        VOLUME XL                           OCTOBER  1, 1963  - GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN                             NTJMBER 1

                                                                   of those who are after the flesh, and on the other hand
             M E D I T A T I O N                                   the mind of those that are after the Spirit.
                                                                      The first kind of people mind the things of the flesh,
                                                                   and you know what that means. The flesh and the things
                     BRING FORTH FRUIT                             of the flesh are man without God and without hope in
             Bring forth, therefore, fruit meet for repentance.    this world. They are the lust of the eyes, the lust of the
                                                                   flesh, and the pride of life.
                                                    Matt. 3:s.
                                                                      But those that mind the things of the spirit are alive
   John the Baptist was baptizing at Jordan, preaching             unto God and are at peace with God.
repentance, and baptizing the converts.                               Now by nature we are carnally minded. Our whole
   And a strange thing happened: many of the Pharisees             life and world view is carnal. James chooses the most
and Sadducees came to his baptism.                                 excellent of this life view, that is, its wisdom, and condemns
        But there was a twofold result of John's preaching. On     it as earthly, sensual and devilish.
the one hand there was the multitude which came and                   But the word which is used  h'ere for repentance in-
confessed their sins. But the Pharisees and Sadducees did          dicates that our carnal mind is changed, exchanged, trans-
not.                                                               ferred and transmuted. There happened a radical turning
   And John fumed at these Pharisees and Sadducees: "0             around of this mind.
generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the            Hence, the new birth of the renewed mind in our con-
wrath to come?"                                                    sciousness.
   And then follows the text which I wrote above this                 And such repentance reveals itself in two ways, neg-
meditation.                                                        atively and positively.
   Bring forth, therefore, fruit meet for repentance!                 Negatively, the changed mind-sorrows after God.
                                                                      Every child of God understands this. It is the first
   Let's look at it.                                               experience of the regenerated- saint. They all, without ex-
                           0  ic  II:  #                           ception sorrow after God. The Bible is full of this. Listen
   Repentance: what is it?                                         to Job: "Wherefore I abhor  myseIf, and repent in dust
                                                                   and ashes." And this Job was perfect and upright, and one
   There are two words used in Scripture for repentance.           that feared God, and eschewed evil. And pay attention
        The first is a word which indicates a change of the        to what God said of him: "`there is none like him in the
mind. And the second is a change of the heart.                     earth!"
   The first is used here: a change of the mind.                      Attend to David, the man after God's own heart: "Cast
                                                                   me not away from Thy presence; and take not Thy Holy
   What is the mind?                                               Spirit from me!"
   Surely, not merely the intellect.                                  And Heman:  "I am afflicted and ready to die from my
        But rather our entire world and life view, including       youth up: while I  suffer Thy terrors I am distracted."
our view of God, man and the world.                                   And Moses, the man of God: "`Return, 0 Lord, how
   Paul states that we, that is, the Christians, have the          long? and let it repent Thee concerning` Thy servants."
mind of Christ. And in Romans  8:5,6 we hear. a des-                But why go on? The time would fail me. The whole
cription of the mind of man. On the one hand the mind              Bible is full of the expressions of sorrow'after  God.


2                                                     T H E   S T A N D A R D   BEAR.ER

     And there are two reasons for that sorrow; The first is           edification of the body of Christ, returning good for evil,
our sins. And the second is because we love God. When we               peaceableness, humility from the heart, meekness, patience,
realize that we have sinned against such a lovely, attractive          contentment with what you have or lack no matter how
and beautiful God, we melt away in tears and sighing.                  or what, self denial, purity of heart and mind, fidelity,
     And the second element of repentance is joy in God.               steadfastness, zeal and industry, consecration to God and
     You see, when we pour out our heart to Him and tell               Divine things, generosity, etc., etc., etc.
Him how sorry we are for our sins, He comes to us and                      In a word: the life of Christ. In the world and the
shows us the Redeemer who died for all our sins. And He                church.
dries the tears of the heart.                                              And you have the Bible as your guide.
     And then we taste the positive element of repentance,                 That Bible tells you exactly how you should think,
for we break out in singing before  His face. Whenever                 speak and act in the midst of a crooked generation in the
and wherever we see the revelation of that God of our                  midst of the which you have your walk and conversation.
redemption we break out in singing and jubilantly shout:                   By their works you shall know them!
Hallelujah !                                                               But no perfectionism.
                                                                           Some think so. And they will point to examples in
                         0     0     0     0;         L                Scripture: Job, Asa, Paul: "as many of us as are perfect."
                                                                       John: "He that is born of God sinneth not," etc.
     Now what are fruits MEET for repentance?                              That is all wrong. The demand in Scripture does not
     What is the meaning of that strange word MEET?                    assure of the performance. Scripture often judges a man
     That means worthy, in harmony with. You must bring                according to the new birth, the new man in Christ.
forth fruits that are the natural result of repentance. There              But there is ever the old man of sin.
are fruits which belong to repentance. And you are sup-                    Listen to this: we never do anything but sin cleaves
posed to bring them forth.                                             to it.
     What are they?                                                        There is no perfection here below, with but one ex-
     The answer to that question could fill a book.                    ception, and that is Christ during His sojourn among us.
     First there are the virtues which belong to prayer. I             He was perfect. No one could convince Him of any sin.
might as well tell you right at the start that the most                    But with us it is different.  We are sinners. And there-
beautiful fruits worthy of repentance are prayer and sup-              fore Jesus gave us the most perfect prayer, and one of the
plication. God loves to hear you pray. He delights in                  petitions which we must pray every day is: "And forgive
prayer.                                                                us our debts as we forgive our debtors." This shows that
     There is a weak shadow among us.                                  we sin daily.
     When we bring forth children, we teach them to speak,                 The heresy of perfectionism is -dangerous. It shallows
and perhaps the first words which everyone teaches his or              our conception of sin and it leads exactly to the root sin
her child are Father and Mother. And when the first time               of pride.
such a child utters those words, we are delighted no end.                  No, but we STRIVE FOR PERFECTION every day.
You feel like telling the whole world of your acquain-                     It is our deepest hunger. We fervently desire to be
tance: My child said Mama!                       -                     absolutely pleasing to God.
     That's a shadow of spiritual things.
     God teaches His children to call upon His. name.. That                                       .  *  *  0  (I
is, all prayer and supplication is wrought by God in the
depth of our hearts. The Spirit of adoption teaches every                  Ahight! Bring forth those fruits that are meet for
Christian to say: Abba, beloved Father!                                repentance!
     Prayer and supplication are the most beautiful fruits                 Just like that? ! !
worthy of repentance.                                                      Some seem to think that. Just persuade men to bring
     And that includes adoration and ecstasy in God and                forth fruit. Every man has a free will unto good or unto
godly things.                                                          evil. Persuade men! And you may have your converts.
     The best fruit you can bring forth is living communion                Yes, that is correct: you have YOUR converts. But
with the ever blessed Covenant God!                                    they are not God's converts.
     But there are a,yerit,able host of other fruits worthy of             No, it is not possible "just to bring forth fruits meet for
repentance.                                                            repentance."
     Such as Christian sympathy with all that are in distress              Attend to Jeremiah: "Can the Ethiopian change his
and misery.                                                            skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good,
     The Bible would say: bowels of mercy.                             that are accustomed to do evil."
     Then there are reproving of evil all around you, teach-             There is a most beautiful and Almighty background to
ing and speaking the truth with your neighbour in love,                this bringing forth of fruits.


                                             T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                                                                                                                                         3

   And that background is the Almighty Himself.
    He speaks and it'appears. He commands and it is done!                                              T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
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                                                                                   Published by the REFORMED Fru%  .Prnsnrsrrrr+r  hWOCI&TION
Holy Spirit of grace, then you are moved to go to work.                                                            Editor - REX. H~~MXN HoEKsE%4
And then, and only then do you bring forth fruit worthy                          Communications relative to contents should `be- addressed to
of the God of your repentance.                                                   Rev. H. Hoeksema, 1139 Franklin St., S. E., Grand Rapids 7,
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    And then it is to be expected that you gather grapes                  MEDITATION  -
from the vine and figs from the fig tree.                                                Bring Forth Fruit .._. .__ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I
                                                                                                     Rev. G. Vos
    Then your God is glorified by God-inspired works of
faith. Amen.                                                    G.V.      EDITORLUS-
                                                                                         Editorial Note . . . . . . . . ..__..._................  _ . . . . . . . . .._..._............................ 4
                                                                                                     Rev. H. C. Hoeksema
                                                                                         Single Or Double Track Theology? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
                    WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                                                              Rev. H. Hoeksema
   On September 27 our dear parents:                                                     Subscription Campaign . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
                                                                                                      Rev. H. C. Hoeksema
                  MR. AND MRS. PETER DECKER
commemorated their 25th wedding anniversary. We, their grateful           OUR  DOCTRINE-
children, thank our covenant God for the blessings we received                        - The Doctrine of the Church . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I..............: . . 6
through them. May our Father in heaven continue to bless them                                        Rev. H. Hoeksema
and lead them through their remaining days together.
                              Mr. and Mrs. R. D. Decker and               A  CLOUD  OF WITNESSES  -
                                   Deborah Kay                                           The Song of Deborah . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
                              Mary R. Decker                                                         Rev. B. Woudenberg
                              Doris A. Decker
                              James E. Decker                             FROM HOLY WRIT  -
                                                                                         Exposition of II Peter 3 ____..... . . . . . . . . 1.: . . . . . . . . . . . .._ 12
                                                                                                     Rev. G. Lubbers
                         IN MEMORIAM                                      THE  LORD   GAVE  -THE  WORD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
   The Consistory, the Mary-Martha Society and the members of                                      Rev. C. Hanko                                                                            -
the Protestant Reformed Church of Kalamazoo, Michigan, express
their Christian love and sympathy to the Mr. William Clason family,       CONTENDING FOR THE  Fm-
in the death of their mother and grandmother,                                            The Church and the Sacraments .___..........................................  16
                                                                                                     Rev. H. Veldman
                  Mrs. HERMAN HOEKSEMA, SR.
   "For whether we live, we live unto the Lord, or whether we die,        THE VOICE OF  OUR  FATHERS  -
we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the                      The Belgic Confession __._ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  ..18
Lords. For to this end Christ died and lived, that He might be                                       Rev. H. C. Hoeksema                                                                               I
Lord of both the dead and the living. . . . Being therefore always
of good courage, and knowing that . . . absent from the body . . .        DECENCY AND ORDER  -
at home with the Lord" (Rom. 148, 9; II Cor. 56, 8, ASV).                                As&sting the Poor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .          20
                              Rev. Robert C. Harbach, President                          Equality of Office Bearers . . ..__...___............................................  21
                              Mrs. Maurice Klop, Vice President                                      Rev. G. Vanden  Berg
                                                                          ALL Arrornv~  Us -
                   RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                                Reformed Ecumenical Synod .  .`. . . . . . . . . .  .22
   The Radio Choir of the Reformed Witness Hour expresses its                            Morality and High Office _.  _. . . . . . . .  .22
sympathy to one of its members, Mrs. Charles Kregel, in the death                        A Comment on Pope Paul . . .._._......................... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..____ 23
of her mother,                                                                                       Rev. H. Hanko
                  Mrs.  HERMAN HOEKSEMA, SR.                              NE W S FROM OUR CHURCHES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .                                  24
   "But the mercy of,. the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting                                   Mr. J. M. Faber
upon them that fear Him." Psalm 103:17.          I. Korhorn, President    r                                                                                                                                                                         -


4                                         T H E   S T A N D A R D   .BEARER

                                                                  nounce the latter. From the viewpoint of finite human
II  ' E D ,I T  0  .R  B A L  S                                   reason the Arminians were right. Thus the Calvinists con-
                                                                  fronted a strong temptation. Did they yield? By the grace
                                                                  of God they did not. They subjected human logic to the
                      Editorial Note                              divine logos. Convinced that the two doctrines concerned
                                                                  were both of them taught unmistakably in the infallible
     The Staff of the Stnnclnrd Bearer is pleased to introduce    Word of God and therefore in reality could not be con-
in this first issue of Volume 40 a new department, on             tradictory, they accepted both uncompromisingly."
missions. During the coming year it will appear seven times,         Here, then, you have an illustration of the double track
according to the decision  of the Staff, and will be .headed,     theology, according to which both the Arminians and the
"The Lord Gave `The Word . . . " Ps. 68:ll. The Reverend          Calvinists are right. According to the Arminians, God does
C. Hanko has kindly consented to write for this depart-           in all sincerity invite all men without discrimination to
                                                                  eternal life. This is the one track. According to the Cal-
ment, and we welcome him back among our Staff. He will            vinists, God did not want to save all men, but only some.
write on both the principles and the practice of missions,        But the fathers of Dort accepted both, Arminianism and
and has indicated that part of his writings will be devoted       Calvinism.
to a report on the work in Jamaica.                                  And Prof. Kuiper also attempts to prove that the fathers
     Present arrangements are that this new rubric will  ap-      of Dort taught both these doctrines. First, he proves that
                                                                  God wants to save, not all men, but only some. He does
pear the first of the month, and for the time being it will       this by the article of the Canons of Dordrecht that speaks
replace "In His Fear."                                            of reprobation, I, 15. And, further, he quotes from the
                                                       H.C.H.     Canons, III, IV, 8, which reads as follows: "As many as
                                                                  are called by the gospel are unfeignedly called. For God
                                                                  has most earnestly and truly declared in his Word, what
         Single Or Double Track Theology?                         will be acceptable to him, namely, that all who are called
                                                                  should come unto him." Thus far Kuiper quotes. But the
     The trouble with those that hold a double track theol-       article itself continues as follows:. "He, moreover, seri-
ogy is that they claim that they are Reformed and, at the         ously promises eternal life, and rest, to as many as shall
same time, they also agree with the doctrine of Arminian-         come to him, and believe on him."
ism. When the train of their doctrine runs on the one                Now, I would ask Prof. Kuiper whether he really be-
track they are Reformed; when, however, it runs on the            lieves that all "who are called" are the same as all men.
other, they are Arminian. They claim that they believe            I would like to ask him whether he seriously believes that
the doctrine of predestination, election and reprobation;         God desires all. men, without discrimination, to come unto
but they also defend and hold the error that God loves            Him. Thirdly, I would like to ask him whether the fathers
all men, as Prof. Dekker does: God wants and desires to           of Dort in this article of the Canons, really taught that the
save all men.                                                     promise of eternal life is for all men or, at least, for all
     -An example of this double track theology which  at-         that hear the preaching of the gospel. Or is it not true
tempts to be Reformed and, at the same time, agrees with          that "as many as shall come to him and believe" refers to
Arminianism, I find in the article by Prof. Kuiper in "Torch      the elect only?
and Trumpet," we are now discussing, May-June, page 9.               Did not. the fathers of Dort condemn the doctrine of
I will quote the entire paragraph:                                those who teach: that "the difference between meriting and
     "`However, that was not the entire picture. A signifi-       appropriating," is used "`to the end that they (may instill
cant phase of a radically different `kind of universalism,        into the minds of the imprudent and inexperienced this
Scriptural universalism, also came into purview. The Ar-          teaching that God, as far as he is concerned, has been
minians contended that the Calvinistic doctrine of pre-           minded of applying to all equally the benefits gained by
destination cannot possibly be harmonized with the uni-           the death of Christ; but that, while some obtain the pardon
versality and sincerity of the gospel offer. They argued          of sin and eternal life, and others do not, this difference
that, if God decreed irrevocably from eternity that only          depends on their own free will, which joins itself to the
certain persons would be saved and that all others would          grace that is offered without exception, and that it is not
be lost, it is inconceivable that God would in all sincerity      dependent on the special gift of mercy, which powerfully
invite all men without discrimination to eternal life. There-     works in them, that they rather than others should ap-
fore, embracing the latter doctrine, they rejected the former.    propriate unto themselves this grace?"      :
And they told the Calvinists that, in case they held to the          This and this only is what the fathers of  Dart main-
former, they  .%ould by all the rules of logic have to  re-       tamed to be the truth.                      ,i



                                                                                                              II


                                                                                                                         i.
                                            T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                 5

    The Canons surely do not teach "that the Calvinistic             of the Evangelist's argument amounts evidently to this: that
doctrine cannot possibly be harmonized with  the universal-          faith is a Special gift of God and the wisdom of Christ is
ity and sincerity of the gospel offer." They do, indeed, main2       too high and too deep to come within the compass of man's
tain that God "decreed  irrevocabIy  from eternity that only         understanding. The unbelief of the world therefore ought
certain persons would be saved and that all others would             not to astonish us, if the wisest and most acute of men fail
be lost," but they do not teach "that God would in all               to  belfeve.  Hence, unless we would elude the plain and
sincerity invite all men without discrimination to eternal           confessed meaning of the Evangelist, that few receive the
life."                                                               gospel, we must.fully conclude that the cause is the will of
    Nor did Calvin teach this.                                       God; and that the outward sound of the Gospel strikes the
                                                                     ear in vain until God is pleased to touch by it the heart
    It is true that Calvin wrote very much, and I do not             within."
always agree with his interpretation of Scripture. But he
certainly does not teach that God indiscriminately invites              Perhaps Prof. Kuiper will say that he fully agrees, yet,
all men unto eternal life.                                           at the same time, he also maintains that G6d in all sincerity
                                                                     invites all men to eternal life.
    To prove this I will quote a few passages from "Calvin's
Calvinism."                                                             But this is -quite impossible. For Calvin in his explana-
                                                                     tion of the text in' John insists that, under the preaching of
    Writes he, p. 50, 51: "Pighius will himself. confess that        the Gospel, God hardens the hearts of the reprobate and
there is need of illumination to bring unto Christ those that        blinds their eyes so that it is impossible for them to believe.
were adversaries to God; but he, at the same time, holds             And in the last sentence quoted, Calvin states that the sound
fast the fiction that grace is offered equally to all, but that      of the Gospel is vain unless God by it touches the heart.
it is ultimately rendered effectual by the will of man, just
as each one is willing to receive it. Christ, however, tes-             But what about Ezekiel 18:23? I have already offered
tifies that the meaning of his words is very different from          my own interpretation of this well-known text. But how
this. He adds immediately afterward, `There are some                 about Calvin's interpretation?
among you who believe not. Therefore said I unto you,                   Pighius remarks in connection with this passage: `What
that no man can come unto me. except it were given                   else is this but making God a mocker of men, if God is
unto him of my Father'," etc.                                        represented as really not willing that which he professes to       .I_,
    On p. 81 ff. Calvin writes:  "N                                  will, and as not having pleasure in that in which he in
                                      OW  let us listen to the
Evangelist John. He will be no ambiguous interpreter of              reality has pleasure?"
this same prophet Isaiah. `But though (says John) Jesus                 But Calvin answers as follows:
had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed                "`But if these two members of the sentence be read in
not on him, that the saying of the prophet might be ful-             conjunction, as they ever ought to be - `I have no pleasure
filled which he spake, Lord, who hath believed our report?           in the death of the wicked;' and, `But that the wicked
and to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed?                  turn from his evil way and live'- read -these two prop&i-
Therefore they could not believe, because that Esaias said           tions in connection with each other, and the calumny is
again, He  bath  blinded their eyes, and hardened their              washed off at once. God requires of us this conversion or
hearts,' etc. Now, most certainly John does not here give            `turning away from our iniquity.' And in whomsoever he
11s to understand that the Jews were prevented from be-              finds it He does not disappoint such an one of the promised
lieving by their own sinfulness. For though this be quite            reward of eternal life. Wherefore God is as much said to
true in one  se&e, yet the cause of their not believing must         have pleasure in, and to will, this eternal life, as to have
be traced to a far higher source. The secret and eternal             pleasure in the repentance; and He has pleasure in the
purpose a$ counsel of God must be viewed as the original             repentance, because He invites all men to it by His Word.
cause  of:  t&eti  unbelief. It  perpIexed,  in no small degree,     Now all this is in perfect harmony with His secret and
the ignorant and weak, when they heard that there was                eternal counsel, by which He decreed to convert .none  but
no place for, Christ. John explains the reason by showing            His own elect. None but His own elect, therefore, ever do
that none believe save those to whom it is given, and that           turn from their wickedness. And yet, the adorable God is
there are few to whom God reveals his arm. This other                not, on these accounts, to be considered variable or capable
prophecy coqcernin g `the arm of the Lord,' the Evangelist           of change, because, as a Law-giver, He enlightens all men
weaved into his argument to prove the same great truth.              with the external doctrine of conditional life. In this
And his words have a momentous weight. He says, `There-              primary matter He calls or invites all men unto eternal life.
fore they could not believe.' Wherefore, let men torture             But, in the latter  ca.se, He brings unto eternal life those
themselves as long as they will with reasoning, the cause            whom He willed according to His eternal purpose, regen-
of the difference made  - why God does not reveal his arm            erating by His Spirit, as an eternal Father, His own children
equally to CiliF  - lies hidden in his eternal decree.: The whole    only . . . . It is quite certain that men do uot `turn from

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

evil ways' to the  Ldrd on their own accord, nor  ,by any
instinct of nature. Equally certain it is that the gift of                                        C  T R  I. N E--j-
conversion is not common to all men," etc. pp. -99: 100.
     Now, one may not entirely agree with this interpreta-
tion of Ez.  18:23  by Calvin. But this is not the point.                THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH
The point is that he finds no contradiction, not even a
seeming or apparent contradiction, between this passage of                                 &Al?TEFt 111
Scripture  an`d -the counsel of predestination.                    THE ATTRIBUTES AND MARKS OF THE CHURCH
     The external calling, through  .the preaching of the                                  (Continued)
gospel, comes, indeed, to all that hear, but without the
internal calling by the Spirit of God, regenerating the heart,       When therefore we confess that the church is holy, we
this external calling is worse than vain; it is a savor of        mean, positively, that both as to her calling and in respect
death unto death. And this is, too, according to  G&l's           to her nature she is consecrated to God. She is set aside
purpose.                                                          for the service of God as a holy priesthood. And unto this
     Such is the teaching of ,,Calvin.                            service of the living God she is spiritually prepared. Her
                                                         H.H.     mind is consecrated to the Lord, to know Him. Her will
                                                                  is attuned to His will. Her heart is motivated by the love
                                                                  of God. To dwell in His house, to taste that He is good,
                                                                  to sacrifice herself with all things unto Him, and to declare
                  Subscription Campaign                           His praises, is the delight of the church: In that sense
                                                                  she is holy unto God.
     The readers will note the special postcard flyer enclosed       The holiness of the church is, in the first place, entirely
with each copy of.this  issue of our magazine. We urge you        a gift of God. In ourselves we are not holy, but quite
to make use of it. If each of our readers would furnish           unholy. But it is only through the grace of God in Christ
the Board  of.the  R.F.P.A. with only one name and address        Jesus our Lord that we become holy and that therefore
of someone who should receive a sample copy of the                also the church is holy. This is also the very idea of the
Standard Bearer, this would give the Board a large list           church. It is the company of those that are separated and
to work on.                                                       that are called out of the whole human race. In herself
                                                                  the church has neither the right nor the power to tie con-
     In explanation, the Board is putting on a determined         secrated to God and to be separated unto Him. By nature
campaign to increase the readership (and subscriber total)        also the church lies, with the whole human  race, under con-
of our magazine. There are two good reasons for this              demnation and in the power of sin, pollution, corruption,
campaign. The first and most obvious is, of course, that          and death. She is guilty and damnable, and has no right
they want the Standard Bearer to reach more people with           to dwell in the house of God and to stand before His face.
its witness for the truth. The second is that as the total        She is defiled and impure, dead through trespasses and
number of subscribers goes up, the  cost' per individual          sins, wholly incapable to `know God, to will His will, to
copy goes down.                                                   love Him, or to do anything that is pleasing in His sight.
     A campaign of this kind depends on .YOU. The .Board          But God, Who is rich in mercy, formed her into a holy
has made it as easy as possible for you to help. All you          nation, a royal priesthood unto Himself. From before the
need do is write in the complete names and addresses of           foundation of the world He ordained His Son to be the
friends or acquaintances to whom you would like a  .sample        head of the church. In the fulness of time He sent Him
copy sent, and drop it in the mail. Don't wait until to-          into the world. Her place He assumed in God's judgment.
morrow; do it today!                                              Her sin He bore on the accursed tree. Her guilt He re-
     A bit later, perhaps, you will have an opportunity also      moved and blotted out. Eternal righteousness He obtained
to order gift subscriptions for friends. Keep this idea in        for her, the  rig@ to be God's people and to dwell in His
mind for worthwhile Christmas gifts.                              house forever. And God raised Him from the dead and
                                                       H.C.H.     exalted Him at His own right hand in glory, fulfilled in
                                                                  Him the promise of the Holy Spirit. And through that
                                                                  Spirit of holiness our Lord Jesus Christ now dwells in the
                                                                  church, which is His body. All this is plainly taught in
               0 let me have no part                              Holy Writ. In Ephesians  1:3,4 we read: "Blessed be the
                 With those that hate the right;                  God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed
               For as their works, so their reward:               us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:
                 Jehovah will requite.                            According as he hath chosen us in him before'the  foundation


                                         .THE  S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                       7

of the world, that we should be holy and without blame             must never forget that all the children of believers are not
before him in love." And in verses 22 and 23 of the same           spiritual seed: tares are always sown among the wheat.
chapter we read: "And hath put all things under his feet,          The church in this world is never perfect in holiness.
and gave him to be the head over all things to the church,            Hence, it follows that the holiness of the church natural-
Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all." ly must assume the form of a continual conflict, of the
Hence, the holiness of the church is only in Christ. It is         tension between light and darkness. In the Word of God
the holiness of Christ that is imputed to the believers as         believers are admonished to put off the old man and to
if it were their own. And by His Spirit He also actually           mortify the motions of sin that are in their members, so
imparts His holiness to all the members of His body. The           that the church must constantly be on the alert and put
holiness of the church is therefore a gift of pure grace, con-     off the works of the flesh, which would deprive her of her
stantly depending upon the union of the body with its              holy nature and calling. Oh, indeed, the church as such is
head, Jesus Christ the Lord.        '                              holy and is called to be holy. She has a holy ministry to
   It stands to reason that in the midst of a world that           fulfill, the ministry of the Word of God as it has been
lies in sin and corruption and in darkness the holiness of         delivered to her in the Holy Scriptures. And she is
the church causes her to stand in antithetical relation to         called to administer the holy sacraments. That Word the
that world. The holiness of the church certainly means             church must preserve. The truth of that Word she must
that she is separated from and stands in opposition to all         appropriate and develop. The gospel of her Lord she must
that is unholy and profane. It is light out of darkness, right-    proclaim everywhere and in the whole world. And she
eousness out of unrighteousness, holiness out of corruption.       must make the good confession. And the holy sacraments
It is resurrection from the dead. Out of the depths God            she must administer to those that are of Christ, and guard
causes His people to cry unto Him, exactly because the             them against being profaned. But precisely in this, her holy
holy catholic church lives in the midst of a world that is         calling, she is opposed by the flesh. The carnal element
full of hatred and enmity. And therefore the result is that        within her hates the pure Word of God opposes it, prefers
the holiness of the church assumes the form of hatred and          the vain philosophy of men. It sets itself against &pure
opposition to corruption. In the midst of the world, to            preaching of the Word of God. The carnal element in the
which also our flesh belongs, holiness is resulting in a cry       church always hankers after the things of the world  - the
for forgiveness, a longing to be delivered, a fleeing from         lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.
sin, a crucifying of the flesh, a condemnation of the works        That carnal element brings the church into the world, and
of darkness, a separation from the world in the spiritual,         the world into the church. That carnal element always pro-
ethical sense of the word. It is putting off the old and           fanes God's holy covenant. But the holy catholic church can-
putting on the new man. It is the holiness of the antithesis       not and may not yield. She must and does oppose the flesh,
between light and darkness, between righteousness and un-          put off the operations of sin, and fulfill her holy calling.
righteousness, between Christ and Belial, between the                 But there is more.
temple of God and the temple of idols. Such is the char-              This tension and this conflict appears not only within
acter of the holiness of the church.                               the walls of the church. But the same  conllict appears
   We may say, therefore, that it is always under the              wherever the church, through the walk and confession of
tension between light and darkness that the church in the          her members, becomes manifest in the world. For these
world must fulfill her calling, "Be ye holy, for I, the Lord       members of the body of Christ are, as we have already
your God, am holy." To forget or deny this results in a            remarked, always still in the world. They have no calling
very serious error. Always there have been and there still         to go out of the world and to organize a colony of saints.
are those who separate themselves from the church because          in some secluded spot. On the contrary, they must be in
she is not perfectly holy and because within her there             the world. They must live its whole life in all its relation-
always appear those that are not of her, carnal and profane        ships  - in home and school and state and society, with
men. And they seek to establish the church of only the elect,      respect to labor and industry, business and commerce. But
without spot or wrinkle, in the world. But, as I say, this is      in  all those different relations of life they are called to
a serious mistake. In this world the church is never perfect       reveal themselves as members of the body of Christ, as the
in holiness, except in Christ. For, in the first place, be-        holy church, the communion of saints. They must be holy
lievers themselves have but a small beginning of holiness,         in all their walk and conversation. They are called to be
a small beginning of the new obedience in their hearts. The        holy in the home, in the education of their children, in the
motions of sin are always still in their members. And              state, in the relation of employer and employee, in store
secondly, all is not Israel that is of Israel. Always there are    and  of&e and shop, and in all of life in de midst of the
hypocrites and openly ungodly men continually appearing            world. They represent the cause of the Son of God. They
in the church. They join themselves to the church from             walk according to the will of their Lord Jesus Christ. This
without, and they develop and grow from within. We                 means that in the spiritual, ethical sense of the word they

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

     can never be unequally yoked together with unbelievers.             infrequently the churches sharply oppose one another in
     For thus we read in II Corinthians 6: 14, ff .: "Be ye not          regard to such important truths as absolute predestination,
     unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fel-            election and reprobation, the sovereignty of the grace of
     lowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and                God, the total incapability of the natural man to do any
     what communion hath light with darkness? And what con-              good, infant baptism, the Lord's Supper, and the second
     cord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that             coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. We believe one holy,
     believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the              catholic church. But the unity of this one church is by no
     temple of God, with idols? for ye are the temple of the liv-        means apparent in the world. The church appears to be
     ing God; as God hath said,. I will dwell in them, and walk          hopelessly divided.
     in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my                 What, therefore, must be our attitude in regard to all
     people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye               these different manifestations of the church? What is the
     separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing;          proper and Scriptural position to assume in this situation?
     and I will receive you, And will be a Father unto you,' and         Must we take the stand of those who would have the various
     ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Al-               churches simply break down the confessional walls of sep-
     mighty." It is especially because the church is holy in the         aration, forget their differences, and unite on a very broad
     midst of the world of darkness that she always must ex-             platform of a few general principles, hardly expressive of
     pect conflict, suffering, pers'ecution,  opposition, hatred. In-    the true Christian faith? Such, indeed, is the attitude of
     deed, the time is coming, according to Scripture, when she          many churches in our own clay. It would not be too much
     shall be hated of all nations,' when her faithful members           to say that it is the attitude of the majority of those that
     shall not be able to find a place in the world, when they           still call themselves church in our so-called ecumenical age.
     shall not be able to buy or sell. But in this she must not          But such an attitude can be taken only by those churches
     fear. The Lord foretold her that she would have tribulation         and by those believers who have long forgotten to take
     in the world, but also left her this word: "Be of good              their confessions seriously. They are ready officially to
     cheer, I have overcome the world." Presently the New Jeru-          relinquish their doctrinal standards and confessions. For
     salem, adorned as a bride for her husband, pure and holy,           them. they are no more than dead traditions. They have
     will descend from God out of heaven. That event is the              no longer a place in their conscious faith. Nevertheless,
     end of  all conflict and suffering and the perfect victory          this is a grave error. No church that takes- its confessions
     for the church of Jesus Christ.                                     seriously could lend its support to such a movement, or as-
          It stands to reason that the believer must join not only       sume such an attitude. Hence, the question arises once
            ;
     a  dhurch, but the true church. The question, therefore,            more: what, in the face of the actual phenomenon of so
     must be asked and answered: where can one find that true            many different churches, must be the position of the true
     church? Fact is, of course, that in the world there are             believer, who is desirous to join himself to the true church
     many churches. And they differ one from another not only            in the world, and to no other?
I    in accidentals, but even in essentials. They differ not only           This leads us to the question: what are the marks by
     in regard to nationality, race, color, and language, but also       which the true church must be known? The Belgic Con-
     in respect to those things that pertain to the very essence         fession, in Article 28, speaks of those marks in the following
     of the church i matters concerning the truth, concerning            words : "We believe, since this holy congregation is an
     the confession, concerning church government, concerning            assembly of those who are saved, and that out of it there
     form of worship. Especially since the time of the Reforma-          is no salvation, that no person of whatsoever state or con-
     tion of the sixteenth century, when the church liberated            dition he may be, ought to withdraw himself, to live in
     itself from the Roman hierarchy, denominations have                 a separate-state from it; but that all men are in duty bound
     multiplied, and scores of confessions of faith have been            to join and unite themselves with it; maintaining the unity
     written and adopted. Even if we leave out of consideration          of the church; submitting thmselves to the doctrine and
     those so-called churches that openly repudiate the Scriptures       discipline thereof; bowing their necks under the yoke of
     as the  infallibIe  Word of God and deny the very funda-            Jesus Christ; and as mutual members of the same body,
     mentals of the Christian faith, such as the Trinity, the            serving to the edification of the brethren, according to the
     divinity of Christ, the virgin birth, the atonement through         talents God has given them. And that this may be the more
     the blood of Christ, and the resurrection of our Lord, there        effectually observed, it is the duty of all believers, accord-
     is sufficient difference in doctrine and confession between         ing to the word of God, to separate themselves from those
     the rest of  the churches in the world to make it impossible        who do not belong to the Church, and to join themselves
     for them .to live under one roof - unless they arbitrarily          to this congregation wheresoever God hath established it,
     deny their own confessions. Of course, if they do the latter,       even though the magistrates and edicts of princes were
     as is certainly very frequently done in our own day, they           against it, yea, though they should suffer death or any other
     can  ea.sily amalgamate and become one big church. Not              corporal punishment. Therefore all those who separate


                                          T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                               9

themselves from the same, or do not join themselves to it,        fathers. The entire history of the church, both in the old
act contrary to the ordinance of God." And in Article 29          and-the new dispensation, condemns that position. In the
of the same confession we read: "We believe, that we              old dispensation carnal Israel often constituted the majority
ought diligently and circumspectly to discern from the            in the history of the old covenant people; and the true
Word of God which is the true Church, since all sects which       church was represented by the seven thousand that had
are in the world assume to themselves the name of the             not bowed the knee to Baal. And the same is true of the
Church. But we speak here not of the hypocrites, who are          new dispensation. According as the church in the world
mixed in the Church with the good, yet are not of the             grew large and prosperous, she usually became apostate
Church, though externally in it; but we say that the body         and corrupt at the same time. The true church was usually
and communion of the true Church must be distinguished            represented by the small minority, the weak and despised
from all sects, who call themselves the Church. The marks         according to the standard of the flesh and according to
by which the true Church is known are these: if the pure          the standard of the world. Neither can the true church
doctrine of the gospel is preached therein; if she maintains      be discerned and distinguished from the false by the
the pure administration of the sacraments as instituted by        criterion of the decrees and acts of its councils. Also these
Christ; if church discipline is exercised in punishing of sin;    have frequently corrupted the truth and persecuted the
in short, if a11 things are managed according to the pure         true church. It was o5cial Jerusalem, the Council of the
Word of God, all things contrary thereto are rejected, and        Jews, that persecuted and  killed the prophets, and that
Jesus Christ acknowledged as the only Head of the Church.         ultimately nailed Christ to the accursed tree. This history
Hereby the true Church may certainly be known, from               of the old `dispensation was frequently repeated in the
which no man has a right to separate himself." And further,       new dispensation. Neither can you appeal to the antiquity
in the same article of the Belgic Confession, the false           of a certain institute to determine where the true church
church is described as follows: "As for the false Church,         may be found. For while a church that can boast of  ten;
she ascribes more power and authority to herself and her          turies of history may have become corrupt and departed
ordinances than to the Word of God, and will not submit           from the orthodox Christian faith, a church of more recent
herself to the yoke of Christ. Neither does she administer        origin may stand on the basis of the apostolic faith and
the sacraments as appointed by Christ in his Word, but            represent the continuation of the  tie church in the world.
adds to and takes from them, as she thinks proper; she            This is evident from the Reformation of the Church in the
reheth  more upon men than upon Christ; and persecutes            sixteenth century. And therefore, all these characteristics
those who live  holily according to the Word of God, and          our fathers of the Reformation found.incapable  of serving
rebuke her for her errors, covetousness, and idolatry. These      as distinguishing marks of the true church. Instead, they
two Churches are easily known and distinguished from each         pointed to three infallible signs, or marks, by which the
other."                                                           true church becomes recognizable: the pure preaching
   The same marks of the true church are mentioned in             of the Word of God, the proper administration of the sac-
the Scotch Confession of Faith, in Article 18: "The notes         raments, and the faithful exercise of Christian discipline.
therefore of the true Church of God we believe, confess,          Only where these marks are present, there is the true
and avow to be, first, the true preaching of the Word of          church. Where they are wanting, there the church is not,
God, into the which God has revealed Himself unto us,             no matter how mighty and imposing the institution may
as the writings of the prophets and apostles do declare.          be that calls itself by the name of church. And where
Secondly, the right administration of the sacraments of           these signs are corrupted, there the church must either
Christ Jesus, which are annexed unto the Word and promise         repent, or die.
of God, to seal and confirm the same in our hearts. Lastly,          Let us elaborate for a moment on these marks of the
ecclesiastical discipline uprightly ministered, as God's Word     true church.
prescribes, whereby vice is repressed, and virtue nourished.         These distinguishing marks of, the church must not be
Wheresoever then these former marks are seen, and at any          separated, neither must they be viewed as of equal sig-
time continue  (be. the number never so few, about two            nificance and as co-ordinate. To be sure, all these marks
or three), there without all doubt is the true Church of          are important. All these marks must certainly be present
Christ: Who according to his promise, is in the midst of          to indicate the true church of Christ in the world. Never-
them."                                                            theless, they must not be viewed as separate marks, all of
   The Reformed fathers, therefore, emphasized that the           equal value in themselves. On the contrary, in a sense
true church has certain distinguishing marks, by which she        they are all comprehended and implied in the  first, that is,
may be discerned. They insisted that the true church could        the pure preaching of the Word of God. For, first of all,
not be distinguished by its size or numbers, as if the            the administration of the sacraments and the exercise of
majority could decide the question concerning the true            Christian discipline have no meaning without the preaching
church. That position is condemned by the Reformed                of the Word.                                            H.H.


10                                          T H E   S T A N D A R D   BEA-RER                      _      -      .-      -.

                                                                  last remaining stronghold of faith in the nation. Forty years
      A CLOUD  CM  WCTNESS.E-S  -11 went by and again the weakness of the people became ap-
                                                                  parent as they fell into sin. This time it was the eastern
                                                                  tribes which were overrun by Eglon of the land of Moab.
                   The-Song of Deborah                            For eighteen years the people suffered under his hand be-
          find Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth,       fore they turned again to  (God in repentance.  It was a
        she judged Israel at that time.                           testimony to their weakness and lack of courage that not
          And she dwelt under the  palm.c,tree  of Deborah;       until one lone man of faith, Ehud, had gone by himself
        between  Ramah-and: Bethel -in mount Ephraim:  and        to slay the king of Moab was he able to rally the people
        the children of Israel came up to her for judgment.
                                                 Judges 414,s.    to go out to battle. Eighty years now passed by, and
                                                                  this time it was in the south and west that the Philistines
      "Praise ye the LORD for the avenging of Israel,             arose to punish the children of Israel for their sins. Again
      When the people willingly  oflerecl  themselves.  `,        the people lacked courage to stand up and defend the
 Hear, 0 ye  kin.gs;  give ear, 0 ye princes;                     cause of God against the enemy. It was but one lone
      I, even I will sing unto the LORD;                          figure who was found faithful and strong in the fear of the
  I will sing praises to the LORD God of Israel.                  Lord with courage to oppose the enemy. He was Shamgar,
      LORD when thou wentest  out of Seir;                        a mere driver of oxen; but with his ox goad in his hand
 When thou marchedest out of the field of Eclom                   he went out and slew six hundred men of the enemy. So
      The earth trembled, and the heavens dropped,                once again Israel was delivered, not by its own strength,
      The clouds abo dropped water.                               but by a lone figure who stood in the courage and strength
                                                                  of true faith.
      The mountains melted from before the LORD,
      Even that Sinai from before the LORD God of Israel."           The chastisement of God upon Israel had run a circular
      These are the opening words of praise unto God from         course. Each corner of the nation was touched by it in
the song which Deborah sang after Israel's deliverance            turn according to the progress of their sin. Now for a
from the hands of  Jaban,  king of the Canaanites. They           second time the hand of the Lord.returned  to lay upon the
were divinely inspired words, for Deborah was a prophetess.       northern tribes, particularly Naphtali,  Zebulun, and Issa-
She spoke as she was moved by the Holy Spirit.                    char. This time it was not an enemy from outside which
      The very fact that Deborah was a prophetess and a           was sent into their land; it was the Canaanites who had
judge in Israel  cast its own peculiar reflection upon the        once been soundly defeated and all but destroyed. Through
weakness into which Israel had fallen during the period of        the century or more in which Israel had failed to follow
the judges. The one great duty which Joshua had left with         through with clearing their land as God had commanded
the children of Israel was that of clearing out the land of       them, the Canaanites had built themselves up into a for-
all the remnants of heathen people that still remained in it;     midable nation, had built again their capital city  Hazer,
but this had never really been done. A few efforts were           and had raised. up a king unto themselves under the title
made by Judah and Simeon which were also rewarded by              Jabin.  As though to remind the children of Israel of their
God; but even those did not last long. The people found it        neglect, God had given to these Canaanites strength to
so much easier to settle down and live in peace. After all,       overrun the land and subjugate the children of Israel under
those who were left of the heathen nations were few qnd           cruel bondage. Twenty years the children of Israel were
lacked courage; how could they ever cause trouble for the         persecuted by the Canaanites whom once they could have
strong and courageous people of Israel? What they forgot          easily blotted out but had neglected  .to do. During this
was that their strength was only in the Lord their God. As        time there was not a man found with courage and  faith
long as  .they failed to obey Him and perform the duties          su5cient to stand against the forces of this enemy.
which He had assigned to them, their strength would cease            It was a sign of the shame which had come upon Israel
to exist. That was exactly what happened. Refusing to             that when at last God did raise up a judge and deliverer
obey the command of their God, the children of Israel             for His people, it was not a man but a woman. The men
gradually began to lose their strength. Refusing to fight         of that mighty nation through weakness of faith and sin
for the cause of God, they became unable to wage war any          had become timid and afraid. They did not dare to speak
more. In the weakness of their faith even their courage was       out. They did not dare to fight. They were not able
finally gone. This became ever more apparent.                     to give the leadership which they needed so badly. God
      First it was Chushan-rishathaim of Mesopotamia who          focused attention upon this by sending Deborah to be
moved in upon the `northern tribes and afflicted them for         their judge.
eight years. Only when the people turned to cry unto the             Deborah points out in her song the sad state into which
Lord in repentance did He send to them a deliverer, not one       the nation had fallen at the time when she became judge.
of their own tribe, but Othniel of the tribe of Judah, the. In the second portion of her song she said:


                                         T H E   S T A N D A R D   BEA.RER                                                     11

    I,n the days of  Shumgar the son of  An&h,                   hesitated for neither. Openly she presented herself and
    In the days of Jael, the highways were unoccupied,           spoke the Word of God without :fear to anyone who might
    And the travelers walked through byways.                     be listening. Here was an example of faith that put to
    Th.e inhabitants  of the villages ceased,                    shame every leader and ruler in Israel.
    They ceased in Israel                                           It was not long before the very presence of Deborah
    Until that I Deborah arose,                                  began to work its own transformation in the nation. The
    That I arose a mother, in Israel.                            Canaanites perhaps thought it one of `those small things
    They chose new gods;                                         which they could afford to ignore, but actually it was of
   Then. was war in the gates:                                   vital importance to the nation. First there were but a few
    Was there a shield or spear seen                             that dared, but soon there were more and more who were
    Among forty thousand in Israel?                              coming to Deborah with their burdens and problems and
                                                                 troubles. With sympathy she would listen, and without
Those were dire days for Israel. The Canaanites were a           equivocation she would instruct them concerning their
wicked and cruel people. As long as they had been weak           spiritual responsibilities before the law of God. And the
and under subjection to the Israelites, they might have ap-      longer she labored, the broader the scope of her instruc-
peared harmless enough; but once they had gained the             tions began. Soon she was giving to great and small
upper hand, their true hatred for the people of God be-          alike pointed instructions concerning their responsibilities
came evident. These were the children of Canaan, the son         and duties overagainst the Canaanites who had invaded
of Ham who had dwelt under the curse of God since the            their land. All were told that their trials, stemmed from
days of Noah. Now all of their most wicked animosity             the fact that they had chosen for themselves strange gods.
broke forth. No one in Israel was really safe from it. At        They were told that of this they must all repent. The men
any time the Canaanites might descend upon a person to           ~nd~,,l~clers,  -were  told_ that they must put their fears aside
rob and wound and even kill. Their cruelty knew no               and prepare themselves in faith to fight against the enemy.
bounds. It was not long before the highways were deserted        Always to everyone she included the blessed promises of
for fear of them and those who had to travel crept secre-        victory which later she  recorded.,in  her song when she
tively along the byroads. Life in the small unprotected          sang:
towns almost ceased to exist as people sought the collective
security of the large and walled cities. But food was scarce         My heart is toward the governors  of Israel,
and life was hard wherever one went. Terror gripped the               That offer themselves willingly `among the people,
land among great and small alike.                                     Hess ye the LORD.
   Years passed by and the strength -of the Canaanites               Speak ye that ride on white asses,
showed no sign of weakening. Rather they used every                  Ye that sit in judgment,
day to make themselves stronger. Wherever. they gained               And walk by the way.
control, one of the first things they did was to spread out          They that are delivered from the no&e of archers            _.
to gather together the weapons of Israel wherever they               In the places of drawing water,
might be found. Every house was searched and nowhere                  There shall they rehearse the righteous acts of the
was a sword or spear allowed to remain. Even more they                       LORD,
enlisted the smiths of Israel to work for them in building           Even the righteous acts toward the inhabitants of his
weapons for their use. As time went on they worked on                        villages in Israel:
the building of large  iron, chariots to go behind their             Then shall -the people of  the LORD go down to the
horses of war. Finally they attained to the point where                      gates.
they had nine hundred of these vicious machines of war                                                                      B.W.
ready to use in battle. Such strength for battle no one had
ever seen before. The Israelites almost despaired of ever
being free again and cried to their God in fear.
   It was then that a new thing began to happen in Israel.         His-voice makes the mountains and deserts to tremble,
Under an oak tree between  Ramah  and Bethel this woman              Wild beasts are  a&ighted,  the forest laid bare,
Deborah began to sit in judgment of the people. In a way           And through all creation, His wonderful temple,.
it was a rather small thing, and yet it could hardly help            All things He has fashioned IIis glory declare.
but gain attention. It had been such a long time since
anyone had dared to speak out openly in the name of                The Lord ruled in might at the flood of great waters,
Jehovah. Many years before, the elders and teachers had              A King Whose dominion is never to cease;
ceased to perform their functions, first because the people        The Lord will give blessing,md strength to His people,
objected, and .later  for fear of the Canaanites. But Deborah        The Lord all His people will comfort with peace.            .


                                                                                                                                     I
I2                                         T H E   S T A N D A R D   SBEARER

                                                                   longsuffering, forbearing one another in love, giving dil-
                                                                   igence to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace."
I [   F R O M   H O L Y   W R I T   11 It should be evident to us concerning the term longsufbhng:
                                                                   ( 1) That our being longsuffering is a fruit of our being
                  Exposition of II Peter 3                         efficaciously "called" out of darkness into God's mar-
                               e.                                  velous light. Only a walk in which also is the ingredient
                                                                   of  longsufwing is worthy of such a heavenly calling (I
      At the close of our former essay we were engaged in          Peter  2:9; Heb.  3:l). B ence, in man the virtue of being
showing from Scripture that the term ion.gsufering  is an          longsuffering is possible only by virtue of the calling to
attitude of God toward His people in Christ Jesus; it is           faith and godliness. (2) Further, it is a virtue which is
a manifestation of restrained wrath because of His great           rooted in love for the brother, in a deep sense of unity
love to them, His grace and His mercy!  Longsufwing  is            which is ours as members of the body of Christ. One who
not an attitude of God toward mankind in general, a certain        is longsuffering toward his brother is such with a keen
"common grace" by which judgment is postponed over the             sense of the great longsuffering of God toward himself in
wicked.                                                            Christ Jesus. What he is, he is by the grace of God!!
      Such is our contention in our exposition of the phrase in       There is one more passage which also teaches that the
II Peter  3:9: "but is longsuffering to  usward." We hold          term  longsuffering  is a good work of grace, by virtue of
that the Lord is longsuffering over His people. He pities          being strengthened with all the power of God due to the
them in their woes, their sin and because of their enemies         glory of His grace. We refer to Col. l:lO, 11 where we read:
who revile them.                                                   `to walk worthily of the Lord into all pleasing, bearing
      To that which we have shown from Scripture concern-          fruit-in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge
ing the usage of the term  longsufering  as an attitude of         of God; strengthened with all power, according to the might
God, we must still show that when the term is applied              of his glory, unto all patience and longsuffering with
to man's being  longsufFering  it always is a virtue of the        joy . . . ." We notice here: (1) That here also longsuffering
Christian, of the new man in Christ Jesus. Yet, even so,           is a Christian grace; it is a grace closely associated with
it is never an attitude which the Christian must exercise          that wonderful Christian fruit called patience, the power
overagainst the evil. and wicked world, but it is ever the         to endure. It is really patience in its operation toward the
attitude which we must exercise overagainst the weak and           erring and weak brother whom we love. (2) It is always
erring brother, who, like us, has but a small beginning of         a matter in which we experience and have Christian joy,
the new obedience!                                                 the hope of victory and ultimate triumph, even the salva-
      Let us take notice of a few passages which establish         tion of ourselves and of the weak and erring brother!
this premise.                                                         We believe that from the foregoing passages it becomes
      We first of all refer to Gal.  5:22 where we read: "But      quite evident that whether Scripture speaks of the long-
the  fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering,       suffering of God or whether it refers to the longsuffering
kindness, meekness, self-control; against such there is no         of the Christian, it is ever toward an object of love - the
law." Now the following. ought to be evident here: (1)             man and woman for whom Christ died, for those who are
That the concept longsu#ering is definitely a positive fruit       reconciled to God in the blood of the cross!
of grace in the life of the believer in direct contrast with
the works of the flesh. It is a manifestation of the freedom          Bearing this in mind, we may safely state that the Ar-
which is ours in Christ Jesus. -It is this very emphatically.      minian  perversion of the text here in II Peter 3:9 cannot
(2) The concept under consideration is rooted in the love          stand when he would refer this longsuffering of God toward
of God. Love is its principle and source, the love of God          all men to bring them to repentance!
shed abroad in our hearts. It is the fruit of the living faith        Thus it is also very evident what a comforting word
which is energized by love (Gal.  5:6). (3) Contextually           this is from the pen of the holy apostle for the church as
longsz&xhg is here an aspect of love for the brother in            she places her hope upon the return of Christ. Nay, the
Christ and is mingled with such virtues as kindness, good-         Lord is not slack concerning His promise. He does not
ness and faithfulness and spiritual sobriety or self-control.      forget His Word of oath to the church. He remembers it
Also in this passage  longsufering  is not toward the wicked       very much in each moment of history. He exercises a great
but toward the brother and sister in Christ. When one is           deal of longsuffering toward her.
longsuffering toward the brother then he will not be provok-          On the one hand He exercises a great deal of  long-
ing him, envying him ( Gal. 5:26)!                                 suffering toward her in her sinful condition. He brings
      The next passage which we will study is taken from           every last elect to repentance. That is what the text teaches.
Eph. 412 where we read: "I therefore, the prisoner in the          It does not teach what I heard a preacher in the "deep South"
Lord, beseech you to walk worthily of the calling where-           say to the congregation when he opined that the text teaches
with ye were called, with all lowliness and meekness, with         here that "if the elect do not  .repent they go to hell."


                                          T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                             I3

Surely the elect are to repent from their sins. But the text         The first passage to which we refer is recorded in Luke
does not allow for any doubt that the elect will not  be-         1837, where we read: "`And shall not God avenge his
brought by the Lord to repentance. Fact is, that it is            elect, that cry unto him day and night, even he is  long-
exactly the IongsufIering  of the Lord which makes this bring-    suffering over them." It seems that the elects' cause suffers
ing to repentance a certain reality for the entire church.        with the Lord; it seems that the righteous Lord, the Judge
When you look at. the walk of a Paul, prior to his being          of all the earth does not heed nor hear. But He does so
brought to repentance, surely it was the longsuffering of         "speedily"! Why? Because He suffers long over them; He
God that spared him from the fury of God's wrath. God. loves them with a great love and judges His people right-
looked at what Christ did for Paul on Calvary when He saw         eously, taking all their tears into His bottle. When the
this elect child, called from the womb to this ministry,          mockers scoff, the Lord, who  is.  longsuffering  over His
going about and raising havoc in the church and persecut-         people to bring them to salvation, does not pour forth
ing the church of God. While he was persecuting the               His. wrath. He will not pull out the tares ere the time of
church God loved him, loved him so very dearly.. Christ           harvest lest He fail to bring in all the wheat into His
had died for him. God had given him to the Son in the             garner.
bundle of the elect from eternity. And so He demonstrates            In I Peter 3:20 we have the great example of the "wait-
all His longsuffering upon Paul as an example of the long-        ing of the longsuffering of God" upon Noah and his eight
suffering upon all who are about to believe.  .And to this        souls. For one hundred and twenty years the ungodly
longsuffering  Peter here too refers.                             mocked and scoffed. But the Lord is longsuffering over
   That Peter here refers to such a longsuffering of God          His church. All the living saints must first die and Noah
toward us His people is evident from the  "longsuffering          must preach, and the Lord brings His people to salvation.
to usward." The entire church must be saved. God does not         He was not slack in His promise during those hundred and
merely save some individuals who are willing to employ            twenty years.
their "free-will" but He saves the godless and justifies them        Again we refer to another passage from Scripture. We
and brings such to repentance. And this people is a body,         refer to that classic passage in Rom. 9:22.  Here the Lord
the body of Christ of which Christ is the Head. And all the       is said by Paul to have His sovereign right to show His
members of the body must be saved, be the  fulness of             mercy upon the vessels of mercy and to demonstrate His
Him that filleth all in all ( Eph.  1:22). Thus we read in        wrath and to make known His power in bearing the vessels
Hebrews  11:39,40:     "And these all having had witness          of wrath fitted for destruction. And the Lord does this "in
borne to them by faith received not the promise, God              longsuffering." Upon whom? Of course, in the light of  aLI
having provided some better thing concerning us, that             that we have seen so far, upon His elect people, upon the
apart from us they should not be made perfect." Not a             Israel of God.
few in the Old Testament only must be saved-an Abra-                 Well may the church of God take courage. Well may
ham&an Isaac and a Jacob -but the entire church, both of          we have our hope steadfastly upon the return of Christ.
the Old Testament and of the New.Testament dispensation.          The moving motive in history's tempo is not a certain fickle
All must be saved. God does not  tilt that any should             tardiness of God concerning His promise, but rather His
perish. And this unchangeable will and faithfulness of God        jealous concern for His people whom He hath foreknown
comes to manifestation in His being longsuffering to usward.      and whom He will bring  infallibly  to salvation.
He saves us and brings us to repentance.                             Here we are reminded of their grand speech and con-
   There is a peculiar word used here by Peter in the             fession of the fathers of Dort where they confess that God
text. He really says "that all should be given room [terri-       will bring all His own infallibly to salvation, that is, "it
tory] to repentance." Each saint receives his peculiar place,     was the will of God, that Christ by the blood of the cross,
his battles, his deliverances in history. Such is the opera-      whereby he confirmed the new covenant, should effect-
tional plane of God's longsuffering. And that is the real         ually redeem out of every people, tribe, nation and lan-
reason for the seeming tarrying of the Lord.                      guage, all those and those only who were from eternity
   There is still another aspect `of the longsuffering sug-       given him by the Father; that he should confer upon them
gested here in the text. We refer to the longsuffering of         faith,  -which together with all other saving gifts of the
God in this long history of bringing His people to repent-        Holy Spirit he purchased from them by his death; should
ance, and because of which repentance to God the re-              purge them from all sin . . . and having faithfully pre-
pentant suffer at the hands of wicked scoffers and mockers.       served them unto the end, should at last bring them free
God is longsuffering toward  I-Iis people when they cry           from every spot and blemish to the enjoyment of glory
unto Him day and night. We refer here to three Scripture          in his own presence forever."
passages. It should be remembered, however, that this                Such is God's longsuff ering over us to bring every one
point too is clearly consonant- with the teaching of Peter        of us to repentance and final salvation.
in this entire section in the context.                                                                                    ti.L.

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

                                                                      The resort areas are for the most part fabulously
      THE'LORD GAVE THE WORD....                                   luxurious. The Caribbean 3ea provides a beautiful coast
                                             (Psalm 68:`ll) :      line about the entire island, which also offers opportunities
                                                                   for attractive beaches `and wonderful s,wimming areas ,m
      At a recent meeting of the editorial staff it was decided    the deep blue sea-waters. Large and  magniilcent  hotels
to add a new department on  Misiom  in the Standard                have been built on these resort areas. Huge, modern
Bearer. At present this department will appear only from           shopping centers are being built especially for the tourist
time to time, but in the future it may become a regular            trade. A visitor can well wallow in luxury for a few weeks
addition to our paper. Since I have been asked to write            on the island, if he so desires. Moreover, the island itself
for this department, and since my recent trip to Jamaica           is very rugged, and the hills are verdant with abundant
gives me a splendid, ready-made subject with which to              vegetation. The island is only one hundred and fifty miles
commence, I shall avail myself of this opportunity to tell         long and about fifty miles wide (it could easily be stowed
our readers, something about this prospective field of mis-        away in the extreme southern section of the State of
sion endeavor.                                                     Michigan), yet every part of it is lush with grasses, shrubs
      A few months ago, Mr. Henry Meulenberg and I were            and trees. The warm climate, the fertile soil, and the
appointed by our churches to visit Jamaica to investigate          abundant rainfall are so many means in God's hands to
this area as a possible field of future mission labors. There-     make this  a veritable paradise of. fruits and flowers. I
fore on the 30th of July we departed from Grand Rapids,            would not even venture to I describe `the brilliant red flowers
our wives accompanying us, to spend seventeen days on              of the bougain-villaea vine or the contrasting red and green
the island. Mr. and Mrs. Meulenberg had been to Jamaica            of the magnolia shrub. Nor would I attempt to picture
With Mr. and Mrs. Henry Zwak during August of- 1962,               before you the spreading almond tree, the bright green
so that the Meulenbergs had met many people whom we                banana plant with its heavy burden of fruit, or the tower-
intended to contact and also knew their way about the              ing cocoanut palm with its umbrella foliage and its cher-
island. They were the most helpful, as well as  the most           ished clusters of cocoanuts. But I do wish, that I could
congenial escorts that anyone could possibly desire. Their         give you a mental picture of the .bright red ackee.  decked.
guidance, their counsel, and their companionship have -in green, or the poinciana tree with its variegated green
meant more to us than words can express. Since we `wanted          setting for its huge clusters of bright scarlet flowers. And
to spend much of our time with the acquaintances already           still better, I wish that you could imagine all of these trees
made,' and since -the Lord had provided some new ac-               and vines and shrubs spread over the island under the
quaintances shortly before we left for the island,  ,our time      canopy of the deep-blue heavens or  viewed   against;.the
was more fully occupied than we had at first anticipated.          background of the dark, purple waters of the Caribbean.
                                                                                                                      ._ . .
But we enjoyed every minute of it. The days and weeks
flew  by; And when we returned home we did so in the                  But this is only one aspect of the life in Jamaica: It is
confidence that the Lord had given us an open door, had            difficult for us who come into this country as strangers to
prospered. and blessed our stay, and made it possible for          understand that amid all this luxurious beauty and all
us to accomplish many things that may prove to be                  this abundance of food there can be such extreme poverty
valuable to those iire met as well as to our churches at home.     as is prevalent on the island. The fabulously luxurious
      But let me tell you just a little about Jamaica as we        resort areas are, after all, but a very, very small fraction
made onr brief acquaintance with it. Our first impression          of the life of the island. As soon as.one  has left behind him
was that this island, which lies about five hundred miles          the  realm of the visiting tourists, he finds himself in an
from Miami, Florida, just south of Cuba, is a growing              entirely different situation, almost an entirely different
tourist attraction. During the hot summer months the               world, and surely an entirely different life of the native
influx of tourists is at an all-time low, but during the cold      of the island.
winter months of the temperate zone many tourists seek                To understand the situation of the people we have met,
their haven on this island. And this is readily understood,        it is necessary for us to bear in mind that Jamaica is finan-
for even the intense heat of the summer months was by no           cially poor. There is no lack of food anywhere, but the
means unbearable-not at any time as long as we were                average Jamaican has no money. No one goes hungry with
there. But the Jamaica that the tourist sees is quite dif-         such an abundance of food all about him, but the money
ferent from the Jamaica that the native knows. For Ja-             to buy the other commodities of life is lacking. Although
maica is a land of extreme contrasts, and one can easily           Jamaica has been inhabited for more than ,five centuries,
spend many weeks there without seeing and recognizing              there are virtually no industries in the country.. All their
the situation in which these people find themselves. One is        produce is shipped out to other lands, except, of course,
compelled to be among the common people, to  ,live with            that which is consumed on the island. The. large planta-
them, in order to understand somewhat their life  and,their        tions are owned by outsiders..-The laborer works for a few
p r o b l e m s .                                                  shillings per day, not enough to buy,the necessary clothing

              :;_            .


                                                   T H 'E   STANDA,RD   B E A R E R                                                  15
                                                                                                                                -

      and commodities that are used in the home. Therefore            in small bamboo "tabernacles" where they can worship in
      even though no one suffers from hunger, the essentials of       their simple, way according to the dictates of their con-
      life are still lacking.  .Their homes are  .very small,  co&    science as they are enlightened by the Word.of God. They
      sisting of one or two rooms which are perched on stilts         complain of severe opposition from the established
      on a hillside. Although they are kept immaculately clean,       churches, as well as of the scorn and derision. they must
      they are hardly large enough to live in. But neither is it      bear because they refuse to cast their lot with these
      necessary to have large homes, since the weather is always      churches.  I, may even add that one individual from one
      warm, so that cooking, washing, and eating is done              of these churches wished us complete' failure in all of our
      mainly outside. Modern conveniences are practically un-         efforts to help these people, ,because  in helping them we
      known. It is not uncommon to see a meal being prepared          would be keeping them from the organized churches and
      on an open  hre. The washing is sometimes done in a             would be opposing the efforts toward ecumenicity so dili-
      near-by stream or otherwise in a wash tub. The common           gently put forth in our day.
      means of transportation is the donkey. This beast of burden        Various "missionaries" have visited the islands from time
      is seen trudging down the road with two baskets on its          to time and have also visited these "churches" that meet
      sides and a man or a boy on its back. But it is still more      in the bamboo tabernacles. These "missionaries" have or-
      common to see men, women, and children (maybe mostly            dained ministers among them, appointed teaching elders
      women) carrying a large burden on their head.s. A basket        for some of the churches, and have handed out certificates
      of fruit for the market or a large bundle of wood for the       to ministers and elders to prove their status before the
      `ilre will ride on their heads without even threatening to      magistrate. But these "`missionaries" made little or no effort
      slip off, so that no hand is needed to steady it.               to instruct the people, but rather forsook them and gave
         But as a result of this financial poverty, Jamaica is        them over to their lot. Therefore these small groups struggle
      also poor from an educational viewpoint. Let me add, that       to survive as churches with great financial problems, with
      about a year ago this island obtained its independence          even greater problems of a lack of trained ministers and
      from England and rapid strides are being made to improve        teachers, and a still greater problem of opposition of a
      the economic and industrial situation of' the island. But       proud, self-sufficient, modem church which is hungrily
      until now many children are not able to -attend school          waiting to swallow them up. Therefore these people have
      or church because of lack of clothing. No one realizes          sought our aid. They need, first of all, some kind of recogni-
      until he has paid a visit to the people of Jamaica what         tion, some assurance that they are not alone in their struggle
      a shipment of clothing can do for them. For a growing           to maintain themselves in the truth of Scripture. They need,
      child needs clothing, as any parent knows. And unless `the      moreover, some backing of an established church, in order
      child is properly clad he cannot enjoy the privilege of ob-     that their ministers may be more fully trained, their teachers
      taining an education. Therefore many children are already       more fully. instructed, and their adult- members as well as
      advanced in years before they see the inside of a school        their children may profit from this instruction. They also
      building. And even if they are privileged to attend a           need direction that they may become organized as churches
      school, there is a constant sorting out among the pupils,       on the true and sound Scriptural basis, both doctrinally and
      so that only the most intelligent are granted the privilege     church politically. Only when they are properly organized
      of a high school education. As a result, many of the older      as churches can their ministers be recognized by the au-
      folk cannot even read or write, many young men cannot           thorities as full-fledged, morally upright ministers of the
      earn enough to be able to get married and support a             Word of God who can be authorized to perform marriages
      family, and many of the children must. be content with          and issue baptism certificates that will be recognized by the
      very little education. As I have said, this situation is im-    law. And they also need material aid. Clothing. helps to
      proving gradually, and probably will continue to improve        cover their backs, but clothing also makes it possible for
      as time goes on, but the lack of education has its effects      them to attend church and school. Besides, many of the
      also on the spiritual life of the island.                       tabernacles either need repairs or must still be completed.
                                                                      A little financial aid is much appreciated, because a little
         For Jamaica. is also religiously impoverished in more        can do so much when the place of worship is so primitive.
      ways than one. There are a number of large denominations           But let me tell you more about these people in a later
      on the island, including the Catholic, Methodist, Anglican,     issue of the Standard Bearer.
      Baptist, and Presbyterian. But their church buildings are
      generally old and 2 dilapidated, while their teachings are                                                               CH.
      thoroughly modern. There, too, the existing churches are
      interested only in social reform, a better world to live in,             Then, safe within Thy fold,
      but a world in which God and His Christ are contraband.                    We will exalt Thy Name;
      The. people we contacted on-the island have broken with                  Our thankful hearts with songs of- joy
      these'various denominations and have sought their refuge
I(                                                                               Thy goodness will proclaim.

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

       II                                                                  -they asserttthat the substance of the bread is transmuted
                  Contending For The Faith II into the substance of Christ's body. Nor can they help
                                                                           themselves by  .resoriing  to the pantheistic doctrine that all
                                                                           accidents are phenomena of God, for that would upset
                                                                           their whole system.
                   The Church and the  Sairaments                             It is moreover impossible that the well-attested tes-
                   THE TIME OF THE REFORMATION                             timony of our senses should be deceptive. If it once be
                                                                           assumed that we cannot trust to the laws. of belief impressed
                                                                           on our nature, of which faith in our sense perceptions is
             VIEWS ON THE SACRAMENTS (LORD'S SUPPER)                       one of the most important, then the foundation of all
                             THE ROMISH VIEW                               knowledge, faith, and religion is overturned (we under-
                                                                           stand, of course, that Hodge here refers to the Romish
              A very strong refutation of the Romish conception of the     doctrine that what looks like bread, tastes like bread, acts
       Lord's Supper is furnished by Hodge in his Systematic               as bread is not really bread. - H.V.). What has Catholi-
       Theology, Volume III. First, he very ably denied the                cism to say for itself, if the people cannot trust their ears
       Romish doctrine of transubstantiation, pages 683 - 685, and         when they hear the teachings of the Church, or their eyes
       we quote: "They further teach that baptism, which pre-              when they read its decrees? It has nothing to stand up.on.
        cedes the  eucharist, conveys all the saving benefits of           It is engulfed with all things else in the abyss of nihilism.
        Christ's redemption; they therefore cannot make the eu-~           To believe in transubstantiation we must disbelieve our
       charist essential, and consequently they cannot, without            senses, and this God requires of no man. It involves dis-
       contradicting Christ or themselves, interpret John  6:48-65         belief in Him who is the author of our nature and of the
       as referring to the Lord's Supper." (Rome contends that             laws which are impressed upon it. There is no more
       the passage in John 6 proves its doctrine of the Lord's             complete and destructive inffidelity than the want of faith
        Supper, inasmuch as Jesus declares in this passage that we         in the veracity of consciousness, whether it be consciousness
       must eat His flesh. However, Jesus also declares in this            of our sense perceptions, or of the truths involved in our
        passage of John 6 that this eatirrg of His flesh is absolutely     rational, moral, or religious nature.
        essential. But Rome does not maintain the essential sig-              It is another objection to this doctrine that it logically
       nificance of the Lord's Supper. According to Rome, Baptism          leads, and in fact has led, to the greatest practical evils.
       is essential but not the Lord's Supper. - H.V.)                     It has led to superstitious, in the place of rational and
                                                                           Scriptural reverence for the sacrament; to the idolatrous
              Appeal, of course, is also made to, the words of institu-    worship of the consecrated wafer; to attributing to it
        tion, "This is my body." On this argument enough has al-           magical, or supernatural virtue contrary to Scripture; to
       ready been said. There is no more necessity for under-              perverting a simple sacrament into a propitiatory sacrifice,
        standing those words literally than the declaration of             and to investing the ministers of Christ with the character
        Christ; "I am the true bread," or, "I am  the. door." The          of sacrificing priests, empowered to offer, for money, a
        elements are declared to be bread and wine both by                 propitiatory oblation securing forgiveness even for the sins
        Christ and by the Apostles, after as well as before con-           of the departed. It has been made a mine of wealth to the
        secration."                                                        priesthood and the church. It was principally the popular
L             Hereupon, Hodge, after establishing that Rome's claim        belief in this great error, that secured the transfer of the
     ., is wholly false, namely' that its doctrine of transubstantia-      greater part of the land  an'd wealth of Europe into the
     " tion is supported by Tradition, continues as follows: "It is        hands of the clergy and gave them almost unlimited power
        a valid objecti.on to this doctrine (namely, Transubstantia-       over the people." - end of quote of  Hedge's refutation of
        tion, H.V.) that it involves an impossibility. The impos-          the Romish doctrine of transubstantiation.
       sible cannot be true, and, therefore, cannot, rationally, be           Then, on pages 688 - 692, Hodge presents several ar-
        an object of faith. It is impossible that the accidents or         guments against the Romish conception of the sacrament
        sensible properties of the bread and tvine should remain           of the Lord's Supper, and we again quote: "No doctrine of
       if the substance be changed. Such a proposition has no more         the Church of Rome is more portentous or more fruitful
       meaning in it than the assertion that an act can be without         of evil consequences than this doctrine of the mass; and
       an agent. Accidents or properties are the phenomena of sub-         no doctrine of that Church is more entirely destitute of
        stance; and it is self-evident that there can be no mani-          even a semblance of Scriptural support. The words of
       festations where there is not something to be manifested.           Christ, "Ihis do in remembrance of Me," are made to mean,
       In other words nothing, a "non-ens" cannot manifest itself.         "Offer the sacrifice which I Myself have just offered." These
       Romanists cannot turn to the theory that matter is not a            words constituted the Apostles and all their successors
       substance; for that is not their doctrine. On the contrary,         priests. The Council of Trent even anathematizes all who


                                           T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                 17

do not ptit that preposterous interpretation on those simple        any priestly function ascribed to them. They are not me-
words. Romanists also appeal to the fact that Christ is             diators. They are not appointed to offer sacrifices for sin.
said to be a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek,         Every priest is a mediator, but it is expressly declared
from which they infer that He continually repeats the sac-          that Christians have but on& mediator, the man Christ
rifice once offered on the cross. They even argue from              Jesus. There is but one sacrifice for sin, the all-su5cient
such passages as Malachi 1: 11, in which  the universal spread      sacrifice of Christ upon the cross, who died once for all
of  the true religion is predicted by saying that from the          to bring us near to God. Thirdly, Christ Himself and the
rising of the sun to the going dowti  QE the .sanie, ,"in. &vefy    Apostles after Him in all their addresses to the people,
place incense shall be offered unto my name, and a pure             instead of directing them to go to ministers as priests to
offering."                                                          obtain the benefits of redemption, uniformly assume that
    Protestants reject the  doctiine  that the  eucharist is a      the way is open for the return of every sinner to God with-
true propitiatory sacrifice, -                                      out human intervention. "Come unto me" is the invitation
    1, Because it is not only destitute of all support from         of Christ to every heavily laden sinner. "Believe on the
the Scriptures, but is directly contrary to the whole nature        Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved," is' the gospel
of the ordinance, as exhibited in its original institution and      preached by  the  ApoStles  both to  Jews  ~~~-I&,G~Y&xx  The
in the practice of the apostolic church. There it is set forth      emancipation of the Christian world effected by `tl-& ReE
as a sacred feast commemorative of the  death `of Christ.           o;mation, consisted in large measure in freeing man froth
    2. Because it is founded on the monstrous doctrine of           the belief that Christian ministers are priests through whom
transubstantiation. If the whole substance of the bread             alone sinners can draw near to God. It was preaching de-
be not changed into  t&e substance of Christ's body, and            liverance to captives, and the opening of the prison to those          -
the whole substance of the wine into the substance of His           who were bound, to announce that believers through Christ
blood, and if the whole Christ, body, soul, and divinity be         are  a11 made kings and priests unto God; subject to no
not really and truly present under the form (or species)            authority but the authority of God (and of course to such
or appearance of the bread and wine, then the priest in             as  He',`has  ordained), and all having access by one Spirit
the mass has nothing to offer. He in fact offers nothing,           u&o the Father. If then ministers are not priests, the eu-
and the whole service is a deceit. Just so certainly, there-        charist is not a sacr8ce.
fore, as the impossible and the unscriptural cannot be                 4. The Romish doctrine is derogatory to the sacrifice
true, just so certain is it, that the mass is not a propitiatory    of the cross. It supposes that the work of Christ in maki?g
sacrifice.                                                          satisfaction for the sins of men, needs to be constantly
   3. The Romish doctrine is that the -Apostles were                repeated. This is directly contrary to Scripture, which
priests, and were invested with authority and power to              teaches that by the one offering of Himself, He has for-
continue and perpetuate in the Church the priestly office           ever perfected them that believe. His one sacrifice has
by ordination and the imposition of hands by which the              done all that need be done, and all that a sacrifice can do.
supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit are conveyed. All this        Romanists say that the same sacrifice which was made on
is unscriptural and false. First, because a priest is a man         the cross, is made in the mass. The only difference between
appointed to be mediator between God and other men,                 the two is modal. It concerns only the matter of oblation.
drawing near to Him in behalf of those who have not                 Then why is the latter needed? Why does not the one
liberty of access for themselves, and whose function it is          offering of Christ suffice? Certain it is the Bible refers
to offer gifts and sacrifices for sin. But there is no such         us to nothing else: and the believer craves nothing else."                   "-
office under the Christian dispensation, save in the person         - end of quote.                                                   .  ;..-
of Jesus Christ. He is our only, and all sufficient priest;            Except for the conclusion of this quotation from Hodge,
everywhere present and everywhere accessible, who has               in which he ably denies and refutes the Roman Catholic
opened for us a new and living way of access to God,                doctrine of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, this con-
available to all sinners of the human race without the inter-       cludes our presentation of the Romish view of this sacra-
vention of any of their fellow sinners. Every believer is           ment. And it is certainly true what we read in our Heidel-
as much a priest under the Gospel, as any other bkliever,           berg Catechism, namely that the Romish view of this
for through Christ they al1 have equal freedom of access            sacrament is nothing else than an `accursed idolatry, wor-
unto God. It subverts the whole nature of the gospel,               shipping as Divine that which is nothing else than bread
to make the  intervdntion  of any human priest necessary to         and wine. How amazing, in our present day and age,
our reconciliation with God. Secondly, Christian ministers          that there are so many Protestants who laud the efforts
are never called priests in the New Testament. Every                of Rome as it seeks a unification of the Romish and Prot-
title of dignity, every term expressive of the nature of their      estant worlds, a unification which will take place, of course,
office, is bestowed on them, but the title priest, so familiar      only upon the basis of Rome.
to Jewish and Gentile ears, is never given to them. Nor is                                                                   H.V.

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

                                                                    the duty of proving this doctrine from Scripture. This is
         The Voice of  Our  Fathers                                 not the idea. Rather, in the first place, this statement
                                                                    points again to the complete dependence of our Confession
                                                                    upon Scripture, without which no confession has any author-
                  The Belgic Confession                             itv. We believe and confess this doctrine only because the
                                                                    Holy Scriptures teach it. And only in so far as the doctrine
                    ARTIC~LE XI (continued)                         of our Confession is the doctrine of Scripture does the
  The Godhead of the Holy Ghost                                     Confession have any value. In the second place, this-makes
       This article of our Confession speaks not only of the        it incumbent upon us to know where and how the Scrip-
 personality of the Spirit and the procession of the Spirit,        tures teach this doctrine. It simply will not do that we have
 but also of the true deity, or Godhead, of the Spirit. .We         some kind of vague idea that the Scriptures teach a doc-
 probably are inclined more or less to take this truth for          trine while we have no de&rite  knowledge of the Scriptural
  granted. But not only is it true that we should beware of         proofs. This can never be emphasized enough in the church
 taking things for granted, since this is one of the easiest        today, both for ourselves and our children. Certainly, our
 and quickest ways to lose our real hold on the truth; but          confessions must be acknowledged; and we ought not to be
 we must also bear in mind that this cardinal truth has             ashamed that we are a confessing and a confessiorzab  church.
 been denied, just as the true divinity of our Lord Jesus           But the surest way to lose our heritage is to become guilty
  Christ has been denied. And, in fact, the errors of the           of that brand of dead  confessional&m  that has no real
  denial of the double procession of the Spirit and of His          knowledge of the Scriptural character of our confessions,
 real personality carry in them implicitly the error of the         and that is unable to give account of the Scriptural basis
 denial of His Godhead. If you err on the former; you               for the doctrines confessed. How many of us, and how
 involve yourself in the error of subordinationism, that is,        many of our catechumens, are able to furnish such proof
 the error that the Holy Ghost is of a lower rank, has less         from Scripture for the doctrine of the deity of the Holy
 majesty and glory, than the Father or the Son. And this            Ghost? Here is one of the most elementary of the cardinal
 is really a denial of His true and complete divinity.              doctrines of the church. And yet would not a good many
       Hence, our Confession explicitly teaches this doctrine       Reformed Christians today become rather flustered and
  of the deity of the Holy Ghost.                                   probably "hem-and-haw" if called upon to show that Scrip-
       This is already implied in the teaching that the Holy        ture teaches it?
 Ghost  "from eternity  proceeds from the Father and the               Hence, let us briefly review a few of the Scriptural
  Son," in the  fist place. For if He is "from eternity," He        proofs, in order that we may say with all our heart, "as
 is God. In the second place, it is implied negatively in           the Holy Scriptures teach us."
 the statement of Article XI that He is neither made, nor
  created. For He Who is untreated  is the Self-existent and           In the first place, divine names are ascribed to the
  Self-sufhcient  God Himself, Who has the ground and the           Holy Ghost: He is called God in Scripture. Of this there is
  source of all His being and life within Himself. And, in          a very clear proof in the book of Acts, chapter 5. And this
  the third place, Article XI sets forth this doctrine in           proof illustrates and emphasizes at the same time the
                                                              SO
  many words when it teaches that the Holy Ghost is `bf             dread seriousness of the fact that the Holy Ghost is very
  one and the same essence, majesty and glory with the              God Himself. It does so because it emphasizes the fact
  Father, and the Son," and concludes with the statement:           that in the church the Holy Ghost, as the Spirit of Christ,
  "and therefore is the true and eternal God, as the Holy           dwells, and that this Spirit Who dwells in the church is
  Scriptures teach us." Hence, all that is true of  >God is         very God! In all the life and activity and function of the
  true of the  Holy Ghost. All that we confess in Article I         church, therefore, men .stand  in very close proximity and
  concerning God we also confess concerning the Holy Ghost.         relationship to and responsibility before God Himself. We
  The Being of the Holy Ghost is "`the one only simple and          can really do or say nothing in the church without touching
  spiritual Being, which we call God." And the Holy Ghost           the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit that indwells the church,
 is "eternal, incomprehensible, invisible, immutable, infinite,     the Spirit' Who is true and eternal God: so close we are
  almighty, perfectly wise, just, good, and the overflowing         to Him! The incident in Acts 5  is  that of Ananias and
.-fountain of all good." He possesses all the divine attributes,    Sapphira, who in the days of the early New Testament
  or virtues, equally with the Father and the Son.                  church sold a possession, kept back part of the  selling-
       Again, our Confession does not adduce specific proof         price for themselves, brought the rest and laid it at the
 from Scripture, but simply makes the general statement,            apostles' feet (as the practice was in the days when be-
  "as the Holy Scriptures teach us." This expression must not       lievers had all things in common), and  ,pretended  that
  be ignored or shrugged off, as though in our Confession           they were giving the whole price, and thus performing a
  we, or the author, are too much in a hurry to produce             Spirit-led good work, as did many true believers at that
  this proof, or as though this is an easy way of evading           time. To sell one's land and lay the money at the apostles'


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                                                                                 :
~



I                                             T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                              19

     feet was certainly a good.work,  one that could be performed     Him in Hebrews 9:14 : "How much more shall the blood
     only out of a love that was the fruit of theindwelling Spirit    of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself
     of Christ. This was the work performed by that  Levrte           without spot to God, purge your  condcience  from dead
     from Cyprus, Barnabas. Nor was it wrong as such,  to- works to serve the living God?" The divine power and will
     bring only part of the money to the apostles. The apostle        to impart all the spiritual gifts mentioned in I Corinthians
     Peter even mentions this in verse .4, namely, that it was        12:7  - 10 is attributed to the Spirit in vs. 11: "But all
     their own money and in their own power, to do with as            these worketh that one and the  selfsame  Spirit, divid-
     they saw fit. But covetously  and greedily to keep back a        ing to every man severally as he will." And in Romans
     part of the money and to  .tell the church by word and           15: 19 the apostle attributes the divine power (the attribute
     action that they brought all the money to the apostles           of omnipotence) to the Holy Spirit, as follows: "Through
     was the very heinous sin of lying not merely to men, but         mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of`
     to and against the Spirit of Christ, the Holy Ghost, God         God  .._. . .  "
     Himself. It was pretending to do a work that was the                 Several passages of Scripture, in the third place, at-
     fruit of the Spirit while they actually performed a work         tribute peculiarly divine works to the Spirit. Thus, the
     of the devil. It is in this light that we must understand        work of creation is -ascribed' to Him in the following pas-
     Peter's severe castigation of Ananias and Sapphira, as also      sages: Genesis 1:2 : "And the spirit of God moved upon
     the,,dreadful  punishment that was visited upon them so          the face of the waters." Psalm 33:6 : "By the word of the
     promptly. And it is thus, too, that we must understand           Lord were the heavens made;' and all the host of them
     the fact that "great fear came upon all the church." This,       by the breath (spirit) of his mouth." Psalm 104:30  : "Thou
     briefly, is the narrative in Acts 51-D. Hence, it is no mere     sendest  forth thy spirit, they are created: and thou  re-
     cold, dogmatic fact that is stated here concerning the deity     newest the face of the earth." Moreover, He is the Spirit
     of the Holy Ghost, but a very awesome, living truth: "But        of life and the author of the resurrection, according to
     Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled &tine heart to        Scripture. In Romans  8:2 we read: "For the law of the
     lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price        Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the
     of the land? While it remained, was it not thine own? and        law of sin and death." And in verse 11 we read: "`But if
     after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? why hast       the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell
     thou conceived this thing in thine heart? thou hast not          in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also
     lied unto men, but  unto God." vss.  3,4. And again, to          quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in
     Sapphira the apostle says: "How is it that ye have agreed        you." He is the Spirit of the rebirth: "Jesus answered,
     together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord?" vs. 9.                Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man -be born of
        Besides, of course, He is repeatedly called the "Spirit       water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom
     of God" and the "Spirit of the Lord" in Scripture. Romans        of God.?' John  3:5. And  ,He is the Spirit of adoption,
     8:9; I Corinthians 2:10,11; I Cor. 6:11,19; I Cor. 12:3; etc.    Romans 8: 15: "For ye have not received the spirit of bond-
        In the second place, divine attributes are ascribed to        .age again. to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adop-
     the Holy Ghost. .In Psalm 139:7  - 10 the attribute of om-       tion, whereby we cry, Abba, Father."
     nipresence is ascribed to Him, as follows: "Whither shall            Finally, divine honors `are ascribed to Him. For it is
     I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy           in the name of the Holy Ghost, as well as the name of
     presence? If I ascend up into heaven thou art there:             the Father and the Son that we are baptized: "Go ye
     if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take      therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the
     the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost             name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost."
     parts of the sea; Even there shall thy hand lead me, and         Matthew 28: 19. And it is through the Spirit that the
     thy right hand shall hold me." Also the attribute of divine      blessings of salvation are bestowed upon the church: "The
     knowledge is attributed to Him. Thus, in I Corinthians           grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the
     2:10,11 we read: "But God hath revealed them unto us             communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all." II Corinth-
     by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the     ians 13: 14.
     deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of               In  *the light of the above passages it is abundantly
     a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so           evident that our Confession is correct when it says: "of one
     the things of God lcnoweth no man, but the Spirit of God."       and the same essence, majesty and glory with the Father,
     The same truth is taught in Isaiah 40:13,14  : "Who hath         and the Son: and therefore, is the true and eternal God,
     directed the spirit of the Lord, or being his counselor hath     as the Holy Scriptures teach us."
     taught him? With whom took he counsel, and who in-                   Nor is this an insignificant truth, but full of real sig-
     structed him, and taught him in the path of judgment, and        nificance for the church today, as we hope to point  .o.ut_
     taught him knowledge, and  shewed  to him the way of             next time.
     understanding?" The attribute of eternity is ascribed to                                                              H.C.H.


20                                       T H E   STAND,ARD   B E A R E R

                                                                 fidence toward those who are worthy of the church's help."
`11 MCEN~CY  a n d   ORDER  jl Three main principles are implicit in this matter. The
                                                                 first is the fundamental principle of Scripture and the entire
                                                                 church order that the church is duty bound to assist and
                    Assisting the Poor                           provide for its poor. Not only  is this a duty but it is a
                                                                 privilege as well. This beautiful work of mercy is a re-
      The committee of the Christian Reformed Church that        flection of the High Priestly office of Christ Himself. To be
some years ago drew  up. a proposed revision of the church       sure there is also a human side to this work and because
order saw fit to exclude altogether from this revision the       of this the spiritual function of mercy is sometimes forgotten
matter of Article 83 of our church order. The reader will        and the church is inclined  TV unburden herself of this task
recall that this article deals with the matter of the deacons    and by moving the poor from her fellowship passes the
providing assistance to the poor who, for sufficient reason,     burden of their support to another church. Against this
see fit to remove from the congregation. The deaconi  are        Article 83.warns. This may not be done. In regard to these
to provide according to their discretion an amount that is       problems the church may not succumb to the temptation
adequate to enable these poor to reach their new place of        to follow the easy way but she must ever be mindful of her
residence. Perhaps  the committee  considered this matter        calling to care for her poor, seeking their spiritual well
of significance only with application to the historic cir-       being and providing their material needs. The poor are
cumstances out of which it arose and so felt the matter          always with you. Care for  .&em! In doing so ye do it as
entirely out dated today. At any rate under this revised         unto Christ Himself.
church order there is no provision made for assistance to           The second principle is that the poor may remove
be given to any of the poor who for  suflicient  reason feel     from the congregation only when. there is sufficient reason.
they must move to another locality and lack the means            This is essentially the same principle that is expressed in
to do so.                                                        0~.  Belgic Confession that "everyone is duty bound to
      Although it must be granted that circumstances gen-        join and unite themselves with the true church" (Art. 28).
erally are quite different today than they were when the         The point here `is not that the poor have in their own
church order was composed and it may even be admitted            opinion a sufficient reason to remove from the church but
that cases that would be covered by the provisions of this       this reason must be sufficient in the judgment of the
article are quite exceptional, we feel that the complete         deacons. Without this the deacons may not let them
omission of this article from the church order is a mistake.     go and certainly may not assist them with financial help on
First of all because there are principles involved here that     their way. Also here the deacons must remember that the
ought to be preserved and, secondly, circumstances are           spiritual supersedes the material. It could certainly not be
subject to sudden change so that even today situations           judged a sufficient reason to remove from the church if
may arise necessitating these provisions that we would           one simply could advance economic reasons. A man could
favor retaining this matter in the church order.                 conceivably want to go to a place where there is no mani-
      Of course the article as it applies today concerns only    festation of the true church but where he could obtain a
those poor who are supported by the diaconate of the             job. He would then deprive himself and his family of the
church. It does not apply to those who are able to provide       means of grace, the fellowship of the church, the com-
their own day by day needs but lack the extra involved           munion of saints, the instruction of the Christian school and
in moving to another place. If such persons desire to re-        the  chamlels of all spiritual blessings for the sake of
move from the church to another area they cannot expect          economic gain. But is better to starve or be poor with the
the deacons to provide them with funds to meet their             people of God than to possess the riches of this world
moving costs. The article plainly refers to those who are        without God. Another, who is poor, might seek assistance
poor, that is, the objects of the charity of the church.         from the deacons to move to another place where there
Concerning them the Church Order Commentary states,              is a larger church. Here he would still remain poor but he
"If any of our poor desire to move and if the deacons            might consider that the larger church would give him more
feel persuaded that there are  sufEcient reasons for their       support than he was getting from the smaller church., Such
departure, then these poor are entitled to as much help          reasons are not sufficient to justify removal from the church.
as the deacons shall deem adequate. Until 1905 for the              On the other hand a poor family might want to move
churches in Holland, and until 1914 for our churches, Ar-        to another place where there is a church and where the
ticle 83 stipulated that the amount given to departing poor      father of the family could be gainfully employed. To do
should be noted on the reverse side of their attestation or      this he needs assistance in moving and in such a circum-
certificate. Now, however, this  isno longer required. Those     stance the  .deacons  would judge that it is advisable to
who stand in need of traveling expenses are not so numer-        help him for in so doing the church would be relieved
ous, and the deacons should exercise good will and con-          of supporting him and at the same time he would remain


                                           T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                21

in the communion of the church. Another  ,might `of nec-            minister of the Word, elder or deacon shall dominate the
essity have to move to another place for reasons of health,         one over the other, but every one shall guard himself
etc., and then too the deacons would rightly lend assistance.       against all suspicions and enticements to dominate."
But no matter what the reason or reasons given, the deacons            Already three years before this church order was
must use prudence and discretion so that no help is given           adopted at the Synod of Emden the ground work for this
unless the reason the poor move is justified from every             was laid when the leaders of the Reformed Church of
point of view.                                                      Holland and nearby territories met in the Wezelian Con-
   Finally we notice that the article warns the churches            vention. Dr. F. L. Rutgers informs us that in Chapter IV,
that they shall not needlessly relieve themselves of their          Article 7 of the conclusionsof this convention provision was
own poor and so place an unnecessary burden upon other              made that "elders shall promise not to employ domination,
churches. Each church must not simply look out for its              neither regarding the ministers nor regarding the congrega-
own interests but also be considerate of the interests of           tion." The same convention protected the rights of the in-
others even as..such is the responsibility of each believer         dividual church and limited the authority of the broader
in Christ. All too often this principle is ignored-or forgotten.    gatherings when it decided in Chapter V, Article 19 that,
And the deeper principle is that each local church is duty          "Nevertheless we do not here acknowledge the classical
bound to care for its own poor. Ordinarily when the poor            gatherings to have jurisdiction over any church or its
leave a certain church, that church ceases to care for them         offices, except these shall permit it of their own accord, in
and then the church in which they become members takes.             order that the churches may not be robbed against their
up this task. To this, however, there may be exceptions and         will. of their jurisdiction and authority."
then the church from which the poor has departed will               . All of this was necessary not only because the Reformed
continue to care for them through the diaconate of the              Churches wanted to express a deiinite  stand of opposition
church to which they have gone. Or it may be that both              to the hierarchical system' of Rome in which one church
churches contribute a part of the support. The arrange-             dominates another church and one office bearer lords it over
ments must be agreed upon by the two churches and de-               other office bearers but also because among the Reformers
termined according to the particular circumstances.                 themselves there was fear, reluctance and even refusal to
   We do observe here yet that in the execution of the              cooperate in the formation of. Classes and Synods, antic-
matter of Article 83 the deacons' task is not an easy one.          ipating that these bodies might tend to become domi-
When situations like. these arise observers are often quick         neering and deprive the individual churches of their rights.
to criticize and fail to understand the difficulties confront-      This fear was especially found in the Netherlands and so
ing the deacons in disposing of these matters.                      the very f&t article of the church order aimed at giving
                                                                    assurances that denominational affiliation and cooperation
               Equality of Office Bearers                           did not at all aim at domination, and further that all domina-
                                                                    tion, the lording of one church over another, of one office
   "No church shall in any way lord it over other churches,         bearer over the other stood to be condemned.
no minister over other ministers, no elder or deacon over              Though the place of this article in the church order has
other elders or deacons."                -Article 84, D.K.O.        changed so that now it is Article 84 instead of Article 1,
                                                                    the principle expressed in it is the same. This change in
   Here we have to do with one of the most fundamental              position has not minimized its significance. It is perhaps
principles of all Reformed Church Polity. In a more limited         more important today than ever. We are living in times
way this same principle was already expressed in Article 17         in which governments of the world are moving toward
where it is stated that, "Among the ministers of the Word           amalgamation and the formation of a super-state and this
equality shall be maintained with respect to the duties             same pattern  ,is being followed closely by the church. A
of their office, and also in .other matters as far as possible." super-church is in the making. Its power is that of the
Then again, "This equality shall also be maintained in the          false prophet. Its character is that of domineering sup-
case of the elders and deacons." In other words, Article 84         pression. Zealously we must guard the principles for which
simply broadens out this principle of equality to churches          our fathers died and maintain steadfastly the autonomy
as well as to office bearers. It is out of this principle that      of the church. The importance of this we will consider,
the Reformation; from the church political point of view,           D. V., in our next article.
is born. The Reformers stood staunchly upon it as op-                                                                    G.v.d.B.
posed to the principles of the hierarchical system. With
such great importance did the Reformed fathers regard
this that in the original church order of 1571 they incor-                     Complete deliverance I will give,
porated this as the very first article. That article origi-                    And honor him while he shall live;
nally read:                                                                    Abundant life I will bestow,
   "No church shall dominate over other churches, no                           To lrim my full salvation show.

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

                                                                  on an equal footing. There were others who disputed this.
       ALL A RO  U N  B  ti.§                                     The final decision reads:
                                                                   :          That Synod declare that where young Christian churches
                                                                            which have come into existence through mission effort belong
  REFORMED ECUMENICAL SYNOD                                                 to different nations, speaking different languages and having
                                                                            different cultures than the older church which inaugurated mis-
       Many of our people have probably been wondering                      sion work. it is advisable that these churches maintain  sen-
  what happened at the Reformed Ecumenical Synod that                       arate  assemblies up to the level of their own national Synods.
                                                                            But the unity of the church of Christ, in its diversity, must
  was held in Grand Rapids last month. The reports that                     further be expressed and revealed whether bv holding ioint
  have appeared in Church periodicals have, thus far, been                  synodical  gatherings as soon as possible, as soon as &um-
                                                                            stances `permit, or in such organizational development as will
  rather sketchy, but a brief report can be made.                           reflect that unitv  as far as it is'uossible  to do so. In this wav
       Delegates were from various parts of this country, from              the one church-of Christ, in itsLuniversality,  its unity, and its
                                                                            pluriformity, will be progressively revealed among the nations
  the Netherlands,  .from South' America, from Scotland and                 of the world.
  Ireland, from South Africa and Nigeria, from Korea and                Although it is impossible to comment on the Synod in
  Japan, from New Zealand and Australia, and from Ceylon.         detail from such scanty reports, it is somewhat surprising
  All'of these countries have Reformed Churches. There were       to notice that there were no discussions or decisions about
  17 member denominations represented, 4 prospective mem-         doctrinal matters. It would seem that in these days of doc-
  ber'denominations who were given a full vote at the Synod,      trinal decline and apostasy from the faith, such a Reformed
  observers from 6 denominations, 14 theological professors       Synod should busy itself with the defense of the faith once
  who served as advisors, and 10 special guests.                  delivered to the saints. Passing decisions on this particular
       The officers of the Synod were: Rev. George N. M. Col-     social problem or that has little value if the truth is not
  lins from the free Church of Scotland, Moderator; Dr.           defended.
  Fred H. Klooster from the Christian Reformed Church,
  First- Clerk; Dr. Paul G. Schrotenboer from the Christian       MORALITY AND HIGH OFFICE
  Reformed Church as Second Clerk; Professor John Murray                Recently an editorial in  Ch&&&~~.   Tc&zy  commented
  from the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, First Assessor;          upon the terrible laxity in morals especially among high
  Dr. Herman N. Ridderbos from the Gereformeerde Kerken           officials in government.
  in Nederland, Second Assessor.                                        It cited several cases as evidence of this. SThere  is, `of
       Some of the more important decisions taken were:           course, the well-known and over-publicized case of adultery
       1) A permanent- Secretariat was set up. The office is      and moral decay and suicide in the scandals that recently
  described in  The Banner  in the following words: "There        rocked the conservative government of England. Besides,
  must be one man who is to be a symbol, a constant point of      the editor refers to a former dean of Harvard law school
  contact between the Reformed Churches throughout the            and former high government official by the name of James
  world;".Rev.  Paul Schrotenboer was given this appointment.     Landis who has been indicted for failure to  file income tax
       2) Several committees  werg,:.appointed:  a permanent      returns for five years involving-no less than $300,000. There
  committee on Reformed literature; an interim committee to       is further the prominence of divorced men holding some of
  function between Synods which are held every five years;        the highest offices in the country. Three outstanding ex-
  a standing committee on missions who are to give assistance     amples are Nelson Rockefeller, governor of New York and
  to member churches in their missionary work.                    presidential aspirant; William Douglas, justice of the Su-
       3) The question came up concerning the position of the     preme Court; and Adlai Stevenson, United States Ambas-
  Churches on separate social and political organizations. The    sador to the United Nations and two-time presidential
  majority of Synod argued that it was the calling of the         candidate.
  Church to organize separately and maintain the antithesis             In a following editorial the same editor comment; on a
  this -way. But many also questioned this and maintained         similar issue and discusses what may be the cause of all
  that the Christian calling is to witness and exert his in-      this. He finds this cause especially in the increasingly sec-
  fluence as long as possible in broader organizations which      ular education of this country. Chancellor Adenauer (from
include both believers and unbelievers. What was finally          West Germany) is reported to have said to Lynden Johnson
  settled I do not know.    .`,                                   (our Vice-president), "I have never seen as great a lack of
       4) Also a decision  was  made on the problem of the        moral integrity as I have among your young people. I do
  relation between newly established churches on the mission      not believe that in the conflict between East and West the
  field and the older `inother" churches. It seems as if the      young people of the free world have the moral integrity to
  race issue was a primary issue in this discussion. Some felt    Will."
  that young churches (often composed of non-whites) should             The editor speaks scathingly of the school system of.
  meet with the older churches in ecclesiastical fellowship       America, of so-called Christian homes where "prayer, Bible


   I                                            T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                             23

reading, and the family altar are neglected." But he lays                  A  COfiii'kNT 6N POPE PAUL
his bitterest words and severest condemnations on the                         The following article gives a rather complete consensus
Church.                                                                    of what the reaction of Protestants has .been to the election
           We believe part of the blame rests squarely on the Church.      of Pope Paul.
        In recent years the Church has become increasingly concerned
        with economic, social? and political problems. There has been
        a corresponding declme  in her spiritual mission. As a result              A Protestant clergyman' who is a syndicated newspaper
        people have lost any sense of sin as an offense against a holy          columnist today hailed the choice of Pope Paul VI as the "most
        God. The Churches pay a number of lobbyists in Washington               significant move toward Christian brotherhood since the Ref-
        today to work for social and other legislation. . . . Some con-         ormation of the. 16th Century."
        sider government as agent of the Church. Such folly leads us               The Rev. Dr.  Carlyle  Adams, Stated Clerk of the Presbytery
        deeper and deeper into the morass of futilitv. How can a                of Albany and writer of the Register and Tribune Syndicate
        new society be brought about without new men? How can we                column, "Our Religions," said:
        have new men  ,nnless  Christ has transformed and taken  up his            "The late Pope John XXIII had brought more healing to
        abode in men's hearts?                                                  the wounds of the Christian body than any other spiritual
                                                                                leader in the past 1100 years.. But now the Cardinals of the
   With this- we agree. The frightening and shocking dis-                       Roman Catholic Church have deliberately and consciously
                                                                                chosen the one man best equipped to advance goodwill and
integration of morals among those of high office makes it                       understanding between the divisions of Christendom.
almost impossible for the Christian to vote. A choice be-                          "So striking and unpredictable have been the movements
                                                                                of Christian thought in the last few years," Dr. Adams said,
tween Rockefeller and Kennedy would be almost an im-                            "that people of all branches of the faith are becoming con-
possible choice in any election.. For even  tire present                        vinced that the Holy Spirit is at work in the world. The new
                                                                                evangelical fervor in the Roman Catholic and Eastern Ortbo-
administration  is so evidently cynical about what is right                     dox churches, together with the Protestant trend toward the
and wh& .`;s wrong, so completely sold to the idea that they                    sense of God's mysterious presence in public worship, all point
                                                                                to eventual unity. I believe this is God's will and I believe
ought only do what will gain them votes, that one turns                         Poggj  VI will- be used as an instrument in accomplishing
away in disgust. And the terrible materialism and secular-
ism of the country is the cause.                                              It is like an epitaph on the gravestone that marks the
   But there are two points that ought to be made  -                       burying place of the Church to hear a man praise Rome
especially because the editor (and many others commenting                  that slaughtered and butchered the saints  `of God, that
on these grave moral problems) still speaks in terms of some               corrupted true doctrine, that vaunted itself before God
hope that things will improve.                                             Himself, and that has not, up till the present, backed away
   One point is that if these men who sadly shake their                    an inch from this terrible position.
heads at the growing evil around us would only turn to                        Another illustration of how evil the Church has become
their Bible they would discover that in many places Scrip-                 is the case of a clergyman in the Anglican Church of Eng-
ture speaks of this very thing. This is, in fact, a sign of the            land. He had some remarks to make about the Bible.
nearness of the end. This does not alter the calling of the                   First of all though, he refused to assent to the Thirty-
Church to condemn all this wickedness, but it does mean                    Nine Articles of the Church of England (the official and
that we must expect that our consistent and clear condem-                  quite Calvinistic confession of the Anglican Church) be-
nation will have the result of arousing the wicked to yet                  cause it was in his words, "a theological fossil."
greater sins. The cup of iniquity must be made full and                       But primarily he -was determined to vent his hatred
the world must be ripened for judgment. This is the sov-                   against Holy Scripture. `I?le Bible, taken literally, is just
ereign purpose of God. We must not sadly bemoan a                          "plain wrong." It is full of wrong history and unfulfilled
failure to achieve universal revival.                                      prophecies. There is no evidence anywhere for what it
   Secondly the editor is among so many  evangelicals  (and                claims to be true. It is no more and not less the Word of
also many Reformed) who seem to think that there will be                   God than any other ancient holy book in the world or even
some sort of national or international revival, some distant               any other serious inspirational record of human experiences
time when the world will turn to Christ, some day when                     and knowledge. It is hardly possible to use the Bible at all
men shall successfully solve all their problems, some age                  in this age of science. He concluded with the words:
when the kingdom of Christ shall come on this earth. This
is nothing but post-millenmalism in its worst form. This                           Some of the history is wrong. Some of the details are ob-
                                                                                viously garbled, incidents and events have got out of context,
is a grave evil of our modern day - an evil that threatens                      prophecies were not fulfilled  always. St. Paul was completely
the very well-being of the Reformed Churches. Even while                        wrong in his idea of the Second Coming and the sudden
                                                                                transformation of the bodies of the living into spirit bodies.
they still piously speak of a second coming of Christ, a
coming that shall destroy this present world, they seem to                    So continue the attacks on Scripture. Yet it must never
be far more concerned with making this world a better                      be forgotten (also by those in the Reformed Churches who
place to live in so that the kingdom of Christ may gradually               do the same) that any attack on Scripture is an attack on
develop out of the existing world order.                                   God Himself. God wrote Scripture; it is His Book; men
   They will find to their surprise (and it is hoped, dismay)              vilify Him with their filthy attacks on His Word.
that they are furthering only the kingdom of Antichrist.                                                                             H: Hanko

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

I        -                                                      II       Holland's Ladies' Society held their Annual Social in the
ti -NEWS FROM OURA3-iLlRCklES 11 last week of August. This social+ was the occasion for the
                                                                      ,congregation  to present Rev. and Mrs. Lanting-with a Mel-
              `All the saints salute thee . . Z' PHIL: 4:21           mat dinnerware set and an electric blank&.

                                                                          Holland's consistory has authorized the Building Com-
                                              Sept. 20, 1963          mittee to make preliminary investigations into the possibil-
      The congregation of  Redlands  has called the Rev. J.           ity of erecting a church edifice on the recently purchased
Kortering of Hull, from a trio which included the Revs. J.            lots.
A. Heys and G. Vanden  Berg.                                              Monday evening, Sept. 9, was the date of Holland's An-
      "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and into etern-        nual Society Inspirational meeting. This year Rev. R. C.
ity" was the Scripture passage Rev. C. Hanko  chose to                Harbach, of Kalamazoo, was slated to give the inspirational
comfort the mourners at Mrs. H. Hoeksema's funeral-wed-               address.
nesday, September 25. After a lingering illness of about six              We think that the  above,mentioned  practice might well
months Mrs. Hoeksema tias relieved of this body oi death              be copied in all our churches and that the entire adult
Motiday,  September 23. Having fought the good fight of               membership be invited (as Holland did) that the value of
faith, in the congregation and in her home, she finished              society life may be re-emphasized. Whenever two or three
the course and was taken away to share in the crown of                children of God are congregated in His Name He has prom-
riihteousness with which the Lord will reward all who have            ised to be Personally present. Surely, then, not one of us
loved his appearing. Oh, blessed truth: "We-&  sown in                may with impunity neglect the gathering of saints where
weakness, we are raised in power"!                                    the Word of God is studied. How tragic to miss' an op-
      The Committee for the publication of Prot. Ref. liter-          portunity to enjoy the fellowship of the Spirit in the com-
ature is alerting our people to the goal of $lO,OOO for which         munion of saints!
it `is striving. The first book to be published will cost up-             Oak Lawn's Young People's Society heard a paper by
ward from $6,000.00,  which must be raised very soon. The             Kay Wieringa on a recent after recess program on, "What
monies received over and above their most pressing needs              should the Christian's view be with regard to present day's
will go into the next project. We have so very much mate-             findings of archeologists and geologists?" A  Scri$urally
rial that should be published, and this Committee is dedi-            based paper on that subject should be of timely value to
cated to that purpose. The Committee is hopin that the                young people in this day and age. For many an educator
members of our denomination will heed the open letters                very glibly teaches for fact the theories of the scientists of
describing its aims and financial needs. Watch for the next           today. It's well to remember that science is true science only
letter telling how you may become one of the underwriters             when it is not in conflict with God's Own revelation con-
of this great work.                                                   cerning His Creation.
      Hull's summer Sunday School held the last session of                Rev. Herman Veldman, minister in the Hope Prot. Ref.
their first year August 25. Rev. Kortering, via the bulletin,         Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan, will be the radio
expresses his gratitude.for the cooperation of the parents in         speaker on the weekly broadcasts of ,The Reformed Witness
assisting the children, and for tl& faithfulness of the teach-        Hour during October. Ephesians  6:13 is the text of the
ers who devoted much effort in preparing for their classes;           speaker's first two messages of this series. This section of
and his grateful thanks "to our God Who has blessed us                Holy Writ teaches the people of God that the Christian
with this means of instruction for our covenant children              soldier, in order to be strong in the Lord, must put on the
that they may be better equipped for their calling in the             whole armor of God. In the last two sermons of the series
midst of the world."                                                  Rev. Veldman explains to his listeners that "The Christian
      The Annual meeting of the Reformed Action Society               is a New Creature in Christ Jesus" - II Cor. 517. For
was scheduled for Sept. 20 in Doon Church. Rev. H. Hanko              further study printed copies can be obtained by writing to
was to speak on, "The Testimony  df  the Printed Page in              The Reformed Witness Hour, Box 1230, Grand Rapids,
Our Day."                                                             Michigan 49501.
      Sept. 20 was also' the date of the Sunday School Teach-             The Society for Protestant Reformed Secondary Educa-
ers' Mass meeting held in Southwest Church in Grand                   tion (high school) almost  unatiously  adopted the Board's
Rapids. Seminarian Robert Decker was scheduled to speak               proposal to purchase the property situated near Hope
on the subject, "The Sunday School and Its Place in the               Church. That's a big start!
Protestant Reformed Churches."                                            . . . . See you.in church.                         J.M.F.


