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A   R E F 'O R M E D   S E M I - M O N T H L Y   M A G A Z I N E



IN THIS ISSUE:


        Meditation: "Remembering the Source of our  Wealth"

        Editorial: The Nature of .the Atonement

        All Around Us: Pike -On Trial
                         Troubles From Vatican II

        Beginning: The Book of Hebrews




                                         Volume XLILl/  Number 4 / Novem ber 15, 196 6


74                                                                                                       THE  STANDpRD  BEARER

                                                                                                                                                               T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
Meditation  -
      Remembering the Source of Our Wealth . . . . . . . . . . . . . D . . . . 74                                                                 Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July and August
             Rev. M. Schipper                                                                                                                         Published by the Reformed Free Publishing Association
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   MEDIlATION-
                                                                             :
   Remembering the Source of Our Wealth

                                                                                                                  by Rev.  iI&  Schipper

                                              "But thou shalt remember the  Lord  thy God,  fov it is  he that giveth thee
                                             power to get wealth,  thaf he  &lay establish his covenant which he  swaye
                                             unto thy fathers, as it is this  day."
                                                                                                                                                          D e u t e r o n o m y   8:18


             But thou shalt remember !                                                                                                               And then you have the text: "But thou shalt  re-
             In the context this expression in one form or  an-                                                                                   member the Lord thy God . . .  "
      other may even seem to be hackneyed. "Thou shalt                                                                                               Its is not only possible, but the sad proneness of
      remember all the way which the Lord thy God led                                                                                             the human heart to forget,  tolose  sight of the gracious
      thee. .  ."               "Beware that thou forget. not the Lord                                                                            Giver, and to rest in His gifts ! Alas! We cannot
      thy God . .  ." "Then thine heart be lifted up, and                                                                                         deny it  I We often rest in the stream, without getting
      t_hou  forget the Lord thy God . .  ."                                                                                                      up to the Fountain!         We turn the very mercies and


                                           THESTANDARDBEARER                                                             75

benefits which lade our path. in rich profusion into              The text noticeably is directed to God's covenant
an occasion of self-complacency and gratulation            people! A people redeemed from Egypt, the house of
instead of finding in them the blessed ground for          bondage!      A people whom He had formed for Him-
continual praise and thanksgiving!                         self, and to whom He was revealed as their God!
   But thou shalt remember Jehovah thy God!                He is not the God of all men! But He makes Himself
   For it is He that giveth thee power to get              to become the possession of a people whom He has
wealth!                                                    chosen before the world began, whom He redeems
   That He may establish His covenant! The cove-           through the blood of His Only Begotten Son, whom
nant which He sware unto thy fathers!                      He calls out of darkness into His marvelous light,
    Remembering the Source of our wealth!                  whom He separates from the world, and to whom He
   Truly a theme to contemplate in this thanksgiving       reveals Himself as the God of their salvation. A
season!                                                    people to whom not only it can be said: He is Jehovah
 Remembering! The Source of the power to ac-               thy God; but who themselves declare:  Heis Jehovah
quire wealth!                                              our God!
    Jehovah, thy God!                                             He is the source of their power!
   How contrary this is to the imagination of the                 Of the power to acquire wealth!
natural and depraved mind of man! Of man who                      0, to be sure, whatever our estate may be, it is
plans, who lies awake nights laying out the  strate-       of Him!
gems which he will use in the morning to bring                    Also of weakness and poverty! For He makes
about his financial returns, to amass his fortunes!        not only the rich, but also the poor. He makes not
Of man who plunges deeply into the stock market,           only the strong, but also the weak. He forms the
and who watches greedily the ticker tape to deter-         light, and creates the darkness. He makes peace,
mine the precise moment to sell for quick gain! Of         and creates evil.           He, the Lord, does all things!
man who, when he becomes religious, may be willing         Make no mistake about it!
on the day set aside for the nation to enter the houses           But the text emphasizes the fact of prosperity, of
of worship and to gather there with others to rejoice      wealth!
in the abundance of wealth he with bonyfingers piled              And in this. thanksgiving season, when we are
up before him, and who gleefully exclaims: "Behold         surrounded with wealth, and we bathe in luxuries, it
what I have amassed by shrewd thinking and careful         is well that we see it all in its proper perspective.
planning, while others slept, carelessly neglecting        Let us acknowledge that it was not acquired by our
their opportunities !    What I have acquired with         own power or initiative. Let us say it together: God
hard work and patient endeavor, while others re-           is the sole Source, both of our strength, and the
laxed and wasted their time and energies!" Of man,         wealth produced by it. Jehovah, our God, He is the
who rejoices in the abundance of things, but without       Giver of all we possess!
God !                                                             And He gives not without a definite purpose in
   Moses knew of the fickleness of the human heart         mind !
when he declared in the verse preceding our own:                  That He may establish His covenant! The cove-
"And thou say in thine heart, My power and the             nant which He swear unto thy fathers !
might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth."                   Not that we may consume it upon our lust, has
This the children of Israel, according to the flesh,       He given.        Not that we might conclude that this
would say when they prospered and became fat in            world is a pretty good place in which to live, and
the land.                                                  the luxuries of our wealth an aromatic suds in which
    But God says: I am the One Who gave thee power         to relax to the enjoyment of our flesh, has He
to acquire wealth! I am He Who giveth thee power           given.      Not for our purpose did Jehovah our God
to become powerful, the ability to produce riches!         give power to acquire wealth!
    Jehovah thy God !                                             But His covenant!
   The I AM THAT I AM! The eternal One! Who                       For His covenant's sake, He gave it! That friend-
did not become, but always was -what He is! The            ship relation between Himself and His people, which
Unchangeable, Covenant God!                                is based upon and arising out of the very Essence
   Jehovah!      The Name by which He particularly         of God, out of the Trinity of life, love, and friend-
reveals Himself to His people. On the basis of which       ship which constitute the very nature of His Being!
He establishes an everlasting covenant with them, a        Into which covenant He has incorporated Christ, the
covenant that cannot be broken1                            Firstborn of all creatures, and in Christ a people
   God1      The Almighty. One! Whose is all power in      chosen by Him!
heaven and on earth! Apart from Whom there is no                  His covenant! Not a relation we conceived of, or
power, or it must find its source  inHim, and in Him       desired to realize; but of His conception, and
alone !                                                    realized solely by Him!
   God! The Majestic One! Who shines forth over                   The covenant He establishes! He causes it to
all the idol gods of the heathen! Whose very Name          be.       He sets it up. He confirms it. This He did
implies His Self-sufficiency! the great, the glorious      eternally in His counsel of peace:          a covenant be-
God!                                                       tween the Triune God and Christ, the Mediator of
   He is OU'Y God 1                                        His covenant. He establishes it also in history, in


                                              THESTANDARDBEARER

time. This He does in the line of succeeding gener-            God which was upon him. In the deep sense it re-
ations of the believers and their seed. Centrally              ferred to all the grace of Christ, through which God
He realizes it in The Seed, which is Christ, and               would realize His eternal covenant of friendship
through Him and His redemptive work, with all the              with His people. And among these graces would be
elect of all ages !                                            the praise and adoration wherewith that redeemed
   The covenant which He swear unto the fathers!               and covenant people would remember Jehovah their
To Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob! And from them to all             God. Such is undoubtedly the meaning ofthe text!
the fathers in  Israel1      To these fathers of His
covenant promises He swear to fulfill them! All                   God, therefore, in the giving of His gifts real-
covenants must be ratified and sealed to give as-              izes His covenant with us. And we, in turn, respond
surance of fulfillment. And God swears  withan  oath           with the praise and adoration of His Holy Name!
for confirmation to these fathers. He swears by                   But thou shalt remember Jehovah thy God!
Himself, for there is none greater by whom He can                 To remember is to recollect, to bring to mind!
swear, that surely blessing He will bless them.                To remember our covenant God is to recall His
(Hebrews  6:13,14).                                            Name, Jehovah; to recognize Him as our God! And
   But in what way is the giving of wealth and the            in relation to our gifts, it is to remember that He
establishment of the covenant related? Is the divine          has given them to us; it is to bring to mind that He
purpose in giving us wealth that we may remember              has given with a purpose, that He may establish and
Jehovah? Or, is the giving of wealth that it may be           realize His covenant, the covenant which He made
the means to establish His covenant? And if the               with our fathers and which He is still keeping with
latter be the purpose, what are we to understand by           their believing seed!
that wealth? How can it possibly fit into the realiza-            Thou, Israel, church of the living God, which
tion of God's covenant?                                       has been redeemed from the bondage of sin and
   The wealth, and the power to produce it, must              death, of which bondage the enslavement in Egypt
undoubtedly be understood in the literal, material            was only a type; thou shalt remember! Remember
sense of the word. It refers to material abundance.           Jehovah, thy God!
However, we hasten to add, that material abundance                Not the world !
for Israel was always typical, a symbol of spiritual              How could the world remember what it does not
prosperity.     In the old dispensation and among the         know, what was never made known unto it? Never
people of God material wealth was typical, as the             has Jehovah our God ever signified to that world
very land of Israel which flowed with milk and honey          that He loves them, or that He wishes to establish
was typical of heaven.                                        with them His covenant. All that the world ever
   This can no longer be said today. Material                 hears of God is that He is God and He must be
abundance is no longer a sign of special favor from           served; and that all who turn their necks from Him
heaven.     It may very well be that one who has the          shall experience His wrath and hot displeasure.
abundance of this world's goods is the object of              But the world cannot know, and therefore cannot
God's curse, while the child of God who is poor is            remember that He is Jehovah their God!
the object of His favor. Material wealth for the                  Only the redeemed!
child of God today can only make it more difficult                Those who have tasted Jehovah's sovereigngrace,
for him to enter into the kingdom of heaven. Jesus            the grace of redemption in Christ Jesus, Who was
said: It is easier for the camel to go through the eye        greater, much greater  than Moses, who led out from
of the needle than for the rich man to enter the kingdom      that typical bondage!        Who belong to that people
of heaven. Unless the rich of the children of God             which Jehovah, our God, is forming by His Word and
use their riches as servants to attain unto that king-        Spirit, and gathering out of all nations ! Who have
dom, as means to glorify and to serve God, they               been formed for His praise!
can only serve as so many testimonies against them.              They shall remember!
   But in the text, in the deep sense of the word,               And remembering,- they shall praise Him!
wealth spoke to the true Israelite of the grace of               For all His benefits !



           .  .  . .Even though the calling takes place through the preaching of the gospel, it is not
           that preaching, nor the, preacher, but Christ that calls through the preaching and by His
           own Spirit. In fact, unless Christ Himself calls there is no preaching. Christ, Who died
           and rose again,  .Who is exalted at the right hand of God, and received the promise of the
           Holy Ghost, is not only the contents of the gospel, He is also our chief Prophet, Who
           calls His own unto salvation by His mighty Word. It is He that gathers His Church out of
           the whole world, not we.      -
                                                            H. Hoeksema, "The Wonder of Grace," p.55


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                                      77


EDITORIAL-


                           The Nature of the Atonement -

                                          Limited or General?

                                               by  Pvof. H. C. Hoeksema

THE CONFESSIONS ON THE DEFINITE AND                           such they also give expression to our faith, our belief.
PERSONAL ELEMENT OF THE ATONEMENT                             But the Canons are entirely objective in their form.
(continued)                                                   The Canons of Dordrecht are just what their name
   To some it may seem rather tedious to pass in              implies, namely: canons, rules, norms, standards.
review the doctrine of the atonement in our confessions       And therefore one never finds any personal, subjective
in detail. To me it appears highly necessary.                 statements in the Canons. Article after article our
    For in all the discussion, both unofficially in the       Canons pile up purely objective statements of doctrine
various religious journals which have dealt with the          about God, about men, about the elect, about Christ,
Dekker Case and officially in the Report of the Doc-          about the cause or blame of this or that, etc. But while
trinal Committee, there is very little appeal made to         their are many objective statements in the Belgic
the confessional position of our Reformed confessions,        Confession, these are usually, though not exclusively,
and still less real, basic appeal to the current teaching     couched in personal language.         That is, even as an
of our confessions. Even a superficial consulting of          article begins with "We believe," so it frequently
the confessions would have guarded against many ofthe         continues to refer .to that  "we" in the contents of the
errors which have made their appearance both in the           article in the same personal form. And it therefore
position of Dekker and Daane,  cum  sociis,  and in the       speaks of "us" without further defining it.
position of those who have in vain attempted to gainsay          This, in the second place, makes it incumbent to
them.      But the failure to produce a thorough-going        ask the question: who is that "we" speaking in the
exposition of the confessional teaching concerning the        Belgic Confession?
atonement has been characteristic of the entire dis-             One might be inclined, at first glance, to answer:
cussion of these current issues; and it has been fatal.       that  "we" is all the members of a given congregation
    For this reason I have continued to make a careful,       or denomination which holds to the  .Belgic Confession
step-by-step study of the current teachings of our            as one of its standards. And there would be a certain
Three Forms of Unity concerning the nature of the             amount of truth in this, as long as one considers the
atonement.                                                    Belgic Confession merely as a  standard,  a  form of unity,
    We now turn, therefore, to our Belgic Confession          as a doctrinal statement to which the members of that
and its teachings concerning the definite and personal        church or denomination formally subscribe and by which
element of the atonement. What does this creed have           they must abide. Thus, for example, if one does not
to say on this subject?                                       subscribe to the Belgic Confession and promise to
    We must remember that the Belgic Confession,              abide by it, he cannot be a member of a Protestant
while it does not follow the subjective, experiential         Reformed Church.
order of the Heidelberg Catechism, but rather the                However, as soon as one begins to view the Belgic
dogmatic, objective order, is nevertheless not entirely       Confession as  a'credo,  a statement of  belief,  it will be
objective in its method and statements. The Belgic            evident that the above explanation is at once too inclu-
Confessionis a creed, a  clredo,   in its form.  what does    sive and too exclusive.
this mean? It means that the form of this confession             First of all, it is too inclusive: for it includes many
is such that, while it makes many objective statements        false, hypocritical, dead members who do not truly
of the truth of the Word of God and while it follows the      believe and confess what the Confession states. For
dogmatic order, its form is that of a  confession of          one reason or another they outwardly and formally
faith.    It presents the objective truth as the object of    subscribe to this doctrinal standard; but in their hearts
the faith and belief of the church. For this reason you       they do not believe it, and their outward confession is
will find that every article of this confession is stated     actually a lie. That this is true will be evident as soon
in personal form. Each article is introduced by "We           as in your imagination you put the personal statements
believe . ..." or, "We know . ..." or,  "We confess..."       of the thirty-seven articles in the mouth of an un-
    Now what might be the importance of this?                 believing member of a church which holds to this
    It is evident, first of all, that this form is quite      confession.    And especially does it come into sharp
different than the form of our Canons of Dordrecht.           focus when you look at the opening statement of the
The Canons are also one of our confessions, and as            Belgic Confession: "We all believe with the heart, and


                                                   THE  STANDARD BEARER

confess with the mouth...." What a horrible lie that is                 2) While this article does not speak directly and
in the mouth of an unbeliever! Hence, the preceding                  precisely of the atonement, it nevertheless includes it;
explanation is too inclusive.                                        and again, it does so in a very beautiful way. It speaks
   On the other hand, however, it is  alsotoo exclusive.             of the work of God whereby "he delivers and pre-
A congregation or denomination,  - viewing the Belgic                serves from this perdition" the elect. In that work is
Confession, now, as a doctrinal standard,  - certainly               included the atonement, for the atonement belongs to
expresses that this confession is a standard and ensign              this delivering work of God. And the beauty of this
which distinguishes it from every other church-de-                   statement is that it emphasizes the unity of the work of
nomination as holding these doctrines to be the expres-              salvation.      All the work of salvation, from election,
sion of the truth of God's Word. But as surely as this               through atonement, through the application of that
confession is held to be the expression of the truth of              atonement whereby we are actually delivered from per-
God's Word, the faith once delivered to the saints, so               dition, through the work of preservation,  - all the
surely those who hold this confession express at the                 work of salvation is one. At no point can you make a
same time their unity with all who hold the same truth,              break in it, as those attempt to do who try to insist
the same faith, and therefore their unity with the                   that while the atonement is general, the actual salva-
church of all ages, the holy catholic church, and with               tion which follows from that atonement is particular.
all believers, those who profess a like precious faith.                 3) And the root of the entire matter lies in that
    Hence, in all these personal expressions we have                 significant phrase, "in Christ Jesus our Lord." There
the church speaking, the church organically, as it con-              you have the key to the whole issue concerning the
sists essentially of believers and their spiritual seed,             atonement, the key to the entire issue at stake in the
that is, God's people, that is, the elect.                           Dekker Case, the key also to the understanding of the
    And it is of the utmost importance to remember                   error of those who try to oppose Dekker's views but
this, especially in those articles which use this per-               nevertheless want to maintain that there are some
sonal language and do not make purely objective state-               kind of "common grace" benefits in the atonement.
ments.                                                               It is absolutely impossible to find anything in Christ's
    With this in mind, let us see what the Belgic Con-               atonement for any others than the elect, for the very
fession has to say about the question whether the                    simple reason that only the elect, none others, are in
atonement is definite and personal.                                  Christ Jesus! I am reminded, in this connection, that
    Let us turn, first of all, to Article 16. Because of             Dr. James Daane has on more than one occasion, for
its importance I will quote it in its entirety:                      some inexplicable reason, tried to make a great point
                                                                     of this being elected in  Christ Jesus. Well, I believe
         We believe that all the posterity of  Adam  being           and our confessions believe, this doctrine of election
   thus fallen into perdition and ruin, by the sin of our            in Christ Jesus.        And for this very reason I also
   first parents, God then' did manifest himself such as             believe that it must be plain beyond a shadow of a
   he is; that is to say, merciful and just: Merciful,               doubt that the atonement of Christ is in its very
   since he  ,delivers  and  preserves from this perdition           nature, according to its very divine design, and that
   all, whom he, in his eternal and unchangeable counsel             too, from all eternity in the divine decree, LIMITED,
   of mere goodness, hath elected in Christ Jesus our
   Lord, without any respect to their                                that is, PARTICULAR, DEFINITE, and PERSONAL.
                                              works: Just, in
   leaving others in the fall and perdition wherein they             Our Lord Jesus Christ is God's elect  pay excellence.
   have involved themselves.                                         God chose Him, chose Him first, chose Him to stand at
                                                                     the head of all the elect. There is no election, except
   The reader will perhaps wonder why I quote this                   in Him.       And for that very reason, there are no men
article: for it says nothing directly about the atone-               in Him, except the elect.
ment.                                                                   The matter is very simple, after all.
    But I do so for the following reasons:                              The question is this:  who  aye in  Christ Jesus?  Who
    1) This article confirms what I wrote above concern-             are in Christ Jesus when He is born in the fulness of
ing the meaning of the personal "we" and "us" in                     time?      Who are in Christ Jesus when He suffers all
the Belgic Confession,- and it does so very beautifully.             His lifetime on earth? Who are in Christ Jesus when
Notice that in this particular article we have an objective          He goes to the cross and sheds His atoning,  justice-
statement.     The article indeed begins with the usual              satisfying blood? And who are in Christ Jesus when
"We believe...." But when it states what  we believe,                He is raised from the dead and exalted?
it uses objective language. It does not say, for example,               Certainly, there are no benefits for anyone who is
`I . .  ..Merciful. since he delivers and preserves from             not in Him! A little child can understand this. There
this perdition us, whom he, in his eternal and unchange-             are benefits, of whatever kind they may be, only for
able counsel of mere goodness, hath elected...." But                 those who are  in Him  when He accomplishes all His
it uses the objective form: " . . . . . all, whom he . . . . hath    work and obtains those benefits. If a man is not  in
elected."      At the same time, however, the article                Christ Jesus,  there is nothing, absolutely nothing, that
makes plain that the  crWe" who believe this are those               pertains to Christ Jesus ,  - no justification, no right-
"all" whom God has elected. For notice that in this                  eousness, no forgiveness, no holiness, no sanctification,
very article the Confession reverts to the personal                  no preservation, no glory, no life eternal,  - nothing in
form.      The "a l l " are elected "in Christ Jesus  OUT            Christ Jesus for him.
Lord."                                                                  And who are in Christ Jesus?


                                                THE STANDARD BEARER                                                     79

   Our confessions have but one ultimate answer to that         says:  `I...God then did manifest himself  isuch as he is;
question: "all whom he, (God), in his eternal and un-           that is to `say, merciful and just...." This is plain
changeable counsel of mere goodness, hath elected in            language.
Christ Jesus our Lord, without any respect to their                But in concluding this installment, I want to em-
works."                                                         phasize once more the important point that there is
   4) Finally, while this is not directly related to the        absolutely nothing in Christ Jesus and His work,
question under consideration, we should not fail to note        including the atonement, for anyone except those that
that this article tells us something about the important        are in Him, that is, the elect.          The atonement is
question whether grace is an attribute of God. True,            definite and personal in its very nature and design.
it does not mention grace literally; it speaks of God's            And, as we shall see, the rest of the Belgic Con-
mercy.         But God's mercy is closely related to His        fession, when it speaks specifically of that atonement,
grace; and you may be sure that if mercy is a divine            confirms this fundamental principle of Article 16.
attribute, so also is grace. And notice what this article                           (to be continued)



   AU AROUND  US-

                                    Pike on Trial
                                           Troubles from Vatican II
                                                     Another Kind of Resurrection

                                                    by Pvof. H. ganko

PIKE ON  TRL4L                                                  that he is weary of the troublecreated by Pike's liberal
   October 23-28 was the date set for the meeting of the        views.    He charges Pike with heresy, violation of his
House of Bishops of the Episcopal Church. The bishops           ordination vows, and conduct unbecoming a clergyman.
meeting here will have a matter on their agenda which           Although the outcome of the trial is uncertain, what is
seldom appears any more on the agendas of ecclesias-            certain is that Pike is indeed a heretic even by Epis-
tical assemblies: the trial of a clergyman for heresy.          copalian standards. He openly denies suchfundamental
The clergyman under attack in this case is Bishop               doctrines as the truth of the Trinity, the Virgin Birth
James A. Pike.        This is not the first time that he has    of Christ, the Physical Resurrection of Christ, and
been charged with heresy, nor is this the first time            consequently, Christ's divinity.
that controversy has swirled around him. In the last               While Pike is no longer an active bishop in the
years Pike seemed to have derived a peculiar delight            church, he intends to fight the charges made against
from creating storms of controversy with his views.             him to the end. It is his opinion that the issue is not
He was always speaking out on something or other; and           one of heresy, but of whether "the Episcopal Church
what he had to say was inevitably heretical.                    confines itself to a narrow interpretation of theology
   Earlier this Fall he resigned his position as Bishop         or allows its traditional wide range of freedom in
in the Diocese of California and became a staff research        seeking the truth." In other words, to Pike the issue is
fellow with the Center for the Study of Democratic              whether or not the church will give him the freedom to
Institutions in Santa Barbara, California.         He still     believe anything he chooses even though his views may
retained the title of auxiliary bishop, a title which a         conflict with Scripture and the historic confessions of
short time ago he also resigned giving as his reason            the church.    `In his warped opinion, this is the true
his unwillingness to involve his successor in the pres-         conception of pursuing the truth.
ent quarrel.       But he still retains his office and the         Although there are many Episcopalians who have,
attempt is now being made to unfrock him.                       for a long time, been alarmed by Pike's views, still
   What is different about the charges brought against          the leaders in the Church are deeply worried. They
Pike this time is the fact that they are being brought          are concerned about what disastrous effects a heresy
by a fellow bishop- one who is a very influential               trial will have on the Church's image and what will be
prelate within his Church. Bishop Louttit of Southern           the result of the bitter conflicts created in the Church
Florida has filed the charges and has persuaded at              by such a trial. They have tried to persuade Louttit
least thirty other bishops to support him and endorse           to abandon his charges, but have not succeeded.
his request. His prediction was that he would gain as              At this writing, it is not yet known what the House
many as one hundred on his side. Bishop  Louttit-ex-            of Bishops decided, although reports are that the
plains his request for a heresy trial on the grounds            House of Bishops will let Pike off with a severe  rep-
          .


80                                                 THE STANDARD BEARER

rimand.  of one sort or another, thus permitting him to            of ignoring the hierarchy's authority in matters of
retain his office and hoping that, out of the active work          doctrine and faith; and made it quite plain that he was
of the ministry, he will not be such a bother to the               not about to surrender his own authority in these
Church.                                                            matters.
        In a sense, not Pike is on trial, but the Episcopal           The second event which emphasizes the dangers
Church itself.         Any Church which can tolerate such          following upon Vatican II was the publication of a secret
heretics as Pike obviously  is) cannot claim the right             letter sent to all the bishops signed by Cardinal
any longer to be a Church. The very fact that Pike has             Ottaviani, secretary of the congregation. The letter
been. permitted to speak bis views so long without                 was sent last July and just recently made public.
official censure is clear evidence that the Church has                Some quotes from the letter will demonstrate its
lost her heritage; and it will be hard put to reclaim              purpose.       (The quotes are taken from  Our Sunday
it - even should Pike be condemned and ousted.                     Visitov).
        Of broader interest is the fact that in this day of               It is the grave duty of the entire people of Cod to
ecumenism, heresy trials are increasingly unpopular                    see that the doctrinal and disciplinary decisions of the
and few in number. The point is, quite obviously, that                 council are brought into effect.
the church cannot be ;ecumenical  and at the same time                    It is the right and duty of the hierarchy, however,
maintain the truth. It must make a choice between the                  to regulate with vigilance, direct and promote the
two, for they in this day are mutually exclusive.                     movement toward renovation begun by the council....
                                                                          However, .we are compelled to grieve at the sad
TROUBLES FROM  VYTICAN II                                              news we have received concerning abuses in the inter-
                                                                      pretation of the council's doctrine prevailing invarious
        It is just possible that Vatican II, finished last year        areas, and the strange and audacious opinions arising
in Rome, may have lit a fire which cannot be put out.                  here and there which are more than slightly disturbing
It appears that many prelates within the Romish Church                 the souls of mariy of the faithful.
have taken Vatican II as a signal that they are released                  Studies and undertakings designed for a more ac-
from the authority of the Church and are given the                     curate investigation of the truth by properly distinguish-
green light to pursue their theological studies with                   ing between what must be believed and what is a matter
complete freedom. This is apparently the chief issue                  of opinion are praiseworthy; but from the documents
                                                                       examined by this sacred congregation it is clear with
in the troubles of the Roman Catholic Church. There                    regard to not a few opinions that they easily transgress
have always been many within the Church who have not                   the limits of a mere opinion or hypothesis and seem to
been in agreement with the teachings of their Church,                  affect dogma itself and the foundations of faith to a
but have kept a discreet silence for the most part                    certain degree.
since there is no room for deviation from accepted                     Some of the doctrines and abuses referred to are:
dogma.        There was always just as much heresy in this             1) The attack on sacred revelation; i.e., treating
denomination as anywhere else. Only it did not come                Scripture without consulting tradition.
to the surface very often. But now this seems to be                   2) The teaching of evolution of dogma with the
changing.        Members of the hierarchy are daring to            resulting doctrine that dogma is subject to change.
speak publicly of their forbidden views; and what they                3) The neglect of the authority of the hierarchy.
have to say is often a challenge to the Church's posi-                4) The denial of objective truth, making all truth
tion.                                                              relative and subjective.
        Two recent events make this clear, And these two              5) The denial of miracles, the divinity and resur-
events show also that the Pope is quite alarmed by it              rection of Christ.
all.                                                                  6) The denial of the Romish interpretation of the
        The first event is a meeting of twelve hundred             sacraments.                                I
Roman Catholic scholars held in Rome with Protestant                  7) The denial of the teaching of the Councilof Trent
observers and called the International Congress on the             on the matter of original sin.
Theology of the Second Vatican Council. The official                  8) The acceptance in some circles of the "new
Vatican Radio had one explanation of the reason for the            morality" and "situation ethics". .
meeting.        Speaking of the treasures of truth contained          9) The fostering of a spirit of ecumenism which is
in the Council's decrees, it spoke of the purpose of the           willing to sacrifice fundamental dogmas of the Church.
meeting as being to reflect on the effects they have                  The letter was intended to be secret and remained
caused, and interpret the spirit of the Council and the            so for some time.         But it was made public because
whole concept of conciliar theology. But the Italian               "`certain daily newspapers have not hesitated to pub-
Radio was a bit more blunt  - and to the point. It                 lish some parts of it -in spite of the fact that the nature
described the purpose of the meeting as being to mend              of the letter demanded complete discretion  - and have
the serious rifts within the Catholic Church  overinter-           misrepresented the proper substance of the document."
pretations of Vatican II decrees.                                  `So it was said, "We are publishing it lest doubts
        That the latter description is probably more correct       arise concerning what the letter does indeed contain
is substantiated by the greetings which the Pope sent              and what purpose the Holy See intended it to have.s'
to the meeting, in  which he warned sharply of the                    It appears as if the winds of change are blowing into
dangers present in the Church to separate theologizing             a gale.      And this gale is blowing the Church in the
from the teachings of the Church and described this                direction of the same modernism which is running
tendency as the road to heresy. He spoke of the danger             rampant in so many other denominations. All this will


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                                   81

surely enhance the possibilities of union  `and advance      life is stressed by Christianity and the old Christian
the ecumenical movement.                                     explanation of the resurrection is surrounded by agreat
                                                             deal of myth. In other words, this is science's explan-
ANOTHER KIND OF RESURRECTION                                 ation of the resurrection from the dead. What Scripture
   A new society has been formed with the name,              says is myth; this is what we must look forward to.
"Life Extension Society".        Its periodical is called       It is intriguing also that while theologians generally
"Freeze-Wait-Reanimate" which rather clearly' ex-            scoff at the whole idea, the reasons why they scoff
presses their purpose.  n They propose that a person,        are quite different from what we would expect. They
when he dies, have his body frozen rather than buried        are not concerned about the denial of the truth of
or cremated.      This will cost a mere  $4,000.00  plus     Scripture involved. They are rather worried about what
$150.00 a year for maintenance. The idea is that at          reanimation will do to the problem of overpopulation.
some time in the future, science will succeed in dis-        Or what reanimation will do to man himself who is a
covering the secret of life and will be able to "resur-      profoundly historical being and cannot likely live in a
rect" these bodies and restore those who have died to        different historical setting than the one into which he
a long life in the world.                                    was born.
   Such foolish ideas are really of very  littie interest
to us. What does interest us, however, is the fact that         How blessed is the hope of the child of God who
this is put into a Christian perspective. Proponents         awaits the final resurrection of his body, when he shall
of this program claim that their ideas conform pre-          be made like unto the glorious body of Christ, to dwell
cisely to Christian teachings since the sacredness of        forever in heaven!



TRYING THE SPIRITS-


    Assurance A Phantasm In  Mod.ernism'

                                               by Rev. R. C. Harbach

   Christianity has a very strong view of personal           charged Him,  "Thou...makest thyself God" (Jn.  10:33).
assurance of salvation. This is so because the Chris-        The modernist has no such doctrine of God. In fact,
tian believes that the objective word of his sovereign       because he does not ascribe the honor of Godhood to
Lord determines being, reality and destiny. He said,         the Son, he does not honor the Father  (5:23). But he
"My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they           does not want any doctrine of God. He cannot stand
follow Me: and I give unto them eternal life, and they       theology.    Nor can he tolerate any Christology. He
shall never perish."         The Christian believes that     prates about Christian experience and Christian con-
Christ spoke these words, and believing them he has          duct. He wants to interpret Christianity in terms of
that eternal life through  His. name.      He knows that     "the common consciousness." The essence of Chris-
Christ's word was written and recorded in order that         tianity, he will tell you, is moral integrity. What does
he might know that he has eternal life. The Christian        this mean in relation to Christian assurance? Accord-
has the blessed assurance of possessing eternal life         ing to modernism, the assurance of faith is the certainty
more fundamentally because he believes a little theology,    that moral integrity is a good thing. One would suppose
than merely because he can boast of "Christian ex-           this rather obvious; no question about it. But how do
perience." His theology comes from the revelation of         they ever arrive at such a conclusion, when they have
God, and begins with the doctrine of God. He stands          always considered all moral standards and religious
on the word of Christ who said, "I am the Son of God"        truth as relative? They have never had a doctrine of
(Jn.  10:36), and "I and the Father are one" (v. 33).        God, have never believed that God is the God of truth,
He much prefers the testimony of Satan's cohorts to          and is the absolute standard of all truth. To them,
that of lying liberals. The former were as truthful on       there is no absolute truth. What then makes a general
this point as elect angels, because they knew Him (Mk.       prevailing morality so desirable? Certainly they can-
1:33) and confessed Him to be Jesus of Nazareth, not         not expect to keep their ethical sanity in balance with
only, but also the Holy One of God (v.  24), and Jesus,      their own God-is-dead Frankenstein running around
Son of the Most High God  (5:7). Before he will take         loose! How can they talk of moral integrity when their
the word of a modernist churchman, he prefers the            own illegitimate child, the New Morality, goes around
testimony of more honest enemies of Christ who rightly       screaming that evil is good, good is evil, black is
                                                             white and white black!


82                                              THE STANDARD BEARER

      There are some who still talk of morality as the              It is possible to have Christian experience based
one essential ethic of man, yet who do so without the            on theology, but it is not possible to build a theology
least pretense to religion. The ethical culture societies,       on the basis of religious experience. For the question
with their Hollywood and Broadway conceptions of                 is, Whose experience shall be the norm of religion?
morality, have advocated virtue while refusing to be             the man-centered liberal's experience? or the  anti-
known as religious, and  actu.ally  repudiating all theology.    theological agnostic's? Modernists see that experience
But their moral standards, not as high as those of Ann           is not the best teacher, because it is not a sufficient
Landers, are about as commendable as those of an                 ground for religion. There must be another foundation
American judge.       The modernists and others of the           for a  "new theology.' ' But apart from Holy Writ, no
liberal establishment, like the Unitarians, are great            adequate foundation has been found, nor can be. So the
with their pious moral platitudes, and claim to have             liberal religionists have claimed that their religion
for their  .ethical  .philosophy  a religious basis. The         needs no foundation.      They say that the religion of
Unitarians still keep up this religious  pretence.  They         Jesus would stand even if it could be proved that Jesus
have not yet openly taken a stand where in all honesty           never existed.      For modern liberalism is a method
they belong, namely, to some such far left as the                rather than a system of doctrine. Modernism does not
American Association for the Advancement of Atheism.             concern itself with  what  to think; merely with  how  to
For: they still claim to be religious, although their            think. This will surely prove to be a waste of time, for
religion is a sort of ersatz "theology." It is really            why spend hours learning how to think when there is
not a, substitute for theology, for the simple reason            nothing to think about? There is no absolute truth.
that religion cannot be substituted and still be religion.       There is nothing true in itself, true always, under all
When nothing is taken from nothing, the remainder is             circumstances and conditions. Truth is relative, that
nothing.                                                         is, it is actually not true, but is to all practical pur-
      The ethical culture societies do not speak of a            poses merely a quasi-truth. The best that man can do
theological hope or of a religious assurance. They               to arrive at the "truth" is by a gradual evolutionary
have a boot-strap philosophy. They keep telling them-            process to proceed from the false to the less false.
selves, "Every day, in every way, I am getting better            Religious experience may then be  considered   true, or
and better." Now the jargon of the liberal churches              at least we let it pass. We use it, rather than accept
is really no different from this purely secular  ethic-          it as true. Then there is  noneed to think of assurance.
ism, yet they hide behind the Christian name, while              The assurance of faith is superfluous. There is not
at the same time they try to renounce all Christian              one proposition in our entire religious scheme that is
theology. They want to interpret the fundamentals of             objectively true. How then can we honestly speak of
the faith Auburn-Affirmation style, that is, for example,        assurance with reference to it? Take, for example,
they want to be free to say that the virgin birth may            the proposition, I believe the resurrection of the body.
just as well mean, among other possible understandings           Where is there place for assurance in reference to a
of it, that Jesus was born of a virgin who became preg-          statement not claimed to be true?
nant by a Roman soldier. One wonders why they, like                 You see, with the religious liberals, truth has been
the Unitarians, continue under the least semblance of            dead from the beginning. From them, not from the
church and moral theology. For they have no theology;            academic atheists, came the god-is-dead "theology."
the latter especially boast of having none, yet they             They all along have believed that truth has been dead.
maintain theological seminaries, church buildings,               Then they  have really believed that the God of truth is
public worship services and want government recogni-             dead.    Some will admit this flatly. One of the most
tion as religious organizations. When they do speak              representative of the religious liberals is Dr. Harry
of any spiritual assurance, they do not mean that they           Emerson Fosdick, known for his ministry at New York
can say, "I know that my Redeemer liveth, whom I                 City's Riverside Baptist Church. He pretends to  dis:
shall see for myself." (Job  19:25, 27) Their theme              agree with the God-is-dead fad. This is like a  Romney-
song is, "Nobody Lives Forever."                                 Republican or a Scranton-Republican debating a Demo-
      Though the religious liberals deny the verbal in-          crat. Democrats-in-disguise debating Democrats de-
spiration and divine authority of Scripture, and so              ceive only the sophomoric.        When liberals debate
disown theology, they still appeal to a chameleon                liberals, there is no controversy, no contest. Fosdick
theology or a "front" theology of their own devising.            pretends to disavow the God-is-dead philosophy, yet he
They obtain it not from Scripture, for they are con-             claims "the God Who Will Take Care of Everything"
stantly rejecting the Scriptures, would do away with it          is dead. "Certainly," he explains, "the King of Glory
entirely if they could, as is evident from their  Good-          ruling the universe from a golden throne is dead. The
speed, Moffatt and Revised Standard Versions of the              God That Walked in the Garden in the cool of the day...
Bible. Yet they continually appeal to Scripture as an            is dead, too." He avers that in the age of The Bomb,
authority for their` non-theology, A generation ago the          "the God of Battles" must die, and thinks that the
religious liberals made religious experience, not                hardest God to bury is the one who makes things come
Scripture truth, man's guideline.         This means that        out right.    "It takes real maturity to get rid of him!"
relative to all that beyond human experience they were           It is perhaps more difficult, however,  .to make the
agnostic.     Now the reference of religious experience          infallible God who defines right and wrong to die off.
must advance to a higher level in the realization of             Fosdick wishes the, as he calls Him, anthropomorphic
Socialism.                                                       God of the Scriptures dead, while he dreams that his


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                                    83

pantheistic god lives. His god who demands that we           brings us back to the abandoned religious ground of
work for Socialism and world peace is not dead.  Fos-        human experience.       "God" is nothing more than the
dick has a pious god reached through a conditional           mental projection of man's two-by-zero brain.
philosophy.     "If we want physical results, we must
fulfil physical conditions. If we want spiritual results,       Christian experience, genuine and valid, is based on
we must fulfil spiritual conditions...Modern religion        the standard of infallible Scripture, the doctrine of the
says: Go out in God's world and fulfil His conditions.       triune God, the person, work and teaching of Christ,
If you want health, fulfil the conditions of health...Sow    the doctrine of the vicarious atonement, the particular
good will and reap a better world..." He gets close to       redemption. For without this foundation one may speak
his god wherever there is truth. Truth "does not come        of some fantastical, ethereal, mystical experience, but
to man through magical handwriting on the wall,  .or         not Christian experience. Deny these fundamentals of
spelled out on stone tables, but from the inner counsel      the faith, and your vocabulary is not entitled to the con-
of the heart" (Readev's Digest,  Oct. 1966, p. 67). This     cept  God,  nor to the word assurance.





    FROM HOLY WRIT-


                                  The Book of Hebrews

                                        INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS


                                                 by Rev. G. Lubbers

   The book of Hebrews is part of the sacred, canoni-        the Spirit, and that it is not of private interpretation,
cal Scriptures.      Although there were some, both in       that we set ourselves to the task of writing somewhat
the Eastern and Western ancient church, who enter-           at length on this epistle. May it please our covenant
tained doubts as to its having a proper place in the         God that we may finish writing on this book in its
Canon, it was nevertheless gradually acknowledged as         entirety.
belonging with the authentic books of the Bible. In the         I have no vain pretentions of adding a new chapter
third Century, Origen wrote concerning the book of           to what able scholars, ancient or modern, have written
Hebrews, "God alone knows who wrote it". He ac-              on this subject.      We will benefit from their labors,
cepted it as Scripture.       It was at the Counsel of       whether we agree or disagree with them. Those read-
Carthage in 397 A.D. that the N.T. Canon was def-            ers who would further pursue the study of the book
initely established.    The decree of this Council was       of Hebrews beyond the scope of what we offer here
"that aside from the canonical Scriptures nothing is to      in these essays we refer to such works as the  Intev-
be read in the church under the Name of divine               national  Sfandavd  Bible Encyclopedia,  pages 1355-1362;
Scriptures".       Among the Scriptures mentioned the        New  S&&f-Hemog Religious Encyclopedia,  Vol. V,
book of Hebrews also finds a place. The emperor              pages i92.        For a rather complete survey of the
Constantine assigned to Eusebius the task of publishing      writers on Hebrews we refer to the Commentary of
"fifty copies of the divine Scriptures". This estab-         Franz Delitzsch, pages 22-35, where the author gives
lished the standard and precedent which gave recogni-        a list of both ancient and modern writers, no less than
tion to all doubtful books, including Hebrews. The           70 in number. The book of Hebrews has ever been a
publication of the Vulgate virtually determined the          source of inspiration for the church, and in every
matter.                                                      generation there have been those who taught the people
   It has been the testimony of the church universal         and gave them to drink from its rock-bottom truths
that the book of Hebrews too belongs to the sacred           concerning Jesus Christ as the fulfillment of the Old
Scriptures, which are God-inspired, and therefore            Testament shadows and types!
are profitable for instruction, reproof, for correction,        The letter to the Hebrews is designated by the
for instruction in righteousness, in order that the man      writer himself to be  a  "word of exhortation". (Heb.
of God be thoroughly furnished unto every good work.         13:22)       Writes he: "And I beseech you, brethren,
(I Tim.  2:16, 17) It is in the conviction that Hebrews      suffer the word of exhortation: for I have written a
is the Word of God, written by a holy man, moved by          letter unto you in few words." Many are these  ex-


 84                                             THESTANDARDBEARER

hortations in this letter. Each exhortation is based            and-woof of the Hebrew-argument. However, we reject
upon the solid basis of some aspect of the work of God          the "working concept" which is purported to be Philo's
in Christ, the great High-Priest.         The central ex-       Logos-doctrine.        So little does the writer to the
hortation which constitutes the key-note exhortation we         Hebrews in any way even suggest or allude to the "Lo-
find in Hebrews 2:1-4. If this exhortation is not heeded,       ges-doctrine of  Philo" that one is amazed that it is
then there is no heeding of any of the warnings,                asserted.      The writer begins with God speaking of old
threatenings and admonitions of the writer. For a               time through the prophets (in prophets) to the fathers
catalogue of such exhortations we refer the reader to           and now speaking in these last times through His Son.
Hebrews  3:l: "Let us consider the apostle and  high-           This is a far cry from the attempt of the learned, yet
priest of our confession"; Hebrews  3:12, "Take heed,           ignorant  Philo, who lived about the time of Christ.
brethren, lest  haply there be in anyone of you an evil         He was born about 20 years before Christ at Alexan-
heart of unbelief"; Hebrews  4:1, "Wherefore let us             dria.      He was a thoroughly Hellenistic Jew, who had
fear lest we do not enter into the rest"; Hebrews               sat at the feet of learning of the Greek poets and
4:14-16, "Let us draw near to the throne of grace in            philosophers, such as Homer, Hesiod, Pinder, Plato
full assurance."; Hebrews  6:1, "Let us press on to             and others.       His was the attempt to weave into one
perfection"; Hebrews  10:22, 23, 24,  "Let us draw              pattern Plato and the teaching of Moses and all the
nigh. .  m .Let us hold fast. . .Let us consider one another    prophets.      His was the teaching not of the living God,
unto good works"; Hebrews  12:2, "Let us lay aside              the Creator of heaven and earth, and the creature
every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset             which was made very good, but rather the Persian
us"; Hebrews  12:25, "See that ye refuse not him                dualism of spirit and matter, the former being good
that speaketh"; Hebrews  13:1, "Let the love of the             and the latter evil. And to bring this good All-Spirit
brethren continue", etc.       Surely it is a word of ex-       with the evil material world,  .he needed theso-called
hortation.      And when we read that it is a "word of          intermediate being called the Logos.       "The Logos of
exhortation," this is very evident from the entire              Philo is shadowy, unreal, not a Person; there is no
epistle.                                                        need of atonement; the High-priest intercedes, but has
       However, we have more than mere exhortation in           no sacrifice to offer as the basis of his intercession,
this letter, treatise or sermon, or whatever it be              least of all that of Himself; the Old Testament types
called.     We have here solid instruction from the Old         are only typical ideas, not typical facts; they point to
Testament Scriptures concerning the meaning and intent          the Prototypal Idea in the eternal past, not to the
of all the prophecies and shadows as they have their            antitypal Person and Fact of History; there is no
fulfilment in Jesus Christ, the Son of God. The writer          cleansing of the soul by blood, no sprinkling of the
is a man who thoroughly understands the Scriptures;             Mercy-Seat, no access for all through the rent veil
one who is mighty in the Scriptures. He understands             into the immediate Presence of God; nor yet a quicken-
 and hears what God spoke of old time through the proph-        ing of the soul from dead works to serve the living
 ets to the fathers, and what God hath spoken  pn these         God." Thus Edersheim writes in his "The Life and
last times through a Son.         (Heb.  l:l, 2)  ,And that     Times of Jesus," Vol. I, page 49, 50. And Prof.
which God hath spoken of "old time" and what He                 Edersheim continues, "If the argumentation of the
 "spake in these last times" the writer will unfold             Epistle to the Hebrews is Alexandrian, it is an  Alexan-
together with the exhortation to stand in the  fulfil-          drianism which is overcome and past, which only
ment of the promises by faith.                                  furnishes the form, not the substance; the vessel, not
       The book of Hebrews takes in the entire field of         its contents."
the Old Testament Scriptures: Moses, the Psalms, and                If the latter were true, then we would needs have
 all the prophets.     This does not mean that Hebrews          to assume that elements of divine revelation were
quotes from every "book" of the Old Testament                   borrowed from the philosophers by the Holy Spirit
Canon. Of the 39 books of the Old Testament Hebrews             to interpret the Old Testament Scriptures. However,
quotes from 13 books, either directly, key sections,            the life-and-world view here given was taught in the
or makes merely allusions to certain passages. All              Old Testament Scriptures, was spoken clearly in "these
told, there are some 52 quotations from the Old Testa-          last days" by God in the Son, who spoke of the recon-
ment in Hebrews.        These quotations are from the 5         stitution of all things through the coming of John, the
books of the Pentateuch (Genesis through Deuter-                Forerunner.       (Matt.  17:ll; Mk.  9:12) Thus the Holy
onomy) from II Samuel, I Chronicles, Psalms, Isaiah,            Spirit spoke of John by the mouth of the prophet
Jeremiah,  Hosea,  Haggai and Zechariah. This means             Malachi,  4:5, 6:  ". . .before  the coming of the great
that there are 26 books which are not mentioned.                and dreadful day of the Lord." The entire reasoning
Nonetheless, the chain of argument from the books               of the writer to the Hebrews is not from a formal Logos-
quoted is such that all the teaching of the remaining           doctrine, but it is arrived at by the sound exegesis
books is included.                                              which the Holy Spirit gives concerning the teaching
       We take serious issue with those who hold that the       and implications of the entire Old Testament Scrip-
writer to the Hebrews has a "working concept" which             tures !      Did not Abraham already see the heavenly
is the "Logos-doctrine of  Philo," which he relates             country? And David in the Spirit prophesies of what
to the "religious history of Israel, as it culminates           "the LORD said to my Lord." (Psalm  11O:l)
in Christianity." We freely concede that the history                We have spoken above, in passing, of the sound
of Israel- as culminating in Christianity" is the  warp-        exegesis of the Holy Spirit here in the writer to the

                                                                                        --  -


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                                          85

Hebrews. A rather careful study of the book of Hebrews             Israel's history and existence "till the Seed should
will indicate that the Key-passages for the proper                 come."        (Gal.  3:19-22) Nowhere is that meaning of
interpretations of the Old Testament is found in the               the throne of David set forth more clearly than in
Psalms.       The meaning of the Psalms, the Christ in             Psalm  11O:l.       So clearly is this stated that Christ
His exaltation through suffering, is placed strikingly             Himself used it to shut the mouth of the Jews, so that
on the foreground. The constant reference to Psalm                 they durst ask Him no more questions. (Matt. 22:41-
11O:l and 4 shows that this is the pivotal truth which             46)       The Spirit by whom David prophesied testified
explains all of the types and shadows as to their glori-           here in the hearts of these Pharisees.           The same
ous fulfilment. Here we may learn an infallible  her-              Spirit infallibly interprets this same Psalm in Hebrews,
meneutical principle, that the Scripture must be in-               showing the bearing that this has when the Priestly
terpreted in the light of Scripture, as  wellas the axiom          reality of the temple is connected with the throne of
that the less clear must be interpreted in the light               David.      It is the teaching of the King-Priest after the
of what is more clearly expressed.         Such a touch-           Order of Melchisedek.
stone we have here in the case of the Psalms quoted in
Hebrews.                                                                  May we search the Scriptures and be led by the
 Psalms indeed are poetry. True poetry interprets                  Spirit along sound exegetical paths, applying the correct
life and reality and history. And the poetry of the Spirit         rules of Biblical Hermeneutics  ! It is with this resolu-
in the mouth of David, who is a prophet (Acts  2:30), is           tion that we will begin our study of the  epistle to the
the Holy Spirit's interpretation of the meaning of                 Hebrews !




           IN HIS  FEAR-


                            Honour To Whom Honour

                                                              2

                                                  by Rev.  J. A. Heys

   Might does not make right!                                      You have the ability to do it,  and.therefore it is proper
   Might often usurps right and destroys those who                 to do so. You have the other  "over the barrel," and
have the right. But might never makes right. There                 there are so many with you performing the same evil
is a tremendous difference between power in the sense              practice that the authorities are going to "let you get
of ability, force, strength to accomplish and power in             away with it" because they have not room enough in
the sense of authority, right to rule. And it is because           their jails, and it would cost too much to feed and lodge
man today has such a potential, such a power to dis-               you till the trial.       Right then bows before might.
regard and defy those with the right to rule that we have                 Now both come from God.        Let us bear that in
the chaos which is so evident in today's world of                  mind. The right to rule comes from God, but so does
revolution and riot, revolt and rebellion. What the in-            the power wherewith men seek to overthrow right.
dividual could never do without being apprehended and              No, it is not given them' with the calling to disobey
punished, the mob can do today.         You just cannot            and to overthrow the authorities. It is given man-in
arrest a whole city of evildoers and put them in jail.             order that he may serve the Living God in a walk that
Crime punishment has become just too expensive a                   honours those in authority, and therefore in  ,order
matter to make it possible for the authorities to pursue           that they may walk in His fear. God has one purpose
it except for the isolated case of an outstanding evil-            with every gift which He bestows upon man. He de-
doer. You just cannot for financial reasons impris-                clares through the mouth of Solomon in Proverbs
on a whole city that disregards the law. And men                   16:4, "The Lord hath made all things for Himself;
are quick to learn this. The mob gets away with that               yea even the wicked for the day of evil." That last
which the individual fails to "pull off" with im-                  phrase may raise some questions and even objections,
punity.                                                            but there it is nevertheless. Our concern at the mo-
   This is so evident not only in race riots but also              ment is with the first part of the verse. God has made
in the many strikes that plague our nation. Both, of               all things for Himself. And that means that when He
course, are taking the law in your own hand'and pro-               gives us physical power, abilities and talents, position
ceeding from the premise that might does make right.               and office, it all is that you may serve Him therewith.


86                                              THESTANDARDBEARER

When, then, He has also appointed men over you to              desire- a perfect rendition, in harmony with that desire
rule in His name, He commands you with this physical           will readily agree to have a conductor to tell them the
power, ability, talent, position and even office to be         exact moment when to start singing or playing, at
subject to Him through honouring those whom He has             what speed to sing or play, when to come in with their
placed-in authority over you.                                  part, with what volume to come in so as to let the
      The right to rule does not of necessity imply sin.       melody sing through, and all that which makes for a
Authority over others is not a temporary arrange-              perfect and pleasing rendition. Does that mean that
ment of God from the fall of man until the return of           such a conductor implies that they all hate each other
Christ.       Adam was king by virtue of his creation;         and want to spoil the rendition? Of course not! When-
and Eve, although there was no evil in her yet, nor            ever you get two or more people together, one has to
yet in Adam's soul, was in subjection to Adam. And             have the right to say what they will do,
`so were the beasts of the field and all the earthly crea-        How much more mandatory is this when you deal
tion.      Genesis  1:26 does not look at a point after the    with sinful men. Adam and Eve were created facing
fall when it declares,       "And let them have dominion       God. One joint and mutual desire they had: To serve
over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air,        and glorify God with all His earthly creation. Eve
and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over          needed Adam's leading and authority to tell her how
every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth."            they could perform this joint work.         They were to
Did you ever go fishing?          And they would not bite!     dress and keep the garden. But Adam had the right
What could you do about it? Very plainly  after the fall       to decide in what corner of the garden they would do
man has no such dominion over the fish of the sea.             this today and in what corner tomorrow.         And there
Did you every try to rule a balky mule? Try to load            was no argument from her, for she was without sin.
a truck with cattle? The right may have been there, if         Her might she did not try to use to usurp Adam's
they are your cattle, but the might so often is sorely         right.      His love for her she did not try to use to get
lacking. Today we have no dominion - either as phys-           her own way. They had no children yet to honour their
ical power, nor right to rule  - over all the earthly          father and their mother. But Eve had Adam to honour.
creatures.      Certainly we have no right in ourselves.       And it cannot be denied that much of the failure of
For we are sinners who have forfeited the right even to        children today to honour their father and mother is
live in God's glorious creation. We do not deserve to          learned in the home where the wife does not honour
live, to be born, to beget a family, to breathe God's air      her husband.       But let us' leave this for later. The
and eat His food.        We have it, and the human race        point here is that after the entrance of sin into the
receives these, because in God's counsel there is a            world, there was an added need for  rul'e being invested
particular work for each of us to do. But we certainly         in men to make laws, enforce them and punish the
do not deserve these. We deserve only the wages of             evil doer.       This is evident in the little dialogue
sin, which is death.                                           that followed in paradise when God came and spoke
      Adam was created as the head of the whole human          to Adam and Eve.          Eve did not honour God nor her
race. But he was also created as the king of the whole         husband but blamed the whole sorry mess on the
earthly creation.       And to this Genesis  1:26 refers.      serpent.     Adam did not honour God Who had made him
God created him in His own image to,have,  the moment          king over such a vast domain but blamed God for giving
he came into being, dominion over all the earthly              him this woman.         Plainly both had lost their true
creatures.       He was king of the earthly creation as        knowledge and their fear of the Lord. They did not
well as its priest who must dedicate and consecrate            stand in awe and reverence before Him; and they were
it all to God, must live from the principle: The Lord          still walking in rebellion. That is no way to talk to
hath made all things for Himself." Further, if we wish         God1 God must put enmity in their hearts against the
to argue that Genesis  1:26 looks to the new creation          devil and his works, and love into their hearts for
in which man will have such dominion with Christ over          Himself, before they will again behave in His fear.
the new earth, we do no violence to Scripture; but let         But now, as this dialogue also shows, each and every
us remember then that exactly thereby we establish             individual goes his own way and seeks his own flesh.
the truth that authority and the giving of authority do        Each now seeks self. Each behaves proudly and be-
not imply sin necessarily. There will be no sin in that        comes a law unto himself. The unifying element in
new creation;       and yet there are some shall "rule"        the life of man was gone! The human race was so
over ten cities and some `over five. Luke  19:17-19.           very small yet at that time:          a man and his wife.
Besides Christ will be on the throne in the new Jeru-          But they no longer sang together the praise of God.
salem.      He is our Eternal King and will never give up      They no longer tuned their instruments to make sweet
His throne.                                                    music unto Him. They wanted no "director" because
      The moment you get two people together, one must         they wanted to go their own selfish ways. Eve wanted
have authority over the other, be they ever so sinless.        to be like God, and so did Adam want to be like God.
We read also, therefore, of ranks and degrees in the           Eve wanted the ability to decide for herself and the
world of holy angels. Michael is called the Archangel,         authority to determine for herself what is good and
that is, chief messenger.        But even then, this indi-     what is evil.      Adam threw off the "yoke" of having
cates an authority over other angels.          The host of     God tell him what is good and what is evil. He wanted
holy angels needs rule and regulation, authority and           that right and ability for himself. Satan succeeded
dominion.      All the singers or orchestra players who        masterfully in detaching man's love from God to turn


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                                       87

it into love of self.                                          idea and shows that she is in subjection to one with
   And so we are born today as individuals not only            authority over her. It applies also to the servant in
but as individualists who have each of us our sinful           respect to his master, to the working man in respect
ambitions and desire to decide for ourselves what is           to his employer, the citizen in his calling before the
good and what is evil.         There is such diversity of      ruler of the land, the pupil in the classroom before
opinion on all things in the world today on every              his teacher.
subject, because man is not united in his thinking                 We do well to take note of the history recorded of
concerning God.          "There is no fear of God before       Israel in -the days of Rehoboam. They that resist the
their eyes."       It is one thing that two people need        power resist God;       and they that resist shall receive
one of them to have the right to decide what they will         for themselves damnation. There can be no question
do and how they will do it, when they are agreed               about it that Rehoboam did foolishly.            His taxation
that it ought to be done and that they want it done.           was  unjust.      The temple and his palace were built.
It is quite something else when they have a calling            There was not the need for taxes that there were in
to do it but do not want to do so. And God Who ap-             Solomon, his father's day. There surely  wasno reason
points those with authority over others in the sphere          to double it as he threatened. All this did not change
of holiness among the sinless angels, also appoints            the fact that the Israelites were to honour him as their
and ordains men to rule over other men, that all               king and to submit themselves under his foolish and
things may be directed in the way of His sovereign             cruel reign.     In fact Romans  12:17-19 applies here as
and unchangeable counsel.                                      well, "Recompense to no man evil for evil....Dearly
   He is the One Who gives all authority. "Let                 Beloved avenge not yourselves, but rather give place
every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For              unto wrath;      for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I
there is no power (authority) but of God: the powers           will repay, saith the Lord."         And it is only a few
(authority) that be are ordained of God." Romans  13:l         verses later that we get that warning in Romans
And there is added the warning in the next verse,              13:l ff. against resisting the authorities.          But the
"Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth            ten tribes that rebelled here began a swift  ,journey
the ordinance of God." The fifth commandment ad-               to oblivion. They rebelled against God, the giver of
dresses this to the children in the home. But it               all authority, and The Authority over Rehoboam to
applies to all, as the passage in Romans 13 indicates.         Whom they should have committed their cause. But
The wife is under subjection to her husband; and Scrip-        the flesh wants vengeance.        The flesh moves us to
ture nowhere suggests, advocates or approves of a              resist God. The fear of the Lord keeps us honouring
fifty-fifty proposition. And the woman was not created         all those whom God has placed over  .us, the just but
in any such relation to the man. She has authority in          also the unjust, the thoughtful but also the cruel, the
the home with her husband over the children. She               easy taskmaster but also the greedy and tyrannical
is and should be an help meet, that is, an help fit and        employer.       If we have the fear of God in our hearts,
suitable to his needs.        She was created physically       we will wait for The Authority to recompense, yea
and psychically to be the counterpart of man, that             we shall forgive and pray for grace to be found faith-
which is necessary for the full and complete man.              ful ourselves in the trying circumstance in which
But being an  help  in itself condemns the fifty-fifty         He has placed us.





                 . . . . ..it should be perfectly evident that it (the new birth) is a sovereign work of God
             pure and simple, in  .which the sinner himself has no part whatever, in which he'does  not.
             in any sense cooperate with God, but in which man is wholly,passive.  It is important that
             this be emphasized in order to maintain the truth of salvation by grace only. And all
             the more important this is, in view of the fact that in our day this truth is usually dis-
             torted and misrepresented.       Those who insist to present salvation as contingent upon
             man's will, do not know what to make of this new birth, though they often speak of it.
             Rebirth as a new creation, or as resurrection from the dead, has no place in their con-
             ception of salvation. Hence,they make of regeneration something that depends upon the
             will of the sinner; If man will only accept Christ, he will be regenerated. They offer to
             the sinner regeneration! They plead with him, and beg him to be regenerated! But this
             is absurd.- As well might a man go to the cemetery and beg the dead to come out of their
             graves!       -For no more than Adam cooperated in his own creation, and no more than
             Lazarus cooperated in his own resurrection, no more does the sinner cooperate with
             God in his own regeneration. It is a work of God alone, without our help.
                                                          - H. Hoeksema, "The Wonder of Grace," p. 47


88                                           THE STANDARD BEARER



  CONTENDING FOR THE FAITH-



                          The Providence of God
                                    God's Providence and Sin

                                                 by Rev. H. Veldman

      We concluded our preceding article with the remark     that he is able to choose both, the good and the evil.
that man, although never sovereignly free, is morally        If this were his responsibility, then there would be
free.    Indeed, he does not possess the true freedom of     no responsibility of man, and this for the simple rea-
the service of Jehovah.      Only Adam, in the state of      son that no man, apart from the regenerating grace of
perfection, was able to choose the good and the evil.        God, is able to choose the good. This is clearly es-
The natural man is unable to choose the good, can            tablished in the Scriptures, as when the apostle Paul
choose only  the. evil. The regenerated child of God,        declares in Romans 8 that the carnal mind is not sub-
in heavenly perfection and immortality, cannot choose        ject to the law of God, neither can be. But, he is,
the evil, will never again be able to choose the evil.       relatively, morally free, always as in subjection to the
Man, however, although never sovereignly free, is            Lord.     For, in the final analysis, we may not speak
morally free. Although he is controlled and directed,        of man merely as an instrument, because aninstrument
wholly and sovereignly, by the living God in all his         is wholly passive, whereas man is an active, moral
activity, in all his thinking and willing and doing, by      creature. Man is spiritually, morally free in his sin.
the alone living God, we can speak of his freedom in a       He sins consciously, not because he is forced to sin,
moral sense. This demands some elucidation.                  but because he wills it. He sins out of himself spon-
                                                             taneously, is never forced to commit iniquity, never
      Man is a rational-moral being and therefore a re-      forced to act contrary to himself; he is always the
sponsible being. The animal is not God-conscious. It         conscious author of his own evil.  Heis never "driven"
never acts in conscious relation to the Lord. But            to anything he does. This is man's moral freedom,
whatever man does he does as in relation to God. He          the moral freedom of his will, that he sins, rejoices
is God-conscious because he has been created as              in it, choosing the evil always as the object of his own
adapted to the living God. He understands intellectually     will.
the speech of the Lord in creation and in the Scriptures.       Herein lies the distinction between origin and author.
In this speech of the Lord, in creation and in the           An origin is the willing, determining cause of anything.
Scriptures, the Lord speaks of Himself, that He is           That man sins surely has its determining origin in the
God, and that it is mandatory for all men, exactly           Lord.     From where else would sin come, in this de-
because they are creatures, to serve and love Him.           termining, causal sense of the word, if not from Je-
And man understands this speech of God in the intel-         hovah? But wholly different is the conceptionof author.
lectual sense of the word. Whatever he does he per-          An author is the conscious, active perpetrator, doer
forms most emphatically in relation to God. He hates         of a deed, himself spiritually in accord with the
the Lord or He loves Him. He walks from the principle        same;     an author, therefore, of sin is he who loves
of sin and enmity or of love. He seeks the glory of the      iniquity, does iniquity because he desires it, and who
Lord or he opposes that God. This is because of his          is consciously free in his sin. So, we reject all de-
rational-moral nature. Always he walks in conscious          terminism, as if man were ever a mere stock and
relation to his Creator.      And it is exactly this that    block, but we maintain him as a responsible,  free-
constitutes his responsibility, and that he is held ac-      moral agent.     In this sense God is never the author
countable for his action.     We must understand this        of sin, but He hates all sin with all that is in Him,
correctly.    We must not be confused in our conception      although He is its origin and cause. Sovereignly and
of man's responsibility. Of course, the natural man is       eternally the Lord willed what he hates. For sin is
never free in the true, spiritual sense of the word, as      the active operation of our nature against the living
God is free and His people are free through the grace        God and in this sin man rejoices.. The operation of
of the Lord. Neither is he ever free in the absolute,        the Lord in connection with sin, also as far as His
sovereign sense of the word, as if he for one moment         sovereign counsel is concerned, is always such that
were independent of the Lord. In this sense he will          man is its author, doing it not because he is forced to
ever remain the instrument of Jehovah, His agent.            commit iniquity, but as the desire of his own heart
And his responsibility surely does not consist in this,      and mind.


                                               THESTANDARDBEARER                                                       89

       This places us before an unexplainable mysrery.          us the willing and the doing, then we, as the result of
We readily confess this. Man is a free-responsible              that work of God,must will and do. And as far as the
being.      He performs iniquity because he loves to do         wicked are concerned, who refuse to walk in the way
so.       He is unmolested in his sinning, never wills or       of the Lord, who reject the living Christ because Christ
desires anything else, is surely a slave of iniquity,           saves from sin, and they love sin, they will be held
but always a very willing slave. This is man's free             accountable for the fact that they loved darkness rather
will, provided we understand this in this sense of the          than the light and walked in ways of iniquity because
word.       On the other hand, God is God. He performs          they hated the living God.
all His good pleasure. Also this truth we must main-
tain, proclaim, confess unceasingly. He is the sovereign,           How tremendously comforting is this truth! First,
willing Origin and Worker of all things, also of all            this truth is comforting from the viewpoint of God's
the spiritual deeds of man. It is He alone Who turneth          Church in the midst of the world. This subjective
man's heart whithersoever He wills, Who carries out             viewpoint of the comfort of the child of God is pri-
in minutest details the counsel of His own will, Who            marily the viewpoint of our confessions. This comfort
is the Divine Ruler, carrying out His eternal counsel,          is very apparent. If all rhings are controlled by Jehovah
through Whom are all things, which include every                then the Church is surely perfectly safe in the midst of
curse-word, every evil thought, even unto minutest              the world. Then no harm can befall us, no devil can
details.      How all these things take place we do not         really do us any harm, because all things are in the
know. How a holy God at all times causes sin to be and          hands of our heavenly Father. However, this is not
man remains responsible we confess to be a mystery.             the only comfort which we may derive from the truth
Even man's .responsibility  is surely called into existence     of God's providence and sin, particularly as they are
by the Lord.        Thar Jehovah hates. sin and therefore       related to each other in the light of the sovereignty
causes all sin to occur in such a way that man is morally       of God. Indeed, the Lord causes all things to work to-
free, loving iniquity, committing evil unhindered and           gether unto the good of His people. But, of what benefit
always as the object of his own choice, without ever            is it to us to know that God has willed sin? Would it
being able to choose the good, we acknowledge to be             not have been far better for us to enter into heavenly
the mystery.        This is not the mystery, that man is        glory without the way of sin and grace?
morally free; this is plain, and it is also every man's             We must also understand that the eternal glory
personal experience. -But what we cannot understand,            of the alone living God is my comfort. First of all,
and undoubtedly never will understand, is how God               this conception maintains God as God. We must face
works the reality of sin, Himself hating all evil. This         the reality of iniquity, its awful reality, especially in
is surely Scriptural and taught us in the Word of God.          our present day. To view sin as having its origin in
Unfathomably deep are all the thoughts of the Lord;             the devil gives us no comfort.         Then we lose God.
His ways are ever higher than our ways; He transcends           To know God, the only true and living God, is eternal
whatever we shall know.                                         life.    It must be and is the desire and longing of every
       This truth must be maintained. Upon this rests the       child of God that God remain God. There is none other
continual admonitory tone of the gospel.          We must       god beside Him.       That He is God, Whom we love, that
understand that the Word of God is never proclaimed             He works all things, that He holds the reins of all
but that the wicked are always commanded of God to              history in His hands, is of supreme importance and
repent of his evil way and to turn unto the Lord. Be-           comfort to the child of God. We may never support or
sides, it is not the will of the Lord that His gospel must      entertain any conception which would detract in any
be brought exclusively to the elect. How could the              sense from the glory of that living God.
church ever proclaim the gospel exclusively to the                  This, however, is not all. God did not simply will
elect? This does not mean that the gospel is a  well-           sin without anything more said. God must be God, but
meaning offer of salvation, that the Lord desires to            He must also be God as the holy and omniscient ,Lord.
save all men; but it does mean that God demands, as             Hence,  I know that man loves sin, but to the Lord it is
God, of  -His creatures that they serve and love Him            an abomination. And  I do not hesitate to say that we
with  all their heart and soul and mind and strength.           rejoice in the fact,. in connection with the presence
Because  I am a moral-rational creature, conversion,            of all this evil in the midst of the world, that the good
faith, hope, love, although worked by God, are deeds            and holy God has willed this night of sin and death. `If
of men. The godless surely have no right to walk upon           the devil held the reins of history in his hand  I would
the  ,way of sin, and it remains his calling, how impossible    not have a moment of peace and rest. If an accident
it may be for him to fulfill it, to love the Lord and to        had  raken place in Paradise, or if sin had entered this
praise His Name.         But also from this viewpoint the       world even through God's permission, then all rhings
gospel is at all times particular. Only God's people            now would be "repair work." But if the Lord willed
believe, mm from their evil way unto the Lord. Hence,           sin, then all is well. Then it must serve the highest
the gospel is primarily the proclamation of the prom-           glory of His everlasting Name. For, this means that
ise, is the light of God's mercy and love in the midst          God would realize the glory of His Name also in the way
of our sin and darkness. Continually we are admonished,         of sin and iniquity. All things shall unite in the glory
as the people of God, unto faith and repentance, because        of Jehovah, positively in heaven, but also in hell as the
the truth stands sure that God does all things, but He          eternal manifestation of His adorable holiness and right-
causes us to stand in .His grace. Is it God Who works in        eousness.     Well may we say, how truly we may  abhor


90                                              THE STANDARD BEARER

all evil:      0 Lord, if this sin, all this darkness must       of the Lord, also in connection with sin, not because
.serve the light, what shall then the light be, the  ever-       of iniquity itself, but as God's means through which
lasting glory of Thy Name! What depth of the wisdom              His glory is alone possible. Then our position in the
of the Lord!       Who, Lord, hath been Thy  counsellor?         midst of the world. is never in doubt; then our glory
None, and none could be  I All things shall glorify His          is sure; then nothing will ever be able to separate us
,Name.       Let us, therefore, praise Him, as the people        from the love of God in Jesus Christ, our Lord.



      A CLOUD OF  WITNESSES-


                                              Saul's Jealousy

                                                  by Rev. B.  Woudenbevg

                         And the- women answered one  another  as they played, and said, Saul  bath
                     slain his thou-sands, and David his ten thousands.
                         And Saul was  very  wvoth,  and the saying displeased him;  andhe  said,  .They
                     have  as&bed  unto David ten thousands, and to  me  they have ascribed but
                      thousands and what can he have move but the kingdom ?
                         And Saul eyed David fyom that day and forward.
                                                                                       I Samuel 18: 7-9

      It was a bitter and evil spirit that had descended         called Abner to him and inquired, "Whose son is this
upon the heart of King Saul. It had come at the moment           youth?" If Saul's mind had made any identity between
that Samuel had told him that he was rejected as king            the youth that had played the harp in his court and this
over Israel, and from that day it was never far from             lad who had just slain Goliath in the valley, it was only
him. The fruits of Saul's sinfulness could no longer             vaguely so. But now he wanted to know all that he could
be successfully suppressed within him.                           about him. He was determined to reward this young
      It was not, of course,  thar Saul gave in to it will-      man handsomely, and his father's house too if need be.
ingly. He was quite convinced that somehow in some               When Abner didn't know, Saul commanded the youth be
way he was going to conquer over this curse, and at              brought to him, and his first question was, "Whose
times it even looked as though he were going to do it.           son art thou, young man?" to which the simple reply
One such time was when he had called in that young               came back, "I am the son of thy servant Jesse the
musician from the hills to play for him. It had seemed           Bethlehemite."
as though those moody' fits of depression were going                 To Saul it was all just too wonderful. Suddenly
to destroy him; but before the gentle playing of that            out of nowhere had appeared this youth to save him,
harp they had been driven away, to leave him almost              not just from the Philistines, but from that cold grip
completely free. Everything would have been all right            of fear that had held him paralyzed week after week
then, except that the Philistines had invaded the land           for over a month's duration. And even more, once he
and pitched by the valley of Elah. Saul was forced to            had ascertained that this was  acrually  the same young
set himself over against them, and before the arrogant           man which had done the same thing once before with
demands of Goliath it had all returned upon him.                 his harp in the court, Saul was determined that David
For a good forty days he was held paralyzed by fear              was going to stay with him wherever he went. Here
and dark foreboding thoughts of uncertainty.             But     was one who was able to drive away that curse which
once again things had swung in his favor. The for-               Samuel had placed upon him, or at least so it seemed to
tunate shot of that young shepherd lad placed a stone            Saul; and he sent a messenger  toDavid's father telling
squarely in the forehead of the Philistines' giant and           him that henceforth David was going to live at the
he was felled like a mammoth piece of timber. With               royal court. Here was the kind of strength that Saul
a sudden surge, Saul's heart leaped within him as he             needed.
watched from his viewpoint overlooking that valley.                  In the court of Saul, David was soon a favorite of
Now let Samuel say that he had been rejected. Look               almost everyone. It was true that nothing more was
once again and see his enemies the Philistines turn              said or done about the promise of Saul to give his
and run, completely scattered. Once again Saul knew              daughter in marriage to whomever would destroy
it, he was going to win out in the end regardless of what        Goliath;    but this was not too surprising. Saul was not
Samuel had predicted.                                            one to be overly concerned with any promises he made.
      With the excited joy which only a man suddenly             After all, he was king and it was quite within his right
released from great danger and fear can know, Saul               to keep or not to keep, to remember or forget any


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                                    91

promises he chose. And now as far as marriage was               and greatest victories of his father's reign. Surely
concerned, David just seemed too young for that. In             David had known of the exploits of Jonathan and had
fact, it was much the way David felt himself. For him           admired them ever since.       As yet David had  but. one
it was enough just to be in on the excitement of the            short battle behind him, but it was the most amazing
king's house. Everything to him was wonderfully new,            victory of all, won singlehandedly by himself. But
to live amid the riches of the  king"s house, to eat  8t        what truly cemented the young men together was the
the king's table, and especially to be able to go out and       realization that in all that they had accomplished the
circulate among the king's soldiers, by whom he was             strength was not their own: it had been given to them
received with respect in spite of his youth because of          of God.      Those were blissful days, as the two young
what he had done to Goliath. Moreover, it was exactly           men wandered together sharing in relaxed friendship
this unconscious enthusiasm of David which seemed to            the mutual joy which they had in their God. And Saul,
revive the whole household of the king out of the cold          too, saw the mutual joy of the two young men and was
chill of depression that had marked it in recent months         glad.
and to fill it with a warmth and radiance that was                  Neither was it that the lives of David and Jonathan
entirely different. Everyone felt it, from the servants         lacked excitement. Now that Saul was recovered from
to the great men of the court and to Saul himself. In           his paralysis of depression, there were a great many
fact, so pleased was Saul with David that he insisted           things to be done.       The enemies of Israel had not
that the lad should accompany him wherever he went.             neglected the opportunity to close in upon Israel's
To him who had become so accustomed to the pain of              borders, and this now had to be  atrended  to. Thus for
dark depression, David's `presence was, like a healing          some time Saul was busily engaged in pressing back
balm that drove away all those moody thoughts which             the enemy forces from one place after another, and
so often troubled him. David seemed to do for him               always wherever he went Jonathan and David were
now what Samuel had done in the past, he gave him a             with him.
feeling of well-being, an assurance that things were                Also in this way it soon became evident that the
bound in the end to work out in his favor.                      valor of David was not a momentary thing confined to
   Meanwhile, a much deeper relationship was develop-           that one conflict with Goliath. He was a man whose
ing between David and Saul's son Jonathan Saul's con-           whole nature was attuned to the needs of the battle-
cern for David was finally only selfish and self-cen-           field.     He had a mind capable of understanding the
tered; but Jonathan found in David the attraction of a          strategy of battle, he had strength and agility and
faith in God and a love which he shared as his own.             courage, and above all he possessed the faith in Jehovah
It had begun already at the valley of Elah. Jonathan,           God which made the true warriors of  IsraeI stronger
perhaps more than anyone else watching that day, had            than those of any other nation. He was a man committed
known full well what it was that gave to David that             to defending the cause of Israel and of Israel's God
courage to move so quickly against that huge Philis-            against every enemy, regardless of whom he might
tine. It was a confidence gained from a living faith in         be, and the Spirit of God rested upon him. "The
the power of Jehovah, Israel's God. He had known it             battle is the Lord's" was his cry, and before it the
himself many times, as at Geba and at  Michmash.                enemy melted away as dew' before the heat of the
It was true that before the imposing figure of Goliath          sun.       Soon it was evident that David was the most
even his own courage had faltered; but once he had              valiant of warriors that had ever taken up sword in
seen that same faith working in another of God's                all of Israel's great army.
servants, it had thrilled him just as greatly as though             For Jonathan, just to watch and mark the exploits
the victory had been his own. From that day on his              of David was the greatest joy, an even greater joy
heart went out to David; and when the will of his father        than what he found in his own accomplishments. Again
brought the young man into their own home, it provided          and again he was found giving to his young friend his
him the opportunity to meet and know the one in whom            own robes, his sword `and bow and girdle, anything
that faith lived. It was not long before the hearts of those    that David might need to equip himself for the needs
two young men were knit together as closely as human            of battle. And neither did Saul object to all this. He
hearts can be bound. Theirs was the unity of two hearts         too found a special satisfaction in having a man like
sharing mutual love in their God.                               David beside him. David's presence was for him a sort
   Those days  ,which followed David's victory over             of living proof that Samuel was wrong and that the
Goliath were undoubtedly the happiest of Jonathan's             power which guarded Israel had not really turned from
life, and perhaps of David's too. Although Jonathan             him. Willingly Saul promoted David from position to
was somewhat older than David, the two young men                position until he was over the most valiant men of
had more than enough in common to bind them very                battle.      Once again all was going well it seemed for
closely together.      Both of them  ,had come to the           Saul and for his kingdom -- until, that is, they came
strength of life and still as yet its responsibilities          back one day from battle, and as was the custom, the
did not weigh too heavily upon them. Both of their              women of the city came out to meet them and to sing
interests were inclined toward the battlefield, the             the songs of victory.       But this time the women had
preoccupation of most kingdoms in that day and of al-           made up a new song, and as they entered the city the
most every day thereafter.         Jonathan already had         words of the song rang in their ears, "Saul hath slain
experience in battle beyond what could be expected for          his thousands," the- women sang, "And David his ten
his years, and he had led Israel in some of the first           thousands."


92                                             THE  STMDARD BEARER

      Suddenly those words did it, they pierced deep into       upon him but now was departed, that spirit rested
the very depth of his feelings, they opened a wound more        upon David. David after all was not the proof that the
ragged and tender and painfui than any sword of iron            curse of Samuel was really false.         David was that
could ever inflict, they turned and twisted and pulled          curse himself. With the piercing quality of a trumpet's
at the most sensitive part of his nature. Saul was a            call to battle, once again the words of Samuel racked
man of immense pride, and the women should have                 their  -way through his brain, "The LORD hath rent
known better than to praise anyone above him. It was            the kingdom of Israel from thee this day, and hath
fine and well to have a valiant man under him, but to           given it to a neighbor of thine, that is better than
have someone glorified above him, that he could not             thou." Now Saul knew who that neighbor was. In the
endure . And this time it was more than just wounded            shock of that realization, all Saul could do was to
pride that troubled him.        Suddenly, in a moment he        mutter to himself, "They have ascribed unto David
saw it. David was being given greater praise than he            ten thousands, and to me they have ascribed but
because David was greater than he was. The spirit of            thousands: and what can he have more but the king-
God, that spirit which had once rested at least in part         dom?" Saul's life indeed had become bitter.



 THE CHURCH AT WORSHIP-.
                                  "0  ?Vkshifi  the  Lovd in the Beauty  of hilines...."
                                                                               Psalm  96:9a



                                            Readmittance

                                                 by Rev. G.  Vanden  Berg

      It is not very often that the Form for Readmitting        church, has the first part of the Form for Readmittance
Excommunicated Persons is used by the church, This              read from the pulpit. This part of the Form consists
stems, first of all, from the fact that the Form of             of a lengthy announcement informing the congregation
Excommunication is not used very often.             Usually     of the Consistory's intention to receive this member
those members of the church who are worthy of                   into the church at the time of the next celebration of
excommunication do not allow themselves to be pub-              the Lord's Supper.
licly excommunicated with the form.           They rather           Concerning this announcement we may notice the
resign their membership after they have been placed             following important elements:
under the first or second step of ecclesiastical censure.           (1) It informs the congregation that the member to
Then, in the second place, of those few who are pub-            be readmitted has come to repentance, is ashamed of
licly excommunicated, it is a very small minority               his sins and seeks readmission into the church. We
that repents, is  willi,ng to confess their sin before          are to remember that all of this was accomplished
the church and seeks readmittance into the congre-              by the means of excommunication and the good ad-
gation. The majority continue in their impenitent way           monitions and prayers of the church.         The former
and become hardened in sin. Nevertheless, the question          m e a n s   i s , as we have emphasized in the past, a
of few or many has no bearing upon the fact that the            remedy to save. It is the final remedy.that is used by
church must always be ready and must stand with open            the church.       The admonitions and prayers of the
arms to receive the penitent.        In readiness for this      church       are additional means which are employed
eventuality the church has the "Form for Readmitting            during and after the censure process, and are also
Excommunicated Persons" as an essential part of her             directed toward the salvation of the brother. It can now
liturgy.      It is this form that is our present concern.      be announced that it has pleased the Lord to use
      The above mentioned form is divided into two parts        these means to effect repentance and to bring back
which are read in the church service on two separate            the sheep that was lost.
occasions.      In the past we stressed that the process of        (2) It enjoins the congregation tofulfill its God-given
excommunicating a member from the church is a very              obligation to receive such a person with joy. The at-
slow one, and now we must observe that readmitting              titude of the congregation is important and it follows
such a member is never done hastily.            The actual      that if the church was really grieved  whenit performed
readmittance takes place at the time of and in connec-          that disagreeable task of excommunicating this member,
tion with the celebration of the Lord's Supper. Before          it will abound with joy when it is able to receive him
that time, however, the Consistory, having decided to           back again.
receive this member again into the communion of the                 (3) It emphasizes the necessity of this readmittance


                                                 THE STANDARD BEARER                                                    93

being done according to proper order. All things, of            the Lord's Supper, consists of two main parts. First
course, must be done in good order in the church of             of all, there is a didactical part consisting of a state-
Christ and this is no exception. That order neces-              ment to the effect that no one has alleged any reason
sitates that the actual readmission must wait until             why this readmission ought not to take place, and this
the next celebration of the Lord's Supper, and in the           is followed by a reference to various passages of Scrip-
meantime, if there are members of the church who                ture which relate to the readmission of penitent and
know of reasons why this member should not be re-               excommunicated sinners. The first of these passages
ceived again into the communion of the church, they must        is Matthew 18, in which the loosing of a sinner is
give notice of this to the consistory. A mere objection         applied to the readmittance of the excommunicated
without sound reason will not prevent his being ad-             sinner. The Form explains the verse, "that whatso-
mitted.       Any objection brought to the Consistory must      ever his ministers shall loose on earth, shall be
be well-founded. These objections must be considered            loosed in heaven," to mean that when any person is
by the Consistory and then the decision concerning his          cut off from His Church, he is not deprived of all
readmission rests with them.          But suppose that the      hopes of salvation; but can again be loosed from the
Consistory overrules certain objections that are                bond of condemnation.        Reference is also made to
brought, and the members of the church who brought              Ezekiel 33 to show that since God takes no pleasure
them decide to appeal these decisions of theconsistory          in the death of a sinner, but that he turn from his
to the  Classis?      What should be done in such a case?       wickedness and live, so the church always hopes for
The Consistory, of course, as an autonomous body,               the repentance of the backslidden sinner, and keepeth
has the right to go ahead and receive this member into          her bosom open to receive the penitent. More directly
the church, but it would be the part of wisdom, if at           still are the references to I Corinthians 5 and II Corin -
all possible, to wait the outcome of the decisions of the       thians 2 where the apostle Paul admonishes the church
Classis.                                                        to receive again the sinner whom he haddeclared ought
        (4) It exhorts everyone in the congregation to thank    to be cut off from the Church but who had now repented.
the Lord for the mercy shown this poor sinner and               Thus the sentence of absolution is sure and confirmed
enjoins them to pray that the Lord will continue His            by the Word of God in John 20, "Whose  soever sins ye
work in him to his eternal salvation.                           remit, they are remitted unto them," and therefore
        In the way of repentance, rejoicing, approbation and    no one ought to doubt in the least that God will cer-
thanksgiving the fellowship of the church is open to            tainly receive in mercy those who truly repent.
the sinner who once was cut off. In this process the               The liturgical part of the Form consists of two
readmittance is based, not on any mistake which the             parts.    In the first part the person who is to be read-
Consistory may have made in this person's excommuni-            mitted is asked to declare before the congregation
cation, but solely on his sincere repentance, which             and before the face of God that "with all his heart he
implies his acknowledgement, that his excommunication           is sincerely sorry for his sin and stubbornness, for
was just. Now suppose that you have a case in which             which he has been justly cut off from the Church."
the Consistory actually was in error in imposing the            Also, that he truly believes "that the Lord, has for-
sentence of excommunication upon a member. What                 given him, and doth forgive his sins for Christ's
then?       When this is finally brought to light and the       sake,"     and, finally, he is asked to promise, as one
member, unjustly excommunicated, seeks readmittance             desiring to be readmitted into the Church, to live in all
into the church, how is this to be accomplished? It             godliness according to the command of the Lord. To
ought to be evident that the Form for Readmitting               this the brother answers, "Yes, verily."
Excommunicated Persons which we are discussing                     With this the readmission of the brother is in
could not be used in this instance. It simply would not         effect accomplished.' To this liturgical rite, however,
fit.      The above announcement with its various parts         is yet added words of the minister to both the read-
could not be made and the actual Form for Readmit-              mitted brother and the congregation. The former is
tance that follows could not be truthfully read here.           informed that "in the name and authority of the Lord
In such a case the proper way is that the Consistory            Jesus Christ" and through the office bearers of the
would make confession of their wrong to. the brother,           church he is absolved from the bonds of excommunica-
and this would be announced to the church so that by            tion and received again into the church.  This  places-
that very act the excommunication would be nullified.           him in communion with Christ and of the holy sacra-
This could happen many years later, when perhaps                ments and of all the spiritual blessings and benefits of
none of the original men are still serving in the  Con-         God, which He promises to and bestows upon His
sistory and that body now consists of all new members.          Church. The minister then expresses the solemn desire
Nevertheless the Consistory as a body is responsible            that God through Christ will preserve this brother to
for its decisions, and if these prove to be wrong, that         the end, and then, addressing him as  `#my beloved
same body must confess so that the evil may be removed          brother," he assures him that the Lord has received
from its midst. And, finally, the whole congregation,           him in mercy and admonishes him to be on his guard
for its complicity in the excommunication, must confess         against the subtlety of Satan, and the wickedness of the
to the brother and manifest that confession by receiv-          world and to love Christ!
ing him with joy into her fellowship.                              The congregation is enjoined to receive this beloved
        The Form of actual readmittance, which is read to       brother with hearty affection and to rejoice greatly
the congregation on the occasion of the celebration of          because "he that was dead is alive, and he that was


94                                            THESTANDARDBEARER

lost is found." With the angels in heaven they are to           unto life and in that very work He has given occasion
be glad, and this joy must be evidenced as they count        of great rejoicing to His Church.
him no longer as a stranger, but as a fellow citizen with              The congregation asks for mercy in behalf of the
the saints, and of the household of God.                     brother, that he may be assured of forgiveness, may
      Most appropriately this service is concluded with         have joy and delight in the Lord's service, may by
prayer to God. The prayer that is rendered is brief             his conversion edify many even as his past sin has
but complete. It contains an expression of praise and        given offense to many, and may walk steadfastly in the
thanksgiving to God, together with several petitions            Lord's way to the end.
for His merciful goodness in behalf of the penitent
brother and the' congregation. The subjective neces-                   In behalf of the congregation the prayer is raised
sity of this prayer stems from the awareness that we         that she may learn from this example that with God
can of ourselves do no good and therefore also do            there is mercy and He is to be feared. Further that
recognize the manifestation of repentance in the brother     she may receive the brother as co-heir of life eternal,
who has been readmitted into the church as the               and with him may jointly serve God in obedience all
evidence of Divine mercy.       No honor or credit for       through life. All of this is possible only through Jesus
this do we ascribe to ourselves, but we praise and           Christ, our Lord, in Whose Name the perfect prayer
magnify the Name of Him from Whom all blessings              which the Lord Himself taught us to pray is uttered
flow.     He has given our fellow-brother repentance         as the most fitting conclusion.



PICTORIAL NEWS-





                                 Shown here is the Hope Protestant Reformed Church
                              and parsonage of Redlands, California, of which Rev.
                              C. Hanko is pastor.      The property was obtained in
                              1959 and is located at the corner of  Colton  Avenue
                              and Webster Street. The church has a seating capacity
                              of about 150, with a pastor's study, a consistory room
                              and several Sunday School classrooms upstairs. Be-
                              tween the church and parsonage is a two-room kitchen
                              and social hall in which various societies meet. The
                              congregation was organized in 1932, and today has 35
                              families comprising 136 souls.
                                 Although  Redlands has not had a Protestant Re-
                              formed Christian School since 1954, a School Society
                              has been formed which has been active in studying the
                              possibility of re-opening their own school.
                                 Being separated by many miles from our other
                              churches, the people of  Redlands  often miss the
                              fellowship of the saints in our widely scattered de-
                              nomination.    Therefore they welcome the many people
                              who come to worship with them when visiting on the
                                                                  <
                              West Coast.
                                                                                   J.M.F.


95                                               THE"sTA~DARD~BE~R~~R                                 e

BOOK REVIEWS-

THE GRACE OF LAW, A Study of                 concluding the book with an- assess-               Notes" needs no introduction. It is a
Puritan Theology, by Ernest F. Kevan;        ment in the light of recent critical               familiar work, .found  in many a library,
Baker Book House, 1965; $4.95.               studies.      Especially is the author             and probably used rather frequently in
                                             concerned with demonstrating that the              preparation  .for Bible discussion in
      This is the second printing of the     Puritans maintained the teaching of                society meetings, etc.
book, first published in 1964 in England     Scripture and the Calvinistic tradition       I       This is a new issue of Barn& and
as a doctoral thesis. It is intended to      on this subject over against the  Anti-            it has the advantage of being, in one
explore the  ieaching  of the Puritans       nomians  - some of whom were them-                 neat, well-bound volume.
on the subject of God's law. A justifi-      selves Puritans and who denied the                    Two facts must be remembered
cation for such a study is found in the      validity of the law for the believer,              when using Barnes: 1) Although Albert
foreword where the author says: "It          and the Neonomians --who wanted to                 Barnes was a Presbyterian and a
is at this place in the discussion (i.e.,    return to the law as a means of sal-               graduate  .of old Princeton, he is not
that many Christian people believe           vation.     In the latter group belonged           strongly Reformed in his comments.
that the teaching of Jesus goes beyond       Richard Baxter, who taught that Christ             In fact, the Reformed reader will be
the Law of Moses and therefore thelaw        did not satisfy. the law but secured               compelled to disagree with his ex-
is no longer binding) that the teaching      instead a change in the law -- the com-            planations at more than one point.
of the Puritans on the Law of God            mon Arminian interpretation.                       2) These are notes, not a thorough-
shows itself to be so appropriate to            There is also some history given                going commentary. When using this
the modern situation.      The `Puritans     on the covenant of works. The author               volumen, therefore,. the reader must
stemmed the tide of moral indiffer-          points out that the covenant of works              expect this, and  z not be disappointed
ence in their day by the use of the Ten      did not originate with Calvin but was              when these notes are not more detailed.
Commandments, and it may well be             introduced into British theology by                   Nevertheless,  I can recommend this
that part of the answer to the modern        William Perkins.                                   volume as a very handy source of
dilemma is to be found by listening             The many qyotations from Puritan                quick reference material.. It is inform-
again to the voice of the Puritans and       authors bring out the colorful writing             ative; it suggests many a good thought
receiving the truth to which they bore       of the Puritan divines. The book is                in connection with the text;' and even
testimony."                                  highly recommended.                                though it is brief, it stimulates the
      This is a good book and an inter-                                Prof. H. Hanko           thinking and understanding of the text
esting one.     After briefly discussing                                                        by its brief insights. Use of the original
the Puritan scene, the author inves-                                                            Greek is not abundant; and where it is
tigates the teachings of the Puritans                                                           used, it is parenthetical, so that' the
in chapters entitled "The Law of God         Barnes' Notes on the New Testament,                popular style of the commentary is not
for .Man", "The Law and Sin", "The           Albert Barnes; Kregel Publications,                spoiled.
Place of Law in the Purpose of God",         Grand Rapids, Michigan. 1463 pages,                                                  H.C.H.
"The End of the Law", "The Continu-          $14.95.
ance of Moral Obligation' `, "Christian
Law-I<eeping", "Perfect Freedom' ,              To many Bible students "Barnes'

                RESOLUTION OFSYMPATHY                                             RESOLUTIONOFSYMPATHY
The Consistory of the South Holland Protestant Re-                  The Ladies' Society of Hudsonville Protestant Reformed
formed Church wishes hereby to express its sincere                  Church expresses its sympathy to one of its members
sympathy  to Mrs. Gysbert A. Van  Baren  and her seven              Mrs. Perlin  Schut, in the loss of her brother,
children, in the sudden passing of their husband and
father and our fellow elder. We are comforted by the                                     MR. GISE VAN BAREN
knowledge that what God has done is indeed well done.               "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His
Ps.  72:18 "Blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel,             saints."
who only doeth wondrous things".                                                                   Harry Zwak, Vice Pres.
                          John Flikkema, Clerk                                                     Mrs. G. Vander Kooy, Sec'y.


                                                                                  ,RESOLUTIONOFSYMPATHY
                 RESOLUTIONOFSYMPATHY                               The.Ladies  Society of the Holland Protestant Reformed
                                                                    Church wishes to express their sincere sympathy to
The Martha Ladies Aid Society of the Hull Protestant                one of their members, Mrs. Peter  Schipper,   inthe loss
Reformed Church expresses its heartfelt sympathy to                 of her sister,
Mrs. Ben Bleyenberg, in the loss of her brother                                          MRS. MARY SCHUILING
                  MR. JOHN VAN MAANEN                               May  our  Covenant God comfort the bereaved in their
"Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His              sorrow, "Casting all  your  care upon Him; for He
saints". Psalm  116:15.                                             careth for you". I Peter  5:7.
                          Rev. J. Kortering, Pres.                                                 Mrs. J. Van Kampen, Pres.
                          Mrs. John Hoekstra, Sec'y.                                               Mrs. B. Windemuller, Sec'y.


                                                                                                   _---
                                                                            ___ -- ~~
  96                                              THE-STi%i??`?i%&D  BEARER

                                          NEWS FROM  OUR  CHURCHES-
                                                 Nov. 1, 1966     into one booklet, is being read in so many states and
        Rev. G. Lanting, of Holland,,  Mich.,  is considering     countries? This small effort of our Mission Board is
  a call which came to him from our church at Edgerton,           being felt far and wide under the Providential care of
  Minn.                                                           the King of His Church, Who has  ..His "remnant" who
        The consistory  bf Hull, Iowa named the trio, Revs.       have not bowed the knees to Baal- those who are not
  D. Engelsma, G. Lanting and M. Schipper, from which             numbered with the people described in the.New Testa-
  the congregation chose Rev. Engelsma to be called.              ment those whose "love has waxed cold".
                               *  * *                                                         *  * *
        NOTICE:      Classis  East has appointed Rev. G. Van-         The  Second'Annual  Reformation Day Rally was held
  Baren  as secretary of the Classical Committee, and             `Oct. 31 in the Civic Auditorium in Grand Rapids,
  all material for this committee must be sent to his             `Mich.      This second. event did not bring out a larger
  address.                                                        audience than last year (probably due, in part, to the
                               * * *                              .competitfon.  of the `heathenish. festival of Halloween),
        The Eastern Ladies' League meeting was held               but was. characterized by silent and rapt attention.
  October 13 at our Southwest Church in Grand Rapids,             Prof. H.  C.`-Hoeksema  spoke on "Children of the Ref-
  with Rev. M. Schipper as speaker.  Hecalled  the ladies'        ormation," and in his introduction remarked that he
  attention to an, "Exhortation to be Submissive to the           would speak to as well as about those children. His
  Government" under the following points: The Idea of             approach to the subject was one that required  self-
  Government, Reason for Submission, the Way in which             examinaEion  by each of the hearers. The subject was  I'
  this Submission Can and Should be Manifested. The               treated in three divisions, headed: ReformatoryHearts;
  passages of Scripture on which his talkwas based were,          Reformatory Obedience and Discernment; and, Refor-
  I Peter 2:13-16,  and I Timothy 2:1-3.                          matory  Militance. The speaker defined the sharp dis-
                              * * *                               tinction between reformation and rebellion, and exhorted
        The Western Ladies' League met October 5 in an            his hearers to choose the former and reject the latter in
  afternoon meeting in our Hull Church. Rev. R. Decker,           all circumstances that demand our bowing to the
  of  Doon, was selected to address the league, and his           authority of the Word of God or that of the Church
  topic was, "Consecrated Conduct." Rev. Decker de-               Institute.       A specially trained choir of "untrained
 lineated theconduct, or conversation, to be a reflection         voices" under the direction of Mr. Roland Petersen,
 of the  olte  spirit that pervades the church, and which         provided the musical portion of the program which
 manifests the striving for the faith of the gospel with          augmented the message of the evening by means of the
  one mind.        A panel discussion followed the speech         God-given talent of song  - a vehicle specially suited
 which further pursued the subject of this unity of               to render praise to our Creator, Redeemer and Sancti-
 the believers in their -striving for the faith, while pil-       fier, the God -of our Salvation. According to the printed
 grims `and strangers in this world in which we are               programs this speech will again be printed in a booklet,
 surrounded by our adversaries. The speech and the                and the entire program (almost two hours) has been
 discussion were based on the Apostle Paul's admonition           taped.        Either, or both, may be had by sending your
 to the Philippians as found in the twenty-seventh verse          request to Rev. M. Schipper, 1543 Cambridge Ave.,
 of the first chapter; Musical numbers by members of              Grand Rapids,  Mich. 49506. The printed message is
 the various societies were enjoyed and refreshments              free, but there will be a small charge for the tape to
 were served before the ladies returned to their homes -          cover expenses.
 with a renewed resolve to strive to manifest a con-                                          * * *
 secrated conduct in their daily walk.                               The Young People's Society of Hull, Iowa, sponsored
                              * * *                               a Reformation Day Program Sunday evening, Oct. 30.
        We found this item of interest in Southeast's bulletin    Rev. J. A. Heys, of South Holland, Ill., was the speaker;
 Oct. 16:          "Here are the countries into which the         his topic, "An Ecumenical Approach of the Refor-
 booklet, `In the Beginning God' has been sent so far:            mation".       The offering taken at this meeting was for
 England, Finland, Hungary, Netherlands, Jamaica, Cey-            the Scholarship Fund of the Young People's Federation.
-Ton, Canada. Here are the States (a partial list, J.M.F.)                                    * * *
 besides our own: Alabama, California, Florida, Geor-                Our Mission Board is sponsoring a series of lec-
 gia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Missouri, Montana, New                tures, beginning in January, and covering the Five
 Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma; Pennsylvania,            Points of Calvinism. The plan is to have one lecture
 South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Wisconsin, Ken-                a month. The first two  .will be delivered by Prof. H.
 tucky. Most of these have been sent out on request of            Hanko, the third by Prof. H. C. Hoeksema, and the last
 those who have read the booklet and enjoyed it."                 two by Rev. G. Van  Baren. All these lectures are
                                                                  scheduled to be held in First Church, corner of Frank-
                              ***                                 lin and Fuller Avenues in Grand Rapids.  Deo  Vole&e!
        Isn't it remarkable that a series of lectures held in
 First Church in Grand Rapids, having been incorporated           .  . .see you in church.                           J.M.F.


