      4                                            T H E   STANDcARD   B E A R E R
       -                                                                                                                        -
            Maar wij  - wij  zullen  blijven bouwen, met  Steenen,     themselves gods after their own heart's desire. And
      naar Gods Eisch behouwen; wel-saamgevoegd, naar Gods             this is the essence of the thing. The question involved
      Bestek! De vijand, die ons durft benauwen, zal  eerlang          here, both with regard to the world of Paul's time and
      - zijns-ondanks  - aanschouwen `t Voltooide  Bouw- with respect to the world of today, is: who shall de-                             ,,
      werk,.  zonder  vlek ! Dan  zullen  al die Neologen (de dus-    termine what and how God is, what are His attributes
      * genaamde  "Theologen") GODS VRI JMACHT ;  SOU-                 and virtues, what is His name and glory? Shall God
      VEREINITEIT, en HEILIGHEID en MACHT  erken-                     speak concerning Himself and shall we humbly listen to
      nen, en  zich  - te laat helaas !  - gewennen  aan GODS         Him, receiving our knowledge of Him thru His own
      VOLSTREKTE HEILIGHEID ! !  -                                    revelation? Or shall  mere.and  sinful man set aside this
                                      B. A. HENDRIKSEN.               revelation of God, refuse to serve God and acknowledge
                                                                      Him as He revealed Himself, in order then to make his
                                                                      own god and bow down before an idol? That is the essen-
                                                                      tial question. Now, the natural mind is enmity against
-.            WRATH REVEALED FROM HEAVEN                              God, against the God of heaven, against God as He really
                                                                      is. For God is God, and He is holy and righteous, filled
                              Rom.  1:18 ff.  -                       with a holy zeal concerning His own Name. He is a
           In a previous issue of our paper we called attention to `consuming fire against all that would encroach upon His
      the fact, that the Apostle Paul in the first chapter of his     divine prerogatives.    But the natural man is darkness
      epistle to, the Romans teaches that not the grace of God        and of the Evil One. He is corrupt and unholy, loving
      but His wrath is revealed from heaven against all un-           sin and hating* that which is good in the sight of God.
      righteousness and ungodliness of men, and that' this            As such he cannot get along with God. He could not
* revelation of God's wrath becomes very evident in the               approach Him. God condemns him if he is, as he re-
      history of the world. For it was under the influence of         vealed himself. He hates Him. He is also afraid of Him.         *
      this wrath of God over men who hold the truth under in          And for all these reasons, not wanting  God, yet wanting
      unrighteousness and who, though they knew God, refused          a  god, he makes himself gods after his own  ima,ge  and
      to glorify Him as God, neither were thankful, that they         according to his own's heart's desire, gods with which
      became foolish in their imaginations, their heart was           he can live in peace, though he be corrupt, with whom
      darkened and they began to commit all the follies of            he can serve the world and all manner of evil, yet that
      heathendom. For even in the highly extolled and civil-          ,will not condemn him. Now, the heathen, at this stage
      ized world of Roman power and grandeur and Grecian              of his development, not only conceived of such gods like
      wisdom and art the apostle, as he looked about himself,         unto himself in his own mind, but he also took himself a
      noticed his fellowmen bowing before man and beast. And          stick and carved the image of his god, thus conceived, in
      this, abominable folly is to him the result of the mani-        it. Or, he made himself images of marble and gold and
      festation of the wrath of God over man's unrighteousness        ivory, even today highly praised by all the world as
      and ungodliness. They were sinful. He made them                 marvels of art and beauty. He had need of something
      foolish ; they rebelled against Him, He put them down           objective, of something tangible. He wanted to see his
      in their foolishness; they lifted the rebellious fist in the    god before him. Thus he carved it in wood or chiseled
      face of the Most High, He cast them down in the deep            it out in stone. The modern civilized heathen does not
      darkness where they bowed before oxen and snakes.               commit such folly. He merely conceives of a god in his  -
           But this is not all. The wrath of God continued. For own mind. But between this god of the foolish heathen
      as they bowed before men and beasts, they committed-a           and the god of the modern man of civilization there is
      second evil. They changed the glory of the  uncorrupt-          only this difference, that the former is objectified in wood
      ible  Cmd into an image made like unto corruptible man, or stone, the latter is an abstract conception, an image of
      and to birds, and four-footed beasts and creeping things the mind. What is the essential difference? Nihil. What
      (vs. 23). Neither should we for a moment imagine, that          else does. the modern infidel do than ignore and set aside
      this evil was limited to the ancient world, or is; at pres-     or wantonly rip to shreds the revelation of God as we
      ent, confined to the dark regions of uncivilized heathen-       possess it in the Scriptures and make himself a god after
' dom, the nations that live on the four corners of the               his own mind? A God Who is holy and just and right-
      earth. The modern world is not essentially different            eous and Who is a consuming fire, assuming an attitude "
      from the ancient, and the civilized world of unbelief is of wrath over against all ungodliness and unrighteous-
      not really different from downright heathendom in this          ness of men, he does not want.' Instead he conceives of
      respect. The difference is merely one of form, not of a ,God Who is Father of all, Who winks at sin, Who for-
      essence. It is true, it would be considered an abomina-         gives without atonement and is, in general characterized
      tion in the nominally Christian and civilized world, if any     by sinful human love. Does he, then, not likewise change
      man would make for hmself an idol, the image of man or          the glory of the  uncorruptible  God into an image made
      beast, and bow before it, call it his God and expect his        like unto corruptible man? Could not also his god very
      help and salvation from it. But the truth remains, that         well be c"arved in wood and stone? And if it were, would
      also in the modern civilized world people make unto             it differ a great deal from the wooden idols of ancient


                                         T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                   5
                                                                       -.                                       -                -

 heathendom or of-the heathen of today? Assuredly not.           mitted"  in the original of this verse is the same as that
  Man still continues to make himself gods. And in the           employed in Rom.  1 for "gave up." Yet it is plain, that
 modern, nominally Christian world he incurs this added          the meaning cannot be that Paul abandoned them or let
guilt, that he also-ignores the revelation of God in Christ      them go into prison, but that he  actrively  led them into
 as given in the Word of His testimony.                          prison. In Matt.  17:22  we find  the same word used in
     Now, the apostle says, that the wrath of God  con-          the following sentence, "The Son of  .man shall be be-
 tiinued  to burn against this heathen world, and, therefore,    trayed into the hands of men." Also there the word does
 will also be revealed upon the modern world, because of         not denote a mere passive abandonment, but a positive
 this encroachment upon the glory of the Divine Being.           act. And the same is true of Matt.  24:9 where we read,
 How did it become rev&led in the world of Paul's time? "Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted.`" And
 The apostle tells us in vs. 24 : "Wherefore God also gave       these examples could be multiplied. They shed light upon
 them up to uncleanness through `the lusts of their own          the meaning of the word Paul here employs. `No more
 hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between them-             than it can be said that anyone is delivered up into prison
 selves."                                                        or unto death, into the hands of anyone or unto a1iXctioa
    bye must pay attention in the first place to the judicial    and tribulation, by an act of mere passive abandonment,
 act of God expressed in the words: God gave them up             no more has anyone the right to give that passive mean-
 unto uncleanness. We know how Kuyper, of Common ing to the word in  Ram.  1~24, 26, 28. Certainly, the
 Grace fame, interpreted these words in this verse as well       heathen also fell into the mire of their moral corruption
 as in verses  26 and  28. To him "God gave them up"             and degradation by an act of their own will. They chose
 expresses the same thing as if the apostle had said: He         to follow after the lusts of their own hearts. God's oper-
 abandoned them, He let them go, He refrained from fur-          ation never encroaches upon man's moral freedom and
 ther exerting His restraining influence upon them. The          respbnsibility.  We shall have occasion to refer to this
 text was exegeted thus in order to find a basis for the         presently.    The giving up of God did not take place
 theory, that God in grace restrains sin in its progress.        against but in harmony with their own will and lusts.
 This being Kuyper's purpose, the entire passage of Rom.         But this does not remove the fact, that the word denotes
 1~18 ff. is distorted to say exactly the opposite from what     the heathen that abandoned Him into deeper degradation
 the apostle actually teaches here." The argument is as          and corruption. Besides, this is also in harmony with all
 follows: God let the heathen go. He abandoned them to           the Scriptures teach concerning God's relation to the
 their own hearts' lusts at a certain period of their relig-     creature and in conformity with Reformed  d.octrine.   It
 ious and moral development. This presupposes that there         is not Scriptural, neither Reformed, to teach that God
 was a period preceding this historic moment, in which           ever abandons the creature, even His moral creature.
 He. had not thus given them up. Hence, during this              Though He is never the author of sin in man, yet He does
 period He  reHtrained  them, He held their sinful lusts in      co-operate with him, even when he walks in ways of sin
 check, so that they were not as sinful as they otherwise        and corruption. He does not only form the vessels of
 might have been. And as is well-known, the Synod of             honor, but also those of wrath, the former unto eternal
 the Christian Reformed Churches, in 1924, adopted this glory and the latter unto destruction, the former as a
 interpretation without any further study of the matter.         manifestation of his ipfinite mercy, the latter as a revela-
 Blindly they adopted this interpretation of Kuyper, even        tion of His righteous indignation. To speak of God as
 though all the best commentators, except the extreme            abandoning the creature and allowing him to choose his
 Arminians oppose it. And it is plainly against the clear        own ways independent of an operation of God, isEDeistic
 meaning of the passage.  Thie context witnesses against         and Pelagian. And, therefore, for all these reasons, we
 the interpretation, for Paul had not spoken of a revela-        maintain that Kuyper distorted the text, and that the
 tion of God's grace whereby sin had been checked in the         Synod of 1924  e?roneously  followed him in the interpreta-
 past; but, on the contrary, of a revelation of God's wrath      tion, that God first. restrained, afterwards let go the
 from heaven, whereby sin had developed from bad to              heathen to walk in his own ways. The word denote.. a
 worse, the foolish heart of the sinner had been darkened        positive act of God whereby the heathen, whd changed,
 and he now bowed before man and beast and creeping              the image of the uncorruptible  God into the image of cor-
 things. *9nd  alsq the meaning of the words "God gave           ruptible man, was cast into all the moral degradation that
 them up," testifies against such an interpretation. When        is described in the rest of the chapter and that is here
 we read in Matt. 10:21,  " And the brother shall deliver up     denoted by the single word "uncleanness,"
 the brother to death and the father the child," the same           The best commentators have it no different. Says
 word is used in the original for "deliver  up"  as  in Rom.     Meyer  :                                            9
 1  :24 for "gave up," yet it is plain that  them meaning is        " `He gave up' expresses the real active giving up on
. not: the brother shall abandon or let go the brother to        the part of ,God. The favourite explanation of it by `let-
 death and the father the child. See also Mark  13:l.Z. In       ting go, so often resorted to since Origin and  Chrys-
 Acts  8:3 we read, "As for Saul, he made havoc of the           ostom, is nothing but a  rationaltzing  gloss, at variance
 church, entering into every house, and hailing men  and         with the literal meaning. To the  apostIe,  God is the liv-
 women committed them to prison." The word for  "com-            ing God, who does not passively permit the retributive
                 s


6                                        T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
                 -    -    -                                                                                             -    -

consequences of infidelity or of apostacy, thus as it were       relation God established. It is a just relation, so in the
letting them run their course as an arti&er does with his        very nature of things, that to us moral degradation ap-
wheel work, but Himself, everywhere active; pervades             pears but as a natura1  consequence of religious apostacy
and effectively develops the arrangements which He has           from the living God. Yet this moral degradation would
made. If, then, God has so  ,arranged that man by  apos-         never result if God did not bring it about as punitive in-
tacy from Him should fall into moral impurity, and that          fliction upon the sinner that lifts his rebellious fist in the
thus sin shall be punished by sin (and this connection of        face of the Holy One. He casts the sinner  -down  as a
sin with sin is in accordance both with experience and           manifestation of His just wrath and holy indignation.
Scripture, Is.  6:lO; Job  8:4; Ps.  69%~;  81:13; Mk.  4:12)       In the second place, we may now also note, that even
this arrangement can only be carried out in reality              in the act of this punitive infliction God never encroaches c
through the effective action of its Originator; and God          upon the  moral nature and responsibility of the sinner
Himself must give up the apostates into impurity, in so          He thus casts down. Man is never a mere machine oper-
much as it is by His doing that that moral connection is         ated by God. "Man is not a virtue-machine when God
in point of fact accomplished" (Meyer's Commentary on            rewards virtue with virtue; neither is he a sin-machine
Romans).                                                         when God punishes sin with sin"  (M$eyer).  On the con-
     Hodge is of the same opinion, even though he speaks         trary, when God thru His grace draws the sinner unto
also of judicial abandonment. Calvin writes: "Therefore          Himself and sheds abroad His love into his heart, renew-
he used the word  delivered  according to the perpetual          ing and sanctifying him by the efficacious operation of
manner of Scripture, which word they rack too violently          His Spirit, the sinner wills to repent, wills to humble
who think we are carried into sin only by the sufferance         himself, wills to be saved, wills to turn from his evil
of God" (Calvin's Commentary on Romans). For the                 way, wills to believe in Christ, wills to walk in a new and
same view see also Denny in "The Expositor's Greek Tes-          holy life of love to God. He does not feel himself com-
tament," Sanday in "The International Critical Commen-           pelled by a force outside of him and foreign to his own
tary," etc.                                                      moral nature; but in all these actions he is impelled by
     Now, we must still note a few things with regard to         the promptings of his own heart. Yet, behind it all is
this act of God whereby He gave up the heathen. First            the action, the irresistible operation of God drawing him
of all, that God cast them down  into.unc2eanness,  to dis-      into the light of light. But no different it is, when God
honor their bodies among themselves, and further into all        punishes sin with sin and casts the sinner down into the
the moral debasement described in the last part of this          mire. of moral debasement. The apostle expresses this
chapter. It cannot escape our attention, that the puni-          too when he adds: "Through the lusts of their own
tive infliction.here indicated is entirely in harmony with       hearts." God gave up the heathen that forsook Him, not
the nature of the sin they, the heathen, had at first com-       thru any external power or force, but thru the instru-
mitted. Debasement religiously is punished with debase-          mentality of something that was inherent in their own
ment morally. If man perverts the relation between God           moral nature. Man has desires. When that creature with
and himself, his sin is punished pirith a distortion of the      those desires is controlled by the love and fear of the
moral relation among men mutually. The sin and the               Lord and chooses God to be his God, all is well, for then
punishment are in harmony with each other and the latter         he will thirst after the living God above all, and in his
is manifestly just. The heathen had changed the glory            moral life it will be his delight to do the will of the Lord.
of the incorruptible God nto an image of corruptible man         But when the relation between God and his heart  is,
and of beasts and creeping things. He wanted a god but           distorted because of sin God operates in wrath upon him
he refused to acknowledge and honor  Go.d. He closed             and upon the desires of his heart, for the object of the
his eyes to God's revelation of His eternal power and            wrath of God he is. And again, when God operates in
Godhead and he made himself an image of God, like unto           His fiery wrath  u&on  those desires in the heart of that
himself and the. beasts of the field. Now it is entirely         sinful man, those desires turn into lusts and in these lusts
proper-and just, that as a man's god is, so is not only that     the sinner yearns after uncleanness and chooses moral
man's religion but also his moral standard. If he chooses        degradation and filth as the sphere of his life. And the
to call sinful man his god his moral principles and life will    result is, that the sinner, forsaking God arrives in the
be according to the standard of sinful man. If he wor-           mire of moral depravity and uncleanness by virtue of his
ships an ox, a frog or a serpent-, he will have the moral        own choice. Yet, God, employing the lusts of the sinner
principles of an ox, frog or serpent. And since after all        as His instrument, directs that choice from heaven and
himself is no animal but man, made after the image of            in punitive wrath casts down the sinner into the dark-
God, it is but just that he should be degradated so far          ness of corruption.
below before the level of animal life as a worshipper               And finally, we must also notice, that the ultimate
stands below a god whom he worships. For man never               purpose of God in thus dealing with the sinner is not the
stands on the same level with his God. If, then an ox is         deeper sin and corruption with which he is punished, not
the god of his choice, it is evident t,hat he should be lower    the uncleanness into which he is cast, but his death and
than the 0.x. Religion and morality. are closely related.        destruction.    Plainly the apostle expresses this when he
The latter is dependent upon the former. This is the             adds : "To dishonour their bodies  ~ between themselves."
                                                                                                             ,


         _..  -                            .
                                        T H E   S T A N D A R D   BEARER                                                    7
                                                                          -                                      -         -

 It may be admitted that this last phrase is descriptive,                TOELICHTING OVER ONZE AFZETTING
 indeed, of the particular uncleanness the apostle had in
 mind. But it is not merely descriptive, further qualifying         Velen hebben zeer zeker uit  "De  Wachter"  en "The
 the moral degradation of the sinner. It also expresses          Banner" vernomen. dat  Classis  Zeeland de "pijnlijke
 purpose and design. God cast them down into that un-            taak"(  ?) had om ondergeteekende af te zetten. Maar,
 cleanness in order that they should, living apart from          zooals te begrijpen is, wordt daarin niet vermeld de wijze
 Him and departing from His ways and corrupting His              waarop  Classis   Zeeland  dit gedaan heeft. En daarom dan
 glory,' dishonor their bodies and thus corrupt them-            ook dat wij ons hebben voorgenomen om in een paar arti-
 selves, receiving the meet recompence of their error. Sin       kelen een weinig ,licht over die zaak te verspreiden.
 begets sin, and sin begotten works death and destruc-              Te meer gevoelen wij onszelven daartoe gedrongen,
 tion. And God works it all, to manifest that He is holy omdat naar ons oordeel hetgeen is  voorgevallen in  ver-
 and righteous and that He cannot be in league with the          band met onze  afzetting, bet daglicht niet kan verdragen.
 sinner that departs from Him and chooses to corrupt             .En niet alleen dat wij er zoo over  denken,   tnaar"  velen
 His glorious image.                                             zelfs, die het niet eens zijn met ons standpunt, drukken
    We- may surely, in conclusion, call the attention of         hunne verwondering en afkeuring uit over de handelwijze
 our readers to the fact, that the theory of common grace        van kerkeraad en  CIassis.  Die handelingen van de,  ker-
 is not only radically in conflict with this clear teaching of keraad, van de dubbele kerkeraad, en van de Classis  gaan
 Scripture, but is also a very dangerous and demoralizing        dan ook alle perken  te buiten.
 doctrine. It teaches, that the sinner can depart from God          Die handelingen zijn  niet  alleen een verdraaide  toe-
 and refuse to serve Him, yet God will be his friend; that       passing van het nieuw aangenomen kerkrecht der Chris-
 with a measure of safety. he can set his foot  upon  the        telijke Gereformeercle Kerk, waardoor de  Classis  over den
 steeply declining path of sin, for God, still being his         kerkeraad heerschappij voert, maar het is het  toppunt,
 friend will restrain him from plunging headlong into de-        of het uiterste, van deze  Roomsche, hierarchische macht,
 struction. Scripture teaches :                                  die door de laatstgehouden Synode aan de'classis is toe-
                                                                 gekend.
   "Wie God verlaat, heeft smart op smart te vreezen."              Die handelingen gaan  zelfs de  perken  der  welvoege-
                                                                 lijkheid   (om maar niet te spreken van de broederlijke
    It  teaches,  not that on the way of sin God restrains       liefde) te buiten,  wanneer  er op een onderhandsche  ma-
 the sinner from going too fast, but that in His wrath,          nier gewerkt wordt om een mede-ambtsdrager uit zijn
 operating upon the fire of the very lusts that are in the       ambt te ontzetten. En nog lager wordt die handelwijze
 sinner's heart, He pushes him down, down into deeper            wanneer men tegenover ons, dat is, in ons bijzijn, steeds
 and more horrible sin, down finally into death and de-          liefde en hoogachting veinsde.
 struction. No one can depart from the living God and               Wet is ons nog steeds een raadsel:  waarom wij na de
 be safe even for one moment.                                    Synode van 1926 zoo  hals over kop uit ons ambt ontzet
                                                   H. H.         moesten  worden. En niet alleen dat dit ons een raadsel
                                                                 is, maar ook voor vele anderen is dit een  raadselachtig
                                                                 verschijnsel. Ja zelfs verschillende predikanten in de
                        VERBETERING                              Chr. Geref. Kerk hebben te kennen gegeven, dat de actie
                                                                 tegenover ons genomen, niet alleen vreemd en  raadsel-
    In het vorige nummer van "The Standard Bearer"               achtig is, maar ook, dat die  actie ten sterkste is af te
 kwam een zeer zinstorende drukfout-voor in het artikel: keuren.
 "De Christen en de Union," die het laatste gedeelte van            En te meer is het voor ons ken raadsel, dat wij uit ons
 dat artikel onverstaanbaar maakte. De lezer gelieve zes         ambt ontzet moesten worden,  daar wij tech nooit eenige
 regels, die voorkomen op p. 440, 3de kolom, uit te lichten,     propaganda maakten tegen de  synodale  besluiten. Van
regels  6-11 van onderen; en deze in te voegen op p. 439,        Ds. Danhof en van"Ds. H. Hoeksema werd steeds gezegd,
 2de kolom, tusschen den zesden en zevenden regel van            dat als zij maar geen propaganda gemaakt hadden  tegen
 beneden.          ^                                        .    de Synodale  besluiten, dat zij dan vandaag nog we1 in de
    De zes regels, die van de eene naar de andere  bladzijde     Chr. Geref. Rerk zouden zijn.  Dtan had men hen  we1
 dienen te worden verplaatst op de wijze boven  aangege-         -best kunnen dulden of dragen.  Maar ook dat is met waar,
 ven, zijn de volgende:                                          gelijk ons duidelijk wordt uit de wijze waarop  onderge-
 "gever tegenover hem. In de eerste plaats tech gaat het         teekende uit zijn ambt ontzet werd, waar hij  tech nooit
 ook hier niet om aardsche en wereldsche dingen,  maar om        eenige propaganda tegen `de synodale  besluiten gemaakt
 de zaak enden Naam Zijns Gods en van Zijnen Christus.           had.
 Hij strijdt een geestelijken strijd en heeft daarin alleen          Raadselachtig is. de actie, die tegen ons genomen is,
 altijd de overwinning door den Koning, die hem van ook in het  licht van het feit, dat er nooit een aanklacht
 Israels God gegeven is. Voor hem gaat de strijd dan" tegen ons is ingediend bij den kerkeraad. Maar naar  bet
                                                                 oordeel van de Classis  was zulks ook niet noodig. Want
                                                   H. H.         ondergeteekende had  tech bij de Synode geprotesteerd


                                         T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                     ` 9
- I _ -                                                                                                 _ _ _ _ _ _ _
gemeente, zoo is ook feitelijk de  actie tegen  ens  begon-       niet door eene oprechte begeerte tot het goede, maar of
nen.                                                              door enkele eerzucht, eigenliefde of door eenige andere
    Maar daarop  willen  wij in een  volgend artikel uwe          verkeerde gezindheid van het bedrijven des boosheid  wor-
aandacht vestigen.                                                -den afgehouden.  Naardien  dan  /iunne  werken van de on-
                                            1~. JONKER.           auiverheid des  harten, als van  derzelver   oorsprong  af,  bedor-
                            ---                                   ven  zijn, zoo mogen  zij met geen  meer  recht onder de  deug-
                                                                  den  worden gesteld, dan de ondeugden, die wegens hare  ge-
                     BOOK REVIEW
            _.                                                    lijkheid en overeenkomst met de deugd, plegen te  misleiden.
                                                                  Eindelijk, dewijl wij  weten  dat het onveranderlijk einde
    "As To Being Reformed,' by R. B. Kuiper.                      des  rechts is, dat God gediend wordt, zoo  volgt, dat al
    It is the desire of the author that we regard his book w-at tot iets anders strekt, terecht den naam van  recht
as "an appeal to the members of the Reformed Church               verliest. Dewijl zij dus niet zien op het doel, dat de wijs-
in America and the Christian Reformed Church to con-              heid  Gods hun voorstelt, zoo is hetgeen zij  doen,  schoon
tinue soundly Reformed or to become &ore so" (Preface).           het ten  aanzien  van het uitwendig bedrijf  goed schijnt,  noch-
    It is evident from the preface that, to the author, the       tans ten opzichte van het verkeerde doel,  zonde.  Diens-
two terms "Calvinism" and `(Reformed faith" are syn-              volgens besluit hij, dat al de fabriciussen, Scipio's en
onymous. Says the author : "But the subject of this book          Cato's  in hunne schitterende bedrijven der zonde  begaan
is quite another and one of incomparably greater impor-           hebben, dat zij dezelve  hadden  behooren te  richten, en
tance.     It is CALVINISM, primarily in its theological          dat dus in hun geene ware gerechtigheid geweest is,  naar-
aspect." And again: "The one thing that I propose to              dien de werken niet  naar de uiterlijke daad  worden   ge-
do is to call the attention of our people in plain language       schat, maar naar derzelver einde.
to a few things in connection with these subjects which,             `<Bovendien,  indien het waar is wat Johannes  zegt,
I believe; they need to be told in order to retain or regain      dat er geen leven is buiten den Zoon Gods, zoo loopen  zij,
their hold on the Reformed faith." It is plain that, ac-          die geen deel hebben in Christus, hoedanigen zij ook mo-
cording to Kuiper, the truly Reformed man is at once              gen zijn, en wat zij ook mogen doen  of trachten, nochtans
a sturdy Calvinist. Hence, his book may be regarded as            in  vollen  ren naar het verderf en oordeel des eeuwigen
an  appear  to continue soundly Calvinistic or to become          doods. Om deze  reden  is dit gezegd geworden door
more so.                                                          Augustinus : Onze Godsdienst onderscheidt de rechtvaar-
   Let us see, now, if the author himself, is soundly             digen  van de onrechtvaardigen niet door de wet der wer-
Calvinistic or Reformed. On page 113 of the author's              ken, maar door die des geloofs  ;  zonder   welk  geloof  a&
book one happens upon this paragraph: "If we discard              werken  die  goed schijnen, in  zonden  veranderen. Waarom
common grace, we are driven inevitably to one of two              dezelfde op eene andere plaats zich schoon uitdrukt, als
conclusions: `either man is not totally depraved, he can          hij den arbeid van zoodanige menschen vergelijkt met
do good of himself; or the good which he does is not              een dwalenden loop. Want hoe sneller iemand van den
really good at all ; his virtues are faults ; his noble accom-    weg afloopt, hoe verder hij  zich van het doe1 verwijdert,
plishments are works of the devil; his patriotism, marital        en dus ook ellendiger wordt. Waarom hij ook beweert
fidelity, filial piety, love for his children, common honesty     dat het beter is op den weg te hinken, dan bezijden den
are all of them glittering sins. In the doctrine of man           weg te  loopen.  Ten laatste is het zeker dat het kwade
the denial of common grace leads to rankest Modernism             boomen  zijn, dewijl er zonder de gemeenschap van Chris-
or blackest misanthropy."                                         tus geen heiligmaking is ; zij mogen dan we1 schoone en
   We desire to call the attention of the author to the           op het oog kostelijke en voor den smaak aangename
fact that it is precisely the view of Calvin, that the good       vruchten kunnen voortbrengen ; goede echter  geenszins.
which he (natural man) does, is not really good at all,           Hieruit  zien  wij  `lichtelijk   dat al wat de  mensch  bedenkt,
that his virtues are faults, that his patriotism, marital         overlegt  en  verricht,  eer hij met God verzoend  uordt  door
fidelity, filial piety, love for his children, common honesty     bet geloof, vervloekt is, en  &et  slechts  van geene  waarde  is
are all glittering sins.                                          tot rechtvaardigheid, maar ook  gewis de  verdoemenis   wer-
  We shall quote from Calvin's Institute the following:           dient.  En'waarvoor   twisten.wij  hier als over een  twijfel-
"Maar desniettemin is het waar, hetgeen Augustinus                achtig stuk, dewijl reeds met het getuigenis van den
schrijft, dat  allen,  die van de dienst des eenigen Gods         Apostel is bewezen, dat het onmogelijk is dat iemand
vervreemd zijn, schoon zij wegens den schijn van deugd            zonder geloof God zou behagen (Hebr.  11:6)   ?"  (Johan-
bewonderd  worden,  niet alleen geen belooning,  .maar            nes Calvijn's Institutie,  p. 188, 289).
veeleer strafwaardig zijn; overmits zij de reine goederen            Calvin expresses himself in a way which leaves no
Gods door de besmetting huns  harten  verontreinigen.             doubt as to his view of the good works of the natural
Want schoon  zij  werktuigen zijn van God, om de  samen-          man. Calvin avers that the good works of the natural
leving der menschen door rechtvaardigheid, soberheid,             man, that all his accomplishments are cursed and merit
vritndschap, matigheid, kloekmoedigheid en voorzichtig-           damnation. His goqd works are sinful' acts, glittering
heid in stand te houden, zoo brengen zij nochtans deze            s i n s .
goede werken Gods zeer slecht ten uitvoer ; overmits zij             Kuiper calls his book an appeal to continue soundly

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

 Calvinistic or to become more so. Yet in that very book                   DE JONGSTE KERKELIJKE STRIJD
 of his he denies one of the foundation truths of Calvin-
 ism. Kuiper maintains that the so-called good works                      Classis  Grand Rapids Oost, Nov.-Dec., 1924
 of the natural man are relatively sinless. Calvin, on the
 other hand, insists that these works are glittering sins,           De  Iezer herinnert  zich, dat we de vorige keer  ver-
 cursed. They merit damnation. This is interesting, isn't           haalden,  hoe de  Classis,  om  reden,  die ons nooit bekend
 it? It seems to me that it's a case of the blind leading           werden, nadat de Kerkeraad van Eastern Ave. geweigerd
 the blind.                                                         had, om te voldoen  aan den eerst-gestelden eisch der
            Page 61 of Kuiper's book contains the following:        Classis,  om namelijk zijn leeraar voor de bewuste drie
 "Some of our people think that the doctrine. of common             punten  te plaatsen, op 20 Nov. nog eens hetzelfde besloot
 grace tends to make people worldly. But that is plainly            en tevens om te verdagen tot 10 Dec. O'ok deelden we
 a fallacy. Common grace is unmistakably taught in                  mede, hoe de Kerkeraad gedurende deze Classicale pauze
 Scripture ( ?) . Let us beware of blaming the Bible and            gelegenheid kreeg, om inzage te nemen van de communi-
 implicidly its divine Author for our sins. When we sin             catie van de "Twee-en-Negentig"  aan de  Classis  gericht,
 we are to blame. To be sure, there are those who use               waarin deze feitelijk   alle  gemeenschap met de kerk  ver-
 `the doctrine of common grace as an excuse for worldli-            braken en zichzelf reeds als een aparte gemeente  be-
 ness. Say they: `If God is good to all men, and if there           schouwden. En hoe  toen de Kerkeraad besloot, om dit
 is much good in the world at large, then there is no good          als een bedanken voor  11dmaatschap  aan te nemen, den
 reason why we should stand aloof from the world.' But              betrokkenen nog  Gin gelegenheid te  geven,  om dit  be-
 that truth has never been abused."                                 danken  weer in te trekken,  om ze voorts, mochten ze dit
            Kuiper is here rebuking some people who conclude        niet  doen, niet meer  als,  leden  van Eastern Ave. te  be-
 that,one may be a friend of the world. The rebuke, how-            schouwen. Dit werd besloten op de  kerkeraadsvergade-
 ever, is undeserved. Kuiper avers, does he not, that, due          ring van 25 Nov. 1924. Otp dezelfde vergadering was ook
 to common grace, the world is living on a high moral ter tafel de  communicatie  der  Classis,  waarin deze nog
 standard.         May I not make friends with good people?         eens weer van den Kerkeraad eischte, om den leeraar
 Should I not embrace the true, the beautiful and the               voor dezelfde vragen te plaatsen, als die ook tevoren door
 good? Indeed,  L shall. Says the Apostle Paul: "Finally,           de  Classis   aan den Kerkeraad  waren  voorgelegd. De
 brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things            notulen dier kerkeraadsvergadering wijzen uit, dat de
 a;e honest, whatsoeve?  things are just, whatsoever things         Kerkeraad besloot om ook ditmaal ,geen gehoor te geven
 are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things          aan dezen eisch der Cla'ssis, maar om een  goed  uitgewerkt
 are of good report ; if there be any virtue, and if there be       antwoord op te stellen,  iets waarvoor de Kerkeraad thans
 any praise, think on these things" (Phil. 4 :S).                   we1 tijd had. De Ieeraar en de  scriba  des kerkeraads
            If that world is actually good, Kuiper denies one of    werden benoemd, om zulk een antwoord op te stellen.
 the foundation truths of Scripture when he maintains                  Op 8 Dec. had de Kerkeraad weer vergadering. We
 that we must shun that world. To do sa means to shun               lezen in de notulen onder  dien datum:
 the good. Should he be permitted to declare that  &d's                "Art. 5. Het antwoord opgesteld door de commissie
 people must separate themselves from the true and the              op de "demands der  Classis  wordt gelazen en door de
 good? Is that not dangerous advice?                                vergadering goedgekeurd.        Eveneens wordt de  Engel-
            And then this assertion: "Let us beware of blaming      sche vertaling gelezen en ook goedgekeurd."
 the Bible and implicidly the divine Author for our sins."             Dit antwoord werd aok op den bestemden datum, toen
 This  is his reply to those who conclude that one should           de Classis  weer vergaderde, voorgelezen door den leeraar
 not stand aloof from the world .if that world is good.             van Eastern Ave. in beide  talen. En we laten het hier
 What a strange response. Am I blaming God for my sins              ook in zijn  geheel  volgen:
 when I embrace the good? His reply is without  mean-
 ning. The author should have frankly admitted that his             Classis  Grand Rapids Oost, vergaderd den 9en Dec. 1924
theory of common grace got him into a bad fix from                     in de Oakdale  Chr. Ger. kerk te Grand Rapids, Mich.
 which he was unable to extricate himself.                                 Eerwaarde Broeders  :-
                           (To be Continued)                           De Kerkeraad van de Eastern Ave. Christelijke Gere-
                                                       G. M. 0.     formeerde kerk heeft ontvangen en kennis genomen van
                              - .---. -.I___                        den inhoud van een  communicatie van  Classis  Grand
                                                                    Rapids Oost, van den 24sten Nov. 1924, waarin de Classis
                                BINDING!                            van den voornoemden Kerkeraad eischt, dat deze den
       p                                                            leeraar, Ds. H. Hoeksema, voor de vraag zal stellen of
            Persons desiring to have Volume  1 or Volume II         hij ten volle instemt met de  drie-  punten,  uitgesproken
 bound, send copies to J. H. Vander Vennen, 1061 Dun-               door de Synode van 1924  (Acta 1924, Art, 132, p. 14.5
 ham St., S. E., Grand Rapids,-  LMich. Bound in Black              v-v.)  ; en, ten  tweeden,  of hij  zich wil onderwerpen met
 Imitation Leather, Gold Stamped on Back. Price $2.00.              het recht van beroep op de Belijdenisschriften onzer ker-
 P o s t a g e   e x t r a .                                        ken, zooals die verklaard zijn door de Synode van 1924.


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/-         18                                                   T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R .                            .
                                                                                                        -

      ^    recht heeft  om een zaak te heropenen tegen  onzen   leer-                        En daaruit  zou  tech  moeten   blijken,  dat de Synode geen tucht
           aar, Ds.  H. Hoeksema, die zoo van  alle  zijden werd aan-                        heeft gewild. Hoe  gebeel anders was dit in de Bultema-zaak.
                                                                                             Toen veroordeelde de Synode de leer, eischte dat hij  zou  herroe-
           gevallen, tegen wien zoo vele aanklachten werden  inge-                           pen, benoemde  een  commissie  om de zaak bij den kerkeraad  aan-
           bracht  op de Synode, en die de Synode verliet met het                            hangig   t e   makcn.  C f .   o o k   n og de  actie der Synode 1924 in de
                                                                                             Rreen-Janssen zaak.
           getuigenis van die breedste vergadering onzer kerken,                                                                                            H. I-I.
           dat hij fundamenteel goed Gereformeerd is.
                                                                                                        PROSPERITY AND THE WICKED
                 D. Besluit :
                 1. Overwegende, dat de  Classis van den Kerkeraad                               The law, so it was made plain, extends over the length
           van Eastern Ave. eischt, dat deze den leeraar voor een                            and breadth of man's existence. The command to serve
           vraag  zal plaatsen, die kennelijk is overwogen en beslist                        and to praise is inseparably joined to all that man is and
           door de Synode van 1924,                                                          is pleased to call his own. Man must love God with all
                 2. Overwegende, dat genoemde Kerkeraad yan East-                            his heart, with all his soul, and with all his mind, and
           ern Ave. overtuigd is, Aat de geheele  zaak*tegPn  den leer-                      with  all. his strength.        Man shall serve God with his
           aar voor de Synode was, en daarom is afgedaan`;                                   talents, with his powers of mind and body, with his
                 3.. Overwegende, dat de Kerkeraad van Eastern Ave.                          wealth. The command to serve and to praise is attached
           b'ereid is  zich bij de besluiten der Synode van 1924 neer                        to all that God is pleased to bestow upon the sinner. But
           te leggen, en ook overtuigd is dat voornoernde vraag door                         the wicked one will not serve, neither will he praise.
           de  Classis  gesteld  niet' in harmonie is met de duidelijke                      Unto the sinner the law is an instrument of death. It
           uitspraken en bedoeling der  synodale  besluiten van 1924 ;                       maddens him. The law arouses slumbering sin which,
                 4. Overwegende, dat Classis  Grand Rapids Oost een                          having been awakened, captivates the entire man and
           verklaring geeft aan de besluiten der voornoemde Synode                           compels its captive to resiSt  the law. Such are the plain
           van 1924, die verschilt'van de verklaripg  gegeven aan de-                        teachings of the Apostle Paul. Prosperity, since it is
           zelfde besluiten van voornoemde Synode van 1924 zooals                            inseparably joined to the law, which the sinner hates,
           hierboven gegeven door den Kerkeraad van de Eastern                               qccasions  intense rebellion on the part of the wicked
           Ave. Chr. Gereformeerde kerk, en die ook verschilt van                            one. Since the law covers man's entire existence, within'
           de duidelijke uitspraken van voornoemde besluiten der                             the circle of which he is confined, it follows that the sin-
           Synode van 1924 ;                                                                 ner is one whd continuously and exclusively rebels
                 4. Overwegende, dat de Kerkeraad ten  allen  tijde                          against his Maker. These things have been made plain.
           bereid is, zoolang hij het ambt bekleedt in de Christelijke                           We shall now enter upon a new phase of our subject.
           Gereformeerde Kerk, om zich bij de besluiten der Synode                           We  r&t now ascertain what may be God's attitude to-
           en haar verklaringen  oak van de Belijdenis neer te  leg-                         ward the proud and rebellious sinner.                   We begin by
           gen ;                                                                             asserting that the relation which God sustains to the sin-
                 6. Daarom besluit de Kerkeraad van voornoemde                               ner is also that of judge. Scripture asserts time and again
           Eastern Ave. Chr. Geref. kerk:                                                    that God is King who judges the earth. "Verily, He is
                 a. Om  zich te beroepen op de Synode voor de  ver-                          God that judgeth the earth" (Psalm 58:12). "Say among
           klaring gegeven hierboven  aan de besluiten der Synode                            the heathen that the Lord reigneth: the world also shall
           1924 inzake de protesten tegen  onzen  leeraar, Ds. H.                            be established that it shall not be moved:  He shall judge
           Hoeksema, zooals die verklaring gegeven is door den ker-                          t& people righteously" (Psalm 96 :lO). "The Lord standeth
           keraad van Eastern Ave.  aan genoemde besluiten van                               up to plead, and  standeth  to judge the people.              The Lord
           voornoemde Synode in deze  communicatie   aan  Classis                            will enter into judgment with the ancients of His people,
           Grand Rapids Oost; en zich te beroepen tegen de verkla-                           and  the people thereof" (Isaiah  3:13). "0, ye house of
           ring gegeven  aan voornoemde besluiten der Synode van                             Israel, I  will.judgc  you  Every  one  after  his  ways" (Ezekiel
           1924 zooals die gegeven is door  Classis Grand Rapids                             33:rn).
           Oost in een  communicatie  van voornoemde  Classis   aan                              It is the task of the judge to attempt to know, under-
           voornoemden Kerkeraad van Eastern Ave. Chr. Geref.                                stand, fathom to the greatest  po:;sible degree the man
           kerk.                                                                             and his deed. The judge shall attempt to know the thing
                 b. De  Classis Grand Rapids Oost te verzoeken van                           as it is and to pronounce the thing to be what it is. Then
           alle  actie,  die zij  Aisschien  mocht denkcn te  moeten   ne-                   the judge shall pronounce guilty or innocent as tine case
           meri af te  zien tegen den voornoemden' Kerkeraad van                             may be. Thereupon he shall sentence the culprit and see
           Eastern Ave., tot tijd en wijle de Synode op dit beroep is                        to it that the sentence is executed. In respect to legal
           ingegaan en z&h over de zaak heeft uitgesproken.                                  processes here upon earth it is not ahvays the judge who                       *
                                  Met eerbied onderworpen,                                   apprizes the deed, but a body of twelve men called a ,
                                        De Kerkeraad van Eastern Ave.,                       jury. If this be the procedure the judge is merely called
                                           (Was get.) H. Hoeksema, Pres.                     upon to fix the sentence. Even before the jury or the judge
                                                          S. Schaafsma, Clerk.               functions the deed of the culprit is apprized, and he
           -II_                                                                              hi&self  accused and that by the plaintiff who prosecutes
                 *)    Het is  in elk  geval  duidelijk,  en boven  alle betoog,  da,t de
           Synode  dit rapport van de Commissie-nid heeft aangenomen.                        him. The one prosecuted is ushered in the presence


                                            T H E   S'iANDARD B E A R E R                                                    19

of the judge. And it is the request of the plaintiff              greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception  ; in sor-  _
that the accusation be maintained and the criminal                row thou shalt bring forth children ; and thy desire shall
sentenced. Further, it is often a matter of doubt whether         be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee." And
or no  t,he accused is guilty. The defendant often main-          Adam, having harkened unto the voice of his  wife;and
tains that he is innocent. To bring the matter to a suc-          having eaten of the forbidden tree, shall eat in sorrow of
cessful close, witnesses are summoned, their testimony            the ground all the days of his life. The ground, cursed
is heard. In this way an attempt is made to establish the         fbr his sake, shall bring forth to him thorns and thistles.
guilt or the innocence of the one accused.                        In the sweat of his face shall he eat bread, till he returns
      God is judge, but He is no human judge. Conse-              unto the ground ; for out of it was he taken : for dust
quently, God's court of justice differs remarkably from           he is and unto dust he shall return.
the court of justice in which a human judge presides.                The very presence of sin with all the attending evils is
The legal processes of God's court of justice are alto-           an indication of the fact, that God has and ever is func-
gether unique. The differences are due to the fact that           tioning as judge, pronouncing guilty and punishing the
the judges differ. God is God, holy, just, righteous and          criminal.-  God punishes sin with sin. Our first parents
omniscious. The human judge is sinful, his sense of               having eaten of the forbidden fruit, died and with them
justice is not at all keen. He has .a11 the limitations of a      the race of which they were the parents. Every student
sinful, human being. It may be that he is  prej.udiced  or of Scripture knows that the Bible, to a remarkable degree
he may become the victim of fear. If such be the case he          is a record of executions of judgments.        Cain, having
is unable or disinclined to apprize intelligently and fairly      killed his brother Abel, is cursed from the earth. He may
and to render a verdict compatible with justice. It is            till the ground but it shall not henceforth yield unto him
these limitations of the human judge which are re-                her strength.  ,4 fugitive and a vagabond shall he be in
sponsible for the inauguration of the jury system.                the earth. God judged the world of Noah's day.  Gocl
      No such limitations and weaknesses characterize God.        saw that the wickedness of man was great upon the
He fears no one and why should He? With Him there                 earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his
is no respect of persons. He judges the sinner and his            heart was only evil continually. And the Lord forthwith
deeds and his thoughts and his volitions and his desires .destroys  man from the face of the earth. Repeatedly
and his motives and his aims and purposes and the                 would Israel turn to' the false gods  of the surrounding
estimations of this Judge are correct and the sentence im-        neighboring tribes. As often as it happened would the
posed what it should be.                                          enemy cross Israel's borders, devastate her lands and
      Then there are other differenies.    The labors in which    burn her cities. The enemy must be regarded as  a
legal processes involve the human vindicators of the law          scourge in God's hand. He was stirred up and sent by
are divided between the judge ?nd the jury, the drosecut-         the Lord to punish and to chastise the wayward and
ing attorney, the defending attorney and the executioner.         rebellious nation. Some centuries later this stiff-necked
True it is, that these several functionaries are servants of      people were rooted up from the land, and deported to
God. In His name are they engaged in the vindication              Babylon. Jerusalem was finally destroyed some seventy
of the law and in the administration of justice. For this         years after Christ.
very reason should every court of justice be regarded as             Unto John, on the island of Paimos, was revealed the
a tribunal of God. But there is also a tribunal where             course of events of the struggle between Christ and the
man is not functioning and where God alone presides.              Devil, between the church and the world. The vision
This is the Divine tribunal proper. Here God is all-              makes it plain, that the divine court of justice is in ses-
the judge, the prosecuting attorney, the defending advo-          sion during the entire period. In this epoch, which ends
cate, the jury and the executioner.                               when `Christ shall have completely triumphed over His
      Scripture makes it very plain, that this court is in        enemies, God is engaged in judging, prosecuting, pro-
session and has beei from the very beginning. The very            nouncing guilty and executing judgment. There is, in
presence of sin means, that God is ever engaged in prose-         this period, a great revelation of wrath. Shall we quote
cuting, judging, pronouncing guilty or innocent, sentenc-         from the written record of the vision? "And the first
ing and executing judgment. The events of Paradise                angel sounded and there followed hail and fire mingled
indicate that God did these things as soon as sin made its        with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the
appearance.     Adam and Eve were summoned before the             third part of trees were burnt up, and all green grass was
tribunal of God. It happened when God came in Paradise            burnt up. And the second angel sounded and as it were a
seeking man who, having sinned, had fled upon hearing             great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea;
the voice of God in the garden. The culprits were found           and the third part of the sea became blood ; and the third
and forthwith sentenced. The serpent is cursed above all          part of the creatures which were in the sea became
cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon his belly        blood; and the third part of the creatures which were in
he shall go, and dust shall he eat all the days of his life.      the sea, and had life, died; and the third part of the ships
His head shall finally be bruised by the seed of the              were destroyed. And the third angel sounded and there
woman. All this was to be his portion for having seduced          fell a  greatsstar  from heaven, burning as it were as a
the woman to sin. Unto the woman God said: "I will                lamp, and it  ,fell upon the third part of the rivers, and
 .


                                                                                                               .
20                                       T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R

upon the mountains of viraters;  and the name of the star        like to retain  Cod  in their knowledge,  God gave them
is called wormwood; and the third part of the waters             over to a reprobate mind, to do  those  things which are
became wormwood; and many men died of the waters,                not convenient; Being filled with all unrighteousness,
because they were made bitter. And. the fourth angel             fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, .full
sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and          of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,
the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars ;    backbiters, haters.of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, in-
so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day           ventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without
shone not for a third part of it; and the night likewise.        understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affec-
And the fifth angel sounded and I saw a star fall from           tion, implacable, unmerciful : Who knowing the judgment
heaven unto the earth;  atid to him was given the key of         of God, that they which commit such things are worthy
the bottomless pit. And he opened the bottomless pit;            bf death, not only do the same, have pleasure in them that
and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a        do them" (Rom.  1:25-32).
great furnace ; and the sun and the air were darkened                The assertion, "For this cause God gave them up unto
by reason of the smoke of the pit. And there came out            vile  aEections" indicates that the beastliness and moral
of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was           degradation described by the Apostle Paul is punishment.
given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power.               And now a word about the plagues described in the
And it was commanded them that they should not hurt              book of Revelations. It is the humanity of the present
the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither         and the latter days which will be visited with these
any tree ; but only those men which have not the seal of         plagues. The Lord God is ever engaged in inflicting pun-
God on their foreheads. And to them it was given that            ishment upon the wicked world. Every generation  is made
they should not kill them, but that they should be tor-          to experience His wrath. However, there is such a thing
mented five months: and their torment was as the tor-            as a development of sin. The world is becoming more
ment of the scorpion, when he striketh a man.  And in            intensely wicked with time. This intensification of wick-
those days shall men seek death but shall not find it; and       edness is accompanied by an intensification of  d-ivine
shall desire to die but death shall  ilee from them.. . . .      wrath as experienced by the godless. In the  p.eriod pre-
And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice  from. ceding the second advent of Christ another crisis in his-
the four horns of the golden altar which is before God,' tory will have been reached. The first great crisis was
saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose           reached in the day of Noah. The world had become so
the  foui angels which are bound in the great river              wicked that God saw  fit,to destroy it. The world is due
Euphrates. And the four angels were loosed which were            for another crisis in the latter days, when sin shall again`
prepared for an hour, and a day and a month, and a year,         have reached the zenith of its development. In this epoch
for to slay the third part of men.. . . By these three were      the judgments of God  will necessarily be extremely
the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke,     severe. The plagues described unto the Apostle John
and by the brimstone, which issued out of `their mouths.         should- be regarded as an extraordinary revelation of
. . . . And the rest of the men which were not killed by         God's wrath in the present dispensation and in that clay
these plagues yet repented not of the works of their             when sin shall have become exceedingly sinful.
hands, that  thejr should not worship devils, and idols  bf         The above view is also shared by Prof. Berkhof. In
gold, and silver and brass, and stone, and 05 wood which         his New Testament Introduction the professor enumer-
neither can see nor hear nor walk: Neither repented they         ates the various principles of interpretation which have
of their murders nor of their sorceries, nor of their forni-     been adopted with reference to the book of Revelation.
cations, nor of their thefts."'                                  Says Berkhof : "The older expositors and the majority of
      The above is a written record of a part of what the        orthodox Protestant commentators adopted the  Contin-
Apostle John saw. During the entire period to which the          uist interpretation, which proceeds on the assumption
vision applies there is a revelation of intense wrath from       that the book contains a prophetic compendium of Church
heaven. God ,is indeed functioning as judge in this pres-        history from the first Christian century until the return
ent dispensation. The works of the hands of the wicked           of Christ :. . .
are being punished now. Even the moral degeneration                 "In course of time the futurist interpretation found
as such is, in itself, punishment. The Apostle Paul              favor with some, according to which all or nearly all the
makes this plain when he says: "Who changed the truth            events described in the Apocalypse must be referred to
of God into a lie, and worshiped and served the creature         the period immediately preceding the return of Christ.
more than the creator, who is blessed for ever, Amen.               "Present day critical scholars, so Berkhof continues,
For this  ewe God gave  tlwm up  unto  vile  afections:   for are generally inclined to adopt the praeterist interpreta-
even their women did change the natural use into that            tion, which- holds that the view of the seer was limited
which is against nature : And likewise also the men, Ieav-       to matters within his own historical horizon.. . .
ing the natural use of the woman, burned in their Iiist              "Though all these views," says Berkhof," must be
one toward another;  men  with men working that which            regarded as one-sided, each one contains an element ,.of
is  unseemly, and receiving in themselves that  recompence       truth that must be taken in consideration in the inter-
nf their error which was meet. And even as they did not          pretation of the  book. The descriptions in it certainly
                                                                                                                           e


                                            THE.   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
                                                 --^-.._                 --.---__.                                                21

 had a point of contact in the historical present of the                  It appears that the exponents of the theory of common
 seer, but  they  go far beyond that present; they certainly          grace are not agreed as to the actual state of affairs be-
 pertain to historical conditions of the Church of God,               tween"the  Church and the world. Let it be said that Van
 and conditions that will exist in all ages, but instead of           cler Mey errs grievously when he maintains that the
 arising successively in the. order in which they are  de-            Church and the world are at one. It is true, that the de-
 scribed in the Apocalypse, they make their appearance in generated Church is the friend of the world, but the true
 every age contemporaneously;  artd finally  they  will  cer-         Church never.     In Paradise God announced that He
 tdtnly issue in a terrific struggle immediately preceding the        would put enmity-between the serpent and the woman
 parousiu   of  ,Christ  and in that transcendent glory of the ,and between her seed and the seed of the serpent. This
 bride of the lamb" (Berkhof,  rrNew  Testament  Introduc-            enmity is a ,reality. Brother Vander Mey is, however, at
 tion," p. 350,351). And now this : "The book (of  Revela-            ieast  consistent. He adheres to the theory of common
 tion) is primarily a book of consolation for the militant grace. The world experiences the ennobling influence of
 Church  in its  struggles  z&h  the hostile world and with  tlze     the Spirit of God. The world, according to Vander Mey,
 powers of darknessr . . . . And while it reveals the future          is living on a high' moral plane. Says he : "Er is werkelijk
 history of the Church as one of continual struggle, it un-           in de wereld, buiten de Kerk, nog veel goeds en schoons
 folds in majestic visions the coming of the Lord,  which en lofwaardigs. In deugd en rechtschapenheid, in barm-
issues in the destruction  of the wicked and of the  Evil One, -hartigheid en hulpbetoon, in teederheid  des gewetens, in
and in the everlasting bliss of the faithful1 witnesses of           sierlijkheid van karakter, zouden velen van onze Christe-
Jesus Christ. Hence the book comes-to the enemies of                  nen een voorbeeld kunnen nemen  aan velen die van de
God's Kingdom with words of solemn  warning  and with                wereld  zijn, want  hunne gerechtigheid is vaak  overvloe-
threaten&y   of  future  punishment . . . . " ("New Testament        diger dan van vele Christen-belijders. Voor veel wat in
Introduction," p. 352).                                              de wereld is en door de wereld geschiedt hebben wij God
    Prof. Berkhof informs his students that, according  ta           te danken,  want het is een vrucht Zijner genade. Kennis,
the book of Revelation, the Church of Christ is involved             wetenschap en kunst, philanthropie,  sociale hervorming
in a s,truggle  with the world and the forces of darkness.           en vele andere  dingen, die  werkelijk,  goed zijn, hebben
The professor also affirms that there will be an extraordi-          groote waarde voor ons" (Bezwaarschrift, p. 6, 7). He is
nary revelation of divine wrath. An admittance of this               consistent enough to draw the conclusion that hostilities
kind is at once a denial of the theory of common grace.              between the world and the Chirrch  ought to cease and in
Let us make this plain.                                              fact have ceased, and that the two are now friends. And
    There is war between the church and the world. It is             Vander Mey, to a degree, is speaking the truth. It is a
admitted by Berkhof but denied by Rev. Vander  Mey.                  fact, that the Church, the Christian Reformed Church, is
This brother has this to say:  "Omdat  die wereld zoo                regarding the world as a suitable friend. The two are
slecht is staat ze ook zoo vijandig tegenover de Kerk.               friends in fact. Such men as Rev. H. J. Kuiper admit
De wereld heeft tegenover  011s besliste positie gekozen.            that such is the case. He is complaining about the grow-
De wereld staat als in slagorden gereed tegenover ons..              ing worldliness in the Church.
De Christenen  moeten  veel lijden en  op de  martela?rs-               Professor Berkhof is at variance with himself. As
gestalte wordt vooral aangedrongen.                                  professor in Isagogics he maintains that the Church and
 . . "Nu begrijp ik zeer we&"  thus the brother continues,           the world are at war. The strife, asserts the professor,
"dat dit alles logisch voortvloeit uit des Ieeraars (Ds. H.          will certainly issue in a terrific struggle. Such, according
Hoeksema) standpunt aangegeven in Bezwaar 1, maar                    to Berkhof, are the predictions of Scripture. Now he will
dat bewijst opnieuw hoe onhoudbaar dit standpunt zelve               have to admit that a struggle of this kind certainly must
is. Want  deze beschouwing van hct  levt%  der wereld is imply that the Church and the world are and may not be
onwaar,  ze vloekt tegen de werkelijkheid. Zulk eene be-             friends. He must admit that the reason why the Church
schouwing is een miskenning, een te schande maken  van               is forbidden to make friends with the world is, that the
het werk des Heiligen Ceestes in de wereld" (Vander                  world is altogether-depraved. As professor in Isagogics
Mey's  Bezwaarschrift,  gericht  aan den Kerkeraad der               Eerkhof is at one with Paul who said: "Be ye not  un-
Christelijke Gereformeerde Gemeente van Eastern Ave., equally yoked together with unbelievers : for what fellow-
Grand Rapids, Mich., p. 7);                                          ship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what
   It appears, does it not that Vander  Mey  and Berk-  ' communion hath light with darkness? And what  con-
hof are, as to their views, as far apart as the two poles.           cord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that
According to the one, the world and the Church are                   believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the
divided into two hostile camps engaged in active conflict            temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the
which in turn is destined to develop into a terrific .strug-         living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them and
gle. Vander Mey has it that no such struggle exists. The             walk in them; and I will be their God and they shall be
world and the Church get along very well together. The               my people. Wherefore, come out from among them and
two are friends in fact. He who maintains the contrary,              be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean
is at once denying the existence of common grace.                    thing; and I will receive you" (II Cor. 6).


ia.  22                                              T H E   S T A N D A R D   BEARER
           -.                              -    -    -                         11--
            And yet it is this same Berkhof who is responsible             fierce indignation. Nevertheless, God willed to use that
    for the three points. He was a member of that group who                which He loathes to His own advantage. `And He re-
    urged the Church to subscribe to the theory of common                  mains holy even though sin is employed by Him. And
   -grace, and to evelate that theory to a church dogma. It                the rebellers, too, are held responsible. For they remain
    was pointed out that, according to this theory the world               the subjects of their rebellious acts. They delight in
    is living on a high moral  plape.  R. B. Kuiper speaks of              revolting against their Maker.
    the relative sinlessness of the works of the wicked. Van                  Christ is ever triumphing over His foes. What, now,
    der Mey assures us, that the righteousness of the world                constitutes His victory?     In  the first place the moral
    often exceeds the righteousness of God's people. Accord-               degradation, the intense hostility and the growing rebel-
    ing to this theory the Church and the world are not                    lion of the world. Such are the plain teachings of the
     enemies. Now if they are not enemies it follows that                  Apostle Paul. Because the wicked world of  Paul?s day
    they must be friends. There is no third possibility. The               refused to glorify the God whom they knew, God gave
    world and the Church, then, may go arm in arm. Such                    them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their  own
    are the implications of the theory of common grace. We                 hearts.     The beastliness and moral depravity must be
    do wish that they were all as honest and as consistent as              regarded as punishment, as revelation of wrath. Now,
    Rev. Vander Mey. The people would then know what                       when God punishes the wicked He is triumphing over
    is what.                                                               them. In other words, the curse of God as it works itself
                 Thus it appears, does it not that the exponents of        out in the lives of  .the wicked constitutes in part the
     the theory of common grace are in conflict  .with them-               divine triumph.
    selves and with one another as to what common grace                       I repeat, Berkhof refers the plagues described unto
    is and as to what it implies. Synod of  1924 spoke the                 the Apostle John in a vision to the final epoch of history
    truth when it said, dat er, in de Gereformeerde kerken                 In that period then, God will again multiply His signs
     nag volstrekt geen  "communis  opinie" is in betrekking and wonders in the land as He did in. the land of Egypt.
    tot deze zaak, viz., the,matter  of common grace. And yet              And the wicked shall know that God is God.
     this same group elevates the theory to a church dogma.                                                                In that day
                                                                           God will again plague the wicked world. There will `be
    Alexander Pope was right when he said, that fools rush in              an extraordinary revelation of divine wrath. For in that
     where angels fear to tread.                                           day sin will again be full-grown. The cup of iniquity
                 When Prof. Berkhof asserted in his "New Testament         will again be full. It means that in the breceding  period
     introduction" that the Church is engaged in a struggle                sin grew, developed. Sin is developing today. God will
     with the world, he stated the truth. Such are the plain               have it so. He is hardening the heart of the present
     teachings of  Stiripture.  The principals in the war are              wicked world as well as He hardened the heart of Pha-
     Christ and Satan. Arrayed on the side of Christ is His                raoh. The world is being prepared for that day when God
     Churrh. The allies of Satan are the world and the powers              will show His signs and His wonders, that the world may
     of darkness. The outcome of the struggle is a matter of               know that God is God. But the wicked will no more
     certainty. Christ shall be victorious. What is  m&e, repent then did Pharaoh. Hence, the world will perish
 Christ is victorious. In ordinary warfare it may happen as did Pharaoh.
     that in the first stage of the battle both the contending
     parties are holding their ground. Neither of the contend-                 Now this question: since things are thus can it be
     ing groups is in the supremacy. Not until either group                that the reprobate world is being loved and blessed by
     gives way to the other can it be said that a victory has              God? Can it be, that God is repressing sin in our day
     been won. Christ, however, is in the supremacy through-               or any other day? It cannot be. Common grace is pure
     out the entire conflict. He is ever Master of the situation.          fiction.
     He is victorious every unit  .of time. How could it be                    Let us now return to the main thread of this essay.
     otherwise. Unto Christ has been given all power in                    We wanted to show that God as Judge is apprizing, sen-,
     heaven and on earth. Hence, the Devil's power is at                   tenting and executing judgment. It ought to be plain,
     once Christ's power. Satan is a creature. In Christ he                now, that He is engaged in doing just these things. The
     lives and moves and has his being. And this applies to                very presence of sin in the world is due-to the presence
     his allies as well, viz., the world and the powers of dark-           of the divine curse working itself out. And the growing
     ness in general. Christ's enemies are at once  ChristIs               rebellion of the world is accompanied by an intensifica-
     slaves. They are under His control. The Devil resists                 tion of the divine curse. And as the divine wrath does
     Christ, Almighty God? because He, Christ, will have it so.            its work sin increases. There is interaction between the         I
     Satan is doing the thing that was eternally in God's heart.           two. And when the world shall have filled the measure
     Hence, Christ is having His way. He is victorious.                    of iniquity, God's wrath shall burn with exceptional fury.
     Pharaoh resisted the Lord. But the Lord would have it                 In those days men shall seek death and not find it, and
     so, for it was He who hardened Pharaoh's heart.                       shall desire  tq,die and death shall flee from them. I repeat
                 This does not mean that the rebellion of the wicked is    God  Almig&y  is functioning as Judge. He  is,.and has
     not loathsome to God. It is. He hates it with all the                 been from the very beginning engaged in the administra-
     energy that is His. The revolt of the godless arouses His             tion of justice and in the execution of judgments. The

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

divine court. of justice, let me repeat, is in session. It is    particular Scripture speaks of the word, it is true. The
 the plain teaching of  Scrripture.                               following verse makes it plain that what is stated of the
    The composer of our Catechism understood this. He            word must be made to apply to the mind of God as well.
asks : "Will God suffer such  disqbedience  and rebellion         The verse reads : "Neither, is there any creature which is
to go unpunished?" And the answer: "By no means;                 not manifest in His sight." And then there are other
but is terribly displeased with our original as well as          Scriptures.    "Thou  understandeth  my thoughts afar  off"
actual sins; and will punish them in His just judgment            (Ps.  139  :Z). "The Lord knoweth the thoughts of man
temporally and eternally, as He hath declared, Cursed is         that they are vanity" (Ps. 94 :ll). "Thou hast proven my
every one that continueth not in all things, which are           heart'>  (Ps.  l/1:3). "The Lord trieth the hearts" (Prov.
 written in the book of the law to do them."                     17:3). "That triest the reins and the heart" (Jer. 11:20).
    Let us now look at this matter from a different point        `(But  thou, 0 Lord, knowest me: thou hast seen me and
of view. If God would cease  tb judge for as much as a           tried mine heart toward thee" (Jer. 12 :3).
fraction of the smallest possible unit of time, He, at that          The Scripture makes it plain that God knows and
very juncture, would cease to be God. In other words,            understands man, that He, God, fathoms him, that God
it belongs to the very nature of God to judge. If this be peers into every nook and corner of man's soul, into the
true, and it is true, it, follows that from eternity unto        secret chambers of the heart and knows, understands its
eternity God is Judge. Let us develop this idea some-            faintest stirrings. Well, what of it? It is the task of the
what. And then we must set out by calling attention to           jhdge to attempt to understand, to discern, to judge, to
the fact that God is allknowing, holy and righteous.             try, to prove. Once undergtanding,  it is the task and the
    The term  allknowing  is self-explanatory. God knows         duty of the judge to pronounce guilty or innocent as the
all things. Scripture abundantly asserts that He does.           case may be. If guilty sentence shall be passed. Then
"Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in His       follows the execution of judgment. Now, the omniscious
sight: but ail things are naked and opened unto the eyes         God understands, fathoms, proves, and tries the heart.
of  Hiti with whom we have to do" (Hebrews  4:13).               He knows that heart, and fathoms its faintest stirrings,
"The eyes of the Lord are in every  pl'ace.  beholding the       its desires, motives, thoughts, volitions, deeds and words.
evil and the  gzod"  (Proverbs  15  :3).  "For His eyes are      It, means that God +is judge and ever judging. In respect
upon the ways of man, and He seeth all his goings" (Job          to God the terms judging, knowing,' understanding are
34:21). "Thou knowest my downsitting and my uprising,            symbols of concepts  ,which  are identical.      To judge
thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou compasseth          righteously means to know the thing as it is and to pro-
my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all           nounce the thing to be what it is. Judging necessitates
my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo,          a standard: The standard of the human judge is God's
0 Lord, thou knowest it altogether. Thou hast beset me           law. God's standard is His own holy Self.
hehind  and before, and laid thine hand upon me. Whither            Now, if judging means to understand, to know, it fol-
shall I go from thy spirit.7 0 whither shall I flee from         lows,  1 repeat, that God is from eternity unto eternity
thy presence? If S ascend up into heaven, thou art there:        Judge. God is ever judging, For, if the omniscious God
if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If  I          would cease to judge he would cease to know, to under-
take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the utter-           stand.    Should God no longer know or understand He
most parts of the sea; Even there shall Thy hand lead            would cease to be God.
me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If T say, surely              Knowing man, the' Divine Judge must pronounce him
the darkness shall cover me; even the night  shaI1 be            either guilty or innocent.  ,`Thereupon must He, God,
light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee;          either punish, destroy or bless, preserve. Failing to do
but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the           either would mean that God is assuming a neutral, cold,
light are both alike to thee" (Ps. 139  :2-U).  "And (God)       indifferent attitude toward that which He knows and
knoweth all things" (I John 3 :20).                              understands. This God cannot do. These matters  &ill
   That God knows does not merely mean, that He is               be  eIucidated  in a folIowing essay.
aware of the existence-of things. God's knowledge is at             God is Judge and is ever judging. We will see that
once understanding. The omniscious One penetrates into           God  is  a righteous judge, that He judges righteously.
the very being of things. He knows what things are               This is one of the foundation truths of Scripture. Synod
according to their essence. All things are comprehended          of 1924 was blind to these truths. It must have been for
by Him, absolutely and completely. He sees through               it embraced the theory of common grace and imposed the .
things.                                                          theory upon the Church.
   Very often does Scripture assert that God knows and                               (To be Continued)
understands man  .and the human heart. We shall let                                                             G. M. 0.
Scripture speak.    "For the word of God is quick, and
powerful, and sharper then any two-edged sword, pierc-
ing even to the dividing  assunder  of soul and spirit, and         "People never improve when they have no other
of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the              model to copy but themselves."
thoughts and intents of the heart" (Hebrews 4:lZ). This                                     -Arranged from Goldsmith.


         E D I T O R I A L   S T A F F        Reformed   Semi  -  M o n t h l y                               %S%Y~~EZ~~
     H. Danbof                                                                                                Vander   Vennen,   1 0 6 1  D&h&   '
         H. Hoeksema                        PUBLISHED  BY THE REFORMED FREE                                   St., S.E., Grand Rapids, Mich.
                                                                                                              Communications relative to con-
              G. M. Ophoff                           PUBLISHING ASSOCIATION,                                  tents of  Magazine  shouId  be
                    B. J. Danbof                         GRAND RAPIDS, MICH.                                  -addressed  to Rev. H. Hoeksema,
                                                                                                              1213  Sherman St., S.E., Grand
                          G. Van Beek                                                                         Rapids, Mich.
                                              Entered as second class  n&I  matter at Grand Rapids,  Mich.


Vol. III, No. 2                                               O C T O B E R   1 5 ,   1926  `-                     Subscription Price, $2.50

                                                                              transgression and count our iniquities against us, Lord
              MEDITATION                                                   II who of us would be able to stand before Thee, still less
                                                                              to  araw into Thy Holy Presence?  -4nd as we still ap-
                                                                              proach Thee, Father, it is our first and deepest need to                _
                            "OUR FATHER"                                      confess before Thee the guilt  of our sins and to receive
                                                                              within our hearts from Thee the blessed assurance, that
                              Our Father which art in heaven.                 Thou rememberest not our transgressions, that Thou for-
                                                          --Matt.  6:9.       givest and blottest  out our sin in Thy boundless grace.. .
                                                                                  Father, our Father!
       Father !                                                                 ' We would  dray into Thy Presence and taste Thy
       Abba, loving Father !                                                  blessed communion.. . .                                I
      Triune God, ever living and ever blessed; Three in                          For, though we confess humbly that we are unwoiihy
One, Father, Son and Holy Ghost, glorious above all and                       in ourselves to be called after Thy Name; thdtigh  we feel
infinitely exalted, eternally adorable divine Being,  Who                     within our hearts that we are but children of wrath, even
art, Who wast, Who art to come; Father of heaven and                          as all men by nature ; yet, we plead that we are Thy chil-
earth, Source of all life and being; Father of our Lord                       dren. For we are assured of Thy maryelous love. We
Jesus  Christ and thru Him Father of us, Thy `children                        know that even before the heavens were stretched forth
thru grace. . . .                                                             or ever the earth existed and the mountains were born,
      Our Father !                                                            Thou  knewest,.Thy  people, Thine own, Thy chosen  on&,
       We humbly bend the, knee and reverently bow our                        in fathomless love. We have learnt that Thou didst
heads, dust-children though we be, small, insignificant,                      ordain them, that they might be conformed according to
less than a drop. of the bucket and a dust of the balance;                    the image of Thine Only Begotten and that they should
em{ty  and poor and helpless; to seek Thy face and draw                       be called Thy children. We believe that Thou didst adopt
near into Thy heavenly presence. Pray, lift our souls                         them to be Thy children from everlasting and that Thou
from the dust. and let our longing glances pierce the didst realize their adoption in that deep and terrible, yet
clouds and darkness that envelop Thy feet: here as we                         wondrously loving way of the accursed death of Thy Son,
bend the knee at Thy footstool, that we may gaze upon                         in Whose precious blood Thou didst drown their guilt and
Thy blessed-face.. . .                                                        wash away their sinful stains; and thru Whose resurrec-
      Abba, Father !                                                          tion Thou didst receive them, liberating them from the
       We feel deeply that-it cannot be because of anything                   power and  Sin and death and granting them life ever-
Thou mayest find within us of ourselves that the blessed                      lasting. : . .
privilege is ours to call Thee our Father. For we  .have                          Abba, `Father !
sinned. Lost and forfeited  $1 have we. Even now, as                              We would call on Thee, for we believe that by Thine
our hearts seek Thy face, we approach Thee with  tear-                        own grace we may count ourselves among Thy chosen
stained faces and contrite, broken hearts, sorrowfully                        children:         For Thou didst send the Spirit of Thy Son
confessing that our si'ns rise up against us; that our guilt                  into our hearts, by nature so dark with sin, so abominable
witnesses against us, that in ourselves we can only expect                    with death, so haughty with rebellion, so bitter with
Thy just  wrath.and`  everlasting displeasure; that we are                    hatred; and thru thht Spirit Thou didst spread abroad
children  bf condemnation.                For  wel forsook Thee, 0            Thy love within our hearts. That Spirit longs within us
Father, and chose to be children of darkness rather than                      for Thy blessed friendship and makes our flesh cry out
of light. Children of the  Devils we became. Thee we                          for Thee, the living God. . . .
hated with all our soul and heart and mind and daily we                           He witnesses with our spirit that we are children of
provoked Thee to Thy face. And if Thou shouldst mark                          T h i n e !
a


 26                                      T          H         E      STANDARDc;BEARER
                                               I    I    _    -

  . He makes us bend*  the knee and bow the head and lisp              FeEThou  art heavenly !
  in blessed spiritual  ecstacy  :                                     &y, we are not oblivious of Thy all-pervading  Pres-
       :!bba, Father !                                             e&e around-us. We know and believe that `Thou art
                                                                   omnipresent and Thy Divine Being  filleth   all things.
  F a t h e r !                                                    Nowhere could we recede to hide from Thee. Before us
       Our Father !                                                and behind us, above us and beneath us Thou art. By
       Taught by Thyself, impelled by Thy Spirit, we come          Thy empowering Immanence the sun pursues its course
 to Thee. . . .                                                    in the heavens and gladdens the bright day; and the moon
       Nay, we do not come alone,  but in the company of all       adorns the night with her flood of silvery light. By Thy
 the happy throng and brotherhood of Thy beloved chil-             quickening indwelling The; givest life to man and beast,
 dren. For we do love thC brethren. And we know that               to tree and flower and Thou renewest the face of the
 we could not draw into Thy communion if we should                 earth in the joyous Spring-season. By Thee every crea-
 foster dark hatred in our bosom against any of Thy be-            ture breathes and moves and sings. For in Thee we live,
 loved. But the same Spirit that kindles and keeps aflame          and move and have our being. . . .
 the fire of Thy love in the depth of our soul, also unites            We profess, that the heavens, yea, the heaven  .of
 us with bonds of love to all that love Thee.. . .                 heavens cannot contain Thee!
       Thus, our Father, we come to Thee!                              And we are also comforted by the assurance, that
       We come to seek Thy face, to taste of Thy sweet Thou art very near when we cry unto Thee. We know.
 communion,, for our soul thirsts for Thee, Who dwellest           that Thine eye looks on us in love, that Thine ear is
 in the Holy Place, in everlasting light, and in Whose             attentively inclined unto our prayer,' that Thy mighty arm
presence darkness cannot be; for weak and sinful though            is ever near and ready to help and to sustain. And within
 we still be; prone to wander because of the weakness of           our hearts we feel the sweet communion of Thy love.. . .
 the flesh, often stumbling and sliding, yet we have con-              We cry not unto Thee as the heathen cry  untd their
 fidence to profess in Thy presence, that we find within us        gods, that have eyes that see not and ears that hear not
 a heartfelt desire to walk in the light and a keen delight        and arms without saving power. But near Thy living
 to keep Thy precepts.. . .                                        Presence we feel, close to Thy heart we press and draw-
       By Thy  grace:we  hate the darkness and we  love the        ing near  in& Thy bosom we whisper Thy `name in our
 light. . . .                                                      prayer :
       To draw near into Thy presence we come.                        Abba,  loving Father!          -  '
       We come, our Father, from the dust crying unto Thee.            Yet,  $3 Father, we know that Thou art God and we
 sighing from our earthy and mortal bodies, from within            would not bedim Thy heavenly glory by conceiving of
 the folds of our pilgrim's tent, from  ihe heat of life's         Thy infinite majesty in a manner earthly  a&l finite,. . .
 battle and from the midst of trouble and suffering and                We are dust-children, earthy of the earth, with an
 affliction; poor and weak and helpless; ignorant of the           earthy eye and earthy vision, and earthy ear and earthy
 way and prone tt, wander; surrounded by those that hate           perception, with an earthy tongue and earthy speech, an
 Thee and afraid of the enemy's rage. We come to present           earthy mind and earthy conception. And, besides, we are
 our petitions before Thee, trusting with the confidence           by nature dark and sinful. Prone we are to think earthy,
 of filial love in which there is no fear. that Thou wilt hear     of Thee, of Thy face and glory, of Thy  tiajesty  and
 and accept, that Thou wilt  never fail nor forsake Thy            power. For here on earth we see but earthy images of
 children, that Thou pitiest them knowing their frame and          Thy  heavenly  face, into a glass darkly we gaie. But
 remembering that they are dust. that. Thou forgivest the          Thou art heavenly and highly exalted and dwellest in-the
 multitude of their sins a thousand times over, and that           Highest. Though very near, yet Thou art also far away;
 Thou wilt provide for them all things necessary for body          though not far from anyone of us, yet Thou hast Thy
 and souli  for earth and heaven, for the battle and for the       throne in the heavens, where the holy angels always see
 victory, for life and death. . . .                                Thy face  and'.Thou displayest Thy glory in heavenly
       We come, Thy children come to Thee. . . .                   beauty. . . .
       Father !                                                       Our Father, we call upon Thy Name!
       Our Father !                                                   Abba, Father we lisp and feel very near Thee.. . .
                                                                      But we hasten `to add : who art in heaven, realizing
       Father !                                                    that Thou art highly exalted, glorious above all that is
       Mighty and exalted Father!                                  called creature.
       Father, Who art in heaven!        .                            Eternal and Infinite !
       Thou dwellest, we confess. in the highest, beyond the          Omniscient and Almighty ! '
 amazing deep of the firmament's azure, above the count-              The Uncaused Cause of all : adorable forever !
 less host of sparkling twinklers that speak of Thy won-              Father, in heaven !
 drous wisdom and power in the still night. Far' away in
 the dazzling height, far above all that is earthy and every          Our Father i           1
 earthy name.. . .                                                    Who art in heaven!.


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                                                    T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                          27
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        Thus we approach Thee..:.                                           ALGEMEENE WERKING DES  GEESTES?
        Amazingly far yet consolingly near!
.       Feeling the sweetness of Thy love and the.blessedness              Hoewel de Synode te Englewood, Chicago,  zich van
of Thy communion yet awed in filial reverence at the                    de protesten, die ingediend waren. door de afgezette  ker-
     unspeakable glory of Thy presence and the adorable                 keraden' en leeraars, zich gemakkelijk afmaakte door te
majesty of Thy Being. . . .                              ".             antwoorden, dat deze kerkeraden .r'eeds  buiten het kerk-
        Our heart is filled with longing love for Thee and              verband  der Christelijke Gereformeerde .kerken  staan `en
Thy friendship and we would pray that,Thou lift us from                 dus alle recht  op protest en appP1  eenvoudig hebben ver-
     the dust into Thy heavenly courts, that we may gaze                beurd; ze kon er tech niet van tusschen om zich nog eens
     upod Thy face.         In childlike confidence we approach         weer voor de Drie Punten  geplaatst te zien. Ze werd ge-
Thee, believing and trusting that Thou wilt incline Thine               noodzaakt om nog eens een lans te breken ter verdediging
     ear to our prayers and grant us our petitions to fulfill our       en bescherming van haar geestelijke kindertjes, die thahs
     every need, Thy Name to glorify, Thy will to accom-                al kwijnend den leeftijd van twee .jaren   hadden  bereikt,
plish, Thy Kingdom to realize ; in weakness to strengthen               door verschillende protesten, bezwaarschriften en  ver-
and sustain ; in fear to encourage, in sorrow to comfort,               zoekschriften, die van verschillende  .zijden  bij haar inge-
     in trouble to save, in battle to lead us onward, in danger         komen waren. Ze benoemde dan ook alleen voor de pro-
     to protect us, in the pilgrim's journey to guide us, from          testen  met betrekking tot deze zaak een commissie van
guilt to clear us and from pollution to cleanse us, and to              prae-advies. We zullen de namen dezer commissie niet
     prepare us for Thy everlasting glory, where we shall               noemen.  Behalve'  Dr. C. Bouma, die de commissie als
     know as we are known and see Thee face to face  :. . .             adviseur diende,  waren er geen doorluchtige en  hoogge-
        Yet, at the mention of Thy Name, our inmost soul also           leerde mannen in.
bows down before Thy glorious throne in humble adora-                      Ware de zaak niet zoo treurig-ernstig, dan zouden we
     tion and meek reverence, remembering Thy heavenly                  de wijze, waarop deze commissie en op haar  advies  de
glory and holy majesty, Thy power and greatness . . . .                 Synode op  vele der ingebrachte  bezwaren  antwoordden,
     _ And at the very beginning of our prayers an over-                lwpaald  koddig noemen. Het is van belang  om hierop de
     mastering peace, that passeth all understanding enters             aandacht te  vestigen,  vooral omdat er  we1  duidelijk  uit
     into our hearts.'                                                  blijkt, hoe zwak de Synode zelf zich gevoelt als ze geroe-
        The peace which is the result of the consciousness-of pen wordt, om het werk van 1924 te handhaven. Want
     faith that we are in the presence and un-der the care of           let  2hier   we1 op: dit stond natuurlijk van te voren vast,
     an Almighty Love  !                                                dat  -alle bezwaarden  bet antwoord moesten ontvangen,
        For Thou art our Father and lovest us.. . .                     dat ze geen grond voor hunne bezwaren hadden  en dat de
        Yet, Thou art in the heavens and doest all Thy good             Drie Punten  van 1924 de Gereformeerde waarheid hand-
     pleasure !                                                         haafden. Dit op eenigszins dragelijke wijze voor te stel-
        Knowing Thee and being assured of Thy  lovingkind-              len was feitelijk de taak, die de commissie zich voorstelde
     ness, we -shall not fear, for we know that all things work         en waarvoor de Synode zich geplaatst zag. Dat kon na-
     together for good to them that love Thee, whom Thou                tuurlijk niet anders. De eer der kerken stond hier op het
     hast called according to Thy purpose !                             spel en daaraan wordt alles opgeofferd, personen, ambts-
        Thou, Lord, art for us ; who can be against us?                 dragers, kerkeraden, gemeenten, ja ook de waarheid zelf.
        Our Father'art Thou, our loving Father !                        Doch het ligt dan ook voor de hand, dat met dit voorop
        Our Father in heaven, our mighty Father!                        gestelde  doe1 voor oogen de Synode dikwijls  em  aller-
       Thou shalt lead us and save us to the full.                      treurigst figuur maakte in het beantwoorden der he-
        And at the last receive us with Thee!                           zwaren.  We zullen zoo  nu en dan een greep doen  uit de
        Hallelujah !                                                    Synodale  besluiten-in  deze  zaak, om dit  aan het  licht te
        Amen !                                                          brengen.     '
                                                               H. H.       Een der  bezwaarschriften;  waarop de Synode  eenigs-
                                                                        zins in den breede heeft trachten te antwoorden, is dat
                                                                        van den `Kerkeraad van Middelburg, Ia. Deze kerkeraad
                            IN MEMORIAM                                 had enkele bezwaren tegen elk der Drie Punten. Op zijn
        Waar het den  He'ere  behaagde een onzer leden                  bezwaar tegen `het tweede punt en het antwoord der
                    MRS. S.  VAN, DER LAAN,                             Synode daarop  willen  we thans nllereerst de  a.andacht
     door den dood uit ons  midden weg te nemen,  betuigt   di          vestigen. Dit bezwaar lag uitgedrukt in de vraag, die
Vrouwenvereeniging der Eerste Prot. Chr. Geref. kerk te                 Middelburg deed  aan de Synode: "Hoe kan de Synode
     Grand Rapids,  Mich., "Weest een  Zegen,"  langs dezen             spreken van de algemeene werkingen des Geestes in het
     weg haar hartelijke deelneming  aan de bedroefde familie           stuiten der zonde met het oog op `de Be2ijdenisschriften?"
en bidt haar de vertroosting des Geestes toe.                           De bedoeling van Middelburg is duidelijk. Hij brengt
                          Namens de Vereeniging,                        hier geen protest tegen de leer van de stuiting der zonde;
                           H. Hoeksema, President,                      ook zelfs niet directelijk tegen die van de algemeene wer-
                           Mrs. M. Vander  Vennen, Secretaresse.        kingen  des Geestes in het stuiten der zonde; maar tegen


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                                              T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                  31
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     Er zit echter  veel te veel aan vast om dit te erkennen en            spect the person of the poor, nor honor the person of the
     te herstellen. De Synode  zal dit nooit  doen.  En,MiddeI-            mighty: but iq righteousness shalt thou judge thy neigh-
     burg is natuurlijk nog  bezwaard  en  zal dat ook  moeten             bor" (Lev. 19  :15). "If there be a controversy between
     blijven.                                                              men, and they come unto judgment, that the judges may
                                                        H. H.              judge them;  tihen   they, shall justify the righteous, and
                                                                           condemn the wicked" (Deut. 25 :l).
                 PROSPERITY AND THE WICKED  .I                                Scripture informs us that the very thing which God
                                                                           forbid, happened. Justice in Israel was perverted. The
        In our previous essay it was pointed out that God is               rights of the poor, of the widow, of the orphan, and of
     from eternity unto eternity judge. It is %he plain teach-             the god-fearing were violated. It is a noteworthy thing
     ing of Scripture,.so it appeared, that God is ever judging            that the poor, the wretched and the godly are often men-
     His creatures and in'particular man. To judge, so we as-              tioned together and identified. Attend to this Scrip-
     serted, means to know, understand, comprehend, fathom            ture: "Ye who turn judgment to wormwood, and  leave
     the man, his deeds, his case. God trieth the heart and                off righteousness in the earth. . . . that strengtheneth the
     reins (Ps.  7:9). The Lord knoweth the thoughts of man,               spoiled against the strong, so that the spoiled shall come
     that they are vanity (Ps.  94:ll).  He understandeth the              agai'nst the fortress. They hate him that rebuketh in the
     thoughts of man afar off (Ps. 139  :2). In a word, God           gate, and they abhor him that speaketh upl'ightly, Foras-
     knows.          -.                                                    much therefore, as your treading is upon the poor and ye
        Trying, knowing the thing being judged is not the                  take from him burdens of wheat:. . . . For I know your
     only element constituting the judicial act known as judg-             manifold transgressions and your mighty sins:  thCy
     ing. The judge shall publish his findings. God does so.          afflict the just, they take a bribe and they t.urn aside the
     He not only tries man, his heart, his reins, but He also         poor in the gate from their right" (Amos 9:7, 10, 11, 12).
     pnblishes  His findings; These  findings are found in                    The godly, in the days of the prophets, were reduced
     God's word. -4s to the sinner, God tries, knows him and          to a state of poverty. The god-fearing are the wretched:
     declares him to be dead in sin.                                  persecuted, oppressed, tormented and harrassed. Their
        The next matter which we wish to  etiphasize is the           rights were not respected.
     absolute fairness and trueness of God's judgments. As                    However, the poor in Israel were not without com-
     judge God is absolutely accurate, reliable, fair and true.       fort. For there was the promise of the righteous branch,
     In other words, He is a righteous judge. This means `that        of a King who shall execute judgment and justice in the
     God knows the thing or the matter which He judges as it          earth. Says the Prophet Jeremiah: "Behold the days
     is and that He pronounces the thing to be what it is.                 come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a
     Such are fihe plain teachings of Scripture. "The Lord. . . .          righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper,
     will not at all acquit the wicked"  (Nab.  1:3). "And my         and shall execute judgment and justice upon the earth.
     eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity" (Ezek. 7 asa).         In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell
     "And according to their deserts will I judge them" (Ezek.        safely: and this is His name whereby He shall be called,
     7 :27b). "For the Lord your God is a god of gods, and            THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS" (Jer. 23 :  5,6).
     lord of lords, a great God, a mighty and a terrible God,                 What appears from these several Scriptures? God
     which regarded not persons, nor taketh reward" (Deut.            knows the thing which He judges which in turn He pro-
     10 :17). "Yea, surely God will not do wickedly, neither               nounces to be what it is. As a judge He is absolutely
     will the Almighty pervert judgment" (Job 34  :12).                    fair. His verdict is true. He cannot be persuaded to pro-
     "Righteous art Thou, 0 Lord, and upright are thy judg-                nounce the thing, the person or his case or his conduct to
     ments" (Ps. 119 :37).                                                 be other than what it is. That is to say, God cannot
        Tlhe Judge of heaven and earth enjoins the earthly                 render a corrupt verdict. He cannot be persuaded to
     judge  to judge righteously. "Thou shalt not wrest the           speak falsely. When He speaks His mind, His words and
     judgment of the poor in his cause. Keep thee far from                 reality are in full harmony. He receives no bribe. With
     a false matter; and the innocent and the righteous slay               Him there is no respect of  persbns. He is not afraid of
     thou  not; for I will not justify the wicked. And thou                the face of man. No case is too hard for Him. The
     shalt take no gift: for the gift blindeth the wise, and          great and the small, the rich and the poor are treated with
     perverteth the words of the righteous" (Ex. 23 :6-9).                 the same consideration.  .In a word, God will not justify
     "And I charged your judges at that time, saying, Hear                 the wicked. As judge He pronounces the ungodly to be
     the causes between your brethxen, and judge righteously               ungodly.    And the innocent He declares innocent, the
     between every man and his brother, and the stranger that              just, just. Righteousness and judgment are the habita-
     is with him. Ye shall not respect persons in judgment;                tion of His throne (Ps.  97'  ~22).
     but ye shall hear the small as well as the great; Ye shall               I think all will agree that we have singled out and
     not be' afraid of the face of men; for the judgment is                projected one of the foundation truths of Scripture. The
     God's ; and the cause that is too, hard for you bring it              fact that God will not pervert justice, is our only guar-
     unto me, and I will hear it"  (Deut.  1:16, 17).  "Ye shall           antee that He will continue to justify those for whose
     do no unrighteousness in judgment: thou shalt not  re-                sins Christ is a propitiation. The very veracity of God is


3         2                               TIIE  S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R  _                                          -     -

implicated.    The smallest perversion of justice would            ,the way, they are altogether become  unprofitabIe:  there.
mean that God is subject to all the weaknessess and lim-           is none that doeth good, no, not one,' (Rom. 3).             "
itations of a sinful being.                                           The above criticism was rendered by God, the verit-
     And yet, the fourth chapter of Paul's epistle to the          able Judge of man. It is absolutely truthworthy, there-
Romans contains this remarkable clause to-wit  :` "Who             fore. The divine  Juclge informs us further that man is
justifies the ungodly?' And this is said of God. It is             proud, that he lives a life of continuous rebellion. That
He, says the apostle, who justifies the ungodly. The               his rebellion is occasioned by prosperity and by the law
prophets on the other hand, emphatically affirm that God           with which the sinner is brought in contact. This mat-
does not justify the wicked. Are the prophets and Paul             ter - the matter of man's total depravity  - was dealt
at variance with each other? Such would be the case if             with in a former essay. We shall not again broaden out
one should extricate the clause in question from its sur-          upon the matter at this juncture.
roundings. However, the statement is an integral part of              We shall now enter upon a new phase of our subject.
Paul's treatise on justification, and must be viewed in the        Let us set out by once more affirming  that natural man,
light of the various elements constituting this doctrine.          according to the verdict of God, is totally depraved. Our
In the foregoing chapter the apostle makes mention of              opponents will admit that Scripture teaches this  very
the righteousness of God without the law. Of this                  thing. We further maintain that, according to the tes-
righteousness God is the origin. It excludes all guilt ,or         timony of the divine Judge, the natural man sins only.
every obligation to suffer  punishment?that  punishment            And here we have arrived at the parting of the ways.
being born by Christ who assumed full responsibility for           Our opponents will not concede that such are the teach-
the sins of the elect ungodly. It (the rightousness of             ings of Scripture. And finally,  we maintain, on the basis
God) includes the righteous life of obedience of Christ.           of Scripture that man is altogether undeserving. Posi-
Through faith the ungodly one, whom God justifies,. is             tively, he, man, deserves nothing but eternal death. Our
made one with Christ. Unto such an one the righteous-              opponents also agree to this. They shall have to agree to
ness of God is imputed. He, although in himself un-                this or admit that they are at variance with our Stand-
godly, is now just. Him God rightfully justifies.                  ards. The Canons of Dordrecht (Art. 1, of divine predes-          '
     It appears .that  the justification of the ungodly implies    tination) contains this clause: "As all men have sinned in
no perversion of justice. It is a fact that the salvation          Adam,  lie under the curse, and are deserving of eternal
of the chosen sinner is, from beginning to end a matter            death. . . . " And then this:  "We believe that, through
of rigid justice. When God justifies the ungodly He,               the disobedience of -4dam,  original .sin is extended to all
God, pronounces him to be what he actually is in Christ,           mankind; which is a corruption of the whole nature, and
namely,  just.  Hence, the justification of the ungodly is an hereditary disease, wherewith infants themselves are
not an unjust but a just act.                                      affected even in their mother's  .womb,  `and which produces
     In fine, it is one of the foundation truths of Scripture      in man all sorts of sin, being in him as a root thereof;
that God is a veritable, truth-loving, fair and accurate           and therefore is so vile and abominable in the sight of
Judge thoroughly knowing the phenomena which He                    God,  that it is  rufjicitnt to condemn all mankind"  (Art. XV
judges and pronouncing it to be what it is. No other               of the Confession of Faith).
virtues of God receive more emphasis in Scripture than                I repeat, the adherents of the theory of common grace
His veracity and justice.                                          shall have to admit and do admit that man deserves not
     We shall state now, what has been established thus            a single blessing, that the thing he deserves is death.
far concerning God. It is the plain teaching of Scripture          The very term which they use to designate their theory
that God is judge; futher, that He is ever engaged in              implies it. The term which they employ is the term
judging His handiwork and in particular man. Scripture             COMMON GRACE. Now, let us hear Rev. H. J. Kuiper
.further  emphasizes the fact that as judge, God is veritable      on the meaning of the term grace. Says Kuiper: "Just
and truth-loving.                                                  this makes the love of God so marvelous that it is shown
     What, now, follows? It is this. God's verdict con-            not only toward those for whom Christ died, not only to
cerning the matter of fact in the cause of man examined            those in whom, through the regenerating grace of God,  _
and tried by `Him is absolutely true.                              there is something which makes them lovely in His sight;
     What, now, is the testimony of this Judge concerning          but even. toward those in whom there `is nothing upon
man  atid his case? The divine. Judge declares that man            which His eye can rest with satisfaction and pleasure,
whom He tries and examines is totally depraved. Accord-            who are altogether vile in His sight. Even to them He
ing to the  .testimony  of the divine Judge man can only           manifests  His love, His kindness, His grace. His grace,
wiil  to sin. Man, says God,  is  a moral bankrupt. He             I say-not His grace in the special sense, as the result of
cannot point to one deed of which he can say that it is            which they have the remission of sins -and the renewal
good. Every thought that  he.thinks is enmity against              of their hearts, but in the general sense. For grace is
God. Impure is every emotion of his. Says God, through             love, love for the unworthy; it is favor, undeserved favor.
the mouth of the Apostle Paul : "There is none righteous,          And all men are the objects of this favor, though not in
no, not one. There is none that understandeth, there is            the same degree or measure. ("The Three Points of Com-
none that seeketh after God.. They are all gone out of             mon Grace," page 10, 11).


                                 I
                                         T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R  '                                         33
                                                                                                               -     -         -
    It is plain that, according to Kuiper, the sinner is       Judge departed from the straight and narrow path of
absolutely undeserving. For the favor and the so-called justice and truth. It is true that grace is love undeserved
blessings which the sinner receives are, according to and that the elect sinner is altogether ill-deserving. State-
Kuiper and the exponents of common grace in general-           ments suth as these, however, should be completed. He
I say, these so-called blessings are blessings of grace, of    who fails to do so is placing the conduct of God in a
common grace. Hence, they are undeserved, for grace            wrong light and leaves the impression that God as an
is  undesererved  favor. And this means that the reprobate     administer of justice is a dismal failure.
sinner upon whom these so-called blessing are bestowed,           I repeat, to say that grace is undeserved love and that
is in the most rigid sense of the word, undeserving. The       the sinner is ill-deserving is not presenting matters cor-
only thing he deserves is death and that according to the      rectly. This is the situation: The sinner, though in him-
terminology in use among the exponents of the theory of        self  undeserving, is  nevertheless deserving  in Christ with
common grace.                                                  whom he is united through faith. In himself he is a
    Our opponents have it then that the reprobate sinner guilty and condemnable creature. He deserves the very
is totally depraved, that this sinner is absolutely unde-      opposite from what is being bestowed upon him, viz.,
serving, that he deserves death only.                          love and life and a place in the Father's house. However,
    Now, then, this totally depraved and death deserving       Christ is  hi? righteousness. Being one with Christ
sinner is summoned before the tribunal of the divine           through faith, the  eIeCt  sinner deserves all that he re-
Judge. And what happens? This righteous, truth-loving ceives, divine pardon and life. It should be borne in
Judge declares unto the undeserving and ill-deserving          mind that justification precedes sanctification and glori-
culprit: "I love you." This Judge, so the exponents of fication.         And when the divine Judge' pronounces the
common grace have it, postpones the execution of His           elect sinner just, He, God, is speaking the truth. And
judgments in respect to the culprit before Him and forth-      when God bestows upon him life He is giving the elect
with showers upon him numerous undeserved blessings.           sinner what he deserves in Christ.
That reprobate sinner, who deserves death is spared and           But, so the opponents of the theory of common grace
blessed by the divine Judge. How can the divine Judge          may interpolate, Christ Himself must be regarded as a
spare and bless when He should condemn and curse and           gracious gift. In the counsel of redemption, so the op-
still remain just? Would not such a course imply a per-        ponent may continue to reason, the Son was appointed
version of justice? This is one of the difficulties of the     surety and as surety was consigned to the elect of God.
theory of common grace which the exponents of this             Since Christ is the righteousness of all chosen ones,
theory refuse  30 recognize and remove. How can God            they, the elect, were in no wise meritable at that juncture
the righteous Judge, love when He should hate, bless           when, in the counsel of peace, their surety was given
when He should curse, let live when He should deprive          them. At least in the counsel of peace, then, it happened
of life?                                                       that God consigned to such' as were in every respect  ill-
   Our opponents may have this to say: "If God cannot          deserving the greatest of all gracious gifts, viz.., Christ.
bless whom He should curse and grant life unto him             Such may be the reasonings of the opponent. And then
who should be deprived  .of life He cannot save a single       he, the opponent, wiI1 ask in astonishment: "How was it
sinner." But we ask in turn: "Does the salvation of the        possible for the righteous God to love such as were alto-
elect sinner imply a perversion of justice on the part of      gether unmeritable-love them and that to such a degree
the divine judge ? Is this the claim of our opponents?         that he gave as a surety His only .begotten  Son.
It would seem so, Rev. W. Stuart confided to me some              The above reasoning, by the way, is the product of
time ago, that the plan of salvation implies that justice      Prof. Berkhoi's mind. It appeared in one of the numbers
had. to give way to mercy, that when God shows mercy           of  The Witness.  Let us, for a moment,  harken  to Berkhof.
He is at once militating against Himself as the just and       We quote the following: "The Witness  stelt  zich geen
righteous One. Rev, H. J. Kuiper averred in my very            stelselmatige bestrijding van de broeders voor,  doch  wil
presence, that the blessings and the favors which God          achtereenvolgens enkele vragen, die naar aanleiding van
bestows upon the reprobate sinner are not in the need of       hun optreden en  schrijven,.   aan de orde gesteld  worden,
a juridical basis. He also asserted that he was voicing        onder de oogen zien. En daarbij  scheen het ons toe, dat
the view of Prof. Berkhof and Prof. Volbeda. The three,        de vraag, of God ook den onbekeerde in dit leven gunst
according to Kuiper, had discussed the matter and con-         bewijst, een der meest fundamenteele is. Dit wordt door
cluded that the favors which the righteous God bestows         de broeders ontkend. Zij zijn zelfs van oordeel, dat dit
upon the condemnable, ill-deserving and totally depraved       zich niet  denken laat. Ret  zou voor God zedelijk  onmo-
sinner need no juridical basis. In other words, it is the      gelijk zijn. Nu  moeten  we met een bewering als  laatst-s
avowed view of Kuiper, Berkhof and Volbeda that the            genoemde altijd zeer voorzichtig zijn. Het valt voor ons
holy, righteous and just Judge is capable of perverting        moeilijk uit te maken  in bijzonderheden wat in dien zin
justice.                                                       voor God mogelijk en wat onmogelijk is.
   We.know,  however, from Scripture, that this Judge             "Uit het oogpunt van Gods rechtvaardigheid zou men
can do no such thing. Even the salvation of the elect          kunnen vragen hoe het mogelijk is, dat God een enkelen
sinner in no wise means. that the righteous and veritable      zondaar genade bewijst. Op die vraag kan men  natuur-


34                                      T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                             -

lijk we1 antwoorden, dat Hij dit doen  kan en ook doet op       puted the sins of His people unto Himself? Does a
grond van de gerechtigheid van Christus. Doch dit helpt         judicial act of this nature require a meritorial cause other
ons niet  geheel  uit de moeilijkheid, aangezien  Christus      than Christ, in order to be just?  .What nonsense.  1
zelf ook een gave van Gods genade  aan den zondaar is.          invite these men to point to a single element in  the
Christus  is niet de verdienende oorzaak van onze verkie-       economy of redemption of which it can be said that it has
zing, maar is ook zelf voorwerp der verkiezing. Wij  kun-       the appearance of being unjust. The gift of Christ meant
nen+ook  met deze vraag slechts eindigen in het welbeha-        the removal of sin by means of atonement. Should an
gen Gods" ("The Witness," vol. II, No. 12, p. 180).             act of this kind seem unjust? Should we insist that a
      The above quotation reflects pretty well, I think, the    meritorial cause is needed, other than Christ, to give to
deliberations of the three brethren, Berkhof, Volbeda and       the act the appearance of justice? May not God agree
H. J. Kuiper-the deliberations which terminated in the          to atone in His human nature for the sins which He im-
conclusion that the favors of common grace, bestowed            puted unto Himself, without being accused of having
by the Lord God upon the reprobate sinner need no               given occasion for slander?
juridical basis. The brethren reasoned thus: "Since                I agree, the gift of Christ would have required a mer-
Christ is not the meritorial cause of our `election and         itorial  .cause, other than Himself if Christ were not a
whereas Christ Himself is a gift of grace unto the sinner       propitiation for the sins of His people. Kuiper and Berk-
it follows that the favor which God bestows upon the            hof fail to bear in mind two things, viz., that Christ sat-
reprobate sinner is not in the need of a juridical basis."      isfied the justice of God in behalf of those whom the
How strange and unwarranted, this conclusion, de-               Father gave Him, and that Christ by reason of His re-
nounced by the `very name Christ.                               demptive labors was His own meritorial cause. Hence,
      But let us reply to Berkhof. To him the doings of         no  other.meritorial  cause was needed. And it is exactly
God seem unjust. He cannot see how God can bestow               the contention of Kuiper and Berkhof that the gift of
His love upon the elect and remain just. The matter is          Christ required a juridical basis other than Himself in
not clear to him. For Christ is not the meritorial cause        order to give to God's doings the appearance of justice.
of our election. Furthermore, Christ is a gift of grace.        The contentions of these men are exceedingly corrupt.
In this way Berkhof would silence those who maintain            They imply a denial of the efficacy of Christ's suffering
that the theory of common grace implies a perverse con-         and death. It should ever be born in mind that Christ
duct on the part of God, in that the theory fails to provide    merited Himself for His people.
a juridical basis for the-favors bestowed.  t Berkhof ad-          And in this respect the theory of common grace is
mits that such a basis is lacking. But he refuses to con-       deficient. There is no meritorial cause. God is supposed
cede that the absence of a meritorial cause is making it        to be blessing the rejected sinner. But the sum total of
impossible for God to favor the reprobate sinner. TO            these blessings is no propitiation for the sins of the repro-
the contrary, God loves and blesses him. True, we can-          bate. These blessings did not merit themselves for those
not justify God's dealings with the rejected sinner. It         who are supposed to be receiving them. These blessings
does seem as if God is perverting justice when favoring         are not their own meritorial cause. Who or  *what is this        .
the non-elect. In reality, however, such is in no wise the      cause?
case. He who would discredit the theory of common                  In fine, the opponents cannot point to a single element
grace, so reasons Berkhof, because the divine conduct           in the economy of redemption which may be regarded as
which the theory implies, seems to be perverse, cannot          running parallel with what God, according to the theory
subscribe to the Christology of Scripture, not to the doc-      of common grace, is supposed to be doing, viz., bestowing
trine of election. For the gift of God's Son is without a       undeserved and unmerited blessings upon the sinner.
meritorial cause and our election has no juridical basis.           Berkhof also avers that our election is without a
Astounding !                                                    meritorial cause. The professor gave to the various ele-
      Berkhof, Kuiper and Volbeda seem to be unmindful          ments constituting the counsel of peace a certain logical
of the fact that the Christ whom God gave unto the world        arrangement. In that scheme of his our election precedes
was at once a propitiation for the sins of that world.          the appointment'and the election of Christ as the surety
Now Christ was, according to His person, God. Well              of the elect of God. To this we reply that the value of
then, when God gave Christ He was giving Himself to             a logical arrangement of the elements constituting the
the world. That act of God meant that He Himself was            covenant of peace, is-limited. It must be born in mind
assuming full responsibility for the world's sin. He did        that these various elements were ever present in God's
that because He, God, had decided to suffer and die for         mind. God's counsel, in every detail, is from eternity.
the sins of those whom He loved-suffer and die in the           Ever did He regard His people in Christ.
human nature which He assumed. This He desired to do                We may distinguish between these various elements
in order to make it possible for Himself to take His be- #tit to separate one from the other is not permissible.
loved ones to His heart. Does Kuiper and Berkhof mean           The fact that Berkhof avers that election is without a
to say that these doings of God seem unjust and perverse        juridical basis indicates that he did this very thing. It
to them? If so, these men have a queer sense of justice.        is the plain teaching of Scripture that our election has
In what sense was God perverting justice when He im-            Christ as its meritorial basis. Says the Apostle Peter:


                                                                                         . . .
                                          T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                             35

 "Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father,       zou  vragen de belofte om, bijaIdien  hij niet instemde met
 through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and       de drie punter-r, er het zwijgen over te bewaren tot tijd
 sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ"  (I Peter 1). We      en wijle de Synode  zich over zijn  bezwaren.zou hebben
 are elected, says the apostle, unto obedience and sprink-      uitgesproken. De kerkeraad oordeelde, dat heel de zaak,
 ling of the blood. These elements cannot be separated          ook uit het oogpunt van- tucht over den leeraar, voor de
 one from the other. Now Christ is the meritorial cause         Synode geweest was, dat het dus een afgedane zaak was
 of the one as well as of the other.                            en dat de Classis  daarom niet het recht had de zaak op-
     We conclude that God is just, that He does not be-         nieuw  aan te  vatten.   Oak in dit opzicht hield de kerkeraad
 stow upon the sinner the things he does not deserve.           zich  aan  de'besluiten der Synode, terwijl de  Classis  be-
                                                    G. M. 0.    ?loelde  te doen  wat de Synode niet had gewild of gedaan.
                     (To be Continued)         *                De kerkeraad stelde  zich onder de Synode, de  Classis
                                                                stelde  zich er boven.
                                                                    Doch wist de  Classis  dit  alles dan niet?  WTas hare
                                                                commissie dan' niet met al deze  dingen  op de hoogte?
       DE JONGSTE KERKELIJKE STRIJD                             Waren  ze er  zich niet van bewust, dat de Synode  zelf
                                                                had uitgesproken, dat de Ieeraar weliswaar afweek van de
        Classis Grand Rapids Oost, Nov.-Dec. 1924               Drie  Punten  door haar opgesteld, maar  aan de andere
                                                                zijde in de fundamenteele  waarheden der belijdenis  tech
    Het antwoord op den dubbelen eisch der Classis,  door       goed Gereformeerd was? Was het der  Classis misschien
, den kerkeraad van Eastern ,4ve. opgesteld, zaoals we dat      niet duidelijk, dat werkelijk de geheele zaak, ook wat de
 in ons vorig nummer hebben afgedrukt, werd in zijn  ge-        behandeling van den Ieeraar betrof, vqor de Synode was
 heel  voorgelezen,  toen  de Classis  weer vergaderd was in    geweest en daar wettiglijk gebracht was, naar het eigen
 den voormiddag van 9 Dec. lS24. Men Iiet ons ten einde         oordeel  der Synode? Verstond ze het niet, dat de Synode
 toe het antwoord voorlezen. En ondergeteekende las het         hem niet had veroordeeld en behandeld en ook zelfs niet
 geduldig ten einde toe voor, ofschoon we toen  reeds zeer      tot behandeling had geadviseerd?  Gevoelde  ze niet, dat
 goed begrepen, dat het`kwaad door de classicale kerke-         er in de Synodale  besluiten geen grond lag vo.or  hare be-
 lijke rechtband met de Theologische professoren als advi-      handeling der zaak? Natuurlijk wist en verstond de Clas-
 seurs  achter de schermen ten voile was besloten over ons.     sis dit  alles   wel.    Immers, de commissie, die door de
 Eigenlijk wijdde men geen aandacht meer  aan hetgeen           Classis  was benoemd om in deze zaak met advies te die-
 de kerkeraad van Eastern Ave. te zeggen mocht hebben.          nen, telde onder hare leden  ook degenen, die als afgevaar-
 ?Vat kon het ook schelen, hoe de kerkeraad de zaak mocht       digden  der Classis  ter Synode  waren geweest. En indien de
 beschouwen en  toelichten?  Het was paarlen voor de            commissie deze dingen  al niet begreep, ze kreeg immers
zwijnen werpen,  doch  we bleven ze geduldig werpen, tot        van achter de schermen  advies  van de Theologische
 den laatste toe.                                               Faculteit. En daartoe behoorden  mannen  als Berkhof
    Wij  stellen er prijs op, dat onze  lezers de bedoeling     en Bouma, die bij ervaring wisten, dat de Synode geen
 van bovengenoemd antwoord  goed verstaan. De kerke-            behandeling had gewild.  Ze  hadden  immers gediend in
 raad van Eastern Ave. tech weigerde om aan den dubbe-          de  Synodale  Commissie van  prae-advies  voor deze zaak.
 len eisch der  Classis  gevolg te geven en hij deed dat op Ze waren  immers zelf de opstellers van het rapport. En
 deugdelijke gronden. Niet de kerkeraad is in heel de           ze  hadden  immers zelf in hun rapport de Synode het
 zaak schuldig  aan scheurmakerij, maar  we1 de  Classis.       advies voorgelegd, om  #e beide feeraren op den vloer der
 Hie  tech stond de :zaak?                                      Synode in behandeling te nemen. Zij wisten het beter
    De  Classis  eischte van den kerkeraad, dat deze den        dan iemand' anders, dat dit  advies door de Synode niet
 leeraar zou vragen of hij in volkomen overeenstemming was gewild en hun voornenien in betrekking tot ons niet
 was met de drie punten door de Synode van 1924 aange-          konden  deelen  of goedkeuren. Zij verstonden dus zeer
 nomen.  Natuurlijk was dit een huichelachtige  vraag,. goed,  dat de Synode had  moeten  handelen.  `zou  er opit
 waarin de  Classis naar het bekende pad vroeg. Immers          van behandeling sprake kunnen zijn en ook, dat de Syno-
 wist ze zeer wel, dat de leeraar niet in overeenstemming       de dit niet had gedaan. Zeker, de Classis  wist we1 beter.
 was met die punters. -41s ze het anders niet wist, kon ze      Ze gevoelde zeer  wel, dat de  Synodale  besluiten haar geen
 het tech weten door de Synodale  besluiten. De kerkeraad       grond gaven tot behandeling. Maar  recht of onrecht, de
 antwoordde dan ook  aan de  Classis,  dat zij vroeg naar       zaak moest  ,worden  aangepakt.  lMen vreesde voor de
 hetgeen ze we1 wist, daar de Synode reeds geoordeeld en        Drie Punten. Men begreep, dat deze den toets van Gere-
 uitgesproken had, dat de leeraar van Eastern -Ave. niet        formeerde critiek niet zouden kunnen doorstaan en dat
 volkomen instemde met die  punten.  Hij had in  betrek-        het  ens metterdaad niet moeilijk zou  vallen   aan te  too-
 king tot hen afwijkende gevoelens, had de Synode geoor-        nen, dat ze letterlijk in strijd waren met de Belijdenis der
 deeld. Hier deed de Classis dus Eog eens, wat de Synode        vaderen.   Ze  waren  nu eenmaal Remonstrantsch  gewor-
 reeds  ,had afgedaan. Zij was met de besluiten der Synode      den, omdat de Synode behoefte had aan Remonstrantsche
 niet tevreden. De kerkeraad verwees er naar.                   punten  om Gereformeerde Ieeraars te kunnen aanvallen.
    De Classis eischte, dat de kerkeraad van den Ieeraar        Daarvoor  vreesde men. Daarom moest  ons tot elken  prijs


      38                                          T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
       -                                                                                                                            -

            Natuurlijk werden al zulke protesten door de Classis           "5. Dat intusschen  echter ondergeteekende  zich  on-
      voor kennisgeving aangenomen en dan naar den snipper-             derwerpt aan het besluit der Classis  Grand Rapids Oost,
      mand verwezen. Antwoordde men den Kerkeraad niet op onder protest en met het recht van appel op de Synode,
      gewone  communicaties,  op protesten nog veel minder. am te antwoorden op de vragen door voornoemde Classis
      En de Synode neemt natuurlijk van al deze dingen  later           in hare communicatie   aan ondergeteekende van 10 Dee:
     ook geen kennis. De Classis  zet over  alle protesten en  alle     gedaan  cn daarom antwoordt ondergeteekende op  voor-
      appel  heen  een kerkeraad af. En staat men dan later op          noemde vragen als volgt :
      die wijze buiten het'kerkverband, dan be&it  een Synode              "a)    Waar de Synode van 1924 onze Belijdenisschrif-
      om niet op het  appel  in te gaan omdat men buiten het            ten zoo heeft verklaard, dat iemand het niet eens behoeft
      kerkverband staat en alle recht van appel  heeft verloren!        te zijn met de drie punten door de Synode van 1924 uit-
      0, dat Gereformeerd Kerkrecht! Of liever, de Roomsche             gesproken (Cf.  Acta  Synodi  1924, pp. 145,  v.v.) om  fun-
      verkrachting er van !                                             damentkel Gereformeerd te zijn in de grondwaarheden
            Ook lezen we in dezelfde notulen van den Kerkeraad          zooals in onze Belijdenisschriften geformuleerd, daarom
      van Eastern Ave. het volgende:                                    spreekt ondergeteekende uit, dat hij altijd geweest is en
            "Art. 3. De leeraar leest voor een door hem opgesteld       nog is in harmonie met de Belijdenisschriften zooals ver-
      antwoord  aan de  Classis  in  verband  met de vraag  waar-       klaard door de-Synode van 1924;
5     voor de Classis hem had geplaatsf.         Dit antwoord luidde       "b)    Waar de Synode de  Ieiders  onzer kerken heeft
      als volgt :                                                       vermaand om ernstige studie te maken  van de problemen
                                 "Grand Rapids, 11 Dec. 1924.           in den laatsten tijd op den voorgrond gebracht, in predi-
     "Classis  Grand Rapids  Oost,                                      king en lezingen en geschrifte, belooft ondergeteekende
               "Waarde  broeders :-                                     gaarne,  dat hij bijzonderlijk  aan deze vermaning der
            "Ondergeteekende brkngt beleefd het volgende  ant-          Synode gehoor zal geven en  samen  wil werken in  broe-
      woord ter uwer aandacht, op uwe  communicatie  van 10             derlijken geest tot oplossing van genoemde problemen.
      Dec. 1924, waarin Classis  Grand Rapids Oost van onder-              "c) Ondergeteekende,  zoolang hij een ambtsdrager
      geteekende een antwoord vraagt op twee vragen met be-             is in de Christelijke Gereformeerde kerken onderwerpt
      trekking tot de besluiten der Synode van 1924, zooals te          zich gaarne  aan eenig  be&it der Synode dezer kerken.
      vinden in de  Acta der Synode  1924, p. 145  V.V.                                  Met eerbied onderworpen,
            "1. Dat ondergeteekende  zich er  bezwaard  over  ge-                                    (Was get.) H.  Hoeksema."
      voelt, dat voornoemde Classis Grand Rapids Oost gansch
      en al geen acht  geslagen heeft op eene communicatie  door         . Dit protest en dit antwoordtan den Kerkeraad en zijn
      voornoemde  Classis  ontvangen van den Kerkeraad van              Ieeraar werden den volgenden morgen (11 Dec.) voorge-
      de Eastern Ave. Chr. Geref. kerk, de vraag betreffende            lezen en ingediend bij de  Classis.  Deze nam beide voor
      of voornoemde  Classis het recht had, om onder de  Acta           kennisgeving  aan en gaf ze weer in  handen  van de com-
      Synodi 1924 deze zaak rakende, voornoemde twee vragen             missie, die er al weer mede verdween  achter  de schermen.
      door voornoemden kerkeraad te doen aan den leeraar van            De vergadering verdaagde nogmaals, terwijl de commis-
      voornoemde Eastern Ave. Chr. Geref. kerk; welke  com-             sie over de antwoorden van Kerkeraad en leeraar  zou
      municatie zelfs niet eens op den vloer der  Classis  werd         delibereeren.
      besproken ;                                                          Deelen  we het resultaat harer bespreking  `een  vol-
            "2. Dat  ondergeteekend'k   zich bezwaard gevoelt en        gende  maal  mede.
      moet protesteeren tegen de Iaatst genomen  actie der  voor-                                                         II. H.
      noemde Classis,  zooals  medegedeeld in voornoemde com-
      municatie der voornoemde  Classis   aan ondergeteekende,
      waardoor de Classis  het beroep van voornoemden  kerke-                                 BOOK REVIEW
      raad van Eastern Ave. eenvoudig op zijde heeft  gescho-              "As To Being Reformed" by R. B. Kuiper.
      ven, en over voornoemd beroep  heen  nog eens met  de-               Kuiper is one who subscribes to the doctrine of abso-
      zelfde vragen tot ondergeteekende komt ;                          lute election. Let us hear him on the matter. Says he:
            "I3 . Dat ondergeteekende het ten  voile eens is met "While it is beside the purpose of this-book to give an
      alles wat voornoemde Kerkeraad van de Eastern Ave.                exposition of Reformed doctrine, yet I feel that a few
       Christelijke Gereformeerde kerk heeft verklaard in zijn          remarks on the doctrine of predestination are called for.
      communicatie  aan de Classis  gedateerd Dec. 8, 1924;                "This doctrine may be called the hall-mark of Calvin-
            "4. Dat ondergeteekende zich daarom beroept op de ism . . . .
       Synode tegen de verklaring die  Classis  Grand Rapids               "I believe that it is high time that the doctrine be re-
       Oost geeft van de besluiten der Synode van 1924; dit be-         asserted. If it is not, I am afraid that Calvinism will well
       roep te geschieden op dezelfde wijze als dat van den             nigh perish from the land.
       Kerkeraad van de Eastern Ave. Christelijke  Gerefor-                "The Bible teaches plainly in several places that
      meerde kerk in voornoemde communicatie  van voornoem-             already in eternity, before the world was, God chose or
       den Kerkeraad  aan de  Classis voornoemd en gedateerd            elected from the human race, which was to be created,
       Dec.  8, 1924;                       .                           some unto eternal life, and passed by and thus virtually


                                         T H E   S T A N D A R D B E A R E R                                                39

rejected the others. That is a  simple statement of the            addicted to this view. Let us listen to the author. Says
doctrine of predestination. . . .                                  Kuiper : "It has been said by certain consistent deniers of
   7Je come at once to point of unusual importance.                common grace that, since God is not good in any sense
It may be called the crux of the whole matter. One might           to the reprobate, it cannot be His desire that they should
subscribe to the doctrine as stated in the previous para-          accept the Gospel offer. It is difficult to see how any one
graph without yet being Reformed. Many an Arminian                 with this view can be very enthusiastic about preaching
would raise no objection to it at all. But the question            the Gospel to a lost world. How very different is the
arises why God chose some and not others. The Arminian             case of the preacher who is convinced that God has no
replies that God was guided by His foreknowledge, that             pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked
He chose some because He saw beforehand that they                  turn from his way and live"  ("izs To Being Reformed,"
would believe the gospel and rejected others because He            p. 118).
knew that they would not do so. The Calvinist, on the                 Kuiper asserts that it has been said by certain con-
otherhand, maintains that God was guided by nothing but            sistent deniers of common grace that it cannot be His,
His own good pleasure, His sovereign, free will. That is           God's, desire that they (the reprobate) should accept the
the very heart of the Reformed doctrine of absolute pre-           Gospel offer. If the  auttior  has in mind the leaders of
destination.                                                       the movement he is entirely mistaken. It is not our view
   "To put the difference between the Reformed and the             that God does not desire that the reprobate should accept
arminian view of predestination succinctly : according to          the offered salvation. We maintain on the basis of Scrip-
the former faith is the fruit of election; according to the        ture that there is  no"`offer  of salvation made unto him.
latter, faith is the ground  of. election; according to the        We would have appreciated it very much if Kuiper had
former, the ground of election lies in God; according to           acquainted himself with our views  before attempting to
the latter, the ground of election lies in  nian."  So far         criticke them.
K u i p e r .                                                         It appears from  *the above quotation that it is also
   The above is a clear cut and cqncise  elucidation of the        Kuiper's view that God offers the Gospel, i. e., Christ or
doctrine of eternal election. However, concerning the              special grace to the reprobate. Kuiper himself informs
reverse side of election-viz., reprobation, the author is          US  what it means that the Lord God is making this offer.
exceedingly mild. Attend to the statement : "And passed            T.t is the desire of God that the offer shall be accepted.
by and virtually rejected the others." Webster defines the         He informs his readers that those who  den:y  common
term  virtual as  follows: "Potential; having the power of grace maintain that Gdd offers yet desires not that the
acting or of invisible efficacy without the material or offer should be accepted. He, Kuiper, would have his
sensible part. b. Being in essence or effect but not in            readers know that the God of those who deny common
fact."                                                             grace is a God who deals  dekeptively  with men. God
   Kuiper has it that God virtually  rejected  but not in fact.    offers yet desires not that the thing oRered  be accepted.
Rejection  does not signify, according to Kuiper, that the         It seems td me that Kuiper owes us a public apology for
sovereign One took a definite positive stand over against          this gross misrepresentation. He should admit before
those whom He refused to regard, the term merely sig-              men that he did not know what he was talking about.
nifies that the almighty One passed them by. The term                 According to Kuiper, then, it is the desire of God that
rejection does not signify decision, determination but             the reprobate should accept the offered Gospel, the offered
necessary outcome, logical result. The outcome and the             (special) grace, the offered Christ. If Kuiper's conten-
result of `the passing by, is the rejection of the others.         tion does not mean that God wills that the reprobate
Hence, the term does not signify a volitional act. In              should be saved it is altogether without meaning. To
other words, God did  *lot decide,  determine,  will to reject     assert that God desires that the reprobate should accept
these others. Hence, to assert that God passed by                  Christ is equal to asserting that it is the desire of God
these others and thus virtually rejected them is equal to          that the rejected one should be saved. And yet it is a
averring that God did not will, determine to reject a              fact that the reprobate perishes. Hence, not the will of
single sinner. Now, this attitude of God toward these              God but that of the sinner prevails. And God as to His
others must be projected into time. It means that the              power is limited. Such are the implications of the  so-
Lord God wills not that one sinner should perish. Now,             called general offer of grace.
if it is not God's will and desire that these others should           And then this statement of the author: "It is difficult
perish it must be that it is His will that they should be          to see how any one with this view can be  very enthu-
saved. It appears that the assertion to the effect that            siastic about preaching the Gospel to a lost world." We
God passes the others by thus virtually rejecting them, is         agree heartily.- I as a preacher would refuse to be the
in full agreement with the tenets of the theory of common          messenger of a God who is wont to deal deceptively with
grace. According to this theory God offers Jesus Christ            His moral creatures, be they the rejected ones. For if
together with the benefits derived from His death to  all          God deals deceptively with the reprobate, what guarantee
men.                                                               do I have that He will keep His word in respect to the
   The author of the work I am now criticizing, is also            elect? None, whatsoever. But we again assure the author


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      40             .l,                       T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                        -__

      that it is not our view that God offers yet desires not that '       The disobedient we.re appointed by God to stumble at
      the offer be accepted. The God whom we serve is not a             the word. If that is true how can it be that it is the
      crook, but a righteous, just, and holy Being altogether desire of God that the reprobate should receive the
      lovely and adorable. No cruel despot either.                      Gospel.
             It is plain that the charge which Kuiper laid  at,our         In his work Kuiper takes up the cudgel for Calvinism. ~
      door is of a very serious nature.                                 Let us now hear Calvin on these matters.  "Zij  ontken-
             The view which the author unjustly ascribes to his         nen dat het met uitdrukkelijke  woorden staat uitgedrukt,
      opponents astonished him. He cannot see how any one               dat het door God is besloten geweest, dat Adam door
      with thisview  can be very enthusiastic aboutpreachingthe         zijnen afval zou omkomen. Alsof diezelfde God, van wien
      Gospel to a lost world. Neither is it plain to us how this        de Schrift getuigt, dat Hij doet wat Hij wil, het  edelste
      can be done by anyone holding to the above view. Nor              zijner schepselen tot een twijfelachtig  doe1  geschapen
      is it plain to tne. how any one with Kuiper's view is able had. Zij zeggen, dat Hij een vrijen wil had om zich eenen
      to retain his zeal as a servant of the Word. If Kuiper is         staat te verkrijgen,  zooaIs  hij  goed vond; maar dat  God
      correct, preaching the Gospel is indeed a'vain, futile, un-       niet anders met hem bepaald heeft dan met hem te han-
      profitable and discouraging work. God offers the Christ delen naar verdienste. Indien men zulk een smakeloos
      to all (including the reprobate) and He, God, sincerely verdichtsel voor waar aanneemt, waar zal dan blijven die
      desires that all should accept the Christ which means, if almacht Gods, waardoor Hij naar zijn verborgen raad,
      it means anything at all, that the Lord God desires that die gcen oorzaak buiten Hem heeft, alle dingen bestuurt?
      all should be saved (including the reprobate). Yet all are        De Schrift roept luide dat alle menschen in den persoon
      not saved. Hence, man is making it impossible for God             van eenen mensch aan den eeuwigen dood zijn onderwor-
      to satisfy the desires of His heart. Which means that             pen, en dat dit aan de natuur niet kan  worden  toegeschre-
      man's will prevails and that God is limited as to His             ven, zoo is het geenszins duister dat het voorgekomen is
      power. Such a view, if it were mine would kill my spirit          uit den wonderlijken raad Gods. Het is al te ongerijmd
      to that extent that I could no longer pramh.      I might be      dat die goede voorstanders van de rechtvaardigheid Gods
      able to continue to face my little group from Sabbath to          voor een strootje blijven steken, en nochtans over hooge
      Sabbath. I am not a bit afraid that I couldn't worry              banken  heenspringen. Ik vraag wederom: waardoor het
      through the hour. I could, I think, even cause the small          geschied is dat zoovele volken met hun onmondige  kin-
      schoolhouse were we now congregate to reverberate with            deren door Adams val tot den eeuwigen dood vervallen
      exceedingly much noise. But the commotion should have             zijn zonder eenig hulpmiddel, zoo het niet `is dat God
      to be regarded purely as physical exercise, as an extreme         zulks goedgevonden heeft? Hier  moeten  anders de  ZOO-
      perturbation of my one hundred and ninety pounds of veel praats hebbende  tongen  verstommen. Het is  we1
      flesh and blood, set in action by an uneasy, disquieted,          een vreeselijk besluit, ik  beken het  ; nochtans zal niemand
      yea, desperate soul.                                              ontkennen dat God tevoren, eer Hij den mensch schiep,
             It seems, further, that Kuiper fails to grasp his own      geweten heeft welken uitgang hij hebben zal, en dat Hij
      logic. Says the author : "As it is impossible for us petty        het daarom tevoren heeft geweten dewijl Hij het door
      men to square with one another divine predestination and          zijn besluit in dier voege bepaald had. Zoo iemand hier
       human responsibility, so no one has ever succeeded in            de voorwetenschap Gods vijandig aanvalt, zoo handelt hij
     fully harmonizing the degree of reprobation with the               lichtvaardig en onberaden. Want welke  reden  is er, bid
      sincere offer of salvation which God makes to sinners in          ik  u, waarom de hemelsche  Rechter  zou worden  `beschul-
      general and which He is pleased to have them accept,              digd, omdat Hij geweten heeft wat in het toekomstige
       since He has no pleasure in the death of the wicked but          stond plaats te hebben? Zoo er eenige rechtmatige of
       therein that the wicked turn from his evil ways and live."       schijnreden is om te klagen, dan komt die alleen.ten  op-
       (See page 101.)                                                  zichte van de voorverordineering  te pas. Hetgeen ik  u
             Kuiper, as the above quotation indicates, asserts that     zeg,  t.' w., dat God niet  allen  den val van den eersten
       reprobation and the sincere offer of salvation cannot be         mensch, en daarin het verderf zijner nakomelingen te
       harmonized.       Kuiper, however, accomplished this very        voren gezien, maar volgens zijn welbehagen bepaald
       thing. He did so by eliminating from rejection the ele-          heeft, moet ook den schijn niet hebben ongerijmd te zijn.
       ment of volition. The assertion that God willed not to           Hier nemen zij nu hunne toevlucht tot de onderscheiding
       reject the reprobate and the contention that God desires,        van Gods wil en zijne toelating, volgens welke  onder-
       that those whom He passed by should receive Christ, go           scheiding zij  willen staande houden dat de goddeloozen
       well together.                                                   alleen  door de toelating Gods verloren  gaan, en niet door
             And further, Kuiper uses the term  passing by  to sig-     zijnen wil.  Doch waarom zullen wij zeggen, dat  Hij
       nify that element in the counsel of God known as rejec-          zulks   toelaat,  dan  alleen  omdat Hij dat zoo  wil? Ik zal
       tion. The term is a very weak one. The apostle uses the          dus niet aarzelen eenvoudig met Augustinus te belijden,
       term  appbinted. Says the apostle: "And a stone of stum- dat de wil van God de noodzakelijkheid der dingen is."
       bling and a rock of offense, even to them which stumble
       at the word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were                             (To be Continued)
       appointed" (I Peter 11%).                                                                                        G.  &I. 0.


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