          The
     STANDARD
          BEARER
c          A REFORMED SEMI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE





     .  .  . God, Who loved His people eternally for
     His own Name's sake, suffered the incom-
     prehensible horrors of hell, the horrors of
     His own fearful indignation, in Jesus Christ,
     our Lord. God alone saved us, all by Him-
     self,  be.cause He is eternally devoted unto
     Himself, because He demands His own
     glory, and saves in such a way that He alone
     will receive all the glory, now and forever.
     See "God's Way in the Sanctuary"
                                                       - page 362


                                               Vol. LXI, No.  16, May 15, 1985  -


362                                                              THE STANDARD BEARER




                                                                                                                 THE STANDARD BEARER
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       God's Way in the Sanctuary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .362                  Bdltor-in-Chit-/: Prof. Homer C. Hoeksema
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  Translated Treasures -
       A Pamphlet Concerning the                                                      Editorial Olfice: Prof. H.C. Hoeksema
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MEDITATION



                              God's Way in the Sanctuary
                                                                        Rev. H. Veldman

                                              "Thy way, 0 God, is in the sanctuary. " Ps. 77:13a




  The psalmist, Asaph, is in trouble. Verse 2 speaks                                         The solution of Asaph's difficulty  is surely not
of this trouble. The exact nature of this trouble can-                                   expressed in the verses 7-9. The thought that the
not be determined. He probably, because of some                                          Lord will no longer be gracious and is changeable is
sin, did not enjoy the blessed communion and  fel-                                       maddening and gives no peace. However, confess-
lowship  of the alone blessed God.                                                       ing his sin he will trust in the fact that God's mercy


                                                        THE STANDARD BEARER                                                     363



is unchangeable, that the Lord will therefore for-                 "sanctuary." Holiness is the literal meaning of the
ever be kind to him. Therefore we read in the                      original word in this text. Sometimes, however, the
verses 11-12: "I will remember the works of the                    word refers in Scripture to that which is holy, as,
Lord: surely I will remember Thy wonders of old. I                 for example, the holy place of the sanctuary. This
will meditate also 0% all Thy work, and talk of Thy                also explains the translation: in the sanctuary.
doings."                                                           Literally, however, we may read: Thy way, 0 God,
  Thy way, 0 God, is in the sanctuary. Indeed,                     is in holiness.
who is so great a God as our God? The Lord is God                    We prefer the reading: Thy way, 0 God, is in
that does wondrous things. Wonderful is the Lord                   holiness. Of course, there is no essential difference
in all His works and ways. He is wonderful in all                  between the two translations. The sanctuary was a
the works of His hands. The Lord God omnipotent                    holy place, devoted exclusively to the service of the
reigneth. He is God alone. And He is a great God                   Lord. As such, however, it must surely be under-
particularly in His work of salvation, revealed in                 stood in this scripture. Holiness is that virtue of the
Jesus Christ, His Son, our Lord.                                   living God whereby He is supremely consecrated
       *    *    *    *    cir    *    *    rl:    *     *         unto Himself, seeks Himself, and does all things for
  Thy way, 0 God.                                                  His own Name's sake. The holiness of God implies
  Generally speaking, Scripture speaks often of our                that He alone is the God of infinite goodness and
way. This always implies three things. It refers,                  perfection and that He is therefore eternally con-
first of all, to the fact that we are children of time.            secrated unto Himself, and as such reveals Himself.
Time is the inexplicable law for every living                      And this implies that, as the holy God, He alone
creature. Time marches on; it never pauses in its                  does wondrous things, things that arouse our
journey from the cradle to the grave. Time, never                  wonder and amazement, hating the wicked and be-
seen or noticed, is an awesome reality. As children                ing a terrible God unto them, but also loving His
of time we are constantly moving forward. Second-                  people for His Name's sake and delivering them by
ly, our way implies that we are moving forward in a                His own almighty power and grace, unto His praise
spiritual, ethical direction. We are moral-rational                and glory, evoking praise and adoration from them
creatures. We always act morally, ethically, either                whom He has loved, sovereignly, in Christ Jesus.
for God or against God. We are never neutral.                        This is surely in harmony with this psalm. The
Thirdly, our way also implies that we are constant-                context directs us to this thought. We read in verse
ly moving toward a definite goal. Inexorably we are                13b: Who is so great a God as our God? And then
on our way, to heaven or hell, to eternal bliss or                 the psalmist proceeds to speak of His powers, His
eternal woe. There is never any neutrality, also as                fearful deliverance of His people, in the verses that
far as the goal is concerned. Our way, therefore,                  follow. This also explains why we read in this text:
refers to our walk, our life's conduct and manifesta-              Thy way, 0 God, is in holiness. God is the terrible
tion, as including all our spiritual, ethical activity.            God, the fearful God, the God worthy of all adora-
  The way of the Lord refers, generally, to the                    tion and service. God and His holiness are in-
Lord's Self-manifestation, His rule and government                 separably connected and related.
in all of history, in which the Lord does all things                        *    *    *    rlr    *    *    *    *    *    *
for His Name's sake, to reveal Himself. Specifical-                  Thy way, 0 God, is in the sanctuary, or, in holi-
ly, and in this text and psalm, the way of the Lord is             ness.
His redemptive way, His way of salvation, His Self-                  Obviously, the psalmist refers to Israel's deliver-
manifestation in which He reveals Himself as the                   ance out of the Egyptian house of bondage. What
mighty Saviour and Deliverer of His people.                        an awesome, fearful display this was of the alone
  Gods way, we read, is in the sanctuary. There                    living and holy God! He had led His own, sover-
are two possible interpretations of the expression                 eignly, into that terrible house of bondage. Why
"in the sanctuary." The first interpretation would                 should the Lord lead Jacob and his family into
explain the expression as referring to the temple,                 Egypt when they were already in the land of Ca-
the holy place. The idea is that it is only in the tem-            naan and the Lord intended to give unto them and
ple where the Lord has revealed Himself that we                    their seed that land of the promise? It is obvious
can understand the way of the Lord. It is only in                  that the Lord had sovereignly led them into the
His light, only when we go to the Lord and inquire                 land of Egypt because He would reveal His mighty
of Him concerning His guidance, that the way of                    power unto Pharaoh and lead His own out of that
the Lord will become clear to us. This reminds us of               house of bondage with a mighty arm. The Lord had
Psalm 73: 17. There the psalmist is the same, Asaph.               placed His own into a position out of which they
This, we understand, is true. Another interpreta-                  would be unable to deliver themselves. The Egyp-
tion would read "`holiness" here in the place of                   tian house of bondage was a symbol, a type of the


364                                        THE STANDARD BEARER



spiritual bondage of sin, and Israel's deliverance,      horrors of hell, the horrors of His own fearful in-
because of the blood upon the doorposts. It was a        dignation, in Jesus Christ, our Lord. God alone
divinely willed symbol of the spiritual deliverance      saved us, all by Himself, because He is eternally
out of the bondage of sin and evil. And the Lord had     devoted unto Himself, because He demands His
delivered them with a mighty arm, had revealed to        own glory, and saves in such a way that He alone
Egypt and Israel alike that He is God alone, Who         will receive all the glory, now and forever. Indeed,
loves and seeks Himself. He had therefore                the Lord will never give His glory to another, will
destroyed the wicked oppressor and had saved, for        never share it with another. His way is in the sanc-
His Name's sake, the people whom He had sover-           tuary, in holiness, a way in which He is completely
eignly loved and chosen from before the founda-          devoted and consecrated unto Himself. To God
tions of the world. That the Lord had delivered          alone must be all the glory. He leads us into a hope-
Israel was not because Israel was a better people        less misery in order that He may save us by His
than the Egyptians. They were a rebellious people        right arm and do it all alone. This is the truth which
and they were saved only because of the blood.           we as Protestant Reformed Churches have received
How the scriptures emphasize this truth. This we         as a blessed heritage. This is the truth which has
read in Deuteronomy 7:7, 8: "The Lord did not set        been entrusted to our care. May we ever preserve
his love upon you, nor choose you because ye were        this glorious heritage, and seal it, if need be, with
more in number than any people; for ye were the          our very lives. God alone is worthy of all adoration
fewest of all people: But because the Lord loved         and praise.
you, and because He would keep the oath which                   *       *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *
He had sworn unto your fathers." And, "Jacob
have I loved, but Esau have I hated," before either        How comforting this is!
had done any good or evil (Rom. 9: 1 l-13). The Lord       If we are in trouble (and we often are), in the
is absolutely  s,overeign.                               trouble of sin and of affliction because of our afflic-
  Today, however, `we stand before the fulfillment       tion in the midst of the world, we surely cannot
of all these types and shadows. Calvary is the ful-      console ourselves with what we read in the verses
fillment of all the Old Testament types and              7-9. Hath God forgotten to be gracious? Hath He in
shadows and symbols. What a fearful and awesome          anger shut up His tender mercies? Will the Lord
display we have at the cross of Calvary of the alone     cast off forever, will He be favourable no more? Is
living and holy God! Indeed, as was true in the old      His mercy clean gone for ever? Doth His promise
dispensation, the Lord had led His own into the          fail forevermore? This would be maddening!
fearful house of the bondage of sin and guilt and        Besides, how wrong it is of us to accuse the un-
death. Sin with its subsequent night of sin and cor-     changeably faithful God of forgetting His own, of
ruption and death was surely no accident. The Lord       changeableness! Is it not terrible to lay these things
is God alone. Known unto Him are all His works           to God's charge? Never may or should we blame
from before the foundations of the world. Christ         the Lord.
was crucified and slain according to the determi-          Let us, however, consider His works. Let us, in
nate counsel and foreknowledge of God (Acts 2:23).       faith, ever look upon the cross of Jesus Christ, our
The first Adam sinned because he must prepare the        Lord. Surely, He Who hath loved us will always
way for the second Adam, the Lord out of heaven.         continue to love us. He Who hath not spared His
Today, in the new dispensation, we stand before          own Son will certainly give us all things. Indeed, to
the cross of Calvary. Calvary is indeed the fulfill-     Him alone be all the praise and the glory now and
ment, the  antitype of Israel's deliverance out of       forever.
Egypt. Indeed, how Urue it is of the cross: Thy way,       Thy way, 0 God, is in holiness.
0 God, was in holiness, a fearful display of God's
Self-devotion. A misery of sin and guilt, out of           Also Thy way of salvation.
which we could never deliver ourselves, was our            The Lord will save us, even unto the very end.
lot. But God revealed Himself in all the terribleness
of His holiness and justice, His mercy and compas-
sion. Indeed, at the cross righteousness and peace                      Take the time
have kissed each other. God, because He is holy
and hates sin, would never permit it to go unpun-               to read and study
ished, but He sent His own Son. He would rather
taste death itself, the fearful death of His eternal
good pleasure, than wink at sin and let it go unpun-         the Standard Bearer!
ished. God, Who loved His people eternally for His
own Name's sake, suffered the incomprehensible


                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER                                                3 6 5



EDITORIAL



                                   Persistent Distortion
                                                     Prof. H.C. Hoeksema


  Under the title "Covenant and Election" the                    Hamilton and  Chatham, Ontario  - congregations
Rev. W. Pouwelse devotes two more rather lengthy                 chiefly composed of Liberated immigrants, who
articles  (Clarion, Feb. 9, 1985 and Feb. 22, 1985) to           were organized .on a Protestant Reformed basis, but
my charges that he distorts the doctrinal position of            who dishonestly (I use the word advisedly) main-
the Protestant Reformed Churches and the history                 tained their Liberated views  - had left the PRC.
of events in the  195Os, especially of the schism of             Their departure had nothing to do historically with
1953.                                                            the schism of 1953. And it leaves a strange impres-
  In all that he writes, however, the. Rev. Pouwelse             sion to speak of "what was left of the PRC" when
makes only one forthright correction; and that cor-              those two congregations comprised only some 40
rection is even open to the possibility of leaving a             families, at least four of whom did not leave the
wrong impression. Perhaps the reader will recall                 PRC.
that in my original editorial in which I criticized                For the rest, the Rev. Pouwelse appears to be
Mr. Pouwelse's presentation of our doctrinal stance              very reluctant to admit forthrightly any distortions
and history, I criticized him for writing the follow-            on his part with respect to our Protestant Reformed
ing: "In 1951 the `Declaration of Principles' caused             position.
a conflict in the Protestant Reformed Churches and                 In the first place, he does not want to admit at all
the Canadian Reformed Churches were estab-                       that the Declaration of Principles did not represent
lished. What was left from the Protestant Reformed               a change of direction on the part of the Protestant
Churches went back to the Christian Reformed                     Reformed Churches. In supporting his contention
Churches in 1960." I criticized this as being histori-           that the Declaration does indeed represent such a
cally inaccurate on several counts. In response to               change of direction, he appeals to the writing of Dr.
this the Rev. Pouwelse writes, p. 77:                            K. Schilder, especially to one of his last articles, en-
   Here Prof. Hoeksema has a real point and we do not            titled, "De Kous Is Af (The Stocking Is Finished)." I
   hesitate to apologize for a mistake. After the Canadian       remember the article well, as I also remember the            ~
   Reformed Churches had been established, there was a           late Rev. Hoeksema's reply to that article. Dr.
   split in what was left of the PRC. The one group              Schilder labored at that time under the misappre-
   merged into the Christian Reformed Church. The                hension that our second conference with him had
   other group continued to exist as Protestant Reformed         ended with Rev. Hoeksema's calling Dr. Schilder's
   Churches.                                                     ideas about the covenant Reformed and that
  Even this is not accurate, of course. First of all, it         Hoeksema had said, "That is Reformed." But this
leaves the impression, intentionally or not, that                was not said. What was said was,  "He  is
there was a connection between the establishment                 Reformed." Besides, do not forget that after Dr.
of the Canadian Reformed Churches (the Liberated                 Schilder's visit to our churches, the Revs. J. De Jong
in Canada) and the split in the Protestant Reformed              and B. Kok had visited in the Netherlands and had
Churches. There was no such connection whatso-                   attempted to sell our churches down the river.
ever. Secondly, it leaves an incorrect impression in             They had so convinced the Dutch Committee for
speaking of "what was left of the PRC," as though                Correspondence that our churches were wide open
there was only some kind of remnant of the PRC                   for the Liberated covenant view that they were
after the Canadian Reformed Churches were estab-                 ready to have full correspondence with us and that
lished. But the establishment of the Canadian Re-                the late Prof. Holwerda had advised the immigrants
formed Churches had no effect on the Protestant                  in  Chatham to join our churches and to propagate
Reformed denomination. The latter was intact until               their Liberated views among us. But the fact of the
the De Wolf schism took place in the latter half of              matter is that we had not changed our direction,
1953. Up to that time two small congregations,                   and that our churches were not wide open for


366                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



Liberated views. Meanwhile it was also true that          No, it was originally published in the late 1920s and
our churches were not wide open for  Synodical            over against the views of Prof. Heyns, views then
views any more than for Liberated, while we               prevalent in the Christian Reformed Church. Does
frowned upon the Synodicals for their hierarchical        the Declaration represent a change of direction,
actions and certainly sympathized with the Liber-         then? Not at all! It was a holding to the original Prot-
ated because of the ecclesiastical injustice of their     estant Reformed course. Anyone who said in the
treatment.                                                1950s or who says today that it was a change of
                                                          direction could not be more wrong!
  Take as a concrete example the organization of
the  Chatham congregation. This was before the              For the rest, the Rev. Pouwelse has to concede,
Declaration was adopted. Were they organized on           in the light of what I have written, that his distor-
the basis that there was nothing distinctively            tions were indeed distortions. He concedes that we
Protestant Reformed binding upon them? By no              officially deny presupposed regeneration. He con-
means. Once they were refused organization be-            cedes, too, that the Protestant Reformed do not
cause they wanted to be free to hold and propa-           speak of two kinds of covenants and two kinds of
gate their Liberated views. When they were actual-        promises. But in effect he takes the position that
ly organized, the late Rev. Hoeksema told them em-        there is not much difference between our view and
phatically three times in the course of his sermon        that of Dr. Kuyper. Meanwhile, he writes at length
that if they were organized they were bound to our        about "What is the covenant?" and he thrashes
Protestant Reformed view of a particular promise,         over some old straw about what Dr. Schilder wrote
and that if they did not want to be thus bound, they      about the term  condition  - something which was
must not organize! Yet when the Declaration was           answered and criticized years ago by the late Rev.
under consideration, who immediately objected to          Hoeksema.
it? The Consistory of Chatham!                              For my part I have no desire to continue a discus-
                                                          sion of this kind. It appears to me to be utterly
  Nor did I suggest, as the Rev. Pouwelse writes,         futile. From the Netherlands and from Canada we
that "everyone who speaks about a change of direc-        have always gotten the same reaction and the same
tion shows that he has never read the Declaration         charges. It appears to me that the Liberated never
and does not know what he is talking about." I            really want to face the issues. If they would royally
wrote the following, and it is true: "For anyone          admit once that not everyone who disagrees with
who reads the Declaration and who knows any-              the Liberated holds to presupposed regeneration (or
thing at all about Protestant Reformed history will       its equivalent), and if they would take our Declara-
recognize immediately that the Declaration does           tion of Principles and our covenant theology at face
not represent a change of direction. On the con-          value and at least concede the possibility that it is
trary, it just exactly represents a holding to our        different from either the Kuyperian or the  Heyn-
original direction." That is altogether different, you    sian view, then I could see at least the possibility of
see. And why is this true? First of all, because the      fruitful discussion. I mean this in all seriousness.
Declaration itself in its very opening paragraphs         This was what our churches wanted in the 1950s
proceeds historically. It goes back to 1924. It speaks    already, even though we disagreed with the late Dr.
of the fact that we maintain our Reformed confes-         Schilder's presentation. At that time all discussion
sions  over against and with repudiation  of the Three    was abruptly ended not by us but by Dr. Schilder
Points of 1924. The Declaration simply sets forth         and his "The Stocking Is Finished." Since that time
black on white what our Protestant Reformed               others have continually used presupposed regener-
Churches have believed and taught from the very           ation as a "red herring." It would have taken the
beginning. But if you are acquainted with our             Rev. Pouwelse less than a page frankly to admit his
history, you will know this, too. The little book,        distortions; but he writes three long articles to
BeZievers  And Their Seed was originally published in     becloud the issue.
the Dutch language under the title De GeZovigen en
Hun Zaad.  In this book the Kuyperian view of               We on our part will always be ready for frank
presupposed regeneration and the Heynsian view            and open discussion when the Liberated are willing
of a general, conditional promise are both                to cease beclouding the issues and get rid of their
repudiated. In the same book our Protestant               phobia about presupposed regeneration as far as
Reformed covenant view is set forth. But when and         the Protestant Reformed Churches are concerned.
why was this book first published? It was not some-         Until that time comes, however, I refuse all dis-
thing prepared to combat the Liberated covenant           cussion with the Canadian Reformed about the
theology, although the Dutch version was reprinted        covenant. I will, however, continue, upon occa-
in the late  1940s and widely distributed in the          sion, to call attention to their very erroneous and
Netherlands because it was pertinent at that time.        unReformed Heynsian error.


                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 3 6 7



TRANSLATiFLl TREASURES



                        A Pamphlet Concerning the
                         Reformation of the Church
                                                         Dr. A. Kuyper





(The last paragraph dealt with the distinction between the true    undertaken in any other way than in the way of
and the false church and the importance of distinguishing be-      qtiet and unconditional obedience.
tween the two for the work of church reformation.)                   Even though it appears as if everything else fails,
60. Concerning Zechariah's Cry: Not By Might Or                    one must still reform, because reformation is God's
     Power, But By the Spirit Of the Lord. Reforma-                high command to His church, her ministers and
     tion And Legitimacy.                                          members. Nothing, in whatever form it appears,
   The purpose of the previous paragraph was to                    can ever excuse the church, her ministers and
prevent anyone from making a break with his                        members from that obligation to obedience.
church as church except as a last remedy, and to                     However, in order that this obedience become no
bind most seriously upon the heart of every child of               cloak for independent and arbitrary action, each
God that such a break is allowed only when his                     child of God must first of all earnestly weigh the
church has either died or become a false church.                   deliberations of his own heart whether the impulse
Otherwise, never. Earlier than this, never. This is                that drives him is actually the desire to be obedient.
true for the conclusive reason that one's church
always remains a manifestation of the body of                        This can most safely be determined by facing
Christ until it either dies or becomes the false                   these two questions: 1) whether one is conscious of
church.                                                            his guilt before God for his former disobedience;
                                                                   and 2) whether one avoids offense to the honor of
  Yet no one ought to think that it is our purpose to              his God in the choice of the means he uses.
plead for a false passivity or an unholy legalism. It
is for this reason that we must still say a word in                  It is for that reason that we stress consciousness
this and the following paragraphs concerning both                  of guilt under the judgment of God as the point of
legalism and revolution.                                           departure for all good reformation, and at the same
   He who applies himself seriously to the work of                 time we show all respect for the body of the Lord in
church reformation and desires to perform this                     each church which has not completely died and is
work under God as the one who works is not only                    not possessed by Satan. Especially the considera-
for others but also for himself, such a one can never              tion weighs heavily which Calvin (Bk.  ~IV, chap. 2,
put his hand to this glorious task with his eye fixed              para. 12 of his  Institz.&es)   says of the churches of
on a pre-determined result. He could do this if the                Rome: "Although they lack the legal form of the
book of Gods counsel lay before him unsealed, but                  church, I cannot deny that there are still churches
now, because this book is and remains closed to                    of God  among them." This is set alongside of the
him, the way is irrevocably shut for him to deter-                 fact that in Israel the church flourished again even
mine his activity with a view to the outcome. There                though idolatry had penetrated even to the temple.
remains only one way open to him: the way of obe-                    If one should conclude from this that this Pam-
dience.                                                            phlet sounds like: "Not by power or might, but by
  All reformation of the church, whether by                        the Spirit of the Lord!" we answer that we despise
spiritual awakening or gradual church renewal, or                  that outcry in the false sense in which it is com-
by a break with the organization of the church fed-                monly found on passive lips. But we highly regard
eration, or with the church itself, can never be                   and wholeheartedly concur with the meaning


368                                           THE STANDARD BEARER



which the Holy Spirit has given to this outcry of the     Word of Scripture condemns all passivity and com-
prophet Zechariah.                                        mands us rather to proceed calmly with reforma-
  We cannot impress upon the hearts of our                tion in the way of the obedience of faith, also when
brethren too strongly that they must cease from           it appears as if we butt our heads against a copper
that unholy practice to use this precious Scriptural      wall.
passage in such a wrong way that they falsify the           Or, to say it yet more clearly, following the
sense and meaning, and finally make it say the op-        words of the text themselves, there is the cry: "Not
posite of what it intends.                                by power and might, but by the Lords Spirit shall it
  Usually these words are quoted without paying           happen." Thus this is an explanation of the im-
attention to the context, and the conclusion is           mediately preceding vision.
reached that the Holy Spirit addresses us: "You             And what was this vision? This. Zechariah saw a
ministers and members of My church, cease from            golden candlestick standing, a symbol of the
all your own attempts at reformation. Nothing will        church of Christ. A candlestick with seven lamps.
come of that. All that is power and might will ac-        Now for each of these lamps a supply pipe stretched
complish nothing. You have nothing to do but              upward and through these pipes the oil, i.e., the in-
simply to preach, and all else must come from My          flowing of the Holy Spirit to the church had to be
Spirit."                                                  brought. For this reason the seven supply pipes
  There is not one word of this in the fourth             reached a jar and into this jar oil dripped from the
chapter of Zechariah's divine prophecy.                   two olive trees which were placed to the left and
                                                          the right of that oil jar.
  Mention is made of Zerubbabel the prince, who
at the head of the returned exiles had undertaken           We do not want at this point to investigate fur-
the reformation of the fallen Jerusalem church.           ther the significance of those two olive trees, an in-
And he had undertaken this work, not by preaching         vestigation which is connected with the explana-
only, but so far as possible by the use of trowel and     tion of the two witnesses in Revelation 11:4. Never-
pickax. Power and might therefore in the most             theless, it is certain, according to all expositors, that
literal sense!                                            these two olive trees refer to men, official persons,
                                                          priests and prophets. The thrust of this prophecy
  According to that which many brothers under-            can thus never be that we say: "The work of the
stand by the sound of these words, Zerubbabel had         Holy Spirit comes outside of human effort." The
to be instructed to abandon in his reformation the        opposite is true: "The flowing forth of the Holy
use of trowel and pickax, in short, all this busyness,    Spirit comes to the congregation by the mediation
all this show of power, and wait quietly for the          of individual persons in whose heart I work My
Lord's Spirit.                                            grace."
  In the meantime, the thrust of this speech of God         This gives us the occasion to expose the basic er-
is the very opposite.                                     ror of an incorrect passivity.
  Zerubbabel wants to quit and the Holy Spirit              This error is hidden in an incorrect conception of
charges him not to quit but to persevere coura-           the work of the Holy Spirit.
geously.                                                    Some think of this work of the Holy Spirit as out-
  Zerubbabel was frightened.                              side the ordinary means and activity of the
  The waylayers round about rose up against him           ministry. This is a dualistic conception.
with the power of weapons, and now his courage              This is not and cannot be the case. This would
fails and he thinks: "I have no army to set over          lead us completely along the fanatic paths of  Ana-
against that might of weapons. Thus I am lost. I          baptism. Enthusiasts of all kinds, not the Reformed,
give up reformation. Lord, you do it."                    are those who always press for such a dualistic
  But the Holy Spirit does not permit this and gives      working of the Holy Spirit. According to the pure
him this revelation: "Zerubbabel, do not discon-          doctrine of the work of the Holy Spirit all official
tinue your reformation of Jerusalem's church for a        obedience in the ministry is either dead form and
moment.  Because you are  mistaken  to think that you     then characterized by barrenness, or else fruitful
alone can reform when you can set power over              because of the influences of the Holy Spirit.
against the power of the enemy. They will be of no          One must not go the Romish road of considering
avail against you. Because, see, the outcome does         obedience in the official ministry as a meritorious
not depend on power over against power, or might          work of ministers. Then one forsakes entirely the
over against might, but totally on the secret and in-     Reformed heritage. But if one does this in such a
visible working of the Spirit of the Lord.                way that one honors no work of his own in this of-
  Far indeed from recommending passivity, this            ficial obedience, it speaks for itself: Whose work


                                          THE STANDARD BEARER                                              369



shall it be then if not the work of the Holy Spirit?     the power of the Word. This should be. pressed
  A person in office should never be able to shrink      upon his soul: That he must exactly be incorporated
back from the duties to reformation with an appeal       into one of these two olive branches, through
to Zechariah 4:6. He ought rather to keep his eye on     whose branches and twigs, i.e., through whose obe-
that very word. Every avoidance of the obligation        dience also in the work of reformation, the anoint-
to obedience is severely censured and opposed by         ing oil of the Holy Spirit must be brought to the
                                                         seven churches of the living God.

THE DAY OF SHADOWS



                          The Law Circumvented
                                              Rev. John A. Heys




  A prisoner who has been sentenced to die in the        few months, and enjoy this house of  Haman very
electric chair, and who through "friends" outside        briefly. Esther likewise would. see this happy turn
the prison succeeds in getting the judge, who            of events only for a short while. You may be sure
sentenced him, shot to death, and his home burned        that both Esther and Mordecai would have ex-
to the ground, will not by these deeds escape the        changed this house and political office of high
punishment decreed for him, and save his own life.       standing for an extension of their lives. Without life
His wrath may be pacified. He may gloat over the         these have no meaning. Without life they cannot be
fact that he got revenge upon his enemy. But             enjoyed. When life here below ends, all that is here
though the judge is dead, his sentence stands. And       below slips away from us. Therefore Esther  ap-
those who had been appointed to carry out the           ' pears once again before the king. For if he does not
sentence will execute it in due time. The sentence       reverse the decision that all the Jews in his realm be
remains on the books after the judge has gone the        slain, Esther and Mordecai also would lose their
way of all flesh.                                        lives.
  Similarly when king Ahasuerus had  Haman                 In light of all this one has difficulty trying to
hanged on the gallows, which he had built for his        figure out this king. Did he have such a poor
enemy Mordecai, the king got revenge. His wrath          memory? Was he so often under the influence of
was also pacified, we read in Esther  7:lO. So was       alcohol that he was not even aware of what was go-
Esther's wrath against Haman pacified; and she got       ing on in his kingdom, and what decisions he had
the revenge she sought. Mordecai's flesh likewise        been led to make? Did he not see that hanging
was highly pleased by this turn of events upon his       Haman and giving his house to Esther would not
enemy. But the fact remains that Haman had gotten        keep her from being slain on that thirteenth day of
a decree that on the thirteenth day of the twelfth       the twelfth month? Was he so under the influence
month all the Jews in the kingdom must be killed.        of alcohol that he could not think that matter
And the laws of the Medes and Persians cannot be         through to see that he had to do more? Did he have
altered.  Haman's death in no way affected that          to wait for Esther to come and point out the conse-
decision.                                                quences of his decision that  Haman moved him to
  This explains why Esther made one more                 make? Was he under alcoholic influence when he
uncalled-for appearance before the king on his           agreed with  Haman,  and now he does not yet
throne. The king had taken  Haman's life. He had         realize what he did then?
given Esther Haman's house; and she in turn gave            Consider first of all that the king knew that
it to Mordecai. The king had also exalted Mordecai       Mordecai was a Jew. Esther  6:lO leaves no doubt
to be his prime minister in the place of Haman.  But     about that. The king told Haman to "do even so to
Mordecai would serve in this capacity only for a         Mordecai the Jew." He did not yet know


370                                        THE STANDARD BEARER



Mordecai's relation to Esther, but that he knew that     well as the Jew's enemy.
he was a Jew cannot be denied. Then too consider           But knowing that he was a Jew, and knowing
that Esther's maids and chamberlains knew that she       that Haman had made him draw up such a decree
was the adopted daughter of Mordecai. According          concerning the sure death of the Jews, one canonly
to Esther 4:1-4 she sent her maids and chamber-          wonder about this king who does not put two and
lains to Mordecai. And Mordecai, according to            two together and get four. He gives  Haman's house.
verse 8, told Hatach to tell Esther to make request      He promotes Mordecai to be his prime minister,
for her peopZe  before the king. There was no reason     but he seems at least to forget that the sword still
for hiding her people now. She too was doomed to         hangs  .over the head of his wife and new prime
be killed in the twelfth month of the year; and it       minister. Truly here also the "king's heart is in the
was urgent that she do something for her people          hand of the Lord, as the rivers of waters: He
and for herself. We can, however, only wonder            turneth it whithersoever he will" (Proverbs  21:l).
whether before this Esther always told the truth or      We can call it folly as far as Ahasuerus is con-
sometimes lied to hide the fact that she was a           cerned. But it is divine wisdom and covenant faith-
Jewess - at least there in the palace and before her     fulness for His people. And we do have here a
maids and chamberlains. Knowing that Mordecai            beautiful manifestation of Gods grace upon His
the Jew was the one who brought her up as his            people, which will be pointed out in a moment.
adopted daughter, she may have had to lie to keep
Mordecai's charge that she not reveal her people           The God Whose grace for His people abideth
and her kindred. Husbands and wives however              ever, and Whose mercy upon them faileth never,
have adopted children of another kindred and peo-        once again makes the king extend the rod to Esther
ple. And in this mixed populace of that vast realm       when she appeared before him .uncalled-for and
of Ahasuerus it would not have been strange for          with a request. He also moved him to tell Mordecai
one to adopt a child of another people and kindred.      to write whatever he pleased and to seal it with the
Being an extremely beautiful woman it may not            king's ring, so that it might not be reversed. And
have shown on her face that she was a Jewess. Not        Mordecai wrote a decree that circumvented, not  l
that Jewish women were not at times very                 reversed, the decree  Haman got from the king. It
beautiful. Think of Sarah and of Rachel. But there       gave the Jews the right to assemble and fight
must have been something in her features that            against those who would seek on the thirteenth day
made it possible for her to pass for anything but a      of the twelfth month to kill and to destroy them.
Jewess. At least the secret was kept until the decree    The very decree was signed by a Jew who was
that  Haman got from the king was published, and         the new prime minister. This struck fear in some of
Esther had to send clothing to Mordecai, and had to      the Jew's enemies. And we now have in that
send Hatach to find out why he did not put off his       kingdom two conflicting laws which invited civil
sackcloth and take the clothes which she had sent.       war and social unrest as well as confusion in the
                                                         minds of the subjects of that vast kingdom.
  Even the three days of fasting which the Jews            All this came out of God's counsel and served to
practiced were, according to Esther 4:15, 16, for her    preserve the seed of the woman, so that The Seed of
sake. This, too, would reveal to the inhabitants of      the Woman might be born, and in time crush the
Shushan that she, was a Jewess. In the providence        head of the serpent and of his seed. But it must be
of God this did not get to the king's ears, nor to       borne in mind that God does not save us from our
Haman's.  For God had something else in mind and         sins by circumventing His law. The law of the
was preparing for Haman's downfall. But there was        Medes and Persians was the law of finite man; and
plenty of evidence afloat now that Esther was of         when the Medes and Persians were overthrown
that people whose death and destruction were             and their kingdom swallowed up by the Greeks,
slated to take place in a few months.                    their laws melted into nothingness. When we deal
  Only the almighty hand of the God of our salva-        with our sins before God, we deal with the eternal,
tion, which moves every creature and fulfills His        infinite Creator of heaven and earth. We are deal-
counsel in every detail as He eternally decreed it,      ing with One Whose kingdom is an everlasting
led the affairs in the kingdom so that the king and      kingdom and Whose laws are never altered or with-
Haman,  up till the moment that Esther revealed it       drawn. Being wise and good they need no amend-
in her plea before the king at that second banquet,      ment, nor future  qalifications.  He says, "Love
did not know that which many in the very palace of       Me." And there is no way to circumvent that law.
the king knew about Esther, namely, her people           He created us for that purpose and will never,
and kindred and her relation to Mordecai. We read        never wink at any failure to do so. It was only one
in Esther  8:l that Esther told the king who             sin of Adam that brought death and the curse upon
Mordecai was to her. This however was after              this world, and then it was what to us might look
Haman had been exposed as the king's enemy as            like a rather innocent sin without any violence or


                                                THE STANDARD BEARER                                                      371



harm to another man. But God said that to eat              heart of Mordecai. He had no peaceful thoughts
would bring death, and one bite of the forbidden           against any who might rise up against the Jews on
fruit did unalterably bring death. And if we look for      that day that was singled out by Haman. But more
that law to be circumvented, we are looking for            serious is the fact that peace with God is completely
what will not and never can happen.                        out of the picture here. The whole book of Esther
  Instead God spared the lives of the Jews so that         reads like  any, history book written by an unbe-
the Christ might be born and from the moment of            liever, as far as the behaviour of the characters in it
His birth might  fuZfiZZ,  not circumvent, that law for    is concerned. There just is nothing of faith that the
the elect, and so fully satisfy for our sins that there    secondary author used by God could in all honesty
is not one smallest fraction of punishment and of          write about any of them.
the curse that is left for the Church of which that          Consider also that the decree Haman wrote was
Christ is the Head.                                        sent to the king's lieutenants, governors, the rulers
  In this day of shadows we see a circumventing of         of every province and to every people after their
man's unjust, foolish law resulting in fighting,           language. The decree Mordecai drew up has this
bloodshed,. death, and violence. Three hundred of          significant addition that we read, "and to the Jews
the enemies of the Jews died in Shushan alone. In          according to their writing"; and it "granted the
all the realm seventy-five thousand citizens of that       Jews which were in every city to gather themselves
kingdom had their lives wiped out because of these         together to stand for their lives." The rulers who
two conflicting laws. Circumvention did not bring          received this second decree were instructed and
peace but a sword. And such circumvention of the           warned in it; but the Jews were only encouraged to
law certainly did not achieve peace with God. He           resist. We find not one word, however, addressed
planned it all this way in His counsel so that The         to these Jews encouraging them to put their trust in
Prince of Peace might come as promised from the            God and have peace of mind because of His cove-
day that God's unalterable law was broken. But             nant faithfulness to all His promises. Paul writes in
Esther, Mordecai, and Ahasuerus did not realize            Philippians  4:6, 7: "Be careful for nothing; but in
peace with God for their people and kindred. In-           everything by prayer and supplication with thanks-
deed, we read in Esther 9:16 that the Jews did not         giving let your requests be made known unto God.
lay their hands on the prey, even though Mordecai          And the peace of God, which passeth all under-
saw to it that the decree gave them permission "to         standing, shall keep your hearts and minds in
take the -spoil of them for a prey." It cannot be          Christ." There is not even the suggestion of such a
denied that there still was burning bitterness in the      message to the Jews here. But we will have more of
                                                           this in the next article.

ALL AROUND US
Rev. G. Van Baren





                               Discerning Com,ments


  In the Banner,  April 29, 1985, a discerning letter          common grace, which was supported by liberals and
is presented in "Voices" which makes several                   conservatives.
pointed comments about the relationship of "com-                 Yet two years before the Hoeksema case liberals
mon grace" with the present direction taken by the             and conservatives were at war over the Janssen case.
Christian Reformed Church. One would hope that                 Synod 1922 condemned Dr. Ralph Janssen's views
many have taken note of it:                                    and relieved him of his professorship at Calvin
                                                               Seminary. His views were those of a higher critic, and
     In 1924  Classis  Grand Rapids East deposed Rev.          were based on his belief in common grace.
   Herman Hoeksema because he was found guilty of
   publicly attacking the three points of common grace.          If common grace allows one to maintain that
   The CRC has never retreated from this doctrine of          natural man manifests good in the world of arts and


372                                                    THE STANDARD BEARER



       sciences, then one is allowed a view of Scripture using    was no relationship at all. Yet here is a writer who
       "lower" and "higher" criticism.                            asserts what has long been denied in the CRC.
         Perhaps the conservatives' belief in the doctrine of       The relationship between the common grace
       common grace precludes unity  iyith the Protestant         theory with the Janssen case and present-day
       Reformed. Yet their failure to be consistent in the        "Report 44" and other developments within the
       development of the doctrine of common grace denies         CRC could well have a careful study. In fact, would
       them kinship with those who are developing it. It is
       this inconsistency which precludes unity within our        it not be worthwhile if these "conservatives" men-
       own ecclesiastical walls.                                  tioned by the letter-writer were interested in an in-
  An interesting comment indeed! For many years                   depth study of common grace with the PRC who
the P.R.C. have been accused of relating the                      were cast out of the CRC because of their denial of
developments toward greater liberalism in the CRC                 this Synodically-adopted doctrine? Perhaps these
to their adoption of the three points of common                   conservatives could show how that proper develop-
grace. And repeatedly the conservatives in the CRC                ment of the "common grace" theory excludes and
have insisted that this liberalism was a result of                precludes "higher criticism" and liberalism  - or
distorting the idea of common grace - or that there               the PRC might show how that the letter-writer is so
                                                                  very correct indeed!



                                          "Faithful in Love"?

  The  R.E.S. News Exchange,  April 9, 1985,                          would be dictated by a strictly literal application of
presents the following comments on a Dutch study                      the words of Jesus.
guide, "Faithful in Love,"                                              But the writers of the booklet, opting for what they
         Writing in  De  Wachter,  bi-weekly Dutch language           call a "covenantal" approach, go far beyond that. Not
       magazine of the Christian Reformed Church, in North            only do they refuse to reject so-called homosexual and
       America, editor Dr. Sierd Woudstra castigates the              lesbian marriages, they also contend that such rela-
       study guide "Faithful in Love" as being unfaithful to          tionships can have the same ethical value as a mar-
       Scripture. Issued in 1983 on behalf of the Reformed            riage between man and woman. Expressing his great
       Churches in the Netherlands (GKN), the small booklet           disillusionment with the booklet, Woudstra faults the
       (48 pages) is intended to promote discussion about             writers here for lacking all sense of direction.
       biblical norms for personal relationships, both inside       This is one further indication of the rapid drift
       and outside marriage.                                      towards apostasy. It is also in line with other
         Woudstra's major objection to the guide is its           "liberal" views concerning divorce and remarriage,
       failure to acknowledge that Scripture sees marriage as     women in office, etc. which likewise rest on a "less
       a unique institution, quite unlike any other relation-     absolutistic view . . . than would be dictated by a
       ship. According to Woudstra, the booklet rightly           strictly literal application of the words of Jesus."
       states that the biblical directives are colored by the     Denial of "literal application" as well as a literal in-
       times and situation in which they were given. For that     terpretation of Scripture can only lead to these de-
       reason, for example, Reformed churches in general
       have taken a less absolutistic view of divorce than        viant views introduced wholesale into the church.

PROPHETIC SCRIPTURES (can't. from page 383)                       child was circumcised on the "eighth day." This
feastdays, the three appointed feasts of Passover,                eighth day was the first day of the first new week in
Feast of Harvests, and the feast of Tabernacles,                  the life of the male-child. It symbolized that old
which latter was connected with the great day of                  things were passed away, that the perfection of the
Atonement. Even these were all on the principle of                new had come (Gen.  17:12). There is no reason to
the number "seven." The Passover was killed on                    doubt that it is for this reason that Christ arose on
the 14th day of the first month, which Passover                   "the eighth day." Ever the Sabbath of the New
feast was eaten on the 15th day. This was 2 x 7 = 14              Testament fell on the eighth day. Do not we read of
plus 1. This is "seven" doubled to perfection, so                 the appearances of Christ that He even appeared to
that Israel could enter into the "first day" of the               the disciples (John 20:26). Our New Testament Sab-
new week. This was true with respect to both the                  bath is the first day of the new week; hence, it is
feast of the Passover and the feast of Tabernacles. It            that Christ arose on the  eighth  day, when viewed
is on the basis of the number "seven" that a male                 from the Old Testament perspective!


                                                   THE STANDARD BEARER                                                            3 7 3



                                       Movie Attendance


  Some time ago, Calvinist Contact,  August 24,                    evil, it must be judged in the light of Christian stan-
1984, contained comments by Henry Knoop con-                       dards of excellence.
cerning movie attendance which are worth con-                             -The Christian should reject and condemn the
sideration. Though the writer seems to approve of                  message of those movies which sanction sin and
certain selected movies, he has some pointed                       subvert the Christian view of life.
criticism about the whole matter:                                    -Christians should become sensitive to what is
     Movie attendance has been a subject of controversy            good and evil in movies. Christians must engage in the
   among Christians for over fifty years. In the Christian         constructive critique of movies and learn how to
   Reformed Church, for example, the Synod of 1926 ac-             evaluate them from a Christian point of view.
   cepted a motion that movie attendance was a "world-               These principles are still the official guide of the
   ly amusement" and appointed a committee to study                church . . . .
   the nature of worldly amusements and give advice                  A number of thoughts come to mind as a result of
   concerning the disciplining of church members who               this quick survey. Note, first of all, the gradual shift in
   engage in worldly amusements.                                   emphasis from "worldly amusement" to "a cultural
     The committee reported two years later and                    thing," a term much more favorable for movie goers
   declared that, through Common Grace, worthwhile                 today. Yet, I wonder how many movies being pro-
   movies could be produced by unbelievers, but it was             duced today actually contribute to the development of
   the task of the believer to responsibly exercise his            our culture in a significant way. It seems that the vast
   Christian liberty. The implication was clear - movie            majority of popular movies,today are merely "amuse-
   attendance was a form of worldliness that the Chris-            ments," and worldly at that. It is getting increasingly
   tian must avoid.                                                more difficult to find a good one.
     In response to a classical overture, the Synod of               Secondly, when I look over the list of principles
   1949 appointed a study committee to clarify the stand           guiding movie attendance, I wonder how many peo-
   on worldly amusements taken in 1928, but not to                 ple actually consider the matter so seriously anymore?
   change it. Two years later, however, this committee             How many people prayerfully submit to the Word of
   responded with two reports: one emphasizing that                God and the guidance of the Holy Spirit when it
   people who engage in "worldly amusements" should                comes to movie attendance?
   be disciplined, the other emphasizing that not every                   . . . Finally, for almost twenty years we've been
   instance of movie attendance is wrong for a Christian.          challenged to constructively critique movies and
   The Synod of 1951 listened to both sides and adopted a          evaluate them from a Christian point of view. Have
   compromise. For the most part it followed what the              we succeeded? Do most Christians have a  well-
   latter report stated, but at the same time added that it        defined critical framework which they can take with
   did not condone movie attendance.          ;                    them to movies? I wonder . . . .
     As a result of another classical overture and study          One can appreciate the comments made above.
   committee appointed in 1964, the Synod of 1966              One senses too an agonizing appraisal of the past
   adopted a number of principles concerning worldly
   amusements. Among them:                                     decisions of the CRC on movie attendance  - and
                                                               their consequences in the life of the church.
     -The Christian must lead a life of spiritual separa-
   tion from the world even while enjoying those things          We also can learn from all of the above. Reports
   (such as movies) which are neither commanded nor            of young people from our churches attending
   forbidden by the Bible.                                     movies are heard. Television, presenting essentially
     -In going to movies the Christian shall be guided         the same movies, is watched in some of our homes.
   by an enlightened conscience, in prayerful submis-          Do we well understand that the CRC gave limited
   sion to the Word of God, and the guidance of the Holy       approval to see some movies - on the basis of com-
   Spirit.                                                     mon grace (a doctrine which we deny)? Are we ever
      -Christians should voluntarily restrain the exer-        consistent in our walk? The antithetical walk must
   cise of their Christian liberty to go to the movies by      be clearly evident  - for such is the fruit of the
   their concern for their own spiritual welfare as well as    Spirit.
   a loving concern for the spiritual welfare of others.
      -Because the movie is a "cultural thing" like a               Read The Standard Bearer!
   magazine or newspaper that can be used for good or


374                                        THE STANDARD BEARER



FAITH OF OUR FATHERS




               The Baptism Form - -Introduction
                                             Rev. James Slopsema





  In the next several articles we intend to studv the     faith. Through them the church confesses the
baptism form as we find it in the back of our             whole of the truth of God's Word as she has come
Psalter.                                                  to believe and cherish it. However, in the liturgical
  The baptism form is one of our liturgical forms.        forms the church touches only upon certain aspects
By a liturgical form we mean a document or form           of the truth. In many instances these truths are
designed to aid us in public worship. The word            truths set forth in the Three Forms of Unity but
"liturgical" describes that'which pertains to public      more fully developed in the forms. But the
worship and prayer. In the back of our Psalter we         liturgical forms are not intended to be comprehen-
find several such forms. In addition to our baptism       sive statements of faith. Hence, they are minor con-
form we also find forms for the celebration of the        fessions in distinction from our major, comprehen-
Lord's Supper, for Excommunication, for Readmit-          sive confessions.
ting Excommunicated Persons, for Ordination of              Quite in harmony with this, the doctrinal
Ministers, Elders, and Deacons, Professors of             statements in our liturgical forms are binding upon
Theology, and Missionaries. There is even a form          the church. It is required of every officebearer in
for Confirmation of Marriage.                             the church to sign a Formula of Subscription. By so
MINOR CONFESSIONS:                                        doing he expresses agreement with -the Three
                                                          Forms of Unity. He also promises to teach and
  These forms are often called minor creeds or            faithfully defend the doctrines set forth in them.
confessions. They are to be distinguished from our        Should an officebearer knowingly teach contrary to
major confessions: the Heidelberg Catechism, the          the Three Forms of Unity he is by that fact to be
Belgic Confession, and the Canons of Dordt  - the         suspended from office. This establishes the doc-
Three Forms of Unity.                                     trines of our Three Forms of Unity as official
                                                          church doctrine. All officebearers and members are
  Our liturgical forms are called minor confessions       bound by these creeds. Now the Formula of Sub-
or creeds for good reason.                                scription does not make mention of our liturgical
  First, these liturgical forms include statements of     forms. However, our Church Order does. As the
faith and therefore partake of the naure of a confes-'    Church Order regulates the administration of the
sion or creed. A creed is a statement by the church       sacraments, the ordination of officebearers in the
in which she expresses what she believes to be the        church, excommunication,         and marriage it
truth of God's Word. And this is exactly what we          specifies that in each instance the proper forms be
find in our liturgical forms. The truth of God as it      used (cf. Articles 4,22,24, 58, 62,70, 76,78). In this
relates to baptism, the Lord's Supper, excommuni-         way the Church Order certainly elevates the doc-
cation, the work of officebearers in the church, and      trinal statements of the liturgical forms to  creedal
marriage are all summarized in our forms. Hence,          statements that are official doctrine in the church
they are to be considered confessions or creeds of        and binding on all officebearers and members.
the church.                                                 For that reason our liturgical forms are also prof-
  However, and this in the second place, our litur-       itable for study. From them we glean a wealth of
gical forms are to be considered as  minor  confes-       instruction concerning the precious truths of God's
sions because of their limited scope. Our Three           Word. This we hope to do in the next several ar-
Forms of Unity are comprehensive statements of            ticles as we treat the baptism form.


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                              375



VALUE OF OUR FORMS:                                         For this reason the church must be instructed in
  We may ask: why have liturgical forms?                  these things. Now conceivably this could be left to
                                                          the minister every time the sacraments were cele-
  Many churches do not have forms for baptism,            brated. However, in this way error is more apt to
Lord's Supper,  ,ordination, and excommunication          creep in. And the instruction may be incomplete,
as we do. In turn, there are many who question the        perhaps even one-sided. Consequently, the
wisdom of liturgical forms. The objection is that the     Reformed fathers saw the need for-liturgical forms
use of liturgical forms tends to make the worship of      to guide the church in the celebration of the
the church a mere formality, a meaningless ritual.        sacraments and other important acts of worship.
"Worship becomes automatic, mechanical and
thus meaningless when liturgical forms are used."         HISTORY:
  In response we must acknowledge that dead for-            We ought to understand a little of the history of
malism is always a  .danger in worship. How often         our baptism form.
haven't we been guilty of being miles away in               Our Form for the Baptism of Infants may be
thought while the form for baptism or Lord's Sup-         traced back to a form written by Peter Datheen in
per has been read in the worship service? This cer-       the Netherlands. Datheen had translated the
tainly makes our worship a meaningless formality.         Heidelberg Catechism from the German language
However, the same can be said for other parts of          into the Dutch in 1563. With the help of Van der
worship. How often haven't we been just as guilty         Heyden, Datheen also wrote other liturgical forms
of mental absenteeism during the congregational           which were published in 1566. Among them was a
prayer or the sermon? This suggests that the use of       baptism form which was -modeled after other forms
liturgical forms as such does not lend itself to or       written by Calvin, a Lasco, Micron, and Olevianus.
promote meaningless formality in worship.                   In 1568 the Reformed churches in the Nether-
  There are especially three things that contribute       lands were charged by the Wezelian Convention to
to dead formalism in worship: 1) ignorance of what        use the questions found in Datheen's baptism form,
one is doing in worship, 2) an erroneous conception       although some churches by this time were using
of what one is doing in worship, 3) a spirit of indif-    this form. In 1574 the particular Synod of Dordt
ference toward worship. Any one of these or com-          shortened the form and required all the churches to
bination of these will eventually render worship an       use the whole form, not just the questions, for the
empty ritual.                                             administration of baptism. Several other Synods
  The key to overcoming much of this is instruc-          after this concerned themselves with the wording
tion. Certainly ignorance and a faulty view of wor-       of this form, and made various revisions. One of
ship is overcome with instruction. And because in-        these Synods to revise the form was the great Synod
difference towards worship is often rooted in ignor-      of Dordt of 1618-19 which gave us our Canons.
ance, this too is often helped by sound instruction.      However, none of these Synods published an of-
By all means the church must be knowledgeable             ficial, up-to-date text of the form. In 1897 Dr. F. L.
about what she is doing in worship. She must be           Rutgers and his assistants, Dr. H. Bavink and Dr. A.
taught the meaning of the sacraments, of ordination       Kuyper, prepared an edition of the baptism form
into office, of excommunication, and other aspects        taking into account the various revisions of the past
of her worship. Error must be exposed. The light of       Synods. An English translation of this form is what
God's Word must be shed on every aspect of her            we find in the back of our Psalter.
worship. Only then can worship be meaningful,               If we turn to the back of our Psalter we also find
edifying, and God-glorifying.                             a section for the baptism of adults, entitled "To
  This is especially true of the sacraments. The          Adult Persons." This has a somewhat different
sacraments are means of grace which the Holy              history. This section was composed by the great
Spirit uses to strengthen our faith. However, the         Synod of Dordt (1618-19). In composing this part of
sacraments do not work magically or automatically.        the form the Synod of Dordt relied heavily on two
The water of baptism itself does not effect salva-        other forms in use at that time. The one was a form
tion. Neither do the bread and wine of the Lords          drafted by the churches in North and South
Supper themselves strengthen faith. The                   Holland in 1603 and which was also used by the
sacraments work as a means of grace only when             churches of Friesland and Gelderland. The other
they are understood as signs and seals of the cross       form from which the Synod of Dordt drew was the
and only when they are used as such by us in faith        form drafted by the Synod of Vere in 1610. This
believing. Those who are ignorant of the true             section for the baptism of adults was intended by
nature of the sacraments or have erroneous concep-        the Synod of Dordt to be used along with the first
tions of them receive nothing from them.                  part of Datheen's baptism form which treats the


376                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



doctrine of baptism in general. This is the first part                     can not be baptized because they do not
of our form which begins with the words, "The                              understand these spiritual realities.
principal parts of the doctrine of holy baptism are                     2. The reply:
these three."                                                              a. Our children are partakers of Christ
OUTLINE:                                                                       without their knowledge.
                                                                           b. This is evident from Genesis  17:7 and
  We conclude this introduction of the baptism                                 Acts 2:39 which teach that God estab-
form with a brief outline of the Form for Infant                               lishes His covenant in the lines of con-
Baptism.                                                                       tinued generations.
 I. Doctrinal part.                                                          c. For this reason God commanded
       A. The significance of  baptism'in general.                             children to be circumcised in the OT
          1. Our original sin and need for  regenera-                          and Christ blessed them (Mark 10).
             tion is symbolized and taught to us                           d. Since baptism is come in the place of
             through the sprinkling of water.                                  circumcision, infants are to be  bap-
          2. Baptism is a sign and seal of the washing                         tized.
             away of sins through Jesus Christ and           II. Liturgical part.
             thus of God's eternal covenant of grace.            A. The prayer before baptism.
          3. Through baptism we are taught to take               B. The exhortation to parents with the  ques-
             our part in the covenant.                                  tions to be affirmed.
       B. Infant baptism in particular.                          C. The act of baptism proper.
          1. The objection is anticipated that infants           D. The thanksgiving prayer.

GUIDED INTO ALL TRUTH




                Perspicuity: The Objective Clarity
                                           of God's Word
                                                 Rev. Thomas Miersma





  The Reformers and the Church of Rome, as we                God. Scripture's own claim is that it is God's Word
have seen, stood in open opposition to one another           of truth. Upon the basis of that Word of truth the
on the issue of Scripture's sole authority and  all-         Reformers labored to reform and restore the church
sufficiency. Rome taught that there stood alongside          of Christ, for the church must be brought into con-
of Scripture a second authority, the traditions of the       formity with the Word of God, as subject and obe-
church, which it claimed were received from the              dient to it.
apostles and of equal value with the Scriptures.               Thus far we have been considering Scripture
Rome also set the church above both Scripture and            itself as the objective and sole standard of truth. We
tradition as the source from which both received             must yet also consider the subjective principle of
their authority and power.                                   Scripture's interpretation, that is, who is able to
  Over against these errors the Reformers, follow-           understand that Word of God? In this connection
ing Scripture's own testimony, received the Scrip-           we must see the difference between Rome and the
tures as the Word of God, the all-sufficient rule of         Reformers regarding the priesthood and office of all
faith and life. They also found set before them in           believers. Before turning to this, however, there is
the Scriptures the sole authority of the Word of             one aspect of Scripture's own character which we


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                                  377



must still consider, though it is closely intertwined     only a select few can really understand while the
with the internal and spiritual principle of Scrip-       rest of the common people of the church remain in
tural understanding. That is the matter of                ignorance.
Scripture's own clarity or perspicuity  - in itself.        This attack upon the Word of God the Reformers
  The Reformers took the position that the Word of        resisted in their day and we must in our own. We
God as the sole standard of truth and God's revela-       can well learn from them. In 1522 Ulrich Zwingli
tion was understandable and clear as God's Word           delivered a sermon or lecture to the nuns at the
to man. This the Church of Rome denied. Rome              convent of Oetenbach near Zurich. The subject of
maintained that Scripture was a dark book, difficult      this sermon was the clarity and power of the Word
to understand, whose interpretation was far above         of God. We will turn to this sermon from time to
the ability of the average believer in the church.        time in coming articles.
The church as the sole authority above the Word of          Zwingli proceeds from the principle that man as
God could make the dark sayings of the Scriptures         created in the image of God was made a creature
clear and set forth their meaning. Thus they inter-       capable of understanding God's Word. The Word
posed between the people and the Word of God,             of God is clear to him therefore in itself and is
the priesthood of the church and the pronounce-           powerful, either as  .a savor of life unto life or of
ments of the church as the only means to under-           death unto death. That Word of God, whether
stand God,`s Word.                                        spoken by God unto man or set down in the Scrip-
  This conception portrays the Bible as a book on         tures is therefore inherently clear in its meaning. If
the same level as the dark sayings and utterances of      man does not understand it, the fault lies with man
heathen prophets and oracles. Because of this,            and not with God's Word.
Scripture was to be kept from the common people.            Thus he writes,
The church, by which Rome meant the clergy of
the church, and the higher councils and papacy in            The Word of God and the messenger of the
particular, alone had the ability and right to declare       Word are a sweet smell or savour (II Cor. 2);
the meaning of God's Word. Behind this teaching              but a savour of life to some, and of death to
of the church was the desire to keep the people in           others. Illustration. Consider a good strong
ignorance of God's Word and to silence also the Re-          wine. To the healthy it tastes excellent. It
formers.                                                     makes. him merry and strengthens him and
                                                             warms his blood. But if there is someone
  Over against this false view of Rome the Re-               who is sick of a disease or fever, he cannot
formers maintained that Scripture is clear and               even taste it, let alone drink it, and he
understandable in itself. Man's failure to under-            marvels that the healthy is able to do so.
stand it aright was not to be attributed to the Word         This is not due to any defect in the wine, but
but to sin and unbelief in the heart of man. The             to that of the sickness. So too it is with the
Word of God itself is clear and readily understood.          Word of God. It is right in itself and its proc-
The reason it seemed dark to Rome was to be at-              lamation is always for good. If there are
tributed to Rome's misuse of the Word of God by              those who cannot bear or understand or
wrenching texts out of their proper and natural              receive it, it is because they are sick. So
context and meaning. Further, Rome broke the uni-            much by way of answer to those who rashly
ty of that Word of God and set Scripture in opposi-          maintain that God does not want us to
tion to itself to obscure its meaning for their own          understand his words, as though it were his
ends.                                                        will to bring us into danger. If we fail to
  We live in a day and age when this same subtlety           understand him, it is because we are out of
of Rome is being reintroduced into the church                favour. A son knows that he enjoys his
under the new guise of so-called scholarship, so             father's favour even when his father speaks
that a new priesthood has arisen, a priesthood of            roughly to him or rebukes him. He is out-
scholars, who will in the name of a new                      side his grace only when he does not speak
hermeneutic introduce into the church the doctrine           to him at all either to teach or admonish. So
and practices of men. It is well therefore to take           too it is the most bitter punishment and a
note of the principle that the Scriptures are clear          sure sign of imminent calamities to be
and understandable in themselves. They can be                deprived of the consolation of the Word of
understood and their meaning is plain to the believ-         God. (Zwingli and Bullinger, tr. G.W.
ing heart. This does not mean that they do not re-           Bromley,  Library of Christian  CZassics,
quire prayerful and serious study, precise and               Volume XXIV, The Westminster Press,
careful exegesis. But this is altogether different           1953, p. 75.)
from saying that the Bible is an obscure book which         The Word itself therefore is clear and good. It is


378                                            THE STANDARD BEARER



man's own darkness which is at fault if he under-            flower from its roots and trying to plant it in
stand it not. Zwingli then proceeds to demonstrate           a garden. But that is not the way: you must
this truth by showing from both Old and New Tes-             plant it with the roots and the soil in which
taments that when God spoke His Word unto His                it is embedded. And similarly we must leave
people, they understood it. This clarity may not be          the Word of God its own proper nature if its
separated from the internal principle of the illurni-        sense is to be the same to all of us. And
nating work of the Spirit of which Zwingli has more          those who err in this way we can easily van-
to say and to which we will return. But the princi-          quish by leading them back to the source,
ple must be established: the Word of God is clear in         though they never come willingly. But some
itself and perspicuous.                                      of them are such confirmed dunces that
  The trouble with Rome however, and also in our             even when the natural sense is expounded
own day, is that man always seeks to impose his              in such a way that they cannot deny it, they
own opinions and meaning upon the Scriptures or              still allege that they cannot presume to
to obscure them by taking a text out of its context.         understand it thus unless the Fathers allow
Rome would have subjected the meaning of Scrip-              that it may so be understood: on the ground
ture to the church's authority and would have added          that many expositors will always have a bet-
to it. It was not that Scripture was unclear, for            ter understanding than one or two. Answer:
the Word of God is a unity whose clear and natural           If that is the case, then Christ himself was in
meaning can be understood. The problem was                   error, which God forbid, for most of the
spiritual blindness and inability to hear the Word of        priests of the time held quite a different
God. Thus they cast doubt upon its meaning by                view and he had to stand alone. And the
their subtlety, seeking to impose tradition, the pro-        apostles were also mistaken, for they were
nouncements of the church and the fathers upon               opposed by whole nations and cities. And
Scripture. They placed upon it the opinions of the           even today the number of unbelievers far
majority and made truth subject to the vanity of             outweighs the number of believers: are we
man. Zwingli rather forcefully points this out.              to conclude then that their view is right and
                                                             ours wrong simply because they are more
       In direct contradiction to the teaching of            numerous than we? No. Consider for your-
       Paul, that all interpretation and thought and         selves; truth is not necessarily with the ma-
       experience should be made captive to the              jority. What then of the argument? It has no
       will and service of God, they try to subject          force in the present controversy. Indeed, I
       the doctrine of God to the judgment of men.           see that even popes and councils have some-
       Now take note of the answer: In the first             times fallen into serious error, especially
       place, by the Gospel we do not mean only              Anastasius and Liberius in the Arian heresy.
       the writings of Matthew, Mark, Luke and               Will you concede that? Yes. Then your case
       John, but, as we have said, all that God has          is lost, for you must allow that if they erred
       revealed to man in order that he may in-              once there is always the fear that they will
       struct him and give him a sure knowledge of           err again, and therefore we cannot trust in
       his will. But God is one, and he is a Spirit of       them with any certainty. Once we have dis-
       unity, not of discord. Hence we may see               covered that  -  for:  omnis homo  mendax,   all
       that his words have always a true and                 men are liars, deceiving and being deceived
       natural sense; may God grant it, no matter            - we see that ultimately only God himself
       how we may wrest them this way or that.               can teach us the truth with such certainty
       And here I beg you in the name of God not             that all doubts are removed. (ibid., pp.
       to take it amiss if I draw your attention to a        86-87.)
       common error. It is that of the majority of
       those who in these days oppose the Gospel
       - for although they dare not admit to doing.
       this in public, in secret they do everything          The Standard Bearer
       within their power to that end. Listen to
       what they say. Not everything, they say, is         makes -a though@1 gift
       told us in the Gospels. There are many good
       things which are never even thought of in
       the Gospel. Oh, you rascals  - you are not           for the sick or shut-in.
       instructed or versed in the Gospel, and you
       pick out verses from it without regard to              Give The Standard Bearer!
       their context and wrest them according to
       your own desire. It is like breaking off a


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                                379



IN HIS FEAR


                           The Christian Family -
                           Its Biblical Foundations
                                             Pastor Arie den Hartog


  It is our purpose to write a series of articles on       witness the increasing immorality of our age, the
the Christian family for our contribution to this          many broken homes, and the destitute and delin-
department for the year. Although much has been            quent children that this evil world in which we live
written on this subject lately we believe that this        brings forth. We must not imagine that we are im-
subject is of such great importance and that it has        mune from these attacks on the family. Even in our
so many facets to it that it is one that is worthy of      own midst we see corrupt and apostate generations
further consideration. The family is the most              arise. There is an increasing number of cases of
fundamental of all the institutions which God in           family trouble and even of divorces in our own
His infinite wisdom has established among men.             churches. With much sorrow we witness an ele-
There is none of greater importance. It is basic to all    ment of our own young people that are worldly and
the other institutions of the church, the state, and       ungodly.
society. We as Reformed Christians especially                The Christian home must be built upon the
know how tremendously significant the institution          foundation which the Lord Himself has laid down
of the ,family is in the church and kingdom of God.        in His Word. More and more the world is seeking to
We know and believe the great truth of scripture           overthrow these foundations. It is said that these
that teaches us that God from the beginning to the         foundations are irrelevant for our modern age. We
end of time is pleased to continue His gracious            are told that we must change the order of the rela-
covenant from generation to generation with                tionship between husband and wife in marriage.
believers and their children. How precious to us is        Some are even so foolish and evil to suggest that
the promise of God to our father Abraham: "And I           authority in the home ought no longer to be exer-
will establish my covenant between me and thee             cised only by father and mother but it must be
and thy seed after thee in their generations for an        shared with children in the home. There is a rise of
everlasting covenant, -to be a God unto thee, and.to       incidents where men and women no longer want to
thy seed after thee" (Genesis  17:7). The institution      get married. They do not want the obligation and
of the family is also of great significance for the        responsibility of establishing a home and raising
church of Jesus Christ. A strong church depends            children. More and more we witness  `living-
upon strong Christian homes. It will only continue         together arrangements where men and women live
if each succeeding generation by the grace of God          in "sexual freedom" outside the holy bonds of mar-
fulfills its covenant obligation to raise up a godly       riage which God has ordained. Many modern day
seed. Many of us in the Reformed tradition can             couples decide even before they marry not to have
testify of several generations before us who by the        any children or t&have very few children lest their
grace of God were Christians. This is no reason for        own freedom be limited and lest they hamper
us to boast but only reason for  t-he highest praise       themselves in the great pursuits of life for pleasure
and thanksgiving to the Lord. What a great wonder          and wealth. Often fathers and mothers are so en-
of His grace and mercy it is that He should be             tirely wrapped up in the labors of earthly careers
pleased to raise up the generations of His people          that precious little time and effort is spent with
from a race as thoroughly corrupt and depraved             children. By all means we must find other institu-
from its very birth as ours is. Each generation of the     tions than the family, it is said, to care for and raise
covenant is a new manifestation of the wonderful           the children. These notions do not arise because
grace and mercy of the God of our salvation.               families are so poor and destitute that both father
  From the time of the fall of man into sin under          and mother have to work to make ends meet and
the instigation of the devil the institution of the        simply to feed their hungry children. No, these
family has been under attack. Each age experiences         ideas arise in an age of extreme wealth and mate-
new and more subtle attacks on the family. We              rialism unparalleled by any the world has ever


380                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



known. Others are clamoring for so-called alterna-        most precious gift in giving him Eve. Furthermore,
tive life styles, with arrangements as abominable as      the Lord joined them together and gave them the
two homosexuals living together and even raising          command to love one another and live in life-long
children. There is a desperate need for us as Chris-      faithfulness with each other. This story is not some
tians to maintain the foundations which the Lord          fairy tale devised by man. It is far more wonderful
has laid for the family, the foundations which are        and blessed than anything that man in his sinful
sure and unchangeable.                                    heart can imagine. The marriage which God
  We believe that marriage and the family had             created was the beginning of the home and family.
their beginning in God's creation order. In His           The welfare of the home and family depends first of
great wisdom, for the glory of His own name and           all on the order in which husband and wife lived
the welfare of man and society, and especially for        with each other. This is not one that can be changed
the future of His own church and kingdom the              at whim and fancy of man so that it is equally prop-
Lord decreed the order of marriage and the home.          er for the woman to rule over the man or for the
The story of this is told us in the opening chapters      two, the man and the woman, to have equal
of the book of Genesis. On many occasions we have         authority. God made man to be the head over the
had opportunity to study these portions of God's          woman, giving him authority over her and the obli-
Word in connection with giving instruction at the         gation and calling lovingly to protect and keep her
regular pre-marriage counselling classes held in the      and lead and guide her. God made woman to be a
church here in Singapore. Each time-we study these        help unto man to serve him so that together they
and other sections of the Word of God on the sub-         might serve the Lord their creator.
jects of marriage and the family we are again amazed        God gave both to the man and the woman the
by the beautiful order which God created. We              mandate to have dominion over all the earth. To-
are told in Genesis 1 that God created man in His         gether they were to rule over God's creation for the
own image and likeness. We are told that God              glory of the Lord. Yet in this Adam was to be the
created both male and female in His own image. In         head and Eve was to be his helper. Neither could
this respect man and woman are equal before God.          perform their calling without the other. This calling
The woman is not a lower form of being than the           they would fulfill in their daily occupation. We
man according to God's creation order. Both were          believe that this mandate continues for man today.
created in such a way that they could know, love,         The Christian man and woman fulfill this com-
and serve God their creator. This was the purpose         mand only by the grace and Spirit of God. They no
which God gave both to man and to woman.                  longer labor only for this earth but they are joint
  When God made man male and female He did                heirs through Christ Jesus of the world that is to
not create each separate and independent of one           come.
another. He did not create them both at the same            At the time of creation God also gave to man and
time. He created man first and He created woman           woman the mandate to bring forth children, to be
out of man. Thereby He established the order of           fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. This is
marriage that man should be the head of his wife          another amazing and wonderful aspect of God's
and that woman should be his companion and                creation of the family. The man and the woman
helpmeet. This wonderful order of God makes               were called to fulfill this obligation together in obe-
possible the great mystery of marriage. When God          dience to God and in love for each other. Also this
first created man He made him with a great need           was a mandate. Today it is imagined that bringing
for a companion and helpmeet. God made Adam to            forth children is merely a matter of personal pref-
feel this need very keenly when He brought all the        erence. Some may even without any other than
animals to Adam and Adam realized that there was          selfish reasons decide not to have any children.
no helpmeet to be found for him. God made man a           One of the most amazing facts of God's creation of
helpmeet out of his own rib. How beautiful the            man is that He created them from the first not in
story of God's creation of marriage. When God             hundreds and thousands as He did the animals.
brought Eve to Adam, with great joy in his heart          God first created one man and woman and united
Adam  exclaimed: "This is now bone of my bones            them together in marriage. He gave to them the most
and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman,         amazing and wonderful power under His prov-
because she was taken out of Man" (Genesis 2:23).         idence to bring forth children after their own im-
God made for Adam a helpmeet that, like himself,          age and likeness. Especially to the woman He gave
was created after His own image and that was also         such an amazing and wonderful role that within
wonderfully different from him, such that she             her very own-body  a new life, a new human being
could live with him and in the blessed union of one       could be born. We must never cease to be amazed
flesh and fulfill his greatest need and afford him the    at the great wonders of God in all of these things. It
deepest joy and satisfaction. God gave to Adam his        has rightly been said that woman's role in this is so


                                      THE STANDARD BEARER                                                    381



absolutely fantastic that there is nothing which God      Lord. In the sphere of the family, children could
has given to man that equals it.                          see the  exa-mple of father and mother and follow
  In God's creation order marriage and the home           after it. All of this would have been true even had
were to be the sphere in which children were to be       there been no fall of man into sin. The Lord caused
born and raised. Herein also is manifested the great     that children should come forth from the very flesh
wisdom of God. Let no man say that any institution        and blood of their parents. With this arrangement
of man's own inventioln can replace what God has         there would be the strongest of physical ties be-
ordained and created. It was not God's purpose to         tween them to motivate parents in the necessary
continue to create independent and full-grown             care and concern for the children.
mature men and women after that He had created              In' His wonderful providence the Lord ordained
Adam and Eve. He was pleased to bring every other        that father and mother should have their own
human being into this world as a helpless and            unique role in the raising of the children. This role is
dependent, weak and undeveloped little babe. The         related to the very nature of man and woman. The
whole of the development of these little babes,          healthy physical and spiritual development of the
physically, psychologically, and spiritually was to      child is dependent upon the unique influence of
be the responsibility of their parents. The sphere in    both mother and father. The Lord ordained that the
which the children were to grow was the sphere of         father should exercise the role of authority and pro-
the home. Every aspect of the home would have a          tection and provision and the mother of tender
tremendous influence upon the development of the          compassion and concern.
child. How wonderfully suited the family is ideally         We have considered the family as it is ideally ac-
for the purpose for which God created it. From a          cording to the purpose of God. We know of course
natural point of view the family would be the warm       that sin came into the world and had tremendous
protective sphere in which children could grow and        consequences for the family. It did not -however
develop. In the family -the children not only receive    abolish the order which God created. The biblical
physical sustenance but also love, encouragement,        foundations of the family stand for all time, even
and direction in life. In the sphere of the family,      though we as Christians in our families can only
children would learn the knowledge and fear of the       begin by the grace of God to live according to them.

FROM HOLY WRIT


         Believing All the Prophetic Scriptures
                                                Rev. G. Lubbers



    The Mystery Of the "Seventy Weeks"                      Be this as it may, the plain truth is that it is
            in Daniel 9, Chapter XX                       Gabriel who brings the grand message to Zacharias,
                                                          the father of John, the forerunner of Christ. Prin-
Gabriel the Messenger From God's Throne (can't.)          cipally John came to reconstitute all things in
  At the fulness of time this same Gabriel is sent as     preparation for the King (Matt.  17:11, 12; Mark
a Messenger from God. God suddenly comes to His           9:11-13). John was the long-expected and foretold
temple by means of Gabriel at the time of the sacri-      Elijah, who was to come (Is. 40~3-5;  Matt. 3~3; Luke
fice (Mal. 3: 1). The suddenness of his appearance to     3:4). This was the great subject of discussion even
Zacharias reflects the suddenness with which the          in the Jewish seminaries (John 1: 19-24). He is the
"Messenger of the Covenant," the Lord Jesus, will         friend of the Bridegroom, this John; he must
come to Israel in order to usher in the Kingdom of        prepare the way, present the Messiah to Israel, and
heaven. Truly, when Jesus came in the flesh, the          then go away from the scene of action and die like
Kingdom was realized by His death and resurrec-           the greatest of the prophets (John  3:25-36). The
tion and by His glorious ascension. And the people        very kingdom of heaven will suffer violence
were told that the kingdom of heaven was come, be         because of John's preparatory labors, and the
it then unawares to blind unbelief (Matt.  12:28).        violent will take it by force (Matt.  11:12). Thus the


382                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



power of the coming age is set aflame in the church,      mountain" and the "sanctuary that is desolate for
and men taste and see the power of this age to            the Lord's sake" (Dan.  9:16ff.).  Daniel knew full
come. Believers taste and see that the Lord is good       well that the return to the full-fledged priesthood
(I Peter  23; Psalm  34:8).                               after the order of Aaron could not perfect anything.
  To bring this great announcement, Gabriel is the        There is no sacrifice in the Old Testament which
designated Messenger, the ministering spirit who          could cleanse the conscience from dead works to
stands before God (Heb. 1: 14). No, Gabriel is not to     serve the living God (Heb.  9:9, 14;  10:2, 22).
sit at God's right hand; he may not sit upon the            This makes for the urgency of Daniel's prayer,
throne, as do later Christ and all the saints, but he     that God may cause His face to shine upon His
stands "before God,`" as His mighty messenger. He         sanctuary which is desolate for the Lord's sake.
hastens to do God's bidding! And men had better           God has a greater and higher purpose in destroying
listen for their very life's sake (Heb. 2:1-3).           the Old Testament temple, namely, that He may
  We are, at this point, especially interested to         raise up the temple in three days to heavenly
show that Gabriel is the divinely appointed* and          heights of glory in the better and true tabernacle,
designated angel to bring the Gospel-tidings of the       which shall be filled with the glory of God in the
fulfillment of the promises made in the Old Testa-        face of Jesus Christ (John  2:19-22).
ment. And in both points of God's wise dispensa-          The Seventy Years as Represented in the
tion Daniel must serve this role, whether it be at        "Seventy Sevens" (Daniel  9:24)
the time of Daniel, when the last fourteen genera-          It ought to be quite obvious to the most careful
tions of the holy, royal line is ushered in, or           and believing reader, that the angel Gabriel, speak-
whether it be at the end of this designated period        ing of the "seventy sevens" (weeks) does not mere-
when Christ will be born from the Virgin.  For-           ly refer to seventy "years" as did Jeremiah in his
soothe, any other angel could not bear the very           prophecy, and as referred to in the Chronicles (Jer.
meaningful name: Gabriel. The name Gabriel is             25: 11, 12; II Chron. 36:21). The years referred to and
God is mighty! The Almighty God is nobly and ably         predicted by Jeremiah are literal calendar years,
represented in this Gabriel, who had power to lay         giving historical dates. Israel could mark these off
his hand on a fainting Daniel to strengthen him           on their calendar; it was a veritable countdown.
(Dan. 8:18), and who can by his mighty word make          Israel is definitely instructed by Jeremiah that they
Zacharias dumb for a very specially designated            must prepare themselves to live in the foreign land
length of time (Luke  1:20).  This Gabriel represents     of Babylon in hope of returning to the promised
the God Who raises the dead to life, and Who calls        land after exactly seventy years. In the meantime
the things that be not as if they were (Rom. 4: 17).      they must submit to the "powers that be" in
Surely the true seed of Abraham do not in hope            Babylon. It is well to study carefully that remark-
against hope live and die in vain!                        able word of the LORD to Israel in Jer. 29:4-7. It is
  God Almighty sent His great angel!                      the divine directive for Israel's life and preserva-
                                                          tion in Babylon, where they hang their harps upon
  Gabriel was a messenger sent forth to minister
for them, who shall be the heirs of salvation. And        the willows. Notice the following injunctions:
Scripture emphasizes that this message is not only          1. Build ye houses and dwell in them. Vs. 5
for the circumcision but also for the foreskin, to all      2. Plant gardens and eat the fruit of them. Vs. 5
who walk in the footprints of the faith of Abraham          3. Take wives and beget sons and daughters,
(Rom. 4: 12). He who does not believe this does not       take wives for your sons, and give your daughters
believe all the prophetic Scriptures. For the elect,      to husbands, that they may bear sons and daugh-
the believers out of both Jews and Greeks, those          ters; that ye be increased there and not be dimin-
who are near and who are far off, shall all one day       ished. Vs. 6
be the one new man. in Christ, one fold and one             4. Seek the peace of the city whither I have
Shepherd (John  10:16; Is.  56:8; Ez.  37:22; Eph.        caused you to be carried away captives. Vs. 7
2:11-22). Truly, Daniel's message from Gabriel is
not merely concerning the rebuilding of earthly             5. And pray unto the LORD for it: for in the
Jerusalem, and the raising up again of the temple         peace thereof shall ye have peace.
after the pattern of the Solomon's temple; it refers        Here we see the work program, a program of
to the far greater and more perfect temple which is       hope for the church in the midst of the world. This
to come, which shall indeed be filled with the glory      was not merely the order of the day for Israel in
of the Lord forever, the dwelling-place of God in         Babylon, but such is the abiding principle for the
the Spirit (Haggai 2:3-9; Eph. 2:17-22). Only such a      life of the church in the midst of all nations (Rom.
message is the answer to Daniel's imploring and           13:1-8; I Peter 2:13-17;  I Tim. 2:14). God ever has in
supplication concerning "Jerusalem, thy holy              mind the gathering of the church out of all nations.


                                                 THE STANDARD BEARER                                              383



World history is church history! The safety of Israel          service (Heb. 4:4). Here is not the place to enter into
in the midst of the world is that she sanctifies the          the matter here cited from Genesis  2:l; we only
LORD God in obeying His word. Thus she enters                 refer to this to show the meaning of the term
into the rest (Is.  8:12, 13; I Peter  3:15).                  "seven." It is the cornerstone of God's dealings
  When we are dealing with actual historical times            with His people in their life's pattern, which must
and circumstances, and of definite historical dates           not be merely number "six," which is the number
on a calendar, we can also have definite injunctions          of man, of this creation apart from God (Rev.
for the proper conduct of God's people in these                13:18). Six is the number of man. In its highest
historical situations, appointed by God.                      perfection of antichristian world-and-culture it is
                                                              never more than six hundred sixty-six. However,
  This is not the case with the "seventy sevens" of           seven is the perfection of the Covenant, of the
which Daniel speaks. He really makes the revela-              tabernacle of God with man.
tion of the Mystery of these "seventy sevens" in
rather startling and arresting terms. And it should              The Bible teaches very clearly and loudly that
be noticed, that Jehovah through His messenger is             God will bring His people into the land of "rest," a
truly ushering in the fulfillment of the Old Testa-           land of Sabbaths. Here in this land He will place
ment "lunar calendar," which regulated the feasts             His "name in the place of rest." This is the place
and sabbath days in their prophetic intent and                where God will "record my name" (Ex. 20:24). God
meaning. No other nation outside of Israel, the peo-          will bring His people into His land of rest, a land of
ple of God, ever received such a calendar of                  many sabbaths. The land must have its prescribed
"sevens."                                                     sabbaths, and Israel must enter into the rest of God,
                                                              His perfected Covenant. God had designated that
  What is the reason for this?                                Israel must come to worship in the holy sanctuary,
  The Scriptural meaning of the number "seven"                whether this would be the tabernacle at Shiloh or
is that it represents the perfection of the work of           the temple in Jerusalem (Deut. 12:5, 11, 13). Hence,
God, whether in creation or in recreation. We read            the entire life of Israel is regulated by the number
in Genesis  2:l that God finished His work of crea-           "seven." We notice this in the regular weekly sab-
tion on the seventh day. This was the capstone of             bath on every "seventh day," or in the special
Gods creation work, sanctifying all things in His                                               (can't. on page 372)

                         News From Our Churches
                                                     April 30, 1985

   The elders of Hope Church, Redlands, California            at Barnsley, South Yorkshire, England visit and
have been busy traveling to Ripon to exercise over-           speak with us. His vibrant speeches clearly set
sight of our Mission work and to encourage the                forth his love for the Reformed Truth. The church
group of saints there and Rev.  Houck. Remember               there is comprised of eleven families and six in-
this work of God in your prayers.                             dividuals who stand alone in their love for the
                                                              gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. While in America,
   Covenant Church in Wyckoff, New Jersey                     Pastor  Rawson spent time in Kalamazoo at the In-
reports that the church structure is complete on the          ternational Day, in South Holland, and in Grand
outside, including the steeple. The latest step was           Rapids where he spoke to Grandville Church in the
installing the curb, driveway, and parking lot. This          morning and First Church at night and then to
step also included the water line, hydrant, and elec-         Adams Street School on Monday morning. Rev.
tric. The gas and electric were installed at a reason-        Rawson has been a follower of our Protestant
able cost that saved the church a considerable                Reformed teaching for many years and has cor-
amount of money. The rough plumbing, electric,                responded extensively with Prof. Hanko, and has
and air ducts on the inside of the church are fin-            long been a member of the tape study class,
ished. However, the insulation, sheetrock, furnish-            "Studies in Bible Doctrine." May God graciously
ings, carpet, further plumbing and electric, the air          lead Rev. Rawson and the small group of believers
and heating units need to be done. The estimated              with His Fatherly hand.
cost to finish the church is around  $65,000.00.                 The Activities Committee of Kalamazoo Church,
   It was a privilege and pleasure for our churches           with committees from Byron Center Church and
in the Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, and South                     Faith Church in Michigan, is planning a Singapore
Holland areas to have Rev.  Rawson, pastor of the             Camp Day. This Camp Day will be held like the
Independent Measboro Dyke Evangelical Church                  Camp Days held in Singapore.


   THE STANDARD BEARER
           P.O.  80x 6064
Grand Rapids, Michigan 49506                                                                                       POSTAGE PAID AT
                                                                                                               GRAND RAPIDS,




                                                         THE STANDARD BEARER

   The Men's Society of South Holland Church in Il-                           Prof. Decker also spoke to Covenant Christian
linois sponsored a lecture for May 3. Rev. C. Hanko                        High School P.T.F.A. on the subject, "Whether It is
spoke on the topic "The Events Surrounding The                             Right, Proper, and Desirable to Teach Our Children.
Schism of 1953."                                                           at Home Rather Than in School."
   Southeast Church s Evangelism Society in Grand                             The Men's and Ladies' Societies of Grand
Rapids, Michigan sponsored a Dutch Psalm Sing at                           Rapids, Michigan heard Rev. M. Joostens speak on
Raybrook Manor.                                                            "World Hunger: Our Responsibility As Churches
                                                                           or Individuals."
   The Spring Ladies' League of Hull,  Doon,  and
Edgerton  Churches was held in Edgerton. Prof.                                Grandville Church, Michigan has changed the
Decker spoke on the topic, "God's Prescription for                         months they observe the Lord's Supper. They now
Anxiety."                                                                  observe the Lord's Supper in May, August,
                                                                           November, and February so that these times will
                                                                           not conflict with Christmas, Lent, and the annual
                RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                     synod.
   The Adult Bible Society of the Lynden, Washington Protestant Re-           Rev. George Hutton, Pastor of the Bible Presby-
formed Church expresses deep and abiding sympathy to its
members, Mrs. Anna Boonstra, Mr. Herman Boonstra and Mrs.                  terian Church of Larne, Northern Ireland, will
Eleanor Boonstra in the death of their husband, father and father-in-      speak at a public meeting in South Holland, Illinois
law respectively, MR. OSCAR BOONSTRA.                                      on the evening of June 7.                                          DH
   "Nevertheless I am continually with thee: thou hast holden me by
my right hand. Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward
receive me to glory." (Psalm 73:23, 24)                                                     WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
The Adult Bible Society                                                       On May 1, 1985, our parents MR. AND MRS. JOHN C. LUBBERS,
                                                                           celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. We, their children and
                RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                     grandchildren rejoice that our Gracious God has given them these
   The Young Peoples' Society of the Protestant Reformed Church of         precious years together.
Lynden, Washington, wishes to express its heartfelt sympathy to one           We thank our Covenant God for their Christian example, constant
of their faithful members, Herman D. Boonstra, and his family in the       love and patient instruction. We pray for our Heavenly Father's
recent death of his grandfather, MR. OSCAR BOONSTRA.                       richest blessings on them in the years to come.
   May he and his loved ones experience the comforting presence of         Ed  and  Lorraine Miedema             John and Joan Bouma
the Spirit of Christ, Who still says to us: "I am the resurrection, and    Don and Correne Van Overloop             27 Grandchildren
the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he       Gary and Carol Lubbers                   10 Great Grandchildren
live."                                                                                                                      Hudsonville, Michigan
The Young Peoples' Society
D. Zandstra, Pres.
E. de Boer, Sec'y.                                                                       RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
                           IN MEMORIAM                                        The Ladies Society of the Hudsonville Protestant Reformed
   On Wednesday, April I'O, 1985, it pleased our covenant Father in        Church expresses its sincere sympathy to a fellow member, Mrs.
heaven to  take unto Himself our beloved husband, Father, grand-           Irene Holstege, in the death of her brother, MR. IVAN VAN FARROW.
father, and great-grandfather, MR. OSCAR BOONSTRA at the age of            Our prayer is that God will be her comfort in sorrow.
77 years.                                                                     "I will lift up my eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.
   Our sorrow is deep, but the Lord who makes covenant with His            My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth."
people sustains us in the knowledge that He is faithful to take unto       (Psalm 121 :I, 2)
Himself those to whom He has freely and graciously given the hope          Rev. G. Van Baren,  Pres.
of life in Christ.                                                         June Van Overloop, Sec'y.
   "For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were
dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands,                      RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan earnestly desiring to be
clothed upon with our house which is from heaven." (II Corinthians            The Consistory and congregation of the Lynden, Washington Prot-
5:1, 2)                                                                    estant Reformed Church expresses their sincere and heartfelt sym-
                                                                           pathy to Mrs. Oscar Boonstra and her family in the passing of their
Mrs. Anna Boonstra (His  Loving.Wife)                                      husband, father and grandfather, MR. OSCAR BOONSTRA.
Peter Boonstra             (His Dear Children)
Joanne and Frank Vogel, Jr.       Andrew and Sylvia Boonstra                  "I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress, my God; in
Fred and Shirley Boonstra         Tressa   and  Don Kamphouse              him will I trust." (Psalm 91:2)
Janet and Gerrit Honcoop          Herman and Eleanor Boonstra              The Consistory of
Pauline and Billy Ray                And his 33 grandchildren, and         Lynden Protestant Reformed Church
Sandra and Loren Harsch              20 great-grandchildren                H. Vander Meulen, Pres.
                                                  Lynden, Washington       D. Scheele, Clerk


