        VOLU;LZE   XL                         NOVEMBER  15,1963   - GRAND  Rums,  MICHIGAN                           NUMBER 4

                                                                         There is but one power upon which to depend, one
               M E D I T A T I O N                                    power that will surely keep us, guard us, protect us, bring
I         -                                                      ,    us safely through it all. And of that power the text speaks:
                                                                      the love of God!
     KEEP YOURSELVES IN THE LOVE OF GOD                                  Would you persevere and be assured of persevering
               But ye,  behed,   building up yourselves on your       even unto the end? Here is the answer: `Ye, beloved,
         mod holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, Keep              . . . keep yourselves in the love of God!"
         yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy                         _.      a  0  *  rr
         of  our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal l,ife. Jude, 20,21
                                                                         In the sphere of that love we must-keep ourselves, so
     But ye, beloved . .  -.                                          that there is harmony and contact between that love of
     Ye, in contrast with the heretics and false teachers and         God and our hearts and lives, so that we have that love
their followers, who separate themselves, who live  -not              of God in our hearts, so that we know that love, are as-
formally apart from the church, but separate themselves               sured  ,of that love, .trust that love, `depend on that love,
from the truth in their life and walk, who adhere to error,           find our strength in that love. There, where that love is
who walk not according to the gospel; who are carnal, not             revealed and where it operates, we must be, so that we
spiritual, who teach and walk in the corruption of their              may experience its mighty power, so that our hearts and
own carnal, covetous, evil nature, Who tempt you and seek             lives may vibrate and throb with the pulsations of that
to lead you astray by their errors, - ye, what shall ye do?           mighty love. In the sphere of that love we must abide,
What shall become of you?                                             so that we may enjoy it as our only place of safety, our
     How and by what power shall ye be able to stand?                 shelter, our stronghold,. in trouble's day, so that we may
     And when the wrath of God is poured out upon them,               feel safe and secure when ,the mighty power of that love
how shall ye escape ? What is your defense, your refuge?              enfolds us, protects us, brings us unscathed and unharmed
What is your safeguard, your protection? How shall ye                 through the fierce attacks of the godless enemy.
persevere and be assured of persevering?                                 And what is the sphere of that love? It is the cross
     Pertinent questions are these for the "beloved" in any           of our Lord Jesus Christ, as sealed by the resurrection on
age.                                                                  the third day. There  Gbd~.gave His only begotten Son.
     But the pertinency of these questions is underscored             And there He  rkvealed'?T%s  love. "For God so loved the
for us by the fact that more and more our age bears the               world that he  .gave' his only begotten Son . . .  " Hence,
marks of the last time. False teachers and false Christs              the sphere of that love is the gospel of Jesus Christ, the
abound. Departure from the truth and the precepts of the              sphere of the' truth of the gospel. Never; therefore, can
gospel is increasingly a sign of the times. Temptation                you keep yourselves in the love of God apart from the
through the- lusts- of this present world is -ever' more at-          means  -of' grace, the preaching of the Word and the sacra-
tractive and easy to follow. Increasingly the. faithful are           ments. For through them only can and do we know the
tempted, assaulted, taunted, troubled.. More frequently it            love of God.
becomes necessary for the "beloved" to stand alone and to                You understand, of course, that the apostle is not
be willing to become outcasts even in their own religious             speaking here of our love to God, but of God's  love to US.
and ecclesiastical circles. And the struggle to maintain and          To be sure, love is always of God. Even' our love to Him
adhere to the truth strictly in confession and walk becomes           is of God. It is but the result, the reflection of, and the
ever more difficult.                                                  response to His love shed abroad in our .hearts. The dis-
      How, then, shall we ever endure?.                               tinction between the two is that in the one case the love


74                                       T H E   .STAND#RD  B E A R E R

of God is viewed from the aspect of its action and operation     ning of the new life. And for the rest, we are still sinful,
toward and upon and in us from God; in the other case,           still in the midst of our enemies, still in temptation and
it is viewed from the aspect of its operation from us, by        subject to temptation, unable to stand of ourselves, not only
grace, to God-ward. But fundamentally, love is always of         in danger of falling, but such that we certainly would fall
of God. For God is love! Moreover, the two, - our love to        away completely, would be no better than all the wicked
God and God's love to us - always go hand in hand. God's         apostates who go to their doom under the wrath of God,
love always kindles the response of our love to Him. Hence,      - were it not for that altogether divine, that sovereign,
if we keep ourselves in the one,-we also keep ourselves in       independent, unchangeable, faithful, all-enduring, all-vic-
love to Him.                                                     torious power of the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord!
      Nevertheless, the text speaks of Gods love to usward,         For that love of God always operates to, saoe us.
not of our love to God-ward. The latter could never be              The goal of that love is the eternal life which the text
our  safe shelter, our refuge from the adversary. For our        mentions. And eternal life is the life that is now in our
love to God is only in principle. And if then that love must     Lord Jesus Christ in glory. It is the life that is ours in
be the ground and the guarantee of our assurance, we can         principle by regeneration. It is the life that implies perfect
immediately think of ten thousand reasons to lack confi-         covenant fellowship with God, the life that means that we
dence. For our sins rise up against us, prevailing day by        are forever united with Him in the full bliss of the bond
day. And every one of those sins is a strong testimony           of perfectness, without any death and without any pos-
that as -far as the love of God is concerned we fail, fail       sibility of death, when we shall see Him face to face, and
miserably! Every one of those sins reminds us that we,           know even as we are known! Eternal life means that we
if left to ourselves, would never persevere! Only the love       shall be forever even as God has conceived of us and known
wherewith God loves us can ever serve as our sure pro-           us and beheld us in Christ Jesus as His perfect people from
tection, our safe refuge! .                                      all eternity. It means that we shall be perfectly and com-
      And what a refuge!                                         pletely conformed to the image of His Son, the Son of His
      Sovereign, eternal, unchangeable, independent, all-en-     love!
during, unswervingly faithful, victorious is that love!             And to realize that image of His people, His Zion, that
      For love is of God! God loves Himself!                     God has engraved in the palms of His divine hands from
      And love in God is the spiritual bond that unites in       eternity, - to realize that image God's love always operates.
the sphere of perfection, the bond of perfectness. Love             Moreover, because love is of God, and is sovereign,
implies the perfect subject cleaving to, breathing after, de-    unchangeably faithful, not dependent on you and me, con-
lighting in, seeking, the perfect object. Such love is eter-     tinuing in its divine operation faithful in spite of all our
nally in and of God Triune Himself. The Father loves             unfaithfulness and unworthiness, therefore the saving opera-
the Son in the Spirit. The Son loves the Father in the           tion of that love is  absokctely   certain. It can never fail!
Spirit. And the Spirit loves the Father and the Son in           The goal of eternal life shall certainly be reached! And it
Himself.                                                         shall be reached by all the elect!
      And the love wherewith God loves us, His people, is           What  is. our hope, our refuge, our shelter in the time
that same divine love revealed!                                  of storm?
      It is the bond which unites God and His people, His            Oh, the length and the breadth and the depth and the
beloved elect, in Christ Jesus, in the sphere of perfection.     height of the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord! Nothing
The love wherewith God loves us means that God con-              shall ever separate us from that love. Not tribulation, nor
ceives and knows and beholds His people from eternity            distress, nor persecution, nor famine, nor nakedness, nor
in Christ Jesus, the Son of His love, as a perfect people,       peril, nor sword, nor death, nor life, nor angels, nor prin-
the perfect object. And beholding them as the perfect ob-        cipalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to
ject of His divine love, He is attracted to them, delights       come, nor height, nor  .depth,  nor any other creature . . .
in them, breathes after them, seeks them, unites them with
Himself, clasps them to His divine Father-heart in perfect          Keep yourselves in that love, beloved.
fellowship!                                                         Yes, it is possible -from our point of view, from the
      If we understand this, we can understand why that love     viewpoint of our weakness and our sinful inclination to
is so indispensable for God's people in the midst of their       tnrn away from God - not to remain steadfast in that love.
enemies.                                                         And it is also possible, because there are powers that are
      For we must remember that the viewpoint of our text        exactly seeking to separate us from that love, to lure us
is that of this present time. And in this present time we        out of its safe refuge. `Not only possible is it; but if left to
are not yet that perfect object of God's love. We are per-       ourselves, we most certainly would not remain steadfast.
fect only in principle, only according to the small  begin-      Hence, the admonition is necessary.


                                                 THE   STAI@ARD   ~%$AR-~R                                                                                                                                       75

      We must understand that to leave the sphere of that
     love would be just exactly fatal for us as children of God.                             TtiE  STANDARD   BEARER
     In the shelter of that love is our only security! And there-            Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July and  August
                                                                               Published   by  tbe  &FORMEJJ   From  PUBLISHING  ASSOCLGION
     fore it is of the utmost importance to watch carefully, to                                        E&m  -  REV. HERMAN  HOEICSU
     guard, to exert ourselves spiritually to remain in that love,           Communications  relative   to  contents   should   be  addressed   to
     to live by that love and from that love, to depend upon                 Rev.   H.  Hoeksema,   1139  Franklin   St.,  S.  E.,  Grand   Rapids   7,
                                                                             Mich.   Contributions  will  be limited  to 300 words and must  be
     that love, to be strong in it, to realize that only in that love                                       neatly   written   or  typewritten.
     of God are we strong, and that only that love of God can                All  church news  items should   be addressed  to Mr.  J. M. Faber,
                                                                                              1123  Cooper,  S.  E.,  Grand  Rapids   7,  Mich.
~ and will bring us into eternal life.                                         Announcements   and  Obituaries   with  the  $2.00   fee  included
         No, we must have nothing- the apostle must have                     must be mailed  8 days prior to issue date, to the address  below:
     nothing -of the error of the Pelagians that all  Armin-                   All  matters  relative   to  subscriptions   should   be  addressed   to
                                                                                          Mr.  James   Dykstra,   1326  W.  Butler   Ave.,  S.  E.
     ianism brings up again out of hell! It is not at all as though                                             Grand   Rapids   7,  Michigan
     the operation of that love depends on  ozcr continuing in                   RIZNR~AL:   Unless  a  definite   request   for  discontinuance   is
                                                                             received   it  is  assumed   that  the  subscriber   wishes   the  subscrip-
     God's love. The love of God is and always remains first.                   tion  to  continue   without   the  formality  of  a  renewal   order.
     Without its power we could not keep ourselves in His love.                                        Subscription   price:  $5.00   per  year
     It is the "beloved," those who are principally in the love                     Second Class postage paid at Grand  Rapids,  Michigan
     of God, who are admonished to keep themselves in it. Be-
     sides, the immediate context reminds us that there is One                                                          CONTENTS
,    "who is able to keep us from falling." And so all Scripture          ME,,rTAmoN-
     teaches us that the love of God is first, also in the as-                    Keep  Yourselves  in the Love   of God .___._____,___._..._..................  73
                                                                                            Rev.   H.  C.  Hoeksema
     surance of the Christian: "I am pevmaded  that nothing can
     separate me from the love of God . . . "                             EDITORIALS-
                                                                                  As to the Dekker Case.  ._. ___ .__.____.____  ___._.....  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
         But the love of God does not operate merely zLpon  us,                            Rev.   H.  Hoeksema
     but in us and through us, as conscious, rational, moral be-          STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP,  MANAGEMENT AND CIRCULATION . . . . . . ...78
     ings. It operates in such a way that we seek, enjoy, depend          OUR   DOCTRWE-
     on that love, and that too, just exactly in the awareness of                 The Doctrine of the Church . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
     its sovereignty, its abiding faithfulness, its victorious                              Rev.   H.  Hoeksema
     power, its all-enduring character. And if, as far as our             A  CLOUD  OF WITNESSES  -
     conscious spiritual life is concerned, we abandon the Rock                   Preparation of Gideon __.  .  .  .  .  .  .  ..-...  ..__  _.  .  ..___.__.......  .  ..80
     of that love (even though that love never lets us go com-                              Rev.   B.  Woudenberg
     pletely, but always draws us again to its safe shelter), then        FROM  HOLY   Wm-
                                                                                  Exposition of II Peter 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
     we become for the moment most wretched and miserable,                                  Rev.   G.  Lubbers
     like a ship that has lost its anchor, drifting aimlessly, help-      `h  Hm FEAR  -
     lessly, tossed to and fro by the storms of the enemy's as-                   Integration or Segregation?...  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .____. 84
     saults .                                                                               Rev.   J.  A.  Heys
         Hence, keep yourselves in the love of God, beloved!              CONTENDING FOR  THE  FAITH  -
         Trust that love! Never forsake it!                                       The Church and the Sacraments..   .._  .._  .__  ___  ______  __..___  .__.  .86
                                                                                          ~Rev.  H.  Veldman
                                Q  il  0  i)                              THE  VOICE OF  OUR FATHERS  -
                                                                                  The Belgic Confession.  ____  _________  .___ __.__. .._...._...............  . . . . .._ 88
         And there are two elements that are of the utmost spirit-                          Rev.   H.  C.  Hoeksema
     ual importance if we are to keep ourselves in that love.             DECENCY AND  Omm   -
         The first is: build yourselves up on your most holy faith!               The  Church   Order   in  Retrospect  .  .._.........._.__.........................   90
         Your "most holy faith" is your faith as the active prin-                           Rev.   G.  Vanden   Berg
     ciple of all holiness, all sanctification, in your walk and          ALL  AROUNU  Us  -
     life. It is your faith from the viewpoint of the fact that it                Drugged Religion                          __ __ _. __ __ ___ ___ ___ ._ ___ ..___._. _..___ ._... _..................  92
                                                                                  Why  Rome  Remains   Our.  Enemy  __..._.,__..._,...,........................   92
     is the living spiritual bond that unites you to Ch&t and His                 The Perils of Missionary Work  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
                                                                                  Religious Beliefs and Hospital Treatment   _..............:   .  93
     lzoliness.  Through   faith  as  our  union  with  Christ, we are                      Rev.   H.  Hanko
     principally "most holy," separate from all sin and darkness,         CON~DI-I~NS  -
     and consecrated to the living God and His service. Through                   Loveland Welcomes New Pastor..                                                       ..__           ___.           _..          94
     faith we are principally perfect. And love is the bond of                              Mr.  Wm.  .  Griess
                                                                                  Report of the Eastern  Ladies' League  Meeting _.__._..___...,__..... 94
     pelf ectness, remember.                                                                Mrs.  Thomas   Newhof
         Hence, build yourselves up on that most holy faith. The          NEWS FROM Oon Cr&ncrms  ._........................................ :: . . . . . . . . 96
     figure is that of a building and its foundation. The building                          Mr.  J.  M.  Faber
                         (Continued  on next page}                                                                                                                                                           -


76                                                      TH.E   S T A N D A R D .   B E A R E R

is YOU in all your life, in all your walk and conversation.
The foundation is your "most holy faith." And as the                                          E D I T  0 R I A L S
foundation determines and characterizes and limits and
shapes the building constructed upon it, so let that most
holy faith characterize and shape and limit and determine                                           As  to the Dekker Case
your thinking and willing, your words and your deeds,                                  I have been looking for articles in The Refornzed  JOW-
your striving and aspirations, all of your life.                                    nal by Prof. Dekker that would further explain his view
       For because love is the bond of perfectness, it is spirit-                   concerning the love of God to all men. If I remember cor-
ually impossible to keep yourselves in the love of God and                          rectly, he promised to elaborate further on the above men-
wilfully to depart from the way of perfectness, of holiness.                        tioned proposition. Naturally, I am interested in the case,
That is possible only in the way of sanctification.                                 not because I like to see Prof. Dekker disciplined or `de-
       And the second is this: pray in the Holy Spirit!                             posed from his office as professor in Calvin Seminary; but,
       DO you pray, beloved? Fray, not just any carnal prayer,                      first of all, because I certainly would like to see how Dek-
but pray in the Spirit? Pray prayers that are motivated by                          ker himself would harmonize his stand with the Reformed
the Spirit, and prayers that are objectively in harmony with                        Confessions; and, secondly, because I would also like to
the Spirit and His holiness? Pray in the sense of your own                          know what stand the Christian Reformed Church will ulti-
incapability and your utter dependence upon the grace of                            mately take in this matter.
the Spirit, the Author of faith and holiness? Pray for faith,
for holiness, for grace to build up yourselves on your most                            But thus far I have looked in vain for any material on
holy faith?                                                                         the matter by Prof. Dekker.
       Such prayer is necessary for Christians!                                        But, perhaps, it will come yet. As soon as it appears I
       For without it and its resultant blessings of grace they                     will inform our readers.
cannot go from strength to strength in Zion.                                           The only article that was written in regard to this case
                                 0  0  0  0                                         appeared in the last Reformed  Jotwnal  I so far received
       Yes, and in this all, let your Christian hope spur you                       and was written by Dr. Boer. He does not enter into the
on!                                                                                 contents of Dekker's teaching, but brings up a  church-
       Of this the text speaks when it speaks of "looking for                       political question. According to him,  Classis  Orange City
the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ (the love of God in                              as well as the consistory that brought the Dekker case to
Christ revealed to us in our misery) unto eternal life." classis  did wrong by bringing the case to Synod. They
For that mercy and its final goal of eternal life we look, do                       ought to have contacted the consistory of Neland Ave.,
we not? We expect it; we are sure of it; we long for it.                            Grand Rapids, under which Dekker resorts. According to
       And that hope, on the one hand, is the power of sancti-                      him, moreover, the Formula of Subscription has nothing to
fication. According as we look for that final mercy, we also                        do with the matter.
will and do build ourselves up on our most holy faith, and                             In this, however, he is in error. True, if Prof. Dekker
thus keep ourselves in the love of God. And, on the other                           is to be disciplined in regard to his life and walk as a
hand, the love of God is through faith the ground of our                            member of the church, the case must be dealt with by the
hope. According as we keep ourselves in the love of God,                            Consistory of Neland Ave. But that is not the case here.
-through building ourselves up on our most holy faith, we                           It does not concern Dekker as a member of the church,
experience that hope maketh not ashamed, because the love                           but as a professor in the Seminary. And this does not be-
of God is shed abroad in our hearts.                                                long to the Consistory of Neland Ave., but to the Curato-
       Thus we hope . . .                                                           rium and, ultimately, to Synod. I do not wish, at the
       And we keep ourselves in His love . . .                                      present   time, to go further into this matter, but this can
       Until at last we reach the Father's everlasting taber-                       easily be proved.
nacle, there perfectly to taste all the blessings of His love.                                               0 *  0  0
       "To the only wise God our Savior, be glory and majesty,                         Now, what did Synod d'ecide  in the Dekker case?
dominion and power, both  now  and ever. Amen."                                        The answer is: nothing . . . as yet.
                                                                        H.C.H.         Let us, in this connection, first of all, remind ourselves
                                                                                    of the overture which  Classis  Orange City sent to the
                     RESOLUTION   OF  SYMPATHY                                      Synod. It reads as follows:
       The Men's Society  of the Protestant Reformed  Church of Hull,
Iowa,  mourns   the  loss  of  one   of  its  faithful  members,                       "In regard to the theological position reflected in Prof.
                              JOHN   SIETSTRA                                       Harold Dekker's articles in the Reformed  .70urnuZj  Dec.
and   extends   their  sympathy   to  the  wife,  family   and  relatives.   May
our   Heavenly   Father   comfoti   the  bereaved   with  the  assurance   that     1962, and Feb. 1963 under tbe title `God so loved - all men'
He doe&  all things  well.                                                          we register serious objections. We cite as crucial expres-
                                             Rev.   J.  Kortering,   President
                                             Egbert   Gritter,   Secretary          sions of his position the following: `By no strain of exegesis


                                           T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                   77

can God's redemptive love be confined to any special group.         its charge or submit sufficient  evidence for its suspicion."
Neither the language of this verse nor the broadest context            To my mind, this is a very poor decision that is wholly
of Scripture will allow any other interpretation but that God       unworthy of a Synod!
loves all men.' (See Reformed  JournaZ,  Dec. 1962, p. 5.)             why?
The latter expression `God loves all men' in the context can           1.    Because the decision is entirely negative, and that,
mean only redemptive  loue.  Again we quote from the                too, in such an important matter as the doctrinal instruc-
Reformed  JownuZ,  Feb. 1963, p. 14, `Nevertheless, those           tion of a seminary professor! If I had been Professor Dek-
who do not believe are included in the number of those              ker, I would have demanded that the Synod would have
whom God loves with a redemptive love, for they are in-             passed a motion something like this: "Synod express that, in
cluded in the category of the "world." ' This we believe            the light of the fact that Classis  Orange City has cast sus-
is an unscriptural interpretation. Since we believe that if         picion on Prof. Dekker's instruction in Calvin Seminary, it
God loves all men redemptively all men must be saved,               has complete confidence in Dekker's instruction because it is
Prof. Dekker's position conflicts with the  creedal statement       Scriptural and Reformed."
of articles 8 and 9 of Chapter II of the ,Canons  of Dort.             As this merely negative decision stands, Synod makes
   "We are of the conviction that the voices raised in ob-          the instruction of Prof. Dekker appear more suspicious
jection to Prof. Dekker's articles within our own denomina-         than ever.
tion are indications of suspicion. Since Professor Dekker              2. Because all the terms used in this decision are
has promised by signing the Form of Subscription `that              themselves suspicious, hesitant, uncertain, ambiguous. Mark
upon sufficient ground of suspicion and to preserve the             you, Synod did not express that Classis  Orange City had no
uniformity and purity of doctrine -we do hereby promise             grounds at all for its overture, but merely that it did not
to be always ready and willing to comply with requisition,' have adequate grounds. It did not say that the Classis  did
namely, of `further explaining our sentiments respecting            not submit any evidence at all for its suspicion, but that it
any particular article,' we petition Synod that Synod require       did not submit  sufiicient  evidence.
Prof. Dekker to give further explanation of his position,              0, how wholly unworthy of the broadest gathering of
so that if Prof. Dekker's position be truly- Reformed and           any church is this negative and ambiguous decision!
Scriptural, Synod may clear him of, suspicion, and should             But let us look once more at the overture of  Classis
Synod find his position not in harmony with the Scriptures          Orange City. Is it really so inadequate and insufficient
and the creeds, that Synod take appropriate action `to pre-         that Synod could not and should not have treated it?
serve the uniformity and purity of doctrine' in our church             The overture contains the following elements:
and seminary."                                                         1. There is an introductory sentence stating that Classis
   Now, again I ask: what did Synod do with this over-              Orange City has serious objections against the instruction
ture?                                                               of Prof. Dekker.
   And the answer is: nothing . . . . as yet.                          2. Secondly, the  Classis  Orange City presents the
  But why not?                                                      reasons or grounds for  objectionsl  They do this by quot-
   Well, let us see. The Synod gave  the- overture of               ing from Prof. Dekker's articles in the Reformed Jou~rnul.
Orange City in the hands of a committee and the committee-             3. They state that Prof. Dekker's position is in con-
could not agree on the matter. The result was that the              flict with the Creeds of the Church. They refer especially
committee came to Synod with a majority and a minority              to Canons II,  8,9. These articles read as follows:  _  .:.
report.                                                                "For this was the sovereign counsel, and most gracious
   The majority report was in favor of granting' the Classis        will of God the Father, that the saving efficacy of the most
Orange City their request that Prof. Dekker should be ex-           precious death of his Son should extend to all the elect,
amined concerning his views by Synod. The minority                  for bestowing upon them alone the gift of justifying faith,
report advised Synod that it should reply to Classis Orange         thereby to bring them infallibly unto salvation: that is,
                                                                                  :.
City that it should supply grounds fpr its charge or submit         it was the will of God, that Christ by the blood of the
suffici.ent  grounds for its suspicion.                             cross, whereby he confirmed the new covenant, should ef-
   What became of the majority report? It was;, "tabled." fectually redeem out of every people, tribe, nation, and
And it was never taken from  the  table; it must still be language, all those, and those only, who were from eternity
there.                                                              chosen unto salvation, and given to him by the Father;
   In the meantime the minority report was discussed and,           that he should confer upon them faith, which together with
after some revision, was adopted. In its revised form the           all the other saving gifts of the Holy Spirit, he purchased
decision of Synod now reads as follows:                       .'    for them by his death; should purge them from all sin, both
   ~"Synod did not accede to the overture of. Classis  Orange       original- and actual, whether committed before or after be-
City because Classis did not supply adequate grounds for            lieving; and having. faithfully' preserved them even to the


     78                                          THE   .S:TANDARD   ,-BEARER
I
     end, should at last bring them free from every- spot and             is because the Synod already reached a decision, to ask
     blemish  `to the enjoyment of glory. in his own presence             Synod:                             I  ./
     forever."                                                                   a. To retract the decision of Synod 1963.
           This is Article 8. And Article 9 reads as follows:                    b. To ask Synod to accede to the request of  Classis
           "This purpose proceeding from everlasting love towards         Orange City to have Prof. Dekker examined according to
     the elect, has from the beginning of the world to this day           the Formula of Subscription.
     been powerfully accomplished, and will henceforward con-                 Once more, I want to emphasize that I have nothing
     tinue to be accomplished, notwithstanding all the ineffectual        against the person of Prof. Dekker. I am interested only to
     opposition of the gates of hell, so that the elect may in            know whether the Christian Reformed Church, since 1924
     due time be gathered together into one, and that there               and the adoption of the notorious Three Points, has so far
     never may be wanting a church composed of believers,                 gone off the Reformed track that they now subscribe to the
     the foundation of which is laid in the blood of Christ,              out and out Arminian teaching that God loves all men.
     which may steadfastly love, and faithfully serve him as                                                                                                 H.H.,
     their Savior, who as a bridegroom for his bride, laid down               P. S. My other editorials must wait, the Lord willing,
     his life for them upon the cross, and which may celebrate            till the next issue.                                                               H.H.
     his praises here and through all eternity."
           4. Further  ,Classis   ,Orange  City calls attention to the       Statement of Ownership, Management, and Circulation
     fact `that the voices raised in objection to Prof. Dekker's           1.  Date  of  filing:   September  24,  1963.
     articles within our own denomination are indication of                2.  Title  of  publication:   The  Standard   Bearer.
     suspicion." The voices, by the way, are raised not only by            3.  Frequency   of  issue:   two  issues  every   month  (except  June,   July
                                                                               and August  one issue every  month).
     individual members within the church, but also by the                 4-5.  Location   of  office  of  publication:   1326  W.  Butler   Ave.,  S.  E.
     editors of the official organs of the church, The Banner and              Grand   Rapids,   Mich.  49507.
                                                                           6.  Publishers:   Reformed   Free  Publishing   Association,   Inc.  1326  W.
     De Wachter.                                                               Butler   Ave.,  S.  E.,  Grand   Rapids,   Mich.  49507.          ~-           _         _
                                                                               Editor:  Rev.   H.  Hoeksema,   1139  Franklin   St.,  S.`E.,  Grand
           5. Finally,  Classis  Orange City appeals to the "Formula           Rapids,   Mich.  49566
                                                                                                    ---I_
     of Subscription" according to which Prof. Dekker promised                 Managing   Editor:  James   Dykstra,   1326  W.  Butler   Ave.,   S.  E.,
                                                                           -  Grand   Rapids,   -  h.
                                                                                                    Mic   49507.
     "that upon sufficient ground of suspicion" he would always            7.  Owner:   Reformed Free  Publishing   Association,   Inc.,  1326   W.
     be ready to comply with the requisition of further ex-                    Butler,   S. E., Grand  Rapids,  IMich.   49507.
                                                                           8  Known  bondholders,   mortg:lgees,   and  other   security  holders
     plaining his sentiments concerning any particular part of                 owning   or  holding   -one   uercent  or  more  of  total  amount   of
     the Confession of the Church.                                             bonds,-mortgages;-&   other   securities:   None.
                                                                           9.  Paragraphs   7  and  8  include,  in  cases  where  the  stockholder   or
           The overture concludes by saying that, if the Synod                 security  holder appears  upon the books  of the company  as trustee
     finds that Prof. Dekker's sentiments are really Reformed                  or  in  any  other   fiduciary   relation,   the  name   of  the  person   or
                                                                               cornoration  for  whom   such   trustee  is  acting.   also  the  statements
     and Scriptural, he should be cleared of suspicion; but if,                in  *tie  two  -paragraphs   show  the  affiant's%l   knowledge   and
     on the other hand, Synod should find that his position is                 belief   as to the circumstances  and  conditions  under which  stock-
                                                                               holders  and security  holders  who do not appear  upon the books
     not in harmony with Scripture and the Confessions, it                     of the company  as trustees,  hold stock and securities  in a capacity
     should take appropriate action "to preserve the uniformity                other   than  that  of  a  bona   fide   omwner.   Names  and   addresses   of
                                                                               individuals   who   are  stockholders   of  a  corporation   which   itself
     and purity of doctrine in our church and seminary."                       is a stockholder or holder  of bonds. mortgarres. or other  securities
           Now, I ask: what is so inadequate or insufficient about             of  the  publishing   corporation   have   beenincluded   in  paragraphs
                                                                               7  and  8  when  the  interests   of  such   individuals   are  equivalent   to
     this overture?                                                            one  percent or more of the total  amount  of the stock or securities
           What else could  Classis  Orange City have done to                  of  the  publishing  corporation.
                                                                          10.  This   item   must   be  completed   for  all  publications   except  those
     prove that the sentiments of Prof. Dekker are rightly under               which   do  not  carry  advertising   other   than  the  publisher's   own
     suspicion? The only thing they could have done and which                  and  which  are named  in sections  132.231,   132.232,  and  132.233,
                                                                               Postal   Manual   (Sections   4355a,   435510,   and   4356  of  Title  39,
     might still be done is that, instead of referring merely to the           United  States  Code).
     Reformed Confessions, they also quote from Scripture.                                                            Average  No. copies              Single  issue
                                                                                                                       each  issue  during              nearest  to
           If I were in the committee that is already appointed                                                       preceding  12 months              filing  date
                                                                          A.  Total  number   copies  printed
     by  Classis  Orange City to serve as advice in the case                                                                  1090                        1090
     of Dekker, I would say:                                              B  &~%%%?n
                                                                          B:  Paid   circulation
           1. Let them advise the  classis  to elaborate on their                 1.  To  term   subscribers   by  mail,   car-
     original overture so they come with overwhelming proof                         rier  delivery,  or  by other   means          737                      737
                                                                                  2.  Sales  through  agents,   news
     from both Scripture and the Confessions that God does not                         dealers,   or  otherwise                     60                       60
     love all men, but that He loves the elect only.                      C.  Free  distribution   (including  samples)
                                                                               by  mail,   carrier   delivery,  or  by
           2. That then they ask Synod to "untable" the motion                 other  means                                        I40                      140
                                                                          D.  Total  number   of  copies  distributed
     of the majority report which as far as I know must be still               (Sum of lines  Bl, B2, and C)                       937                      937
     on the table; or, if this is impossible, which it probably               I  certify   that  the  statements   made  by  me  above   are  correct   and
                                                                          complete.                                                James  Dykstra,   Bus.  Mgr.


                                        T H E       STANDARD   B.EARER                                                   ~79

                                                                but Scripture proceeded out. of the church. The church,
     OUR  D-OCT'RINE                                            therefore, for her being in  6  Tistence does not need de
                                                                Scripture; but the Scriptures For their origin, collection,
                                                                preservation, and explanation ;,re in need of the church.
       THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH                               The Reformation, however, re  Tersed this relation. She
                                                                placed the church on the foundalion  of the Scriptures, and
                      CHAPTER VI                                put the latter far above the  chu,  :ch. Not the church, but
                                                                the Scriptures, the Word of  Gi d, became the means of
       THE PREACHING OF THE WORD AS A                           grace par  eXc&nce. Even the sacraments were subor-
                  MEANS OF GRACE                                dinated to the Word and had no meaning or power
                                                                without that Word. But that Word was able, there-
                       (Continued)                              fore, to operate and did operate I lso without the institute
                                                                of the church. It is true that  Goti entrusted the Word of
   The Word of God must be preached. Then, and then             God to His church, in order that il might be explained by
only-as the Word that is preached-it is a means of              her, preached, and defended. But  Lhat Word is not given
grace. This too is expressed in our confessions. In the         to the church in such a way that without her it would
Belgic Confession, where it instructs us in the marks of        have neither existence nor power. :On the contrary, that
the true church, we read: "The marks, by which the true         Word is directed to all men; it is  ol' value in all circum-
Church is known, are these: if the pure -doctrine of the        stances and for all the spheres of lifl,?. And it derives its
gospel is preached therein; if she maintains the pure ad-       power and operation by no means onl;,r  from the fact that
ministration of the sacraments as instituted by Christ; if      it is being preached by an official perskn in the gathering
church discipline is exercised in punishing of sin . . .  " of believers. It operates also then  when  it is being read
There are many who either deny or completely ignore this        and studied in the home, when it is  being narrated by
truth, and belittle the importance of preaching. They           parents or teachers, when it is brought to":he knowledge
simply speak of the Word, or even of the Bible, as the          of men no matter in what form. Everyone, who, and what,
means of grace. Thus, even Hodge in his Systematic              and wherever he be, who accepts that Word in far&.. is a
Theology really ignores the preaching when he speaks of         partaker of God's promise, of grace in Christ, and of"&*
the Bible as the means of grace. Writing under the subject,     entire blessing of salvation. He does not need to wait for
"The Means of Grace," he says: "The Word of God, as             the church, a minister, or for the sacrament. Whoever be-
here understood, is the Bible. And the Bible is the col-        lieves has eternal life."
lection of the canonical books of the Old and New Testa-           We admit, of course, that the Word as means of grace
ment." Again he writes: "There can, therefore, be no doubt      is not dependent on the church, if by church is meant the
that the Scripture teaches that the Word of God is the          Romish Church, or the institute of the Roman Catholic
specially appointed means for the sanctification and the        Church. Nor is salvation dependent on a  Ron&h priest.
salvation of men. This doctrine of the Bible is fully con-      The church is certainly free to institute its own offices.
firmed by the experience of the church and of the world." But this does not alter the fact that the means of grace are
Again he writes: "It being admitted as a fact that the          given to the church. No Reformed man so belittles the in-
Bible has the power attributed to it, the question arises,      stitute of the church as to think or teach that he can par-
to what is that due? To this question different answers         take of the sacraments, whether baptism or the Lord's
are given." Again: "Christians then do not refer the sav-       Supper, without the institute of the church, in his own
ing and sanctifying power of the Scriptures to the moral        home or in any gathering of believers. Nor is the preach-
power of the truths which they contain." From all this          ing of the Word a means of grace apart from the institute
it is evident that Dr. Hodge refers to the Bible as the         of the church. It is true, of course, that the church is
means of grace, rather than to the preaching of the Word        founded on the Word of God, that the Word of God was
of God. The same is true of Dr. Bavinck in his  Roepkng         first, and not the church. But it is evidently not true that
en  Wedergeboorte.    On pages 111 and 113 he writes            the Bible as we now have it was before the church. Long
(we translate): "But out of this affinity of the covenant of    before there was ever a Bible there was preaching of the
grace and the gospel, it follows in the second place that       Word of God. It is comparatively very recently that the
grace is not dependent, as presented by the Romish Church,      Bible as we now have it  e`xisted not only, but was ac-
on the institute of the church or priest and sacrament. The     cessible to all the members of the church. For many
relation between Scripture and the church is defined by the     centuries the church existed without a written Word
Protestants in an entirely different way than by the Roman      whatsoever. For many more centuries only the Old Tes-
Catholics. According to the latter, the church precedes         tament canon was gradually written` and finally completed.
the Scriptures. The church is not built on Holy Scripture,                                                              H.H.


80                                        T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                           1
                                                                 idols more than anything else. In recent years they had
j A CLOUD OF  Wl.TNESSES  1 become very bold; for, while they had increased in power
                                                                 and influence in the land, the worshipers of Jehovah who
                                                                 remained had withdrawn into secrecy. If now a follower of
               The Preparation of Gideon                         Jehovah should presume to go out and lay to ruin one of
           Therefore on that day he  calfed him (Gideon)         the favored altars and groves of Baal, it was hard to tell
       Jembbaal, saying, Let  Baa1 plead against  hi&, be-       with what ferocity the  Baa1 worshipers would respond.
       cause he hath thrown down his alta.r.     Judges 6: 33    They might well come forth to Baal's defense with all the
      Already the night of the same day in which he had          wicked zeal which they showed in their heathenish acts
been, but he was also a man and had not been left  un-           of worship.
was put to the first great test of his faith.                       Thus it was that Gideon waited until all was dark and
      Gideon was a believing child of God and had always         everyone was sleeping. Then he called to him ten men of
been; but he was also a man and had not been left un-            his own household. These were trusted men who commonly
affected by the spiritual weakness which characterized his       joined him in his daily household devotions to Jehovah.
age. To a certain extent he shared the weakness of his           Quietly, swiftly, and with determination they went out
father. Upon his father's land was an altar and a grove          under the cover of darkness to do their work. There was a
dedicated to the service of Baal. It was not that his father     great deal of hard work to do. The altar of Baa1  had to be
was an ardent worshiper of Baal. If he did take part at          disassembled, and the great trees of the grove had to be
all, it was half-heartedly; and at the same time he tried        cut down without awaking the people of the neighborhood.
privately to maintain the worship of Jehovah in his home.        After that twelve large, uncut stones had to be gathered
It was just that the people wanted this altar to Baal, and       and built together into an altar such as was used only
he did not have the courage to resist them. It was some-         for the service of Jehovah. Finally, his father's bullock of
what the same with Gideon. It was true that he had               seven years old had to be slaughtered and presented as
never taken part in the worship of Baal, and every one           an offering upon the altar. All through the night the men
knew that he was opposed to it because he still trusted in       labored so that by the time the first rays of dawn began to
Jehovah. But at the same time he had done nothing about          shine they fell upon the smoke of the sacrifice rising gently
this terrible Baa1 worship that was going on there on his        up toward heaven.
father's own land. He endured it without open opposition.           Hardly had the eleven men left the scene before the
      Thus it was, that God's first command to him was, "Take    people of the district began to stir about. And it did not
thy father's young bullock, even the second bullock of seven     take long before the work of the night was discovered.
years old, and throw down the altar of Baa1 that thy father      A shout went up and soon a large crowd of people were
bath, and cut down the grove that is by it: and build an         gathered about the altar with the smoke of its sacrifice
altar unto the LORD thy God upon the top of this rock,           still rising unto heaven. It burned with the wood of the
in the ordered place, and take the second bullock, and           grove that had been torn down in the same place where
offer a burnt sacrifice with the wood of the grove which         formerly they had so often engaged in their wicked rituals.
thou shalt cut down."                                            It did not take them long to conclude whose work this was.
      There was good reason why this command of God had          Gideon was the only one of the district known to have re-
to be given to Gideon before anything else. This existence       mained faithful to the service of Jehovah. In an ugly mood
of -idolatrous groves and idols in the land was the most         the crowd began to move toward the buildings where
critical problem confronting the nation. As long as they         Gideon and his family lived, although secretly there were
were there, God would not deliver their nation from the          perhaps a goodly number who felt twinges of conscience
oppression of the enemy. Gideon's first duty would be to         from looking upon a sacrifice to Jehovah whom they also
see that the people put all of this idolatry away. But, if       had been taught to worship in their youth. But all was
he was to do this, it would be necessary that his own house      covered up with a loud determination to have the life of
and his own family should give an example that would be          the one who had ruined their grove.
above reproof. As long as his own father maintained an              At the house  Joash,  Gideon's father, was waiting for
altar and a grove to Baa1 on his land, it could not be ex-       them. He had learned through the night what Gideon and
pected  `that anyone would listen to his instruction. This       his servants were doing. Although he had never done it
had to be gotten out of the way.                                 himself because he knew so well what the reaction of the
      Once Gideon had received this command from God             people would be, he was not sorry to see this center of
there was no question in his heart but that it had to be         iniquity cleaned out from off his land. In fact as he had
obeyed. But at the same time he realized full well what          lain through the night listening to the muted sounds of des-
the reaction of the people  svould be to this. There were        truction that came from the grove, he had begun to feel
many in the land who loved the service of these heathen          pride in the courage which his son was showing. He had


                                           T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                                      81

 decided-to -stand by Gideon no.matter  what the price might        be god, let him save himself." People who before had been
  be. When in the morning the crowd stood angrily before            timid and afraid, hiding their devotion for Jehovah in
  his door, he was ready for them.                                  secret, became bold to imitate the actions of Gideon. Out
      There was no ceremony or explanation from the crowd           of his simple work of faith, performed secretly in the
  as .they faced Joash. Boldly- and with finality they made         darkness of the night, Gideon -saw  his reputation estab-
  their demand, "Bring out thy son, that he may die: because        lished throughout the land as the leader in the cause of
   he hath cast down the altar of Baal, and because he bath         Jehovah.
  cut down the grove that was by -it."                                  It was harvest time and- once again the Midianites and
                                                                    their allies were upon them. These were wandering
      But  Joash  knew his people and how to answer them.           peoples, and they could always be found where and when
   He would not deny what Gideon had done, or even excuse
  it. Such would only compromise the testimony of defiance          the most booty could be taken. As so often before, the
                                                                    children of Israel were helpless before them. They moved
   to  Baa1 which Gideon's actions had given.  Joash did not        in and took what they wanted when they wanted it, and
   plead with the people or argue. Rather, when he spoke, his       no one was able to resist them. But this time there was a
words were dripping with ridicule, "Will ye plead for               new spirit in the land. Formerly whenever the  Midian-
   Baal? will ye save him? he that will plead for him, let him      ites had come like this, the people had tried to drown
   be put to death whilst it is yet morning: if he be a god,        their sorrows with ever more frequent and more wicked
   let him plead for himself, because one hath cast down            rituals of idolatry. But not now; idols and groves were
   his altar."                                                      rather disappearing. In the people there was a new spirit
      These were words that cut deep into the consciences           of hope and anticipation. It was as though the people who
   of the people. They had all been raised in the tradition of      before had fatalistically submitted to this oppression now
   Jehovah, and they knew that in His holiness He would             were looking to someone for deliverance. The Midianites
   defend Himself against anyone who sinned against Him.            might laugh, but the people remained confident. To the
   This  was to be expected because He was God. In fact,            more thoughtful of the Midianites it was disturbing.
   although they seldom allowed themselves to think of it               And then it happened - a trumpet was heard in Israel,
   that way, they knew deep in their hearts that their present      not so much. literally as figuratively. The Spirit of God
   suffering was the judgment of Jehovah upon their unfaith-        came upon Gideon and he summoned the people to come
   fulness to Him. And now Joash  was challenging the divin-        and fight against Midian. Swiftly the message was carried
   ity of Baal. It was a fair challenge. If Baa1 was a god as       through the land. The people heard gladly and listened.
   they claimed, let him defend and justify himself even as         First it was Gideon's own kinfolk of Abiezer, ,who had so
   Jehovah was now doing. If any one would insist upon              shortly before demanded his life. They had rethought
   pressing for Gideon's life, he would only do so because          their actions and now gathered behind him. And then it
   he did not trust  Baa1 to take care of  himself.  This would     was his own tribe, Manasseh, and  Asher, and Zebulun,
   be fully as presumptuous as Gideon's deed. But even as           and Naphtali. Men began to come to Gideon from all di-
   Joash spoke, everyone knew that  Baa1 would never work           rections, ready to take up arms behind him. Oh yes, corn;
   vengeance upon Gideon. Never yet had he proved him-              pared to the vast hordes of Midian,  they were so few that
   self in that way. He was helpless in his own cause. But          the Midianites hardly noticed that there was any kind of
   now that they thought of it, each was reminded anew that         movement afoot. Or if they did notice it, they thought
   Jehovah was not helpless like that. If they wanted their         they could afford to ignore it. After all, they filled the
   grove restored, they would have to put Gideon out of the         valley of Jezreel with thousands upon thousands of armed
   way themselves. But did they dare? Already they were             -and experienced fighters. What did they have to fear of
   suffering an almost unbearable punishment at the hand of         Gideon with his mere 38,000 crude and undisciplined
   Jehovah; did they dare to challenge Him still further, as        farmers? What they failed to consider was the spirit of
~ Joash  did Baal? One by one they turned away, apparently          these men. They were come in faith, trusting in Jehovah
   to wait for Baa1 to justify himself, but in reality to think     their God to deliver them.
   with shame on the helplessness of the- idol which they                                                                                            B.W.
   worshiped, compared to the greatness of Gideon's God.
      And it was not there that day that the matter died.                                 RESOLUTION   OF  SYMPATHY
   The report of what had happened passed from mouth to                 `T&s Mr. and Mrs. Society of the Southeast  Protestant Reformed
   mouth until it filled the land. The new name that  Joash         Church  expresses   their   sympathy   to  the  President,   Rev.   Marinus
                                                                    Schipper,  in  the  loss  of  his  father,
   had- given his son, Jerubbaal, began to be known every-                                    MR.  PETER   SCHIPPER
   where, for as Joash  said, "Let Baa1 plead against him, be-      "Precious  in  the  sight   of  the  Lord  is  the  death   of  his  saints."
   cause-he has thrown down his altar." Everywhere people                                                                                Psalm  1X15
                                                                                                       Mr.  H.  Vander  Vennen,   Vice   President
   were repeating the ridicule of  Joash's  challenge, "If  Baa1                                       Mrs.  C.  Lubbers,  Secretary


82                                          T H E   .S.TAMDA&D-.B.EARER

                                                                    t&&ion.  They would make this simply symbolic language
          F R O M   H O L Y   WRiT                                  of the destruction upon evil men, but not that the heavens
                                                                    and the earth itself shall be destroyed. All post-millennial-
                                                                    ism and premillennialism is fundamentally earthy. They
                 Exposition of II Peter 3                           desire a kingdom upon this earth. They cannot allow for
                                                                    the destruction of all things. The deepest reason for the in-
                               g*                                   sistence of the Jehovah's Witnesses and of all "adventism"
      In our former essay we considered that the Day of the         is a theological one. They deny the Deity of Christ, the
Lord comes as a thief in the night as far as the wicked are         personality of the Spirit. Hence, they deny the Triune God.
concerned, but it shall not be thus for the righteous who           It is the error of Unitarianism (Modernism) and really also
are children of the day and not of the night! We also ob-           of all Arminianism, following the teaching of Socinus. Im-
served that Peter is not attempting to stir up the minds of         plied in this is the next reason for the Jehovah's Witnesses
the wicked, seeking a certain point of contact with their           sect to deny the destruction of this world by fire, the very
natural understanding, but that he expressly states that he         dissolving of the elements. They deny that the Son of God
is stirring up the sincere mind of the believers. No amount         came into the flesh, that He is Immanuel, God-with-us!
of evidence from either Scripture or the world about us             They deny that Christ was delivered on the cross for our
(geological evidences) can possibly cause the wicked to             offenses, and that He was raised for our justification.
look for the coming of the Lord with earnest expectation.           They deny the wonder of the resurrection, the overcoming
Seeing they shall see and not perceive, and hearing they            of sin and death, and the wonder of the changing of this
shall hear and not understand. Verily, the very. rocks do           present heaven and earth into a new heaven and earth.
cry out to the wicked, and wisdom crieth in the streets.            They cannot allow for the destruction of an eternal sub-
But fools do not perceive; the blind do not see colors,             stance. At bottom this is a denial of creation, of prov-
and deaf do not heed the words of God that go out through-          idence and of re-creation in Christ. It is a denial of the
out the world. Matt.  13:14,15 (Is.  6:9), Rom.  lo:18 (Ps.         great mystery of godliness. It is the lie of Satan on every
19:5).                                                              count, being not simply un-Christian, but  cmti-Christian!
                                                                    Do not receive such into your house, neither bid them
      But in all the awesome judgments of God upon the              godspeed.
wicked there is a speech and promise of God to the right-
eous which they must and do heed, since the Lord, in                   We shall take the words as penned by Peter here in
His longsuffering, brings them all to repentance at His             these verses at face value. We believe in God, the Father,
own time and place and manner. Concerning what will                 Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth. He called all things
take place to this "heaven and earth" after the Flood, and          into being by His almighty Word, and He sustained all
that, too, in the judgments of God, Peter writes as follows:        things by this same Word, and now by this same Word He
`< . . . the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, atid also reserves all things as a treasure for the day of the judg-
the elements shall be dissolved with fervent heat, and the          ment of ungodly men. Since creation is not self-existent
earth and the works that are therein shall be burned up.            and self-contained, but upheld by God, He alone can and
Seeing  that these things  a.re thus all to be dissolved,           will destroy all things in His day!
what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy con-                 Peter gives us some particulars here which we can really
versation (walk) and godliness, looking for and earnestly           only enumerate.
desiring  (and hastening) the day of God, by reason of
ulhich the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved and tlbe           In the first place we ought to notice that Peter clearly
elements shall melt  ,with fervent heat?    Verses lob, 11,12.      singles out this present heaven (the firmament, sun, moon,
                                                                    and stars) and the earth. The first heaven was between the
      What Peter pens here under the inspiration of the             waters below and the waters above (Gen.  1:6,7). The
Spirit of Christ and of prophecy defies all human imagina-          present heaven is reserved unto fire as a treasure. The very
tion! I can do no better than request, by the mercies of
God, that you read and reread this passage for yourself.            elements, the atom is fire. Both shall be destroyed. We
Certainly I cannot improve upon this bold and clear rev-            hereby posit that the "third heaven" of which -Paul speaks is
elation concerning the final destruction of this present            not the heaven whose elements shall be dissolved. This
heaven and earth.                                                   is the heaven of which the writer to the Hebrews speaks
      In the first place, let me emphasize that we do well          when he says, "Thou Lord, in the beginning didst lay the
to give heed to this prophetic Word until the day dawn              foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the works of
and the day-star arise in our hearts. This means that we            Thy hands; they shall perish, but Thou  continuest;  and
let it stand in its literal sense and do not do as the Jehovah's    they shall all wax old as doth a garment; and as a mantle
Witnesses sect, which corrupts this passage to its own  des-        shalt Thou roll them up, as a garment, and they shall be


                                             T H E   S T A N D A R D   $EARER                                                       83

changed. But Thou art the same and Thy years shall not                  Yes, the destruction of this world has in it a strange
fail." Heb. l:lO-12; Psalm  102:25-27.                               motivation for the righteous. We then must not be as
   In the second place, we should notice the earth too is            the wife of Lot. Says Jesus: Remember the wife of Lot.
singled out. The entire earth shall be burned with all               He that shall seek to gain his life shall lose it, but who-
that is in it. This means that the dwelling-place of man             soever shall lose his life shall gain it. Only through the
and beasts and of trees and herbs shall be not simply                judgments upon this world shall the righteous be saved.
marred and scarred, but it shall be totally destroyed by                 Writes Peter here, "What manner of men ought ye
fire so that nothing remains of the present heaven and earth         to be in all holy conversation and godliness, looking for
but ashes and ruins. Sun, moon and stars shall be no more;           and earnestly desiring the coming of the day of God." Yes,
the light, the day and the night shall be gone forever. The          this means that we press the gates of heaven. Yet, it must
measuring of time and seasons shall be no more. It shall             not be in a mere mystical manner. But it means that we
be nothing but the great deep. All of man's replenishing             love not the world, neither the things that are in the
and fuliilling  the earth shall be gone. All of man's building,      world. For the world passeth away and the lusts thereof.
his culture and art, his philosophy and learning, his dreams         But he that doeth the will of God abideth forever! I John
and aspirations, apart from God in Christ, shall be des-             2: 15-17.
troyed forever. `It all is dissolved. We have a very pic-               This is a "walk" of which Peter often speaks. Thus we
torial and graphic description of this in Rev.  18:4-20  which       read of it in I Peter 1:15: "But as He who hath called you
we here quote in part:
          "                                                          is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation, as it is
               . . . therefore in one day shall her plagues come,    written, Be ye holy, for I am holy." For have we not been
    death and mourning and famine; and she shall be                  redeemed from our vain "conversation" by the precious
    &mly burned  .with  fire, for strong is the Lord God             blood as of a Lamb without spot or blemish, Jesus Christ
     who  judgeth her. And the kings of the earth who                our Lord? In I Peter 2:12 we read, "Having your conversa-
    committed fornication and lived wantonly with her,               tion honest among the Gentiles in order that, in that they
     shall weep and wail over her, when they look upon               speak evil of you as of evil-doers, out of your good works
     the smoke of her burning . . . And the merchants of             they may glorify God in the day of visitation"!
     the earth weep and wail over her, for no man buyeth                 It must be a walk of godliness. The term in the Greek is
    her merchandise anymore . . . Rejoice over her thou              "eusebeias." The term means to have respect for and to be
     heaven and ye saints, and ye apostles and ye prophets;          pious toward one. Thus the term is here used in relation-
    for God hath judged your judgment upon her."                     ship to God, and in I Tim.  5:4 towards the parents of one's
   Yes, the earth and the too&s therein shall be destroyed.          own house, and in Acts 17:13 of the attitude of the Athen-
Thus did the seer Isaiah see it from afar as we read in              ians toward the UNKNOWN GOD! In the Old Testament
Isaiah  66:15,16, "For, behold, Jehovah will come with fire,         Scriptures the term "godly" is the translation of the verb
and His chariot shall be like the whirlwind, to render His           Chasid  or Chadas  which really means: having ardent desire.
anger with fierceness and his rebuke with flames of fire.            It is the avowed and eager purpose to serve God, and on
For by fire will Jehovah execute judgment and by  his                the part of God the eager longing to save His people from
sword upon all flesh, and the slain of Jehovah shall be              their sins. That is the mercy of God. Ps. 145:17.
many."                                                                   It is not difficult to see that this ardent desire is a hoping
   Yes, we see the portents of this all about us. How much           upon God. We are to be godly and to hope for the coming
does fire not destroy in spite of the warning of "Smokey             of the Day of the Lord. All our life must be concentrated
the Bear." How many fires are not begun by the lightnings            on that day as the day when in His righteous judgment He
of God that lighten the earth? Think of the destruction of           will destroy the wicked and their dwelling-place and take
the fiery volcanoes in all the earth, the. awesome rum-              us into glory. We are reminded of that beautiful answer in
blings of the earthquake in the bowels of the deep! The              Question 52 of the Heidelberg Catechism,
fear of man, we repeat, as he toys with the atom bomb,
with the chain radiation-action is great! Man is afraid of                        "That in all my sorrows and persecutions, with up-
the destruction of the very earth. Do not Sodom and Go-                   lifted head, I look for the very same person who before
morrah testify mutely that "all was destroyed"?! And has                  offered Himself, for my sake to the tribunal of God,
God not set this as an "example" (Hzcpodeigma)  for all                   and hath removed all curse from me, to come as judge
who would live ungodly lives.2 II Peter 2:6. These' are the               from heaven; who shall cast all His and my enemies into
righteous judgments of the Lord; God shall judge the judg-                everlasting condemnation, but shall translate me, with
ment of the righteous upon her, yea, also upon the mockers                all His chosen ones, to Himself, into heavenly joys
of Peter's day, who say: "Where is the promise of His                     and glory."
                                                         _.     "
eorhing??           :: I'..           :                                                                                           G.L.


                                                         -
84                                          T H E   ,.ST.ANDARD   .BEARER

                                                                     their membership, will soon become like the seventh, a
              IN HIS FEAR                                     .. dead church where you will not hnd Christ. He is outside
                                                                     the door of that church. You do not find Him on the pulpit
                                                                     or in the Consistory room. You find Him outside the church
               Integration or Segregation?                           and calling His people from there rather than from the
                                (2)                                  pulpit in the preaching of the Word. For there is no
                                                                     preaching of the Word there anymore. For the sake of the
      That  we live in the day of the lukewarm church is             Nicolaitanes, to satisfy Jezebel, and to keep peace with
plain to see on every side.                                          those who have the doctrine of  Baalam, Christ must not be
      Jesus teaches us in the seven letters to the seven churches    preached. It is not the polite thing to do, you know, to
in Asia in Revelation 2 and 3 that the church that does not          offend the brother in the church by preaching that which
heed His admonitions and rid herself of the evils and                condemns him and his doctrinal position.
false doctrines held and maintained within her midst shall
soon become a lukewarm church. The lie. and failure to                  That is not what Jesus said, however. He stands at the
discipline a sinful walk are two types of spiritual cancer           door of that church and calls to His people to open the
that eat away and corrupt the whole congregation, unless             door, to demand that He be brought back in on the pulpit
they are cut out completely. God is not mocked, and where            and in the key power which the church board has rejected.
the lie is introduced and cherished, this cancer will thrive         And remember that in rejecting the key power and. dis-
and grow, at first somewhat slowly and unnoticed but later           cipline, they have rejected Christ and put Him exactly
on with amazing rapidity. Soon enough such a congrega-               there, outside their church, instead of in that church. Let
tion finds itself unable to cut it out any more and sinks fast       the faithful continue to try to open the door for Christ's
into a coma of spiritual death. Pretty soon there is nothing         return in the preaching and Christian discipline, and what
pleasing in that church at all, and Christ is ready to spew          happened to Luther will be their lot. They will be cast out
her out of His mouth. Water has no taste and is satisfying           through that door to be with Christ outside. But be of
only when it is hot nor cold. There are times when we like           good cheer, there He will sup with you and make you to
a cold drink of water. There are times when a sip of hot             sit with Him on His throne.
water is more satisfving than the cold water. But lukewarm
                      d  v                                              The method of merging and integrating with churches
water never satisfies. Instead it is always repulsive,  loath-       that are less pure in doctrine and walk demands giving up
some and spewed out of the mouth.                                    the standards of truth and righteousness which have barred
      SO it is with many a church today. Men may call it a           these other churches throughout the years. And then in-
church. According to the standards of the day, it may be             tegration becomes a step toward the Laodicean church.
considered a flourishing church, even as the church of Lao-          And we better examine very carefully all our integration
dicea  thought herself to be rich and to have need of nothing.       of churches, lest the Nicolaitanes, the followers of Baalam
She had buildings, and beautiful ones at that. She had               and of Jezebel soon rule us and the Reformation which
wealth and was increased with goods. She was no poor                 God gave His Church through Luther be nullified and a
struggling congregation. Apparently God had blessed her              more terrible situation than that of Luther's day come forth
abundantly, far more so than many other congregations of             from this unholy alliance.
smaller size, with less pretentious buildings and with higher           This danger is very real. -Even apart from the warning
church budgets. She was a prosperous congregation, and               of Jesus in Revelation 2 and 3 that this is the order of events
her membership was growing steadily. For she was the                 and that all harboring of false doctrine and evil practices
type of church to which men liked to belong.  This is not            results in a Laodicean church where Christ cannot be
what Jesus says of her however. He tells her that she is             found, a somewhat less than superficial observance of all
poor, wretched, naked and without the eyesalve  to get her           that which is being said and written will reveal the danger
diseased, pus-closed eyes open. Let no man be deceived               to be very real. Rome has not changed essentially and has
by such external matters. God's blessing is upon the church          the same ambition of being a truly catholic, that is, uni-
where confession of sin can still be found, where there is           versal church. Her aim is to be the only church. On the
abhorrence of evil, where the membership still holds the lie         side of Protestantism, there has always been division and
repulsive and longs for the pure preaching of the Word               separation, schism and reorganization. Ever since the Ref-
and the use of the key power in the church.                          ormation there have been in Protestantism elements that
      But much of the church integration of today can only           depart further and further from the faith set forth by God
result in one gigantic church of Laodicea. That is what              once more through Martin Luther. And the further these
happens. The six churches in Asia with their sins and short-         groups are from the stream of tr~~th as it came forth out of
comings, that hold on to these sins and welcome the Nico-            that Reformation, the closer they come to Rome which has
laitanes, those with the doctrine of Baalam and Jezebel in           placed the doctrines of man in the place of Christ, has


                                            T H E   S T A N D A R D   B.EARER                                                                    85

put Him outside the door, so that there is really no preach-         Just `because they claim to have done many wonderful
ing of Him, no exposition of the Scriptures, no feeding              works of social reform in the name of Christianity, just
with the Word of life and the bread of life. And in His              because men have judged it to be in the name of Christ
place in the Church are saints and idols and wafers and              does not mean that we and they should "be one." That is
wine to worship. Instead of "Thus saith the Lord" a "Thus            not what Jesus means in His High-priestly prayer in John
saith the Pope" has been maintained. And the further one             P7:21.  It is quite easy to find texts in Scripture which,
gets away from this Christ and the truth in Him, the more            when rooted out of their context and explained without
Rome with its riches and increased goods -so that it can             a thorough exegesis, will support well-nigh every doctrinal
say that it "has need of nothing" - appeals and attracts. It         and political position a man may want to defend. After all
is the civilized thing to have a religion. A church connec-          Satan quoted the Scripture to Jesus in an effort to get Him
tion is the cultured thing to have. And it is a small step           to integrate into the kingdom of darkness. Of course, the
from the denial of the divinity of Christ to the weak and            Scripture declares that God will send His angels and bear
helpless Christ who can be persuaded by men and will                 Christ up, lest He dash His foot against a stone. But does
for their sakes give blessing. And it is likewise a small            that mean that Christ should indeed jump from the pin-
step from the rejection of Christ as the King of His Church          nacle of the temple to gain the praise and admiration of the
to recognizing a man as the final word in all doctrinal posi-        worshipers gathered below?
tions.                                                                    Jesus does not pray for them who shall believe on
    There is something decidedly wrong when one wants to             His name that they may with His disciples and the church
be more tolerant than God is. And Jesus was quite in-                of that day be one, but that they may be one as He is in
tolerant. The same Jesus who prayed that they might be               the Father and the Father is in Him, and that they may
one had warned His disciples of the leaven of the Pharisees.         be one in Christ and in God. This integration of Father
He urged no integration with them. This same Jesus years             in the Son and Son in the Father is a union in the truth,
later by His Spirit gave the Word to the Apostle John to             the unadulterated, pure, absolute truth. God is a light, and
write and gave us those significant words, "If there come            in Him is no darkness at all or even a shadow of turning.
any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not           Any integration of churches to be conducted at the com-
into your house, neither bid him God speed."                         mand of Christ must be for the sake of the truth, and not
   How different that is today! How ready many are to                at the expense of the truth. Churches will have to look
receive into their church fellowship men with quite a dif-           for purer manifestations of the truth and not opportunities
ferent doctrine than the one John has given us in the Word.          to gain in numbers by de-emphasizing or minimizing a
The modernist who denies that "Jesus Christ is come in               single point of truth. And if the church seeks to effect
the flesh" is received with open arms. He is invited to be           union with a church of less pure doctrine, it must do so
guest minister and to share the pulpit. The congregation             only in the way of educating and bringing that prospective
is told to have respect for his views and not to be bigoted.         "partner" UP to the level.
It is declared that we are all advancing toward the same                 Here again the words of Paul apply. "What communion
kingdom of God and to heaven, but only on different roads            hath darkness with light? And what concord hath Christ
and from a different angle. Do not believe it for one                with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an
minute! That is simply the lie of Satan and not the Word of          infidel?" And read once Deuteronomy  13:1-5. The death
God! The way is narrow. The gate is strait. Few there be             penalty was demanded in Israel for the false prophet who
that find it. All is not Israel that is of Israel. Neither is all    turned away the hearts of men from the truth. A drop of
that which calls itself the Church of Christ actually His            poison in the glass of water does not improve the poison,
Church. Many shall say, "Did we not cast out devils in               It corrupts the water. And so the cancer of the lie, if not
thy name and do many wonderful works?" And Jesus                     cut out, will soon corrupt the whole body. The cancer
will say, "Depart from me ye workers of iniquity. I never            must be. segregated, cut off, be separated from the body.
knew you." What a difference! They claim to have done                Woe unto us if we seek cancer and bring it into our church.
many wonderful works, but Jesus calls them workers of                                                                                      J.A.H.
iniquity! Matthew 7:X-23.  Let us beware that we do not
receive such into our church home to corrupt our children                                 RESOLUTION   OF  SYMPATHY
with their philosophies. Let us be sure that we are. not in-             The  Mary  Martha   Circle  of  the  Southeast   Protestant   Reformed
tegrating with such and laying a snare for our children              Church express  their  sincere  sympathy  to their  pastor,  Rev. M. Schip-
                                                                     per  and family,   in the  passing  of  his father.
and helping in the work which denies God His glory!                                            MR.  PETER   SCHIPPER
   These said, "Lord, Lord." There are countless thousands           May  our   covenant  Cod  give  us  courage   and  strength   to  continue  in
                                                                     the  work  of  the  Lord,  which   our   departed  brother  loved   with  all
today that say, "Lord, Lord." Does that in itself mean that          his heart.
we must integrate with them and "be one" with them?                                                          Mrs.  C.  We&a,  Vice  President
                                                                                                             Miss  A.  Reitsma,   Secretary

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

II                                                                  are not only received by the worthy, but also by the un-
          Contending For The .Faith                           II worthy who approach them without repentance and true
                                                                    f a i t h .
                                                                        Of interest, of course, is the presentation of the Lutheran
             The Church and the Sacraments                          doctrine on the Lord's Supper as recorded in the Formula
             THE TIME OF THE REFORMATION                            of Concord. The Formula of Concord was originally writ-
                                                                    ten in the German language, 1576, and published at Dres-
      VIEWS ON THE SACRAMENTS (LORD'S SUPPER)                       den, 1580. In its doubly approved form, it was published
                    THE LUTHERAN VIEW                               as the, authorized text in 1554. The severe language of
                                                                    this Lutheran Confession must undoubtedly be explained
       The Saxon Visitation Articles were composed in A. D.         in the light of the time when it was composed. Art. VII of
1592. These articles are historically important because they        this Confession deals with the subject of the Lord's Sup-
are a condensed and authoritative statement of the dif-             per, and we now quote this lengthy article.
ferences between orthodox Lutheranism and Calvinism
concerning the doctrines of the sacraments, the person of                                       Art. VII.
Christ, and predestination. Article I of these articles is                             OF THE LORDS SUPPER,
the article on the Lord's Supper, and it sets forth the pure
doctrine of the Lutheran Churches on this sacrament as                  "Although the Zwinglian doctors are not to be reckoned
follows :                                                           as in the number of those theologians who acknowledge
       "I. That the words of Christ, `Take and eat, this is         and profess the Augsburg Confession, inasmuch as, when
my Body;' `Drink, this is my Blood,' are to be understood           that Confession was set forth, they seceded from them;
in the simple and literal sense, as they sound.                     yet, since they are at this present craftily intruding them-
       "II. That, in the Sacrament, there are two things which      selves into their company, and endeavoring to disseminate
are exhibited and received together: one, earthly, which is         their error as widely as possible, under cover of that godly
bread and wine; the other, heavenly, which is the body and          Confession, we have judged that the Church of God ought
blood of Christ.                                                    to be instructed concerning this controversy also.
 "III. That these things (this union, exhibition, and                          STATEMENT OF THE CONTROVERSY.
sumption) take place here below on the earth, and not
above in heaven.                                                        "Which exists  hetzoeen  us  md the  Sacramentarians  in
       `TV. That the true and natural body of Christ which          `Iis  art'cl'e.
hung on the cross, and the true and natural blood, which                "It is asked whether in the Holy Supper the true body
flowed from the side of Christ, are exhibited and received.         and true blood of our Lord Jesus Christ are truly and  sub-
       "V. That the body and blood of Christ are received in        stantially present, and are distributed with the bread and
the Supper, not only spiritually, which might be done out           wine, and are taken with the mouth by all those who use
of the Supper; but by the mouth, with the bread and wine;           this sacrament, be they worthy or unworthy, good or bad,
yet in an inscrutable and supernatural manner; and this             believers or unbelievers, in such wise, nevertheless, as that
for a pledge `and ascertainment of the resurrection of our          believers derive consolation and life from the Supper of
bodies from the dead.                                               the Lord, but unbelievers take it unto condemnation? The
       "VI. That the body and blood of Christ are received          Zwinglians deny this presence and dispensation of the body
orally, not only by the worthy, but also by the unworthy,           and blood of Christ in the Holy Supper, but we affirm the
who approach them without repentance and true faith;                same.
though with different effect. By the worthy, they are re-                "For a solid explication of this controversy, it is first to
ceived for salvation; by the unworthy, for judgment,"               be understood that there are two sorts of sacramentarians.
       In this article it is taught that there are two things in    For some are exceedingly gross sacramentarians; these in
the Lord's Supper: the earthly bread and wine, and the              perspicuous and plain' words openly profess that which
body and blood of Christ. Hence, this article makes distinc-        they think in their heart, to wit: that in the Lord's Supper
tion between the bread and wine on the one hand, and the            there is nothing more present than bread and wine, which
body and blood of Christ on the other hand. Rome, we                alone are there distributed and received with the mouth.
know, teaches  thatthe bread and wine have-been changed             But others are astute and crafty, and thereby the most
into the body and blood of Christ. Secondly, this,article  also     harmful of all the sacramentarians; these, when talking of
teaches that the body and blood of Christ are not only re-          the Lord's Supper, make in part an exceedingly  high-
ceived spiritually in the Supper, but also by the -mouth,           sounding use of our mode of speaking, declaring that they
with the bread and wine. And, thirdly, the Lutherans also           too believe in a  tplLe presence of the  trtce, substantial,
teach, in this article, that the body and blood of Christ           and. living body and- blood of Christ in .the Holy Supper,


I                                             T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                87

     which presence and manducation, nevertheless, they say            and that Christ, in respect to his humanity, is truly and in
     to be spiritual, such as takes place by faith. And yet these      very deed seated thereat, and therefore at present gov-
I 1atter sacramentarians, under these high-sounding phrases,           erns, and has in his hand and' under  his feet, as the Scrip-
~ hide and hold fast the same gross opinion which the former           ture saith (Eph. 1:22), all things which are in heaven and
~ have, to wit: that, besides the bread and wine, there is             on earth. At this right hand of God no other man, nor
     nothing more present or taken with the mouth in the Lord's        even any angel, but the Son of Mary alone, is seated,
     Supper. For the term (sp+&&%er)  signifies nothing more           whence also he is able to effect those things which we have
     to them than the Spirit of Christ and his merit, which is         said.
     present; but they think that the body of Christ itself is in          "Thirdly: that the Word of God is not false or deceiv-
     no way whatever present, but is contained above in the            ing.
     highest heaven, and they affirm that it behooves us by the
     meditations of faith to rise on high and ascend into heaven,              "Fourthly: that God knows and has in his power vari-
     and that this body and blood of Christ are to be sought           ous modes in which he can be any where, and is not con-
     there, and in nowise  in union with the bread and wine of         fined to that single one which philosophers are wont to
     the Holy Supper.                                                  call local or circumscribed.
                                                                               "VI. We believe, teach and confess that the body and
                         `AFFIRMATIVE.                                 blood of Christ are taken with the bread and wine, not only
                                                                       spiritually through faith, but also by the mouth, neverthe-
        "Confession of the sound doctrine of the Supper of the         less not Capernaitically, but after a spiritual and heavenly
     Lord against the Sacrumentarians.                                 manner, by reason of the sacramental union. For to this the
        "I. We believe, teach, and confess that in the Lord's          words of Christ clearly bear witness, in which he enjoins
     Supper the body and blood of Christ are truly and sub-            us to take, .to eat, to drink; and that this was done by the
     stantially present, and that they are truly distributed and       Apostles the Scripture makes mention, saying (Mark 14:
     taken together with the bread and wine.                           23): `And they all drank of it.' And Paul says: `The bread
        `2. We believe, teach, and confess that the words of           which we break is the communion of the body of Christ,'
     the Testament of Christ are not to be otherwise received          that is, he that eats this bread eats the body of Christ.
     than as the words themselves literally sound, so that the         To the same with great consent do the chief of the most
     bread does not signify the absent body of Christ and the          ancient doctors of the Church, Chrysostom, Cyprian, Leo the
     wine the absent blood of Christ, but that on account of the       First, Gregory, Ambrose, Augustine, bear witness.
     sacramental union the bread and wine are truly the body              "VII. We believe, teach, and confess that not only true
     and blood of Christ.                                              believers in Christ, and such as worthily approach the
        "111. Moreover, as concerns the consecration, we be-           Supper of the Lord, but also the unworthy and unbelieving
     lieve, teach, and confess that no human work, nor any             receive the true body and blood of Christ; in such wise,
     utterance of the minister of the Church, is the cause of the      nevertheless, that they derive thence neither consolation
     presence of the body and blood of Christ in the Supper,           nor life, but rather so as that receiving turns to their judg-
     but that this is to be attributed to the omnipotent power of      ment and condemnation, unless they be converted and re-
     our Lord Jesus Christ.                                            pent (I Cor. 11:27, 29).
        "IV. Nevertheless, we believe, teach, and confess, by             `<For although they repel from them Christ as a Saviour,
     unanimous consent, that in the use of the Lord's Supper           nevertheless they are compelled, though extremely unwill-
     the words of the institution of Christ are by no means to         ing, to admit him as a stern Judge. And he no less present
     be omitted, but are to be publicly recited, as it is written      exercises his judgment over these impenitent guests than
     (I Cor.  10:16): `The cup of blessing which we bless, is it       as present he works consolation and life in the hearts of
     not the communion of the blood of Christ? etc. And this           true believers and worthy guests.
     benediction takes place by the recitation of the words of
     Christ.                                                              "VIII. We believe, teach, and confess that there is one
        "V. Now the foundations on which we rest in this con-          kind only of unworthy guests: they are those only who do
     troversy with the sacramentarians are the following, which,       not believe. Of these it is written (John 3: 18) : `He that
     moreover, Dr. Luther has laid in his Larger Confession con-       believeth not is condemned already.' And this judgment is
     cerning the Supper of the Lord:                                   enhanced and aggravated by an unworthy use of the holy
        `The first foundation is an article of our Christian faith,    Supper (I Cor. 11:29)."
     to wit: Jesus Christ is true, essential, natural, perfect God        The Lord willing, we will continue this quotation  .in
     and man in unity of person, inseparable and undivided.            `our following article.
        "Secondly: that the right hand of God is everywhere,                                                                    H.V.


88                                        T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
 _----II                                                            of creation. It is the issue of faith-in Holy Scripture. And
            The Voice of Our Fathers --II you cannot go about pioking and choosing what part of
                                                                    the Scriptures you will believe and what part you will not
                                                                    believe. It is all or nothing. As the Lord pointed out to
                  The Belgic Confession                             the unbelieving Jews of His day, he who believes Moses
                        AR&LE  XII           -                      believes Christ; and, vice versa, he who believes Christ `be- i
                         (continued)                                lieves Moses. If, therefore, you cannot believe Moses when
                                                                    he speaks of creation, you cannot believe Christ of whom
Creation and Faith (continued)                                      Moses also speaks. This leaves out of the picture yet the
      We may ask and answer the question: why is it nec-            fact that once one begins  the critical approach to Scripture
essary for a Christian to believe the doctrine of creation?         that makes of the creation record a myth, he has not ended
This question has sometimes been put, and it has been               yet, but must needs proceed until he has reaped all the
asked whether it is not possible to believe in Christ as            devastating results of such criticism, until he has no Bible
our Savior and not necessarily to accept the doctrine of
creation. This is, indeed, both an interesting and an im-           and no God and no Christ and no salvation left.
portant question. The ramifications of this question are               In the third place, we may approach this question
many, and the principles involved are important. In an-             from the thheologicaZ  point of view. And then we must re-
swering this question we may call attention to more than            member - and this is fundamental when we speak of faith
one factor.                                                         - that the God. Who quickens the dead is the God Who
      First of all, we must emphasize that when we speak of         calleth those things which be not as though they were.
faith in connection with creation, we are speaking of sau-          The God of the resurrection is the God of creation. The
+ng faith, the very same faith that clings to Christ as the         God of creation is the God of re-creation. And not only is
revelation of the God of our salvation. Not some kind of            this true from the general point of view that our God is
meaningless, irrelevant, historical faith is meant, a blind         the God of the wonder, the God Who only doeth wondrous
belief that. God created all things, but a faith that stands        things. This is, of course, true: the very same unbelief
altogether unrelated to and disconnected from that `<cer-           that cannot and will not accept the resurrection also cannot
tain knowledge" and `hearty confidence" whereby I belong            and will not accept the wonder of creation. It simply will
to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ. Faith is one. It is             not accept t7xe wonder - any wonder. But this is also true
saving faith. That this is true is evident, for example, from       particularly from the point of -view of the fact that all
a passage such as Hebrews 11. There the subject is saving           wonders stand related, have their meaning, their reason,
faith as the evidence of things unseen and the substance of         their sense, in the central Wonder, our Lord Jesus Christ.
things hoped for. And it is precisely through faith that            I always feel that our Heidelberg Catechism puts the matter
"we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of           so appealingly in Lord's Day IX. It does not give a lengthy
God, so that the things which are seen were not made of             discourse on creation at all. But it goes rather to the heart
things which do appear." Hebrews  11:3. That also im-               of the matter in answer to the question, "What believest
plies, of course, that outside of faith in Jesus Christ it is       thou when thou sayest, `I believe in God the Father, Al-
principally impossible to believe in creation, or rather, in the    mighty, Maker of heaven and earth'?" And now note the
Creator. To be sure, God does not leave Himself without             answer: "That the eternal Father of our Lord Jesus Christ
witness. And the natural man is able to apprehend the               (who pf nothing made heaven and earth, with all that is
facts of creation, though he is unable to believe in the            in them; who likewise upholds `and governs the same by
Creator. "For the invisible things of him (God) from the            his eternal counsel and providence) is for the sake of Christ
creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood            his Son, my God and my Father; on whom I rely so en-
by the things that are made, even his eternal power and             tirely, that I have no doubt, but he will provide me with
Godhead; so that they are without excuse." Romans 1:20.             all things necessary for soul and body: and further, that
And indeed, also the natural man cannot fail to note that           he will make whatever evils he sends upon me, in this
"The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament            valley of tears turn out to my advantage; for he is able to
sheweth  his handiwork," because those heavens and  firma-          do it, being Almighty God, and willing, being a faithful
ment are indeed His handiwork. But the natural man holds            Father." Notice, please, that it is precisely "God the Father,
under the truth in unrighteousness, and outside of Christ           Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth," Who is both the
and faith in Him is unable and unwilling to acknowledge             "eternal Father of our Lord Jesus Christ" and "for the sake
the Creator.                                                        of Christ his Son, my God and my Father." The' three
      In the second place, there is the most obvious answer         notions are inseparable. And notice, in the second place,
to this question that the same Scriptures which you must            the tremendous implications of this. Take creation out of
believe in order to believe in Christ also set forth the truth      the works of. God, and you can no longer say that "he is


                                          T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                               89

able to do it, being Almighty God." For then creation is in-     natural science, and who frequently is exposed to all kinds
dependent of God, outside of His ownership and control.          of theories that run counter to his creation-faith.
And then He cannot provide me any longer with all things             Briefly, I would submit the following fundamental prin-
necessary for soul and body, nor make even evil things turn      ciples :
out to my advantage. What an impoverished heavenly                   1. There can be no conflict between God's Word and
Father we would have in .that case!                              the facts. Today men of science like to point to certain
    Finally, we must not forget that according to Scripture,     facts which they maintain conflict with what God's Word
there is a very close relation between creation and Christ.      teaches us. And especially to Christian youth they like to
This is patently true, according to Scripture. Thus, for ex-     emphasize that the Bible is not a scientific treatise, and that
ample, in John l:l-3 we read: "In the beginning was the          it must not be read as though it were such. They mean
Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was                to say, of course, that the Word of Scripture must not be
God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things          taken at face value,. but must be interpreted in the Zght of
were made by him; and without him was not any thing              science. They will even argue  that-.after  all God reveals
made that was made." And Who is that Word? He is our             Himself in the book of nature too.
Lord Jesus Christ, John  I:14, "And the Word was made                Over against this, it must be strongly emphasized that a
flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the          conflict between God's Word and the facts, genuine facts,
glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace       of the things that are seen is a priori  impossible. This lies
and truth." Or again, in Hebrews  l:l, 2 : "God, who at          in the nature of the case. And the deepest reason for this
sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto       is the virtue of God's veracity. The God Who reveals Him-
the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken      self in His Word is the same God Who in the things that
unto us by his Son (our Lord Jesus Christ) whom he hath          are made reveals Himself as the Creator and Upholder of
appointed heir of  alI things, by whom also he made the          all things. In this connection, however, we must remember
worlds." And finally, we cite that rich passage from Colos-      that this does not imply that the harmony of Scripture and
sians 1: 15-20  : "Who is the image of the invisible God, the    facts is always discernible. But in such a case the Christian
firstborn of every creature: For' by him were all things         must maintain that whatever the facts are and may seem
created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible      to prove, he holds to the Word of God. At the same time,
and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or         the Christian does not despise natural science. He merely
principalities, or powers: all things were created by him,       insists that the approach of science must always be the
and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all         deeply humble approach of faith in the Word of God, and
things consist. And he is the head of the body, the church:      that apart from the knowledge of God in Christ there is no
who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in       genuine science.
all things he might have the preeminence. For it pleased            2. There is frequently conflict between the Word of
the Father that in him should all fulness dwell; And,            God and the "findings," conclusions, theories, of natural
having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him         science. The latter are human. Moreover, we must re-
to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether     member that only too often what is actually only a theory
they be things in earth, or things in heaven." Christ, there-    or a conclusion is presented as a fact. And here is the
fore, is the Firstborn of every creature. All things were        area of conflict with the Scriptures. When men, mere nat-
created by Him, and for Him. Deny the truth of creation,         ural men, begin to e&u&e the facts, their conclusions must
therefore, and you must literally deny Christ, according to      always be fundamentally the lie. It is precisely at this
these passages. Creation is not a doctrine that lies on the      point that faith and unbelief come to the parting of the
periphery of the Christian faith, one which you can per-         ways. And because the conclusions of unbelieving science
haps deny or compromise without doing serious damage to          are ethically always the lie, those same conclusions are
the doctrine of Christ and salvation. It is rather an in-        frequently, individually taken, erroneous too. The Christian
tegral part of Christian doctrine, so fundamental that if        should be very discerning here. Take, for example, the
you deny it, you deny the Christian faith.                       studies that are made concerning the age of the world in
                                                                 connection with radio-activity and Carbon 14. The fact of
Faith, Creation, and Natural Science                             Carbon 14 is undeniable. The fact of a certain process
   What, then, in the light of the above, can be said about      involving a consistent change of amount of Carbon 14 is
faith's approach to the whole question of creation and           also undeniable. The conclusion drawn from these facts
natural science? This is an important question for the man       that things are millions and hundreds of millions of years
of natural science who is concerned about being Reformed,        old is not a fact, as is often presented, but a mere theory,
who wants to maintain the confession of Article XII, and         and a theory too that refuses to take into account certain
who wants to adhere to the Scriptures. And it is important       plainly stated facts of Scripture. Now, whether I can fully
for the Christian student who is busy in the realm of                                (Comiinued  o n   p a g e   91)


90                                         THE  S.TANDARD   B E A R E R

                                                                    and by these the church is to be governed. The church
11 DECENCY and ORDER  11 here is the church of Christ as it is represented in the var-
                                                                    ious congregations (institutes); and each of them individ-
                                                                    ually, as well as all of them collectively, must observe
            The Church Order In Retrospect                          the rules of the Church Order: for this is vital to their
                                                                    existence as part of the church of Christ. Without this,
      "These articles, relating to the lawful order of the          kzwful order cannot be maintained: for these articles re-
church, have been so drafted and adopted by common con-             late exactly to this. That this is so follows from the im-
sent, that they (if the profit of the churches demand other-        plied fact that the Church Order is based upon God's
wise) may and ought to be altered, augmented or dimin-              Word, and the latter is the only rule for faith and con-
ished. However, no particular congregation,  classis  (or           duct. To depart from it is to walk disorderly, and the
synod), shall be at liberty to do so, but they shall show           fruit of such walk is chaos and ruin. There are only two
all diligence in observing them, until it be otherwise or-          paths  - an orderly and a disorderly. There are only two
dained by the general synod."             -Article 86 D. K. 0.      ways - a broad and a narrow. There are only two standards
      With this article we bring to a conclusion our treatise       -right and wrong. And the orderly path that follows the
of the eighty-six articles of the Church Order of Dordrecht.        narrow way and is right is set forth in the articles of the
This final article, as is evident from its formulation, is dif-     Church Order based on God's own Word. By these the
ferent in purpose than the eighty-five articles that precede it.    church must conduct herself.
In those eighty-five articles many regulations covering
various facets of the government of the church are set                 Secondly, these rules have been "drafted and adopted
forth. This final article, however, reflects upon this en-          by common consent." The church is not forced into obedi-
tire body of the Church Order and sets forth some prin-             ence but her obedience is the fruit of the grace of God
ciples that are applicable to all of the articles. It may be        given to her. She does not agree to the principles and
considered as a sort of summation, and in view of it we             regulations of the Church Order simply because the ma-
may look at the entire Church Order in retrospect.-                 jority decide this is best, but she does so because in
      The last article of the Church Order brings five points       drafting and adopting these rules she consciously seeks
of consideration to our attention. They are:                        and submits to the will of Christ Himself. This does not
      I. It defines the nature and purpose of the Church            mean that at the Synod of 1618-79  all the delegates were
Order as a body of articles designed for `the lawful order          unanimous in their opinions regarding the adoption of
of the church."                                                     these rules. The contrary was true. Although many of
      2. It reminds us that this order has not been super-          these articles had been adopted by previous synods, there
imposed upon the church by some hierarchical power but              were still differences concerning some of them. Two votes
that these articles have been "drafted and adopted by com-          were taken by the assemblies adopting these rules. The
mon consent."                                                       first vote determined the opinion of the majority, and the
      3. It admits the fallibility of rules composed by men         second vote then was  tianimous:  for the  .minority con-
and so acknowledges that these rules not only may but also          formed itself to the majority. But no pope or synod can
"ought to be altered, augmented or diminished" if the profit        impose these rules upon the church, for this would be
of the churches so demands.                                         hierarchy. The churches voluntarily consent to be bound
      4. It requires of each local church that it shall "show       by the Church Order as much as they agree mutually in
all diligence in observing these regulations." They are             matters of doctrine with the churches that are affiliate in the
drafted and adopted for the purpose of maintaining the              federative union.
lawful order of the church and this can be achieved only               Thirdly, Article 86 acknowledges that these rules are
by due observance.                                                  not infallibly given; that they are the product of men, and,
      5. By implication, therefore, this article also reiterates    therefore, are also subject to change. This indicates that
the binding authority of the Church Order.                          the Church Order, like the confessions, does not stand on a
      Concerning these five matters we will comment briefly.        par with Holy Writ. The Scriptures are the infallible and
      First of all, then, the purpose of the Church Order is to     therefore unchangeable Word of God. From age to age they
maintain the lawful order of the church. It is not a body           remain the same. It follows then that in as far as the
of rules and regulations that is designed to spell out the          Church Order contains principles and truths that are based
solution to every problem that may arise in the church.             directly upon the Scriptures, these also may not be changed.
Neither do the eighty-five articles here referred to intend         But in addition to these, many things may be found in the
to cover every circumstance of sin or disorder in the church.       Church Order for which there is no direct prescription
But,the  Church Order sets forth the basic principles of God's      found in the Word of God. These regulations not only
Word and transposes these into fundamental rules of order,          may but also should be changed if the profit of the churches


                                             T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                             91

   demands it. This flexibility is necessitated by changing cir~    pending certain regulations provided these do not affect
   cumstances which affect the church and demand a modilica-        other churches and also are not definite principles of Holy
   tion of her self-imposed regulations.                            Writ. When this is done, it is advisable that the local
      A word of caution must be sounded in this connection.         church obtains the approval of the classis  upon their action.
   First of all, it is a rather serious and very important thing    The procedure is somewhat exceptional and should not be
   to change the Church Order. This should never be done in         set forth as an example, but only as a thing permitted be-
   haste or without due and careful consideration. "Frequent        cause of certain extenuating circumstances.
   and hasty changes in the Church Order," Monsma and                   Finally, we note that this last article of our Church
   Van  Dellen write, "make for instability and tend to under-      Order once again intimates the binding character of the
   mine the authority of the Church Order." Against this we         Church Order. This has been expressed in the body of
   must stand on guard.                                             the Church Order proper, and we need not elaborate
      Secondly, the sole motive for changing the Church             upon this point now. However, that these articles relate
   Order must be "the profit of the churches." This, accord-        to the "lawful order of the church" and that they have been
  ing to Rev. Ophoff, implies two things:                           adopted "by common consent" and may be "altered, aug-
      "1. It implies, ilrst, that no external power, as for ex-     mented or diminished" only as `ordained by the General
   ample the government, may compel the churches to change          Synod" would indicate that they have more than an ad-
  the Church Order. For the motive and the standard must            visory authority in the churches. The churches may not
  be: the profit of the churches. And, therefore, a synod,          assume the attitude toward the Church Order that they can
~ addressed to the task of changing the Church Order, may           respect or ignore these regulations as they see fit. They
~ not allow itself to be bound by the will of the government.       are the basis for the government of the church and must
  It may, of course, take into consideration. the ideas of the      then also be diligently observed. It is for the preservation
   government, but only if these ideas, as put into practice,       of good order and decency that they are adopted. To at-
  redound to the profit of the church, never if they clash          tempt to maintain the rule of the church on another basis
  with the profit of the churches.                                  than the rules and regulations derived from the Word of
      "2. Alteration of the Church Order is forbidden should        God is to reap chaos and bring the church to ruin. For
  it redound to the profit only of a few - of a few churches,       centuries our Church Order has withstood the tests of
  or individuals, of the clergy in contradistinction to the         time and proven to be an invaluable guide for good order.
  common members, and vice-versa. Alteration is allowable           Let us continue, then, to observe it, giving all diligence
  only if profitable to all the churches as to the whole of         that its regulations be followed; and this practice, coupled
  their combined membership."                                       with sound doctrine, will prove conducive to a faithful
                                                                    church.
      Should then a change in a certain article or articles of                                   (t  (f  0  0
  the Church Order be necessary, no church or single classis
  may enact such changes. This must be done by the Synod,              With this we bring to a conclusion our discussion of the
  representing all the churches. This requirement is rooted         articles of the Church Order. The editorial staff of our
  in the principle that no church may lord it over other            Stardurd Bearer  has assigned undersigned a new rubric
  churches by imposing upon them its ordinances; and it is          which will deal with the  liturgies of the church. With
  based on the fact that the Church Order is not the property       this new subject we will begin, D. V., next time.
  of any single church, but is drafted and adopted by com-                                                               G.v.d.B.
  mon consent of them all.                                                         THE VOICE OF OUR FATHERS
     The fourth observation we make of this final article of
  the Church Order is that it requires each church to show                                 (Continued from page 89)
  all diligence in observing these regulations! This, too, is       explain such phenomena as Carbon  I.4 or not, I may never
  essential, or the Church Order will lose all of its effective-    accept a theory as a fact when that theory contradicts the
  ness. Although the Church Order is not a set of iron clad         facts of Scripture.
  rules or legal regulations that must be enforced no matter           3. And the third fundamental principle for the Christian
  what the results might be, it is a' set of rules mutually         is that natural science in its entire approach must stand
  agreed upon by all the churches; and simple reasonable-           four-square on the basis of the Word of God. It must
  ness requires that all observe them with diligence. It may        proceed from Scripture. It must allow Scripture to shed
  be granted that under certain local circumstances the ob-         light upon the facts which it discovers and studies. For
  servance of the Church Order might be a physical im-              the Christian the book of creation must and can only be
  possibility or create harm and disorder in a particular           read in the light of the Book of Scripture, not the other.
  church. Interpreters of the Church Order are generally            way around. "Sic  sollen  das Wort stehen  lassen."
  agreed that in such cases the consistoiy is justified in sus-                                                          H.C.H.


92                                               TW!E   S,TANDARD   B E A R E R

                                                    ?^  .  .  .        -I ) it was called to -correct abuses in the Roman Catholic
1AL.L  A R O U N D   U S -                                             Church -particularly the abuse of immorality among the
                                                                       clergy; 2) it was called to try to stem the tide of the Ref-
                                                                       ormation; 3) it was called to set forth the doctrines of
DRUGGED RELIGION                                                       the Roman Catholic Church over against the truths pro-
                                                                       pounded by the Reformers.               .      '
      There is a new drug being used experimentally which
is supposed to give most wonderful and awesome experi-                    This editorial points out the dogmas which the council
ences. A former professor of psychology in Harvard Uni-                adopted, adding that they have never been. repudiated,
versity has been giving these drugs to volunteers. About               that they never will be, and that, therefore, union with
1.000 people were used in at least 150 experiments. Men                Rome remains an impossibility for those who maintain the
from all walks of life, including college deans, a divinity            truth of Scripture.
school president, three university chaplains, an executive                At a time when there is a great deal of talk in the air
of a religious foundation, a prominent religious editor, sev-          about this possible union with Rome (both in the Vatican
eral philosophers, have been used. These men include also              Council which is now meeting in St. Peter's cathedral, and
69 full-time religious professionals from Christian, Jewish,           among Protestants who are vying with each other to re-
                                           .,
and Eastern religions.                                                 turn in the quickest possible way) and so near the date
                                                                       when the Church commemorates again the Reformation of
      The drug is supposed to give an intense religious                the 16th Century, it is good to be reminded of this.
experience and certain revelations that are the deepest
religious experiences of their life.                                      The editor first makes a summary of the doctrines which
      The professor is so. gratified with the results that he          the Council set forth as the teaching of the Church: the
insists that `it is hard to see how these results can be dis-          doctrines of the canonicity of the apocryphal books, jus-
regarded by those who are concerned with spiritual growth              tification by faith and works, the sacramental character of
and religious development."                                            the seven sacraments, the sacrifice of the mass, transub-
                                                                       stantiation, the practice of withholding the cup of wine
      One wonders what is coming next.                                 from the laity, purgatory, the prayers to saints, the worship
      Is the deep, subjective experience of salvation in the           of relics, and the efficacy of indulgences.
child of God to be worked now by drugs instead of by                      Against all those who denied these doctrines, the coun-
the operation of the Holy Spirit?                                      cil (approved by the pope) hurled its anathemas.
      What kind of experiences are these? Nobody seems                    Since that time the Church of Rome has added more
willing to say exactly. Is it just some emotional  `kicks?             dogmas, equally as repulsive as those set forth by the
The experience of the child of God worked by the Spirit                council of Trent. The editor mentions a few. First of all,
of Christ is always in harmony with the truth of Scripture.            there was the doctrine of the immaculate conception of
It is the calm assurance of salvation, the conviction of sin           Mary. Pope Pius solemnly declared that Mary had been
and forgiveness in the blood of the cross, the hope of ever-           conceived  ,and born without sin. The Roman Breviary
lasting life in heaven. It is intelligent and reasonable, so           says, "She (Mary) will always find grace, and it is grace
that the people of God are able to give an answer to those             alone by which we are saved. Let us seek grace, and let
who ask them concerning their hope. The professor, how-                us seek it through Mary." Then, in 1950, the doctrine of
ever, `describes the experiences which his drugs bring on              Mary's assumption into heaven without dying was set forth
as seeing "for a second a fragment of the energy dance,                as official doctrine by the authority of the pope.
the life power" - whatever that nonsense is supposed to                   In 1870, the Vatican Council that then met set forth
mean.                                                                  the doctrine of papal infallibility.  This.,doctrine  taught that
      How wicked men become in their tamperings with                   the pope cannot err when he makes any pronouncement
things holy!                                                           as the supreme teacher of all Christians because he pos-
                                                                       sesses supreme apostolic authority.
WHY ROME REMAINS OUR ENEMY                                                Furthermore, in 1864, Pope Pius IX wrote a syllabus
      In a recent editorial in  Christinrzity   Toduy,  t&z  editor    in which he maintained that the teachings of the Church
discusses the Council of Trent and the dogmas of Roman                 included such doctrines as: 1) that only the Roman Cath-
Catholicism, in order to point out the wide breach that                olic Church had the right to be recognized by any civil
still exists between Evangelicals  and the Church of Rome.             authorities; 2) that the principles of civil and religious
      Anyone at all acquainted with church history will re-            liberty, as well as the freedom of religion, were not in
call that the Council of Trent was called soon after the               keeping with Romish theology; 3) that any other religion
Reformation (this council met in three distinct periods:               but Roman Catholicism was unlawful; 4) that the Roman
1545-1549; 1551-1552;  1562-1563) with a threefold purpose:            hierarchy (its priests, bishops, archbishops and cardinals)


                                           T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                  93

had complete independence; 5) that the Roman Catholic                  The most interesting and yet also terrible part of it is
Church .had the right to coerce. and enforce its. supreme           that. after the attacks on the schools, pamphlets were dis-
control over public education, science, and literature.             tributed entitled, "The Cross Completes What the Swas-
   YOU can readily see how wide the-breach between the              tika Left Unfinished." Evidently these Jews consider the
Church of Christ and Rome really is. And it has been                cross of Christ to be as grave a threat as the terrible
growing down the centuries. There are those who speak               atrocities of Hitler and the Third Reich.
of different winds blowing in the Romish Church that are               In a sense this is true. The cross surely means the des-
making the breach less narrow. But not one of these doc-            truction of the nation of Israel - unless they repent and
trines has been repudiated by Rome up until today. The              believe in Christ. But if they do, they become part of the
Reformation was surely a sovereign work of God whereby              Church of Christ, and are no longer Jews.
He preserved the Church of Christ for ages to come and
restored to that Church the truth of the gospel.
   The trouble is that much of the Church world has al-                bne by one nations close their doors to missionaries.
ready itself compromised these principles of the Reforma-           This is especially true of the nations of Asia and Africa.
tion. The doctrines of an infallible Bible, of the sole author-        Recently, the country of. Nepal passed a new law which
ity of Scripture, of justification by faith alone, of particular    forbids anyone inside her borders who has come for the
atonement, of sovereign predestination, and others have             purpose of preaching the gospel. The penalty is three
long been discarded or watered down. This is true even in           years in jail and banishment from the kingdom. And it
Reformed circles who have but recently commemorated the             was only ten years ago that missionaries were permitted
Reformation. But. to compromise the truths of the Reforma-          into this country. So Nepal is now added to a growing list
tion is, inevitably, to move closer to the false church of          that forbids or places limitations on missionary work-a
Rome.                                                               list that includes Red China, Ceylon, North Viet Nam,
                                                                    Cambodia, India, and others.
THE PERILS OF MISSIONARY WORK                                          There are two points that ought to be made: 1) while
   Although the Jews now have their own country to                  the missionaries and their sending churches are inclined to
which they can return at any time, there are many who               be disturbed by this because, as they express it, "There
maintain that Israeli is only for Jews and that other religions     will now be many who could have been saved who will
should not be permitted residence there.                            be lost," nevertheless, God sees to it that His elect are
   This was emphasized once again recently when bands               gathered; if missionaries are completely barred from a
of students belonging to the ultra-orthodox Jews made at-           country, it is only because God's elect are gathered from
tacks on three Protestant schools in three Jewish cities -          that country. 2) The Lord never intended that the gospel
Jerusalem, Haifa, and Tel Aviv-Jaffa.                               should have the  `<national" influence on these countries
   In Jaffa the students attacked a Scottish Presbyterian           of Asia and Africa that it had in the countries of the West.
school, smashed windows and chairs, broke tables and                To a considerable extent the "nations that are on the four
desks, beat up the smaller children and hit the teachers.           corners of the earth" are destined to remain in darkness.
   In Jerusalem the zealots broke into a Catholic convent           The sin of the nations of the West is that they apostatize
from which they had to be removed by force. They also               from the revelation of God in Scripture; the sin of the
attacked a Finnish Protestant school in that city.                  heathen nations is one of rebellion against the revelation
   There have been similar incidents of one kind or an-             of God in creation. It seems as if we are coming ever
other. Earlier last summer, students stoned a bus load of           nearer the time when, according to  God's  purpose, the
tourists on the Sabbath, beat a man with his own crutches           gospel has run its course in the world. But this is a sure
for driving in a forbidden area on the Sabbath, stoned              sign of the nearness of the end  - perhaps the clearest
buses carrying young people back from a Baptist World               sign of all.
Alliance Youth Conference that had recently met in Beirut,
Lebanon.                                                            RELIGIOUS BELIEFS AND HOSPITAL TREATMENT
   The reasons given for all these attacks were that the               There have always been those (notably the Christian
Protestants were carrying on missionary work among the              Scientists) who have refused hospital treatment because of
Jewish people - especially the Jewish children. The gov-            their religious beliefs.
ernment seemed to condone this deep resentment against                 Recently, in England a girl of 16 died because the be-
Protestant missionary work, although it condemned the               liefs of the family conflicted with any type of medical aid.
raiders for their violence. Yet this has been the pattern           The only aid she received was prayer. She was injured in a
of government action ever since Israeli became a nation.            riding accident and died three weeks later from a skull
The government has always taken a dim view of any kind              fracture. Her mother testified at the inquest that, although
of missionary endeavor.                                             the girl was made comfortable after the accident, the only


94                                       T H E   - S T A N D A R D   .BEARER

 treatment allowed her was the treatment of the prayers            _ It  tias in August of this year that then Candidate D.
of the family.                                                    Engelsma announced to the congregation that it is his
      In another case, this time in Washington, D.C., the         firm conviction that it is the good pleasure. and will of the
court intervened and ordered an emergency blood trans-            King of the Church that he accept the call extended to
fusion for a 22-year-old woman who was bleeding from an           him by us. After being examined by Classis  West in Sep-
ulcer. She was brought to a hospital emergency room in            tember, he was ordained as Minister of the Gospel; and
the Georgetown University Hospital. -Doctors said her only        Loveland received new fruit of our Seminary.
hope of survival was in immediately receiving blood trans-           Now Rev. and Mrs. Engelsma having been welcomed
fusions. But she and her family refused on religious              at a reception, and the Reverend having preached  his
grounds. They were both members of the Jehovah's Wit-             inaugural sermon, we are busily engaged as pastor and
 nesses sect, and they maintained that -to receive a blood        congregation in the activities of the church of our God.
transfusion would violate the Scriptural injunction that for-
bade the eating of blood. The hospital asked a U. S. Cir-            Being thankful to, God for sending us this youthful
cuit Court judge (Judge J. Skelly)  to order a transfusion.       servant, whom He has seen fit to call and ordain in our
A hearing was conducted that same evening in the patient's        Protestant Reformed Churches to labor now in our midst,
room. The judge heard arguments from the doctors and              we look forward and backward, confident that otir God is
from the woman's husband, and then ordered a transfusion          good, and herewith want to share with the readers of
to be given.                                                      The Stmadwd  Bearer this joy and blessed experience.
      Some are wondering whether this is not another  in:                                   - The Consistory of the Loveland
fringement on our religious liberty.                                                           Piotestant  Reformed Church
                                                      H. Hanko                                 -Wm. A. Griess, Sec'y


                                                                  Report of the Eastern Ladies' League  Meeting
                                                                     The Fall meeting of our Eastern Ladies' League was
       .. -Loveland `"Welcomes New Pastor                         held Thursday evening  October  24, 1963 at the South
                                                                  East Protestant Reformed Church of Grand Rapids.
      It is with joy that we herewith express our gratitude
to our covenant God in the blessed truth that He is ever             Mrs. B.  Maring played an organ prelude. We opened
the faithful one.                                                 our meeting by singing Psalter No. 374 and the Holland
                                                                  Psalm No. 42, verse 1. Mrs. J.  .Kalsbeek, our Vice Pres-
      In November of 1961 it pleased our God to suddenly          ident, read Ephesians, chapter 4. Rev. H. Veldman offered
 call out of our midst our beloved pastor, the Rev. H. H.         prayer.
Kuiper;  and leave us without an undershepherd. It was               A sextet from our Hope Protestant  Ref. Church sang
 during the next well-nigh two years that we were to be           numbers 25 and 220 from the Psalter.
 left without a pastor of -our own, and as a congregation we
 went through a period. of calling a new minister.                   Rev. H. Veldman then spoke to us on the subject, "The
                                                                  Merger of Churches, a Sign of the Times."
      Time and again there were consistory meetings,  neti
 trios, congregational meetings, call letters and declines,             The Merger  of  Chtcrches,  a Sign  of  the  Tismes.
 until it pleased our new pastor, Rev. D. Engelsma, to               This is a broad subject, but we can draw some general
 heed our call to "come over and help us," and thus become        lines that are of interest to us. First, look, at the Sign,
 our new pastor.                                                  second, the Significance of the Sign  and, in conclusion,
      Looking back over this period of time, we  are indeed       the Failure of the Sign of the merger of churches.
grateful to our God, Who so abundantly provided for us.              Let us look at this Sign in its historical background.
In time of "hope" and in time of "discouragement" He al-          Prior to the Reformation, the church world witnessed a
 ways provided for the needs of the congregation.                 tremendous phenomenon, for until 1054 there was only one
      Time and again we received preaching, guidance, and         church of God in the world. There were heretical move-
 understanding from ministers appointed here  1rom both           ments during these centuries, but the church remained as
 Classis  West and  Classis  East, as well as extra help and      one. In 1054 a great schism took place. There was a split
 efforts on our behalf from all our ministers.                    between the East and the West, between the Greeks. and
      We wish  tb express our sincere Thank-you to our            the Latin, between Constantinople and Rome. The church
 moderator, Rev. J. Kortering, for his sincere help and           was split in two. Four hundred and sixty-three years later
guidance during our vacancy. _                                    the Reformation took place.


                                          T H E      STANDARD  BEARER                                                        95

   On October 31, 1517, the fearless German reformer,             A merger is sinful when it means a sacrifice of the truth.
Martin Luther, who was monk, priest, doctor of divinity,          The true church is called and gathered through Gbd's  ir-
set the whole church world ablaze when he nailed his              resistible grace. In a merger there is a place for the Son
ninety-five theses on the door of the church of  Witten-          of God in a humanitarian sense but not as the Son of God
berg. The movement of the Reformation was the greatest            incarnate. They do not confess sin or guilt and therefore
movement in the church since the apostles, for it brought         they do not .need  a Saviour. They deny His cross. Modern
back the doctrine that man is saved by faith alone and not        mergers do not speak of irresistible grace, nor of a God
by works, that a believer did not need any one to intercede       whose kingdom is not of this world. They are earthly
for him but that he could pray directly to God, and third,        and sinful, therefore must fail. Growth and expansion are
the return of the Word of God in the hands of the people.         not signs of the true church.
   Since the Reformation the Roman Catholic church has               We are small but we have a wonderful gospel. We
been intact but the Protestant church has been split into         need not concern ourselves about size but we should con-
many churches. We cannot blame the Reformation for                cern ourselves about our faithfulness to the truth which
this, but the human heart and mind are to blame. For,             God has revealed to us. "When the Son of Man returns,
to have man interpret Scripture gives the Devil the op-           shall He find faithfulness on the earth?" Mergers must fail
portunity to cause splits in the churches.                        for who can stop the work of the Son of God? Remember
                                                                  that the cause of the Son of God always has the victory and
   What is going on today in the church world? The late           it will be revealed that through the church in the world God
Pope John XXIII convened the Roman Catholic Council               was gathering glory and praise to His everlasting name.
and he invited many Protestants as observers. He referred                                 *  d  0  *
to them as erring Protestant brethren. His successor, Paul
VI, has decided to walk in the footsteps of his predecessor.         We sang Psalter No. 261 while a collection was taken
We do not look for Rome to regain its former glory or             for  Th.e Standard Bearer.
power, but we do look for Rome to join forces with the               Next, we were favored by a book review by Mrs. D.
Anti-Christ.                                                      Jonker, on "The Gallant Warrior," by Helen R. Mann.
   AS to. the merger of the Protestant churches, we could            The minutes of the Spring League Meeting were read,
go on in detail, but in general we will give a few statistics.    Roll Call was taken and the treasurer gave a report.
In Canada in 1925, thee large churches combined into one.            The old and new Board Members were asked to come
They were the Methodist, the Presbyterian and the Con-            to the front and sing Psalter No. 203. They were accom-
gregationalist. They formed the United Church of Canada.          panied by Miss Sybil Engelsma.
In the United States iri 1935, several of the larger Protes-         Mrs. Kalsbee&  thanked all who had taken part in the
tant bodies united to form the National. Council of               program, also the host society.
Churches. In 1950 the World Council of Churches was                  Our closing song was No. 17. and Mrs. G. Lanfing, our
formed. However, three large groups did not join the              new Vice President, closed the meeting with prayer.
World Council. They are the Russian Orthodox, the Roman              The ladies gathered in the basement for a social hour
Catholic and the Southern Baptist.                                and refreshments were served by the ladies of our South
   There are several passages of Scripture that refer to          East Church.
the church in the latter days, such as Rev. 13 which speaks                              MRS.  THOMAS  NEWHOF,  Reporter.
of the two beasts meaning the Anti-Christ. II Tim. 4 tells
us that the time will come when they. will not endure
sound doctrine. In spite of all this, our comfort is in Lord's            These doubts are my  in&n&y,
Day XXI which teaches: "That the Son of God from the                         My thoughts at once reply;
beginning to the end of the world, gathers, defends, and                   I call back years of God's right hand;
preserves to himself by His Spirit and Word, out of the                      The years of God Most High.
whole human race, a church chosen to everlasting life,
agreeing in true faith; and that I am and for ever shall                  I will commemorate, 0 Lord,
remain, a living member thereof."                                            Thy wondrous deeds of old,
                                                                          And meditate upon Thy works
   Christ, the Son of God, represents the living God in                      Of power and grace untold.
the church. In His atoning suffering and death He vin-
dicates the living God over against the sinner. God must                   0 God, most holy is Thy way,
be maintained and His righteousness must be satisfied.                       Most perfect, good, and right;
Because Christ represents the living God, the world cruci-                Thou art the only living  God,
fied Him, but God the Father raised Him from the dead.                       The God of wondrous might.


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            96               :-                      )  '  $?i&%E   -nN  D  .&#Zj..:-B.E  A  R  g-i-           -.

                                                                                 example of fulfZli.ng  the law of Christ enjoined upon His
                    NEWS FROM OiJR-CHURCHES                                      Church in Galatians 6:2, "bear ye one another's burdens."
                                                                                  The League of Men's Societies met in Hope Church
            II              `All the saints salzcte thee . . ." PHIL: 4 :21      Qct. 28. Rev. G. Lanting, president of the League, opened
                                                                                 the meeting with Scripture reading and with prayer.
                                                            Nov. 5,  1963        Arnold Dykstra furnished two numbers on the program,
                   Rev. J. A. Heys, of South Holland, is presently consider-     the first a medley of hymns representing Grace, Truth, and
            ing  -a  call- from  Redlands,   Calif., and from Southwest          Praise; the second extolling the loveliness of God's dwell-
            Church in Grand  Rapids,   Mich.                                     ing as depicted in Psalm 84. Rev. H. Veldman was the
                   The Senior Mr. and Mrs. Society of First Church spon-         speaker and his subject was "Our Future." After describ-
            sored a program  Oc,.+ I2 on "Mission Work in Jamaica." ing the meaning and the ground of the future -of. our
            k large gathering of interested people came from all the             churches the speaker then delineated our calling as that
            area  churches to obtain firsthand information about -the            of the Church in the Philadelphia of Rev. 3: "Keep His
            people whom we have contacted in Jamaica. This in-                   Word," and, `Confess His Name." After recess reports were
            formation was ably given by Rev. Hanko while Mr. Metilen-            read, proposals of the Board were adopted, new business
            berg operated the slide projector depicting the people atid          was conducted, and the meeting was closed with prayer
            places visited. Opportunity was given to ask questions, and          by Rev. Veldman.
            an offering was taken for the building of a tabernacle in               ,The young people of Southeast Church conducted a car-
            Montego Bay. This proved to be a very interesting pro-               wash in the church lot Saturday afternoon, Oct. 26 with
            gram and served to nourish our intention to  help  the               the proceeds going to the purchase of carpeting in the
            brethren in Jamaica.                                                 church. That's probably the reason there were so many
                    Rev. and Mrs. C. Ha&o and Mr. and Mrs. H. Meulen-            clean cars in Adams St. School's parking lot while the
            berg left Grand Rapids Monday morning, Nov. 4  on's tour             people were enjoying a p&cake supper served by the
            of our -West& churches, Rev. Hanko .to fill Classical ap-            School's Athletic Club.
            pointments  .in.,Redlands and  Lynden, and both  men to               Rev: H. Veldman was  recently confronted with triple
            repe$ theti "Mission Work in Jamaica" program. We be-                requbsts for lectures. He nobly  rose to the occasion and
            lieve that each and everyone of you who hear the tape                lectured for the Eastern League of Ladies' Societies Oct.
            recording played on that program will thrill to hear their           24 on, "The Merger of Churches as a Sign of the Times";
            heart-felt rendition of Psalter  No: 203 as. the Jamaican            for the Mr. and Mrs. Mass Meeting Oct. 25, on, "The Ref-
            Christians sing, "In sweet communion Lord with Thee I                ormation and the Modern Merger of Churches"; for the
            constantly abide." Verily, through the means of electronics          Men's  Societi&' League Oct. 28, on, "Our Future." That
            we were able to enjoy the communion of saints with those             was a Michigan October  .that Rev. Veldman is unlikely
            of that far-off Southern clime.                                      to forget for some time!
                    Hope's pastor, Rev. H. Veldman, is conducting a Post-           Oak Lawn's.people  came out for a program and baked-
            Confession Class to which he invites all the members of              goods sale' Friday, Oct. 25. The proceeds (over  ~$SO.OO)
            the congregation. The Baptism Form is the subject of                 were donated to their school.
            their deliberations. A Sunday bulletin carried a list of. five
            questions which were to be considered at the next m_eeting.             The after recess programs of our churches' societies re-
                    Rev. G. Van Baren, of Randolph, scheduled his second         veal a wide variety of interesting subjects. Recent topics
             of a series of lectures on "Calvinism" Oct. 30. This was            were: Randolph's Adult Bible Class  -"Can  we consider
            entitled, "Unconditional Election" (the U of the word,               Insurance to be a God-given means to help the poor, or
            tulip ) . After the program, before journeying to their homes,       does it reveal  `a lack of trust in our Heavenly. Father?";
             the audience was invited to a social gathering in the church        South Holland's Men's Society  - a paper by Mr. Buiter
            parlors.                                                             on, "The Life of the Mennonites"; -South Holland's Ladies
                  1 "The Reformed Witness," the missionary project -of the       discussed the expression `Anathema, Maranatha" of I Cor.
             Midwestern churches, published another pamphlet, this               16:22;.  and their Young People's Society heard a paper on,
            one entitled, "The Only True Church," written by Rev.                "The Origin of the Heidelberg Catechism." In the latter
            H. Hanko, of Doon.                                                   case we trust that even if the hearers do not remember the
                    Because of the death of Rev. M. Schipper's father, South-    details of the. Catechism's origin very iong, essayist Billy
             east's pastor did not preach Sunday, Oct. 27. That bulletin         Denting will!
                                                                                    `L
             expressed their appreciation of  Southwest's'co-qperation  by                . . . . . Speak thou the things which become sound doc-
            holding an afternoon service that they might share their             trine . . .  " Titus  2:3.
             pulpit supply with Southeast in this emergency. Truly, an               . . . . see you in church.                           J.M.F.


