           The
     STANDAl?D
          BEARER
r           A REFORMED  SEMI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE                                   Y





     .  .  . it is not a small thing, but vilely wicked
     when men use the great Name of God as a
                                                                        ,
     mere exclamation of amazement or disgust,
     and, even worse, if that is possible, when
     they use it in spitting out the passionate
     words of their evil lusts and rages. In His dis-
     pleasure against these sins, God promises
     that He "will not hold him guiltless that
     taketh His Name in vain."
                       See ' `God is Holy" - page 353



.                                                Volume LX, No. 15, May 1, 1984  -


338                                                             THE STANDARD BEARER




                                                                                                             THE STANDARD BEARER
                               CONTENTS                                                                               ISSN 0362-4692
                                                                                            Semi-monthly, ejlcept monthly during June, July, and August.
                                                                                            Published b the Reformed Free Publishing Association, Inc.
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                                                                                  Editor-in-Chief: Prof. Homer C. Hoeksema
       Christ's Presence in the Lord's Supper . . . . . . . .338                  Department Editors: Rev. Ronald Cammenga,  Rev. Arie den Hartog, Prof. Robert
  Editor's Notes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .`. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .341    D. Decker, Rev. Cornelius Hanko, Prof. Herman C. Hanko, Rev. Ronald Hanko,
                                                                                  Mr. David Harbach,  Rev: John A. Heys, Rev. J.  Kortering,  Rev. George C.
  My Sheep Hear My Voice -                                                        Lubbers, Rev. Thomas C. Miersma, Rev.  Marinus  Schipper, Rev. James  Slopse-
                                                                                  ma, Rev. Gise J. Van Baren,  Rev. Herman Veldman.
       Our Order of Worship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .341          EditorialOffice:   Prof. H.C. Hoeksema
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       Disobedience Defended . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .343             Church News Editor:  Mr. David Harbach
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MEDITATION


          Christ's Presence in the Lord's Supper
                                                                        Rev. C. Hanko



               Ques. 78: Do then the bread and the wine become the very body and blood of Christ?
                  Ans.: Not at all; but as the water in baptism is not changed into the blood of Christ, neither is
               the washing away of sin itself being only a sign and confirmation thereof appointed of God, so
               the bread in the Lord's Supper is not changed into the very body of Christ; though agreeably to
               the nature and properties of sacraments, it is called the body of Christ Jesus.
              Ques. 79: Why then doth Christ call the bread His body, and the cup His blood, or the new
              covenant in His blood, and Paul the communion of the body and blood of Christ?
                 Ans.: Christ speaks this, not without good reason, namely, not only thereby to teach us, that
              as bread and wine support this temporal life, so His crucified body and shed blood are the true


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                                339



          meat and drink, whereby our souls are fed to eternal life; But more especially by these visible
          signs and pledges to assure us, that we are as really partakers of His body and blood (by the
          operation of the Holy Ghost) as we receive by the mouths of our bodies these holy signs in
          remembrance of Him; and that all His sufferings and obedience are as certainly ours, as if we
          had in our own persons suffered and made satisfaction for our sins to God.
                                                                        Heid. Catechism, Lord's Day 29

  Approximately two thousand years ago Christ sat           above, beyond, and below the bread and the wine.
with His disciples at the table in the upper room,          Both Catholics and Lutherans hold that the entire
celebrating the Passover feast for the last time. He        body of Christ is present even in the smallest parti-
said that He would not eat of the bread nor drink of        cle of the elements in the sacrament.
the wine until He should drink it anew with His                In that case one can only wonder what took place
saints in the kingdom of His Father. On that occa-           at the last Supper when Christ instituted the sacra-
sion He instituted His Holy Supper, which has been           ment by saying, "This is My body." Did Christ ac-
observed by His church as a sacred ordinance of              tually take His flesh and blood and give it to His
God ever since. As you and I sit at that Table on            disciples, even while He was bodily with them? Or
Sunday we are still carrying out the mandate of              did He perform a miracle, somewhat like the
Christ wth the church of all ages: "Do this in               changing of water to wine at Cana, and thus share
remembrance of Me" [I Cor.  11:24).                          His body and blood with them? We can likewise
  Lord's Day 29 deals with our celebration of that           wonder how eating the body and drinking the
holy Communion, especially from the aspect of                blood of Christ can, as such, bless us spiritually.
Christ's presence there. We face the question, In              Scripture teaches us nothing of the kind. Nor did
what sense is Christ present with us at the Supper?         Jesus' disciples have any difficulty with the words
To that question the answer of the Roman Catholics           of Jesus, declaring the bread His body and the wine
and the Lutherans could not satisfy our fathers. In          His blood. They recognized this as a common mode
the light of Scripture they were given to see that the       of speaking in that day. They knew also that Jesus
celebration of the Lord's Supper is not a mere               often used that mode of speaking when He spoke of
physical act of receiving, eating, swallowing, di-           the spiritual and the heavenly. When He said, "I
gesting, and thus becoming partakers of Christ and           am the good Shepherd," they had no difficulty
all His benefits. Celebrating the Lord's Supper is an        recognizing the fact that the shepherd on the hill-
act of faith, receiving and appropriating Christ by a        side was a parable, demonstrating to them Christ's
living faith in Him.                                         ministry among them. They knew what He meant
  For us Christ is present at the Table of Com-              when He said, "I am the true vine," or again, "I am
munion in a threefold way. First, He is present in           the Bread of life," or "I am the Water of life." Just
the bread and in the wine as signs of His broken             as they understood when our Lord said, "My flesh
body and shed blood. Second, He is present as our            is meat indeed and My blood is drink indeed." It
Host, distributing and presenting to us the elements         was the unbelieving Jews who took offence to this,
of bread and wine that we may partake in remem-              saying sarcastically, "How can this man give us his
brance of Him. And finally, He is present with His          flesh to eat?" (John  652, 55, 56).
grace and Spirit in our.hearts, assuring us by faith
that we are indeed partakers of Him and of all His             The fact that the elements in the Supper repre-
b e n e f i t s .                                            sent the body and blood of Christ as signs takes
                                                             away nothing from the fact that Christ is indeed
  When the bread is broken at the holy Supper,              present in the elements. The eye of faith sees
Christ declares to us, "This is My body which is            Christ's body broken and His blood shed as a com-
broken for you." And again when the wine is                 plete atonement for all of our sins. As our
poured, "This is the cup of the new testament in             Catechism expresses it, "As the bread and wine
My blood." If this were to be taken in the literal          support this temporal life, so His crucified body
sense, we would literally be eating Christ's flesh          and blood are the true meat and drink, whereby
and drinking His blood. This is the error of the             our souls are fed to eternal life." In that sense we
Roman Catholics, who teach in the doctrine of tran-          see Christ crucified for us as we see and partake of
substantiation that at a given moment the bread is          the elements.
miraculously changed into the body of Christ and
the wine into His blood. Therefore the wine is not             Christ is also present as the Host, who ad-
served to the communicants, lest a drop of Christ's         ministers the sacrament to us through His ordained
blood should accidentally be spilled. The Lutherans         office bearers, the minister and the elders.
never deviated far from this error, for they main-             It may be regarded as a mere detail that the
tain that the body and blood of Christ are present          minister breaks the bread and pours out the wine,


340                                           THE STANDARD BEARER



and that the elders serve them to the congregation;          sent to administer to me the elements, that is, to
yet the fathers have always insisted that these of-          bestow on me His grace and Spirit.
fice bearers are representatives of Christ also at the         Finally, Christ is also present with us by His in-
Table of Communion. The preaching of the Word is             dwelling Spirit in our hearts.
official ministry under the authority of the  con-
sistory; so also the administration of the Lord's Sup-         It is for us not a question as to how many wafers
per is official ministry by the consistory as Christ's       have been laid on our tongue, nor how often we
representatives (Romans 10). It is Christ who says           partook of the Lord's Supper in a merely formal,
through His office bearers, "Take, eat, this is My           outward sense. It is solely a question of how we par-
body, which is broken for you; this do ye, as oft as         take. Eating the bread and drinking the cup is
ye drink it, in remembrance of Me" (I Cor.  11:24,           shewing  the Lord's death even until He returns
25).                                                         with the clouds of the heavens (I Cor.  11:26). To
  It is exactly for this reason that we still insist on a    shew the Lords death I must confess that His body
"close communion." The official ministry of the              was broken and His blood was shed as a complete
Word and the Sacraments belongs to the sphere of             atonement for all my sins. This is a serious matter,
the church in the fellowship with God and the com-           for to do so thoughtlessly, as a mere formality,
munion of saints. The consistory is responsible in           because it is expected of me, or with bitterness or
the name of Christ, to do all in its power to keep the       malice against one of God's children, is to profane
Table of the Lord a holy sacrament. Paul writes to           the body and blood of Christ. "Whosoever shall eat
the church at Corinth, "Purge out therefore the old          of this bread, and drink of this cup of the Lord, un-
leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are un-             worthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of
leavened. For even Christ our passover  is sacrificed        the Lord" (I Cor.  11:27).
for us: Therefore let us keep the feast, not with the          The fathers spoke on this as a solemn feast, as be-
old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and            ing satisfied with the abundance of God's House,
wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of                 "a spiritual table, at which Christ communicates
sincerity and truth." This calling applies to the in-        Himself with all His benefits to us, and gives us
dividual who prepares himself to partake of the Ho-          there to enjoy both Himself and the merits of His
ly Supper, but this applies no less to the consistory.       sufferings and death, nourishing, strengthening
There are those who profess to believe in Jesus              and comforting our poor comfortless souls by the
Christ, yet they do so with their lips, while sinceri-'      eating of His flesh, quickening and refreshing them
ty is lacking in their hearts. The mere confession           by the drinking of His blood" (Confession of Faith,
that one believes in Jesus Christ as his Savior is           article 35).
often so very vague, so general, that the question             By faith we hear Christ say to us, "As often as ye
remains whether this person believes in the truth of         eat this bread and  .drink of this cup, you shall
the Scriptures, in the Jesus and the God of the              thereby as by a sure remembrance and pledge, be
Scriptures, and thus is a worthy partaker.                   admonished and assured of this My hearty love and
  This is one of the reasons why we celebrate the            faithfulness towards you, that, whereas otherwise
sacrament in our worship service and not at a social         you should have suffered eternal death, I have
or banquet. Christ accompanies His sacrament                 given My body to the death of the cross and shed
with His Word. The sacrament supplements the                 My blood for you; and as certainly feed and nourish
Word as an audio-visual means whereby God                    your hungry and thirsty souls with My crucified
bestows His grace to strengthen the faith of the             body, and shed blood, to everlasting life, as this
believer. The church meets in the communion of               bread is broken before your eyes, and this cup is
saints as the Body of Christ, united in the Spirit of        given to Me" (Communion Form).
Christ. "There is one body, and one Spirit, even as            Thus the Supper of our Lord becomes for us a
ye are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord,         spiritual feast in which we partake of all the riches
one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all,           and bounties of salvation which are prepared for us
Who is above all, and through all, and in you all"           in Christ Jesus, filling our hearts with comfort, joy,
(Eph. 4:4-6). Paul adds in I Corinthians 10: 15-17, "I       and praise. It is the foretaste in anticipation of the
speak as to wise men; judge ye what I say. The cup           Table of the Lord, the wedding Feast of the Lamb in
of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion          heavenly perfection, in the presence of God, of His
of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break,            Christ, and of all the saints, world without end!
is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For
we being many are one bread, and one body: for we              "Hereto help us the merciful and almighty God
are all partakers of that one bread." To celebrate           and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ through His
the Supper of the Lord to God's glory and to my              Spirit" (Communion Form).
edification I must celebrate it where Christ is pre-


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                               341



                                          Editor's Notes
                                               Prof. H.C. Hoeksema




  Editorials will be omitted in this issue, in order to      New Edition of the Church Order. The new
make room for other departments which have been            edition of our Church Order (in a looseleaf format)
waiting for publication and which were crowded             is in the last stages of preparation. This is not an
out when editorials and correspondence in some re-         RFPA publication, but is being prepared for our
cent issues took more than their quota of space.           churches by the RFPA Publications Committee.
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MY SHEEP HEAR MY VOICE



                                Our Order' of Worship
                                                  Prof. H. Hanko




   In our discussion of the elements in the order of       Church Order refers to this practice where it says,
worship in the last article of the Standard Bearer, we     "In the Churches only the 150 Psalms of David, the
talked about the reading of Scripture and its place        Ten Commandments,  the Lord's Prayer, the Twelve
in the worship service. In this article we propose to      Articles of Faith, the Songs of Mary, Zacharias and
discuss the reading of the law and the reading of the      Simeon, the Morning and Evening Hymns, and the
Apostolic Confession.                                      Hymn of Prayer before the sermon shall be sung."
  There are, in general, a few remarks concerning          (In a small-size edition of the  Psalter,  an edition
the reading of the law which we ought to discuss           published by the Netherlands Reformed Churches,
first of all.                                              an English translation of this song of the Ten Com-
                                                           mandments is included.)
  In the first place, this practice of reading the law       In the second place, this part of the service, and
in the worship service dates back to Calvin and the        other parts of the "preliminaries," was not usually
liturgy which he developed while in Strassburg. It         performed by the minister in the Dutch Reformed
has, generally, formed a part of the worship service       Churches, but was done by a  voorlezer,  who was
in the Reformed Churches since that time, although         usually one of the elders. In this country, historical-
it was sometimes done in different ways. For exam-         ly, the minister has read the law, and our churches
ple, in some of the Dutch Churches, the law was            have never, so far as I know, made use of a
sung instead of read, and even Article 69 of the           voorlezer.


342                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



  This particular element in the liturgy of the wor-        creatures which He has formed how they shall live
ship service does not have direct Scriptural sanc-          in the world. We are creatures whose every breath
tion. The inclusion (or exclusion) of the reading of        is given us as a gift every moment of our existence.
the law, therefore, is not absolutely required, and         We are utterly and totally dependent upon Him,
the determination concerning whether or not it              and without Him we cannot so much as move.
should be included lies in the area of Christian            When we come into His presence, as we do when
liberty. The decision to include it must be decided         we enter church, it is important that this truth be
on other grounds than direct Scriptural injunction.         brought home to us.
  What purpose does the reading of the law serve?             `Yet this cannot be the whole story. The reading
The answer to this question will determine both             of the law cannot and ought not to serve the pur-
whether it should be included, and, if it is included,      pose of a reminder of bare sovereignty. God's ab-
what place it should occupy in the order of wor-            solute sovereignty,over us is a sovereignty which is
ship.                                                       particularly exercised in  our salvation,  and the
  Our fathers have maintained that the purpose of           reminder of His sovereignty ought to stand con-
reading the law is threefold: 1) It is read to remind       nected with this salvation which He has given to
us of God's absolute sovereignty over our lives; 2) It      us. Hence it ought to stand connected with the
is read to serve as a mirror for our misery - accord-       spiritual  purposes of the law: the mirror of our
ing to the teaching of our Heidelberg Catechism in          misery and the rule of our gratitude.
Lord's Day II: "Whence knowest thou thy misery?               In other words, this reminder, through the law,
Out of the law of God . . . ;" 3) It is read to remind      of God's sovereignty stands subordinate to the
us of the truth that the law is the rule of gratitude       spiritual purpose which the law serves as it is a part
for God's people who have been delivered from sin           of the gospel of our salvation.
through the blood of Christ  - according to the               That the law serves as a mirror of our misery is
teaching of our Heidelberg Catechism in Lord's              the clear teaching of Scripture. We need remind
Days XXX11 - LXIV, where the detailed discussion            ourselves of only one passage, James i:23-25: "For
of the law of God and its significance for our lives is     if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is
placed under the general subject of "gratitude."            like unto a man beholding his natural face in a
  This purpose of reading the law must be clearly           glass: for he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way,
understood. The reading of the law is not intended          and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he
to impress upon the people of God that their salva-         was. But  whoso  looketh into the perfect law of
tion comes through the keeping of the law. There is         liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a
always the danger of this in the church of Christ.          forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man
There is always the abiding threat of "legalism"            shall be blessed in his deed."
which tries to fence in Gods people with countless            The point here is that the law of God expresses
"do's" and "don't's" rooted in the law. If ever the         .fully the perfect will of God for us. When that law
purpose of the reading of the law becomes a kind of         is read so that we hear it in our hearts, the result is
instruction in the "ladder of salvation" which we           that we compare our lives with that holy standard.
climb in order to attain heaven, the reading of the         The law functions as a mirror in which we see our-
law stands in flat contradiction to the rest of the ser-    selves reflected from a spiritual point of view.
vice in which Christ crucified is proclaimed as the         When we are reminded of the high.demands  of the
One Who alone is God's gracious Gift to bring us            law  - its requirement of perfect love with heart
salvation. He has fulfilled the law for us, and by the      and mind and soul and strength, and see ourselves
power of His Spirit, He fulfills the law in us. The         in comparison with it, the result is that we see our
law has its place in the worship service as part of in-     sins not only, but our sinful nature which is always
struction in salvation by grace through Jesus Christ.       prone to hate God and our neighbor. But it must be
Never must this purpose be obscured.                        remembered that this is possible for a child of God
  Because the law has this threefold purpose                only, in whom dwells the Spirit of Christ. The
which we mentioned above, it is somewhat dif-               mirror functions only for those who are already
ficult to assign it its proper place in the order of        regenerated and in whom dwells Christ's Spirit; it
worship. Let us try -to make this a bit clearer.            cannot function in this way for the wicked. When
  There is no question about it that one purpose            we see this terrible depravity of our nature, the
which the reading of the law occupies is to remind          result of it is that we flee to the cross to find salva-
us of God's sovereignty over our lives. And it is           tion only in Jesus Christ our Savior.
well that we be reminded of this as we enter God's            Thus, if the law has as its primary purpose to
house. God is the sovereign Lord of the universe            serve as a mirror of misery, the proper place for it is
and He has the absolute right to dictate to the             near the beginning of the service. You will recall


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                              343



that when we made some comments earlier about             show us how we are to express our gratitude before
the general order of worship as it had been prac-         God for such great deliverance -`also in the week
ticed in the past, we noticed that several Reformed       ahead.
liturgists provided room in the liturgy for confes-         It might be well to consider, therefore, changing
sion of sin and absolution. We remarked at that           the place of the law in our order of worship, some-
time that this practice was no longer common              times reading it in its customary place and some-
among us, as important as it is. If indeed, the law       times reading it at the end of the service, with the
serves as a mirror of misery, then the law itself can     minister making clear in each case what is the main
very well serve as the means to bring us to confes-       emphasis in this particular. service. Of course, it
sion of sin and to seek our salvation in Christ. The      ought to be understood that, if the law is read at the
reading of the law in this sense can then very well       end of the service as the "rule of our gratitude"
take the place of confession of sin and absolution -      then there ought to be some other provision made
especially in connection with a well-chosen Psalm         at the beginning of the service for "confession of
which speaks particularly of the forgiveness of sins.     sin' ' and "absolution." These things are, in my
  However, if the law has as its primary purpose,         judgment, worth pondering a bit.
the rule of gratitude, then its place in the beginning      At any rate, the reading of the law does have an
of the worship service is not by any means the best.      important place in our worship, and its practice
When the law serves as a rule for gratitude, it           ought to be continued. But, of course, as is true
serves to remind us of the truth that because we are      with every' other element in the worship service,
saved only by grace through the perfect sacrifice of      this part too has its benefit only when the people of
Jesus Christ, we, as a redeemed people, are now           God, hearing the law, pay close attention, listen as
called to express our gratitude to God for the great      to the Word of their God to them - their God Who
deliverance He has given. Thankful children of our        has delivered them from the land of Egypt, from
heavenly Father are obedient children, and obe-           the house of bondage - and receive that law of God
dience is expressed in walking in the way of our          into their hearts, whether that be as a mirror of
Father's will - as expressed in His law.                  their misery to lead them to Christ or as a rule for
  When this purpose stands on the foreground, it          their gratitude. True worship always depends for
would be much more appropriate for the law to be          its effectiveness upon the inner spiritual state of the
read near the end of the service, perhaps after the       worshipper.
sermon and just before the final song. In the gospel        We will discuss the reading of the Apostles'
we have been shown how our God through Christ             Creed next time, the Lord willing.
has delivered us from sin; now the law is read to

THE DAY OF SHADOWS



                          Disobedience Defended
                                               Rev. John A. Heys




  An interesting and significant fact is uncovered        ence Haman.  What we are told in verse 4 is signifi-
when one looks a bit carefully at the information         cant and revealing, namely, that Mordecai told
given us in Esther 3:l and 2. We are told that King       those who daily spoke to him about this stubborn
Ahasuerus promoted Haman  the Agagite, and that           refusal to do the king's bidding - for the king had
Mordecai the Jew  - who had been introduced in            commanded such action  - that he was a Jew. In
Esther  2:5 as a Benjamite  - refused to bow and          this one little item of information, however, there is
reverence  Haman.                                         a great deal of significance, and we ought to con-
  Now we are not in so many words told why                sider it and its import.
Mordecai refused so adamantly to bow and rever-             We may note first of all that the expression "`bow


344                                        THE STANDARD BEARER



and reverence" need not mean bow down and wor-           the basis partly that Saul is reported in I Samuel
ship as a god. It need not mean that Mordecai and        15:8 to have utterly destroyed the Amalekites with
the others in the king's gate were commanded to          the exception of Ring Agag. Yet we read later on in
perform an act of idolatry. There are instances          Scripture of Amalekites, as in I Samuel 3O:l. David,
throughout the Old Testament where men are               who reigned  after  Saul died, went to fight the
reported to have bowed down before men of higher         Amalekites. By the way, Amalek was a son of Esau.
rank in the kingdom. In Genesis 19: 1 we read of Lot     You will find this in Genesis  36:16. Apparently
bowing down before the two angels that came to           some of the Amalekites escaped, or were in other
him in the form of men. When Sarah died, ac-             lands at the time of Saul's battles.
cording to Genesis  23:7 and 12, Abraham bowed             There was an intense hatred between the
before the people of the land. Moses bowed before        Israelites and the Amalekites. In fact, God swore
his father-in-law (Exodus  18:7). Abigail bowed          that there would be war with the Amalekites from
before David, we are told in I Samuel  25:41. And        generation to generation. Of this Moses spoke in
these are only a few.                                    Exodus  17:16. And this was because when the
  If now what the king commanded was idolatry,           Israelites came out of Egypt and were at Rephidim
Mordecai would be correct in his refusal to heed         the Amalekites came and cruelly attacked the rear
the command. For we must obey God rather than            ranks of the multitude of Israelites. It was not an ar-
man. And indeed we would have here a manifesta-          my fighting an army, but an army attacking a
tion that Mordecai was a believing child of God.         defenseless people. Turning now to I Samuel  15:2
But the king did not command idolatry. We can            we read, "Thus saith the Lord of hosts, I remember
rule that out at once. Had he commanded such             that which Amalek did to Israel, how he laid wait
worship of himself, we would have a different pic-       for him in the way, when he came out of Egypt."
ture. But would he demand that the servants in the         #Now  remember that Mordecai had told those
gate recognize one of his higher servants as a god?      who sat in the gate with him, and that asked him
And would he not thereby say, "I am the big god,         why he did not obey the king to bow and reverence
but here is a lesser god whom you must also wor-         Haman,  that he was a Jew. That can only mean that
ship in order to receive me as  the  god"? No, that      his reason for not bowing down before this Amale-
bowing and reverence was showing respect for the         kite was exactly that he was a Jew. It was not that
man because of his office; and it was showing            he envied  Haman  and would not bow before him
respect for the king in that it showed submission        because  Haman  had the position to which he
under the king's rule. In fact, subsequent actions of    aspired. Being only an official who sat in the king's
Mordecai reveal that he did not consider this a case     gate  - which in light of Ruth  4:l could mean that
of being commanded to commit idolatry. A few             he was some kind of judge for minor cases, not in
days later he accepted all the homage of the people      criminal cases - he could not expect at that time at
when he was paraded through  .the street on the          least to be chosen as the king's right-hand man. No,
king's horse, and as led by Haman.  And what about       he would not recognize Haman,  would not humble
Esther, as we read in Esther 8:3? She bowed before       himself under him because he belonged to, or was
the king when she came with her petition for her         at least a descendant of, a nation that had shame-
people. And would the king later hang a god?             fully and cruelly treated his, that is, Mordecai's na-
  No, the explanation we find is what is stated in       tion.
Scripture in verse 1, namely, that  Haman  was an          But let it be noted and carefully considered that
Agagite while, as verse 4 reveals, Mordecai was a        once again the Scriptures give us to see that
Jew. This identification of  Haman  as an Agagite is     Mordecai was an unbeliever, in spite of his zeal for
not some superfluous detail. There is not one word       the nation in which God's church was found in that
in Scripture that is superfluous. We may not be able     day. Once again, it is a case of what he does not say,
to see the value of every word, but with God there       as well as a case of what he does say. Those who sat
is no wasted motion, no insignificant words. This        in the gate with him and asked him why he was so
little note is noteworthy, as is everything in Scrip-    stubborn and disobedient to the king's command
ture.                                                    were told by Mordecai, as I said last time, volun-
  As an Agagite,  Haman  was an Amalekite, or if         tarily and not under threat of life, that he is a Jew.
you will a descendant of Esau. It is as though we        Of course, there is truth in this revelation. He was a
have here Jacob and Esau; for Jacob's seed is            Jew, a descendant of Abraham. But it does not take
wrestling with Esau's, even though this seed of          close scrutiny to see that, had he been a believer,
Jacob is an unbeliever. All through history, from        and did the king command idolatry, Mordecai
the day of Jacob's birth when the struggle began,        would have said, "I refuse because Jehovah forbids
Esau's seed has been a bitter enemy of Jacob's seed.     it." Or he would have said, "Because I am a child of
Some question that  Haman was an Amalekite on            God, a believer who will worship no one but the


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                              345



living God, Jehovah the Creator of heaven and             reverence him. As highly as the king spoke of him
earth." Here is another instance where God's name         when he learned that Mordecai had saved his life -
is not mentioned, when a golden opportunity               and this.  Haman never did for the king  - and as
presented itself, and would have been seized eager-       great as his advancement in the kingdom was, ac-
ly by a believer. Now his only reason is his na-          cording to Esther 10, it is highly unlikely that the
tionality, not his faith.                                 king did not command that Mordecai be dealt with
  Or, if you will, take the position presented a mo-      even as Haman  was, so that all the servants in the
ment ago that this is not a command to commit the         king's gate had to bow before him and show him
sin of idolatry. Then you clearly have Mordecai           respect in his office.
breaking God's law which requires of us that we             It seems from Esther  3:2 as though this com-
honour those whom God has placed in authority             mandment of the king was directed only to the ser-
over us. That is the fifth commandment; and that is       vants in the king's gate. If so, it would explain why
a New Testament truth as well, as Paul makes very         Haman never noticed that Mordecai did not bow
plain in Romans 13:1-7 where he writes, "Let every        before him, and those who talked to Mordecai
soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is      about his disobedience had to tell  Haman  that
no power but of God: the powers that be are or-           Mordecai did not keep the commandment. Haman
dained of God . . . . Render therefore to all their       did not at that time yet know that Mordecai was a
dues . . . fear to whom fear; honour to whom              Jew, and he probably did not take him for a servant
honour." And since it was not a case of idolatry to       of the king either. But, having been told the facts,
bow and show respect, but, to borrow Paul's               Haman  watched the next time and became furious
words, to render fear to whom fear is due, and            that this Jew would not respect him in his office.
honour to whom honour is due, he would have said            We will not go into that matter now but will do
to those who asked him why he disobeyed the               so next time more fully, the Lord willing. But let us
king's commandment," Because I am such a vile             appreciate the fact that even when unbelievers
sinner, and I have disobeyed my God and must              fight against each other, God is working all things
bow before Him in contrition and sorrow for my            for the good of the church that these enemies hate.
sins." Neither of these did Mordecai. He neither          He does not simply care for His church and protect
confessed he would worship Jehovah alone; nor did         her, He uses her enemies, while He has his ever-
he confess his sin of rebelling against God's holy        lasting arms underneath that church, to serve the
law. And if this were the only instance in the book       cause of that church, be it unwillingly and un-
where he revealed himself as walking in sin, we           consciously. He will carry His church through the
could not yet call him an unbeliever. Believers can       flood and through the fire and make those who hate
slip and stumble and walk in sin for a long time          His church serve His church, even in their works of
before they are brought to repentance. David did,         wickedness and deviltry. With the same hands that
as far as his adultery and murder were concerned.         uphold His church He uses the world as tools
But in light of all that preceded, namely, his com-       whereby the way is prepared for His Son to come,
mand that Esther in no way confess Jehovah as her         that He may bring this church to everlasting glory
God, and in light of matters we hope, the Lord will-      through His cross, resurrection, and return in
ing, to reveal in future contributions to this depart-    glory. At no moment does He lose control over the
ment, it just adds up to the case against Mordecai        wicked. Never is there a slipup or situation that
being a believer. And there is so much yet that is        calls for Him to make a correction.
coming that a believer could never do so consistent-
ly without Scripture revealing as much as one in-           Today, as well, nation is rising up against nation.
stance of repentance before the account of his life       Worldly fight against worldly; enemies of God fight
in Holy Writ is concluded. There is nothing in the        against enemies of God. But it all serves the coming
book or elsewhere in Scripture that can be called a       of Christ, in fact, is a sign to the church that He is
positive, definite evidence that Mordecai was a           coming. Nothing prevents His coming, and all
believer. A Jew, yes. One with tremendous zeal for        serves preparing the day for His glorious return and
the nation of Israel, indeed. But no love for the         our glorious deliverance.
church in Israel. No love for God. No love for the
kingdom of God's Son. Disobedience is defended
instead of ended.                                                Take time to read
  Looking ahead to what we know follows in this
book of Esther, we can see the hand of God where-                     and study the
with He is preparing the way for Mordecai to
receive this same position that would require those               Standard Bearer
in the king's gate to bow before Mordecai and to


346                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



FR/OM  HOL,Y WRIT



         Believing All the Prophetic Scriptures
                                                 Rev. G. Lubbers




  The So-called Dispensation of the "Kingdom" -            save His people from their sins (Matt.  1:21).  He is
the "Seventh Dispensation".                                the Immanual-child in Whom David has a Son on
  It is with extreme difficulty that one tries to          his throne forever (Luke  1:31-33). It is the predic-
follow the Dispensational presentation of the              tion of the LORD through Isaiah to Israel in the
"seven dispensations."                                     darkest night of her life in the days of the wicked
                                                           and unbelieving King Ahaz (Isaiah 7:1-16). God's
  The difficulty of understanding this hodge-podge         oath to David, that a son from his loins would sit on
of teaching is that it is a very confusing presenta-       this throne forever, stands (II Sam.  7:12-17). And
tion of the most simple and lucid Bible truths. It is a    this is the kingdom spoken of by Gabriel to the
veritable heterogeneous mixture of truth and error.        virgin Mary in Nazareth when the birth of Jesus is
One thing is clear, that it stems from a refusal to        announced. It is the same identical eternal kingdom
believe all the prophetic Scriptures.                      spoken of by God in the night visions to Daniel
  We believe that we have demonstrated this in             (Dan.  7:14, 18). Such is the current teaching of
connection with each of the "dispensations" which          Scripture everywhere (Luke  1:31-33; II Sam.  7:ll;
we have considered and analyzed, and on which              Ps.  132:ll; Is.  9:6, 7; Is.  16:5; Jer.  23:5; Dan.  2:44;
we attempted to pass a basic critique measured by          Ob. 21; Mi.  4:7; John  12:34; Heb.  1:8; cf. Psalm
the clear teaching of the Word of God. We have             45:6, 7).
shown that to teach a dispensation of "innocence,"            It is well to keep this correct teaching in mind
of "conscience," of "human government," of the             when we try to follow the presentation of Scofield
"promise," of "law," of "grace" is pure fancy. It          which he constructs of the Kingdom of God. For
does not fit the pattern of sound doctrine. The pat-       the Bible is our guide alone. And Scripture must be
tern of sound doctrine is that there are two and on-       interpreted by Scripture! Both Scofield and I are
ly two "dispensations" of the grace of God, to wit,        subject to that rule. We must follow the axiom of
the dispensation of the Old Testament shadows,             Paul uttered in II Corinthians  10:3-5,  where we
which were promisory of better things to come, and         read, "Though we walk in the flesh, we do not war
the dispensation of the fulness of times. Briefly          after the flesh . . . casting down imaginations and
stated: The Old Testament and the New Testament.           every high thing that exalteth itself against God,
And each of these are Testaments of grace. The Old         and bringing into captivity every thought to the
Testament is the time of the promised and the New          obedience of Christ."
Testament is the time of the promises fulfilled unto
the children which were made unto the fathers                 We must also do such with our own thoughts!
(Acts  13:32, 33).                                            God is no respecter of persons;He is not mocked;
  Such is the rightly dividing of the Word of truth        and every man's work is tried whether he is truly
(II Tim.  2:15). We shall study to shew ourselves          building upon the foundation of the apostles and
also such a workman in this our consideration of           prophets, of which Jesus Christ is the chief Corner-
the Dispensational presentation of the "Kingdom."          stone (I Cor.  3:10-17; Eph.  2:19-22).
  There is only one Kingdom of God in the Bible,              Let us attempt to understand the presentation of
both in the Old and New Testament. The Kingdom             Scofield.
is the LORD'S (Ps.  22:28). It is the Kingdom of              We must remember that when Scofield speaks of
JEHOVAH, Who is the "`I AM THAT I AM," the                 the kingdom he takes the doctrinal position that the
mighty God of Jacob in Jesus Christ His Son, our           "kingdom" is and remains for  n&or& Israel for-
Lord (Exodus 3:14). He is this in JESUS, Who shall         ever. If we do not keep this clearly before our


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                                347



mind's eye we will be led astray in our judging of         text in his own Bible.
his position. And when we criticize this position we         b. That when Scofield says that the kingdom of
are not casting stones at a mere figment of our            God entered the New Testament "absolutely un-
imagination, or, to use a figure of speech, casting        changed" he has the unspoken assumption in mind
stones at a straw doll. The kingdom, according to          that the kingdom spoken of in II Samuel 7:8, 17 to
Scofield, belongs to the Jewish nation. The                David, and the kingdom referred to in Zechariah
"church" and the "kingdom" are not and never               12:8 refer to the Old Testament kingdom, with its
will be the same. And, what is more, it is the con-        capital city in earthly Jerusalem. That kingdom has
tention of all Dispensationalism that the "church"         entered absolutely unchanged. However, the basic
is not in the Old Testament, and that the prophets         assumption of Scofield glosses over the pivotal
really never speak of the church of the New Testa-         question of the Biblical implication of the "New
ment dispensation. The clock of prophecy stopped           Testament" in Christ's blood, as taught and
at Calvary, the kingdom ceased, and the predic-            delineated upon in nearly every page of the Scrip-
tions concerning the Kingdom will not be fulfilled         tures, whether in the Old Testament or in the New
until the time of the one thousand years reign of          Testament. It is one thing to say that at the "An-
Christ in the "Millennium" period. It is alleged that      nunciation" the promises of the "New Testament
at that time the promises concerning David's               in Christ's blood" were not yet fulfilled in Christ's
kingdom will be fulfilled for the Israel of God, as        death and resurrection, but it is quite another to
represented by the Jewish Nation.                          make the vague and sweeping statement that the
  The "kingdom" is Jewish!                                 "Kingdom  entered  the New Testament absolutely
                                                           unchanged." This entire proposition begs the ques-
  The "church" is the body of Christ, and this is          tion of the nature of the "Kingdom of God" even in
really for the Gentiles, the "Goyim," according to         the Old Testament already. We shall in another
Scofield!                                                  future installment in the Standard Bearer call atten-
  This we must keep in mind when we attempt to             tion to the spiritual nature of the Kingdom of God
understand the various theses and propositions             as spoken of in Psalm  22:27, 28.
which Scofield distills from the sacred Scriptures.          c. The proposition of Scofield does not rest upon
  Let us keep this straight in mind. Dispensational-       solid exegesis at all; it is a mere unproven assump-
ism teaches that Christ is King of the kingdom, and        tion which instead of guiding good exegesis and
He is Head of the church.                                  sound interpretation, rather stymies and stifles all
  But let us listen to Scofield himself.                   solid Biblical study and prevents the coming to
                                                           sound doctrine and godly life.
  In his "notes" (Scofield Bible, page 1226, a note
under I Cor. 15:24)  we read what Scofield denomi-           We now turn to proposition #2 of Scofield in his
nates "The Kingdom-truth Developed In The New Tes-         notes under I Corinthians  15:24, page 1226. This
tament. " We will follow Scofield's numbering.             proposition reads as follows:
  Proposition Number "1."                                    "The kingdom announced us `at hand' (Mt. 4:17
                                                           note) by John the buptist, by the King, by the twelve,
   "( 1) The promise of the kingdom to David (I Sum.       was rejected by the Jews, first morally (Mt. 11:20 note)
7:8, 17) and to his seed, and described in the Prophets    and afterward officially (Mt. 21:42, 42) and the King
(Zech.  12:8) enters the N.T. absolutely unchanged         crowned with thorns was crucified."'
(Luke 1:31-33). "                                            What must we say of this proposition in all
  This is proposition number "1," and it is really         fairness and justice?
the basic thesis. And we do well to pause just a bit
and ponder the implication of this statement. It is          That this proposition must be read in the light of
supposed to form the bedrock of Dispensational             proposition #l. The plain truth of the matter is that
thinking. We would call attention briefly to the           the "kingdom" here is the Jewish kingdom of  Sco-
following:                                                 field and dispensational teaching, but is not the
                                                           kingdom which John the Baptist, Christ, and the
  a. That quite evidently Scofield implies that the        Apostles preached as being "at hand."
message of Gabriel, spoken to Mary in Nazareth,
must be exegeted to mean that the "kingdom"                  We hope to point out that we are here dealing
spoken of in Luke 1:32, 33 is and remains a Jewish         with a very clever presentation of truth and error,
Kingdom, and that such a kingdom was given to              with facts and fiction mixed together. In so doing
David, so that the "throne of David" is literally and      the plain sense of the texts quoted is really denied.
exclusively the earthly throne in the earthly city of        This is a strong statement, we admit. We shall
Jerusalem, which David wrested from the hands of           need to show cogently and conclusively that such is
the Jebusites. I suggest that the reader look up this      indeed the case. We call your attention to the


348                                            THE STANDARD BEARER



following:                                                     more than the words of Gabriel to Joseph in a
  a. That the phrase "at hand" means something                  dream this will be more than evident; for the Christ
far more and different than what  Scofield  holds it            came and the Son of God is called  Jesus, Jehovah
does. Writes he, "At hand never is a positive affir-           saves. "For He shall save His  people  from their
mation that a person or thing said to be `at hand'              sins." And this people (ton  Zuon in Greek) is not a
will immediately appear, but only that no known or              "Jewish people" at all, but they are what the Bible
predicted event must intervene." And again he                   calls "My people" (Matt. 2:6). They were the "peo-
writes," when Christ appeared, to the Jewish peo-              ple who were praying in the temple," a people who
ple, the next thing in the order of revelation as it           must be made prepared for the Lord. God sent His
then stood, should have been setting up of the                  Son to visit and to redeem His people (Luke  1:lO;
David kingdom."                                                 17,  68). For the Savior came to be the salvation,
                                                               which God has prepared before the face of all peo-
  I am certain that a brief study will show that we            ple, a light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of
are here dealing with a basically erroneous state-             thy people Israel. Hence, the people is the Israel of
ment concerning the purpose of the "appearing" of              God (Luke  2:30, 31; Is.  40:5;  52:lO; Luke  3:6; Is.
the Messiah, the Christ. If we had read nothing                49:6, 8,9).                          (to be continued)

BIBLE STUDY GUIDE



                      I Peter - Christian Hope in the
                      Midst of Suffering (conclu'ded)
                                                    Rev. J. Kortering




  We have seen that the apostle Peter wrote this               them, their souls felt inner despair. How urgent it
letter to the persecuted saints who were in need of            was for them to be reminded of this Christian hope.
encouragement. The oppression of government, the               God would not let them fall. He loved them and
fear of death affected their outlook on life. With the         that love was sealed in the unchangeable council of
light of the Christian hope shining upon their dark            His election and in the precious blood of His own
circumstances, they would focus more clearly upon              Son. He had prepared an everlasting hope in glory,
their place in the world and the need to press on in           where the tears will be wiped away and the former
the calling of serving the Lord.                               things passed away and the saints are able to serve
THE GOSPEL OF HOPE                                             God perfectly. That hope so lives in the child of
                                                               God that it makes him a sojourner in this world. All
  Before we attempt to outline the letter, we                  that the world has to offer him cannot become the
should take note of the emphasis upon the subject              goal of his life. The hope is so emblazoned in his
of hope. Peter calls it a  living  hope  (1:3). It will be     soul that he is spiritually separate from everything
perfected in the coming of Christ at the end of the            of this world and longs in a good sense for home
world (1: 13). It is sure and steadfast for it is fixed in     (2:19, 20). No wonder then that the world
God (1:21).  By being partakers of Christ's suffering,         persecutes him. He is a stranger to them, for he
they will also partake of His glory (4: 13). After they        testifies concerning their sin and the impending
have suffered for a little while, Christ will make             judgment of God that shall come upon them (3:15,
them perfect  (5:lO). In the light of these passages,           16). Even their scoffs and threats, however, do not
we may conclude that hope is precious, it is future,           destroy the Christian's hope. They cause him to see
and it is certain.                                             it even more clearly. It establishes him in his calling
  The circumstances of life for these scattered                to serve God all the days of his life (4:12-16).  With
strangers was difficult. They were unsure of any-              such a message of hope there could be found joy in
thing, the dark clouds of persecution lowered upon             sorrow, light in darkness, even life over death (5:4).


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 349



A BRIEF OUTLINE                                             faithfulness; rather if they do well and suffer for it
   1. Introduction (1: 1, 2). Peter identifies himself      that is acceptable to God (2: 18-20). He points out
as the author of this epistle, and as being an apostle      that this.was true of our Savior, Who when reviled,
of Jesus Christ (1: 1). He directs it to the strangers,     reviled not again. He took abuse as God's servant in
scattered throughout certain regions of Asia Minor          order that He might accomplish His work of bring-
who are further identified as elect according to the        ing His sheep into God's fold  (2:21-25). The same
foreknowledge of God  (1:2). He pronounces upon             word is directed to the Christian wife who has an
them the apostolic greeting (1:2).                          unbelieving husband: she must be in subjection to
                                                            him and be holy in her conversation in order that it
  2. He blesses God for the guarantee of salvation          might please God to win him unto Christ. Her
in the midst of trials  (1:3-12).  He has begotten us       beauty is to be the hidden man of the heart, in a
unto a living hope through Jesus Christ  (1:3). That        quiet spirit. She may well turn to the women of the
inheritance is identified and reserved for God's            Old Testament as her examples (3: l-6). The
people (1:4). It is guaranteed because they are kept        husbands are exhorted to dwell with their wives
by the power of God unto that salvation (1:5). This         and give honor to them that their prayers be not
preservation includes the trials they must ex-              hindered  (3:7). The same counsel applies to the
perience, for trials purify them like gold in the fire      whole congregation. They are to live as brethren,
(1:6, 7). When Christ shall come, they will receive         be courteous, render blessing for evil and refrain
the salvation of their souls (  1:8, 9). This salvation     their tongue from evil because God cares about His
was the subject of the prophets' inquiry as well as         children  (3:8-12).
the content of the glorious gospel. The Spirit
aroused this inquiry both in the prophets and                 6. We must expect suffering for righteousness
apostles, and even in the angels (l:lO-12).                 sake. And the apostle instructs us how to prevail in
                                                            the midst of suffering  (3:13-5:ll).  We must not
  3. The pilgrims are to live holy lives in the face        become bitter when we suffer for righteousness'
of opposition  (1:13-25).  By taking control of our-        sake, but be happy and confident  (3:13, 14). The
selves through the power of grace, we are to be ho-         fear of persecution must not silence us, but we
ly and not to fashion ourselves according to our            must be ready to give an answer of the hope that is
lust, but as obedient to God's command for a holy           in us. By doing this, our enemies are put to shame
life  (1:13-16).  Christ redeemed us by His own             (3:15-17). Again, Christ is our example, for He too
blood, and by His victorious resurrection from the          was unjustly accused, but He went by His Spirit
dead He gives us spiritual power to live holy lives         and preached to the spirits in prison and an-
(1:17-21). This produces in us a spiritual rebirth          nounced His victory (3: 18-22). God preached His
through the Word of God and is manifest in us by            Word unto us for the express purpose that we
our obeying the truth and showing unfeigned love            should no longer serve the lust of the flesh, but the
for the brethren  (1:22-25).                                will of God. This means we are now spiritually dif-
  4. We as living stones are to serve Christ in His         ferent from our former friends (heathen Gentiles)
temple  (2:1-10).  We are to desire the milk of the         and must expect their opposition (4:1-6).  To secure
word as newborn babies (2: l-3). This word is pro-          strength in dealing with them, it is important that
vided by Christ Who is the Chief Cornerstone in             we be sober and pray much, draw together as
God's temple. We too are living stones in that tem-         God's people, and express love, hospitality, using
ple, and our priesthood is not earthly but spiritual        all our spiritual gifts for the mutual benefit of all
(2:4-6). As a chosen generation and royal                   (4:7-l 1). If we keep this in mind, we realize it is not
priesthood, Christ is precious both to believing            strange to suffer, but we may rejoice in that we suf-
Jews and Gentiles. To others He is a stone of               fer with Christ. We are warned not to suffer for our
stumbling and a rock of offense (2:7-10).                   own faults as evil doers, but as Christians. Judgment
  5. The apostle Peter refers to specific examples          must begin at the house of God and this requires of
of the holy life of the pilgrim (2:11-3:  13). He points    us that we commit the keeping of our souls to God
out that a pilgrim must abstain from fleshly lusts          (4:12-19). The office bearers must be diligent to care
and live a God-glorifying life, especially~ among the       for each other and resist the devil who goes about
Gentiles (2: 11, 12). They were to submit to govern-        as a roaring lion  (5:6-g). God will preserve us
ment in order that those who ignorantly accuse              through this suffering, and all glory must be given
them of being troublemakers may be silenced and             unto Him  (5:10, 11).
God may be magnified in their obedience. "Honor               7. Conclusion and farewell (5: 12-14). He men-
all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor              tions that  Sylvanus  (Silas) will bring the letter
the king" (2:13-17).  He next instructs servants to be      (5: 12). He refers to the writing of the letter as ex-
subject to the froward masters as well as the gentle        pressing God's grace to them (5: 12). The church at
ones. If they suffer for wrongdoing, it is no mark of       Babylon extends their greeting as well as Marcus


350                                                THE STANDARD BEARER



his son (5: 13). The concluding greetings are ex-               passages that emphasize that it is so important for
pressed (5: 14).                                                the Christian to continue to be faithful to his call-
QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION                                        ing, especially when he is persecuted for it. Explain
                                                                why this is true.
   1. Consider how Simon Peter was especially
prepared by God to write this letter about enduring               8i The passage in I Peter 1:22-25 is used to sup-
suffering. Review some of the things in his life that           port the idea of "mediate regeneration," i.e., that
prepared him for this.                                          we are regenerated by means of the preaching of
                                                                the gospel. Does this passage teach this?
  2. Explain how the need was great at this time
for a message of hope in the midst of fiery trials.               9: Another difficult passage is found in  3:17-22.
                                                                Different explanations include: a.) That Christ went
  3. Scan the letter and indicate what it says about            to purgatory after His death and before His resur-
the Christian hope. How does this affect us as                  rection. b.) That Christ preached to the spirits
pilgrims?                                                       through the mouth of Noah already in his day. c.)
  4. Why did the Holy Spirit lead Peter to make                 That Christ announced, by His Holy Spirit after His
references to the suffering of Christ in this connec-           glorification, to the wicked who are in hell, that He
tion? See  2:21-25;  3:18;  4:l; and  5:13, 14.                 is victorious  h (especially to those who persecuted
  5. Consider how the great doctrines of election,              Noah). Any preference?
atonement, and sovereign grace relate to persever-                10. Explain how judgment begins at the house of
ance. See 1:2-6;  1:18-21;  2:4, 5;  2:24, 25;  3:12, 21;       God and why the righteous are scarcely saved. See
and  5:10, 11.                                                  4:12-19.
  6. What is the relationship between trials and                  11. Give proof from this letter that the church
temptations? See 1:6, `7. Cite examples of this from            has reason to be happy in the midst of persecution:
this letter.                                                    Do these reasons apply to us who may live to see
  7. Look through the letter and refer to those                 the day of the Antichrist?
FAITH OF OUR FATHERS



                                     The Nicene Creed
                                                    Rev. James Slopsemu





  Article 7: And He shall come again, with glory, to            same Jesus, which is taken up from you into
judge the quick and the dead; Whose kingdom shall               heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have
have no end.                                                    seen Him go into heaven" (Acts 1: 10, 11).
  The second coming of Christ was the hope of the                 When Jesus returns to us He shall come with
early Christian church.                                         great power and glory. Jesus Himself made this
  The Scriptures often speak of the visible return              clear to the disciples just prior to His own cruci-
of our Lord Jesus Christ from heaven. Even as                   fixion. In response to His disciples' inquiry con-
Christ ascended into heaven before the very eyes of             cerning the sign of His coming and the end of the
His disciples, so shall He also one day return from             world, Jesus instructed His disciples that at the end
heaven. This was made quite plain to the disciples              of time the sign of the Son of man will appear in
at the time of Jesus' ascension into heaven, for                heaven which shall cause all the tribes of the earth
"while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as                 to mourn. "And they shall see the Son of man com-
He (Jesus) went up, behold, two men stood by them               ing in the clouds of heaven with power and great
in white apparel; which also said, Ye men of                    glory" (Matt. 24:30). This great power and glory is
Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This               to be explained by the fact that Jesus shall return as

                                                                                                                          I


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 351



the Lord of heaven. At His ascension Christ was            that determines the eternal fate of every man. Nor,
seated at God's right hand. As we saw in connec-           for that matter, is there even a heaven or a hell, ex-
tion with Article 6 of the Nicene Creed, this means        cept the heaven or hell you make of your own life.
that Christ has been given by God a position of            The liberal church does speak of a coming of
great power and rule over all the creation. He is          Christ. But this is simply meant to indicate that
Lord over all. In this capacity He shall also return at    someday in the future the world, following the in-
the end of the ages. Hence, He shall return to us in       evitable process of evolution, will be much better
power and glory.                                           than it is today. One day when all social injustices
  The return of Jesus Christ from heaven shall be          and prejudices are overcome and when there is
for the church a great day of salvation. For when          peace among men, then Christ will have come.
Christ comes again He shall judge the quick (living)         Others there are in the church today. who,
and the dead. At the moment of Christ's return             although they acknowledge a literal return of
there shall be a general resurrection of the dead. All     Christ at the end of the ages, have for the most part
those who have passed into the grave through               placed it outside their perspective. They tend to
death shall be raised again. And they shall join           place the coming of Christ far into the distant
those still living before the judgment seat of Christ.     future - so far, in fact, that it is virtually lost sight
Then Christ shall judge every man according to his         of. The attitude is that before Christ comes again
works. As the holy Apostle writes in II Corinthians        the world must undergo a spiritual revival. All
5:10, "we must all appear before the judgment seat         social injustices must be overcome and the world
of Christ; that every one may receive the things           must be basically Christianized. Then and only
done in the body, according to that he hath done,          then will Christ come. And so, instead of con-
whether it be good or bad." Those therefore who in         templating the return of Christ from heaven, we
the power of grace have walked faithfully before           ought rather to concentrate our attention on the im-
God shall be publicly justified and glorified by           provement of society. Let's get with it! Let's shake
Christ. They shall all be translated into the glorious     the earth's foundations for Christ and bring about a
kingdom of Christ which in that day shall be               great spiritual and social revival.
perfected in the new creation. And there they shall
live forever with Christ in heavenly bliss. But the          Then there are those in the church who expect
wicked and those who have walked in the darkness           the return of Christ very shortly, but would just as
of unbelief shall be condemned for their great sin.        soon delay the day of His coming just as long as
And they shall one and all be cast into the darkness       possible. This is the element in the church that has
of hell to suffer everlastingly the wrath of God           found a home here below and would just as soon
against their sin.                                         Christ didn't come and take them away. This is the
                                                           earthly-minded element in the church. Their hearts
  Now the exact day and hour of the Lord's return          are set on the things of this world. Closely related to
no man knows. Nor do the angels in heaven know.            this element is another element that would delay
Not even Christ according to His human nature              the coming of Christ because they are afraid of the
knew while He was still on the earth. The exact day        judgment day. They fear that their life may not be
and hour is known by the Father only. However,             able to bear the light of judgment.
the Bible does make clear that the day of Christ's
coming is near. In I Peter 4:7 we are told, "But the         All this stands as a very sad commentary on the
end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober,       church today.
and watch unto prayer." In I John 2:18 we are told           This, however, was not the case with the early
that we are in' the "last time," literally, the "last      church. She not only believed the literal, visible
hour."                                                     coming of Christ from heaven, she also longed for
  The early church looked for this coming of Christ        that coming. This was due in part to the terrible
with eager expectation and longing.                        persecution that the church suffered for the first
                                                           300 years of her existence. This persecution began
  This can hardly be said, however, for the church         with the Jews already during the time of the
today.                                                     apostles. As the church spread, the heathen gentiles
  There are many, for example, in the church who           also joined in to persecute the saints. In due time,
deny a literal coming of Christ at the end of the          even the Roman government entered the fray and
ages. This is, of course, the liberal element in the       took an official stand against the Christian church.
church. The liberal of our day teaches that this pre-      At times these persecutions were very fierce.
sent world has no forseeable end. Barring some             Thousands of God's elect were martyred for the
man-made catastrophe, such as a nuclear holo-              faith in these early years of the church's existence.
caust, the world will continue forever. Neither,           And the fruit of this persecution was that the saints
therefore, is there a day of judgment or reckoning         of the early church longed for the day of Christ's


352                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



coming from heaven to judge the quick and the             sion of this article, "Whose kingdom shall have no
dead. For the return of Christ meant the destruc-         end," was inserted to overthrow the teachings of
tion of her persecutors and her own final salvation.      Marcellus, bishop of Ancyra in Galatia. At the
There is nothing that makes the saints to long for        council of  Nicea in 325 Marcellus was a staunch
the final salvation of Christ's coming more than          supporter of the orthodox view that was adopted
persecution and adversity.                                and expressed in the orginal version of the Nicene
  And to this great longing for Christ's coming, the      Creed. Afterwards Marcellus became one of the
early church gave expression in this seventh article      chief allies of Athanasius who led the fight against
of the Nicene Creed when she confessed that               the Arians and Semi-Arians. However, Marcellus in
Christ, "shall come again, with glory, to judge the       time drifted into the error of the Monarchians who
quick and the dead, Whose kingdom shall have no           in their zeal to defend the unity of the Godhead
end." This confession was a living confession.            denied that God is three in person. The views that
                                                          Marcellus developed were quite close to those of
  There are especially two things worthy of note          Paul of Samosata, which we have already described
yet as we consider this particular confession of the      earlier in this series in connection with Article 2.
early church.                                             According to Marcellus, the Word or Logos of John
  In the first place, there was to be found in the        1:l is an impersonal power emanating from God
church prior to the council of  Nicea  a strong           the Father. This divine Logos was in turn bestowed
tendency towards millennarianism or chiliasim.            upon Jesus so that He became the Son of God. Be-
Both of these terms mean "thousand" and identify          ing empowered by the  Logos,  Christ was able to
an erroneous interpretation of Revelation  20:  l-10      redeem the church of God and establish the king-
which speaks of the thousand-year reign of Christ         dom of God. However, when Christ shall have
during which time Satan is bound in the bottomless        perfected the kingdom at the end of the ages, the
pit. According to the millennarian, this  thousand-       divine Logos shall return to God and no longer be in
year reign of Christ must be understood literally         the possession of the Christ. Hence, Christ shall
and physically. Christ will come from heaven to           resign the kingdom to the Father and cease to be
establish an earthly kingdom that shall rule over all     the Son of God. This according to Marcellus is the
the nations of the earth. This kingdom, in which          proper interpretation of I Corinthians 15:24, "Then
Christ and His people rule, shall last exactly a thou-    cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up
sand years, at the end of which Satan will be loosed      the kingdom to God, even the Father."
for a short while to lead the nations in rebellion
against Christ's rule. At that time Christ shall com-       Over against this error of Marcellus the church at
                                                          the Council of Constantinople in 381, in her revi-
pletely destroy Satan and all the ungodly in hell.        sion of the Nicene Creed, added to this seventh arti-
This present world will come to an end and there          cle the statement that Christ's kingdom shall have
will be a new creation to which Christ will bring         no end. By this the church meant to emphasize that
the church to live forever in perfect bliss and glory.    Christ is and forever shall remain the Word (Logos)
  This view was embraced by many in the church            of God. His  Sonship  is not temporary but eternal.
prior to the great council of Nicea.  It was taught by    And so, as Mediator and Savior, His kingdom shall
such great church fathers as Justin Martyr,               have no end. And we shall live with Him forever in
Irenaeus, and Tertullian. This same thing is taught       His kingdom, receiving from Him everlasting glory
by the pre-millennialist today. The error of pre-         and bliss.
millennialism is quite prevalent today in the
church and is really a further refinement of the
millennialism found in the early church.                      The Standard Bearer
  The significant thing in all this, however, is that
prior to  Nicea the early church turned away from           makes a thoughtful gift
these millennial tendencies. The church began to
understand, as Augustine later developed more ful-           for the sick or shut-in.
ly, that this thousand-year reign of Christ is the
spiritual rule of Christ in His church in the present
dispensation. Consequently, we find nothing of the              Remember a friend
error of millennialism in the Nicene Creed. Nor can
the pre-millennialist of our day find support for his            today with a gift of
view in the early church creeds. By the time of
Nicea,  the church had virtually rejected all such no-
tions.                                                        The Standard Bearer.
  Secondly, it is worthy of note that the last expres-


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                               353



IN HIS FEAR



                          God is Holy (continued)
                                             Rev. Ronald Hanko




  The Third Commandment is very closely related          like Him. That, Scripture teaches, is the meaning of
to the Second. In the Second Commandment we              His holiness.
learn that God must be worshiped in spirit and in          It is no wonder, then, that when He reveals
truth because He Himself is a Spirit, immortal, in-      Himself to us through His Name, it is His holiness
visible, Whom no man hath seen or can see (Jn.           that stands forward, so that His Name is above all a
4:24; I Tim. 1:17, 3:16). The question, then, is, how    holy Name. And the Third Commandment requires
do we know Him and worship Him if we can                 that we use His Name in holiness, that is, in
neither see nor touch Him, nor make any represen-        "separation" from all other names, and in hearty
tations of Him to use in our worship? The Third          consecration to His glory. So too, the Third Com-
Commandment answers that question for us when            mandment forbids us to "profane" the Name of
it speaks of God's Name. Through His Name and            God or to use it "in vain." The word "vain" means
the use of His Name we know Him, have fellow-            "empty" and we are forbidden to use the Name of
ship with Him, and enjoy Him forever. It is for this     God as though it is empty of glory, a Name that is
reason that the temple could be called "the dwell-       found among the vain and useless things of this sin-
ing place of God's Name" or "the place where He          cursed and sin-darkened world. Something "pro-
has put His Name" (Deut. 125, 11,21; I Kings 829;        fane" is something common and ordinary. Thus we
Ps.  74:7), and the whole worship of the church          are forbidden to use His Name as though it is just
there be remembered as a "calling upon His               another name among the many names of men and
Name" (Ps. 116:13, 14). According to His Name, so        other creatures.
is His praise unto the ends of the earth (Ps. 4810).       All this means that it is not a small thing, but vile-
  The urgent, positive calling, therefore, of the        ly wicked when men use the great Name of God as.
Third Commandment is that we make constant use           a mere exclamation of amazement or disgust, and,
of God's Name. The person who only refrains from         even worse, if that is possible, when they use it in
swearing and blasphemy has not even come near to         spitting out the passionate words of their evil lusts
the obedience required by this Third Command-            and rages. In His displeasure against these sins,
ment. For the praise of His Name He has com-             God promises that He "will not hold him guiltless
manded and created all things in Heaven (Ps.             that taketh His Name in vain." There is no justify-
148:1-5),  on earth (Ps.  148:6-13), and among His       ing blood or pardon in Christ for those who con-
people (Ps.  148:14).                                    tinue in such sins as these.
  In connection with His Name and the Third                Both the deliberate misuse and the careless use
Commandment God reveals the glory of His Holi-           of His Name are forbidden, therefore. Neverthe-
ness, as we have already seen. For this reason, His      less, these are not the only ways in which we can
Name must also be used with fear and reverence.          break the Third Commandment. We violate the
Of all His attributes, His holiness is singled out in    holiness of His Name also when. we speak careless-
Scripture and receives special emphasis, because in      ly of His attributes, His goodness, His grace, or His
His holiness He is separated from all that is unholy     mercy, for they too are part of His Name. His Name
and profane and consecrated to His own glory. In         as He proclaimed it to Moses on Sinai is "The
His holiness, therefore, we have the sum of all His      LORD, the' LORD God, merciful and gracious,
other attributes, for whether we speak of His            longsuffering, and abundant in mercy and truth"
wisdom, His grace, His power, of His love, in all        (Ex.  34:6). How evil it is that we use these at-
these things He is "separate," so that there is none     tributes, which Scripture calls His perfections and


354                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



praises, not for praise but merely to express the          that the love wherewith Thou hast loved Me may
swelling tide of our emotions. Even the ruler who          be in them, and I in them." Likewise, the great
addressed Jesus as "Good Master" had to be re-             reason for the outpouring of the Spirit, according to
buked because he spoke of goodness without as-             such notable passages as Romans  8:15 and  Gala-
cribing it to the Only Good God, without seeing            tians 4:6 is that we may once again, with reverence,
that God in Jesus (Luke  18:18, 19).                       cry "Abba, Father" for the glory of His Father and
  Also heaven and hell may not be spoken of light-         ours.
ly or carelessly, for, as Jesus told the Pharisees, "He      This, however, leads us to understand that we
that shall swear by heaven, sweareth by the throne         can all the more easily profane and misuse the
of God, and by Him that sitteth thereon" (Matt.            Name of God and break the Third Commandment
23:22), and hell is the place where His hot wrath          when we are not faithful in prayer, in repentance
burns forever.                                             and confession of sin, in speaking to one another in
  Perhaps more than in anything else it is in the          Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, all the many
speech of men that the corruptions of their heart          means which God provides for the use of His
are revealed and they are uncovered as those who           Name.
are "all together become filthy" (Ps.  14:3), whose          By way. of summary, then, our calling is confes-
every imagination and thought are only evil con-           sion. How often do not the Scriptures speak of the
tinually (Gen.  6:5), and who have not known the           importance of our confession of the Name of God
fear of God (Rom. 3:18). From the abundance of the         in Christ both in the church and in the world. Jesus
heart the mouth speaks always, and for all that they       tells us that the only ones for whom He will inter-
may live an outwardly decent life in the world, in         cede with the Father are those who have confessed
their speech they are' revealed as haters of God.          His Name in the world (Matt.  10:32). Paul says in
This is not only true according to the words of the        Romans  10:9, 10 that it is the  copfessing  believer
apostle Paul in Romans 3: 13, 14: "Their throat is an      who is saved, and in Revelation we find that those
open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used          who reign with Christ in His glory are those who
deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: whose      were beheaded for the witness of Jesus and the
mouth is full of cursing and bitterness," but also in      word of God (Rev.  20:4). The very word "confes-
that even when they do not spew forth such filth,          sion" shows why this is so. Confessing is "speaking
even then they still ignore the glorious and praise-       along with someone." That is our calling. God has
worthy Name of God.                                        revealed all His glory in His Name; and to us as lost
                                                           sinners He has revealed it through Him Who com-
  The fact is, of course, that our own careless and        eth in the Name of the Lord. We tell His glory as
profane use of God's Name reveals where we have            those who are saved by His Name by repeating
come from. We too, by nature, are children of              with Him and after Him all that He has spoken to
Satan, whose very name means "slanderer"  -                us in His Word concerning the wonders of the glory
children who from the beginning have listened to           of His Name.
his blasphemous accusations against his Creator              We do this, as Jesus also did in fulfilling the
and ours.                                                  words of Psalm  22:22, "I will declare Thy Name
  From all such blasphemous wickedness we are              unto my brethren, in the midst of the Church will I
delivered and "separated" by the redemptive work           sing praise into Thee. " We do that too in the world
of Christ. All through His ministry the Father's           both by suffering for His Name, by bearing His
Name was in His lips; and His prayer, even in His          Name among the Gentiles through the preaching of
anguish, was "Father, glorify Thy Name" (Jn. 12:27,        the Gospel, and by speaking of His Name to all
28). And finally when the dark night of God's wrath        those who ask us a reason of our hope, that Name
against all our blasphemies and mocking words fell         of God in Christ being the only reason that we have
upon His soul, then also out of the darkness He            for hope in the world.
used God's holy Name with fear and reverence                 This calling also involves "warring a good war-
when He cried, "My God, my God . . . .  "                  fare." We cannot honor God's Name when we
  But He did not only come to separate us from all         allow it to be blasphemed and dishonored without
cursing and bitterness by His forgiving grace; He          reproving and admonishing those who speak evilly
came also to consecrate us and separate us unto            against Him. Our attitude must be that of David
God in new holiness, to cleanse the open sepulchre         toward Goliath: "Who is this uncircumcised
of our throats, and to fill our mouths once again          Philistine, that he should defy. . . the living God" (I
with the Name of God in worship and thanks-                Sam.  17:26, 45). Against such bold, blasphemous
giving. Jesus Himself sums up His whole ministry           defiance we must fight both in our own hearts and
from this viewpoint in John  17:26: "And I have            lives and in others with the Spirit's sword of God's
declared unto them Thy Name, and will declare it:          Word.


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                              355



  In order to do this we must also learn a love for       ments, also this Third Commandment, and they
God's Word where He shows us the glory of His             will love the Word of God to the church of Phila-
Name and impresses us with His holiness. We must          delphia, a church which kept His Word and did not
learn through study and meditation to fear His            deny His Name: "Him that overcometh will I make
Name and to think often upon it. To such as heed          a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go no
these things the Lord gives the promise, "They            more out: and I will write upon him the name of
shall be Mine, saith the Lord of Hosts, in the day        My God, and the name of the city of My God,
that I make up My jewels" (Mal.  3:16, 17).               which is the new Jerusalem, which  cometh down
  So we see once again, that God's Command-               out of heaven from My God: and I will write upon
ments are not arbitrary, but the gift of God to us        `Him My new name" (Rev. 3:12).
that we may know His glory and praise Him ac-               He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit
cordingly. Those who know His glory will more             saith unto the churches.
and more pray for grace to keep His Command-
GUEST ARTICLE



     The King James Version of the Bible (II)
                                               Rev. Steven Houck





(THE TRANSLATORS OF THE KJV  - continued)                 moted and revived the study of the Arabic language
  In these six companies of translators were              and literature in Europe. He authored the  Lexicon
gathered together the most learned men of the age.        Heptaglotten, which included Hebrew,  Syriac;
Often times today it is charged that the King James       Chaldee, and Arabic. H.e also worked on a Persian
Version is obsolete, for we have learned so much          dictionary, an Arabic Lexicon, and an Arabic
more and have men who are much greater scholars           translation of the Epistles of John.
than those of the 17th century and who, therefore,          Dr. Smith, the author of the Translators' Preface
can do a much better job of translating the Bible.        to the Reader and one of the final editors, is said to
Indeed, we have gathered much general knowledge           have "had Hebrew at his fingers' ends." He was so
in the past three hundred and fifty years. It is  not     conversant in Chaldee, Syriac, and Arabic that they
true, however, that the King James Version                were as familiar to him as English. His knowledge
translators were inferior scholars. They were men         of the Greek and Latin fathers was exceptional. He
of great learning.                                        was so versed in history and general literature that
  Who today is skilled in fifteen languages as was        he was characterized as "a very walking library."
Lancelot Andrewes, the head of the Westminster              John Harmar, of the Oxford company, was a
company which translated Genesis through II               noted scholar in Greek and Latin. He translated
Kings? It is said of him that he might "almost have       Calvin's sermons of the Ten Commandments,
served as an interpreter general at the confusion of      several of Beza's sermons, and some of the
tongues." He was so proficient in the languages.          Homilies of Chrysostom.
Others spoke of him as "that great gulf of                  John Boys, of the Cambridge group, was one of
learning." He was so knowledgeable that "the              the  .most distinguished scholars of all the transla-
world wanted learning to know how learned this            tors. His father taught him Hebrew when he was
man was."                                                 five years old and he was admitted to St. John's Col-
  William Bedwell of the same company was well            lege, Cambridge when he was fourteen. He was a
known as the greatest Arabic scholar of the day. To       most exact Greek grammarian who had read no
him belongs the honor of being the first who pro-         fewer than sixty grammars.


356                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



  Dr. John Reynolds, the Puritan who first sug-            where in between the two, but they were all
gested a new translation, had a reputation as a            members of a church that was Protestant and in
Hebrew and Greek scholar. He had read and                  many ways even Reformed. It was not as Reformed
studied all the Greek and Latin fathers, as well as        as Geneva, not even as Reformed as it had been in
the ancient records of the church. Those who knew          the days of Edward VI, but close enough to the
him held him to be the most learned man in                 Truth to be called Reformed none the less.
England. It is said of him that "He alone was a well-        Although some of them were more or less Armi-
furnished library, full of all faculties, all studies,     nian, many of the translators were Calvinists. In
and all learning. His memory and reading were              fact, one authority tells us that Calvinistic doctrine
near to a miracle." He worked on the translation of        was the prevailing doctrine of the day. Laurence
the Prophets until his death in 1607.                      Chaderton was one of the strong Calvinists among
  Henry Savile of .the New Testament Oxford com-           the translators. At his conversion from Roman
pany was one of the most profound, exact, and              Catholicism to Calvinism his father had written
critical scholars of his age. He became famous for         him, "Son Laurence, if you will renounce the new
his Greek at an early age. He is chiefly known as          sect which you have joined, you may expect all the
the first one to edit the complete works of John           happiness which the care of an indulgent father can
Chrysostom. Some have styled him "that magazine            assure you; otherwise, I enclose a shilling to buy a
of learning, whose memory shall be honorable               wallet. Go and beg." Chaderton refused to give up
among the learned and the righteous forever."              Calvinism and became an outspoken anti-Arminian
  No, these men were not ignorant. They were not           preacher. Thomas Holland, a thorough Calvinist, is
even average; they were exceptional in their               said to have opposed Rome with more force than
various areas of knowledge. The first half of the          any other. Whenever he went on a journey his fare-
seventeenth century, `when the translation was             well to his fellows at the College was this: "I com-
made, was the "Golden Age" of Biblical and orien-          mend you to the love of God, and to the hatred of
tal learning in England. Never before, nor since,          popery and superstition."
have these studies been pursued by English                   Miles Smith, in the Translators' Preface to the
scholars with such zeal and success. It is very            Reader, describes the spiritual character of these
doubtful that all the colleges of Great Britain and        men. He asked, "And in what sort did these assem-
America could even bring together the same                 ble? In the trust of their own knowledge, or of their
number of men who are equally qualified by learn-          sharpness of wit, or deepness of judgment, as it
ing and piety as the King James Version translators.       were in an arm of flesh? At no hand. They trusted
THE SPIRITUAL CHARACTER OF THE                             in him that hath the key of David, opening and no
TRANSLATORS                                                man shutting; they prayed to the Lord the Father of
                                                           our Lord, to the effect that St. Augustine did: "0 let
  But scholarship is not everything. A translation         thy Scriptures be my pure delight, let me `not be         I
of the Bible is always affected by the spiritual           deceived in them, neither let me deceive by
character and faith of the translators. An                 them."' They were godly men who did not trust in
unbeliever does not translate the Bible as does a          their own strength, but sought guidance and help
believer. Martin Luther wrote, "Translating is not         from God. They knew that if their work was to be a
an art that everyone can practice, as the mad saints       success, it had to be the work of God. They be-
think; it requires a right pious, faithful, diligent,      lieved too that, even after the translation was com-
God-fearing, experienced heart. Therefore, I hold          pleted, it would be meaningless to the people of
that no false Christian, or sectarian can be a faithful    England without the enlighting power of God's
translator." No "false Christian," no "sectarian" -        grace. Thus they remind the reader, "It remaineth
that is, no unbeliever can be a good translator of the     that we commend thee to God, and to the Spirit of
Bible.                                                     His grace, which is able to build further than we
  What about these translators, then? Did they             can ask or think. He removeth the scales from our
have this heart which Luther describes? The                eyes, the vail from our hearts, opening our wits that
answer is a most emphatic, yes. These men were,            we may understand His word, enlarging our hearts,
indeed, pious men of God, who were committed to            yea correcting our affections, that we may love it
the Truth.  Gustavus  Paine in his book, "The Men          above gold and silver, yea that we may love it to the
Behind the King James Version," tells us that there        end."
were among the translators no RomanCatholics,  no            Unlike many who translate the Bible today, they
Jews, and no women. That little statement says             believed that they were dealing with the inspired
much. They were all Protestants who belonged to            Word of God. Concerning the Scriptures they could
the Anglican Church. Some were high Church-                exclaim through Miles Smith in the Preface, "And
men, some were Puritans, and some were  some-              what marvel? The original thereof being from


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                              357



heaven, not earth; the author being God, not man;        the work. The king had instructed Bishop Bancroft
the enditer (prompter or dictator), the Holy Spirit,     to "move the bishops to inform themselves of all
not the wit of the Apostles or Prophets; the Pen-        such learned men within their several dioceses, as,
men such as were sanctified from the womb, and           having especial skill in the Hebrew and Greek
endowed with a principal portion of God's Spirit;        tongues, have taken pains in their private studies of
the matter, verity, piety, purity, uprightness; the      the Scriptures . . . . " This was to be no private
form, God's word, God's testimony, God's oracles,        translation, no "Bishops' Bible," either. It was, so
the word of Truth, the word of salvation; the effect,    to speak, public. Anyone with the proper qualifica-
light of understanding, stableness of persuasion,        tions could make suggestions as to how to translate
repentance from dead works, newness of life, holi-       a certain passage. There were many who were qual-
ness, peace, joy in the Holy Ghost; lastly, the end      ified too. England not,only had many learned men
and reward of the study thereof, fellowship with         at that time, but their learning had turned largely to
the Saints, participation of the heavenly nature,        theology. "Theology rules there," said Grotius.
fruition of an inheritance immortal undefiled, that      Another declared that he found both King and peo-
never shall fade away; Happy is the man that             ple indifferent  `to letters in the ordinary sense, but
delighteth in the Scripture, and thrice happy that       that there was a great abundance of theologians in
meditateth in it day and night."                         England. The King James Version took advantage of
  Indeed, these men considered the Scriptures to         this learning and this theological atmosphere.
be the inspired Word of God. To them, the Bible            How very different was this open policy of
was a very special Book and they handled it ac-          translation from the secret policy of the revision of
cordingly. Yet, they knew too that this special Book     1881!  No one knew what that revision would be
could be properly translated and profitably read         like until it was done. With the King James Version,
and studied only when God in His sovereign grace         however, each bishop kept the clergy of his district
worked in the hearts of its translators and readers.     notified concerning the progress of the work so that
  Besides those who were appointed to the com-           if any one felt constrained to send in his observa-
panies, there were many others who contributed to        tions on a passage, he could do so. (to be continued)

GUIDED INTO ALL TRUTH



      The Middle Ages and the Word of God
                                               Rev. T. Miersma





  The Middle Ages, to a large extent, form an in-        lines between church and state which had begun to
terim in the development of doctrine and the truth       be blurred when Christianity was made the official
of the Word of God. The church in the West had           religion of the empire, disappeared completely and
been overrun by invasions of Germanic pagans             the church gradually became a political as well as a
which destroyed the structure of society and             spiritual power.
culture. With the removal of the government of the
Roman Empire to Constantinople in the East, the            The effect of these changes had great significance
only effective government in the West gradually          for the development of the church. Learning was
became the church. Gregory the Great became              extinguished as the institutions of society, in-
Bishop of Rome in 590. He was not only the head of       cluding schools, crumbled. The church, and partic-
the Western Church, but amid the invasions which         ularly the monasteries, became oases of learning,
took place, he became also a temporal ruler,             preserving the remnants of classical and Biblical
organizing the defenses of the City of Rome. The         knowledge. The church, confronted with heathen


358                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



idolatry, superstition, and paganism, turned her at-     it. Tradition and conformity to the orthodox doc-
tention to mission work. Rome in particular served       trine of the past became the chief concerns of the
as the overall fountainhead of these efforts under       church. The early Middle Ages were particularly
the leadership of Gregory and succeeding popes,          concerned with. conserving and transmitting the
and as their controlling ecclesiastical center. The      work of the early church fathers. Regrettably the
church directed its efforts to the practical need to     errors of the fathers were also part of this tradi-
Christianize the barbarians and to maintain order        tional orthodoxy which concerned the church. The
in the midst of disintegration.                          allegorical approach to Scripture and the practice of
  This mission work embraced the whole of                turning the Word of God into a book of practical
Europe, and a number of centuries passed before          and moral object lessons replaced serious exegesis.
the whole of Europe was actually brought under           The church was more concerned to instruct the
the power of the Christian church. The church's          rough pagan barbarians in ritual, liturgy, and
method in this work was not directed at in-              morals than in the true doctrine of God's Word.
dividuals, but at whole tribes and nations. The            Moreover, the approach to the church fathers
religion of the tribes being determined by its ruler     were encyclopedic, producing collections of the
or king, the church's efforts were directed at con-      sayings and comments of the fathers upon Scrip-
verting the tribes en masse by converting their          ture and doctrine. This method was not a system-
rulers. The result was that great masses of people       atic setting forth of doctrine, but rather a collection
were brought into the Christian church who knew          of arbitrary excerpts. Such a method of dealing
nothing of the Christian faith. The church in ac-        with the church fathers often served to obscure
commodating herself to superstition and ignorance,       their doctrine in the process of preserving it. The
often simply replaced pagan ritual with Christian        resulting productions were anthologies of com-
ritual, and the worship of pagan gods with the wor-      ments on doctrine and Scripture with marginal
ship of saints and the Virgin Mary.                      comments and explanatory notes chosen according
  The church became the center of community              to the whims of the compiler. Such a method tend-
life, not only spiritually; but because it alone         ed to preserve as much the weaknesses of
preserved the remnants of the culture and science        Augustine, for example, as his strengths, and to
of the ancient world, it also became the center of       obscure some of the doctrinal truths he had
temporal life and power. Thus the church also            developed. The soundness of the comments and
became occupied with many things which had               citations was not evaluated in the light of Scripture,
nothing to do with her spiritual calling.                but assumed because of the individual's standing as
                                                         a church father.
  Although the church preserved the learning of
the past, that learning was not spread throughout          As the medieval period developed, Scripture,
the church but was concentrated in the major             with its appended commentary, was made more
metropolitan churches and in the growing number          and more to serve the interests of the church and
of monasteries. Books were precious and scarce.          her tradition. Confronted with a confusing array of
The Greek and Hebrew languages were virtually            interpretation and allegorical fancies in these col-
unknown in the West. Latin, no longer the common         lections, Scripture came to be viewed as an obscure
language of the people, had become the language of       book, hard to understand. The clergy of the church,
scholarship and of the church, and the ability to        as the custodians of Scripture and tradition, became
read and write it had also declined. So deep was the     the authoritative interpreters of both. While this
decline in literacy and knowledge that even among        power and authority was at first found in the whole
the clergy ignorance was prevalent. In the early         church, as the Middle Ages progressed and the
part of the Middle Ages, before the rise of universi-    power of Rome advanced, this power became more
ties, priests who knew little more than the liturgy,     and more concentrated in the hands of the papacy.
the creed, and the Lord's Prayer were not uncom-           While formally, therefore, the church may have
mon. This decline in literacy also tended to con-        preserved the doctrinal fruit of the early church,
centrate power into the hands of a learned few.          also regarding Scripture, in actual practice, much
Moreover, the languages of the invaders were Ger-        was lost. Scripture was no longer the clear Word of
manic languages and the Latin of the church was          God to His church but an obscure word, difficult to
foreign to them.                                         understand. The interpretation of the Word of God
  Under such circumstances the knowledge of the          and also the guiding influence of the Spirit of Truth
Word of God as a whole or the study of Scripture         was seen as limited to the clergy alone, and in par-
was limited more and more to a few in the church.        ticular to the upper levels of that clergy. The or-
The church became concerned not with studying            dinary believer possessed neither the Word nor the
and developing the truth, but only with preserving       Spirit to interpret and understand that Word for


                                                         THE STANDARD BEARER                                                                   359



Himself. On the contrary, the church demanded of                              The other trend in the church was mysticism, the
him unwavering faith in the dogma and authority                            striving after inward and immediate communion
of the church.                                                             and fellowship with God. Scripture, God's  self-
   The result was tyranny over, the minds of men,                          revelation, being inaccessible and conceived of as
and the average believer walked in ignorance and                           dark and unclear, a more direct access to God and
superstition. Scripture was no longer treated as an                        revelation was sought through contemplation and
organic unity, one Word of God, but as a source                            prayer. This inward and subjective trend was fur-
book of separated texts and passages to be read in                         thered by the church's formal and rigid ritualism
the worship service according to a yearly cycle.                           and by the arid intellectualism of scholasticism.
Scripture moreover was made, through the com-                                 Neither trend could satisfy the spiritual needs of
mentaries of the fathers, the servant of tradition                         the `people of God, deprived of the Word of God.
and an instrument to establish that tradition.                             Throughout the Middle Ages the pendulum in the
Preaching became disconnected from Scripture and                           church repeatedly swung back and forth between
became rather a place for allegorical inventiveness,                       the more intellectual and objective trend and the
reduced to practical and moral homilies, inter-                            more subjective and mystical one.
woven with stories of the lives of saints and fables                          But it was not until the Reformation and the full
concerning the Virgin Mary.                                                return to Scripture as the authoritative Word of
   Rather than doctrinal development of the truth,                         God and revelation of Himself to His people, that
the Middle Ages was, for the most part, a period of                        the church would again turn to the true fountain of
development of error and firm establishing of error,                       both the truth and the water of life. There were in-
backed by the authority of the church. The result-                         deed lone individuals and groups within the church
ing famine of the hearing of the Word of God and                           who anticipated the developments of the Reforma-
study of the Scriptures opened the door to rational-                       tion and planted the seeds from which it would
ism and mysticism.                                                         spring, but they were few and far between, nor
   These two trends emerged in the medieval                                could they break the deathhold of tradition.
church. The one, intellectual and rationalistic,
endeavored by faith and human reason to demon-
strate and defend the truth of the doctrine of the                                      The Standard Bearer
church. It brought the pagan philosophers of the
ancient world into the service of the church and at-                                 makes a thoughtful gift.
tempted to join human philosophy and theology                                    Give The Standard Bearer.
together in the service of tradition. This principle of
the union of Christianity and pagan philosophy had
originally stood behind the allegorical method of in-
terpretation, and in the Middle Ages it  ,emerged                                                       NOTICE!!!
full-blown in scholasticism.                                                 According to the decision of the Synod of 1983, the Consistory of
                                                                           the Hull Protestant Reformed Church, Hull, Iowa, was appointed the
                                                                           calling church for the 1984 Synod. The Consistory of Hull hereby
                                                                           notifies our Churches that the 1984 Synod of the Protestant Re-
                  WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                                      formed Churches in America will convene, the Lord willing, on Wed-
   On May 13, 1984, the Lord willing, our parents, MR. AND MRS.            nesday, June 13, 1984  Bt  9:00 A.M., in the Hull Protestant Reformed
PETER ZANDSTRA will celebrate 35 years of marriage. We, their              Church. The pre-Synodical service will be held Tuesday evening,
children and grandchildren are thankful to our heavenly Father for giv-    June 12, at  7:45 P.M. Rev. G. Van  Baren,  President of the 1983
ing us parents who have instructed us in His covenant. We pray that        Synod will preach the sermon.  Synodical  delegates are to meet with
God will continue to bless them and keep them in His care.                 the Consistory before the service. Delegates in need of lodging
                                                                           should contact Mr. Bert Van Maanen, 1818 First St., Hull, Iowa
Joel and Marcia Zandstra                                                   51239 (Phone: (7121-439-I 803).
   Emily, Richard, Ellen
Paul and Donna Zandstra
   Greg, David
Neal and Jeanne Hanko                                                                                   NOTICE!!!
   Jonathan, Michael, Shari
Bernard and Linda Zandstra                                                                          PUBLIC LECTURE
   Benjamin                                                                  Topic: Church and State
R u t h   Z a n d s t r a                                                    Speaker: Rev. Bernard Woudenberg

                                                                             Date: May IO, 1984, at 8 P.M.
                              NOTICE!!!                                      Place: Heritage Christian Reformed Church
                       CHANGE OF ADDRESS                                                 (84th Street, just west of Byron Center)         .
   Rev. and Mrs. George Lubbers have a change of their address.              Sponsor: The Lecture Committee of the Protestant
Their new address is: 2074 Cranbrook N.E., Grand Rapids, Ml                              Reformed Churches
49505. Their new telephone number is: (616) 456-l 076.                       Refreshments will be served.


  THE STANDARD BEARER
       P.O. Box 6064
Grand Rapids, Michigan 49506





360                                      THE STANDARD BEARER




                        News From Our Churches
                                              April 14, 1984


   Rev. Heys is doing well. He experiences no pain      make available, free of charge, recordings of the
and is gaining strength daily. He is able to teach      church services and lectures if these were to be
catechism and Bible Study. He will be preaching         given to someone who was not a member of the
again by the time this news reaches you. He sent        congregation but was interested in the Reformed
word to Holland  .Protestant Reformed Church            faith. Eventually they hoped to have a listing of ser-
thanking them very much for all the letters, cards,     mons and lecture subjects. made available to the
and calls that he and his wife received. May God        congregation. In January, Randolph Church made
continue to give him a rich measure of recovery.        available a new list of tapes of lectures and sermons
   Rev. Engelsma spoke on "The Important Role of        given in the church. These tapes could be borrowed
Women In the Church" at Randolph Protestant             free of charge.
Reformed Church, April 5th. His speech empha-             The consistory of First Church has formed a new
sized that even though the place of the woman is        trio for a missionary to Jamaica. The three minis-
not the office, the woman nevertheless has a very       ters are: Revs. W.  Bruinsma; C. Haak, and R.
important role in the church. Rev. VanBaren spoke       Hanko. The consistory also proposed to the congre-
to the Eastern Men's .and Ladies' League Mass           gation that they continue their attempts to sell the
Meeting of Holland Church, April 10, on the topic,      land on East Paris and that they purchase an ap-
"Entertainment: What Effect Is It Having on the         proximate eight-acre plot located at 2800 Michigan
Church?" If it has not already passed, remember to      N.E. Their hope is to begin building on this new site
attend the Spring League Mass Meeting of the Mr.        as soon as possible. The proposal to purchase the at-
and Mrs. Societies. Prof. Decker will speak on the      tractive wooded site will be considered at an April
topic "Doctrine and Walk," at Hudsonville Church        23 congregational meeting.
beginning at 8:00 P.M. on May 1.                          Effective April 22, the consistory of Grandville
   First Protestant Reformed Church's consistory        Church changed their order of worship. The Scrip-
has decided once again to hold the monthly song         ture reading was placed after the reading of the law
service during the fifteen minutes following the        in the morning and after the reading of the
evening worship service on the last Sunday of the       Apostles' Creed in the evening. In this way, the
month.                                                  reading of Scripture has a separate place in the wor-
   The Lord is giving South Holland Church's            ship service. It also serves to strengthen the
witness wide circulation. Recently  The  Bzdwark,       minister before the congregational prayer. The
publication of the Scottish Reformation Society in      other change was in the P.M. doxology which was
Scotland, printed two of their pamphlets, including     changed from "May the Grace of Christ the Savior"
"The Reformation and 20th Century  Protestant-          to  Psdter  197, "Now Blessed Be Jehovah God."
ism." In January of this year, The Christian News,        Covenant Protestant Reformed Church of
the widely circulated Christian newspaper of the        Wyckoff, New Jersey has planned further work
conservative Lutheran minister, Herman  Otten,          towards the completion of their new church. The
published much of their pamphlet, "Try the              Building Committee met and awarded a contract
Spirits." The result is many requests for their         for grading &nd paving of the parking lot and drive-
materials. Thank God that they may be part of the       way of the church, for installing the septic system
company that publishes His Word (Psalm 68:ll).          and the water supply lines for the church, and for a
   The Church Extension Committee of Loveland           fire, hydrant along the drive. This work was to
Protestant Reformed Church decided in January to        begin as soon as possible.                        DH


