it ought to be. No soundly Reformed man
creation, the fall, and redemption in our dogmatics.             should have any difficulty with Kuitert's views as he
       3) Theology must "face the facts, face the data." It      presented them in his lecture; he should without any
must confront the historical and scientific data. It             hesitation and without any qualms whatsoever reject
"cannot talk the fossils out of existence."                      them out-of-hand. For the same reason, by the way, I
  4) What Dr. Kuitert repeatedly called "traditional"            believe it was altogether wrong for Reformed people to
theology has been unable to supply a satisfactory                invite Dr. Kuitert here and provide him with a forum to
explanation of the relation between. creation and Christ,        give expression to his views and make propaganda for
as set forth, for example, in Colossians 1: 15, ff.              those views. It may be argued that  this did not
  5) Positively, Dr. Kuitert presented the idea that             constitute an endorsement of his views, which is true.
Genesis l-3 must be used as a "teaching model." 1 shall          But this is not the point. It was well-known, even before
refer to some of the  .details of this  .later. But  1 must      Dr. Kuitert came here, that his views were radically
emphasize two things: a) That whatever of a positive             divergent; in plain language, Kuitert is a heretic. And it
nature Dr. Kuitert presented as a substitute for the             is morally wrong to give a heretic a forum; let heretics
traditional view, it was indeed radically different. b)          find their own forum. Along this same line, I want to
That Kuitert dealt only in very vague generalities and           remark that the great problem in the Reformed com-
admitted that there were many problems left with                 munity does not lie in the fact that Kuitert's views are
regard to the development of the dogmatical implica-             not obviously wrong, nor in the fact that no Reformed
tions of his view, concluding by speaking grandiosely of         man should have to take five minutes to decide that
a panorama unfolding and of life becoming meaningful             they are wrong. The great problem lies in the fact that
under his view.                                                  there are so few Reformed men who are willing to take
                                                                 an unequivocal Reformed stand and to fight. The great
 Let us look at this part of Dr. Kuitert's address, first        problem lies in the fact that also the Reformed
of all, from a formal point of view. In this connection          community has been smitten by such a spirit of
there are several observations to be made.                       so-called tolerance that they will engage in so-called
  `In the first place, it should be noted that Kuitert was       dialogue with any enemy of the faith and will allow the
busy with dogmatics long before he reached this part of          church to be "dialogued" to death.
his ,address. In fact, this was so obvious to the observant        In this connection, let it be noted that I said only
listener that it could be predicted that the last section of     that Kuitert was frank "up to a point." But that point is
the professor's speech would indeed be radical. I `say this      the crucial one. In the ultimate sense Dr. Kuitert is,
especially from the point of view of the fact that               after all, less than frank. When I listened to him last
Kuitert was delving into dogmatics, and that too, at its         June, one of the questions which continually arose in
very basis, when he talked about the doctrine of                 my soul was this: what is this man doing in the
Scripture. It is, after all, one's view of Scripture which is    Reformed church and in the Free University of Amster-
determinative for all of his dogmatics. Dr. Kuitert's            dam? In my opinion, if Dr. Kuitert were totally frank,
address was a clear example of this, and it should be a          he would openly say farewell to the Reformed faith, to
warning to all that once you begin to tamper with the            the Reformed Churches of the Netherlands, and to the
Scriptures you will inevitably "go off the deep end" in          Free University. This would be wrong, of course; but it
all of dogmatics.                                                would be honest and frank. For I am convinced that Dr.
  In the second place, it must be admitted that, up to a         Kuitert's dogmatical views as he presented them in his
point, Dr. Kuitert was frank to the point of being blunt.        lecture and as I understood them have nothing in
He certainly was far from attempting to hide his ideas           common with our Reformed faith as set forth in our
and the far-reaching implications of his views. He made          confessions. Kuitert has no Reformed view of Scripture;
it plain that he has little use for what he calls the            he has no Reformed view of creation; he has no Re-
"traditional view." And he made it plain that he will not        formed view of sin; and, necessarily, he has no Reformed
attempt to  fit his views into the traditional scheme of         view of Christ and of redemption. You call this a
things in dogmatics. There must be re-orientation, and           serious indictment? I fully recognize the fact; but,
such a re-orientation that it changes the whole structure        no less, I am fully convinced of it. And I am
of dogmatics. He gives a new content  to. the term               thoroughly convinced that it needs saying and that there
"creation," a new content to the term "sin," and                 is far too much fear of being critical today.  I'suppose


                                                THE STANDARD BEARER                                                   103


that there are those who will accuse me of lacking in          you analyze Kuitert's speech, what he was actually
love when I make such an indictment too; and my reply          proposing was a revamping, a re-orientation, of the
to that is there is no genuine love of the brethren or of      confessions, not merely of dogmatics. If any man wants
the neighbor outside of the truth as it is in Jesus and        to do that, he must follow the course of filing gravamina
apart from the love of the truth. Those who love the           against the confessions, not the course of public
Reformed faith and the Reformed church will be willing         propaganda for his divergent views:
to "call a spade a spade" when it comes to heresy, And           My final observation, from a formal point of view, is
God pity the denomination which will not do so!                that Dr. Kuitert engages, in my opinion, in some rather
  This brings mew to my third formal observation. Dr.          reckless theologizing. Perhaps this kind of stuff is
Kuitert spoke of the implications of his views for             supposed to be scholarly; I fail completely to see it.
"dogmatics." He should have changed this, or he should         Even apart from the right or wrong of Kuitert's views,
have added a fourth point to his lecture. He should have       and even apart from the question whether he is in
spoken about the implications of his views for the             harmony with our confessions, it seems to me that one
confessions. It is, of course, always legitimate to discuss    would think a hundred or a thousand times before
extratconfessional subjects, that is, subjects on which        proposing anything as radical as what Kuitert proposed.
the confessions do not speak directly. And it is always        After all, it is the duty of a theologian, and this duty
both legitimate and commendable to strive for the              belongs to the very method of dogmatics, to take into
development and enrichment of dogmatics within the             account what has been produced in the history of
framework of the confessions. But the fact of the              dogma. No, this does not mean that the dogmatician
matter is, in the first place, that Kuitert's lecture was      must be a hide-bound traditionalist. Nor does it mean
marked by a complete ignoring of the confessions.              that he must follow the ecclesiastical method of
There was no attempt to work from the confessions nor          dogmatics, the traditional Roman Catholic method. But
to make plain that he was working within the                   it does mean that he very seriously takes into account
framework of the confessions. But secondly, and still          the past. It does mean that he will certainly give it long
worse, when Kuitert was speaking of the implications of        and hard thought before he decides to go against the
his views for dogmatics he was in fact (whether he and         stream of the entire past. It does mean that he will have
his audience recognized and admitted this or not)              what is sometimes called a "sense of history." Why? The
speaking of the implications for the confessions. And, to      fundamental reason is that the church in the past has
put it very pointedly, those implications were that he         also had the Spirit to guide her into all the truth. For
contradicted the confessions. I submit that this is not an     this reason it is a tremendously serious thing to decide
inference on my part, but a very plain fact. I refer to        that all through the past the church has been so wrong
Kuitert's statement that we must abandon the historical        that now all of dogmatics needs revamping and re-orien-
scheme of creation-fall-redemption. It is precisely this       tation. Moreover, he who proposes such a thing is duty
historical scheme which belongs to the very fabric of          bound to have some pretty solid and well-tested reasons
our Reformed creeds. One certainly does not have to            for it. And, besides, he hadbetter have something pretty
read the Heidelberg Catechism any farther than Lord's          worthwhile to put in the place of what he wants to
Day VII in order to see that this is true of the               throw out. And I consider Kuitert to be wanting on all
Catechism. In the Netherland Confession of Faith you           three counts. Kuitert is a theological radical. It seems to
discover this same idea within the scope of four articles,     me that no theologian worthy of the name would
Articles 14-l 7. The same scheme you will discover in          attempt to propose what Kuitert proposed in the space
the Canons. It is on the very surface in Canons I,             of one-third of a forty-five minute speech. If he had no
Articles l-4; and it appears very clearly again in Canons      more time than that, he should have kept hands off such
III, IV, Articles l-6. Now I suppose the retort to this        a weighty subject. Moreover, Kuitert presented no solid
would be that we have to distinguish between the               or even weighty reasons from Scripture, from the
framework of the confessions and the substance of the          confessions, or from the history of dogma in support of
confessions; this is quite the fashion today in the same       his views and proposals. And, above all, he had a
theological circles where all these liberal ideas are          woefully poor substitute for the dogmatical views which
arising. But I submit that the creation-fall-redemption        he wanted to discard. It was weakly presented. It was
theme in our confessions is so thoroughly a part of the        vague. It was admittedly undeveloped and problemat-
substance of our confessions that if you remove it, you        ical. For my part,  - I say again, apart from any other
destroy the confessions. And therefore, I say once             considerations of right or wrong, of confessional or
more: Dr. Kuitert was not merely discussing dogmatics          non-confessional,  - if I were given the choice of the
(where, after all, you have a goodly measure of liberty);      traditional view or of Kuitert's so-called teaching model
but he was actually discussing the contents of the             and the meager content he presented in his speech, then,
confessions in such a way that he was militating against       please, give me the rich heritage of the traditional view.
them. And the latter no Reformed man has the right to            The material worth of Kuitert's dogmatical views we
do under the terms of the Formula of Subscription. If          will consider next time, D.V.


104                                               THE STANDARD BEARER


All Around Us


              SYNOD'S AUTHORITY AND THE BELIEVER'S CONSCIENCE
                                                        PvoJ:  H, Hanko

  Apostasy and unfaithfulness in the Church is marked               adopting a form of congregationalism. What I am asking for
by the unfaithfulness of the leaders. These leaders, be             is the united support of every member in the R.C.A.
they ministers, seminary professors or others in position           concerning any decisions, made in the sessions, past and
of leadership in the Church, intent on leading the                  future, of General Synod.
Church into new paths, seize control of the ecclesiastical              The letter argues forcibly for submission to the
assemblies and bring their influence to bear on the               decisions of ecclesiastical assemblies. Not surprisingly,
delegates. The results are decisions which take the              De Jong disagrees with this position.
denomination from the historic path that Church has                     He acknowledges the fact that opposition to ecclesias-
walked and which put the Church squarely on the roads            tical decisions may lead to dissension and strife in the
of false ecumenism and doctrinal apostasy.                       Church. But he takes the emphatic position that the
  There are, usually, in these denominations, faithful           letter violates a fundamental principle of the Reforma-
people of God who desire earnestly to maintain the               tion, the principle of the freedom of the individual
historic truth of their Church and who weep because the           conscience. He insists that this letter outlines a position
denomination which has been their spiritual mother has            of an "infallible synod" which substitutes for an
been deceived and led astray. What can they do? They             infallible pope. His argument is worth paying attention
cannot in good conscience before God permit their                to.
beloved Church to pursue paths of heresy and evil. They                 He reminds his readers that Scripture enjoins upon
must speak out. But when they do speak out, they bring           believers to try the spirits whether they are of God. Cf. I
upon them the wrath of the leaders and are accused of            John 4: 1. He quotes the Belgic Confession, Article VII
stirring up discord and mutiny in the Church. The                 concerning the supreme authority of the Word of God.
option is then, apparently, to leave their Church to             He refers to some history in the Reformed Church
begin the Church anew. But this is far easier said than           which has to do with Article 3 1 of the Church Order of
done. After all, they love their Church and are filled           Dordrecht. Apparently, while the Constitution of the
with sorrow to see it go from the historic path of truth.        Reformed Church still retains regulations concerning
They have lived all their lives within its walls and are         appeals mentioned in the Article, the form of the
devoted to it because she has been their strength and            Article as it was adopted by Dordrecht and as we have it
help for many years. It seems,  at'best, a heart-rending         in our Church Order including the all-important last
decision that needs to be made.                                  sentence was dropped by the Reformed Church as early
  But there is a question which repeatedly arises in this        as 1792. This last part reads:  " . . . unless it can be
connection. Do these people have a right to agitate pub-          demonstrated to be contrary to the Word of God and
licly against ecclesiastical decisions? May they make            these articles." (Quoted from De Jong's article.) On the
propaganda in the forum of public opinion for their              basis of these matters and with the fervent wish that the
views in spite of what classes, presbyteries or Synod's          last part of Article 31 was still in the Constitution of the
may have decided? The question needs to be answered.              R.C.A., De Jong argues that no decision of an ecclesias-
  Jerome De Jong addresses himself to this question in           tical assembly may bind the conscience of a man under
a recent issue of the  Missionary  Monthly.  He quotes a         any circumstances. It is then, in De Jong's words, the
letter which had originally appeared in the  Church              calling of an individual who disagrees -with these
Herald  which letter inveighs against such public agita-         decisions to  "do  all he  can  to stop such action." He
tion. The letter reads:                                          writes: "If we all agree with the `leading lights' we may
       Since only General Synod has the authority to adopt       find ourselves without a church to direct."
  denominational policy and may "delegate the formulation               With the basic position of De Jong we agree. It
  of policy to committees," it is absurd for individuals and     cannot be otherwise. Surely ecclesiastical assemblies are
  congregations to thwart any decision of General Synod. Let
  us remember that we are bound as members of the R.C.A.         fallible. They are never immune to error. That they err
  to abide by the decisions of General Synod, no matter how      happens again and again. And surely no conscience of
  displeasing these decisions may be. If we follow our own       the child of God may be bound by erroneous decisions             ~
  conscience and desires, however laudable, we are defeating     of ecclesiastical assemblies. The conscience of the
  the design of government for the Reformed Church as set        believer is bound by the Scriptures alone. This is a
  up in the Constitution. Through such action, we are also       precious heritage of the Reformation which, if we lose,


                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER                                                     105


we shall suffer shame and grief.                                key right which protects the individual conscience
  And because the conscience of the believer cannot be          within the Church and which recognizes that no
bound by erroneous decisions of any ecclesiastical              decisions can be of equal value with the Word of God;
assembly, the believer must do something about these.             But the decisions taken are nevertheless settled and
He has this obligation before God. He has the solemn            binding if they are not contrary to the Word of God.
responsibility from which he may not shrink back to             This settled and binding is something De Jong appar-
correct decisions which conflict with God's Word. Out           ently ignores. There is only one kind of legitimate
of love for the truth of God, out of love for the Church        opposition which can then be tolerated. It is the
of which he is a member, he can do nothing else.                opposition of appeal. Any other kind leads to dis-
  And yet, I agree too with the basic thrust of the letter      sension, anarchy, rebellion and schism. Public agitatilon
which De Jong criticizes. This may sound strange; but so        against ecclesiastical decisions is contrary to decency
it is. The question is this: Precisely what form must this      and good order. It can only be disastrous for the
opposition to erroneous decisions take? It is at this           Church.
point that De Jong is vague. And it is at this crucial            But what then must an individual do when he does
point that many err. It is true as De Jong says: "If you        appeal to higher assemblies and his appeals are turned
feel that any particular action of Synod is not for the         down? Can he then interpret this as license to agitate
best interests of the church you have a positive duty to        apart from legal channels? Decidedly not. This he may
do all you  can  through legal channels to stop such            never do. It is at that point that he must face the
action!" But the whole article as a criticism of the            question, agonizing as it may be, whether to leave his
letter, leaves the impression that De Jong advocates            Church to engage in the work of reformation or to stay
much more in the line of opposition than action                 and see himself and his generations carried down the
through legal channels.                                         roads to false.doctrine. This is how he still maintains the
  It is this latter which, if De Jong supports it, is wrong.    sanctity of his individual conscience. And let it be
If a child of God sees leaders in his Church take the           understood: he maintains the liberty of conscience
denomination down roads of apostasy, he must do all he          when he will not remain in a Church which refuses,
can to turn the Church back to the truth. But his               officially, to bow before the Word of God. This then is
opposition must be always in keeping with Article 3 1 of        his only course of action. It may be difficult. It was no
the Church Order. He must show, by way of appeal,               less for Luther. It may be heart-rending. The crisis of
that the decisions conflict with the Word of God and            the times will more and more demand it. But let such a
the articles of the Church Order. I do not know how the         one, with genuine concern for the truth and the cause of
present regulation of the Constitution of the Reformed          God, not let rebellion soil his hands.
Church reads. But the right of appeal is precisely the


                                          MORE ON THE RES

  In the October 29 issue of Church and Nation, Martin          adequately treated in Potchefstroom. They threw the
Woudstra makes some comments on a decision of the               ball back to the Churches which had brought the
last meeting of the Reformed Ecumenical Synod which             objection. The objections dealt primarily with the
almost passed unnoticed, but which are, in the author's         content and purpose of Scripture and its relation to
opinion, perhaps the most important decisions the               Scripture's authority. At last summer's Synod, the
Synod took. He refers to certain decisions taken with           chairman of the moderamen of the Gereformeerd
respect to the doctrine of Scripture. In the publicity          Kerken wrote a letter in which he spoke for all the
which surrounded the discussions and decisions on race,         moderamen, and by means of which he informed Synsod
these all but went unnoticed.                                   that the instructions of the RES in 1963 were not
  In order to understand them, we must be acquainted            feasible because 1) the problem was far to complex; and
with some history of this matter. In 1958 the RES,              2) because the problem was currently under discussion
meeting at Potchefstroom, South Africa, made some               in the Gereformeerde Kerken. In point 2) reference was,
decisions on Scripture which upheld the truth of                of course, made to the controversy swirling in the
infallible inspiration and the sole authority of the Word       Netherlands around the views of such men as Koole,
of God. In 1961, the RES received a letter from the             Baarda, Kuitert and others. These men have made
Gereformeerde Kerken in which these decisions were              serious attacks on the truth of Scriptures' authority.
criticized. The RES Synod of 1963, meeting in Grand               The advisory committee of last year's RES advised
Rapids, treated these objections and decided to request         Synod to appoint a standing committee which would
the Dutch Churches to study the problem which had               study the various questions involved and which would
been, according to the Gereformeerde Kerken, not                keep the churches of the RES informed of  develop-


106                                            THE STANDARD BEARER


ments. This advice was rejected. Rather, Synod decided         last summer. It is evidence of the turmoil and confusion
to refer the criticism of the Gereformeerde Kerken to          regarding the question of Scripture in the Churches of
the individual Churches who are members of the RES             the Reformed faith and especially in the Gereformeerde
for study and reaction.                                        Kerken. The authority of Scripture is constantly under
 Woudstra claims (and I concur) that this decision may         attack. But the matter is of crucial importance for the
yet prove to be one.of the more important ones taken           continued existence of the Reformed Ecumenical Synod.



                     C O M E   Y E   A P A R T .   .   .   ANFREST  A   W H I L E

                                                      Rev.  C Hanko

  You may recognize this heading as taken from the             them were again busy, and would soon unite their
Scriptures. Maybe you even recall that it is part of Jesus'    forces against the Lord Himself. How well He knew it!
summons to His disciples. In its entirety it reads, (Mark      Once more the cross loomed up, larger and darker than
16:31):  "And he said unto them, Come ye yourselves            ever. How blissfully ignorant the disciples were of the
apart into a desert place, and rest a while: for there were    fact that their Lord must first ascend the accursed tree
many coming and going, and they had no leisure so              before He could enter into His kingdom. How much
much as to eat. "                                              they still had to learn. How necessary it was for Jesus to
  The immediate occasion for this summons was that             draw the "twelve" apart for some more instruction.
Jesus was at the height of His popularity in Galilee. The         Come ye apart and rest a while.
people had watched with amazement as He healed the                Yes, we have our rest areas along the highway. It does
sick, cleansed the lepers, cast out demons, and even           us good when travelling to break away from the rush of
raised the dead. They had decided that He would make           traffic for a breathing spell or a snack. We sit alongside
an ideal king to deliver them from the Roman yoke and          the freeway and watch the cars and trucks go by. All
to create a Great Society for them right here on earth.        kinds of trucks dashing toward some unknown destina-
They fairly burst with enthusiasm as they daily swarmed        tion. Big cars, small cars, campers, trailers, of every kind
round about Him in hope and admiration. The disciples          and description. Everyone rushing along at a terrific
were so pressed by this throng that they barely found          speed, intent on going somewhere, and obviously in a
time to take a bite to eat. It was high time that they got     big hurry.
away by themselves to catch their breath, if nothing              We have our coffee breaks, our rest periods, our time
more.                                            .             off, our holidays, our vacations. We have many more
  Reading the verse that just precedes this text we find       than in former years, but life is so much more rushed.
that there was still another occasion for this summons.        True, even our vacations are usually so packed with
The disciples themselves were pent up' with excited            activity that we come back just as tired as when we
enthusiasm. They had just returned from a tour through         went, or more so. But we've had the change anyway,
Galilee. Jesus had sent them out to preach repentance to       and the rush and tumble of our daily existence drives us
the people, for the kingdom of heaven was  .at hand.           onward. Whereto? We hardly have time to ask.
Christ had even empowered them to heal the sick and to            But how about our spiritual withdrawals?
cast out devils. At their word many had been cured,               Has the inner chamber lost its significance in our
even devils had fled. Exhausted, but convinced that the        lives?
kingdom of heaven was `certainly very near, they were             Has the coffee break with friends replaced our "sweet
eager to tell the Lord of all their experiences:Obviously,     hour of prayer"?
they, too, were still looking for an earthly kingdom. How         Have you been so busy today that you found no time
sorely they needed time for quiet reflection; time by          to read your Bible, to spend a few moments in intimate
themselves, and still more necessary, time with their          fellowship with God in prayer, to pour out all your busy
Master.                                                        needs before His throne? Is God forgotten in our busy
  And then a deeper look at the entire context, and            schedule?
comparing this with. Matthew's account (Matthew                   Come ye apart to God.
14: 13), tells us that Jesus had a still greater motive in        He tells us: Cast all your cares upon Me, for I care for
drawing His disciples apart in a quiet retreat by Himself.     you.
He had just been informed of the ghastly death of John            He urges us to ferret out our problems before His
the Baptist under the cruel blade of King  Herod,              face, under the guidance of His Spirit and in the .light of
because of the bitter hatred of Herod's  illegal wife. They    His Word. There lies the only solution to the knottiest
that kill. the prophets and stone those who are sent unto      problems of life.


                                                 THE STANDARD  BEARE.R                                                  107


   He calls us aside to Himself that He may prepare us         of Christian living. But they intend to draw us away in
for the trials that await us tomorrow, bigger temptations      the rest area, along the side of life's rushing traffic, to
likely than we have ever faced. He is able to refresh us       -watch the cars go by, and to find our seclusion in a
with renewed strength for the duties that still await us       quiet retreat. But especially to be drawn aside by
before our work is done.                                       ourselves with our God!
  And always it is so essential in our lives that we turn         Why not open your Bible, preferably in the privacy of
our myopic eyes away from the present to the future;           your home? You can do so alone or along with one
that we lift up our eyes unto the everlasting hills, and       most intimate to you.
our ears to the Most High, from whence  cometh our                You might even turn to Mark 6 and read the entire
help.                                                          chapter, just as a starter.
  That is the purpose of this and possible future articles        But in any case, listen as you read. Listen to what the
under this heading.                                            Spirit says to YOU. By all means, do so prayerfully.
   These writings are not intended to be strictly dog-            That you may find rest.
matical, nor exegetical, nor meditative. They may have a          Rest for your soul.
flavor of each of these, and they may even have a blend


In His Fear


                                  Hell-Bent Branches
                                                     Rev. J. A. Heys

  As the twig is bent the tree will grow; and as the child     death, and that of course means spiritual death. But that
is trained the man will walk.                                  dead body can be swung around from one side to the
  Therefore the twig must be securely tied in the              other, from one evil to another. And you can train the
position in which you would have it grow; and by the           spiritually dead into ways of darkness and wickedness in
.Word and by a rod the child must be kept in the way           which they and the former generations had not gone, or
that the man should walk.                                      to a degree further in that evil. And so you get a world
  Does it not follow then that the grotesque stance of         of hell-bent branches, each helping to fill up the
so much of society today reveals the type of training          measure of iniquity.
that the world has been practicing? One would say so,            We have come a long way from the days of Cain, of
except for the fact that we have that other basic truth        Jabal, Jubal and Tubal-Cain, of Sodom and Gomorrah
to remember and on which to base all of our observa-           and of Korah, Dathan and Abiram. Jude speaks of the
tions of man's behaviour. As we pointed out before,            ungodly walking in the way of Cain, of running greedily
man comes into this world bent from the position in            after the error of Balaam and of perishing in the
which God created us and in which we should go. The            gainsaying of Korah. The twig is bent, the whole tree is
worldly teacher, social worker, and often the preacher         bent from the trunk in Adam to the last branch that
on the pulpit want to ignore this fact and philosophize        appeared but yesterday. But those bent twigs can
as though it is not true; but it is an undeniable fact that    produce a variety of evil fruits and year by year bring
causes all their efforts to reform man, and to solve the       forth bigger fruits as well. All are hell-bent; but there is
problems of the age to fail miserably. The tree became         a variety of fruits that they bring forth.
bent in Adam, and we may say hell-bent with all that             Take a look at the posture of today's society!
which it implies. The way in which man began to walk             All the twigs and branches are bent downward and
after the fall was not an indefinite course that could         away from the glory of God; but look at the hippies and
turn somewhere along the way to heaven or to hell. It          yippies, the rioters in the field of labor and in the fields
was directly towards hell, because it was directly away        even of education! The older generation looks on with
from God. It was the way of death, as God had stated,          amazement, and some of the membership of this
and then, not mere physical death but the everlasting          generation have said, "We did not know that we could
death of hell.                                                 do these things." `Well, in a way they could not, and yet
  Only in a relative sense can we speak of bending the         in another they certainly could, and their very remark
unregenerated. We cannot bend them upright to face             indicates that. They could not in the sense that the sin
God again. We cannot point them once again to Him;             had not developed that far. Men did not have the
`They are doubled over in rigor mortis, the stiffness of       courage to do the evil, to flaunt all authority and rule as


108                                             THE STANDARD BEARER


they do today. The sinner has found that what he               All the universities of the world,  all'  the. rules and
cannot do with impunity individually, he can pull off as       regulations of governments, all the culture and social
a mob and that by sheer numbers he can put rule and            revolutions among men are not going to change it at all.
authority to flight. The devil has taught long and well        The whole human race is hell-bent  and enjoys the
and produced some very clever graduates. More and              position, even though some fear may be expressed about
more of these hell-bent branches are not stopping at the       the end of the ride. Only God can reverse the order.and
high school level of education in sin but going on to          bend us back to the upright position by His regenerating
college and university,. and then taking a few post-           grace and the Spirit of His Upright Son. And then He
graduate courses as well., And they in turn are bending        takes us off that wild olive tree and  engrafts us into
their children in the way that they ought not go. On the       Ch.ristj The Good Olive Tree. Branches of the human
other hand they could have done these evils of riots and       tree whose root is Adam are hell-bent. Engrafted into
violent demonstrations years ago in the sense that they        Christ, the Second Adam, we are lifted upward both
had the potential and the desire but not the proper            inwardly as far as our soul is concerned and presently
circumstances and courage.                                     with body and soul in the glory of heaven, when we
  Let us not be so naive and silly as to speak of mere         walk the street of gold in the new Jerusalem.
man overcoming sin. Sin has been steadily developing;            We are reminded of that delightful passage in Canons,
and of late it has been developing with tremendously           Third and Fourth Heads of Doctrine, articles 11 and 12,
rapid strides. The most ungodly  will see that and             which we underscore," But when God accomplishes His
acknowledge that. The unbelievers are becoming mighty          good pleasure in the elect, or works in- them true
fearful. Areas of safety for them as well as for the           conversion, He not only causes the gospel to be
Christian are becoming smaller and smaller. Perils from        externally preached to them but  powerfully  illuminates
their fellowmen are increasing with every year. City           their minds by His Holy Spirit, that they may rightly
curfews have to be blown at earlier hours of the night.        understand and discern the things of the Spirit of God;
Assassinations of men, whose names become known a              but by the efficacy' of the same regenerating Spirit
little better than others, increase. The curse and fear of     pervades the  inmost recesses of man; He opens the
having a little extra money is the kidnapping and              closed, and softens the hardened heart and circumcises
possible death of your children. Moral filth has per-          that which was  uncircumcized, infuses  new  qualities
meated every stratum of society and its suggestive             into  the. will which though heretofore  dead,  He
pictures and language are hard to avoid no matter where        quickens; from being evil, disobedient and refractory,
you go or what piece of printed matter you may pick            He renders it good, obedient and pliable, actuates and
up, or is sent to your home. And we need not say               strengthens it, that like a good tree, it may bring florth
anything about the first table of the law. Unprintable         the fruit of good actions. And this is the regeneration so
words of cursing and swearing become the spice of              highly celebrated in Scripture, and denominated a new
today's writing and speaking. Luxury and wealth,               creation: a resurrection from the dead, a making alive,
pleasure and the flesh are gods the world has placed           which God works in us without our aid. But this is in no
before Jehovah and besides Him. The Sabbath is a               `wise effected merely. by the external preaching of the
holiday instead of a holy day. Men and lustful, seducive       gospel, by moral suasion, or such mode of operation
women are the idols of today's teenagers and clnildren         that after God has performed His part, it still remains in
not only but of men and women who worship at their             the power of man to be regenerated or not, to be
altar, the TV set, every night with fervent devotion!          converted or to continue unconverted; but it is evi-
  And by all means, then, let us not be so naive and           dently a  supernatural  work, most powerful, and at the
foolish as to speak of a restraint of sin  in the heart  of    same time most delightful, astonishing, mysterious and
the unregenerated by the Spirit. If that is the work of        ineffable; not inferior in efficacy to creation, or the
any kind of God's grace, that grace is certainly losing its    resurrection from the dead, as the Scripture inspired by
power, and man is going to overpower God in the end,           the Author of this work declares; so that all in whose
at least for a time, until that grace of God wears so thin     heart God works in this marvelous manner,, are certainly
that. it disappears, and then is replaced by so terrible a     infallibly and effectually regenerated, and do actually
wrath that it banishes into hell these hell-bent branches!     believe. - Whereupon the will thus renewed is not only
What? An unchangeable God's grace of some sort turns,          actuated and influenced by God, but in consequence of
because of something the creature does, into wrath? The        this influence becomes itself active. Wherefore, also,
Unchangeable One is changed by a changeable creature?          man is himself rightly said to believe and repent, by
Certainly the truth of Scripture presents God as the           virtue of that grace received."
absolutely Unchangeable One and confesses Him to be              Here is the hope of being delivered out of the
far beyond the reach of a mere creature to change or to        hell-bent position. And did you note in that quotation
move unto change.                                              above that the Spirit of God "softens the hardened
  Mere man will never bend the human race back to              heart"? That He infuses "new qualities into the, will,
where it was when it came forth from the hands of God.         which though heretofore dead, He quickens; from being


                                                THE STANDARD BEARER                                                     109
                                                                                                                         -


evil, disobedient, and refractory, He renders good,           bent over double to seek this world and their own glory
obedient and pliable"? There, is the word which we            cannot do anything else  ,but bend the generation th,ey
want! The hell-bent branch must indeed be made pliable        teach in their own grotesque fashion. Pity the hippies
before it can be bent into the upright position which         and  yippies? Maybe. But by all means pity the society
expresses the way the child "should" go. It must be           that has produced them. The Dutch has an expression
made soft and pliable, and God must do that. No spirit        that the apple does not fall far from the tree. Well, look
of man is going to do anything but swing that stiff           at that tree out of which these hippies and yippies, these
branch around into another' position of sin. Education        revolutionists and rioters fell.     Look at all its bent
apart from that "powerful and at the same time                branches and understand. See that trunk and those roots
delightful" work of the Spirit in. the heart is only going    and be wise as to what is the cause of all the corruption
to produce more clever and skillful sinners. Look about       in `the world.
you today and do not say that the church has become             And then do not become so foolishly squeamish that
irrelevant. That is the same as saying that Christ has        you dare not speak of hell-bent branches But appreciate
become irrelevant and has failed! Consider what the           that regenerating grace of God that lifts you up out of
schools and universities teach, yea and even seminaries.      this mire and makes you upright and heaven-bound and
You will find that they have no intention of bending the      uniquely different. Rejoice  .that you may walk in His
mind back to an upright position that glorifies God, but      fear and need not fear that hell towards which the
instead always advocate progress in that hell-bent            natural branches of the human race are bent. And show
position. And what else can you expect? Men hell-bent         thankfulness by an upright walk.
themselves, standing in the grotesque position of being


From Holy Writ


                            The Book of Hebrews  (7:  11-14)

                                                   Rev. G. Lubbers

THE NECESSITY OF A DIFFERENT PRIESTHOOD                       changed law is  made necessary  by the change of the
(Hebrews  7:l  I-14)-continued                                priesthood. As the priesthood is, so is the law! For the
  For the priesthood of Aaron, called "the Levitical          law is based upon the priesthood! This is a matter of
Priesthood," was in its very nature and purpose transi-       necessity. The term necessity means in the Latin: that
tory and transitional. It is a Levitical priesthood,          which cannot cease. It is from  "ne-cesso":   that which
because it fell under the rules and ordinances of the         has in it a quality which cannot be stopped. The term in
temple of the shadows and the types as outlined in the        the Greek language is "`anagkees" which is derived from
book of  Leviticus.  From Aaron to Christ, covering a         the verb  "`anaykizoo"  - to force, to demonstrate, to
period of some 1,500 years, this priesthood obtained          prove. And thus is the case here. The law must be
and was sanctioned by the law of God for Israel.              changed when the priesthood is changed, because upon
.However,  it was never meant by God Himself to be            this priesthood the people received the law. The entire
permanent and abiding. It was so instituted as to give        legality and sanction of the law rested upon  this
place for another priesthood. The law of the temple           Levitical-Aaronic priesthood. This is not a mere logical
ceremonies of the Old Testament pass away when they           necessity, based upon logical demonstration of a man-
are fulfilled in Christ!                                      made premise. On the contrary, this is a necessity which
  There was a change made in the priesthood itself. The       follows from the God-ordained connection between
priesthood was changed. Aaron's priesthood gives way          priesthood and law as revealed by God Himself con-
for the priesthood after the order of Melcbizedek.  With      cerning the Mystery of salvation. One has but to study
this change of the priesthood there was also a change of      carefully this matter in the O.T. to see that this is
the law. Writes the author of Hebrews "For the                implied in the very structure of the law-giving itself
priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a        through Moses.
change also of the law."                                         0, to be sure, this matter is truly logical. It is part and
  This is a very important point which we ought to            parcel of the reasonable service which is ours; only, it is
understand; it is crucial to the argument here in             the reasonableness not of man who thinks himself to be
Hebrews.                                                      self-sufficent to make his own logical constructions
   The point that ought to be understood is that this         concerning God (vain philosophy), but it is the logic of


110                                                    THE STANDARD BEARER


faith which receives the words of God, and in all its             not a priesthood which can rest as the ephod on the
premises and conclusions subjects itself to the revealed          shoulders of a mere man (Aaron) but it is that which
Word and will of God. Yes, then we can read here a                can only be borne by the Son of God, perfected in the
certain syllogism, a form of logical reasoning; new wine          flesh, through His death and resurrection. (Verses
in the old bottles, so to'speak!                                  26-28)
  In this case we have then the following syllogism:                Fifthly, the scene, the plain on which this priesthood
   1. Only when the priesthood abides is the law of such          is executed is different. It is really executed in the realm
       a priesthood valid.                                        of the heavenly, and not on the plain of the earthly.
   2. The priesthood was indeed changed with the                  Christ did not bring his sacrifice in the earthly  .taber-
       coming of Christ after the order of Melchizedek.           nacle, but he brought it in the true tabernacle after
   3. Conclusion: the law of the Levites no longer                which the earthly house was copied and patterned. Here
       obtains under the priesthood of Christ.                    he brings the true and complete service, as the high
  This point the readers, the Hebrews, must see. Only             priest which became us. (Chapter 8: 1 f.f.)
when this is seen will they not fall back into unbelief
and lose both Moses and Christ. We too must see this              PROOF THAT THIS IS A DIFFERENT PRIESTHOOD
point and confess very consciously what is so articu-             (Verses  13-18)
lately stated in the  Belgic Confession,  Article XXV,              The writer to the Hebrew Christians argues not from
which we quote in full.                                           certain logical premises, but he unmistakably argues
         We believe that the ceremonies and figures of the        from certain revealed truths and facts, which God
       law ceased at the coming of Christ, and that all the       aforetime spoke through the prophets, and which were
       shadows are accomplished; so that the use of them          realized in these last days through His Son!
       must be abolished among Christians: yet the truth and        It is good for us to notice how the writer marshals his
       substance of them remain with us in Jesus Christ, in       evidence from the Scriptures and from the great and
       whom they have their completion. In the meantime we        mighty deeds of God in Christ.
       still use the testimonies taken out of the law and the       The first piece of evidence from the Scriptures is, that
       prophets, to confirm us in the doctrine of the gospel,     Christ, although a priest, is not from the tribe of Levi,
       and to regulate our life in all honesty to the glory of    but is from the tribe of Judah. Now Moses did not at
       God, according to his will.                                any time or anywhere say any thing in the name of God,
CERTAIN SALIENT POINTS CONCERNING THE                             as the law-giver, concerning the tribe of Judah to stand
DIFFERENT PRIESTHOOD (Hebrews  7:l  lf)                           at the altar. And whereas Moses did not speak of Judah
   It is important to see that this priesthood of Christ is       at the altar but only of Levi, a change must have been
really a unique and altogether different priesthood; that         effected. We have a different priesthood! In the Old
it is not merely another priesthood of the same kind,             Testament dispensation, where the law obtained of Levi,
but that it is a priesthood which is really a  different          the following syllogisism was in effect:
kind of priesthood! It is what the Greek calls "heteros. "           1. Only that which Moses spake was valid. (Even
   We ought to notice  the following salient points                    Christ himself always spoke from this premise. e.g.
concerning this priesthood as the writer lets this pass in             John  1:17;  3:14;  5:45,46)
review before our believing eyes. It is to the following            2. Moses did not speak of Judah as having a place at
matters that the writer calls our attention.                           the altar in the temple, but only of Aaron and
   First of all, he calls attention to the fact that the               Levi. (Exodus 28,29; Leviticus 8-l 0; 2 1,22)
appointment  is different in the priesthood of Christ.              3. Hence: Judah might not attend at the altar in the
Now, no priest takes this honor to himself, but is                     temple. (e.g. a case in point is the brazen attempt
appointed by God. In this case of Christ the                           on the part of King Uzziah,  .who is smitten with
appointment is not that which is based. upon `a carnal                 leprosy until the day of his death for attempting to
commandment, but it is based upon God's word of oath/                  usurp the place of the God-appointed priest at the
giving, as it is written: "Thou art a priest . . . The Lord            altar.
`hath sworn . . . ." Psalm 110: 4 (Verse i 7)                       Now here must be either something very wrong or
   Secondly, he indicates that the  rule,  the  standard  of      very right. Christ is either the greatest imposter, or he is
this priesthood is different. It is not according to the          the one who supersedes Levi's priesthood with a greater
rule of a carnal commandment, but it is according to the          and more abiding priesthood. The historical fact is that
standard of the power of indissoluble life. (Verse 16)            Christ is born out of the tribe of Judah as David's great
   Thirdly, the  duration  of this priesthood of Christ is        Son. This is evident before. It is clear before hand! And
singled out. It is not a priesthood which is executed in a        the implication of  this ought not to be obscured by
succession of generations of priests, but it is that of an        unbelief. Christ does not fall under the law of the
unchanging priesthood in one man, Jesus, who is made              Levitical priesthood ! He is a different priest and
the surety of a better Covenant. (verse 23)                       therefore the law is changed in regard to his priesthood!
   Fourthly, we should notice that, according to the                The second piece of evidence is offered us in verse 15.
writer, the  nature  of this priesthood is different. It is       There we read "And it is yet far more evident: for that


                                                 THE STANDARD BEARER                                                    111


after the similitude of Melchizedek there ariseth another        really means: whereas there has arisen! The term in the
priest who was made, not after the law of a carnal               Greek is "anistatai!" Perhaps this is the emphatic middle
commandment, but after the power of an endless life              voice: if very emphatically and really one arises, so that
           ,,
. . . .                                                          he was born and grew up, and was actually placed in
    There are various elements which we ought to notice          office by God directly out of heaven, as happened at the
in this piece of evidence here offered. In the first-place,      occasion of Jesus' baptism-by John. (Matthew 3: 13-17;
it ought to be noticed that the writer is here not arguing       John  1:32134)
from a revealed premise, but is stating a historical fact.          3. That this refers to the preponderant evidence of
This is not so clear from the KJV of this text, but it is        the accomplished fact is plain from the phrase "who is
crystal clear from the original Greek. We notice:                made." In the Greek this is the perfect tense.
    1. That this is evident from the "far more evident."         "Gegonen" is the perfect tense of something completed
Now the historical fact speaks louder than inference             ups till the present moment. Christ has not been made a
from revealed premises. The one is the cogent argument           priest after the similitude of Melchizek. He is the
from Scripture, the other is the evidence of the Word            king-priest forever in the heavens. And this priesthood
made flesh; it is what God has spoken unto us in these           does not fall under the law of Levi, but under the law <of
latter days, when he came to us in Jesus, Immanuel!              a King-Priest. Wherefore our Lord. is out of Judah, as
    2. This is corroborated by what we read in the Greek         Jacob saw the latter end of the tribes when he said:
verb translated "there ariseth." This is not a mere              "`Judah, thou art he. The sceptre shall not depart from
hypothetical possibility. The sentence is a conditional          Judah. . .  ." Genesis 49: 10
sentence of determined reality. The "if there ariseth"


A Cloud of Witnesses


                                DAVID ACCUSED BY NATHAN

                                                      B. Woudenberg

                                  `And Nathan `said to David, Thou art the man. Thus
                               saith the LORD God  of  Israel, I anointed thee king over
                               Israel, and I delivered thee out  of  the hand  of  Saul;
                                  And I gave thee thy master's house, and thy master's
                               wives into thy bosom, and gave thee the house of Israel
                               and  of  Judah; and  if  that had been too little, I would
                               moreover have given unto thee such and such things.
                                  Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment  of
                                the LORD, to do evil in his sight? thou hast killed  Uriah
                                the Hittite with the sword, and hast taken his wife to be'
                                thy wife, and hast slain him with the sword  of  the
                               children of Ammon . . . .
                                  And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against
                                theLORD...."
                                                                       II Samuel 12:  7-9,13

    The spiritual life of David had once again fallen to a         It had all begun when he had thought that he could
low ebb, much lower than it had ever been before.               withdraw from the battles of Israel and let Joab carry
Really it was a paradoxical situation. Externally he had        the responsibility for him. It had not been an easy
more to make him happy than ever before; but                    decision to make, for it  .was really contrary to every-
internally sadness and gloom choked his soul. It had            thing that he had always maintained as the leader of an
come upon him gradually, as the temptations of sin              army. It had been his firm conviction that a head of an
usually do, so that he had hardly known that he was             army should always be out in the field ready to share
slipping; but its effects were soon so numerous that his        every danger that confronted him. It was a matter of
conscience couldn't escape them no matter where he              discretion, a way of maintaining the morale of the
turned.                                                         troops by providing them with an example of loyalty


112                                              T,HE STANDARD BEARER


and courage that could be followed; but it was also a           that of gilding David's public image. Nothing would
matter of justice: a commander ought not to ask of his          have been more repulsive to the David of former years.
men more than he was willing to undergo himself                 To him popular recognition had never been of much
regardless of what the danger. But the years had been           concern if any; and to have to resort to pretense to
long and tiring; and he had finally came to the point           obtain it would have been worse than not having it at
where his whole being cried out for a rest, but the work        all. But Joab was a subtle judge of people; and even
of subduing the heathen enemies of Israel was not yet           from a distance he had detected a change taking place in
finished. It had all seemed so very simple. After ,all, he      the person of David that made all of  this different.
was king over Israel, and all of the other kings did it.        Neither was his judgment in error. Never before had
Why should he not send out his army to fight his battles        David felt the need for popular approval, because he had
while he remained in his palace seeking some rest? It           always stood with a clear conscience before himself and
had seemed all so easy, and he had told himself that it         before, his God. Now for many a month the heavens had
would only be a little while. After he was rested, he           stood closed against him; and even his own mind dared
would return to fight beside his men in the battle. It was      not try to evaluate the things that he had done. Not that
only .that the rest he sought never did come. His heart         he could really suppress it. There were always those
had known much more of rest and peace in the middle             excuses cropping up again and again all through every
of many a raging battle than he would ever know again           day and through most of the night too, excuses which
all through his life. First there had been just that feeling    he wanted to believe were valid but which he didn't
of guilt from knowing that while he sat safe within his         even dare try out on others lest, they should discover
own palace his men were marching for him out into the           those sins which  he'had tried so carefully to hide. It
face of danger. But that had not lasted long. Only too          drove him into a mental corner and left him there alone,
soon it was replaced with his feelings of guilt with            feeling worthless before God and before himself and
regards to Bathsheba, and then those as he tried to             before everyone else, too. Thus when the message of
deceive Uriah into providing a cover-up for his sin, and        Joab came it was like a breath of fresh air - at least, it
then the murder of Uriah, too. It kept on coming, one           left some possibility for something that could be done.
thing after another until he, the great hero of unwaver-        Surely it would do him good to hear the cheering
ing courage, found himself torn apart inwardly, terror-         crowds and see in their faces their wild approval. He
ized and unable to face squarely the deeds of his own           would go. He would try it. Maybe he wasn't  realIy as
hands and the words of his own mouth.                           bad as he kept on thinking.
  It was strange how this feeling affected him. It                It was a clever move on the part of Joab, one in
seemed to make of him a different man, almost the               which he couldn't lose. He could never as the cold,
opposite of what he had been in the years that went             calculating man that he was gain for himself popular
before. We have an illustration of this in the capture of       approval. Neither was he about to repeat the mistake
Rabbah, the royal city of Ammon, an event that may              that David had made. with Saul by letting his own glory
well have taken place rather soon after the death of            outshine that of the king. It was better to keep himself
Uriah even though it is not recorded for us until later.        in the king's good favor. That was where his strength
This was the conclusion of a hard fought campaign               lay. And it worked as far as he was concerned. There for
against one of Israel's oldest enemies. It was the one          a few days at Rabbah David had a wonderful time. He
that David had thought he could as well sit out in              even forgot his troubles in the thrill of that last battle
Jerusalem; and, without the leadership of the king, it          and the excitement of the victory celebration. Except
had proved much more difficult than had ever been               that for David it wasn't really worth it, for once he
expected. But now at last the conclusion had come. The          returned home, that old loneliness, that darkness, that
city itself had been taken and all that remained was the        terrible gloom closed on him again even worse than it
royal citadel in the center of the city. There was not a        had eyer before. It was that very thing that had pressed
question but that this too could be captured rather             Saul to the brink of despair and beyond it; and it would
easily; it was just that this, nonetheless, did constitute      have pushed David that way too had it not been for the
the nominal heart of the royal city and of the nation. It       grace of his God.
was thus that Joab sent a rather strange message to               How long a time transpired before Nathan visited
David, which read, "I have fought against Rabbah, and           David, we do not know exactly, just that it was
have taken the city of waters. Now therefore gather the         sometime after the son of Bathsheba was born. The time
rest of the people together, and encamp against the city,       surely must have been a dark one for David as he
and take it: lest I take the city, and it be called after my    reflected in Psalm  32:3,4, "When I kept silence, my
name.".                                                         bones waxed old through .my roaring all the day long.
  This was a strange message indeed for Joab to  be             For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me: my
sending to David because it was so out of tune with             moisture is turned into the. drought of summer." `Even
David's normal nature. What Joab was proposing was a            to think upon his sins was more than he could stand.
farce, a pretense of a victory for no other purpose than        The verdict of the law against the adultery he knew full


                                                        THE STANDARD BEARER                                                           1    1    3


well, to say nothing of murder. It was death, and his                    but God speaking in justice while his own lips had
own hand had executed men for such; and now as the                       already declared the only verdict. Each word that
king and judge of Israel it should have been turned                      followed further was like an iron blow of judgment,
against himself. But how could he now stand to die,                      "Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, I anointed thee
alone as he was, alienated from his own conscience and                   king over Israel, and I delivered thee out of the hand of
from his God with this weight of sin upon him. To fall                   Saul; and I gave thee thy master's wives into thy bosom,
before the face of the enemy he had never feared; but                    and gave thee the house of Israel and of Judah; and if
this was more than he could bear.                                        that had been too little, I would moreover have given
  When finally Nathan came, sent by the command of                       unto thee such and such things. Wherefore hast thou
God, David may well have met him with mixed feeling.                     despised the commandment of the LORD, to do evil! in
Here was an old friend whose presence he had always                      his sight? thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the
enjoyed; but he was also the representative of God and                   sword, and hast taken his wife to be thy wife,, and hast
the thought of God made him tremble. Nevertheless,                       slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon.
once Nathan began to speak David began to relax. It                      Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine
gave him a sense of relief, the report of another's sin.                 house: because thou hast despised me, and hast taken
The story went like this, "There were two men in one                     the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife. Thus saith
city; the one rich, and the other poor. The rich man had                 the LORD, Behold, I will raise up evil against thee out
exceeding many flocks and herds: but the poor man had                    of thine own house, and I will take thy wives before
nothing save one little ewe lamb, which he had brought                   thine eyes, and give them unto thy neighbour, and he
and nourished up: and it grew up together with him,                      shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this sun. For thou
and with his children; it did eat of his own meat, and                   didst it secretly; but I will do this thing before all Israel,
drank of his own cup, and lay in his bosom, and was                      and before the sun."
unto him as a.daughter. And there came a traveller unto                     His own lips had spoken the verdict, "As the LORD.
the rich man, and he spared to take of his own flock and                 liveth, the man that hath done this thing shall surely die,
of his own herd, to dress for the wayfaring man that was                 and there it happened. David died, not indeed a physical
come unto him; but took the poor man's lamb, and                         death, that would have been merciful, but a death that
dressed it for the man that was come to him." Intently                   was many, niany times worse. He died spiritually there,
David listened, and as he listened he began to feel                      before Nathan as he cried out in anguish, "I have sinned
better. Evidently Nathan did not know of what he had                     against the LORD." And now not he, but his house and
done, not even God had told him, and he, David, was                      his children after him, and the nation would have to
still looked upon by them as a just and worthy judge.                    bear his curse. It is something which only one who has
Moreover the case was clear, one that aroused his sense                  come to see his own sins for what they really are with
of righteous indignation. No, he would not cover up, he                  all of their results can appreciate - and at some time or
would not excuse the wicked. Quickly and sharply he                      other every Christian comes to know it.
answered, "As the LORD liveth, the man that hath done                       It made the next so inexplicably amazing. Nathan
this thing shall surely die; and he shall restore the lamb               went on, "The LORD also hath put away thy sin; thou
fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had                  shalt not die." But still the other followed too,
no pity."                                                                "Howbeit, because by this deed thou hast given great
  The measured silence that followed must have been                      occasion to the enemies of the LORD to blaspheme, the
ominous, and yet nothing compared with the paced                         child also that is born unto thee shall surely die." Ilt is
words that followed, "Thou art the man." Was David                       the tension of Christian life, a forgiving God, but a God
ever to forget it? Hard for Nathan to utter, unimagin-                   also of justice who will not let us or anyone else forget
ably hard to one who was his respected king and his                      how great is our sin, how terrible its fruits, and how
well-loved friend. But for David it pierced like darts to'               amazing that there should be forgiveness still - who can
the quick. No longer was it Nathan he saw before him,                    understand it?




             But what is the meaning of,this state of glory for which we hope, and which is the ultimate realization of the
             wonder of God's grace in Christ Jesus our Lord? The heart and essence of it is, undoubtedly, perfect fellowship
             with God as His friend-servants. To be received, according to the measure and capacity of the creature, in God's
             own family, to live His own life, to dwell in His house, to taste that He is good, to enter into His secrets, to know
             Him even as we are known, to see Him face to face, to love Him and be loved of Him without fear, to walk with
             Him and talk with Him in most intimate communion; and then to consecrate ourselves and all things to Him as
             His servants, to have our delight in His perfect will, and glorify J3im for ever, - that is the heart of the heavenly
             blessedness for which we look.
                                                                                -H. Hoeksema,  "E3e  Wonder  of  Grace, "p. 125


114                                                      THE STANDARD  B-EPRER



Contending for the Faith


                                            THE DOCTRINE OF SIN
                                           THE THIRD  PERIQD  - 730-1517 A.D.
                                                             GOTTSCHALK

                                                              Rev.  H. Veldman

   The struggle for the maintenance of the truth goes on                     God, yet claiming some merit for man's consenting
unabated in the history of the church of God through-                        and co-operating will. This compromise may be called
out the ages. That the forces of Pelagianism and                             Semi-Augustinianism,         as distinct from  Semi-
Semi-Pelagianism should appear to hold the upper hand                       Pelagianism. It was adopted by the Synod of Orange
in this unceasing conflict need not surprise or discourage                   (Aruasio) in 529 (to which we called attention in
us. Indeed, should the opposite be true, then it would                       previous articles - H.V.), which condemned the
be time indeed for us to "sit up and take notice."                           Semi-Pelagian error (without naming its adherents) and
                                                                            approved Augustine's views of sin and grace, but not
   Of interest  fi, us, in our treatment of the doctrine of                 his view of .predestination,  which was left open. It was
sin in this third period, is the place occupied by                          transmitted to the middle ages through Pope Gregory
Gottschalk in this controversy. And then we would                           the Great, who, next to Augustine, exerted most
present to our readers, first of all, a historical survey of                influence on the theology of our period; and this
this champion of the truth as set forth by Philip  Sohaff                   moderated and weakened Augustinianism triumphed
in his History of the Christian Church, Vol. IV, 522,                       in the Gottschalk controversy.
f.f.i                                                                      We wish to make a remark here in connection with
           Gottschalk or Godescalcus, an involuntary monk               the above quotation. Philip Schaff here corroborates
         and irregularly ordained priest, of noble Saxon parent-        what Rev. Hoeksema declared in connection with the
         age, strong convictions, and heroic courage, revived the       synod. of Orange concerning its failure to declare itself
         Augustinian theory on one of the most difficult                on the subjects of election and reprobation. However,
         problems of speculative theology, but had to suffer            Schaff writes, very mildly, that the synod left Augus-
         bitter persecution for re-asserting what the great             tine's view of predestination open. This, we believe, is
         African divine had elaborated and vindicated four              hardly correct. We believe'that the synod's failure to call
         centuries before with more depth, wisdom and moder-            attention to the doctrine of predestination constitutes a
         ation. Incidentally, the name, Gottschalk means:
         God's servant.                                                 serious omission on its part, an effort to compromise
           The Greek church ignored Augustine, and still more           with the truth. And we may never compromise with the
         Gottschalk, and adheres to this day to the anthro-             truth. Any compromise with the truth is always a
         pology of the Nicene and ante-Nicene fathers, who laid         surrender to the forces of the lie and will never fail to
         as great stress on the freedom of the will as on divine        have serious repercussions in the church of God. We
         grace. John of Damascus teaches an absolute fore-             now continue with the quotation from Philip Schaff.
         knowledge, but not an absolute foreordination of God,                    The relation of the Roman church to Augustine in
         because God cannot foreordain sin, which He wills                  regard to predestination is similar to that which the
         not, and which, on the contrary, He condemns and                   Lutheran church holds to Luther. The Reformer held
         punishes; and He does not force virtue upon the                    the most extreme view on divine predestination, and in
         reluctant will. (Of course, we do not believe that the             his book on the Slavery of the Human Will, against
         Lord ever forces anything upon the will of man. God                Erasmus, he went further than Augustine before him
         operates, in the godly and ungodly, through his will,              and Calvin after him; yet notwithstanding his com-
         and He does this sovereignly. - H.V.)                              manding genius and authority, his view was virtually
           The Latin church retained a traditional reverence                disowned, and gave way to the compromise of the
         for Augustine, as her greatest divine, but never                   Formula of Concord, which teaches both an absolute
         committed herself to his scheme of predestination. It              election of believers, and a sincere call of all sinners to
         always found individual advocates, as Fulgentius of                repentance. The Calvinistic Confessions, with more
         Ruspe, and Isidore of Seville, who taught a two-fold               logical consistency, teach an absolute predestination as
         predestination, one of the elect unto life eternal, and            a necessary sequence of Divine. omnipotence and
         one of the reprobate until death eternal.  Beda and                omniscience, but confine it, like Augustine, to the
         Alcuin were Augustinians of a milder type. But the                 limits of the infralapsarian scheme, with an express
         prevailing sentiment cautiously steered midway be-                 exclusion of God from the authorship of sin. Supra-
         tween Augustinianism and Semi-Pelagianism, giving the              lapsarianism, however, also had its advocates as a
         chief weight to the preceding and enabling grace of                theological opinion. In the Roman church, the Augus-


                                                    THE STANDARD BEARER                                                           115


    tinian system was revived by the Jansenists, but only             mvoluntary tonsure, wished to leave the convent, and
    to be condemned.                                           .      brought his case before a Synod of Mainz in 829. The
  Let us pause here a moment. Schaff here writes that                 synod decided in his favor, but the new abbot,
Luther held the most extreme view on the doctrine of                  Rabanus Maurus, appealed to the emperor in defense
Divine predestination, and that in his book on the                    of the obligatory character of the parental consecra-
Slavery of the Human Will, he went further than                       tion of a child to monastic life. He succeeded, but
Augustine before him and Calvin after him. We may                     allowed Gottschalk to exchange Fulda for Orbais in
have opportunity, when we call attention to the period                the diocese of Soissons in the province of Rheims.
of the Reformation, to call attention to the views of                 From this time dates his ill feeling towards the
                                                                      reluctant monk, whom he called a vagabond, and it
Luther and Calvin, although we must bear in mind that,                cannot be denied that Rabanus appears unfavorably in
strictly speaking, we are not treating the doctrine of                the whole controversy.
predestination but that of sin. However, in the above                   At Orbais Gottschalk devoted himself to the study
quotation of Schaff, that writer adds a footnote, and we              of Augustine and Fulgentius of Ruspe, with such
quote: "Melanchthon, too, at first was so strongly                    ardent enthusiasm that he was called Fulgentius, by
impressed with the divine sovereignty, that he traced                 one of his fellow-students who had a high opinion of
the adultery of David and the treason of Judas to the                 his learning and piety. He selected especially the
eternal decree of God; but he afterwards changed his                  passages in favor of the doctrine of predestination, and
view in favor of synergism, which Luther never did." Is               recited them to his fellow-monks for hours, ,gaining
this what Philip Schaff means when he declares that                   many to his views. But his friend, Servatus Lupus,
Luther held the most extreme view on Divine predesti-                 warned him against unprofitable speculations on
                                                                      abstruse topics, instead of searching the Scriptures for
nation? Then it surely can be shown that Calvin, too,                 more practical things. He corresponded with several
especially  in  the book,  Calvin's Calvinism,  expressed             scholars, and made a pilgrimage to Rome. On his
himself very strongly on the doctrine of Divine predesti-             return in 847 or 848, he spent some time with the
nation. And why should we not trace the adultery of                   hospitable Count Eberhard of Friuli, son-in-law of the
David and the treason of Judas to the eternal decree of               Emperor Louis the Pious, met there Bishop Noting of
God? To do so. is .surely Scrrptural.  we read in John 13:            Verona, and communicated to him his views on
18:  "I speak not of. you all: I know whom I have                     predestination. Noting informed Rabanus Maurus, who
chosen: but that' the Scripture may be fulfilled, He that             had in the meantime become archbishop of Mainz,  and
eateth bread with me hath lifted up his  he.4 against                 urged him to refute this new heresy.
me. " This text is a quotation from Ps. 41. Jesus quotes                Rabanus Maurus wrote a letter to Noting on
verse 9 of this psalm. The friend of whom we read in                  predestination, intended against Gottschalk, though
                                                                      without naming him. He put the worst construction
this psalm is Ahithophel, David's trusted counsellor,                 upon his view of a double predestination, and rejected
who, at the time of the insurrection of Absalom,                      it for seven reasons, chiefly, because it involves a
deserted David and joined the rebellious cause of his                 charge of injustice against God; it contradicts the
wicked son. This Ahithophel is the Old Testament type                 Scriptures, which promise eternal reward to virtue; it
of Judas. Now Jesus knew whom He had chosen. When                     declares that Christ shed His blood in vain for those
Jesus chose the Twelve He knew that He must select the                that are lost; and it leads some to carnal security,
New Testament fulfillment of Ahithophel. And this does                others to despair (these objections are not new to us -
not simply mean that Judas is the New Testament fulfill-              H.V.). His own doctrine is moderately Augustinian. He
ment of the counsellor of David, but it surely means                  maintains that the whole race, including unbaptized
that Ahithophel was called into being by God to serve as              children, lies under just condemnation in consequence
type of him who was to be the betrayer of our Lord                    of Adam's sin; that out of this mass of corruption God
                                                                      from pure mercy elects some to eternal life, and leaves,
Jesus Christ. Christ's entire passion program was out-                others, in view of their moral conduct, to their just
lined in the Old Testament. And this can only mean that               punishment (that God leaves others, because of their
this passion of our Lord Jesus Christ and every step of               moral conduct, to their just punishment, is, of course,
that program had been determined by the living God                    a denial of reprobation - H.V.). God would have all
from before the foundation of the world. It is surely                 men to be saved, yet He actually saves only a part;
true that the treason of Judas must be traced to the                  why He makes such a difference, we do not know and
eternal decree of God. Besides, does anything happen                  must refer to His hidden counsel.
that has not been sovereignly determined by the Living              The Lord willing, we will continue with this historical
God Who alone does all things according to the counsel        survey of Gottschalk in our next article. But we do well
of His sovereign will?                                        to notice how the denial of the doctrine of reprobation
      GOTTSCHALK AND RABANUS MAURUS                           goes hand in hand with the theory that the Lord would
       Gottschak, the son of count Berno (or Bern), was       have all men to be saved, and that the advocates of this
     sent in his  cbiklhood by his parents to the famous      presentation hate the Scriptural truth of absolute
    Hessian convent of Fulda as a pious offering. When he     predestination. Indeed, so it is said, why the Lord saves
    had attained mature age, he denied the validity of his    only a part of the human race, whereas He would save


116                                             THE STANDARD  BEARER


all, is something we cannot explain and this must be           our Protestant Reformed Churches are surely in good
referred to God's hidden counsel. And this we also             company. This is verified by history.
recognize as being taught in our present day. Indeed,


The Lord Gave The Word. . . . .


                                           The History Of Missions
                                            Jesus' Public Ministry.
                                                     Rev.  C. Hanko

       In the previous articles we have been discussing the    as it were, declaring that the kingdom of God was at
work of missions in the old dispensation. The question         hand. It was his unique privilege to see the Christ and to
was raised whether we can properly speak of missions           point Him out as the fulfillment of all the promises.
before the new dispensation, that is, before Christ gave       John condemned the self-righteous Pharisees who
the great commission and poured out His Spirit upon            sought salvation in the works of the law. He warned that
the church. The church of the shadows was limited              the judgment of God upon Israel as a nation was
within the narrow confines of national Israel. Those           pending. He called the people to repentance, urging
who were converted from heathendom were, for the               them to forsake their dead works and to seek their
most part, brought into Israel as proselytes of the gate.      salvation in the promised Messiah, Who would presently
The same still applies to the time of Jesus' earthly           appear. Even John already warned the people that the
ministry. And therefore the same objection might be            kingdom of God was not earthly, but heavenly, and that
raised.                                                        they should look for that eternal kingdom. Those who
   And we naturally repeat the same answer that was            repented upon the preaching of John were baptized and
given then. We saw that God did not leave Himself              thus ushered into the new dispensation. In that sense
without witness among the heathen even in the old              John's ministry was also mission work.    -
dispensation. He proclaimed His Word to the world as it          When Jesus began His ministry He also condemned
came in contact with the church. God spoke through             the erroneous teachings and the corrupt practices of the
Enoch and Noah to the world before the flood,                  scribes and Pharisees. At His first appearance in Jeru-
declaring that He alone is God and must be served. God         salem, which was like an inaugural sermon, the Lord
witnessed through Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to the              cleansed the temple and warned the leaders that they
nations of Canaan. God spoke to the Pharaohs of Egypt.         were destroying the House of God, which He is come to
He declared His Name to the kings of Babylon through           build up. He announced to them that they would
Daniel and his friends. He preached the Gospel unto the        destroy the real temple, the temple of His body, and in
repentance of many in Nineveh. Other examples could            three days He would raise it up. Although they never
be multiplied. As we shall see, the same thing holds true      understood this saying, they could never forget it. Our
at the time of Jesus:                                          Lord likewise in no uncertain terms condemned the
   We can even pomt out that in the old dispensation           "mission endeavors" of the Jews of His day. "Woe unto
God gave the promise that in the fulness of time the           you, scribes and Pharisees, for ye compass sea and land
church would extend beyond the narrow confines of              to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make
Israel even to the ends of the earth. As evidence of that      him twofold more a child of hell than yourselves."
promise God called Rahab out of Jericho, Ruth out of           Matthew 23: 15.
Moab, and brought repentance unto Nineveh. And again             In their "missionary zeal" these leaders of the Jews
other examples could be cited. This also is true in the        were willing to go to the far ends of the earth to win
ministry of Jesus, as will soon become evident. So if we       converts for their errors. They worked among those who
can speak of mission work in the old dispensation we           served idols to convert them to Judaism. Once they
certainly can speak of it as an essential part of Jesus'       obtained a "convert" they forced upon him all their
earthly ministry.                                              traditions, to every law and precept, so that the convert
   In passing, a few remarks should be made concerning         boasted of his salvation by works even louder than the
the ministry of John the Baptist. John is called the           Jews themselves. Jesus does not hesitate to call these
greatest of all the old dispensational prophets, because       Pharisees "hypocrites," "children of hell," who lead
in his short ministry he came closer to the new                others into even greater condemnation with them.
dispensation than any before him. He opened the door,            But the positive aspect of Jesus preaching is even


                                                 THE STANDARD BEARER                                                   417


more important. He preached the Gospel of the king-               Jesus also labored in Jerusalem, Judea and Perea. He
dom of heaven, the day of the Lord, to the "lost sheep          taught daily, even in parables, and sealed His testimony
of the house of Israel." Jesus repeatedly used the figure       with signs and wonders to prove that He was indeed the
of  sheep.  He liked to refer to Himself as the Great           Christ of God. Even there the purpose and result of
Shepherd Who came to lay down His life.for His sheep.           Jesus' preaching can best be described in His own words,
John 10: 11 ,15. He knows His sheep, because they are           as He said to His disciples, "unto you it is given to know
given to Him eternally from the Father. He calls them.          the mystery of the kingdom of God: but unto them that
by name and they come to Him. John 10: 27. He cares             are without, all these things are done in parables: That
for them as His precious possession, leads them in green        seeing they may see, and not perceive; and hearing they
pastures and beside still waters, feeds them and provides       may hear, and not understand; lest at any time they
for all their needs, until He has brought them into the         should be converted, and their sin should be forgiven
sheepfold of glory.  John  10:27,28. These sheep He             them." Mark 4: 11,12.  Jerusalem that killed and stoned
refers to as "the lost," whom the Shepherd seeks, finds         the prophets also had to crucify the Christ to make the
and brings back into the fold. This was Christ's mission        measure of her iniquity full, but not without serving the
task. Our Lord speaks of this in the three parables             divine purpose that the Shepherd Who lays down His
recorded in Luke 15, the lost sheep, the lost coin, and         life for His sheep may gather His own unto Himself. Of
the prodigal son. In Jesus' own words: "For the Son of          all that the Father gave to Him He lost none, but the
man is come to seek and to save that which was lost."           son of perdition, that the Scriptures might be fulfilled.
Luke 19: 10.                                                    John  17:12.
  Jesus' mission field was the land of Canaan. Therefore          But Jesus also speaks of other sheep beyond the fold
He spent much of His time in Galilee, preaching the             of the Israel of His day. In John 10: 16 we read: "And
kingdom of heaven and calling the people to repentance          other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also
and to faith in Him. Mark tells us: "Now after John was         I must bring, and they shall hear my voice: and there
put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the             shall be one fold, and one shepherd." Obviously, these
gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, The time is           other sheep are the elect of God from every nation and
fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye,        people of the earth. Jesus is looking into the future,
and believe the gospel." This is significant because it         beyond His death and resurrection, even beyond His
shows the actual content of Jesus' message. He preached         ascension and Pentecost, to the time when He will be
that the promise of God spoken by the prophets of old           gathering His own into the fold to make the assembly of
was now being fulfilled. The types and shadows were             the elect complete.
touching reality. The expected Messiah was come and               Already early in His ministry Jesus "must needs go
was about to bring the great sacrifice for the sins of His      through Samaria." John 4:4. The Lord had a mission at
people, and thus enter into His kingdom. He proclaimed          Sychar, where the Samaritan woman and many others
not an earthly, but a heavenly kingdom. He called the           were brought to faith and salvation. Here were  first-
people to repentance; Himself creating in their hearts by       fruits of the Gentiles, bridging the gap between the old
the Word of His power a true sorrow for sin. His Word           dispensation and the new and giving promise of better
caused them to labor and to be heavy laden. And to              things to come. Later Jesus emphasizes to His disciples
those who labored and were heavy laden He promised              the faith of the Roman centurion whose servant was
rest, actually also giving rest to their souls. He could say    sick. "I say unto you, I have not found so great faith,
with a divine authority that reached into the very heart        no, not in Israel." And then He adds, "Many shall come
of the repentant sinner: "Thy sins are forgiven thee. Go        from the east and west, and shall sit down with
in peace." Matthew 9:2; Mark 2:5; Luke 7:48, 50.                Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of
  Thus Jesus was faithful to His calling in all the land of     heaven." Matthew 8:  10,ll. Had not the  wisemen  who
Galilee.  .He was the fulfillment of the word of Isaiah:        came from the east to worship Jesus at the time of His
"The' land of Zabulon, and the land of Naphthalim, by           birth already promised the same thing? After His
the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the               rejection in Galilee Jesus took His disciples to the
Gentiles; the people which sat in darkness saw a great          border of Tyre and Sidon, where He showed them the
light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of        amazing faith that God had wrought in the heart of the
death light is sprung up. Matthew 4: 14,15.  And Jesus          Syro-Phoenician woman. As much for the benefit of the
knew that the purpose of God was being fulfilled both           disciples as for the woman herself He says: "0 woman,
in those who were saved and in those who rejected Him.          great is thy faith!" Matthew 15: 28.
Therefore He breathed a prayer of thanks to God                    This aids us to understand the Greeks in Jerusalem
saying: "I thank thee, 0 Father, Lord of heaven and             who wanted to see Jesus. John  12:20-24. They had
earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise         approached Philip requesting an audience with his
and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even            Master. Philip is aware that these are proselytes, but
so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight." Matthew        they are nevertheless gentiles. He consults Andrew, and
11: 25,26.                                                      together they approach Jesus with the request. Jesus


118                                                    THE STANDARD BEARER


answers them by saying: "The hour is come that the                   also knew that "All that the Father giveth unto me shall
Son of man should be glorified. Verily, verily I say unto            come unto me: and him that cometh unto me I will in
you, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and                 no wise cast out. John  6:37. He had power with the
die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much         Father both to convict of sin and to forgive sin.
fruit." You can almost sense His eagerness to finish His                Third, Jesus was not disappointed when many re-
work on the cross that these "waiting" gentiles may be               jected Him. He knew that God was carrying out His
gathered in. "And I, when I be lifted up from the earth,             good pleasure both in those who were saved and in
will draw men all unto me." John 12:32.                              those who perished in their sins. Matthew 11:25,26.
  Thus we can draw some very definite conclusions                       Finally, Jesus also spoke of greater things to come.
from Jesus' missionary ministry.                                     He brought in a few firstfruits from the gentiles as
  First, that He began at "home" by calling His own                  promise of the full harvest that is gathered in during this
unto Himself and thus drawing them out of the apostate               present dispensation. Eagerly He anticipated the glory
church, which was ready to perish.                                   that awaited Him beyond the cross, when seated at the
  Seconc$ Jesus in no way depended on the free will of               right hand of God He may gather His own unto Himself
man. He knew very well that no man could come to                     from all the ends of the earth, until the multitude that
Him except the Father draw him. John  6:44. And He                   no man can number is made perfect in heaven.


Examining  Ecumtinicalism


                               "THE DUTCH MEET DIXIE"(II1)
                                                     (continued from Nov. 1 issue)

                                                           Rev. G. Van Baven

   But there is more to the subject of confessions for the           Would the new denomination participate in COCU or
proposed new church. Churches today want "new" and                   not? This question disturbs many in the Reformed
relevant confessions. The present instance is no excep-              Church. Union would almost undoubtedly bring the
tion. Although the proposed plan of union does not                   new denomination into the consultations. The plan of
declare that a new confession  shall be  made  - it does             union proposes the following:
declare that an attempt shall be made to compose a new                     The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Re-
confession. Article 12 of their Covenant of Agreement                    formed Church in America, at its first rheeting, shall
states:                                                                  determine the ecumenical relationships of the denomi-
           (1) The General Synod of the Reformed Church in               nation, taking into account those previously sustained
        America and the General Assembly of the Presbyterian             by the two uniting Churches.
        Church in the United States shall, following the final       What now?
        vote for the union of the two Churches, each appoint            The proposed plan for union was approved this past
        six members to a committee to undertake the formula-         spring by the General Synod of the Reformed Church
        tion of a new Confession. The membership of this             and the General Assembly of the Southern Presbyterian
        committee shall be broadly representative of the two         Church. During the next .few months the various classes
        uniting Churches, and shall be drawn from those most
        competent in the field.                                      of the R.C.A. and the presbyteries of the Presbyterian
           (2) As far as possible, the whole Church shall be         U.S. must vote on the plan. 1f two out of three classes
        enlisted in a study of the great historic creeds of the      of the R.C.A. approve, and  if  three out of four
        Reformed Churches as well as more contemporary               presbyteries approve, then the plan of union must go
        creeds, and in consultation with the committee, so           again to the General Synod and General Assembly of
        that the new Confession will be a confession of the          the two churches next spring. If it is then approved by
        whole Church and a worthy witness of a living Church         those two bodies again, then the proposed merger goes
        to her living Lord.                                          into effect. From reports which I have read, I gather
Ecumenical relationships                                             that the general opinion is that the proposed plan of
       The Reformed Church in America has refused to be a            union will fail to receive the approval of the necessary
full participant in COCU  - the attempt to unite nine                two-thirds of the classes of the R.C.A. The next five or
large  .denominations into one. The Southern                         six months will tell. If it should pass that hurdle, it
Presbyterian Church is full participant in COCU. What                would #.kely be approved at the other levels.
happens should these two denominations now unite?                       Though many in both church communions favor the


                                                        THE STANDARD BEARER                                                                                                      119


  merger, there are also many in both denominations that                 so as to uphold and unite the fullness and intent of the
  oppose it - and for various reasons. One opinion was set               confessions and forms of government of the two
  forth by a certain W.A. McIlwaine,  a retired missionary               Churches, their union would strengthen both parties to
  of the Southern Presbyterian Church, in an article of the              it.
  Presbyterian Journal  of July 3, 1968. The man has a                          However, the Plan of Union will not achieve this
  good point:                                                            end. On the contrary, its provisions will produce a
         In principle, everything would seem to be in favor              Church that is more liberal and less Reformed in
       of uniting the Reformed Church in America and the                 doctrine and less Presbyterian in  government  than
       Presbyterian Church in the United States to form the              either of the Churches it would  unit,e; the issue of
       Presbyterian Reformed Church in America.                          ownership of Church property will have been'settled -
         Both Churches are Reformed in doctrine and                      perhaps beyond recall.
       Presbyterian in government; they are similar in general       That is the sad fact - it will produce a church more
       outlook. And if the Plan of Union had been drawn up        liberal, less Reformed.




                                             B O O K R E V I E W


   THE LITURGY of the Reformed Church in America                   for ministers who wish to examine the latest in liturgical
   Together with THE PSALTER,  selected and arranged               forms and gain ideas for Scriptural readings on sick
   for responsive reading; Gerrit T. Vander Lugt, Editor;          visitation, funerals, etc. To evaluate all the different
   The Board of Education, 1968; 5 18 pp.                          forms and the orders of worship suggested would
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   changes. This is in part due to the emphasis on                                                                                                                              H.H.
   ecumenicity. But, I am afraid, it is also in part due to a
   general weakness in the Church. WhenChurches forsake                                                                                                                           -
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   then Churches turn to more extensive liturgy in a vain          Catechism, by Rev. H. Hoeksema.
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1'20                                        THE STANDARD BEARER


                                    News From Our  Churches

   Rev. H. Veldman. in a bulletin notice, asked his           irresistible grace to persevere as a saint to the end. I have
congregation to remember him in their prayers as he is        made a vow ever to teach and preach this truth and will
confronted with the call to serve our church at South         defend this Reformed doctrine. I wish that someone
Holland, Ill. Redlands' pastor, Rev. C. Hanko, has            would come to us again and would stay with us here
declined the call he had from our Hull church.                another length of time to teach us more of this
                              *  * *                          Reformed doctrine. 0, I would be very glad to have
   In a Nov. 3rd bulletin, of Lynden we found an              Rev. Heys once again here in Jamaica. In conclusion let
excerpt of a letter, postmarked Big Springs, Texas, from      me say, `How shall they call on Him in Whom they have
a reader of Rev. Woudenberg's Study Sheets who writes         not believed, and how shall they believe in Him Whom
that he enjoys the Reverend's comments very much; and         they have not heard, and how shall they hear without a
adds, ."I believe in Total Depravity, Unconditional  - preacher, and how shall they preach except they be
Election, Limited Atonement, Irresistible Grace and           sent?' Rom. 10: 14, 15."
Perseverance of the Saints. I believe that Eternal Life,                                    *  ,*  *
faith, repentance and all such things are the gifts of           The membership roll of Hope church is steadily
God. And I believe that you think along these lines."         growing,  and.,this growth was reflected in .a bulletin
Rev. Woudenberg has made friends in Ladner, British           notice' which  state'd that one elder  ,and one deacon
Columbia, who have invited him to conduct a weekly            would be added to the Council January 1.
Bible Class in the. public school building on Thursday                                      *:**
evenings. Members of Lynden's congregation will                  Isabel's congregation is growing, too. From the Manse
accompany their pastor to give leadership and support         came the news that Rev. and Mrs. Moore rejoice in the
to this new venture. Did you notice? Little Lynden's          birth of a son Thursday, Nov. 7.
pastor has long arms which reach from border to border.                                     *  *  *
Isn't it amazing what one man can do when the Holy               Rev. H. Veldman addressed the League of Mr. and
Spirit crowns his efforts!                                    Mrs. Societies speaking on, "The New Morality." In the
                              *  h  *                         absence of a report on this speech we wonder if modern
   Because of the Reformation Day Rally being held on         morality is any newer than that of Genesis 13: 3 and of
Tuesday evening, Hope's catechism classes were com-           Judges 17: 6.
bined with Monday's classes. Southwest's classes were                                       * *  *
assigned to attend the Lecture  - and report on it the           The Discussion Groups which meet monthly in First
next Tuesday!                                                 Church after the evening service discussed, "The Chris-
                              *  *-*                          tian and Politics" Nov. 10, with some 60 in attendance.
   Many of you have heard from the lips of Rev. Heys          Meeting so soon after the National Elections they must
and of Mr. T. Feenstra regarding their  .work on the          have noted that the 1968 campaigns were scarcely
Island of Jamaica. But here is an opportunity to read a       characterized by Christian virtues. Every four years we
report from the pen of Rev. Joshua E. Frame of First          are vexed with the problem, where do we stand in
Hill Prot. Ref. Church of Lucea, Jamaica. "They arrived , regard to the cannibalism of the campaigns and the
in Jamaica at Montego Bay Airport the 25th day of             hypocritical embracing of former foes after the elec-
June, Tuesday. Wednesday they journeyed to Lucea              tion? One is reminded of Genesis  6:5, "And God saw
where they met with the Prot. Ref. congregation at First      that the wickedness of man was great upon the earth,
Hill. Then we had a service and Rev. Heys preached on         and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart
-the text from Isaiah 40: 1, 2. Rev. Heys explained the       were evil continually". How long ere He will again say,
text carefully and plainly. I `can say without a shadow of    "I will destroy . . . . "?
doubt that the work accomplished here was well done.                                        ***
The truths preached and taught were well received. I            According to a bulletin notice in the area bulletins
have gathered a wider experience of the truth through         our Radio Choir is being threatened as to its very
his preaching. I understand much more of the scriptures.      existence. There is a dire need for male voices to bring
I learned more and it has made me wiser. I can safely         the choir up to a proper balance. It would  annear
                                                                                                                LZ      that
`say` that the preaching of Rev. Heys has been a blessing     men are too busy with other activities which conflict
throughout the congregations here in Jamaica. We never        with choir practice on Monday evenings. Can it be that
weary of his preaching. I' have received this Reformed        the men do not realize that membership in the Radio
Faith, and I believe it to be the truth of God's Word. I      Choir involves a ministry of music, and that the gift of
believe the Five Points of Calvinism that a totally           singing isla gift to be used in this ministry?
depraved sinner is saved according to Unconditional                        `.
Election on the basis of limited atonement and by an          . . . see `you ir `church                               J.M.F.  1


