        VOLUME  XXX1                              MARCH  1,  1955-G~4v~  RAPIDS, MICHIGAN                                  NLTMBER  11
                                                                                                           .
                                                                          awful proportions that its subject is indifferent to the object.
               M E D I T A T I O N                                        That is the bathos of hate.
  II                                                                         And you and I know it. It is much easier to hear the
                              Passer-By                                   utterances of hatred flung into our teeth, than to see. the
                                                                          antagonist strutting past, not even deigning to look upoh US.
                 "And  they.that passed by reviled Him." Matt.  27:39a    Say there, you, who are passing by -is it nothing to you
        Ages ago a certain saint suffered deeply from  `the.  in-         that I hang here in utmost agony ?
  difference of his fellows. He was afflicted, steeped in a sor-             It is so unnatural.
  row which had no equal. Naturally he longed for compassion,
for loving mercy, sympathy. But they  passed`him  by.                        God made us a race, an organism, a body, fitly joined to-
                                                                          gether, every member supplying the cement of love, every
        That hurts.                                                       member going out in harmony with the entire race so that
        `Listen to him : "Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by ?     the whole might be unutterably happy in. love and friendship.
  Behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow,             And the whole body fitly joined together, would reach out
  which is done unto me, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted                to God, blessed forever!
  me in the day of His fierce anger?"                                        Indifference is the expression of death!
        That hurts. We can all speak of this' hurt. Somehow,
  somewhere, to some degree we have tasted ,of this in&ffcrcnre              Yes, there is regard for  edema2   behaviour and good
                                                                          conduct,, but I speak of the image-bearer of God. Man, made
  of our fellows.'                                                        in the similitude of  God,*  is. a creature with a heart. And,
        It is so unnatural. Lack of interest in the sorrow of our         from that Heart are the issues of.life. Nothing short of heart-
  fellows smells of sulphur. Its origin is hell and the devil.            l$e is demanded by God and man. Does not the law of God
        You  see, dear reader, when we come with the age-old,             speak of a love that is so sweet that you love the neighbour
  Biblical doctrine and confess that man, all men, are haters             as you love your selves ? Indifference is its extreme opposite.
  of God and haters of their neighbour,  made in the similitude           Unnatural monster it is.
  of God, it is so extremely difficult to elicit `agreement. Well,           How different is the Christ of God.
  they will admit that man is indifferent to real Godliness, to
 real interest in God and man, but then the word  hate  is so                Behold Him! He is leaving Jericho on His way to the
  strong ! Are you not, somewhat extreme in your views, Cross. And coming events cast their shadows before. He is
  brother? Everybody  is- surely no hater of God and man ! full of that Cross. It is revealed in utterances on that last
  Witness the thousands of churches and "some regard for                  journey to the city of God. It'is revealed in  ,His mien. The
  virtue, good order in society, and for maintaining an orderly           apostles are amazed as they follow. He walks on ahead.
  external deportment  !" How about the thousands of hospitals              ' A great multitude follows Him. The sound of many
  and institutions of purely human and humane mercy ? Eh ?                shuffling footsteps is heard on the dusty road that leads
  Is there no inclination to  onesidedness.with   you  and your           southward.
  extreme theology  ?                                                        All of ,a sudden a piercing cry is heard: "Have  .mercy
                                + *  *                                    on  us,  0 Lord, Thou Son of David  !`I We have been blind,
                                                                          lo, these many years ! And our fellows are not only indifferent
                                                                          to us, butt they even tell us to hold our peace, when we hear
        Still, when all is said and done 10 am convinced that the         in solemn refrain the throng's reply: Jesus of Nazareth pas-
  passing by of man is the strongest expression of hate ever.             seth by ! They would even rob us of Thy wondrous  corn--
  It is indicative of utter contempt. Contempt can assume such            passion. We have heard so much of  *Thee,  0 Jesus ! And


                                  .


2        4    2                           ..  T'HE  .$$4NDARD   B E A R E R
                                                         (,&-i- ii
we have faith in Thee. We know of Thy compassion' fb"r -$ mercy, but they are the attempts of external deportment and
others. At last we have heard the answer which we have                O.&ward  behaviour. The  everlrepeated  call from the blessed
waited for so dreadfully long : Jesus of Nazareth hasseth  by !       heavens is not to appear beautiful outwardly, but to be filled
And they will cry all the more for the shown indifference of          with  bowels  of mercy, with  inward  compassion for  all  the
the multitude: Jesus. Thou Son of David, have mercy on                misery of man. And that requires a regenerated heart, first
us !                                                                  of all. And as an immediate corollary, that requires hospitals
                                                                      for the sickness of the soul, institutions against iniquity and
                                                                      trespasses.
                                                                          Tell your doctor; while you are lying on his operating
        And Jesus ?                                                   table, that he is on the way to hell because of his corruption:
        Is He like the rest of mankind ? Is He not even now           endeavour to preach the Gospel to him ----and  he will pass
filled with nameless dread ? Is His soul not troubled unto            you by. The poor man has only external observance. He is
death ? Does Ile not see theeawful  monster of eternal death          akin to the god-forsaken mass of Israelites of  whom- the
which He must swallow unto victory? Can He, will He take              Lord complained: This people worship me with their lips,
time out for merely two blind tramps 7                                but their lzea,yt is far from Me!
        Ah. but He is Jesus ! He is not merely a man, but He              Indifference, passing by our brother in his utmost agony,
is the perfect man, the good Man. He loves His neighbour              it is the curse of spiritual death!
as Himself. He is indeed willing to lay down His life for
His sheep. And in the midst of the many different noises of                                       ***
the highway, He hears the voice of faith. And behind it all
He hears the voice of His Father: See to it, My dearly                   And Jesus ?
Beloved, that Thou lose not one of them.' It is the will of              Throughout His whole 1ife'He stood still, enquired, was
God, Jesus' Father, that He lose none of them.                        intensely interested in the suffering of His sheep.
        No, Jesus is not different. He stands still. He does not         He went through the land doing good. When He saw
pass by in indifference even as you and I. He takes time              and heard the widow who brought her only son to the grave,
out for these two miserable wretches. No, that is not correct.        He was filled with untold compassion. He halted the bier
His standing still for these two is part and parcel of His life,      and spoke the word of life: I say unto you, young man,
He is the Saviour.                                                    arise! And again, heaven appeared. And note the pathetic
        Read it and weep for shame: He had compassion.  Read          touch: "And He delivered him to his mother !"
it and weep, for we are indifferent. We would pass by. It                Ah, Jesus stands still.  -4nd the place of His pausing is
is nothing to us that our brother's sorrow is like unto no            your and my misery, brother. No, `no, Jesus of Nazareth
other sorrow. We can enjoy ( ?) ourselves in the very midst           does not pass by. He stands still to save.
of untold suffering that is around us.                                   And' how have we requited Him for His standing still ?
        We pass by. That's the curse of our corrupt natures.             Come with me ; I will lead the way. We are ascending the
        Not so Jesus. He touched their eyes while His spirit is       place of the skull. Here we are. Do you hear that groaning,
overwhelmed because of impending agony, He  .touched  their           do you see that twisting of the limbs ? Well, that is the agony
blind eyes and immediately virtue goes out towards them:              of them that die the accursed death of the tree. These three
they are receiving their sight and they follow Him. That is:          forms are two murderers and the only real merciful Samari-
Heaven is born for them.                                              tan that ever lived. All other real mercy is but the outgoing
        On the way to hell, Jesus prepares heaven for others.         of His virtue in others. He is the only Merciful One. Yes,
                                                                      and there He hangs now, between two murderers. That is
                              *  * *                                  His wages of the world and of the apostate church. When
        There is your and my example, brother. Are you not            the mob summed up His life, they found that He  was. a
blushing `for shame ? Compare it with your and my cursed              malefactor, a rebel, inciting others to rebellion, and that He
life of hatred and malice and envy and jealousy, yes, and             made Himself a Iiing.and the Son of God. A hellish mixture
indifference.                                                         of truth and the lie. But that is His reward for doing good
                                                                      to you and to me.
        Go to now, you would-be merciful Samaritans! You,
you, the old man of sin. and corruption, never stirs a foot out                             9      8         *
of the indifferent, selfish way that you tread. Ah, the mercy
of the world is cruel. Hold thy peace! This to the cry of                And. finally, notice! Do you notice that there are passers-
agony of -the brother who is made in the similitude of God,           by ? Matth. 27 :39. Yes, there are passers-by.
blessed forever.                                                         I have searched in all my commentaries for the identity
     . Certainly there are.the hospitals and institutions of human    of the passers-by and there are many. Many learned answers


                                                       T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                                                                      243

  I have found. Still,  ,methinks,  they do not fully fit the c&e
  in hand. The real point at issue they passed by. Certairily,                            '                    Ti-iE  S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
  they have-been historical persons and I have no  quarrel  with                                   Semi-monthly, except monthly  during  July  and August
  their learned aniwers  as far as they went.                                                    Published by the  WORMED   FREE  PUBLISHING  ASSOIZIATION
     But here is the full. answer: These passers-by are we,                                    P. 0. Box 881, Madison Square Station, Grand Rapids 7,  Mich.
  are the human race, are the corrupt world of so-called  merci-                                                  Editor  - REV.  HJ&MAN   HOEKSEMA
 ' ful m.en and women.                                                                         Communications relative to contents should be addressed to Rev.
      "En  ik  dacht  er-  niet  aan, dat ik  zelf door  mijn  schuld :                        H. Hoeksema,  1139.Franklin  St.,  SE., Grand Rapids 7,  Mich.
  Zijn kroon had gevlochten, Zijn beker gevuld !"                                              All matters relative to subscriptions should be addressed to Mr.
                                                                                               G. Pipe, 1463 Ardmore St., S. E., Grand Rapids 7, Michigan.
     We have crucified the Christ of God. The nature of                                        Announcements and  Ombituaries  must be mailed to the above
  Judas, the Pharisees,  Herod and Pilate and all their ilk, is                                address and will be published at a fee of $1.00 for each notice.
  my nature and your nature. It is the man of sin that "has                                    RENEWALS:  Unless a definite request for discontinuance is re-
  hated Him without cause !"                                                                   ceived, it is assumed that the  subs&iber  wishes the subscription
                                                                                               to continue without the formality of a renewal order.
     And this is the tragedy of my life: I still pass by, as far
  as the old man of sin is concerned. It is the cause of the cry                                                    Subscriptian  price: $4.00 per year
  of the night : Be merciful to me the sinner !                                                 Entered as Second Class matter at  Grand  Rapids, Michigan
     But this is my song in the night of my sin: Jesus of                                 G
  Nazareth still stands still!
     Here is more than human! here is Divine mercy!
     And they follow Him.                                                                                                     COhTTENTS
     And-that is heaven!                                                                  MEDITATION   -
                                                                               G.V.               "Passer-By" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
                                                                                                        Rev. G. Vos

                                                                                          EDITORIALS -
                                                                                                  The Future o,f Our Churches.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .244
                           IN MEMORIAM                                                                  Rev. H. Hoeksema
     The Consistory of the Protestant Reformed Church of Ran-                                                                                                                              _
  dolph, Wisconsin, extends its sincere sympathy to its fellow                            As TO, BOOKS-
  brother and consistory member, Harry  Rutgers, in  the..loss  of his                            Het Ware Geloof ; Jeugd zoekt een Haven.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .246
  Father,                                                                                               Rev. H. Hoeksema
                            EMKO RUTGERS                                                  OUR DOCTRINE -
  Romans  8:28, "And we know that all things work together for                                    The Triple Knowledge (Part III-Of Thankfulness). . .  .247
  good to them that love God, to them  ~who are the called  accord-                                     Rev. H. Hoeksema
  ing to His  purpbse."
               *                   R e v .   E .   E m a n u e l ,   P r e s i d e n t    FROM  HOLY  WRIT-
                                         Jake Fisher, Secretary                                   Exposition of Galatians 5 :22. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .252
                                                                                                        Rev1 G. Lubbers                           _       _

                           IN MEMORIAM  <                                                 IN HIS  FEAR-
     The consistory of the Hull Protestant Reformed church  here-                                 "The Gate is Open". . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .254
  by expresses its sincere sympathy to its fellow office bearer,                                        Rev. J. A. Heys
  Mr. Henry Hoksbergen, in the loss of his father,                                        JOHN 21 25 - HYPWB~LE   OB  F~cr?............................256
                     MR. JOHN HOKSBERGEN                                                                R e v .   R .   Veldman
     May the God of all grace  comfbrt his heart in the assurance
  that this is but the passing thru to the eternal, that better land,                     THE  VOICE  OF  OUR  FATHERS-
                                                                                                  The Canons of Dordrecht  (Art. 1.5). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .,.258
  which is our hope.                                                                                    Rev. H. C. Hoeksema
                                  Nick Wm. Kooiker, Vice President
                                  Peter Jansma, Secretary                                 DECENCY AND  OR?ER-
                                                                                                  Students for the Ministry.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .260
                           IN MEMORIAM                                                                  Rev. G.  Vanden Berg
     The Delegate Board of the Eastern Ladies League wishes to                            ALL AROUND  Us  -
  express its sympathy to a sister member, Mrs. John  .Ezinga,                                    "W,ti Really Happened In Our Churches". . . . . . . . . . . . . . .262
in the death of her husband,                                                                            Rev.' M.  Schipper
                           JOHN  EZI_NGA                                                  CONTRIBUTIONS  -
     Our prayer is that she may be comforted and assured that                                     Kok's "Proselyte" Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264
  her loss is his gain. Psalm  85:9: "Surely his salvation is nigh                                      John Flikkema
  them that fear him; that glory may dwell in our land."
                                                       The  De!egate-  Board


 244                                            T H E   STANDARD:BEARER

 II                                                                                                Churches. in the Netherlands was the next important factor
                                                                                                   of our recent history.
                                                                                                     ; -When Dr. Schilder arrived I was sick, and still could
                                                                                                   hardly control my speech. When he first visited me I lay
                 The Future of  bui- Churches
                                                           ;                    1/                 paralyzed on a day-bed in the backyard of my parsonage.
                                   2 :                                                             But the Lord blessed me with a remarkably fast recovery
        May we believe that, by the  gr~Cer~~f';~~ci,,~~~~~~~~~   &                                so that, before he departed again for the Old Country, I
                                                                                                   was able to,attend two conferences in which I defended, in
 future as Protestant Reformed Churches ?`,                        .,,                :_     `.    thirteen propositions, our Protestant Reformed view of the
        We may, indeed.                         ,_                    .:`,,
                                                                  . .  /.  ...                     covenant over against that of the Liberated. The final result
  Our recent history confirms this fact.                   ."'             "                       was that we adjourned amiably and although I never could
        In my ,last editorial, I wrote that our future is  .insepar-                               agree withSchilder,  I said that he was Reformed. With this
 ably -connected' with our .past, and that only then we `may                                       the Rev. Ophoff did not agree, and subsequent history shows
 expect a future and to continue to exist if we remain distinct                                    that he was right and I was wrong.
 and maintain the truth for the  sake: of which we were, in                                             In `the  ,meantime, the synod of the Liberated Churches.
 l924, cast out from the, communion of the Christian  Re-                                          (I relate from memory) decided to offer us correspondence
 Pornled. Church.                                                                                  with them, and even passed a resolution, to which seven or
 :`Z Our. recent history proves clearly that we still mean to                                      eight protests were lodged, to open their pulpits to our min-
maintain this truth.                                                                               isters that would visit the Netherlands. And our synod de-
       We did not change.                                                                          cided to send our deputies for correspondence, De Jong,
       The history we passed through in recent  years  proves                                      Ophoff, and myself, to the Old Country, to confer with their
 that as churches we are still a healthy body that not only                                        deputies about the matter of correspondence.
 has a good appetite for Protestant Reformed truth but that                                            At that time,: Kok and DeJong went to the Netherlands
' is also able to eliminate all impure substances.                                                 and, as became soon evident, sold our churches to the
       The history to which I refer centers. around. the .`follow-                                 Liberated. DeJong even had a letter in his pocket, which he
 ing facts: the appearance of Concordia, the visit of Dr.                                          did not deliver till three months later because he could hide
 Schilder, our subsequent attempt to seek correspondence                                           it no longer, in which the Liberated asked for complete
 with the Liberated Churches in the Netherlands,' the visit                                        correspondence with our churches, even to the extent that
 of De Jong and Kok to the Netherlands, the letter `of Hol-                                        they and we would open our pulpits mutually to one another.
 werda to the Liberated in  Chattam,  the Declaration of                                               Just in time, however, in the. kind providence of God
 Principles, the statements by DeWolf from the pulpit of the                                       over our churches, the notorious letter of Holwerda was re-
 First Church in Grand Rapids, and  the:.,depos,ition  of the                                      vealed.in which he made it very plain that he, at least, must
 latter and some of the elders.                                                                    have nothing of our Protestant Reformed truth. I phoned
       Concordia.  appeared first in the  early.part  of 1944. The                                 him about that letter, and asked  ,him whether he would write
 reader will remember that, personally,  I. gave it a hearty                                       me verbally' whether they really had said the things he had
 welcome in The Standal-d Beam, and recommended it to all                                          reported in his letter to Chattam,  which he promised to do.
 our readers (see St. B. Vol. 20, p. 252). I thought that
 there was room for a publication of this nature next to the                                           This promised he never fulfilled.
 Sta.nda,yd  Beamr.  Little did I surmise that, before long, it                                        Twice' I corresponded with him about the matter, but I
 became evident that it was the purpose of some of the leaders                                     never received a satisfactory answer. However, he never
 in the West and of some. of those that initiated this new                                         denied that they had said the things he had reported of
 publication to compete with the Start&r-d Beawr and to re-                                        them in his letter. From all this I concluded that the letter
 place it, if at all possible. Not only this, but before, long it                                  w a s   t r u e .
 began to sound a very un-Protestant Reformed note, became                                             At one of the last classical meetings at which Kok was
 the champion of conditional theology, defended the Liberated,                                     present, he, informed the  classis that, soon after he had
 and instigated schism in our churches. It is now very evident                                     returned from the Netherlands, he had read a statement from
 that  Cammenga   C.S. had the evil ambition to destroy the                                        the pulpit in which he virtually called Holwerda a liar. This
 Sta.ndwd Bearer., and lead our churches away from the Prot-                                       same statement he then read to the classis.  If the readers are
 estant Reformed truth.                                                                            intereste'd, we will publish this entire document in our paper.
       By the grace of our God, this attempt  failed.  Even all                                    We have a copy of it.. So just let me know.
 their underhanded work (which also has become more and                                                Asked whether he had ever sent a copy of that statement
 more apparent) was of no avail. It was, as will become more                                       to  Prof.  .,Holwerda, he answered in the negative. It was,
 and more evident, self-destructive.              ; j'.                                            therefore, a matter of backbiting if not downright slander.
       The visit of Dr. Schilder and the subsequent attempt of                                     At the time when he made this statement public to the clas-
 our churches to seek correspondence with  the- Liberated
                                                      -. _.: :_ _-., :+z..:Y ._ j:..               sis, p,rof, Holwerda had died long ago. So the.conclusion  of


                                            T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                              245
--~

the matter is that the whole thing is decidedly immoral. Let           Never was he an enthusiastic supporter of Protestant
Van Raalte, in the Netherlands, who will, undoubtedly, read         Reformed instruction in our own school.
this, please, take note of this. Let him. if possible defend the       All this must, undoubtedly. be taken into consideration in
good name of Prof. Holwerda. I will gladly give him space           answer to the question what motivated him to make the two
in our paper. If he wants a copy of  Iiok's statement from          heretical statements that were finally condemned and that led
the pulpit and to the classis I will publish it in our paper.       to his deposition.
    The result of this entire phase of our recent history is           The statements are well-known and I do not have to
the adoption of the Declaration of Principles.                      repeat them here. Be it s&icient  to say that in both of them
    The reader will understand that this had become very            he deliberately proclaimed the conditional theology that was
necessary if our Protestant Reformed Churches were to               condemned by the Declaration of Principles.
maintain the truth of God's sovereign grace and were not to            Nevertheless,, his statements were not condemned on the
be swamped with the conditional theology of the Liberated
which was already favo.red  by DeJong and Rok and other of          basis of the Declaration, for it was specifically maintained by
our ministers.                                                      our churches that this Declaration was not a fourth  .form.
    At the synod of Hull it was decided that we seek limited        They were condemned on the basis of Scripture and the
                                                                    Confessions.
correspondence with the Liberated not opening our pulpits
to them. And at that synod also the Declaration of Prin-               On this basis he was deposed from office and several
ciples was almost unanimously -adopted. There was only one          elders with him,
vote against its adoption.                                             Classis East supported the consistory of the First Church
    It was, however,. submitted to the churches in order to be      and they set their seal upon the deposition.
finally adopted by the' synod of 1951.                                  Classis  West, very foolishly and illegally.-condemned our
    This was done in spite of several protests.                     consistory and maintained  DeWolf  and his schismatic elders.
    It was especially this Declaration of Principles, which is      They, therefore, became themselves schismatic, although
after all nothing but a statement of the truth of our Confes-       several churches in  Classis  West took the stand of  Classis
sions, that revealed the spirits. Several of our ministers were     East and remained with us.
vehemently opposed to it and protested against it again and             Now the worldly court has set its seal upon the action
again. It also become evident that the corruption lodged es-        of the consistory of the First Church in claiming the right
pecially in  Classis  West, while, on the whole,  Classis  East     to the name, the property and the archives. The schismatics
stood rather solidly for the Protestant Reformed truth. It is,      have appealed to the supreme court. And my prediciton is           ,
therefore, not too much to say that the Declaration of Prin-        that it will sustain the decision of Judge Taylor.
ciples was one of the chief means to save the Protestant Re-            Thus fa.r the history.
formed Churches from utter ruin and corruption.                         What may be deduced from it?
    Finally, there are the two statements which DeWolf made             Negatively this: the schismatics have no future. They
from the pulpit of the First Church in Grand Rapids.                have destroyed themselves. Their separation from us is not
    These statements simply served to bring things to a             based upon any principle. Therefore, they cannot stand.
climax. They and their consequences were the culmination            They will either be swallowed up by the Christian Reformed
of the history of our churches in recent years.                     Church, by the Liberated, or will simply gradually dwindle
    What motivated him to make those statements of which            away. But they have no distinctive future. They have no
he himself was conscious, I am confident, that they were not        Theological School, no radio, no missionary, no grammar
Protestant Reformed, and that they would.evoke  protests, is        school of their own. They have nothing. They cannot con-
difficult for me to -understand. It is not impossible that he       tinue to exist.
had rather close contact with the wrong element in our                  On the other hand, our history very plainly reveals that,
churches, with those that were opposed to the `Declaration          since  -1924,  we have not changed. Every outsider; that knows
of Principles and to all that was specifically Protestant Re-       our history, will corroborate the fact that we still stand for
formed. It is also possible that he felt many, the majority,        the Protestant Reformed truth. We have been tested and,
perhaps, had by this time become sufficiently weaned away           by the grace of God, have not been found wanting but have
from the Protestant Reformed truth to support his heretical         weathered a severe storm of corruption and heresy. We still
preaching, and that he felt safe to cater to them. It is not        have our Theological  ~School, our Mission Committee and
even impossible that some used him as a tool.                       our missionary, and we still sound forth the Protestant Re-
    He was a. good speaker as far as oratory makes a good           formed truth over the radio every Sunday.
speaker, but his sermons were generally poor in contents.               Surely, in the light of our history we may be confident
Hardly ever especially during the latter half of his stay in        that we have a future as Protestant Reformed churches.
the First Church did he preach the definite Protestant Re-
f o r m e d   t r u t h .                                                                                                    H.H.


246       .-                                   T H E   STA,NDARD   B E A R E R .

I                                                                        Jcqd  zoekt  em Haven  (Youth Seeks a  ` Haven), by
                    AS TO tiOOK§                       . . .II       Nellie Van Dijk-Has. Published by J. H.  Kok, N.V.,  Kam-
                                                                     l&in, the Netherlands. Price f 5.40.
      Het  Ivare  Geloof   (The True Faith), by the  Rev.`S.  G.         A very interesting story. Freek and Bets are compelled,
De Graaf. Published J. H. Kok, N.V.,  Kampen,  the Nether-           because  of the housing shortage to live h a poor neighbor-
lands. Price f 13.75.                                                hood. They have seven children who all are still home. The
      This book is an exposition of the first twenty-two Lord's      upstairs of the house of Bets' Vader- and mother, who live
Days of the Heidelberg Catechism. In a foreword by the               in a much better neighborhood, becomes vacant and they
Rev. M. De Goede, the latter  informs  us that the author            oEer it to Freek and Bets. Freek, who cannot bear the
of this book had intended already for a long time to write a         sight of his father-in-law, at first does not like the proposi-
work on fhe Heidelberg Cate&hi& aAd that when .he finished           tion but finally gives in. Suzie secretly keeps company with
the exposition of the first twenty  Lo?d's Days, he  b?.came         one that does not belong to the church. Bart; a son of Freek
incapacitated. It was decided that the Rev. De Goede                 and Bets falls deeply in love with the daughter of a former
should write on  the next two Lord's Days, so  th& the               fifth columnist . . . . .
exposition of the Apostolic Confession would be finished.                Bilt why should I spoil  thz story for you? Read it  fob
This was done. And thus the present volume covers Lord's             yourself. You'll find it very interesting.
Days I-XXII.                                                             One rem&. When Grandpa, who is usually an old tease,
                                                                                      .,..
                                                                     cannot tea& his youngest granddaughter because that little
      Gladly I recommend this book, not only to students and         child with her open little soul is receptive only for all that
ministers, but also to the general public in as f& as they can       is  gobd,  tr'ie and beautiful, I don't agree  with "Grandpa" and
read Holland. It is Reformed `in contents  and'.written   .in a      not with Nellie Van Dijk. cf.  p.. 67.
clear style. Especially do I like the  expositi'on.  of::  L&-d's                                                                     H.H.
Day IX in which the author explains that God created -and
governs all things as the eternal  `:Fath&-  of our Lord':Jes~ls
Christ. This is, indeed, a fundamental and tli&-oughly  Scrip:
tural truth. And it presents a most, beautiful conception of                                      IN MEMO&AM
the whole of the works of God. This conception I have                   Once again the Lord has visited us, by taking unto Hitnself
always maintained as the central truth of Holy Writ and,             a belovkd  husband,, son and brother,
years ago, I expounded it in my exposition of the Heidelberg                                  RICHARD DYI(STRA
Catechism. Cf. Triple Knowledge. Vol. II, p. 165 ff . ...' :         On January 16, 1955, at the age of 22 years, unto His eternal rest,
     With this conception, however, is not in harmony what           into the house of many' mansions.
                                                                        Our comfort  is that the Lord is upright, He is my rock, there
the`author writes on p. 44, that, apart from the fall into .sin,     is no unrighteousness in Him.
the same glory could have been attained in Adam that is now
                               "*                                                                   Mr. Richard Dykstra
reached in Christ.             ~ ,:                                                                 Mr. and Mrs. John Dykstra, Sr.
      What the author writes &b "cornmoP grace," particularly                                       Mr.  aud Mrs. Herman Dykstra
in connection with Lord's  .Qay II  a$  TH,  i cannot accept.                                       Mr. and Mrs. Christian Vander Stel.
                                                                                    ._.
Nor do I agree with his conception of ihe covenant.                                               . Mr. and Mrs. Peter Dykstra
                                                                                                    Mr. and Mrs. Bernard Dykstra
      One more remark I  inust make. On p. 329 the Rev. De                                          Mr.  .and Mrs. Ernest  Pluger
Graaf writes that Christ was the Reprobate for our sake.                                           julia  D y k s t r a
This is, of course; a Barthianism. Barth develops this idea                                        Mr. and Mrs.  Boreas Dykstra
in more than one work of his, but especially in his Romer-                                         Mr. and Mrs. John Dykstra, Jr.
brief and in his  oogmatik II, 2. I do not believe that the                                        Frank Dykstra
                                                                                                   Ruth Dykstra
Rey. De Graaf is a Barthian. But I must consider it a                                              Theressa  Dykstra
rather serious error to employ the terminology of  Bar'th in                                       Shirley Dykstra
this instance. Christ was never the Reprobate  ; always He
was the Elect. Nor did  He, become the Reprobate  fo<:,the
sake of the people of -God, for also these were elect. By                                         IN MEMORIAM
His death Christ did not remove reprobation, as Barth would             The Senior Young People's Society of the First Protestant
have it, but He bore the wrath  df God for  thqse that were          Reformed Church of Grrnd  -Rapids hereby wishes to express its
                                                                     sympathy to Ruth and  Shirlky Dykstra in the loss of their
given Him by the Father. Barth may deny this, but he                 brother,
really believes the  a~poka.tastasis   pantoon.  I consider it a                              RICHARD DYKSTRA
dangerous play upon words for a Reformed writer to say               May the God of all grade  `conifort  them in their sorrow.
that Christ is the. Reprobate for our sake.                                                                 Rev. C. Hanko, President
                                                       H . H .                                              Jeannette Faber, Secretary


                                           T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                               2i7

                                                                   foundation of the, world, that we should be holy and without
           O U R   D O C T R I N E                            II blame before him in love." It is to that constant operation
                                                                   of the Holy Spirit in our hearts and in our conscious life,
I'                                                        .  `1
                                                                   and to the constant influx of the grace of God in Christ  Jesus
             THE TRIPLE KNOWLEDGE                                  into our regnerated hearts, that the Catechism refers when
                                                                   in this connection it speaks of the Holy Spirit and His grace.
      AN  EXPOSITION  OF  THE HEIDELBERG  CATECI-IISM                 And the Catechism emphasizes that God will not give
              PART  III  - OF THANKFULNESS                         His grace and His Holy Spirit except to those who with
                                                                   sincere desires continually ask them of Him, and are thankful
                       LORD'S  DAY 45                              for them. And this stands to reason. That will of God is not
                          Chapter 1                                arbitrary. It is not thus, that  Be could just as `well give
                                                                   His grace and His Holy Spirit to  His people whether they
                  The Necessity of Prayer                          desire these gifts and. ask them of Him, or not. God wants
      We understand, of course, that when the Catechism            His people to glorify Him. And how can they ever glorify
speaks in this connection of the grace of God and the Holy         Him unless they taste His goodness, and taste His grace7
Spirit which God will give unto them that ask Him for them,        God does not deal with His people as sometimes a doctor
it refers to the continually flowing fountain of grace from        deals with a sick man who is not able to take nourishment
which the Christian lives and must live, and without which         through his mouth, and therefore feeds him through his
he cannot live. It refers to the continued indwelling and in-      veins. That sick man, of course, never tastes his food and
                                                                   his drink. God wants His people to hunger and thirst after
flux  of the Holy Spirit whereby this grace is wrought con-
stantly in his heart. It certainly does not refer to the prin-     righteousness, and then they shall be satisfied.. He wants
cipal grace of' regeneration, that is wrought sovereignly in       them to approach consciously at the fountain of life, that
the heart of the sinner. It is not so that the sinner as such      they may drink from it and taste all its delicious goodness
must first pray to God for the Hoy Spirit and for His grace,       and refreshment. Never does God give His grace to us as
before he can ever become a believer and a child of `God,          stocks and blocks, but always as conscious rational, moral
before he can ever be regenerated. That would be absolutely        children of God. He comes to us in His Word, and promises
impossible. The natural man cannot and will not .and  can-         us : "Ask, and it shall be given you ; seek, and ye shall find ;
                                                                   knock, and it shall be opened unto you." In that promise the
not will to pray. He may, perhaps, sometimes, when he is in
trouble, utter some desires for carnal and temporal things.        people of God ask. They pray, and drink from the fountain
                                                                   of life, and tasting it they glorify the God of their salvation.
But he certainly cannot pray for the grace of God and the
Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ our Lord. No, God is always               Nevertheless, let us never imagine that at any time in
first in salvation. If it were not so, we could never be saved.    the process of our salvation we are first. The opposite is
Principally we are not saved upon and because of our prayer,       true. God creates in us the need. He creates in us the hunger
but we pray because we are saved. And therefore, the Heidel-       and thirst after righteousness by His Holy `Spirit and grace.
berg Catechism cannot and does not mean that God will not          He causes us to pray, to ask, to seek, to knock.  .And while
send His regenrating Spirit and His regenerating grace in          we consciously seek and ask and pray to the God of our
our hearts, and call us sovereignly from darkness into light,      salvation, He answers our prayer and fulfills the need and
unless we ask these blessings of Him. That' would be im-           fills us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in
possible. If that were the meaning of the Heidelberg Cate-         Christ forevermore.
chism, how could it first state that prayer is the chief part
of thankfulness. And therefore, we must have grace before                                     Chapter 2
we can ever pray. But the reference of the Heidelberg Cate-                       The Requisites of True Prayer
chism is to the constant and conscious possession of the bles-        In Question and Answer 117 the Catechism enumerates
sings of grace, such as the forgiveness of sins, the righteous-    some of the requisites of true prayer. These we will discuss
ness in Jesus Christ our Lord, the adoption unto children,         in the present chapier.
joy in the Lord, peace with God, the hope of everlasting life.        The first requisite which is mentioned by the Catechism
And these blessings of grace are constantly bestowed upon          in this question and answer is that prayer must be directed.
us by the Holy Spirit of Christ. Christ in His exaltation re-      to the one only true God ; and that is the *God Who has re-
ceived the Spirit of promise. And through that Spirit of           vealed Himself in His Word.
promise He Himself blesses us with all spiritual blessings            You may perhaps consider this a mere platitude, and
in heavenly places, according as it is written: "Blessed be        think that it is quite superfluous to state this. Nevertheless,
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath              this truth can bear repeating, and must be emphasized..
blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in         What does it mean that we direct our prayer to the one
Christ; According as he hath chosen us in him, before the          and true and living God only? It means nothing less than


248                                               T H E   S T A N D A R D   ,BEsARER
                                                                         -..-_

that in our prayers we are wholly dominated and guided by           in  H%.`j;i`dgnient,  so that in our prayers we do not attempt
the true knowledge of God in the face of Jesus Christ our           to inform  II&  `of our judgment as to the way He ought
Lord as He has revealed Himself in `His Word. This is para-         to govern our lives and all things in the world; but we rather
mount. Only thus is it possible for us to place ourselves in        humbly beseech Him for grace to submit our judgment to
the presence of the true God, of the God of-our salvation, to       His, and to show us His way, that we may walk therein. It
enter into His holy place, to present ourselves before His          certainly means that our prayers are not an attempt to im-
face, to worship Him and glorify Him, and to have com-              pose our own will upon the will of the Almighty, but rather
munion with Him. It stands to reason that in order to pray          a humble petition for grace that we may submit our will to
truly, and to pray to the true God only, I must know Him.           His, and learn to will His will. For "this is the confidence
Now it is absolutely impossible for me to know Him of my-           that we have in him, that if we ask anything according to
self. He is of Himself the invisible One, the  eternal,,God,        his will, he heareth us."
the incomprehensible. I can therefore never find  Hi,m out.             Our petitions therefore must, as far as their contents is
Whatever I say about God is sure to be a lie. Whatever              concerned, be according to the will of God.
god of my own imagination I may attempt to make is sure                 This cannot be emphasized too much, especially in view
to be an idol. Only God Himself can make known, to me               of the fact that there is so much misunderstanding and cor-
who He is and what He is, and what is the  glor,y of His            ruption of this holiest of arts. If one listens to many prayers
adorable virtues. And therefore I must let Him speak to             `and to many statements about prayer, one cannot but receive
me before I can even begin to speak to Him. And thus He             the impression that this spiritual exercise is looked upon' as
speaks to me in His Word, that is, in the Holy Scriptures.          merely a means'to obtain from the Lord what we want. We
For though it is true that the invisible things of Him are          can pray for anything we desire, it seems. And if only we
also clearly discerned from the things that are made, yet I         press our urgent request, and pray with sufficient pertenacity,
cannot know Him as the God of my salvation, Who  for-               the Lord will be"persuaded  by us and will grant our requests.
giveth iniquities, and to Whom I can pray, except from His          `We are- heard because of our much speaking. Our prayers
own Word, revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord, and contained          do change the mind of God, or at least His ways with us.
in the Holy Scriptures. The conclusion from this is evident.            An appeal iseven made to Scripture to substantiate this
The more fully and thoroughly God's people are instructed           conception of prayer.
in the true knowledge of God, the more efficient they will                                                                            H.H.
become in the holy, spiritual art of prayer. And, on the
other hand, the opposite is also true, that in the, measure that
we neglect our instruction in the Word of God contained in
the Holy Scriptures, in that same measure our life of prayer                                      Announcement
must necessarily suffer.              -. i,,._
                                        . ".                            The Eastern League of Men's Societies will hold their
   This is a  mosf  fundamental truth.  .. .,xi.                    Membership meeting March 17, at 8 o'clock in the Fourth
                                                                    Protestant Reformed Church. Rev. R. Veldman will speak.
  First of all, the consciousness that in our prayers  owe          Topic: "Women Suffrage in the Church,"
are addressing the true and living God must needs  d&r-.                                                                       -The Board.
mine the contents of our prayer. It means that we will-not
pray -thoughtlessly, and ask for anything that may come into'
our mind, but that we will pray with holy intelligence, in-                    I-
structed as to the contents of our petitions by God's own                   ..,-i.              WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
Word and Spirit. The Catechism says that we may pray for                                              >
all things which God has commanded us to ask of Him. This              On March 4th our dear parents,
fundamental principle implies that we are consciously speak-                          MR. and MRS. EDWARD BYLSMA
ing to that great God Who made all things, for His own              hope to celebrate their 58th wedding anniversary, D.V.
name's sake, so that in our prayers we are not seeking our             We  aTe thankful to God who gave them  to, us  and. our prayer
own little. carnal ends, but God Himself, His name, His             for them  is,,Ps. 71 vs.  18.
kingdom, His glory, His cause, and His will. ,-It means also           "Now  also when I am old and gray-headed 0 God, forsake me
that we are consciously addressing the absolute Sovereign           not until I  nave  shewed  thy strength unto this generation and thy
                                                                    power to every one that is to come.
of heaven and earth. Who governs all things according to                                                   Mr. and Mrs. George Spruyt
His eternal good pleasure, and Whose counsel shall stand                  .,>i,  .," , ,  `:               Mr. and Mrs. John Bastelds
forever. This means too that He is omniscient, so that we                      >  :  .,                    Mr. and Mrs. Adrian Griffioen
do not have to inform Him about conditions in the world:                                                   Mr. and Mrs. Ralph-H. Meyer
for He knows what we need far better than we do, before                                                    Mr. and Mrs. Gerard E.  Bylsma
                                                                                                           Mr.. and Mrs. George De Vries
we ask Him. It means too that .He is the all-wise, Who                                                     21 grandchildren
governs all things with perfect wisdom, and Who never fails                                                12 great grand children


                                                                                       _
                                             T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E 'A R E R '                                           249
 I                                                                       The Lord's coming in judgment terminated a long period
            THE DAY- OF SHADOtiS                                   I .of silence and quiet on His part. Through all the years of
                                                                      the captivity of the exile He was quiet. And so through all
                       The Prophecy of Isaiah                         the centuries of this new Dispensation  .of the World the
                                                                      exalted Christ at God's .right hand is quiet. He would fain
      13. Jehovah as a mighty man shall go forth,                     have come to the deliverance of His people. But He re-
          As a'man of war He shall stir up zeal :                     strained Himself, not willing that any should perish. Besides
          He shall shout, yea, roar;                                  the enemies had first to fill up their measure of iniquity.
          With His enemies He shall show Himself strong.              But now He will no longer be quiet, but He will cry and
      14. I have been quiet from ancient times,                       pant like a woman in the throes of childbirth and at the
          I, have been silent and constrained Myself:                 same time devour His enemies (vs. 14).
          Now as a travailing woman  1. will cry, pant and              The figure is plain. As stirred by His great pity of His
          consume at the same time.                                   people, He will send deliverance and consume their ad-
      15. I will make waste mountains and hills,                      versaries. But more seems to  be. indicated. According to
          And dry up all their herbs  ;                               the figure, the work of deliverance involves the Lord in
          And I will make the rivers for islands,                     unspeakable sorrows. He cries, `groans and pants. Doubt-
          And I will dry up the lakes.                                less the reference is in the first instance to the agonies of
      16. And I will bring the blind by a way that they knew          the suffering and dying Saviour. Was it not through His
              not ;                                                   sorrows that He delivered His people from all their sins and
          And in paths that they have not known will I make           in the point of view of right brought them into being a re-
              them to tread;                                          deemed and glorified family of saints ? -And because men
          I will make darkness before them for light,                 hate the Gospel and persecute its proclamators, the work of
          And crooked ways for a straight field.                      gathering the elect still involves Christ in many sufferings
          These things will I do unto them, and not forsake           that He endures in His Spirit filled church that is His body
              them.                                                   and that represents His cause in this world. The coming
      17. They shall be turned back and greatly ashamed,              of the Lord will also effect the creature (vs. 15). There will
          That trust `in graven images,                               be a universal drought. The mountains will be laid waste
          That say to molten images,                                  by the drying up of all their vegetation. The rivers and the
          Ye are our gods.                                            marshes will be dried up. This calls to mind the plagues of
                                                                      the Revelations of St. John, - plagues that will be climaxed
      The Lord's enemies are at once the enemies of His people.       by the final world-catastrophe.
 The foe here is common. For the Lord's people champion                 So will the Lord deliver His people. He will bring the
 His cause in Babylon and thereby reveal themselves as being          blind by a way and lead them in paths that they know not
 of His party.-  It-is therefore as activated by hatred of the        being. as they are spiritually blind. And the way is Christ
Lord that the enemies make war against His people. It is              and it leads to the Father. And the paths are the paths of
 proper therefore that He calls them His enemies.                     salvation, of fear of the Lord, of peace and joy and victory
      How the Lord's indignation burns. How amazing the               in Him. And He will make darkness before them as light,
 ardour of His love. He goes forth in haste. To arouse His           `that is, He will make them to walk in the light of His Word
 zeal He utters the cry of triumph and roars. It presages the         as dwelling richly in them, so that they will no longer be
 awful demonstration of His might in the day of reckoning             blind but will see, walking as they shall in His paths. And
 by which the enemies shall be destroyed. and His people              the crooked and the tortuous ways He will make for them a
 delivered from their clutch. The description is under images         straight plain so that they shall walk before Him in ways
 borrowed from the reactions and behaviour of a human                 that are straight.
 warrior of ancient times. It makes wonderfully impressive              All these things will He do unto them and -not forsake
 the working of the Lord's love of His people with regard to          them (vs. 16). But all the worshippers of idols shall be
 the common foe.                                                      turned back and greatly ashamed (vs. 17). These idolators
      The initial  fulfihnent  of this prophecy was the working       comprehend  all the wicked that perish in their sins. They
 of the Lord by which through the agency of Cyrus Babylon             shall be ashamed and confounded, when they see Christ,
 was destroyed. Its final fulfillment is the coming of the Lord       whose existence they now deny in the  impudance  of their
 in judgment over the world in the last day. And it will be           unbelief. coming in judgment over the world.
 the working of the Lord - the triune Jehovah  - through                18. Ye deaf, hear;
 His "servant," the Christ. Hence the "servant" of vss. 2-4                 Ye blind, look that ye may see.
                                                                               -
 is not one and Jehovah another. But this confronts us with             This may be regarded as addressed to God's believing
 the mystery of the incarnation.                                      people, to the remnant according to the election in the cap-


250                                           T H E   S T A N D A R D   BgA'R`ER
                                                                                                      __
                                                                                              .-.  .  .  u.b-;r;"
tivity of the exile. By nature, apart from  Christ's.   .gr&e,               in: IV : 9). The .Lord is, well pleased for His righteousness'
 they are blind and deaf as the others. As believers,  thei                  sake, that' %,'  `&"nev&&less=  is pleased  tb  bless  &is  ill-
have but a small beginning of -the true' obedience. They, are" d6&viti~~~o@  because of His promises  tb-it. Should His.
 still sinful men. This explains their here being  address&" promises fail,  H:e  would not be righteous God. The Lord
 as blind and deaf and their being mandated to hear and tb [: will magnify  the law  and make it honorable by afflicting
 regard with  .attention that they may perceive, understand.                 Christ for the  fransgressions  of His people.
   But they cannot give themselves  .sight and hearing. The                    But this interpretation is not without difficulties. Vs. 20
 Lord will bestow what He demands. He will heal them                         reads, "`Who is blind bzi$ my servant," and not, "Who is SO
 according to His promises previously given (vs. 7).                         bling'as & servant. The meaning plainly is : My" servant
   19. Who is blind except my servant?                   ..                  alone is blind and cleaf and none  other. Hence if the "serv-
         Or deaf as my niessenger that I send ?                              ant" is sinful Israel,  &d if it is' sinful blindness of which
       Who is blind as He that is endowed  +h  ,Falv$c+.                     mkntion  is here  made, we must interpret here: Israel alone
         And blind as the Lord's servant?                                    is blind and deaf, perverse of heart and mind and none other
   20. Seeing much, but not dost thou keep (observe) ;                       people or nation. But this is an impossible .teaching.
         Opening the ears, but not does he hear.                               If the text asserted that no one is so blind as the servant,
   21. The Lord is well pleased becatise  of his righteousness :             the idea would be thzit  all are blind but that in comparison
         He will magnify the law and make it honorable.                      the servant is the blindest.  B& as was stated the meaning.
                                                                             is.`that all see but one and that  otie the "servant." It, is a
   This is a rather obscure passage. It is therefore rather                  remarkable statement. Only on the basis of the view that the
difficult to arrive at a decision  re@rding its meaning. If                  "servant" is Christ and that, accordingly, the blindness
 explained on the basis of the view that the "servant" is                    of our passage is a virtue, does the statement Seem to have a
 Christ, its meaning is this : The servant of ~the I;brcl  (d&-istj. ' discernible meaning. I must therefore give preference to
sees much. He foresees all His sufferings:  ge  6pens  Hid; the first of the two interpretations here presented. Christ
ears to all the Word of God regarding His sufferings.  But                   al&e  ih blind, lovingly submissive to the will of God for
the terrible vision of the cup that He must drink awakens:" Him. Him God'sends and endows with salvation.
in Him no rebellion. He is not so  `effectid  by it that,  `ii',                  ' .  ..~  ,,:
giving ear to the temptation of  satan  tliat He worship him                   If  -the se?vant  is Christ, then the p&pose of the mandate
for his kingdoms, he rejects  iris cross.  So!, with regard to               bf Vs.  IS is also clear. God's blind people in the captivity
His sufferings, the prophecies of which are always  b&fore                   of the exile must look attentively at the "servant" sent of
His mind, He is in this respect blind and deaf &id unobserv-                 God and clothed with salvation, that they may see, perceive
                                                   .,
ant. His blindness and deafness are therefore`trirtues.  They                and understand. The serirtint is present among them not as
spell out His perfect obedience, His abiding determination                   yet as the incarnate  Son of God, but nevertheless present
to enter into His glory by ihe way of the cross. `It is a blind-             through His -word andzGoSpe1  and. through the God-fearing
ness,  "a loving submission to God's will,. that is His alone.               prophets that represent His cause..
In his prophetic vision  th& prophet  receivks  a glimpse of                   22. But this iS `a people plundered and laid waste ;
the Lord's servant thus blind, and it causes him to exclaim                        They parit  `in holes all of them,
in amazement, "Who is blind and deaf as my servant." And                           In the hous& of prisons they hide.        .
therefore the Lord is well pleased with Him (His ,servant  j                    They ari for a prey and there is none that delivers:
because of His (the servant's) righteousness. He (the  serv-                      For a spoil and-none saith, restore.
arit) will magnify the law a?d make it honorable by iulfilling                 23. Who among you. will give ear to this ?
all its requirements and then by putting it in. the minds of                    Who'will attend  Bnd hear  f& the time after?
His people and writing it in their hearts:  -                  .::  i' I'      24.  Whd:  .gave  f&- a spoil Jacob,
   The "difficulty with this interpretation is, that & may be                      And Israel to  %e plunderers  7
doubted whether vs. 20 can have the meaning $ere given it. .:                   `I "Did'not ?hk- L&cl, He akainst whom we have sinned ?
   Others, on the basis of the view that the  F`servant"  is.                      -l?o; not were they willing  in His ways to walk,
sinful Israel, interpret  our passage  as. follows :  why is  .SQI                 Neither would they hearken to His law.
 (spiritually) blind as my servant (sinful Israel), or so  deaf                25. Therefore hatli:He poured upon them the heat of His
as my messenger (Israel) that 1 .send to proclaim the Gosp@l.-                      anger:!.And  the strength of battle.-
`to the Gentiles. Who is blind as -He  (Israel)  that.  is..en-                    And it l&h set him on fire rourid about, but he knew
dowed  with salvation. Israel sees many things.  ,He sees all                               not;
God's marvelous works including His chastisements, but                             &nd it. consumed him, &d not did he lay. it to heart.
Israel does not observe, take it to heart. .ce opens_  his ears,               The  text,presents a  conundi$n. Christ is  preient  `in Is-
but he hears not. Thus it. is a people'thjt hears ,indeed,  but              rael. He magnifies His law in this people; We have seen
understands not, and they see indeed but perceive not (as                    what this means. He atones their sins and writes  I%s law


                                              T H E   S T A N D A R D .   B E A R E R                                          251
-

in their heart so that they believe in Him and keep His              Hence, the waters and rivers of the tribulations of this
commandments (vs. 21) . At the same time Israel is a                 present time in which the church passes do not overwhelm
people spoiled of God on account of their sins. They walk            her. She is not harmed by the fires of persecution in which
not in His ways and attend not to His law implying that              she walks as she pursues her way through this world to the
they do not believe in the Lord's "servant" but despise arid         Father's house. Upon her the flame does not kindle.
reject Him.                                                          Though all of her that is of sin and of this earth perishes,
     For a clear answer to this riddle we have to go to the          as it must, She lives. All of her children shall appear before
New Testament Scripttires. "They are not all Israel that are         His face in Zion. For the Lord is  tiith her.
of Israel."                                                            3a. For I awz Jehovah thy God,
     The one people, natural seed of Abraham, divides into                     The Holy One of Israel, thy  >Saviour.
elect, children of God and reprobated, children of the flesh.          Jehovah is He, the  I  a.m,  the unchangeable One, who
This explains how  that the  proihet can say of this one             keepeth covenant  trust, seeing that He cannot deny Him-
people now that it is forgiven of God and therefore by His           self. And God is He, the mighty One to whpse power to
mercies keeps His covenant and will be saved of Him out              save  t'here is no limit. The Holy One of Israel is He, the
of all their troubles, then that it is a people wicked and dis-      separate one, the wholly other, wholly consecrated to  self
obedient and that God will destroy it on account of its              and the consecrator of Israel. Hence; Fear not thou, Israel-
sins.                                                                Jacob.
     If God's prophecies ire to be profitably dealt with, if they      313.  I gave Egypt for thy ransom, .
are to be understood at all, we must work with election and                    Ethiopia and Sheba for thee:
reprobation in interpreting them.                                      4. Since thou  wait precious in my eyes, Thou hast been
     In our passage this one people appears as robbed and                 honorable, and I have loved thee:
spoiled, set on fire and burnt of God on account  of its sins.            Therefore I will give men for thee
He did it. It was all the working of His anger. The enemies              And people for thy life.
of this people were operative only as His agents.                      The church, as was just said, was bought with a price and
     The whole people- is smitten. The children of God suffer        that price Christ, His shed blood. Hence the meaning is not
along with the others. In the strong conviction that they,           certainly that the  sins of the church were atoned by the
too, deserve God's strokes, they say, "Who gave Jacob for a          sufferings of Egypt etc., that in this sense the nations were
spoil . . . Did not the Lord against whom we have sinned             given as a ransom for God's people. The meaning is, that
(vs. 24)  ?" Such is their confession. For they are contrite         this "giving" of Egypt etc., was necessary to the salvation
of heart. The Lord has a new message for them, Chapter               of the church, that. had the nations not been "given" the
XL111 :1-s.                                                          church could not be saved.
     I. But now thus saith the Lord that created thee, 0               It may be asked what it means that "men" were given.
         Jacob,                                                      Our text does not say. But from the context it is plain that
         And He that formed thee, 0 Israel,  *                       the answer to be supplied is, that they were given that they
         Fear  not: for I have  red:emed  thee,                      might serve God's counsel in persecuting Christ and His
         I have called thee by thy name ; thou art mine.             people, and that, when God had done with them, they
     Jacob-Israel, by which is to, be understood the chub-ch  of     might be destroyed. But to be destroyed are the nations
the elect, is God's creation and formation and not man's,            according to the children of the flesh in them, and thus not
born as she is of His mind and will both in His counsel:             the nations head for hear. It cannot be. For to the nations
from before the foundations of the world and in time. He             is the promise that in .Abraham,  that is, in Chiist, they are
redeemed Her with a price from all Her sins, that  price             blest. It is plain that we are confronted here by election
being Christ, His shed blood. He called her efficaciously by         and reprobation and thus carried back to the counsel of God.
a new name given her of Him and she appeared a temple
of God, a holy nation, a royal priesthood. And therefore she          I Why  di,d the Lord give "men" as a  ranson  for His
is God's exclusively. This being true, Jacob-Israel, God's           people (in the sense explained) ? Because He loved them and
penitent people. in the captivity of the exile, shall not fear.      not the others, the "men." They were honorable in His sight.
                                                                     Clothed were. they with heavenly perfection and glory in
     2. When thou passes! in the waters, I will be with thee;        His counsel as chosen in Christ. And He  lqved them a
          And in the rivers, they shall not overflow thee ;          people by nature dead in their sins and hating Him and
           When thou walkest in the fire. not shalt thou be          thus in themselves no better than the "men." But we must
             burned  ;                                               still ask: Why did He love them, just them and ndt  the
           Neither shall the flame kindle  upon thee.                others ? There is but one answer : Because He willed. And
      Belonging to God as His peculiar possession by virtue          why did He will ? Because it pleased Hiwz.
of her being born of Him, Jacob-Israel is- indestructible.                                                                  G.M.O.


i52                                             THE.  S T A N D A R D   BE.ARHR

                                                                          We aught to  notice once more that what the Spirit brings
            F R O M   H O L Y   W R I T                              II forth  in..&r  life of faith is "fruit." They are "the normal
                                                                          outcropping  of-;the Holy Spirit in  us"  !A. T. Robertson).
                                                                          And  agaid  (:idem)" It is a beautiful tree of fruit that Paul
               Exposition of  Galatiam  522                               pictures here with nine luscidus fruits on it." Paul does not
  This beautiful passage from the Word of.God to which we                 give a complete and comprehensive summary of all the fruits
call attention in this essay reads as follows:  `rNow  the fruit          of the Spirit here  ; other- passages  frolti  Paul and other
of the Spirit  *is love, joy,  Peace, longsM.fferirtg,   gentlertess,     apostles clearly testify that this list here is not complete.
goodness, meekness,  lo+zgsuffering;  a.ga,inst   .wcla  theye  i<  NO    However, what we have here is a citation of those "fruits"
law."                                                                     which should be in our lives when we practice the "golden
  It should not escapebur attention that the general subject,
                                                               -.         rule? towards our  weak and sinful brother in Christ, so
which Paul is here treating in this entire section of Galatians           that we do not, in relation to the brother, bring  the works
5 :13-26, is, that as the free-born sons of Sarah, children of            of the flesh to fruition. Wherefore we should give the closer
the Promise, we ought not to use our liberty in Christ as                 heed to this list and note carefully the fine and exact  por-
an occasion to the flesh, but rather that by love we should               traiture of one, who by love serves his neighbor !
s'erve one another.                                                         The first and fundamental "fruit" of the Spirit is love.
  Because of the actual condition- in the church at Gala&.                  We may not be able to give the exact relationship `of
it was necessary for Paul to sound this warning to the, be-               these fruits of  the Spirit to one another, but this much is
lievers in Galatia.  There   `&as a spirit of internal strife and         certain. that, Paul, as is his common practice, here placed
rivalry becoming manifest. They did not yet fully app.reciate             the chief and all-comprehensive "fruit" on the foreground.
the meaning and implication of freedom  in-Christ  as a spirit-           Without  this+ "fruit" called "love" the pther fruits simply
ual-psychological reality in their life ; they were not perfect-          will not  .he present. "Nothing profits" where this love is
ing sanctification in the fear of God. The "flesh" in the                 absent. This should sink deep into our hearts. Nor should
congregation was not being crucified as it ought to be; the               we forget for a moment that this ldve is solely and only the
works  of the flesh were being brought to fruition. Andethese             `ffruit" of the Spirit. In no sense of the word is "love" out
things ought not so to be.                                                of the Christian by nature. Lightfoot gives the following
  It was indeed requisite for these Galatians to examine                  instructive observation on this passage: "The difficulty of
themselves  wh>ether  they were walking in the faith  ; they              classification in the list which follows is still greater than
should remember that if. a man thinketh  of. himself to be                in the case of the works of the flesh. Nevertheless some
something in the Lord, and is nothing, that  sudh';?a  one                sort of order may be  observid.  The  catalogue  falls into
deceiveth  himself and no one else.                        3;<..          three groups of three  each. The first of these comprises
       There  is nothing quite so sobering for the believer'-a% to,       Christian habits of the mind in their more general aspect,
be confronted with the Scriptures concerning what real                    `love, joy, peace' ; the second gives special qualities affect-
fruitfulness in the Lord is.                                   ;.         ing man's intercourse with his neighbor,  `longstiffering,  kind-
  Let us remember that all fruit in the-church is':"thc! fruit            ness; beneficence'; while the third, again general in character
of .the SpirEt.                                                           like the first, exhibits the principles which guide  a-Christian's
   In the first place we should notice, `that "the Spirit" is             conduct, `honesty, gentleness, temperance.' "
mentioned several times by Paul here in the bbok of Gala-                    We here repeat that it is our conviction that "Love" is
tians.  Always Paul mentions the `!Spirit" as the realization             the fundamental "fruit." It is the bond of perfection, which
of the Promise to Abraham and to His Seed. He refers.  td                 unites the hearts of the saints,  so that with all their heart
the Holy Spirit as the Third Person in  the-  Divine Trinity,             and mind and  soul  and strength they strive to serve one
-as He is  ve+y God. And, yet,  Paul refers to the Spirit  ai             another, and thus fulfil the law of Christ  for. their life.
He again is the Spirit of the risen Christ, sitting at God's              Gal. 5  :14; 6  :2. For he that loveth keepeth the whole law!
right hand. This Spirit has been shed -abroad in the hearts               For this reason Paul writes the wonderful exposition con-
of the church on the day of Pentecost. He is sent into  tLe               cerning "the more excellent" way. It is the more excellent
hearts of all the people of God as the Spirit of the Son. In              w+y which is trod by all those whose names are written in
this Spirit the believers, we, the children  of God, cry:                 the book of life in heaven, and who rejoice not tha.t the devils
Abba, Father! It is through the. quickening  .and saving                  are obedient to them, but that their names are written in the
power of the Spirit that we by faith expect the hope of right-            ,book of life. Of this more excellent way Paul  >+rites in I
eousness. And it is by means of the Holy Spirit alone that                Corinthians 13 :l-3, "Though I speak  with, the tongues of
we can and do walk in  the living faith, in the pleroma of                men and of -angels, and have  no_t love, I am become as
love: Love your neighbor as yourself.                                     sounding brass of a tinkling cymbal. And though I have
   This iS expressed very beautifully in Gal. .5 :22 - `!Now              the  gift+,Gfr;prophecy,  and understand all mysteries, and all
the fruit of the Spirit is love . . . !                                   knowledge  ; and though I have all faith, so that I could re-


                                             T H E   STANDAKD   BEARE-R                                                         253
-_                                      0                                                                                        -
move  motintains,  and have not love, I  tim nothing. And          cup oi bliss and joy Jesus instructs His disciples saying : "Ask
though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though          and ye.shall receive in order that your joy may be full." John
I give my body to be burned, and have not love, it profiteth       16:24. Only thus will our cup of joy constantly be a full
me nothing."                                                       measure. ladking  nothing. This "joy" which is the fruit of
    Sobering words these are, are they not, beloved reader?        the Holy Spirit is such that it is a foretaste of the glory that
   All-important words they are for everyone who willeth           shall be the real and lasting possession of the church in the
to walk in his liberty in Christ Jesus, and to thus bear .fruit    ages to come : Hence, it is a joy unspeakable and full of glory.
in the Holy Spirit.                                                It is the joy of the' Bride as she shares in the love of the
                                                                   Bride-Groom, our Lord Jesus Christ.,
    On the one hand these words from Paul emphasize that
"love" is the chief fruit. It is not true that one can harbor         One, who serves his neighbor by love, will have this- joy
all kinds of "false-doctrines"  Andy  appeal to this text and      in his heart. It is the love, which when- perfected in our
say: love is the principal thing! If I do not have purity in       hearts, drives away all fears and sorrows. Fear hath tormefit
                                                                   but perfect love casteth out all fear.
doctrine, but have love then I have the principal thing. I
answer : this does not follow from I Cor. 13 at all ! Paul here        Such is the fruit of the Spirit in the heart of the free-born
does not belittle the need of "gifts," but he is showing the       sons of Sarah, Jerusalem `which is above.
spiritual way in which we are to conduct ourselves by the             The next virtue, fruit of the Spirit, in this first triad
Holy Spirit  zwitlz these gifts.  He, who depises "gifts" does     love, joy and peace, is pea.ce.
not have love! For the love for God and the neighbor                  This peace is certainly the peace which is ours being
prizes the "gifts" of the  H.oly  Spirit very highly. But the      justified by faith in Jesus Christ. It is peace with God. It
mere fact that we aie "sound in doctrine" is not sufficient.       is -the peace of which' Jesus spoke to His disciples in the
We must also be "upright in walk." That fruit of the Holy          upper room in the night in which he was betrayed when he
Spirit must too be in our life. When men  -will not bow to
the clear-cut testimony of the Scriptures and confessions          said: Peace I leave unto you, my peace I give unto you!
                                                                   John 14 :27.
and forever "t&" about "lope" then all that talk about love
only means : that they be granted license to teach error!             This-peace is a wonderful fruit of the Holy Spirit in.our
This is not love. On the other hand there is often very            lives. When this peace bec&es  the guiding principle in our
much in us, who strive for purity of doctrine, which is far        lives as the fruit of the Holy Spirit, it is said to &e us. Thus
from the fruits of the Holy Spirit too; the "flesh" and all        Paul says in Col. 3 :15, "And the peace of Christ &e in yoz~r
its "works," enters in. Let us not be deceived. How often          hearts, unto which also ye were called in one body." In this
has the prayer for forgiveness of these sins not arisen from       same tenor the Apostle Paul writes in Ephesians  4:i-6,
the hearts of God's saints in the home, Consistory,  Classis       "Wherefore I beseech you the bondman  in the Lord to walk
and Synod during the past years !                                  worthy of the calling wherewith ye have been called with all
   Sin cleaves to our best works; also to the work of Con-         lowliness of mind and meekness, with longsuffering, uphold-
sistory,  Classis  and Synod. Sin cleaves to the good works        ing each other in love, striving to keep the unity of the Spirit
of the church when she defends the truth of the Gospel. And        in the bond of peace!"
only because of this Gospel do its defenders find peace for           This peace of Chri,st,  the fruit of the Spirit in our hearts,
the sin cleaving to her defense of the truth in Jesus.             has a spiritual-psychological function in or hearts ; it keeps
   Let it therefore sink  deep into our hearts; the fruit of       us inwardly spiritually in the path of the perfect law of
the Spirit is Zoae. It is the principal and chief fruit without    Christ: love your neighbor as yourself. This peace has the
which none other are possible.                                     same function in us as an umpire has at the games. The
                                                                   rule must be maintained. Now we are not under the law of
   He who is filled with  Yove"  &ii1  aiSo  experience  that!     works but we are under the Saw of the inztlard rtec~ssiiy of
fruit of the Holy Spirit in His heart, which is known as           the  peace of Chhst. It is the law written in our hearts. That
being "joy !" All the sorrows of this present time cannot          this "peace of Christ" according to Col. 3 :15 acts: as an um-
extinguish this fruit of the Spirit in the Church. The more        pire in our lives is evident from the meaning of the verb
we see the truth doctrine Bf godliness, in Christ crucified, by    "brabeuoo" - "to be a director, arbiter in the publjc  games."
faith working by love, the more shall we also have "joy" in        Hence, to administer, to rule. It is this peace  as the fruit
our hearts as the fruit of the Spirit. Of this joy John writes,    of the Spirit that is the portion of one who loves and has
"And these things we write unto you in order that your lay         true joy in his heart. Such a one is  a peace-maker and  is,
may be full." We must have a full cup of joy up till this          indeed, blessed.
present moment of  our life. And again we read  .in John
15 : 11, "These  things have I spoken unto you in order that          Such fruit ought to be in our lives.
my. joy,might be in you and that your joy may be full," that                              (to be continued)
is, be filled up to a full cup. And with a view to this  .full                                                                 G.L.


 254                                         T H E   STANDARD   B E A R E R   o                                          ._  _  .-
                                                                       It makes a great deal of difference how you approach the
                 I N   H I S   F E A R                             Sc;iptures and the #Confessions. It makes a difference also
                                                                   how you approach  thnt  zeloyd. And Protestant Reformed
                                                                   truth, the truth of Scriptures and of the Confessions be-
                      The Gate Is Open                             comes Arminian when you approach it from the viewpointi
                                                                   of conditional theology. You always land in Arminianism
                            (Continued)                            when you approach Scripture and the Confession with con-
        A different approach.                                      ditional theology and comb their pages to try to defend that
    A different viewpoint.                                         philosophy of men. Then you need to come to Rev. Blanke-
        These are familiar statements that were voiced in the      spoor's plea fcir the whole Word of God. Then in that w7aole
struggle in our churches to defend the Protestant Reformed         Word of .God you may find a text lhere or there that, taken
truth over against the conditional theology that was intro-        all by itself, seems to exalt man to a place where he has
duced by those who left us.                                        to be considered, and- as Rev. Blankespoor agreed in the
        But a different approach and a different viewpoint capz    advice of his consistory about the Declaration- we have to
be an entirely different thought and an entirely different         give man the benefit of the doubt overagainst God and His
belief.                                                            truth. 0, no, Rev. Blankespoor did not put it that way. He
    A difference of emphasis also can be a difference of           put it as though we must give the Liberated every benefit
iundamental  opinion. It can be an entirely different doctrine.    of the doubt overagainst those men in our movement who
    If you take a simple word as the word top, you can by a        smelled the Arminianism that he was not able or not willing
different approach and by a different viewpoint and emphasis       to detect. But nevertheless that is where this different em-
present widely different thoughts.                                 phasis brings you. It ends in giving man the benefit of the
    Top may mean to you that which is uppermost and stands         doubt over against God. It reverses the order of things,
in distinction from bottom. "But top may also be to you a          so that instead of, beginning and ending in God, you begin
little toy which children amuse themselves. A different            and end in man. Begin with  ,God, you will end with His
approach makes a difference of  fuhdamental  meaning. When         glory. Begin with man's  resppnsibility  and you end with
you come across the word in a list of toys, you know what          taking man's side overagainst the glory of God. The Liber-
it means, that it is another toy that one has in mind. When        ated, man, must have the benefit of the doubt.          I         _
you come across it in a passage that speaks of a man striving          Rev.  Bljnkesppor may agree with his consistory (see
for mastery, for victory you know that. the top here means         page 1Q2, section 3b, of the advice in the Acts of Synod 1951)
-that he has attained to his goal, he is victorious. The con-.     that "there is no case on record at present of any of our
text will always determine what you have in mind;when  you         ministers or people disagreeing with the Confessions or with
use the word.                                                      the interpretation we have given them in the past. There may
    The context of conditional theology which speaks also of       be some difference as to approach, but at no time has there =
a different approach and of different emphasis and viewpoint       been a grievance or protest where it has been shown or even
will also reveal what its defenders have in mind. You will         alleged that anyone differed with the fundamentals of the
find that its context is always man-centered and speaks of         Protestant Reformed truth.' -In other words all agree with
the fear of losing man's responsibility and of making him a        our peculiar Protestant Reformed truth. In other words all
stock and block. That is its emphasis, viewpoint and ap-           agree with our peculiar Protestant Reformed views . . .  ."
proach. It never eirpresses  fear of losing God's sovereignty,     But will he please explain how it could be that, if in 1951 all
though to deceive it may state that it does not want to deny       were agreed and the approach was one. that did riot make a
it. The approach, the emphasis must be man  nacl his re-           fundamental difference, the opponents of the Declaration al-
sponsibility.                                                      most as a solid block defend the literal statements of Rev.
   That shift in emphasis is important!                            De Wolf?
   What is more, if your approach is wrong, the whole thing           Rev. Blankespoor, are we to understand that the approach
is wrong. Taking once again that little word top, it makes         to the  $;iptures and Confessions that  these  statements  de-
a world of difference whether your .approach  is the English       nland is the Protestant Reformed. approach  ? It is not ! It
approach so that  -you read the letters in the order that we       is turning. the top into a pot ! It is going back to 1924 ! It
always do, or whether your approach is that of the Hebrew          is the Arminian approach to the Covenant of Prof. Veenhof
and you read the words in a way that is backward according         and of all the Liberated.
to `the English way of reading. Then your word top becomes            That approach opens wide the gate of your churches for
pot. Quite a different thought again !                             the Liberated with their Arminian covenant conception. It
 So it is also as applied to this "different approach" and         breaks down the walls sufficiently far that they may climb
"different emphasis" of which we have heard so much in this        over.
defense of conditional theology.                                      How could you defend the literal statements of Rev. De


                                             T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R '                                              255

 Wolf, if  your  approach was truly Protestant Reformed  ? Your       truth to all men. The man-centered way is to compromise,
 emphasis upon man and his works has lead you to greater              cut 03 the sharp corners, defend statements like those of
 love  for man in his honor than for God and His glory.               Rev. De Wolf,  statements which are fundamentally no dif-
 The love of God moves man to take God's side and to fight            ferent from those of Prof. Veenhof..  if you please, we are
 against all heresy and danger of heresy. It does not allow           to present the truth to people who agree with the covenant
 natural love to father, mother, brother or sister, nor friend-       conception and with the conception of baptism which Prof.
 ships stand in the way of this deiense  of the truth.                Veenhof maintains. And Rev. Blankespoor, who can read
    Rev. Blankespoor himself realized that his approach .to           the dutch language well enough to be able to understand
 the Scriptures and the Confessions which defended the con-           what he writes, asks how we can present the truth to these
 ditional theology of the Liberated would end  in a fundament-        people ? A weak stand surely is not the proper way.
 ally different doctrine. That is why he felt the need of adding :       And we ask Rev. Blankespoor what pamphlets he has  '            .
 (page 104, the last paragraph of the advice) "All this does          in mind which .will give a distinct answer to that conditional
 not mean that we would sacrifice any one .of the truths we           theology of Prof. Veenhof which the Liberated accept with-
as Protestant Reformed have confessed and preached during out protest or disagreement? If he- is willing to `pick out of
the past years. These we must keep, and may the Lord bless.           all our pamphlets arguments or statements that will give the
                                                                      Liberated a clear and distinct answer to our doctrinal stand,
US.  But how then present our  vi&ws,to  others, especially to
the immigrants in Canada ? For that we have ample material            I will show him without gny trouble that these same passages
in the form of the brochures which set forth our views' as            and arguments condemn Rev. De Wolf's statements in their
based on the Three Forms of Unity. And if need be we                  literal form. Rev. Blankespoor you will be doing the cause
could add to them. These teach what we PREACH and that                of God's kingdom and therefore of the Protestant Reformed
preaching is binding. To that preaching people must promise           Churches much good, if you will. publish those passages from
to be submissive  and that they will not make propaganda' our pamphlets. We urge you for the truth's sake to do so.
against it. In this way through literature and above all                 And our preaching is binding ?
through the preaching others can- ceratinly know what `we                Now just a minute, Rev. Blankespoor. You speak in the
believe. Doing this  we can certainly remain distinct and             last sentence of this paragraph of remaining distinct. That
present our views to others without a, declaration of prin-           was in 1951. But what Preaching is binding  ? Those  tyo
ciples."                                                              sermons of Rev. D& Wolf? Those two statements of Rev. De
    The reader must remember that Rev. Blankespoor com-               Wolf? They  suiely  are distinct. But they are distinctly
pbsed and signed this in 1951 while he was still of the con-          Liberated. They are distinctly in a class with Prof. Veenhof's
viction that his children belonged in a Protestant Reformed           appeal. That is binding on Protestant Refqrmed people ?
Christian School.                                                        That is where your different  ,approach  brought you.
    We sincerely like `to believe that at that time he was               That is where your different emphasis, different because
sincere and actually did desire to remain distinct.                   it was not Protestant Reformed, brought you. There is a.
    But even then it all goes to show that when your approach         great difference even between the Rev. Blankspoor  of 1951
is wrong, the end is always wrong likewise. And there are             and of 1953.
several statements in this paragraph which, in the light of              No wonder really that you did not want the Declaration.
subsequent events, show that a different approach, and a                 Ig 1951 you pleaded for an open gate-and for lower walls
different emphasis do mean a different doctrine. Rev. Blan-           because we should give the Liberated  every  benefit of the
kespoor, who was walking on very thin ice in this advice of           doubt. And you pleaded for  an approach to the Liberated
his consistory to the Classis, fell through by the very weight        and to the Scriptures and to the Confessions that would
of his opposition to the Declaration and went below the               allow them into our churches.
surface in his tenacious defense of the literally heretical state-       And now comes 1953. Rev. De Wolf begins boldly to
ments of Rev. De Wolf.                                                preach Prof: Veenhof's promise to every baptized child on the
    He is troubled with how to present our views to the               condition of faith. Only he made it a promise to every man
Liberated. There is only one way. to present the truth to             that he might meet on the street.      li
any group outside our denomination. When he singles out                  And instead of striving with us to shut the gate, to build
the .Liberated  he already shows us the weakness of this ad-. the walls high enough to protect our  churches  against this
vice to the Classis  and Synod. It is not the love to God and         heresy, Rev. De Wolf and Rev. Blankespoor and all their
to the truth that has hold of him when he so'writes but sym-          colleagues rushed out-of that open gate into forming a new
pathy with those who by blood ties are one with us. It is the         "denomination" that doctrinally and church politically is in-
plea of one from dutch descent for others of dutch desdent.           distinguishable from the Liberated.
As we said there is only one way to present the truth, and               Before God they ought to unite, even if it means that
that is by taking a firm stand in regard to it. That is the           they are swallowed up by the Liberated and are outvoted-by
God-centered, the Protestant Reformed way of presenting the           them.                                              J . A . H .


                                                                          ._
  256"                                     T H E   S T - A N D A R D   B E A R E R

          John  21~25 -HYPERBOLE OR FACT?                             laments Jeremiah, "that- I might weep day aid night for the
     At one time or another every Bible reader must have              slain of the daughter- of my people !!'
  been struck by that last verse  of. John's majestic Gospel:             Must John 21 :25 be taken in this hyperbolic sense, or is
  "And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the          it a simple statement of fact? "And there are also many
  which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that          other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be
  even the world itself could not contain the books that should       written every one (`one by one), I suppose, (deem, figure,
  be written."                                                        compute) that even the world itself could not contain (would
                                                                      have no room for) the books that should be written."
     How  mu& we take these words from the  -pen  of the
  disciple whom Jesus loved, as hyperbole or simple fact ? Have           The question might be put this way: Is John thinking of
' we to do here with poetic exaggeration, or must we take them        the number of tlie works of Jesus rather than their nature
  literally alid at face value ?                                      and intrinsic worth, or is the latter primary here? Is he
                                                                      counting, or weighing, - or both ?
     What is a  hiperbole  ?
     A hyperbole is the opposite of a litotes. The words them-                                   * * *  *
  selves may not be too familiar to many of us ; the ideas they           That this verse, too, was written by the Apostle John
  express are verjr simple. Both are figures of speech; common        we shall not question. There is considerable doubt about this
  to every language under the sun. Both are  f& the same              among leading Bible students. Some draw its very autenti-
  purpose of accentuating, emphasizing the point in question.         city into question. In one leading commentary I read this
  This common purpose, however, is reached in directly op-            revolting evaluation of John 21  :25 : "It is an exaggeration
  posite ways.                                                        so surprising, unapostolical, and in. such absolute contradic-
     A litotes is an UNDERstatement  for the sake of increased        tion to the  J,phannean  simplicity, intelligence and delicacy,
  effect. It is a figure of speech in which the statement made        that it is impossible that it can have proceeded from thk pen
  clearly expresses less than is intended' for the purpose of         of `the apostle, but must appear probably as a later, although
  creating greater impr.ession. This you do, for instance, when       very ancient, from of conclusion, an apocryphal and inhar-
  you emphasize the positive by deniing  the negative. "He is         monious echo of Chapter 20:30." A moment later the same
  not homely !" You mean, of course, that he's above average          author says, "The absurd and tasteless exaggeration in verse
  in appearance: "He's no fool !" Ol&iously,  the meaning is :        25 is un-Johannean, bearing the apocryphal stamp." Others,
  he's exceptionally bright and alert. Actually, of course, you're    including commentators like Dr. C. Bouma of the Nether-
  saying very little when you say no more than what a person          lands, `doubt the Johannean authorship. "Verse 25," writes
  is NOT. Still in these cases you'rt saying more than you            he, "leaves the impression of having been  ivritten by another,
  would by stating the simple fact. A litotes is also used when       out of the circle of  John.>' Notice, that Dr. Bouma speaks
  you employ diminution for the sake of effect. The author            only of "leaving the impression." There is nothing very ob-
  who spoke of "Little old New York" was in effect stressing          jective about "impressions." These dissenters from the posi-
  the largeness of the city.                                          tion that also this final verse of the gospel emanated from the
     A hyperbole, on the other hand, is an OVERstatement,             heart and pen of John himself, point to  several  things. The
  serving the same general purpose. It is a figure of speech          style, they are sure, is simply not John's. Besides, John had
  in which you say Rao1'e  than is meant to accentuate the point      already come to a similar conclusion at the end of the previous
  in question. If it is a bit cool in church, a person might be       chapter, verse 30, "And many other signs truly did Jesus in
  heard to say, "I nearly froze this morning." Because the            the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this
  ventilation was not quite up to par people "practically suf-        book." John would not echo virtually the same sentiments
  focated to death."                                                  only one chapter later, these objectors feel. This objection,
     Both these figures of speech are' found in Holy Writ.            however, inspires little in the way of conviction. If John
  There is a beautiful example of a litotes in Romaris  S:12,         would not do this, why should anyone else ? The most
  "Therefore, brethren, we are debtors,  not  to the flesh, to        cogent argument against the Johannean authorship of this
  live after the flesh." Certainly, Paul meant to stress that         verse lies, perhaps. in that "I suppose." When John speaks
  too. However, the main thrust of his argument, as'is evident        of himself it is never in the  first person, -invariably in the
 from the next verse, is that we are debtors to the Spirit,           third person. However, since no further evidence is ad-
 to live after the Spirit. Clearly, he accentuates the latter by      duced, and the proofs advanced are so much in the nature
 not even mentioning it. Hyperboles are even more commoti             of "impressions," we shall not question any further the
 in the Word of God. David employs this mode df exaggera-             Johannean origin of this verse. `The important thing, after.
 tion when he complains in Psalm 6:6, "I am weary with my             all, is  i& divine authorship.
 groaning ; all the night make I my bed to swim ; I water my             Most expositors of Scripture speak here of "hyperbole,"
 couch with my tears." Did he ? That's a hyperbole. "Oh               although the majority do so in. such a way, that actually the
 that my head were waters and mine eyes a fountain of tears,"         verse becomes simple fact quite as much as poetic exaggera-


                                             T H E          STANDARD.BEARER                                                       257
 ~_. . . . I_ -

 :ion. Thus Calvin speaks of John 21  :25 as a hyperbole,             pose than even the world itself could not contain the books
 "whereby John stresses that he passed over more than he              that should be written."
 flYrote." He adds, however, that the apostle "employs a                 -However, we can and should say  more. John is not
 Frequent and ordinary figure of speech for COM/MENDING               merely counting, -he's weighing too. He is thinking, not
 THE `EXCELLENCE of the works of Christ." He's  think-                merely of the multiplicity of Jesus' works, but as well of
 ng of the nature as well as the mutiplicity  of-Christ's  activi-    their nature and infinite significance. Can you ever regard
 :ies in our flesh. In a similar vein the strong predestinarian,      the works of our Lord apart from Him Who  periormed
 Pink, writes that John "closes with a hyperbole to stress the        them, -the mere number apart from their intrinsic worth?
 mpossibility  of fully telling THE INFINITE GLORIES                      Think of this Jesus, of Whom John here speaks ! Is he
 IF CHRIST." The very able and eminent Greek scholar,                 mere man ? The greatest of all men, far surpassing all the
 2. T. Robertson, says about this verse, "This is, of course,         inteliectual  titans who ever lived  ? We know better ! Jesus
 natural  hyperbole, but graphically pictures for us the vast-        is God in flesh appearing. He is the erverlasting Word be-
 less of the works and words of Jesus from which the author           come flesh. He and the Father are one. He is Himself
 las made a small selection." Barnes too makes it pure                the immeasurable God. The Jews were so right, when they
 lyperbole  "a mode of speech where the words express more            understood that he made Himself equal with God. His Name
 .han is. ,literally  true." He sees the verse as  ailuding  only     is "Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting
 o the countless number of Christ's works. "No one  sup-              Father, the Prince of Peace." Could all the world produce
 )oses that John means this literally. John means  a. `great          the minds, the pens or the ink, to reveal the fulness of that
 nany books ; of that it would be extremely difficult to record       Christ ? If it were possible, ,would there be room iti all this
 111 Jesus said and did."                                             creation of God, so infinitesimally small compared with-the
    That the number of Jesus' works is prominent in -the              immeasurable Godhead, to contain the books that shoutd 6e
 nind of John is quite evident from the text. In this sense           written ?
 ve would certainly seem to have to do here with a hyperbole.            Think of His. mighty works,  - His amazing miracles.
 The apostle  s.peaks of "the many  other  things which Jesus         Not only were they countless. in number, but each was of
 lid." If he were speaking merely of the infinite character of        infinite significance. Each  an. actual demonstration in the
 hg. works and words of the Lord Jesus, there would have              realm  `of the visible and physical of the amazing power of
 )een no need of referring to the "many other things." Every          the God of heaven and earth ! Each an incontrovertible proof
vvork of Christ, because of the one Who performed it, partook         of the Godhead of that Jesus of Nazareth, Whom we saw
 If the nature of the infinite. Besides, he adds : "if they should    and heard and our hands have touched ! Each a blessed.mani-
Fbe written  o?le  by  one." Every one! ALL of them! He is            festation of that same power  of the Highest, whereby a lost
thinking  now, in closing, of the many -more whom Jesus               world is redeemed and exalted to the indescribablk  life and
-hlealed. Multitudes came to Jesus  w&h their diseased and            glories of heaven! If all the minds of men were combined
iinipotent, - blind, deaf, maimed,  paralytics, devil-possessed,      into one, could they begin to analize these marvelous  wgrks   ?
 td. etc. "And He healed them all." John mentions only a              If they could, would there be room in all this world to &on-
sew of these miracles. All the gospels tog&her record only            tain the books that -should be written 7
a fraction of the mighty works of the Lord Jesus on earth.               Think of His mighty words. "Words of eternal life."
C:oming now to the close of his gospel, and in retrospect, h-e        The same questions  are applicable here.
C annot  help but think now of those countless other wonders             Is it a wonder, then, that John ends his gospel on this
 Yhich the Savior performed. "And many other signs truly              note of ecstacy ? "If they should be written one by one . . . .
i.id Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not            even the world itself could not contain the books that should       .
 rrritten  in this book: but these are written that ye might          be written." Of course -they couldn't ! Can the finite contain
;;:`elieve than Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God  ; and that       the infinite ? Can this tiny world contain what the heaven of
believing ye might have~life  through his name." 20 :30, 31.          heavens are not able to contain ? Only an absolute circum-
7`he apostle is thinking, too, of the numerous discourses, the        stance is in keeping with the absolute contents of the Person
C'ountless words of Jesus, so many more than the sacred nar-          and of the Life of Christ. We must not only take into account
r;atives record. He is simply overwhelmed by the numbers              the number of works, says Calvin, but also their importance
0 f words and works compressed into those few marvelous               and magnitude. Then we say with the great reformer, "The
Years of the Incarnate Word in this world. He cannot find             majesty of Christ is infinite, swallows up not only the senses
t1ne words to express his amazement. Much as we might say             of men, but heaven and' earth." Think of all the sermons
0 f the accomplishments and efforts of some outstanding               preached, all the books. written about Christ,- and each
lf:ader : "there's no end to the labors he performed, no limit        different from all the rest. Even so, the surface has not even
tc) that man's endurance .and energy,",thus  John writes here         been. scratched. Human words cannot begin tb spell out the
ir1 hbly amazement : "There are also many other things which          glory of Him, Whom John reveals to us in his gospel. All
Jesus did, the which, if they were written everyone, I sup-                               (Codimed  01% page 261)

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

                                                                          For the realization of this purpose the Son becomes Christ,
     11         The ,Voice. of Our Fathers                                the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature,
I    '                                                                    that in Him as the first begotten of the dead all the fulness
                                                                          of God might dwell. 3) For that Christ and the revelation
                      The Canons of Dordrecht                             of all His fulness the Church is decreed, and all the elect.
                                    PART TWO                              In the decree of God Christ is not designed for the Church.
                        EXPOSITION OF THE CANONS                          but the Church for Christ. The Church is His body, and
                         F                                                serves the purpose to reveal the fulness there is in Him. 4)
                              IRST HEAD OF DOCTRINE
                        O                                                 For the purpose of realizing this Church of Christ, and, there-.
                          F  DIVINE PREDESTINATION                        fore, the glory of Christ, the reprobate are detemined as
                              Article 15 (continued)                      vessels of wrath. Reprobation serves the purpose of election
            For a brief and concise explanation of this essential sub-    as chaff serves the ripening.of  the wheat. This is in harmony
     ordination of the decree of reprobation to the decree of elec-       with the current thought of Scripture, and we find it ex-
     tion we can do no better than to quote from the mimeo-               pressed literally in Isaiah 43  :3, 4; `For I am the Lord thy
     graphed dogmatics of the Rev. H.  Hoeksema., He writes,              God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour : I gave Egypt
     "Theology," page 2Oi, ff. :                                          for thy ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for thee. Since thou
                                                                          wast precious in my sight, thou hast been honourable, and
            "We therefore place ourselves without reservation on the      I have loved thee; therefore will I give men for thee, and
     standpoint of supralapsarianism, and maintain that it is the         people for thy life.' 5) Finally, in the counsel of God all
     Scriptural and the only consistent presentation of the decree        other things in heaven and on earth are designed as means
     of God's predestination. But we would like to modify this            to the realization of both election and reprobation, and there-
     supralapsarian view in such a way that it is in harmony with         fore of the glory of Christ and His Church. And because in
     our organic conception of things. We must emphasize not              the decree of God all things are conceived in this manner,
     so much what is first or-last in the decree of God, but much         therefore all things must work together for good to them that
     rather place ourselves before the question : what in those           love God, to them that are called according to His purpose.
     decrees is conceived as purpose, and what as means ? What            And in this light we can also understand Scripture when it
     is the main object in those.decrees,  and what is subordinate        teaches us,  as. in I  ,Cor. 3 :21-23, that-all things are yours;
     and subservient to that main object? In this way we first of         Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or
     all escape the danger to leave the impression that there after       death, or things present, or things to come ; all are yours ; And
     all is a temporal order in the decrees of God. And in the            ye are Christ's ; and Christ is God's"
     second place, according to our way of presenting the doctrine
     of predestination we may open the way to find an answer to              This same view is worked out in great detail in the
     the question : why is there a reprobation  ? It is true that         "Christology'! of the Rev. H. Hoeksema, pp.  3-84. in his
     supralapsarians give a partial answer to this question, when         thorough discussion of the "Pactum Salutis," (Counsel of
     they assert that God also has willed the ungodly for His             Peace).  Inthis connection we take just a few statements, in
     own name's sake and to the manifestation of His righteous-           order to show that the author does by no means coordinate
     ness, justice, power, and wrath. But this is by no means             election and reprobation. We quote from page 80:
     the final answer that may be given to this question; nor does           "Hence, in God's decree of the covenant and upon His
     it satisfy us, for in this way we still cannot escape the im-        election of the Christ follows immediately the election-of the
     pression that there is arbitrariness in God. The reprobate           church. Reprobation is indeed immediately connected with
     are evidently not necessary to reveal God's power and wrath          election,  but  camot be placed with election on  a  par.  Re-
     and righteousness ; for these virtues certainly never came to        pro1vxtio.n   follozvs upon  electioq and the  former  semes the
     a clearer, more definite revelation than at the cross of Jesus       Zn.tter. (Italics mine, H.C.H.) . It has its motive in the divine
     Christ. He certainly satisfied the justice and the righteous-        will to realize the covenant in the antithetical way of sin
     ness of God and bore all His wrath.                                  and grace. For the fulness of the Godhead dwells in the
           "We, therefore, would like to present the matter of God's `resurrected Christ. From the depth of misery and death
     counsel of predestination as follows. God conceived and-willed       Christ enters into the glory of the full covenant life of God.
     all things in His eternal decree for His own name's sake,            And this way from suffering to glory, from'sin to righteous-
     that is, to the glory of His name and the reflection of His          ness, the righteousness of the kingdom of heaven, from death
     divine virtues and life. And as the highest in God is His own        into life; also the church must follow. And in following this
     covenant life, He willed to establish and to reveal. His cov         way the -reprobate shell of the human organism serves the
     enant in Christ ; and all other things in the counsel ,of God        church in `Christ. In the shell of reprobation the elect kernel
     are related to that main purpose of God `as means. Hence,            becomes ripe. For that reason reprobation cannot be put on
     we obtain the following order: 1) God'wants to reveal- His           the `same line with election. Election is the divine  fore-
     own eternal glory in the establishment- of His covenant. 2)          ordination of the one church with its millions of elect unto


                                             T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                              259
                      _ _.-  _.-
* the salvation of the life of God's covenant in Christ. The          the Reformed man, who maintains that reprobation is sover-'
  church serves Christ. The elect church is given to Christ as        eign, that this accusation is ever brought. Against any one
  His body. She must serve to manifest and radiate in a               else the accusation simply does not fit. For only when you
  thousand-fold way the glory that is in Christ Jesus, which          teach that the fact of sin is sovereignly included in the
  is the glory of God . . . . ."                                      counsel of God do men come with the charge that you make
                                                                      God the author of sin .2) In the second place, this statement
     This is, of course, the view -which some delight to char-        is simply a denial. Dordrecht casts the accusation for away,
  acterize as "super supralapsarianism," but which may more           as a blasphemous suggestion. We may not even consider that
  properly be called a "modified supralapsarianism." And to           God might ever be the author of sin. The very oppposite is.
  a large extent, though not exclusively, that modification con-      true: God is the judge and avenger of sin. 3) In the third
  sists exactly in the fact that this form subordinates, rather       place, it is not true that this is peculiarly the property of
  than coordinates, reprobation to election. We freely grant          infralapsarianism. Also infra includes the fact of  sin_ and .
  that it is not the view of the Canons. We also insist that it       the fall in the sovereign counsel of God, even when it speaks
  is not contradictory of the  Canorzs, and that historically         of God's "permissive will." And also infra must face this
  supralapsarianism was not condemned by Dordrecht, simply            accusation, as is plain from this very 15th Article. But also.
  because it was not an issue there. Dordrecht was rather             supra emphatically maintains: "The very thought that God
  non-committal on the issue, though indeed it had the op-            might be the author of sin is blasphemous."
  portunity to condemn certain supra expressions, but refused.            In explanation of this statement of the Canons,  - an ex-
     In the light of this conception of reprobation it may be         planation which the fathers do not trouble to make at this
  said with even stronger emphasis : "What peculiarly tends to        point, 1 we may bear in mind the following. God created
  illustrate and recommend to  us  the eternal and unmerited          man, and therefore also conceived of man in His counsel, as
  grace of election, is the express testimony of sacred Scripture,  a a rational, moral! responsible being. The question of the
  that not all, but some only are elected." For in this light         authorship of any deed, good or evil, concerns this rational,
  we. not only see our election against the background of the         moral, responsible nature of man. As long as this rational;
  fact that some are sovereignly not elected, though we are           moral creature is not touched in his spiritual, ethical exist-
  no different than they in ourselves. But we behold much             ence, and thus compelled to do certain deeds by an outside
  more richly the eternal and unmerited character of the grace        force, that creature is morally free, and therefore from an
  of election that us, in whom could never be found the reason        ethical point of view the cause of his own actions. Man's sin-
  for the divine choice, He has nevertheless chosen to make           ful deeds are-always such rational, moral actions, performed
  the objects of His covenant friendship, to include in His           according to the determination of his own will. He wants
  wonderful purpose, while the others, reprobate, `He has             to sin. He is the author of his own sin, even though God
  determined not to give a place in that purpose, but instead         remains on the throne and sovereignly controls also the
  to employ them as vessels of wrath as so many means to              moral actions of that sinful man.- God hates sin ; the sinner
  the realization of His purpose of our salvation. What               loves it. And man indeed chooses sin, while God rules and
  wondrously free grace that is! Well may we ever acknowl-            controls also that choosing man, and realizes His own
  edge, when we behold them whom God has from eternity and            counsel; And therefore, we may say in the second place, that
  sovereignly determined to be vessels of wrath and to employ         while God is certainly not the author of sin, God has sover-
  them as mere means to the realization of His purpose:               eignly determined that man shall be the author and the cause
  "There, but for the eternal and unmerited grace of God, go          of his own sin. Unless this is maintained, the entire con-
  I. For it is not of myself that He chose me. Of myself I            cept of God's sovereign counsel is destroyed.
would never have shown anything else than utter unworthi-                  And therefore let it be well understood : we who maintain
  ness to be one of His chosen ones. But it was of His free,          a sovereign decree .,of reprobation consider it- blasphemy to
  absolutely sovereign grace. Glory to His name alone !"              consider that God is the author of sin. He is the infinitely
     The final element in this article concerning reprobation is      Holy' One. Instead, we maintain that this very decree of
  the assertion that this doctrine by no means makes God the          reprobation declares God to be the awful, unblameable, and
  author of sin, the very thought of which is blasphemy ; but         righteous judge and avenger of sin. Our God is a consuming
  that- this doctrine certainly does declare, God to be an awful,     fire !                                             H . C . H .
  irreprehensible, and righteous judge and avenger of sin. In
  general we make the following remarks concerning this' state-
  ment :                                                                                    A GREAT SAVIOR
      1) In the first place, it is directed against the Arminians.         Sir James Simpson, the great Scotch surgeon, was asked
  For it was the  ,Arminians  who cast this accusation in the         by a young man what he regarded as his greatest discovery.
  teeth of those who wanted to maintain sovereign reprobation.        He replied, "My greatest discovery is that I am great sinne-v
In this connection we may note too that it is only against            and  Jesus  is a  Great  Sa.vior."

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

  I                                                                    be avoided by discussing thoroughly in advance the implica-  I
                DECENCY and ORDER.                                 11 tions of the problems involved and then, when rules are to
                                                                       be made, to make sure that they comply with the intent or
                    Students for the  Mimi&y                           principles of the church order so that under the rules the
                                                                       mandate of the church order is not obstructed but rather
         "The churches shall exert themselves, as far as neces-        is more easily executed by the churches. And Article 19 of
  sary, that there may be students supported by them to be             the church order deals with the important matter of perpetu-
  trained for the ministry of the Word." - Article 19, D.R.O.          ating the ministry of the word and then it should be remem
         In accordance with the stipulations of this article of our    bered, as one author aptly expressed it  ,"The  purpose of
  church order, our Synod has a standing committee and has             Article 19 is not to help needy students, but rather to help
  established a permanent fund to which our seminarians who            the churches." That is a principle and our rules ought to
have-need may apply for financial assistance. Synod has also           be governed by it so that the welfare of the churches is
  made rules governing the support that is granted from this           placed above that of any individuals. Further? that is of
  fund and unless certain requirements are met, the  applicam's        greatest importance because this matter involves the ministry  '
  request for aid is refused. One of the most significant of           of the Word and nothing effects the welfare of the churches
  these rules is the one that bars any married students from           more keenly -than this. Too often matters of this nature are
 .receiving  financial `aid. Some of those now serving in the          evaluated on a dollar and cents basis and this is a serious
  ministry in our churches were refused assistance under this          mistake. The money  involve8  `is certainly a factor of con-
  rule in their student days. A few years ago we received three        sideration but there are elements', involving the welfare of
  applicants to our Theological School from the Episcopal Re-          the churches, which are more weighty and should be con-             _
  formed Church who, because they were married, could not              sidered  first but which are sometimes entirely ignored. These
  be aided with E.B.P. Funds. At that time a separate society          we purpose to bring out in subsequent writing under this
  was organized which raised the needed funds which, because           article.
  of the ruling of Synod, could not be obtained directly from
  the E.B.P. Committee. Today, with our ministerial short-               To begin with, then, let us give a brief historical sketch
  age, we have applicants who desire to be admitted into our           of this article. The churches of the Reformation soon real-
  Theological School but who are confrontled with the problem          ized their need of trained ministers of the gospel. To under-
  of supporting their families during the interim of study and         go such training required years of schooling and involved
  preparation for the ministry. For some these things make             considerable expense. There were a few who could afford
  the way into_ the ministry very difficult while for others it        this and, consequently, many promising youths were com-
  becomes a virtual impossibility. Is this right? Is it in             pelled to seek occupation in other fields. It was in a letter
  harmony with the meaning of the 19th. Article of our Church          dated March 21, 1570 that  Marnix of St. Aldegonde first
  Order ?                                                              called attention to this matter in the Refugee Churches.
                                                                       Among other things he suggested in his letter that the
       This leads us to ask two questions. The first of, these is:     churches should establish a common fund from which those
  "Do we, as churchesj  adequately fulfill the intention of Articls    preparing,for  the ministry of the Word could receive assist-
  19 of our church order by merely setting up an E.B.P. com-           ance if needed. Acting upon this suggestion the Synods of
  mittee and fund  ?" We would answer this question negatively         Emden 1571, Dordrecht 1574, Dordrecht, 1578, and  `s-
  and will point out later that the real intention of this article     Gravenhage 1556 adopted measures whereby support for
  is far broader and, in a certain respect, altogether different       needy students was obtained. This was then the beginning
from this. Our second question is, "Are our  Synodical rul-            of the E. B. P. Fund.
  ings with respect to this matter in conflict with the intention
  of Article 19 of our church order so that this intention is            Of interest it is to know why this fund for needy students
 virtually nullified by these rulings  ?" This question we refrain     is called the E. B. P. Fund. These letters represent the
 from answering with either a blank "yes" or-"no" but would            Latin phrase, "ex bonis publicis," which means, "out of the
  rather discuss it somewhat in detail especially since Classis        public goods" or a public grant or endowment. fin former
  East is overturing the Synod of 1955 to review and recon-            times, especially in the Netherlands, there was a very close
  sider this entire matter. The question before`the Synod will         relation between the church and the state. When Protestant-
 be, "Should we, in the light of our present circumstances and         ism became victorious over Roman Catholicism much of the
 with a view to future exigencies, maintain our present rules,         latter's lands and possessions were taken over by the govern-
  drop them altogether, or change them ?" It is well, especially       ment and revenues derived from these properties were given
 with a matter of this proportion, that Synod does not act             to the church so that out of these public funds emeritus
 hastily under the influencing pressures of present  circun-           ministers and needy students were supported. And, so the
  stances, to do what will not only be later regretted but will        expression, "ex bonis publicis," has remained in usage unto
 prove detrimental to the churches in years to come. This can          the present time and although, strictly speaking, it  is a mis-


                                             T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R   ,,                                              261
                                                                                                     -~^   - - -

 namer,  it is still applied to the current practices of the          for the orderly maintenance and perpetuation of the ministry
 church.                                                              of the church. This  must  be remembered lest we be dis-
   Now, to return once more to the 19th. Article of the               tracted to occupy ourselves with too many other things of
 Church_Order.  Our redaction of this article, which is the           lesser importance. `From this point of view, the omission
 same as that of the Christian Reformed Church, differs from          of the words, "in theology" is to be regretted. They should
that of the Gereformeerde Kerken  of the Netherlands in one           be retained and a further addition made to the article al-
 particular. It omits the phrase, "in theology." The Article,         lowing for support of those engaged in  .preparatory  work,
 as maintained in the Netherlands, reads:  `,`De  gemeenten           provided an assurance is given .of their intention to enter
 zullen. voor zooveel noodig, arbeiden, dat er studenten in,          into the work of the ministry.
 de theologie zijn, die door haar onderhouden worden."  The                  WTe must add a concluding remark of clarification to the
 omission of the phrase, "in theology," was occasioned by the         above lest we be misunderstood. It is true, of course, that
 desire to also aid those students who were engaged in work           men are ultimately inclined toward and brought to seek
 preparatory to their studies in theology in other schools.           the work of the ministry through the  call,ing of God. What
 This practice the churches in the Netherlands does not admit.        has been previously written on that subject may properly
 The Reformed Churches there do not help students other               be repeated here. This calling is indispensible. However,
 than those directly engaged in theological-study. The reason         this does not abrogate the calling of the churches to exert  '
 for this seems to be that there is too much of a risk that           themselves toward locating such men whom the Lord is
 students, after receiving help for some time, will undergo a         pleased to call and to even'aid them in bringing them to the
 change of mind and never enter into theology and become              awareness of that calling. There are times when  a. little
 of service to the churches that assisted them. Omitting this         advice or encouragement is beneficial. No doubt consistories,
 phrase, as is done in the redaction of 1914, allows for the          ministers and even parents could do much more than is done
 possibility of extending aid to students during their  pre?          toward directing those young men who are worthy and
 paratory studies. If the inclusion of this phrase makes such         qualified to seek the labor of the ministry of the Word.
 assistance impossible, its omission would seem to `be  jug-.         Even as those lacking essential qualifications should be ad-
 tified for preparatory work in theology is very essential.           vised against seeking this labor,`those  who show indications
   However, thereis also a danger in this omission; Without           of promise ought to be encouraged. At any rate, let the
 the phrase, "in theology" an emphasis is placed in the article       churches do what is possible and necessary that there may
 upon that which is of secondary importance and the main              be students for the future ministry of the churches. That is
 purpose or intention of the article is virtually lost. As our        first !
 present article reads, the main thrust of the article is that the                         (to be continued)
 churches shall exert themselves, as far as necessary, to sup-                                                            G. VandenBerg.
 post students  pmpwiq  for  the ministry.  But the, intent of
 the article is to express that the churches shall exert them-
 selves, as far as necessary, that there  wmy be students in
 tlzeology.  That is something else. The matter of support is
 of secondary importance and is brought in because the lack
 of material -resources should not be a barrier to entering the
 ministry for one  .who has the capabilities and desire for                        JOHN  2X:25 -  HYPERBsOLE  OR FACT?
 the office. Then the churches ought to give support. This                                 (Co~ttiwuad  from page 257)
 then becomes a means unto the attainment of a certain end.           the world cannot begin to comprehend it. There's no end,
 And the end or purpose is to obtain students in theology.            literally, to the study and development of the truth of God in
 That is first in importance as the calling of the church is to       Christ.. There are no limitations here, except those of man's
 perpetuate the ministry of the word and this can be done             own heart and mind. Like the immensity of the heavens,
 only when there are men constantly prepared for that labor.          ever increasing as the power of vision is lengthened. The
 These suitable candidates must be found and then, if there           farther we go, the more the realization of infinity rises upon
 is need and insofar as is necessary, the churches must also                                  _
                                                                      us.
 aid in supporting them during their years of preparation.                   From the viewpoint of mere number, therefore, we may
   This emphasis in the article follows from its position and         speak here of a hyperbole. However, I dare not leave it
 relation to the  preceeding  article which speaks' of the Pro-       there. Knowing Him of Whom we speak, by faith, and the
 fessors of Theology and their task. II Timothy 2  :l tells us        divine magnitude of His words and works, we shall leave it
 that the church must maintain this office and this, too,             as simple fact: "If they should be written every one . . . even
 can be done only when the churches also exert themselves             the world itself could not contain the books that should be
 toward securing capable men to be instructed. Articles 3             written."
 to 21 of the Church Order set forth the various principles                                                                         R.V.


 262                                        T H E   :S.-T.ANDAR-D   B E A R E R

                                                                    but let us also learn to say: Ebenezer, hitherto the Lord  '
            A L L   A R O U N D   U§                                hath helped us. And in faith look into the future  !" This
                                                                    concludes Blankespoor's essay.
                                                                      I repeat that it is not difficult to criticize this conclusion
 What Really  Happened  In  Our  Clmrckes.                          of Blankespoor's `essay simply because he says nothing.
   This is the final article in `our series in which we have        What we have here is some more idle prating cloaked in
 been quoting and criticizing an essay written by the-Rev. J.       pious-phrases. Some bold charges without a grain of proof.
 Blankespoor in Concordia of December 2, 1954. We have                We are charged with not only having tendencies toward
 been quoting his essay-in its entirety and then offering our       sectarianism but also with hierarchy. He refers to meetings
 comments. Whatever the Rev. Blankespoor may say about              of consistory and Classes but says nothing about what actu-
 our criticism of him we do not know, but we are assured that       ally happened at these meetings. We simply have  to. take
 he will never be able to say that we did not quote him fairly.     Rev. Blankespoor's word for it that Rev. De Wolf and his
 This we do now also with respect to what he calls his              elders and the unseating of  Kok, Knott and Blankespoor
 church political viewpoint. It will not be difficult to criti-     was hierarchy. I am surprised that he mentions the meeting
 cize what he says about this simply because he says nothing.       of  Classis  West. Does he want  us  to imply that that was
 This is what he wrote in the`conclusion  of his article.           hierarchical too  ? Or is this a slip of the pen ? The reader
   "From the church political viewpoint the same is true.           will note that nowhere does Blankespoor say what was
 I cannot help but find also here tendencies towards sectari-       hierarchical. The reader of his "fine" essay is just sup-
 anism and hierarchy in their actions. This is true of what         posed to believe this on the word of Blankespoor. He gives
 happened in the Fuller Ave. consistory, what happened at           no article of the Church Order to prove his point. The only
 the October, 1953 meeting of  Classis  East, and at the Sep-       article- of the Church Order to which he refers is Article 31.
tember, 1953 meeting of  Classis  West. I'm sure that Rev.          Evidently he assumed that all his readers were supposed to
 De Wolf didn't realize all the implications of what took           know what is in this article. And Rev. Blankespoor admits
place at that time. Neither did he always know exactly              that he himself has only lately begun to understand it. Rev.
 which step to take. But what is the deepest reason for his         Kok has obviously explained the meaning of this article to
refusal to submit to' their unjust demands ? The conviction         him. And where the former was instructed no one knows.
that their actions were contrary to the Word of God. And            Perhaps he has been in conference with a few radical Cana-`
the same is true of the Revs. Kok, Knott and myself at the          dian Liberated. They too believe that every one is a law
 October meeting of  Classis   East.. I will for one readily        unto himself in the church of Christ. Hence they could set
admit'that  I didn't understand Art. 31 of .the Church Order        ministers right out on the street if they felt like it and that
at that time as I do now. But why then refuse to submit?            too without a pang of conscience. That's the Church `Ord*er
 Surely not because everything was crystal clear to us. No,         which Rev.  I(ok wants and in which he evidently has in-
we were convinced that their actions were contrary to the           structed the Rev. Blankespoor. And so the latter has now
Divine Word. Before that only we would bow, regardless              come to understand the true meaning of Article 31.
of consequences inflicted upon us by men. No doubt, the                Rev. Blankespoor has evidently-no understanding of the
same principles guided  Classis  West with its stand on the         Formula of Subscription which he has signed more than
Declaration, and the censure of the office-bearers of Fuller        once, in which he promised "that we (he) will neither pub-          '
Ave.                                                                licly  nor privately propose, teach, or defend the same .
   "Without any doubt this is also true of the laiety. Surely       (namely, the errors that militate against the doctrine adopted
most of our people didn't see all the implications of, the          by Dordt 161%`19 - M. S.) either by preaching or writing,
denial of every form of condition, and of the difficulty with       until we (he) have first revealed such sentiments to the
the Declaration. But with their simple but strong faith they        consistory,  Classis  and Synod, that the same may there be
realized that somehow many of these things were contrary            examined, being ready always cheerfully to submit to the
to the plain teachings of the .Scriptures. We may conclude          judgment of the consistory,  Classis  and Synod, under penalty
from this that the multitudes still love the `simple,' but also.    in case of refusal to be, by that very fact, suspended from
the whole Word of God.                                              our (my) office.
   "In the light of all this, our history indeed is a sad one.        "And further, if at any time the consistory,  Classis  or
But on the other hand we must continue to say: "Too bad,            Synod, upon sufficient grounds of suspicion and to preserve
too  .bad.' Since this seems to be the direction in which the       the uniformity and purity of doctrine, may deem it proper
other side is going we must be thankful that it has pleased         to require of us (me) a further explanation of our (my)
God to by His grace show us the right way. As leaders we            sentiments respecting any particular article of the Confession .
surely must also -give  leadership by personally bowing be-         of Faith. the Catechism. or the explanation of the National
fore that Word. At this stage let us not continue to sit down       Synod,  wee (I) do hereby promise to be always willing
by the ruins of what we once had, deploring the situation;          and ready to comply with such requisition, under the penalty


                                                 T H E   S T A N D A R D 'B E A R E R                                               263

I above mentioned, reserving for ourselves (myself), `how-                 They have been made to swallow the lie. They were taught'
   ever, the right of an appeal, whenever we (I) shall believe             not to read the Standard Bearer which has always thrown
   ourselves (myself) aggrieved by the sentence of the consis-' light both of Scripture and the Confessions on the issues
   tory, the  Classis,  or the Synod, and  until a  decisk is  ntnde~      which now separate  us.  Of this I am becoming more and
   ufion  mclz an  appeal,  zpie (I) will  ncqwiesce  in  the  detewwi-    more convinced. The letters I receive occasionally from
   nn.tion  a.nd  jlrdpwcrzt already passed."  (The italics mine           some of these disillusioned people clearly indicates this. My
   - M .   S.)                                                             conversations with them reveal how miserably they have
     What Blankespoor et al did with their new understanding               been deceived. 0, of course I do not mean to say by this
   of  `4rticle  31 amounted simply to this that they concluded            that all the people that follow these schismatic leaders are
   when they stood in opposition to the consistory and the                 deceived. No doubt there are many of them that want this
   Cassis that they did not have to "acquiesce in the deter-               false doctrine, and they have wanted it for years., But
   mination and judgment already passed" until they made                   surely they are not the  "multitudesf' And I would warn
   their appeal. They could have their offices and function                these schismatic leaders that they had better work still
 regularly in them, serve  as.delegates  to  Classis,  continue to         harcler  to keep these people under their preaching. Do not
   propagate their false doctrine. This is anarchy of the lowest           allow them to hear Protestant Reforme'd preachers. If you
   rank. Besides, it was a determined attempt to deny the                  do, you will lose them, for they will hear the difference
   promise they made when they signed the Formula of Sub-                  immediately. Several who have left them have already                  .
   scription. Much more could be said about this very evident              testified to this. And let me warn you not to let them hear
   error- of which Rev. Blankespoor et al made themselves                  Christian Reformed preaching either, for I assure you they
guilty. He must not charge us with hierarchy, but let                      will hear no difference, and you are bound to lose many of
   him rather confess his independentism and rebellion. And                them. In fact I hear that several of your followers have
   since the Rev. Blankespoor likes to prate about his desire              already left for the Christian Reformed Churches. And if
   to be bound only by the whole Word of God, will he please               they have no principle about them, I can easily understand
   show us where in that Word he finds support for this rebel-             that they left you, for what future have they if they stay
   lion and independentism ?                                               with you  7 Even Rev. Hofman indicates that much in his
     The reader will also note how Rev. Blankespoor again                  recent editorial in Concordia that almost sounded like  a
   makes a play forthe  people. Writes he "Without any doubt               swan-song.
   this is also true of the laiety. (That they were guided by the            But back to Rev. Blankespoor and his "fine" essay. That        =
   Word of God  - M. S.) Surely most of our people didn't                  last paragraph of the above quotation is a puzzle to me. I
   see all the implications of the denial of every form of con-            have read and re-read this paragraph several times and am
   dition, and of the difficulty with the Declaration. But with            at a loss to know just what he means by the expression
   their simple but strong faith they realized that somehow                "But on the other hand we must continue to say:- `Too bad,
   many of these things were contrary to the plain teachings               too bad.' Since this seems to be the direction in which the
   of the Scriptures. We may conclude from this that the                   other side is going'we must be thankful that it had pleased
   multitudes still love the `simple' but also the whole Word of           God to by His grace show us the right way." It looks to
   God."                                                                   me like there is a typographical error here. He meant to
     One could ask several questions here. I ask only this one:            write, "But on the other. hand we must not continue to say
   How is it that so many, if they `are so many, -realize that             `Too bad, etc." At any rate whatever he meant, it is plain
   the denial of conditions and the adoption of the Declaration            that Blankespoor is thankful for the split. He is glad he is
   of Principles were so contrary to the Word of God ? The                 no longer with us, all because he thinks we are hierarchical
   answer is not that any of the schismatic leaders have proved            and have a tendency to sectarianism. If he really believes
   this from the Scriptures. This they could never do, nor have            this I can understand how he can be thankful. But he can
   they ever publicly attempted to do this. All I have ever heard          also understand how we are thankful too that he and his
   them say is : "we don't need the Declaration  - it didn't               followers are no longer with us. For what really happened
   come into being in the right way - we can organize churches             in `our Churches? I will tell you in a very few words.  It
   without the Deck&-ation." But they have never proved from               does not take a long-winded essay to tell all the world what.
   the Scriptures or the Confessions that it was contrary to               happened. It is briefly this.
   Scripture or these Confessions. They also declared that                   Rev. Blankespoor et al wanted to be big. They saw that
   there are conditions in a Reformed sense. But I have yet                to hold strictly to our Protestant Reformed doctrine and
   to this day to see one text of Scripture which they have                practice would keep them small and despised. They were
  produced to prove this assertion. The reason why any of                  "ecumenically minded" and seized upon the idea that asso-
   the laiety have gone along with the  schismatics leaders is             ciation with the Liberated and the Christian Reformed
   not because they have the light of Scripture. Rather, they              Churches, which embrace essentially the same doctrine, they
   have been confused and led astray by their erring teachers.             would be able to broaden and strengthen their forces and


                                                                    -~-v-Y--
                               --
2 6 4                         -                 T H E '   S-T'ANDARD   .BEAR.ER-

thus reach their' objective. And so they began to talk .cnn-            of the tactics of Hitler who used to say, "if  you  tell an un-
ditions. Rev. Kok and Rev. De Jong served as their liaison              truth often enough and loud enough the people will soon be-
committee to effect relations with the Liberated in the                 lieve it."           .
Netherlands. They then went head over heels  witly the                          While the Rev. Kok was in Manhattan, he thought a lot
Canadian emigrants. They then began to talk of conditions.              of Rev. Hoeksema. In fact in his bulletins which he used
And what really happened was that the Lord moved our                    to send out every week he would quite often quote from some
Churches to adopt the Declaration of Principles which for-              article which: he thought was worthy of special note. So it
ever made it impossible for the Liberated and the Christian             happened that while he was there, he made such a quotation
Reformed to stand with us on the same basis. And that                   with comment on a bulletin, dated Oct. 5, 1939. We `quote
Declaration moved these schismatic leaders to become Ilit-              the following: "In the last Standard Bearer the Rev. Hoek-
terly angry with the Revs: Hoeksema and Ophof and others.               sema has clearly presented the difference between the Prot-
So bitter they became that they conceived of the idea of                estant and the Christian Reformed churches. He does so
getting rid of these men and swallowing  up our Churches                in the following series of true and false questions.
and putting them on a silver platter as a gift to the Liber-                                                              Chr. Ref.  Prot. Ref.
ated and Christian Reformed Churches: But again the Lord                              Questions                            answers answers
said : "No! You cannot do that  ,with My Church unto                    1. God loves all men, only in degrees.                 true            false
whom I have given my peculiar truth to preserve `and pro-               2. God hates no man,  .only his sin,                   true            false
claim." And so the Lord spoiled their plan and set them                 3. Go'd loves the elect only.                          false           true
outside of our Churches,, not through hierarchy, as it is               4. God hates the reprobate.                            false           true
charged, but through sovereign and righteous discipline.                5%. `Common Grace" is a lower degree of the                    _  -             .
That is the truth.                                                              same, grace as "special grace."                true            false
  .And so we say indeed: Ebenezer, hitherto bath  the Lord              6. God earnestly desires the salvation of all.         true            false
helpel us ! That His blessing is upon our Churches, now                 7. God desires the salvation of the elect only. false                  t r u e
purified,. we have the evidence each Lord's, Day. That He               S. The preaching of the gospel is proof of
will bless us also in the future is our firmest conviction.                     God's gracious desire to save all men.         true            false
And so we shall continue in His truth even thougly  the num-            9. Faith and repentance are "conditions"
bers become smaller and smaller. We shall continue to call                      which man can fulfil. (everyman)               true            false
these erring brethren to repentance, and to pray  that. they                    Please study these questions carefully so that you too
may truly be humbled and to embrace the truth once more                 may clearly understand the difference between the Prot-
that salvation is of the Lord, zrv~conditiovtnlly.                      estant Reformed and the Chr. Ref. churches. The differences
                                                              MS        are far greater than you think. Which answers don you agree
                                                                        with, the  Chr. Ref. or the' Prot. Ref.? The Rev.  Kok here
                    CONTWBBUTBONS                                       quotes part of an article which can be found in Standard
                                                                        Bearer, -Vol. 16, p.4, entitled, "More Confusion." The reader
                  Kok's  "Pros&t&  Reports                              will please- note that the Rev. Hoeksema here used .the term
                                                                        "Conditions." and had it surrounded by quotations marks,
   Further during the informal talk of Rev.  Kok he called              which means that it was the term of another or one which
attention to the two statements of Rev. De Wolf. Rather silly           did not altogether fit. When you read the whole article you
to hang a man when he did not mean those statements, he                 right away know and feel that he does not like the term at
said. Yet, they'could stand under the doctrines of the Prot-            ail.
estant Ref. c,hurches.  When he talked about the second state-                  However, today if I should again want to be a "Proselyte"
ment he quoted~  it as follows: "Our act of conversion in the`
indis@sitilc                                                            of,  ,Rev.  Kok. I would like to point the Rev. to the above
                  v~eg-wirewaent to enter ,into the kingdom." During    quotation and then I would like to add as follows:
the question period I asked the Rev. Kok to repeat' for us
the second statement. This he did and this time he quoted!              10. God promises every one of you salvation if you  believe.
it correctly. Instead of using "indespensible requirement" he                   : Chr. Ref. answer, true.    Prot. Ref. answer, false.
used "Prerequisite." When I asked him why he did not                    11. C&r.act of conversion is prerequisite to our entering into
quote it correctly during  his. talk he said that he  .used the         t h e   .kingdom.
term "indispensible  requirement" for emphasis sake. so;                         Chr. Ref. answer, true. Prot. Ref. answer, false.
dear, readers, I would have you to see what tricks of. the                      -They line up:pretty  well with, the Chr. Ref. answers don't
trade are being used to convince the public. Since when is an           they ? But I  -am puzzeled now with one thing. When a
"indespensible requirement" in any way. shape or form the               "proselyte" returns to that from whence he came is he then
same as "prerequisite ?" Also how can you say "indespensible            a double proselyte  pr does he become a heathen again ?
requirement" to emphasize irprerequisite?"  This reminds me                                                                 John  Flikkema.


